Excuses, Excuses

I told myself at the start of the new year (well, the start of last summer... okay, like two - ten - years ago) that I would exercise for at least 10 minutes every day. I would either take a 20 minute walk or I would do 10 minutes of indoor exercise - Wii Fit, yoga, pilates, sit ups, climb up and down the steps, something. I seem to recall looking at my 2lb weights once, but I'm pretty sure that was when Secundo was holding them out to me and saying, "Mom, you're not still using these, are you? Can I take them upstairs so that I can do my arm, wrist, and finger exercises?" (She's strengthening her hand for fencing per her coach's instructions.) I guess her taking them upstairs doesn't really count as exercising... well, not for me, anyway.

I made this goal simple so that it would be easy to do and to maintain. I can find 10-20 minutes per day, right? I seem to find hours to play online, read, sleep, watch movies, and play board games with the kids. How come I can't find 10 minutes to do a couple sit ups or 20 minutes to take a walk? (By. My. Self, I might add.) Well, because:

- I don't like to exercise in front of other people.

- I don't want to have to change my clothes.

- I can't find my exercise clothes.

- I don't want to have to take a shower during the day (I prefer to take them at night).

- There's too much of a mess in front of the TV to get out the Wii balance board.

- I don't want to see my weight displayed on the TV screen (especially if there are other people in the room).

- It's raining.

- It's snowing.

- It's cold out.

- It's hot out.

- Our road has a lot of speeding traffic and there are no sidewalks.

- I woke up late.

- I have other things that need to get done when I was hoping to exercise.

- I have to cart children all over town.

- I'm sick.

You get the idea.

Now, some of these are legitimate reasons. If I'm sick and it's 20 degrees out, I'm not going for a walk. (I've become a wuss after moving to the South, and I've made peace with that.) However, most of them don't hold water. For instance, I have a TV in my room. I could go in there, close the door, and do 10 minutes of a yoga or pilates DVD. I often get up before the kids, so no one would be in the living room when I used the Wii Fit. My road doesn't have that much traffic on it and I live less than a quarter mile from a youth athletic park where I could easily do a couple laps around the parking lots and roads there then come home; I'd be on the main road for less than 5 minutes. (Plus, I can see half a mile in one direction and about two miles in the other, so it's not like it's too dangerous to walk on on its own. Well, except for the fire ant hills. In the summer. There aren't any right now. See how good I am at this excuses thing?) So, most days, I really have no excuse... except that I'm lazy and stuck in a bad habit.

So, today I decided that enough was enough and took a walk. And how did I convince myself to do this? I took one look out the window at the beautiful snow and decided that I needed to go out with my camera. So I did. Easy peesy.

And I didn't set one foot on the busy road! Did I mention that we live on two acres in the middle of the country? Yeah, well... 

I think that I am going to take my camera out with me every day as my motivation to get outside. And when it gets warmer and drier out, I am going to go hunt for a place to walk to each day where I can sit and pray and read. Madeline L'Engle mentions having such a spot in her book A Circle of Quiet. I like the idea of a secret special place that is definitely special but not very secret. It calms the mommy worry that my kids won't be able to find me if they need me while also adding to the place's sanctity by being designated as "Mommy's Place."

Do you have such a place? How do you carve out time for exercise or jump-starting your sanity?

The Brain Observatory

In 1953, Henry Molaison (soon to go down in history as "H.M." to protect his privacy) underwent brain surgery to eliminate the occurrence of dangerous seizures. Following his surgery, two facts became apparent to his doctors:

1) the surgery was successful at eliminating his seizures

2) Mr. Molaison was now incapable of creating new memories

This second realization was a landmark discovery in brain science, and Mr. Molaison consented to tests and observation for the rest of his life which have allowed scientists to develop understanding, proceedures, and techniques that would improve the lives of countless other human beings. (It had been previously thought that memories were created through universal brain processes, but Mr. Molaison's inability to create new memories after the removal of two narrow, inch-long plugs revealed that memories are indead created in very small, distinct areas of the brain. Over time, however, Mr. Molaison was able to become increasingly proficient at new tasks, revealing that an area of the brain completely distinct from the memory-creation areas is instrumental in the learning process.)

