Old School

On Friday, my friend Sarah called me and told me to check our mailbox. We were at the park and hadn't checked the mail before we left. She explained that her daughter Ada, one of Lucy's best friends, had received a postcard from Mrs. Y. welcoming her to her class this year and she wanted to know if Lucy had received the same card. Lucy couldn't wait to get home. Not only would a postcard mean she and Ada would be in class together, but her 8-year-old friend Sophia had Mrs. Y. in first grade and told Lucy that had to get her, that she is the best teacher and that Mrs. Y. would give her a hug everyday when she left school. When we got home, Lucy ran to the mailbox. She peeked inside and then let out a shout and waved the postcard victoriously over her head yelling, "I'm with Ada! I'm with Ada! And we got the huggy teacher!"

Judging by the crowd at the girls' school when they posted the classroom placement list later that day, classroom placement is important to a lot of families. But after having moved the girls to a different state and, of course, a different school, two years in a row, there was something especially beautiful to me in the joy the girls expressed about being in class with friends. Like Lucy, it turns out that Evie will have some of her best friends in her class. She also got the teacher she had been hoping to get all summer. She too responded by jumping up and down and screaming with delight.

Last week, Evie and a friend giggled and chatted in the back of the car as I drove them to go hiking. Then her friend told Evie that she is feeling sad because she just found out she'll be moving to a different school this year. Evie, instantly serious, turned to her and said, "I know exactly how you feel. That is really, really hard." As a parent, I will never forget Evie coming home from school in Los Angeles and telling me that no one noticed her at recess. And I'll never forget walking home last year, teary and worried at the thought of her experiencing that once again.

On Monday, the girls will enter their classrooms to be greeted by hugs from their friends. And I will walk home from dropping them off, thinking about Lucy waving her postcard in the air.
















Lucy and Ada camping this summer

Glue-sticking Days

As Toby headed out the door this morning, he turned to Evie and said, "Have a good day!" She responded, "That won't be hard to do." I love the power of now in an eight-year-old's brain. She was in the living room building a plastic cup and cardboard box tower with her sisters and it was hard for her to imagine how a day that started off so well could be anything but fabulous.

Sometimes, as an adult, it's challenging to have that much confidence that everything is and will be good, but for kids it happens naturally. Of course, it cuts both ways when you're eight. If Toby had talked to her about her day ten minutes later, when the glue wasn't sticking and Noni was scribbling all over one of the boxes, she probably would have responded that she was bound to have a terrible, no good, very bad day.

When you're an entrepreneur, or married to one, you tend to have some days when the glue won't stick and when other people are scribbling all over your boxes. Toby and I, recognizing that we chose this lifestyle, try to view those days as part of the adventure. Those are the days when we grow as individuals and our marriage strengthens as we support each other. It's good to have days like that from time to time, even though it doesn't usually feel like it in the moment. But? I'll be the first to admit that the days when the glue is sticking are more easily enjoyed.

The past few days have been glue-sticking days. On Thursday, Toby presented Kapost at the TechStars conference. I know I'm slightly biased, but I think he, Mike and Nader put together a knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark presentation. That evening, my friend Brenda took the three girls (Noni's first sleepover!) so that Toby and I could go out to celebrate. For us, celebrating success in Toby's work is also a celebration of our ability to stay living in Boulder, a town we have quickly grown to love. Then, in the serendipitous way that things sometimes happen, we had plans for camping on a lake with friends this weekend. It seemed the perfect way to celebrate, even though we made the reservations when there was still snow on the ground, long before I'd even heard of TechStars. I'll let the pictures below describe the weekend.

Eckhart Tolle teaches that we should "realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life." Words to live by at all times of course. But over these last few days, it's been easier than ever to think, "that won't be hard to do."

Toby jumping into the clouds. Well, actually the lake.

Evie and I head out on the canoe

Noni, campfire cook

Lu & friends

Family Friendly Camping

Last week, a friend told me that she had just read about a cave that was recently opened to the public. Every evening, thousands of bats fly out of the cave at the same time. I thought it sounded amazing and wanted to take the girls so we agreed that we'd go together next week with the kids and camp near the cave.

When I looked at the website she sent, I was even more excited about our trip. The Orient Land Trust, where the cave is located, is 22 miles from the nearest gas station, over 30 miles from the nearest supermarket, and full of hot springs. Plus, there is supposed to be a meteor shower on the night we were planning on going. I could only imagine the night sky from such a remote campground.

