It was more of the same for me last week. My Husband worked and worked and worked. We are both worn out. His is a mental worn out while mine is a physical worn out. I honestly don't know how a single mom gets by. I did a lot of praying for all the single moms that I know while I was trying to keep up with things. Goodness knows I have nothing to complain about. My Husband is wonnnnnnderful.
So while I didn't get to officially exercise, I did make the extra effort to do things that made things more of a challenge. I took the stairs two at a time, did some vertical crunches.....every time I bent over to pick something up (I think my abs are getting sore ;-). First and Only Husband thinks this week should be better. I'm not holding my breath. We're just gonna have to see.
I hope you guys were able to get more done than me!
I believe that one of the requirements when one has a daughter is long hair. I have spent many hours sitting on the floor in front of the couch while my daughter sat behind me with a spray bottle with water, a brush, a comb, hair barrettes and pony tail holders. She would spray my hair until the water was running down my back in rivers. Then my hair would be so thick because of all the water, she would jerk my head back with every stroke of the brush. Pain!
We have cut countless ponytail holders out of my hair. I have begged her to start brushing from the bottom and work her way up rather than starting at the top and creating huge knots that had to be cut out. I have been embarrassed to walk out to the mailbox for fear the neighbors would see me. I mean, come on, how many ponytails can one head hold?
Long hair is great with a niece as well. I used to keep my niece and when she outgrew the afternoon nap thing, while the others were napping, I would recline on the couch with my hair hanging over the end (how nice for me) while my niece brushed and brushed and BRUSHED my hair. She would go on forever! I have naturally curly hair and by the time she was done, I usually looked like the bride of Frankenstein. Really, I'm okay with that. ;-)
Today I was sitting at the computer doing somethingorother with First Daughter when she started fixing my hair. I thought, "Oh, man. What hair style will I end up with today?" ;-) But I was pleasantly surprised. A pretty braid down the MIDDLE of my head - as opposed to the side or top. My girl is growing up! Learning how to do hair! I never thought I would miss those days when she was yanking my head around with the brush, but I did get a little nostalgic today.
Well. Once again I was unable to exercise this past week. My Husband worked late every night but our date night. He does so much to help me out around here. His absence left a huge load for me! He has been working so many hours, I know that when he finally finishes, we'll both finally have a nervous breakdown and sleep for an entire week. HA! I doubt we'll get any extra sleep, but it will be nice to be back to normal. Hanging clothes out on the clothesline at 11 at night is for the birds. So is going to bed without First and Only Husband being here. Yuck!
So I'm going to see how things go this week. The big project that he is working on is due on Tuesday. He already told me he will be working late tonight. After Tuesday....who knows. He is a web guy, and will be pre-launching a new website for his company. After his bosses see what he has done, they'll come back to him with a huge list of things they want to do completely differently from the way they had him do it to begin with (what a cynic!) and he'll need to finish all those changes by a certain date....ya know, it just is what it is. I would love it if First and Only Husband were here at 5:30 every night. HA! What a dream. ;-)
Anywho, let me know how you did with the Challenge this past week. :-) To find out more about this challenge, go HERE.
P.S. Happy 7th Month to my Little Button! Don'tcha just want to SQUISH her!?!
Imagine my surprise when my 12 year old son appeared in my room the other day when I was nursing the baby and he tells me he's fixing lunch. Grilled Cheese sandwiches. Groovy, man. But then he tells me they are REAL Grilled Cheese sandwiches. I thought, "well, what else would they be?" No. He meant that he was grilling them on our new grill. And you know what? They were the best grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever had. They had that far out grilled flavor that was perfect. I slurped up the broth from our chicken noodle soup with my sandwich- which he also warmed up on the burner that is attached to the grill - and was in Heaven.
I'm finding that I like having this older kid around. He's finally starting to get productive ;-) and now, in addition to spontaneous lunch making, one night each week he cooks dinner for us. That one night is such a blessing for me. I could literally go and go and go. There's always so much to do around here. So First Son taking care of dinner for me once a week has freed me up on those evenings to get some other things done. Here's the latest thing he made. So good!
