Kitchen Renovations - (Mostly) Complete

For the long saga describing our drawn out kitchen renovation timeline, check here.

And, for the fun part.  Here are the before and after pictures:

February, 2010

January, 2013

There are still a few things to be done, but the vast majority of the work is complete.  I am so happy with the way it turned out! 

HelloMornings

As I alluded to in this post, I've recently started getting up before the kids - well before!  I know the common wisdom is to make small changes over a long period of time.  I've tried that with both my eating and wake time in the past and always fail miserably.  I'm not great at moderation or small changes.  I actually seem to do better with large changes.  Of course, many of these large changes don't stick, but the few that do make a huge difference in my life.

One of the major changes I made a few years ago was to start budgeting using YNAB.  We had tried and failed at budgeting many times in the past, and the idea of setting up a budget each month and tracking every single penny manually in the software would seem daunting to most people.  For some reason I got really excited about it, read the forums for weeks, and bought the software within a few days of downloading it.  We have been faithfully budgeting and tracking for over 30 months now (and I even got a job with YNAB - best job ever!!), and it has made a huge change in our financial picture. 

I feel the same kind of excitement over this new habit I've been forming.  As I mentioned before, I made my way to this blog for a meal planning boot camp last week.  While on her site, I saw that she had free downloadable ebooks.  One is called 'Maximize your Mornings.'  While I've bemoaned early rising in the past , it's still something I have in my heart that I want to do.  So I chose it as my first project for the year ... and failed miserably.   I tried to use the procedure set out in the One Bite At a Time ebook and just set my alarm 5 minutes earlier each day.  I see two problems with that:

1) When I get up 5 minutes earlier, so do my kids.
2) Getting up 5 minutes earlier doesn't allow me to see any benefit from the earlier rising, since I only get an extra 5 minutes.

Now, I am an introvert by nature and I've always said I'm not a morning person.  I think one of the reasons I don't like mornings is I don't like interacting with other people - especially demanding little people who all want something from me at the same time - first thing in the morning. 

A day or so after I read the 'Maximize your Mornings' ebook, I decided to give it a shot.  But, this time, I skipped the small changes bit.  I set my alarm for 5:30, a good 2 hours earlier than I usually get up.  Of course, I had to adjust my bedtime accordingly, so I set out what I would need for the next day and headed to bed by 10:30.  I am fairly confident I need around 7 hours of sleep (that's what I was getting before - I just went to bed after midnight).

Based on the book, with a few modifications, here is what I aim to do each morning before the kids get up around 7:30:

- breakfast
- time with God
- exercise
- shower / dressed

The book also suggests planning your day, but I do that before I go to bed the night before.  That first morning I got out of bed without too much difficulty and went through my routine.   And ... I loved it!!  It took a few days for my body to get used to the different schedule, but the rewards far outweigh any drawbacks I've found so far.  It takes care of the two problems I mentioned above with the incremental changes (I have enough time to accomplish major parts of my day, and the kids are still fast asleep when I get up and seem to sleep through my morning times).

That said, I know myself and that I have trouble sticking with anything long term, so when I found the HelloMornings challenge I knew it was a good idea.  From what I can figure out, it's basically a way to join an accountability group with other women in the same time zone, and encourage each other to rise early for the next 13 weeks.  This was the first morning of the challenge and I followed my regular schedule.  I can't overstate what a difference this has made to the way I greet my children when they get up, which sets the tone for the day.  I love getting up early (even this hardcore night owl!) and think it's one of those 'big' changes that's going to stick.

Come to think of it, what's gotten in to me lately?  First I started drinking coffee and now I'm getting up early ... soon I won't recognize myself!

What we've been up to ...

