So far, so good!

I have done the Shred now for 4 days (in a row, I might add!)

And 3 of those times have been with kids in the room. For an effective workout, I do not endorse Shredding with kids. Kids in the room mean too much talk and not enough action.

But my kids were excited to "take exercise" with me so I let them stay.

When Sarah saw I had soup cans, she ran to get some canned goods of her own. However, when she realized that I had the Campbell's Princess Chicken Noodle soup and she had a can of lima beans, she quickly begged for an exchange.

And after a few minutes of the Shred, Sarah declared, "I like my cousin Jillian, but I don't like this Jillian. This Jillian is mean!"

Mean? I don't think so Sarah. Anyone that can help me tighten my rear end in 4 days is not mean.

Peter was helping me this morning and was full of questions. "Why are those girls always in that same room wearing those same clothes?" "Why is that Jillian person the only one who ever talks?" "This isn't exercise Mom. Playing ball is exercise. This is easy!"

Easy? I don't think so Peter. Anything that can help me tighten my rear end in only 4 days is not easy.

After four days of The 30 Day Shred, I'm still excited. Level one is starting to get a little easier and I actually do look a little firmer in certain places.

But I do think I am going to upgrade from canned goods to actual hand weights. That way Sarah and I won't have to duke it out for the Disney Princesses. Because nobody should have to work out with lima beans!

Sorry Mom!

Yesterday as Sarah and I were driving down the road I started waving and said, "Oh! I think we just passed Grandma but I'm not sure if it was her or not!"

Sarah asked, "Did she have puffy hair?"

"Yes," I replied.

Sarah continued, "Did she have wrinkly skin?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Then it was Grandma," she bluntly concluded.

Sorry Mom!

Campbell's Soup is good food.

The first words out of Jennifer's mouth when she found out I purchased The 30 Day Shred were "You didn't need to buy it. It's on the Exercise Channel."

Jennifer,who works out all the time, actually knew that Time Warner Cable has a channel called Exercise On Demand. I'm quite certain I breezed by it one day in my quest for Food Network On Demand but never looked back.

So armed with this new knowledge, I was faced with a dilemma. Should I wait for my DVD to arrive in the mail in a week or should I jump right in with my workout?

And of course, I'm sure you know what route I decided to take.

I convinced myself (rather quickly I might add) that I should wait so that I could thoroughly review all the information that came with the DVD to insure that I would be properly prepared to Shred effectively.

At least that's what I told myself. Ultimately it came down to me being lazy and wanting a few more days to contemplate what I've done so that that I could mentally prepare for the work that lay ahead.

And then this morning I went swimsuit shopping.

There is nothing like a pile of ill-fitting swimsuits laying discarded in the corner of a fluorescent-lit dressing room to make me speed home and search for Jillian Michaels doing The 30 Minute Shred on the upper channels of cable TV.

And after I found her, I did her little Shred.

Bring it on Jillian, I thought to myself as I was sweating through her circuits all the while trying to block out the image of my pasty muffin top glowing under the fluorescent lights of that dressing room. (And don't even get me started on that annoying little roll of back fat.)

My arms are quivering as I type these words and I didn't even have any weights to use for the arm exercises. I had to do some quick thinking and resorted to using two cans of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup.

Mmmmmm....Cream of chicken soup goes great in all sorts of dips and casseroles and......

Oh! Where was I?

Yes. That's right. My arms are quivering but y'all I feel good! I made it through the first 20 minute Shred and I am actually looking forward to doing it again tomorrow!

So if you need a little motivation to get started on The Shred or any other exercise program, might I suggest a quick trip to the mall, a dressing room with fluorescent lighting and a bathing suit that claims to be your size.

***Note - if you live around here and you have Time Warner Cable, the Exercise On Demand channel is 654. There are tons of free workouts. I could have saved myself $8.99 plus shipping and handling if I had only known!***

Did I really do that?

Last night as I was sitting in front of the TV watching American Idol with no chips and dip in hand because I had eaten all of the dip and was too lazy to mix anymore up, I thought to myself, WHAT HAVE I DONE??

Did I really purchase a workout video this morning and then proceed not only to tell my mom and my BFF about it but the entire Internet??

Geez...now I am actually going to have to do it.

If I had just kept my big mouth shut, I could have purchased it, tried it once, and then thrown it in the cabinet with all the other DVDs and no one would be the wiser.

Great. Just great. That's what I get for drinking lots of coffee and shopping online and having a blog...

I think we need a new motto - Friends don't let friends shop and blog caffeinated!

Caffeine usually leads to an impulse purchase...

This morning at 6:00 AM while I was drinking my coffee, I read yet another blog post by yet another blogger who just started Shredding.

What is Shredding you ask? And no, it has nothing to do with sensitive documents.

As far as I can tell, "Shredding" is what you are doing when you do Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred workout video.

Each workout session lasts 20 minutes and it uses an interval system - 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of ab work - wash, rinse, repeat.

Jillian Michaels is one of the trainers on The Biggest Loser and she seems to know what she's doing, so in a caffeine fueled frenzy, I ordered the DVD.

