Menu Plan Monday

Monday- spaghetti
Tuesday- caramelized pork loin and twice baked sweet potatoes
Wednesday- chicken spicy Hawaiian burgers with corn
Thursday- potluck pepperoni bread and broccoli
Friday- homemade pizza
Saturday:
Breakfast- Sausage and Egg Breakfast Balls
Lunch- grilled cheese
Dinner- baked popcorn chicken and grilled zucchini and squash
Sunday:
Breakfast- breakfast bake
Lunch- leftovers
Dinner- walking tacos

See more Menu's at OrgJunke.

Running Apps

In 2011 my sister ran her first half marathon.  As a girl with allergy and asthma all her life, I pretty much thought she was going to die.  I knew she worked out, but non of us girls were athletic in high school.  So when she actually survived and got a medal and all, I thought why not me?  So in February 2012 I signed up for the same half marathon, and I completed my half marathon in October of 2012.  I have never been much of a runner, and almost passed out doing laps for volleyball in eighth grade.  I kept asking my sister how she trained, but she told me she runs until she can't, then walks, and runs again when she is able.  That doesn't work for me.  I feel I will either sell myself short or push myself too far.  I decided that my iPhone needed to help me.

I tried a few programs, mostly free, to help me get off the couch and become a runner.

You can get a version of 5k Runner for free that lets you do 4 workouts equaling one week and a day of the running program.  I did really like how this was set up, however I'm doing a half marathon, not a 5k.  If I was just doing a 5k I probably would have bought the full program of this application.  One thing I didn't like: I thought the prompts were a little too quiet.

MapMyRun allows you to go on your computer and map where you will run, so you will know ahead of time how far your run will be.  This can then be sent to your phone for you to follow.  You can also just go out and run and it will track by GPS, where you went and how far, and how long it took.  I didn't really get into this application as much because I liked to plan my workout instead of my route.  Sometimes I would turn this app and my RunKeeper app at the same time, because it does have some contest type things from Shape you can enter online.  You can also log in your food with this one, how much water you have had and your weight.  Also if you log your run, it will subtract the amount of calories you burned from the amount of calories you ate that day.

Half Marathon Training was $1.99. I found it harder to navigate  I like the run/walk interval training for me because I still need to build my lung capacity.

RunKeeper is the app that I keep using. It is easy to set the different training sessions I want. You can set it as a number of repetitions, plus it syncs to the website. You can share on Facebook or with selected friends. I can view all my past activities (times I ran) and it does track calories when I run outside.  While running it will make this beep noise when to change to the next interval, and you can automatically add a 5 minute warm up and cool down. While running they show the time counting up for the total time and counting down on each interval, which is what helps to push me through when I don't want to run anymore. You can add a playlist to run to as well but I usually just play iheartradio or Pandora. I can still hear the beep for interval change through the music which was too faint on some running apps.

This year I don't plan on running and half marathons but I would like to run a full one sometime. This year I have done the 5k Glow Run and I have the Warrior Dash later this summer which is also another 5k. I hope to find another race to run since I ran 3 races last year.

Tame It Tuesday

I saw a Pin about folding your shirts vertically so you can see what is on the front plus adds more room. It took me about 15 minutes to organize this drawer while putting away laundry. Before I had the shirts folded like the stores do, but I would have to rummage under them to find the one I wanted. It also filled this drawer to maximum capacity  Now I have a little bit of room to work with and I might be able to get rid of some additional storage. I looked for the original Pin, but I didn't find any tutorials just pictures. Just search shirt folding.

I also moved the kids books from the basement to the living room. I have a few books I am going to give my best friends daughter, and some I'm selling to Half Price Books. I also am taking out the holiday books to store in a tub by themselves. The piles on the floor here are what my kids had in their rooms. The two on the left are what they took out of their rooms. I told my son to look on top of his dresser, and on his night stand. The two piles are the left are what I took out of his room after he was done. I think my project this weekend will be helping my son organize his room. On the list is:

getting rid of too small clothes

sorting out the boxes of toys

cleaning bed linens

a good sweeping and washing of the floors

Menu Plan Monday

Found on Pinterest

Happy Mother's Day to all: those who are moms, were moms, want to be moms, and all women in between. Teachers get a week, January is National Mentoring Month, but Mothers only have this day. I hope yours was enjoyable.


