SAT/Timed Essay Series in Fort Wayne by Training for Triumph

SAT/Timed Essay Series in Fort Wayne by Training for Triumph

Donna and Joshua Reish are testing their new SAT/Timed Essay book in a workshop series in Fort Wayne during the month of November. Students in grades nine through twelve are welcome to attend.

This three ninety-minute-session workshop will include the following skills/concepts:

1. TFT's Directed Writing Approach for Paragraph Formation
2. Becoming adept at editing and revising on the spot via TFT's Checklist Challenge
3. Advanced sentence structure for writing
4. Thesis statement and "thesis statement reloaded" development
5. Transition/Paragraph Topic Sentences
6. Vocabulary use in the SAT/Timed Essay
7. TFT's Three P's of Persuasive Writing--POSITION, POINT, PROOF
 8. TFT's 1-3-1 Approach to Essay Writing (5 Paragraph or 1 Opening Sentence +
9. Paragraph Body + 1 Closing Sentence)
10. Analyzing history, literature, biography, and current events for SAT/Timed Essay material
11. Creating TFT's PROOF Pages for SAT/Timed Essay preparation
12. Non-timed steps to develop basic skills before timing
13. Time management in the SAT/Timed Essay
14. TFT's Three P's Mapping Exercises
15. Directed Brainstorming 16. TFT's Four Steps for Writing the SAT/Timed Essay

Details for registering and attending are provided below. Call TFT with questions: 260-597-7415.

Parents may attend the workshop for free with their student(s); if additional materials are desired for the parent, a small fee will be charged for book and audio.

Please register by Friday, November 4th if possible. Last minute registrants may be accepted, depending on enrollment. Call for late registrations.

WHERE: First Assembly of God,

West Washington Blvd, Fort Wayne

ROOM: Go in Office Doors on east side of the building; go straight down hallway to classroom with sign on the door (on the left hand side)

DATES: Monday November 7th; Monday November 14th, Monday November 21st

TIME: 1:30 to 3:15 each session

COST: $50 for three sessions, worktext, and audio cd of the workshop's highlights

REGISTER: By calling TFT at the number above or by mailing a check and the following information to the address that follows:

Student's Name:                     Grade:

Address:

Phone number(s):

Email addresses:

Parent's names/contact information:

Mail registration and fees to:

Training for Triumph

6456 E US 224

Craigville, IN  46731

"Old Fashioned Sugar Cream" Squares

I recently went to a shower where I was encouraged to try a dessert that I would normally not try. (It looked like it had lemon...not a lemon fan. Plus, it didn't have chocolate. I was planning to use my saved "sugar" allottment for the week on chocolate only!)

Anyway, I took a bite and it was heavenly. It tasted so much like my old fashioned sugar cream pie recipe that I was sure it must have taken its baker an hour of stirring on medium low heat before pouring it into some kind of crust that must have taken another hour to make.

I was wrong! And when the cook told me how simple the recipe was (she could tell it as we stood munching on them--without even looking up a long list of ingredients or steps), I knew I had to have that recipe. My guys and I (two or three sons, husband, and I often bake/cook together for special events/potlucks, etc.) could whip this up in ten to fifteen minutes (minus baking time).

So here we are on a Saturday morning making a dessert to take to our ballroom dance tonight and a potluck tomorrow night--and in ten minutes, these lucious babies will be in the oven!


"Old Fashioned Sugar Cream" Squares

2 rolls regular crescent roll dough
... 2 bars regular cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
sugar and cinnamon mixture

1. Spray 9 x 13 glass baking dish with PAM.
2. Roll out one tube of dough and press into pan.
3. Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together.
4. Spread over bottom dough in pan.
5. Roll out other tube of dough and place over cream cheese mixture.
6. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
7. Bake at 325 for 25 mins regular oven (20 mins convection).
8. Chill. Better cold...

Weight Loss Journey--Part II of II (Pictures!)

