Search Results for: blog major accomplishments

Major Accomplishments

One great thing about all of this exercising and cutting back on especially sugar is the fact that I seem to have more energy. My stamina is improving of course, but also my energy levels during the day. But first, I have to tell you about a major accomplishment I had this week. Lately, we have had more than our fair share of rain. It has been raining so hard and for so long, that the roads and our driveway looked like a hurricane hit them, a challenge for walking, even if it weren’t raining. So, I have been focuses … Continue reading →

Major Milestone Delayed

She can walk, talk, sing, dance, print words, read (some) books, heck, she can even beat an egg better than most of the guys I dated in college. But, there is one major age appropriate milestone my 4-year-old has yet to achieve: Blowing her nose. It’s true. One of the great givens of life is more than just a challenge for my darling daughter. Not only has she not mastered the art of nose blowing, she routinely turns the process into a major ordeal. A major ordeal… complete with tears that beget more mucus, which begets additional frustration and misery. … Continue reading →

Make It a Memorable Father’s Day

Forget about the striped tie, fishing pole, and Chia Head; rather, give dad something he can cherish for years to come this Father’s Day—-a scrapbook celebrating his life. When it comes to organizing a memory book honoring dad, the possibilities are endless. If this is your first stab at theme scrapbooking, consider going the traditional route with a basic chronological design. With this technique you simply document your father’s life from birth to present day. Your layouts should include childhood photos taken at birthday parties, Christmas, Easter, and other holidays. Also, look for pictures that capture major milestones in his … Continue reading →

Organizing Grad Layouts

Most graduation ceremonies are over and the members of the Class of 2012 have moved on to the next chapters of their lives. However, before your grad celebrates yet another major milestone, it might be a good idea to put the finishing touches on his or her commencement-themed scrapbook. Now is the time to collect mementos you want to feature in the album, or at least figure out alternative ways to include special items, such as a class ring. Memorabilia like class rings or graduation gowns are difficult to add to page designs; however, you can still make them part … Continue reading →

Ways to Personalize Grad Page Designs

Graduation layouts have the potential to be highly personalized. Unlike generic birthday, anniversary or Christmas page designs, a commencement-themed layout should reflect special moments in a student’s academic and extra-curricular life. How you showcase the journey that leads up to graduation day is entirely up to you, though there are some common approaches. One of the most popular is the timeline. This basic design features a chronological listing of major moments that led up to graduation day. You could accomplish this by documenting the student’s entire senior year or spotlighting particular stages of the graduate’s life from birth to commencement. … Continue reading →

2,000 Days

I wonder if the forest preservation people realize how much paper the average kindergarten class bleeds through in an academic year? I had the equivalent of at least a few hundred murdered trees stacked in my mock mud room courtesy of my just graduated kindergartener. Miles of worksheets interspersed with dozens of art projects, end of the school year autograph books (translation: scrap pieces of paper stapled to form a book with the names of each of my daughter’s classmates scribbled in kindergarten cursive), and mountains of registration material for everything from summer Bible camp to youth soccer sessions. Post … Continue reading →

Changing Season & Manning the Bake Sale

For the past few days, in our house, the heat has actually been going on in the mornings and sometimes even in the early afternoon. The tick-tick-tick of the baseboard heat has a sort of soothing sound. This morning, waiting for the school bus with my son, we were jumping up and down to keep warm. Fall is definitely here. While fall has typically been my favorite season, this year we aren’t exactly the best of friends. That is because it is starting to get in the way of my regular routine. The mornings are getting increasingly dark. I get … Continue reading →

Owning the Dream

How do you feel about your weight loss journey? My friend Cindy, who has lost more than 40 pounds so far bubbles over about her weight loss. She is firmly committed to her journey and finds it easy to share it with everyone. Me, not so much. For me, I am trying to focus on the fitness aspect of weight loss, and it making great lifestyle changes that I can keep up. It certainly feels great to be able to fit into smaller size clothing and to see my mommy belly evolve from being marshmallow fluff to being, well, still … Continue reading →

Clothes and Weight Loss

I have to admit that my weight loss has been on the slow side. But because my main goal is to make my lungs and heart stronger, and to make this routine really part of my normal life, I am okay with that. Slow and stead wins the race, right? I’m still not counting calories, and I still don’t own a scale, but I do have two things to substitute. I have a better awareness of exactly what I am putting into my body and when, so there is little mindless eating. And instead of a scale, I have my … Continue reading →

I Deserve to Say “No!”

First, let me start off by saying that I had a really great workout on Saturday. I was able to run farther than I ever had before without stopping due to lack of oxygen, muscle strength or energy. I felt like I could have kept going all day. Of course, having learned my lesson well from my recent bout with a torn and inflamed meniscus in my knee, I made sure not to push it too much. On Sunday my husband and I had a church function that started very early and lasted for five hours. I was nervous about … Continue reading →