Mr. Molaison died on December 2, 2008. On December 2, 2009, Mr. Molaison's unplanned but generous contributions to science and humanity began anew when neuroscientists began slicing, sampling, and mapping his brain in a project that has been dubbed Project H.M.

Even more fascinating - the scientists are chronicalling the historical, painstaking proceedure live online. You can watch their daily progress online at The Brain Observatory website.

If you would like to read more about the project and Mr. Molaison, you can do so here.

I Want An Office

Frodo has an office. Three days a week, he works at home; one day a week, he rests; the other three days he goes to an office. Granted, he shares that office with two other people, and they have to balance office hours and such, but it is a place to go. If a student has a question, he can say, "Meet me at my office." Need to find him easily? He has posted office hours. But more important than having a place where he can go work and must be for his office hours, he has a place to not be when he is sick. If he's sick, he stays home. He does *not* go to his office. He has not only a physical respite, but an aesthetic/environmental respite.

I work at home. I am a mom, a homemaker, a homeschooler, a daycare provider, and a writer. All of these jobs are centered in my home... except when I escape to write at the coffee place, but they make me pay to go there. When I get sick, I stay home.... where I see the unwashed laundry and the dusty mantel and the piles of schoolbooks and the latest outline. I get that I chose these occupations (paying or no), but when I get sick, I realize the biggest benefit to having home and work separate - an office. A place not to go. A place to leave unfinished tasks where they cannot be seen unless I want to see them. A place to call and say, "I'm sorry, but I can't come in today. I need to rest." It doesn't have to be far away. I really don't even have to have someone there to call. I just need a place I don't have to go to.

Something like this would be nice:



Btw, this is David McCullough's office. That's Mr. McCollough himself standing in the doorway.He actually works in his office though... it's not really set-up for napping. I covet Mr. McCollough's writing ability in addition to his office. Just thought I'd mention it.

Maybe I need an office as a place to go when I'm sick? About a hundred yards or so out the back door. A bed/ window seat, comfy chair, sunny windows (with blinds), and a reading lamp. That's it. That's all I'd like. It doesn't even need to have electricity as long as I had batteries, a crank, or a little solar panel to run the light. I could bring a book and my MP3 player, snuggle under a blanket and get better.

Is that really too much to ask?

Needs Vs. Wants

I need to find an exercise program that works for me. I had convinced myself that all of the running around I do with 4 kids (6 kids if you include the borrowed ones) burned enough calories so that I didn't need to exercise, but I just can't keep up that charade any longer. I get achy too easily, and I tire too easily. I am obviously out of shape.

So, over the last few years, I have tried-out some various "programs" and schedules. I am not really the internally-motivated type. If it's not down on paper, I won't do it (I will also freak-out that it won't fit into my schedule). So I was looking for something pre-packaged that I could follow then adapt as I got to know it better.

Attempt #1: Back when I only had 2 kids, then 3, Body Electric would air during the kids' nap time. It was perfect. Low impact. Scheduled. 30-minutes and done. Then we moved and our new PBS affiliate didn't carry it, but I had recorded some of the workouts so I thought I'd be good. Wrong. When Quiet Time came around, I'd think, "Oh, I can pop in that tape" [remember tapes?!] "any old time. I'll clean [nap, make supper] now and exercise later." I needed that set time everyday... a set time ordained by someone else. We've moved again since, but now we don't get TV, so any broadcast program is out of the question.

Attempt #2: Exercise class through adult ed at the local high school. I was the youngest, least fit person in the class. I finished-out the classes I paid for then stopped.

Attempt #3: In an attempt to encourage me in my exercise endeavors, Frodo purchased some exercise equipment for me: a yoga mat, a balance ball, a block, and a bag to store and carry it all in. I've use the mat... twice? The ball has been taken out of the box; it wouldn't fit in the bag in its box, so the box had to go. I tried using the block once for some modified push-up exercise and almost gave myself a bloody nose when I slipped off the stupid thing. I use the bag all the time. It stores all the equipment very nicely and fits beautifully in its appointed place, conveniently located to be grabbed on the run or when I need to move it to clean my closet or locate a rogue shoe.

