Just an update

It's been forever since I posted. Life has been busy.

We started our homeschool up again two weeks ago. This year we are doing a co-op with 3 different families. What this means is that once a week we get together and teach history, science, and art together. A different mother is in charge of the lesson each week. What this means is that every 4th week, the co-op is held at my house and I am in charge of teaching. We have a curriculum we are using for history (it's called The Story of the World and it's really interesting). The older kids are using a science book called "How things work: the physics of everyday life". The younger kids we have a theme for the month and we each choose to teach something with that theme (like this month is simple machines and I taught gears). Today was my first time teaching and it stressed me out to no end trying to think of ideas to do and an art activity and just general worry about whether or not I'd perform up to the other mothers' expectations. Chris, my husband, allowed me to let the kids use the gears and other Lego parts from his Technic sets (including four cool cars that the kids really enjoyed racing) so that part worked out well. The history book had an art project that the kids really enjoyed. Overall, I think it went well. But this is a new stress this year and hopefully I'll deal better with it now that my first one is under my belt.

I started a diet the end of July. The last time I went to the doctor I was only 3 pounds lighter than I had been when I was 9 months pregnant, so I decided I needed to do something about it. I found a free on-line calorie counter program (calorie-count.com) and filled out their profile. I've been filling out everything I eat for a month and a half and trying very hard to stay within the calorie guide lines. I also had Chris move our exercise bike upstairs and have been riding the bike for at least 100 calories 5 to 6 days a week. 3 weeks into the diet I had lost 4 pounds, which is good for me. I know that I've lost even more, since my clothes keep getting more and more lose, but I don't have a scale right now. I'm really happy about this, it's making me feel much better about how I look and just in general feel much better about myself.

Well, it's late and I need to get to bed. I will write more hopefully in the next day or two.

Danielle