This afternoon is our much anticipated portrait session, and I spent half of yesterday at the mall trying to figure out our outfits. If I’d had any idea how stressful this would be, I think I might have put it off another year or three.

You’d think having older kids would make the process easier, but I have 2 kids who are refusing to wear the sweaters I picked out because they are itchy (!!!) and just when I thought I’d figured it all out, I realized some of my reds don’t match. I mean, they REALLY look bad together. So I’m still working on that…

Yes, I am well aware that these are first world problems and there are much more significant matters to concern myself with.

Speaking of significant matters, I tend to stay quiet on social media, but I’m reading and listening. Tensions are high, as we all know. No matter where we stand on the situation in Ferguson, the reactions are obviously indicative of a much larger problem. I just pray everyone can stay safe and hope that once things settle down, we can have some constructive conversations that bring about better understanding and change. I hate seeing our country so divided.

Meanwhile the news up here is all about the impending snowstorm. After being unseasonably cold for a week or more, it suddenly got warm over the weekend, and yesterday the area temperatures hit 70 degrees! But it is to be short lived. Tomorrow we are supposed to get a half a foot of snow. Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m not supposed to be cooking Thanksgiving dinner; we go to my sister-in-law’s house. So I haven’t really grocery shopped or stocked up, but now I’m thinking I better run to the store this morning and get the fixins for a meal just in case we’re stuck here. Realistically, I’m sure the roads will be okay by Thursday, but I am an American, and so I must dash to the store and help rid the shelves of any vestige of milk or bread because that is what we do when snow is in the forecast.

I’m also sad to be missing my annual Turkey Trot. I loved that Thanksgiving Day tradition I started when I got the running bug. Weirdly, although I’ve done no walking or running in the past week, my plantar fasciitis is acting up again. It’s not even really the typical tightening and accompanying heel pain when I step down; it’s more like there is a knot in my arch that is sore. It is the area where the cortisone shot went in and I still to this day think that caused more issues than the PF itself.

I have no idea what set it off, and it makes me just want to say, screw it and go out and run because if it’s going to hurt anyway, I might as well run. Right???

I mean, I haven’t even walked lately because it’s been so cold and I’ve been so busy. (Don’t worry, mom, I’m not seriously going to go run.) My other foot, the one with the stress fracture, it still healing, and I don’t want to do anything to jack that up again. But it sure would be nice to get some fresh air and get those endorphins flowing. I’ve noticed that I feel all fidgety in the evenings, and I think it’s the lack of exercise. But I’m also feeling highly unmotivated to get out there these days. It’s such a vicious cycle. Once you allow yourself to get out of the exercise habit, it is so hard to get back into it. I think that’s why I liked having a race to train for. It always gave me motivation to stay on a schedule.

Right now I’m feeling pretty much like a sludge. It doesn’t help that my kids made those Hershey Kiss cookies yesterday. I can never resist those things.

Oooh, speaking of which, what is your favorite holiday cookie? We made the Shane family molasses cookies this weekend (recipe coming soon…) which was sort of a disaster, although they turned out okay in the end.

They’re not supposed to be pretty. That’s part of the tradition. It predates me so all I can do is go along with it, grin and bear it. Of course, I am not even supposed to eat them, what with the gluten and all. But I have happy memories of their deliciousness.

Aaand speaking of traditions… evidently it’s a big Thanksgiving tradition in our area to have a high school football game on Thursday morning. This is bizarre to me, but whatever. My son is in the marching band, so he has to play. I guess that can replace my Turkey Trot tradition. I can walk the track around the field a few times and get my exercise that way. Although it is supposed to be super cold so I think I will just go for the halftime routine and leave.

It’s weird how life comes full circle. I remember being the high schooler at the football games, walking the track. How I got to the point where my kids are doing it, I will never know. Life is weird, that is all I can say.