Goal Planning Monday

Here is this week's Goal Planning Monday post at Mama Manuscripts. An update on how I did with last week's goals and new ones for this week.

Last Week's Goals:

1. Start my new Journible (book of John) and continue working on scripture memory verses. (I have started my new Journible and I am working on my Bible verses.)

2. Exercise 5 or more times this week. (Yes!)

3. Get back to some Fly Lady! (No...never did this)

4. Taxes.  DO them!! (Didn't do them STILL)

5. Finish and work on some reviews.  Do my regular blog posts. (Yes!)

6. Work on my closet. (UGH..no on this one too.)

Goals for this week:

1. Taxes!!!  This is getting ridiculous.  I need to get these done.

2. Exercise 4-5 times this week.

3. Work on my blog

4. Continue with my Journible and Scripture Memory verses.

That's it....I hope I can handle that!

Menu Plan Monday

This is my third week of Trim Healthy Mama. Loving it!

Monday: Take out pizza for the family (I was out with my BFF and had a lettuce wrapped burger at Five Guys)

Tuesday: Tilapia and Green Bean "French Fries"

Wednesday: Cheeseburger Pie with salad or buttered veggies

Thursday: Spaghetti and bread for the kids, date night for mom and dad

Friday: Fooled Ya Pizza (cauliflower crust)-Homemade pizza for the kids

Saturday: Creamy Cheesy Crockpot Chicken, Broccoli

Sunday: Leftovers


Breakfast: Trim Healthy Pancakes (2), Serene's Steamed Omega Sensations, Coconut Porridge, Greek Yogurt and Blueberries, Chocolate Decadence Kefir Smoothie, Crepes

Lunch: Sweet Potato Lunch, Tuna Wrap, Pepper Crusted Salmon, Tuscany in a Bowl, Exotic Green Curry, Harvest Salmon Bisque

Snacks: Choco Pudding, Strawberry Lemon Mousse, Fat Stripping Frappa, Mouth Watering Meringues, Skinny Chocolate, Best Macaroon Cookies, Gingersnaps

Link up your own menu plan at orgjunkie.com.  (Or just find great ideas from other bloggers that share their menus.) This week is found here.

College Common Sense

Have you ever worried about how your kids are going to pay for college and the whole process of finding scholarships, grants and loans? The Going to College and Paying for it Online Video and Workbook from College Common Sense helps people with children of ALL ages navigate the system at an affordable price. The website is a valuable resource with lots of free information for anyone to use.

Denise Ames, financial counselor at a university in Texas, has developed  Going to College and Paying for it Online to help families through this process.  She asserts that it is never really too early to begin this process and recommends you begin this process early.  She has even heard of someone as young as 6 years old getting a scholarship!

Going to College and Paying for it Online Video and Workbook contains a printable pdf workbook with accompanying six videos.  All you need is the internet, a spiral notebook and a 3 ring binder. (I think it makes more sense to use loose leaf paper and just keep it all in one binder.)

I. Introduction (2 pages-no video)

In the introduction you are introduced to the 4 different groups the workbook is written for: parents and students of elementary students (A), middle school students (B), high school students (C) and college aged students (D).  Each activity throughout the workbook is marked with the letter(s) so you know if the activity applies to you or not.

Here, those in middle school and up would complete the activity

She believes it is important not to wait until the last minute but to spend time (years) preparing.  She recommends watching the DVD and reviewing the workbook yearly and working with your child once at least once a month until they are high school age when they should work on this once a week. 

I admit this seems a bit overkill.  I guess I am a procrastinator at heart so I just know I would never spend this much time and effort on this (especially for anyone younger than a junior in high school) when going to college may or may not be something my children want to do.  I only expect my children to go to college if it will prepare them for a specific job they are interested in. 

II. The Big Picture (9 pages)

In this section, you get an overview of what financial aid is, steps for going to college, the difference between tuition and the cost of attending and gives a rule of thumb for how much money is too much when it comes to loans.

