Today, I painted the house,

and Eliot worked on making a bookcase for Asa,

and the kids fought and played and made a mess. (I would have taken a picture for you to feel better about the state of your own house or your children’s messes, but I reached my clutter tipping point, and bagged up a lot of the mess and took it to Goodwill.)

A 20-mile run weighed on my mind throughout the day. I just wasn’t excited about doing it. This is what comes of having only trail running friends and signing up for a road 100k. I should have just gone out and gotten it done, but it was too east to procrastinate with the house painting. I finally threw myself out the door with just enough time to get the run done before dark. Ugly.

What’s making me happy: These barrel cactuses that are at one end of my neighborhood loop. They just seem so cheerful. That’s right, cactuses start to look cheerful if you spend enough time running your neighborhood 2-mile loop alone.

Running: 20 ugly miles.