I have been running. Mostly early morning these days, before the sun is up and while the temp is as low as it will get (which hasn’t been below 70 much lately).

Last November (I remember a lot of things that happened in November, because I remember sitting in the office in Raleigh while doing it, the month I spent every workday in Raleigh) a friend called me up to see if I had been serious about doing the running portion of the Ramblin’ Rose triathlon with her. She swims (which I do not do) and we both bike. She says her least favorite part is the running so she was happy to have me along to relay on one or two of the triathlons. I said sure thing and signed up (and then realized the Ramblin’ Rose is always on a Sunday, bummer!).

It’s a mini-triathlon so the distances are shorter. It’s also women only which means we aren’t feeling any need to compete with guys who are naturally stronger and faster than us and we can feel a little less self-conscious being out there.

The first one was this past Sunday in Rock Hill. My great friend Charlotte lives 5 minutes away from the venue so I trecked down there Saturday and spend a lovely afternoon and evening visiting, pushing Rachel in the swing, holding Sterling, and eating a wonderful dinner. Luke was a tad disappointed that I wasn’t pushing him around the house, but I had moved friends all morning and had a race the next day so I was hesitant to work that hard. Next time, buddy.

I headed to the Y and met Dawn and we got signed up and then waited around for the start. Dawn swam (she did very well) and then jumped on her bike and took off. About this time, the first women in the water were already returning on their bikes and starting their run. Oh well, they were younger and obviously have too much time on their hands to be that fit

During the swim, I stood around and chatted with a man from this area who had a slight crush on a friend back when they were in high school. Such a small world. During the bike ride I was chatting with his daughter. Her mother was out on the bike and she was doing the run portion.

Dawn came in, I grabbed that chip from around her ankle and got it on mine. I left her to rest up and I took off! Two miles – flat and 2/3 of it in the shade. A nice route. I had people pass me, I passed people, I ran too fast and had to walk some. And it was all good.

When I was “training” this spring/summer I tried steady runs, and I did interval runs. Either way, I averaged about 22.5 minutes to do 2 miles. I warned Dawn I didn’t want to ruin her average

My watch was having issues (turned out to be user error) so I didn’t have it with me and had no idea how well I had actually done. Then, I abandoned Dawn to return to church in time to sing the anthem and hear the sermon (totally worth it – we did a great song and the sermon was timely (evidence in the prior 2 posts).

Dawn called to let me know we came in second among the 4 relay teams so we got a mug! I also got a shirt, a necklace, and a water bottle just for being in it. All cool, but the best part was Dawn praying for us before it all started.

Next up – Winston Salem in August. We’re pumped! I just hope I don’t have to beat my record from Rock Hill.

We’re the Purplicious team.

Recovery this week was interesting. I was tired Sunday, but didn’t really get a nap since we got 5 phone calls (we usually get 0). Some allowed us to be helpful, and a few were a lot of fun celebrating with Charlotte and Mom how well it went.

Tuesday I dragged Beth out with me for a slow and short run. It wore me out for the rest of the day, but it was good to get moving. I recovered well the next day and headed back out Friday evening while it was cool and cloudy. I ran almost 5 miles. We’ll see how training goes for the next month, with a week in Mexico in the middle.

I’ve thought for awhile about having a standing desk. There is more support for it being healthier than sitting in a chair, usually with poor posture, all day long. Don has sent along a few things about how to make it happen. It’s always just been a tad too much trouble and I wasn’t sure it would really work out. I don’t have or refuse to spend the money on a desk that can convert from sitting to standing height, although that would probably be ideal.

But recently my elbows have been hurting and the doctor blames it on tendonitis from typing. Although I think I am pretty good about not just typing for hours on end. I do, however, keep my arms in a pretty static position all day long. Plus, I was reading the memoir by Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, and he used a standing desk. So, Saturday morning I mentioned this to the darling ingenious husband and we spent some time musing about how it could be done.

Platforms came to mind, new furniture didn’t even really get a mention. But time and money was likely to disperse any impetus we had. Finally, I asked if we could just use the ugly cinder blocks we have in the garage at least for a temporary solution to see if I could get used to it. Shortly after that, we were up and at it. But with prettier bricks.

After two full days of a standing desk, I am rather pleased. My back is fine, posture is good, squats and stretches are being done. I borrowed a bar chair from friends so I can sit down once in awhile – this is not a cold turkey kind of thing. I have a rubber mat for some extra cushion but the feet are still sore while I get used to this.

Overall, I consider it a success!

I finished it today, with a fair bit of rereading and discussing as I went along. I admit that reading a book like this takes me longer for two reasons. The good reason is that I do spend time writing out, thinking about, and discussing the concepts and how they apply to me. The not so good reason is that I don’t make a lot of time for that kind of thing, it’s faster and easier to pick up a novel some days.

