Friday, October 30, 2009

Time for a new challenge




My current personal challenge, the daily ab workout, officially ends tomorrow. How did I do? I did quite well for the first 6 weeks of the 9 week challenge. Of those first 6 weeks, I only missed 1 ab workout...which cost me 10 stupid dollars. But, by week 5 I was having serious back pain all the time. I don't know that the few minutes a day of ab exercises can be said to have caused the issue, but I do know that it was exacerbating the problem. By week 6 I had to take "medical leave" from my challenge. This week (week 9) is the first week that I'm not having constant back pain, so I guess it is time for me to restart my challenge. I'm not willing to restart the same set of exercises in case I start having the same back issues, so I'm going to keep up with the isometric (non-repetitive) exercises and add in other exercises that will be easier on my back.

Hubby and I are about to get serious about a diet and exercise plan. We both want to be hot-hot-hot when we go to Maui in March. We plan to start calorie counting on November 1st, stop feeding our faces when we sit on the sofa at night, and exercise. To that end, we bought a Wii!!! We're having fun playing with the Wii tonight and for sure are expending more energy that we usually do sitting on the sofa watching television. We know that the Wii games don't count as exercise, but hopefully we can score some Wii Fit games for Christmas. Those should be actual exercise. I know that Yoga and strength building exercises come with the Wii Fit and I also want to get the Daisy Fuentes Pilates program that just came out for Wii.

Hopefully working together on our weightloss and exercise goals, with our shared trip incentive, will be successful. Anyone who wants to join us should create a profile on livestrong.com. It is a good time of year to focus on eating moderately!!!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

It is a sickness

I love to torture my husband. It's true. I enjoy hearing him say something awful to me that I will get to remind him of over and over again. I love retelling stories where he looks like a jerk-husband and I look like a poorly-treated wife. Of course, nothing can be further from the truth...but for some reason I like telling the stories anyway.

I've told the following story a zillion times:
When hubby and I were first married, I wanted my first dinner to be memorable. So I decided to make beer-battered coconut shrimp with rice. It was bad. I burned the coconut on the shrimp, the beer batter tasted terrible, but it was the rice that was truly horrendous. Hubby took a few bites and then said "well, if I run out of grout at least this rice will give me something to grout the countertops with."

Come on...that's funny...but that's a horrible thing to say about your wife's first meal. It still makes me laugh (just as it did that night).

A few nights ago, we were watching The Amazing Race. The contestants had to go down a huge water slide in Dubai and were all wearing swimsuits. There was one contestant that looked cute in her suit, but wasn't super thin. I commented "I wonder how much weight I would need to lose to look like her in a swimsuit." Later that night hubby and I were talking more seriously about teaming up for some weightloss before our trip to Maui in March. He asked how much weight I'd like to lose before the trip. I said that I would be happy with 5 lbs. He paused for a moment, then looked at me and said "you're not going to look like that girl on the Amazing Race if you only lose 5 lbs."

Once again, the statement is true...but woe is the man that says that to his wife. So now I have to torture him by bringing it up every half hour. I drop little comments about how he said I was fat (he didn't) or how he hates how I look in a swimsuit (he didn't). Why do I do this? I don't know. I just know that it is fun for me; perhaps it is my way of paying him back for the lovely comment. I'm not offended. I wasn't mad when he said it. If anything, I was gleeful when he said it because I knew I'd have some torture material to work with for a week or two.

Maybe my desire to torture hubby is a sickness, but it isn't one that I'm looking for a cure to anytime soon. Can't wait for some new material!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

H * U * S * T * L * E

Hustle. That's all I'm asking for. I would like my kids to learn to hustle. I'm tired of standing out in the rain by their car doors while they slowly meander over for me to strap them in. I'm tired of saying "grab your shoes and let's go" and having them decide that it is a good time to look for a pair of shoes that have been missing for a month.

I've learned the hard way that trying to make the Big Guy hurry up by pulling him toward the car produces the exact opposite result. He digs his feet into the ground and refuses to budge. The girls aren't quite so difficult, but they don't seem to feel any inclination to hurry. Is double-time too much to ask for? I've tried to be cutesy and sing the Madagascar song "move it, move it", but that just makes them stop what they are doing and join in the song.

There is a part of me that wonders about the psychology of always telling the kids to hurry up. Am I teaching them to be just like me...always stressed that I'm late when I almost always arrive places early? I don't want to teach them that...but I hate the stress it gives me when I've allowed 5 minutes for them to get their shoes and coats on and it somehow takes them 20!!!

