Fitness Friday?

Well this should be an interesting journey ... I am really not one of those super athletic people, never really have been. I like going out and being active, but usually in the form of playing with the kids or taking along walk around a flea market. Every year in June, I do a closed circuit super walk, which takes 2 to 3 hours ... otherwise known as the yearly Kilworth garage sale event. My fitness philosophy is really simple ... I am comfortable with my hour glass figure ... even if it has a bit of extra sand in it. 

Seriously though, as I creep up to being 40, I think that it has become more important to be a bit more focused on my fitness (or lack there of). I recently read a blog, where a women set a goal of losing 40 pounds by her 40th birthday and that got me thinking .... I think I could do that. If I lost 40 lbs, I would be the size that I was before I had my children. Not that I am really focused on being that size again, but I think that it would be nice to my arms and legs a bit toner and perhaps less of a mommy tummy wouldn't be too bad either. 

So, here is my plan ... did I mention that it is a long term plan ... I have 4 years before I reach 40. Yah, I know, but I figure if I get started now, I'm more likely to meet my goal. Not that I am lazy, just that I have 3 kids, and in less than a month, I start babysitting 3 more kids, so I am pretty sure my current daily schedule is about to go up in smoke!

Let's start with what I am NOT going to do ...

• No gym membership - Let's be realistic here for a minute ... with the daily care of six kids and only two days in a weekend, most of which are already booked up for the summer, this would be like taking my husband's hard earned money and setting fire to it. Because I am such a thrifty shopper, I refuse to do this. I am determined, that if I am going to do this, I am going to do it much like I do everything else ... old school. I know that I will not have the time to spend at the gym, so I am not going to set myself up for failure. If and when I have time I will take a singular class here and there, but I refuse to waste my money on a membership that will get limited use.
• No dieting - So here's the thing with dieting ... I LIKE FOOD! I like to cook food, I like to bake food, I like to bbq food, I like to buy food and I like to eat food! On the whole, my family eats very well, especially in the summer months. We eat tonnes of fresh fruits and vegetables, homemade salads and soups, and limited junk "food". Very few things that I cook come from a box or a can. I love to cook, so I make a lot from scratch, even my bread thanks to my new bread maker. I am planting my vegetable garden this weekend, and looking forward to making my own pasta sauce this fall. I can and preserve lots of fresh food for the winter as well. The only junk that we have around is usually, when we have people over, or on special occasions. When my kids ask for a snack, their first choice is always some type of fruit, vegetable or yogurt. So, needless to say,  I am very comfortable with what I and my family eat. 
• No substitutions - This is one of my big pet peeves. I am a firm believer in "everything in moderation", so ... when I want chocolate, I am eating chocolate, not something chemically produced to taste like chocolate. When I want potatoes, I am not eating cauiflour mash. Spaghetti, not spaghetti squash, and I am sorry, but low fat ice cream ... come on, please! That is just wrong in so many ways. I am going to rely on my will power and treat myself when it is necessary and appropriate ... when I feel like it really!

I love the new Coca-Cola commercial. It very plainly states the truth, "All calories count, no matter where they come from, including Coca-Cola and everything else with calories, and if you eat and drink more calories than you burn off, you'll gain weight."

My husband, loves this commercial too, although he tends to see may things as black or white, he does make this really good point also, and has for years ... if you burn off more calories than you eat, you won't gain weight. And, yes, I now that there are shades of grey here, but the basic premise is correct. For the average person without other underlying health problems this is a true fact. 

So, here is what I am going to do ...

• Walk - I love walking. With my kids, my friends, or even by myself. Early evening walks are my favourite. A couple of weeks ago some of the other mom's and I started walking in the evenings, once are husbands were home and our kids were off to bed. It has been great, we talk, we walk, and it is so much fun. We have started with once a week and are aiming to do it twice a week during the summer. It offers the added bonus of getting me out of the house for some time to myself and some adult conversation.
• Work out at home - I do love to use my treadmill at home, and have been using it through the winter. I guess just a little too much, since it has just recently gone toward the light ... great now what? I have spent weeks looking on line for some workouts that I can easily do at home. Below are the workouts that I have found and decided to try out for the summer. Once I start babysitting, and have a better idea of what my daily schedule id going to be like, I am going to try to come up with a workout schedule involving these workout routines.

Saints & Slimmers 30 Day Squat Challenge

Daily Spark's Lose Your Love Handles Workout

iVillage's Tone Your Arms in 7 Days

Well, this is were I am going to start. Wish me luck , and check back in on Fridays for updates. Next week I will post my starting point and map my progress!

Happy Exercising, 
Heather

Spring Cleaning 101

Spring may be taking it's sweet time getting here (and staying), but that doesn't mean that I can keep putting off the spring cleaning! 

