Pam’s Blog

Yeah I know – I’m a wimp – but the truth is I really don’t want to step on a scale today. 

I haven’t been to the gym in five days.  FIVE DAYS!!! Man can I feel it to.  The upside is my feet are feeling a lot better – the downside my body knows I’ve been skipping my regular exercise. 

Not to mention that I overate this holiday weekend.   On top of all that my kids have been sick since Saturday and now I have it.  My glands are swollen, my throat is sore and my nose is so stuffy I can’t breath out of it, and I woke up with a migraine.  So no gym today.  No volunteering today either. But I will have to work this afternoon.

Overall the week has been a total bust.

Except for one thing – I joined Spark people this week.  Hopefully it will be a good motivation and accountability tool.  Vicki is on there and we are going to help motivate each other.

So hopefully this next week will be better – either way I promise to share a weigh in with you next week.  Thanks for keeping me honest. 

P.S.

Sorry for the vent everyone.  I am feeling yucky this morning and just felt like getting it all out.  I hope everyone has a happy Wednesday – I will be in a better mood next time.

No Comments »

Yup – that’s how it goes – a holiday weekend means sick kids.  It started Saturday night with Xavier complaining of a sore throat.  By Sunday morning he and Quinn were both running fevers.  Today Willoweve has joined the sick crew with a cough and fever of her own.

It seems like it is just a cold but it is messing with everyone’s asthma. Quinn’s breathing was a mess yesterday and his fever hit 103 in the evening.  He seems a little better this morning but his breathing still isn’t great.  This morning Willoweve’s breathing is bad and she is coughing – the asthma cough.  Her fever isn’t too high but she feels miserable. 

Xavier seems to be feeling better and his temp is down a good bit.  Hopefully that means the other two will feel better quickly too. 

I hope everyone else has had a wonderful weekend!! 

Happy Monday.

No Comments »

I just read about Steven Curtis Chapman’s tragic loss.

Allow me to begin by saying that his family will be in my prayers and my thought are with them during this very difficult time. I can’t imagine their pain and I know nothing I could write or say would come close to touching it.

Some days it seems like the world is so full of pain and death. I think of the song by Water Deep called “Eighteen Bullet Holes”

“Oh, God, it hurts so bad to love anybody down here. Why don’t you come and help me out, I can’t even see clear.”

Then later:

“But oh, that’s right you know so well One thorny crown, three nails and a spear.”

The song always reaches into me when I hear it and reminds me exactly how well God does know. He sent his own son to die.

Something I must admit I am not sure I could ever do. I look at my boys and I know I could never send them off without hope that they would come back to me – in this life. And we have hope – even when we send our children out to war we have a thread of hope to hold on to.

God knew – he knew when he sent his son that he was going to live through tragedy, death, betrayal and eventually his own painful and humiliating death.

Of course it can be argued that God also knew Jesus would rise from the grave and would be back with him in Eternity. Still he sent him to live all those horrible things. He sent him to endure all the pain and embarrassment and hurt of being human.

How did it feel to Jesus to see his earthly father die?

How did he feel to be betrayed by someone who had been a friend?

We know he sweat blood before the cross – obviously he wasn’t looking forward to the painful death he was about to endure.

Jesus came – he knows. He sent us the Holy spirit to comfort us because he does know so well.

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will give comfort and peace to the Chapman family. I hope that as they struggle through they will pull together and not be pulled apart by this.

No Comments »

This has been a pretty good week – I made it to the gym four times and worked out for about an hour all but one time – that day Quinn was feeling needy and I only managed 45 minutes.

I’ve been making better food choices this week as well.  Although I am pretty sure last weeks weigh in was a bit of a fluke since I have lost all the weight I was suppose to have gained last week.

I was so excited to take my measurements this morning.  I couldn’t wait to see if I had lost any inches over the past month.  Especially after someone told me yesterday that I looked like I was losing weight.  Since I don’t feel like the scale is moving very much I was really eager to see if my measurements had changed any. 

