Penny Thoughtful: All Things Books and Running
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Returning to Church
On March 15, 2020, I had no idea that I would not attend church in person for another 16 months. July 25, 2021 marked the first time I sat beside Mom in the auditorium since the pandemic began. At first, I knew I made the right decision to stick with the live stream after my…
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Lemonade from Airline Lemons
Several weeks ago, I intended to take a group of 15 former students to NYC. The group first formed in the fall of 2019 to participate in the amazing international Model UN. Some had participated in the spring prior. With the Covid interruption, the organizers cancelled the spring 2020 conference and ultimately turned the 2021…
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Finally
After seven years of teaching, I will finally get to teach what I entered the teaching profession to teach, social studies and only social studies. I have talked about how my decision to be pragmatic pigeonholed me into subjects that I appreciated personally but disliked teaching. Now, more than two years after deciding to hold…
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Peachtree 10k Road Race 2021 Race Recap
Race #18710k #152021 Race #32021 10k #1Peachtree 10k Road Race #1 For most of my running years, I ran the local 5k on my birthday, the Red, White, and Blue Shoes 5k. Last year I chose to run 35km to mark my 35th birthday since the race went virtual. This year, I entered the lottery…
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A Field Day Story
[Editor’s Note: I wrote this about a month ago, near the end of May. I have gotten a bit lax with my posts and writing for various reasons but I hope to pick that back up soon.] My current school goes all out for field day, something I experienced for this first time this year.…
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Puzzlin’ Part 2
Today I want to talk a little about why I enjoy puzzles and why I selected the puzzles I mentioned in part 1. Having started on one of the puzzles, I think some of this post will take on a little more nuance than if I had dived in right after writing the first part.…
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The Home Gym
For just over 11 years, I was a member of Pivotal Fitness. I have described before how the act of joining this gym back when I first started teaching played an instrumental role in starting my transformation as a runner. Over those 11 years, my habits at the gym changed but I still made enough…
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Mountains to Main Street Half Marathon 2021 – Race Recap
Race #186Half Marathon #682021 Race #22021 Half Marathon #2South Carolina Half Marathon #49Mountains to Main Street Half Marathon #3 Originally I had planned to make this a sub-1:50 half marathon, as close to 1:45 as I could as a step towards a half marathon PR. After a month off from dedicated training thanks to Covid…
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A Daily Streak – One Year In
Yesterday, on a day full of so much stress and chaos, marked the completion of a year of running a minimum of at least one mile every day; most days I easily surpassed that. I never thought that I would join the ranks of those runners yet now I cannot see myself as any other…
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Puzzlin’ – Part 1
Back during the initial lockdown phase of the pandemic, jigsaw puzzles experienced a resurgence in popularity. I even spent a little money purchasing a couple puzzles, one for my dad as a birthday gift and one for myself because I have always had a soft spot for jigsaw puzzles. I wanted to buy more but…
Got any book recommendations?