Accountability

Sorry if this post is a little on the boring side.  I need to post this for myself.  I’m not trying to stress out all my friends or whine about all the things I need to do.  I just know that if I publish my To Do List, there had better be improvement in some short measure of time.  Or I would be embarrassed. 

• History source analysis due November 4th.
• Romantic Lit paper (6-10 pages) due November 9th.
• History exam November 9th.

I’m behind in my reading for my history class, but I’m doing okay staying current with the other two classes.  So, my goal for this week is to get caught up in History, and pick a topic for my Romantic Lit paper.  I’ve got some ideas, but I need to see what I can find in the library before I can start writing.  In case you’re wondering, I just had an exam in my Structures of English class on Monday, and I feel pretty good about it. 

More stuff on the horizon:

• another Source analysis due November 20th.
• a book review on The Question of Hu also due on the 20th.
• an oral presentation in Romantic Lit, topic and date TBD.

And of course, there’s the never-ending laundry, dishes, meals to prepare, housework stuff; the mom stuff ,like Timmy’s homework and soccer practice; the church stuff for YW, all coupled with the fact that Doug is in school too…

Life is a little insane here… 

Pipsqueak

Today was a crazy day!  I feel like I should begin by telling you that I did a spin class last night at the gym.  (I’m loving it, by the way!) So, today, my legs are a bit sore, to say the least.  They were especially sore this morning…  Doug took Tanner to grandma’s house.  I took Timmy to the bus stop and then I left for school, but first I had to get gas…  School was pretty uneventful.  I’m feeling lots of stress.  I’m a little behind in two of my three classes.  It won’t take me long to get caught up, though…

 

After school, Doug and I had a Panera lunch together.  Then I had a parent-teacher conference with Timmy’s kindergarten teacher.  All good news.  He’s way ahead of the rest of his class since he can already read without much , if any, help.  She’s going to start giving him some first grade sight words to learn.  He’s pretty excited about that.  :)

 

Then, Timmy and I went to Supercuts for his haircuts, and we got some supplies for the church fall festival this weekend.  I bought him some Pipsqueaks.  Have you seen these?

He was so excited to get a box of so many markers.  They are about the same size as crayons, and it comes in the same flip-top box.

 

Timmy came with me to mutual tonight, and he brought his new markers with him.  He stood at a table with notebook paper and his markers for about 90 minutes.  He drew six pictures, and he is so proud of how they turned out!  I was just amazed that they kept his attention for 90 minutes.  That’s a long time for a 6-year old kid!  I do love my pipsqueak Timmy!

Slacker

I'm such a slacker. I just can't keep up with everything. Does anyone else feel that way??

Some things I refuse to slack on. Other things, though, almost always get the backseat... How do you decide what to accomplish, what to give all you've got, and what to let slide?

Six days a week. Six days a week. Six days a week. I get to be a priority to me. Six days a week I get at least 30 minutes to myself. 30 minutes of sweat... :)

And so I slack on some other things. My house isn't as clean as it could be. I'm not up-to-date on this little blog. I don't get to hang out with friends as often as I would like. I don't get to cook big elaborate meals as often as I would like, but I do find that I'm cooking more. I can cook healthier than any restaurant. :)

So, I'm a slacker. What can I say? It's true. I'm a slacker.

But this slacker lost five pounds last week. Maybe being a slacker isn't such a bad thing.

Back in Action

September was a rough month.  Timmy is loving kindergarten, and I’m enjoying my classes for the most part.  I had to drop Shakespeare.  I just couldn’t keep up with everything.  Also, we had some stress over a small possibility that we were going to be moving out to Phoenix.  I’m so glad to be staying here!  But it was so stressful not knowing about such a big life change!  With all that going on, and more that I won’t bore you with, I fell off the wagon.

 

Until today.  I hadn’t been to the gym since before school started.  I hadn’t done any meaningful intentional exercise at all.  Today, that changed.  :)

 

My friend Mandi has an awesome blog (found here), and it has become such an inspiration to me.  She is a certified personal trainer, and she writes about fitness and wellness in a way that makes it easy to understand.  Knowing that she’s a busy mom too makes it easier to believe that I can do it too.  (You are awesome, Mandi!)

 

Here’s another resource that I love: SparkPeople.  My friend Julie turned me on to this website at least a year ago.  It reminds me a bit of the weight watchers website, but this one is FREE!  The website was the best part of weight watchers for me (all those years ago), but now I don’t have to pay for it.  :)  It’s got a great user-friendly page for your food journal and another to track your exercise.  Even videos of how to do exercises correctly are easy to find on SparkPeople.  So, before I went to the gym today, I looked up a workout for beginners (I am starting over again!) and it told me what exercises to do, how many repetitions and how many sets…  Anyway, I love it. 

