Shakespeare

Yes, we are studying a Shakespeare play.  I have enjoyed and A Midsummer Night's Dream and have taught it before with me 8th graders back in Madawaska.  When I talked with my class about what they

had done after the play, we decided that we wanted to do the same thing.  So.....

I found a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream for 4th grade, and we read it together as a class.  We discussed the major elements of the play, the characters, settings, and plot.  Next I survey the groups to allow them choice as to which act of the play they wanted to work on, and I used this information to group them.

Next, they picked apart their scripts.  We discussed the goals of this activity, and what they needed to focus on.  We discussed how much work this would be, but even though I offered to let them hold off until after April break to work on it, they all voted (blind vote) to start right away.  As you can see from the video they took off running.  The part I like best is they all seem to be enjoying the process.

Oops!

My car off the road a week before Christmas Break.   That's a good samaritan
preparing my car to get pulled out.  I held up traffic on both lanes of the road,
including the school bus with half of my students on board.

Well, it was my first day back at school, and a strange one at that.  Nothing extremely out of the ordinary, but we had a 2-hour delay because of the road conditions and that was enough to throw us all out of whack!  And no.  I didn't get to my workout this morning like I had planned.  My morning ended up busier than I thought it would be.  Plus, my car battery died, so I had to take my husband's Jeep, so that delayed me even more than planned.  And with the roads being icy, I wanted to make sure I had an early start so I don't end up going off the road.  Again.

This noon one of my colleagues approached me with a scale and asked if I wanted to join their Wellness group.  Without hesitation I said yes and asked if I could get weighed now.

My weight...in my dreams!

As I stepped on the scale, I didn't feel anxious about the number, even though some of my colleagues were nearby.  They had no intention of looking, and I didn't offer my weight.  I was somewhat pleased that I was about 4 pounds less than what I expected, however, I still wasn't happy about the number to begin with.

Now, this morning my plan was to do my workout after supper, but that didn't work out either.  Geesh!  Obstacles everywhere!  I can't complain, though.  I got a new car battery (They don't give them away!!!), and Chinese food for supper.  So let's just say that my supper pretty much took care of my day's worth of calories.

Tomorrow's a new day.

Is it a Fail or a Break?

I had a snow day today.  Or might it be considered a rain day instead?  It definitely became a PJ day for me.  I know, it seems strange to have a rain day, but that's what we got today, and the boys and I didn't have school.

Considering the fact that we've been dealing with day after day of snow through Christmas Break, we then dealt with nearly a week of subzero temperatures that the rest of the country is now getting.  So, today our temperature rose literally 60º to a balmy 37º F today! So today we got rain.

The problem was that because the ground was so cold, any rain that fell froze as it landed on the roads, which made for dangerous driving.  So, that justified having a rain day.  In January.  In Maine.

So, where does "A Fail or a Break" come into the picture?  Well, I was still up at my usual time this morning, at 5 A.M. to feed our cat Charlie, say goodbye to my husband, and begin getting ready for my day.  I had my suspicions that there would be no school today, but just in case I jumped in the shower just the same.

As I was toweling off, my phone rang with our customary School Reach call letting me know of our school cancellation.  That left me with a dilemma.  A very serious dilemma.

You know how I've been wanting to get back in to my workout routines that I had been doing so long ago? Well, I had the perfect opportunity to do that today, but I had already taken my shower.  I couldn't get all sweaty again when I just got washed up.  It's not good for my hair to get washed so often, and it's drying for the skin when it's cold outside.  I know.  Great excuses.

So, what do you think I did?  That's right.  Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, not exactly nothing.  I did have to revise my plans because of the school cancellation today, and I did try to set up some Mystery Skype sessions, and of course, I ensured that my friends and I were updated on all the necessary statuses on Facebook and Twitter.  All the cute kitty pictures and videos were liked and shared.  All the posts about the weather were commented upon.  You know, catching up with the news.