This is the first winter where we've all been able to go out and do things as a family.  Last winter Abigail was just over a year old and still couldn't really do much outside.  Plus, she wasn't walking.  What a difference a year makes!  This year we've been sliding a few times.  The first couple of times were quite chilly and Abigail didn't enjoy it, but today was beautiful and we took advantage and headed for a hill nearby (yes, there are hills big enough to slide on in the fields ;) ) with some friends.  We didn't get any pictures today, but here are a few from our previous visit:

Yes, Hannah was laughing after this one :)

The kids are also pretty excited the NHL boys could settle their differences so they can get back to one of our beloved family traditions - Hockey Night in Canada and pizza for supper!  The first Saturday night of the shortened season, they had some friends over.  During the pre-game show they all started dancing to the music in the living room.  It was too cute!  Here's a (very dark) video I took on my phone:

One Bite At a Time - Start Menu Planning

Menu planning is, not surprisingly, something I've done before but I'm hit or miss.  I'll do it consistently for a while and then stop.  I do find I'm much less stressed about cooking when I menu plan, but I also find I spend more time cooking when I plan, since I plan more complicated meals.  Since I enjoy cooking, that's not usually a problem.

Somehow last week I stumbled back upon Plan to Eat, a web-based menu planning service.  Unlike many online options, it doesn't provide you with menus, but instead offers an interface whereby you enter your own recipes and then plan your own menu for the week.  There are a few things I *love* about this site. 

One is that you start out with a blank slate.  I have a couple hundred recipes in my current recipe software and I'm not interested in being helpfully provided with hundreds more that I'm not sure I'll like. 

Second is how easy it is to add recipes from websites.  Almost every recipe I've tried to import using their one-click system has worked almost perfectly.  Manually entering is (of course) a bit more tedious, but not terrible.

Third, and what my previous software was missing, is an easy interface to menu plan.  It's drag and drop, and you can even easily 'queue' recipes to use when you're doing up your plan.  Something I didn't think I would use at first was the option to save a menu.  But, when I started thinking about it, I decided to save a weekly menu for breakfasts and snacks, since they tend to be pretty constant. 

When I shared the link on Facebook last week to see if any friends already use it (you can have 'friends' on Plan to Eat just like on Facebook, and you can see their recipes), a friend pointed me to this blog post.  Kat, the person who writes that blog, is having a meal planning boot camp based on Plan to Eat this week. 

All that to say, it only made sense to choose the 'Start Menu Planning' project for this week.  I made my first week's plan and am really enjoying already knowing what we're having for each meal every day.  I hope this is something I can stick with long term!

So, to sum up, so far from the book I've done:
1) Get up early (more on this later - I'm finally getting up before the kids - long before :) )
2) Daily To Do list
3) Create a chore system
4) Menu planning

I'm kind of cheating early on, since these are mostly things I have done in the past or was already planning on doing, but they're also important 'systems' (a word I liked from the Do It Tomorrow book) that will help the household run more smoothly.  Just imagine if I could consistently do all of the systems at once - I would be so much more efficient! :)

SFL update

As time goes on, doing Simply for Life is becoming more a way of life and less a news (or blog)-worthy event.  I think that's a good thing overall.  Of course, I'm not as rigid as I was at the beginning, but that's also more realistic. 

I had my check-in on Saturday morning and it went pretty well.  My eating was decent last week and is on track to be the same this week.  I generally have a day or two that are more 'off,' but 5 out of 7 isn't bad.  Now if I could just start losing some weight!

I'm still hovering around 125.  I did see 124.8 on the scale late last week but I haven't seen it since.  Cory asked me to try and work out every day this week to try and make the scale budge.  I've also moved from cleansing back to nutrition transition, which means one grain a day.  Hopefully with those two changes it will knock things out of equilibrium.  I really do want to reach that goal before my 6 month term is up on February 20th.

Just a short update tonight as getting on the computer is tricky these days.  I really think we need to start budgeting for a second laptop!

One Bite At a Time - Create a chore system that works for the whole family

Since one of my goals for the year is to teach the kids about working, giving, saving, and spending, I chose this project for this week.  We had already planned to start a new chore / payment system based on this blog post and book.

I ended up purchasing the book after reading the blog, but honestly it had a lot of stuff in it that wasn't related to the system, but more a sermon on the particular family's values.  So, in hindsight I think there was enough information in the blog post to get started.