No, really, I am sure. I have been putting it off long enough. I am not a huge clean freak, but I do love a great sunny day with a warm breeze, so that I can open all of the windows and get out all of the winter dust. 

Over the last year I have been working with, and modifying my weekly cleaning schedule. Here is my original post. I think I finally have it just perfect. In my world, I don't have a ton of time to clean. I am a stay at home mom, so I guess I could have lots of time to clean, but I'd rather be spending that time with my children, after all that is the point of being a stay at home mom. 

So, I created a system, that works for me, which is basically cleaning during nap time. When my youngest goes down for his nap, I use that time for my cleaning, exercising and one to one time with my middle child. So, needless to say, I have to make the most of this limited window of "free" time.  

With a few changes, here is my updated weekly cleaning schedule. I printed out the two pages, then laminated them together, back to back. Each week I use a wipe off or dry erase marker to fill it out, while I am making my grocery list. The second page had some extra room, so I added a little humour and a little inspiration.

The really nice thing about my schedule is that I can now get my daily cleaning done in about 20 minutes a day. The kids are used to it now too, so they know that they need to be in the play room, while mommy is cleaning. Once I am done, I have 30 minutes for my exercise routine, then an hour for one to one time with my middle child, which usually consists of art and crafts. Hopefully, the schedule will keep working once I start babysitting in June. 

While my weekly cleaning schedule is great for daily dirt and clutter, I do save a special list for spring cleaning to get rid of the built up and deep down dirt! The kind that hibernates for the winter. I do love the feeling of getting everything sparkling clean (at least once a year)! This year I made a full list of room by room chores that I'll be using. I laminated it as well, to save for future years. I still spread my spring cleaning out over about a week, so that I don't kill myself all in one day and I can still spend time with the kids, doing what we love ... playing!

Happy Cleaning, 
Heather

Wordless Wednesday - Spring (At Last)

Wordless Wednesday - Awesome

* Cheating here, just for a minute - here's how it works ... every Wednesday I type a word into a Google search and share my favourite images from the search. There are amazing and beautiful things all around us. Please enjoy ... 

Happy Wednesday, 
Heather

Life Lesson # 35

I can't believe it is April 1st, and my last post was 8 months ago. Where does the time go, and how did it get so far away from me?

I am kind bummed that I didn't get to share my Autumn fun blogs with you all. September to December has to be my favourite time of year! And I am NOT a winter person, but I love the festive nature of those 4 months. No need to worry though, I'll save them for this fall and be sure to improve upon them.

I have spent the last eight months doing what I'd like to think, I do best, (at least I am most proud of it) ... taking care of my family. In the the fall we, unfortunately, lost three members of our family in a six week span.

First we lost my beloved father in law. Merv passed away days before Thanksgiving, so of course the holidays have been very difficult, especially since he loved them so much. Just writing about him brings tears to my eyes. At a very young 63 years, his poor body just couldn't take anymore. He was such a gem in our lives, and I am doing everything I can to ensure that my young daughters don't forget who he was. I want them to remember his loving nature, his sense of humour and his warm smile. My husband, of course,  has been devastated. Just this weekend, while watching something very random on television, he was overcome with emotion. It is very hard for me to be his rock. But thank God for the strength that he has given me. And thank goodness for crying in tub and chocolate mint ice cream for my weak moments. Losing someone so close to both of us, has really shown how well we work together and how much we really mean to each other.

With in a few short weeks we lost the matriarchs of our family, my great aunt and my grandmother. I have to say dealing with their deaths, so close to each other was some what easier to deal with that I had expected.  At 89, my great aunt had been suffering poor health for some time and her passing was expected, and my grandmother, at 86, had told us that she had lived a long life and was prepared to rest. She began her radiation treatments in August, and only after two short weeks it was discovered that it was too late. The unfortunate thing, is that she became very confused very quickly, and it was difficult to see that look in her eyes. I hang onto my memories of her clear moments and replay her words in my head. I count my blessings, the greatest one being the very last conversation that I had with her. In the end, I am thankful that my grandmother did not suffer for a long period of time.

The most difficult aspect of my grandmother's death has been dealing with my extended family. I know that loosing someone you love is hard, and that everyone grieves in their own way, but I am pretty sure that these people have lost their minds. I have come to the point, where I can't even believe that I  grew up with these people and didn't see this side of them, I don't know them at all. In a sense, I have not only lost my grandmother, but I have lost an entire portion of my extended family. That has been extremely hard.

And what have I learned? How do I move on? Where do I go from here?

It has been reinforced to me that every minute IS valuable, every cloud DOES have a silver lining and that which does not kill you DOES make you stronger.

