Making a pinboard and FYM

I was thinking last night (when I should have been asleep) that I'd like to make sure the Little Big Fella has half an understanding of letters and numbers before he goes to kindy next year.  So I'm thinking we'll focus on one letter or number each day during our craft/learning time (which hasn't happened much but I want to make it a priority).


So I thought having a pinboard to put his current art/learning works on would be a good idea.


I had an old mirror frame that broke during our first big wind in our last town. I'd previously painted the back board and put little photos of my friends and family on it but I thought it was time for a change.

I had bought a roll of cork from the local cheap shop but when I unrolled it, I discovered it was very thin so I cut out a bit of a moving box (smaller than the frame backing) so that when we put pins in they have a bit more depth to hang onto.

So I laid the cork down, then the cardboard, then the backing sheet and carefully pulled the cork tight (turns out cheap cork is very thin and breaks easily), securing it with a staple gun.

I stapled all the way around, folding the corners in nicely.

Unfortunately when I went to put it back in the frame, the cork folds on the corners made it too tight to fit!!!  Gah!  So I had to take the corner staples out, remove the extra layers from the corner folds (just tearing them out worked), and re-staple.  Ta da!  With a little squishing it fit in nicely!

So now I have a nice frame for hanging my son's work on.  Hopefully it will help us review what he's learning... we'll see.

The other thing happening at the moment is that I'm starting the Fit Yummy Mummy lifestyle change tomorrow.  I first heard about it a few months back from Angela at Grocery Shrink (a blog I follow).  The thing that really caught my attention was the workouts, which are designed to fit into about 15 minutes a day - great for busy mums!

I didn't do anything about it at the time because I wanted to look into it a bit more and then didn't get around to it.  I'm not a big one for diets (probably partly because I never needed to worry about my body until I got married, and then I didn't really care anyway).  I don't believe in shortcuts.  It's pretty simple, energy in minus energy out equals how your body is.

Anyway, I looked into it a bit more and decided that I would bite the bullet and change the way I eat and move.

I got quite discouraged this afternoon though because I was trying to plan my meals and snacks for the coming week.  The main focus of the food side of things is to eat every few hours, starting no more than an hour after you wake up.  Each time you eat you have a serve of protein, two serves of fruit &/or vegetables and a small amount of healthy fat.  You can also add "whole" complex carbohydrates, preferably only in the mornings.

I have a list of good proteins and so on and I thought I'd just write down a protein and some fruit and or veg.  Sounds easy right?

WRONG!

As I sat (for a ridiculously long time) I realised that I love yummy food!  The thought of just protein, fruit and vegetables for the rest of my life was entirely depressing!  When I meal plan, I normally like to include a range of foods, various nationalities, and try something new every couple of weeks.  And if I can't imagine eating the way I thought I should, where would I end up with this lifestyle change?

Being so discouraged I became an unpleasant person to be around.  I know!  Some of you can't imagine it!  But my son definitely can!!! :-D

A while later I started looking more at the info I had, at Angela's website, and the Fit Yummy Mummy support site and found some more info that removed the stress about it all.  Basically, you start your meal plan with the produce, then the protein, then use up the rest of your daily calories with the other stuff (making good choices along the way, but also allowing for "life" to happen).

Amazingly, I felt much better :-D  This seemed more do-able.

So I now have my meals planned for next week (including all my snacks) and I have a workout plan ready to go.  I have taken a before photo but I'm too embarrassed to share it (maybe in a month when I have a comparison for you).  And I've done a vision board (pictures and words to encourage me) and made it my desktop picture on my computer.

I guess I'll let you know how it all goes (especially if I have some crazy moments along the way!).  See you on the other side!!!