****This post does contain affiliate links.******

I received a Fitbit for Christmas. I have been wearing my Fitbit Charge II a month now, and I’m obsessed. I love this thing. I sleep with it, I check it 50 times a day, and by the way, I now always know what time it is. Plus, I see my text messages faster.

I wrote a full review on all the neat-o things this technology can do, over at Monterey Premier.

Here’s a snippet:

12. It provides COMPETITION.

You can “friend” people, and it tells you how many steps they walked. Just don’t friend my pal Erika because she logs in like 14,000 steps/day, and it just feels so impossible to beat her!! And she’s a dentist. I gotta figure out how she’s racking up so many steps.

13. It will give you a nudge to go walk…..

Click here to check out the rest! I’m disabling comments here in order to allow you to give Monterey Premier’s page some comment love.

Psst!! I am still sending out newsletters every 2 weeks. These are just short stories that don’t appear on the blog. One went out yesterday, and the one from 2 weeks ago had a spiritual gifts survey on it. Wish you hadn’t missed it? No problem. If you’d like to receive the link to the spiritual gifts survey, just join my bi-monthly newsletter below, and I’ll zip it right to ya.

The post What can a Fitbit Charge II do for you? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I reached a low point the other day. I was standing in the Wednesday night supper line at church with my two smallest boys, and I had what could only be described as some sort of hypoglycemic brain shut down. As in, my brain stopped functioning for a solid 2 minutes.

It was embarrassing. I know those women in the supper line will probably always think I’m bonkers now.

John David and Daniel were standing beside me, clinking their trays together and saying things that they wanted in their high-pitched little boy voices. Meanwhile, the two ladies working the cafeteria line were asking me questions. Only I didn’t understand the questions. I could hear them just fine, but my brain quit on me. I tried to answer them. It went something like this:

JD and Dan: Eeebedebedoobed Mmbedeebebebededeeeeee…

Ladies serving: Which one? How many? Do you? This? That? Do you want rice? Do you want vegetables?

But mostly they just looked at me as if they were waiting on me to say something.

And I couldn’t. I wanted to, but I didn’t understand what the question was. I tried to talk, but I had trouble.

Me: Um….uh…yes.  No? Three? I’m sorry. I’m having trouble. I’m having trouble.  I have these two little boys here, and I…I….I

“I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be telling you!” I thought, but I couldn’t figure out how to say it…

Me: “Um..  Standard? Two? I’m sorry. I’m just having trouble. Okay (Things started to get better inside my head). Just put rice and a roll on that one. Um…..K..

I know this went on for only a minute or two, but it felt like 10. I was actually worried if I was going to be able to pull it together enough to make it to my table. I was so embarrassed.

I stared at my tray. Somehow, I’d ended up with one pork chop with gravy, a ton of rice, a helping of squash, and a bowl with four grapes in it.

I was extremely nauseous. Before all of this, between the time I picked the boys up from school at 3pm and the time I took them to dinner at 5, I’d eaten one bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup and a couple of handfuls of an unusually sugary trail mix.

I strongly felt like the sugar was to blame. I decided to only eat my pork chop and nothing else for dinner. With each bite of that southern chop, smothered in gravy, my nausea improved. By the time I finished it, the nausea was gone, I wasn’t dizzy any more, and I could speak perfectly clearly.

Add that to the return of my ventricular tachycardia symptoms, and it was a major wake-up call for me. I’ve got to get back to taking better care of myself. Do any of you struggle with this stuff? Surely I can’t be the only one.

So here’s my plan:

#1. Cut out the sugar.

It makes me feel sick. Why am I eating the nasty mess? I know. I’ve said this before, but this time I have a healthier living support group:

My daily workout regimen and yes, there’s even a Facebook group.

#2. Continue my return to exercise.  kbburn.com baby!

#3. Drink more water. 

Remember how well I did on the water challenge last year?

Baby steps. Start where you are. I do girl push-ups. One day I’ll graduate to the harder version.

Let me tell you about my exciting return to exercise. I have done 5 or 6 of these work-outs now, and I am all about it. The program is kbburn.com. What I love about it is that it’s only 20 minutes a day.

There are two levels of membership:

Premium: full personal trainer services, weight loss program tailored to your needs, and membership to the Facebook community complete with educational videos. I tried this out last summer, and it was fantastic. However, I didn’t have the health scare going on yet to make me stick with it. Now I do. This is an awesome way to go if you are ready to get serious about being healthy.

