Crayon roll

Crayons are wonderful, and a bare necessity to exercise little creative minds. There are a lot of crafters out there making wonderful crayon holders, wallets, aprons, you name it. Since I had purchased several packs of Bare crayons, a non-toxic plastic crayon which I've found to be very kid and mom friendly, I needed something to house exactly 30 crayons per kid. The best thing I could find was a 15 crayon role at the blog, Chocolate on my Cranium. From her pattern I increase the front and back pieces to 13 x10" and then made two pocket strips of 13x5", and instead of ties I used my handy dandy snap pliers. Voila, a 30 Bare crayon holder.
Also, instead of using fabric stabilizer, the outer shell is vinyl, which is naturally, and perhaps overly, stiff. These crayons can go out in the rain and will probably stay dry.

After I finished this I began to think I might make a few more to list on Etsy. However, even an internet sales crafter is required to register for a sales tax number here in VA. I'm thinking about it, but it will require paperwork every single month (or a $10 fine) even if I don't own a single penny to the state in sales tax. Seriously, the time sucking bureaucracy is the most discouraging part of it. Seriously, if you can, make your own!

Week 5, day 1 P90X

Well, I've made it through the first 30 days. Good thing weight loss isn't the goal, because I haven't lost any weight. I'd like to think I've gained more muscle and burned some belly fat. I have a pair of pants I'm using as a gauge of what I'd like to get into, and while I can squeeze into them, I wouldn't wear them yet, because their still too tight for public. I might have lost an inch in the waist, but what I notice is that it varies from day to day and from the beginning of the day (when I look significantly slimmer) through the progression of the day and meals. Sometimes I tape at 34, sometimes 35, and often at the end of the day 36 inches.

As long as I'm eating and drinking enough I feel so much more energetic, and I'm able to do more and more of the exercises. So I feel stronger and more flexible.

Week 3 slow down

Working out took a bit of a back seat to the increased demands of a round of colds giving our immune systems a specialized workout. An already hectically paced week full of doctors appointments, recitals, and snow, which brought a few heaven sent cancelations, resulted in a couple necessary off days. Though, I managed to squeeze in a round of Ab ripper one day. While this week has brought gains in strength and increased ability to do even more of the exercises, I can see a little less endurance on cardio movements. Since 90% of my respirations take place through my mouth these days, decreased oxygenation is a very real excuse, so I'm taking it easy as it seems prudent.  

Today I picked up where I left off and completed yoga. This workout seems very helpful, but requires so much time. I blow off the three minutes of meditation at the end so I can get back to caring for the masses in my home. I can lay around in a fetal position some other time, or relax several times a day while nursing the baby. In fact my session was interrupted for about 10 minutes to nurse the baby in dire need. That's what the pause button is for after all. And any how, nursing a baby a workout in and of itself, requiring a lot of high quality care and nutrition to ensure success. I don't need to work very hard to feel the taxation on my body, so judicious prudence stresses that it's good to slow down when needed.

Don't be like me...
remember mozzarella!

Fuel is very important. Last night we had The Pioneer Woman's Potato Leek Pizza. I missed the part about mozzarella, and simple used goat cheese and parmesan only, which might explain why the kids weren't so thrilled with my latest experiment. However, Ree's pizza dough recipe yield much better results than the one we'd been using before, which redeemed my potato pizza enough that no slice went uneaten.

I want more energy

This is me a couple months ago trudging up a hill while out apple picking on a glorious day with my family. But I'm tired and I would rather be at home, not hot and exhausted. Sure I have a baby on my back, but he needs to be there, and I need more energy to carry on.

So I'm more than half way through week 2 of P90X. My waist is a squishy 36" around, my weight about 130 (which is where I've been for a while). I'm tandem nursing my two youngest children, so I am NOT dieting. The only thing I'm doing new is working out. My goals are to get stronger and build endurance so I can enjoy outings again. I shouldn't dread family outings for fear of exhaustion.

Today was my legs and back workout followed by the ab ripper supplemental. Last week I hated this workout, but it was not that bad at all this week. I'm using the pull up bar as an anchor for the resistance bands, because I can't do pull ups yet. I've never done a pull up in my life, bar hang yes, but never a full pull up. 

Already, I can feel a difference in my energy level, in that I'm able to do more of the workouts, and I just feel better. This rejuvenation also inspired me to finish my spontaneous sewing project to add a sleeping hood to my Beco Gemini baby carrier. I got the idea from Paxbaby.com, Pimp my carrier page. My rendition would need some more fine tuning, but it was a good attempt that turned out well enough for my own personal use. My carrier has a hood cover now and the baby can fall asleep on my back and he won't need to hang out without head support anymore. I haven't done much sewing in this past year. It feels wonderful to get the creative juices flowing again and be productive!