Restful Reads

Check out our very long, lazy cat:

I was about to measure her, but my helpers were too loud with the measuring tape. Lizzy took the opportunity to demonstrate some stretching moves, though:

And, as Denise Austin instructs in one of our Pilates videos,
Lizzy goes up to a V-sit ...

... and shows off by bringing her arms and legs lower and
holding in position.

A final, forward stretch with her legs in a V shape before she
resettled into her napping position.

Ah, good kitty, mixing up her sleepy world with some exercise!

I'm in a perpetual quest to mix my world up a little bit with carving out time to do some reading. ANY reading. Reading for pleasure went WAY out the window when the younger Pit Crewers were born. Reading has never been a high priority hobby for me, but I have always enjoyed a good book now and then. My life is full, and I never find myself in a place where I'm thinking, "Wow, what on earth am I going to do with all of this extra time?" But, I'm so far out of the habit of reading for pleasure that the mere thought of getting into a book is pretty foreign to me. I would like it to not feel quite so distant.

There was certainly a time where I felt the same way about running ("No way do I have time for that" sounds faintly familiar!), but I think if I could figure out how to fit that time commitment into my life, then there's probably time I could carve out to read now and then. Right? We'll see ...

I would actually like to thank magazines bringing reading back into my world on a more regular basis in the past two years. It helps that you can cherry pick your way through a magazine, read something quick and move on. But, I do like a good story. So, to that end, when at the library the other day with PC#3, I picked up some reads that caught my eye:

Sea of Love (Jamie Ponti); Animal Attraction (Jamie Ponti) &
Fallen (Lauren Kate) ... If I had to guess, I'd say one of these
things is not like the other ...

Oh, you betcha that they're all from the teen section! Teen books are goo-ood! (The Twilight series is teen. And, I loved that. Just sayin'.) I recently saw a commercial for Lauren Kate's Rapture; I was immediately intrigued and wanted to check it out, but I soon learned it was the fourth in a series. So, I found book one: Fallen. It's dark and twisty, but sometimes I like dark and twisty. I'm only on page 62 right now, but this is where it started to gain momentum, so I'm looking forward to finding out where this goes. I'll let you know what I think.

In the meantime, when I read something that I know is going to be dark, I like to swing it the other way and lighten the mood. Hence, the other two books that caught my eye thanks to their spectacular drawings on the binding and on the covers. Check this one out:

I am sooo hoping these books sail the seas of teen angst cheese!

My brain could use the kind of stimulation it gets from reading, and it could also use the break from thinking about anything other than escaping into a world created for me to enjoy. So, we'll see how I do at putting this little nugget into my world!

Okay, I have to share one more thing ... the reason I currently have a subscription to Self magazine is because the participants of last year's Komen run were offered a free subscription. I have thoroughly enjoyed this magazine, and my subscription is about to run out. Look what came in the mail just in time:

THAT'S AWESOME!! I have a thing about not subscribing to a magazine unless I can do so for only a dollar an issue ... this blew the lid off of that prerequisite, didn't it?! Thank you, Self!!

That's what's up on this Rest Day! I'll keep you posted on how the page-turning's going amidst the pavement pounding! Keep your day balanced, and I'll see you after the morning run!