Weekly Money Check-up
1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a new pair of barefoot running shoes. I went to a sports medicine doctor last week to look at the weird bruising on my knees. It turns out that it was related to my gait, which is off because...
Weekly Money Check-up
1. The most I’ve spent this last week was for a new phone. This was unplanned and turned into a major hassle at the end of last week. My new phone’s battery kept getting dangerously hot and wouldn’t hold a charge, but after 9...
30 Before 30
My 29th birthday is tomorrow and in preparation, I’ve come up with a mini-bucket list. My thirty things to do before I turn 30. The good news is that 28 has been a hellish year. Truly. So 29 has to be better, as I’m pretty...
Knowing my Limits
The half-marathon is in three days. And as much as it pains me, I’m not going to be running in it. I hit a wall. To be honest, I probably hit that wall a few months ago, but I didn’t come to terms with it until last weekend. I...
Weekly Money Check-up
1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on rent. I was traveling for work last week, so it was a fairly low-key week without much temptation to shop. 2. Today I am thankful for… I’ll be honest, I’m struggling with this...
Weekly Money Check-up
1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on Spring/Summer work clothes during the Loft’s big 40% off sale. Even though I’m still trying not to shop, I don’t feel that bad about this purchase because a) there were major...
Weekly Money Check-up
1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a new pair of barefoot running shoes. I went to a sports medicine doctor last week to look at the weird bruising on my knees. It turns out that it was related to my gait, which is off because of several high school foot surgeries. The doctor recommended running in barefoot shoes and reading Natural Running to alleviate the knee pain and bruising. I’ll keep you posted.
2. Today I am thankful for my precious Mom. It was wonderful to spend the day with her yesterday and to celebrate the blessing she is in all of her children’s lives. Love you, Mom!
3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was spending Saturday afternoon with a girlfriend from years ago. She and her husband moved to the area recently and as we sat on the couch chatting, the conversation started with “Okay, so catch me up on the past… ten years.” Ha. So good to have that sweet friendship again.
4. I will consider this week a success if I finish reading two of the books on my bedside table.
5. My favorite Disney character is… I’m at a loss. Maybe it’s been too long since I’ve watched a Disney movie. As a child, I was a huge fan of The Chipmunk Adventure. I probably watched it well over a hundred times! I loved Eleanor, but obviously wanted to be just as cool as Brittany.
Weekly money check-up is a weekly series brought to you by My Pretty Pennies.
Weekly Money Check-up
1. The most I’ve spent this last week was for a new phone. This was unplanned and turned into a major hassle at the end of last week. My new phone’s battery kept getting dangerously hot and wouldn’t hold a charge, but after 9 phone calls with various customer services, I finally was able to get a new one shipped out for a $100 replacement fee. It’s still more than I wanted to spend, but was certainly better than the $400-$800 options (since I don’t have a renewal until Fall 2013) they were trying to get me to take. Thankfully it should be arriving today.
2. Today I am thankful for a new year. I shouldn’t feel any different today, but somehow it feels like that horrible chapter of my life this past year has finally come to a close. The past week has been pretty rough and I didn’t even want to celebrate yesterday, but changing my view from celebrating a birthday to celebrating the end of that awful year made it a pretty pleasant day.
3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was go for a walk with my camera on Saturday. It was nice to get out and purposefully try to see the world around me through my camera lens. It helped to notice things I would normally have just walked past. I’ll post those pictures later this week.
4. I will consider this week a success if finish Unfashionable before Saturday. I’m leading the discussion on it, so I really need to finish it in enough time to prepare some questions.
5. The most delicious things I ate all week was a heavenly burger with brie, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and baby spinach from The Counter and pistachio gelato afterwards. Yum!! (It was my birthday weekend… why not??)
Weekly money check-up is a weekly series brought to you by My Pretty Pennies.
30 Before 30
My 29th birthday is tomorrow and in preparation, I’ve come up with a mini-bucket list. My thirty things to do before I turn 30.
The good news is that 28 has been a hellish year. Truly. So 29 has to be better, as I’m pretty certain it can’t possibly be worse. And with this list of fun goals to work through, it’s sounding like a pretty good year. Happy Birthday to Me!
Throughout the year, you can keep track of my Thirty before 30 progress through the button on the right.
Knowing my Limits
The half-marathon is in three days. And as much as it pains me, I’m not going to be running in it.
I hit a wall. To be honest, I probably hit that wall a few months ago, but I didn’t come to terms with it until last weekend.
I was feeling pretty good and ran four times in the last week. Granted, they were two and three mile runs, far shy of the daunting half-marathon… but still, I ran. If you’ve been reading over the past few months, you know just how much of an accomplishment that is. In my mind, 13.1 miles still seemed doable, even though it was far longer than anything I’ve ever run before. In my mind, I’d be able to finish, even if I ended up walking a lot of it.
But after a few days of running, I started getting mystery bruises around my knees and would collapse in tears (in all fairness, that’s not necessarily related to running) after my runs, instead of feeling like I had accomplished something. Last Saturday, I planned to run 6-10 miles. I ran one. Then I came home, cried, and felt defeated, so I called my aunt who was going to be running with me and explained what was going on.
It was a new low for me… I felt like I had to go through with the race or I would be failing at something. I’d be a quitter, and not in the good Jon Acuff way. I didn’t want to admit that this was beyond my personal limits right now. After we talked, she pointed out that it was better to keep running at the low distances I’ve been doing and slowly build up over a few months (as I’d intended) than to push myself to the point of injury, leaving me out of commission for a few months.
Although we discussed running the first few or last few miles of the race, I don’t want to cheapen my first half-marathon experience. If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it well. So I agreed to sit this one out. As disappointed as I am, I’m also a bit relieved. The pressure that I’ve been putting on myself has been lifted.
Thanks again for your support and encouragement to run over the past few months. I’m going to keep going, even if it’s not for the race this weekend. If I have a better mileage base in a few months, I’ll pick out another fun race to train for and hopefully actually run it.
Have you guys ever faced moments like this where you hit a wall and can’t (or shouldn’t) push through it? How have you dealt with it? And when the timing is right, how do you know when you’re ready to push through it?
*Photo found on Pinterest and various Tumblrs, but I can’t find the original source.
Weekly Money Check-up
1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on rent. I was traveling for work last week, so it was a fairly low-key week without much temptation to shop.
2. Today I am thankful for… I’ll be honest, I’m struggling with this one. I’m in a really low place, and am having trouble answering this one honestly. I guess I would have to say that I am thankful for friends and family who love me and give me Godly counsel, even when I don’t want anyone else around.
3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was figure out that Instagram is FINALLY available for Android. It was one of the reasons why I was actually considering making the switch over to iPhone, but thankfully it’s now on Android and I don’t have to. My username is vibrantgrace if you want to follow.
4. I will consider this week a success if I finish reading Unfashionable by Tullian Tchividjian.
5. If I could redecorate one room, I would choose my kitchen. While my kitchen isn’t necessarily bad, there are many limitations since I can’t paint or redo a kitchen in a rental home in the way that I would if it were my own.
Weekly money check-up is a weekly series brought to you by My Pretty Pennies.
Grab My Button
