Malva

Yeah, I got all the kids school papers printed that I needed and used them all week - nice not to be printing stuff every day. AND, bonus ON TIME effort, I made it to my sister's birthday lunch on time - that in itself is not that big a deal because I don't have that big of a problem with lateness - but the cool thing I did was... I started to convince myself that I had time to make an unscheduled stop before - but I paused and thought it through, added up the various times of what I wanted to do and where I needed to be - and decided not to do that. Sure enough I was a bit early to the lunch date - but only a couple of minutes - definitely not time to do the extra stop I was trying to talk myself into. So, yay me! good reality check.

Not for the two courses that I took - but every course is different. I know that some of the courses have exercises - like the math and computer science are more likely to have those, I guess. And some courses require writing assignments and for you to grade others. I signed up for a world history course that was like that and realized right away that I did not have time for it. Also that course had a requirement for interacting in the forums a certain amount of time. I am glad I did it because now I have a good idea of how it works - and it is really cool to be part of a group of 30,000+ people all taking the same course But I would not sign up for two at once again. That was too much. I just don't have time. If you have the time, jump into one. There is no obligation, you can always drop out if the course load is too much or the material is not interesting. No penalty!

Ugh I know just what you mean! I wear jeans too and I either have to do any stretching before or after I get dressed for the day or change and I hate that - so annoying to me for some reason LOL. I really try to do it before I get dressed for the day. I have an app on my ipod that I use - Pocket Yoga - the shortest routine is about 6.5 mins - I do that one practically every day. Prob not suitable for jeans though but you could make some modifications. There are lots of yoga apps - maybe you could find one that is just what you need?

Great job on the booth! You are so right - all the volunteer work we do is great on a resume. And cooking and consuming a healthy meal before we leave the house is so important. I am trying to force myself to do just that right now - since you did it, I guess I will, too Mine is also breakfast...

YES!!! I finished my last coursera course!!! so relieved.... I was worried I would not get it done. tomorrow! the editing will resume!

I love Pema Chodron! I will have to look for that book at the library. How is your meditation practice going?

I made it to cub scouts on time. I got ready plenty early in the day, but I still felt panicky as i was loading the car and leaving - Pavlovian learned reaction? I need to reprogram myself LOL My next challenge here is going to be getting materials prepped for kids schoolwork - I just realized last night that i had not printed out their next unit in chemistry... but that in itself is better because I might not have realized that until it was time to do chemistry today LOL. Gonna get that done this morning before they wake up and look ahead to see what else I can prep for the rest of the week - I usually do this on weekends but this past weekend's birthday party, sleepover, then getting sick with a sinus infection has thrown me off. now to get printing...

FOUND JOB - yay!

that's my "Paleo" style as well

You rocked week 1! I love the personal food pyramid - great fun and easy logging method.

Oh my, did you make this just for me? Today I have to take my kid to cub scouts... and... the leader will be delayed so she gave me the key and I have to open up the meeting room and start the meeting. I can't be late!!! I read something once that was a catchy quote and I can't remember it - but it was this, basically. It isn't what happens in the 15 minutes before you need to be somewhere that makes you late, it is some choice you made hours before. This concept has improved my ability to get my family to bed on time. I realized that I don't need to set a bed time as much as I need to set a getting-ready-for-bed-time. This has made a huge difference. If we start getting ready for bed at the right time, there is a natural consequence that we will be ready and able to go to bed at bedtime. After quite a lot of experimentation, I discovered that I have to start the winding-down, getting-ready-for-bed-time a full two hours before actual get-in-the-bed-time! Good challenge!

Week one has gone well for me - I have had a very busy week and there have been a couple of days that I would not have bothered to do a short yoga session or to find a quiet place to sit and meditate for a while if I hadn't signed on to the challenge, so I am glad I did that. I have 7 instances on my #1 goal for this week - putting me ahead at this point. I have 5 instances on my #2 goal for this week - putting me behind. I am including today, since i don't anticipate any problems. One day I just forgot to make notes after midday and the next day I meant to go back and write it down while it was fresh in my mind, but just didn't do it. Not sure why LOL. Yesterday was a massive birthday party for my 9yo son and I just could not keep up. I did have a slice of key lime pie cake and it was soooo good. I did not mindlessly eat a lot of party junk and I am proud of myself for that. I have 4 instances on my #3 goal for this week - and I anticipate no problem with tonight either, which will put me at 5, meeting the goal. Goal #4 - I need to do the last lecture and quiz for Astrobiology today, then assess what is going on with the other class. They posted some lectures late this week and they are really long as well. Kind of irritating and inconsiderate. I'll be ending up cramming them all in before the due date, I'm sure.

