Pump it Up

Exercise is important for a healthy lifestyle. I brought it up in my last post, but I want to go into more depth. For stay at home moms/wives/husbands/workers exercise is a big thing. We get to move around, cleaning house, doing yard work and running all over town when we have to, but that doesn't always work out so well.

After my daughter was born nearly 10 years ago it was hard to lose the baby weight, but I did it. Through really hard work. Now, at 34 it's hard to keep weight off at all. So, a daily exercise routine is important. The lower my body weight the less my knee hurts. It's pretty simple.

Anyway, on with my routine. Over summer my routine nearly vanishes. Trying to cut half an hour out of my daughters "fun summer" is hard, but I have high hopes as she gets older. Last week I started my routine again. This year it's changed a little, like it does every year. That first week gives me an idea of how much I need to catch up on and where I stand in stamina and strength.

So, last week went like this...

Monday - Low impact step aerobics. I tried a new video I found on YouTube, but quickly realized returning to my normal step routine would be best. The steps in the new video just didn't mesh well with what I can do. My normal routine can be changed up to last anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour.

Tuesday - Yoga. I've been doing yoga for years, long before my daughter was born. Still, I tried a new video again. This time I found a nice morning yoga for beginners that I love. I may have been doing yoga for years, but that doesn't mean I want to twist into a pretzel.

Wednesday - Okay, I was going to try a new belly work out on that morning, but that didn't work out. I ended up doing another round of my step aerobics. At this point I can only hold it for about 10 minutes without feeling it in my knee, but I know in a few weeks I'll be up to half an hour.

Thursday - The routine repeats start here. This was a yoga morning. I tried the new video again and still liked it.

Friday - Another step day. Not bad. I manged to make it through the work out and then go out and help my grandmother-in-law paint part of her house.

That may not seem like much, but for me it was a lot. I've learned to start slow if I want to stick with a workout routine. Trying to rush in and take on the hardest workout possible is one of the reasons so many people give up not long after they start. Build a routine and build yourself up to where you want to be. It'll work out much better.

This week I've continued to follow the routine I started last week. Tomorrow, Wednesday, I plan on trying that new belly workout. Over the next few weeks I'll increase the time until I'm working out for at least a half hour everyday. For me, that has always been a nice easy amount of time to cut out of the day.

That's all for today. Take care friends.

Back to School Goals

My daughter is back in school. Yay! It was a long summer but I made it through and now it’s back to the normally scheduled work week. For a work at home mom that means getting as much work finished as I can while my girl is in school. Before she started school I would work at night and while she napped. Naps stopped when she was three, so that left working at night mostly. My husband would help me out on the weekends so I could get work finished, but it was chaotic. 

Now though, it’s a different story. I work while she’s in school and the husband is working his own job. That means a bit of housework in the morning, a mad dash of work later in the morning and then a little bit more housework before I head out to wait in the pickup line at the school. 

This first week is always hard. Getting back into the routine is harder than most people think. With that in mind I always make back to school goals for myself. If you’re new to being a stay at home worker or mom or wife you might find it helpful.

The first week I get back into my basic day to day. I set a word goal daily. It’s not a big goal. Just a 1000 words or so. This keeps me open to get back into the day to day cleaning. With my daughter home I have to clean when I can and she helps out a lot more. This first week is all about catch up. A nice deep clean means that I can maintain easier through the school year. Every day is devoted to a room.

Week two I get back to my exercise. The long months of summer mean that I had to give up my workouts to spend time with my daughter. I don’t mind doing it, but I don’t have a very active job. If I don’t do some type of workout I just gain weight. Not only is that not the healthiest, it’s hard on my bad knee. I’ve found that if I can stay around the 140lb mark my knee doesn’t give me much trouble, but much more than the 150lb mark and I can feel the ache. I’ll talk more about this in a post next week.

So my goals for now are pretty simple.

• ·    Deep clean the house
•       Get exercising

Then there are my work related goals. Those aren’t as simple. I always spend a bit of time working on prioritizing the work. Which project needs to be finished first? Which projects can be put to the side to work on little by little? 

A basic layout of what I’ve figured out so far looks like this:

• ·    Finish two stories before Oct. 
•      Cover art project 
•       Research web design

That doesn’t seem like the clearest set of goals, but I understand what each one means and a loose goal can be a lot easier to reach and surpass than a tight step by step goal. Planning comes later. This is just the beginning.

Everyone is going to have different goals. It’s the spice of life. The great part about goals is reaching them. If your kids just started school try it yourself. 

If you’ve already been setting back to school goals share them with me. I’d love to see what other moms are up to. 

That’s all for now.

First Post

Cats & Dogs + Me is officially created!

I'm Jessie and while this isn't my first blog it is going to be my first personal blog. Want to know what it's going to be about? Of course.

Here I'll be posting about my life as a work from home mom/wife and all the grand adventures that gets me into. I'll share everything from recipes to organization tips to some crazy wild animal stories.

Let's start with my family. First, there's my beautiful daughter and wonderful husband. Our family also includes three dogs and two cats. You'll get to read a lot about them, so I'll introduce them a little later.

So, a little about me. Along with caring for my family I am also a full time author. That means I write a lot of stuff. I have my own fiction, which you can find out more about on my website. The other side of that coin is writing a lot of stuff I don't put my name to, ghost writing and such. You can find out more about that on this website.

What finally got me to make this blog? Great question!

School just started back here and my daughter and husband are out of the house for hours on end. This leaves me to my career, but it also makes for some great moments when the work is slack. Cats & Dogs + Me will give me an outlet for all the craziness that comes from being at work at homer.

But that's it for now. As I have another blog or two, I'm not sure how often I'll get to post here, but the aim is at least once a week.  

Take care and I'll be back!