Monday, January 14, 2008

Setting up Shop

Check out the Cussin' Crafter Co-op I'm a part of! We make all kinds of goodies! And no, I don't really use profanity like that, but my homegirl couldn't think of a different name at the time so this one stuck.

www.CussinCrafter.etsy.com

I took a couple of swings at the heavy bag last night. Only by the urging of my lil Prince did I even venture up there. He's really excited about learning boxing techniques. Well, he gets excited about almost anything.

Right now my workout plan is as follows:
3 days a week
10-15 minutes of warm up and stretching: Jumping jacks, squats and various stretching techniques. I like to switch it up a bit. I may expand on this area as I get more into the routine. I've also considered just buying a jump rope and doing a 5 minute warm up with that, then lead into stretching.

30-40 minutes of heavy bag training: I haven't finalized how I will approach this. For now I'm thinking I'll just play some music and let that lead me as far as combos and such.

5-10 stretching: Concentrating on they arms, shoulders and back.

2 days a week
10-15 minutes of warm up and stretching
20-30 minutes of resistance training: I'll alternate between using the resistance bands and the weight bench. Have I mentioned we scored a complete weight bench set for $200?
5-10 minutes of stretching


I expect the majority of the time I'll be getting these workouts done in the evening after work. I hope to include at least one weekend day in the rotation so that I can get a workout done in the morning before starting the day. It will feel so refreshing!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Never Underestimate

As of today I have commitments from 2 separate Half Price Books stores to donate books. I'm expecting to get at LEAST 400 books total. Possibly more. All this and I haven't even created a flyer yet to promote the book drive at my place of employment.

I must give people credit for their generosity. I think many times people don't ask for what they want or need out of the fear that someone will say no. If that's the worse that can happen, I think I'll take my chances.

So far I've been doing well with having some sort of activity with my lil Prince each evening. I don't think a DAILY activity was the resolution, but I intend on keeping this up as long as I can. It doesn't take much for him to appreciate and enjoy our time together. He's happy with helping me out in the kitchen, reading a book or making some art together. I'm going to try and get my Kingman more involved so no one feels left out.

The little one really wants to go to Sesame Street Live this month. I'm trying to surprise him with the news that he is, in fact, going. But that child is convinced it's going to happen anyway. I asked him the other day "what makes you so sure you're going to go?" and he replied "because I just know I am and I really want to." And I thought to myself, who am I to crush his dreams. He still thinks I'm on the fence about it. But I bought the tickets for him last week when he called me at work exclaiming "Mama! Sesame Street Live is gone be at the Target Center January 16 to 20th!"

Today I received an email from my lil Prince's class teacher asking if I would come in to talk to the kids about college. It sounds like a great idea, right? Well, I have no earthly idea what I would tell them. lol. Hopefully the children have questions or the teacher has a list of topics for me to touch on. I can't go in there telling them about my college shenanigans. I did well in school, don't get me wrong. But there was plenty of fun times and odd moments that I'm not sure 1st graders are ready to hear about.

Already my January calendar is filling up. Book drives, Sesame Street Live!, Twins Fest, Class Reunion planning, crafting, etc. I'm so excited about it. I have all these things to look forward to and I haven't even made plans for my birthday. OH! that reminds me, my little cousin his having her baby shower the day of my birthday.

*scribbles in calendar*
*makes note to figure out a gift idea THIS week*

I give thanks to my Creator for signs that Love and generosity are, indeed alive and flourishing in my life!

Cold Feet

I've been feeling particularly tired and cold lately despite my emotional excitement about everything. The last few nights I've had trouble sleeping. And the worry over lack of sleep is making it even harder to get rest.

*le sigh*

I'm not sure what to do. It's already way past a reasonable bedtime for me tonite. I need to figure out a game plan for tomorrow night. This is especially wack since I'm so tired! I just can't seem to get comfy or warm enough to doze off. Perhaps my iron is very low. Perhaps I should drink some calming tea before bed. All holistic suggestions are welcome. In the meantime I think I'll eat some sort of spinach or collard greens tomorrow(today).

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Mission accomplished!

Friday we purchased the heavy bag and stand. We also bought our training gloves. They had the most adorable training gloves for kids so we picked up a pair for my lil Prince as well. He's very excited. Today, during the waking hours we plan to set the bag and stand up in the attic. I'm very excited to get started. Since I we still haven't bought a rug and stretching mat, I'll be doing my stretching downstairs in the apartment. Did I mention how excited I am??

I had a good chat with my Kingman about balancing all these things in my life. I'm trying to be better at letting him know the things that weigh heavy on my heart. Perhaps he can share the burden with me so it's not so hard.

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Friday I used my lunch break to drop off two boxes of art supplies for my lil Prince's school. A month or so ago the school sent out a notice informing parents the kids were starting their art unit and there was a need for supplies. Various things like cardboard tubing, planting supplies, shoe boxes, old sweaters... It was actually quite overwhelming seeing all the things that were needed. So I enlisted the help of my generous coworkers. I typed up a letter as if it was written by my son, taped his adorable picture on it and taped it on a box. The letter basically stated that my lil Prince and his classmates needs supplies and anything people could donate would be appreciated. I attached the list of supplies needed. Well these people certainly are coming through! I've gotten all kinds of stuff.

Well, while there I had a chat with the family liaison and mentioned something I noticed the last time I volunteered at the school. I was working one on one with some students and they were very behind in their reading skills. So I inquired if they practiced at home. The prevailing theme was that many of the kids did not have books at home to practice reading. I guess I took for granted all parents gave their kids a little library of books. Well the liason and I threw some ideas back and forth and agreed to start a book drive for the school. The goal is to get at least 150 books by Valentine's/ Friendship day so that each student will be able to take a book home. Naturally she sort of gave me the leadership role in all of this since I opened my big mouth. But I'm happy to do this! I've already researched a potentially large book donor.

It's a local book store. I know someone who works there and the word is they have more children's books than they know what to do with. I'll post the name of the bookstore once I've confirmed I can get a donation. I also plan to have a chat with the marketing department at my job to see if they can donate some bags for the kids to carry their books home in. I'm pushing for each child to have more than one book in their bag.

I'm putting all this out int he universe for a little accountability so I don't procrastinate and also so that I can increase the chances of these things coming into fruitation. I will start making calls and contacts Monday because February 14th will be here soon.

I give thanks to my Creator for a spirit of giving.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Balance'

I've decided that a big part of this year will be about finding balance. This has been on my heart for a long time now. Finding balance in every aspect of my life has been a task I haven't really tackled. I'd concentrate on one or two things but leave other things suffering and tilted in favor of one extreme. I don't want to live a life so full of imbalance.




Ive been working (and completing) quite a few crochet projects. I've been working to strengthen relationships that have been neglected. I've been eating poorly but that shall change effective immediately!

I'm happy tomorrow is a Friday. I want to spend my weekend doing what I want to do. Find some ME time somewhere in there. Gotta balance work with play.