Now, I could beat myself up mentally for not doing a workout today.  I could punish myself by saying what a lazy, horrible, and unmotivated person I am.  Then I thought about it.  I just did a streak of 3 days!  Is it wrong to give myself a break?  Didn't I deserve it?  At this point in the day, I'd have to say the answer is a yes.  I did deserve a break.  Especially after the latest development of my 2 hour delay in my district tomorrow morning.  

That's right.  My plans for tomorrow are this.  Get up at the usual time of 5, feed Charlie, say goodbye to Hubby, then do my workout.  Wake up the boys, make them pancakes (which is usually reserved for special occasions and weekends), send them off to school, then get ready for my day.  

I think that sounds like a workable plan.  Don't ya think?  I'll let you know how that went.

Heat Wave!!

While most of the central and lower eastern part of the US are now getting a deep freeze, we're actually getting a break from the one we've been going through up in Aroostook County, in Maine.  We welcomed in the new year with temperatures of -20º F with wind chills in the -40s, the lowest I noticed was -47º F.  Brrr... We've been in the teens for most of the day today, and it was nice!

As I'm sitting here writing this, reflecting on the day, I'm kicking myself because I never considered going outside to walk, rather than on the treadmill in my dark and dusty basement.

I'm pretty proud of myself, because I've done 3 straight days in a row.  It will be a challenge starting tomorrow, because school vacation is over and it's back to school.  And....to get things going I have a meeting after school and my oldest has a home game.  Somewhere in between I have to also cook supper and make sure homework is done.

I like to do leg and arm exercises then do at least 15 minutes on the treadmill.  I may have to consider doing this in smaller portions and do the squats and arm lifts tomorrow morning, then jump on the treadmill after the game.

I wonder how any of you who have to balance work and a family manage to get a meaningful workout in on a regular basis?  I would love to read what you do.

A Brand New Year!

As I've mentioned in my previous blog posts, I've tried to get back to where I was a couple of years ago when I was fit, physically active, and healthy.  

With the coming of a new year, like many others, I reflect on the past year and try to come up with goals for the new one.  One of my biggest issues is that I take the time to start back exercising during school breaks, which makes it hard to keep a routine once school's back in session.

Earlier this week, my husband and I were talking about our resolutions.  He was saying how he wanted to lose weight and get healthier, and was cautiously hinting the same for me.  Of course I got defensive, and told him to say what he really wanted to say.  So he stated what I already knew and had been obsessing about.  I need to lose weight.  My jeans size has increased and I don't feel that well.  Yes, the truth is painful.

In the past I had used a website geared for helping people through their weight loss journey.  I am by no means putting it down, because it was a huge motivator for me, 3 years ago.  But when I tried to get back on it recently, I found it was too much work, and that I needed something simpler.

I found a simple app for my smartphone that helps me track my calorie intake, how many calories I burn with various workouts, and how I'm progressing toward my goal.  It has the same bells and whistles that the website had, but no teams to join, or challenges to achieve when you have a busy life and don't have time to manage it.  It's simple.

I was home alone today (yes!), basically because my stepsons had school and my district wasn't starting back until Monday, and my husband was at work.  With temperatures way below zero (-14ºF and -38ºF with the windchill), going for a walk outside wasn't an option.  And because I hadn't been physically active for such a long time, I figured some squats, arm workouts, then walking was a good place to start.  So I planned to start on the treadmill.

In order for me to use the treadmill, I had to make room to open it up.  My oldest plays the drums and had moved his drumset closer to the light so he could read his music, but that put it in my way for the treadmill.  The thing is, he rarely uses the drums, so I moved it back to where it had been, and set up the treadmill.

In the past I had been a huge pinner on Pinterest, which accumulated tons of pins in my "working out" board.  So I spent yesterday weeding through them all, and found some workouts I wanted to start with.  For example, squats that started on day 1 with 6 reps and eventually progresses as the month does.  Also, I found some arm exercises that does the same.  I also added a couple of core exercises as well.  So, I figured if I do this daily all month, then I'll begin seeing results, which is a motivator in itself.