Stromboli Sandwiches
2 lbs. ground beef
1/4 c. finely chopped onions
1 c. ketchup
1 c. tomato sauce (we just use the entire can - I mean, what are we going to do with what's left???)
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. fennel seed
1/2 t. italian seasoning
Cook the beef, drain, then add in the rest! We serve this just like sloppy joes and everyone thinks it tastes better than sloppy joes.
Hey everyone. I'm sorry I did not get a chance to visit your entries for last week. It was one of those weeks....Monday night was mine and hubby's date night, Tuesday night I was getting ready for First Daughter's 10TH birthday (first cake was a disaster, 2nd attempt was wonderful), which was on Wednesday. Wednesday was consumed with celebrating. Thursday, I was recovering (read: crashed on the couch as soon as the kids went to bed), Friday we took a very last minute trip to see Wall-E (it was SO good. Go see it and take your kids, too. ;-), and I can't even remember what was going on Saturday night. eeek!
Needless to say, I did not exercise all week. I am anxious to get back at it.....Tuesday. Date night again tonight! I plan on working out with my Cindy Crawford video this week. Should be a great week of extreme sore muscles.
My husband and I are throwing the idea of a weight-loss challenge around. The biggest obstacle is trying to figure out what the winner receives. I mean, what's his is mine and vice versa, so it feels a bit weird to bet cash.......I'm sure we'll settle on something. :-)
I'm looking forward to connecting with you all again this week!
Rachel, I am SO going to be looking for you as you get in your exercise walking around town!!!!
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I walked 11 1/2 miles last week. Coulda been more, but this whole process is good for me. I am one of those impatient people who wants to see results right away. I want to be able to exercise a lot while keeping up with five children, a husband, and a house that is going through a lot of repair work right now. It's just not possible. My first reaction is to chide myself for not working harder for it, but I realize that's unrealistic! As much as I would like to be SuperGirl, in reality, there is no such thing as SuperGirl. So this exercising thing has been a great exercise in teaching me to CHILL OUT! ;-)
If you think of me during the week, say a huge prayer for me and my wee two year old. We've begun potty training starting this morning. I pulled out the ol' "if you go potty on the toilet, I"ll give you an M&M" trick. He didn't get it at first and immediately asked for the candy. Then when I said he had to make REAL potty on the toilet first, he had a huge meltdown and refused to put his pull-up back on. He's running around behind me right now with nothing on but his jammy shirt.
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This is from CitizenLink, a daily email thingy that comes from Focus on the Family:
Australian Web Site Tells Kids: ‘Die to Save the Planet’
Planet Slayer, a Web site of the Australian Broadcasting Corp., features a greenhouse calculator that tells kids when to die in order to save the planet.
The site instructs users to take a quiz to “find out what age you should die at so you don’t use more than your fair share of Earth’s resources.” Typically, your cartoon character — a pig — blows up at the end of the quiz, leaving a puddle of blood. If your answers are "green," the site tells you, "You will live forever."
Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, took the test and was told he should have died at age 7.4.
“This is being sold to children, and it is shameful and profoundly nihilistic,” he wrote on his blog. “It illustrates again how profoundly anti-human and pro-death certain aspects of our culture are becoming."
I go through phases when I major on a certain topic. There for awhile I was all Charlotte Mason, all the time. I read about CM, implemented CM stuff into our school, talked non-stop about it to anyone who would listen and joined a bunch of yahoo groups so I could soak up more CM knowledge. Still love CM, but next I moved my undivided attention to....ummmmm.....something VERY interesting, I'm sure. I just can't remember right now. Hmmmmmmmm.
ANYWAY, now I've moved on to frugal living. I'm sure you've noticed the couple of shopping CVS posts I've made. I don't always get a chance to post about my oh-so-fun trips to CVS each week, but do know that man, oh man, am I making them! It is just too much fun and so exciting to be lowering our outgoing cash through the Extra Care Bucks program. It makes me sick that I waited so long to get started! It took me so long because I thought it would be too much work and not really worth it. You know, I would never let my kids get away with that kind of slackerish behaviour. Sigh. ;-) If you're interested in learning more about shopping CVS and lowering your receipts on things like soap, toothbrushes, shampoo, batteries, & etc. Go here to read MoneySavingMom's CVS 101.
