Poetry, Birthdays, Autism Awareness, and nuun

April is my month! I have already won 2 giveaways!  Some pretty blue Rachel Ray baking dishes and a Celestial Seasonings Wellness kit. Those are my Birthday presents from the universe!

  My wonderful 3rd son Milo Atticus and I share a birthday!  Tomorrow he will be 4 and I will be 33!  He was born at 12:43 ish at the Birth Center in Topeka Kansas on April 8th 2006. He was the best Birthday present ever! I called into work "in labor" and had a huge breakfast with Jaymon at Denny's. Our midwife suggested eating to stay strong and walking to get labor going. Thats what we did. Hung out at Gage park. Jaymon napped on the grass since he had been up all the night before and I walked and walked and walked!    We had a lovely day and at the end we had a beautiful baby born peacefully into my own hands after hours of dancing and swaying with Jaymon and sitting in the labor tub. He was born at 37 1/2 weeks weighing 6 lbs 10 oz.

After we were cleaned up and dressed we sat around on the queen sized bed and talked and laughed with my beautiful and kind midwife and her nurse Lori. We ate huge Submarine sandwiches which will stay in my mind forever as the best sandwich of my life. I was ravenous after that birth!  A couple hours later we went back to our hotel room and slept. We drove back to Salina later that morning and went around showing off our new little Milo Atticus!  Such fun :)

 April is Autism Awareness month. My son Jupiter has autism. He is 8 years old and is nonverbal.
His autism has taught me so much about myself. Far more than I ever think I will teach him. I never imagined my life would take the turns it has but I am happy and thankful.   Please look into Autism Speaks.org  for more information. The earlier treatment is started the better the outcome although older children also do well with the same treatment options including supplementation and dietary changes like going Gluten and Casein free.  Even as an adult I have found that going gluten free has helped me tremendously both mentally and emotionally. The food intolerances may run in families.  Autism is a guessing game. We don't know what causes it and why some people respond to certain treatments and other do not.
 Autism Speaks will be doing much fund raising this month including the Walk Now for Autism campaign. They are held all over the country and raise huge amounts of money for research and services for people with autism and their families.

 April is National Poetry month. The following is from Poets.org,
"Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events."

There are many national events throughout the country. There is a handy map and many lists of ways to celebrate on Poets.org.  Making up poems on a long run is a stellar way to pass the time and so much inspiration  to draw from.  You could make a poem about the wonderful tree you just passed or the food you will eat when you get home or how the breath fills your lungs.  Or that damn dog that keeps barking at you.

Here at Barefoot Angie Bee, you can enter my nuun hydration giveaway and to get 5 bonus entries, write a poem about your sport. It can be a Haiku, prose, Dr. Seus style, whatever just get those creative juices flowing! You might just win something special for your your poem as well!

Running oh running you are testing me these days. It seems as if many people in the bloggersphere are suffering from bad mojoidis.  I took yesterday off from running because I was exhausted. The kind where I felt ill I was so tired.  I am still single parenting and hanging on for the most part but yesterday beat me down! I did take back an Old Navy running skort and got the right size and a very very comfy sports bra in a pretty blue with adjustable straps. They gave me the online sale price even in the store where there was no sale.  They redeemed themselves after posting grossly inacurate online size charts.  Vanity sizing is a rip off when you pay for shipping and counter productive when trying to reduce weight. I even measured myself to get it right and everything was 2 sizes too small.  All in all I feel productive and have been doing well with my goals even though I am going solo with the child guidance thing.

Today I feel like I am fighting off some kind of bug.  It may just be the weather and an accumulation of stress so I am going to try and run and see what happens. Sometimes getting the blood pumping and some lung expansion is exactly what I need. I have to be  careful since long runs can weaken the immune system for the first 12 or so hours afterwards so I am going to gamble and see what happens.
Resting is proving to be one of the hardest parts of training!
Its raining and cool here today and I think everyone here is suffering from the barometric pressure changes. Jupiter and I have both had headaches all day.

Dear Body, You are a dear friend and I love you. I am listening but you are kind of mumbling when you tell me what you need.