Back to school

Well I am officially back to school!  The kids don't come in until next Monday but all of us teachers have been there bright and early every day this week setting up our classrooms, making sure we have all of our student's textbooks (and the teacher's editions that go with them), and all going to all of the boring informative meetings that we have to attend.

This year I've decided to do a red, white, and blue theme in my classroom.  I will actually have a real class so I need to do more than just general bulletin boards.  Because I teach special education and I generally do inclusion, I didn't use my own classroom often.  This year however, due to the Class Size Reduction Amendment, my school is doing things a bit differently and I will have a class of 18 second and third graders (some of them Ex. Ed. and some of them General Ed).  It will be a challenging year, but hey, if I can run a marathon... I can do this!

The biggest problem is trying to find a time to run.  Early morning runs were my preference all summer, however, now that I have to drop off Baby Girl then be at work (a 20 minute drive) by 7:00am every day, an early morning run just isn't feasible.  On the other hand, I get off at 3:00pm.  However, this is FLORIDA!  Florida this time of year is excruciatingly hot and humid.  With 90+ degrees and humidity that make the temperature well like over 100, running after I get off of work isn't a great idea either.  I don't have a hydration belt (yeah, I need to get a good one that doesn't jiggle and annoy me as I run - suggestions?) so running too far/long is not a safe option.  Hubby is working nights at the moment so running in the evening once it cools down isn't great either because by the time it cools down enough, it is too late.  I would have to take Baby Girl with me in the stroller and it would put her getting her bath and going to bed too late.

Saturdays are no problem as I can still get up early and run with Baby Girl in the stroller, but that is about the only day that I have a fool-proof running solution.

I know it sounds like a lot of excuses, and that is exactly what it is.  However, I feel they are some valid excuses.  Other than obviously getting a hydration belt, what would you do if you were in this situation? It's not going to cool down for a good while down here...

Fitness Friday #7

Weigh-in:

Dear Bathroom Scale,

I've been up and down this week, as you know because I couldn't stop checking in on you all week.  Earlier in the week I was THRILLED when you showed me a 193.8!  WHOOO HOOOOO!!  I know I celebrated a bit this week because of my husband's advancement as well as my baby brother being home so please don't let me have screwed up that beautiful 193.8!

Your Friend,

Nicole

Dear Nicole,

Yes, you were way down earlier, but the Chili's (twice) and the Durango's lunch, you have probably had a lot of sodium.  So my answer to you is....

....

..

194.3

..

....

Not much off of what you wanted.  Hope you're happy.

Love Always,

Your Bathroom Scale

Dear Bathroom Scale,

Yes, I'm happy because it's still down!!

Thank you,

Nicole

Last Week's Goals/Results: 2/4

:) Continue with C25K. Week 7 here I come! I did it! :)  Week 7 is DONE!  All three days were a 5 minute warm up, a 25 minute run, and a 5 minute cool down.  on Day 1 I had to have a couple of short walk breaks on the 25 minutes.  On day 2, however, no breaks!  I ran straight through!  But then on day 3, I had Baby Girl in her stroller and I just didn't have it in me :(  I ran sluggishly and had to stop several times.  I also didn't make it nearly as far as I had even on Day 1.



:( Log 4/7 days. I didn't manage this.  I think I logged 2 days or so.  As I mentioned above, I had a lot of celebrations this week and although I tried to make better choices, I still enjoyed myself a bit and forgot to log.


:( Take my vitamins. I forgot more than I remembered.


:) De-stress by doing something for myself each day. I got a mani/pedi with a friend, read a book, went for walks, and yes, I accomplished my goal.

My husband was officially given the notice that he made First Class! We pretty much knew he was going to, but this made it official so we went out to eat to celebrate.  My baby brother is home from the Navy for a couple of weeks so he came to visit and again, we went out to eat.  I had some girl-time with a friend and...you guessed it...we went out to eat!

 This Week's Goals:

Pretty much the same as last week...

• Although I did fine with Week 7 of C25K, I am going to repeat it.  The reason for this is that I start back to school and will have to run in the hot hot hot Florida summer afternoon sun after work. I want to make sure I am comfortable with what I'm doing. 
• Log 4/7 days.
• Take my vitamins.
• Don't let the stress of a new school year get to me this week.

half marathon training

I have a friend who recently decided she wants to run her first half marathon! YAY!!! So together we planned to run a local half marathon at the end of November. She's not been real athletic and has proudly put herself in the "Couch Potato" category for several years in a row, so I started her off with the Couch to 5k (C25K) program from Cool Running this summer and told her to try to be up to about a 5K by the end of summer. My thought was that by the time school started we could choose one of the MANY half marathon training plans and go from there.

