JOINTS in MOTION

I had the pleasure of spending Mother’s Day with my friend, Julie, the mother of one my daughter’s classmates. My family joined theirs for dinner and I had a chance to talk to Julie about this amazing thing she’s doing: walking in a 30k in Costa Rica and raising money for the Arthritis Society.

Since I have arthritis, Julie’s cause is particularly important to me. And when I wanted to find out more about Joints in Motion, Julie very kindly allowed me to ask her a ton of questions. (For brevity, I have summarized our discussion.)

nc: How did you get involved with Joints In Motion?
jb: A life-long friend of mine had participated in Joints In Motion before and got me involved for the walk that’s coming up in Costa Rica.

nc: A lot of people get involved in fundraising for organizations like this because they have the disease or they know someone who has the disease. Are you walking for someone, or is this just a cause you’ve chosen to support?
jb: It’s just something I’ve chosen to do.

nc: You’ve raised so much already. Are you the one brainstorming all these fantastic fundraising ideas or is there a “handbook” to guide you along the way?
jb: There is a fundraising guide to help out the fundraisers. I’ve gotten most of my ideas from a lady who was posting on the forum about different things that she had done and what had worked for her.

nc: What do you expect to get out of this amazing opportunity? (Besides raising money for a great cause.)
jb: It’ll be great to have a vacation and time to myself.

nc: What’s the training like? If you’re going to be walking 30K, you’re probably preparing for that in some way. Is there training support or are you going it alone?
jb: I am working with a trainer and closer to the date there will be more strict training schedules to really prepare for the walk.

nc: Have you involved your family in your fundraising?
jb: My husband and my family have been very supportive. My kids don’t really understand what it is I’m doing, but they support me.

nc: What other great fundraising plans do you have coming up before the closing date for raising the money?
jb: On June 8th I’m taking part in the annual Queen’s Drive Street Sale in Weston and along with garage sale items, I’ll be selling hot dogs and other goodies. The proceeds will go to the Arthritis Society. Also, on my blog you can link to Arbonne and purchase great products with 20% of your purchase going to the Arthritis Society. And recently I hosted a Tea Party with Steeped Tea which helped raise money for the Arthritis Society.

nc: It sounds like this has been a pretty good experience so far. Has anything stood out to you in this whole experience?
jb: Yes, the generosity of people. We have been so blessed and I’m blown away by the generosity of people.

nc: Thanks for taking the time to speak to me about all of this.

If you want to help Julie reach her goal, visit her Joints in Motion website to donate.

And keep up with Julie’s efforts on her blog!

Sitting is bad for your health

There has been a recent spate of articles in the media about how “sitting is the new smoking”. (freshjuice.ca, news.discovery.com, theglobeandmail.com. There are more articles. You can Google the topic if you want to read them all.)

Generations before us, the majority of people used their bodies to make a living, get around, survive, etc. Nowadays, most of us just use our minds. Our bodies aren’t as active as they once were. So we have to fit in a daily visit to the gym to get the exercise we once got just by going about our daily lives.

Mmmm, rotisserie chicken

So, who wants to eat better, be healthier and generally take really good care of themselves? I think it’s safe to say that this is what almost all of us want.

My biggest reason for not being a perfect eater (OK, my two biggest reasons):

1. It’s a lot of work to eat healthy
2. Healthy food doesn’t taste as good as not-so-healthy food

I know there are easy recipes and tasty recipes out there covering all kinds of foods. I’ve even tried some of them. But I always come back to plain, ol’ chicken. Why? Because it’s the only thing, regardless of how I prepare it, that is easy and that my whole family will eat without an argument.

So when I heard about the Ronco Rotisserie, I thought, “Hmm, there’s one way that I have never prepared chicken.” And my family loves rotisserie chicken (but we only get it at restaurants because we don’t have a rotisserie).

Ronco Showtime 5500 Stainless Rotisserie

The rotisserie would make it a cinch to make delicious, juicy chicken. So that takes care of my two big reasons for being a bit of slacker in the healthy eating department.

And another thing Ronco helps me with is saving some money on my latest coveted small appliance. Here are the details from Ronco:

It’s Fan Appreciation Month for Ronco Foodies! Ronco’s July contest/giveaway is over and it was a huge success!!  While Ronco could not give everyone a free rotisserie, they sure would like to help get a Ronco 5500 Rotisserie in your kitchen. For the entire month of August, Ronco fans can receive $50 off a Ronco 5500 Rotisserie. Simply use discount code THANKS5500 when you check out at Ronco.com.

+ like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter

The Yogurt Monster

Empty yogurts, left behind by a satisfied two-year-old. This was the order in which he ate them. He claims he was looking for the booberrwies. He found them at the bottom of the last yogurt.

My 2-year-old son is single-handedly keeping Astro in business.

What is it they say? If a kid wants to eat only one thing for days or weeks on end, as long as it’s a healthy choice and you keep offering other foods as well, you’re better off saving your breath for a real issue, rather than fighting him on a trivial thing like eating only one kind of food day in and day out.

Thankful…but not

Have you ever known that you should be thankful for something but have a hard time actually being thankful?

Like recently, that darn bug invited itself to our house again. It was an unwelcome guest the last time it was here, and we were certainly no happier to see it back again.

But it barged right in nonetheless; kind of took over for a few days. All but my daughter were affected…and I’m not entirely sure that she escaped completely unscathed.

Of grandparents and gratefulness

My husband and I are incredibly lucky people.

Here’s why:

1. We have each other
2. We have (for the most part) our health
3. We have two beautiful, healthy children
4. We have our extended family
5. We have our friends

I’d like to draw your attention to #4.

Lost…not the show…the feeling

Lost. Misplaced. Out of my element. Disconnected. Sad. Confused. Anxious. Weary. Distressed. Tired. Worn out. Hopeless. Weak.

To delete all

This morning, while sifting through my personal email to delete some of the advertising messages before opening the good stuff from friends and family, I checked what I thought was the box beside the first email and proceeded to hit delete.

Suddenly, all my messages were selected. You know, the ones that I’ve been saving for the past three years because I just might go back and read them at some point? Yeah, those messages.

This Darn Bug

Dear Bug,

Where are you hiding?