Running Away...

I started running this summer, and not very well I might add.  At first I could only run for about 2 minutes at a time, by then I was huffing and puffing.  Pretty sad right?  I was out of shape, but I had no idea how out of shape I was.  I learned quickly, but refused to accept it and eventually overcame it. I have a fierce competitive streak in me, even if I'm only competing against myself. 

What I probably look like running

I started to do something called interval training.  This is where you walk for awhile and then you run or jog for awhile.  You may have seen those C25K programs on the interwebs (Ha Ha). Well eventually you try to run/jog for longer than you walk and Bam...your a runner.  Well, okay not exactly like that but close. I put a lot of effort into my cardio health because it was pretty lame I have to admit. For that I worked out at my local YMCA (bet your singing that song now) on what they call an Elliptical and an AMT which stands for Adaptive Motion Trainer.  All of the sudden I have great cardio.  Yea for me. Yea for my heart.

My daughter and I love to walk together and our summer mornings usually started out with a 3 mile walk through our local park and town. Every time my daughter and I went for a walk, we added some jogging and then some hill repeats and racing.  It was a lot of fun for both of us.  She's almost 12 now and will someday be able to run with me, she is still working on her form.  (She's at that gangly stage, long legs anyone?)

If running isn't for you, jog...All you have to do to become a jogger, is to run slowly...lol.  Those of you who run will get the funny in that statement, at least I hope you will.  Seriously, I consider myself to be a runner, but I will admit I'm not that fast, but who cares, at least I'm lapping everyone on the couch.  I am now obsessed with all that is running. And...


When I say obsessed, I mean over the top OBSESSED (this is said in my singing voice). I dream about running, when I pass a great road I think to myself I'd like to go running there...when I watch the boob tube (T.V.) I will always see a great place to run...I have running skirts, shirts, jackets, shoes...etc. Get the point, I'm obsessed.  When I go to sleep at night, I'm thinking about running and hoping for a dry and not too cold day.  You see I like to run outside not on the dreadmill.  I like to smell the fresh air and feel a breeze on my face, and also I like to actually get somewhere different than where I started.  Just sayin'.


When I wake up I'm wondering what the weather is like.  Is there enough fuel in the body to do a morning run or should I wait til later on in the day.  Again, I'm obsessed, and I digress.


Where was I before I got distracted?  Oh yeah, I was talking about training to run.  After a few months I was able to run longer than I walked, until I could run and not walk, unless I wanted to.  Success! In October I ran my first ever 5K at age 40, my time was a respectable 34:36...I came in about the middle of the pack.  I actually walked part of it, who knew there was a hill? Not me! I have since ran many unofficial 5K's in a shorter time period so I know I have improved. 

My next race is April 14th at The Pear Blossom Run I am doing another 5K due to a foot injury and I will be running this one with family.  My 14 yr old son Jesse will be with me as well as my sister-in-law...although I will not be running along side them, I'm faster than both of them and would like to beat my last time. I had originally planned to do the 10 mile run but injured my foot on a long run several weeks ago and have had to cut back on training a bit.  I am back to running and doing well..my last 5K run time (un-official, of course) was 32:35 and you can bet I was doing the happy dance after that one.


My son and I are now training together for the 5K and it has been a blast so far.  Both my 16 year old Jacob and my 14 year old Jesse have just come out of the wrestling season and are in pretty great shape.  Jesse has lost almost 30lbs and is much lighter on his feet.  Unfortunately Jacob was injured and awaits an MRI on his knee and will not be able to join us in April. 

Running has become my life saver in more ways than one.  Running helps me stay sane, healthy, fit, looking great and feeling not so blue.  And before anyone says the inevitable "Running will ruin your knees" let me point out this article at Runners World dot com. I make sure to ice, and rest often.  I do my best not to over train, even though I am not always successful. I land mid-foot so as not to hurt the balls of my feet or the heels of my feet, so no worries, it's all good.  At age 41 (Shh, don't tell anyone) there are bound to be aches and pains...it goes with the territory of growing ancient older. Don't even get me started on the shin splints I got when I 1st started to race like the wind jog. 
 

