Friday is one of my favorite days of the week – I’m pretty sure that’s par for the course for most people, right? This is the final Friday of the summer break for the kids – next week is Back To School week for them. There may or may not be some celebrating going on on that first day:

back-to-school-parents-celebrate-moms-jump

Of course the dynamic is a little different this year, since Little Dude will be going back to his brick-and-mortar school, but Princess Nagger will park her butt here at home to do the Virtual Academy. I’m looking forward to her not being bored, no major daily morning struggle to get her out of bed and take her to school, and her being able to work ahead and actually enjoy learning again. It’ll be an adventure!

It’s time once again for some Friday fill-in fun, the perfect way to wrap up the week and kick off the weekend! 

From Ann of McGuffy’s Reader:

“The Friendly Fill-Ins are four fun and easy statements to complete. Ellen of 15andmeowing provides the first two statements and the final two are offered by myself. We try to make sure they will be fun to both answer and share. On Friday, the linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM. Please come back, link up, and share your thoughts!”

And away we go! Here are this week’s statements with my fill-ins:

Week 17: September 2, 2016

1. My favorite way to exercise is… There’s a favorite way? I kid, I kid! Actually, my favorite way is to use my fitness massager followed by walking for an hour (give or take) on my treadmill. The fitness massager is awesome – I heard about it on the radio while shuttling the kids back and forth to school last year during the fitness craze months, and had to look into it as I was intrigued, and ended up getting one.

FitnessMassager

It promotes and enhances blood circulation thus resulting in muscle strength, flexibility, muscle relaxation and stress reduction on your legs, hips, and lower back. I can tell you, it really does work – when I was sick and couldn’t work out for a while, I noticed the difference.

I’m also looking forward to finally using this:

It looks like such a fun workout that is different than the typical cardio. It’s described as: POUND is an easy routine to stick with because it yields fast results, is exhilarating and stress-relieving, and unleashes your hidden inner Rock Star. I’m in! I bought it about 6 months ago, but haven’t been able to use it, because I need to figure out which box my DVD player is in so I can hook it up to the TV and get to it.

I know, I know! We stream everything, so I haven’t had to hurry up to figure out where the DVD player is, but since Princess Nagger is going to need to do some sort of workout for her PE requirement for her Virtual Academy, I’m thinking I better get that sucker hooked up this weekend so we’re ready. She’s actually looking forward to trying this out, too, since it’s not simply running (she and I both have an allergic reaction (mentally speaking) about any kind of running…heh.) I’m glad that she’s actually looking forward to utilizing this workout doohickey as much as I am.

2. Something I learned last week was… Hmmmm… I couldn’t think of anything I learned last week, even though I’m a big proponent of you learn something new every day! I however cannot think of anything worth sharing. If I do think of something by next Friday, I’ll let you know!

3. I am sentimental about… Pretty much everything! I guess that comes with being a romantic at heart, maybe? That also no doubt plays into my whole pack-rat mode, too, because I never seem to want to get rid of anything that might have some sentimental attachment. Though I’ve sort of gotten better after our big cross-country move where we had to purge a lot (and by ‘a lot’, I mean tons) prior to the move, but I still have a ways to go on the pack-rat purge, but will no doubt still hang on to the things that have sentimental attachment.

4. Some people might find it surprising to know… My best friend and I signed up for an acting class when a Seattle talent management company was looking to add more people to their talent list. We had so much fun! Then the Navy relocated her and her hubby to Florida, so I had to wing it on my own. I still had fun, but it wasn’t as fun as having my best buddy along for the ride. This was my head shot from back then:

StacySwensonJohnson

I got to do lots of extra work for movies that were filmed in Seattle, plus got to do some local commercials. Then I moved to Pennsylvania, too far outside of Philadelphia to continue pursuing that dream, so that fun stuff came to an end. Now that I’m back, though, I’ve been tempted to call them up and see if I can rejoin for more fun! I’ll keep you posted.

That’s a wrap! Hope you join in the fun! As a side note, we were off camping last weekend with absolutely positively no internet connection (believe me, I tried – even had my Karma with me to try to connect) so I’m way behind making the rounds for last week – I’ll be rectifying that later.

 

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21 Comments

  1. Thank you for participating in the fill-ins, great answers. I learned a lot from your post, I need to look into fitness massager and Pound sounds fun too. Very nice headshot! I have done acting in indie films and I was an extra in 30 Rock. Hope you have a great weekend!

    1. Thanks for hosting the fun, Ellen! I always love learning new things about all the participants! 🙂 Definitely look into the fitness massager – it’s fun to use and really does help with circulation and whatnot! 🙂 Oooh! You’ve done acting in indie films and was an extra in 30 Rock?! How cooooool!!!! Have a great week – ‘see’ you on Friday! 🙂

  2. I hope that all goes well for Princess with the virtual academy. We homeschooled our children and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We were sort of a hybrid school, a cross between curriculum use and unschooling. We did a lot of car-schooling, too. Going to things like state/national parks and nature centers/botanical gardens, zoos, etc., are all educational and count. In South Carolina, it was a bit more regulated but, in Texas, homeschools are considered private schools and we had the freedom to let them learn as they chose to learn. It paid off. Our youngest child, whose only public school experience has been college, is on the Dean’s list in the Honor’s college at her university. Our Marine is excelling there, too, and his only public school experience was college, too. They were both homeschooled from the start. The other two had some regular school attendance, one of them until 7th grade and the other one until about 2nd grade. 🙂 Sorry to go on so about it. I hope that your little girl enjoys every minute of it!

