Monday + First of the Month = New Beginning Dream

I knew this day would be a good one. It’s Monday, first of all. And while Mondays are difficult in many ways, they are still – to me – blank slates for the week. I don’t like my rest day being Monday because I want to start the week off on a good foot. I like to get my eating on track on Mondays. I like to get my weekly schedule on track. I like Mondays as beginnings. Even though – as the end of the weekend – they still suck donkey balls. And then there’s the first day of the month! A great day if you like significant “Start” days. New diets! New fitness plans! New calendars! There are so many things you can start over on the first day of the month. So! Make today a Monday AND The first day of the month and it’s like: BAM! MAJOR CLEAN SLATE BONUS POINTS!

New month! New week! I haven’t screwed up anything yet!

Full disclosure: It’s 4:45am…I haven’t had too much time to screw things up.

Add the fact that a new 30-day Subtraction Project has started and this has the recipe to be a kickass September!

But man…we have so much going on. I’m trying not to be overwhelmed.

This is the dreaded month where we have an overlap between Autumn Soccer and Winter Swimming. Actually – they overlap September AND October – but this is the FIRST month when we decide whether or not we can handle it. We could wait and sign them up in November, completely after soccer, BUT! They’re still in the swimming groove…they’ve made HUGE progress this summer…without a reason to get them to the pool, I’m afraid they’ll lose all of that progress and we want swimming to be THE winter activity. At least for Nikki, Wes may do basketball for awhile. So! Soccer AND Swimming. We swore we’d never put the kids in two activities at once. Yet…YET…here we are. We weighed the pros and cons and decided the pros were high enough to warrant an attempt. If we end up taking October off from swimming because September was too crazy? That’s fine. At least then we will have only had one month of a break, hopefully not enough to lose any progress made in the skill department.

And this is the month of THE IRONMAN! Donnie has been in official training mode, with a coach and a schedule that he’s stuck to PERFECTLY since May. That’s 12+ weeks of a full commitment to a race that is now less than 4 weeks away. He’s peaked most of his training levels, but he does have a half-Ironman distance race this weekend. Then it’s basically taper mode until 9/28…the big day.

So! Great day to start with a clean slate, and I really want to start on the right foot because this month has more than it’s share of challenges.

After I go for a run, I’ll be taking the kids south to see E at Montevallo. I can think of no better way to A) Spend a Holiday or B) Fill up my tank with energy to start the month. I miss that kid terribly. He’s working three jobs and school has started so we will never see him again. We’re respecting his need for sleep and showing up around lunch and leaving around 3:30 so he can go to work. I’m hoping to soak up as much love from him in that 3 hours as possible to hold me over for awhile.

Happy Monday, people. Happy September. Happy Labor Day.