So – uhm – I am a little confused by the results.  I lost 3.5 inches on some parts of my body and gained 6.5 on other parts.  Very interesting.  I am wondering if maybe I measured in slightly different places and that accounts for the apparent gains in inches.  Anyway I made notes about exactly where I measured this month so next month I can be sure to measure in the same places.  Overall the results aren’t too bad. 

Weekly Goals:

• Get to the gym five times this week
• Lower my fat intake
• Snack less.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

1 Comment »

Jason and I spent the weekend gardening. The kids helped too – actually they were a lot of help. 

In addition to a front garden we have a three tiered garden out front.  This is what we really worked on. 

On Saturday Jason worked really hard and got all the weeds and junk out of the top tier of the garden.   It took all day – literally. 

On Sunday I put new plants in – 4 heather plants, 6 African Daisy’s, four other daisy’s and a bird bath.  I have always wanted a bird bath.

We still need a plant or two in there to fill in empty spaces but it looks so much better. 

Anyway I will try to post some pictures later. 

Happy Tuesday everyone.

No Comments »

I am sore and achy today.  Particularly my left ankle and my neck.

I’m not sure what’s up with my neck – maybe I just slept wrong – who knows.  My left ankle isn’t too much of a surprise.  Ever since I fell and hurt it about seven years ago it has given me problems on and off.

Also that foot has been bothering me for a few weeks now.  First pain in the heel, then swelling and achy pain in the top of the foot and now my ankle and Achilles tendon are hurting.

Maybe I should see a podiatrist.    I’ll think about it.

Anyway on a brighter topic.

Yesterday turned out to be a FUN day.  the Alki-a-thon was a blast.  I helped give out stickers at the second grade tent.  Xavier ran five miles, Willoweve ran four miles and Quinn ran a mile and a half.

I ran one lap with Willoweve and one lap with Xavier but I had already been to the gym that morning and done 4 miles on the elliptical so another half mile was all I could handle.  I took a bunch of pictures – I’ll pose some in a few days.

I defrosted Bob’s food yesterday and he is eating this morning.  He was very hungry.  He did great in the classroom yesterday.  I am so proud of him.

On the agenda for today – Gardening.  We need to do some serious work on the gardens and yard outside and today promises to be a wonderful Sunny day.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Comments Off

So today is going to be crazy – and I mean that literally.

Here is my agenda for the day:

This morning before leaving the house I need to

1) change the laundry – fold the load in the dryer – put a fresh load in the washer

2) Get mice and rats out of the basement freezer for Bob. This is by far my least favorite job of al time – however I love Bob and so I will make the sacrifice and do it for him.

Ok – so that’s before I leave the house then then I need to take Xavier to school while there I need to:

1) Drop Willoweve’s teacher appreciation gifts off to her teacher since she was absent last week when she should have taken them in. While doing that try to keep the two small ones from totally wrecking the room.

2) Drop off the forms telling the school my kids WILL be attending there next year – the forms due today – the forms we got in the mail YESTERDAY!

3) find out what time Xavier will be running in the Alki-a-thon so I can be there to help out and see him run.

Then from there I need to head to the gym and try to get a full work out in – if Willoweve and Quinn will stay in childcare.

From there the day could take two paths – either I will go straight back to the school to watch Xavier run – or I will have a short amount of time to come home if I have time to come home I will do another load of laundry, feed the kids and then head down to watch Xavier.

Either way eventually I will be back at Alki. I will spend a few hours there helping out and playing with the kids. Then I will bring Xavier home – with the other two – a little early.

At 3:15pm I need to get Bob ready to go visit the school – this means taking him out and handling him for about 10 to fifteen minutes then putting him into his travel cage to take down to Alki and share with the Friday Science Adventure class.

4:00pm – 4:30pm – show Bob to the science adventure class.

Then I need to come home – I need to get at least four loads of laundry done today since many of us are running low on clothing – Quinn for example is almost out of underpants.

Then I need to figure out what I am going to feed the kids for dinner.

After the kids are tucked into bed:

1) I will have to put Bob into his feeding cage – soak his dinner in warm water and then feed Bob.

