These days it seems like every day is set aside to honor a worthy cause, but I didn’t want International Women’s Day to go by without taking note. I was fortunate to be raised in an environment that let me assume I was equal to my male peers, and thought the days women were treated as inherently inferior were ancient history.
Now that I know how recently women fought to break down barriers I can’t imagine existing, I have a better understanding of the importance of standing up for equal rights. I can show my appreciation for the women who went before me by carrying on the mission to promote women’s rights and gender equality.
International Women’s Day
Officially, International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, and also a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. We may have come a long way, baby, but just about any numbers you look at reveal how far we still have to go.
As trivial as it may seem, I find our little corner of the blogosphere to support many of the goals of International Women’s Day. Our shared interests in a healthy lifestyle may bring us together, but along the way we get to know people from different backgrounds with different life experiences that broaden our perceptions, lead us to challenge stereotypes, motivate us to fight bias, and inspire us to improve other’s situations. In big ways and small, we join together to celebrate women’s achievements–whether it’s someone running their first 5K or someone launching their own business.
I am fortunate to know a lot of woman whose achievements are worth celebrating, but I am most in awe of a woman I became fast friends with in law school. She’s an attorney with her own practice, married to another dear friend, mother of two teenage girls, and founder of The Period Patch, a 501(c)(3) organization “dedicated to helping provide homeless, struggling and displaced menstruating humans with the products they need to get them through those monthly rough patches with dignity.”
You can make a donation here.
That’s right, she collects (or purchases with cash donations) sanitary pads and tampons, and takes them to local shelters and other organizations that help those can’t afford these monthly necessities. She’s also lobbied state and local officials to make these products more freely available in schools, and subject to reduced sales tax.
If you’re not ready to start your own charitable organization to support women, the United Nations has identified 12 Small Actions we can take every day to have a big impact on gender equality. 😉
Weekly Run Down
Run down is a good theme for this week. I started the week with a day “off” that had me running around from my 7:40 am ophthalmologist appointment to my 2:30 pm blood draw, with stops at the Post Office, optometrist, credit union, bank, and grocery store in between. I know I was being irrational, but visiting all those places left me needing to wash and sanitize my hands every chance I had. When my nose started running like a faucet that night I knew it was coincidence–or allergies–but I did feel like the timing was ironic after how conscientious I’d been. Not wanting to scare others, I skipped all my gym classes until Friday, when I knew for sure I wasn’t sick.
Monday: 3.25 Scooby Miles
Tuesday: 1.5 mile walk with Scooby
I wasn’t sure if I was coming down with something or not, so I took it easy with a longer than usual walk with Scooby before exercising my right to vote.
Wednesday: 1 mile walk with Scooby
I was tempted to meet my friend for a run, but decided to make sure I could get through the day without Claritin before working out again. I probably could have done a strength workout, but just wasn’t motivated enough. 😛
Thursday: 4.5 Scooby Miles
I woke up feeling so good, I craved a run instead of yoga. It was bittersweet catching a glimpse of sunrise, knowing that after we spring forward it will be another month before that happens again.
Friday: Orangetheory fitness
This class was a real test of my wellness! The treadmill block included two 2 min intervals at 5% incline, plus 1 min at 6% and 30 sec at 7%. I was dying near the end, but it was my legs and not my lungs that were tired!
Saturday: 2 x 1 mile walks with Scooby
My mission for the morning was baking pecan bars and chocolate chip cookies for my birthday boy, so I gave up my morning workout time to get an early start in the kitchen.
These Creole Pecan Praline Bars are a new family favorite.
I enjoy baking , so I didn’t mind at all. Plus, nothing smells better than the aroma of baking butter!
Sunday: 7 mile run
Dragging myself out of bed at 6 am to meet my friend was rough, but catching the sunrise on the Capitol was worth it!
Thanks to Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Run Down link up
–join in for motivation and encouragement!
What woman would you choose to honor today?
Does the coronavirus have you nervous about attending gym classes?
![The Ultimate Coffee Date](http://got2run4me.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ultimate-Coffee-Date.png" "The Ultimate Coffee Date")
Happy International Women’s Day! Thank you so much for sharing information on that non-profit! What an amazing organization – I’m on their website now to learn more.
I always love your baking photos – everything always looks so so good!
I agree with you about this morning – I had a 7am OTF workout and I was dragging for about half of the class lol.
Thanks. The website is pretty basic, but she shares current activities on the Facebook page.
