Running [My Mouth]: Scolded: Tough Grrrl on Hold

Yesterday was the boys' first day back to school after April vacation. It was an odd start as they also had a dentist appointment. So, they went to school for about 45 minutes and then I had to pick them up. We go to a pediatric dentist and it is kind of a haul (1 hour + south) from our house, which means at least 1/2 a day of school is missed. Blessedly, Gabriel snoozed like a champion all the way down, had a hearty "snack" during the cleanings, and pretty much slept through our stop for lunch and the drive back to T's school.

(Also blessedly, Tommy & Elliott did very well with the appointment. They are fairly 'sensitive' to strong flavors and don't like anything stronger than Tom's of Maine Strawberry kids' toothpaste... which makes normal toothpastes way too "spicy" for them... which makes them gag, complain, sit up & cough, etc. when they have dentist appointments. I had a blinding flash of the obvious before their appointment yesterday and brought some of their favored toothpaste with me so the hygenists could use it instead. WIN! They did great. Well, after Elliott was reminded how to handle the water/Mr. Thirsty situation. I am surprised they don't review that with kids as small as he is before they get going... not like he does this everyday!)

Anyway.

We got back to the school and went home to collapse, right? Nope. I had my follow-up appointment with my midwife at 1:45. This office is 30 minutes north of our house and we had exactly enough time to get there. Again, Gabriel remained calm and cool in his carseat and I plugged him in as soon as we arrived. (Where upon he had the most heinous gas and loudest poops known to human kind! Note to self: maybe no more chili for awhile!)

I made the mistake of telling my midwife 2 things: A) My schedule for that day; and B) The kind of alarming-sized clots that I passed when we stopped for lunch. She looked at me and said, "You need to stop. You need to stop. You need to STOP." She says the clots are my body's way of telling me I am over doing it and she thinks I am at high risk for mastitis returning. (Good thing I didn't tell her I have gone running a couple of times, huh?)

Her advice was that for the rest of the week as soon as Scott gets home from work, I need to park my butt on the couch and do NOTHING. This is a bit frustrating (to say the least) as even with the blood clots I had, I feel fine. Not terribly exhausted and certainly no pain. I had planned to use my last daycare-kid-free days to get in a couple of workouts during the day. (Still not up for the 5AM business!) But, I am heeding her warning. Mostly. I did relax a good deal last evening. It's not in my DNA to truly do nothing, but I figure if I do "relatively nothing", I will be pretty well off.

But my mind refuses to wander to far from running and races. It is "that" time of year and there's always a 5- or 10K around the corner I could be doing. I'm trying to think of that as a good thing ("hey, there'll be more in 2 weeks if you can't do one this weekend!") instead of a bad thing ("hey, think of all the great little races you're missing!). In the past I didn't race a ton so it's weird that I feel like I'm missing it.... I think I'm seeing many more friends (and friends of friends) posting photos and results of races this spring than ever before and that's the cause of my discontent.

I am determined to chill.

And now, for no particular reason and without any connection to the rest of this blog post: a few photos of an outing we took last week to the Children's Museum of Meredith. We were LITERALLY the only people there. (It's a pay by honor system...)