Busy, Busy, Busy, but not too much to report!

Things have been going very smoothly around here lately. KM has been keeping up with her lessons and staying very busy with ice skating, theater, sketching and spending time with her friends. We are enjoying the flow of things lately and the occasional snowstorm to keep us in the house for the day is a wonderful winter bonus!

We have been starting our days off with household responsibilities, yoga and meditation. Then after lunch we work on lessons and this leaves the late afternoon and evenings free for her to spend however she likes. It seems to have worked out that Tuesday and Thursdays are VERY light lesson days, to accommodate for ice skating - and spending the rest of the afternoon with one of her very best friends - and theater. When CJ is home he has been taking her skating at a more local place on Wednesday afternoons. This leaves a lot of the main lesson times to Monday and Friday which seems to be giving a natural flow to our week.

She has chosen to do her research report for this session on owls - BIG SURPRISE to those who have seen her lately! We have decided that she will follow the outline form that the writing mentor used with her in the fall. This method focuses on researching, getting the info down, and then editing and cleaning up the content. As I have written what feels like hundreds of posts on our thoughts about writing and the writing process, I will not go into length about it again. I will say though that I have noticed a huge improvement in her open responses now that she has no writing "guidelines" and just has to present the information clearly.

Other than that, there is not much else to report as it is pretty much status quo around here - Just enjoying our family, home and learning - all together! Hope you can find some time to do the same!

Fitness Friday - UGGGHHHH

Usually I type out my Fitness Friday post on Thursday night, but I was so crazy busy last night and had this awful wave of exhaustion hit me at about 7:30, that I forgot to do it. As it turns out that wave of business and exhaustion all caused me to break my running streak - I totally forgot to even do my body test yesterday! I had this perfectly filled month and now I have to see that one blank spot---staring at me! But I will get past this, I will not let it get me down! I will continue to fill it up for the rest of the month!

I have had a good week other than that little debacle - I have been get a lot more exercise in on and off the wii. Now that the weather is warmer we have been outside a lot. Over the weekend I did a 30 minute workout each day and have continued doing using the handweights and have started to incorporate them into the yoga and strength exercises as well. I am still doing the kids yoga on Mondays and my yoga class on Tuesdays. We went on a Maple Sugaring Field Trip on Wed which had a short little hike attached to it, but the weather got so warm that day that when we got home we didn't want to go inside so we went for a long walk through the conservation bogs in our neighborhood. Thursday we had the little one and she wasn't feel to great, so we had a low key day and I think that is what made my afternoon and evening so hectic.

Anyway I have been breaking a lot of records and will reconvene on my final new records next week as I have a few more days to push them even higher! Hope you all had a great week!!!

Fitness Friday Week 8

This week went SUPERBLY!!!

Here is my breakdown -
Fri - about 30 minutes on Wii Fit - started a new routine of yoga and strength doing one row of yoga and the complimenting strength exercises and then rhythmic boxing, hula hoop and step. I also played Wii Sport for almost an hour with CJ later in the evening.
Sat - just aerobics on the Wii Fit and then did the Wii Sport training session.
Sun - full routine on Wii Fit for about 45 minutes including all the balance games, my high scores are TOTALLY IMPROVING!!! Some of them that I thought there was no way I was going to increase have - Yippee for Mii!
Mon - taught Yoga Kids class in the morning and then did about 30 minutes on Wii Fit in the evening.
Tue - was not feeling too hot, so I only did one set of advanced step and a few games to total maybe 15 minutes, but I did push myself - because I had already paid for it - to go to my yoga class. By the time I left there my throat was on fire and my legs felt like they were not going to get me to my bed!
Wed - I was feeling better by the end of the day and I didn't want to break my full calendar goal so after dinner I decided to do my body test, then I did advanced step, beginner rhythmic boxing ~ which with those squats is actually pretty intense for the quads! ~ and then did wii fitness on wii sports and I got my Wii age down to...Thu - busy busy again, but I did manage to get in 25 minutes after the opera and before the homeschooling support group meeting!

