Finster Finds

Weekly Weigh-in. Despite my worrying, I was delightfully down this week. I was down 1.2 lbs from my starting weight and 2.4 lbs down from last week so I will thank the time on the treadmill yesterday as well as watching what and when I ate the last couple of days. I also suggested to my Mom that we make some weekly goals so that we have more purpose to get us to the next week. My 3 goals are to work-out significantly (1 hour or longer) for at least 4 days this week, stay within 1300-2000 calories per day, and to not eat after 8 p.m. Hopefully those three goals will serve me well. Went back to class today. It was fun. Lovely Gil let me borrow his notes to type out at home and bring back Friday. He trusts me - that's nice. I enjoyed the lecture and I like the kids I sit with. They are friendly and interested. I worked on masks for Much Ado last night. I can only do the basic masks for now until I get fabric samples and costume designs, but that is a lot of groundwork. I...

Lots of things are starting for me this month. It's September so school started for both myself and the kids. That's always shift in the rhythm of the house. I am enjoying my class but have been disappointed by the poor health of myself and the boys. I can go to class when I am sick, but not when the kids are home and I have missed 2 Mondays now, one for Gibson and one for Oliver. I hope I am not left behind. Luckily I have a pal who will share his notes with me. Mom and I started a weekly weigh-in . I have had little progress. Well, the first week I was down 1.2 lbs, the next week I was up 2.2 lbs. I had illness and a lot of eating out to blame. I am trying to get a handle on this. I know that currently my life does not support me being thin, but I can try to get healthy, or at least healthier. I got on the treadmill today and stuck it out until I finished my full hour. I also did reps of push-ups and squats. It was not fun. It was not fun, because I have let th...

Yesterday was busy. It was the end and the result of a very busy week. I know that the stress of the week was amped up by my being sick and the other hiccups that happened would have been easier to manage if I had not been ill, but I am glad that yesterday is now done and that all went well. We had the Open House from about 11-4 in conjunction with the Farmer's Market. It was steady and we gained a few members and I think quite a few potential audience members. Everyone seemed to enjoy getting a look backstage. I was so thankful for the individuals who manned the show tables. They did a good job representing Walterdale as a whole as well as their individual projects. We had fun and it felt like a Season Team. I was a little frustrated that I was getting requests for 'what do we do?' from some people at the very last minute because I had no time to respond. I think it was most frustrating because I sent that information out very early on and it just wasn't passed...

I found this article from a Twitter feed and it really sums up a lot of what I believe about full day Kindergarten. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/08/marni-soupcoff-all-day-kindergarten-is-a-waste-of-money/ It's a little harsher in tone than I would be, but it does put it's finger on why I am not in favour of full day Kindergarten across the board, at least not for the reasons that people keep putting forward. It can be good for some kids, but not for all. I think that for both my children it wouldn't have been a benefit. Oliver had a tough enough time with full day Grade One (it took him at least 3 months to adjust). Gibson flourished without the extra time and many of his less positive social behaviours developed when he went to school (the sass factor went way up when he started interacting with other kids so much). For some kids the enrichment happens at home, not out of it. There are exceptions - lower income families and families with lower levels of ...

I know. It's not January, but September always feels like the start of a new year to me. All those years of school, both as a student and then as a teacher and now as a mother of school children, have created a feeling of 'go' in September. So I had my first class today (Theatre History) and the boys started school last Wednesday. Scholastically we seem to all be on the right track. The boys are settling in alright and I have a few 'friends' in my class (some from the first year Drama classes, and some from Walterdale). It's all good there. I have also figured out a bus route that I will take on some days. It should take 45 minutes which is twice the time of driving, but I can read on the bus. I wish the LRT were more accessible. Sigh. I started watching the calories last week and the types of food I was eating and then we went away on the weekend and I regressed, but I am back to the calorie/food watching. I am frustrated by this whole process but know i...

The kids went back to school on Wednesday. The first day was pretty busy as I had some running around to do during the day with Mark's court thing and getting photocopies made for the callbacks for Much Ado . Thursday was also a write off because I was so tired from being out so late after the call backs for the deliberations. I slept quite late on Thursday after making the lunches and packing the backpacks. Today I finally 'used' my day without kids home. I did a little organizing and finally cleaned my kitchen floor. It has needed a good wash for a couple of weeks and other than sweeping and spot cleaning, I haven't had time to really clean it. Of course, that meant that Gibson would spill a full glass on it at supper time, but it was only water so that was lucky. I found a variety of fruit that needed to be thrown out and did so. I also did some running around errands in the morning. It was a good start to the school year. I am anxious to see how my time is g...