Watch Out It’s Messy In Here

I can't afford to buy the road bike I so desperately want for racing in my triathlons. We need a new roof, our refrigerator is on it's last leg, and our oven sporadically stops working. We haven't ever taken our kids on a vacation. In the past year we had to unexpectedly buy two new cars, and a new furnace. Major purchases that were not budgeted for in advance. I cry poverty and scream broke often. Last week, I got a wake up call. My oldest, and dearest friend, (if I were 12 I'd call her my BFF) sent me a text asking if we had any of The Big One's out grown clothes that were size 10 or 12 slim still. She teaches in an inner city school. There are many children in her school who truly have nothing. Some of them see a crayon for the first time when they enter her class the first day of kindergarten. And there was a little boy, a fifth grader at her school, who was wearing his sister's hand me downs to school. He had no clothes of his own. This child was w...

Today is my 35th birthday. I've been dreading this day for quite some time. 35 is halfway to 70, 70 is old. So I am now halfway to old. Getting old scares the crap out of me. I watched my grandmother get old and die. I don't ever want to do that. I am actually hoping to get struck down in the prime of my life. I once saw my sweet grandmother poop on the floor as she was walking across the kitchen. My mother had to give her showers, and change her diapers. I never want my sons, or their wives, to have to do that for me. And, I hope to never have to do that for either my mother or my mother-in-law. Getting old sucks. So, I refuse to give in. Today is my 35th birthday. But I am in better shape today than I was on my 34th birthday. If you had told me 1 yeas ago that I would be training for a half-iron man (70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running!) I would have laughed. I was only training for my first triathlon at that point. And even the though of doing that ...