Tag Archives: summer running

Weekly Recap: August 19th-25th, 2019

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This week was a tough one! I ended up doing a lot less than I would have liked, but apparently extra rest is what I needed! So that’s what happened!

Monday:

  • Rest day

Hell. Yes!!

This was one well earned rest day! I killed it last week and was definitely feeling it by Monday! I even ran on Sunday which is something I don’t usually do. Hence the rest day on Monday. Something I also don’t usually do. 😉

But yeah, it was great to get to sleep in and not have to even think about heading out for a run or doing a workout. Instead I watched Kiki’s delivery service, did some light housework, and enjoyed ALL OF the puppy cuddles.

Tuesday:

  • Easy 2 miles

I thought I was good to go on Tuesday, but apparently not. What was supposed to be a 4 mile run with interval work quickly got cut in half and the intensity got dialed all the way back.

It just wasn’t gonna happen. My whole body felt off. Not sure if that was because last week was pretty hardcore or for some other reason. Either way I figured I needed to back off a bit. So Tuesday’s run was cut short and after a quick shower I took a very hardcore nap. It was pretty great! 😊

Wednesday:

  • Rest day

After cutting Tuesday’s run short I knew I needed another rest day. Probably should have thrown some recovery activities in there, but oh well. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂 The rest was definitely necessary though.

And unrelated note, but little boy is starting to walk and his eyes and ears are opening! 😄

Thursday:

  • 4 miles
  • 15 minutes of Pilates

Felt much better after taking Wednesday off! This run still wasn’t as long as I would have liked to to be though. I was waiting on a phone call about a job, but the guy never called that day. Go figure. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Anyway, did a little bit of Pilates for abs as well. Gotta work that core!! 💪🏻

Friday:

  • Rest day

Another rest day just because I felt like I needed it. By Friday my legs were feeling super sore and tired. Yuck…

The guy did call me about the job though! So that’s good! Before too long I might just be a factory worker for the Clorox Company. 👍🏻

Saturday:

  • 5.5 miles
  • 20 minute ice bath

So I finally got my head back in the game and finally realized that I’ve been hardcore neglecting my recovery and that’s why I’ve been feeling so shitty. But that kinda happened during my run on Saturday.

I made it 5.5 miles which wasn’t as far as I wanted to go, but it’s farther than I thought I would make it! 🤣 My legs just weren’t having it. So after my run I did my first ice bath of this training cycle. Yeah, like I said, I’ve been neglecting things like that.

But I did it! And it was terrible! 🥶 But my legs felt so much better afterwards!

Sunday:

  • Rest day
  • 20 minutes of restorative yoga

Yup! Another one!

Mostly because Sunday’s are always days of rest for me, but also because I’m really just trying to feel normal in my body again. It’s been a rough week and I wasn’t able to do the kind of training that I really wanted to this week.

Anyway, hopefully week will be better!

Happy Sunday!

~Ashley

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Stay Spooky

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I saw this shirt on Etsy on Friday and I was like, “I absolutely NEED this!!” So of course I bought it. And it’s already here!! It literally shipped a few hours after I ordered it and I couldn’t believe it! That’s the fastest I’ve ever had an online order come. So I’m a super happy camper! 😊

Here’s the link to the Etsy shop I bought it from. I definitely recommend this shop! Obviously because my order got here so quickly but also because the shirt is great quality, super comfy, and bat!!! 🦇🌙

This wasn’t sponsored or anything. Just wanted to share a neat find!

Anyway, Today was a rest day! Yay!!

I sure needed it! I’m actually not sore or anything today. I’m just feeling tired, depleted, and a little bit dehydrated. When I woke up this morning I almost felt sick. Once I got some breakfast and water in me I felt a lot better. But still. A day off from running was definitely needed.

So, this morning I drank a bunch of water, watched Kiki’s Delivery Service, and did a DIY face mask. I love DIY beauty stuff. I know exactly what’s going onto sand therefore into my body. Everything is natural without any weird ingredients, chemicals, or preservatives.

This face mask is super simple, is only made up of two ingredients that just might already be in your kitchen (they’re definitely staples in mine!), and leaves my skin feeling super silky and clean! So literally all you do is mix one part raw honey with one part coffee grounds (they can be fresh but I usually use the used grounds from my morning cup of coffee. ☕️🙂), apply evenly to your face, let it sit for 30 minutes, then wash off. That easy!!