I already need to do the sock finding challenge all over again. BUT I did find out, with help here on the forum, how to make my NF character and I did and I put it in my siggy. WooHoo!

Hi - finally checking in this week - I have been keeping to my plan but I am just having a very hectic week and haven't had much computer time. Almost finished with one of my courses - just one more lecture and one more quiz! The other course wraps up next week so that part is nearly over as well. Kids slumber party tonight and birthday party tomorrow... hopefully I will have some time on Sunday to catch up with what everyone else is doing.

Oh thank you - I think that was the article I remembered reading a long time ago but could not find again. Actually I am not a staunch non gamer - I just don't have the opportunity... but I am very interested in the Rising Heroes or whatever - the game NF is making, anyway. I gave a bit of $ to the effort early on so I hope that gets me into the beta testing when it starts. Need to get my character ready for that Thanks again - I will read then may be back for more questions....

alright - here goes. Can some kind person please help me make a character? I hope this is a safe place to admit that I have never played D&D and that I am not much of a gamer. I have looked for some links but I guess I just have not come across the right instructions to making yourself into a rpg character. I thought there were some old topics in the forum on this but I can't find it. I get the part about the races - obviously I picked druid, and I see from people's siggies that you use your imagination as to what kind of druid. I think I am an earth mother druid ok, the part I don't get is how to assign the attributes initially - what do you start off with? 0 in all categories? or do you self assess, in which case could someone give me an idea of how many points they assigned themselves initially and why? Basically I am just clueless about this and I am not sure I am even asking the right question. Some links or advice, please! Help help!

now to find the surface of my desk...

I now have a half-bushel basket of socks that are so happy to be reunited with their long lost partners... now to bring the matched socks to their respective homes. My kids and spouse will be shocked to find their sock drawers full LOL. They have been sock diving in the bushel basket on a daily basis for a while now... guess they will have to find a new hobby.

Tackling the to do list is a worthy goal! It also stresses me out to have things written down that are waiting to be done - if the list gets too long, anyway. I also tend to put vague things on the to do list like 'write blog post' when I should break it down into concrete steps... those vague entries I have never seem to get done. Have you thought about how you will approach it? What system do you use now?

Oh, that's wonderful! My son will be 9 in a few days and he LOVES to do yoga! I hope your daughter enjoys it as much. He will play a yoga dvd and do it by himself LOL it is so funny. He likes Rodney Yee. I totally understand about the goal of 30 mins a week. I don't have a baby anymore, but I remember what those days were like. Good choice to just dip your toe into finding the time - you can go slow and make a balance with your family. When I had a toddler, I had to lock myself in the bathroom to do yoga LOL or do it only during naps, because they would always tackle me at inopportune times and I was seriously worried that I would get hurt. Just a heads up on that! They were like, WOW MOMS ON THE FLOOR!!! lol

OMG LOL I was so proud of myself for posting my goals I totally forgot that this is day 1 of the challenge LOL Glad I popped over here to read yours!!!

oooo fun! No it is not cheating, in fact, it may prove difficult. It is hard to make time to do the things we enjoy, and sewing is so involved. Smart to make it part of the challenge. I am looking forward to chatting with you about sewing! My quilting project is a baby quilt for a new niece or nephew - I need to get started on it but I don't know if baby will be boy or girl! Totally confounding my fabric choices... My sister is a kind of punkish tattooed pierced girl so I am doing the quilt in red and charcoal grey - no disney princess crap for her LOL - but what accent color? I want to do some applique tattoo patterns (probably way too ambitious) and I will use turquoise as an accent color - but also pink? or orange? It is on my mind!

re: motto I googled druid quotes and found a source that said that druids liked to teach in triads. One of the teachings was translated to "Truth in heart, strength in arm, honesty in speech."

