Weigh In - End of WiiActive Challenge

Today is Weigh In Day over at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans so this morning AFTER breakfast (yes, I always weigh myself after breakfast, but with lightweight clothes and flip flops on)I went over to the gym to weigh myself. I wasn't real sure what my numbers were going to be this morning. I have been pretty stressed out, but I have been pretty consistent with the exercising and pretty good with the food with the exception of the brownie smidges I have been grabbing every morning...ya know chocolate helps the day get started....right???

I started this Shrink For Good -- Lose for Good weighing in at 199.9, moved up to 202.10 then back down. So what was today going to show me??

I jumped on the scale and read the numbers and was very PLEASED -- 197.7!!
OMG, those numbers are finally coming down!! I have 2 more pounds to go before I am officially at 30 pounds lost! and maybe by then I can really squeeze into a size 14...please??!!

I have been working out with the other women with the Wii Active and tonight is my Day 30. This has been fun and challenging. Some days are more challenging and some days not so bad. It has been good for me, cuz it has offered some flexibility and this past month I have really needed that flexibility.

I have also added in the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, although I really haven't been able to be very consistent with it. I started the Level 3 on Monday night so I'm about 7 days behind on it. I'm going to go ahead and work with it to the end. I have found that I really have improved ALOT! I'm doing alot more of the exercises with NATALIE!! I still can't do "full blown sit-ups" so I have just been doing crunches.

Anyway -- because of my weight gain during week 2 I am calling my weight loss 4.4 pounds for this challenge, so far. My goal is to lose AT LEAST 2 more pounds so that by the end of the Lose for Good challenge I can be at a total of 30 pounds lost since March 25!

Hope ya'll are having a good week!!

Tiny Talk Tuesday -- School Time

Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting! If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor! Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.

As a homeschooling mom I get the distinct pleasure of watching my child learn something new every day! This is the most exciting part of homeschooling for me.
This week has started off well for us in the school department. Time to just spend learning and doing -- as well as playing! That is one of the most important parts of learning, I think (at least for a boy).

Yesterday, That Other Kid was working on a worksheet. Just 3 weeks ago, he hated working in this book, but he has really started enjoying it. You have to write the lower case and upper case letters as well as color the picture. The picture is color coded according to upper case letters and lower case letters, so he has to pay attention to the picture and color it according to right colors.

While he was working on this page he was looking at the colors and trying to figure out for himself what colors to color the picture. He looked at the word "red" and SOUNDED IT OUT!! phonetically!! I was so stinkin' proud of him. Phonics is not his strength, but he is GETTING IT!!

He has been walking around the house sounding out letters and trying to figure out how they sound! It's soooo exciting for me to see him sorting it out "on his own"!

Just another day in the life of a homeschooling mom with a kindergarten boy!!

WiiActive Challenge

I'm down to only having 4 more days of the 30 Day Challenge on the Wii Active that the Sisterhood is currently working through. Last night (Workout Day 16) was by FAR the most difficult and challenging day I have done in the challenge. With the exception of maybe 5 of the 19 exercises, all of the exercises were INTENSE LEG EXERCISES! My knees and quads were absolutely killing me!! I moved up from the medium intensity to the HARD intensity a week and a half ago or so, and last night I was really wishing I HADN'T!!

Toward the end of this intense workout they had me RUN FOR SIX MINUTES! By this time my legs were feeling like they were not going to hold me up any longer and I just wanted to lie on the floor and cry, but I kept going....but I was not running the way they wanted me to. She kept telling me to "pick up the pace", "you can do better than that", and etc. I was actually SCREAMING at my TV. I rarely do that, but I was so sore and hurting THAT much! The next exercise was a 60 second SQUAT HOLD! Are you kidding me?? I tried to do it but could only go a few seconds at a time, so she kept yelling at me about that, too!

I'm still so sore today, that I can barely walk around the house! They told me that tonight's workout would be less intense and would work my upper body. If I find out they are lying to me I don't think I will be able to do the workout tonight!

So have you done the Day 16 workout? Did you feel like you were "going to die"???

You Capture -- Happiness

Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry (and btw, so should I) as is evidenced by the pile of laundry that has been sitting here the past couple of days....
anywho...she is holding her weekly photo meme and this week the subject is Happiness.