There are 2 full pages of Campus Visit Tips and another page of 20 questions to ask before you apply to a college or university.  There is a also a list of 12 Ways NOT to Choose a College (ex. your boyfriend is going there or the college brochure showed all these fun students sitting under trees.  That one made me laugh because I've seen brochures like that and they are enticing! :)  )

Next, you will learn how to evaluate colleges in a non-biased atmosphere. She gives a website link and a pretty extensive list of things to search for.

III. How Financial Aid Works (5 pages)

In this section she tells you what the goal of the financial aid office is, how to get started with the FAFSA, the difference between school and student controlled aid and how the whole financial aid process works.  She includes a worksheet for recording your PIN that you get from the federal government for your FAFSA and a great worksheet for figuring out if you can afford a specific school.

IV. All About the Free Money (6 pages)

This section is all about scholarships; sources for them, types of scholarships and how to know if you should try for a scholarship. She gives ideas for how to find scholarships to apply for.  At this point, she begins to have students create an All About Me spiral notebook and start listing possible places to look for scholarships.

V. The System that Works (7 pages)

In this section, students begin to build a binder with the intention of finding one good scholarship a month to work on.  There is a step by step process for doing this and suggestions for other things to add to your binder such as reference letters and essays the student has written.  There is also essay writing information to help the student with that.

"Everyone benefits from a win-win situation.  They want to give money and you want to receive it. That is your goal."

VI. You in the Process (4 pages)

Much of this is for the senior in high school.  It is an overview with some suggestions and some "life" advice. The last page is for all levels giving lots of ideas to pursue and put down in the spiral notebook.

VII. Put it All Together (3 pages)

This is a final wrap-up with more life advice talking to the student about the future and choices. A portion of this is also written to the parents.

My opinion:

The workbook is good, but the videos are very low tech. I had a hard time paying attention to the videos. The camera is either on "slides" of text with a colored background or on Denise (and she is looking to the side rather than at the camera).  I've included two screen shots here to give you an idea:

Many of the slides do not use proper capitalization and punctuation.  I am not sure of the reason for this, but I was bothered by it. 

While I am not a fan of the video portion of this, a lot of the workbook has very valuable information with a nice step-by-step process for anyone looking for assistance in this area. Chapters 3-5 are my favorites and contain everything you need to know about financial aid.

The workbook is divided up on the website so you have to download the parts separately  I would prefer to have one file to download rather than 7 different ones to have to open and print individually. The pages in the workbook are not numbered so if they come out of the printer and fall out on the floor...well, let's just say it isn't fun putting them in order..  Also, the pdf lesson numbers are off by 1 from the video lesson numbers.

I would recommend this for anyone not familiar with financial aid and really wants to devote time to this for anyone with kids in junior high and up.  Personally, I just don't think it's necessary to start any earlier (but if you have young children and you're interested than go for it.) While I didn't enjoy the videos, going through the workbook has allowed me to re-familiarize myself with the financial aid process and learn a lot about how to obtain scholarships.  This is mostly directed to the student, but I chose to go through this mostly myself with my sophomore student sometimes watching as well.  I've watched all of the videos and read/highlighted the workbook so that I feel equipped to lead my children through this process when they are ready to begin.

Here is a short video introduction where you can see Denise and hear some of her story:



She has a few other videos on her channel including one on building a scholarship binder.

I do highly recommend checking out the College Common Sense website because it is packed with free information to get you started. I also recommend signing up for the free newsletter and/or to receive free weekly lesson plans. She offers so much free information to get you started. Her blog is another great place to find free information.

Purchase Going to College and Paying for it Online Video and Workbook for $25 for 12 months access.  You can also purchase a DVD and workbook for $50 plus $5 shipping.

You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter and Blogger

See what others are saying about College Common Sense's Going to College and Paying for it Online Video and Workbook  on The Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Stick with it Saturday

I've now been eating the Trim Healthy Mama way for 2 weeks. I am LOVING it!  The food is good, it's healthy and I have been losing weight too.  Just a little...but after so long at the same weight I am happy to see the scale moving back down.

