[KB Girl]

hi! I’m KB Girl, 34, homeschooling mom of two (6&2), dietician, gym owner, kettlebell sport coach, wannabe athlete and amateur food grower. I am very happy with and grateful for all the things in my life and I am also very overwhelmed. I keep a bullet journal to remember all the good stuff, track my goals and hopefully give my head some space/peace. 

 

This challenge I plan to keep up with the following; 

- 4 training sessions a week (+a kettlebell competition on the 26th)

- taking my vitamins, brushing my teeth and making reasonable food choices

- going everywhere by bike (averaging 100km a week) 

- reading to the kids every day

- using my bullet journal daily 

 

And I plan to add the following; 

- A weekly goals setup for tracking and reporting on things.

(food prep, writing my training program, some work stuff, some one-off things, maybe cleaning things)

- More evening walks or short hikes with the kids, lets say 2 or 3 a week.

- No phone-games around the kids- I tried no phone around the kids before but failed, it was simply too hard, so breaking it down this way. (also I do very stupid things in my chess games when I try to play around the kids)

 

Bonus goal;

- spring is coming! it's time to sow the first things inside or under cover so I want to do that  We also have a second garden to set up (it's all grass now so there is plenty of work to be done). And I want to set up a new journal specifically to track what needs to be done and what we have done in the garden(s).

[Everstorm]

I am so excited for spring garden season.

[Elastigirl]

Cheering you on , and ready to be inspired by your gardening. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following. 

[Sovalis]

I've recently started bullet journalling and it's been a minor revolution. Looking forward to cheering you on!

[The Most Loathed]

Starting my follow early this time so I don't have to catch up.

[Snarkyfishguts]

That's a good list!

 

And a garden journal! Ahhh that's fantastic, little hearts are manifesting over my head

[sylph]

Here for this, of course.

[KB Girl]

14 hours ago, Everstorm said:

I am so excited for spring garden season.

So excited! I normally don't bother with gifs and such, but

Ok no, too much work, I am too picky, lets just go with \\o//

 

13 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Cheering you on , and ready to be inspired by your gardening. 

Thank you! the inspiration will flow both ways

 

13 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following. 

Wouldn't be the same without you! 

 

12 hours ago, Sovalis said:

I've recently started bullet journalling and it's been a minor revolution. Looking forward to cheering you on!

It's great isn't it? I started 4 years ago and I am still learning things and finetuning to my personal preferences, but it's been so valuable! 

 

11 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Starting my follow early this time so I don't have to catch up.

Very smart!  

 

11 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

That's a good list!

 

And a garden journal! Ahhh that's fantastic, little hearts are manifesting over my head

 I do have to keep my excitement for that journal under control, the journal itself really should not be a work of art KB Girl, it's a tool to plan that living work of art :d 

[Harriet]

Happy challenging! Much success to you.

[KB Girl]

Monday was uneventful. I made soup from our last pumpkin and dehydrated some rosemary. 

 

Today with the new challenge excitement I took the bike to work despite below freezing temperatures and did a decent training session (info + video below). 

Spoiler

barbell clean complex with 25-35kg

then a barbell clean & jerk ladder so 1x35,40,45,50,55kg

then 7x1 pull-up negatives in the rings

then kettlebell jerk intervals (0:30/0:30) with 2x14kg, +-8 reps per interval, wanted to do 12 sets but had to put them down during the 8th set because my shoulder was complaining (it's probably fine, just didn't want to risk it)

 

 

I also went ahead and started a gardening thread

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

40 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

I do have to keep my excitement for that journal under control, the journal itself really should not be a work of art KB Girl, it's a tool to plan that living work of art :d 

throw some dirt in it, that helps LOL!

[Klutch]

I also have two children that I am homeschooling ! They're a bit older (11 and just shy of 10). Right now I am reading The Hobbit to them. I expected my 11 year-old to be mostly uninterested and my 9-year-old to be obsessed. Quite the reverse in reality. Parenthood is a constant surprise.

 

[Wild Wolf]

On 2/6/2023 at 5:19 PM, KB Girl said:

reading to the kids every day

 

#GOALS

 

 

I was reading Wraith Squadron (Star Wars) to the older kids for a little while but lack of time because of my busy job schedule has really cut into this. I loved it when I could do that though. 

 

23 hours ago, Klutch said:

Right now I am reading The Hobbit to them. I expected my 11 year-old to be mostly uninterested and my 9-year-old to be obsessed. Quite the reverse in reality. Parenthood is a constant surprise.

 

LOL. Love this. My wife tried reading The Hobbit to the kids but I think SHE's the one who got bored. She's not much of a reader, so that probably has a little bit to do with it. She does love the movies though. #HomeSchoolingFTW

 

Wolf

[Everstorm]

4 hours ago, KB Girl said:

also went ahead and started a gardening thread

 

*fangirl screaming*

 

I homeschool my boys also, but at 17 and 12, I imagine it goes very differently from yours lol.  I just found a new curriculum this year that has fantastic read-alouds for my 12 year old (and some more assigned books that he reads to himself).  We both enjoy the books immensely, and more than once my 17-year-old has been sucked in to listen as well.

[KB Girl]

4 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

throw some dirt in it, that helps LOL!

You know! It does! Bujo-ing is a good anti-perfectionism practice tool anyway

 

4 hours ago, Klutch said:

I also have two children that I am homeschooling ! They're a bit older (11 and just shy of 10). Right now I am reading The Hobbit to them. I expected my 11 year-old to be mostly uninterested and my 9-year-old to be obsessed. Quite the reverse in reality. Parenthood is a constant surprise.

