Marathon training is going well. I did my second last really long run yesterday and have intervals tomorrow. I’ll have a down week next week and then the final big week before taper. I’m just trying to stay healthy and uninjured at this point. My coach has set a super easy pace for long runs and easy runs so I think that has helped me recover well. After my horrible July full of migraines I’d been migraine free since then and feeling great until this week. I’m hoping my body does not decide to go back into a regular cycle because that will mean I’ll probably have another cluster in marathon week which is what I don’t want.

Work was a little overwhelming when we arrived home, plus I had some admin to do with the investment property we just bought that was hanging over me. After grumbling and few digs at G, who is always saying “you have to remove something from your life if you want do something new” while simultaneously spamming my inbox with the many work projects he envisages, G said to finish the work project I had going and then leave the others until after I get back from overseas in October. He let his business partner know that was what would be happening too. Yay—what a relief! I still have my normal work, plus there have been a few tricky messes to clean up, but it’s feeling a lot more manageable. In the spirit of lightening my load I had an email that needed writing that I had been dreading. I woke up Monday morning and realised I could delegate that to G, which is exactly what I did as I walked out the door on Monday to go to my volunteer ministry role. When I came home the draft was waiting for me. I made a couple of changes and sent it off. I also submitted our quarterly tax for the property this week, which first required getting the whole of last financial year into XERO. I finally feel like I have a bit more breathing room.

In case you are wrongly left with the impression that it’s all work and no play round here. H started a puzzle on our dining table while we were away and we finished it off last weekend. I did the sky, and it was hard in this one. We have started another one and I was again ended up with the sky, but it is a non-cloud, smooth gradient type of sky, if you know what I mean, which is a lot easier. I’ve also been doing some research and planning for our trip which I love.

I just went scrolling through my photos to see if I had anything interesting to share with you and found this:

The Big Merino in Goulburn built to celebrate the wool industry of the area. We stopped at the bakery opposite on our way home from Sydney and I couldn’t resist snapping a photo to go with my many other photos of big things we’ve visited, among them the Big Banana, Avocado, Pineapple, Prawn and the world’s biggest playable guitar. Back to this big thing, The Big Merino was modelled on Rambo, a stud ram from Bullamallita, a nearby property. After going down this rabbit hole on the internet I’m disappointed in myself for not going round the back

Have you visited any “Big Things.” What kind of things are looming large on your todo list?