To intensify the workout a bit I have been using the 1.5 lbs hand weights every time I do the step aerobics and when I am doing the rhythmic boxing I do a full squat for all the blocks. My weight still goes up and down, up and down all week. I am very consistent about doing my workout within an hour window from the previous day, so that is not a factor. I actually have been getting dinner started and then going to do my workout, by the time I am done, it is usually time for me to finish up the meal or on quick cook nights, I do all the prep, then the workout and then cook. Works really well into my schedule this way cause KM is usually ready for her alone time by then as well!

Hope everyone has a GREAT Spring weekend!!!

Things have gotten in the way...

of everything lately! I am soooo sorry to all my faithful readers who have been popping by and finding that I have really not been posting anything in a while. I know I have had my regular crazy/weird/odd holiday postings and my Fitness Fridays, but I realized that I have not made an actual post in quite sometime! To everyone who has sent well wishes and thoughts for my family I thank you all so much! I have also not popped around to other blogs in quite a while and when I started to do that this afternoon is when I realized I need to sit down and do this! I always feel better when I have - it is my lack of taking time for me that gets me so crazy because I just let everything else get in the way. So I thought I would go through some recent pics and post a quick summary of some of the things we have been doing...

KM went out Jeeping with CJ and I got an entire day at my house with SC all to myself!!! So we baked...

she is very patient and listens so well!
she likes to look through the big book of recipes - I know she can't read, but for some reason she likes to look and look and look!
She even likes to help clean up!!

I love seeing her and KM interact with each other, but I really like having her all to myself sometimes as well!!!

We had a fossil dig when we started our prehistoric study...

It was not your average dig site, but I REALLY DON"T LIKE MUD!!!
and they REALLY got into it!
KM identified all the parts as she found them, what type of foods it would have eaten based on it's teeth...
guessed what it's ancestors may have looked like before the evolutionary stages.
and now has T guarding her "clicky" pencils, that SC seems to be stealing all the time!
SC spent the rest of the morning playing with the peanuts!

In preparation for spring...

We have been decorating!!!

These springs are so festive and easy to make! The kids paint them however they like and then they ~ or you ~ cut a spiral shape in them and ....

waalaa...instant spring!

I am not a huge fan of TONS of TV time, but it would be nice if every once in awhile SC would watch a little PBS or something for a few minutes during the day when we need to get something done. However she never wants to be in a different room either, but I have found the solution...

she LOVES my laptop and the headphones! Here she is watching Elmo, It's Potty Time!
She also really likes these story sites -
Story Place
Looky Book
Might Book
Silly Book
Storyline Online

That is a bit of what has been going on around here! I will be sure to hop around to some blogs and post more consistently again!

Fitness Friday Week 7 - Jillian Micheals' Fitness Ultimatum Reveiew

I got this game about a month and a half ago and I was SOOOOOO excited to try it out.
Here are the game features that led me to wanting the game...

• Uses the Wii balance board
• 4 Workout types, strength training, weight loss, intervals and hill climb
• motion based fitness activities such as ladder climb, rowing and monkey bars
• track personal data and progress
• Unlock lifestyle tips from Jillian

I tried to ignore all the reviews that I had read and I had read a TON of them. I thought for sure that since it was Jillian Michaels it would HAVE to be good. I tried the game out in spurts here and there, but felt like I just could not get into it. I was reminded last week that I was going to be the featured writer for the Wii Mommies Fitness Friday so I said to myself - hey that would be a great topic!

I tried to think of a concise way to do this review so I forced myself to try it over the weekend and I planned out a system to try to get all the features covered. Since you can use the wii board or you can just use the Wii Remote and a nunchuck, I thought I would try it out both ways. First here is my opinion of the features listed above after trying the product out -

• Uses the Wii balance board - so you can use the Wii balance board or not. Some of the games are easier to do without it while others are IMPOSSIBLE to do without it! Grenade Toss was one that I spent a VERY long time trying to figure out what I was doing incorrectly while I was only using the nunchucks and still don't know that answer to it. While when I was using the balance board it was extremely simple to master.
  
• 4 Workout types, strength training, weight loss, intervals and hill climb - while this is true, I could not tell a difference between the workout types. No matter which one you choose the workouts are broken into segments that include running, a randomly chosen exercise, running, another randomly chosen exercise, running etc... until the allotted time is up. You are constantly brought back to the running which I personally HATE more than anything ~ but more on that part later.
  