Since Hannah and Nathan are still pretty young, we started off with a pretty simple system.  Each day they can receive up to four points:

1) Morning point - get up and get dressed without complaining or taking forever.  We will add lots of other requirements to this point, but when I went over the whole system at one time their eyes were glazing over.

2) School point (M-F) - this point consists of getting their outdoor clothes on before school, listening to their teachers, and putting their outdoor clothes away when they come home.  Neither of them go to school 5 days a week, so on the days they don't have school this is an automatic point.

3) Chore point - each morning I'll write 1 - 3 chores on little chalkboards on the wall.  There is a separate chalkboard for each kid.  I tell them what the chores are (since neither of them can read yet), and then remind them throughout the day.  They get their point if they complete their chore(s) without complaining.  So far this is the easiest part of the system for them - they really enjoy helping.

4) Round-up point - at the end of the day either Peter or I will supervise them as they are responsible for taking anything that they have left out during the day and putting it away properly.  Lately we've been doing pretty well at having them pick up after themselves so it's usually only a few things.  This takes no more than 5 minutes, but it's so nice to have a tidy house in the evenings!

They can earn 4 points Monday - Friday, 3 on Saturday, and we're not doing any points on Sunday for now.  That's a total of 23 points for the week.  They can also earn extra points by doing chores that aren't on their list, or by being extra helpful.  So far we've given out one extra point.  If the kids get 25 points for the week they get double their money.  We decided to make each point worth $0.10, so if they do their normal points with no extras, they would earn $2.30 per week.  If they get to 25 points, they would get $5.00.  Since I don't anticipate them getting 25 points every week I think this is probably a good amount for their ages.

Borrowing from Dave Ramsey, we're not worrying about what specific percentages they use for give, save, spend, but they will need to put something in each jar when they get paid on Sundays.  One other requirement we have is that their room has to be tidy before they get paid.

We had the kids decorate labels for their money jars before we started the system last week.  My problem with these systems in the past is that 'saving' seemed too broad a term.  For example, this could include saving for a Wii game Nathan wants, or saving for university.  So I decided to have two 'savings' type jars - invest (for long-term savings like a car or university), and save (for shorter term savings like a Wii game or a bike).  I think that will work well.  Eventually I'd like to get them to these percentages:

10% Give
30% Invest
30% Save
30% Spend

We only started the points system officially on Monday, so we're definitely in the 'honeymoon phase.'  I really want to be consistent with this for the long term - I hope it sticks!

Re-motivated

I ended up spending an hour re-reading my blog posts from the start of this weigh-loss journey, and it was really motivating!  I feel ready to get back on track with SFL.  I was so fired up at the beginning and I want to be in that place again.  So, I'm going to make it happen.

Here are some specific things I'm going to do until the end of January as a start:

1. No more than one can of Diet Coke a day
2. Drink at least 5 bottles of water each day (my water bottle holds ~500 mL)
3. "If it's not on my plan, it doesn't go in my mouth."
4. Skip no more than 3 snacks per week.
5. Exercise at least 5 time per week.

I will check back in every couple of days to say how I'm doing.

One Bite At a Time - Get up Early & Daily To Do list

Late last fall, during my busy season, I ran across Tsh Oxenreider's book, One Bite At a Time.  It's an e-book containing 52 projects to simplify your life.  Some of the projects are things I already do (i.e. make a monthly budget), and some are things I'm not sure I'll ever do (i.e. use the envelope system). 

I decided, as one of my annual goals (also one of the projects in the book!) to work through the e-book.  I've printed the whole thing and during my weekly review on Sunday nights I'll choose which project I'm going to work on for the week.

The very first one I chose was to get up earlier.  Unfortunately I'm still failing miserably at this.  Some mornings I do okay, but others (like today) I don't get up until the last second.  This is something that might take all year to complete.