I may or may not have borrowed my husband’s shirt for this. 😂

Since raw honey is antibacterial so it’s supposed to be great for acne. It’s also full of antioxidants so it’s supposedly good for anti-aging. Coffee is supposed to be good for circulation and is therefore also good for anti-aging. Plus it’s a natural exfoliant so it helps remove dead skin cells from your face and is also supposed to be good for your complexion.

Now I’m not sure how true all of that stuff is. I just know that it makes my skin feel nice and I like the way it smells. 😂

Plus it’s relatively cheap and easy to make if honey and coffee are staples in your kitchen. And I’m all about cheap and easy! 😉

Anyway, it was a nice morning.

This afternoon was relaxing and uneventful. Mostly I continued my binge listening of ATWWD while doing some light housework.

This evening Luke and I took Lily to the vet the have the staples from her surgery removed. That was pretty quick and easy! Lily has healed beautifully and is now able to resume her regular activities which is great! Hahaha I was getting tired of yelling at her for jumping up onto the couch or bed because and for running too fast. Things she wasn’t supposed to do because it might rip her staples out. Obviously she was confused about all of that because she’s never been yelled at for doing any of that before. 😂 But we’re past all of that now and things can go back to normal in her life.

Anyway, that’s all for today!

Happy Monday! I hope you have a great week!!

Stay spooky, my friends,

~Ashley 🌿🦇🌙

Weekly Recap: August 12th-18th, 2019

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Hell yes!!!

I kicked ass this week!! I followed my training plan to a T, got a bunch of stuff done in our yard and around the house (bonus cross training!! 😉), did a little strength training, did some yoga, ate pizza, and got lots of puppy cuddles.

It was a great week! An exhausting week, but still, a great week. 😊

Monday:

  • 3 easy miles
  • 2 hours of yard work

Sweaty bangs, tomato face, and salt crusted running gear. All side effects of summer running. 🤣 Monday was all about getting in 3 miles into the leg bank. Mission accomplished!!

After my run I spent 2 hours in the hot sun working in my yard. Mostly weed whacking, but also taking care of some stuff in the garden. That totally counts as cross training! 😉

Tuesday:

  • 3 treadmill miles, interval work
  • 20 minutes of pilates

Oh man, I just couldn’t get myself out of bed early enough in the morning for me to even consider outside running as an option. I got up at 8 am and it was already 80 degrees and rising (the heat index actually got up to 103 on Tuesday! 🥵).

So I ended up doing my interval workout on the treadmill! Not gonna lie, I really didn’t want to do it. I got through it though! While I was running there were these little birds hanging out in the bush right outside of the window that my treadmill is in front of so that was kinda amusing! Watching them sure took my mind off of the fact that I was on the treadmill! At least a it did little bit.

Wednesday:

  • Easy 2 miles
  • 3 hours of yard work
  • 25 minutes of yoga

More yard work! Yay? Hahaha oh man, we’ve had a lot of stuff going on outside with the garden and rain we’ve been getting! All on top of everything getting slightly neglected last week because of Lily’s surgery and then obtaining new born puppies. It’s been a whirlwind of stuff revolving around all of that. But I’m still getting my training in! 👏🏻😄

Anyway, I got pooped on by a bird during this run. That was definitely a first for me. Everyone on Instagram said it’s good luck though, so hopefully they’re right!

Thursday:

  • Rest day

Oh thank goodness!! I needed a day off after all of the yard work, lack of sleep from caring for now one week old puppy, all on top of half marathon training.

Honestly Thursday’s actually have the option of being rest days or cross training days on my training plan. Hopefully that means I will actually be doing cross training most weeks. But this week I definitely needed the rest!

Really though all of the puppy cuddles really makes up for everything. 😉

Friday:

  • more yard work
  • Running around a golf course but not actually playing golf

Friday was a busy day as it usually is for us!

Luke and I spent an hour in the morning doing more yard work. Surprise surprise. 😂 At this point were pretty much caught up with all of that though. After we got that done we got groceries, paid the mortgage, bought dog food, and then Luke went golfing.

