My goodness, it's been a LOOOOOOOOONG while since I've posted. I still check in every so often to remind myself of simpler times....I know that sounds weird, but after the year I've had, trust me, these post entries were definately during simpler times. I was surprised to see that there are still people from several countries (WOW!) who are visiting the blog. I am still here. I am still working on losing weight. But there is so much more to the story than just exercise and diet, and I think I'm ready to share that with you.
I am working on revamping the blog and may even change the blog title. Stay tuned! As I am ready to make the changes, I will make sure to let you know. Look for a new series of postings explaining my "lost year" within the week. Thanks for sticking with me! I have a renewed feeling of hope and believe that my story might help a few of you out there.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, October 13, 2008
Upping the Mileage...
Since making the switch to run rather than walk for exercise, I've been trying to up the speed and mileage. I'm now up to 3 miles each session and hope to increase that in the next 2 weeks. It's not easy for me because when I see I've reached 2 miles, I have this intense desire to climb off the treadmill. But it's coming along. The goal is 15 miles this week.
The boys did great on their quarter tests for Spelling and Math. Ds10 also had a 7 chapter History test. I'm really pleased with their progress, as I think they are too! Since most schools have off today, they convinced me to do a half-day. We did Spelling, Handwriting, Math, and English. Tomorrow we'll be back to our full schedule.
The trench coat is coming along...I want to wear it during Halloween weekend so I need to speed things up!
The boys did great on their quarter tests for Spelling and Math. Ds10 also had a 7 chapter History test. I'm really pleased with their progress, as I think they are too! Since most schools have off today, they convinced me to do a half-day. We did Spelling, Handwriting, Math, and English. Tomorrow we'll be back to our full schedule.
The trench coat is coming along...I want to wear it during Halloween weekend so I need to speed things up!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Another Busy Week
I had a much harder time sticking with my diet this past week, although I did run about 6.5 miles. I ate pretty horribly and I don't see enough difference in my measurements to warrant taking pictures. But am I giving up or feeling sorry for myself? NO WAY!!
This week will be a very busy one, but I will get in running everyday. While I don't like to run, I do like the feeling I have after I've completed a couple of miles. I seem to be steadily doing 2 miles at a time, but I am working on increasing that to 3 miles each session this week. That's a HUGE adjustment for me. I've also noticed that on the days that I did run, my appetite was much less; another bonus.
We have an appointment with a speech therapist for my youngest son today, soccer twice this week, swimming on Friday, Science and Art with our "buddy" homeschooling family, and we've added an extra weekly gym class at the local rec center that's just for homeschoolers. The boys did it last week and loved it! Wednesday we are doing a day trip to a Natural Museum to see mummies, dinosaurs, etc. That's going to be alot of fun! This is review week for us, with Math, History, and Spelling tests being taken by Friday.
I am working on the back of the trench coat- it's taking forever, or so it feels, but it's going to be beautiful! I want to wear it Thanksgiving weekend. I promise to write at the end of the week on how well I stuck to diet and exercise and my progress on the trench coat!
This week will be a very busy one, but I will get in running everyday. While I don't like to run, I do like the feeling I have after I've completed a couple of miles. I seem to be steadily doing 2 miles at a time, but I am working on increasing that to 3 miles each session this week. That's a HUGE adjustment for me. I've also noticed that on the days that I did run, my appetite was much less; another bonus.
We have an appointment with a speech therapist for my youngest son today, soccer twice this week, swimming on Friday, Science and Art with our "buddy" homeschooling family, and we've added an extra weekly gym class at the local rec center that's just for homeschoolers. The boys did it last week and loved it! Wednesday we are doing a day trip to a Natural Museum to see mummies, dinosaurs, etc. That's going to be alot of fun! This is review week for us, with Math, History, and Spelling tests being taken by Friday.
I am working on the back of the trench coat- it's taking forever, or so it feels, but it's going to be beautiful! I want to wear it Thanksgiving weekend. I promise to write at the end of the week on how well I stuck to diet and exercise and my progress on the trench coat!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Don't Count Me Out!
Sorry I haven't been blogging this week. Last week really knocked the wind out of me, but don't count me out! Between the power outage, all of the chores left undone because of the power outage, the newborn puppies and soccer practices/games- there was very little time to keep up with the blog.
Although diet and exercise were non-existent in the last 2 weeks, I am back on track. I just ran a full 2 miles without stopping, which is a first for me. Usually I try to run the 1st mile, slow down for a couple of minutes and then speed back up to finish the 20 minute session. Today I decided to not worry about how fast I can run the 1st mile and instead concentrated on keeping up a running pace for the 20 minutes without slowing down. It was challenging, but not as difficult as I thought it would be.
