Fit Journey

Let's be honest, I'm not the most slender person on the planet. I have never been considered as anything else then curvy. But, after marriage and 5 kids I've really "filled out", so at the beginning of last month I read in one of my favorite blogs, Shower of Roses, that she had been using this diet and that it had worked up until she got sick. So I decided to give it a try, after all, it wouldn't hurt. I recruited my husband to get on board and at first he was skeptical and negative about the whole ordeal leading up to the day before, but he went through with it for me (isn't that nice?!). After the first week, we were both down 5-7lbs and my husband got super on board. Me? Not so much! I was craving chocolate and was frustrated that I hadn't lost 100lbs yet. Well here we are almost a full month later and we have both lost 30+ lbs combined.  I'm slowly adding in workouts to my schedule, fitting them in whenever I can, drinking a lot of lemon water and eating pretty much cleanly (I just devoured a homemade breakfast cookie and 6oz. of plain greek yogurt with jam mixed in).  I am loving the fact that I am fitting into jeans that I couldn't wear even before getting pregnant, but I have a LONG road to get to where I want to be. It is sometimes daunting and always a struggle, but was is life without a struggle. It's not the destination, its the journey, so pray that I don't die on the way :)  Cross my fingers it works

Go Get them Ladies!!!

Thankful Thursday

During confession one time, a priest told me the quickest way to get out of my sin (truth bomb: I'm insecure and tend to be jealous) was to start a gratitude journal. Now this wasn't a foreign concept for me, I've heard this said many times and just chucked it to being to "new agey" for me, after all "feelings" was in the same realm as Oprah (or so I've been led to believe). This time it hit me hard and I decided to give it a try, but I didn't do it to the full extent of journaling. I would wake up or go to bed with a list of thankful thoughts to send to the Lord, all while battling feelings of inferiority. "The pen is mightier than the sword" and "The faintest ink is better than the most retentive memory" keep coming to mind. Actually WRITING words of thankfulness and gratitude might actually be the answer (duh!) and what is the most modern way of putting pen to paper.....blogging.  And so here I am ready to embark on an adventure of bearing my soul to y'all...don't worry I'll only start with Thursdays so you can just skip that day of cyber stalking.

For today, I am thankful, dear Lord, for the life that you have given me through to mere mortals who did not know what they were doing :)  I am thankful that You have a purpose for this broken life, that Your purpose for my life is bigger than the scars and broken pieces of my being. I am thankful that You show me Your Will every day in the loud screams of a baby, in the gentle hum of the dishwasher, in the silence of my closet as I hid from those beloved beast You gave me. I am thankful that I was raised in the environment that I was because without it I wouldn't be who I am today, the exact person You needed me to be. I am thankful that You have blessed me with 5 children and 2 in Heaven, who mirror the best and worse of this your humble servant, they are here to help in the purpose that You created me for, without them I would only be half the soldier You needed. I am thankful for my husband, the man that I least expected to become my partner, but who You knew would be the best person to drive this dilapidated ship. I am thankful for the people You have entrusted into my companionship, I will do my best to elevate them to the soldiers that You need them to be, You have put them here for a reason and I am willing to be the reason they turn to You.  THANK YOU for being my Father, always having my back, always being a role model, sounding board, listener and giver. You are my GREAT "I AM"!  Now, back to the work You have entrusted me to do :)

Go Get them Ladies!

3rd grade overview

Oh Kolbe! How I love thee! :)  I was skeptical of enrolling in third grade, but again I needed simplicity. I went onto a Kolbe FB group page and found out that a lot of the people weren't actually using ALL of the books assigned and basically did their own thing. That was great, except that I was looking for pre-packaged at this point. Instead, fighting my urge to re-do everything, I decided to give it a try AS IS, and I'm glad I did. The lesson plans are simple and concise, no recreating the wheel but plenty of "note" space to still make it my own. I feel that with Seton the books are well thought out and developed well, so the need to enrich is almost non-existent (except for science and history).  Even though that's a good thing, I still want to foster a love of learning, not just testing or note taking acumen, so enrichments for my 6th grader is something we add on outside of "school time". Kolbe, I feel, allows me to weave in the love of learning seamlessly with actual test taking skills. The flow of Kolbe is a perfect fit for my third grader, she is the better reader and she does better with conversational learning.

The work load does take a lot out of me, mostly because my daughter is easily distracted and can't do things on her own. Also, all testing (at this point) is on paper and parent graded, which is a pain, but for this grade it's ok. I do tweak the work in the lesson plans occassionally, especially if what's called for seems rote and unnecessary. I'm planning of sticking with it for next year with minor adjustments: we aren't too keen on the reading book they use, I'd rather just have her read books out of the library, we might stick with spelling but might do Seton's spelling, we will be doing a different religion book since our parishes CCD already uses the same religion book, with those few exceptions I'm excited to keep on our Kolbe voyage.