Basic: $30/month You get daily work-out videos in your email and you belong to the Facebook group. This is the service I’m trying out now.

With both options, there are educational videos galore on how to implement living healthier with nutrition, exercise, sleep, water, and taking care of yourself.

He also has lots of recipes you can download.

Here’s a link to one of his lessons.

I would love it if some of you joined the group with me. We can hold each other accountable. I love the idea of losing weight, but really my goal is simply to not have any more hypoglycemic episodes like the one I described above! We can encourage each other.

P.S. It’s been two weeks, and I’m already out of my “fat pants”! Yes way!

Click here to learn more about it or sign up for the free trial. *And yes, this is an affiliate link, which means I do get paid for signing people up. That’s an extra blogger perk. Blogger friends, be sure to sign up for that too!*

If I can do it, with all my geriatric problems, you can do it too. Wishing you all a fun and ACTIVE weekend! If you do sign up, let me know so we can cheer each other on!

Click on the bird above to learn more or sign up!

The post A Scary Wake-Up Call and My 3 Part Plan to Return to Health appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Caleb carved this shark in the coral reef on foam board. Then he painted it and stamped it onto paper. 

These are the kinds of fun things we get to do in Classical Conversations, our home school tutoring service and curriculum. Look closely at his picture to see if you can find the eel coming out of the coral. (Hint: middle-left, It’s a profile with an eye.)

Classical Conversations is a rigorous way to approach home schooling, but it is also fun. It has definitely raised the educational bar for us.

********

If you felt like you were reading the blog of a pitiful, dying woman in January and February, then I have good news for you!

I’m feeling better!

Going gluten free was my first step towards wellness. Now I’m also doing this Purification 21 day cleanse, which I’ll tell you more about soon, and I’m feeling even better. I haven’t lost a single pound, though. Ah, well. Go figure.

Plenty of happy things have been happening lately in school and sports and life in general, and of course you know I’m here to share all that.

First, let’s talk about home school.

I’m well aware that I have not been much of a home school blogger this year, so let me show ya a tad bit of what we’ve been up to lately without upsetting my big boys with over-share, of course…

because sitting down is overrated, apparently

Voluntarily reading the Bible! This kid knows how to make his momma smile!!

With our CC curriculum, the boys learn 5 new geographical locations to map out every week, which we practice everyday.

Last year we mostly traced a dry erase map, but actually drawing out the map locations every day has helped them learn it better. This particular map went along with our history lesson on the advanced (native) civilizations of Mesoamerica.

Dan and JD aren’t in CC yet. They are sorting colors and letters in their egg crates. (Thank you, Amy!)

The boys have an aunt who is crafty and extremely teacher oriented. She makes these off-the-chain busy bags, and THEN she ever so kindly shares them with us!! So exciting! She puts these kits together, complete with instructions and personalized details, and sends them to us in the mail!

Thank you, Amy!!!

We’re memorizing all of the helping verbs as well as all of the prepositions this year in grammar for CC.

See! They do sit and work sometimes!

Super proud mom moment. I took the boys to the park, and Caleb brought along a book to read. It was one of those unusually perfect days, in which the boys played and shared and helped each other out so perfectly (In public!!!) that I got to look like Mom of the year. Thank you, boys.

We’re in earth science for this part of Cycle 1. (I liked life science better, but it all must be covered.)

I got especially excited about this one because he beat the timer.

This is another one of Amy’s incredible busy bags. Um, hello? They even have our pictures on them, and of course, they are laminated.

No, she doesn’t sell them, but if she ever decides to open shop, you can bet I will sell them for her right here.

But you know we are not just academic here. Allow me to share this winter’s big passion:

Yes. This is my basketball necklace.

Basketball!!!

Did you know that Alan coached a team this year, a team that both Joshua and Caleb got to play on? And did you also know that we won almost all of our games?

That’s Joshua with the ball.

Most importantly, both boys had a blast, made new friends, learned a great deal about basketball and how to play it, got tons of exercise, and grew in confidence!! (I was most excited about that last part!)

Joshua, passing to Caleb

Joshua scored so many times, and Caleb made a few baskets as well. They were both energized and highly involved, and it was such a pleasure to watch them play.

Caleb, keeping it high

Coach Dads

Alan is that unusually experienced and exciting coach that every parent or kid would want to have, unless having snack is important to you. Alan’s stance on snack: “If someone wants to organize snacks, that’s fine. I’m not going to, but feel free.” And you know what? No one did, and I don’t think anyone missed snacks.  Fun season!

