I'm still being used as a jungle gym.

I'm going to start posting pictures of my food again. I've noticed that this helps me be more accountable.

I've just been doing an exercise video and haven't ran. I guess I need to get my booty out there and run. I just don't feel like running enclosed inside a gym when it's so pretty outside. And I am a little scared running alone down my country roads way early in the morning. I've got to find me a running partner. In the meantime, I've got my dog. I do need to buy her a leash so that she won't run away from me and chase the cows.

I've got a quick story to tell.

I previously told y'all that I've been doing yoga. I try to do my exercises alone with no one watching. Nothing like having an audience.

Anyways, the boys always seem to make it into the room to watch or they become peeping Toms.

During the time of the video when I think that I can't do it anymore and Bob is telling me to keep going, that he's almost done, the boys try to encourage me as well. Not like Bob, but more like "That's not how they are doing it mom" or "Come on mom, I can do it better"

While I'm trying to do the poses, they think I'm a jungle gym and crawl under me, jump over me, try to avoid my hands when I'm swinging them around and so forth.

At first, it was a little annoying, but the more it's done, I enjoy it because I'm not thinking of my legs shaking, or my arms feeling as if they are going to fall off.

As a matter of fact, by the time this all happens, my whole body feels as if it's been tortured and I can't go on anymore.

The boys will show me how it's supposed to be done. I am not as agile as they are.

I do believe the poses are getting better because I've heard less of "that's not how to do it mom" and more of "that looks hard mom"

I'm getting there. Slowly but surely.

My weekend

Well, I had a great weekend with friends and family. It was wonderful, but I can honestly say that I was tired last night.

My brother in law and his son and my sister in law and her kids and her boyfriend came down for the weekend. We had tons of fun.

My friend from Texas came as well for the day on Friday and I didn't get to see her anymore. Sorry G, we'll spend time in San Antonio.

I hadn't worked out since Friday, so this morning I woke up and did an exercise video. Need to get this extra weight off. It did feel good to workout again.

We had a get together here on Saturday night with family and friends. We had a big turnout. Hubster and the guys set up their band stuff on the back porch and played music for us. They played until it rained hard.

The kids all rode the dirt bikes on Sunday afternoon. We had one that flipped, but he was okay. No tragedies.

Fishing was a spur of the moment event that happened Monday. We all went to the Lake and the only drama that happened was a fishing rod sinking onto the bottom of the lake.

Nothing else to write about at this moment. As I'm trying to clean my house and catch up on the laundry.

Yoga is exercise

We've been busy with a visit from some wonderful friends, last days of school work, the everyday business of life, baseball and whatever else has been thrown our way.

I've been eating better. I might not see results but I sure can feel them. I sleep better and I definitely feel better.

Since my last run posted , I have done some home exercises and did 20 min of running up the hill and walking down the hill. Butt kickers is what I like to call them.

I was showing my friend yesterday my little so called muscle on my biceps. Telling her that AB just kept looking at me when I was bragging about it and Hubster is a good man by telling me that it seems like they are getting bigger. She asked if I lifted weights. I said no. Simply because lifting 5lb weights every other week is not going to get me some definition in my muscles. And going to the gym every three weeks is not going to cut it either.

I do think that maybe my arms are getting a little toned just with the combination of exercises I do. I get bored doing one thing over and over. I have to break that monotony. I sort've make up my own exercise combinations and it works for me.

But the thing that I have been doing that is helping out my core(that also helps incontinence) and helps tone up everywhere is yoga. I've been doing yoga with Bob (biggest loser) only about twice a week, but those two times kick my butt, literally.

When I heard of yoga, I constantly told myself that I would never do that. Seriously, how was I going to stand like a flamingo and then suddenly lift my leg up into the wild blue yonder all the while trying to keep my balance. Not to mention, keeping all my body parts from moving out of position. No way!!

I ended up buying Biggest Loser Yoga weight loss video some time ago. It sat unopened for months. I tried it and was sore the next day. Bob keeps you going. I learned new names for exercises that I had never heard of before. Downward dog, upward dog, cow, cat, triangle, warrior, and the dreaded plank.

I do have to admit that the first time I turned on the video to view it just to see if I would like it, I saw them do these poses and told myself, "that's easy, you can do that"

Ha Ha Ha laughed my body when the next time I turned the video on and actually tried it. Your body stretches and reaches and moves and works. Never again will I say that yoga is not exercise.

So L, I think that's what's happening to my little so called muscles. Yoga baby!!