    Your head shot is great. 🙂 I hope that you’ll be able to get back into doing the fun stuff that you want to do.

    Have a blessed weekend!

    1. I’m loving that more and more people I’m running into are homeschoolers. I want to do some car-schooling with Princess Nagger, too – I keep telling her the world is our oyster, and that we’ll get to go places that will not only be fun, but educational. 🙂 How awesome your youngest is on the Dean’s list in the Honor’s college! Congrats!! And your Marine is excelling – you guys gave them the best opportunity to be where they are now *because* you cared enough to homeschool. 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing the interest in learning return for Princess Nagger – she’s always been a sponge! 🙂 Thank you for the compliment – I’ll let you know if I get to go back into that fun stuff! 😉 Have a great week, Suzanne! 🙂

  3. We homeschooled all of our kids. The two youngest never attended public school until college. They far outshine their classmates. We allowed them to study whatever they chose, in addition to making sure they got the core curriculum. You may find that year-round homeschooling is a great way to educate the kids and keep them from being bored.

    1. Woot! Homeschool parents rock, David! 🙂 Every homeschooled kid I’ve ever met has always been smart as a whip. The one biggest thing I’ve heard is that boredom is thwarted. 😉

  4. I don’t think there was homeschooling when I was a kid. If there was it was just for kids who were sick. I think it can be a great thing especially for kids that get bored easily.

    1. I never thought of that, Patricia – I don’t think there was homeschooling when I was a kid, either. I’ve met so many homeschooled kids who are so much further ahead for the experience – regular schools are so mandated anymore, that even the teachers have complained about the constraints they’re under for teaching their students. Mostly because of specific curriculum they’re required to meet, as well as testing scores, etc. – it makes it harder for students like Princess Nagger to enjoy learning because they’re highly intelligent and learn super fast, but the classroom is designed not to leave kids behind – so the teaching slows to make sure everyone is on the same page. Which then generates boredom for those that learn fast. 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing how Princess Nagger will grow and flourish with her learning, that’s for sure! 🙂

  5. That is quite fascinating Ms movie star. The best thing is that you had such fun and make for good memories too!

    I would love to do the VA with my kids. I love having them with me.

    1. The best thing definitely is that I had fun and made memories – round two will be coming up soon! 😉

      I bet you’d be great as the Learning Coach for your kids through Virtual Academy! 🙂

  6. So you are joining the ranks of those who home-school through a Virtual program! Good for you, i hope it works well for your daughter.

    A fellow pack-rat here who can tell you that after watching so many people lose their homes in this latest flood, i am doing more purging. As sentimental as i am about many things, in the end, they are just things.

    The acting sounds like fun, in small doses. It wouldn’t be nice to be world famous i think, not able to go anywhere without being recognized. Your career sounds just right.

    1. Yes! I’m joining the homeschooling ranks through a virtual program – I would have done the bonafide homeschooling thing, but here in Washington State you’re required to get some sort of teaching certificate. This saves time to get her started right away instead of waiting for me to go through some process first. 🙂 Doing it through the Virtual Academy cuts through the red tape and makes sure everything is how it should be for Washington State’s legality stuff. 🙂 I have a feeling Princess Nagger will definitely flourish – her biggest complaint has been boredom, along with interactions with not-so-nice fellow students.

      I’m slowly but surely purging things one box at a time…heh! It’s not easy when we’re pack-rats, is it? But yeah, seeing how so many people lost their homes in the latest flood really puts things in perspective. They’re just ‘things’ after all.

      I agree – I don’t think I’d want to be ‘world famous’ because you can’t have a ‘normal’ life! 🙂

  7. Stacy, you may recall I homeschooled our three kids from K-12. It’ll be an adjustment for you, but with PN being old enough to handle herself then hopefully it won’t be as big of deal for you. It’ll be fun having her home learning at her speed plus she can pursue her study interests better outside the academics. Hey, that’s cool you did some local commercials and stuff. You should check into picking things back up again. Who knows where this might take you! You didn’t tell me I have an almost star for a friend? lol Enjoy the long weekend!

    1. Yes, I do remember you did the whole homeschool thing – my sister did that with her two boys as well. Every homeschool kid I’ve ever met (my nephews included) have always been highly intelligent forward-thinkers. I’m excited to let Princess Nagger really flourish without being mandated to a cookie-cutter way of learning, and/or being stuck in a box. 🙂 I’m definitely going to check into picking things back up again – I had so much fun when I did the commercials and such before! 🙂 I hope you enjoyed your long weekend – have a great week! 🙂

  8. Ah, here is to a fabulous school year for both kids and I hope your daughter falls in love in love with it again. I have heard really good things about the virtual academy’s.

    You are truly stunning! Nice head shot.

    1. Hear hear! Here’s hoping Princess Nagger falls in love with school again – I am personally excited for the opportunity for her to really flourish, even with the extra work for me being her Learning Coach. 🙂

      Awwww! Thank you! You’re making me blush! 🙂

  9. I love your headshot and I definitely think you should sign up!! That would be so much fun – such interesting experiences I bet. I really enjoyed drama class in high school and university, but once I started working; there was never any time for plays anymore. That makes me kind of sad because it really was a great experience.
    I want to try that workout too!!! Doesn’t it look like so much fun? More like dancing than a workout it seems and that suits my inner rock chick just fine.

    1. Awwww thank you, friendo! 🙂 Still more interesting experiences to experience, so I’ll probably end up signing back up again. 😉 That workout really does look like so much fun, especially since it’s more like a dancing workout vs. regular (read: boring and repetitive) workout. And suiting our inner rock chick will be a big bonus. 😀

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