As I just told you in the previous post I've been in a funk this week so getting school done has been a bit of a challenge (not for That Other Kid, but for me) so I'm looking for creative ways to call our activities "educational". Yesterday was PE -- we went to the park with friends for several hours and he ran himself to exhaustion, then we went to Half-Priced Books and sold some CD's, and I called that Marketing and Sales, then we went to Karate and he had more PE and Science (balance was the object of study). Today I wanted to work on some "real" school but he had other ideas, so I had to think of more creativity.

He got the legos out and wanted me to play with him. I haven't played legos with him in quiet some time so I obliged. But I decided to make a lesson out of it -- Yes, I can be creative! We did science and math! He had to count the Lego holes to make them match, and then we each made our own cars to have a RACE down a ramp (science/physics and the study of gravity, ya know!)

It was a lot of fun and it brought great happiness to my boy who is always looking for some kind of competition! We changed our "cars" around and checked out the sizes that would roll fastest!

Here is just one of the test races:



This boy brings so much happines!! Now he just brought me his Bible and asked me to read it him....wow!! What could bring a momma more happiness??!
Gotta go!!

A Bit of a Funk....

Things are stressful right now, so I'm in a bit of a funk. Once again I didn't make it to the gym to weigh myself yesterday and it doesn't look like I'm going to make it there today either, so I'm going to go with the weight that I was on Saturday morning, which is an ok loss for this week!

Weigh-in last Thursday: 199.10
Weigh-in Saturday: 198.8

Yeah!! That's more than a pound in a period of 3 days! I'll take it! That means as of Saturday I have gone from 199.9 to 203.9 back down to 198.8 so we'll call it 5 pounds lost, k?? So I will be donating 5 pounds of non-perisable food to the local food back, as of Saturday!! I'm counting on at least 5 more pounds...

I'm sure someone will appreciate my math!!

How'd your week go??

Dominoes Can Be A Great Math Lesson!!

This morning we were getting ready to work on school, but That Other Kid wanted to play dominoes, so I decided to incorporate a game of dominoes into his math lesson of the day!! Nothing like playing and doing school at the same time, huh??!!

So every time he down a domino I had him add up the 2 numbers that were on the domino, for example if he had a 2 and 4 he was going to say the equation 2+4=6. He had to do this for the domino that I sat down too! So when were all done with our little game of dominoes he had 28 math problems solved! And he had FUN!!!

This is what I love about homeschooling!! He even wanted to play again!!

Word of Advice

If you are doing the WiiActive 30 Day Challenge with the Sisterhood and for whatever reason have to take 2 nights off in a row, DO NOT try to do the HIGH intensity level! I was not able to workout in the evenings the past 2 nights due to scheduling complications. On Thursday night I bumped my intensity up from medium to high and did OK. I was sore, but not in a "I'm gonna die" way. Then I had to take Friday night and Saturday night off. Tonight I didn't really think much about it and just got started as it was set up for High Intensity --- OUCH!! My legs hurt, my b*tt hurts, my arms hurt!! Maybe it would not have been so bad but there were a TON of LUNGES tonight and a 4 hour kick back walk around the track (not really but it seemed like it)!! Oh my gosh, I hurt!!

Now I'm going to try to do my 30 Day Shred routine with Jillian. I'm on Level 2 and it still kicks my b*tt every night, so tomorrow if you don't hear from me, maybe I never got out of bed, cuz I couldn't move my legs!!

Hope ya'll had a productive weekend!!

Edited *** I didn't Shred after all!! By the time I was ready, my legs were hurting so I went to bed and got almost 8 hours of sleep even though I stayed up late exercising and catching up on some of my favorite blogs!!

Weigh In Wednesday on Thursday!!