Of course, now it’s time to move on to baseball, but don’t worry. I already have two baseball charms ready for my necklace and my bracelet.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week, whether we like the election results or not!

“When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” C. S. Lewis

The post Classical Conversations, Basketball, Busy Bags, and Other Mom Stuff appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

You couldn’t find a more scenic route!

I thought it was so exciting to participate in such a huge event! People come from all around the world to run in the Big Sur Marathon. But did you know? There’s also a half marathon, a 5K, and a 3K, that are all a part of it.

Silly me. I volunteered to go at Daniel’s pace, so rest assured, there was no running for me.

Truly a pleasure to run with you, Dan.

So why am I still so gosh darn proud of the Dan Man? Well, most of the 4-year-olds there were riding in strollers for a while, walking a bit, riding in strollers, walking a bit, and so on. Not Dan. I only brought the single jogger, and the two-year-old lays a solid claim to that. Therefore, Dan ran and walked, and occasionally sat down in the middle of the road and said, “I can’t go on!” through the whole thing.

But he did! He did go on. He even beat one other 4-year-old. That’s right. It took us 45 minutes. Ha!

The big boys beat us by, I don’t know, a lot. See how well they warmed up:

We even brought along one of their friends, which drove the fun factor even higher.

See the Big Sur International Marathon signs behind us?

warming up

Oh, and there you have it, the new hair cut. Whoops! Didn’t really mean to chop off quite that much, but it is only hair, right?

Now, onto the next race….

The post Daniel’s First Race: The Big Sur Marathon Kids’ 3K appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I like what he has to say here about calling out the hype and building a consistent, simple, effective routine.  –April

Everyday we see ‘gurus’ pitching the ultimate 12 week plan, or 6 weeks to sexy, or how to get the flat sexy stomach you have always wanted in just 20 minutes per day. Trust me, I see them all the time. I have made those programs, I have sold those ads, and I have made a lot of money doing it.

But there is a secret the ‘gurus’ don’t want you to know. This is the secret that keeps you coming back to them time after time again. They purposely keep sending you 6 week programs and special 21 day detoxes so you will buy those products instead of discovering this one secret. They do it because they don’t want to lose their job.

Let’s face it, people like shiny. Coming out with a new sexy abs program every 4 weeks is shiny. Just follow this program for the next 4-6 weeks and you will have the abs you and your husband have always wanted. Just take a look at this screen shot. All I did was a quick google image search of Shape Magazine.

Notice anything? How many new body plans, 4 week to sexy programs, and the ‘new diet’ programs can they really create?

It is all distraction. They want to keep you away from this one secret that I have been teaching to my personal clients for the last 10 years to give them amazing results. This one secret allowed me to create the top personal training studio in my city before I left it to have more family time. It is the same secret I use with all of my online premium coaching clients today. The same secret that I give away for free in my Transformation Made Simple program.

So what is this closely guarded secret that can cost all ‘gurus’ their jobs?

Consistency. That is what you need. You need to be consistent in your program in order to make the best progress. By continually selling you new and different programs, the ‘gurus’ are purposely keeping you from achieving your goals. This ensures that when you fail, or the program doesn’t go right, they can sell you a new program that promises to fix the problems with the old one.

But the biggest, and the truly best fitness professionals I have ever come across, we all have one thing in common. We keep our clients consistent and give them the time they need in order to achieve all their goals.

Consistency allows you to adapt. Adaptation is the sole purpose of exercise and fitness. Forget everything you have ever heard of muscle confusion. There is an actual term for it and a place for it, but it is not what you think and not the topic of this conversation.

Adaptation is what you need. You need to adapt to the stress you are putting on your body so that you can handle more. If you are constantly jumping from shiny workout to new shiny workout every few weeks or even every couple days, you will never fully adapt. That means you never get that much better.

Consistency allows you to adapt and get better.

A simple way to look at it is like this. Burpees burn a lot of Calories. They burn them fast and skyrocket your heart rate. Which workout will burn more Calories? Performing 10 burpees for 4 sets or performing 20 burpees for 8 sets? Without adaptation, you will have a near impossible time progressing to the harder workouts that burn more fat than the easier workouts. If you are jumping from shiny workout to shiny workout every few days or weeks, then you can’t adapt.

Consistency allows you to adapt and get better.

