Saturday Sixteen Freewrite

It is that time again! It is MESSIAH TIME! I am listening to Part II, and I already listened to Part I twice, and it is only 7:54 am! LOL!

I never ever tire of this timeless piece of PERFECT music. It really is PERFECT! George wants to go to the Portland Baroque Orchestra performance on December 14, but I have this Personal Trainer Certification exam hanging over my head, and I am not sure if I will have it done by then, and I don't want to go TOO far into the Christmas vacation with Michael and Paul studying for it. So, I need to think about. UGH!

I love what I am learning, but I am getting tired of studying. I still have SO FAR to go before I am ready to take this exam. I have finished all the quizzes in the eTeach course, and I just have on more nutrition discussion question to complete. Then, I can study for the final. I would love to just get that out of the way so I can move on to really studying for the actual exam, but I am sure that the final will really prepare me for it. I love what I am learning. I think it is really interesting stuff (just like my undergraduate degree in nutrition was really interesting), BUT I hate studying for tests. I just love to LEARN! I am sure I will do fine on the test, but I want to be 100% sure that I know the material before I go into the test. Today, I am going to work on knowing the different exercises for everything. I also want to get those muscles down pat! (Where did that expression "down pat" come from? I feel a Google search coming on.)

Anyway, I am also making French rolls. I made 14 of them for Thanksgiving and hoped that I could bring some home, but my kids ate three a piece! So, I promised them I would make more for just us. :) (Good mommy!)  So, I started making them at 6:30 this morning so they will wake up to the smell of them wafting through the morning air! :) 

Today, we will probably decorate our tree, and I might just go to the library to study so that I can have no distraction. When I go somewhere, I tend to really bare down on it and utilize my time better. Things will be really quiet here on Monday too. :) 

I only have two more class at OSU, and I am done for Fall term! I am still trying to determine if this is really worth it for me. I really enjoy my students. I really enjoy teaching. I enjoy that I have been immersed in lots of teach in such a short amount of time. I will have taught 60 classes by the end of my classes this Wednesday when you combine it with my SNAP Fitness classes. So, that is a lot of teaching experience. As much as I love my students, I am not compensated well, and it is also a lot of time to get to campus and back for just two classes. In addition, I have a lot of out of class time grading and answering student emails and keeping track of attendance. So, I have to weigh all of that in together and see if it is really worth it. It is definitely worth it right now because it is giving me really great job experience and something nice to put on a resume. There are also benefit to teaching a university class of mostly 20 somethings. They have bodies that respond so nicely to exercise, and they are required to be there so I really, really see great improvement in their technique. I can tell they are getting much stronger, and many have told me as such. So, I like that aspect of it. When I teach at SNAP fitness, it is a mixed bag of newbies and older adults. There are a couple of people who have done it consistently, and they have really improved. I like SNAP Fitness because it is smaller and more intimate, and they are more into joking and laughing and making it a social time. I like that aspect of it so much! It also requires no out of class time other then me deciding what to do on any given day. My choices are more limited there because I do not have Therabands (but I have tubes which are great substitutes), and there are balls, but only a few.

Anywho, what else do I want to say before my time runs out. 

I have enjoyed doing my #100happydays things. I am on Day 68 today. I knew it would run into Christmas, and that always makes me very happy! :) I love having the boys home for this Thanksgiving weekend; and in two weeks, they will home for three weeks! WOOHOO! I am so happy about that!!! I love it when our family is all together because we genuinely like each other, and my kids like each other. So that is so great. We went to see Mockingjay II last night together, and it was a great thing since it has become our tradition to do together (other than the first one because Paul had not read the first book and did not want to see it until he had read it).  

Oh, perfect timing because I have less than a minute. Just a reminder that there will be errors in this freewrite because I am not supposed to proofread it. So hard for me. 

Back to studying for my test!!! :) Praying I can learn those muscles and exercises in record time today!! Brain work!

Freewrite for a Sunday Morning

Well, here we go on a Sunday morn freewrite. I rarely sit for long periods of time and write anymore. Too bad I did not have my treadmill desk when I was writing the Bible Book Club! I would have burned so many calories and saved my back the heartache.

Speaking of my back. While my lower back has not had pain since November 19, 2014 (Yes, almost a whole year with NO S-I joint incident! And that one was brought on by sitting too long one morning + going for a walk in REALLY cold temps [33 degrees] + hitting a bump in the sidewalk = OUCH! Prior to that, it had been another year that I had had any incident. So, I am doing really well in that department.), my upper back and neck continued to have knots or what I call this "string of tightness" that travels from my neck down to the mid-back inside the shoulder blade. Well, I have not been to Dr. Myers for maybe 5 weeks. Last week, I canceled my appointment only to have a knot for most of the weekend, but then I employed ALL the Self-Myofascial release rolling exercises and static stretching on all my overactive muscles (which did NOT include the knotted area - that area is actually very WEAK and needs strengthening rather than rolling), and the knots went away. I had solved my problem and saved myself a 20 dollar copay! I stand here today with not one area of tightness in my body. I was like this all day yesterday too. I have gotten up every day and before I exercise I do that corrective SMR rolling and stretching on those overactive muscles which FOR ME include my quads, TFL, calves, pecs, latissimus dorsi, and thoracic spine. I do it regardless of whether I feel great or not. I also do the corrective stretching after I exercise. It takes about 20-30 minutes extra total on a daily basis, but it is worth it. 

I was going to write something here and the original reason why I was going to freewrite today, but I cannot remember what is was for the life of me! My goodness. What was it? Oh well.

Oh I remember. I have eight more books to read for my "52 in 2015"! I have not read as many books this year, but a 600+ book that is a lot of science should count as at least three books! Before the end of the year, I get to read Oliver Twist for my book club. That will be really fun! So, I have to think of 7 more books to read. I think I have some Christmas books in my stack that I have never read before. Oh, I want to read Nancy's book that I started but never finished and Melinda's book that I am about 65% of the way through already! So that is two more. So, I just need to find 5 more books to read after that! :) I should consult some "I want to read" lists. I am not the academic that I once was, but that is totally cool. I love what I am doing, and less reading means less sitting and better for my back! Oh, I did start that book by Kris Kyle, but it didn't grab me like I thought it would. I am sure there are great books that I could read that would be great for my walks. I might just check out something to download onto my iPhone. 

I think the test is looming though. So, maybe I will do that after my final two quizzes, two discussion questions, final, and certification exam!

BYE! No proofreading!

44. NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training

 I was asked to become a Certified Personal  Trainer by a manager of a local fitness facility two years ago, and I am finally getting around to it! I have loved everything about this book. I learned so much! It is 680 pages, but I couldn't put it down! It is so much of what I learned from my B.S. in Foods and Nutrition. I am coming around full circle, and I love it! 

I will finish up the class I am taking in three weeks, and I hope to take the certification exam before Christmas. I learned SO MUCH, and it has been fun to pass on what I am learning to my Pilates students and friends. :) 

43. The Prayer of Faith by J.O. Fraser

What a gem of a book! It is short and sweet and to the point. My husband had it from years ago, and I just grabbed it off the bookshelf when I went to go on a prayer retreat. James O. Fraser was a British missionary with China Inland Mission (Now Overseas Missionary Fellowship). He ministered to the Lisu people in China in the early 1900's. So sweet! 
Here is a link to the online version:

http://omf.org/us/the-prayer-of-faith/