Last spring, I was up at the crack of dawn every morning for 4 months walking for 45 minutes with my mom. And while I enjoyed talking with my mom every morning, I didn't see any weight loss results.

Granted, I didn't gain any weight during those 4 months, but I didn't lose any either and for me, that was the whole point of getting up before 5:00 AM. We probably weren't walking fast enough. A case of too much talk and not enough action!

So, I've ordered this DVD and I guess I'll give it a go.

I'm going to be 40 in September and I would like to be fit and trim by then.

And apparently, sitting on the couch at night watching The Biggest Loser and eating Kettle Sweet Onion Potato Chips dipped in Tastefully Simple Fiesta Dip isn't doing anything to tone and trim my abs and rear. But y'all, they sure do taste good!

Has anyone done the 30 Day Shred? How did it go? Is this something I can stick to for 30 days or will I be back on the couch with my chips and dip?

And why is it called the "shred?" Wouldn't the "shed" be more appropriated? "Shred" makes me think of shredded cheese, shredded pork sandwiches, shredded lettuce covered in ranch dressing...

Yum...

....where did I put those chips and that dip?

Miracle Monday

Happy Miracle Monday!

This week I would like to highlight a miracle that I pointed you to in March, 2008.

Elizabeth was pregnant with her second child and sitting in the OB/GYN's office waiting to find out the sex of the baby. After the technician told her it was a girl, two doctors came in to review the scans and they sent a scared Elizabeth to talk to her doctor who was at his office across the street.

Her doctor informed her that the scans showed that all of her baby's major organs were growing outside of her body and there was fluid around her brain.

Two days later they had her come back to the office to "review her options." It was then that they told Elizabeth and her husband that the baby would not survive 5 minutes outside the womb and they should consider aborting the baby.

She told them that she couldn't do that, so every Monday for the rest of the pregnancy she was scheduled for an ultrasound. She spent many hours praying that God would help her make it through the rest of the pregnancy.

On the Sunday prior to her last scheduled ultrasound, Elizabeth went back home at her mother's request. Her mother had asked all of her friends and a priest to lay hands on Elizabeth and pray. She didn't like this kind of attention but she did it for her mother.

They prayed for Elizabeth for three hours.

The next morning she went in for her final ultrasound and to the shock and disbelief of all the doctors and nurses - the ultrasound showed that the baby was PERFECT!

And four days later Elizabeth delivered a healthy, perfect baby girl!

"You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples." - Psalm 77:14

If you have something you want to share, it's easy to participate in Miracle Monday. Just post a miracle or an answered prayer on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below.
Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL (www.beth-amomslife.blogspot.com) in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

Breakfast conversation.

I was eating breakfast with the kids this morning and Sarah said, "Mommy, you should grow a baby in your tummy!"

"I'm sorry honey but I'm getting too old to grow another baby in my tummy."

She frowned and crossed her arms.

"And besides," I continued. "I don't need another baby. I already have the best girl baby and the best boy baby in the world."

That made both kids smile.

And then Peter added, "Well it's a good thing you aren't going to grow any more babies because if it was another girl baby I think I would freak out!"

You and me both kid. You and me both!

I can answer "yes" to this question. Can you?

Do you know what it's like to be awoken at 2:42 a.m. to the sound of the next door neighbor's Beagle puppy howling at the moon?

Well, I do.

And I'm not happy about it.

The howling seemed to go on all night but I'm sure it was just 5 minutes or so - the amount of time they had the dog out to go to the bathroom. However, I was never able to really go back to sleep.

I tossed and turned for the rest of the night vowing my revenge on a cute little puppy named Bruno.

I'm off to make more coffee and Google "how to get the neighbor's puppy to stop howling at 2:42 a.m."

Don't mess with my sister!

Peter and Sarah love to play with the two boys that live next door. And the two boys that live next door love to play with Peter and Sarah.

Last night they were pulling Peter and Sarah around in wagons. Each boy had a wagon. Sarah was in one and Peter was in the other. And the neighbor boys doing the pulling looked like they were having as much fun as Peter and Sarah who were being pulled.

A minute after I looked out the window at them, I looked out again and noticed Peter shoving the 6 year old.

What?

Peter normally doesn't get physically aggressive when he gets upset. He will yell absurdities like "You aren't my friend anymore!", cross his arms and stomp off but he normally doesn't touch the person who has made him mad. (Although he does have a bad habit of getting up into the other person's face which is something we are working on.)

I ran outside and started yelling, "What are you doing? Stop it, right now!"

Sarah was in the wagon crying and Peter started to defend himself by saying, "C. was pulling Sarah in the wagon and was bumping her up and down and hurting her and wouldn't stop when she told him to stop so I was pushing him away from the wagon!"

After I reminded him that we shouldn't hit or push other people, I told him how proud I was of him for defending his sister. Because let's face it, normally he is the one harassing her or vice versa.

And she must have been appreciative too because later that evening, she put his bike in the garage when we were cleaning up.

Is it possible that these two may end up being friends?

I sure hope so because it's going to make it so much easier for them to take care of me and my husband in our old age if they can learn to work together!