I enjoy running and I seem to be good at it.  I feel more accomplished when I run, maybe it's the wind in my face and the beauty that surrounds me...whatever it is I hope to be running for a long time to come.  Do any of you run/jog? If so drop me a line and let me know what it is about running that you love/hate.  Blessings and God Bless.

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I feel it not. I believe in God even when He is silent. *Written on a wall in a concentration camp*

© 2012 Shannon M. King. This publication is the exclusive property of Shannon M. King and is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws. The contents of this post/story may not be reproduced as a whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, without consent of the author, Shannon M. King. All rights reserved.

The New Crackle Nails...Yup

Green w/Black Crackle

Have y'all heard about Crackle Nail polish...I absolutely love it.  This is the look you get when you combine bright green nail polish (I used Ice) and then put black crackle over the top.   It reminds me of amphibian skin or something.  Basically you put a coat or two of good nail polish and allow to dry.  Then add one coat of your crackle, it dries fast, and finally add a coat or two of clear polish to set it and make it pop.  It is very simple and looks great. Here are a couple more looks. The first is a silver w/pink crackle over the top and the last one is grey with a pink crackle over the top. I Just had to share my new favorite product from Sally Hansen.  It was super easy to do, so happy painting my friends.  Um, guys if you really wanna do this I won't tell anyone...lol.

Silver w/Pink Crackle

Grey w/Pink Crackle

Also I wanted to let y'all know Faith, Hope and Love now has a Facebook page so go on over and check her out. Blessings my friends.

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I feel it not. I believe in God even when He is silent. *Written on a wall in a concentration camp*

© 2012 Shannon M. King. This publication is the exclusive property of Shannon M. King and is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws. The contents of this post/story may not be reproduced as a whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, without consent of the author, Shannon M. King. All rights reserved.

Thinking About Writing...

  
I have been thinking about doing some more writing on my book.  It has been put away for several months due to writers block and life in general, but last night I suddenly got the urge to write some more. It's time.  


Writing takes so much patience, time and of course ideas...it just seems so daunting to me.  I will have to go back and re-read everything and get back into the books mind frame, and even as I sit here now it almost terrifies me. What if I can't do it? See, already I am doubting.  No worries...I can always put the pages back into the notebook and forget about it again...but then I may never finish the darn thing.  Some-days it seems that the ideas come to me in droves..then other days, not so much as a trickle. Why is that?  It's probably life that gets in the way, yes I'm pretty sure that is it.


If any of you have any writing tips I would welcome them for sure.  After all I am new to this whole writing thing and can use all the help I can get.

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I feel it not. I believe in God even when He is silent. *Written on a wall in a concentration camp*

© 2012 Shannon M. King. This publication is the exclusive property of Shannon M. King and is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws. The contents of this post/story may not be reproduced as a whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, without consent of the author, Shannon M. King. All rights reserved.

Seize The Day

Well the sun didn't come out today much...it was stuck behind huge walls of grey and ominous clouds...but it was there in theory.  I ran anyway.  I figured it wasn't raining so why not, and I did.  It wasn't the easiest run and by that I mean my legs just weren't in it.  I ran 3-4 times this weekend so they were tired...but they did it, and for that I'm grateful.  I seized the day, so to speak.

Last night as I lay reading a great Kindle book called "The Ways Of God" by Cherie Hill, I found quite a few nuggets of wisdom and highlighted them all.  I promise to try to limit how many I feel I need to share with you...

The first one is a verse found in Proverbs 16:9 NLT "We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps."  It seems that every time I make plans and get them well...all planned out, God steps in and re-arranges everything. Does that ever happen to you?  Bet it does.   Just when I think I've got it all figured out, God steps in and says No you don't.  You see Gods ways are higher than ours...Isaiah 55:9 says so.  See God wants us to trust Him not ourselves, and sometimes that means letting us free fall right to our knees in helplessness.