The second project I've chosen is to make a daily to do list.  Those who know me know that this isn't a stretch for me.  I'm a list-maker by nature.  I've recently been incorporating information from the 'Do It Tomorrow' system of time management by Mark Forster (my copy of the book with the same title shipped today - finally!).  So, I'm already pretty good about making up my list for the next before I go to bed at night.  One suggestion from Tsh's book is to choose 3 'MITs' (Most Important Tasks).  I've been doing that at night by starring three of my tasks from my tomorrow list.

The main advantage of the 'Do It Tomorrow' system is that you cannot add to your daily list during the day unless it's a true emergency.  You are expected to complete your list each day and if you consistently fail to do so, you need to reevaluate how much you are including on each day's list.  I *love* that I finish the items on my to do list almost every day.  Of course, sometimes I'll have time to finish other items not due today, but I still feel successful even if I only accomplish today's items.

The way I structure my list is I use '2Do,' an app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.  I haven't yet purchased the Mac version, although I probably will once it's in the budget.   I never thought I could switch to an electronic to do list, but once I got my iPhone in October 2011 and discovered to do apps, I made the switch.

In 2Do, I have a main list called (unimaginatively), 'The List.'  It contains any one-off items or projects I'm working on.  For example, the top few things on that list right now are: finish kitchen renovation (with sub-tasks), get teacher's license (with sub-tasks), set up kid's chore system (with sub-tasks), create spreadsheet to track annual goal progress, etc ...

The second list I'll add tasks to is called 'Life Maintenance.'  This is for recurring things that I have to do over and over.  For example: blog post, exercise, weekly review (with sub-tasks), clean bite plane, etc ...

I also have a 'Someday' list for projects or tasks I'd like to do in the future but am not ready to do quite yet.   The items in this list do not have due dates nor do they end up in any of my other lists.

The other lists I have set up are all smart lists that populate from the two main lists.  They are: All, Today, Starred (used for my current initiatives - another 'Do It Tomorrow' idea), Tomorrow, Errands, and Computer.  

Some items in 2Do have due dates and they will automatically pop into my Tomorrow list so I can review them at night before bed.  Many items do not have due dates, and these I review at night to decide which ones to add to my list for tomorrow.

So far (I've been doing this system for over a month now), I am enjoying this system.  I tend to try new systems and abandon them with regularity.  I really like that when I think of a new task during the day, that I don't immediately add it to today's list.  I have to honestly consider whether it needs to be done today.  If not, I just add it to 'The List' and review it that night.

As I mentioned ... I'm kind of a list nut!  It's one of my hobbies :)  I'm sure the above is extremely boring for most people (except maybe you, Eleni!), but it was fun to type out.

I'm hoping to have a new post each Wednesday about my new 'One Bite At a Time' project.  

Sunday - this & that

Well, tomorrow school starts again and Peter goes back to work after a week and a half off.  It's been really nice having this extended time together as a family after our scattered fall, but I will admit part of me is anxious to have a bit more routine in our lives!  I'm a sucker for lists and schedules, so raising kids tests me in those perfectionist tendencies.

I think the reality of having finished my teaching internship will really sink in tomorrow morning, after I drop Hannah and Nathan at school and get to come back home.  To have a few mornings a week with just Abigail is going to be a real treat.  I'm hoping we can have some special times together as well as have time to get some work done with only one little one tearing around.

I'm making some progress on applying for my teaching license.  I'm hoping to call both provinces tomorrow to see how I should fill out part of the application.  If all goes well with that, I should be able to have all the requirements mailed by mid-week.  Then the waiting begins.

In SFL progress, I've had two almost-perfect days after my check-in yesterday.  That hasn't happened in a very long time.  I'm just about back to my lowest weight (125.4 this morning), so, once again, I'm looking to break the 125 lb barrier this week.  My motivation seems high right now, but I know that can change at any time.   I'm going to take advantage of it while it's here :)  My 6 months are up on February 20th and I'd really like to reach my goal by then (oh, how optimistic I was when I thought I could reach it by the end of 2012!).

Air Canada is having a sale until January 10th, so we're hoping to buy tickets to fly home sometime this spring.  We always buy during this sale as it's typically one of the better prices for the year.  I'm excited to have the travel plans finalized, but not excited to spend the money!

