Wednesday, September 26, 2012

I Don't Wanna Be The Teacher!!!!

Have you ever had one of these weeks? This is only our third week of being back to school and already, I'm tired of prodding kids to do schoolwork and checking numerous times to make sure it was actually done after one declares that they finished. I know much of it has to do with the fact that I'm just not feeling well. All I'm wanting to do is sleep because my body is so overwhelmed with what is making me feel icky. This is one of those weeks when teacher resources can be a lifesaver! I'm taking things as easy as a mom can when they are homeschooling 3 kids. I keep telling myself that next week I should be feeling much better and things will go much more smoothly. I'm so thankful for like minded friends who encourage me to keep at it!

As you may have guessed, I haven't done much running this week either. I did run Monday. Over the weekend I had mapped out a route for 5k, but I realized this morning that I haven't been running the full route I'd planned. Somehow I got it into my head that I was to turn down one street when I'm supposed to go further down to another street before I turn. This is really going to make my training a challenge! And I thought I was challenging myself before!

At least I finally have music to run to. I got some new ear buds that are made just for runners. I LOVE them!! I've been listening to stuff like, Newsboys, Toby Mac, DC Talk, and the worship band from my church. All very upbeat stuff. Loving the way this music puts my thoughts on my Lord first thing and sets the tone for my day! Of course, I make it my habit to spend time in the Word before I even put my running shoes on. The music I'm listening to also helps me to remember that I'm doing this for God's glory, not my own.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

My First 5K!

As I shared last week, this weekend was my first race. I had planned to only do the one mile course. However, after meeting up with my team and realizing that I was the only one who was going to do the one mile, I asked the registration peeps if I could switch. They had no problem with me doing that.

So I joined the rest of my team at the starting line. It was so exciting to be among the crowd about to run and think to myself, "I'm going to run a 5K!" My predominant emotion at that point was nervousness. I had no idea how I would do or if I would even be able to finish! What if they had to send someone out to "rescue" me? LOL

Then the race started and everyone began running or walking. I thought, "Well, this is it! I guess we will see just what I'm capable of!" The rest of my team was quickly ahead of me, some far ahead, amongst the crowd. I started out walking to let my muscles warm up, but soon gave into the urge to run. My friend, Michele, wasn't too far ahead of me so I made it my goal to catch up with her every time I started running again.

There were people hanging off their apartment balconies cheering us on. There were police officers stationed along the course who cheered for us. There were even cows who cheered for us!! Yep, you read that right! There was a whole herd of Chick-fil-a cows at this race.



So I made my goal of catching up to Michele each time and at the end we were both able to run across the finish line together! What blew me away is that Michele ran the entire race! One of these days, I'm going to be able to do that! In fact, this morning I managed to run almost half a mile! That is the furthest I have ever run before.

This is our second week of being back to school. We are starting to hit a stride, although I'm still spending a LOT of time asking kids, "Did you do your math?? Did you clean your room?? Did you..." Fashionista has developed a habit of writing to "help her brain think better". I think I am raising a future homeschool fiction author! It reminds me of myself when I was her age. Except that I didn't have a computer to write my stories on. I had to use notebook paper and pencil. Doesn't make for the easiest revising and rewriting. LOL

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

In Training

This Saturday is my first race. I'll be running in the Chick-fil-a Fall Stampede. I'm imagining chickens stampeding! LOL But seriously, I will be doing the one mile walk. However, I will be alternating between walking and running. This is what I've been doing in my morning runs as well.

As a beginning runner my goals are to build up my cardio endurance and to build and train my muscles for running. The way I do this is by gradually trying to increase the amount of time that I spend running while decreasing the time I spend walking. My goal is to eventually be able to run for the entire mile. This seems to be a far fetched dream to me right now. But if I just keep at it and increase my running time a little at a time, then I will ultimately get there.

I'm finding that it is a similar situation with our first week of school. I'm working to train my kids in getting their schoolwork done. Yes, they've been learning this all along, but as every homeschool mom knows, this is a work in progress. For instance, ManBoy is having to learn how to read his textbook while scanning for the answers to the questions he will have to answer.

This applies also in the area of chores. It's been a continuing process teaching my kids how to do each of their chores correctly. Fashionista has developed a nasty habit of stuffing dirty clothes and even the clean ones, into remote corners of her room and closet. In teaching her to clean her room, I am forcing her to clean up these piles of contraband. I've found them in her closet with a blanket covering them so mom won't see, stuffed into bins, and shoved up under her bed. We've mostly conquered the area under her bed. Now it is just a matter of maintaining it. What we are doing now is tackling a pile or two of mess each day while maintaining the areas that have been vanquished. In the process, I'm trying to teach her that if you keep up with these things every day then it will not be such a huge ordeal.

I feel as if I'm spending most of my time dealing with kids while redirecting, training, and correcting them. But then that's my JOB as a homeschool mom! And progress is being made. As I continue to be consistent then things will get easier. I'm finding that it is helping me immensely to have a daily agenda for each of my kids.  In these agendas are included lesson plans for each subject for each child. I have to be committed to following up on each of these agenda's daily.

One of the fringe benefits of all this is that MyHero has been very pleased to see the progress we are making. Our home is becoming more organized and things are getting done when they need to be done. Items are beginning to find homes and living there. As a result, MyHero feels that he is being honored and respected by the way I am caring for our home and training our children.

I want to leave you today with a post that a friend of mine shared on Facebook yesterday:
After an interesting conversation with my hubby of days events, we were reminded of something his father has said from the pulpit: "Sin takes you further than you want to go, makes you stay longer than you want to stay, and makes you pay more than you want to pay." It is foolishness to think you will NEVER _____(fill in the blank)_____. That is pride and pride cometh before a fall. We must always be on guard, especially with our marriages. Satan loves to destroy. Don't give him the opportunity. That is all.
I must be on my guard when it comes to my marriage and the way I'm training my children and managing my home.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Signed Up For My First Race

I just signed up for my very first race,  the Chick-fil-A Fall Stampede! I'm so excited! This race is a benefit for children's cancer. I'm glad to be running while helping in such a great cause. I still need to get some good running shoes. Hoping to be able to do that this weekend.

This week will again be filled with lesson planning. This is my last big push to get it all done! If you are wondering why in the world this is taking me so long, believe me I'm wondering the same thing! It's because I'm planning for the entire year for 3 kids in at least 5 subjects for each. That is a LOT of work! However, it will save me in the long run in a couple of ways. First, once all this planning is done, I will be able to simply make assignments during the rest of the year. Second, I will be able to re-use many of these lesson plans with my two younger kids. So, yes, this is going to be worth all this pain. And, yes, I have asked myself that many times during this process!

Since I'm devoting this week to getting these lesson plans FINISHED, I'm only attending to my basic weekly duties for work. One of my duties is to monitor and update our Facebook pages for two of our sites. Check them out:  Learning Games For Kids and Vocabulary.co.il. It can be a challenge to decide what to post to these pages each day. Today I decided to post about root word games in the vocabulary page. The learning games page got a post about slow motion science. You really should check out the video on that site about soap bubbles. It's super cool!