This is going to be a very fast-paced week. Our 24month old daughter celebrates her 2nd birthday on Saturday and we have family coming in from out of state. All of the grandparents will be attending the party as well as the 2 little girls who share her birthday. We also have soccer practices/games, swimming class, homeschooling, and a boat load of cleaning to get done. We are about a week ahead of our schedule for school, so we are concentrating on History, Language Arts, Science and Math this week.
I am ready to start work on the Trench Coat, but I am still debating the color!! Some of the yarn choices I've liked will be too expensive so I'll have to limit which yarns I choose from.
The puppies are doing very well-Mollie is a great Mommy! She's been letting our oldest ds help her when the puppies start to get away from her. Just wait until they open their eyes! That should happen at some point later this week.
Well, break is over, our History and Geography lesson awaits!
Although diet and exercise were non-existent in the last 2 weeks, I am back on track. I just ran a full 2 miles without stopping, which is a first for me. Usually I try to run the 1st mile, slow down for a couple of minutes and then speed back up to finish the 20 minute session. Today I decided to not worry about how fast I can run the 1st mile and instead concentrated on keeping up a running pace for the 20 minutes without slowing down. It was challenging, but not as difficult as I thought it would be.
This is going to be a very fast-paced week. Our 24month old daughter celebrates her 2nd birthday on Saturday and we have family coming in from out of state. All of the grandparents will be attending the party as well as the 2 little girls who share her birthday. We also have soccer practices/games, swimming class, homeschooling, and a boat load of cleaning to get done. We are about a week ahead of our schedule for school, so we are concentrating on History, Language Arts, Science and Math this week.
I am ready to start work on the Trench Coat, but I am still debating the color!! Some of the yarn choices I've liked will be too expensive so I'll have to limit which yarns I choose from.
The puppies are doing very well-Mollie is a great Mommy! She's been letting our oldest ds help her when the puppies start to get away from her. Just wait until they open their eyes! That should happen at some point later this week.
Well, break is over, our History and Geography lesson awaits!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Power Outage and Puppies!!
Well, we survived. We lost power around 10 pm Sunday night and endured a very wild 28 hours. First, let me say, thank goodness for our generator! It allowed us to take showers, make coffee (Woohoo!!), and made life, well, livable. Even though the local schools were closed, our little school was not! We worked until it became too dark to see.
Our dog Mollie provided our Science lesson when she suddenly went into labor yesterday and several hours later we had 9, yes 9 healthy puppies!! Five girls and 4 boys, all named for characters from Star Wars. Sadly, we did have a 10th puppy that was stillborn. That was a really difficult moment. But we are thrilled to have Mollie and her 9 pups in good health and she is quite the Mama looking after her little ones.
Let me also say that power outages do NOT go hand in hand with losing weight! You pretty much eat what you can and without my treadmill there wasn't a way to exercise as I had the children (and puppies) to worry about, not to mention that pesky thing called electricity. Did I mention the large tree laying on 4 wires on the road 2 houses down from us? Our very busy road was closed and we are lucky to have the power back on...our next door neighbor still doesn't. I just continue to pray for those who were in the path of the hurricane. We weren't even in it's direct path...I can't imagine how difficult it must be for those in the south without power and or a generator.
I have been a zombie today. We had school, puppies, and a soccer game. My husband went to work, came home to help the neighbor without power (elderly lady), then went back to work only to have the computer system shut down due to a water main break. The first floor of the building was evacuated. Ok, so exactly when do the locusts show up? Seriously, will Purell cure Pestilence? Because if it does, I am so on it. I'm your go-to gal for all means of plagues, just after I get some sleep! Tomorrow is another day....and I'm off to get some well needed sleep!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Yea, Sure....What??!!!
That was my response to my ds10 this week when while getting ready for his brother's soccer practice, we had this conversation:
"Mom, I'm going to take my gameboy."
"That's fine, I'll be walking."
"Wait, my gameboy is in Dad's truck!"
"Why don't you take one of your books to read?"
"Yeah, I guess...Hey Mom, can you make me a multiplication sheet to do?"
"Yea, Sure....What, you mean Math?!!!"
"Yea, can you make me one to do real quick?"
"OOOkay, I can do that..."
It was at this point that I had to hide my "cat that ate the canary" grin! I couldn't believe it! Math. Fun. Seriously! Come on! This is the same boy that could barely get through his 4 x tables in May.
Homeschooling has brought ALOT of changes to our lives- all good so far. A few challenges, for sure, but I'm so glad we made this decision. One change I've noticed is the shift of time, in that 3-5 p.m. doesn't seem to have the same chaotic tone it had before. It's really busy, but not chaotic. By 3 p.m., school is done, my dd24months is awake from her nap, dinner is getting prepared and the evening is open to just soccer/swimming practice and family time. No homework, no extra responsibilities to take away from family time, except occasional cantor practice. But the day is super busy. We are ahead in our work right now, but I'm trying to build in a "cushion" in case of sickness.