I'm hoping to have a more 'organized' approach to my posts this year, but we'll see ...  

Long day ...

Today was a very, very long day!  We had to go to the city to stock up on groceries and household supplies, as well as grab some supplies for our kitchen renovations.  Unfortunately the kitchen renovation supplies proved difficult to track down.  We spent almost 2 hours in Home Depot and left with paint roller refills and a paintbrush.  We then headed to Benjamin Moore and had our paint picked out in 5 minutes (yay!  Note to self - it is so worth an extra $7 per gallon to get their expertise). 

On to Lowe's to grab cabinet hardware and some of our new lights.  We are two sets of hinges and one light short as they didn't have enough hinges and their chandeliers were very expensive compared to Home Depot.  We didn't have time to go back to HD, but we'll install what we have and eventually get the last light up.

Here's our list from the start of the renovations:

• finish painting the remaining cupboards and doors (2/7 coats left)
• finish installing dishwasher (it's still just sitting under the counter)
• purchase and install new hinges and door pulls
• 2 coats of paint on the crown molding
• prime and paint walls (tomorrow!)
• install, caulk, and paint new baseboards and window trim
• purchase and install new light fixtures (3)
• purchase and install new thermostats

Yikes - put like that it doesn't look like we've accomplished as much as I thought!  Oh well, we'll keep working.  Tomorrow we're going to paint the walls and hopefully install the rest of the trim.  I can't wait to see the paint on the walls.

In SFL news, I cannot seem to drag myself back on plan.  I have a meeting with Cory on Saturday and I really wanted to have a good report, but my weight has crept up a bit (about a pound) and I can't seem to stop eating things I shouldn't.  Ugh, so frustrating.  Where is my willpower?  

Kitchen Renovations - Day 1

Prior to this last push, we've already done a fair amount of work on the kitchen in our house.  In July 2011, I started painting our wooden windows, so the two in the kitchen were the first ones I did.  I also began painting the cupboards.  When we got the house they were raised panel doors with the rails painted white and the panels a glossy dark wood.  Oh, and don't forget the floral door pulls.  Not exactly my dream cupboards!  I got most of them finished, but stopped before I finished the ones over the oven and fridge.

In June 2012, while I was still visiting family with the kids, Peter replaced the counter top, extending it out over the dishwasher we had been using for 2 years without it being covered by anything.  He also installed a tile back splash at that point.  A few weeks after I got home, we installed a microwave / vent hood combo (we had no vent hood up until that point).  The new counter top and getting the microwave off the counter gave me an extra ~4' of counter space - approximately doubling my counter space!

At some point this year we also ripped off the plastic corner protectors.  We think they're tacky looking and we knew we wanted them gone before we painted.   A few weeks ago Peter primed the crown molding (which is staying in place, but we want it changed from brown to white). 

Today, Peter touched up some crack-filling in the corners and filled in the holes in the wall.  He also removed the baseboard (we're replacing it with white colonial baseboard).  I primed the remaining four cupboard doors, put a coat of paint on the last two cupboards, and caulked the cracks between pieces of crown molding.  Peter also took the baseboard heater off the wall.  For some reason, the heaters in this house were all installed above the baseboard (off the floor by about 2").  Weird.  Anyway, we've been slowly lowering them as we renovate.

The plan for the next week is to:

• finish painting the remaining cupboards and doors
• finish installing dishwasher (it's still just sitting under the counter)
• purchase and install new hinges and door pulls
• 2 coats of paint on the crown molding
• prime and paint walls (we're going for a medium taupe - still need to purchase paint)
• install, caulk, and paint new baseboards and window trim
• purchase and install new light fixtures (3)
• purchase and install new thermostats

It's been so long since we started fixing up the kitchen.  The list above looks long, but hopefully reasonable.  It will be so nice to have our kitchen finished!!

My least favourite time of the year

While the season leading up to Christmas is my favourite time of the year, the time between Christmas and New Year's has to be my least favourite.  Even as a little kid I did not enjoy these few days.  So, when Peter ended up working almost the last 24 hours straight it did nothing to help my mood! 