Now consistency doesn’t mean you need to do the same workout every single day for the rest of your life. That just sounds horrible. But there are a few things that you should always be doing. Take these 4 exercises for instance:

Military Press
Squat
Pull Up
Dead Lift
These 4 exercises, or close variations are in ALMOST EVERY SINGLE PROGRAM I make for my clients. I create for them new and different workouts every 4-6 weeks, but within that, these 4 exercises remain consistent. Over time, they end up doing hundreds and thousands of reps of these exercises. They adapt to them and they get stronger. This strength carries over to other parts of the workouts and allows them to do more.

Once they can handle more, they can burn more fat if they want, build more muscle if they want, and eat more food without worry. That is the power of consistency.

But there is a trick to consistency. I am sorry but it is not as simple as just saying, “I am going to start being consistent today.” I truly wish it were that easy.

The key to consistency is simplicity. Sit for a moment and think about past fitness or transformation programs you have used. Were they challenging? Were they complex? At first you started off with all the greatest intentions right? You followed the program 100%. Then something happened. You maybe missed a day or you stopped feeling the vibe.

The key to consistency is simplicity.

That novelty wears off and you start finding yourself having to convince yourself to workout. You have to almost fight yourself just to get your program going. That is the time where you lose your interest, where you fall off the program and have to start over in a few weeks.

The key is simplicity. In my free course, Transformation Made Simple, I stress this in every lesson. The key to being consistent is to make the process as simple and easy as possible. Make it so simple that there is absolutely no reason you can’t do it.

Sounds too easy right? I mean how could something that simple actually work. Well think about it this way. It takes about 50 heavy reps per week to develop strength. To accomplish this, you could do:

5 reps x 10 sets one day per week
5 reps x 5 sets 2 days per week
5 reps x 2 sets 5 days per week
All three of those programs have been proven to be very effective for developing strength. Which one would you rather do? Do you think you will be more inclined to ramp yourself up to do a huge heavy 50 rep workout every week, to a moderate 25 heavy reps twice per week, or a simple 10 reps every day?

That is the idea of keeping things simple and being consistent.

Break things down into the simple small steps that you can manage to accomplish everyday. AND THEN GIVE YOURSELF TIME.

Going to level with you here. Those 6 week, 12 week, and even 20 week programs are good and all but they are kind of a lie. Personally I went from normal to photo shoot ready (sort of) in 8 weeks. But then again, I was already in good shape. I already had a foundation of consistency and simple basics that allowed me to increase my intensity and buckle down for those 8 weeks.

The images they use to sell you those programs, are from people like me, who already were in a decent place. If you are just starting, give yourself time. International fitness coach Scott Sonnon says that it take about the same amount of time to completely transform a body as it does to prepare an Olympic athlete, 4 years. From personal experience, I agree.

Give Yourself Time.

It takes time to develop the new habits you need to create, to change the bad habits, and to truly develop the consistency that you will need in order to achieve the results

To recap, here are the 3 things you TRULY need in your program.

Consistency
Simplicity
Time
Now here is what I want you to do:

1) If you liked this article, and learned even 1 thing from it, click the share button down below.

2) Leave a comment below and tell me what you are going to do to make things simple and consistent for yourself going forward.

– See more at: kbburn.com

The post The 1 Thing All the ‘Gurus’ Don’t Want You to Know, Guest Post by Fitness Blogger Justin Cox appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Something wonderful has happened to me lately, as a result of working with Coach Justin Cox.  No, I haven’t lost any weight yet. It’s only been three weeks. Actually, I’ve gained 3 pounds, so let’s not focus on that…

What I’m actually referring to is this.

Some of you may remember that I have terrible psoriasis of the fingernails, and it has hit an all time high level of UGLY this year. I didn’t even know it was possible for nails to crack on top, until this year. If you look closely at my right pinky or my left pointer finger, you can see a little of the pitting that is still there. Each day it’s clearing up a little bit more though, which is so exciting!!

Do you know why it’s exciting? It’s not just vanity. This stuff HURTS. Thanks to my nails, I can barely open bottles, use screwdrivers, or work buttons. Buttons are the worst.

Let me tell you about this Coach Cox program.

Step 1 is the interview. Coach Cox and I discussed my goals and physical fitness needs. Then he works with you to build LASTING habits to affect true change. We decided to first focus on my water consumption.

Here’s the rule of thumb: Take your body weight, in pounds, half that number, and drink that number of ounces of water per day. That equals 70 ounces of water for me.

