So, I saw a photo of me a few weeks ago and didn’t realize for a minute that it was me.

Yes, it was that unflattering.

Something must be done and now.  I asked around at my favorite online homeschool mom hangout and noticed many were talking about p90X -a series of hard-core video workouts.  I decided this is for me; But first, I needed to get up off the couch and do some kind of exercising, because doing p90x straight from couch-potato status probably would lead to my quitting exercise all-together.

Know thy enemy: My enemy is myself.

I went ahead and made an account over at Beachbody (publishers of p90x) and found an online coach (another homeschool mom)  I asked my coach about counting calories, something I haven’t ever attempted because I know I would stink at it… She told me about My Fitness Pal – which is a really cool smartphone app and website.  I don’t think calorie counting was ever this easy or addicting.  I think of it as my own online video game…of sorts.

You can sign up for an account, it will ask you for your height, weight, sex, level of current activity (does walking to the computer and fridge count??) and your goal -weight loss, maintain, gain?  The site will then calculate how many calories a day you should be eating to make your goal.  The neat part, as you enter in everything you eat, it subtracts calories and lets you know how many you have left for the day.

This is diet journaling at its finest.  It’s sadly eye-opening to realize how much junk you stuff your face with, and how little 1200 calories is compared to what you have become used to.  [ahem]

Your smartphone app and desktop will synch, which is really cool- if you are out at a restaurant, you can add to your food diary and even look up dishes to find nutritional content and to help you make a healthier choice.  I love that when you look up food items, they are usually already in the database with all the nutritional information already entered.  I also love that it remembers all the things I eat, and so, since I am a creature of habit, I can easily check off foods I’ve already entered as I eat them. You can also scan food packages with your phone and the information will pop up. How cool is that?

The online video game part?  You can sort of bargain for calories.  Go for an extra run, enter it and My Fitness Pal will add extra calories you are now allowed to have.  It’s a game…so if I get up off my butt and run I can have a bigger dinner?  Yes. Maybe.   I’ve discovered that at least for me, adding the extra calories slows my weight loss to almost nil, so I am staying with the base 1200 calories and not entering in my exercise.  But…if I really wanted dessert, I might play the game once in a while :)

The diary also keeps track of your water intake…I really need this.  With my anemia, I am often dehydrated – my hands often look prunish- like after you get out of being in water for a long time, except I haven’t been in water.  And yet, I don’t drink enough water.  Having the prompt on my screen is helping me to make sure I drink water.

You can make a profile at My Fitness Pal, track your weight and eating goals and make friends.  If you have an account (which is free) let me know in the comments and I will send you my username if you’d like to friend me.

So far I’ve lost 5lbs.  It’s such a slow race, kind of frustrating.

So, internets, any fitness advice?

*not a sponsored post

Oliver cozies up to Josie and “helps”/ “obstructs” art…

Hey bloggy friends!  Oh my, boy have I been absent, and-how!

So, much going on…where to start?  First up, it is year-end for our homeschooling.  I am finishing up projects with my high schoolers and having last meetings.

I started exercising daily- more than my sporadic walks around the block.  I am trying to gear up to start P90x but felt that I needed to do something first, since I was pretty much starting from couch-potato status.

I’m doing well with it, so far.  I’ve lost 4 lbs but seem to be stalled out there.  I really, really hate being on a diet, I just want it to be over quick so I can go back to gluttony.  Gluttony involving breads, chocolate and bagels preferred….

Bagels….yum.

where was I??

Ahem.  I went to a photography class last weekend.  Finally, someone took physical hold of my nikon and showed me how to find all the menus on it and how to change all the settings!  Insert rolling smiley face here>>

I went to the Great Homeschool Convention in Long Beach tonight.  I’ve been so busy I was only able to get there for an evening session.  I will be there tomorrow, too.

It has been something like 9 years since I last attended a homeschool convention (stuff for a later post) -and I am so excited to be at this one.  I forgot how much I love to hold new curriculum in my hot little hands!  I spent some time visiting the My Father’s World booth, looking over their high school courses and chatting with the nice ladies there.  Oh, somebody please stop me!!!  I just can’t give up the great hope of one day finding the ultimate curriculum that I wouldn’t need to tweak to death!!

A girl can dream.

I hope you all have a great Memorial weekend, I am looking forward to things slowing down and to getting back into the blogging groove, I miss my blog-friends!

Happy trails, friends!  :)

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

I requested a rustic, re-claimed wood farmhouse table, long enough to seat many Bible college boys around.  Sky happened, by luck, upon some spalted maple that was left unloved and forgotten, in someone’s backyard.  It had been rained upon, Summered upon, hailed upon, etc.

Sky purchased the wood, thinking he could salvage bits and pieces here and there for fashioning small projects.

For me, it was love at first sight!  I knew my time had come for the table of my dreams :)

We discussed just how rustic, uneven or not it should be.  Would the lines of the separate boards be left as they were, or would Sky sand and finish them into almost one smooth piece?  Would he fill in all the wonderful termite holes and nooks and crannies?

Could Sky convincingly fake a “live edge” on the boards?  The answer to all of these concerns was yes- as long as we could keep the natural charm intact.  The live edge came out beautiful.

love, love, love my table.

