Jello Arms and Evening Workouts

Yesterday since I was too tired to work out in the morning I decided to workout in the evening after everyone else had gone to bed.  I watched "The Closer" while I walked on the treadmill for 3o minutes then did some ab work and exercised my arms a bit despite my achy shoulder.  It was actually nice working out in the evening with everyone in bed, I didn't have to worry about any interruptions from the kids or anything else for that matter!  I even went to sleep rather quickly and slept pretty good.  I always seem to be more tired than energized after a workout, so that worked out too!  After a bit of consideration I think I'm going to stick to the evening workouts.  I had originally planned to workout first thing in the morning.  I was going to get up about 5:30 and do my workout, shower and be dressed before the kids got up in the morning.  However, stuff seems to be getting in the way of getting up early enough to get all that in before the kids get up, so it just isn't working out as well as I'd hoped.  Plus the kids are going to be going to school earlier a couple days a week for before school activities so I'd have to get up even earlier to be ready before they get up.  Evening just seem to be the better compromise!

This morning, I had to get the kids ready early so that I could attend a meeting in the Library for an accelerated Math program that the school wants to place Anna in.  I found out all the criteria that they accessed to select her and what they'll be studying this year.  Basically she's scored high in 3rd and 4th grade on her CSAP tests, had high spring MAPS scores, and passed w/ an A or P in 3rd and 4th grade.  Plus she's been recommended by her teacher and demonstrates a maturity to sustain the program.  It's going to be a challenge, but by the end of the year she'll be ready to move onto Algebra in 6th grade since they'll be covering pre-Algebra during her 5th grade year.  Thank God she has her father to help her out, he's a whizz at math!

As everyone was leaving I took the opportunity to talk to the Principal and Math teacher about Prairie, the Middle School Anna will be going to next year if we don't try and choice into another school.  I told them what I've heard from friends and what my friend have heard from friends.  I told them about my concerns about safety and security especially with gangs, which I've heard is a problem there.  I'm not really concerned about the ethnic diversity there, just that there might be a problem with kids not caring due to financial difficulties or parents not caring, which I've also heard from friends.  They told me that Prairie tested the highest of all the schools in the district in math, they really take it seriously there.  They also said that many families have sent their kids to Prairie and their kids are thriving there.  They recommended that I go and talk to people at the school, observe classes and talk to the school counselor.   So over the course of the next two months that exactly what I'm going to have to do since I can't submit any other paperwork to attend other schools till the 1st of November.

After the meeting I took David and Anna to their school lines.  John and I headed home, but I decided not to far into our trip home that I wanted to talk to my friend Athena about schools so we turned around and headed towards her house.  She was actually just getting to the school to drop her kids off, so we joined up.  (She's debating sending her kids to Prairie as well due to negative feedback from friends.)  Anyway, we had a good talk and also discussed a few different things that were on our minds.  I even cleared up a bit of  frustration, at least on my end, about something that had happened between us recently (unintentionally hurt feelings due to an over sensitive me).  This whole time I had been holding Maggie in my arms, she'd fallen asleep (she's still sick).  I continued to carry her, while John pushed the stroller.  Athena walked us most of the way home and we went our separate ways just down the street from our house.  Back home, I laid Maggie down for a nap in her crib and my arms were so shaky from holding her so long they felt like jello.  They are better now that they've had a chance to rest.