Back to School.... for the Mum!

Just three more weeks until the boys head back to school, but this mama has already beaten them to getting started this year.

I haven't worked a full time job now in seven years.  Seven years.  Wow, that time has gone by so quickly.  After finishing a wildlife degree and an education degree, I spent four years teaching adult education in the NWT and Nunavut.  I loved the work, but once we moved to Faro I realized we could live off of one salary and chose to be a stay-at-home parent.

During these seven years I have done some work.  For about a year and a half I worked creating and editing high school study guides, I was hired by the school to clean out and organize their science labs, and of course there has been my crafting.

The school has asked me every year, a few times a year, if I want to teach but it would just make our lives much too busy and stressful.  I love that I have time to volunteer around town and in the school, and sit on a few committees.  If I was working full or part time I am pretty sure a lot of that would have to be dropped.

But in just one more year, both of my boys will be in school full time and I will have six hours a day to do something.  I thought about expanding my crafting, but that is a very sedentary activity and I think I just want to keep it as my hobby.

So what am I doing?

Well, I am now planning on becoming a Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Nutrition Coach!  I have started my courses in both areas and am enjoying them a lot so far.  I can do almost all of my certification online, but I will head to Vancouver sometime this year to take one of the courses in person.  I am a total nerd and love to study!  I have notes, coloured pens, and flashcards all going at the kitchen table.

My plan is to finish the course work over this next year while Cavan is in school still just part time.  Once both of them are full time I will start up my own small business at our little gym in Faro.  I will be able to work one-on-one with clients helping them with their exercise and nutrition goals.  There is also funding from other groups that I can apply for to help me run programs for people in town at a low cost to them.  Another area I am looking to get into is exercise for seniors.  There are courses I can take after I get my certification that will allow me to do this! 

I was really nervous when even thinking about taking these classes.  While I have lost a lot of weight, I still do not see myself as an incredibly fit person.  Whenever I have thought of a personal trainer, I just thought of someone super buff who runs marathons or something along those lines.  But I think I can bring a lot of personal experience clients because of my weight loss and all the positive changes I have made in my life.

It is also a job that will keep me on track by keeping me in the gym and my mind on nutrition.  It is all to easy for me to slack off going to the gym and even easier to turn back to poor eating habits.  But if I have to be at the gym to workout with clients and talk to them about nutrition, all the more reason for me to be accountable.

Earning a few dollars will be nice, but mainly I just want to do it as something to keep me busy and motivated.  Hopefully it does the trick!

And now, time to get my nose back into my text book.

Camp... Garden... Camp.... Garden....

Camping and gardening have definitely been the theme of this summer!  The boys and I have now spent 30 nights out camping.  Too bad my poor husband has been left behind for most of that, however he insists it hasn't been that bad.  Matt has been scratching a lot of projects off of his to-do list this summer while we have been away (building the greenhouse and wood shed, gravel fill stairs for the backyard, and lots of little projects that have been put off for a long time). 

July is nearly over and I am sure hoping for another few hot spells for my garden and for camping!  Right now though, it is so chilly in my house that I want to light a fire.  The rain is pouring down and it just feels like fall. 

At Fox Lake Campground

Happy to be camping with their friends!

Fox Lake

My garden is really starting to produce!

Out fishing

Taking Hunter for a leap off the dock at Frenchman Lake.

Family water fight at Frenchman Lake.

Dog pile at Little Salmon Lake

True Story

My friend found this in her nine year old daughter's journal when everything came home from school for the summer. 

True story.

On Monday my friend Hunter fell in drury creek current and i saved Hunter.  "Hunter i'll save you!" "Help! cold cold cold"

This was from one of the camping trips we did in May to Little Salmon Lake.  Hunter fell off a rock and his friend Lydia helped him out.  Pretty awesome drawing of the event!

Another Garden Tour!

I got home yesterday after spending 10 nights camping with the boys (and even a few nights with Matthew- silly man- having to go to work).  Blogging has been pretty pathetic lately, but hey, summer is here and I am either camping or gardening.

Today's post is another garden tour!  You can look at the post before this one to see the unbelievable growth in the last three weeks.  Hurray for 24 hour daylight!

Almost all of my 18 strawberry plants have berries growing.

Tomato central!

The Long English cucumbers are growing the fastest out of all four varieties I am growing.

Yum!

I am now dreaming of red tomatoes!

The butternut squash plants look like they will have blossoms on them this week.

The zucchini plants got so big I had to kick them out of the greenhouse.

Peas along back, potatoes along the centre, and beans in the front.  A bit squishy, but everything is doing well!

More of my beans, peas, and potatoes.

Beets are still pretty darn small, but my green onions are growing well.

The sad, sad, sad carrots.  I have no clue if these will produce anything this year!

These carrots look just fine though!

I am being overrun with the lettuce!  Time to start sharing.