Exercise

I started working out last week. I am doing the Couch to 5K program, using a great app on my iPhone to tell me when to walk and when to run (slow jog!) while I listen to music or talk on the phone.

Now the hard part with this is figuring out how to do it with 4 children who are home all day and a husband who is home and awake only 1-2 hours most days. Cue: Phil & Teds Stroller!

So I've got the baby in the carseat on the front of the stroller with Steven Joseph in the jump seat. The girls ride their own bikes. We can do this to get to the park, and then the kids play on the playground while I jog/walk around the tennis and basketball courts. So far, so good. We've only had a few instances of toddler tantruming because he wanted to ride his bike, or infant fussing because he didn't want to be in the stroller.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up for the 9 weeks of the program! Today we drove to the park, which was much easier. I'm hoping to get back to a Zumba class here and there too.

And really, what I do all day is both mental and physical exercise, right? Here are the kids in the car after Sunday Mass. Today I took them on a bunch of errands and remembered again why I should do my shopping at night time. Only problem is I'm too tired to do my shopping at night time!


And this little 7 week-old has been keeping me on my toes too! He's gotten a bit fussy and has been struggling with a sniffly nose the past week and worrying his mama. Hoping he'll be feeling better very soon.


To note a couple other things going on in our little family:

Mary Clare has started to LOVE reading! I am so, so happy that it's finally clicked for her. She goes to bed with a small stack of books each night. A world of knowledge has opened up before her and today was the first time I'd seen her so happy to pick out books at the library! She whizzed through Amelia Bedelia in the car! I'm so proud of my Mairsie Clairsie.

We are working on the virtue of RESPECT for awhile. Both respecting people and respecting things. I've realized just how trashed our house can become (well, I realized that a long time ago) and how often the kids just don't take care of stuff, especially the stuff that isn't theirs! I'm also hoping to do a big toy purge in the next few weeks to prepare for Christmas. So hopefully we'll be living in a much less cluttered and better taken care-of home in the new year! And one with a cute new mama room that I can't wait to put together! Fun times!