Workouts for the week:

Sunday: None

Monday:   Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (this workout kills me....)

Tuesday: Went for a run!

Wednesday: 20ish minute circuit workout that I made up

Thursday:nothing official but I did some exercises with my exercise ball

Friday: Another made up circuit workout because I couldn't find my 30 Day Shred video.

Today: 30 Day Shred Level 2-Day 6 at this level.  This is still tough, but maybe getting a little easier...maybe. I have to rest on the floor when I finish.  I'm not kidding. LOL



Goals for the upcoming week: Eat the Trim Healthy Mama Way and exercise 5-6 times this week.

Link up your own diet/exercise post over at Sam's Noggin. 

Greek and Latin Root cards

If you would like your children to learn Latin and Greek roots you will love Greek and Latin Root Cards from Lone Star Learning.  There are 60 cards total; 30 Latin Roots and 30 Greek Roots. They also come with an answer card with a list of all of the roots with their meanings.


These cards use pictures to help remind you of what each root means.   The cards are rather large at 5.5" x 8.5" and according to the website can be attached to your "word wall".  I don't have a word wall or anywhere to post anything like that, so smaller cards might be a bit more practical for me.  However, we LOVE these cards.

As you can see here each root is made into a picture.  For instance, the root ONYM means name and is pictured as a name tag and HYDR mean water and is pictured as a hose with water coming out of it.  Very ingenious. 

At first, I thought that we'd learn 2-3 roots a week and build from there.  However, Emma (10) wanted to go through the whole set every time. Amazingly, within a week she knew them all!  We even set them aside for a bit and when we came back to them she still knew every one! I am completely impressed. I thought that maybe she didn't really know the roots, but had memorized the pictures and made up a matching worksheet for her and she really does KNOW them.

The backs of the cards are blank.  I thought I might need to write the meanings on the backs of the cards, but we didn't have any trouble just using the reference card.

These cards are recommended for grades 3-8, but if your high school students need to learn roots this would be a very fast way for them to learn them. 

Here is a list of the roots that are included:

Greek Roots		Latin Roots
chrom chron cosm cycl deca derm drome geo graph helio hetero homo hydr hypn macr	mania metr micro onym phil photo poly proto scop sphere tele therm tom tox zo	amor aug cor cresc dent dict dorm filum flex here hum loqu medi migra mit	mort noc port prim ridi rog scrib simil spec stru tact temp tort uni vor

Greek and Latin Root Cards are available for $39.99. Despite the fact that I love these cards, I would never pay this much for them.  I would love to see them design a smaller set of cards (the size of a typical deck of cards) at a more reasonable price.

Visit Lone Star Learning to see all of the Get the Picture Vocabulary cards in a variety of subject areas as well as Digital Products and more!

See what others are saying about Lone Star Learning products on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Trim Healthy Mama-Week 2

This is my second week of Trim Healthy Mama.  This week I thought I'd include my workouts too.

Friday

30 Day Shred Level 2

Breakfast- (S)3 Eggs Fried in Coconut oil with Nutritional Yeast and 1 slice of bacon
Snack-(FP) Fat Stripping Frappa
Lunch- (E) Trim Healthy Pancakes w/1/4 cup blueberries, 0% Greek yogurt and sugar free syrup
Snack- (FP) Big Boy Smoothie
Supper- (S) Salmon cooked in butter with Baked Kale S style
Snack- (S) Chocolate Cake in a Mug with a couple small pieces of Skinny Chocolate with nuts

Saturday

Obstacles XRT Beginner level because I wanted a 20 minute workout

Breakfast- (E) Breakfast Burrito (egg white, salmon, broccoli, peppers and onions)
Lunch- (FP) Fat Stripping Frappa
Supper- (S) bacon cheeseburger in lettuce and buttered broccoli (ate at Applebee's)
Snack-(FP) Choco Pudding (S) Skinny Chocolate


Sunday-
No workout.  I wanted to but Sundays are busy and I took a nap instead.

