Not chortling, anymore....

The furnace has been something of a wake-up call for me.

Let's just say, I now fully understand what the husband means when he says, "We can't afford it, we have debt."

In the past, I read Mary Hunt. Last weekend, I read Dave Ramsey. They say essentially the same thing. It's so reassuring. I like Ramsey's plan over Mary's only because Ramsey wisely advises doing things one step at a time. Perhaps I mis-read Ms. Hunt, but when I tried her program in the past, I tried to implement everything at once--it was slow going and very fragile. Something came up, I forget what (probably a repair on an old truck we no longer own) and de-railed everything until we are at the point we are at today.

We are very lucky--the husband has always insisted we not use the credit card for anything except "emergencies." We can pay that off in full by the next statement date. The bugaboo, is, of course, our line of credit (wherein 100% of our debt--of all kinds) resides. It's a Home Equity loan --so it's actually piddly in comparison to the "value" of our home--but it isn't "piddly" with respect to my husband's annual income. If nothing else, this economic crises has wakened me to the precariousness of taking on debt someone else thinks you can afford.

Nu uh. Not anymore.
We get to decide--and so we're taking control.

Wish us luck.
(We've already had our first tiff.)

Oh Frabjous Day!

I am chortling.

Happy to Report

I took the boy and the dog for a brisk twenty minute walk today, before supper. I converted a crock pot recipe so I could stick it in the oven (and warm up the kitchen) and we headed out.

He talked the whole way about his bionicles. I just let it go over my head.

I've made up a weekly checklist--for me--based on Bob Green's Best Life plan. I re-read phase one last night and it struck me again how sensible it is.

I want to tread very carefully with the boy. There are a lot of bad eating habits to change.

and hey,

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THE FURNACE COMES TOMORROW!!!!!
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Obesity

What an ugly, ugly word.

An adult is obese if his BMI is 30 or greater.
BMI = Body Mass Index.
There's a handy dandy calculator here.
My BMI is 33.9

Food is much to difficult to think about, right now. Instead, even though it is cold, even though winter is coming, even though going outside is tough, I want to focus on physical activity.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adults need 150 minutes a week of moderately intense excercise (such as a brisk walk). That's three 10 minute walks, 5 days a week. They also encourage muscle work twice a week. Personally, I think it's crucial. I just may devise a simple stretching and muscle toning regime. I wonder what resistence bands cost?


And children need one hour a day! This includes all kinds, though. Muscle resistence, bone strengthenng and aerobic activity. Yikes.

My poor kids. I don't give them that much time. My daughter will grab her bike and ride up and down the alley--but my son? When I send him outside, he grabs a book to read. He's even tried that on family walks! According to the numbrs at the CDC site, he's in the 97th percentile for boys his age and height with respect to his weight. Yes. He's heavier than 97% of his fellows. I really need to stop being in denial about the child I used to refer to as my "Biafra boy."

What am I going to do?

The most appalling book

has me utterly fascinated. I'm drawn into this morass of emotion, of unbelievable highs and suicidal lows: the diary of a food addict.

She keeps mentioning a checklist: a list of things to do to "become thin." I'm wondering if such an approach might work for me. It certainly does for school--I make up a chart with all of our subjects each week and type in our lessons for each day of the week. It makes school as "pick up and go" as possible and it really works.

What would go on a diet checklist?

Exercise.
Water.
Food groups.
In fact, now that I think of it, Weight Watchers was sort of a checklist for me. So many breads a day, so many fruits, a number of vegetables. Once you know your portion sizes--you can eat whatever you "want"--and as long as you keep to the checklist--and write down what you eat, you won't go overboard.

I am not a believer in calorie restricted diets. In fact, I've often idly wondered what it would be like to eat the calories required at my "ideal" weight--that way I'd never have to adjust. And it could only be called a "diet" in the way the word is really intended--an eating plan or regimen.

Of course, the unknown and extremely influential factor here is exercise. It's ironic. The more one weighs, the harder it is to move. The more weight one loses, the faster one can lose it. Based on a weight loss of a total of one pound a week (which would mean about 75 weeks for me--what's that--a year and a half?) I'd expect to see next to no movement on the scales for the first few months, then a lot of weight loss, then a plateauing as I reach the goal.

What a strange way to envision weight loss!
And wholly uninspiring.

The Forecast

We'll be fine.

The furnace will be installed Firday. We can make it until then, even though we drop into the negative numbers for the first time this week. We had a wonderfully warm spell all of last week, but it has turned.

Yesterday, (Mon)
High: 13 C, 55 F
Low: 5 C, 41 F
It was gorgeous: golden and sunny. We even had Bible study outside. It was only cold when the wind blew up. My daughter wrapped herself in a blanket. "Just like camping."

Today (Tues)
High: 15 C, 59 F
Low: 3 C, 39.2 F
Sunny

Wednesday
High: 8 C, 46.4 F
Low, 5 C, 41 F
Cloudy.

Thursday,
High: 9 C, 48.2 F
Low: -4 C, 24.8 F
Sunny

Friday
High: 7 C, 44.6 F
Low: -5 C, 23 F
Sunny

Saturday
High: 10 C, 50 F
Low: -5C, 23F

But who cares! We should be warm and toasty by then!

We've decided on a Lennox, 92.0 % efficiency with the variable speed DC motor. 7,000 btu.

It was either that or a Kenmore. The Lennox was a bit more expensive, but 1) I actually figured out how to look up stock recommendations on Google finance (Wende, aren't you proud?) and just liked the look of Lennox better. 2) The husband was a bit concerned that with the Kenmore, it wasn't entirely clear who would be manufacturing the furnace. And 3), service from the folk selling us the Lennox seemed to be top notch. They're local (no 1-800 number to a "call centre") and they have a live person taking their calls. Apparently, we get bumped up in the proirity sequence for service, too, for having purchased out furnace from them.

Cost: $6,000. The furnace itself is only about 1/2, though. The installers have to cut two separate holes into my basement walls for air exchange, intake and exhaust, install a pump and small tube to "exhaust" the water the furnace will produce (and cut into out sewer stack for it to drain). They have to re-line our chimney (less exhaust means we need a smaller channel inside it) and cap it. And then, of course, because new efficient models are smaller, they need to fit sheet metal around our current ducting.

And yes, apparently they can do all this in one day. Friday. None too soon.

For All You Writers Out There....

This is, of course, targeted at kids.
But I thought that it might be of interest to you to know there are free novel writing workbooks.

If you want them.

If you think you can even write a novel that way.

If you think it might just be fun to give it a whirl.

I recommend the elementary one, actually. It's just more fun to call the antagonist a "villian."

By the by, if you feel yo have 50,000 words (good or bad) fighting to get out in the month of November, there's some sort of contest or challenge thingy.