One thing that helps is to start to re-focus my energy.  In December, so much energy is focused on preparing for Christmas (which is awesome!).  Afterward, it's nice to take some time and set some short- and longer-term goals.

Right now, our short-term goal is to finish our kitchen renovations.  Peter has 10 days off starting on Friday, and we can definitely get it finished in that time frame if we make it a priority. 

Longer term, I want to spend time in the next few days nailing down some goals for the next year in several areas.  I've done this before but, sadly, can't find them written down anywhere!  I do know 2012 was the year of Consistency for me.  I didn't make any other specific goals, but instead chose that as a theme.  I do think I made good progress on that front this year, especially when it came to my prayer life and health goals. 

One unexpected thing that I ended up focusing on for the last half of this year was that of living with joy.  It started with reading 'One Thousand Gifts' and continued when I found this blog.  Focusing on the joy to be found in each day has helped me in every facet of my life, especially through this crazy fall. 

So, on to planning for 2013 ...

DONE!!

Merry Christmas!!  I got the best Christmas present ever when I finished up the requirements for my BEd yesterday.  It was a long time coming (over 5 years), but I'm so glad to be done :)  Now to go through the paperwork to get my license to teach.  They're in desperate need of supply teachers at the high school here in town, so I imagine once I get that straightened out I'll be able to get several days a month if I want them.  It will be a challenge to strike a balance.

Now that I'm finished I've started back up a bit more with YNAB, my regular job.  It's been such a fantastic opportunity to work from home around the kids' schedules!  Not to mention the software helped us get our finances on track a few years ago and has kept them there.

And, of course, I'm still working on losing the last 5 lbs.  Although, as of today, I'm on a 'break' until the New Year.  The goal is to not gain any weight in this 10 day stretch.   To help reach that goal, I'm going to attempt to work out almost every day and not go crazy with eating.  We'll see how it goes!

I'm thinking of signing up for a short triathlon next June.  I've been toying with it over the past couple of years but the timing has never been right.  A friend told me about a good one that's close by so I'm hoping it will work.  I used to swim, but I think biking will be the toughest part for me.  Looks like the one I'm probably signing up for is a 300 m pool swim, 12 km bike ride, and 3.3 km run and it looks like it's on June 23rd next year.  I'll have my mountain bike and nothing in the way of specialized equipment, but my friend assured me that's the case with 85% of the entrants in this event :)  And, it's women only!  Should be fun.  I'm kind of hoping she'll sign up with me.

6 Days!!

When I started my internship, there were 16.5 weeks.  I am now down to 6 remaining days.  I am so excited!  I am just about finished my prep work, have two more sets of projects and a unit test to correct, and then I'm done!  I can tell the kids (mine, not my students) are ready for me to be done, too.  I think this fall has been exhausting for everyone.

I'm slowly getting back on track with eating.  I'm not sure I want to go back to being as strict as I was at the beginning, though.  It just doesn't seem sustainable.  Although, the other half of me says I just need to do it for another couple of months and I'd reach my ultimate goal!  Decisions, decisions ...  Whatever I do I do not want to gain back the weight I've lost.

Some of the things I've learned so far from SFL:

• I was eating way too many grains / carbs before!  I think one or two grain portions a day is  good for me long term.  Right now I'm supposed to only be eating one per day.
•  More vegetables!  Eat at least 2 cups of veggies with both lunch and supper.
• Snacks will be fruit, raw nuts, or greek yogurt for now.  Not sure what else will work long term.  Muffins and granola bars are out, though.

We're almost all healthy right now.  I'm praying it continues for a while.  We've had enough sickness to last all winter around here.

Tomorrow is a new day ...

Mom and Dad have been here for a visit over the past several days, and my resolve has gone completely out the window!  If I had been straying before, I'm definitely way off the path now.  Not as bad as before SFL, but still not great.  The nanaimo bars were my downfall.  So far no real weight gain, but no loss, either.  Not what I wanted for this week. 

