It is challenge time again

Tuesday is it.

The day I have committed to start a new exercise program.

I've tried to ignore that the day is coming, but it will be here in 2 days now and I'm gonna have to face reality.

Some of you know that I periodically create or join into challenges...committments to myself or others to force me to do things that I think are good for me but that I won't do except under duress. I think it would be good for me to work off a little of this tummy gush. I'm hoping 2 months of ab exercises will do the trick.

So, here is my latest challenge: For 5 days a week for the months of September and October, I will do 5 minutes of ab workout a day. My friend Melissa created the ab workout for me. If I fail to do 5 days on any given calendar week (Sunday - Saturday), then I pay Melissa $10.

Here's the workout Melissa decided upon:
There is a total of six exercises each done approximately 20 times (reps) so that once completed the whole series takes approximately 3.5 minutes. You do this 2 times through for a grand total of "7 Minutes"... hence the 7 minute abs. I would recommend doing one set before you job/walk and once set afterward or somewhere in the middle. The reason for this is to break it up and make it seem less daunting. 7 minutes doesn't sound like much, but it will burn at first!

20 x Leg Extensions - Lay on your back, hands under hips unless you're strong enough to just have them by your side. Start with your knees bent toward your chest. Push you feet straight out about 6-8 inches off the floor. Bring your knees back toward your chest.

20 x Leg Lifts - On your back with hands beneath your hips, keep your legs straight with your feet 6-8 inches off the floor. Bring your legs straight up perpendicular to the floor and lower back down. Do not let your feet touch or rest on the floor.

24 x Bicycle - See picture. 1 rep = going right/left one time

20 x Straight Arm Crunch - Crunch position on your back (knees bent, feet on floor). Put hands directly above your face, arms straight, in a prayer position so that the palms of your hands are touching. Crunch up so that your hands go straight toward the ceiling (not forward). If this is too difficult at first, keep you hands behind your head for support.

20 x Oblique Crunch - See picture, but keep both hands behind head. 20 each side. To make this more difficult, keep your foot off the floor.

20 x Oblique Twist with weight - See picture, but make suggested adjustments: Sitting up (with or without weight - I use a 10 lb medicine ball, but you can use either lighter weight or a dumbell etc). Put your heels on the floor and push through your lower back so that its straight (don't slump over or slouch). Hold the weight in both hands directly in front of your chest while leaning back in a "V" position. Twist right till your elbow taps the floor, keeping the weight centered in front of you. If you're not using a weight, just clasp your hands in front of you. Repeat going Left. This is done quickly and going R/L is one rep. To make this harder, you can keep your feet lifted off the floor so that you're balancing on your tail-bone.

I would recommend two other super important expercises. Plank and Side-Plank. These are great stabilizing exercises and give you strength and definition without crunching. Check out the two pictures attached to see what they look like. Try holding each one for no less than a minute each. Obviously on the side-plank, you need to do both sides to be equal.

For the record I am only committing to 5 minutes a day. Melissa thought she'd sneak in an extra 2 minutes a day unnoticed...2 minutes plus those silly plank and side plank exercises. We'll see about that. Maybe I'll do them and maybe I won't. But I will do the 5 minutes a day, 'cause I don't like to pay out.

So, anyone want to join me? I won't make you pay Melissa if you fail. =)

WELL, that hasn't happened in forever

Today some guy whistled at me. No, not the "come here pooch" whistle, the better one. The "you're cute" whistle. I believe the last time some guy, other than dear hubby, whistled at me was in 1998.

I remember the time clearly because I was out running at Marymoor park with a good friend of mine and we discussed how our responses to getting whistled at were very different. I'm always flattered (well, clearly it doesn't happen with any frequency anymore, but I used to be "always" flattered). I usually respond with a smile and a wave. My friend considered it demeaning or unwanted attention from someone without enough good graces to be desirable. She thought a discouraging look was a more appropriate response.

Perhaps I welcomed the whistles more because I've always thought construction workers were hot.
Oh wait...wow, did ya catch the stereotype there? As if all men who whistle are likely construction workers. Yikes. Someone better turn me in for that one. But I'm not repentant enough to take the statement away.