The boys fight ALOT less. Their "recess" time is limited, like at school, so when they do play together they want to play and are less apt to argue. They also take turns playing with their sister during the day and that's a ton of fun to watch. She sits on a chair, pats the cushion and calls to one of them to sit with her. If they were at school, they would have very little time with her. They would be home around 2:30 and after homework there would be a short time for dinner before soccer/swimming and then off to bed. This time in their lives is gold and I'm so glad they are getting to spend it together.
Academically speaking the boys are doing great. I don't want to get too confident because I know enough from other moms that challenges are almost certain to come, so I just enjoy where we are now. Take care of today and tomorrow will take care of itself.
My challenges are of course to maintain exercise and diet and boy is that a challenge! I'm getting in 20 min. of running most days with extra walking while the boys are at sports. It's a great time to chat with friends as well. Diet is harder because I am trying to stick with Body For Life, but my family isn't. Dinner isn't the problem, but Breakfast and Lunch prove harder to manage. We are trying to have breakfast all together before my husband goes to work- before it was eat when you wanted to before getting to school or work, but we wanted to spend more time together as a family. They would like a bigger breakfast. I want cream of wheat. Like THAT's going to go well...but I'll get it figured out!
My latest crochet project is something I want to wear soon. I am not having much luck with wearables that require shaping so I hope this goes better. I've been ripping out alot of starter projects.
Lastly, our female dog is expecting puppies any day now. We think sometime between now and the next 3 weeks or so. She was already a high wired dog, but now she's testy and hormonal (poor thing). We have also made arrangements to purchase a ram for our sheep so our farm continues to grow.
Time's up, got to get to bed...tomorrow is a school day :)
"Mom, I'm going to take my gameboy."
"That's fine, I'll be walking."
"Wait, my gameboy is in Dad's truck!"
"Why don't you take one of your books to read?"
"Yeah, I guess...Hey Mom, can you make me a multiplication sheet to do?"
"Yea, Sure....What, you mean Math?!!!"
"Yea, can you make me one to do real quick?"
"OOOkay, I can do that..."
It was at this point that I had to hide my "cat that ate the canary" grin! I couldn't believe it! Math. Fun. Seriously! Come on! This is the same boy that could barely get through his 4 x tables in May.
Homeschooling has brought ALOT of changes to our lives- all good so far. A few challenges, for sure, but I'm so glad we made this decision. One change I've noticed is the shift of time, in that 3-5 p.m. doesn't seem to have the same chaotic tone it had before. It's really busy, but not chaotic. By 3 p.m., school is done, my dd24months is awake from her nap, dinner is getting prepared and the evening is open to just soccer/swimming practice and family time. No homework, no extra responsibilities to take away from family time, except occasional cantor practice. But the day is super busy. We are ahead in our work right now, but I'm trying to build in a "cushion" in case of sickness.
The boys fight ALOT less. Their "recess" time is limited, like at school, so when they do play together they want to play and are less apt to argue. They also take turns playing with their sister during the day and that's a ton of fun to watch. She sits on a chair, pats the cushion and calls to one of them to sit with her. If they were at school, they would have very little time with her. They would be home around 2:30 and after homework there would be a short time for dinner before soccer/swimming and then off to bed. This time in their lives is gold and I'm so glad they are getting to spend it together.
Academically speaking the boys are doing great. I don't want to get too confident because I know enough from other moms that challenges are almost certain to come, so I just enjoy where we are now. Take care of today and tomorrow will take care of itself.
My challenges are of course to maintain exercise and diet and boy is that a challenge! I'm getting in 20 min. of running most days with extra walking while the boys are at sports. It's a great time to chat with friends as well. Diet is harder because I am trying to stick with Body For Life, but my family isn't. Dinner isn't the problem, but Breakfast and Lunch prove harder to manage. We are trying to have breakfast all together before my husband goes to work- before it was eat when you wanted to before getting to school or work, but we wanted to spend more time together as a family. They would like a bigger breakfast. I want cream of wheat. Like THAT's going to go well...but I'll get it figured out!
My latest crochet project is something I want to wear soon. I am not having much luck with wearables that require shaping so I hope this goes better. I've been ripping out alot of starter projects.
Lastly, our female dog is expecting puppies any day now. We think sometime between now and the next 3 weeks or so. She was already a high wired dog, but now she's testy and hormonal (poor thing). We have also made arrangements to purchase a ram for our sheep so our farm continues to grow.
Time's up, got to get to bed...tomorrow is a school day :)
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
And The Winner Is...
Entry #2, the classic trench coat! Thanks to everyone who entered and voted. I appreciate the help in picking a pattern to make for the Fall/Winter. I was going to make it in a mocha brown color, but I don't know now...any thoughts? I am working on a project that I should have done by my daughter's birthday at the end of the month, then I'll start work on the trench coat. I've got to get to bed, but wanted to get this posted. Congrats to Contestant #2! Take a look at the options for first prize and let me know which one you choose!
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