 

Really!  So cool to meet other homeschoolers here! 

I was an avid reader as a child so I have a long list of books I want to read to them. At the moment we're reading 'the brothers lionheart', my 6yo has a surprising level of patience for being read to- she'd like us to do it for hours every day, but my voice doesn't have that kind of stamina

 

2 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

 

#GOALS

 

 

I was ready Wraith Squadron (Star Wars) to the older kids for a little while but lack of time because of my busy job schedule has really cut into this. I loved it when I could do that though. 

 

 

LOL. Love this. My wife tried reading The Hobbit to the kids but I think SHE's the one who got bored. She's not much of a reader, so that probably has a little bit to do with it. She does love the movies though. #HomeSchoolingFTW

 

Wolf

You guys are also homeschooling?  

I hope you can get back to the reading asap! It's wonderful for all of us. 

 

5 minutes ago, Everstorm said:

I homeschool my boys also, but at 17 and 12, I imagine it goes very differently from yours lol.  I just found a new curriculum this year that has fantastic read-alouds for my 12 year old (and some more assigned books that he reads to himself).  We both enjoy the books immensely, and more than once my 17-year-old has been sucked in to listen as well.

No way! So many homeschoolers  

You've been where I am but really I can't even imagine what it is like with teens yet! Is this curriculum perhaps from the Brave Writer? I've look at those with some envy towards English speaking families

[Everstorm]

41 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

Is this curriculum perhaps from the Brave Writer? I've look at those with some envy towards English speaking families

No, I use the Sonlight curriculum. There is plenty of writing, but not as much as Brave Writer, I think.  Sonlight is religion-affiliated, but they have a sister program called BookShark that has all the literature aspects without the religion, for those who prefer to separate the two.

[Scaly Freak]

The Hobbit is one of Tolkien's most enjoyable works. I have gleefully abused my aunt status to gift it to a large number of sibling kids.  

[Harriet]

Oooh, gardening thread. I don't have a garden yet but it sounds lovely. Herbs and flowers and things.

[Wild Wolf]

19 hours ago, KB Girl said:

You guys are also homeschooling?

 

Yes ma'am . We've been homeschooling our kiddos since the beginning. They're apart of a larger homeschool community called Classical Conversations and do a co-op every Tuesday. Then we do schooling the rest of the week. It really works best for us and has for a while. I was on the fence with it when we started having kids but have sense full embraced the lifestyle. 

 

Wolf

[KB Girl]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:55 PM, Everstorm said:

No, I use the Sonlight curriculum. There is plenty of writing, but not as much as Brave Writer, I think.  Sonlight is religion-affiliated, but they have a sister program called BookShark that has all the literature aspects without the religion, for those who prefer to separate the two.

Had a quick look, seems nice! Since my kids don't speak English it's probably not an option for us, but maybe when they're older it'd be nice to try something like this. Have you always used Sonlight? 

 

22 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

The Hobbit is one of Tolkien's most enjoyable works. I have gleefully abused my aunt status to gift it to a large number of sibling kids.  

It's been nearly 20 years since I last read it. Should definitely reread.... probably a bit too early to read it to my kid... I don't really remember. It wasn't actually that scary was it? 

 

9 hours ago, Harriet said:

Oooh, gardening thread. I don't have a garden yet but it sounds lovely. Herbs and flowers and things.

Mostly vegetables and a couple of berries

 

6 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

 

Yes ma'am . We've been homeschooling our kiddos since the beginning. They're apart of a larger homeschool community called Classical Conversations and do a co-op every Tuesday. Then we do schooling the rest of the week. It really works best for us and has for a while. I was on the fence with it when we started having kids but have sense full embraced the lifestyle. 

 

Wolf

That sounds great! Wow you guys just have so many options, so many other homeschoolers around and so many programs to choose from! 

Jaap was on the fence at first as well, but he's loving it now and he's also really good at it  

[KB Girl]

Wednesday was a good day. It was very cold but the sun was shining. I was on my bike riding the kids around for 8km and I had a lunch date and a 5km walk with my youngest sister. That didn't leave a lot of time for training, but I got something done. 

 

I'm having a bit of trouble with training motivation (probably due to the cold) so I'll post them in my thread again to help with that. 

Spoiler

walking lunges, 4x12 steps with 16kg

assisted ring pullups 4x5

pushups 7x3

 

Left the house a bit of a mess and I don't have the energy to do anything about it now so I'd like to clean up the worst of it tomorrow morning. 

 

I'm taking a page from @DarK_RaideR's book by standardising my updates a bit in the hopes it will make a similar consistency in posting easier. So it'll be highlights of the day, training log, something that's on my mind or that I want to do better the next day. As I could really use the mindset boost I'm probably also going to sound a bit like @Tanktimus the Encourager in my opening, I've been thinking it quite often but didn't want to just copy- I hope you won't mind if I'll do so in the future. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I'm happy if the way I open my posts are helpful for others to use.

[KB Girl]

1 minute ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I'm happy if the way I open my posts are helpful for others to use.

You're amazing, helping change the way I think one post at a time. I really appreciate your influence! 

[Scaly Freak]

59 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

It's been nearly 20 years since I last read it. Should definitely reread.... probably a bit too early to read it to my kid... I don't really remember. It wasn't actually that scary was it? 

 

Besides the gigantic spiders that capture them and almost eat them, the huge dragon that almost eats them, the dragon's attempt to massacre a town, or being trapped in dark underground tunnels while chased by orcs... no. Not at all scary. 😇