Another thing I've added to our routine is a clothes line. My mom always used one when we were growing up. She's a down-home, Tennessee woman who likes to do things the "REAL" way. She did not waste my Dad's hard earned money on Lucky Charms and Ding Dongs. We were the goofy kids, who, when it was time for us to bring a snack to the "secret" club meetings, we would show up with apples and all the other kids would groan. LoL! But I'm glad my Mom stuck to her guns on these issues because her example has saved our family a whole bunch of money that would normally be spent on junk.
And so now I'm returning to my roots and have invested in a clothesline and I LOVE it! It is so much fun to have a household chore that I can do OUTSIDE. Am I the only one who could go the entire day and not step outside once because of all there is to do INSIDE? It's crazy! I love the time I have outside hanging out the clothes. Third Son goes out with me and hands me up the clothes pins as I need them and it's just so nice. The sad thing is that today we had a big storm with lots of wind and our neighbor's tree crashed over the fence and onto my beloved line. It killed me to think of the cost that is involved in running the dyer today. I guess that means I am a total clothes line convert, and will have to replace this poor broken thang.
Sorry I'm late posting! Had a well-check for my baby girl this morning. :-)
I like having a weekly goal of how many miles I'm gonna cover. My goal this past week was 16 miles, and I made 13 1/2. This week, I plan on making the full 16 now that I've got a better idea of how to fit it in the week without having to workout every day. Really, the hardest thing for me is keeping my workouts to every other day. I love exercising, and I really want to lose weight, so it's tempting to workout morning and evening - as if I could. But I do get carried away at times and exercise every night after the kids go to bed, and I just don't have time for that. I have to keep myself to every other day so I can take care of business on the off days.
I really love the Leslie Sansone 4-mile workout I have! It's a great workout! I enjoyed the shorter workouts, but they were not as intense as the 4-mile and I would spend the entire time with the shorter workouts trying to make them more difficult. I'm going to keep that DVD and use it when the kids and I workout together, and see about investing in more of her DVDs with the longer walks.
Saturday night I was so tired, and we're officially into sweat-weather here in TX. I did not want to workout. But I did, and oh glory, our little 3 ft. deep pool saved me when I was done. I grabbed the kid's noodles, and floated and floated and floated. Nothing like a giant bathtub for an after-workout soak. I can't wait to do that again!
In case you didn't hear - Alicia is pregnant! Drop by her blog and give her a big hug. She is also celebrating her 4th anniversary. Woohoo!
Sign-in with Mr. Linky and leave a comment so I'll know you stopped by! :-) To learn more about the Exercise Challenge, go HERE.
Every time a new person entered their name for the Vision Forum drawing, I would think, "Oh, I want that person to win!" I am such a wimpy giveaway girl. But I kept reminding myself of Proverbs 16:33. "The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord."
There were six of you who entered, so my husband and I numbered you 1 - 6. My husband rolled a die, and NUMBER TWO was the winner!
Erna!
I'm not sure your email address is going to work for me. I tried it and got it back, and just tried again. Just in case, can you send me your home address at beccabeard at verizon dot net? :-)
Trying to be the perfect Mom is so very humbling because I am so far from perfect. I have so many areas to work on in my own life so that I can be an effective Mom to my own four children. With this blog, I plan to share my struggles and victories and hope to hear from you about your own so we can encourage one another!
The link above is to my store where there are titles that have encouraged me as a parent or that we have read together during our Family Read-Aloud time in the evenings and were a huge hit with everyone. I hope you can find something intriguing for yourself and your family from our list of favorites.
Long hair is great with a niece as well. I used to keep my niece and when she outgrew the afternoon nap thing, while the others were napping, I would recline on the couch with my hair hanging over the end (how nice for me) while my niece brushed and brushed and BRUSHED my hair. She would go on forever! I have naturally curly hair and by the time she was done, I usually looked like the bride of Frankenstein. Really, I'm okay with that. ;-)
But I was pleasantly surprised. A pretty braid down the MIDDLE of my head - as opposed to the side or top. My girl is growing up! Learning how to do hair! I never thought I would miss those days when she was yanking my head around with the brush, but I did get a little nostalgic today.
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