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As soon as I woke up this morning and had my coffee in hand, I sat down at my laptop and logged myself into the Algonquin Student Blackboard where I will study my first course ” Introduction to Fundraising”which is a part of the Fundraising Management Certificate I am working towards.

Today was the start date so I wanted to ensure that the course was accessible and sure enough, it was sitting there waiting for me!

While drinking my coffee, I looked over the different categories of information that I need to be aware of, ie lessons, quizzes, booking exams et cetera.

I read ahead and found that my first task was to write up no more than 200 word discussion about one of the types of giving to a non profit organization, 3 reasons why I feel that this type of giving would be an important funding source for an organization and one reason that another fundraiser may disagree with my thoughts.

I sat down and have written up a draft.  This is not due until September 27th so there is no rush. I am going to take some more time to make it perfect before I send this to a discussion thread for the whole class to see. 

I am very happy to be studying this finally and I am well on my way!

I started a low carb diet recently and have eliminated a lot of the carbohydrates in my diet.  I have stopped eating pasta, bread and all the starchy and carbohydrate filled foods.  I have also stopped eating sugary foods.

 I am drinking tonnes and tonnes of water, making healthy choices and so far, feel fabulous!

I plan to keep it up!

Today is the first day back of school for the 2012-2013 school year! Wow!

My twin girls Samantha and Melissa are in Senior Kindergarten (SK) this year and are now the leaders of the class.  Ashleigh started grade 3 today and has a fantastic teacher whom I think will be a perfect match for her.  My son Justin is grade 6 and next year will be an intermediate.  Time flies, especially with four kids.

All my kids are growing up, and embarking on new journeys in their lives and I am looking forward to another fabulous school year.

I wish my children a successful year as I do yours!

After a summer of eating poorly, I finally sat down yesterday for a couple of hours and planned out a healthy two week meal plan for my family of six.

I had all of the notes and handouts from the nutritionist that I had seen at the gym in the past as well as some recipes I had printed off from the internet for school lunch ideas.  With my pen and paper, I planned a menu for one week and we will duplicate the same menu for my second week also.

I have recently stopped running (due to laziness mainly) but coupled with this and possibly my low thyroid condition coming back again, I had noticed I was gaining weight. I also took into count that I ate terribly throughout the summer with many bbq’ed foods and lots and lots of carby food. (Burgers, hotdogs, corn on the cob as a few examples)

I had noticed the past few weeks, I quite often had a dull stomach ache. After having a bbq with friends on the weekend and eating processed burgers with white buns, potato salad (yummy), and corn on the cob, I went to bed early with some pepto bismol because I had a sore tummy and even worse than the usual dull ache I had been experiencing.

At that point, I had talked many times about getting back to our eating clean diet but just hadn’t made the time to sit down and get it planned.  After Saturday night, I knew that I finally had to make the change and get back to a healthy and nutritious meal plan for the entire family.

After two hours of sitting in front of computer, with a pen and paper and nutrition hand outs, I planned our menu.

 The above menu does not show the snacks that I have planned for the children’s school lunches but I will give a few examples below:

Grapes (red and green)
cheese strings
celery with cream cheese and raisins (ants on a log)
a yogurty fruit salad ( strawberry yogurt mixed with catalopue, grapes, strawberries)
cheese and crackers
apples

My menu is a bit different. I am trying a low carbohydrate diet otherwise known as Keto Diet.  I am  eating low carb but still following the principles also of eating clean and I am not eating anything white, or processed. I am not eating bread, pasta, limiting sugar as much as possible and eating clean as well. 

And, even though it has been only two days, the dull stomach ache I have had recently has not came back so it could be a coincidence that it has gone away with my new eating habits already (hoping so) but I will keep you posted.  So far so good!

First Day School Lunch pictured below:

Well, tomorrow is the first day of school for my children and although I definitely think it is time to get back to routine and we had a fabulous summer, it will be great to get back to routine.

For the most part, my children are all excited to return.  I am looking forward to getting everyone back into a routine and regular sleeping patterns again.  Not looking forward to making the school lunches so much but am happy to know that I have done a lot of meal planning to ensure they will be eating healthy snacks and lunches.