• motion based fitness activities such as ladder climb, rowing and monkey bars - okay this part I had MAJOR issues with most of these were truly a joke! it was literally as if you could just sit there moving the remote back and forth at warp speed and get credit, but if you actually did it at the pace that was demonstrated for you they did not give you any credit at all.
  
• track personal data and progress - while this part is true the stats (especially the weight) was completely off from what Wii Fit was tracking me at. The calories burnt calculations could not be accurate either since, as I mentioned, it was not accurately reading the motions.
  
• Unlock lifestyle tips from Jillian - these tips that you are enticed into unlocking are LAME! The tips that are given in the little blurbs during the commercials for Biggest Loser are more inspiring than the tips that are unlocked here.

So on a scale of 1 to 10 - 10 being the greatest I have to give this product about a 3. I am not trying to be totally down on the game, but the only thing that I really liked about it was that you had the option to customize your workout and that you did not have to fiddle with controls at all during the workout!

Here is my list of the top three worst aspects of the game:

1. I hate running, hate, hate, hate it and unless you did the custom workout 2/3 of your workout was running the same boring tree lined path. The worst part of the running was that you couldn't even just swing your arms while you were running, you had to have them punching at a speed bag rate in order for it to register.
2. There were no real instructions on how to do anything!!! You got a picture of a person swing there arms a certain way or bending just right, but when you did it the way you were shown you didn't get any credit!
3. For those of you who frequently read my blog, you may remember when my back went out about a month ago - HERE - in this post, I truly felt like it was a great game I was so excited by the fluidity of the program, however now that my back is better and I have retried all the games I realized that the reason my back went out was the GAME!!! The rowing to be specific. The only way to get the game to recognize what you are doing is to move at a very ERRATIC rate. When I started to do the rowing last weekend, I was astounded at how quickly I felt my sciatic nerve pulling again.

So I did Jillian's game Fri, Sat & Sun and then I returned to my regular Wii Fit schedule of at least 30 minutes a day for the rest of the week. I will also admit that Tuesday morning I sent CJ to Gamestop to trade in the Jillian game for ANYTHING ELSE! I was seriously worried I was going to throw my back out again with the things so it HAD to go!

I have completed a body test and at least a 30 minute workout everyday for the rest of this week. I also taught the kids yoga class at our coop on Monday morning and MADE myself sign up for the 6 week session at my favorite yoga studio. I paid ahead so that I am more apt to FORCE myself to go. I love going, I REALLY NEED to go and I just have to remember that it benefits EVERYONE I am around when I do go!

This coming weeks goal is to continue with my 30 minutes a day on the Wii Fit! I WILL HAVE A FULL CALENDAR BY THE END OF THE MONTH!!! I would also like to try to get outside a bit more, as the weather is finally beginning to look like spring might actually arrive!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE AND KEEP UP THE INCREDIBLE WORK YOU HAVE ALL BEEN DOING!!!

Fitness Friday Week 6

Okay so I did AWESOME this week!!!
Toot Toot!!!

I really truly did and here is what I did...

• Friday - I did nothing...I was REALLY tired and was still trying to catch up with everything from the week before, but hey whatever.
  
• Saturday - 31 minutes
  
• Sunday - 33 minutes
  
• Monday - 42 minutes
  
• Tuesday - 26 minutes
  
• Wednesday - 30 minutes
  
• Thursday - 30 minutes

I did a lot of rhythmic boxing this week and I really like it because you don't have to fiddle and you can just go for the full 13 minutes. I have also been doing a full swat when it says to "block" and this is giving an added quads workout. On the advanced step I have started using 1.5 lbs weights to add a little intensity to that one as well. Again I like this one cause I don't have to stop.

I had planned on trying to get through the yoga and strength combos at least 3 days this week and although I did not get through all of them at once because that was just taking far too long, what I did was to start out in yoga and do one full row with the accompanying strength exercises at the same time. This work out great!!! I also found that if I did this first, I got much better scores than when I did the aerobic things first.

My weight has done nothing but fluctuate again this week...

