Big Birthday Blog

Is “easy run” an oxymoron when it’s pushing 95 degrees out?

The juries still out (I need a few more trials) but my theme for summer runs is “embrace walking up the hills and falling down them”.  Don’t worry, I’m not falling on my face.  I shift my whole upper body forward slightly and make my legs keep up.  Try it, it’s kind of fun.

There is a big birthday today; this blog is one year old!  Gracefulfitness was started on May 31st 2010 at an internet cafe in Kathmandu, Nepal and what a year it’s been!  The blog and my life as a whole have seen huge changes over the last 12 months.

My relationship with blogs started in the fall of 2009 when I saw a reference to Oh She Glows in a women’s fitness magazine (don’t remember which one!).  I was living in Peru at the time and immediately enjoyed reading “healthy living” blogs because I felt connected to all of these great women who were into the same stuff I am.  Over the next several months I sporadically kept up with a handful of blogs and before long the idea of started my own began to spiral in my head.

Last May I finally logged onto to WordPress, dove in, and immediately fell in love with blogging.

Blogging suits me so well be cause I am a project kind-of-gal.  I love having a project going on, when I was a kid it was writing and distributing a newsletter in our community or making and selling grape juice (the plan was fresh squeezed but by the end it was mostly Welch’s).  Through high school, college, and beyond my life was dance and I choreographed and produced five independent shows.

I am also a writer.   Perhaps not always skilled or grammatically correct but I’ve kept journals off-and-on since I could put pen to paper.  As a kid I used to write poetry books (and, of course, The Sassafras Times as mentioned above) and writing assignments in school were always easier, more fun, and received higher marks than anything to do with math or science.

Blogging is a wonderful outlet for me share my passion for exercise and food, which has always been there I just haven’t always tapped into the right attentive audience/community.

My family is big into taking pictures and I am no exception.  I’ve always LOVED the way photography captures moments, experiences, and details.  One of my favorite aspects of blogging is having a reason to take tons of pictures and see the world through a camera lens.

And lastly, I adore the community that blogging builds.  This blog community has been with me through a year of travel, transition, and settling into a new home.  I cherish each of you, from my early readers (that’s you Joanne!) to my most regular commenters (thanks Angie and Allie!) and of course my now dear friend Kath.

It’s surreal to realize it’s already been a year, I still think of Gracefulfitness as a mere bitty baby blog but in cyber years it must be approaching adolescents.  I am thrilled with the growth of the blog over the last year, both in readership and in my personal growth as a blogger, and am really excited to see what the second year will bring.

Welcoming Home

Home again, home again.

We are such homebodiesowners these days, we cut our vacation a day short because we were so excited to get home to the garden and to do work around the yard and house today!  This is coming from the couple that spent the better part of last year living out of backpacks and sleeping in a different bed every few nights!

It was a super-full and awesome 5 1/2 days!

Thursday was good-bye Brooklyn…

…hello Atlantic City!

Tate and I were ridiculously thrilled to find this organic, fermented, $.50 bottle of vegetable juice in a sea of funnel cake and fries.  We went back for a second bottle.

Our ocean view room was more fun than the casinos!

Friday started with an awesome 5 mile beach run.  I love running on the beach, it’s such hard work!

By late afternoon we said sayonara to Jersey from the Cape May ferry.

At this point we were dreaming of garden peas and fresh cut grass so we decided to point towards home.

But not before one last day at the beach.

Tate surfed, I ran and people watched.  Virginia Beach was madness, as expected, on a gorgeous Memorial Day Saturday.

We arrived home to get fed at a neighborhood cookout and finally witness the madness of CLAW.  But first, the garden.  Even before unpacking we made the rounds and found everything had flourished in our absence.  The peas are taller than me and loaded with sugary sweet snaps, the thumb pepper is as big as my palm, and there are basil leaves the size of my ear!

1,000 miles over 4 days certainly left me sitting around a lot but I am pleased to have exercised every day but one this week.   We ate well and healthy all week, yogurt and cereal for breakfast, salads with beans or smoked salmon for lunch and dinner.  The grocery store is my favorite place to eat while on a road-trip, especially in small towns!

There’s weeding and pea picking calling my name!  Have a great Sunday!