Attempt #4: To go along with my relatively new, yet already dusty, exercise gear, I bought the book Pilates: Body In Motion. It is a DK book with great photos, easy to follow descriptions of each exercise, and recommended exercise plans. I only used it twice. Have you ever tried to "Roll Like a Ball" while holding a paperback exercise book? Not pretty.

Attempt #5: I figured the quick fix to the book problem was to get a DVD. I ordered Louise Solomon's Yoga & Pilates Total Body Toner. Two problems: 1) I had to enforce my own schedule. Ha! 2) I couldn't do the workouts on the floor and see the TV. The one in the living room may have worked if our living room didn't have any furniture in it, and the one in our bedroom was so high up (being on top of a highboy dresser) that I got a workout but then needed to see a chiropracter about the crick in my neck.

Attempt #6: SparkPeople.com I have actually tried them twice. Once paired up with a physically distant friend. I liked the accountability (she could see if I had logged in my food and exercise info for the day and whether or not I was acheiving my goals), but it only works if you enter in your info every day - what you ate and the exercise you did. The exercise was actually pretty easy to enter, but the food was a chore. I often had to enter meals by ingredient since we rarely eat out, eat little prepackaged food, and often make recipe substitutions (whole wheat flour for white, etc) or just don't use a recipe at all. The second time (which I am currently in the process of abandoning - and overlapping with "Attempt #8... oh joy), was solo. All the frustrations of the first go-round with no accountability. Disaster waiting to happen.

Attempt #7: Since I couldn't find someone/ something to impose an exercise schedule on me, I decided an in-house exercise partner might work. Frodo is a faster walker than I am, and we generally have very different schedules, so that pairing wasn't going to work. I decided to go for exercise accountability and one-on-one mom-kid time and asked Primo to do Couch to 5K with me. Who'd of thought that a program with "5K" in the title would involve running? I don't run... unless I am being chased by a bear. They didn't provide one.

Attempt #8: The kids have been taking swimming lessons at the university since last fall. Only students, faculty, and recreation center members (and swim school kids) can use the pool, so this summer we signed up for a student family membership to the center. It was great! When Primo was in her lesson, I swam around with the younger three. When the younger three were in lessons, Primo and I swam laps and played speed games in the pool. Frodo would even join us when he was done with his afternoon tutoring sessions. I was guaranteed an hour in the pool twice a week. It was very easy to plan another family swim time at the pool or lake a third day during the week. I was golden. Until swimming lessons stopped. We went 2-3 tmes a week for almost another month, went on vacation (where were went swimming in the hotel pools almost daily), then came home and... nothing. I think we've been to the pool two times since early July.

As I was discussing my exercise woes with Frodo the other day and sharing with him my plan to get up earlier and try to get to the pool or walking park (did I mention there is a walking park 2 miles down the road from us?) early a few days a week, I came to a realization:

I need an exercise program, but I don't want an exercise program.

I want an exercise montage. Like in Rocky.

I want to don my "I mean business" exercise clothes, lace up my Nikes, and two minutes later be sweaty, fit, and celebrating at the top of the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I don't want to have to find real time, be sore, create more laundry, or add more showers to my week. I want great background music and a fit body in two minutes. I'm not even averse to sweat.

Is that too much to ask?

And while I'm at it, I would also like commercial breaks where a stage crew comes in and cleans my house. And have conflicts that result in witty one-liners (made mostly by me) and are resolved by a compassionate yet clever heart-to-heart less than 30 minutes (minus commercial breaks) after the introduction of the conflict.

How do you get out of the habit of no disciplined exercised to some form of disciplined exercise? Anyone? I'm all out of ideas.

Wronger Than Wrong

I'm not really sure what to say about this:



Among some of the benefits of their prefilled communion cups, the website lists that the cups are 1) sanitary, 2) less messy, and 3) result in less waste. My thoughts when reading this list of "benefits" were:

1) Less sanitary than the little individual glasses that are run through the dishwasher after every Lord's Supper? Of course, I wasn't taking into account those traditions that use a communal chalice, but then wouldn't those taking part in a communion with a communal chalice loose the "community" part of their communion by switching to individual cups, prefilled or not? I guess it depends on what your priorities are in taking part in the sacrament.

