Spinning My Wheels

Do you ever feel like you are just spinning your wheels in life? That's how I'm feeling with my weight loss and homeschooling right now.

First, I will elaborate on what I mean about my weight loss. I ended up having to take nearly 2 weeks off from working out due to a raging sinus infection that I developed. Took the last of my antibiotic last night and I'm feeling much better. I started back with my workout routine on Monday and Tuesday,  but now I'm having menstrual cramps (sorry guys) and just can't get excited about working out today.

I gained 2 pounds during my sabbatical from working out. I'm actually thrilled that I didn't gain more! That 2 pounds could even easily be period weight. So here's what I'm thinking. Perhaps I needed that 2 weeks away from working out in order to get past the plateau I had hit. It seemed like nothing else that I was doing was able to do the trick. I guess only time will tell.

As far as homeschooling, I've been feeling the back-to-school pressure. With all that I have to do for work and as a wife and mom, I've not been able to make the time or find the energy to finish my homeschool planning. There is still a LOT to do! For instance, I still have to find a language arts curriculum for my 9th grader. Let's Homeschool High School is helping with that. I'm helping to put together a directory of high school curriculum that will soon be published on this site.

As I understand it, whatever curriculum I choose for ManBoy will need to be literature heavy. The boy is a good reader, but he tends to be very picky about what books he chooses to read. He is going to have to start learning to read what is assigned to him or he is going to have a tough school year!

Well That Figures!

Almost as soon as I made public my resolve to reach 145 lbs before I turn 45 years old, I came down with a nasty sinus infection. I've been unable to work out for a little over a week. Not sure what the Lord is trying to teach me in all this. Perhaps it's a continuation of the lesson in relying on Him and not my own strength. I'm on antibiotics now but still have this nagging cough.

We survived our week of VBS day camp. I have the kids back to doing their math. Soon we are going to have to get back to doing full scale school. I'm still trying to round up curriculum for ManBoy now that he is starting high school. I know that one of the curricula we will stick with is Spelling City. I'm going to be quite busy with work responsibilities in addition to learning how to teach a high schooler! One of the things that will be a big help to me is that I will be able to have him take his spelling test online each week. Anything that our curriculum can do for me, so that I don't have to take time to do it, is a huge bonus in my book!

My Newest Goal!

Yesterday while I was working out, for some reason I started thinking about my birthday which is coming up the end of September. I will be turning 45 years old. Then I got a cool idea! Why not make it a goal to try to reach 145 lbs before I turn 45! Right now I am hovering at 157 lbs so that would give me 10 weeks to loose 12 lbs. I'm thinking with some determination and discipline, I can do it! I had a really tough workout yesterday that left me hurting last night. I backed off a bit today, but still got a great workout.

I'm also going to be extra careful about what I'm eating. I've gotten into the habit of eating ice cream and junk like that again. Keep telling myself, I had a really great workout today so I can do this. However, workout or not, that ice cream is probably part of what is holding me at 157!

This is the week that my kids are all at VBS Day Camp. It's a long day for them starting by having to get up around 6:30 every morning and not getting out of the church till around 3:30. For that reason they are getting a break from their online math.

As for me, I'm getting to enjoy having a quiet house for a few hours while they are away!

When Will Things Slow Down?

Busy, busy, busy!! That's me right now! Next week is VBS at our church. The two older kids have been going to help with decorating during the day. Since we only have one vehicle in our family, this means that I have to get up early enough to drop MyHero off at work. I also get to drop the kids off, go back and get them to bring them home and go back out later to get MyHero from work. All this running everyday is exhausting me! Yes, yes, I know. Many of you run like this everyday! My body just isn't used to it and my personality wasn't built for it. Being an Aspie, I'm much more comfortable just staying home.

I'm still hoping to get more homeschool planning done. It's been so crazy the last few weeks that I haven't managed to get any done for a while. One of the things on my list to do is set up spelling vocabulary lists for ManBoy's Biology course. I think it would be an excellent activity for him to play matching definition games using his biology words. But first I have to figure out which words to use and get them set up. Shouldn't be hard with the system SpellingCity has set up.

