starting the 200 Squats Training Program on Tuesday. It will be the same schedule as I had with the 200 Sit-Ups Program: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I have always been great with squats, but I want to build my core, too. I hope I can manage the highest column of squats for each test.
My thighs are still recovering from last night’s workout, but I should be just fine by Tuesday. :)
I can’t wait to start this!
I simply adore this man right here…
He makes me smile.
He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s quite handsome’, he’s charismatic, he’s great with media and makes me want to pay attention…
And, he’s gay (WHO CARES, RIGHT?). I’m so happy he came out a while back and can fully be himself and be happy and content with himself. Sad that women don’t have a chance, but lucky men. :)
I hate that this picture is too large for this post, but I love it just the same. <3
call/text/email/Tango/IM/Facebook/whatever you and tell you congrats on your official Army discharge today (4/20, of all days, lol), but I am not. I saw your Facebook status about it, and I wanted to “Like” it, but I didn’t; I held back. You couldn’t care less anyway, so there is no point in being nice and supportive. You have many other (important) people congratulating you, cheering you on and giving you props, so there’s no need for me to chime in.
So, rather than contacting you, I am releasing my words into the Universe for my own satisfaction:
‘Congrats on your official discharge from the Army today! That’s awesome! I’m glad you don’t have to leave overseas again, and thank you for your years of service. I wish you nothing but love and happiness in whatever you choose to do next; whatever endeavors you find yourself in along your road. I miss you and I love you, but never mind that, you seem to be doing great, and I’m getting better, so that’s all that matters. Best wishes, friend.’
There, I feel a bit better now. I am teetering between wanting to contact you, and wanting to ignore your presence forever. I don’t want to give in to my feelings for you when you don’t even want to keep in contact as my friend, but I also don’t want to lose contact with you and God-forbid something ever happens and I never have a chance to talk to you again. Life is sometimes not fair. I lost my best friend. I will never be able to speak to him on this Earth again, and I regret every single day we didn’t talk for whatever reason. I don’t want to ever have that same regret with you, but you are making it difficult. Take care of yourself. I hope you know I’m thinking of you, and sending good thoughts your way…even if you don’t care.
I did a 30-minute Pilates workout on Comcast OnDemand with Tonya Nettles; I like her and her workouts, apparently. :) She did moves I have never done before, so that was fun. I recorded it on my laptop so I can do it again and again.
While it was replaying and recording, I threw my headphones in, and did 15 minutes or so of various workouts on my own, and then made another cup of tea. Now, I am here (with my tea and a CD playing from Pink (LOVE HER SO MUCH!)
What sucks is that it is 1:00AM, and I am not even the slightest bit tired. =\ Usually I can go to sleep right after working out, but not tonight. Maybe the green tea kombucha or detox tea has some herb that’s making me alert.
Anyway, hopefully I get some sleep tonight, so I can function tomorrow. I want to do this workout again sometime…if not tomorrow or Monday, definitely Tuesday. :)
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few people engage in it.”
- Henry Ford
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether he is 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
- Henry Ford
to be able to mark this off my list!! But, I haven’t had it in me to truly find the motivation to get started. I have done little things here and there, but nothing has stuck. I want to get out and run, but the air is still chilled and it hurts my lungs. I want to do some hardcore workout DVDs, but I live on the second floor of an apartment complex, and the people below me may complain from too much noise. I want to use the gym in the office at my complex, but the men in the area drive me batty with coming on to me, and making general fools of themselves. I don’t feel I am making excuses. I just feel there isn’t a whole lot I can do at this moment…until I move out of here and into a house.
I try my best to get outside and run around with my son and his neighborhood friends, but that’s not every day, and I tire so easily…plus, I need a damn good sports bra to be running around or else it simply is not comfortable in any way shape or form. It is getting to be nice out again, and there will be more time for this.
I probably am just in my own way, and need to get the heck moving on with this. It IS possible, and I know that! I just need my inner being to know that, too. I am thinking I may do a yoga or palates session tonight and every day until I have a better workout environment. And, maybe I can bring my mom and son along to the gym with me, and maybe the guys won’t stop by. That is, if my kiddo will behave enough to make it through an hour or so. I think he would to use the weight machines, treadmills and bikes. I hopefully only have a month left here, so that may work to burn some calories and start toning muscle.
