The Child in You

In my last post, I ended with an awesome quote from the book, Born to Run, which got me thinking about what other things I loved to do when I was a child. I was curious to see how many of them I have continued to do in my adulthood. So, I made a list…

Coloring. As a child, I would spend hours perfecting my coloring skills. I would even blend my crayons to make the perfect shade I was looking for. On track trips in college, I would bring coloring books and crayons. It was so relaxing. As an adult I will even find myself zoning out while coloring with my kids or preschool classes…Yup, I still love it!

Drawing. Yeah, kind of the same thing as coloring. My mom would cut out all of the “How to Draws” from the Sunday newspaper and put them in a binder for me. She actually gave it to me as a Christmas gift this year. If you were to ask me if I still love to draw, all you would have to do is check out my preschool…I have an entire wall painted in chalkboard paint. My husband thinks it was for the preschool kids…it was for ME!

One of my creations on the chalk board for the preschool Thanksgiving Feast

Writing. In elementary school, and all the way through high school and college, my writing classes were my very favorite. I especially loved free writing time. It gave me a chance to get out all of the thoughts that were stirring around in my head. As you can see, I still love to do it! Hopefully you enjoy reading it!…

Cooking. When I was younger, I spent time perfecting the art of making mac and cheese, trying to balance the perfect butter to milk ratio, and exactly how long to cook the noodles so that they were not top hard, not too soft. Today, my kids will attest to my still perfect mac and cheese, but if you ask my husband, it is my more “grown-up” meals inspired by my favorite Food Network show, “Chopped.”

This is not me...cute girl, though 🙂

Organizing. When I was younger, I just loved organizing. I remember when I was 12 or 13, spending all day organizing the hall closet. This was a closet filled with miscellaneous everything! I sat myself in the middle of the hallway and spent a good portion of my day doing it. I even created “detour” signs so that nobody would walk where I was, while I was organizing. As an adult, I still have that same quirkiness about me. When my husband will is the type that can’t stand clutter, and will take anything and everything and put it into drawers and closets, just to get it “out of sight,” it drives me nuts to know that those things are in an unorganized mess. So, a few times a month, I will clean and organize the junk drawer. It is actually kind of relaxing to me…weird, I know…

This is not my own junk drawer...but don't they all look about the same?

Playing with and watching my younger siblings. As the third oldest of 10 kids, there was no shortage of younger siblings. When most kids I knew, dreaded it when their parents asked them to babysit, I loved it. I loved being an older sister, and I was so proud of my family. It is no surprise that I have 5 kids, and I run my own business teaching preschool. There is just something about being surrounded by children that reminds you about the simple things in life…I just love it!

My family 2004. Right after having my first child. Happy times...

Doing flips. Growing up, we had a trampoline in our backyard. I would spend hours on that thing. As I’m sure my parents would attest, I wanted so badly to learn how to do a back flip, that I practiced all day long until I finally had it. When we moved into our house, the very first thing that we put in our backyard—yes, even before the grass and fence–was a trampoline! I love to go out there and jump with my kids, and yes, I will even go out there by myself, and knock out a few back flips!

I did a post last year about all the flipping we do on our trampoline. Here is the link. It’s got some funny videos (FHV worthy 🙂 )…

http://straightaaas.blogspot.com/2011/04/family-of-jumpersflippers.html

Riding my bike. Learning how to ride a bike is another example of my sheer determination. At age 4, I took our family’s one and only two wheeler out, and spent all day balancing one foot on the curb, and the other on my bike, until I taught myself how to ride. My older brother and sister, who were at school at the time were not happy that I had learned before they did, so my dad took them both over to the church parking lot so that they could learn. As an adult, I love mountain biking with my husband and taking my kids on the dirt trails behind our house!

I have no good pictures of this, but here is a picture of my awesome husband in a mountain biking race…

Water Skiing. Now, this came a little later in my childhood (age 12, I think). But this is something that my dad taught me how to do, and it quickly became a favorite of mine. Every year, my family goes to Lake Powell, and I look forward to it now, just as I did when I was younger! There’s nothing quite like whipping across the wake at 40 mph!

Finally, since this is a running blog…it is no secret that I love to run. As a child I loved to race my siblings in the backyard, race home from church and run from the boys at school. In high school, when all the other girls were dreading suicides and sweet sixteens at the end of basketball or soccer practice, I was elated! Running was the part of the sport I was actually good at!

As an adult, not only do I love to race, I love going for long runs in the hills by my house. I love being able to listen to my own breathing, my own footsteps and sometimes, by own heart beat. I love running in the snow, mud, splashing in puddles. I love getting snow stuck in my eyelashes, feeling the sun on my skin. I love the wind! Most of all, I love the way it makes me feel like a child again.