2) Less messy? Obviously the creators of this haven't attempted to open the orange juice or apple sauce that often come in these little foil-lidded containers. Or maybe it's just me. I always end up with applesauce all over my knuckles when I open those things. I can't imagine that I would be in a very worshipful mood after opening my communion-on-the-go and spilling permanently staining grape juice all over myself... not to mention what that juice is supposed to represent.

3) Less waste? Sure, many churches fill more cups with juice or wine than they think they may need to be on the safe side, but that would amount to what? Maybe a cup of juice would go unused - if that? And many priests in churches that use communal chalices drink the excess juice or wine since it has been blessed and should not just be poured down the drain, anyway. But what about the foil lid and plastic cup that now have to be thrown away? I know that many churches already use little ,disposable plastic cups, and I am not too thrilled with that either. Why not just use washable, glass cups? But that aside, the prefilled cups not only have the plastic juice cup, but they now add a foil lid and a seperate wafer packet. Are they going to put trash cans near the altar in churches where the congregants go forward to recieve communion?

The whole idea of prefilled communion cups just seems so wrong. It moves the idea of the communal sharing of rememberance into the modern fast-food culture. We're the children of God, right? Why not just go all the way and add a Bible hero action figure and call it a Truly-Happy Meal? Our praise choruses already border on being glorified (pardon the pun) jingles, so all we need is a catchy slogan and viola... God's entered the fast food market.

Seeing these cups reminded me of a story I heard on NPR a couple years ago about the comfort and sense of community a listener felt every Sunday as she heard the glass communion cups clink into the pew racks after the congragation finished thier Lord's Supper. I love that sound, too. I can't imagine replacing it with the sound of tin foil being pulled off of plastic juice cups.

To quote Mammy, "It ain't fittin'. It just ain't fittin'."

Partly cloudy, chance of rain 40%

I originally posted this one year ago. I had the grand plan of posting a "day in the life" in our homeschool. I haven't attempted it since. Maybe someday, maybe not. I decided to post it today for a couple of reasons:
1. After going through our latest bout of flu, I needed to be reminded that although it seems like our schedule will never recover and we have "lost" a whole week of school, life will regain a semblance of sanity again and life's interruptions are actually wonderful learning opportunities.
2. Nan, the Writer Mom, has been having a this kind of day today, and I wanted to express my sympathy. Nan, been there-done that. Praying for you.

**********

As I was in the school room last night preparing for today, I thought that I would use today’s entry to outline a typical day in our homeschool. Little did I know what I would encounter just moments later.

11:30pm Primo comes downstairs and looks white as a sheet. "Mom, I threw up all over my bed." Get Primo in the shower and go upstairs to ask Frodo to help change her sheets. I should mention at this point that our bedrooms are on the second floor and our only bathroom is on the first floor.

11:43pm Put in a load of laundry.

11:50pm Primo is out of the shower after washing twice and vomiting numerous times. I sit with her to braid her hair (to keep it out of the "line of fire") while she leans over the toilet.

12:00am Primo and Frodo are in bed. I am cleaning the shower and disinfecting everything.

12:30am Finally go to bed.

1:35am Secondo comes in our room. "Mom, I’m going to throw up." I don’t have a bucket and I am still very foggy, so I ask if she can make it to the bathroom. She says yes, so we start downstairs. We make it halfway down. Frodo wakes up and sits with her on the stairs while I gingerly find a safe passage down then clean off the steps.

1:40am Secondo sits in a little chair in front of the toilet while I disinfect the steps. She is amazingly still clean. I braid her hair. Frodo checks on Primo then goes back to bed.

1:55am I begin the search for a second bucket and set up a spot for Secondo on Primo’s bed. It has a plastic cover on the mattress. Put in another load of laundry.

2:15am Secondo finally feels well enough to go back to bed. I disinfect then also go to bed.

2:17am These lyrics begin going through my head as I attempt to sleep (and try to prepare myself for the next "episode"):

I face the dawn with sleepless eyes
No I can't go on
When clouds are pushin' down on me, boy
I can't stop, I can't stop the rain
From fallin

(I have no idea who the artist is... or the last time I heard this song)

3:00am Primo calls from the other room, "Quarto just threw up in his crib!" (I should mention at this point that our children all share one large room a la the nursery in Peter Pan.) Frodo follows me in and asks, "What do you want... kid or crib?" I pick crib. We strip Quarto down to his diaper and Frodo takes him to the tub. I strip the sheets.

