Toddler Cardio & Because I'm Dedicated

And because I don't want to get another day behind. In the past, when I've started slipping on a challenge, I usually give up. I guess my reasoning is that if I have failed a little bit, I might as well fail completely and truly earn that guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Not so this time. Not so.

I am determinedly and doggedly continuing on.

So, in order to truly make this a useful and inspiring post, I am going to teach you the secret to my daily workout routine.
 

original image courtesy of www.cleancuisineandmore.com

Toddler Cardio Workout Routine:

Step 1 - Announce that you are going "bye-bye".

Step 2 - Chase toddler around with two shirts on hangers. Let him pick his favorite, which he then pulls off the hanger. Bend over to pick up the shirt every time he drops it on the floor. Repeat 3 times.

Step 3 - Chase toddler down the stairs. Pick up the shirt again; hold squirming toddler in one arm while using the other to put the shirt on him.

Step 4 - Walk back upstairs. Look through all the drawers for a correctly sized pair of pants. No, not those. Those are too small. You should really put those in a "too small" box but instead you put them back in the drawer. Not those either. Those are too big. Really need to sort those clothes, eh?

Step 5 - Search the top floor of your house looking for your toddler. Walk briskly down the stairs to find your toddler standing on his stool at the kitchen sink, helping you wash dishes. Dig through the dirty laundry for a towel to clean up the soapy water on the floor. Change him from the now sopping wet shirt into the shirt that he didn't pick.

Step 6 - Help your toddler put on his pants. Hold the waist of the pants at both sides and bounce your toddler up and down to get the pants on correctly.

Step 7 - Tell your toddler it is time to go. Watch your toddler run outside to find his tricycle. Chase him around. When he is done and ready to really hide from you, chase him to his outside playhouse with kitchen (because he loves "coo-keen").

Step 8 - Drag him, kicking and screaming, from his cooking adventure, then hold him firmly as he flails about in your arms, vainly trying to escape the horrible fate awaiting him in the car.

Step 9 - Spend 5 minutes fighting to get the car seat straps buckled securely.

Step 10 - Realize you are really too tired to go anywhere right now. Let your toddler back out of the car and back into his playhouse.

Step 11 - Pour yourself a drink -- of water. Enjoy that post-workout buzz.

Bonus cardio: Add in a 13 pound newborn and her carseat carrier. She is hungry, has a dirty diaper, and needs to be dressed before being loaded in the carrier and toted out to the car.

Ta-da! Instant workout!!


(NO Sugar NOvember update: Saturday we had a little birthday party for my stepson. I did not plan ahead and had nothing else to eat or drink available. So I ate a *small* piece of cake, and a 100 calorie chocolate popsicle. And a sip of orange drink. Today I drank a 1/2 sweet 1/2 unsweet tea from Chicken Express. It was actually TOO SWEET but I had already paid for it and pulled away from the drive thru, so I just went with it. As with my #NaBloPoMo challenge, I will not admit total defeat due to these minor infractions! Tomorrow is a new day. A day filled with another blog post but not another helping of added sugar.)

Pick & Choose

Funny how now that I've committed myself to NaBloPoMo I am just brimming with things to talk about. Things like:

• How many times my daughter wakes up from a deep and restful sleep just because she knows I want to do dishes
• The amount of water needed to do those dishes when my toddler son is "helping" me and also cleaning/flooding the floor at the same time
• The miraculous appearance of modeling clay smeared into the rug in my son's room
• The next episode of 7th Heaven on Amazon Prime
• What color yarn to pick for my next crochet project that should take me an hour but instead will take the better part of two weeks to complete
• How to explain to my son that his Spiderman  "mittens" are really non-slip grip socks

So you see, I have lots of interesting things to talk about. I'm an interesting gal.

I mean, it takes someone really interesting to decide to make something as wild and crazy as spaghetti - complete with frozen garlic bread! - for dinner on a Monday night. Am I right?


(NO Sugar NOvember update: had some honey on my biscuits at breakfast and about 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips for a snack. Need to go to the grocery...and make a bunch of cookies for someone to get these chocolate chips out of reach! Who wants some?)

Challenge Accepted

First, kudos to you for understanding the reference in the title. If you didn't get it, shame on you for not being a How I Met Your Mother fan. Go now to Hulu or Netflix or whatever other streaming service you use and watch a couple of episodes.

It will be legen...wait for it...DARY! 

Go ahead, I'll just wait right here.

...
...
...

Awesome, wasn't it?

Now back to our originally scheduled programming - this blog post! Yay!

So. today is November 1st. I noticed in my email inbox today a missive about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which takes place every November. (Read more about NaNoWriMo here.) 

While brushing up on the rules of NaNoWriMo, I discovered NaBloPoMo!! Try saying that three times fast. Anyway, this is also National Blog Posting Month! This event is "hosted" by the lovely ladies over at BlogHer. It is a challenge to write a blog post every day for the entire month of November! 

I must admit I was partially inspired by my friend Rachel, who completed her Octoberfest of blogging. I've been wanting to dive back into blogging for a while, but my track record is not great, so I've been ignoring the urge. Now, after seeing Rachel be pretty successful with at least getting something posted more than once a week throughout the month, I think that it's time for me to try it out.

I am challenging myself to participate in NaBloPoMo 2014. So, every day this month I plan to post something. Anything. Just consistent, intentional participation in something that I hope will help me improve my time management, my dedication to completing a task, my lack of understanding how unlikely it is that my children will allow me to actually accomplish this.

And, just for funsies, my friend Krista has asked me to join her in a No-Sugar-Added November. We are (with the exception of Thanksgiving) going to refrain from eating sugar-laden foods and drinking things with sugar in them. Which means I can't drink sweet tea, put brown sugar on my oatmeal, or sneak any leftover Halloween candy!

I must be crazy!

But, crazy or not, here it begins (a day late). My NOvember. NO sugar, NO excuses for skipping a blog post, and quite possibly NO remaining sanity.

Ready, set, GO!

8 Months Later...

...and blog post #2.

Wow. I have really been working hard on this, haven't I? Seems that I have proven my husband right about my lack of follow-through.

Or have I?

Maybe I just took a well deserved break during my pregnancy. Or maybe I was too busy making amazing crafts and couldn't find time to catalog my efforts in virtual print.

Maybe I should have spent some time making up a better excuse!

Now that my DS (darling son) is nearly 6 weeks old, I am really starting to regret not spending a few extra moments recording memories about these early days, stories I can relate to my son when he is older, without having to to rely on my sometimes unreliable memory to fill in all the details.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

I have also come to realize that it is never too late to start something, even something that you have attempted multiply times with multiple failures. A little extra motivation and a smartphone can go a long way towards overcoming hurdles in my attempt to finally have a regularly updated blog.

More importantly, I don't want to miss a chance to make something my family can look back at for years to come and wonder, "What was Mom thinking???

So, expect stories. Expect pictures. Expect links to videos, other blogs, or Pinterest boards.

But don't expect any more excuses. I am all out.

-One Determined Mama