I didn’t feel much like golfing that day, so I just went with him to keep him company, help him find his golf balls, and fetching clubs for him. I guess some people might find that kinda boring, but I thought it was fun. But then again Luke and I always have fun together. Hahaha plus he has spent plenty of time waiting around for me at races, so I guess I kinda owe him. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Anyway, when you write it all down it doesn’t sound like a lot, but we were gone most of the day. So obviously we had to treat ourselves to some pizza for dinner. 🍕😋

It was a Friday very well spent. 😄

Saturday:

  • 8 miles

The first two miles of this run were absolutely miserable. The next six were slightly better but not by much. It was a hard day. 🤣

That was a bit unexpected after two days of no running, but it happens. I’m just glad that I got it done!!

Sunday:

  • 6 miles

Tired, sore as hell, and Luke freaked me out this morning by waking up when I did thinking it was Monday and thinking he was late for work. 😂

Weirdly enough though this run ended up being better, faster, and a lot more fun than yesterday’s was. And today I was running on tired legs! Running is just weird like that sometimes. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So since I was having fun this run turned into an impromptu fartlek session. Now I know some people like to do fartleks that are more structured, with specific times or distances for accelerating and recovering. But to me that’s not a real fartlek. The term is Swedish for “speed play”. So if it’s super structured like than then to me it just feels like an interval work.

To me a fartlek session involves running hard up a hill just to make my quads burn (or more accurately, burn more because they were already tired today😂). Trying to pass the guy walking his dog before he turns on another street. Seeing how fast I can get from one end park to the Baptist church across the street. And other random pick ups, slow downs, and variations in speed just for fun. With no specifics in mind. And that’s exactly what happened today. 😄

Total Weekly Mileage: 22.01

Mission accomplished!!!!! 100% completed this week of half marathon training exactly as my training plan called for! Woohoo!!

So yeah, right now things are going well in my world! Super stoked at how this week went and I sure hope next week goes just as well! 😄

Kicking my week off with a rest day tomorrow. Thank goodness! I’m tired. 😴 But also feel very accomplished. It’s a good feeling.

I hope you had a fantastic week and have a great Sunday night!

~Ashley

That Backyard Farm Life

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Border collies, and chickens, and tomatoes, oh my!!

If you weren’t already aware, I have quite the little backyard farm going on!

I grew up on an 80 acre farm in rural Illinois and I miss it all of the time, but my tiny little backyard set up does help. Also maybe it’s practice for a future real farm someday? I sure hope so!!

But before we get into everything I’ve going going on in that regard I just wanted to quickly mention that I got pooped on by a bird during my run this morning. That was definitely a first for me and I thought it was pretty funny. 🐦💩😂

Ok, so backyard farm.

Obviously I’ve got my 4 border collies. They have been my dream since I was 10 years old and I cannot even being to describe how happy they make me! One day I’d like to actually have some real livestock for them to work (Lily actually has worked cattle before and does know a few real herding commands), but for now they just help me keep my chickens and rabbits in line. 😂

One of my rabbits has a habit of escaping her hutch at night and getting under our shed. But when she eventually comes out Finn knows to keep her from getting back under there and will hold her in one place so I can quickly grab her. Border collies are incredibly smart and the fact that he’s caught on to what I need him to do is just so awesome!

Don’t worry! This doesn’t stress the bunny out! If you’ve ever seen border collies work then you know they’re very quite and deliberate with what they do. Plus she’s just super used to it and isn’t afraid of my dogs at all. Hahaha if she was a sheep she would be considered “dog broke”. Which just means she’s used to being worked by my dogs.

So yeah. I’m just over here living one of my childhood dreams and it’s pretty fucking sweet!

Now, I’ve really debated talking about this next part, but I’m briefly going to get into it. Super duper long story that really doesn’t matter anymore and even if it did I wouldn’t get into it anyway, I’ve recently come into the possession of 2 as of today 6 day old border collie puppies. Like I said, it’s a long story that really doesn’t matter. But what does matter is that they’ve been keeping me very busy! One is a little boy and the other is a little girl.

