Excitement is in the Air and I have Seen the Light

Hmmm, what to blog about since I have been missing in action for the last two weeks? Some exciting things have taken place, began taking or are about to take place. First off, Stella, who is a little girl in my online mom group for when I had Merle has had an improvement over a scary last week. Stella has Type 2 Gaucher Disease. It is a very rare form of the disease that affects the brain as well as the major organs and is characterized by severe neurological involvement in the first year of life. She is a very brave, strong little girl who needs your prayers. So if you have some extra prayers to give please send one Stellas' way. You can read about her and follow her story at CaringBridge where there is also a link for donations.

The next news is a close friend of mine had her first book published, it was released last week and it is awesome (I am about 1/2 way finished). It is called Down The Yellow Brick Road: Finding Home by D.X. Luc and it is currently available in Ebook format. This book is for mature audiences only, and you need to get it because you won't regret it. It will also make you unable to look at The Wizard of Oz the same way ever again;)

As we (my husband and I) slowly breathe in and breathe out to try to rid the anxiety, the next thing on the forefront is his band. Their first single should be hitting the airwaves soon so it is an exiting and scary time for us. The final touches of mixing and mastering are being done as I type this. So keep your ears open for BeforeTheCurtain because soon they may be played on a radio station near you:)

Lastly I had an epiphany. I always read about them, and never had one so when I did, I was all "what is this weird feeling of clarity and empowerment?". Believe it or not (and those that know me will not) it was about exercise. I am finally feeling like I am ready. I have been working out since July of this past summer and have noticed an overall change in my strength, endurance and slight changes in my body. I have put on a little weight recently but I am holding on to the hope that it is muscle gain. If it's not, then I'm pissed;) Anyway, I have always been the skinny fat girl. I know, Boo Hoo you wear a size 0-2 and you jiggle a bit. I'm not looking for sympathy, that's not the point of this. I get it, I am blessed in the fact that I never really have had to watch my weight my whole life. Even during pregnancy I topped out at 143lbs. But I have never, ever been fit. Seriously, changing the sheets on the bed makes me tired.....that may actually be because clean sheet day is the best day and I feel inclined to climb in and enjoy them. But you get the picture, climbing the stairs, folding laundry, typing on the computer, all theses tasks make me tired. I never have energy and feel like I am dragging my ass 24/7. I could probably sleep for a full day and still wake tired. I haven't had a descent night sleep since October 2004 and that combined with being out of shape makes me feel like I am only 1/16 of the person I can be. So this is where the epiphany comes in. It was in regards to not only wanting to get fit, but finally the motivation to do it. I have been doing Bodyrockers since I began my workouts in July. I love it. I hate it. I want to embrace it fully. I have never completely had my ass kicked that hard within the first 2 minutes of anything except maybe floor hockey, dodge ball, or Canada Fitness day in grade school. And those are some serious flashbacks to traumatic school experiences. I hated gym. That could be a whole blog post in it's own. Anyway, these workouts are called High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT and that they are. And an even more awesome part is that these workouts are designed to do from home in small spaces and by using your own body weight instead of a billion pieces of equipment. There has been some equipment that has been incorporated as Bodyrock.tv has evolved but they are not necessary. Even so, I hope to have it all at some point anyway:) especially the dip station. I really want a dip station. One thing that I do feel is needed though, is a interval timer. I bought the Gymboss one that was recommended, but there is also a free Gymboss app for your iphone/ipod as well. It is more of a pain in the ass to use but it does work and I used it for the first little while. I am the type of person who has no time to go to the gym, like zero. And even if I did, I probably would find an excuse to not go, especially by myself. So the idea of getting fit from home in a real small amount of time (most routines are only 12-15 minutes) is what I was looking for and never knew existed. I came across Bodyrock.tv on the web through the magic that is Google. After seeing the completely jaw dropping ripped body of Zuzana Light, looking through her website, and reading her very open interview, I find her completely charming and inspiring. She had me at "Hi Guys" :) I like the challenge, the change of daily routines, the Bodyrock community camaraderie and even the "oh my god, I think I'm going to puke" feeling after a really intense workout. At the start I could only do half (sometimes not even half) of the routine or reps than what was stated. I always did the push ups from my knees and two days ago I was able to do a series of regular push ups (not the whole time though) but that is an achievement for me. I am so happy I found this site and so happy that I now truly feel like I can do this, not just the motions of doing it. I want to become the best me there is and I think I am finally on the track to getting there.

P.S. Shelley, if you are reading this, you are my inspiration as well. Thank you.

I Hate Waiting.......I Need to Work On That.

This week was a behaviour battle for the last two days and I found out why this morning.....she was getting sick. Roo was awake no more than 20 minutes this morning before she puked. So today is rest on the couch and take it easy day. Apparently taking it easy means playing and hogging the remote. I wish I got those days when I am sick.

So much for stalking the mailman this week, I'm still waiting for All About Spelling to arrive and the wait is driving me nuts. Have I mentioned I am not a very patient person?

