My Mommyology

Learning from Motherhood.

July 3, 2018
by mymommyology
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Run Momma Run

It’s funny how two years ago, you’d never think to put running and me in the same thought.  Or sentence.

I just re-read a post about my first 10k run, and couldn’t help but smile.  I still remember when running a 5k was extremely challenging.

But I am proud to say that my running mates and I have come a long way since then (in actual mileage as well!).  Thanks largely to peer pressure, we’ve managed to maintain our regular Sunday runs.  Regardless of the weather and the time changes too (I cannot begin to tell you how hard it is to get up in 40 degree weather and run in the dark!  Ack!).  If it weren’t for them, I’d probably put the alarm on snooze and roll over and go back to bed.

I’m fairly impressed we’ve been able to keep it up this long.  Some of us have come and gone, but it definitely helps that we have someone asking “who’s up to run this trail this week?” or “who’d like to join this race with me?”

Yes, they definitely keep me going.

And it is thanks to them and a few other running buddies, that I’ve managed to put three half-marathons under my belt to date.  Woot!

Proof that I survived.

The endurance and stamina have been built slowly though.  In my father-in-law’s words (to my husband), I am no spring chicken.  Trust me, I feel it.

The body takes a while to recover when I push, and the prep before a race takes longer.  I know when I eat (or drink) the “wrong things”, I can feel it when I run.  And if I don’t run regularly, I pay for it days later.

In other words, there is no more “winging it”.

It’s also funny how, because I’ve come to run much more, I got pulled into the girls’ school Run Club this year.

Photo credit: @rocking_my_miles

The joke is that my very good friends were desperate for a fourth person.  Anyway — I did as I was told, got a workout in each week with the kids, and I had fun! It’s all good.

I’ll admit it was nice to see both my girls start to enjoy running as well, and have them build their own physical endurance.  This year they joined a bunch of their friends at Kids Run the OC.  I dare say they’d like to do it again next year.

Training for her race.

This coming fall, we’ve all agreed to do a 5k race as a family.  My husband (the only runner in the family when this all started), who’s run the least of us all, has agreed to participate and “train” occasionally.  This remains to be seen, but hey, here’s hoping right?

I remember a Parenting Lesson Coach Pia taught us — about teaching your kids something that you love, or something you’re good at.  I’d always thought that would be up my husband’s alley since he played all kinds of sports, and he was good at them.  I never thought of myself good at running (I know a whole lot of other people who are better), but I do it often enough that I think I know a little bit.   I never thought I’d enjoy it — it just seemed like the easiest workout to do.  So I never thought they’d “learn to run” from me!

I have to say — that realization has put a smile on my face too! 😉

 

 

July 1, 2018
by mymommyology
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MyMommyology Likes: Incredibles 2

I didn’t realize that it’s been fourteen years since the first Incredibles movie.  I introduced it to my kids when they were both old enough to watch movies since we had the DVD at home.  Incredibles was a fun one back then for me, I just had to introduce it to the girls.

Naturally, Incredibles 2 was much awaited for all of us.

We took my mom to see it with us this summer and I have to say, we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  (Spoilers ahead, so please watch the movie before coming back to this post!)

The first thing I liked was the pre-movie acknowledgement that the actors / voices made about it being 14 years “in the making”.  I hope they showed that little sequence in all the theaters around the world.

I also liked that they picked up from where they left off, 14 years ago with the Underminers.  Granted that those villains were not apprehended, but it was a good jump off point from when we last saw them.  The fun twist I found was that they also still managed to keep it very current with Elastigirl taking center stage during this time of female empowerment.

Disney Pixar’s Elastigirl

At the same time, Mr. Incredible home with Dash struggling with Math sounds exactly like parents in my circle complaining about common core.  The storyline was very relatable then and now!  That’s hard to do, so I am impressed.

I think the most anticipated part of this Incredibles sequel was Jack Jack.

Disney Pixar’s Jack Jack

He is too cute.

The first movie had us guessing what his superpowers might be.  I feel, the writers just had fun with it, but at the same time, still managed to keep to the them.  It was, dare I say, incredibly fun to watch.

My personal favorite part was the sequence with Jack Jack and Edna.

Disney Pixar

It is quick and short, but Edna is always a fun and memorable character to watch.  She was adorable in the first movie, and all the more now, as she babysits Jack Jack for an evening, and actually bonds with him.

The girls were laughing so hard in the theater, and loved it from beginning to end.  We know this to be true because they are repeating and re-enacting lines and scenes randomly.

We’ll definitely add the Blue-Ray copy of this movie to add to our collection, to watch over and over again. 🙂  It’s a great summer flick for the family if I do say so myself!

 

June 29, 2018
by mymommyology
1 Comment

MyMommyology’s #FieldtripFriday at LACMA

Friday is here.  It brings back memories of #Fieldtripfridays we took during our summer days.

One favorite that we talk about to this day, was to LACMA, or the LA County Museum of Art.  You know the place with the famous lampposts outside, where everyone takes pictures?  Yeah…. everyone except us of course.

See, I don’t know much about art, and that is one thing I want my kids to appreciate.  They love museums and little exploration trips, so when we go, I have to remember to try to see things from their eyes, and have their agenda in mind.  We just go with the flow.  Sometimes it means not being able to see everything, and that’s okay too.

I tell them though that I expect to hear three things they discovered or learned on the trip.  It could be anything at all, from what they saw, to what they learned about themselves.

We entered the different LACMA collections with the question, “What is art anyway?” And together decided that some of these pieces weren’t art really… and some were.  Like for instance, Monet’s paintings.  The girls have learned about this artists’ style at school, and clearly thought — this was art.

The Claude Monet area – and his contemporaries.