Unfortunately the little girl has a cleft palate so we’re not sure what’s going to happen with her yet. We’re planning on taking her to the vet soon and seeing what they think we should do. Obviously I’m not a vet, but from what I’ve read it might just be better to euthanize her. Unfortunately stuff like that happens. But we’ll see what the vet says. So I was bottle feeding her, but that wasn’t working well since puppies with cleft palates can’t create the proper suction to nurse. So I’ve switched to feeding her with a syringe for now. And I may have to keep doing that for 3 or 4 more weeks until I can start weening them. That or I’ll only have 1 puppy to care for soon. We shall see.

Little girl fell asleep in my hand after I got done feeding her. Poor baby, is doing a lot better after I started feeding her with a syringe though.

Note; we are not keeping either of these puppies. I’m just taking care of them until they’re old enough to find new homes. But they are adorable! And while they are a lot of work, I do like having them around. 😁

Okey doke! Moving on!!

My chickens are doing well! Nothing really too exciting to report on that front. They eat, poop, and lay eggs pretty much every day. Jethro, my rooster, gets a little bit high and mighty anytime a man gets anywhere near the coop but other than that he’s the nicest rooster I’ve ever met. 😂

Since my hens are pretty well established and laying almost every day (they’ve slowed down a little bit because of the heat) I’ve been selling eggs to a few people. Nothing too crazy, but they have paid for a few bags of their feed, so hey, I’ll take it!!

Fresh and pretty eggs washed and ready to be delivered to my neighbor!

So this year my garden is much smaller than it has been in previous years, but it’s doing much better than it did last year!! Last year we legit went 2 months without a drop of rain and my poor tomato plants suffered because of it. This year the weather has been much better and we’ve had a ridiculous amount of tomatoes!! And a decent amount of cucumbers too! 😊

Luke and I have already made 2 jars of tomato sauce and we plan on making more! Plus a bunch of pickles. Canning is a lot of fun, plus we like to have homemade tomato products for chili. We make a lot of chili in the cold months hahaha. And homemade sauce made from a homegrown tomatoes just makes it that much better.

So all of this backyard farm stuff is a lot of work! Monday I spent 2 hours in the morning tending to everything outside and today I spent 3 hours out there! And that’s not counting caring for the puppies and feeding/cleaning up after the rest of the animals. 😂 Mostly those 2 days were filled with general yard work, weeding the garden, picking tomatoes and cucumbers, watering the garden, and weed whacking.

Whew! All of that stuff counts as cross training, right?? Hahaha I sure think it does! All that stuff is hard freaking work! I enjoy it though. I guess you could say it’s in my blood. Now if only I could actually make some real money off of all of this! It’s a lot of work and little reward if you don’t count the eggs and produce. Mostly it’s just thankless work. A lot of people assume that since I don’t have a “real” job that I sit around all day doing a whole lot of nothing but that definitely isn’t the case!

So yeah. That’s basically my life at this point! Running, raising dogs, chickens, and growing food! Along with blogging and general household stuff of course. It’s not a glamorous life, but it’s mine and I love it. 😊

I hope you’re having a wonderful Wednesday!!

You’re backyard farming friend aka Farmer Dan (it’s an inside joke 😉😉😉),

~Ashley

41 Days Until The Autumn Equinox and 49 Days Until The First Day Of October!

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Yeah, I have a countdown for both of those things going on my phone. 😂

For real though, I’m so over summer!

Not that I was exactly into it to being with. But I’m very ready for it to be over at this point. I’m tired of having to wake up super early to run before the sun comes out at the heat index hits the 100’s. I’m tired of dripping with sweat and being crusted with salt by the time I finish my runs. I’m tired of feeling drained and sapped of every ounce of energy I have on super hot and humid days. And I’m tired of having to resort to running on the treadmill on days where I want to sleep in until 7 am or days when we have heat warnings and I just can’t handle the excessive heat and humidity (I’m for real a huge wimp in the heat and the humidity doesn’t help my asthma…). I am so ridiculously ready for some cool weather and beautiful fall days!