She is doing amazingly well and I'm so proud of the progress she has made, however she isn't up to 3 miles yet - but she's diligently working on it! School starts in a week and she is able to go about a mile and a half (at a 10 minute mile pace) which is SOOOOO much farther than she could go without stopping when she first started! ::Doin the happy dance for her cause her legs hurt right now::

I'm not too far ahead of her to be honest. Yes, I have done several full and half marathons, but I took about a year and a half off with myself squarely in the couch potato mode as well, so I too started using the C25K at the beginning of the summer too.  However, my body remembered it could run (hers never knew it could)so I am up to week 7 and running 2.5 miles or so (not counting the warm up/cool down).

This will be the first time I've trained for a race without a coach, (not to mention pretty much being someone else's coach!). With my other marathons/half marathons I usually did Galloway's 4:1 intervals and told my friend that it would probably be a good idea that we stick to some kind of interval for this race as well (I was thinking maybe hoping down to 3:1's or something if we needed to). We both have small babies at home making training a bit more tricky (and often need to run with the strollers). So my question to all of my running friends is...

Do you have any tips for us, and what is your favorite half marathon training program for a novice? Hal Higdon? Jeff Galloway?  Someone else? We have from now until the last weekend of November to train (about 16 weeks or so if I just counted correctly).  Thanks guys! :)

Wordless Wednesday - My Baby Brother and my Baby Girl

Tuesday Teaser - Boys in Crisis (possibly controversial)

I haven't done one of these in a while so I thought I would try to get back into it.  However, I'm reading several books at one time so I'm not getting very far in any of them very quickly. I think I'll try to "tease" one each week for a few weeks perhaps.  Maybe this will tease myself into reading them more!  LOL

Today's tease is from a professional book, but if you have sons it would be worth a look as well.  I'm a teacher so this is quite relevant to me.

HEAR OUR CRY: BOYS IN CRISIS is all about how to reach boys and young men in a meaningful and relevant way.  Here are my two sentences from a random page (I just started reading it so I think the book automatically fell open to a page close to the beginning):

"Statistics on boys and men reflect the results of a society that has ignored the social and emotional life of boys.  To disregard the impact of these myths on young males is to put them in a decidedly weakened position to succeed personally, professionally, and emotionally (not to mention life expectancy: U.S. women on average outlive U.S. men by about five years). "  pg. 3

In my county, school starts back on August 9th. I would love to have read a good portion of this book by then in order to see what strategies I can implement to reach all of my students; male and female, exceptional ed and general ed, high achieving and low.

What are your thoughts?  Are our boys in a crisis?  The author states that they are being stereotyped as women were in the past as they are expected to hide their emotions, be tough, and "be a man"?  He also states that more fathers show up to support their sons in sporting events than school evens (such as Honor Roll ceremonies) giving them the impression that it is more important for males to be athletic than smart.  Do you agree that our boys are in crisis? Do you agree with this quote from the book? (Remember, if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all! Discussion and respectully disagreeing is fine, insults are not)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Let it open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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• Our male identity crisis: What will happen to men? (psychologytoday.com)

Menu Plan Monday

Check out Orgjunkie.com for more menus!

Last Week's Menu:

Meal 1: Breakfast for Dinner (eggs, turkey bacon, fruit salad) One of my favorite dinners is breakfast!  Hubby had an omlet and I opted for good ol' scrambled eggs.  This was Thursday

Meal 2: Parmesan Chicken with Garlic and Herbs, Veggie (whatever we have - peas, green beans, corn...) Right before I took these out of the oven on Friday, I laid a slice of provolone cheese over each and warmed up some maranara sauce to put over them.  We coupled the chicken with salads.  Yum! :)

Meal 3: Shrimp Kabobs on the grill (shrimp, red peppers, green peppers, zucchini, whatever we find to put on them), and grilled corn on the cob We had these on Tuesday and they were YUMMY!!  The Grill Master (AKA Hubby) outdid himself with this tasty - and healthy- meal!
Meal 4: Lemon Chicken on the grill, and Herb Roasted Veggies Never did the Lemon Chicken, but did do the Herb Roasted Veggies with the London Broil on Sunday.  Not bad!  I think I like the Roasted Broccoli better but these were pretty tasty too!
Meal 5: London Broil on the grill with a spinach salad  Hubby Grilled up the London Broil on Sunday after marinating it all night - Yummos!
Meal 6: Probably another CORN night on the weekend CORN night ended up being Monday and Wednesday. Monday to make room for the groceries we bought, and Wednesday to accomodate a crazy schedule.

**Added meal** Saturday night rather than grilling we stir fried some green, yellow, and red pepers with onions and sausage and whole wheat spaghetti noodles (It's what we had lol).  It turned out pretty good :)


This Week's Menu:
We are doing something a little different this week.  Instead of buying anything, we are going to try to use up whatever we have in the fridge/freezer/pantry and clean it out a little.  I've seen several frugal/cooking/etc blogs with an eat-from-what-you-have type of challenge so I thought I'd give it a shot this week. There are 2 main reasons for this.

1. We're trying to save money and would rather spend our grocery money on other things this week and...
2. We are running out of room to store things in the fridge/freezer/pantry so there MUST be too much stuff in there!