So I called up to make a reservation.

Reservation guy: Orient Land Trust.

Me: Hi, I'm interested in making a reservation for me and my friend and our kids.

Him: Great. Before you do, I just want to make sure you're aware that the campgrounds are clothing optional.

Me:...

Him: Hello?

Me: Yes, um, so when you say "clothing optional", you mean like in the hot springs? Because I'm fine with naked people in the hot springs.

Him: Yes, there are naked people in the hot springs. Also, people are naked camping.

Me: Naked camping?

Him: Yes.

Me: Hmm, so I am not sure how to say this. I guess, well, is the campsite family friendly?

Him: I'd say it's naked family friendly.

Me:... (Unable to help considering the word naked family friendly and what that would mean for society. Cinderella no longer needing a gown for the ball, Little Red Riding Hood having to scrap her name...)

Him: Should we make that reservation?

Me: No thanks, I think we're good.

Evie and Lucy, Flower Children

Today both girls came home with their hair in beaded braids, palms covered in henna and wearing tie-dyes. They chanted "Om nama shivaya" on the car ride home, which they had already chanted one hundred and eight times this morning. No, they haven't stepped out of a hot tub time machine from Woodstock. They attended yoga camp at the Eldorado Mountain Yoga Ashram this week and absolutely loved it.

For any Boulder parents looking for camp for their kids next summer, I can't recommend it enough. They spent the week practicing yoga, making art projects, hiking and swimming in an artesian spring water pool (which is actually a fancy way for saying a cold and somewhat murky pool, but the girls didn't seem to mind). They came home every day covered in paint and dirt, with huge smiles on their faces.

And, while the girls were learning meditative practices on the yoga mat, I was enjoying my first week at home this summer with the older girls in camp. I will miss them both once school starts in two (two!!) weeks, but I have to admit that I was practicing my own mantra. Rather than "Om

nama shivaya", I would wake up every morning thinking, "They are going to camp! They are going to camp!" Ah, peace.

Some more photos from their week at camp:

The entrance of the camp

The bus the girls painted on the first day. You can see "Lucy" on the window.

Lucy and Nolan were in the Ganesh group

Another Ganesh

Happy campers

Born To Run

Glee and determination are usually antagonistic emotions, yet the Tarahumara were brimming with both at once, as if running to the death made them feel more alive - from Born to Run

I recently finished reading McDougall's Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race The World Has Never Seen. I decided to read it after several people recommended it to me. Of course, I should mention that one of those people is currently preparing for the World Championship Iron Man in Hawaii and another had just finished sprinting up a 13,000 ft mountain wearing those weird barefoot shoes that are all the rage in Boulder these days. But, worthy of the book or not, I decided to give it a try.

I wasn't sure what to expect in a book about running. Turns out it's a page-turner adventure story that takes you from an ultra marathon in Leadville, Colorado to a crazy 50 mile trail race with the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico.

The author makes two main points:

The first point is that the whole running sneaker industry is a load of crap. McDougall heads to the Copper Canyon in Mexico to study the Tarahumara Indians, who run extraordinary distances in nothing but thin-soled sandals. When he comes home, he researches the shoe industry. A few facts, according to the book:

- Since Nike introduced what we all know as the modern running shoe in the 70s, Achilles complaints have increased by 10 percent, while plantar fasciitis has remained the same.

- According to a 2008 research paper for the British Journal of Sports Medicine, there are no evidence-based studies--not one--that demonstrate that running shoes make you less prone to injury.

- Runners wearing top-of-the-line shoes are 123 percent more likely to get injured than runners in cheap shoes.

Basically, the theory is that because of the heel cushioning in modern shoes (with the most cushioning found in the top-of-the-line shoes), we have changed the way that we run, and not for the better. Running in modern running shoes encourages you to land on your heel, rather than your forefoot, bringing all sorts of damage into the heel, knees, and other parts of the body.

(For another article, not mentioned in the book, but that I found interesting regarding the running shoe industry, click here)

It's a compelling argument, but I wasn't sure quite what to make of this point because when the author considers scrapping his own shoes to run barefoot, his coach tells him that his feet haven't been conditioned to run that way yet and that he'll end up with shin splints and who knows what other injuries. He ends up ordering some old Nikes online. But I keep seeing more and more of the "barefoot" running shoes around Boulder and am curious to see where that goes. For now, I'm sticking to my Mizuno Alchemy 8s, but I plan on doing a little more research before buying my next pair of shoes.

