Where does exhaustion fit into the plan?

The last week has been super hard from top to bottom.  Honestly, I have been in zombie mode since before Halloween and I'm just hoping we all make it through to the weekend relatively unscathed. 

First, I still haven't recovered from my husband's business trip last week.  Why yes, he was in Japan--why do you ask?  Travel is a regular part of his job, but it's usually spaced out pretty evenly.  This month, not so much.  In fact this was his third major trip of the month.  Usually I can handle it, but he was either gone or preparing to be gone for the entire month.  So, not a lot of help in the parenting department.  I know we should be thankful that he has a good job and blah, blah, blah, but this week I just felt resentful.  Perhaps it was the four hours of sleep I was averaging each night...

As I wrote last week, I was also super stressed about the Halloween costume situation for the daughters.  I had tried to talk myself into giving myself a break and just buying costumes (seriously, I know this is COMPLETELY my issue and that it is lame).  I even went so far as to clean up my sewing room.  But every time I walked by I just felt guilty.  So after one night of zoning out on the couch I unpacked everything and got back to work.  Every night as soon as the girls were in bed I would madly sew and bead and curse myself for letting Diva-girl choose to be Princess Jasmine with all those frickin' sequins on the costume!

But there's a happy ending: All the costumes were finished in time and the girls looked great--especially Jasmine!  But--alas--I did not have a costume for Halloween, so I've blown my chance for 100% Plan success.  I did wear an orange tie-dyed pumpkin shirt that looked surprisingly like a shirt I saw in Harper's Bazaar.  Except, of course, that mine was painted like pumpkins...  Still, not a costume.

Anyway, ever since I think the entire family has been out-of-sorts and exhausted ever since.  Last week we passed around fevers and I've been hearing a lot of sniffle-snuffling lately so I have an idea of what's coming next...  I'm marking time in baby steps this week.

Running has definitely been the high point of the last few weeks.  I know I'm still running little baby intervals and it's hard to see how running 3 minutes at a time is going to get me to a half-marathon, but I'm seeing progress.  I track all my runs with CardioTrainer and each run is just a little bit longer, just a little bit faster.  On Tuesday the coach caught up with us on the trail and was very surprised (in a good way) by our pace.  Well, first she chided us for not "walking like we mean it" on the walk intervals, but then had to concede that we made up for it on the run intervals.

I also went today and got fitted for new running shoes and I have to say that I'm skeptical.  I know that I tend to wear my shoes too small and too tight, but my new shoes are a size 8--two sizes bigger than my last shoes!!  I went to a real running store and got a real fitting and they explained that, especially with longer runs your feet swell and spread in all directions, so you need to have room for that.  Which makes sense, but my feet are now feeling like little guppies in the wide, wide ocean.  Very comfortable, cool little guppies, but guppies nonetheless.

My one concern on the running front is the return of the dreaded shin splints.  From everything that I'm reading, it seems that the number one recommendation is rest.  But to me, rest seems the same as quitting.  So I'm going to be extra conscious of where I run (no concrete), take more ibuprofen and try icing.  At this point it's not too bad once I actually get moving, but the ache is pretty constant throughout the day.  So if anyone has any suggestions that do not involve taking a break, I'd love to hear them!

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene!

It is precisely two weeks now until the big night and I STILL don't know what I'm going to be.  I have to be something, though--it's on the list!  Annual event means no chance for a redo and I'm not going to concede defeat. 

At first I was super excited because we had just watched The Wizard of Oz and the girls all wanted to be characters.  We had Dorothy, Glinda the Good Witch, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Girl.  Perfect!  I'd round out the cast as the Wicked Witch and hubs could be my minion, an evil flying monkey!  (Sorry Scarecrow, you were out.) 

Then we went to buy the patterns...*

And there were princesses!  And sparkly fabrics!  And crowns!  And magic wands!  And did I mention princesses?

So this year will hereby be officially designated as The Year of the Princess.  We have Princess Snow White, Princess Cinderella, Princess Jasmine, and Glinda the Good Witch, which--while technically not a princess--is the sparkliest, poofiest, glitteriest costume of all!

Should I keep in theme and be a princess?  Ignore all the sparkles and glitter and be a free thinker?  We're hosting my husbands boss and quite a few of his coworkers for Halloween, so it's got to be appropriate for that too.  Okay, off to research princesses...

*Yes, I am one of those insane people who spends the weeks before Halloween sewing costumes from scratch, despite the fact that purchased costumes cost half the price and zero the time.  My costumes are nicer and better quality but I fully recognize that the evenness of my stitching and quality of my fabrics is really not of importance in regards to an outfit that will be worn perhaps once or twice, then end the night completely covered in a smorgasbord of chocolate and goo.