ShakeOlogy with ShakeOmama Crystal

Well a friend of mine had been asking me if I wanted to try shakeology and get a beachbody. LOL Who doesn't want a body to feel comfortable in at the beach?!   Well, I was expecting my fifth baby so did not want to try anything new.
After I had Tessa

Tessa, my little Valentine

Well, a few months after I had her I joined a WATER challenge. With the beachbody group. A challenge to drink one gallon of water a day!  I usually drink lots of water but had been slacking... Doing this fun Free challenge got me motivated to do more...

But, I was not yet ready to spend SO much money on a SHAKE!!!! I am not Cheap, I am frugal... I think!! :)

I had not had a battery in my scale, I priced one out and it was almost the same price as a new scale. Got a new one at walgreens for $9.00.... frugal? 

WOW! The baby weight that normally sheds itself was not nearly as gone as I thought it would have been!  Uhoh! So I did want to do something Different to lose weight. By different I mean, I actually needed to DO something... maybe in my age my metabolism is slowing down, or just because baby weight from 1,2,3, and 4 would not come off on its own with number 5.

I decided to just give the 5 Day shake Sampler pack a try.  For Monday I had the shake for lunch. That was my lunch.  Bad idea. Since I am used to eating LUNCH. So Tuesday I decided to replace my Breakfast with a shake! Since, I rarely eat breakfast... I had my coffee and then my shake. Then ate as usual. Except I WAS NOT CRAVING sweets!

My husband brought home a cheese cake on Wednesday! I was like 'why did you buy this' I am on This Shake thing!!!!  Anytime I see cheesecake, or cookies, or bake with the kids everything is GONE! Gone because I ate it all!  But, not this time.  The cheesecake actually sat in the fridge for a full day. Then I had one small slice, since my husband got it for me and I do enjoy cheese cake, it was good. I did not go back for seconds. I ate ONE slice and no more. 

This was very different for me as I usually devour sweets.  

Well after that 5 days of shakeology I lost 7 pounds. All I did was replace ONE meal with a shake.

NOW I have signed up as a Beachbody coach. FOR the discount.... but I am so excited about it I want to tell people about it and hope they will feel the same way I did!  Hope to 'track' my 21 day journey! 

This is my second day TODAY!  Now I am doing a 30 minute workout in the morning along with my shake and using the beachbody eating suggestions... I am not measuring to a T yet, but starting out slowly... I want this to be a Lifestyle change for me and not just some quick change that only lasts for a few days on a month.  ALSO, I am still nursing so that is calories gone as well, I feel safe drinking this shake and I know it is healthy!  I am doing the work outs at a MODIFIED, modified version since I am recovering from a back injury.

Cant wait to post more blogs about this!  If you are interested go to .....My Beachbody Site

Classical Conversations Cycle 3

We are on week 6 for Cycle 3. This is our first year doing Classical Conversations.  We have tried out two communities and really liked one in our area.  We may join a community next year.  Before making that big commitment I decided to give the curriculum a try for a year.  I am quite frugal, so I purchased a 3rd edition book (4th is what is currently used) I got it for half the price from Amazon. I did purchase the CD's for cycle 3.  Huge Help!  I really like them as I can play them in the mornings, for the Week review of all subjects and I bring them with us if we are driving on a school day.  I like to use the 'subject' CD to review the work on that specific subject day.
While we did not join a CC community, we did join a co-op in our area which gives the kids a chance to 'go' to school and have different 'fun' classes one day a week.
So far I really like CC, I am learning with my kids and so is hubby.  I bought large index cards and write out the subject reviews and put them up on the board. I made pockets by cutting document protectors in half.  I can take them out and hand them to my daughter while she copies the memory sentences.  If I want her to do them in cursive, I write them out again for her so she has a cursive example.
Monday is History Day and I try to incorporate a Five In A Row (FIAR) book that corresponds to the history portion.  Tuesday is Geography day plus Latin and English review.  Wednesday is Art. Thursday is Co-Op Day.  Friday is Science and Science Activity Day.  I try to do Presentations on Fridays as well.
We also do Reading and Math U See Daily.  Rosetta Stone Spanish once a week.  Bible Quiz twice a week and AWANA review weekly.
I find that it is Easier to keep a Routine than a Strict Schedule.
I think we are having fun so far! All of my kids are learning a lot and having fun doing it.

Trip to Clemson

Update on us..

Once in a blue moon... (feels like that is how long it has been since I have blogged; that is...)

Hannah is doing great. Done with Kindergarten, although we are schooling year round so doing a few more days and will take a break in August then to 1st grade. Hannah is amazing, so sweet, smart, and loves to sing. Asks amazing questions and contemplates things I would have never thought of like, "God, is not in space, because He created the space" wow, you are right, like the one time she corrected me when I said we live ON earth and she corrected me saying we live IN earth since the air was above us. hmmm....  My little girl lost her first tooth this month July 2013. She woke up to find a bunch of glitter and a $5.00 bill under her pillow.  Hannah is reading, doing great with math, she enjoys math more than reading, so we are opposites in that aspect...

Sarah, my little girl will be officially in Pre-School. She is doing well with counting and does her ABC's perfectly when she is distracted.... when she is giving her full attention she stumbles a bit.  She is so brilliant and a wonderful helper. Loves checking the mail, folding clothes, putting away dishes, cleaning and setting the table.  She looks so adorable in her new short hair cut, as does Hannah; both these girls love holding their baby sister!

Brian Jr.  I am so happy he is so full of life and energetic.  He loves to explore and is certainly persistent.  He has my smile, some days he loves to cuddle and asks me to hold him. I do.  I want to hold him because my kids are growing so fast. I need to appreciate those moments.  Brian loves 'cars' and now super heroes. Sometimes he is spider man but lately his favorite is Hulk! He is a great actor and can memorize a lot of stuff! Does a great rendition of the Geiko gecko.