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah. I do think construction workers are cute. Something about their hard labor and big muscles. I think they look good when they are all dirty after putting in a long day. Good thing hubby is a contractor or I might get in trouble for saying that. Oh, & firefighters are cute too. =)



I would post a picture of MY cute fireman, but I don't really have any pictures of him working. I should remedy that!

book report -- my thoughts continue

I'm still thinking about that book! Yesterday I wrote a blog post about the book "...And Ladies of the Club". Apparently just one post about that book wasn't enough. Click here to read that post. Whenever I read an epic story like that, it stays with me. The characters live in my heart for awhile and I find myself thinking about their stories.

I realized today that I especially identified with the characters in this book because they are more like me than the average book character is. I think books are often written about those people born with wanderlust or a drive for excitement...those people who go to new places and experience new things. I'm not like that, so to find such a great book written about people who (like me) never left the place they grew up in is heartwarming. Both the main characters spent their whole lives entirely content with the idea that they would live out their days in the same town, loving the same people, walking the same streets, and appreciating simple joys.

If I spend all my life right here on the Eastside of the Pacific Northwest, that will suit me fine. If life takes me elsewhere, I hope that I accept and embrace that with grace.

Book Report: "...and Ladies of the Club"

Tonight I finished a book that has taken me ages to read. I can't remember another book that I've had to work on for months. "...And Ladies of the Club" by Helen Hooven Santmyer was fabulous. It was the cause of many moments of bad mothering as I neglected my children because I just wanted to finish the chapter I was on!!! I snuck the book into the bathroom with me, I snuck it into the stairwell to read, I read late into the night from time to time, and I definitely let the kids watch more TV so I could read. Bad mommy.

The book details the entire lives of two women and the book club that they start while still in their teens. The women both die in their 80's, so there is 60+ years of history that passes during the books pages. The book reminds me a bit of what it is like for me to belong to the same church for the last 30 years. Like their 60 years in the book club, my 30 years at my church have introduced me to many people. Some come and go. Some are born and some die. Some marry, some divorce, and some remarry. Some move away and some return. Some have children that make them proud and some don't.

When I think about this book, I find myself asking what was the point of the novel. What was the overriding message or theme? I really can't think of one. Perhaps it had something to say about getting along with others. Maybe that many interpersonal issues that seem larger-than-life at the time will seem tiny in hindsight. But just now, as I write those possibilities, I know that isn't what will stick with me. I will remember that this novel made me feel so grateful for the bond that I have with my church family. I will remember that happiness in life doesn't come from the lack of sorrow but from an inner peace that one has when their way is sure.

At 1200 pages, it isn't a book that you should undertake lightly but I'm glad to have read it. Here is an excerpt from a real review:

"...And Ladies of the Club" is a novel, written by Helen Hooven Santmyer, about a group of women in the fictional town of Waynesboro, Ohio who begin a study club, which evolves through the years into a significant community service organization in the town. The books spans decades in the lives of the women involved in the club, between 1868 and 1932. Many characters are introduced in the course of the novel, but the primary characters are Anne Gordon and Sally Rausch, who in 1868 are new graduates of the Waynesboro Female Seminary who soon marry, and the decades that follow chronicle their marriages and those of their children and grandchildren. Santmyer focuses not just on the lives of the women in the Club, but also their families, friends, politics, and developments in their small town and the larger world.

Originally published by the Ohio State University Press in 1982 and only selling a few hundred copies, the book was chosen as a Book of the Month Club selection in 1984, making it a best-seller that year. The recognition earned its 88-year-old author critical acclaim and literary recognition; according to the back cover of the 1985 paperback edition, the novel took Santmyer more than 50 years to write.

Imagine that! 50 years to write. Good for you Helen Hooven Santmyer.

People are Crazy

I made my weekly trek to Costco today, all three kids in tow. On the way out the door, my kids put out their hands, fist up, in their usual attempt to silently ask the door-check lady if she'd stamp their hands.

The hand stamp thing has gotten to be kind of a pain. At first it was fun. The kids looked forward to seeing if the stamp was going to be a smiley face or a star, or maybe even a rainbow. But it soon turned into an annoyance. When the line at the door was too long, the door check people couldn't make time for stamping kids hands, understandably. Or rather, I understood that, my kids did not. My kids pouted, which irritated me. A frequent exasperated lecture from me about how we should be happy when you are able to get a stamp but not be unhappy when you don't went unheeded.