Yesterday was a crazy, mixed up day and I never made it over to the gym for my weekly weigh in with the Sisterhood. I can't remember the last time I missed a weigh in on Wednesday but the way things have been going the past couple of weeks it was inevitable that it would eventually happen. I took dh to his new contract job leaving our house at 6:30 a.m. and came home to catch up on some sleep. I slept until 10:45 and then left to hang out at the park with some other desperate homeschooling moms (it's been raining here for 7 days straight and we all had little children who needed to burn energy!)till 2:30. After leaving the park we grabbed a quick lunch, sold some CD's that had been collecting dust in my house for years, then went to karate! From there we came home to change clothes and the cat's sandbox!! ugh!! Then we went to run a couple more errands before picking dh up from work at 8 p.m.!! We got home, showered, got ready for bed....and collapsed!!

I did manage to exercise last night -- although I didn't start till nearly 11 p.m.! I am really LOVING working out with the Wii Active!! It's something different every night and challenging enough to get my heart beating and my body sweating! I have also added the Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred to my workout regimen, although I have missed several days of it. I'm on level 2 and it's kicking my b*tt every night! However, it feels good to workout and sweat and burn off more poundage!

So....anyway! My numbers...

Starting this challenge -- 199.9
Last week -- 202.10

Today -- 199.9

So I'm right back where I started from but I did manage to lose what weight I gained the previous week, so I'm happy about that! I think it must have been water weight or hormones or something weird!! Whatever it was I'm happy to be back UNDER 200 again, where I belong!! So I'm donating 3 pounds of food to the local food bank with a happy dance!! **** ~~~~~

Hope ya'll did well this week and if you didn't -- don't sweat it!! Just adjust what you did this past week so that you continue to go down!!

You Capture -- Up Close

"Up close" is the topic of this week for Beth's photo meme. This one was actually pretty easy for me. I am usually pretty close to That Other Kid, as he hangs out wherever I am. He decided that our living room needed to have a race track as well as a bucket of Legos to occupy space with us today so since there wasn't much room left for actual movement he was within inches of me while I was sitting here wasting time instead of being productive!

So I snapped a picture with my handy dandy Blackberry phone of him building the loop part of the race track. Can you tell how intense this exercise was to him? His hands were struggling to snap those pieces together and for some reason he struggled for a few minutes with it! He asked why are you taking a picture of me now....I told him I wanted to! Oh, ok!! so long as I have a reason, huh?!!

Check out all the other pictures of "Up Close" over at Beth's. You won't be disappointed!

Kindergarten Tiny Talk

Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting! If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor! Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.

Today was day 5 of kindergarten for That Other Kid and it started off rather shaky, but ended on a much better note. I love homeschooling for the flexibility it allows and the opportunity for me to watch my kids "get it"!! It is not for the wimpy, though! It is challenging and it does take time, but so does parenting...so you just have to decide what is best for you and your family.

As I said today started off shaky -- That Other Kid didn't want to do handwriting, but I have learned do the things that are most difficult first thing or it won't get done. He has learned to write all of his capital letters almost to perfection, just because he wanted to, but lower case is a real struggle for him so that is what we are working on. I handed him a handwriting paper and told him to copy the letters by following the dots and tracings offered. He looked at the paper (keep in mind it was the first assignment of the day) and promptly informed me that "I'm just too tired to do school today!" I knew this was his way of telling me "I don't want to do this", so I told him "Ok, I guess if you are too tired to do school today then you should go take a nap, instead of playing with your toys or doing school".

Amazingly he was energized enough to complete the assignment!! After doing his handwriting assignment we moved on to phonics worksheet. No problems there, when he paid attention! Next we moved onto math! Math is his favorite subject and he is really good at it (probably related, huh?). Kindergarten math was not going to be challenging enough for him so I bought 1st grade ABeka -- So I'm telling him how to do the assignment and he looks at it and says, "Oh, that's EASY PEASY!! Why is this (simple addition) so easy??" (In case you don't know "easy peasy" comes from Dragon Tales on PBS.) It cracked me up!

Next we moved onto Geography (he loves maps and identifying everything to where it is in relation to Texas). We got the US map out and the World Globe and I explained and named all the continents and oceans, then gave a little pop quiz! He is so intrigued by maps it's amazing! Everything relates back to traveling from Texas to "wherever" whether in car or by plane, so it was a fun exercise in distances!

Homeschooling at it's finest!! Gotta love learning!!

I Goofed Big Time....