 

If you join the website, list me as the person that referred you.  I don’t get any money for referring you, but I do get SparkPoints…  basically a meaningless motivator.  :)  My username is karacharlton.  :)

 

So, TODAY, I’m back in action.  I went to the gym.  I did 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weights.  I’m feeling good now, but I know I’ll be a little sore later.  How do you deal with muscle soreness?

Where has the time gone?

My baby is not a baby anymore! He has to use two hands to indicate his age! It really wasn’t that long ago (was it?!) that I married his dad. It really wasn’t that long ago that I endured such a miserable pregnancy. It wasn’t so long ago. It really wasn’t. At least to me, the time has flown by. It is so fun to be his mommy, even if he won’t hug me or hold my hand in public anymore. Join me on a little stroll down memory lane. Please?

a few days old – hanging out in the sunlight with Nana. He was a little jaundiced when he was born.

about a year old – before the first hair cut. His hair was so much redder before his first haircut.

about 15 months old – loving his spaghetti-ohs.

two 2 years old – that bag was so full of candy that he couldn’t even lift it!

almost three years old – he just melts my heart!!

almost four – sitting outside the Salt Lake Temple. I love how his “take the picture already” smile looks like he’s in pain or really angry… It was so bright that day!

five years old – we waited in line forever so the boys could ride the horses. Timmy was so excited that he was the biggest one in his group, so he got to ride the biggest horse.

I feel a little like I’m playing hide and seek. Maybe if I hide in these pictures of the past, the future won’t find me. Maybe he won’t really grow up…

But who am I kidding? I’m always IT in hide and seek, and I am horrible at hiding.

Six Years Old

Timmy was so excited on Sunday.  He keeps a small calendar on the refrigerator and he checks it every day.  He likes to know what day it is and who has the next birthday.

“Mom, in six days, I’ll be six years old!”

“You’re right, Timmy!  Are you excited?”

“Yep.  I get to go bowling on my birthday.”

 

I’m not throwing a large birthday party for him this year.  I’ve done some really fun birthday parties over the last couple of years.  There was the Incredibles party when he was two; the Jungle Expedition party when he was three; the Car party when he was four; and the Superman party when he was five…  but it is so much work to put together such a big, fun birthday event, and it’s expensive too. 

 

It took him a while to get used to the idea of not having a big birthday party, but he decided that he would like to go bowling with all the family.  Soccer at 11am.  Bowling at 1:30.  Cupcakes and presents at 4.  It will be a busy day.  But we will have a blast.  :)

Back to School

So, Timmy started school on August 24th.  I recovered from the much-too-traumatizing first day.  I love the quiet at home with just me and Tanner.  I absolutely love it.  When Tanner was a newborn, I felt very guilty about wanting to have one-on-one time with him.  Of course I love Timmy, but at the time, it was really hard to give him the attention he deserved when all I really wanted was to hold my new baby and get to know him.  Now that Timmy is in school all day, I feel like I finally get that precious bonding time with Tanner.  It’s beautiful.

 

Not only that, but Tanner is such a good kid when he is by himself.  When the boys are together, they fight.  They are both a bit headstrong, and so they disagree often, and Timmy usually gets his way because Tanner doesn’t fight back as long…  Anyway, it’s fun to see what Tanner chooses to play with or talk about when Timmy isn’t around to influence him.  He loves to pretend and role play.  Timmy would much rather race cars or have his toys “play kung-fu.”  Tanner likes to pretend to be a cat, or to have his toys pretend to be families – a little interesting with toys like Mickey Mouse, Shamu, Super Why and his favorite kitty. 

 

Doug is also back in school.  He finished his undergraduate degree in March, so now he’s starting him MBA.  Just as he did for his undergrad work, he’s doing his classes online through the University of the Incarnate Word.  We love the convenience of the online course, and he only has to focus on one class at a time since the classes are only 8 weeks long.  So far so good!

 

I’m back in class too.  I’m enjoying my classes so far, but I’m sure the stress level will increase as the semester goes on.  I’ve got Structures of English, Shakespeare: the Later Plays, World Civilization since 1500, and Romantic Literature (and that’s Romantic as in from the British Romantic Period – think Shelley Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, not romantic as in romance smut novels… )