Personal Challenge

In recent weeks, I have been lamenting the fact that I weigh (as of a few minutes ago to be exact) about twice what I did when I graduated high school.  And yet I have continued to not really eat properly.

We are considering going gluten free for numerous reasons, and doing so will end up forcing me to look more closely at what I am eating, buying and making because I don’t want to mess up the whole shebang.  We’re not starting right away (I have a ton of stuff I need to use before we can fully cross-over because I can’t justify chucking all of my flour right now)

So when that occurs, I will be taking a much closer look at changing my dietary habits.  In the MEANTIME, I need to look at my (lack of) activity habits and change them.  I have been known to start a exercise “program” and drop it within a few weeks.  I am hoping to change that.

Many people do it the opposite way around, and look at their diet before exercise, figuring exercise will be the easier one since it is often just a matter of adding something into the day, not completely overhauling a major part of life.  I have a very specific reason for doing it the opposite way around.

I was anorexic in high school.  At my lowest, I weighed about 105 pounds, and I LOOKED sick.  My parents told me, a few friends told me, but I didn’t see it.  It wasn’t until I had put on a few pounds after graduating that I looked at an old picture of myself and realized just HOW thin I was.  I am 5’7”(ish) and 105 pounds is NOT healthy for me.  I have lapsed a few times when looking into changing my diet, and cut myself down to one small meal a day and saw results (of course!).

So in order to stop myself from doing that again, I have got to prove to myself that that is NOT the only way I am able to lose weight, and the way to do that is by starting with exercise first.  I’m not expecting major results, but if I can tone some of what I’ve got, and lose a couple pounds in the process, I think it will be effective in showing my inner skinny person that I can approach her size BETTER through exercise and proper diet than using previous methods.

So my goal this coming week is to get myself exercising for at least 10 minutes a day.  Whether it be walking, WiiFit, exercise videos…. whatever.  Just exercising for 10 minutes a day.  EVERY day.

I have GOT to do this healthily.  For Thing 1 and Thing 2 (especially Thing 2 since he’s still nursing!), for my husband, and for mySELF.

What My Child is Reading

Thing 1 is currently reading Mary Pope Osborne's Dinosaurs Before Dark, from the Magic Tree House series. I only checked out one of the books to begin with because I was unsure of how receptive he would be, but he seems to REALLY like it, so I am going to see if I can't get ahold of the next few books in the series from the library for him. :)

So next week will probably have many more books added to it.
(and I tried to find a good picture but failed miserably...)

See what other children are reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns :)

Wordless Wednesday

Excuse the mess though, I've been rearranging stuff ;)

And he got up there all by himself.

See more at Wordless Wednesday

Testing, Testing, 123

Just testing to see if Windows Live Writer, which has been recommended by many Crew mates will work out for me.

 

Edit: It looks like it will!  Yay!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Thing 1 says LOTS of crazy things, and now I am going to share one with you from just a few minutes ago.  This meme from Not Before 7 came up at a perfect time!

"Momma, my stomach is broken.  I need to eat chips."

He's been trying to get me to let him have chips ALL DAY and thought maybe if he told me his stomach is broken I'd give in.  It was not a success.

Head on over to Not Before 7 for more Tiny Talk funnies :)

Blog Walk

As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I am one of well over 200 other people who ALL blog.  So the idea was brought about to hold a "blog walk" every week to be able to bring awareness to our fellow crewmember's blogs and to be able to fully explore them ourselves.

This week's blogs are the following, which I will be reading throughout the week.

1. Reaping a Harvest
2. Pink & Orange Coffee
3. Live, Laugh, Learn!
4. Mrs. Mandy's Musings
5. The Fantastic Five
6. Refined Metals Academy
7. Just A Moment in Time
8. Providence Farm
9. My Journey
10. Petra School

Sweet Shot Tuesday

You may have noticed I've been participating in a lot of memes.  And it could be annoying to you.  Too bad ;) 

I have been wanting to share this picture, and just came across the meme Sweet Shot Tuesday over at Life With My 3 Boybarians and decided it was as good a time as any.