My new goal is too keep my month full - I like how it looks with no blanks. So as long as I at least check in everyday for the body test, I will be able to keep it looking great! I also got a new stamp - look it is mii!!I was thinking that I would also like to list some of my high scores here and see if I can increase any of them by the end of the month. Here they are...

• Soccer (advanced) 348
• Boxing (expert) 1132
• Ski Jump 319
• Advanced Step 505
• Basic Step 292
• Penguin Slide 65
• Running 47%
• Basic Hula 297
• Deep Breathing 86
• Half Moon 78
• Single Leg Twist 87
  
• Warrior 92
• Lunge 100
  
• Tree 77
• Single Arm Stand 73
  
• Sun Salutation 83
• Side Leg Lift 61
  
• Standing Knee 90
• Single Leg Extension 73
• Dance 72
• Palm Tree 78
• Rowing Squat 86
• Chair 80
• Torso Twist 78
• Triangle 75
• Push Up & Plank 58
• Down Dog 8 - I have a perfect down dog and I honestly don't know how they get theirs to work at all!!!!
• Plank 41
• Arm & Leg Lift 58

So STAY TUNED cause next week I am the Wii Fit Mommies Featured Fitness Friday Writer and I will be doing a FULL review of Jillian Micheal's Fitness Ultimatum 2009.
I am going to work out with this program all this coming week, starting this afternoon and will let you all know how I TRULY feel about it next week!!!

Fitness Friday Week 5

First I must say that I completely missed Week 4 last week, but there really wasn't much to say as I had been stuck in Maine most of that week and then I was just trying to get everything straightened out with my car and everything that I had missed once I got home!

This passed week has been a bit better, I did manage to get on the Wii Fit 4 out of 7 days for at least 30 minutes each time. I have been doing the Yoga stretches, the step and some balance games. I think this week I am going to try to push myself to do the combinations that come up for the yoga and strength training combined, but - here I go again - I just wish there was some way to get the combinations to flow so that you didn't have to fiddle with the remote constantly!!! So here is my mission for the week - 5 out of 7 days for at least 30 minutes and 3 out of those 5 days I will do all the yoga and strength combinations.

I am truly pushing myself to do it because I don't see any results happening from it. My weight just does not seem to be going anywhere - which is the norm for me. I fluctuate from 1-5 lb difference constantly and I don't know how to fix that. I am also one of those wonderful people whose body RETAINS all the stress that is going on in my life. Maybe as things smooth out a little bit, I will see some improvement and I know I can't expect it to happen overnight, but SOMETHING would be nice. I think that I really NEED to get back to my regular Yoga class as this will help with the stress, stamina, and back problem all with one clean swoop, but I don't know where to fit it in! I am just going to HAVE to do it!

I start another session teaching the kids yoga this week at our local co-op, so I know I will be getting at least two good yoga workouts in - I have to do the prep work for the little ones, who are a lot more limber than I am and therefore I tend to push myself to the limits! They are so much fun though and it is great that they have an interest in learning these techniques at such a young age, so that they can carry them with them throughout their lives!

Good luck to all who are going to be participating in the
Wii Fit Olympics Tomorrow!!!

Fitness Friday

So my Fitness Friday post is short and sweet - I totally tweaked my back last week doing kayaking on Jillian Micheal's Fitness Ultimatum - so I did not get any workout in! Not a one - I did the body test each day as it helped me to see how unbalanced I was/wasn't to help with my sciatic nerve. It is better, but I am now "TRAPPED" in Maine, so I am hoping I will have a better week to come!

Fitness Friday - Wk3

I have to say I ABSOLUTELY ADORE the Jillian Micheal's game!!! It has it's downfalls, but I must say it is a pretty good work! I had really good intentions this week, I tried to stay on top of things and then midweek I just lost it. Here is what happened -

Friday - I got the game in the mail late in the afternoon, but decided I had to try it out. I really wouldn't have considered it to be a work out because I was just fooling around with the controls and seeing what worked best, using the balance board on some, not on others and so forth. I figured out how to program a routine - LOVE THIS FEATURE - and that it gives you about 15 seconds of instructions if you need it, before it switches from one activity to the next - if you don't need the instructions then you can just click right through it, no wasted time - my biggest pet peeve with the Wii Fit game! You are moving the entire time from start to finish!

