my pink toes

reflecting-icons
From my Illustrator class

I'm knee deep in Adobe tutorials, a fibro flare, and sick children, but I thought I'd post my latest project here (see black and white icons, above right), along with the intro I had to write for the class. I thought it would make a pretty good "About Me" segment and it made me laugh. so here you go:

I’m Leah Smith, a thirty-mumble mom of two boys, who at this moment are obsessed with weapons, Star Wars, and Pokemon. I taught 8th grade English and American History until 7½ years ago, when my first child was born (this is what I refer to as “my previous life”). I’ve always done desktop publishing (ah, PageMaker, I loved you!) and have loved color and design – unfortunately, I can’t draw anything more complicated than the Death Star, and even then my renderings are roundly criticized as “weird”, “not really a circle”, and “whatever, Mom”. I’ve also dabbled with HTML, CSS and website design, creating (well, modifying, really) websites (and business cards and logos and flyers) for myself and a few friends.

In my “next life” (once the little one goes to school full-time), I plan to either fulfill my childhood fantasy of becoming an astronaut, OR substitute teach part-time while I persue my dream of becoming a small-scale web- and print- designer who does a bit of writing and editing. Since the shuttle program has been scrapped, and I’ve never been so good with those pesky “math” thingies, I’m thinking the teaching/publishing gig is going to work out better for me.

Because I previously worked in a school (read: low technology budget) and have been a stay-at-home mom for nearly 8 years (read: have no money), I’ve been a bit behind in the whole Adobe Creative Suite revolution. My old computer wouldn’t run anything bigger than Illustrator 8.0 and refused point-blank to run Photoshop (not to mention any YouTube videos). We recently decided to bite the bullet and buy a new computer for me, and shell out for CS3 (the education discount helped considerably…on the software part). So, I am taking a few classes to get up to speed on this CS3 stuff all the kids are talking about these days. (I also have to take 15 credits to keep my teaching credential current, so it’s a win-win).

Every time I opened Illustrator in the past, I got hopelessly overwhelmed, cried a little, and then shut it down. I would open it every few months, thinking that last time I was just in the wrong mental frame, or underslept, or under the influence of too many martinis. I kept hoping my mad PageMaker skilz would transfer, but alas it was always the same story: open program….feel powerless….close program …cry a little…pour martini.

So, here I am – ready to learn this awesome Illustrator program “for reals”. I hope to overcome my fear of these math-sounding vector thingies and learn how to create cool, scaleable logos despite my complete lack of drawing ability. Maybe my boys will find my Illustrator-rendered Death Star more convincing.

Filed Under "Geeky Goodness, Teaching & Learning" on April 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I actually bought a jogging stroller
much to Peter's delight

I’ve known for a very long time that I needed to get into a regular exercise program. Not only for my weight loss, but also for my health. The year before I got pregnant with Peter (which was 2003 – seems an eon ago...), I was very regular at my local Curves – 3 days a week. I also embarked on an amazing (yet unsustainable) “cleansing” diet on the advice of my naturopath who was trying to help me with my fibromyalgia, during which I eschewed all sugar and limited myself to 100 carbs a day. The combination of these things, along with a high motivation to work on my body before getting pregnant again helped me shed 30 pounds and get down to the exact same pre-baby weight I had before Henry.

Then I had a difficult pregnancy, including lots of early labor and lots of pain from my fibromyalgia.

Then came a baby. Getting up at 7:00 to work out before my husband went to work became practically impossible if I wanted to have any grip on sanity whatsoever. Not to mention be hospitable (let alone loving and nurturing) to my brood of two.

Then Dave got a new job a bit farther away. I would now have to get up at 6:15 to go work out. There was no way this was going to happen. I was sure I’d figure something else out. Once in a great while I got up at 6:15. Sometimes I went when I had childcare.

Then, I fell down the stairs and pulled most of the ligaments in my left ankle. Since I had a toddler and couldn’t exactly stay off of it (ha!), I ended up being in an orthotic boot for the better part of 6 months. During this time, I took up Yoga, which has been healing and strengthening for me on so many levels, but regular cardio work was out of the question.

I got up early and swam sometimes, but the “early” part continued to be a problem.
Underlying all of my attempts were/are the realities of my chronic health problems. Fibromyalgia can be helped by exercise, but the first few weeks/months of working out make you feel worse instead of better. You have to push through that, listen to your body, and persist to break through to the other side. I’ve done it before, but it seemed so insurmountable this time.

So, back to Jenny. She’s been such an inspiration: changing her attitudes about food and fitness, and being totally kickass about running – working up from nothing to a freakin’ half-marathon! (Ok, and she gets up at 4:30 to run. I think she’s a little bit crazy, but that’s beside the point for now). Jenny’s example, combined with therapy and some good brainstorming led me to realize that I have to find a regular form of exercise that involves my children. With taking 15 credits this year, and trying to get enough skills to start my own business, my childfree time is all taken up – I can’t “spend” hours of it a week on working out.

So, I took up walking. For real – vigorous walking. Up hills. Lots of hills. I even bought a jogging stroller on Craig’s List – something I’ve never ever had the need for up till now.

Every time I go out, I tell myself I need to do 20 minutes, which includes the Big Hill. Anything over that is entirely optional. I figured out that according to our weekly family schedule, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days for me to walk – so I am building it into the “must do” lists for those days. Last week I missed Thursday (it was Spring Break for my oldest and so our schedule was whacked). So I GOT UP EARLY and walked for 40 minutes on Friday, IN THE RAIN. This was when I knew Jenny had completely convinced me. Well, and I had convinced myself.

So today I walked with Peter in the jogging stroller – what an upper body workout! I walked 55 minutes and we chatted about all the birds and trees. It was lovely. When coming down the Big Hill, I wiped out quite spectacularly, leaving a big bloody scrape on my knee. But, I kept hold of the jogging stroller. I may suck at balance, but apparently I rock as a mom.

So I’m experiencing the drawbacks to the exercise: my left ankle is bothering me again, and my right knee pain is acting up too. I’m also fatigued in the afternoon and need a bit more rest. But, I feel awesome! I am fighting through – icing deliberately for 20 minutes after each walk, and getting more rest when I can, instead of just letting the aches and pains get the best of me. I'm not quitting this time. I'm pushing through.

I’m frustrated that it doesn’t seem to make a difference yet in the weight, but I know it will. Things feel different this time in so many levels of my life. I’ve worked through a bunch of mental crap (Jenny calls it “the Crazy”) and am doing better and better. I've even logged my food (every single bite) for a week now, birthday cake and all!

Thanks, Jenny for the inspiration. I’m so excited to be in this place, bloody knees and all!

Filed Under "" on April 07, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)