Bouncing Back from Disappointment

I've been trying to weigh myself only once a week on Mondays. That way I don't deal with the roller coaster of weight fluctuations. This past Monday I was really hoping to see a nice number on that scale. I'd been working out really hard all week and trying hard to watch my food intake. When I stepped on I just wanted to cry. 4 oz! That's all I lost! A measly 4 ounces!!!


These are the times when I have to remember that I'm not doing this for any other reason than to honor and glorify God! Well, that is supposed to be my motivation. However, it is all too easy to get caught up in the numbers and strategizing about how can I loose more?


One of my friends, who happens to be a certified fitness instructor, (so she knows what she's talking about) keeps reminding me that the scale is NOT a good indicator of how I'm doing with my fitness. There are many other factors that come into play. I love the acronym she shared the other day:


Sure

Can't

Assess

Living w/

Excellence

I'm learning to make wise choices. For instance, ManBoy who will be celebrating his 14th birthday this coming week, wanted us to take him out for dinner in lieu of his gift from us. So we went out to Cracker Barrel. Normally, I would have ordered the country fried steak and mashed potatoes, both smothered with gravy. There would have been biscuits and cornbread muffins and fried apples. Probably a week's worth of calories and carbs concentrated in that one meal! Instead, I planned ahead, looked at the menu online before we left and determined to order the grilled chicken salad, which I followed through with. So I'm learning to live with excellence! And that can never be fully displayed on my bathroom scale.

My kids provide comic relief, when I'm not wanting to wring their necks! The other day I heard RoboBoy telling one of his siblings that there would be "diry consequences" if they chose to follow the action they were pursuing. He was trying to say, "dire" but was pronouncing the "e" on the end. Apparently he read the word somewhere and managed to get the context correct but not the correct pronunciation. I wonder if there are any grammar worksheets that include information on how to pronounce specific words. I guess that's technically not grammar. I'm thinking that audio books might serve better for this purpose.

Dental Hijinks and Workout Traumas!

I took my kids to the dentist for the first time ever yesterday. Now before you start judging me, you need to know that we've never had dental insurance since we had kids. MyHero makes too much for us to be able to qualify for assistance and we couldn't afford to pay for it ourselves. Still not sure how we are going to pay for all these dental visits!

Anyway, they did amazingly well for kids who have never been to the dentist! I was shocked to find out that ManBoy (13 years old) and Fashionista (12 years old) each had only 1 cavity! RoboBoy (10 years old) didn't have any! The bad news is that both ManBoy and Fashionista have been referred to the Orthodontist for braces. Ack! REALLY not sure how we are going to be paying for THAT!

By the time we got home from the dentist, I had to dig up the motivation to workout. I have been so sore from my workouts lately.  My knees ache, my legs complain and my back moans. That didn't stop me from reluctantly donning my sneakers.

Monday I weighted my self and found that I'm down almost another pound. Woohoo! Of course, I would love to see the weight come off faster. Who wouldn't?? But I've come to the revelation that this race is not a sprint, but a long distance marathon where the slow and steady win the race. I believe it's those who get a good grasp on this point and hold on to it, will be able to loose and keep the weight off. I keep reminding myself, "This weight didn't pack on overnight and it's sure not going to come off overnight!"

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with ManBoy for this next school year. He is entering that scary world of high school! I know that even though he is homeschooled, there will be a lot more expected of him. I've never been one to give my kids writing assignments like reports etc. Perhaps that may need to change. I may need to consider some online tutoring in writing for them. Why, oh, why can't Time4Learning go through to 12th grade??

Making Progress!!

Did you notice my new weight loss ticker?? The reason I used a turtle as the marker, is to remind myself that "slow and steady wins the race!" I think that is my new mantra! As I've said before, "I'm in this for the long haul." 


Sometimes the long haul seems like just too long to me. Can I get an "AMEN"? That's why I allow myself to have treats once in a while. I'm looking for lower carb, lower calorie, healthier options for my treats. It's encouraging that I've lost 3 pounds since last week! Woohoo! All my hard work IS paying off!

I've been using the new activity scheduler on Time4Learning.

So glad that they have it now, but I do hope that they do some updating to it. My kids seem to be having a tough time following the printouts I get from the scheduler. One simple, but important thing I've learned that I need to do, is staple the pages of each child's schedule. Otherwise, they get them all out of order and may even end up with someone else's pages mixed into their own. Fashionista actually did her brother's assignments the other day because she grabbed the wrong schedule. All in all, this is proving to be a better option for us than umbrella schools.

Romeo (the green one) & Juliet (the yellow one)

We just had someone come to our house to teach me how to trim my bird's nails and beak. Romeo's beak was getting a bit too long and I was worried about it. It took me a while to find someone to help. But God is good and even provided someone who could come to our house! Being a one vehicle family doesn't make getting out to do these things easy!

More than Weight Loss Wednesday!

Is it Wednesday already?? My goodness how the days are flying! Not a lot to report on the weight loss front. I've been doing my 30 mins of EA Sports Active followed by another 30 mins on the elliptical machine.

Our elliptical has been having issues with the digital screen and yesterday it totally wigged out. None of the buttons on the touch pad were responding and the SD card that we can plug in to access a pre-programmed workout was not working. Basically all I could monitor was my heart rate, how fast I was going and how long I worked out.

God is SO good though! I posted a plea for another elliptical on a Facebook group I belong to that sells items between friends. Turns out that one of my friends has an elliptical machine that she doesn't use. She has been wanting to get it out of her house for a while now. She offered to give it to me! Praise God!! Oh, and another one of my friends might be wanting to take our crippled elliptical off our hands.

Can't leave out that my daughter told me this morning that I look skinnier! Woohoo! That just made my day!

I don't do this often enough, but I wanted to share something from what I was reading in my quiet time this morning. I'm reading Romans with a group of ladies who post our thoughts on what we are reading in a forum. This morning we are in Romans 12 where Paul talks about being a living sacrifice.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers (and sisters), in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship." Romans 12:1

In the footnotes of my Bible it indicates that the word spiritual in this verse can be replaced with the word reasonable. So this is my reasonable act of worship.

I think that all too often we humans get the wrong idea about what worship is supposed to look like. We think that it involves, things like singing, chanting and swaying until we reach some spiritual state of worshipfulness. While there is a place for singing God's praises in worship, I would like to contend that true worship is much more practical.

It involves setting aside our wishes, desires and even rights in service to others. It involves becoming a living sacrifice. This takes much more humility on our part.

Ok, time to move on, I've been REALLY struggling to get ManBoy to finish this FLVS math course he's been taking. He wants to just accept defeat but I will not allow that. There is too much at stake here. We've been searching the internet for ways to help him understand the concepts. Perhaps there are some free online puzzles that can help. Homeschool math has proved to be a HUGE challenge for us. But with God's help we will get through it!