I ran another 3 miles this morning. 30 min this time. I was trying to do a slow and easy 3 miles.
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The boys had baseball games this week. It's been fun to watch them. UB is still in Tball and gets bored during the halfway point. He enjoys it though.

AB is still in coach pitch with Hubster as his coach. During the opening tournament, their team won the championship. It was great. Since then, they've won some and lost one.

AB hit an infield home run on Tue and was quite proud of himself. I was proud of him as well. This is the same kid that last year hit maybe 4 times the entire year. He's been doing so much better this year. It was a good home run. He hit it down to left field, hit the fence and he ran and ran, they threw the ball to the catcher and AB slid right between the catcher's legs(not touching the catcher). The catcher dropped the ball. It was great.

It's funny how even though his daddy is his coach, and he wants to impress him, he still looks for his mom for approval. I love it. He'll tell me that he's going to hit it hard again, or that he's going to catch a pop fly. Well, last night during one of the times that he hit the ball, he made it to first base and was looking at me for my thumbs up sign, he smiled and waved when I gave it to him. I hope he always looks for me.

He even caught a pop fly. He just lifted his arms that are 3ft long and caught that ball that was going high up. It was great. And yes, he looked to see if I had seen it.

Anyway, enough bragging. I'm just a proud momma, what can I say.

We are having company this weekend. My brother in law and his son and my sister in law and her family. Along with more family and friends for a get together or two.

Time to go finish mowing, clean the house, do the laundry, change sheets and just get ready for the company that is soon to arrive.

Have a Blessed Weekend!!!

3 miles in 28 min. Wooo Hooo!!

For the last week and a half, I have done nothing.

I haven't been eating right and I definitely haven't been exercising.

It seems that when that dreaded unwanted monthly visitor is arriving, my body rebels. It wants to eat what it wants and it will only function with sweets and fried foods. It certainly doesn't want to work off this bad food.

Hubster took the boys for a while Saturday morning and I was going to do nothing. Again. Nothing but lay in bed in my pajamas. It didn't matter that I had 5 loads of laundry to wash and dry and another 3 loads that needed to be put away. I was not going to do anything.

Then Hubster called and needed me to take him something. So much for not doing anything.

I get in my workout clothes thinking that since I'm out, I'll go to the gym and run a little. My mind was playing games with me but in the end, my strong will won.

I was only going to run two miles. I hadn't ran in a while and didn't want to hurt myself. At least that's what I was telling myself. It sounded like a good excuse.

I had my ipod on and was listening to some tunes and I looked down at my nike+ and saw that I had already ran two miles. Let's go for three, I told my body.

So I ran three miles in 30 min. Then I went down to the little weight room and lifted weights for about 15 min. It felt good to have all that sweat pouring out of me. Not that I lost any weight.

This morning, I got up early and went back to the gym. This time I ran three miles in 28 min. I'd like to shorten my three mile runs to 24 min, but this is a big improvement for me.

Eventually, I'd like to increase my miles and run longer. My mind and my legs are just now starting to get along well, so I'll give them some time to adjust to this.

I'm off to get ready for the last three days of school and to plan my good eats for the day. Starting off with a bowl of muesli.

I'll leave you with a UB moment.
I was in my lounge wear (t-shirt/bra and pajama bottoms) on Saturday afternoon. The boys and I were making some craft they had been wanting to do for a while.

UB adjusts my shirt in the front and says "Mom, you need to fix your shirt, your crack is showing"

A trip to the State Capital

You know what is the best thing for a day of hormones kicking it up in full gear?

A brownie fudge sundae.

Just kidding. It's a big hug and kiss and a sincere "I Love You mom, You are the best" from your child. Everything seems better after that.

Anyway, don't have pictures of my food. I've been too lazy to download and post. I'll post tomorrow.

I have had plenty of yummy food. Most good, some not good for me. But all so tasty.

We went on a field trip to the State Capital on Tue. It was so much fun. I never thought I'd say that History is fun because I am the one that flunked history and government in High School and College.

Even though the kids were young, our tour guide, the secretary for our State Senator, made it very interesting for them. She even had them role play so that they could understand how a law becomes a bill and trying to get them to understand checks and balances.

I do believe they all enjoyed themselves. We were able to meet Our House of Representative and our State Senator. The man this is our House Representative goes to our church so we already knew him, but were able to talk to him about Home school issues.

The State Senator talked to the kids first. He was sweet in that he commended us parents for Homeschooling and said wonderful things about Homeschooling. It makes you feel good to know that someone is behind you.