2) Do my homework – I need to comment on 6 peoples writing and then respond to four writing prompts. Two from last week that I didn’t get done and two from this week that are due by Monday.

So yeah – it is a crazy day today. Hopefully I will get is all done

No Comments »

Uhg – I gained six lbs this week.  What is weird is I am not entirely sure how that happened.

I mean I went to the gym Friday, Saturday and Monday.  I worked out over an hour each of those days.  On Saturday I also went horse back riding for four hours.  Then on Sunday I spent about an hour tromping around the horse farm.

Still I didn’t eat great this week.  I overate and I made some poor food choices, still I thought I did better then gaining six pounds. I guess not.

Anyway it is one bad week – not the end of the world.

Positive – The absolute best music to work out to is the sound track to Hairspray (the recent one – not the older one)  My favorite songs are Good Morning Baltimore – I mean what other song has dancing rats, bums, and flashers in it, and You can’t Stop the Beat – an excellent song.  Both are upbeat and fun to work out to.   I like to cool down with the song I Can Hear the Bells.  Honestly this is the best work out music EVER I really enjoy working out to it and it makes it easy to keep my heart rate up.

Ok – well next week is my measurement week. Hopefully they will show me something the scale isn’t – and maybe I will even loose weight next week. 

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Comments Off

For mothers day some people want diamond necklaces and some people want spa time. I like to go play in the mud, sleep in the cold and ride horses.

I had a brilliant weekend this weekend at Lang’s. The people there do an excellent job maintaining the farm and making it a welcoming fun place to spend time.

On Saturday Vicki and I went up together. We rode for about four and a half hours and then had dinner and enjoyed a camp fire and spent the night in a covered wagon.

We played games on horseback and I rode a wonderful horse named Digger.

He was a sweet heart, so much fun to ride and such a confidence builder. I can’t wait to ride him again. I already plan to ask to ride him in the fall for the longer mom’s camp.

On Sunday Jason and Jeff brought all the kids up to join us and we took the kids on a pony ride.

** As an aside let me just take a moment to say how wonderful Jason is. Despite asthma and allergies he came up to the farm. Despite no great love for horses, or mornings he got there in time for breakfast and led Xavier’s pony the trail despite mud that came up to mid calf in some places. I have a truly EXCELLENT husband. **

So on Sunday each of the kids got to take a pony ride.

Xavier rode a pony named Blaze:

Willoweve rode Benjamin:

Quinn rode Rex:

Fiona rode… oh no – I can’t remember his name!!!!! Vicki who did Fiona ride?

It was a lot of fun. Quinn is a natural horseman. He moves with the rhythm of the horse and is completely relaxed. Of course we kind of knew that from our experience with Little Joe. Willoweve does great too. She enjoys riding but is more nervous then Quinn. Xavier is ALL nerves, but he still enjoys it – he hasn’t ridden as much as Willoweve and Quinn though.

We are hoping to send Xavier, Fiona and Willoweve to a week of Summer Camp in August up at Lang’s. More on that later.

I wish you all a happy Tuesday – tomorrow is weigh in day.

1 Comment »

Today is the day. Vicki and I are heading up to Lang’s horse and Pony farm for a mini Mom’s retreat. Tomorrow the kids will join us and ride ponies. They are excited, I am excited. It should be lovely.

It is so odd to me. I never expected to ride more when I lived in the city then I did in the suburbs. I do though.

Maybe part of it is determination. I was determined not to let my dream of riding die just because we moved to the city. Part of it is the way this area is too. Horse farms can afford to survive around here, while in Maryland it was a lot more expensive and harder for them.

I won’t say it’s exactly convenient. Lang’s is two hours from us. To me though the drive is worth every minute. The horses are wonderful and the farm is lovely and well kept.

So off we go for a mini moms retreat. We’ll do the full three day two night deal in September. Rachel is planning to fly out and join us for it.

I wish everyone a happy Mothers day and I hope you all have as lovely a weekend as I plan to. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Willoweve and Fiona standing with pony Amy at Lang’s

Vicki on Dave at Mom’s camp

No Comments »