But alas. For now you will find me drowning in my own sweat. 🥵

Alright. I know that was like, the worlds largest pity party. But I think sometimes it’s best to just get it all out, ya know? 😂

Mostly I’m just upset because I ended up sleeping in until 8 am today. Yesterday I was up early, ran 3 “easy” (but they were actually hard AF) miles, and then proceeded to do 2 hours of strenuous yard work. All in the full sun, 80 degrees a rising, 94% humidity weather. With an excessive heat warning on top of it all. The heat index for yesterday got up to 103. Luckily I was done with everything and inside for that part of the day. But my morning in the sun, heat, and humidity really drained me. Hence the sleeping in until 8 today. And since it was already 80 degrees by then I figured the treadmill was my best option. Not my favorite, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.🤷🏻‍♀️

That being said, I might have procrastinated my run today a little bit. I don’t find the treadmill to be particularly appealing so it’s can be really hard to take the first steps of actually getting onto the damn thing!

Eventually I did though. While I might not be stoked about the treadmill it’s pretty easy for me to stay motivated to get my runs done when I have a race on the calendar. Or in this case two. In two days. 😉

So around 10:40 this morning I hopped onto my treadmill and got today’s workout done! It definitely helped that my training plan called for my favorite kind of interval workout today, but oh man it was still super hard! I got through it though! Plus for most of my workout there were these little birds hanging out in the bush right outside my window and that was cool! Hahaha they were pretty entertaining and definitely helped take my mind off of the fact that I was putting in some hard work on the treadmill.

Seriously though! I’m so glad that one is over! It was super tough and now I’ve been super tired all day. Like I said, I’m very ready for fall to get here so running isn’t so darn draining all of the time.

Anyway, thanks for hanging around and reading my pity party for today!

I’m all for positive thinking but I also think it’s helpful to say how you feel out loud or write it all down. Bottling things up all of the time just doesn’t work. At least it sure doesn’t for me! I already feel better now that I’ve complained!

So yeah. That’s all for today!

How are you feeling? Are you a summer lover or are you ready for fall? 🍁🍂

You’re very sweaty, sport drink reliant friend,

~Ashley

Weekly Recap: August 5th-11th, 2019

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Oops. This posted before I was finished writing it. 🤣 I ended up babysitting my niece and nephew last night so I kinda completely forgot to finish writing my weekly recap. Oh well. Here it is in its entirety now. 😉

Anyway!

Woohoo! I am back at it! 💪🏻🏃🏻‍♀️

This summer has been a crazy one but all of the craziness has, for the most part, settled down! I feel like I’ve finally gotten into half marathon training! Which is good because technically I should be three weeks into it at this point. Oops. But at least I’m into it now!

This week was a little bit stressful. It didn’t go as planned, but I think it ended up being relatively successful! 😄

Monday:

  • 3 easy miles
  • 25 minutes of yoga

Will waking up at 5 am ever get easier? Probably not… But at least you get rewarded by getting to watch the sun rise when you wake up that early!

I actually woke up 10 minutes before my 5 am alarm. That really sucked because I really did t want to be awake but at the same time I didn’t see any point in laying in bed for 10 minutes, so I got up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and then headed out for my run. Which was relatively uneventful, but still good. 😁

Tuesday:

  • 3 miles. Intervals.
  • 15 minutes of yoga

So I did my very first podcast interview on Tuesday! That was scary! But also so much fun!!! I can’t wait for it to come out and I’ll definitely share with you guys when it does! And don’t worry, I won’t let my new found podcast fame go to my head. 😉

Anyway, my first speedy session of hall marathon training is done!! Unfortunately it had to happen on the treadmill. I slept in on Tuesday because I was up until 3 am the night before dealing with a vomiting dog. The dog is fine now, but by the time I woke up it was too hot out for me to want to run outside.

It’s all good though. This kind of interval workout is my favorite kind and it ended up going really well! 😊

Wednesday:

  • 3.5 easy miles

Whew! This was a tough one! But I kinda figured it would be, considering how well my interval workout on Tuesday went. 😂

We had some thunderstorms roll in that morning so I waited until around 10 am to do this run. By then it was just lightly raining and it was very nice.