In my previous post (http://reishramblings.blogspot.com/), I described the weight loss/health journey that I have been on. Below, I am posting pictures and losses. Thanks for joining me!

This is a terrible picture! And it does actually make me look a lot worse than I did (or thought I did)...but here I was six years or so ago (before dancing!) at my highest-ever weight. I won't tell you what that was...but it was high! Here I wore a size 22 (or 24).

After six years of dancing, I had taken off thirty pounds! This was Spring 2011. Losses: 30 lbs; 25 inches; and 3 sizes (from 22 to 16). This was a month before I began an 800 calorie diet and intensive exercise.

And Fall of 2011. Three months after I began the very low calorie diet with Curves and T-Tapp exercises. Losses since Spring 2011: 35 lbs; 35 inches; 2 sizes (16 to 12). Losses over six years: 65 lbs; 57 inches; 5 sizes (22 to 12).




                                                   THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR NEXT
                                                  20 TO 25 LB LOSS!!! :)

I am working on maintaining my summer loss. It was a quick loss--and could quickly be put back on too. My Curves has pretty much gone by the wayside due to work, school, and family. (With homeschooling and working in the school year, it's hard to do too many extras.) I have a maintenance plan of lower calorie/carb/fat eating; Daily Dozen exercises; walking with my boys and dancing with my Prince---and after a month of so of maintaining with that plan, I hope to dig back in and lose some more.....regardless, my carbohydrate intolerance/pre-diabetes is under control and I feel young and energetic! :)

Weight Loss Journey Part I of II

Five or six years ago, I began a looonnnnng weight loss/health journey that is still very much a work in progress. It began when I hit the highest weight I had ever been (including during all eight or my pregnancies!) AND my husband and I began ballroom dancing. I had wanted to ballroom dance for many years--and when I received lessons from Ray as a Christmas gift in 2005, I was ELATED. However, I quickly found out that dancing at the weight I was at the time was nearly impossible.

But dance we did. We danced as much as we could the first few years--group classes, private lessons, practice sessions (the studio was just a few miles from our home), and open dances. Soon I found that I was losing weight little by little just from dancing--until after three or four years later I had lost thirty pounds. However, to lose more weight and get healthier, I had to change my eating habits--something I did not want to do.

Three years ago, still dancing (though not nearly as often--weddings, graduations, kids' moves/job starts, etc. interrupted our dancing a lot), I found myself sick. To make a long story short, I discovered that I had carbohydrate intolerance/pre-diabetes. I could only feel well if I limited my carbohydrate intake. It didn't have to be drastic, but it did have to be down to 150 carbohydrates or fewer (average person eats 300 a day!) to keep my pre-diabetes in check. Well, true to many moderate carbohydrate diets, I did not lose weight on that number of carbs--mostly due to the high fat and high caloric intake that cutting carbohydrates can created.

So, while I felt better, I kept gaining and losing many of those thirty pounds that I had danced off in the previous years. Then I heard about a very low calorie diet that caused you to lose weight very quickly--and being an all-or-nothing kind of person, I jumped on the bandwagon and started losing pounds quickly for the first time in twenty years (when I had lost 80 pounds between baby four and five!).

Also at this time I joined CURVES and began an amazing exercise program called T-Tapp--while stepping up our dancing for more aerobic activity. Within three months, I had lost 35 lbs and 35 inches, making my total weight loss for five years 65 pounds.

I also discovered that an overall decrease in calories, fat, and carbohydrates, with good amounts of protein, lots of strength exercising (Curves and T-Tapp), and moderate aerobics (dancing and/or walking for 30 mins four to eight times a week) kept my pre-diabetes in check and helped maintain my loss.

So...here I am, six years after we began dancing, with a 65 lb and 55 inch loss, from a size 22 to a 16 now to a 12, and controlling my carb intolerance. I still want to lose another 20 to 25 lbs and 20 to 30 inches.....but I'm working on maintenance for a while---making all of these changes a way of life for me.

See next post for pics! :)