5K or Bust!

This past weekend, I found out that the YMCA is getting ready for their annual Massillon Tiger Trot 5K run/walk. Even though we’ve lived in Massillon for several years, being a non-runner and non-YMCA member, I had never paid any attention to this event before. This year though, I have become a YMCA member with a family membership and have really enjoyed getting back into a weekly fitness routine that includes bike riding, swimming, aerobics, racquetball and pilates, to name a few.

I have enjoyed hearing about the goings on at the Y and have even become a fan of their page on Facebook so I can keep abreast of all their announcements. That is how I heard of the Tiger Trot that is scheduled for April 7th of this year.

Unlike most programs at the Y, this yearly event is not free, but the Tiger Trot flyer says that all proceeds “will benefit the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign which helps children, families, and individuals, and promotes healthy living, youth development, and social responsibility” which sounds like a very worthy cause.

Our family business, Kyoopons, is working with our local Stark County business owners by helping them to use video and text message couponing to advertise their great deals. My husband Roy and I choose a non-profit organization each month to do a free video for, and the YMCA is one that we look forward to working with in one of the coming months.

Though we don’t normally do event videos, I thought that covering the Tiger Trot this year would be super fun and a great way to be involved in our community. And the most exciting part for me is that I have decided to train to be a runner in it!

Okay, let me give you some perspective on what I am committing to do. I am 52 years old, and I haven’t run for fitness since I was in college, and even then I could never run more than 2 miles. I have to clarify ‘run for fitness’ because, as a mother of 9, running here and there taking care of my family does not qualify for a fitness routine.

Before joining the Y in August, the only exercising I took part in were casual walks and neighborhood bike rides with the kids.

So to run the 5K is a very big undertaking for me! For those who don’t know, five kilometers is equivalent to 3.1 miles. That is farther than I have ever run in my life, and at 52 years old I am definitely starting to feel middle age creep up on me, mainly in my hips.

To find out how to best train for this event I went to the internet and searched for ‘training to run 5K beginner’ and found a couple of different programs that claimed that I could be ready for the race in two months. It is now the beginning of January so that would give me plenty of time to get ready for the race in April. I printed them off along with some stretching exercises for runners, ready to hit the treadmills at the Y.

A dusting of snow carpeted the ground this morning as I set out for the Y and day 1 of my running plan. After comparing the 2 schedules that I had printed, I have an idea of how I will combine them to suit my own style. Back in my college days, when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, I was very good at self discipline in diet and fitness, so I am hoping that I will find that same inner strength in the coming months to keep on track and push to make this goal become a reality.

This evening as I am writing this, I have to admit that everytime I push back my chair and rise to walk to the kitchen to refill my mug of hot tea, my hips are a little stiff, and my knees a little sore. But the aches and pains are nothing compared to the exuberance I feel at the challenge that lay ahead.

Check back again for further updates on “5K or bust!”

Whadya Think? What if Lions Stopped Roaring?

King of the Jungle

Once again it is time for Deborah to answer our Whadya Think? question of the day! 

Deborah is our youngest, but at 6, she’s not a baby anymore!  I feel like I ‘ve entered a whole new phase of my life as a parent.

 

The first 20 years of my marriage were childbearing years. During that time my children were constantly around me because we homeschool.  Eventually my older ones graduated from home high school and went to college or started working, but they still lived at home.

 

That was all great, I loved it. I wouldn’ t have wanted it any other way.

But about a year ago, the oldest 4 moved into a house together about 10 miles away, and I realized how quiet and orderly life could be. Not that those older kids were noisy and disorderly, but there was always so much going on.

 

After they left, the 5 youngest kids and I rearranged and reorganized our house.  We even set up a new chore chart which reminds the kids what chores they are responsible for. Everyone pitches in and all the work gets done.

 

So that was a milestone in my life.  It’s almost like having a whole new start.  Nathanael is the oldest at home now.  He’s 15 and a good example for the littler ones.   And with only 5 kids at home, life is so much more relaxing!

