Counting my Blessings

Today I ran a 5K.  And it was very, very cold.  And I am sore.  And I'm running SO slow! And I started the run with a bad attitude.  Since I'm working on changing my attitude I started thinking about it while I ran.  The nice thing about running is that you have time to let your mind meander.  ;)

I was thinking about how I did an awful lot of "Why me?" and "Poor me!" last year.  Obviously that has to change and so while on my run I started thinking about all the blessings in my life.  I know I have them but when I started listing them in my head I realized that my cup runneth over.  (Ha ha, runneth, get it? lol)

So here are my blessings I came up with on my run.  Some are obvious and some I realized I had been taking for granted.

• My husband!  My best friend and biggest fan.  He wants me to be healthy but has never made me feel like he won't love me because I'm heavy.  He is training for an Ironman next June and I love being able to be his biggest fan too.
• My children!  I have three fantastic kids.  They are bright, funny people and I love being their mom.  
• Dwayne & Faylene.  Our best friends and we have laughed (a lot) over the years.  Faylene lets me vent and be frustrated about my weight struggles but never says to just take care of it.  Although I'm sure she has thought it!  Dwayne just encourages me all the time.  I couldn't ask for better friends!
• New friends Josh & Wendie.  God puts people in your life just when you need them.  It isn't often that you find people you click with immediately.  I have learned to hold on to those people when I find them.  Josh & Wendie, you are stuck with me now!  
• My Job.  I LOVE what I do!  I teach 7th & 8th Grade Social Studies and I love every frustrating, rewarding minute of it.  I work at a great school with a supportive administrator (believe me, that isn't always the case) and I work with two great teachers in Social Studies.  They have made my transition into the job this year so fun and I really enjoy working with them.  I love working with kids, they have so much potential and they are so funny!  I laugh at work everyday!  Can't get much better than that.
• My home.  I live in a very nice home, with plenty of room and a huge backyard.  I have great neighbors and schools.  I know that when I go out on a cold day for a run I will come home to a nice warm house and then follow that up with a nice warm shower.  

Since it's was a shorter run that's all I came up with for today.  But what a great list!

I use the NIKE+ app when I run.  I started using it when I first started running because I didn't have a smart phone but could use the sensor and my iPod to track my miles.  When I got my iphone I switched over to Nike+gps.  I like the app for the most part.  I can't decide if I should switch over to Runkeeper, which is what my husband uses, or stick with Nike.

Here is the information from my run today:

I worked hard at the end to have a negative split for my last mile.  You have to know that sharing my time is hard for me because I'm really self-conscious about how slow I am.  But I figure that is another motivation for me to work on getting faster!  If I get faster then I won't feel so self-concious about it, right?  Right!