The Representative was as well. His wife was a Missions Kid and was Home schooled. He was a public school teacher and coach, so he has the knowledge on both ends.

All in all, it was a great day at the Capital.

Yesterday was spent mostly catching up on what should have been done Tue. It was a rough day in school. Both boys acted like they didn't know what they were being taught, when in fact it was just review. Days like that make me feel inadequate. My self-doubt sets in. All the pressure from the public seeps in takes over my thoughts. I question myself whether I'm actually teaching correctly. Am I not getting the point across the correct way? Am I doing the right thing?

We took a little break until after lunch and then continued with school. It was much better. The boys suddenly remembered how to do the lesson and all was good. Then the insecurities that I had earlier were gone. All was good.

I leave you with this little story.

Hubster and Teenster came home for lunch yesterday. Hubster had taken his motorcycle to work and therefore that is how they came home. UB made a comment about that to them and said, "Two guys riding one motorcycle? I just don't get it."

I don't think Hubster liked that comment.

Zucchini Lasagna

Not much to talk about exercise wise or food wise. Did good until Sat. morning. Then it went downhill from there.

I ate mostly leftovers on Friday and then made some gluten free pancakes for breakfast on Saturday. Mixed pecans in the batter then I put some frozen strawberries in a saucepan with a little water and mashed them. That was my syrup for my pancake. It was good.

Won't tell you what I ate for lunch. It was definitely not good for me.

I did come to the conclusion that bad food just makes me feel horrible. I can't breathe, can't sleep, just feel bloated. I definitely don't want to feel like that again.
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The weather has been crazy lately. Rain every other day or so. I supposed that's good news for our pond since it's finally full.

The only complaint I have with rain is the grass that grows twice as fast and all the water and mud puddles.

The other thing that comes out with this weather are toads. Lots and lots of toads. Toads that are coming out of hibernation to play in this spring like weather.

Boys and toads go well together. The boys enjoy playing with these nasty animals. UB more so than AB. I have to check UB's pant pockets when he comes inside. He likes to carry them with him.

Last week, he was walking into the house with a yellow tool box. Trying to discreetly make it to his room. I was in the kitchen with my back to him but my eyes on the back of my head saw him.
"What do you have there?" I asked
"Nothing mom." He innocently says
"Open that up and let me see."
He slowly lifts the lid to the toolbox and what do I see? Ants. Red fire ants. He was wanting to put this tool box in his room and the ants were going to be his pets. I tell him to take that back outside and put those ants back where he found them.

I look at him and realize he's holding something else. A mesh bag that is tied to his belt loop. Inside this mesh bag was a toad holding on for dear life. That was another pet he was wanting to put in his room somewhere.

Hubster comes home and makes UB put the ants back where they belonged. I go outside to see what is happening and see 3 toads inside that mesh bag. Tied to the handlebars of the bike.

If I were those toads, I'd find a different place to live when they were set free.
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Zucchini Lasagna
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 8oz cans of no sodium tomato sauce
1 lb extra lean ground turkey
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Italian herb seasoning(optional)
1 egg
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
1 tsp whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup skim, fat free mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
3 zucchini sliced into 1/4 inch think pieces

Preheat oven to 350.

Saute onion and garlic over medium heat until tender. Add turkey and brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add tomato sauce. Season with Italian herb seasonings. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, slightly beat the egg. Stir in cottage cheese, flour and 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese.

Pour 1/2 of meat-tomato mixture into a 1 1/2 quart roasting pan. Top with zucchini slices and cottage cheese mixture. Then cover with remaining meat-tomato mixture and zucchini.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and bake 10 minutes longer.

A nature walk does the body good

The boys and I went for a little nature walk in the misty fog yesterday morning. I've got to say, that's the extent of my exercise for yesterday.

We were walking down the road from Hubster's office and were looking for birds. We came across this pretty bird. Have no clue what it is. The bird book doesn't tell me.
And we saw lots of Cardinals. It was fun to watch them play with each other. They just don't like to be approached. This is as good a shot as I could get.

While walking down this road, an audio tech van drove by us. He waved and continued down the road to the office. A couple of minutes later, it showed back up and stopped next to us. I started to freak out because I'm thinking, "I'm alone with two little boys, in the middle of nowhere with no one to hear me if I scream." Previous episodes of CSI came to mind.

He asked if a person lived down this way. Only the guy Hubster works with and his family live down that dead end road. I didn't know the name he mentioned and he wouldn't leave. I soon see another vehicle approaching and realize it's the man that works with Hubster, R, and his wife R. (I'll just call them R& R).