Saturday - I did an actual workout. I love the way it is setup because you can either do a custom workout where you choose the setup and order of the activities that you want to do or you can have Jillian pick your routine based on what you want to work on. I decided to let Jillian pick my routine and worked on cardio. I did the full 20 minutes and then played around a little bit more to try to figure out some of the more difficult games. Here is one of the downfalls - it does not give you the greatest set of instructions so you need to decode what it actually wants you to do. Once you figure out what the graphics symbols on the screen mean you are golden and can pretty much figure out how to do each of the parts of the workouts.

Sunday - I did a 15 minute custom exercise in the afternoon and then played a few of the games with KM in the multiplayer mode. Another AWESOME feature. Of course you can only have one balance board working at a time, but as long as you have multiple controller you can play the multiplayer games and go head to head against each other or against the computer.

Monday - I was SOOOOO sore that I had to have KM demonstrate all the yoga positions at the kids coop class that I teach!!! My shoulders were the worst, there is this one exercise where you swing your arms over your head as if you are crossing monkey bars - I was almost in tears the night before when I was finishing it up. Needless to say I did NOT do any workout on Monday.

Tuesday - I did a short workout on Jillian's game and did 20 minutes on the Wii Fit playing balance games, boxing and doing the advanced step. I felt like I needed to recover a bit from the weekend!

Wednesday - We had a lot of lessons to get through and KM was having a difficult time with one of her math concepts - remember when to divide and when to multiple while converting lengths - I got some disappointing news about a family member, the phone wouldn't stop ringing, I had to pack for a field trip......and these are the "reasons" I am sticking to as to why no workout got done on Wed.

Thursday -We were up and out of the house very early, to go into the Museum of Science with MC & SC. I did a TON of walking and we made sure to take the steps instead of the elevators. When we got home my back was aching, it hurt to stand, sit, lay down, just about anything caused a wretched shooting pain across my back. I have had siatic nerve problems in the past and I think I have been neglecting my yoga practice so much lately that it is coming back. So I did a few stretches, took a muscle relaxer and went to bed at 4:30. CJ made dinner and brought it in to me and I was sound asleep by 6pm, I slept straight through the night until 7:30 this morning! Yup, straight through!! My back is feeling better, but if I turn the wrong way or stand up to quickly it is still a bit sore. If it isn't better by Monday I am going to have to have it checked. I know it is just one of those things that they are going to tell me to rest and let it heal, so I don't want to waste my time or my doctor's for that matter.

Depending on how I feel tomorrow I will try it again. I may need to regroup my ideas and start out with just yoga again to get my back where it should be before I start anything else at the moment.

My goal for the week will be to do the body test EVERYDAY, do 1-2 yoga flows on my own EVERYDAY and at least 15 minutes of aerobics on WiiFit 4 days this week! Lets see how this goes...

Mostly just a TV DAY!!!

We really NEVER do this, but we have spent most of our day today in front of the television!!! Sometimes you just need to have one of those days, to unwind and not do much of anything.

We started off the morning with part one of Gulliver's Travel - I absolutely adored this book when I was young and remember watching the movie when I was pregnant with KM. They do such an incredible job of bringing the book to the screen.

When part one was over I decided to get the bread baking started and KM watched some Saturday Morning cartoons, a rare happening around here. She is usually so into things that she doesn't realize that they are on until well after the ones that she likes are over. Her favorites are part of Kewlopolis on CBS and therefore she can watch them online at Kewl Cartoons, but I think she really likes the novelty of the "Saturday Morning Cartoons" idea.

While the bread was having its first rising time I made some lunch and got some dinner prep ready. Then we watched the second part of Gulliver's Travel. It was amazing to watch her try to figure out what was going to happen. We had to pause it several times to discuss what was happening or to have a further discussion of the comparisons that Gulliver was making along his way. If your kids - or even you for that matter - have not seen this movie I highly recommend it! It is a great family fantasy film, but can lead to such great realizations of society and the way that our lives are built.