Hello, fellow druids. Goals: Health #1 - meditate and/or exercise most days each week - 4-5 days per week (24-30 times) Health #2 - food tracking most days - 6-7 days per week (36-42 days) - counting carbs and aiming for 60-80 per day Health #3 - early bedtime - 9:30-10:00 bedtime - 5-6 days per week (30-36 days) Life - finish the two Coursera courses I am enrolled in to earn the certificate for each, then upon completion, use that allotted time to work on my copy editing project. Grading? An A is hitting the numbers I am aiming for - I guess take 10% increments down from there and assign them B, C, D, F...? I am not big on grading, but if it is a requirement, then ok. the details... Health #1 - meditate and/or exercise most days each week - 4-5 days per week (24-30 times) I really need to take some time for myself to do this. I really need to do this in a organized and intentional manner. Exercise will be yoga (sticking with the ONE PRACTICE I have been doing with my ipod app - not skipping all around randomly), or NF beginner bw workout (modified - I cannot figure out how to do a lunge properly LOL), or running (zombie running app - yay!). Days of heavy physical labor at work or home do not count - only scheduled exercise. Health #2 - food tracking most days - 6-7 days per week (36-42 days) - counting carbs and aiming for 60-80 per day Weight loss. This food tracking goal is in support of that - it is a sneaky many-things-in-one goal, since our goals are limited in number. To achieve it, I am gonna have to do meal planning, cooking, shopping etc. Why count carbs? This just works for me - I do limit grains, esp. wheat, but I am not going all-out paleo.I am not dairy free and I like soy sauce too much I do a lot of paleo recipes and look at paleo sites for meal ideas, but I do eat the occasional grain or bean. I try to get most of my carbs from dairy and fruits/veggies. I don't want to do weight loss as a straight-out goal, because there are too many unknowns. If I do things that support weight loss, and avoid things that don't, it will happen as a natural consequence. Eventually. Currently I am at 202 lbs. - down from 235 or so a couple of years ago. I have been stable at right around 197-200 for a while - a couple of years. I have been eating way too much white rice and buttered toast and I feel my clothes getting tighter. I need to nip that right in the bud! Health #3 - early bedtime - 9:30-10:00 bedtime - 5-6 days per week (30-36 days) This is another many-things-in-one goal. In order to accomplish this I need to make dinner early, which means planning dinner and planning when to do things for dinner ahead of time - making sure to set the wheels-in-motion for getting ready for bed time, etc. I started with this 9:30 bedtime when I was doing the Mark's Daily Apple 21 day challenge with a group a while back - this bedtime works really well for our needs. But as the seasons are changing, I feel things starting to slip a little - longer daylight hours require an adjustment in attitude. I am going to have to work harder to keep this bedtime - and then when summer comes I will have to adjust it, but for now I want to keep it up. Life - finish the two Coursera courses I am enrolled in to earn the certificate for each, then upon completion, use that allotted time to work on my copy editing project. OK, I don't know WHY I decided to sign up for two courses at once, but I did. And I really really want to get the certificate for both of them. I am taking U.S. Food Systems and Astrobiology, btw. I am having to use a lot of my free time watching the lectures and doing the quizzes and reading. And the problem is that I am taking time away from another project to do it. I agreed to copy edit a friend's novel, and I was working along at a good clip on that till I signed up for these classes. :sigh: The classes are over on Mar 4 and Mar 6, respectively, so when I get done I will devote the time to Murder on a Small Island until it is cleaned up! If I finish that, I am allowed to start a quilting project. Intro: I will post in the general druid chat - but the short version is - I am a 42 yo homeschooling mom of two - I live on a farm in sw Arkansas and operate a small CSA. I am a science nerd . I have done NF challenges before, but not for a long time.

I just saw this video yesterday - actually it was posted by a fan on the NerdFitness facebook page. It impressed the hell out of me. So ya'lll watch it! It will give you some awesome reasons to try a paleo diet. It is a TED talk by a doctor, Terry Wahls, who cured her MS by essentially following a paleo diet - the talk is called "Minding your Mitochondria." Since Christmas is over I have been craving healthy, simple, non-holiday food. Since I watched that video I decided I was going to do a veggie/protein fast using her veggie guidelines plus this Chad Waterbury plan (roughly). http://nerdfitness.com/community/showthread.php?2741-a-seven-day-plan-from-Chad-Waterbury. Today is day one - all veggie. I cheated doing veggie plus fruit as I started on a whim without going to the store to stock up on veggies that I don't have in my garden.