But piggy-back to that milestone is another just as monumental!  Deborah is now in first grade and is homeschooling full time.  I no longer have any little ones to tend to while I teach the older ones. Deborah is one of the big kids now and able to answer even these thought provoking Whadya Think? questions.

So our question today is: What if Lions stopped roaring?

 

Deborah thinks that the sound a lion would make now would be a friendly “Meow!”  I then told her that the lion is sometimes called the “King of the Jungle” because of his ferocious roar.  I asked her if he would still be the “King” if all he could do now is “meow”.  She said that he would now be a kind and gentle king that treated all the other animals nicely.

I started thinking about her answer and how it relates to me.  I know from many years of experience that my leadership and training of the children is much more effective if I remember to control my “ROAR”.  The kids listen and respond so much better if I speak to them  with a queenly “Meow”.  Maybe you’ve noticed that in your family, too.

ROAR!!

Whadya Think?  Should our next question be:  What if the housecats started to Roar?

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Oh, and I’d love to hear about your wonderful family!

 

Whadya Think? At What Skill Would You Like to Be Best?

I chose my son Ezra, 13, to answer today’s Whadya Think? question because he’s at the age when he’s beginning to think about what his interests are, what avenues he might want to pursue, and whether he would need further education.

Today’s question asks: What if you could become the best in the world at the skill of your choice? What skill would you choose and why?

Ezra writes,

“If I could be the best at one skill, I would definitely choose playing the guitar. I think that music is one of the best things in the world, and can be very comforting and soothing.

“Playing guitar has always been extremely fun for me, and If I could be the best at doing it, I can hardly imagine how great it would be, for me and the people hearing me.”

Hmmm….

I have to admit that when I read this answer, my heart sank a bit.  I guess I was hoping for something a little more self-less. 

I then questioned him, “Why would you have to be the best in the world at guitar, though? Why isn’t it good enough to just be the best that you can be?”

His answer revealed his intense love for the actual physical playing of the guitar.  He said, “But Mama, when I hear some of those awesome guitar players, and see their fingers move along those strings, and I think about having the chance to be THAT good, and then just a little bit better, that would be so GREAT!”

Ezra has always been the “go-getter” of all my kids. He’s not afraid to try anything, and wants to try everything!  And when he tries something that is hard for him, he doesn’t get discouraged easily but practices and practices until he learns it.

I’m proud of my boy, Ezra, and know that he will go far in his guitar playing, and in any other pathways he decides to follow.

If you ask your children today’s question, you might find out a thing or two about their hopes and dreams.

And I’m sure that you’re like me in that, I’ll do everything I can to make my children’s dreams come true!

Thanks for joining me today!  Until next time…

Be Resourceful for a Successful Plan B

“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B”–unknown

This is a quote from a tweet on Twitter the other day that I really like.  It makes me think of all the times since I’ve been a mom that I’ve had to adjust and become resourceful because life is so spontaneous and things happen that are unexpected.  As good as we moms get at planning and organizing and budgeting there are always those unforeseen occurences that cause us to have to create a Plan B.  

Resourcefulness, to me, is when every thing is not as “they” say it should be, or when things don’t go as originally planned, you ponder on what is available and do it your own way.

 What if you don’t have all the materials to make a certain craft that your child found in the craft book?  Look around for what is available, and be creative!  Make it your way.

What if you forgot a certain ingredient at the store that you needed to put in the planned dish?  Look around for what is available, and be creative!  Substitute other ingredients, or even make a whole different dish!

What if your spontaneous husband says, “Let’s go to the lake for a picnic….right now!”  What are you going to do?  You don’t have any of the normal picnicking items in the house and you don’t have time to go to the store.  Be creative with what you do have, and make this day a wonderful memory for your family!  They won’t remember what you feed them, but they will always remember how their mom had a knack for making everything special.