I also have projects I'm doing for work and a big project that is being prepped for me to start soon. I finished the afghan project I was doing for my Brother-in-law. He had ordered 3 crocheted afghans from me. Now I have an order for 2 sets of Star Wars figures. Yep! I'm going to be busy for a while yet!

Award!

I got an award! My new friend over at Learning 4 Keeps nominated me. Now I get to nominate 15 other bloggers. Well, we will see how many I can come up with.

The Rules for accepting The Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you. 

2. Include a link to their site. 

3. Include the award image in your post. 

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself. 

5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.

6. When nominating, include a link to their site. 

7. Let other bloggers know they have been nominated.

So for the 7 random facts about myself:

1. I can't smell. When I was a kid I would try to learn how to smell.
2. My favorite color is purple.
3. I'm a geek. It took marrying one to bring it out of me!
4. I have Asperger's Syndrome aka high functioning autism
5. I'm learning to love working out.
6. I love to crochet.
7. I gave my life to Jesus Christ when I was in 4th grade.

My nominees:

1. Five in Training For HIM
2. Little Farm in the Big City
3. The Family that Likes Each Other
4. Shapes of Angels
5. Pandahoneybee's Homeschooling Adventure

6. 3DLearners

That's all I can think of right now.

Hanging Out with RoboBoy

I'm still going sloooowly down in my weight. It's a struggle not to want to focus on doing all I can to make the numbers go down more quickly. I love what my dear friend said about that recently on Facebook.

I was reading 2 Chronicles 14 last night and here's how The Message renders that verse: "O God, you aren't impressed by numbers..."
No, God's not impressed by (in this case) the number of soldiers marching against His people. Nor is he impressed by the number on my scale or the number of pounds I can report having lost. God is impressed with whether or not I trust Him to provide what I need when I need it and not try to get it for myself. 
I'm the one who's impressed by a lower number on my scale or on the tags of my clothes. 
Then God reminded me that I don't live for myself. This isn't about me. It's about Him.

I think my friend Michele has got the right attitude here! Lord, please help me to have that same attitude!

As our church is getting ready to host our annual VBS Day Camp, my two oldest are going to help with decorating during the day. Actually they are preparing all the decorations which will be put up closer to the week of VBS. We have quite a large church so there are a LOT of areas to cover. This afternoon it was just my youngest and the pets here at home. We had gotten a few chores done, so RoboBoy and I decided to play a bit of Minecraft together. It was fun to just hang out with him doing something that he loves.

By the way, in my opinion, that is a GREAT way to foster internet safety for kids. Get involved with the things they like to do online so you will know what they are up to. By doing this you may also help them to see potential problem areas that they might otherwise not recognize.

If you have younger kids who you are just now teaching how to behave on the internet, you might want to check out the preschool games on Learning Games For Kids. There are lots of fun games that your little one and you can play with out worrying about accidentally seeing something offensive.

May the 4th be With You!

I finally did it! I broke past my plateau! I'm no longer stuck at 158 but am now 157.6. The challenge now is to stay below 158 and keep going down. I have help with reaching this goal. Someone anonymously donated a month of Fitness Bootcamp for me! I'm SO thankful for this gift!! While I didn't miss having to get up so early on Saturday morning, I DID miss working out with my friends!

We decided to enjoy some "fireworks" last night and invited our neighbor and her daughter to come join us. Our neighbor was commenting on how RoboBoy is getting so tall. All three of my kids are getting tall, but RoboBoy in particular seems to be in a major growth spurt.

One of their favorite activities is to write stories. Fashionista is working on one which she has asked me to edit for her when she is done. I figure that this is a great way for her to get creative writing help and also practice her spelling and punctuation skills, as well as grammar skills!

We got our new doggie, Lightening. He is so sweet! We couldn't have asked for a better dog to fit our family! Lightening is getting spoiled rotten with so much attention. I think even MyHero, who was reluctant to get a dog, is being won over by Lightening's loving personality.

I want to give a shout out to all the soldiers and vets who have served to protect and give us the freedoms we have here in America! This is a graphic made by a dear friend of mine and shares most succinctly my gratitude for my freedom! Thank you, Melanie for this wonderful graphic! Hope that you don't mind that I've been using it!