It has been so nice to have my parents around!  Unfortunately we're all still sick (all fall!), but it's still been a good time.  I'm finally feeling better, Abigail got (another) antibiotic today, and Nathan seems quite healthy.  Hopefully we can all get better in time for Christmas.  It's going to be really sad for them to leave tonight - the kids, especially, will miss them a lot.  The leaving is always hard - whether it's us coming back to SK after a visit east, or them going back east after a visit here.  Once I get to the status quo I'm better, but that transition is hard.

Since I'm finally feeling better and my internship is winding down, my plan is to crank up my exercise for the next month.  I really want to get below 125 by the New Year.  It's very do-able, but I'm going to have to buckle down.

I'm just about ready for Christmas - I have a few more gifts to wrap and a few to deliver.  Other than that and some Christmas baking (just a few days before Christmas so I don't go too crazy!) I'm feeling all set.  Looking forward to enjoying these last two weeks before Christmas.  I can't believe my internship is into single digits!!  So glad to have almost accomplished this goal.  Now to start the paperwork to get my teaching license ...

Nothing to say!

I haven't forgotten about this blog, it's just that every time I sit down to write my mind goes blank!  Of course, I can think of lots of ideas when I'm out and about, just not when I have time to write.  I should remember to make a note of them.  I think maybe having Peter home keeps me from the 'need' to blog as well, since there's another adult in the house to talk to.

On the SFL front, I'm holding my own.  I haven't done any Christmas baking yet, which is helping, but I haven't been sticking too closely to my plan.  I need to be more diligent.  I've had a cough for the past several weeks, so I just made an appointment to get it checked out.  I've not been exercising at all.  When I had my last meeting, my consultant said to treat up until Dec. 21st like normal, and then just have a goal of maintaining and exercising lots until the New Year.  Yay - I can have some Christmas treats!

I have passed my internship and now just have to finish the last two weeks of teaching.  Two weeks seems like such a short amount of time.  I really can't believe it's almost over after having it hanging over my head for so long.  I have really started to enjoy my time in the classroom in the past month - the stress has lowered considerably since I dropped back to two classes per day.

My parents arrive for a short visit today, which is very exciting! The kids are really excited for them to come. I finished Christmas shopping for the kids last night so tonight I'm planning to sort and wrap everything. When I'm buying from multiple people I need to organize before I wrap! I was saying to Peter last night that these years when the kids are little will probably be the most fun Christmas mornings we'll have until we have grandkids! There's something about kids and Christmas.

Well, that's about it for a boring update!  The countdown is on .... 

Christmas is coming ...

My mom has a Christmas record with a song containing these lyrics:

Christmas is coming
Christmas is coming

There's a magic feeling in the air
It seems like everyone's aware
That soon it's going to be a holiday
The party lights are being strung
The mistletoe is being hung
Christmas is on its way!
You can hear the sleigh bells ring
Keeping rhythm with the carols that the children sing
So it's for sure each girl and boy
 Is wishing for their favourite toy
While Santa's busy loading up his sleigh
They're getting ready for the day (date?)
When everyone will celebrate
Christmas is on its way!

I have been looking for this song (I think it's by 'Little Marcy' - whoever that is) for years off and on!  And, of course, today it's stuck in my head.  (ETA: Here's a link with a picture of the album!) It's definitely how I'm feeling this year - Christmas is coming whether I'm ready for it or not!  I just found out today that they Christmas tree lot is opening today, so hopefully we can pick that up tomorrow night before the Christmas parade.  Decorating it will wait until the weekend.

I'm feeling like the end of my internship is so close and yet I still have a fair amount to do.  And, as usual, I'm finding it hard to concentrate in the month before Christmas.  With kids around it's so much fun leading up to Christmas because they are so excited.  I can't wait to share traditions with them - they already remember from year to year that we have pancakes for breakfast Christmas morning.  Christmas Eve service, advent wreaths, appetizers Christmas Eve, waking up early Christmas morning ... to me, those traditions are more exciting than the gifts.  They would disagree, of course, which is okay ;)

No real change on the weight loss front.  I've been exercising 3 - 4 times a week and eating reasonably.  I was getting discouraged with the lack of big changes on the scale, but when I looked at my weight from mid-October, I'm down another 5.6 lbs in 6 weeks, so that's not too bad at this point!  Now to stay out of the Christmas baking ;)

Scary, but true!