This picture was a once in a lifetime moment of all three younglings in the house "relaxing".  About 2 seconds later everything had gone insane again and the moment was lost forever.  Except for this picture.  :)

Take a look at other sweet shots (taken much nicer than mine lol) over Life With My 3 Boybarians

Blast From the Past

This week I am ALSO joining Blast from the Past over at Debbie's Digest!

This picture is from 1985.  I am in fact IN this picture.  See the adorable little baby in the front who refuses to look at the camera?  That's me.  These are my cousins on my mom's side of the family, and only one person from this generation is missing: my little sister. 

At this point, on my dad's side, I was the only one for this generation, so I guess it's both sides, huh?

Did You Notice?

There is a new button on the right side of my blog, and an influx of followers.

I have been selected as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew for the 2010-2011 voyage.  I am part of the group reviewing products for the YOUNGER students (since Thing 1 IS only 5).

I am looking forward to a fun-filled, exciting year with my crew mates!

:)   ♥

Camera Critters

A turtle in one of the canals at the local botanical gardens.  Thing 1 was ECSTATIC to see this one and many more.

To see more Camera Critters, go to http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/  (I'm sure their pictures are better than mine ;)  )

Men's Monday Meme

I have asked my husband, Link to weigh in on this week's question: How do you deal with stress?

 I play video games, ignore the problem.  I'm also highly medicated for anxiety.


It took a lot of prodding for me to even get that much out of him.

Crafty Charitable Goodness

This past week, on a group that I frequent, someone mentioned that the Mommies Funding Research Auction is coming up again.  It is run from June 29th to July 7th.

You can find more information here: http://mommiesfundingresearch.blogspot.com/


And I donated these two hats (which I just made a couple days ago)

I was unable to donate last year, but this year I made sure I got the chance :)

Besides these, this week I've been working on getting stuff made for my Etsy store.

Have you done something crafty this week?  Go over to Mama Manuscripts and join on the Mr Linky!

Some Big Milestones

Thing 1 has passed some big milestones the last week.  Some good, some, well, not so good.

The first big one is he finished his Math-U-See Primer book.  He is soooo proud of this, and I am super proud of him as well, since we just started in back in April.  That was on teh 3rd, and he has been begging to get started on Alpha since he finished Primer.  I am trying to give him a bit of a break (and buy myself some time since he will probably fly through Alpha too)



He also has his first ever surgery, which is not really a good thing.  This also brought about his first time spending a night without me there at all (Link was with him).  He had been playing on the floor by the back door and apparently a sewing needle was on the floor and while he was kneeling he somehow managed to get the sewing needle in his knee, and behind his kneecap.  He's doing well now (surgery was yesterday morning) and hasn't had to take anything for pain.  He's a little trooper :)  The children's hospital gave him a couple puzzles, which he loves.

No pictures this time, I'm sorry!

(Thing 2 has now gotten 4 teeth and has 2 more coming in.... YAY!)

"Catapull"

"Catapull" is how Thing 1 pronounces this past weekend's Lowe's project.  It was a cute little catapulT, and here are some pictures (hey look, it's ME!)  These are a wonderful thing to do if you're bored on a Saturday and have a local Lowe's.  You can also buy the kits online at their website.  We're seriously considering going next week as well :)

Socialization

Now, I find the whole "homeschoolers are unsocialized" argument to be a bit silly, but that doesn't mean that I intentionally keep Thing 1 inside all day and don't let him meet anyone.

Every week (at least until it gets too hot) there is a group of homeschoolers around his age that get together at a local park and play.

Here Thing 1 is "fishing" in the nearby stream.  The "pole" was made by one of the girls who goes (who turns 6 this coming week!) and she was over there fishing as well.

You can't see it very well, but here Thing 1 is pretending to shoot a bow and arrow, using sticks.  (You can barely make out the "arrow" stick being held near his face)

This picture was not long before the swordfighting that occured with sticks, that resulted in this

LOVELY mark above his eye.  (He had dropped his sword and bent down to pick it up, the other boy didn't realize what he was doing and Thing 1 got whacked)  Not long after it happened, the other boy and Thing 1 were playing with teh sidewalk chalk like nothing had ever happened!  Gotta love kids :)