I have been an Ebay addict for years, but for some reason I never thought about looking there for cheap printer ink. I have no idea why. I search Ebay for the weirdest, most random things but not for something I use all the time and loath spending $$ on. Anyway, I found  2 black and 2 colour cartridges for the price of one and free shipping to boot! Now I have to wait for those too. (for those of you who have never seen The Goonies or Fresh Prince of Bel Air, that is where those two Ebay shirts are from).

We were supposed to go to Barrie to day with my husband to watch his band BeforeTheCurtain open for Three Days Grace tonight, but Pukey McPukster changed those plans quick. Now I have to wait for pictures and video footage. Do you notice the waiting theme? I think someone is out to get me.

What we finished this week:  

Memory Work - Nothing new added, just going through our memory work box daily. We use the Charlotte Mason method for memory work minus the Bible Scriptures as our method.

Phonics - Homonyms, homophones and homographs. Also reading harder three syllable words.

First Language Lessons - Lesson 67-39, we are doing seasons and abbreviations.

Writing with Ease - Completed week 22 of copy work and narration exercises from The Velveteen Rabbit excerpts.

Latin (Song School Latin) - We learned names of certain types of foods, fruit, milk, bread, cookie and chicken. She learned how to use et cetera as well as how bread (panis) ties to the English word pantry.

French (Nallenart) - Review, review, review. Today was supposed to be a test for unit 8 but sick people don't do well on tests. It is put off until Monday.

Math - We worked on Math Mammoth 1A addition facts 2 pages a day as well as 1B telling time one page a day.

History (Story of the World) - We finished chapter 21 The Medes, Persians and Cyrus the Great. Next week we are off to Sparta. Do you think she is too young to watch 300? ;) Kidding.

Science (Elemental) - With the final study of ants, butterflies and grasshoppers we are done animals. These are our completed habitat pages as well as our Carnivore, Omnivore and Herbivore food chart.

We received our first postcard Wednesday via postcrossing  and it came from Finland. She was very excited to get it so I am off to register to send more cards so that we can receive more. I would love to visit Finland one day. I have a thing for the Nordic countries and I love snow, it must my Scandinavian heritage coming through.

Since Earth Hour is coming up soon I made a post about it earlier this week that has some links to some to downloadable teaching/school activities for Earth Hour on their website.

To finish my week off here is a video from my husbands show on Wednesday when they opened for Apocalyptica. Good luck tonight guys!

Welcome to Hogwarts - Weekly Reports

Roo has entered a Harry Potter frenzy. Everything revolves around Harry Potter........She let out a big sigh and when I asked what was wrong, she replied "I wish I went to Hogwarts". Well, I wish I went to Hogwarts too.  So this week we pretended we were at Hogwarts. She even made Merle wear the sorting hat to see which house she belonged in. Apparently she belongs in Hufflepuff, cute name for a cute baby, Roo was Ravenclaw. She wore her wizard/witch hat, had a wand and every subject revolved around wizardry. Phonics lessons were read like we were casting spells, copywork became writing spells, Science was Potions, Geography was Muggle Studies, History became the History of Magic (even though it was Ancient Greece), Math was Arithmancy and Latin and French became The Study of Ancient Runes. I actually had to rabbit trail for a bit to explain what runes were, which are extremely interesting on their own.








This week was only a 4 day week since Monday was Family Day which is a holiday in Ontario.

Memory Work - The Seven Levels of Classification and Periods of Egyptian History

Phonics - We have finished lesson 222 in OPTGR X as a z sound, the silent p in ps words (psychiatrist) and ch as "sh" like chef. 

First Language Lessons - Lesson 60-63, we are on action verbs and recognizing initials, using "It is I" and months review.

Writing with Ease - Completed week 20 of copy work and narration exercises from A Child's Geography of the World.

Latin (Song School Latin) - We studied the names of several parts of the face, ears, eyes, nose and mouth.

French (Nallenart) - Still working on the memorization of words that are found on a farm by asking questions with a positive and negative answer. I also finished my laminating for the rest of my French flashcards. Next I want to make Latin ones.

Lamination crazy!

Math - We are taking a break from Singapore at the moment because I bought Math Mammoth levels 1A and 1B. Math facts for addition up to 10 are becoming quicker and I am noticing more often than not she is doing her math problems in her head than using math manipulatives.

History (Story of the World) - We finished chapter 19 The Early Greeks. She coloured a Grecian vase and we started reading D'aulaires' Book of Greek Myths.

This is a Greek Vase with the goddess of rainbows Jemina.

Science (Elemental) - We are studying invertebrates this week. This weeks animals included worms, snails and octopuses. 

Our first postcard we sent through postcrossing arrived at its destination in the Netherlands. This means that we are now eligible to receive a post card ourselves. We opted to have our written in the senders native language if her/she prefers.

It was a big week for my husband this week. His band BeforeTheCurtain released their teaser trailer this week in preparation for their album recording. They also did a radio interview yesterday. I am so proud and happy that his dreams are finally coming true. Congratulations guys!