Approximately 3 weeks ago I started really struggling with SFL stuff.  I was eating things I shouldn't and skipping workouts left and right.  I figured it was due to getting off track with Halloween, but I just couldn't seem to muster up the energy in the evenings to work out.  For me, exercising always precedes healthy eating.  Consequently, my weight has stayed around the same (126.4 - 126.8 lbs) for the last couple of weeks.

So, tonight I finally figured out the mystery and it's kind of scary!  When I was doing Insanity, most evenings I would drink a pre-workout drink called 'Super Pump Max' (I know I mentioned it at least once before).  Anyway, somehow over the past month I stopped drinking it at supper time in preparation for my workout.  I realized that this morning, drank some while prepping supper, and within 20 minutes could feel my head clearing and energy increasing.  Isn't that crazy??  I'm honestly not sure what to do going forward.  I wish I knew exactly what was in it that causes that ability to focus and gives that kind of energy.  I had asked Cory at SFL about it a while ago and he said he would look into it.  I'll probably bring it up again next week.

Teaching just the two classes the past few days has been so nice!  And, Peter just booked a babysitter so we can have a day in the city Christmas shopping on Saturday :)  Fun times!

Off to do some prep for tomorrow!  4 weeks to go ....

Winding down

I'm still here!  My weight loss has slowed as I ate way too much Halloween candy. Thankfully that's out of the house now and I'm back on track. I'm interested to see how the upcoming holiday season affects things. I think in this instance being at school will help curb my eating.

Speaking of school, that's what the post title is referring to. I dropped another class today, leaving me with two classes of the same course that I'll keep until Christmas. In that last class, I started my final unit yesterday. In some ways it feels like I just started, and in other ways it feels like it's been forever. I'm creating more resources from scratch for this unit, so it's good that it's the only prep work I have to do now. 23 more days until I'm done!!

Peter is home now, which is so great. So much less shuffling of children and rushing with him around.   I feel like this season that I worried about for so long is coming to an end!  Of course, it wasn't as awful as I anticipated, but it was very, very busy.

Because I needed something else to do ...

I've been wanting to knit some mittens for my kids lately.  The ones at the store add up as kids lose them at school, I have a ton of yarn here, and I have a great pattern that gives a double-layer of knitting everywhere so they're very warm.  So, I finished prepping a bit early tonight and wanted to watch a show.  I figured now was a good time to start my first pair.  I'm very awkward knitting right now because I haven't done it in so long.  But ... it's a nice relaxing thing to do when I do have a few minutes in the evening.

Here's what I've done so far:

I am probably the slowest knitter in the history of the world, and my time is very limited right now, so I figure my first pair of mittens will be ready around May. 

On the healthy living front, things have been so-so.  I haven't been doing horribly, but I haven't been doing great, either.  My weight is still hovering between 127.4 and 128 lbs.  It would be really nice to see a drop soon.  One problem is that I've basically stopped exercising.  Tonight was the first day since Saturday I might have had time, but I decided to give myself a bit of margin by not cramming my night quite so full.

For the first time, when I listed out my prep for the next few days I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The list seemed more manageable and I was able to list the rest of the things I'll need to do for Chemistry on it.  Two more days of math and about 6 of Chemistry.  It sounds so do-able!  I can't believe we're almost through this insane time that I've been stressing over for a few years.  Overall, the teaching is fun - the prep is crazy - and I wouldn't recommend doing it while single parenting.  I received my midterm evaluation yesterday and everything seems on track.  There are, of course, areas to be improved upon, but no deal breakers that I could see.

I have fun plans the next two evenings, and then a long weekend - yippee!  I'm really looking forward to having some margin and balance in my life.