Sunday- MOTHER'S DAY
Breakfast- toast, eggs, and bacon made by my daughter and husband
Lunch- my husband bought Subway for all
Dinner-leftovers: spaghetti, and  chicken tacos
Monday- salad with lots of veggies, with bacon
Tuesday- cheesy beef and broccoli
Wednesday- (baseball practice) hotdogs and fries with baked beans
Thursday- pork chops grilled, with sweet potatoes and corn
Friday- (Field Day) baked fried chicken, biscuits, and coleslaw
Saturday:
Breakfast- french toast
Lunch- mac and cheese
Dinner- margarita chicken, guacamole, with chips and salsa
Sunday:

Breakfast- muffins
Lunch- ranch style barbecue bacon burgers, stawberries, and broccoli salad
Dinner- (baseball game) leftovers

See more Menu's at OrgJunke.

Sorting Snacks

I'm going to the zoo today with my son and his class. We have been asked to chaperon a group of kids. As chaperons we will need to bring:

Snacks for our group

Band aids

Hand cleaning wipes

Antibacterial gel

A cell phone

Facial tissues

I bought a box of Cheese Nips and some snack bags. The box said 10 servings so I divided them into 10 snack bags. Now I will have enough snacks for ten kids or I can use any extras for the kids lunch. I then took the liner out of the box and put the snack bags back in the box. This will help keep them from being crushed during transport and easier to carry.

I also found that Walmart has two sections for wipes: one in the baby section for diaper wipes an then a baby section in the shampoo/personal care aisle. I was able to find a cheap brand for $.97/40 wipes in the later Aisle to keep cost down . Everything else I had on hand!

Will This Workout, Workout?

So according to my height and weight, I am overweight.
In the Spring of 2012 I started to train for a Half Marathon after losing my very active job in February. I was able to easily run the Half Marathon with all the adrenaline and side line motivation, but a few weeks later I found myself at the doctors office with high blood pressure. I weighed 140 lb, and at 5', this is 12 lb overweight. My doctors never said anything about losing weight but I was shocked at the amount since it had been awhile since I stepped on the scale. I was always the bigger girl out of the three of us, but I did lose 15 lb in my first year in college. Before I got pregnant with my daughter I was 110 lb and wore a size 4. It has always been my goal to get back to this state after two kids, but I was 20 at the time.
By changing my diet to eating less wheat, and trying to follow the Paleo/Primal diet while exercising I was able to shed 10 lb. I am now working to be at least 125, since weight fluctuates by a few pounds everyday. At work we have been having a lot of motivational things to sign up for and keep on track. Currently I am doing the ShapeUp Challenge and keeping track of my steps, workout time, and weight. I had no idea how few steps I take in a day considering I have a desk job.
Sunday I started the Shrink a Size in 14 Days plan by Prevention. I measured by biceps, thighs, waist and hips to compare again at the end. I also used the Paint Program to make a chart so all the exercises are on one sheet of paper with the treadmill instructions and printed them to look at while working out. This makes it easier than looking at the computer because I could get sucked in to doing other things. So far it has been a challenge. My legs were sore after day two. It is a walking workout,but its speed walking. With my short legs it is intense. In two weeks I will post how many inches I lost and how much I weigh. I know there is no miracle cure and it what works for one person won't work for another, but I know surfing the internet doesn't make me sweat.

Teacher Gifts

So I know Teacher appreciation started yesterday so I should have posted this before then, but I just didn't get around to it with 4-H and play dates and working.

For this gift I was able to buy a box of 5 Uber Larabars. They were $5 at Target and I used my shopkick Target gift card so these were free. I also bought a $5 Starbucks Gift card. I started by placing a piece of lined school paper over the box and tracing the uber word, and then cutting the paper to the size of the box. Next I cut a hole for the Starbucks symbol, and then cut a blue piece of construction paper to fit the box as well. I cut the hole for uber again on the blue paper and then glued it to the box with a glue stick. Next I glued the school paper's top half to the box lining up the hole for the work uber, and then I lifted up the bottom to position the gift card and used tape on each side to hold the card in place. It says: "Dear Mr. B, Thanks for being an uber fantastic teacher and making us stars! Love Students and Parents of "insert room #.""

I also curled some of the left over school paper with some white curling ribbon for a bow.

 Here is the tutorial for the boxes I made with 12" x 12" scrapbook paper:

Homemade Gift Boxes

Here is the tutorial for this bow:

How To Make a Gift Box Bow

I cut 6" x 6" squares from scrapbook paper and put a 4.5" x 4.5' blue paper with "Thank You!" on it and sandwiched them together with a skew in between for a display for the teachers lounge. I will put the gift bow on bags of mixed snacks I bought at Hy-Vee.