So, after pondering over what to do and where to start for most of the morning, which is part of my problem....I think too much....and solved my treadmill space issue, I did my squats, arm exercises, and walked on the treadmill for 15 minutes.  I did a couple of minutes of jogging, but my knees and ankles were objecting due to lack of practice, so I mostly walked.

Now that I've done my first day, my challenge is to keep doing it.  That's not easy.  

I don't own a scale, but I'm sure that my weight is not a number I would be happy with.  So, in order to track my progress, I decided to take measurements of key places on my body.  My butt, waist, and thighs.  I don't like those numbers either, but it's a way I can track my progress.  I couldn't find an app to track them with, so I decided to use my calendar instead.  That means, every Friday morning I'll take measurements of these same problem areas and track them on my phone's calendar.  

It's been said that it takes 21 days to start a habit, and this photo shows one way to track that.  I'm not planning on advertizing this, mainly because I prefer keeping things private to some extent.  I've done the "announcing my workouts" thing on Facebook and Twitter before, and it didn't help me stay motivated.  Perhaps keeping a blog about it will work.

What kind of challenges have you faced?  I would love to hear about how you have dealt with them and have overcome them, if you have.

Jinxed myself....

I tend to jinx myself a lot.  In my last post I talked about how I was on a streak of several days without stopping.  I was either walking or running.  Well, needless to say, I broke my streak after that.  My family and I did things that weekend, the weekend before school started back, and then life got busy.

I work about 25 minutes from home, and my youngest stepson has football practice in the town on the other side of the town where I live, so that means I leave school at 3:15, drive directly to his practice and make it for 4.  I hang around and can't seem to leave because I want to be there in case he gets hurt.  It's a full-contact sport, and the danger of someone getting hurt is pretty good.  His practice ends at 6, then it's another 15 minutes to get home, then it's supper.  I've been pretty good at being prepared ahead of time and using my slow cooker to have supper prepared.  After all is said and done, it's past 7:30 and I usually have papers to correct or plans to finalize, or laundry to do before I can have some "me" time.  By then I'm usually calling it a night.  We go through this on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Those days are the only ones that I can say I have a legitimate excuse.  Tuesdays and Thursdays, and even Fridays?  I know I can always come up with an excuse, but I really don't have one.

Then there's the weekends.  This weekend was a sleepover for our youngest, and now Hubby and the oldest have gone golfing, with the youngest hanging with his friend playing video games.  Sorry, I'm not leaving these two unattended.

Feeling pretty low about lack of motivation.....

Starting over....

This is me, two years ago, at my healthiest.  I don't look completely toned or ripped even, but I had no qualms wearing that top and shorts at the last 5K I participated in at our local college, my alma-matter.  There's a hint of muscle on my arms, and my tummy was something I wasn't ashamed of.  My face looked slimmer than it does now, and although my legs still seem like there's some rippling of fat, they didn't touch like they do now.  I felt good.  I was happy with myself and comfortable.

On October 3rd, 2011, almost two months after this race, I was participating in a walk to raise money for Alzheimer's.  The next day I starting coughing and within 24 hours, learned I had pneumonia.  I was sick for 3 weeks and was still feeling the after effects all the way to that February.  Although a breathing test and XRay declared that I was back to normal, the damage was done.  My mojo, my motivation, my energy was gone.

I would occasionally go for walks, but that would last about a week.  It was so much easier to just sit on the couch or chair and flip through Facebook and Twitter, lamenting on how I was getting fat and sluggish.  It was easier to get snacks and meals that were processed and not very healthy, than it was to prepare my own meals and buy fresher foods.  My clothes stopped fitting me.  Pants that used to hang on me were now tight.  I didn't get depressed, but I wasn't happy with myself either.

Up until this past week life was busy for me for the past 2 years.  I was finishing my masters, I prepared 2 new classrooms and planned 2 new curriculums.  I taught summer school for some extra pay to help make up for what I lost leaving my old district.

