Busy, Busy, Busy!

So, what have I been up to over the last few weeks? Running my tail off! You know, the usual laundry, dishes, and caring for a 1 year old keep me pretty busy most of the time, but in the beginning of September I also started working here.
I am a swim instructor at a racquet ball club about 30 minutes from where we live. I would have liked to have been teaching at a club closer to home, but the two gyms near us wouldn't even talk to me or return calls after numerous tries, dropping off resumes, applying (the front desk - which is all I ever got to talk to - said I had to apply to take my resume...) it was ridiculous! Then there's this gym, where the Aquatics Director was going to meet with me when I came in to drop off a resume, but I got there just as his lessons started, so he called me right away to meet and see if we were on the same page for instruction philosophies and then he offered me a good wage and started me teaching right away. Needless to say, even with the 30 minutes to and from work three nights a week, I love where I work. The staff is great so are the patrons. I teach mostly private lessons and one group lesson each week. The Aquatics Director (and gym owners) is also perfect for us because they are all about family, so he worked with me so that I only work about 6 hours a week and only when Steve is home so Ellie doesn't have to be in child care all the time. This allows me to work a little, keep my teaching certification current, and appreciate Ellie more each night when I get home and missed her for those 3 hours or so I was gone. It's great.

So, if that weren't enough to add to our schedule, I also decided that a year is way too long to not have lost any more baby weight from Ellie. I mean, I lost 30 lbs in 10 days and then nothing for a year! Even if I don't lose weight, some serious redistribution needs to happen - like fat into muscle, please! So, after looking around for a way to work out quickly each day during nap time, I decided on this.
Don't worry, I know I'm not going to lose 20 lbs in 30 days, and then even more weight after that. Ridiculous. First, I don't do the whole diet thing very well. I like my food. Second, I don't even want to lose more than 15-20 lbs total - over a few months hopefully. Maybe doctors say that losing 30+ lbs would put me in my "optimal weight," but that's crap. I've always been a big strong girl who in the best shape of my life and skinnier than I needed to be was slightly "overweight" by general BMI standards. No, just going back to work and swimming I lost 5 lbs right away, so I have 5 lbs left before I'm at "pre-Ellie" weight, and another 10-15 to be where I'd love to be weightwise. We'll see. Like I said, at least some redistribution should be good.

And, it's great! It only takes 30 minutes including my warm-up and cool-down and I can already tell a difference after a week, even with no weight loss and no obvious changes. But, I feel different. Which is nice. And, if I get good at level 1, there are 2 more levels to try, but right now, level 1 kicks my trash! See? (this was day 2 or 3 last week I think)

Oh, and don't you love my cheap, handy-dandy red-neck hand weights?
Oh, and in case I didn't have enough to do adding part-time work and working out to my daily chores, we have also been doing a bit of this.

We canned 50 lbs of peaches - around 25 quarts I think, and yesterday I did 6 quarts of pears and 8 pints of pear sauce. It's a lot of work! But, not bad work, and it's so pleasing to feel like I'm providing healthy food and emergency stores for my family. I'm so not a genealogy, food storage, journaling kind of LDS girl, but this makes me feel great. And we already tried our peaches and they are GOOD! That's admittedly the reason we got started. My mother-in-law Reva got me totally hooked and spoiled on home-canned goods. And once you've had home-canned food, there's no going back! And now, I feel even better about it because I have good things to feed Ellie even when fruit isn't in season. Although I didn't know that pear sauce could possibly be so messy, and my floors may never be syrup-free again....

So, laundry, dishes, work, working out, canning.... Steve says I may become domestic yet!

Oh yeah, and keeping up with this girl! (she's chewing everything right now, so we think she has more teeth cutting, and she's already up to 12 chompers!)