I know we have some frozen chicken, shrimp, and beef so that is on the menu.  We also have canned veggies galore (both in our pantry as well as in our survival/emergancy store that we need to rotate through).  There's pasta and rice in the pantry for sure and even though we are trying to watch carbs, we still use some of these.  There's also about 4 boxes of Hamburger Helper to choose from as well. I have some left over fruit and veggies from this past week's grocery shopping that will be used first so that we don't have to throw anything out.  The only thing I can foresee us needing to get at the grocery store this week is maybe some more fresh veggies and fruit - but then again we may be able to work it with just what we have canned and frozen. I just bought milk (skim and almond) a few days ago so we should be good there.

•  Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole
• Maybe even Parmesan Chicken with Garlic and Herbs again as it is really yummy! 
• I know there is some frozen Tempura Shrimp so we may have to do an Asian night and break out the chopsticks we have left over from Japan.
• Hamburger Helper one night
• We have Spaghetti that I can make also
• Other than that it may be just simply grilling/baking the meat (Chicken and/or shrimp) and adding a veggie.
• Saturday: Definately eating out this night.  My baby step-brother is having his Eagle Ceremony for Boy Scouts!  YAY  Proud of him!  That makes My Grandpa (my mom's dad), my biological dad, my uncles (My mom's brothers), my brothers (two of them), and my cousin Josh all Eagle Scouts. It's become a family tradition :)

Somewhere around here I have a cookbook called "A Man, A Can, and A Plan" that has recipes with simple ingredients such as "a can of this" or "a bottle of that" that can usually be found in every house.  I may have a look in there and see what I come up with once I figure out what is lurking in the back of the freezer/pantry (If it's lurking in the back of the fridge then it probably isn't fit for ANY kind of recipe other than a science experiment - and I still have a few weeks before school starts back up!)

My other baby brother (The other Eagle Scout) is coming to stay with us one night this week, so that night we may go out to dinner - or Bubby may want to stay in, who knows with a 19 year old Navy kid!  He's going to spend a few days with us, a few days with our sister in Orlando, a while with mom, then a few days with his dad.  He only has 2 weeks leave so he has to split his time wisely!  Glad he's coming to stay with us a while -- I've missed him now that he's all grown up and on the other side of the country!  He's coming back to see Carl recieve his Eagle, and to present it to him :) (Yes, I just got goosebumps thinking about it...so proud!!)

I'm also stocked up on healthy snacks.  Fruit of course, but also cereal bars, Sugar Free Jello, Real Fruit Bites from Dole, apple sauce, and I think there are some Craisins in there somewhere too.

Feeding Four is giving away cool fruit pouches from Peter Rabbit Organics that would make great snacks!  You should check them out.

My "normal" recipes are found HERE
And OrgJunkie always has some great menu ideas on Mondays!

What's on your menu for the week?

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Feeding Four is giving away lots of stuff this week!  Everyday this week she will be giving away something different. 

Monday Was:  Ernie's Salsa. 
Tuesday is Peter Rabbit Organics


Go check it out...and check back every day this week!  I will update this post daily for all the giveaways and add the links to the individual give-away pages in my sidebar so make sure you check it!

Fitness Friday #6

Weigh-in:
Dear Bathroom Scale,
I'm not talking to you again until you play nice!
Sincerely,
Nicole


and his answer is.....


195.0


WHOOO HOOOOO


Dear Bathroom Scale,
Thank you!  Are we good now?
Your Friend,
Nicole

Last Week's Goals/Results: 2/4

Re-run week 6 of the C25K. Ran Week 6 Day 1 on Saturday and again on Monday, took a 1.5 hour hike through a nature preserve with the family on Tuesday Morning. Days 2 and 3 on Wednesday and Friday as I was supposed to! :)



Keep up the good work with the Vitamins. Forgot Most of the week :(


Log my food at least 4/7 days. I only logged 3 days this week


Read a book/take some pictures/do something fun for me once a day. Saturday: Caught up on a guilty pleasure (The Vampire Diaries), Sunday: took a nap and let the dishes sit in the sink, Monday: Read some of "Murder Most Royal", Tuesday: Took a hike with the family through a local nature preserve,  Wednesday: took a bubble bath, Thursday: Watched a movie (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Friday: Shopping/lunch with a friend.
 
Evaluation of the Week:
 
I didn't do nearly as well on my goals as I had hoped but apparently I still lost.  Perhaps it was because of the carb-cutting. I'm not sure because I didn't log ...  sigh.

This Week's Goals:

Pretty much the same as last week...

• Continue with C25K. Week 7 here I come!
• Log 4/7 days.
• Take my vitamins.
• De-stress by doing something for myself each day.

Give Aways!

I added a section on my sidebar (Over there ------> below my quotes) for contests and give aways.  You should go check it out! Most of them are running/workout related but not all.  Legacy of Home is giving away healthy snacks.  Nuu Muus can be used for anything - heading to the coffee shop or running - and two sites are offeing give aways for those.  GoLite has some awesome stuff that you should check out too.  So what are you waiting for..go check them out!