Day 5

Today I had to squeeze my walk in after working and putting the kids to bed.  I did not want to go.  But go I did and it was a great walk!  It was cool enough to be invigorating but not cold.  Molly my faithful companion was as enthusiastic as ever and Greenfield has some great views of a twinkly downtown Pittsburgh.

58 minutes 5,356 steps this evening. 

Day 4

What a difference a day makes.  Today was all sunshine and tweeting birds.  I unfortunately had to add a pit stop into my walk to pick up antibiotics for Maeve.  She came down with strep throat over the past two days.  Good to know that yesterday she was at The Carnegie Museum sharing her germs with the whole city.  Due to this stop I did not take my dog along on the walk.  It turns out that it is she who has been propelling me up all these hills.  It was a much more challenging walk without her. 59 minutes 6,370 steps. 

On the soundtrack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARIr6S_0lAQ

Day 3

This morning I was woken up with a phone call from my mother in law letting me know that her town in Oregon was being evacuated because of a tsunami warning.  Her home is thankfully on high ground but she had to gather up her elderly mother in law and stock some supplies.  Her husband had to evacuate the hotels he manages.  This was all happening at 3 am their time.  I am praying for her and for all the people affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Here in Pittsburgh it was a snowy walk this morning.  And I was grateful for the peacefulness of it.  I walked 5,809 steps in 58 minutes time.  The soundtrack included this fabulous song http://bcove.me/7858q2lm and it felt very appropriate.

Day 2

Day two is another rainy day.  I wanted to complain about that but decided to be grateful instead.  When I was living in Tucson, Arizona in the mid to late nineties I longed for rainy days.  I wanted a day exactly like today where I could curl up under a blanket, read a book, feel introspective, and  cook something long and simmering in the kitchen.  The sun shines pretty much every day in the desert.  And mostly that's a good thing.  But there was always part of me that wanted to be back in Pittsburgh brooding through a rainy day.
http://www.sproutfund.org/
Today I took a short video of the mural the sproutfund put on Greenfield Avenue.  I love it. It really does improve the look of our main drag.   And I also took a video of the view of Downtown from Bigelow Street. 

I walked for 55 minutes (!) and 5,271 steps.  I was definitely dragging today.  Lately it feels as if I am being pulled in a thousand directions.  I am hoping things will slow down soon for me.  The weather forecast is calling for a possibility of 4 to 6 inches of snow this evening.  Maybe that will force us all to take a breather tomorrow.

 

Day One

Today's walk happened first thing in the morning. Thanks go to my husband for getting the girls off to school. I walked in Greenfield from 7:22 to8:23 and took 6, 072 steps according to the pedometer on my Ipod. Here are some scenes from my rainy sojourn. That first one is Lydia Street a very steep hill. That's why Greenfielders have sexy legs.

Walk For The Border

Tomorrow is the first day of many that I will be walking one hour per day to raise money for the children of Nogales, Mexico. I was inspired by a friend of a friend to participate in this fundraising. Here's a link to all the info www.swimfortheborder.com I decided to use this blog as the place where I will share all of my efforts with my sponsors. My goal is to take a picture each walk and give general information about either the route, distance, steps etc of my daily walk. Thank you all for your donations and for suporting the deserving children of Nogales.

Driving Home

Yesterday when driving home from school, we had to drive by the house my father grew up in. It is a tiny little thing in the middle of a set of row houses, number 4307 and 1/2. Sadly a couple of years ago the house had a fire and it's been unoccupied since. The windows are boarded up and the mailbox with its Steeler sticker remains empty. That doesn't stop my 5 year old from asking if we can drive by though. She wants to see the house her Grandfather grew up in and she wants to see it often. Yesterday she said "Wouldn't it be great if Dzadi (that's what we call him. I believe it means "old man" in Polish but I have no proof of that) still lived there. That way we could stop by and see him all the time. Sadly he smoked." She even said that word, "Sadly". It was funny and touching all at the same time. My daughter's name is Maeve and she is here in large part because of Dzadi. She never had the chance to meet him, he died before she was born. At the time my oldest, Emma, was 18 months old and I just never saw myself having another child. But as I struggled through that year my dad had lung cancer I came to rely on my brother in ways I never expected. And I was so grateful to have him to share the experience with. What a gift he is. And I thought that my child deserved to have a sibling. someone to understand her in a way no one else ever will. I hope they will treasure each other. And I know that this may take time.