I love all my kids but today K3 gets special KUDOS!

Today it was a beautiful day! After my interview, I pulled out a pair of capris from last year to wear. Imagine my extreme delight at discovering that they were BIG!! Time for some new ones, so K3 and I headed off to Kohl's. As I was browsing the capris and picking some out to try on... K3 says to me...

"Mom, are you in the Misses department???? REally? You are wearing Misses? When's the last time you shopped over here? Was it like before K1 was born? Way to go... woo hoo! "

Now don't get me wrong... it was great to hear this support from my youngest child however, she wasn't exactly quiet about it and other people start turning around to see what the commotion is about.

But it felt good to have her notice and say something... Gawd, I love my kids!

How Do You Approach the Day??

Gawd, how true! This hits home for me in so many ways... there are so many days when I start the day worrying about something, or tired, or just in a general bad mood. And doesn't that just set the tone for the rest of the day??? I was once told by a former boss of mine, that my mood tends to set the tone for the night at work... now, I find it hard to believe that I am responsible for 2o+ people on any given night but what she was trying to say that on the nights that I was up and high energy, that it was contagious and others picked up on that. She may have had a point but I still think she gave me too much credit for the mood of the crew. But I can see where her point does affect my daily life because if I am feeling bad, sad, mad, frustrated... I know my kids pick up on that and I have now started them off on a bad day as well.

I was thinking about this quote though and how it affects my fitness self. Lately, I am just enjoying life. I do have some back burner problems that are simmering... I don't mean to imply that all is perfect but I am not dwelling on those. I know they are there and I am taking steps to work on them. But anywho, back to my point... I did have one, right?... These last two weeks I have just had a completely different renewed sense of exhilaration! I look forward to exercising... whether it is the BodyRev or biking/walking or my strength exercises that I am doing. I love the feeling of euphoria that I seem to have right now. I look at my day and try to decide ahead of time where I am going to fit in some exercise and if it works, GREAT... if it doesn't, I try to adjust. And if I absolutely can't fit what I intended in, then I try to modify... my new motto is... Something... Anything is better than nothing!

Today K2 babysat her little charge at our house... K1 needed new gym shoes (he tried telling me he needed size 14!!! He got a size 12.)... there was dinner to worry about... I only had 2.5 hours of sleep this morning because of the interview... and I wanted to exercise... Normally, I would've stressed about wanting to do it all... I would've gotten myself worked up to a point where I was frustrated, upset and frazzled. But today I didn't let it get to me... K2 did her babysitting job... when the "little princess" left at 4:30, we hit some sports stores and the mall for new shoes for K1 (he is running the mile at school tomorrow and his old shoes wouldn't have made it). We spent longer than I had intended on the shoes but we left the mall with a pair he was happy with and that fit... I wasn't all that crazy about the price ($65) but it was cheaper than alot of the others that we saw... so half full type of thing. I decided to take it easy on myself and treat the kids to dinner at the mall (plus, I got to get my sandwich at B&N). We made it home by 7:00 and after seeing that the kids were settled in with their homework, I and my bike hit the road for the last remnants of sunshine. I had a great 40 minute ride thru neighborhood roads... I pushed myself on some and enjoyed the downhill breeze on others. When I came home, it was time to get everyone to bed. And I still managed to get in 35 minutes of my strength training program in.

The day went really well... and all of this on only 2.5 hours of sleep! But this was a perfect example for me of how a positive attitude can help get so much accomplished. Did I do everything? No... I have dirty dishes in the sink... not many though and they will be done in the a.m. while the kids are getting ready for school. No problem.

I really have to try to remember this... because I know this isn't a life change for me yet...but if I could just get to the point where this could be the norm, how great that could be. Oh, and as for influence... the girls had a much better day... I complimented them how nice it was not to have any fighting going on today.... small skirmishes but no major battles. AND K1 at 8:00 asked if it was okay if he went out and ran a mile... which he did. So maybe my positive attitude had something to do with that.

Think about it... how will you face your busy, hectic day tomorrow?

I am having an AWESOME week!!!

What's the phrase... "when it rains, it pours"??? Although that tends to remind me of bad things... and this week has not been that (well, except for my frustrations with the girls!) But get this... I already told ya'll (I hope I spelt that right, Miz Ginga) how on Tuesday quite out of the blue I get a phone call from the library regarding an application I turned in about 6 months ago. It was quite a surprise! So I am still flying high from that phone call when on Wednesday morning I get a call from a lady I met in February regarding a job as an office assistant. She wants to meet with me as soon as possible to see if we suit each other's needs.

So I went from being completely miserable at my current job... trying to decide if I should make the move to dayside there and now I have two possible other prospects! Well, I met with this woman today... she took me to lunch... get this at the restaurant that is directly below my husband's office... her office is 1/2 mile from his. Anyway, we discussed what I do at my current job... am I happy there...what do I like/dislike... then we talk about what she is looking for. Basically, she already has 1 assistant but is in desperate need of a second one part-time to start. The hours are 10-2, M-F (just 2-4 hours less than my current job) and very flexible. She said I should have no problem getting off for kids events at school, etc. She understands all too well the joys of having been a stay at home mom. I also mentioned a possible 2 week vacation in August and she said that would not be a problem. And as I said, it's only 1/2 mile from J's office. The only down-side (and it's not that big of a down-side is that the pay is the nearly the same as what I make now... a few cents less, in fact). But she did mention that they hope this position will eventually evolve into a full-time postition with more responsibilities.