A wonderful description of our blogosphere! These are the very reasons I love it here.
I’m impressed by your dear friend who founded the Period Patch. That takes a lot of grit, vision and optimism.
Hope you’re feeling better! And yes, getting up early was definitely worth it for that beautiful photo of the Capitol 😊
I figure getting up early today might make it a wee bit easier to get up even earlier tomorrow. 😉
Happy IWD! I too love the supportive atmosphere we have here in blogland. I can just imagine what a badass bunch of women you attended law school with. So awesome. Wow allergies already?? We’ve got nothing blooming here yet but I suspect it won’t be long.
A lot of our trees are in full bloom – the dogwood are especially noticeable.
I featured that Girls Gotta Run Coffee on my Coffee Talk post–I love all these great causes to help girls who don’t have a lot of opportunities. If only some of the teens I see would realize how good they truly have it!
Love our little corner of the internet!
So true!
I had not heard of your friend’s organization but our GOTR team supported a similar local one. BRAWS helps to distribute menstrual products and well fitting braws to women and teens in Virginia. You just reminded me I need to see what they are up to! Way to get up early today and get it done I am due for another monument run soon
I’ll have to check them out too.
Spring allergies are going to be really tricky this year, when they start ramping up I always feel like I’m coming down with a cold, so that’s a lot of time staying away. Mmm yum pecan bars!
Those pecan bars look so delicious!
What a great organization- thanks for sharing more about it!
It addresses a need many people don’t think about!
Sorry to hear about your allergies. Since enduring several years of allergy shots (gosh, it’s been maybe five years now?), I haven’t had hardly any allergy issues. Before that, though, I was a blurry-eyed, sniffling mess from March through October. Thankfully, we were able to research breeds of dogs with low dander/shedding before we decided to pursue adopting one. I can’t imagine life without Max… do you have any pet allergies, too, or is it more environmental/seasonal?
Just seasonal allergies and luckily it only hits hard a few days — maybe the first day everything pops out?
I don’t belong to a gym so I guess I dodged a bullet there. 🙂 My mom is definitely one of the strongest women I know — but even there, even though we’re very close, even though I was also raised to be a strong woman — still, she treats my brother (and my husband!) differently than she does me & my sister.
I think it’s part generational & actually part cultural, because the Jewish women often worked so that the men could study. And even though she wasn’t raised that way, some of that clearly still lingers. My MIL is kind of the same way (and also Jewish).
My SIL just got back from a 3 week trip to Asia (Malaysia, Thailand & Vietnam) and apparently is ok. 🙂
Hmmm, has she been back for 2 weeks yet? We are making people who were in Japan before we had our travel ban to work from home for two weeks ….
Interesting on the cultural perspective. i know my mom broke away from many of her family’s traditional norms ….
Well, no, she just got back. She already works from home though. But I’m sure she’s going to see her mom (probably already has) and her mom is elderly (not as elderly as mine, though).
Those pecan bars look amazing! And thanks for sharing that list from the UN. I hadn’t seen that before.
I love your description of our little corner of the blogosphere 🙂
Your friend and her nonprofit sounds amazing! I need to check out their website.
Those pecan bars look so good!
Your friends organization sounds great! How awesome that she was able to do something like that.
I don’t work out in a gym but I’ve definitely been a little more paranoid about going to certain public places. Especially with a 1 year old who wants to touch everything!
What an amazing job your friend is doing! Does she also provide menstrual cups? I too am amazed by our corner of the internet, there’s some very inspirational women here that continue to push for the equality we deserve. We’ve come a long way, but we still have a lot further to go!
As I was reading your post, I could smell the butter and those bars. Can you send me a few? 🙂 Your friend is amazing!!! It is a great organization and thanks for sharing it with us. I love how we all support and encourage one another. We are are AMAZING women no matter what!!
What a great organization! I had never really thought much about that issue. Great idea and way to support!
what a lovely organisation! I’m going to check and see if we have something like that here! I think for IWD I would honor someone like Frida Kahlo. She was a fabulous artist and fabulous woman in general – broke the mold and was not afraid to do whatever she wanted to do.
you had a pretty busy week! and even baked!! I’d say that’s a success!
I’m nervous about corona because people will not shut up about it. I mean talking about it in general is ok. But I think for me the constant posting on social media fear-mongering links and assuming that people are not taking it seriously is affecting my mental health. I’m trying so hard to stay calm.