Thursday:

  • Rest day

So super duper long story short, Lily had to have an emergency surgery on Thursday. She is 100% fine now, but for most of the day on Thursday I was incapable of doing anything until the vet called me sand told me everything went well and that she was waking up from her surgery just fine. Whew. That was a long day…

Hahaha so this photo is actually from Thanksgiving 2015 but it’s o e of my favorites of Lily! My sister and I were going to feed my dad’s cows and she kept them from getting outside of the fence and then kept them away from their feeder while we filled it with hay. She is a very good dog. 💜

Friday:

  • 2 treadmill miles

Oh man, Friday was relatively uneventful. Got in two miles on my treadmill and that was pretty much it! 😂

Saturday:

  • 4 treadmill miles

Winchester cheered me on for this one!!

Ok, really he just likes to hang out on my yoga mat, but whatever. 😉

But oh man, Saturday was a hot one! And I just wasn’t feeling it really. I got in 4 miles and just called it good. But hey, it sure beats not doing anything!!

Sunday:

  • 2 miles

So on Sunday I decided I was going to do 3 easy miles to just squeeze in some more miles since I didn’t really do a long run this week. I only ended up making it to two though because it was hot and humid and I wasn’t into it. 🥵 But again, a little something is better than nothing!!

After my two miles I had planned on resting and relaxing for the rest of the day, but I actually ended up babysitting my niece and nephew. They’re good kids, but jeez they can be exhausting! So so much for resting and relaxing. 😂 At one point my nephew was playing on my phone and he took 8 million pictures of his shoe, my table, me, and his sisters feet. Good times. 😂😂

Lol yeah, such a flattering photo. And this was probably the best one. 🤣

Total Weekly Mileage: 17.56

That’s about 2.5 miles less than I was aiming for, but honestly that’s not too bad! All-in-all I’m happy with how last week went and I’m looking forward to having an even better week this week!!

Happy Monday!

~Ashley

Home Sweet Home, Hello August, and Half Marathon Training

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Yesterday afternoon Luke and I loaded up all 4 dogs into the truck and then made our way back to Kansas! Yay!! Is there anything better than sleeping in your own bed at night after being away?? 😴😊

Hahaha but before we actually got to sleep in our bed when we got home (at like, 7 pm yesterday😉) we had some stuff to take care of. Mostly in the garden. After not being tended to for 4 days it was a little bit dry. It didn’t rain at all while we were gone either. But it’s not too bad. We still had to pick a ridiculous amount of tomatoes and even a few cucumbers last night.

So. Many. Tomatoes!!

It did actually rain that night though! We had a nice little thunderstorm roll in which was very much needed! My garden wasn’t the only think looking a little bit dry yesterday, so everything got watered and that’s good. It was a nice way to end July. Really the weather this summer has been pretty mild for the most part here in Kansas, but a little bit of rain was definitely necessary!⛈😊

It was still thundering when I woke up this morning, but no more rain. It just missed us. But things were sufficiently wet here, so that wasn’t a big deal.

Anyway, it’s the first day of August!!

That means it’s time to tally up my monthly mileage!

July was a bit of a hectic month. Luke and I hosted two teenagers and kept them entertained. We experienced a heat wave followed by a weird but very welcome cold snap. I twisted my ankle. And Obviously we had our trip to Illinois. So life and my usual clumsy nature definitely happened and were in full effect this month and my mileage clearly reflects that.

That being said, I still pushed through some stuff, squeezed in runs when we were busy, even if that meant losing some sleep. I cut some runs short when I was short on time, but I still did something and that sure beats nothing! And when I got hurt, instead of being stupid and trying to run on my swollen and sore ankle, I gave it the rest it obviously needed. So all in all I’m calling this month a win!

But now that things are finally going to be settling down around here I’m ready to really start putting in some work! Especially since I’m technically 2 weeks into half marathon training. Although I haven’t really gotten much done in that regard since I twisted my ankle last Wednesday. But that ankle is starting to feel much better now!!

I didn’t run today though, but I really needed to rest and recuperate and that’s also a part of training! Honestly I’m just exhausted from all of the running around we did while we were in Illinois. Today it was nice to just sit at home and do nothing. Well, for the most part at least. 😉 I still have animals that needed tended to, tomatoes that needed washed, and other chores around the house that needed done. Oh and laundry. I had to do so much laundry. 😆

But anyway. We’re home! I’m ready to get going at half marathon training! And we are now that much closer to fall!! 53 more days until the Autumn Equinox and 61 more days until the first day of October!! 🍂🍁🎃

Happy first day of August!

~Ashley