Exercise Challenge

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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Exercise Challenge

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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Die to Save the Planet

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."

And I Get to go Outside!!!

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.

Exercise Challenge

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.

A Winner!

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?  :-)

Exercise Challenge

So all last week I worked on getting rid of the piles on my desk.  I actually have two desks.  One in the kitchen, and another in our office.  I'm not usually a "piles" kinduvagal.  I usually like to take care of every last scrap of paper right away, but life stepped up a notch when our precious, squishable, SWEET, baby girl was born in December.  Look at how cute she is.  Talk about a little fatty!  LOL!

Anyway....I did work through the piles, and now have new piles, but my mind is at rest, knowing that the old piles are gone.  Hopefully the new piles won't turn into old piles - I'm very optimistic.

Last night I got back to work with exercising.  I bought a new Leslie Sansone video.  It has a 4 mile power walk as well as a more intense jog/walk, and I love it.  It's a good, hard workout.  I was majorly sweating and had a stitch in my side and it was great.  I really do enjoy exercising.  I like Kristy's idea of setting a weekly goal for miles walked.  I'm not sure I could walk as many miles as she does in a week.  How many miles are you walking each week, Kristy?  26????  I think I would do well to get in 16.  I'm going to give it a whirl this week.

Rebbekkah (stop by her blog and congratulate her on her pregnancy!  We're all hoping for a girl!) is challenging her kids to keep moving this summer.  I've been doing the same with mine.  I've added exercising into their school schedules and they love it.  They even do one of the easier Leslie Sansone workouts since it's getting so hot outside.  Other things they are doing is jogging around the block, First Son goes on a daily 1 - 2 mile bike ride, swimming, and then we all go on a bike ride together at least once a week.  I've found that getting my kids exercising is one of the easiest ways for me to get in some exercise during the week because I usually do it with them. 

Sign-in with Mr. Linky so we can all stop by and say howdy!  Leave a comment so I'll know you were here.

OH!  And while you're here, leave me a comment HERE so I can enter your name in the FREE Vision Forum Giveaway!!!  How can you pass it up?  ;-)

 

I Spent 3.48 at CVS Today

Wanna know what I got for 3.48?  I know.  You're dying to know.  HA! 

4 Dove deodorants for 10.00 (earn 3 ECB)
Listerine Smart Rinse - 3.49 (earn 3.49 ECB)
CVS Band-Aids - 1.99 (earn 1.99 ECB)
I used:
4 - .75 off Dove coupons
1.00 off Smart Rinse coupon
$3/$15 CVS coupon
6.99 ECB
For a grand total of 1.49!  (For 15.48 worth of stuff!)

Next transaction:
Excedrin - 9.99 (earn 3 ECB)
Oral B 2 pk. toothbrushes - 6.99 (earn 6.99 ECB)
I used:
2.00 off Excedrin coupon
3.00 off Excedrin coupon that printed out with my CVS receipt a couple of weeks ago.  Woohoo!
$3/$15 CVS coupon
6.99 ECB
For a grand total of 1.99!  (For 16.98 worth of stuff!)

In all, I earned 18.47 in ECBs for my next purchase!

If you're interested in learning about the CVS Extra Care Bucks program, go HERE for CVS 101 by Money Saving Mom.  It will be time well spent.

Exercise Challenge

As much as I understand the need for daily exercise, I had to take a week off from exercising this past week so I could catch up on life around here.  Since I've been exercising regularly, some things have fallen by the wayside.  I'm just not in a phase in life where I can do it all.  So either I exercise and get nothing else done, or I get other things done, but no exercise.  ;-)  Looking at the piles of things sitting on my desk, I think I will probably take another week off this week to get just a bit more together. 

This stage in life is hard for me because I thrive on completing things.  With a baby, 2 year old, and three olders in full-blown school, it's just not possible.  Not to mention wrangling contractors to come to our house for some repair work.  LoL

SO.....Just like the exercise is good for me, and good for my family, so is taking care of all the piles of things on my desk.  It's all a process.  ;-)

Sign-in with Mr. Linky and let me know you were here!  For more info on what this challenge is, go HERE.