Anyway, I tell the van man to ask them. They stopped next to us and R tells him no one by that name lives down the road. Van man left and R&R stayed to talk to us for a while. They ask the boys to be on the lookout for wild pigs, bobcats and skunks. They proceed to leave to the office and we walk a little further.

The boys were spooked by this time and with the van incident and R&R telling them about the wildlife out there, we head back to the office.

It was a nice little walk and an adventurous one as well.

Yesterday for breakfast, because of eating that small portion of salad on Wed night at church, then going for a run later that evening, I was starving.

I had 2 egg whites, 2 slices of turkey bacon and a whole grain English muffin. It sure filled me up.

For lunch, I made some chicken tostadas. I had lots of leftovers in the fridge and needed to get rid of them.

Tostadas consisted of low fat refried beans, grilled chicken, low fat cheese, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos and we can't forget the avocado.

I wanted something sweet but didn't want to eat junk and wasn't in the mood for an apple, so I had me a bowl of non-fat plain yogurt topped with flax seed and Ezekiel cereal with almonds, and fresh blueberries. Topped with a splash of agave nectar. This was really satisfying. And so filling that I wasn't even hungry for dinner.

UB had a baseball game and when we came back home, Hubster wanted another chicken tostada. I munched on a couple of pieces of baked chicken while making his tostada. Then I made me some air popped popcorn.

While at the baseball field, there were some people sitting next to us that were chain smoking. I'm so happy to receive second hand smoke, I really like it. I don't understand why some people aren't considerate to smoke elsewhere. People can smoke all they want, just not around me. I'm sorry if I offend anyone on this topic, but If I wanted to inhale cigarette smoke, I'd smoke myself.

Just had to get that of my chest.

It's Friday and have to go do tests with the boys and then clean the neglected house.

Coyotes, snakes and cows oh my!

I didn't get to post yesterday because I had lots of catching up to do with my laundry.


Here's my food for Tue and Wed.
Tue: For breakfast, I had my usual bowl of blueberry oatmeal
For lunch I made some salmon patties. I usually add eggs and crackers but this time I just added flax seed and whole grain bread crumbs.

I thought it was pretty delicious. I had some veggies on the side and then some fruit for dessert.

For dinner, I had roasted chicken wrapped in a herb and garlic wheat tortilla and a sweet potato on the side.
Wed: For breakfast I had a bowl of muesli. It's so yummy. You have to try it.

I made this zucchini lasagna for lunch. I really liked it. Hubster said it was just OK, but he's used to eating heavy. This was not heavy but was very filling. I will post the recipe later.

For dinner it was salad at the church. I didn't eat much because it was lots of different cold types of salads. Corn salad w/chips, broccoli salad with lots of mayo, pasta salad with vinegar and ????, cornbread salad, Chinese cole slaw and fruit salad.

I did eat some but not much. I even ate the brownie that had no nuts. You know I had to be hungry in order to eat chocolate.

I hadn't gotten my run in for the day. Didn't make it to the gym early in the morning since UB woke me up at 3am to inform me that he had a bad dream and he needed to sleep with me. I of course am a mean mom and said no. I went back to bed but didn't get to fall asleep right away.

Anyway, after church last night I went for a jog down my country road. I ran for 2 miles and walked .7 of a mile. It felt good.

While I enjoy running out in the open air as opposed to an indoor track, I don't enjoy the little creatures that are out on the road. Trying to sabotage my run.

Coyotes have been spotted both on my front yard as well as back behind the house. Not just one little coyote. But a pack of about 6 in front and 2 in back.

I'm from a town where the mascot is the coyote. I'm just not wanting to become close friends with the coyote. A pretend one is easier to pet than a real one.

The other thing I have to watch for out there are snakes. They are out now, trying to get some sunbathing in.

Cinnamon goes jogging with me and I feel a little safer. I run down the hill and then hit a gradual slope up a hill. It seems to be going on for a long time. I make it to the top and see cows on both sides of the road. The cows on the left of me run with me and then run away. The cows on the right of me just look up from their dinner and moo. I'd like to think they are encouraging me. They are telling me "Come on and moooooove it mooooove it"

During my run, I hear the grass moving. I hear scurrying. Mice or some little creatures. Birds finding worms.

I get to the bottom of the hill and then there is yet another small hill to the stop sign. I make it over and back but now it's time to go back up the other way. Up and down the hills again. My legs are hurting and my butt is dragging but I push and push. All the while, the cows encouraging me again "Mooooove that booty, yooooou can do it"

I make it to the top of the hill and then back down again. I turn down a road and keep running. While running back down the road to head home, I see a snake in the middle of the road. I stop and look and stay still. Thinking that if I run, it's going to get me because I sure can't out run it. But if I just stand there, his friends will probably come out to play around me.

