Outside my window... On Friday, we had a 40 degree temperature drop from 73 to 43 in a matter of hours. Needless to say, I haven't stepped a foot outside since Friday. At this moment, I have no plans to leave the house until Monday afternoon.
I am thinking... About my neighbor. I have known her since the day she was born and she is so grown up now. She is 1st generation American born. Her parents are from Kenya. One day last week, I picked up her and her friend who was visiting friend is from the boarding school on the east coast that they both attend. Her friend is from Turkey. She left home for boarding school in the United States at the age of 14. It is hard for me to imagine Princess Butterfly living so far away from me. Of our 4 children, she is the only American born so I can picture the others being more international. I took Princess Butterfly, the neighbor, and the visiting young lady to the restaurant that Princess Butterfly and Sanban work at. Princess Butterfly says she felt grown up, out having lunch with friends. All 3 girls are 15 years old. This neighbor also has a nephew who worked so diligently in Kenya that he earned himself a scholarship at Stanford University. The young lady from Turkey wants to go to an Ivy League school in America. I am always impressed with the diligence of children in other countries who are trying to get ahead in life while in our own country education is taken for granted. When I lived in Germany, there was a joke that said, "A person who speaks 3 languages is trilingual, a person who speaks 2 languages is bilingual, and a person who speaks 1 language is an American." I think this is truly sad.
I am thankful... A friend who has received a heart transplant is doing SO much better than expected. HalleluYah!!! Yah is good!
I am wearing... Long sleeved shirt and Pilates pants.
I am creating... My progress on my great-aunt's prayer shawl. I am going to use 2 more skeins of yarn to finish it. I love being able to buy one skein at a time with Michael's discount. I sent Friend Hubby along with Princess Butterfly to get the latest. There were no incidents. LOL
I am going... To try and increase my daily calorie burn of activities to 1750. MyFitnessPal takes into account cooking and cleaning in addition to other activities. I have seen some weight loss, but it's always only temporary. I have increased my weigh ins to twice weekly, but I haven't seen enough progress on the weight loss side.
I am reading... Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House, 6%. As soon as I get over this cold, I'm going to try to get some ready-made hot breakfasts going like breakfast tacos.
Fascinating Womanhood, 20%. There are some pretty difficult challenges in the previous couple of chapters that I am still working on in ME. Being fully homeschool mom mode to Sanban and Princess Butterfly and then resisting that urge to put Friend Hubby in the same plane. Switching gears from mom to wife can be a challenging thing. This is why I am putting so much effort into my fitness goals, my knitting, my prayer life etc. I'm working on my OWN goals and leaving him to his.
Fascinating Womanhood, 20%. There are some pretty difficult challenges in the previous couple of chapters that I am still working on in ME. Being fully homeschool mom mode to Sanban and Princess Butterfly and then resisting that urge to put Friend Hubby in the same plane. Switching gears from mom to wife can be a challenging thing. This is why I am putting so much effort into my fitness goals, my knitting, my prayer life etc. I'm working on my OWN goals and leaving him to his.
(1 Peter 3:1 ISR98) "In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that if any are disobedient to the Word, they, without a word, might be won by the behaviour of their wives,"
I'm not saying that Friend Hubby is not being obedient to the Word. I am saying that I am trying to be delivered from the temptation to try to control him that I know lives inside of me.
I am hoping... To quickly be rid of this sinus cold that has made its rounds from Princess Butterfly, Sanban, and now to me. Just as the sun set on the Sabbath I developed a fever. I know that the blessing over the wives says, "She's not afraid of snow," but I still hate cold weather and everything it brings with it.
I am looking forward to... Our family's annual Mishpacha Meal. We love to cook and entertain and one year we noticed that our friends were all going out of town for Thanksgiving. So we decided that we would work on Thanksgiving and get any overtime available and do our big feast the next weekend after Thanksgiving week. I always pray that every heart leaves our home uplifted and full of joy.
I am learning... Tai Chi. Most mornings it is getting harder and harder to get out of bed. I have also been thinking of what kind of martial arts I could begin as a middle aged woman that would not cause me injuries (we see what happened when I tried to do planks). My kids all have black belts in TKD but after our neighbor passed away at the age of 57 just weeks after earning his 2nd degree black belt, it kind of took the tuck out of me for learning TKD myself. Although Tai Chi is most often seen as a slow motion martial art, it is actually a fighting style. I looked up some videos on Tai Chi Combat and I can see how the few motions of Tai Chi that I have learned so far can be used for self-defense. I have thought of Krav Maga, but again, I am concerned about the intensity starting out and possible self-inflicted injuries.
