Friday, March 6, 2015

7 QT: American Girl Giveaway, shuttle buses, and T-25


Linking up again today!



1.

I know, I know.  I've been a bad blogger.  I don't really have an excuse, other than, well, I've been busy!  Yes, I know, that evil "busy" word.    I don't know how I feel about that article, but I can see where it's coming from.  When being busy is having a negative effect on your health, yes, I could agree that it isn't a good thing and needs to be stopped......but I don't think the problem can be boiled down to just being "busy".  It's more than that.  It's about expectations and your own desires and needs and putting yourself and your health last.   It's more about what you're busy WITH than the fact that you're BUSY.   But I digress.....


2.


But, yeah, we've been busy.   It's the height of gymnastics season, so we were in Boston last weekend for a big gym meet, and the state meet is next weekend.   This part of the year is our "all gymnastics all of the time" part of the year - the boys live and breathe gymnastics.   If we're not actually AT the gym, they're practicing things at home, talking about their routines, comparing previous scores, and analyzing the competition.   Seriously, I'm pretty sure Mr Graham can't think about anything other than gymnastics.....

My role as a gym mom is to make sure that they're eating well, resting well, and staying away from as many germs as possible, so that we don't have to scratch any meets due to sickness.   With Mr Theo in preschool right now, this has been my sole focus.   Honestly, I've been living and breathing healthy living right now and nothing else.    What we eat, how much we eat, extremely stringent bedtimes and naptimes, and limiting our interactions out in the "real world."    It's not much, but it's what I can do as Mom.   I'm not 100% on board with the whole essential oils thing yet, so my big focus is making sure we're eating well and resting.




3.



Along those lines, naptime has been guarded like crazy.   We're home for naps every day, and the babies are definitely protected during that time.    I would not be exaggerating if I said that our life is based around sleep schedules right now.  Because it is.   Very much so.

But while the babies sleep......Mommy gets to do fun things like this:




I may or may not have had the supplies for months before actually DOING it.   I'm happy with it - I wanted something to put current candid shots up on that was easy to change out AND easy to add things like note cards and notes from the kids.  Bonus - prayer cards fit nicely on it, too!



4.


Talk to me about big cars, y'all.   We're not ready to take the plunge into a big ol' van yet (our cars are hanging in there quite well), but we're starting to look at what's out there.   While we were in Boston last weekend, we test drove this one and this one.  Yep, you read that right.  I drove TWO big ol' vans in BOSTON.   BOSTON, y'all.   Yes, I needed a drink afterward.  It's hard to find these two vans in Maine, so we wanted to check them out in a big city (where there are plenty), so I swallowed my fear and held on tight (literally) and test drove a car in Boston.  

But, anywho, I liked both of them and wanted to know what your thoughts were.   Do you have a big ol' car that you love?  We're interested more in seats than cargo (so no Suburbans or anything like that), so we can cart friends around with us, too.  We need 7 seats just with our family, so keep that in mind.   



5.



Hmmmm....what else?  I'm not following my QT format, sorry.    I'm trying to sneak this in while Baby Girl is still sleeping (everyone else is making coffee filter flowers, in hopes that spring is right around the corner!). 

I did just read a book for fun - I actually splurged on this book after listening to an interview with the authour.  It sounded really good:  a woman's experience with the transition into motherhood after the birth of her first child, along with a struggle with PPD.  Obviously, a lot of that would resonate with someone like me.   

I hate to say it, but I was disappointed.   The story was good, the themes were good (but could have been developed SO much more), but the language was absolutely ATROCIOUS.   I'm not a perfectly clean speaker myself - I've come a long way since college with cleaning up my language - but holy smokes, this was horrible.  I honestly couldn't get past the language to make it into the themes.   It totally detracted from the story to have every other word be some sort of curse.    I'm sad that I paid full price for it, to be honest.   Consider this your fair warning.




6.


T-25 update!   I'm trying hard to work out more days during the week than not.  It's not perfect (he wants you to do 7 workouts a week), but it's better than what I was doing before.   Since Valentine's Day, I've also been tracking my food just to get an idea of what I was doing.  I'm still following Dr Fuhrman's diet plan loosely, but I was curious just how much snacking I was doing mindlessly.   Since then, I've lost 6 lbs, without changing anything except logging my food.   I guess I was eating more mindlessly than I realized!!   

I'm seeing my shape changing more than anything else with T-25.  Obviously, I'm losing weight (see above) too, but things are fitting differently more than anything else.  I definitely feel like I'm getting stronger - when we first started, I could barely hold some of the positions (Hello, plank walk.  I'm talking to you!).  While I still can't hold them as long as he does.....I'm getting there.  I'm seeing a dramatic improvement from just a few weeks ago.   

I'm also really motivated to keep it up - I really, really like these workouts.   They're hard, but they're quick, which makes them easier to work into daily life.   I'm having to compromise and not do them as much as I originally wanted (every day), in order to do things like sleep and homeschool and live in a clean house, but it's soooooo much easier to work into the day than going to a gym or even running on our treadmill.   I would definitely recommend them!




7.

Speaking of recommending things.....have you heard about my friend Kara?  She's a dear friend from our time in Arizona, and we watched her bring home a little guy named Maks just over a year ago.   She and her husband Kyle are heading back to Maks' home country to adopt a second little boy, Truman.   They're trying to raise the funds for the adoption as quickly as possible - it's a very fast moving country! - and are currently hosting an American Girl Doll giveaway.  Go check it out and if you can, support this amazing family in their journey to bring home baby Truman.     Bringing Theo home was one of the hardest, yet most rewarding, things we've ever done, and we could not have come close to actually doing it if it weren't for the support of our extended community (financially, spiritually, and emotionally).   If you can, please help us surround them in the same support that you showed us.   







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