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

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.

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!

Finally on the Right Track!

As those of you who follow my posts know, I've been struggling with a weight loss plateau for a long time now. About a week ago, I was at my doctor's for follow up to routine blood work. I asked her for advice on how to break out of this rut. She suggested that I use My Fitness Pal to count calories. Now my friend who is a fitness instructor doesn't encourage calorie counting, saying that the best thing is to listen to the promptings of your body. Because of that, I have not really spent much time on this app before now.

However, she does see the value in counting calories for a short amount of time. After having used this for about a week, I'm seeing a pattern. I seem to have a consistent issue with eating enough calories for how many I'm burning during exercise. I'm rather shocked by this, since I always thought I was eating too many calories, even after I started working out. But when I stop and think about it, it does make sense. Many experts recommend eating at least 3 meals a day, with snacks in between. I have a nasty habit of skipping lunch and I very rarely snack. Add to this, that I've been working hard to choose lower calorie options for my meals.

As I see it, my options to change this pattern are to either, work out less, or eat more. I don't see myself working out less, especially since I just joined our church's running team! More about that in a bit. So, I'm doing what I can to add more calories to my diet. One of the ways I'm doing that is by having a protein shake daily after working out.

You might be wondering, "Why is this even a problem?? Aren't we supposed to eat fewer calories than we burn?" Well, yes and no. There does need to be a deficit in our calorie intake vs. calorie burn. However, if that deficit is too high then our bodies go into starvation mode. At that point, our bodies refuse to let go of any calories and it can cause muscle to break down as well.

So, yes! I joined the running team! Today was my second 1 mile run. Now you need to understand that when I say, 1 mile run, I don't mean that I ran for that whole time. Maybe some time in the far distant future, I will be able to do that. But for now I am alternating walking with running. My goal will be to shorten the length of time I walk and increase the time I run. My first official race will be September 15. I'm sure I will be posting about it.

On the school front, we have not started up with our homeschool for the year yet. My plan is to start the week after Labor Day. The kids will have the week of Labor Day off from all school. The reason I'm doing this is because MyHero has Monday off. Many of the lesson plans in the curriculum I'm using with ManBoy are based on a 5 day school week. I don't want to break that up. So I guess those fraction lessons will have to wait. As a side note, I was excited to find out that Time4Writing has added a new high school course. This one is an essay writing course, and I have very little doubt that ManBoy will eventually be taking it.

Too Much To Do and Too Little Time

This has been a crazy week already! I'm sure you can relate. There just aren't enough hours in my days, or energy in my body to do all that I need to do. I guess I'll just keep doing my best and trust God with the rest! LOL That sounds like it could be stitched into a pillow.

I've backed off some on my working out. Not working out quite as hard. I think it may actually be helping. Not sure, but I think I might have been going overboard with trying to burn too many calories before. It might have been sending my body into panic/starvation mode, thinking it needed to conserve every calorie to keep from starving. Not sure that I was eating enough calories for all that I was burning. But again, I could be way off here! I can't even pretend to understand the science of weight loss! All I know is that it is much more complicated than it seems.

We are about 2 weeks out from starting our homeschool back up. My plan is to start back the week after Labor Day. I'm going to give my kids Labor Day week off from doing math so that I can figure out where they are in math and make schedules accordingly. I'm still busting my buns trying to get lesson plans done before we start school. Like I said, "Too much to do and too little time." Story of every mom's life!

Yesterday, my kids were watching an episode of Phineas and Ferb. I just love that show! Anyway, it was the one where they take Candice to Mt. Rushmore for her birthday. Fashionista looked at me and said, "If you guys take me to Mt. Rushmore for my birthday, I will cry!" I informed her that Mt. Rushmore is in South Dakota and would be much too far for us to travel for a birthday. Of course, my kids then wanted to know where South Dakota is! I found a map of the U. S. on line to show them. It might have been smarter to have them play some geography games to figure it out for themselves.

My Reality Check from the Lord!

Typically I only post on here once a week. Therefore, this post is a freebie. Something happened yesterday and this morning that I just had to share.

I was in that place where all moms get to eventually. I'm sure you know the place. Homeschool moms are especially familiar with this place. It's the place where you are just absolutely and completely FED UP with your kids and in DESPERATE need of a break. I was about ready to run screaming from my house, or call in the guys in white jackets. So this is the mindset I was in. As you can imagine, I was crabbing all over everyone in my family.

