Belt Promotions

Greg and Mojo earned their green belts and Caveman earned his blue belt. Gem received a stripe on her belt. The ranks in our system progress from white, yellow, blue, green, purple, brown, to black. Although stripes are not officially included in our ranking, we do sometimes add stripes to the children’s belts as a visible sign of their improvement. Since it generally takes a minimum of six years to earn a black belt, and since the minimum age to test for black is sixteen (although eighteen is the more common age), stripes can add a little encouragement of progress.
I can’t help but be proud of the way my family is progressing. My son, in particular, has shown such a marked improvement since his last ranking!

Here we are looking mean. Except Gem. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. Yet.


Congratulations to my warriors!

The Way of the Warrior Woman

(Exercising at 11 weeks pregnant.)

I was struggling with weights and pushups so much that I was just about ready to abandon them. I did not do any strength training at all for almost 2 weeks.
Finally, it occurred to me that in my martial arts training, I always hear the phrase “do something.” Whatever we do, even if we don’t land our techniques perfectly, we must do something; standing still is never an option.
So did something. I decided to do pushups and stop when they became a struggle instead of wearing myself out trying to get to a certain number. I also took 5 lbs off each dumbbell. That felt much better, and I felt great afterward! That's what it's about, right? Instead of whining at how "wimpy" I've become with pregnancy, I'm reminding myself that I've never been able to work this hard while pregnant before.

(And yes, I realize my lunge form is slipping here. I continue to work on that.)