Welp, I did it; I succumbed to the craving of gluten (and dairy) filled nastiness. I did so well last night in avoiding the pizza that came into the house, but today, I went and fell off the wagon. As we were heading back from my niece’s soccer game, my mom and I were so hungry, and home was so far back the other way, that when we passed a Taco Bell (Toxic Hell), we stopped and each had a chili cheese burrito and a Cool Ranch taco. As sad as I felt falling off the wagon, you couldn’t tell by the ‘mmm…’ on my face.
Later, after we had been home for a little while, my mom had warmed up some of the pizza left over from last night, and I joined in on the sad excuse of food preparation and consumption. I thought ‘hey, I’m already on the ground, may as well push the wagon a little further away from me’. I wasn’t feeling crappy by that point, so I happily ate two smaller slices.
It is now almost 9:00PM, and I am beginning to feel the effects of my stupidity. My stomach is not all that happy and my head is starting to hurt. My hip is also giving me grief, which is also likely related. Ugh, dummy me. I know I will feel this way, but I do it anyway. What a ridiculous act! I should have made a chicken wrap, but I was too tired and lazy. I will do better next time.
Now, it is about reducing the body pains and getting back on my wagon again. I am going to make some turmeric tea (or “Golden Milk”) in a bit here, and maybe gulp down some apple cider vinegar and have a cup of detox tea before bed. It usually takes two/three days to get back to feeling well.
more clothes!! I finally took some time and went through my son’s clothes hiding in his closet and bunched up in his drawers. It didn’t take terribly long, it was just the sorting part that went on and on. Figuring out what fits and doesn’t is hard, but he won’t try dozens of articles of clothing on, so I just put the few very small things and the few things I know he doesn’t wear, because of something that feels “weird” on them; sensory thing (I was, and still am, the same way). We got a bunch of clothing from a lady off Craigslist, who was getting rid of her son’s clothing (which is a size or two bigger than my son is now), and I folded those up and put them away from a year or so from now. I also separated all of his “play clothes” (stained, holed or ripped) so he can easily grab something to go out and run around in.
^These so rock!!^
I didn’t get much else done today, as my niece stayed the night last night, and the two of them pretty much undid most of my prior spring cleaning. There is sand everywhere by the front door entry and anywhere they stepped inside or brought the sand toys (I wish I had a mud room). My son’s bathroom is a mess again, and both sinks have bits of sand in and around them. I did take all the dirty dishes and glasses off the table and start up the dishwasher. There are items all over the living room without homes that need to be taken care of…but not today.
This next week, I need to get through the kiddo toys and arrange them nicely, focus on the nitty-gritty of the kitchen deep cleaning and we now need to buy another vacuum, because ours is no longer sucking much up. I also need to get around to cleaning out OUR car (I cleaned my sister’s earlier in the month). I don’t really need to break down the boxes in my little storage area downstairs anymore, because I am pretty sure we’re moving in June, so there’s no point in that.
Much more to be done, so I really need to get my butt in gear so I feel good enough to mark this goal as done at the end of April…otherwise, I may keep it running through May. That’s allowed, right? There are no rules I suppose, and even if there were, I’m a rebel like that. ;)
Just when we thought the landlord forgot to send us the applications and was going to call him to remind him…there they were in the mailbox last night! We quickly filled them out and planned on sending them back today, but we didn’t have his fax number and missed the time for overnighting them. My mom called him again and left a voicemail that we were going to be sending them and needed his fax, and also that we were are on a time crunch in deciding whether or not we should go month-to-month on our lease (if we for sure have the house) or signing a three- month lease (and saving $200 month).
I didn’t think he would call back today, but he did. He gave me his fax and said that he would look over the applications and give us a call on Monday and say yes or no. We both check out, so I’m sure it won’t be a problem. We just need his OK so we know we will have a place in June if we go month-to-month.
My mom is faxing the papers over in the morning, and hopefully we hear back from him on Monday so we can go speak to our guy at the office to make the chances to our housing here.
I am totally proud of myself for good food choices today! My niece is over at my place today, and is staying the night, and she’s a bit of a picky eater. Coming back from my sister’s house, it was already getting a bit late to make dinner before my mom would have to get to sleep before work, so we decided to just grab a couple of $5 pizzas at the front office (Blackjack special they run every so often). That way, my niece could eat what she likes and my mom could quickly eat and go to sleep.
I could have very well eaten the stupid pizza, but instead chose to cook up turkey burgers, broccoli, and yellow squash. I also had to make my son his own pizza (gluten free and dairy free), so he could join in on the pizza event. I never find it a pain to make a couple different meals, so that was fine. I was happy to not be eating that junk. I made extras so my mom could take some to work, rather than the pizza.
I am amazed at myself for not caving. It smelled so good, but I know it is no longer as tasty as it used to be for me, and would have made me feel lousy. Three cheers for me! Yay! :)
The seemingly endless days of chaos and terror in Massachusetts finally coming to a close. I have been glued to my T.V. most of the last few days as news coverage came in about the events. I was in tears hearing of the sad stories about taken lives, people being severely wounded and others who had been broken down from this emotional experience. I can’t even imagine living in or around the area where this all took place. My heart aches for the families and individuals affected by the heinous acts of these two evil souls.
I am grateful for the fast-thinking, brave and caring people that helped the wounded on the day of the bombings at the Boston Marathon, in any way they could. I am grateful for every single officer and staff member that came from far and wide to tirelessly help with this manhunt and finally bringing one of them to justice in Watertown. I am grateful that more people’s lives weren’t cut short, but saddened for those no longer able to go home to their loved ones.
I am grateful for social media for the ability to get information circulated as quickly as it did. Those two had no chance of making it past us once we knew their faces and to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. I sure hope anyone out there to wishes to do the great people of our country harm have been watching this and know not to mess with us; we will find you.
After the final standoff, the video of the relieved Watertown residents clapping, cheering and chanting as each and every law enforcement car passed them was stunning. I have never seen anything like that – outside of a parade setting. It was a gracious ‘thank you’ from the people in that town; the entire state.
This image was posted on Minnesota Public Radio’s website:
A police officer reacts to news of the arrest of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Boston. Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, Mass. The 19-year-old college student wanted in the bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Hold your children and family a little tighter after being witness to these events, because you just never know what each day will bring. May the innocent souls lost be wrapped in the arms of God and forever be taken care of, and may the families and friends left to mourn them feel encased in love and support and be joyful for the lives they had and celebrate their time here with them. I am at a loss for how to feel here; there are so many emotions that come up in a situation like this. I am just grateful for all the good and support. The people of Boston, of Watertown…of Massachusetts, are strong and will build back their confidence and joy. They are such a tightknit community.
I have and will continue to pray for everyone there.
If you have been living under a rock here in the Unites States, or haven’t heard the latest, the story is here.
My son, being Autistic, has very rigid views and thoughts about everything. A while back, he was watching news coverage of the Civil Rights Union that our beautiful state of Colorado was talking about. He was listening, and when the coverage spoke of ‘two women’ and ‘two men’, he freaked out, and said, “That’s not right! They can’t do that! Ew, disgusting!” I swear, you could have heard my heart drop to the floor as I witnessed the hate spew from his mouth. I was dumbfounded. I thought he definitely had to have been switched at birth or something, because those words are not from me at all!
See, he has never been around any part of the LGBT community. And all he has ever seen is mommy with a boy, not a girl. He sees T.V. shows with girls liking boys, and boys liking girls. He had never known anything different, and that change freaked him out. For weeks, every time the news coverage came on, I would hear words of disgust coming from him yet again. I was afraid for how I would ever get him to see different. I tried to speak to him about it, but nothing. We are friends with new neighbors (who happen to be lesbians), and I have been so scared for the one time he sees them embrace or share a kiss, for what he may say. I thought about warning them, but I don’t think the kids in the household know, so they keep it to themselves in front of them.
Well, que in the song SAME LOVE, by MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS, featuring MARY LAMBERT…that’s what got things started. If you haven’t heard it, or have heard it, but haven’t seen the video, please click the link and watch it from YouTube. It is a stunningly beautiful visual gift to go along with the equally beautiful and brilliant lyrics. My favorite song, for sure!
I have loved, loved, LOVED this song from the moment I heard it. It’s beautiful and fits so perfectly in the time of history right now. Every time I hear it, I tear up. My son also loves the song, and sings along to it every time. Today, when it came on, he said “I love this song!” I asked. “You know what it’s about, right?” He answers with a whatever-toned answer of “Yea, ew.” I was not going to give up!
So, I told him “Did you know that some groups of people believe that being gay is a disease that needs to be cured and they take the “diseased” people away from their loves and shock them and perform all sorts of awful things?” His eyes widened. I have said this before, but again I said “and some people are filled with such hate that they beat gay people up; that some gay people feel so helpless and hurt by the world, that they take their own lives; that some never come out to anyone and live their lives the way everyone else wants them to, and never being fully happy and in love…” I went on and on as I spoke to him. I was getting through to him!
He ended up saying things about how awful those evil people are for treating others that way, and that God shouldn’t forgive them; I said God forgives everyone…even if they suck. He said “if people’s family and friends can’t be okay with them, that is very mean.” He really began to understand the pain that can come of such ignorance and hate and begin to accept a new idea. He knows how back in the day, interracial couples were considered “bad” and not allowed, but now, that same thought process has faded (he said “well, that’s just skin color, no worries” to which, I replied, “and this is just gender, no worries.” I loved seeing the light bulb go off in his eyes as he thought more and more about it.
My boy is so smart and loving. I hope this new way of beginning to think sticks with him. Love is love, no matter what. Not one single person should be denied the right to love and be with whomever they want to be with. I love and accept the LGBT community of awesome folks. Why so many are fearful of Equal Rights I will simply never know. If they don’t like it, turn away and move on. It is none of their business! No freedom ‘til we’re equal, damn right I support it!!!
❤ A good morning awakening
❤ A great day of homeschooling my little man
❤ Learning and teaching new things
❤ My son breaking down his thought process to learn understanding and acceptance towards Equal Rights (he is so awesome!)
❤ Eggs and toast for lunch
❤ Spring Cleaning
❤ Our beautiful library we all love
❤ My new laptop shoulder bag
❤ Using my first open WIFI signal out and about at the library
❤ Being able to donate blood to someone in need (and being the “Universal” donor)
❤ Being able to lend a helping hand to my sister, niece and nephew and buy groceries (since her live-in-now-ex-boyfriend decided to screw her over, financially)
❤ Sunshine (and melting snow)
❤ Being able to wear a T-shirt in April (unlike in MN)
❤ HUGS!
❤ The applications for the house we want to rent finally coming in the mail
❤ Sand toys for my kiddo to make sand cities out of with his friend
❤ Signs of Spring: trees budding, grass greening, budding flowers
❤ Having a decent amount of energy and good attitude
❤ Fresh, organic beef for hamburgers
❤ Easy bedtime for munchkin
❤ Finding a new blog, and reading interesting information
❤ Quiet ME TIME with my laptop, 43T, tea and blanket
I NOW KNOW HOW TO COMPLETE THE STEPS…AFTER 15+ YEARS OF HAVING NO CLUE WHAT TO DO AND TEARING UP AT THE VERY THOUGHT OF IT!!!
Today, my son and I were doing our homeschool hours, and we passed a few pages in a Brain Quest Workbook, that explained how to multiply; I thought I would give it a good try read through to see if I understood it yet…it’s been more than a few years now since I have even tried learning it again.
By golly, I looked at it, worked out their problem as an example…and, got the right answer!!! I was shocked. I then regained my patience to teach it to my son, who has always had a hard time with it, too, and has been using the Lattice Method like me. It took a little while, and he got frustrated and ran away (slamming the door) a few times, but he eventually understood it, too! :) Oh happy day!
Take that, Dyscalculia!!
Side note: While my kiddo was “mental mathing” away, I was surprised to hear him tell me that sometimes when he is trying to solve a problem in his head, the numbers get all “jumbled up” and he looses his spot as the numbers go away; this is how Dyscalculia works. I can’t recall whether or not Dyscalculia can be hereditary. I would imagine it can be. May have to keep that in mind as we advance further in Math. He may need a tutor at some point.
is the title of one of Penelope Trunk’s very informative blogs. Maybe I have this whole thing wrong; I have heard a few of these things before…especially that surgeons are best at what thy do when they play video games. I may need to rethink this goal…or the wording of it. My kiddo has actually barely been watching T.V. since we got the laptop. He definitely does a lot of data collecting and analysis when playing video games. It’s interesting to watch.
“So much of the discussion of school comes down to video games. Especially for boys. And here’s why: in most cases, if you tell boys they can spend their time doing whatever they want, and they can learn whatever is interesting to them, they will learn a lot about video games.
It’s difficult for most parents to allow their kids to play video games for hours and hours every day. I know, so I spend a lot of time reading about the effects of video games to understand the dilemma. And the first thing I’ll tell you is that research based on “screen time” which includes television, concludes that it’s detrimental to kids in large doses. Research specific to video games shows largely positive effects from high engagement.
The core difference is passive vs. active engagement. When a kid is zoned out in front of a TV, there is no problem-solving or strategizing. That’s not true for a video game. A kid who is completely absorbed in a video game and can’t hear a word his mom says is actually exhibiting the behavior psychologists like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi call flow —which is the highest form of learning because it’s such engaged attention toward mastery of a skill that you don’t notice anything around you.
The American Medical Association recommends limited screentime because of the passive nature of watching TV, but ironically school is passive, like TV, and harmful to kids for all the same reasons that screen time is passive and harmful.
Video games are not passive. I come across research all the time explaining why unlimited video game time makes for healthy kids in the same way that unlimited baseball practice does for a kid who loves baseball. A kid stops naturally when he is exhausted from exerting effort.
I have to tell this to myself every day when I hear the boys screaming about their video games from the room next to me…”
And, recently, I’ve found a bunch of research that shows that gamers are happier and more successful as adults. This is what will get me through my doubt for this week:
Gamers do better in jobs that are active.
For the types of jobs that require hand-eye coordination, gamers are not only better at doing the job, but continuing to play the games a little bit each week keeps these professionals sharp at work. We have known about this research for a while from the military, but a study from Iowa State University shows that even surgeons perform better when they regularly play video games._
Gamers are better at jobs that are intellectual.
In the future, thinking type jobs will be largely about data gathering, analysis and collaboration. So kids need to learn data gathering early. If you tell a kid to do research online for a paper they are writing for school, the kid is not doing self-directed research. They are finding something because they were told to. Gamers constantly gather information online about the game to be better players. The data collection and synthesis skills are much stronger for someone obsessed with a topic, because they are driven to find more and more specialized information._
In the workplace right now, the gap between the value of a younger person and an older person often rests in their differing abilities to search for information online. In ten years the search and synthesis skills one will need in order to be a high performer at work will be much higher than they are today. This is okay, because kids brains fundamentally change when they are online searching and taking in information all day in odd bits and chunks. If you don’t allow your kids’ brain to develop this way, they eventually will have an outdated way of problem solving.
Gamers are happier over the long run.Science Direct republished a study that shows that gamers report a higher sense of wellbeing than non-gamers as they age. A lot of this probably has to do with the fact that gaming is social and gives people a sense of belonging to a community. Which means that the long-term benefits of spending a lot of time on video games are similar to the long-term benefits of spending a lot of time at church.
I WANT TO THANKmarachin0 FOR RECOMMENDING THIS GREAT BLOG TO ME!!! :)
These are Facebook posts from a page called Kicking it Unschool They are all about free-thinking and helping kids learn in a way that will be most beneficial in their lives, in this world…away from the “standards” of current public school idiocy. These are two of the posts I want to recall here.
“So, you say you don’t feel you’re educated enough to teach your own kids at home. Or maybe you feel you only could do it up through elementary level. Really? Who taught you? Who left you feeling so inadequate? Are you sure you want to entrust the same system that left you feeling proficient only through elementary levels to teach your children? A system which hasn’t changed in 100 years?
Here’s the more important question though- Can you learn? Have you learned anything new since you left school? I bet you have, and are fully capable of learning new things still.
If you can learn you can teach, because teaching is really facilitating learning. Your kids have a question you don’t know the answer to? Go find the answer together! Show them how to learn by example. Show them how to ask questions and seek answers. Expose them to different resources. You are qualified to do this.”
This first one makes me very happy to read, because today, both I and my son learned how to do standard/basic multiplication for the first time!! I have a math disorder that leaves me a mess in math, and I never understood how to complete the steps of multiplication (I have always used the Lattice Method for multiplying). This made me very proud to be able to finally learn something new after 15+ years, and be able to then teach the same thing to my son! That was fantastic!
AND, ANOTHER:
“I see many skeptics of unschooling say things like “Kids need to learn discipline. They need to learn to sit and do their work before they can play. That’s how the real world works and one day they will need to get a job and take orders from their boss.” Or something along those lines.
Sure, this is true if your hopes and dreams for your children are that they go into the world and join the rat r…ace, sitting in little cubicles working for the man all day, just like everybody else. Is that really your goal? Is that really what your child wants for their adult life?
If, hypothetically, you could hit a fast forward button to thrust your child into independence right now, what would they need to know? How to grow or obtain food. How to prepare said food for consumption. Basic hygiene and cleanliness. How to read. An understanding of economics and money management. How to negotiate and collaborate with people of all ages and backgrounds. How to creatively problem solve to get/do things they want and need.
How do you help them learn those things? Grow a garden together, hunt together, or let them help with shopping. Let them help you cook. Let them watch and help you keep a clean body and home. Read for pleasure. Talk about money. Involved them in the family finances. Model good communication. Let them out in the world. Let them play. Let them play. Live alongside them.
Seriously, no worksheets required. No forcing required. No dangling rewards like carrots needed. Not if your goal is to raise a free-thinking, independent individual.”
LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH! IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE ONCE YOU BEGIN TO THINK THIS WAY!
It is so weird that Colorado doesn’t have any Red Cross donation centers; like I am used to using when I was living in Minnesota. The Red Cross Vamps called countless times after I moved, but I wasn’t able to make an appointment with them…which is sad, because I was ex cited to earn a gallon pin from them.
I made an appointment with Bonfies blood mobile at the library for today and went it. Side note: I am not great in small spaces…not my greatest idea but I made it through. I was afraid that my iron would be low, but I was at 44% and was able to donate. They said to be prepared for an hour…it took 35 minutes, in total. Booyah! I am so glad I don’t suffer that awful light-headed, weak, tires feeling after donations; I am usually in and out within half an hour, with absolutely no side effects.
I am now at 6 out of 8 donations. 2 more to go before I can cross this off! :)
This morning, I did a few things around the house: picked up random bits and pieces of trash, cleared off the kitchen countertops and kitchen table, and sanitized them both, emptied out the dishwasher (mom refilled it), picked up clothes and toys and put them away where they belong, and sorted a few papers and threw out others. I still have more things to do (many things, actually). Tomorrow, I will try to get through my son’s toy stuff and organize them…maybe sort through all of his clothes, too.
I think my mental sanity could very well be questioned lately, as my son has been driving me bonkers! I try to remain calm and chill, but it is very difficult to do so. His bad moods tend to come at me hard and I suck up all the negativity and attitude. I really need to stop that. Today was much better than the past week. It was a happy day today.
I have been remembering to take my supplements more than not, and have been feeling okay on the health front. I have been flossing every day and drinking more water. I straightened my hair for the first time in awhile today, and put on some bright eye makeup to go with my bright green shirt I wore today. I felt pretty great with some pretty jewelry, and felt even better to finally donate blood (that should help in reducing toxins in my body). I bought some hair color yesterday, and plan on coloring my hair shortly here.
I hope I can keep in this up spirit, so that I can make some more progress here. The way I have been feeling, all I want to do is sleep. I may be going through a bit of momentary depression. We shall see…some apple cider vinegar is definitely in order!
“Easy A” earlier (love Emma Stone!!), and a scene in it reminded me to mark this goal as completed. I can now cross off “Watch the Bucket List” off of my Bucket List! ;)
It was a beautiful movie.
