"The key"

It was a very productive day. I awoke and jumped on my own feet (yes my own two feet) racing to my hill. July has been very busy with different trips therefore I left my fitness somewhere back in June. Today I went straight to my little mountain, that piece of earth I've been climbing (missing) It is a place where I like to spend my dedicated hour. Almost to the top this morning I felt like throwing up. It was hot. I was alone ironically so I sat down momentarily thinking about how my favorite time of year is already half over. Maybe that's why I felt sick! Well no....it was because of the heat and my lack of exercise since June. After my short rest I continued on. I'm learning to press on, move on - push on and usually the aches, the sicknesses and stresses move on too. This is where I truly believe obtaining successes is suppose to challenge, life is suppose to be difficult. After all who wants a heart surgeon performing on us without years of dedication, challenge and stress to become who they are today! This is with everything. Nothing should be easy. That hill I climb never seems to become any easier. I asked myself today, "Why isn't this easier YET!?" The answer was simple - it's not suppose to be easy. So as I carried on running through this 5km little mountain I was just thrilled to be there finally after one month. When I returned I packed a picnic, threw our floatation devices and towels into the back of our van and headed to the lake. Today was the first day I swam with some of our children. I was even teaching one of our sons to swim while splashing another like crazy. Amazing in water you only need one hand to lift up a 80 pound boy while using the other hand as a paddling stick to splash the other opponent! Then while our children were swimming, I was able to read a chapter of my book, "Wild" an amazing book I've been trying to read since May! It's about a woman who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail solo for eleven hundred miles! It's great! I love reading inspiring true stories. One thing I hardly do is watch television. I either read or write. So after the lake we came home and had a BBQ followed by a 4 km run while some of our children rode their bikes. Now here I am writing. There is different types of productive days. Some are merely baking, cleaning and getting caught up on the dreaded household chores. Others are days like today. Exercise and quality family time without looking at the piling laundry is also productive. Everything will be here when we return but the time with each other is something that is quickly passing us all by. I keep telling my husband who is a perfectionist, who is very anal and someone who works 24/7 that he can't take it with him when he passes. It's great to be productive when it involves work but it's also great to be productive with ourselves and with our family. I haven't been actively practicing first aid but I promised myself I wouldn't have any of my tickets expire. It's my "thing" that I enjoy and I feel still like an independent person training throughout my (10) years with OEC (Outdoor Emergency) OFA 3 (Occupational) CPR C and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) tickets. I'm constantly asked to return to the first aid room where I once spent most of my weekends. Well......at least I keep training and I keep exercising. The reason why I'm all over the board with this post is because today was one of those days that I reflected. I thought about my husband and I. A friend of mine and I recently had a conversation about successful marriages. Every marriage is different. Every person is different and obviously every family is different. It's really finding the right dynamics, the right matches and adding respect and dedication to make life successful. I think about successful parenting and what that means......I don't think there is a perfect parent at all. I don't believe there is a perfect family or a perfect marriage. Life is a challenge like my hill. Life is a dedication to hopefully become successful. I guess with all this mumbo jumbo of ongoing words, we all have to learn to be patient with life. We have to understand that life isn't meant to be easy. (I keep telling our older children this) Most importantly to be a happy mother, a happy wife, a happy person - truthfully the key is keeping your independence, don't loose yourself within any position you're in. I might go away for a weekend, sometimes a week here and there throughout the year usually training with first aid but what this shows to not only myself but to my children, that I am a human being too. I don't just cook, clean, fold laundry, give rides and hand out money. I am a person. I hike. I run. I am still continually learning. For my husband and I, it's the glue for us (independence) we both have different interests and we respect one another to keep them even with 15 children. So today wasn't just quality productive, it was just another enlightening confirmation that not only do we need each other, we need ourselves to become successful. So don't ever loose yourself within a marriage or having children. Keep YOURSELF motivated, it will be your saving grace and your key to your own happiness - and that definitely equals success.