3:10am Put in another load of laundry. Change the sheet and disinfect the crib.

3:23am Check on Frodo and Quatro. Frodo tells me to go to bed; he’s going to stay up a bit. I go happily.

4:17am Hear Primo in other room getting sick then going downstairs. "Do you need anything?" "No, just cleaning out my bucket and going to the bathroom."

4:18am I toss and turn for who knows how long.

5:05am Terzo wakes up yelling, "Mom! I’m bleeding!" I go running in to find he has a pretty good bloody nose. We determine that it is not as bad as it looks and that only his pjs and pillow are dirty.

5:10am Tell Quarto to go back to sleep then take Terzo downstairs to finish cleaning up.

5:13am Frodo comes downstairs asking if he should call in sick to work. I tell him it is up to him. I can handle the kids if the girls stay in bed all day, but that if it starts raining frogs, he needs to come home. He agrees and goes back to bed.

5:20am Get Terzo back in his bed and head to my own. Primo sees me and asks sweetly, "I’m sorry to bother you, Mom, but since you’re already up could you wash out my bucket? I threw up a few more times, but I didn’t want to make you go up and down the stairs any more." I happily take the bucket (yes, happily... surprised even myself) and clean it out.

5:24am Collapse into bed.

6:29am Frodo’s alarm goes off.

6:38am Frodo’s alarm goes off.

6:47am Frodo’s alarm goes off.

6:52am Terzo comes in saying it is morning and asks if he can go downstairs. I tell him to go play a video game and that Frodo will put a movie on for him when he comes downstairs. Frodo grumbles something. Terzo leaves, but on his way out asks if I can make biscuits and gravy for breakfast. I suppress laughter (surprise? anger?) and tell him that we will have cereal.

6:56am Frodo’s alarm goes off. Frodo gets up and tries to remember where he left his clothes out.

7:12am Terzo comes upstairs and asks when I am getting up. I tell him he needs to be patient today since everyone is sick and I didn’t get much sleep. He says it is hard to be patient but he’ll try. I assume he goes downstairs and doze off.

7:14am Open my eyes to see Terzo pacing back and forth next to my bed. I ask him to sit and wait for my alarm to go off. He grabs a sewing toy from the floor and perches himself on my sewing box. He asks (optimistically and sheepishly), "Are you sure we can’t have biscuits for breakfast?" I assure him we can’t and go to sleep.

8:30am My alarm goes off. Terzo immediately announces that it is 41.8 degrees outside. I glance at the thermometer in front of the window and confirm that this is the case... and that it is not raining frogs.

**********
The next day's post was as follows:

Today's Lessons:

1. Differences between antibacterial soap and Germ-X

2. How to disinfect a surface.

3. How germs are spread.

4. Why you should eat bland food when you are nauseous.

5. How to improvise when you run out of sheets.

6. How to do the laundry.

7. How to serve others.

8. How to be patient.

9. God is in control... even when it isn't raining frogs.

**********

My utmost respect and comrade re to the person(s) who knows where I got the title for this post from. Leave your guess in the comments section. I will post the answer there later.

Delicious Cough Suppressant

I wish I had heard about this sooner. I could have used it. Apparently, dark chocolate is an effective cough suppressant. In a study published in The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal in February 2005, theobromine, a component of chocolate, was 33% more effective at controlling coughs than codeine and had no side effects. Two ounces of dark chocolate (which has a much higher concentration of theobromine than milk chocolate) provides the necessary amount of theobromine for 4 hours of relief in adults. One once of dark chocolate would be sufficient for children.

I am definitely trying this the next time the cold-from-Satan-himself virus attempts to rear its ugly head. At best, it works. At worst, I'm mother of the year... and get to eat chocolate. ("No, no. I have to eat it. Doctor's orders.") Does life get any sweeter than that?

Well, shucks!

Not only did I lose an excuse, but I've actually gained a reason to do housework.

Housework Cuts Breast Cancer Risk