My Aching Feet (aka feeling sorry for myself)

Fair warning, this is just going to be me complaining.

I'm so tired of my feet hurting. Do you realize how often you use your feet? Walking, running, standing, shopping, skiing, even when you're sitting you put pressure on them. These all cause me pain!

I've had plantar faciitis for a couple of years now. It started mildly, my feet just felt sore- like they were bruised- when I got in the morning, but it went away after a few minutes. Slowly, it's gotten worse. Last fall when I started playing tennis regularly again, it got so bad that I couldn't walk for an entire day after I played.

Having a podiatrist brother, this should not be a problem. Too bad he's out of state. He sent me some inserts, which controlled it for a couple of months, then the pain came back worse. I bought some Dansko shoes (actually my cute husband surprised me one night with his secret cash stash and told me I had to go by some new shoes with it so my feet could get better.) They were wonderful, and I thought the problem was solved. But a few months later, they seemed to be like any other shoe. Now, it's worse than ever.

I wake up at night with pain shooting through my heels. If I am on my feet at all, as soon as I sit down I want to curl up in pain. I ice them regularly, which is its own kind of misery. I was so excited that Rick enjoys cross-country skiing and we had planned to go regularly all winter. But I hurt too much the next day, so we've only been 3-4 times this season.

I love to walk. It was so hard to move out of walking distance from my job. If I have to go anywhere, I'd rather hoof it. I feel ridiculous if I drive anywhere within a few blocks of home or work. If I had the time, I'd walk everywhere. I'm also pretty good at sucking-it-up when I'm in pain. But these days, I'm thinking those motorized shopping carts are a good idea for getting around the grocery store. Ugh.

My cutie brother told me to fly out and he'd fix me up. I've opted for a local doc he knows. So far, the results have been minimal, but I'm optimistic he's going to help me resolve this. Keep your fingers crossed.

Holiday Weekend

I know I'm late in posting about Valentines/President's Day weekend, but better late than never, right?

I've never been into Valentine's Day. When I was single, my girlfriends would have big girl's night out parties. I never got into it. It just has never been a big deal. Even when I was dating someone, it's all seemed kind of contrived and superficial. Not that I'm knocking the holiday. I think it's great that people want to celebrate each other and have a romantic day. Nothing wrong with celebrating love. It's just never been something I subscribed to.

This year we had some fun with it. Playing it up for the kids changes my attitude a bit. Rick and I got up and made a holiday breakfast: pink, heart shaped pancakes (I don't really like pancakes, but Rick's are delicious), pink whipped cream and strawberries all topped with raspberry syrup. It was divine.



Later, Rick and the boys gave me a box of chocolates- and by chocolates I mean a heart shaped box of Ferrero Rocher. Perfect.

After church, my parents had a family party. We had a delicious dinner. Mom planned some Valentine's activities, like, everyone had to pick someone else's name out of a bowl and anonymously write something you like about them- very creative answers when little kiddies are involved. Then later we read them aloud.

I was in charge of a game. The kids love the adverb game and it requires no preparation- how can you lose there. It really can be quite funny. This clip isn't very clear. I think Darren and Jairon are acting out bow hunting "delicately" or something like that.


It was a fun holiday.


We continued the holiday weekend, by teaching the boys how to cross-country ski on President's Day. They did extremely well. It turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than we'd planned. Rick and I read on the map that there was a beginner's loop if we started a few miles up the road from our regular route. We found it just fine. The problem was that with the fresh snow, we missed where the loop looped. After an hour or so we realized we should have been back at the beginning and turned around. Our short, beginners trip turned out to be almost three hours. The kids were troopers. No complaining, just sucked it up. Isaac did have to rest a couple of times and mentioned that he wished he could just teleport back to the car. I think we all did.

It was a beautiful day though. Light snow falling and about 34 degrees. We only saw a couple of people in the parking lot, then had the trail to ourselves. A grand day for sure.