My results, in the first three weeks:

1. Right away, I had more energy. Who knew being dehydrated was sapping my energy!?

2. After 3 weeks, I noticed the nail change, and I can’t tell you how excited I was about that. Of course, part of the nail problem was dryness, so it does make sense that water would help.. Right now my nails don’t have a single crack, and you should have seen them two months ago. They were like monster nails.

Here’s a REALLY scary picture of what my nails used to look like:

fingernail psoriasis

GRRRRoss, right?

I’ll also give you a preview of one of the workout videos from Coach Cox. I’m supposed to be exercising 2 days per week and doing one longer cardio session on the weekend, like running. So far I keep only getting around to one exercise day and one cardio day.

BUT, with Coach Cox, you’re still a success as long as you’re focusing on your one goal at a time, and for me that’s drinking my 70 ounces of water.

When you sign up as a client, he actually puts together a string of videos for you to follow each work-out session. Best of all, every work-out is not the same. So if you’re like me, and enjoy variety, that’s built right in.

If I can stick with it, I’m hoping to lose a couple of inches off of my waist. So far, I’ve managed to gain 3 pounds, but my inches are unchanged, as far as I can tell. But as I’ve written before, when it comes to weight loss, overnight results don’t last. That’s what stomach viruses do, not lifestyle changes.

Exercise was a regular part of my life when I lived in Virginia, but taking on a new job this year, and losing my support system of workout friends took its toll, so I’m gradually easing back in.

The boys were super excited because today I took them all four to the pool by myself. OY! I was worried about that task. My friend Kristen gave me the idea of putting swimmies on the two little ones so we could all just swim in the big pool. Kristen has a set of twins, so she knows what she’s talking about. I figured I’d give it a try. Dan has his frog float that goes around his chest and arms, so he was all set, but I couldn’t find JD’s swimmies anywhere. However, I did find him a toddler-sized life jacket, left over from our boating days. Life preservers in place, pool day was actually FUN for everyone. 🙂 I was pleased as punch, and my thighs are sore now because swimming with a toddler on your hip is great exercise!

Summer is off to a SMASHING start. 🙂 And now without further ado………

THE GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

brought to you by Cer Maz and Polmedia Polish Pottery and Stoneware

The winner is………Congratulations, Amy!!!!!

I will be emailing you your coupon code!

Thanks to all who entered!

Let the weekend begin!!!

The post The Water Challenge appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

There are so many exciting things going on in our chilly little Northern Cal world, it’s hard to keep my head on straight!

Alan is in the middle of a mid-term schedule that has him pretty stressed. He actually has to go out of town later this week to test out a drone parachute that he designed. Woohoo!

Alan and I are so different. No one would ever, in a billion years, ask me to design ANYTHING. Thanks to this design project, Alan and I now share the love for Brittany’s, which is a delightful craft store, similar to Hobby Lobby!

John David’s language abilities are exploding. He still speaks in small phrases, but it’s just adorable to hear him talk. Meanwhile, he and Daniel have developed an obsession with baseball caps. Daniel wears his tee-ball team hat, which is blue, and JD wears a red Nats hat. They run around like this, feeling so important. Daniel even wears his to bed.

Daniel wears his full uniform at all times that he can get away with it. He’d love nothing more than to wear it to church, bed, and everything.  Alan is very excited to have a son that likes baseball as much as he does, and they go out in the yard and practice together. I just love to hear it.

Sometimes I start to think that our little family is getting over the hump of the exhausting baby/toddler phase. Then we experience a full family outing failure, and I am reminded that the hump is still a mountain to us.

The boys’ end of the year CC program was pretty much a total disaster for Alan and me. First, Caleb, while on stage in the large group opener, made faces. Meanwhile, JD kept crying out. Well, you can’t keep a crying toddler in an auditorium, so we kept taking turns walking out with him. Since we were up and down with JD, Daniel took that to mean that he could be up and down and up and down and up and down too, so we left Tuesday night feeling like we only have one kid that knows how to behave in public.

It was a humbling experience. Really, we live feeling pretty humble. Managing four kids: hard for us–others make it look easy. Homeschooling: hard for us–others think it’s big fun.

After Caleb left the stage from the opener, where he was making the faces, Alan whispered to me, “You might need to go say something to him.”

But Caleb was on the other side of the room, sitting with his class, and the show was well underway.

“Maybe Lindsay (Caleb’s tutor) will say something to him. Lindsay’s good that way.”

She did. We were safe. No more faces for the second performance. PHEW!!!