“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” –John Ruskin

This is a quote that was tweeted today that, I think, fits right in.  Put love into everything that you do.  And when that love is working together with your skill of resourcefulness, you can expect a masterpiece! 

Thanks for joining me today!  See ya next time….

Whadya Think? What if You Had Cans for Hands?

What we do with our hands is truly an expression of who we are.

For those of you who are new to the Whadya Think? series, Please visit my introductory post here. Then come on back!

Today’s question: What if you had cans for hands? How would things be different?

This question seemed rather elementary to me when I gave it to Jerusha, my 11 year old daughter, to answer.  Her response, however, helped me to see a little bit deeper into just who Jerusha is and how she thinks. She made these points:

• You wouldn’t be able to pick up stuff.
• You would need to use the top edge of the can to scratch your nose. (Originally she had wanted to keep a sharp edge on the can for this purpose but I assured her that, as her mother, I would want to protect her from sharp edges that might hurt her.)
• And lastly, that people would laugh at you and call you names.

Jerusha, like so many young people, has a worry that she will be made fun of.  She wants to fit in and be liked and accepted.  I can certainly relate to that, as I still struggle with those feelings in my own life, even now.  But it helps me to see how very important my training  and continued support are to her.  As she gets older her ”friends” may try to coerce her to follow what the crowd is doing. They might tease her if she hesitates because her conscience is telling her that she shouldn’t. 

So, as her parents, Roy and I will keep showing her that she is loved and cherished no matter what, and that she is a valuable part of our family, and the world, by just being Jerusha. I’ve already seen a big improvement in her confidence level these last few years as her gifts, and the special things about her, are blossoming in front of us.

My thinking is, that as Jerusha learns how to use her talents for others, and sees their positive responses, her lack of self confidence with disappear. She’ll become stronger and better able to make good choices, including whom she wants to fit in with, and whom she wants to call her friends.

How does your child answer the question?  BTW, this little exercise in creative thinking has definitely been good for my children, but I think that, as their parent, I am benefiting even more than they are!

As a side note, have you ever thought about how cool hands are?  Hands are amazing!  And what we do with our hands is truly an expression of who we are.

Thanks for visiting! and come back tomorrow for our next Whadya Think? question!

Whadya Think? What if You Had Two Left Feet?

When Susannah was younger she was very clumsy!  It was not so much that she tripped over things, though graceful would not be a word that described her. More so, she had a terrible time with manual dexterity and so was constantly dropping things.

Of course, I never spoke of her lack of coordination to her face, but only encouraged her to pay attention to where she was walking, and to more carefully carry things from place to place.  I didn’t want her feeling frustrated or self-concious about her awkwardness, so I made it a point to always praise her for her successes.

Now, at almost 9 years old, Susannah’s coordination has improved 1000%!  I wrote yesterday of how she and Deborah carry food-laden trays from kitchen to dining room.  She helps me at supper to pour and carry beverages to the table, and even serves plates of food from my glass serving dishes.

Susannah also loves to dance!  She hasn’t had lessons yet, but that doesn’t stop her.  She dons her dance dress-up clothes and performs for us as a prima ballerina, while her sister pretends she’s a skater.  She also practices her cartwheels, splits and backbends all around the house and yard.  I must say she is becoming quite graceful!

I felt that today’s Whadya think? question was specially suited for this budding dancer/gymnast/mama’s helper.

What if you had two left feet? What would happen at the shoe store? And give some problems that this would create.

 She examined her feet and noticed that the left one is perfectly symmetrical with the right one. She saw that she mainly walked on the outside of her feet, because of the large arch that never touched the ground.  The length and strength of each of her toes was obviously designed that way for the purpose of walking and balance.

So Susannah inferred from these observations that a person with two left feet would drift to the side while walking. And if that person were dancing, it would be very easy to lose balance and fall. And when buying shoes at the shoe store, of course the person would need to buy two left shoes.  Two pairs, if the shoe store wouldn’t sell the left ones separately. Then you could sell the right ones on ebay to someone with two right feet.  Duh!