Today will consist of picking clothes out for tomorrow, baths, and early bedtime.

I want to wish all of my children and yours, a wonderful back to school transition and school year.

So, as you all know, I have recently starting writing again, after many years.

I had an exciting day yesterday. I recently approached the Snap Newmarket paper about working for them.  I did not ask for a paid poisition, in fact, I asked for it to be non-paid.  I thought it would be fantastic to get back into writing, and to have as a great learning experience.  They have asked me to call them next week after the kids go back to school and they will schedule me to come out with them to an event to work.

I was telling my husband last night about this and he asked me ” What I am trying to use this writing for, do you want to be a writer or a fundraiser”?  This is a valid question as I am beginning an online certificate program next week for “Fundraising Management”.

I believe that as a Fundraiser or organizer of special events that writing goes hand in hand. You will need to write about your fundraisers, do advertising.  Also, if the writing was to lead to a paid freelance writing position, I would embrace that also.  I am thinking that if I have the opportunity, maybe I can be both a writer and a fundraiser. 

My children are all growing up and I will be looking for a full time position next September so if I can add some experience and marketable skills for myself in the mean time, I say “Go for it”!

At the end of June this year, I decided I wanted to grow a vegetable garden.  Although I did not have a lot of space, I dug up a patch of grass in between my deck and my fence.  Compared to most gardens, I had a very small space but as a first time vegetable gardener, I thought would give me a first hand experience as to proper spacing and what vegetables would grow.

I actually bought the majority of my plants and seeds at the Metro Garden Centre close to my house. I also picked up a few things at Home Depot and made sure I had the right soil for the garden to grow.

The lady who worked in the garden centre at Metro seemed to know a lot about gardening and the one thing she told me is that it was hard work to do all of the digging and get it ready but it was well worth it in the end.

She was correct. I have watched my vegetables grow and weed my garden and it has been very rewarding.

In the beginning, I had planted cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, purple peppers, tomatoes and in pots, more tomatoes, beans and peas and also bought herbs and put in baskets on my deck off my kitchen.

The peas and beans died when I was away on vacation (had been a dry week and was not home to water) so I did not bother to replant them.

I have had two tomatoes so far ready out of garden and two cucmbers that we have been able to eat. It has all been very good.

Next year, I am hoping to make the garden bigger and add a few more vegetables to the mix.

I just wanted to tell everyone that it is a fun process to watch vegetables and food growing in your own back yard and to know that the food you are growing is free of chemicals and healthy for your family.

Well, it’s that time of year again!  School is starting and the hustle and bustle of school shopping has to be done to get the kiddies organized for another productive year of school.

Shopping for four children is a little more trying and expensive also.  I try to be a bargain hunter but also one of those parents who may spend a little more on shoes if I don’t like the cheap ones offered. 

Sunday was that day for me!

I had to take my four kids to their annunal eye appointment before school starts, always do to ensure their eye sight is doing well and there are no issues before they return to school.  As always, four for four have perfect vision and no issues at this time. 

After the eye appointment, the kids and I went to Zellers. With Zellers closing, I was hoping that I could find some deals. My two oldest children found a pair of indoor and outdoor shoes each but there was NOTHING in the sizes of my four year old twin girls. So 4 pairs of shoes purchased.

We went to Old Navy and bought a dress for my eight year old daughter  I can never get out of Old Navy without my little girls posing with the mannequins and dog in front of store.

After window shopping for a bit, we left the mall and headed over to Walmart.  Denim was on sale for $5, tops and pants on for $4-$8 depending on what you had wanted to buy.  Each kid picked two outfits as well as a pair of jeans.  Then we headed to the shoe section.  This took a while going through different shoes and picking out the perfect ones for my “Senior Kindergarten” stars.  4 more pairs of shoes bought.

So, end of day, we had purchased 8 pairs of shoes, 8 tops, 8 skirts and/or pants and 3 pairs of jeans all for the price of approximately $150.  Not too shabby for four children!

