Back to school Backpack Savvy

Just a quick message about helping keep your children's backs in good shape.  I'm sure many have heard that kids carry too much in their backpacks.  They are simply too heavy.  But did you know that your child shouldn't carry more weight than their age.  That means if you have a 6 year old, he or she should  only carry at max 6 pounds.  Try to limit the stuff your kids carry to save their backs.  They may never thank you personally but you can feel good that you are helping them be healthier.
I'm not promoting the www.necksolutions.com backpacks or anything because I've never tried them but when I did a search for a picture of kids with backpacks their site popped up & they have some good tips on how to load a backpack so that there is less stress on one's back.

Did YOU feel it?

Nope I didn't feel the 5.9 earthquake but thanks to the many friends I have all over the place I saw on FB that some in Canada felt it. Some in VA felt it as well as some family in the Carolinas.  My thoughts...Crazy!  And far too close to home for my taste.

I think it is about time for me to get an emergency kit prepared that sits on a shelf in the basement.  That means I must get moving in decluttering the junk from down there.  Way too much stuff to keep and we need to have something in place just in case we get some super terrible storm so out the door the junk goes.  I believe that the Red Cross has an emergency kit checklist.  And since I love and live by checklists I will be using it to prepare our kit.  Probably should set a goal date to have it all ready by. Maybe within 3 weeks. That should be plenty of time that I can get the space cleared out & 2 of 3 kids will be back to school.  That's my plan.  Check out the Red Cross website. They have great info to help prepare people for emergencies.

http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.d8aaecf214c576bf971e4cfe43181aa0/?vgnextoid=72c51a53f1c37110VgnVCM1000003481a10aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Delicious Trickery

I had a rough night.  Had a hard time falling asleep. I tossed & turned & instead of waking my wonderful husband up or keeping him from getting the rest he deserved, I tossed & turned on the couch only to be awoken early this morning by my 4 year old who was having trouble breathing. Smack forehead. I totally forgot to give her Claritin last night before bed.  She's got breathing issues & being outside all day yesterday probably triggered something.  Needless to say I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, need some energy & was hungry & wanting a tasty & quick breakfast.

I took out the blender. Got out the skim milk & added 1 C to the blender. That's 90 cals. Next I scooped 1 scoop of chocolate Shakeology into the milk, that's 150 calories).  Turned it on low & blended it up.  I then took out the almond butter & added about 1 Tbsp (maybe a little more, I didn't measure) so we'll count that as 120 cals. Next I added about 5 ice cubes & blended it until it was a thick chocolaty smooth malt.  That's only 360 calories for a delicious malt that is packed with tons and I mean TONS of vitamins & minerals that come from about 70  whole super foods with no added chemicals.  How did I get so blessed to find something so good for me, so tasty, & not packed with tons of calories?  If you would like to try some Shakeology, let me know.  I have sample packets in Greenberry & Chocolate. In a few months I should also have Tropical.

Great start to my day.  I wish you all a Fabulous Friday too!

Fun Fitness for Kids

This morning I did my 55 EZ Turbo Fire Class and when I was nearly done, Morgan came to the basement to find me.  She started to try the moves I was doing & then quit.  I think she got frustrated & gave up. After I was finished, I asked if she wanted to exercise too & she said YES! So I popped in the Shaun T's Fit Kids Club DVD & exercised for about 25 minutes with my 4 year old.

It is recommended for ages 7 and up but I have always taken those to be "suggestions" when it comes to things for my kiddos.  Morgan was slightly uncoordinated when it came to the moves but was starting to get the hang of it as the video neared the end.  I think she got tired when there was only about 3 minutes & was about to quit when I told her she just had 3 minutes left.  She kicked it into high gear & finished it strong. The video has 2 workouts on it.  We've only tried the first one so far.  I must say that it does work the abs & has fairly simple moves.  Shaun breaks it down so it is simple & fun & most kids & even adults won't realize how much of a workout they are getting because it truly is enjoyable.  We'll be doing more of that in our house, especially when the older 2 get home.

Oh, and I found out a cool thing that I'm totally excited about.  Since I'm a Beachbody coach, I can do a fundraiser with the school & for each Shaun T's Fit Kids Club DVD that is purchased, 40% goes to the school for the fundraiser.  If you are interested in this for your school or know someone that is, please contact me.  What a great way to help our kids & even parents get moving, get fit, & end the trend!

That was close

Yesterday the family & I went down to Green Bay to celebrate my niece's 5th birthday.  We lacked sleep due to our 4 year old waking several times so my husband asked me if I wanted to drive down or back.  I chose to drive down.  I think about 30-45 minutes into the drive Adam was playing with the kids & his cell phone.  They were doing something like Talking Tom.  So I saw this dark color of something off to the right in the ditch.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm seeing things so I kept looking back to see what it was.  Then it started to move so I hit the brakes a little.  And then it didn't just start to move....it barreled itself and all 200-300 pounds across the road just barely in front of our car.  I was stepping pretty hard onto the brake & praying that it would be okay.  Whew...that was REALLY close.  We were blessed not to have a teenage black bear smash the front of our car & crash in the hood & windshield.  Instead, we continued on our journey to celebrate a sweet little girl who is precious to us.  WOW!  I couldn't believe I nearly hit a black bear.  I haven't seen one of those in the wild since about 1994.  I know they are around all over in the U.P. But it isn't often that I've seen one.  Glad this one survived its journey to the other side of M-35.