Once a children’s church worker told me this story about my children, “I heard someone talking, and I couldn’t believe it when I realized it was Joshua. He’s supposed to be the shy guy, right? So I called him over and made him sit by me. After a while, I told him he could go back to his seat, but he could not talk any more. He said, ‘Yes, sir,’ and he went back over there and never uttered another word. That’s really great! I mean, hey, a kid that listens to instruction!”

So no, our kids aren’t perfect. No one’s are, but I’m going to go on feeling good about them because they do listen to instruction (most of the time), and most importantly, they have precious hearts.

Daniel was eating his lunch the other day, and he asked, “Where’s JD?”

“Napping,” I said.

“Oh, Me see him sleeping on the monitor. He’s precious,” Daniel giggled.

Oh yes, he IS precious, and so was the little boy talking about him, with the sun butter on his cheek and the baseball uniform on, even though it wasn’t game day.

LOVE!!!!

Caleb has always been a big defender of the underdog. Don’t even get me started on how much I ADORE the way he randomly heats me up cups of coffee and brings them to me throughout the day.

Recently Joshua has become a huge advocate of the poor and the homeless, especially the homeless. He wants to go around giving them all tents. He talks about it day and night, every day, which warms my heart, but it also challenges me.

These kids have a need to SEE us helping the poor. Yes, we do give money to causes and church, which help the poor, but the boys are wanting to SEE us do that. I’m not sure how to go about it. Does anyone have any specific suggestions? We’ll be happy to take ideas!

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.”   Proverbs 19:7

We only have three weeks of school left, yall!  This is so exciting!! I can’t tell you how relieved I feel.

Next year’s curriculum!

Planning for next year is underway. This is paramount. Every weekend this year, I had to work on plans and organizing the next week’s school work because I was unable to prepare last summer, thanks to the move. THIS year, if I can get most of that done before the school year starts, I will have more free time DURING the school year. So maybe my house will be cleaner, but most importantly, I will have less stress!

Alan’s parents are arriving this week to help with the kids. This will give me some extra time to plan and Alan and I a little time together. We’re hoping to go to Yosemite National Park. We are hoping to do a lot of hiking,  and speaking of exercise….I got a blog opportunity that I’m excited about last week.

Coach Cox from this website: coachcox.com offered to be my personal trainer this month for free, and all I have to do is tell you all about his service.

I’ve mentioned before that I get offers for services and products like this, and I rarely take them on, but the idea of focusing on living more healthy sounded like something I need.

My goals:

1. Lose a little of this mum tum. (Yes, I do realize my gut is protruding.)

2. Have more energy.

3. Just take better care of myself in general because motherhood requires putting yourself on the back burner a lot, and I let it go a little far this year.

We are able to take care of others better when we first keep ourselves healthy. Plus, as they say, “More is caught than taught,” so our kids need to see us modeling good habits.

So my first challenge:  Drink 70 ounces of water/day! Justin figures up how much water you should drink based on your body weight, so that’s my number.

It’s only been two days, but I’m doing great. I told one of my friends here about the water thing. She said, “Is that hard for you?”

Um, yeah! Normally I drink like 20 ounces of water/day!

I’m also supposed to be eating more nutritionally and working out 3 times/week. I’ll let ya know how that goes this week. At least I’m drinking my water, so you know, yea me!!  🙂

Best thing about this whole online personal trainer thing: I get an app on my phone to track what I’m doing. He sends you exact work outs, complete with videos, tailored to your needs, and you can ask any questions you need to ask. So far, I think it’s AWESOME. I will let yall know more about this as I get further along in the program!

Speaking of trying to take better care of myself, guess what else I did?

Mother’s Day 2015

I CUT MY HAIR. This is really only a big deal to me. Most people I know didn’t even notice the change. It had been a YEAR since I got my hair cut, so this felt like a great, big deal. Alan was so tired of hearing me gripe about my hair, he finally made the appointment for me. Thanks, Alan.

Caleb, me, and my new hair. Next week: Perhaps I will make it to make-up.

I think Alan’s statement the day after my haircut sums up this whole year of adjusting to California, learning how to home school, taking care of 4 little boys, and just my general experience over the last year. He said, “It’s so good to see you back to yourself. That hair cut was really what you needed to get your confidence back.”

Boo-yah. April is back. 😉

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.”         Psalm 20:7-8

The post Life in Northern Cal: Modeling Good Habits and Helping the Homeless appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.