An Unusual Mommy Blogger Post

"Reading"

I'm definitely not your typical mommy blogger. I don't wax gushingly about how blessed my life is or how perfect my children are (most days I want to contact their creator's customer service number and ask if I can return them.) I don't provide daily inspiration for you to get off your ass and do something amazing. Hell, I don't really give a shit if you wanna sit in front of the TV watching endless episodes of The Bachelor while eating bags of chemically altered orange powdered tortilla chips. I don't sew or knit vomitously (I know. Not a word. It is now.) cute little Christmas dolls. Well... actually I'm a damn good seamstress... I just don't brag about it. Ha! And I don't provide you with those perfect little party food ideas - although I'll show you how to sneak a cocktail or two into your race day water bottle. *wink*

Nope. I prefer to be a little more... me. Which can be unkempt and disorganized, irreverently sweet, short, confused, ineptly sexy, artistically inspired, blunt, geeky and lately just a little depressed. I'm a bit of a mixed bag of confusion personality-wise. I confuse my husband on a daily basis. Right now he's wondering who is this neurotic woman and what the hell did she do with his wife. That's what happens when I get bored with myself and have to reinvent a new Krista every five years just to shake things up a bit. Its scares people. Hell it scares me.

But enough about me... for now.

Consider this post my mommy blogger post. There are a few items I wanted to blog about because they're pretty cool. Sometimes I want to share the love throughout my barefoot/minimal running community because, well... frankly, some of these people are really awesome and I really like their stuff. They didn't ask me to do this. I wanted to.

I was sent a fabulous children's book, What Should I Put On My Feet To Go Run (written by fellow barefoot runner and blogger John McClung (Barefoot in Arizona) and thought I would share. I realize that many of my readers have small children and if you run or live the barefoot lifestyle you will love this book! By the way, my little dude was mad at me for asking him to "read" the book for the pic. Um. He's in kindergarten and doesn't really "read" yet so... I got the bad mama award for asking him to do something so ridiculous. At any rate, here's an excerpt from my favorite page:

"No, silly bear – listen to me, please:

To go run around you don't need galoshes or skis. 

You just need some feet and some fur in the breeze

And some grass and some sunlight and maybe some trees. 

For a bear's foot should be barefoot; it's really the best way

For a bear to run around on a honey-sunny day."

I've read this book quite a few times to my children. My oldest is growing out of "being read to" since he reads on his own now, but my youngest is just starting to read and still loves to snuggle up with mama to listen to a book every now and then.

The writing has a rhythmic lilt to it and is fun to read and I love the play on the words bare feet and bear's feet. Just so cute!! If you have a stack of shoes in your closet and still run barefoot you will appreciate this story and the little one's will really enjoy it.

And while I realize some people's kids never need to put shoes on, mine actually do. Mostly for school or when its cold outside. And while the velcro or slip on Vans or Chuck Taylors are my favorite choice for the kids I know that they really need to learn to actually tie their shoes. I have known a handful of adults in my life who never learned to tie their shoes. WTF? Seriously? Didn't your mama teach you? And if you're a shod runner and never learned to tie your shoes you are so hosed in a race. Who wants to stop every fifty feet just to tighten your "bunny ears." Man the fuck up and learn how to tie a shoe like a mature adult and not a kindergartner! Your kid will thank you when you're in charge of helping him prepare for his first soccer game.

Easy Tie Laces

Here's a clever idea to help you and your kid with that. Easy Tie Laces. Scott Davis of LaceWorks was kind enough to send me a pair to try. OK. To be honest my kid has only worn these shoes maybe four times and shows absolutely NO interest in learning to tie his laces right now, BUT, the laces did get the solid stamp of approval from him since he really liked the colors. So +1 for that!! He got as far as making the X and pulling the laces and then he was distracted by the dog licking something delicious on the floor so that was the end of that. I'm not pushing him on it or he may end up like the handful of dads I know who have no clue how to correctly tie their own shoe. So this is a work-in-progress. I have a feeling when he's ready and interested these laces will be super helpful. I love the idea though and since I started this post my son now wants to wear these shoes again. Maybe we're getting close!

So there you go. Some cool products made by some pretty cool people. And they're practical too! And speaking of practical, keep your eyes peeled for a future giveaway post. After a super long and chatty phone call to the guys at Hoo-rag (those dudes are really cool people to talk to) they sent me a bunch of running buffs to give away to my readers. I'll keep you posted on that... just keep reading, my friends.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and y'all got your first run of the year on the books already!
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