In the end, I have taken stock of the people in my life and the people in my children's lives. We now know who we can trust in our lives and with our children. The remaining members of our family have drawn closer, communicate better and love stronger. My goal in life is to live for my children. Everything my husband and I do is for them, they are our greatest gifts in life, the best thing we have ever done and our living legacy. This situation has shown us again, how much we mean to each other and what is most important to us.

Now what? Well, with the holidays wrapped up, the family back into our regular routine and new adventures on the horizon ... it's time to move on!

So, buckle up and join me for the ride. I have more to say, more to do and more to share. I hope that you will enjoy the ride with me!

Sincerely yours,
Heather

Summer Fun - Pirate Week

Wow! Where did the summer go? We have been so busy around here, with lots of visitor, so a few of a week long themes were done in just a few days. On the bonus side, that gives me some left over materials and ideas to stash away for next summer!

Pirate week was a blast, of course, as I expected. Years ago just after my second child was born, I put together a pirate day for my daughter and she just loved it. She talks about it all the time. So every year since, I have had more pirate fun ideas for her. This is the first time I have done a whole week of pirates, and it went really well. The only problem I had, was how in the world am I going to top myself next year for pirate week!

Pirate Decorations
I found some wonderfully free pirate party decorations and decided that they would be a great addition to the house for the week. I used Bnute's Lil Pirates Ahoy Banner along with some reusable and repositionable window and wall stickers from the dollar store.

Pirate Nature Scavenger Hunt
We started our week off with a trip to Sifton Bog, a wonderful, natural floating bog, for a nature scavenger hunt. I printed out a free Pirate Treasure Nature Scavenger Hunt checklist from The Flourishing Abode. I laminated the list, grabbed a dry erase marker and camera, and off we went.

Because the bog is an environmentally significant area, we did not pick or take with us any part of nature. Instead it turn into a big game of I Spy, with the kids working together to point out everything off the list.

 

Our Gold Doubloons

Pirate Games
Thank goodness for gold spray paint! I used my left over spray paint from the Olympic games, to spray some rocks gold and viola ... gold nuggets! I also picked up some gold coins from the party store and the kids were ready to dig for treasure.

Materials Needed:

• large widemouthed bucket or small pool
• play sand
• water
• rocks
• gold spray paint
• plastic coins
• shovels
• tin pie plates (foil ones are not strong enough)
• nail and hammer (to make holes in pie plate)

I used a small bucket full of play sand from the sand box and buried the gold nuggets and coins in the bucket, then filled it with water. I made gold pans out of foil pie plates, and discovered that they were not strong enough. I have since picked up a couple of tin pie plates up from the second hand store. I used the nail and hammer to punch some holes in the pans. It was kind of fun, to make a neat pattern in each pie plate. Once the kids had their shovel in hand, they were off to find treasure!

The kids made up a pirate ball game which was basically a cross between capture the flag, soccer, and run around the yard kicking a ball. We used a pirate flag and a couple of balls. They put the flag on one side of the yard and someone guarded the flag. Then the others started on the opposite side of the yard, kicking their ball across the yard to try and get it past the flag guard. If they got their ball past the flag guard, they would grab the flag and run to the other side of the yard with it. They they became the flag guard, and the other kids continued to try and get their ball past the new guard. At least, I am pretty sure that is how they were playing. What ever the rules were, they had a blast doing it!

After dinner, we played some games inside too! I had picked up a really cute wooden pirate tic tac toe set from Winners last year after Christmas, and it was a good $3.00 spent! I also picked up a pin the patch on the parrot game from the party store. I spent and extra $5.00 to get it laminated, so that I could save it for next year too!

Pirate Activity Book
Once again, I made an activity binder using various packs and activity pages. I laminated just about everything and put it all together in one large binder. Here are the ones that I used.

• Pirate Pre-K Pack by Over The Big Moon
• Pirate Lap Book by Homeschool Creations
• Jake and The Neverland Pirates Kindergarten Printables & Pirate K Fun Pack by 1plus1plus1plus1equals1

Pirate Treasure Hunt
A couple of years ago, I bought a wonderful pirate treasure chest from Smilemakers. They now have two sizes. Every year, I fill the box with some random treasures and hide it some where in the house.

I make the map using a roll of brown packaging paper, which I picked up at the dollar store. I cut out a map shape, coloured it in with some details, then crinkled it up to look worn.

I leave the map some where in the house so the girls can easily find it, with a couple of pirate hats and swords. Once they find the map, they are on the hunt!

Pirate Paper Activities
Lastly, we of course, read lots of pirate books over the week and did some pirate colouring. Education.com has the best selection of paper activities for various ages.

Pirate Week Checklist

Well, with summer winding down, this is my last theme week. I didn't manage to get to our science week, which I was really excited about, but I will be saving those activities for March Break. Now it's time to get ready for back to school! I hope that you have had as much fun this summer with your kids as I have had with mine!


Happy Looting,
Heather