This week I spent this past week staying home.  I didn't even go to my classroom once!  I was busy with family things instead.  Life seems to be slowing down.  Not that having a busy life is a good excuse, or should be one at all but I feel that I can now have a handle on my time, my life.

I went through some old running magazines that I hadn't read, and as I hoped, I started to get motivated.  I read the articles of the experiences other runners had.  Those coming back from injuries or illness, and still getting back on track.  What was my excuse?  I had none.

I read the tips on preventing injuries, staying motivated, and nutrition.  I took snapshots with my phone of my favorite articles so I can refer back to it when I'm having second thoughts.  I'm trying to set myself up to succeed, rather than fail.

My runs vary.  There were some that lasted 15 minutes, some 25.  My runs include some walking breaks of no more than 30-40 seconds, but I have to be patient with myself.

Most of my runs have been on the treadmill, but that's because I feel self conscious and don't want to look silly running in my compression shorts or capris so everyone can see how much I've gained.  I can hide in the basement instead.

I think about how soon it will be dark after supper and running on our road won't be a good idea.  It will be dark soon right after school before long, so I should just enjoy running outside while I can.  But I can't bring myself to do it.  I know.  These are just more excuses.

Mini goals.  I've done a streak so far of 5 days. I mostly ran, but there was one day I just walked because it was late in the evening and I wanted to get it in.  Still....5 DAYS!  I have to celebrate my little triumphs.

Motivation and obsession updates

Yeah, well, my plans to create a compost bin hasn't been going very well.  I opened up the lid yesterday after nearly a week of rain (which meant that I wasn't going outside to do anything other than going to the car or store), and found little flies flying around.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think my compost bin is doing very well.  

I did go up to the hill where our garden has been and where are strawberry plants are now to check on them.  I've got berries!  They're still greenish-white, but they are a nice size!  We're expecting a possible stretch of warm, sunny weather, so they may ripen nicely!  Strawberry jam, pie or shortcakes in the future?

As for my motivation for working out....let's just say that hasn't existed while we've had a long stretch of rain.  I know it's not an excuse, especially since I have a treadmill in the basement I can use.  But having the sun shining makes a lot of difference.  

I'm writing this blog post while waiting for my supper to digest.  It's a beautiful, sunny evening, not too hot and not too cold, and not even humid, so I'm planning on going for a nice walk in a few.  I've been listening to audiobooks that I borrowed from our elibrary, so I can listen to them as I drive to wherever I'm going, walk/run, or clean around the house.  I just need to remind myself that I have a limited time to listen to the book.  Perhaps that can be my motivation to at least go walk.  Time to get my sneakers on and head on out....

She was once motivated, but lost it.....

Three and a half years ago I was motivated to become healthier.  I chronicled part of my journey, and spoke about my losses, too: a friend who died at age 40 and my cousin who never made it to 40.  This was the year I turned 40 and I wanted to do something for myself that was good and healthy.

It began one fall evening when I cleaned up an area in the basement, set up our treadmill, and from there a workout area where I could do my Jillian Michaels' workouts, and run on the treadmill.  It continued on from there.  I got involved in running, and did my first 5K ever that spring.  This was the start of a healthy year-and-a-half.  I was healthy, fit, and happy.  I had clothes that were actually too big for me, and I was running regularly.

One school break I caught pneumonia.  My oldest stepson had it, then my youngest stepson and me.  We were eating lunch waiting for him to be able to get his X-Ray done for his lungs when I began shivering uncontrollably.  I can't remember ever being so sick in my life!  It truly debilitated me to the point that I went a long time without working out.  I was sent for a breathing test and was happy to find out that there was no damage done to my lungs.  The thing is the real issue wasn't my breathing like I thought.  I lost my motivation.  

I've tried periodically to get back to the workouts, but it's just not there.  I've tried just walking, like I've done before, but even though I have the desire to run, I can't get myself to commit to it.  

I've wanted to do a workout in the morning, but lately the morning is when I hurt the most.  At 43, I guess my body has caught up with my age.....or something like that.  I've developed Morton's Neuroma under my right foot, so finding the footwear and treatment to allow me to even walk normal without pain is a challenge.  