This video shows a full 24 form sequence in slow motion (which is about the speed I'm going at right now anyway. LOL). Let me just say that I am not afraid of all things Asian. I lived in Asia for 5 years. Every culture has it's good and bad just like western civilization. I saturate myself in the Word and prayer daily and do not do any type of meditation. What did we do before we consulted YouTube to tell us how to think? We relied on the Holy Spirit to convict us if we were stepping outside of the boundaries of the Word. I grew up in Pentecostal circles where the only exercise was dancing in the spirit and lifting a piece of fried chicken. My aunt is 10 years older than me, has never been overweight, but had a heart attack at 57. My great-great grandmothers lived to be 96 and 108. My great-grandmothers all lived into their 90s. My grandmothers lived into their 70s and 80s. My mother didn't make it far past 60. If Yah allows it, I want to live as long as my great-great grandmothers, but I want to be in shape to do it. I want to leave a heritage of fitness to my children as well.
Also, we are a house divided between Android and iPhone. The pedometer app that I had downloaded stopped working and I couldn't find another that I liked. The Grand Duchess boasted that her iPhone had a built in pedometer app. Of course, I know that anything iPhone can do Android can do better, I discovered that my Android phone actually came with a pedometer app as well. So nanny nanny boo boo! So mature, right?
This video shows a full 24 form sequence in slow motion (which is about the speed I'm going at right now anyway. LOL). Let me just say that I am not afraid of all things Asian. I lived in Asia for 5 years. Every culture has it's good and bad just like western civilization. I saturate myself in the Word and prayer daily and do not do any type of meditation. What did we do before we consulted YouTube to tell us how to think? We relied on the Holy Spirit to convict us if we were stepping outside of the boundaries of the Word. I grew up in Pentecostal circles where the only exercise was dancing in the spirit and lifting a piece of fried chicken. My aunt is 10 years older than me, has never been overweight, but had a heart attack at 57. My great-great grandmothers lived to be 96 and 108. My great-grandmothers all lived into their 90s. My grandmothers lived into their 70s and 80s. My mother didn't make it far past 60. If Yah allows it, I want to live as long as my great-great grandmothers, but I want to be in shape to do it. I want to leave a heritage of fitness to my children as well.
Also, we are a house divided between Android and iPhone. The pedometer app that I had downloaded stopped working and I couldn't find another that I liked. The Grand Duchess boasted that her iPhone had a built in pedometer app. Of course, I know that anything iPhone can do Android can do better, I discovered that my Android phone actually came with a pedometer app as well. So nanny nanny boo boo! So mature, right?
From the learning rooms...
Senior: Still having to put Nice Mommy on hold until I see evidence of self-motivation concerning the Eagle. One friend had his work day last week and now only needs to finish up the paperwork. Another friend finished his project before moving back to our area. Just waiting on Sanban to get it finished so we can plan a joint party. I am hoping he will finish before the end of the year and not knock himself out of the running for 2016-2017 scholarships.
Sophomore: Praise Yehovah! Because of her NHD competition last year, I was afraid she would miss out on the Early College High School program that was being offered by our local community college. While getting Sanban signed up for his last semester of the old program, Early College Start, I learned that they had not followed through with the program but instead had lowered the starting age. So next semester, Princess Butterfly will take her first college course at the community college too. For one semester, I will have 3 children taking college courses at one time! Fortunately, our local community college allows high school students to take up to 12 classes for free (not including the cost of textbooks). She will take a course called "Effective Learning Strategies." Course description: "This course teaches learning and self-management principles and practices that foster student success. Drawing from cognitive, effective, and behavioral theories in psychology, students examine the factors which impact student learning, study methods for developing self-regulation and strategies for maximizing their teaching efforts." The Grand Duchess took something similar when she started at university. These credits are transferable so she won't have to take it again. We also need to look into getting her enrolled in the same parent-taught driver's education course that Sanban took.
From the kitchen... The Caldo Verde soup recipe at Willams-Sonoma is very similar to mine. I made some this week. My goal is to always have soup made. If I felt better, I would try to get up and make some chicken noodle soup. I'm trying to work with whatever ingredients I have on hand and not got out and buy extra.
Around the house... I am very pleased with my progress. I didn't have much work to do on Thanksgiving Day so I would check my queue and then go clean a room for 15 minutes.
- I filled a bag of old clothes from my bedroom closet.
- I cleaned my shower stall.
- I cleaned off my bedside table (which is now filled up again with cold treatment supplies).
- I shred some old bills.
- I filled up a trash bag full of clutter from my pantry.
I wish I had the time and energy to do this every day. Maybe I will gain energy as my fitness level increases. Thankfully, the cleaning bug has hit Sanban. He stayed up after we were in bed Saturday evening and scrubbed the kitchen floor on his hands and knees. <3
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