There is a passage in this book that goes like this..."To us, our situation looks hopeless, but the place of hopelessness is where God can show Himself powerfully in our lives. What we find, as we wait on God to reveal His will, is that often times He only reveals Himself. In our continued suffering, our question of "Where is God when I'm hurting?" turns to a question like, "Where is God when it doesn't stop?" And what we find is that God is at work in our lives...He never sleeps or slumbers (Psalm 121:4) through our hopelessness He's drawing us near preparing us to make a decision...Wow, and then the question becomes will we trust Him? (The Ways Of God ~Cherie Hill)


So in our hopelessness we find ourselves just where we need to be, at the foot of our Heavenly Father.  At least that is where I'd like to think I will go.  Sometimes I find myself there and other times I try to fix the situation all by myself.  Not such a wise choice and it often brings more pain and needless suffering.


This is the last highlight I will share with you..."Faith is the footbridge that you don't know will hold you up over the chasm until you're forced to walk out onto it." 

 It's easy to say we trust God and that we have faith, but we really don't know until we are put to the test.  Whether we are facing a serious situation or something not so serious, we find we have a decision to make, do we rely on, trust in and have faith that God will see us through or do we try to figure it out on our own?  I hope we give it to God, He's so much more capable than we are.


Let me leave you with this quote from Francis Chan. "Right now you're standing on this giant ball that's spinning at a thousand miles an hour! And while it's spinning, it's flying around the sun at 67,000 miles and hour! That's crazy!"  Don't you think if God can keep the universe in motion, then He can be trusted with our lives and problems?

Thanks for stopping by...May your day/eve be a blessed and joyful one. 

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I feel it not. I believe in God even when He is silent. *Written on a wall in a concentration camp*


© 2012 Shannon M. King. This publication is the exclusive property of Shannon M. King and is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws. The contents of this post/story may not be reproduced as a whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, without consent of the author, Shannon M. King. All rights reserved.

Melancholy Anyone?

Depression is so subjective...one day things are pretty great, and the next...not so much.  I was just thinking the other day that I was so happy not to have to deal with depression anymore, thinking that all the exercise I do must have  really cured me.  Wrong!  I was so arrogantly wrong.

I have had depression issues my entire life, well the years that I can remember anyway. Now mind you my life was not the peaches and cream everyone wants, but it wasn't exactly horrible either, there were good times mixed in with the bad.  So to say I had/have absolutely no reason to feel blue would be a mistake, but the depression seems to come from out of the blue (no pun intended) for no real or reasonable reason...I have a Great life.  I really do.  

I have a Great husband and 4 wonderful children, all of whom I absolutely undeniably love...and not only do I have those people in my life I am a child of The Most High God...so why, I ask, do I get depressed, blue or melancholy?

From what I can understand there can be a lot of variables or none at all.  For instance it could be hormones alone, or it could be lack of vitamin D, or sunshine as I like to call it.  I miss the sun and the warmth. It could be brain chemistry that is off.  Then again it could be the combination of all the above, honestly I don't rightly know.  I wish I did.

Blogging helps me vent.  When I write I often imagine that there will be one person who reads what I blogged about and it will touch their heart...speak to their specific situation, and they will be helped or at least validated that they are not alone...that there is someone else out there in this big wide world who is going through something similar and can relate.  I know that God has used me before and I know He will use me again.  

The other day, when I was running and talking to God, I asked what good am I?  What have you used me for? Am I significant...and the resounding answer was yes, you my daughter are significant and I have a purpose for you, keep on going, someday you will see the bigger picture and understand fully.  So I keep trudging on because I know that someday it will all be revealed to me by my Heavenly Father.  I won't allow satan, the father of lies, to bring me down and whisper his evil into my heart and into my life...for now I will continue to lean on God and let Him comfort me...because I know that this too shall pass...in time.

So if you are reading this and you pray at all...say a little prayer for me tonight I'd really appreciate it...and if you can relate, let me know, I'd love to hear from you.

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I feel it not. I believe in God even when He is silent. *Written on a wall in a concentration camp*

© 2012 Shannon M. King. This publication is the exclusive property of Shannon M. King and is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws. The contents of this post/story may not be reproduced as a whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, without consent of the author, Shannon M. King. All rights reserved.