Thanks for joining me today!  I’m sure your child can come up with some other great answers!

Whadya Think? will be back again on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Whadya Think? What if you Owned a Restaurant for Kids?

My youngest child, Deborah, has been eager to answer a question for the Whadya Think? series, so I chose her to answer today’s question which seems especially suited for her.

What if you owned a restaurant for kids only? What would be on the menu?

Deborah and her older sister, Susannah, love to play restaurant.  Their very big sisters, Erikah and Rebekkah, both work  for Cracker Barrel, so the little girls like to pretend that they do, too.

They take each other’s orders, pour their drinks, and prepare the food, just like the servers and cooks would do at a real restaurant. Then they bring the food on a big tray to the dining table, where a baby blanket is neatly spread as a tablecloth. Oh, what fun they have!

At Deborah’s Restaurant For Kids, her menu is short and sweet.  For breakfast you have your choice of pancakes or granola. For lunch, PB and honey sandwiches or quesadillas (affectionately called “cheese things” at our house).  If you come by the restaurant for dinner you may have baked chicken or sloppy joes, both served with steamed brocolli and a salad.  Oh, and you care for dessert? Would you like ice cream or cheesecake with M&M’s on top?

Giving this assignment to Deborah got me to thinking about our family food choices. I think I am like most moms in that I feed my family as well as I know how.  We all want our families to be healthy, and our children to grow up strong, smart and able to make wise food choices on their own. 

But every family has its own past history and current circumstances that need to be worked with when preparing food.  In my own family, my husband chooses to eat differently than I do, so I prepare a variety of food that can be chosen from to account for his taste, my taste, and all the little tastes who are eating at home. We don’t have food allergies or medical conditions in our family, but I know many of you have these limitations to deal with also.

I have learned to be thankful for whatever is given to us to eat everyday.  Years ago, when my big kids were small, we went through a very difficult time financially and most of our food came from food bank-type sources.  Lots of canned foods, older store bread, and boxed processed foods were our daily fare.  Even when this was all that was available, I still chose dishes that I thought would be most nutritious, and strictly limited the “Twinkie” type foods. And we survived!

These last 9 years or so I have been an avid disciple of living a healthy lifestyle. My older kids, therefore, who were mostly grown up before I started preaching about eating more raw fruits and vegetables, have not yet decided that it would be to their best interest to heed their mother’s advice.  But for the younger ones who are still at home, I am able to more thoroughly explain the why’s and how’s of eating a more plant based diet, and I keep more fresh produce around the house to choose from.

Sometimes I can even convince some of them to partake in my morning green smoothie!

In future posts, I would like to talk more on family friendly healthy foods, and share some favorite recipes, too. So stay tuned….

I hope you enjoyed our Whadya Think? question today.  Maybe, if you ask your own child, you’ll be able to get a better feel for the pulse of your own family, like I did!

Whadya Think? A World Covered With Forest?

Tree hugger’s paradise! Or is it?  Today’s question was given to my 13 year old son Ezra.

Ezra is a remarkable child in many ways.  I could start with his birth story, for any of you homebirthers out there. But that’s for a different blog post.

Ezra enjoys life!  He is not afraid of anything, and wants to try everything.  He makes friends with everyone, from tiny babies to folks in their 90′s. And he loves the guitar!  He started playing around with it about a year and a half ago, and certainly has natural musical ability (which he does not get from me!)  He’s starting to build his own website about guitars, and one day soon he’ll start tweeting on Twitter!

On several occasions these last few years, Ezra and I have taken long bike rides together on local biking trails. The trails run along rivers, through open meadows, and through many miles of cool, shaded forest. How refreshing and invigorating those trips are.  Ezra seemed the perfect child to answer today’s Whadya Think? question:

What if the world were one huge forest?  Today’s answer comes from Ezra’s own hand.

