9 Steps to Good Parenting

photo credit: Brett Jordan via photopin cc

This post is a primer of sorts, adapted from notes I took from my pastor, Joel Gregory, from a message entitled, “The 12 Steps to Parenting” in October 2011 (I had to make the blog title fit the A to Z Challenge!). The points are his, but the commentary is mine except where noted. (Note: These are in a random order- not necessarily in order of most importance.)

1 – Make sure your children are taught to respect authority. You have to model this yourself as well–it’s not just for the kiddies. You like to run every yellow light you encounter, talk back to cops, and speak to other adults in authority in a rude or impatient manner, it doesn’t matter what you tell your kids to do in school. They will learn from your behavior more than your words. “Be careful to be respectful even when you’ve done right and authority seems to be wrong. [In such cases,] God will deal with that authoritative figure.”

Amazing Grace: My Life in March 2013

Credit: Seth Polk (via Renee Swope)

I’m allowing myself to receive more grace (from God and myself) these days. It is a specific focus I’ve had for the past several weeks. I’ve been paying more attention to things that I truly enjoy, things I do only because I have to, and the unkindled desires of my heart. By staying in tune with my daily routines and experiences and categorizing them like so, I can choose where to exhibit (and accept) more grace in my life.

Every Day I’m Hustlin’

March was a month that brought me quite a few accomplishments, including winning the 2013 Stiletto Women in Business Award (SWIBA) Author of the Year Award, becoming a finalist in the 2012 ForeWord Reviews Awards, and earned 2 new fitness certifications (see the certification link below for details).
Toward the end of the month were more special happenings:

• Performed 2 more fitness auditions for TurboKick and “passed” them. (I completed new hire paperwork for one company and an application for the other.)
• Danced in 3 performances at church over Easter weekend–my first public performances in over a decade.
• Completed self-edits for my forthcoming title, Ending the Blame Game, and submitted the manuscript to my editor. We also finalized the book cover, which I’ll share soon.
• Bought my first couch – a nice purple/burgundy sectional!
• Hired a babysitter for the first time in my daughter’s life (she’s almost 10) for my all day hip hop hustle certification and we both survived . She ended up having 2 new babysitters that day because the first girl got ill halfway through the day. She said she now prefers babysitters to drop-off day care because (and I quote): “…they can take you places and they’ll do whatever you want.” She’s such a charmer.
• Set up my first Kindle Promo for my book What’s Wrong With Me?: A Girl’s Book of Lessons Learned, Inspiration and Advice. Stay tuned for details!

A to Z Blog Challenge

For April, I am taking part in the A to Z challenge, blogging almost every day.  Check out the “B” side tomorrow!

Getting My Hustle On!

Working It Out

Credit: Just Dance Academy

I had a fabulous time yesterday at Hip Hop Hustle certification. I got a few minutes to teach a few 8-counts and it felt good! I’d love to perform in a show. (If I can get the video or picture from the training, I’ll add it to this post.) Now I’ve got a track record of getting certified for a new fitness format every month so far this year (just by coincidence). My plan is to keep networking and substitute teach wherever I can and then eventually lead my own classes once or twice a week.

It’s been 6 weeks since I took my AFAA certification class and I finally got my results: I passed! I only missed two questions.

PiYo and Insanity trainings are taking place locally next month; not sure I will do either of them until I start using what I’ve got, but I have a lot of fun and meet the coolest people (the Zumba instructors always represent!). It’s so motivating!

Honorable Mentions

A week ago, I won the 2013 Stiletto Women in Business Award (SWIBA) Author of the Year Award!  My friend Melisa also won a SWIBA, and she was one of the two people who congratulated me, which is the only way I was notified (a week after the awards ceremony).

I also recently found out that my book What’s Wrong With Me? is a finalist in the 2012 ForeWord Reviews Book Awards (Young Adult Nonfiction category).

February 2013: Fun Times, Creating Memories

As usual, I’m recapping my highs and lows from last month.

Good Stuff

Valentine Anniversary – I celebrated the first anniversary of my first published release, What’s Wrong With Me? (the book and the journal).

Credit: Quizzle

Taxes Done – Following my usual tradition, I used TurboTax as I have for the past 13 years, and filed in February. I’ve already received my state refund and am awaiting my federal refund. I would rather have my money during the year than at tax time, but it’s hard because I already claim a high number of exemptions on my W-4 for my employer, AND I itemize annually as a business owner. I think there’s only been one year that I’ve owed money, and it was about $500. I’d love to get to a happy medium.

Missing My Mojo – Usually, I take TurboKick class on Tuesdays (I’m not teaching it yet). But this month I had to sacrifice because on most Tuesdays this month, I was with my daughter taking advantage of outings (field trips) with other homeschool families. When I returned to my TK class last week, another class member who is an acquaintance told me that I had been missed. I missed being there, too! Now I know that I can’t miss 3 weeks of TK in a row anymore. Since I became a certified  instructor, I have access to the workouts on DVD, but working out at home is not the same as working out with a room full of other TurboChicks. I doesn’t even matter if I have a conversation with someone while I’m there or not. There’s just something about being around people, with all of us in sync with the choreography, that brings me great joy. What can I say–it’s the dancer in me.

Creating Memories

My daughter K had one week in particular this month that was pretty awesome. She attended a live show with Nickelodeon characters, she went to a birthday party/sleepover with a friend who has a barn, and she met not one, but three stars from the Disney channel and Nickelodeon (the latter was a complete surprise).