I had already purchased the school supplies earlier at Walmart previously and for the two oldest who needed pen, pencils, protractor and all necessary supplies, I spent $58.

So, shopping can be done at a frugal price if you make sure you hit the stores at the time when the sales are on!

I have started early bedtimes now also to get my children in the routine of going to bed at a decent time (after extended summer hours) so that when school does begin, it is easier for me to get them out of bed.  I have also started getting myself up at my pre-summer time and look forward to getting back to a regular routine. 

We have all had a fabulous summer but routine is good and looking forward to it!

Are you able to go for a day without looking at your blackberry or Iphone constantly? Or do you miss it when you may accidentally have left it at home before you went out? Or worse, have you ever really ended to contact someone and couldn’t when you needed to?

This is what happened to my husband and I at the CNE in Toronto this weekend. 

We had separated and went different ways. My daughter and I went to shop while my husband and children were meeting up with my sister and her family to watch the dog show.  The last message I had received from my husband was that they were on their way back towards me and that they couldn’t get into the dog show because it had been full. 

I was about to text him to tell him where I was and my blackberry died.  Darn.  He had had an idea of where I was so he found me. His Iphone had lost battery at the exact same time as mine had.

He told me he was going to the phone charging station outside Exhibit Hall “B” beside the water fountain and took my blackerry with him, although that wasn’t what I had heard.  I was to meet him after I was done shopping.

I spent some time in a few different outlets checking out clothing for myself and for my children.  After spending alot of time looking for me, I decided to forget it to go look for the kids instead.  I spent some time in the only kids clothing outlet I had found looking through racks and planning out first day of school outfits.  As it turned out, I calculated the prices per head in my head and realized that the deal wasn’t as fabulous as I had thought so I put it all back.  (Except for 3 pairs of Justin Bieber pyjamas for my girls, my 8 year old daughter would not have left otherwise.)

After the pyjama purchase, my daughter and I went off to find the rest of our family.  My daughter had left the building and started walking up to the midway area looking for the water fill station that had had a charging station beside it. Of course, we could not find this!  What I had actually heard was that my husband was going to the phone charging station outside of Building B near the water fill up station.  This was so wrong.  I had thought “outside” being out of the actual building but as it turned out, they were in the same building as us, just outside the hallway of Exhibit B.  Well, an hour and a half later of being lost et cetera, I called my sister who was also at the CNE hoping she had been in contact with them as he had been and they found us.

Nonetheless, the hour and half was quite frustrating. Normally, we could call or text each other to find each other and find a mutual place to meet but we were pretty much in the darkness, in the CNE with millions of people and the possibility of not finding each other.

This was when my husband and I realized just how dependent we are on our devices.  

Has something like this happened to you before?

My family and I went to the CNE together this weekend.  We had a twleve hour day but was the best CNE Day we have ever had!  We go every year as a family, as our last main event before school begins.

We parked at my nephew’s underground parking at his condo.  ( Thanks for that Paul, was very appreciated!)  He lives about two blocks from the Exhibition grounds so we walked to the gates from there.  As we entered into the gates, there were food trucks set up this year, the first time ever at the CNE.  The smells were amazing and they all looked pretty cool.  (From cupcakes to french fries to burgers, there was a little bit of something for everyone)

We had arrived just before noon so after we all went to the washroom and washed up, we had lunch.  My pick for lunch was from a truck called ” Urban Smoke Fusion BBQ”.  I picked it based on the smell but also advertised was something called “Dirty Bob”.  It was described as beef brisket with mushrooms, onions and swiss cheese.  Not only did it sound yummy but I knew based on the ingredients, I would absolutely love it.

                                                                 Samantha

After the dancing stage, we head over to the food court and not often can you order any of these neat foods that are offered. And of course, you would not want to eat these foods on a regular basis.  My eleven year old son really wanted to try the ” Donut Burger” or “Krispy Kreme Burger” so we found it being made and sold at Epic Burger.  Although it is something that I would not eat in a million years myself and would probably gain weight just by looking at it, for an eleven year old, my husband and I figured he may as well be able to try it one time.