I was straight forward with her and told her about the library interview. She said I definitely need to go thru with that... play out all my options. But if I want the job, it sounds like it is mine and all I need to do is let her know by mid-week. I love the great benefits... more time to spend with the kids (I hate the thought of being gone from them for 8 hours a day during the summer) and the flexibility. But the thought of working in a library with all those BOOKS!! and I have to admit that the pay at the library is great! Now I haven't even interviewed with the library yet... that's tomorrow a.m. (thank you all for your words of encouragement and luck!). I just don't know how long they will make me wait to hear yay or nay. I have to be honest with ya'll... if I didn't have the library job sitting on the interview table right now, I would've walked into T tonight and gladly handed in my two week notice!

I will post tomorrow on my thoughts about the interview... maybe I will really blow it and I will know right away that I don't have a hope in hell of getting it! :)

My 3 Good Things:
1. A great job offer!
2. A great workout of strength exercises
3. My turkey/cheese/chipotle sandwich at B&N cafe!

BAck in the Fitness Mode again!!!

So who gets sick and on the recovery side decides... now is a good time to start working out, eating right and logging it(!!!), drinking that water again... well, apparently I do. Not sure what happened...maybe what I had was a virus that affected my brain. So what happened? A combination of things actually...

After not having eaten for 4 hours, I knew... I KNEW... I shouldn't do it... but I did anyway... I stepped on the scale. Now I really hit a plateau in February which thru me into some sort of downward spiral (hmmm, not very nautical... don't think Alden would like that analogy but oh well!) For most of March, I found that I could just not work out... couldn't work up the energy and more importantly the motivation to do it. Then towards mid-late March, Janet, gave me some good tips to try... go back slow... do something I liked. I took her advice and started up Abs again only this time I switched to Essential Abs plus, I got back into walking.

That's been working okay...but I knew it wasn't enough to give me any results. My little "spiral" cost me 10 lbs! With what I was now doing, I worked my way down 3 lbs. However, now after having been sick, when I stepped on the scale I found that I was now back to my lowest "loss" point. I knew I had to take advantage of this.

Then while I was sick, Janet also encouraged me to try posting under Alden's RevReport. I was not spending much time on the computer but I did go over and post what I did for last week. I also posted about how sick I was... thus giving me the perfect excuse for having a sucky report next week. It wasn't til Wednesday night that I went back to read some of the posts that I noticed one by Mary Jo and she mentioned a website that she uses... www.sparkpeople.com. I checked it out and decided to give it a try.

So today was my first day of it... normally, I would've used the excuse of still being too weak to exercise but I wouldn't let myself do it this time. It was only 35 degrees here but the skies were a pretty blue and the sun was shining so I went off for a walk joined by K2. My lungs were burning and I wasn't walking as hard as I normally do but I went 45 minutes. I also logged everything I ate today... which is the cool thing at the site because it lets you choose type, style, portion, etc... then gives you calories, and the rest of the nutritional breakdown. I did good today but my appetite is, of course, not back to normal. It will be interesting to see how I do when it is.

So I had a great day today! I am starting to feel better... I got a some exercise in... I ate good and logged it!! And I even sneaked in a Chai from Starbucks and found it didn't push me over my caloric limit... not bad!

***

Here is my logging from April 5...

What a Beautiful Weekend!

In the reality of what my friend is facing with losing her great-niece, I was reminded how lucky I am to have healthy, happy children. I tried to focus on that this weekend and just watch and enjoy them.

The weather was perfect... warm 60's yesterday and reaching into the mid 70's today. K2 had a girl scout fitness program yesterday that I didn't have to chaperone. I dropped K1 off at the library to work on his research paper and K3 and I went to my favorite hangout... Barnes and Noble. I bought her a new book, Amelia's 6th Grade Notebook, her new favorite series (at least this week) and a cool bookmark that helps her keep track of her reading minutes. Then we went down to the cafe to have lunch... I can't resist those Turkey, Cheese, Chipotle Panini sandwiches! K3 had a frapuccino and I had iced tea. Then it was time to pick up K1 at the library and take him for a haircut. My preference short!... his preference long (basically take it back up out of his eyes). So I thought to myself... how horrible is it really for his hair to be longer? Is this really worth fighting over? Nah... there will be other fights that I will need to enforce my will... this really doesn't have to be one of them. So when he sat in the chair and she asked how "we" wanted it cut... I told her, "It's his hair.. ask him." The final result... it's not horrible... I really do prefer it short but my little boy is growing up... have to let him "win" some.

Today was even more glorious than the yesterday. Yesterday the kids did manage to find some time to play outside. This morning K1 said to me, "I discovered playing outside." When I asked him what he meant, he said how good it felt to be outside playing and goofing around with his sisters. So after a late breakfast, they were back at it.... climbing trees, playing mini-tennis on the driveway, riding scooters and running like loons throughout the (1 acre) yard. And when K1 and J ran to do errands, I was even invited to play tennis with K2. Normally, I would have declined using dishes or something as an excuse, but not today... today I rejoiced in being able to play with my kids.

In honor of the great weather, we did steaks on the grill and enjoyed a great dinner. Then afterward, despite it being dark, J and I went for a walk. The temps were still in the 70's at 8:00p.m.!! Now my kids are all settled for the night, I Revvved (finally!), showered and am sitting back with a mug of green tea. I am lucky and completely blessed... I have my health... 3 fantastic children... a husband who completely loves me... really... what more do I need?

Well, maybe a piece of chocolate... :)

LIFE... it's a Good Thing!

An Addendum to Food/Mood Logs

There is a lady from the BB (Cranky Otter) who post 3 things that makes her happy each day. She just recommended this tactic on the BB this week to help keep your focus on the positive. The kids and I used to do this a few years ago. We had a composition notebook that we labeled our Happiness Journal. Each night before bed, we would list at least one thing that made us happy that day. I am going to have to dig that thing up. It was fun to do back then so I have decided to adopt this and add it to my Log each day. It should be interesting to see what makes me happy especially on those bad days.