Sleep, Sunshine, & The Return of Normal

At last! I got a good night's sleep. No one woke me up & I slept from 10ish to 6:30. That rarely happens.

And, from the sounds of it, a lot of you have sleep troubles, too.

Oh how I wish we had an extra bed in our house. Unfortunately, that's the role of the couch but it's in the same "room" as the kitchen & isn't all that comfortable. Perhaps someday we'll have a different house & I'll get my own bedroom.

But, last night at least I slept great & it turns out that a good night's sleep makes a world of difference in my attitude & energy.

So does sunshine & 70 degree weather.

So does a five mile run, which I accomplished yesterday afternoon. It was glorious! Not easy, by any means. The first 2 miles were awesome. I felt fast, strong. The sun was shining, I was in shorts & a sleeveless shirt, and the wind was steady but not high. Around mile 3 my asthma started bothering me, and unfortunately I didn't bring my inhaler with me. (I used it before my run, as always, but I think I either need a second type of inhaler to *keep* my lungs open, or I just need to run with my inhaler when I'm out longer than 3 miles.) I slowed down quite a bit, & mile 4 was rough. By the time I was starting mile 5, the endorphins had kicked in and I was in the zone. I finished in 57:33. I was hoping for 5 in 55 minutes, but I'll take what I can get right now.

"Normal" has been a foreign land for so long, that I almost cried with gratitude on the way into work this morning. I ate normally. I slept normally. My family slept normally. I woke up normally. My kids are in school normally. We are at work normally. I am running normally.

Normal feels so damn good. And it gives me hope. I want to bottle this feeling & hold onto it forever.

BTW, it's our 14 year wedding anniversary today. Anniversary's on a Wednesday are a non event, pretty much, but we are having a date night Friday & the kids will stay at my mom's overnight. Very much looking forward to Friday.