Breakfast-(FP)Fat Stripping Frappa
Snack- (S) 2 Boiled Eggs, a handful of walnuts and almonds, string cheese
Lunch- (FP) Egg White Wraps with leftover salmon and veggies
Supper- (FP) Loaded Fotato Soup

I made a (FP) Chia Tapioca Pudding today.  I ate the whole thing but not all at once...throughout the day I had some.

Snack- (FP) Egg White Wraps with Light Laughing Cow Cheese, deli chicken and mixed spring greens.  Then a dessert of Tummy Tucking Ice Cream (FP) with 3 small pieces of Skinny Chocolate.(S)

I definitely ate too much tonight.  ugh


Monday-

30 Day Shred- Level 2

Breakfast-(E) Trim Healthy Pancakes with 0% Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup blueberries, swirl SF syrup
Lunch- (FP) Loaded Fotato Soup (1/2) serving, 1 Joseph's Pita with Light Laughing Cow cheese
Snack- (FP) Fat Stripping Frappa
Supper- (S) Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli on Dreamfields Pasta
Snack- (S) some Cheesecake Berry Crunch on top of (FP) Lemon Mousse

(What a delicious day!)

Tuesday-

Went for a run this morning.  I run/walk to avoid injury and because I like it.  I used a 1 minute ratio today and ran/walked for about 25 minutes..with some warm up and cool down walking too.

Breakfast- (ate very late) (S) Corned Beef Hash with 2 fried eggs
Lunch- I didn't eat lunch because my breakfast was so late
Snack- (FP)Lemon mousse with a few raspberries and (S) almonds and a piece of skinny chocolate
Supper- (S) Get Together Salmon (delicious!!), roasted asparagus, steamed broccoli with butter
Snack- (FP)Lemon mousse with a small amount of Cheesecake Berry Crunch, a Joseph's lavash with Light Laughing Cow cheese. (S) I also had a handful of roasted almonds.

I also made some Earth Milk today and had a little bit.  I was planning to make a Green Tea Frappa but never did....probably tomorrow.

Wednesday-
20 minute workout I made up including strength, cardio and abs.

Breakfast- (S) I was out and about so I cut up some light cheese into cubes and took a small baggie of almonds and walnuts. I probably should have had some boiled eggs too.
Snack-(FP) Fat Stripping Mocha Frappa
Lunch-(E) Luv My Sweet Potato Lunch...yum!!
Supper-(S) Hearty Red Soup and Marcy's Cheese Bread
Snack-



Thursday-
No official workout but I did use my exercise ball for a little bit.

Breakfast- Green Tea Frappa (early) Healthy Trim Pancakes (later AM)
Lunch- (E) 1/2 Sweet Potato and about 1/2 cup Greek yogurt with small amount of blueberries and Truvia
Snack-(S) Choco Pudding with a small amount of mixed nuts
Supper- (S) Cobb Salad (out)
Snack- (S) a few small plan pb cookies and some lemon mousse with a bit of Cheesecake Berry Crunch on top


I am very pleased with how this week went.  I have LOST weight this week and this has not happened to me in so long.  I LOVE THM food!

3-in-30 Update

Well, it is the end of my first 3-in-30 challenge.  (Technically 3 in 28 I think...lol)

Here's how I did:

Spiritual Goals

Finish my Journible (Proverbs) by writing in it daily (Yes, I finished this book earlier this week!)

Physical Goals

Exercise 4-5 times a week. (Yes! Most weeks this month I exercised more than this.)

Homemaking Goals

Clean out my "junk drawer" (Yes! and I've kept it nice all month)
Clean my closet (huge job....may not finish but want to at least make some headway...this "closet" is actually a small room and long overdue for some decluttering/organizing.) (Unfortunately, I did not get to this.  I worked on it a bit early in the month but totally dropped the ball on this one.)


Overall, I am pretty happy though I wish I had done the closet. I guess it will go on my new 3-in-30 list for March.