I realize the snake is dead. But it's weird because I had just ran by there and it was not on the road. You bet your pretty little head that this Mexican girl ran fast and hard to the house. I don't think I had ran that fast in a long time.

I can easily run 3 miles at the indoor track but it's a killer running 2 miles down these hilly roads. I'm just a wimp.

See y'all tomorrow.

Food for me?

For exercise today, I did some pilates. Good grief, those exercises hurt. Makes you use your core. My core? I don't have a core, I think the fat is hiding it behind the door.
One day soon I'm going to find that core.

I decided that if I posted what I ate then I am more liable to eat better. Sure don't want y'all to see the unhealthy chicken fried steaks I eat. Loaded with gravy and huge steak fries on the side.

For breakfast, I had my usual bowl of oatmeal. I used to not be a big fan of oats but it's actually yummy now. I think I'm going to start adding some almond butter to it as well. The Almond milk makes it a little sweet. I like it not sweet. You could add Splenda or Agave Nectar too.
1/4 c oats
1/2 c almond milk
3 TBL flaxseed
blueberries
walnuts


For lunch, I had a tuna pita. I like these things. I reeeeeaaaaallly like these things. I put tuna in mine, along with lettuce, tomato and I couldn't forget the avacado. Avacado is a must on everything. In my opinion. The pita is an Ezekial whole grain sprouted pita. Very delicious. I think it would have been better with some baby spinach, but I forgot to buy some at the store.

See this scrumptulous food? Makes you hungry huh?

I did have watermelon for dessert and then carrot juice for a drink. Freshly juiced carrots.

For snack, I had this Nut bar. I think it's one of my favorite kinds right now. It's not sweet, but it's got enough sweetness to satisfy that sweet tooth.

Dinner was a salad. That nut bar filled me up but I knew that I had to eat something. I made me a salad with leaf lettuce, boiled egg white, tomato, cucumber and then some shredded chicken. I forgot my flaxseed but oh well.

I normally eat salads without dressing but last night I wanted some spunk. I juiced one lemon and added some cayenne pepper. Poured it over my salad and presto, tasty salad.

So that's what I had all day yesterday.

The boys played out in the rain and brought some mud into the house. While I was cleaning it up, UB and the 3 yr old neighbor boy came inside to hand me some fresh picked wild flowers.

Sweet boys.

Until tomorrow.

I'm back

So I'm back. I've had a hard time getting motivated to write anything. Mostly because what I would like to write about, I can't and what I can write about, I don't want to. Call it stubbornness if you must.

There have been many changes in my house and most of them good. We are still adjusting. But we are all doing great. Boys are growing and Hubster is working hard.

I did run the 5k that I had signed up for back in March. I finished with a slow time of 32:14.
Not bad since I had been hurt, but it could have been better.

AB wanted to run it as well. He wouldn't go train with me and said he could do it. We started the race with some friends and then AB and I went off together. Before I knew it, I left him behind.

I guess if I were a better mom I would have stayed with him. Hope he's not scarred for life.

I was the first of our group to finish and then 6 min later another friend finished and then the other friend after her. I sat there and waited for him and waited and waited. I walked back towards where the last quarter mile was and finally saw him. He was walking with some people. I cheered him on and told him he had a little ways to go. He started running again and then stopped again. But he did finish the race. I was proud of him.

When we got into the car to head home, he said that it was harder than what he thought. He wants to start training with me in order to get better.

I want to do a half marathon in November so I'm starting training for that. I do need to find me a good training plan. I think I'll do some more 5k's between now and then and maybe a 10k. I wish I could say that I'm doing it for the time and winning but i'm only in it to finish.

Since the weather had been so pretty here, I was running outside but it's crazy weather time and now in order for me to guarantee myself a workout, I started back at the gym track.

So this morning I went running for 30 minutes (3 miles) and then walked for 20 minutes.

My next goal is to start eating better again. I've sort of not been doing very well in that category.

I like to make excuses and say that busy times at the baseball field for games is the reason we don't eat good, but I can always plan ahead and make something to take. Those concession stand nachos are pretty yummy as well as those burgers. Of course, everything is pretty yummy when you are starving.

So enough babbling for now. Going to finish up school with the boys and then go for a nature walk. Taking advantage of this pretty day.