No matter how true my pain and discomfort may be, I can't help but feel like they're only excuses, and it frustrates me.  I hate having a spare tire, my once "too big" pants too tight, and not having clothes that fit me well.  At all.  I only have one pair of shorts I can wear, and it's because I just bought them this spring.  Let's just say that I'm not feeling so much like my best, and I know I need to do something about it.  I just wish I knew where to find my motivation again. 

It's almost like reinventing myself, I just don't know how to do it or into what.

New obsession

Now that I'm finished my graduate courses and received my degree, I'm finding that I have lots of free time available to me.  I'm not an obsessive housekeeper, so keeping my house spotless is not happening, but the idea of working in my efforts at a flower bed and garden are what I'd like to get better at.

Earlier this spring, I cleaned out my flower bed.  I removed what I knew were old plants, weeds included, and left the flowering daffodils and tulip (yes one tulip).  I had some bulbs that I bought last year and didn't plant because I was too preoccupied with work and classes, but they didn't do well and rotted away instead.  One of my friends gave me a clump of sedums, which I've planted near my rickety porch (which seriously needs to be repaired, another project in the making), along some plants that grow tiny white flowers that resemble snowballs, and another plant, a bush of some sort, that seems to resemble an azalea bush.  The sedums are growing well, but as my friend explained, they don't require anything special, which means that even I could grow them.

Hubby and I picked up a clematis plant a few weeks back, but the day after I planted it we received nearly 2 weeks of constant rain.  All of the pretty pedals fell off, and I'm not sure they're going to survive.  We picked up a couple of coral bell plants, and they are growing nicely, but that's all in a flower bed that looks very empty, except for the 3 plants and weeds that won't go away.

I've been looking on line for tips to get rid of weeds, but I don't want to do anything to kill off the plants I want there.  In the meantime I've learned how important mulch is.  The problem is money is an issue, meaning I don't have the cash to spare to buy mulch and dirt, especially if I could get what I need in the woods behind my home or from discarded food from the kitchen.  

I'm obviously in the learning stages of this new venture, so when it comes to mulch, compost, and gardening, I'm quite the novice.

One of my plans for this coming week is to grab an old tote in the basement, hold on to kitchen scraps (banana peels, coffee grounds, egg shells, and fruit and vegetable discards) in the meantime, add some dirt from our discarded garden, and gather some old leaves from the woods behind the house to try my hand at composting.

As for my attempt at making mulch, I think I'm going to lay out some newspapers (black and white ink only) in the areas of my flower bed and between the strawberries in my "old" garden area, to hopefully kill off some of the weeds.  One site I found helpful said to add some grass clippings or compost (I'm thinking dirt for now) on top and wet the paper so it stays.  Supposedly in time it will decompose and in the meantime it will kill the weeds it is covering.

I bought a couple of tomato plants yesterday and planted them in containers.  I crumbled egg shells on the soil and watered them today with water that had coffee grounds in it.  According to another site, both egg shells and coffee grounds add important nutrients to the soil, and seeing how I got the soil from my old garden, I felt it needed a boost of nutrients.  

One more issue that I've been dealing with for years, are the weeds that seem to grow between my brings on our patio area.  Some of the weeds grow quite high if I don't pull them out first, and it looks messy.  I don't mind the moss, just the large weeds.  Yet another site I found suggested either a spray mixture of vinegar, dish soap (Dawn), and if I'm remembering right, salt.  Applied early on a dry, hot day, it's supposed to "burn" the weeds and kill them off.  Another option would be to sprinkle baking soda.  The theory on that one is that it changes the ph of the soil, making it unsuitable for weeds to grow.  We'll see what I choose to try.

If anyone, anyone at all, happens to have any tips or great ideas that I haven't come across, please feel free to share or redirect me to a site that will help me.  Any help would be appreciated.

I would have posted pictures, but it's raining.  I promise to post some soon.