Dear Cute & probably not so cuddly Black Bear,
Next time you decide to take a walk across the road to see the view of Lake Michigan better.  Please don't do it so close to the front of my car.  Or at least give us warning so we can make sure not to hit your beautiful self & have time & sense to hit record on the phone that was being played with in the back seat.  Thanks.  It would be much appreciated! :)

A day to Pack & time to spread one's wings...just a little

Ahhhh...my kids are growing up and I'm not sure I'm ready for this.  Gabriella is 9 and will be heading to Bible Camp on Monday.  She really wanted me to go with and kept saying she wouldn't go without me but oh how things change.  I knew that it was in her best interest for me not to attend no matter if they needed me to be a counselor or not.  Well, God worked it all out.  We have 2 wonderful female counselors going & 1 wonderful male counselor so its all set.  There will be 5 girls & 5 boys going from our church.  Being in the position I am (my husband & I are now the children church pastors),  I knew it made sense for me to go but I think it is time for Gabby to spread her wings a little & see that she can do things that are fun & not scary without her mom with her.  Over the past several years I have had to push  Gabby to do things she says she doesn't want to do because of her shyness.  Thankful she usually thanks me for 'making' her do something.  For years I have had to put her on the bus (I'm talking actually carry her onto the bus some days), have the bus driver hold her backpack so she couldn't follow me off the bus as I quickly jumped off & then he quickly closed the doors.  Last year was the first time she didn't really do that very much.  It did help that her little brother rode the bus with her. She finds comfort in being with family which is wonderful to love one's family so much but I also see that she needs to do things on her own to grow as a person & Adam & I try our best to make that possible.

So today we pack Gabby up for a week of Bible Camp. And we pack Braly, our 7 year old son up to go visit Grammy & Papa. He plans to exercise with Grammy & go fishing with Papa.  Should be a fun week for him.  I was impressed that Braly knows the difference between some fish.  Guess my dad is doing a good job teaching him. :)  That's cool.  For the last few summers I have packed Braly up (well one year he packed himself because he was ready to go) & he goes to stay for a few days without any girls.  Grammy is there so I don't know how she doesn't count with the 'girl' thing but it works.  And when he comes back, he's a delight of a boy to have around.  I think he just gets overwhelmed with having to play with his 2 sisters ALL summer long.  So my 2 oldest babies are growing up enough to go off without me more & that is a welcomed & scary thing.  Well, maybe scary isn't the word I would use but rather bittersweet.  It is what my husband & I are working towards. Raising our children with a strong base in our faith, teaching them right from wrong, & how to make wise decisions so that one day, altogether too soon, they will be on their own.  I know I'll be okay for 5 days without them & I know they will be okay for 5 days without me.  Just makes me sad & proud to be to this point in their lives already. *sniff *sniff*  Sometime next week I may even shed some tears as I miss my babies.  I take no shame in those tears either. They will be well deserved. Our children are a delight & joy from God to us.

When WINGS are grown, birds and children FLY away. ~Chinese Proverb

Big, BIG news!!!

I signed my 1st coach this afternoon & I'm so excited.  I know she's going to be awesome because she's my older sister, Rachel Jaquish!  It's gonna be fun & interesting to work with her on my team. Yay for sisters!!!  Woohoo. Can't wait to see the success you have Rach.  I love you!

Not so Typical Monday

Last  night I made more of an effort to get to bed at a decent time.  Before 11pm is good for me most days.  Last night I was successful with this goal.  This morning I woke up just before my alarm went off at about 6:30am & was trying to hard to get out of bed.  I have been sleep deprived over the last few days because I wanted to spend as much time with our family that came to visit as possible & was trying to get some Vista print stuff ordered the other night.  Well, it caught up to me.  I'm not as young as I look is all I have to say.

I headed downstairs to my new workout area to put my video in & do some stretching.  My body really needed it.  Only I found out that I had a problem.  No remote for the DVD player.  Now normally that wouldn't be a problem right?  One can just push buttons on the front & make it work.  Well, not in this case.  It's a DVD & VCR player & since I had stored the machine in the basement for months b/c we had been using our PS3 for a DVD player upstairs we weren't using it & the remote was misplaced.  I searched  high & low for it.  NOTHING. I even had my husband looking for it before work.  So I switched to a different DVD play that was in the basement to get 5 mins into the workout & find out why we put it in the basement in the first place. It was a glitchy & annoying.  I know it wasn't my dvd because I had already played the first workout on the other machine when I was trying to get it to the 2nd workout.  I was hoping it would jump to it after playing through the 1st one.  NOPE.  So finally my 7 year old son woke up & came downstairs.  I said something to him & wouldn't you know he ran & brought me the remote right away.  It was in the remote control holder the whole time & in my state of forgetfulness that I can sometimes be in, I had forgotten it was there.  Needless to say by the time this whole fiasco was done, I had NO time to do my stretching workout with my new yoga socks & in my new space so I shut everything off, put the laundry away & got ready for the day with every intention to head back to the basement later today to get my stretching in.  I will not miss it today. My body is calling for a nice long stretch & I plan to listen.  After all, I keep telling my kids to listen to their body so I need to lead by example & listen to mine.

To add to my non-typical Monday, I had a friend come over & watch my kids so I could head to the church building & get a few things done.  My husband & I recently took over the Children ministry after our youth pastor moved to a new church.  And I am currently camp coordinator so I have had to make sure that everything is ready for camp next week.  I ran a few errands & got back just as my daughter's friend was being dropped off for a playdate for a few hours this afternoon.  It didn't take long for the kids to start running all over in the house.  I had to laugh because it wasn't like we added a ton more kids & I knew it was from excitement.  After about 3 mins of that, I put an end to the running before someone got hurt.  So now I am getting some work done at my desk.  Clearing off my desk & organizing things so I can be more productive this week with my family as well as my ministry job & my Beachbody business.