1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and...

The kids and I have started an exercise program. I finally figured it out that they wanted to be involved and it was a good healthy thing for them to learn. Besides, they won't leave me alone to exercise!

So we started off with basic stretching, jumping jacks, push-ups, and what I call crunches (they are really laying on your back and pulling your knees up to your chest and picking your shoulders up off the floor - kind of a situp).

Anyway, this picture is posed, but we have been doing this all week and are finding some fun things about exercising. The kids love it when we take turns counting - AL 1-5, Andrew 6-10, JJ 11-15, Mom 16-20, MM - All done. They also get a big kick when we lay on our backs and lift our feet a foot of the ground while I count to five. I count normal 1-4 and then I make 5 sound squeaky, like I am barely holding on. They just bust out laughing. We have even gotten some free weights (I have dumbbells, the kids use soup cans, MM is so small we let her use tomato paste cans) to exercise our triceps and biceps.

I really concentrate on form with the kids because I want them doing exercise right. I am also wanting the kids to understand that we exercise to be healthy, not lose weight (although having looked as some of my recent pictures, I might need to add that when we are overweight, we can benefit doubly from exercise).

Funny story(because with my kids, almost every event has a funny story if I remember to write it down!): The first day I was explaining to the kids that we needed to sit down and put our legs out straight and then reach our arms out to touch our toes. I was encouraging the kids to do this, when I said, "reach out and touch the toes"(my example was a little lacking in that I can't reach my toes anymore). This is when MaggieMae reached over and touched my toes for me. How thoughtful!