Sky said, “Hey girl, whatever you dream up, I will build for you.”  And he did.

love that man <3

~1~

The kids had their piano recital last Sunday.  Amie’s skirt and top were bright pink.  I went to target and bought a package of socks so she would have a pair to wear with her silver flats.  There were 3 pairs in the pack, they were all glittery- I intended for her to wear the silver glittery socks with her silver flats. [ahem]  In the rush of getting ready and out the door, simply handed her the package, figuring that she’d know what to do. Um, no.  As usual, I didn’t do a feet check until we were actually at the recital.  This is what I saw.  Many of my most embarrassing moments as a mom involve musical recitals.

~2~

Demi-Sky played a song from the Lord of the Rings movie soundtrack.  He played it entirely from memory.  I was so proud of him!

His socks were okay, whew!

~3~

Meg and Josie played a song from Tangled.  They did a really nice job.  It is wonderful to listen to the girls play together. It’s like the sacrifice of music lessons has started to pay off in enjoyment now.

Their shoes/socks were fine.  I don’t have to worry about checking them anymore.

~4~

We have a lot of saber fencing practice happening.  There is going to be a big national fencing tournament in Anaheim this Summer. This will be Josie’s first national event, she is getting in all the practice that she can.

~5~

Meg and Josie had standardized testing last week. Actually, it was supposed to be this week, but I read the memo wrong, apparently.  We’ll never really know, since I lost the memo.  I think I am A.D.D. mom.  So, I sent them off, solo- because Meg has her license!  (cue angels singing) and it all worked out okay.  They were having testing for kids with modified schedules/requirements and they went ahead and let my girls test, too.  It was really  nice to have the girls drive to and fro on their own.  My days sure have become less hectic.

~6~

Sky finished the rustic farm house table.  We brought it inside just in time to host a bunch of Bible school girls.  I love my table!  More photos coming soon!

~7~

I’ve decided to do the p90x fitness program.  I found an online coach and started an account over at the beachbody club website.  The account thing is really neat, I can schedule my workouts and then be kept accountable to actually doing them.  I’ve gained some pounds and frankly, something needed to be done.  I am going to be doing more walking/running  (by more I mean at all, I have hardly walked the past month) and do the 30day shred for a week before jumping into p90x, it looks pretty intense! I am hoping to blog my journey, but frankly the idea scares me a little. That, and my follow through is usually nil on many things.  I’m toying with the idea of just going for it and blogging it straight-up, or maybe blogging it but not publishing them until a few weeks go by and it becomes apparent that I will actually keep it up.  Not sure what I will do yet…

Any recommends for favorite at-home workouts?  Please share :)

7 quick takes is hosted over at Conversion Diary. Hop over to join up!

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

I like to open up my homeschool closet to share materials I find helpful in our homeschool journey, it’s been a while since I’ve shared… Of interest to me lately are these nifty Math workbooks by Flashkids.

After a slightly confusing lesson on decimals -for test prep purposes, I went to our local Barnes & Nobles to find some help.  I found these great little flashkids workbooks on fractions, I loved how the workbook walks you through all the ins & outs of fractions in small, incremental steps with lots of practice.  I thought, Eureka! (Ca motto…learning moment, people!) and decided to buy the fractions workbooks and go home and order one on decimals… -which they don’t make.  Cue unsmiley face.  I decided to skip that pesky section in the test prep workbook on comparing obscure, tiny decimals…problem solved. :)

So, this handy-dandy fractions activities workbook is small, at a non-threatening 9″ x 7″ size.  Each page moves you through understanding and using fractions in small non-threatening steps.  It explains what a fraction is, parts of the fraction, comparing sizes, common factors, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.  The only flaw might be the monster theme of the book.  I’m pretty picky when my kids are small, but after 2nd grade and up I don’t think it would be a problem.  (unless you really don’t want that in your house-which is why I am mentioning it, there are monsters, spiders, witches and vampires represented in silly manner).

This particular workbook is labeled 3rd grade – but we are using Math-U-See and my boys will not tackle fractions in that program till next school year, so for me, grade levels are kind of meaningless in Math.

This is a nice, simple workbook series that is great for test prep or introducing new concepts. Thumbs up :)

}I am linking up over at Learning ALL the time’s Favorite resource this week. Click over to find some other great learning finds!

*disclaimer: a totally spontaneous review of an item I purchased myself.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

okay, all that is hip and happening [in my mind]...!  Hey, homeschool’s cool!

er, not homeschool related, but I have to show you the legs of my reclaimed wood farmhouse table.  Sky is experimenting with this yellow first, with a top-coat of white, and then distressing/ rubbing some of the paint off.  I’ll keep you all posted, because I know you are as excited and impressed as I am! … I am so excited about my new table, it makes me smile every time I think about it!

I swear, thesis papers and Science projects will make me old before my time….  Meg made this wonderful (hey, I’m her mom-but I think it came out really good!) model of a prokaryotic cell.  It’s a soda bottle with jello.  She scooped out the cytoplasm jello and then laid in a red jello cylinder with a plastic chain inside for the nucleoid.  I didn’t think it would work!  That’ll teach me to doubt Meg’s creativity!  Still, I kind of grit my teeth when it’s science project time.  Sue me.

So I packed up the car with one jello prokaryotic cell model in a bucket and one hen in a cat carrier on my front seat. Don’t ask. Just believe me when I say that it really happened.

Homeschool beat is anarchy beat, [word].

Meg took her hen, Dapples to her Biola Star Biology class.  They are studying birds right now.  This just happened to collide with homeschool Science fair project day. Because, I live in a constant state of hecticness (yes, I just made up a word)  Did this all really happen this week?  Yes.  Homeschool’s cool & happening- [word].

How is your week shaping up, bloggy friends?