Tarahumara sneakers

The American version of running barefoot

The second point the author makes is that humans are designed to run and that the best runners have a true passion for running. I certainly don't have the passion of some of the people in the book--people who have shattered world records, run 100 miles in blistering heat, and who are always looking to push their running to the most extreme limits. However, reading about the joy and abandon with which the people in the book run made we want to put down the book and head out on the trails for myself.

Long before I discovered yoga or attended a church that integrates meditation into the service, I used running as a way to center myself. If I am trying to figure out a solution to a problem, my head is clearest when I'm out on a running trail. If I start feeling like I need a little space from the chatter of kids, I return from a run a much more patient mom. Lately, when I run, I write. Of course I don't drag the computer along with me, but I compose what I am going to write on the trail. For days I have been trying to think up a short story for my next writing group meeting and yesterday, on an hour and a half run, it all came together. I love that feeling.

While I'm not sure what to take from the book when it comes to barefoot running, when it comes to the author's descriptions of cultures with a passion for running, I simply enjoyed reading about the Tarahumara and the other ultra-marathoners in the book. I don't think you need to be an Iron Man or marathoner or even an occasional 5k racer to enjoy this book. As long as you are someone who occasionally finds yourself heading out for a jog, it's a book worth reading.

Noni's first race

A photo from my morning run in Boulder

St.Vrain

When we moved to Los Angeles two years ago, I figured our camping equipment would sit in the garage, acquiring dust. I had no idea that Los Angeles was surrounded by some of the best camping sites I've ever seen, and that all of them would be empty on the weekends. We camped more often than we ever had that year. On the flip side, I expected that in Boulder we might as well leave our camping equipment out in the living room, as we'd probably be heading out every weekend. It hasn't quite happened that way. It's not that we haven't tried. It's that every time we make reservations at a campsite for the weekend, a hail and snow storm heads our way. Even in June. And so, after living in Colorado for nearly a year, before this weekend we had gone camping once. And it was freezing. Actually, a few degrees below.

This weekend, we decided to fool the weather gods and didn't make reservations at all. We headed up to the trail head by the St. Vrain river, where you can pitch a tent pretty much anywhere. We set ours up as near to the car as we could, which still meant a five minute walk along a fairly rugged trail with the girls and a whole lot of camping equipment. The nearest site we could find was practically in the river. When I looked out of our tent, I felt like we might start floating downstream. It was absolutely beautiful though and the girls played in the river all afternoon. When it started to cool off, we cooked sausage and asparagus over the fire and then ate far too many s'mores. Then we walked down to our friends' campsite down the river and the girls spent the evening running around the woods with their friends.

All in all, it was a great trip. The best part of the weekend was that the weather gods were completely fooled, offering up sunny, 75-degree weather all weekend. I'm already looking forward to two more camping trips we have planned in August. Shhh, just don't tell the weather gods.

walking in the St. Vrain river

Leopard Print, Glitter & Peace

My least favorite errand with kids? Hands down the post office. No matter where I live, the post office is always a trying experience. There is absolutely nothing for the girls to do or even look at. There is always a line. And there is always a woman in that line who has a pile of 20 boxes. Four of them need tape, all of them need to be sent in different ways to different places, and she's going to pay for them in cash. In Boulder this experience is particularly excruciating because our local post office worker is dutifully taking her, um, medical marijuana and is so spaced out that she cannot for the life of her figure out the change for the inevitable woman-with-cash in front of me. I'm not even kidding when I say that three times this year I have finally just given up, left the line and the post office, only to torture myself with having to come back later.

And so, after a post office trip yesterday, I figured Target today was going to be easy. But Target offers the exact opposite problem of the post office. There is far too much for the girls to look at. Whoever decides the layout of the store is brilliant because even if I am in the kitchen appliances section there is something that my kids just can't live without. Today, after half an hour of please please PLEEEEASEs, I broke down and told the girls they could each pick out something from the 75% off rack. It wasn't the best parenting decision. I'm sure there are all sorts of theories about how I just reinforced the benefits of begging while at a store, but we're nine weeks into summer here and, what can I say, I'm weak.

At any rate, buying Evie and Lucy each a $4 dress isn't a big deal. (Noni made out with another mini Disney princess.) It's just that for the rest of the summer, they will be wearing this: