A lazy fun day at home........kind of.

I hear the sounds of laughter and fun this morning. The kids are playing hide and seek in the house. First they were hiding various toys and now they are hiding themselves. They giggle when they count, they giggle while hiding, they giggle while searching and both erupt into laughter when one finds the other. It is noisy but so sweet to hear.

Later this afternoon we are heading over to a friend's house for a New Year's party. The host is making chow mein using homemade noodles and homemade dumplings. On the stove is cooking a way our contribution to the food. James is making a Chinese appetizer concotion that is various foods cooked in a soy sauce mixture then allowed to cool before slicing and serving. I enjoy the chicken and hard boiled eggs that are cooked this way. There will be a lot of homemade foods, lots of fun getting together with friends, basically a very enjoyable get together with not a lot of fuss.

Getting in the Groove

I've been walking pretty much every morning after dropping the kids off at school. I can't do it t on Thursday mornings because I work in the classroom so that is my day of rest. This weekend I went for a walk both Saturday and Sunday. I'm sore but I'm feeling good. I hope I can keep this up for a month because then it will be a habit and just something I do.

Today was a challenge because I was handed a book order when I dropped off Lindsay. I cant' walk the neighborhood carrying a bag with books in it. I walked home dropped it off and walked right back out the door. I couldn't take a moment to grab a drink or talk to James otherwise I would have been tempted to just sit down for a minute and then I would have not gotten my walk in. It felt good to walk out the door quickly. I felt like I'd done good.

Enjoying some beautiful weather.

It is hard to believe it is January with the beautiful weather we have been having here the past few days. It has reached 77F at least twice. Just unbelievable. I am enjoying it but am also hoping that we get some snow up in the mountains to help our water supply.

So far this week I have exercised every single day. I have done more walking and even done soem activities on Wii Fit. That is harder than it looks or even feels at the time you are doing it. They have made it fun to exercise and get fit. Though it isn't fun seeing your Wii get chubbier when you take a body test, because you are overweight. The kids even enjoy playing it.

Today I have a lunch date with James. It isn't often that we get to get out without the kids. Lindsay is going home with a friend after school so I don't have to be back at the school to get her until almost 3pm, which is when Philip gets out of school. I wonder where we will go.

Sorry to jump around so much but I''m typing as things come to me. I'm not sure why because I have always hated reading books that were written stream of consciousness.

A New Year A New Me?!

So far the New Year has been pretty good. I am doing well and the kids are doing well.

Philip's first day back was kind of rough. He was "bouncing off the walls" and ended up with two time-outs which means he lost recess. The rest of the week was good for him.

Lindsay had a little bit of a rough time as well. It seems that she forgot her manners over the break. And she forgot that it is okay not to win every game. She lost a star one day because she was a bad sport after lossing a game they were playing. Things got a little bit better each day so yesterday she had a really good day even with me in the class. We'd talked about how she needs to be on her best behavior when I'm in the class helping out otherwise I will have to stop helping. She told me she is pretending that I am not her mom when I'm in there to help her remember to behave.

I am getting myself organized and think I have figured out the best way to get back on the fitness wagon. I am continuing to walk places and have started building extra exercise into daily life -- parking further away, taking a loop around the block after dropping off the kids. I need to start doing that right before I pick them up too. I've been looking at my schedule to see when I have time to fit in a few minutes of exercise at home. We have a Wii and Wii Fit so I can do some of that at various times during the day. That will be in addition to my time at the gym. I need to get back to that on a more regular basis now that the holiday rush is over.

What prompted this? Right before the holidays I bought a pair of 16 pants. I had a gc to this store and their petitie section ends at size 16 (they do have women's petite but I wanted to see what was in the petite area) and I decided to get a pair of these cute brown pants and I would just put them away for when I got down to that size. I got home and decided to try them on to see how close I was to fitting in them. They fit perfectly. I ended up going through all of my pants and jeans in my closet and got rid of everything that was too big. That left me with 2 pairs of jeans, the brown pants and a pair of khaki pants. Goodwill and Hope made out very well from me at the end of the year. Later I went through my shirts and got rid of all the tops that are too big (donations again) and threw out those that were torn or stained or just too awful to donate. My closet is no longer jammed with clothes. This was good on so many different levels. It was good because I hadn't realized that I had lost that much weight. I knew my pants were lose with some of them falling off me if I wasn't careful. I made some charity donations of good clothes and I got my closet cleaned out.

I want to keep going so I have another round of clothes to donate. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get to donate more clothes, have to get a new set of workout clothes because these ones I have are really way to big and get to shop for new clothes. I'll have to get new summer clothes as it is but wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to shop for them in an even smaller size?

Happy New Year!

I love the promise of a new beginning that the New Year brings.

My hope and wish is that everyone has a prosperous and joyous 2009. That no matter what 2008 brought your way that 2009 will be better.