Bella, just turned 9 months!  She crawls so fast, pulls herself up on everything. Loves to eat so many foods. Not sure she has a favorite yet.  She loves to sleep  with someone holding her... she is cradled in my lap right now as I type. :) She will get hair later, but her two little bottom teeth and blue eyes make up for that. She is so happy, such a happy baby!  She looked at her dad this morning as said, Dada! She had been making mama dada and bu bu sounds and finally is putting the words to the 'object' or person. What  a smart little girl, but all my kids are smart! :)

My hubby is doing great!  We moved to South Carolina for a job opportunity, I am so proud of him for being so diligent in his work, any company is blessed to have him as an employee.  Serious, he is a hard worker! So thankful that I have a husband who works hard for me and his kids.  I love being able to stay at home, thank you Brian Sr. I love you! :)

Well, we are here in South Carolina now and I do love it here.  It is nice being so close to family, it is different as we have never had that opportunity before, but we really love it!  In the best two years we moved from Colorado Springs to two suburbs of Denver and now to S.C.  I decided to jump right in and find friends, church, support, etc.... no use in waiting a few months to get settled in.  Essentially we are the same family with the same furniture in a different location, the saying ' home is where your heart' is truly is right, my family is my heart and no matter what physical location we happen to be in is just an after thought.

Brian and Crystal

Thank you God for many blessings.  Those prayers You answer before we ask, those silly little prayers that you answer, even though they are minuscule but nothing is too big, nor too small for you God.  Thank you for my family!

Our four little ones on Fathers Day 2013

A Pair of Red Clogs - FIAR (3rd week)

Travel to Japan!

1st Day ART.

Girls painted their GLOGS made out of cardboard and ribbon thongs.

 

Japanese writing is a form of 'art' too..  Japanese have two alphabet systems... Girls got to color their names in English and both Japanese Alphabets.....

 

2nd Day Social Studies

 Locate Japan; what is an island...

Flag, what do they wear, or what 'did' they wear?

colored different 'cultural' things, watched video clips.... 

 

3rd Day:  Math and Science!

 

For science we learned about weather.  We had a cool weather book... we played the Weather Clog game in the book, with the clog slippers the girls made... but we also touched on Japanese culture and made a 'wind sock carp' that is made for one of the many Festivals Japan has....

Made, painted and used the wind sock outside.... Weather! 

 

 

MATH... We read what shoes were at the store and colored them accordingly.... ALSO made a shopping list and went to the store, wrote the prices for their Sweet Sushi....  Girls also 'played' Store... picked items around the house and had pennies for money.

 

Friday!  Extra review day and FUN

We went shopping at Target for recipe items and took a trip to an Oriental Market, saw lots of items described in the story... different experience.

Came home to dress up and eat like Japanese do in the village!

 

Sweet Sushi, fruit roll ups, rice crispy treat, gummy fish.... :)  fun.

;sweet; treats... um, don't think so... Hannah said, "write that we tried it and it was gross" That pyramid is a 'rice cake' ... memories of Ping... eww... will stick to American Desserts....

Madeline - FIAR (2nd week)

Madeline was in Paris, France!

1st Day ART.

Architecture is ART, lets build the Eiffel Tower!

Yummy vanilla cookies with cherry frosting.

Monochromatic art, same as the Illustrator did. (One Color)

Brian did his tower as well!

Second Day Social Studies: 

Where is France, Flag, etc... video clips....

Worksheet about Madeline in the hospital, visiting hours, and the routine the girls had...

 

Hannah and Sarah both discussed how the girls treated Madeline while sick,

how we can help others when they are sick; social skills.....

Day 3, Science and Math!

Madeline had her appendix removed. We went over the digestive system

and located the Appendix. 

Math, each girl made the two lines the girls walked in.

I purposely gave Hannah 'extra' little girls to work on subtraction as well...

Count by 2's lots of math play on this little project. 

Madeline at a glance....

I hang all the work up on the walls. During the weekend I take it all down and staple

it together to file in the folder!  Clean slate for the next week.

FRIDAY, our extra day to Review, do fun things we did not get a chance to do...

YES!!!!!  French Crepes!!!! So yummy!!!!!!

 

After we do four weeks of FIAR, we will do a week of Review and touch more on

each subject per day, then the big Exam!!!!  So, we will get into the habit of 4 weeks of FIAR, then one week of full review and exam.  I will use our book 'what every Kindergartner needs to know' and 'what every 1st grader needs to know' during the 'review' week I will pull useful projects from each subject in order to review what we have learned.

 

 

Ping - FIAR (1st week)

We read the book: PING for our first week.  First day was ART!!!!

Brian with his _uck Duck....

Hannah using 'colored pencils' as did the book.... showing movement..... and reflection

Sarah adding 'ripples' to the water and boat 'movement'..... Traced the word DUCK.

SECOND Day Social Studies/ Geography/ ETC...

Kids made the Chinese flag, watched some video clips on China.  Located the Country on our Globe.

Ping lived on the Yangtze river! Found that on the map... girls painted the river, Hannah even added the 'Great Wall' on her water color!

Third Day Math and Science!!!

Counted the Pings large family and did a Science Experiment!

 

Some PING work at a Glance!

 

We had a lot of fun doing this study.  Was sad for it to end, but on to the next book!  Also enjoyed eating Chinese food, noodles... later we found some Chinese Rice Cakes, ones that lead Ping into a trap.  The rice cakes did not taste at all like 'cake' :)  could have done without those.  This is just a little of what we did, we had a blast!