I’m Number One

I just spent a day at Georgia Tech during AFAA APEX weekend to get my fitness certification in group exercise (see Roselyn’s post for more details on AFAA APEX. I had been going back and forth for the past two months about whether or not to go for the certification. Attending in person during the APEX weekend made it less expensive, but it was still an investment. Not to mention the time in studying for the test.  I waited a little too long and drove myself crazy: by the time I ordered and received the textbook study materials and practice test, I had a mere 10 days to ingest the info (mind you, I have NO health/science/fitness background).

I’m #1!

I arrived on time, and the room was packed. I was one of 88 students!  We sat on mats on the floor of one the group exercise rooms. Our funny, experienced, personable instructor was a delight, originally from Japan. She made the day go by fast and put us at ease.  For each test we had to do, she made sure we were prepared and answered all our questions as we  reviewed pertinent sections and questions in the study guide. She also explained what to do and what NOT to do on the practical part of the exam to make sure we weren’t disqualified.
Some of the people in attendance were already teaching (lots of Zumba folks), but I thought you had to have the cert before you taught classes. In any case, everyone was easygoing and friendly; I had a chance to network with people and found that we had mutual friends in common and/or facilities we frequented.  After lunch, four examiners joined us for the testing portion of the day:

• First, we had a practical test as a group, where everyone demonstrates warm-up, strength, and cardio exercises for a few minutes each (as well as appropriate stretches for each category). We lined up by number (my name always puts me in the front of the class).
• Then we each did our individual presentations of one minute each, where we had to choose a strength or cardio exercise and present three levels of that the same exercise (since group exercise participants perform at different fitness levels). Since there were 88 of us, the instructor divided us into two groups. She listened to both people (somehow), and there were also two other examiners for each group that evaluated us.
• Finally, we had an hour to complete a closed-book, 100-question multiple choice test. There were only a handful of questions of which I had to totally guess the answer (you can miss 20 questions and still pass).

The whole day’s schedule ran from 9-6; I left a little after 5.  I should have my results within 8 weeks, and hopefully I can start teaching TurboKick next month.

Fasting for Change

I’ve been doing well on Weight Watchers (WW) for the past 6 months, and reached my 10% goal last week. However, it’s time for me to go deeper.

Clean Eats

I’m going to do better!

I don’t need to fool around with new goal-setting or resolutions– I’ve discussed my goals throughout this blog and recapped my accomplishments for the past year.  But I have decided to do a self-imposed clean eating challenge during January 2013.   As Jillian Michaels put it in her book Master Your Metabolism, if it didn’t have a mother or grow from the ground, it’s probably not good for you (my paraphrase). Cheap food definitely has consequences as a regular part of your diet.  And the fact that the WW program doesn’t make any food off limits can be a blessing and a curse:

• WW primarily evaluates the Nutrition Facts on labeled foods to determine its points value — not the food’s actual ingredients
• WW doesn’t reward you for eating clean unless you select certain fruits and vegetables or “power foods” (some of these are 0 points)
• WW assigns higher points to foods that are full-fat (that is, more of your daily allowed points are used for eating full-fat, regular foods than low-fat or fat-free items, which almost always have chemicals and other unhealthy additives)

I don’t think I’m going to be able to realistically eat clean 100% of the time, and my daughter certainly won’t.  But over time, a few changes here, a few new habits there, and we can definitely improve our diet from what it has been and make it a part of our lifestyle. I like to think that I have only lived 1/3 of my life so far, so my best days are ahead and I want to be able to enjoy them.

The End of NaBloPoMo… How Did I Do?

Here’s something rare from me: A short but sweet post.

Source: John.Xanga

My favorite month of the year is just about over. What has been the hardest part about blogging daily? That’s the final question for #NaBloPoMo.

I like to write things of some substance– even if I’m just journaling about personal things– and not just commenting on what others are talking about.  I don’t like the pressure of trying to come up with something to talk about every day, and blog about it, so the writing prompts were somewhat helpful, although random. 

Goal Call: ’12 Birthday Edition

Source: Paperblog

…and another reason to be thankful.

How fitting that prompt #23 (love that number!) for personal branding at TheBloggingSchool during #NaBloPoMo  is Write about your latest accomplishment. In this birthday recap/annual review, I will mention quite a few of those!  I had so many proud, fun moments in the year of 35.

So Many Books, So Little Time

Source: Full Fontal

My relaxing bedtime routine includes a book (or occasionally a magazine). Recently I’ve been getting audiobooks from the library and I love them!  It makes the most of my time in the car every day, and definitely for this holiday road trip I’m taking this week.

As a girl I always loved going to the library. I used to read new books every week, I went through them so fast, and the escapism it gave me was much less damaging than any drug. Not to mention a loneliness cure.

Source: Adelle Laudan

It’s a sad time when I near the end of a good book. Thank God there’s so many of them.

It’s Getting a Little Empty in Here…

Source: Big Oak Ridge

I hate grocery shopping on the weekends, and this weekend, I didn’t have the time or budget to do so; thus, my fridge is getting empty and my freezer already is . However, I’ve talked about my newly adopted practice of menu planning, but I have to combine that with budgeting to make it effective. :S

This post was prompted by today’s question at All the Weigh:
What’s in Your Fridge? This is my first time writing a post that is more like an interview than an essay, but hopefully you’ll like it.