I find myself doing everything for them just so we can hurry up. It shouldn't be faster for me to put on three pairs of shoes, put on three jackets, and shove them into the car than for them to individually do those things themselves. Arghhh. Hey, wait a minute. Maybe they are being slowpokes on purpose because they know if they stall long enough I'll do it all for them.

Maybe next my next blog post will be about S * E * L * F S * U * F * F * I * C * I * E * N * C * Y.

Monday, October 12, 2009

bubbles in my pancakes


A while ago, I attended a brunch event where the host was making pancakes for all the kids. I was chatting with her as she flipped the pancakes. I laughed as I said "who taught you how to make pancakes? You know you can't flip them till the bubbles start popping." She looked at me and said "we didn't all have mothers who taught us that."

That moment has stayed with me. I think it was almost 2 years ago that I went to that brunch. The host knew my mom well and knew without asking that she had taught me how to make pancakes.

I know that teaching your children to cook isn't necessary to being a good mom, but I'm sure glad that I had the kind of mom that taught me to cook...and taught me to sew...and taught me to clean house (not that I keep mine to her standards). About the only thing my mother didn't teach me to do well is to iron, and perhaps I just wasn't a very good student.

I've heard from other friends whose moms didn't take the time (or have the ability) to teach them things that they feel like they are behind everyone else, like others have a head start on life. I suspect that is more of a mental hurdle than an actual one, but a hurdle none-the-less. Just because my mom taught me how to crochet doesn't mean that I actually know how to crochet, but it does mean that I might have more confidence that I can figure it out. And I know who to call when I get stuck.


So, thanks mom, for all you did for me while I was growing up and all you still do.
(BTW...my dear mom takes HORRIBLE pictures. I had to really look for a good one! That is her mom, Grandma Dot, in the background.)

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The neighborhood crazy lady

We have a new neighborhood crazy lady and she is me (or she is I?).

We live on a private, barely-paved road. Officially it is a 2 lane road, but it is overgrown enough that cars have to slow down and pull over a bit to pass each other. With it being a private road, there is no stated speed limit sign. Generally speaking, people drive about 20 mph down the road. That seems a fine speed to me. Some, however, think 30 - 35 mph is better. They are clearly wrong, but who am I to specify the correct speed limit? I'm the neighborhood crazy lady, that's who.

I've taken to yelling "slow down" at the black cars that whiz by (and they do seem to be always black...either SUV or sports car). Sometimes the car just gets lucky and only receives the "slow down" hand gesture from me. No, not THAT hand gesture. The one where you make your hand flat and move it rapidly toward the earth. That's universally understood, right?

I walk the road 4 times a day...2 times down to the bustop and 2 times back. My children walk with me. There is no sidewalk. I think people should slow down when they see kids on the road. I know people without kids may not agree with that. They may wonder why my decision to have children should impeed their ability to drive at whatever speed they think is right. Actually, I think people should slow down as a courtesy when they see ANYONE on the road, but especially for children who could easily fall sideways for no apparent reason.

Curse me as one of those insensitive moms who thinks the world revolves around her kids if you want...as long as you slow down as you think that.

P.S. I think this is my 100th post!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

The importance of everything

I hate how everything is important. Really, the list of things that are important is endless. Off the top of my head:

* it is important to eat together as a family
* it is important to be on time
* it is important to eat healthy
* it is important to supervise your childrens' teeth brushing
* it is important to make time to date your husband
* it is important to turn off the radio in the car and talk to your children
* it is important to get the kids homework done
* it is important that the kids actually do some portion of that homework
* it is important to maintain relationships with your friends
* it is important to maintain relationships with your extended family
* it is important clean the house...repeatedly if possible
* it is important to pump the septic occasionally
* it is important to clean the filter in the dryer
* it is important to remember to feed the pets
* it is important to make and keep the kids appointments to doctors, dentists, etc.
* it is important to keep up with your vehicle maintenance
* it is important to pay the bills
* it is important to save for retirement
* it is important to save for the kids college
* it is important to take family vacations
* it is important to provide the kids with opportunities to play sports
* it is important to have at home bible studies with the kids
* it is important to bring the kids to church services
* it is important to have alone time with each of the kids
* it is important to maintain a certain (fairly low)level of safety
* it is important to take downtime for yourself
* it is important to make time for exercising
* it is important to make time for your own bible studies & prayer
* it is important to help out in the kids schools -- they depend on volunteers
* it is important to be active in helping others in your community and abroad
* it is important to replace the lightbulbs that continuously burn out
...oh yeah, and everyone should probably get bathed on a regular basis.

How can anyone possibly make time for everything that is important? And yet, which items can you really take off the list? And so, we get by with a little help from our friends, a lot of help from our family, and the commiseration of others who try along side of us. Oh...and we blog. =)