When the movie was over, KM decided she would go out and see what CJ was doing - sure enough she found him outside sculpting the sledding hill. I am thinking it more closely resembling a luge at the moment, but I could be exaggerating a bit. Whilst they were out in the snow, I decided to go to the big screen TV try out my new Jillian Micheal's game for the Wii - it came in the mail yesterday afternoon...I am however waiting to make a full opinion of it until next week's Fitness Friday posting!

When they came in from the cold, I made some hot cocoa and we snuggled up by the fire to listen to a few more chapters of Dragon Rider - Can you tell we are on a fantasy kick lately? I have even reorganized our literature units to accommodate this need for the fantastical.

We made breakfast for dinner together and then we watched Before the Dinosaurs Walking with Monsters - I thought it would be a good way to start our prehistoric studies and since we had already spent most of the day in front of the screen, I thought we should throw in a really fantastic educational one for good measures!

I wonder if she realizes how much schoolwork she actually did today? On a Saturday - I know I am a cruel CRUEL mother!

Fitness Friday - week 2

I have done better this week, but it has just been the body tests, some games and aerobics part. I just get so aggravated with the wasted time during the yoga and strength training. They should have a way to set up flows or routines once you have the moves down. KM and I have also been doing the Wii Ski a lot - together as well as individually with the balance board. I was pleasantly surprised at how much you need to use your core muscles to really control yourself during this game. In case you didn't see my comment from last weeks Fitness Friday - I am awaiting the arrival of Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 which I ordered last weekend from Amazon. I am very excited about the Jillian game...especially the fact that you can use it in a multi-player mode. I have seen widely varying reviews on a number of sites, but I am going to make my own opinion - and of course I will post it, hopefully by next week. Until then -keep up the good work everyone!!!

Fitness Friday - Week 1

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses -

I could sit here and list dozens of excuses as to why I have not been vigilantly sticking to some sort of routine on the Wii Fit, but I am not going to bore you with all that!

I can only HOPE and KEEP MY FINGERS CROSSED that I will get better. We have been using the Wii Play a lot in the evenings - bowling and tennis are KM's favorites, but I know I should be more diligent in my routine with it and I know if I am I will see results.

I think there are also some things with the Wii Fit that drive me a little crazy which is making me not want to use some aspects of it. For instance I am a yogi - in case you never noticed the pic on the side or my bio - I love yoga, but I can't stand the waiting in between and the getting into one pose then having to go through the controls to get to another it so not ZEN! I do like the basic premise of it and have heard that there is a game for the Wii that is just Yoga, so I may look into that when I get a little extra money - hahaha that's like an oxymoron these days right? -

I do LOVE, LOVE, LOVE most of the aerobics and balance games though. My favorite is the step, when I do get myself on there I have been working my way through the step levels and then doing the free step for 30 minutes with 1.5 lb hand weights - while I change the input and watch something on the DVR - LOVE THIS FEATURE! I also really like the boxing and will generally do at least one 6 minute set on there - again though I do wish that there were at least a little less in between time.

So in my strive for more consistence in a fitness routine, I will do what any good homeschooling mom would do - put it into the schooling routine! If it is in that school schedule IT WILL GET DONE! One way or another! It is magical how you write it in there and it manifests itself within day!

Lets see how it works!

I registered....

This looks as though it will be a very motivational group of mommies! After a few too many Holiday treats, a lack of gusto, and a very sporadic yoga practice lately, I can feel my flexibility fading, but I am turning over that new leaf ~ I am also teaching a kids yoga class at the Coop this next session, so I kinda have to get myself back on track. ~ I also need to do it for me and my sanity, to keep me centered and on track! I will keep you posted and if you decided to register my username on the forum is GCKHomeschool!

Maybe I'll see you there!

Two times the fun!!

My yoga instructor suggested that I get some large exercise balls to help stretch out my lower spine, where I used to have a lot of sacral & sciatic pain. I finally got around to getting them and SC found them this morning -

She spent a good 1/2 hour just drumming away on them!!! They are nearly as big as her!

Yoga Card

At the end of each yoga class the teacher - one of my very, very good friends - has each of us choose a card from an affirmation deck. It always amazes me how accurate to the moment the cards can be. My card this last night was:



On the reverse side it reads: "I am not restricted by old, limiting beliefs from my family or from society." Quite perfect for any new homeschooler really!