In The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion by Tim Challies seeks to show how technology affects us, changes the way we live, has costs as well as benefits. He also challenges us to think deeper, want more from life than the shallow thinking that comes with so much of the technological gadgets we surround ourselves with. This deep thinking includes the perspective of a Christian who believes in an almighty God who calls us to be holy.

The first section points out some truths about technology – why it is necessary and also why it is often destructive. He recounts a history of technology up to the digital explosion, showing how each advance in technology brought great benefits but also many changes, and some costs.

The second section discusses 6 ways our lives have changed due to the digital technology available to us. He discusses how our habits of communication have changed. And how most of our communication is mediated rather than face to face. Last month I read Pride and Prejudice, which is a book very much centered around gatherings, long personal letters among friends and family, and travel for in-person visits. Tim Challies points out much of this has been sacrificed and is now considered inconvenient in the age of email and blogs. He picks on using email instead of phone calls, as many consider phone calls an interruption. I choked on this a little bit, as I remember as a child thinking that a phone call was an interruption and how we should strive to not be at the mercy of the ringing phone. But his point was that we would rather send a quick email than spend time really talking to someone by phone (or even video conferencing).

He also talks about being distracted and how the demands of technology to switch tasks and check so many different things are robbing us of our ability to focus and spend longer amounts of time working and thinking. He follows this up with a talk about how we want more and more information, but spend less time really seeking true knowledge or wisdom.

The last two chapters cover the way we are losing a concrete idea of truth and authority, leaning more toward the wiki version of truth by consensus rather than truth by facts as studied and explained by experts. And he covers the weird way we want to be visible and sacrifice privacy for much of that. Even if we aren’t worried about being visible, the convenience factor very often drives us to give up our privacy and allow a data trail to be collected, collated, and analyzed.

Many times through the book I would have the thought that I am nothing like what he is describing. I don’t think this was pride thinking that I am not that bad. Just shock that so many other people must be this addicted to their technology. I can still find plenty to convict me of my own habits with technology, desire for more and more information, and ability to be distracted. I also agree with his premise that if we keep watch over our lives with our theology in mind, knowing Jesus as our living Savior and seeking to please Him and live our lives to God’s glory, we will need to and be able to evaluate our habits, including those using technology, with discernment.

A worthy and sobering read. Much more descriptive than prescriptive, as he says was his intent. Food for thought. Will we take the time to think it through and take action?

We are headed to Mexico again! We haven’t been in a few years (it’s been longer than I had realized). For several years we went to San Pedro outside of Merida in the Yucatan peninsula. A fascinating combination of rocks and jungle. And wonderful people.

This year we are going to Camp Maranatha. It’s a retreat center for the denomination in central Mexico, also used for lots of youth camps and other events. We’ll be in Rio Verde, flying in to San Luis Potosi followed by a bus ride (a touring bus, no chickens). We will be doing some repairs and construction work, part of the ongoing effort to get the Camp into tip top shape.

We are going early August, but they promise the weather will be nice. I know what August in NC is like, so we’ll see how it is in Mexico.

How you can help!

Prayers – we are flying from Houston to San Luis Potosi, so we will not be anywhere near the border areas that have been so dangerous lately. But we always covet prayers for safe travel and the wellbeing of all of us on the trip.

My mom will be house-sitting for us – taking care of the cat. She’s already making plans to have both my aunts over and doing some visiting and site-seeing. Pray that they can get the remote to work when they sit down to watch movies in the theater room, and that the rest of the week goes well, of course!

Funding – it does cost money to fly to Mexico and to purchase materials. We would appreciate a donation of any amount, as it all adds up and helps cover the costs. We have already raised some money through fund raisers at our church, including a spaghetti dinner in February and a Chili Cookoff in March (yummy!). We have a festival planned for June with burgers, hotdogs, and bbq, plus games and fun stuff for the whole family!

You can donate two ways!
The digital way – http://www.razoo.com/story/Laura-Navarro-Fundraising-For-Mexico-Mission-Trip-2011
This link (also in the widget below in this post and in the sidebar) is also on my Facebook wall and I will tweet it a few times. Razoo shows the amount for the entire team. It’s about $1700 a person unless we can get airfare costs down.

The old fashioned way – send a check made out to Huntersville ARP Church, and note Navarro mission trip in the memo field, or just Mission trip, any funds help the entire group cover the costs.
Address for donations
Huntersville ARP Church
PO Box 316
Huntersville, NC 28070

I’ll update with more details and preparation descriptions as the time gets closer (it’s already a lot closer than I expected). I appreciate all your support, especially the encouraging words!

I had mentioned Fighter Verses as a great resource for memorizing scripture. They have a series with individual verses, and a version with larger segments to memorize. I recently found another resource that is a great help. This booklet by Dr. Andrew Davis provides some great methods to employ. I have the verses I’m memorizing with Fighter Verses and the Shorter Catechism, so I’m not ready to start something larger yet, but many of the techniques work well for what I’m doing already. It’s a good thing!