When I first started this blog I wanted to use it as a place to vent my frustrations and have a place just for me to be me. Over the past couple of years that I've had the blog that's pretty much what I have done. But over the weekend it came to my attention that I was hurting someone with the words I was writing on some of my entries. So I will be looking back through my blog entries over the next couple of days and I will be deleting negative and hurtful things about my family. There may be times when the blog will be down or unaccessible during this time, don't worry I'm not shutting it down, just revamping it some.

The majority of my blog has been about me and the boys and the day to day life of raising 2 boys growing up in 2 different generations. I will continue discussing the challenges that come up with this and the things they do. I will continue to write about my weight loss and exercise routines, as a means of journaling and possibly helping someone else going through these same challenges. However, from this point on there will be things that I won't discuss -- personal stuff about dh, or the boys. I will also make an effort to leave the reader wanting to come back for more instead of leaving here and thinking I need therapy.

Hope ya'll have a good day!

This Month's Pictures

You may or may not remember but I have taking pictures of myself to watch the process of my weight loss in a visual format and today is picture takin' day. I have gotten to the point where I actually look forward to this bit of visual stimulation. It helps me SEE what I have done in the past month. For me this almost as important as seeing the numbers on the scale going down. So without further delay....

this is last month -- August 11














and this is today -- September 11













I can actually see these pants sagging at the b*tt and legs! And is it me or does my b*tt actually look smaller in today's picture?? When I first started working out I couldn't wear these pants comfortably. The shirt is still snug around the stomach but it's not as much as it was several months ago. I am amazed at the amount of stretch my clothes had to do just so I could wear them!

Anywho...I just thought I would show you the progress I've made...although I still have much more to go I'm seeing some real results! In other news, tonight was my "rest" night in the Wii Active 30 Day Challenge so I did the WiiFit Hula for the first time in about 2 weeks...boy did I lose a lot of momentum! I also have been working out using Jillian's 30 Day Shred and tonight was the first night of Level 2! Man that is a killer....I still struggle to keep up with some of the cardio workouts and I did a good part of tonight's workout following Anita (for beginners) but it felt good to push myself and sweat!! Now my muscles are sore and tired and I need to go take a shower and go to bed...maybe it'll only be 12:30 tonight instead of my "as of late" 1:00 a.m.!!

You Capture -- Something New

This week's challenge for the You Capture photo meme was to photograph something you have never photographed before.

I'm not real orignal when it comes to taking pictures so this was more challenging than I thought it would be. What is something that I haven't taken a picture of? Well most of my pictures are of my boys or something that they do. This one does fit that category, but I've never taken a picture of That Other Kid playing a computer game for KINDERGARTEN! So...here ya go!!




He is soaking up all the "learning" going on around here...as long as it's something he WANTS to do! Today we started working on some phonics and I got a bit of resistance, but it was pretty minor compared to what I dealt with with That Kid! I struggled a bit with getting him to sit for story time today so we just moved on to something else...MATH is his favorite subject and as I said on Facebook today, what is wrong with this kid?? I can't even imagine loving math the way he does and he is great at it, too, which probably helps considerably!

So....anywho...go back to Beth's site and check out all the other "different things" that people are taking pictures of!

Week2 Weigh In 30 Day Challenge

Today is weigh in day and I'd like to say I had a great week with lot's of weight loss, but I would be lying.
Last week I was at 199.9! I was so happy to see that number under 200! This week I weighed in at 202.10 how did that happen?
How can I gain 3 pounds in 1 week while still exercising and eating well? I don't get it! I'm very bummed, but I know it's not going to keep me down! It's a process and I will get where I want to be!
So I will start watching what I'm eating, drinking, and how I'm working out. I need to make sure my workouts are intense enough and maybe even longer!

I am loving the challenge with the Wii Active. I like how it changes every day and it gives me days off occasionally! I also love how it motivates me, although the trainer does get annoying by the end of the workout.

What I HATE about the workout is the RUNNIng, but that's because I HATE running and I'm slow so they criticize me every time.

Anyway, today starts a new week and better determination to get this weight off!

1st Day of Kindergarten - Tiny Talk Tuesday

Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting! If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor! Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.