What the World Would Be Like if It was Covered With Forest, by Ezra age 13

If the world was covered with forest and no oceans, the world would die over a short amount of time. But if the forest was just where the land is, there wouldn’t be any pollution because there wouldn’t be any cities or cars.

The climates would obviously change a lot, and there would be an excessive amount of oxygen.

If no one was allowed to cut down trees then the world wouldn’t be able to improve unless people built treehouses out of the trees that nature caused to fall.

The food that people would eat is dependent on the trees. If there are fruit trees and normal trees, people would be able to live.

There would only be forest animals and water animals in the world, so humans would be able to hunt for meat.

So, people would be able to live on the planet but it would be much different than life now.   The End.

That’s my boy!

How does your child answer today’s Whadya Think? question?  I’d love to hear!

Whadya Think? What if Cats have 9 Lives?

My daughter Jerusha, who turned 11 this summer, is the child I decided should answer today’s Whadya Think? question.

What if cats really did have 9 lives? How would this affect the cats and their owners? 

Jerusha loves cats and dogs, really anything that is cute and cuddly. On our bike rides around the neighborhood she is constantly pointing out the kittens and puppies scampering about the yards, or watching quietly from house windows.

She is one of my most creative children. She is imaginative, funny, sweet and very observant.  Book work and her do not get along very well however. This makes teaching her rather challenging at times.  She’s very bright but doesn’t memorize well. Rather she learns by doing.  Some of you may have children like this as well. 

When I gave her today’s question, she got rather excited about the thought of having her cats for many years.

 We have 3 cats at our house, MamaKitty and her two grown kittens, Crash and Slash.  We have considered that Crash may actually have 9 lives, and that she is on her second one already.  When she was 2 weeks old she fell through the banister of our front hallway, a 10 foot drop, to crash on the hardwood floor below. (That was how she got her name.) My husband and I were away at the time, but the children nursed her back to health and now she’s almost 3 years old, a sweet, cuddly thing, with a rather large belly.

I prodded Jerusha to do the math: How long would a cat actually live if it had 9 lives?  To make it easy for her, I told her that the average cat lives 10 years.  I watched her as she did the mental calculations, then I saw her eyes light up as she realized that the cat may even outlive its owner!  That wouldn’t be so great for the cat!

We then talked about how often cats have kittens and how there are many cats and kittens who are unwanted.  Some are left to wander the streets, and some are taken to be put up for adoption. But many eventually are put to sleep because there are more cats than there are people who want to adopt them.

Jerusha decided then that it really is better that cats just have one life “so that there wouldn’t be too many cats around.”  Love met reality.

I’m sure that your children could come up with some very imaginative and thought provoking answers to our Whadya Think? question today.  I’d love to hear!

Whadya Think? To Design a Postage Stamp

The other day I asked my 5 younger children, whom I still have living with me at home, to be an active part in our Whadya think? series. Their emotions were mixed about it at first because, to them, it was starting to feel too much like school, and they weren’t ready to be done with summer vacation yet.

But when I explained the idea more thoroughly, they became more excited about it, especially when they learned that their ideas would be featured on my Mama By Nature blog.

Susannah is my 8 year old daughter.  She was given today’s question: If you were asked to design a new postage stamp, what would it look like, and why?

She pondered that question all day, and by bedtime presented me with her design.  On her paper she had drawn a large rectangle with “crimped” edges the way a stamp would look.  The picture on the stamp was a birds’ eye view of a bedroom, with a person lying down on the bed reading a book.

Her answer to “Why this design?” was: “For the Summer Reading Club”.  She wanted to commemorate the summer reading program that our local library encourages for the children in our community.  Susannah loves to read, and being a member of this club was a special part of her summer.  I am very proud of her.

I bet your kids can come up with some really cool ideas too!

Thanks for joining me today! See you tomorrow….