My hubby had brought home the DVD copy of "The Hunger Games" so we sat down to watch it as a family. If you've seen the movie or read the books, you know that there are a couple of very sad scenes. It was after one of those sad scenes, that had been causing me to tear up, when I needed to take a bathroom break. While I was in the bathroom, the Lord tapped me on the shoulder and asked me a question that totally changed my mindset.

He asked me, "When was the last time you cried because you were sad?? Not because a movie was making you cry, or you were empathizing with a friend's pain, but because YOU were hurting?" It caused me to take a step back. I honestly can't remember the last time! WOW! Talk about a reality check! It made all the things that my kids had been doing to bugg me seem insignificant. I realized just how blessed I am!

I have to admit here that my next thought went something like, "Oh, no! What if something happens to one of my kids or my husband since I'm due for some pain????" I'll just have to trust that to my Lord. They belong to HIM and even if He should decide to take one of them or even all of them, I will remain faithful to HIM. However as a side note, isn't it just like the enemy to butt into a wonderful moment with the Lord, and insert some doubt to try to shake our faith?

Anyway, this morning during worship at church one of the songs we sang really hit me. It spoke to me of how my Saviour calmed the raging sea I was in yesterday. He walks with me through the fire of raising children. He heals my disease of bad attitudes. He holds my world in HIS hands!

By the way, I'm getting that much needed break from kids. My hubby took them all out for the afternoon to allow me to have some quite time alone at home! Thank you, Lord for a husband who is willing to do this even though I'm sure he would rather be home relaxing.

It's a New Day With a Clean Slate!

I was thinking yesterday about how each new day is a chance for a fresh start. I like how Anne says it in "Anne of Green Gables", "Each day is new, with no mistakes!" I may not have gotten that quote exactly right, but you get the jist.

Each day is a chance for me to make a fresh start in my weight loss journey. I don't want to get caught up in the mistakes and slip ups I made yesterday. I want to keep moving ahead with new vision each day. One of my dear friends posted something in Facebook this morning. I love this perspective!

This is an excerpt from "Running with Joy" by Ryan Hall, Olympic marathoner and professional runner:
I’m excited about what God is doing in me right now, and I’m feeling freebecause running isn’t the most important thing in my life. Intimacy withGod is so much sweeter than running fast. But ironically, as I get closerto God, apply His principles to my life more consistently, and allow the
Holy Spirit to guide me more, I run better and enjoy my running more.
I’m always tempted to feel as if I can use God to run faster, but I know
this is shortchanging God’s best for me. All I want is God. All I need is to
receive His love. I need to continually ask myself, what is giving me joy
today, my accomplishments or God’s presence? “In Your presence is fullness
of joy.” The key to joy is continually being in God’s presence—running,
working, eating, or even sleeping.
After all, what is it about winning or running fast that is so great? It’s the joy
that such an experience releases in us that makes us hungry for more. We
were created to experience joy. The key to unlocking this daily, lasting, and
more fulfilling joy isn’t winning or setting personal bests—it’s being with
God as we run or do whatever we are doing. Sometimes our performance
brings us joy, and we shouldn’t feel guilty about enjoying those moments.
Still, we must realize that we can’t perform like that every day, but we can
experience joy every day if we remain in God’s presence.

Last night I had the privilege of attending our local homeschool support group meeting as a representative of Time4Learning.com. It was wonderful to chat with old friends as well as brand new ones. I was able to tell people about this great curriculum and how it can help them in their homeschools. There were a few parents of  preschoolers who came to my table. I was able to tell them about Time4Preschool.com. I was even able to tell some of the parents about Learning Games For Kids. This is a site that has all kind of fun educational games for kids. They even have educational videos which are fun for even parents to watch!

I'm taking a little step back from working so much so that I can get some homeschool planning done. I think I'm finally nailing down what I want to do for my 9th grader in each subject this year. I've gotten so spoiled having every subject covered while using Time4Learning. Sadly, they only teach through 8th grade though. I feel like I'm having to re-ajust my teaching hat for the high school years!

I was sharing with a friend last night about how terrified I am about this upcoming year and teaching a high school kid. She gave me some great encouragement as someone who has been there, has graduated a student and has another entering 9th grade. She said to me, "Remember how terrified you were when you first started your homeschooling journey? You discovered that pretty much everything you were worried about was not an issue. This is the same thing. You'll get to the end of this and wonder, 'What was I so worried about?'" I so needed to hear that! Maybe you did too!