Today was the first day of Kindergarten in our homeschool! It was a very exciting time for both That Other Kid and I. I'm not sure who was more excited -- but I would guess it was him! Yesterday while we were eating dinner as a "complete" family (meaning That Kid was home for the weekend) we started talking about "stuff" happening since he's been gone. I mentioned that after That Kid got up and left for school Tuesday morning, that we would be starting Kindergarten. That Other Kid got so excited he was literally bouncing up and down in his chair! That's what I call enthusiastic!

I didn't really get a chance to prepare for school the way I had intended but I knew pretty much what I wanted to accomplish. This morning we got up and did our normal stuff and I had planned to start school about 11 a.m. and work till 1, then go to the park for a couple of hours to burn off some of his energy and get in his "PE" and "socialization" for the day.

About 10:30 That Other Kid was finished with breakfast, dressed and "rearin' to go". He said, "When are we EVER going to start school! I need to "get smart"! So I finished my breakfast and at 10:45 a.m. this morning we "officially" started kindergarten! It was a great day and it was fun to "start over" with an enthusiastic student.

He is a visual, kinestetic learner, so about half way through the "school day" (which was about 2 hours today) I sent him for a little run down the block! Then we sat on the couch and I read a couple of readings from William Bennett's Children's Book of Virtues. It was nice to have a little "snuggle time" in the midst of our school time.

He loves maps, so I had him color a map of Texas while coloring in some of the major rivers. He informed me that there are "28" rivers in Texas. "Wow! That's a lot of rivers, huh, Mom? and did you know there is a river in Texas that looks like a "beavers dam" because it cuts off part of the state?" Tomorrow we will continue our study of Texas with the state bird, flower, flag, etc. I can't wait to see what WE learn tomorrow!

Phonics will be our "struggling" area but I love the ABEKA reading/phonics program so we will work with that and get through it. Today our letter/sound of the day was "I" (the short vowel) and the symbol of the "i" was an indian. He wasn't sure what an "indian" was so I got to explain what an indian is in simple kindergarten type vocabulary. He had to find all the capital "I's" and the lower case "i's" in a word find puzzle. The letter "I" was formed with capital "I" and the lower case "i" was formed with lower case "i's" in the puzzle, too!

He thought that was the "funniest" part of school.

Hey, whatever it takes to make it FUN...that's what I'm all about!

30 Day Challenge --- Wii Active

Yesterday started another new challenge with the Sisters. I'm excited about all these challenges because they will keep me moving in the right direction -- DOWN!! I will be continuing on my track of good health and I will be helping others at the same time with the Weight Watchers Lose For Good Challenge. I'm also going to start the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred tonight. This will be the third time I have done it, so let's see how many of the routines I can do with "hard-core Natalie"?!! Anyone want to join me in the torture??!

Anyhooo...last night I was running behind my "normal" workout schedule and didn't get started till VERY late. I was already extremely tired and my quadricepts were sore from the practice routine I did SATURDAY night. What's up with that?? With all that in mind I figured I better set my challenge up for "easy routine". Plus everyone else that I had heard from earlier in the day said it "kicked their butts" and if it kicked their butts being at least 10 years younger and way less weight I better just start off slow, ya know? So, I did the easy setting and other than all that freakin' running I did well and wasn't really all that sweaty and tired! So I guess I'm in better physical condition than I thought I was! I absolutely HATE RUNNING, though and they kept telling me I was going "too slow"! It was awful! and my "girls" were bouncing around like they were unsupported! So time to double up the support system, I guess!

So, bottom line is I'm going to LOVE this new challenge and I'm excited that they give me "assigned" days of rest! So that will allow me to do some different routines or even take an occasional night off from the Wii. I will continue to do the 30 Day Shred DVD because I know myself too well. If I take time off from everything I will just sit on the couch, blog, watch tv, and EAT! Not a good combination for a girl who still has 60 pounds to lose!

So all in all, I say I'm looking forward to this challenge and all that it will mean for my overall health! And get this....last night dh was watching me do the Wii Active and he said that it actually looked like something he might enjoy. What a great way to be healthy together!


Edited** Wow I just noticed that this is my 400th post! Wow have I been doing this that long?? Um, maybe I need to celebrate, huh??