I wasn't all that unhappy today, then, when the door checker informed us that the stamps were permanently gone. I was glad that I wouldn't have to go through my unheeded lecture again and again. The lady said that they had to remove the hand stamps because they were a potential source of germs. Hmmm. That gave me pause. I've got nothing against germ protections, but I wonder how that came about. Did some lawyer decide that it was too big of a risk for Costco to continue with their "germ stamp" process? Or did some germ-phobic parent call Costco and complain that her precious child MUST have gotten the flu from the hand stamps? And why do I think the germ-phobic parent was a she? Costco doesn't have the standard anti-biotic wipes at the door, which makes me think their legal department doesn't spend hours a day thinking of how they can germ proof their processes. I vote for the germ-phobic parent as the culprit.


Lame. What's next? Do our kids have to go through Costco with their hands straight up in the air (reminiscient of beevis and butthead) to avoid spreading germs? Or maybe those fun little face masks? Hey, come to think of it, that might keep Spunky Girl from always sneezing on me...

Thems fightin' words

On Sunday morning, while chatting before church services, Roger P said to me "that girl of yours is the spitting image of you." The way he laughed and grinned as he said it, I think he was intending to communicate what a cutie she is. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought "really? Isn't she a bit cuter than that?". I don't mean to be self-depreciating for the sake of false humility, but I really don't think I was much of a beauty as a child. I scanned in a few of my school pictures to show you what I mean.
Lisa at six -- 1st grade

Lisa at seven -- 2nd grade

Lisa at eight -- 3rd grade


Note how my hair gets a little worse in each picture? Trust me, that problem continued all through grade school years. I think my bangs get higher and higher, perhaps representing the pain in the butt I was to my mother when she tried to cut my hair. (I'm not saying she whacked my bangs on purpose...but I'm not not saying that either.)

So, while I am secretly thrilled that Sweetness resembles me, I do hope that she is a much cuter version of me. I also hope that I am a better looking at 36 than I was at 6.

Gotta go with the mood that strikes ya...

Today felt like fall. After the impressive 100 degree heat we had in July, August has been super-mild. We've had two weeks now of mid-sixty degree weather with occasional rain. At first I resisted the fall feelings; after all, we've got an entire month of summer left. Summer really feels like July & August to me, so it is just wrong to give up an entire 1/2 of summer to an early fall. But how can it feel like summer when you find yourself dressing for colder weather?

I purchased some fall items when I recieved some birthday money in July. I found myself pulling those items out this week, already in the mode for fall fashion. I've been using a very beachy, casual bag to hold all my summer gear, but it doesn't look right with long pants and jackets. My new handbag, a Marc Ecko from TJ Maxx, is a bright orange color (unlike the yellow one shown in my picture)and looks great with denim. At $29.99, it is in my preferred price range for a bag. Not expensive enough that I have to worry about something spilling on it, but not so cheap that I worry about it falling apart.

I also pulled out some fall flats to replace my daily flip-flops (one of the joys of not having a real job is spending ALL summer in flip-flops!). Way back in March I posted one of my first blogs about finding my own personal style in the Lucky Magazine fashion guide (see Well Its not about world peace ). I used that knowledge to help me purchase these flats. I'm not normally a snakeskin/animal print kinda girl, but I know that I tend to buy boring solids so having a few accessories with a little rocker-ish style is a good idea. So I bought these flats from DSW, on sale for $39. I've worn them several times now and I love them with jeans. They are a good transition shoe as I move from summer flip-flops to winter boots.

Not only are my fashion thoughts moving to fall, but I am focusing on what's coming up for fall for my kids. We've entered our fall sports seasons already (soccer and swimming) and school clothes and school supply shopping is in full swing. After all that school shopping, I don't have the cash for it but I find my thoughts are turning to what costumes my kids will wear on Halloween.

I suspect that we'll have another month of nice weather starting next week. I'll probably put my flats back into the closet and pull out my flip-flops. I might even pull out the beach-friendly summer bag...but I doubt that I'll re-inflate all the pool floaties and the slip-n-slide. Summer can come back if it wants to, but it can't push fall entirely back into the closet now that it has peeked its head out.