Then there were many different historical collections.  We spent a lot of time at the Egyptian Art Collection (which is closely linked to Egyptian mythology, a current favorite interest).

Peekaboo. I see you…

There was art bigger than them too.  Modern Art they called it, and often times the girls said, “huh?!”

Mom, it echoes! (echoes, echoes, echoes….)

And art that we didn’t understand.

Why, they asked. Why?

I have to admit though, it made for good conversation.  Why is this on display?  What criteria did they use that it passed?  And so many other questions, which was a pleasant surprise.

And just parts of the museum that looked good in pictures.

Okay, maybe not the Urban Lights. But we did get… “pillars”. 😉

There was a Kids’ art space too, the Boone Children’s Gallery where the kids made their own art and explored different media.

This was clearly an inspiration as when I got home, I found them outside, creating their own art, and using different media!

Jamie stuck with the traditional beach scene.  But she also managed to paint my tiles in the process.

 

So that’s where my toilet paper rolls went…

In the end the girls said, “art is what you make of it mom,” which I thought was very profound.  It could have also been said so that I stop asking questions.  Either way, I’ll take what I can get.

LACMA is a museum that we would visit again and again if we could.  It didn’t hurt that kids 17 years and under can go in for free.  Plus, we didn’t finish one or two areas.  If I know my kids, they’d want to see what they missed.  It’s like a book that you can read over and over again — you always get something new each time you go.

***

Here’s a tip:  When visiting LACMA, pack your own food and snacks and leave them in the car.  We went back for it when the girls were hungry and ate it in the open space outside. 

 

June 28, 2018
by mymommyology
1 Comment

Summer Shenanigans

I suppose it’s best to start with that.  It is after all, summer time in California.

In the past summers, the girls would continue on with classes and camps for a most of the day.  In the period where Sam was in year-round school and Jamie was on a traditional schedule — their schedules didn’t match up.  It got too complicated to juggle them around, and the easiest was to just keep them in camps and school.  They were learning and they were busy.  Done and done!

Eventually, we moved homes, and Sam moved to a traditional calendar school.  Suddenly, summer lined up, but Jamie wanted to stay in her school with her friends (they would have splash day every Friday and pizza), and Sam and I thought we would try out different camps for her around town.  It all worked out and the ladies (big and little) were happy.

By Fall 2016, it was my husband who complained — he’d finally gotten the bill for all the camps.  Wooops.

I’m surprised he didn’t pop a vein.  Or maybe he did.

And to his point, summer is supposed to be a time for the kids to relax, chill and get bored.  My problem he said, is that I always have them doing something (why…. yes.  I didn’t understand.)  They have to learn to do nothing (it took me a while to process that, but…. ok).

So for the summer of 2017, we said goodbye to week-after-week of camp, and just picked one half day camp both girls wanted to do in the same location.  It was the happy compromise between doing “something” and doing “nothing”. The husband was happy, the girls were a little less “on schedule”… but guess what.  It meant more for me to do!

Hence, #mymommyologysummercamp was born.  Trust me, I had no idea what I was doing.

We went around the house for the most part and unearthed gifts, activities and toys they hadn’t touched over the school year and popped them open.

The was definitely some Lego.  And game boards!

Ticket to Ride time.

Somehow, we got some geography lessons in with Little Passports.

We love our Little Passports!

And some science in with our Tinker Crates (more on that next time).

Jamie and her claw machine game.

Of course, I had to inject some Filipino lessons here and there.  Hearing the girls read the words is painful and hilarious at the same time, but hey, a little progress here and there should be good?

Thank you, Amazon.

One of our milestones last year was Sam finally learning how to bike (we had to get the gross-motor skills going too), and I’d like to think that was my personal favorite moment.  We’d been waiting for dad to get out and teach her to do it, since that is not part of my parenting skill set.  But anyway, we got it done (pat self on back)!

Looking for a bike to practice on.  We ended up waiting and asked Santa to bring one.

Last year was the first time we purposely didn’t schedule anything on Fridays.  So the girls and I ventured out into different places around town and did our version of #fieldtripfriday!  We’ll save those discoveries for some later dates.

#fieldtripfriday posts are coming!

By the time I got the girls back into school last fall, I was EXHAUSTED.  It seemed to work its charm on the girls though because they said that they liked that summer “best” and “would love a repeat next year (eeeeek).  Strangely enough, I find that they remembered most of what we did in those sporadic trips here and there.  Maybe my husband was onto something about “doing nothing”…. ? 😉

June 26, 2018
by mymommyology
4 Comments

Begin… Again

Yes, it’s been a while.  A very long while!

What can I say — life has just gotten the better of me.  And the worst of me too! 😉

I also died camping.  Seriously!  the last trip I got sent on did NOT even have outhouses – they were porta-potties!!!!  faint.  It’s almost been a year since and I’ve still not recovered.

So what has changed in the last few months, that made me decide to write again?

Well truth be told, I’ve always had it at the back of my mind and on my to-do list.  I just knew I needed time to sit and really think it through.  But 2017 — oh my!  It was just one event, one activity, and one set of visitors after another.  It just flew by.

The real trigger was that I got the email reminding me to renew my domain and hosting.

Briefly I thought — maybe it’s time to let My Mommyology go.  It’s been over a year after all, and the world seems to want something short, quick and precise.  That’s the trend these days, no?

As it turns out, I’m still not ready!  It may have been a knee-jerk decision, but at the moment it is what’s clear to me.  Hopefully, even though times have changes (and I have changed as well), this space will still serve its original purpose:  To share a journey that entertains, educates and most importantly, empathizes with at least one other soul out there.

Also… it is quite the investment on my end to maintain it so I figure I may as well revive it.  😉

So where do I begin?

I suppose we’re all about to find out. 🙂

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