More of the same?

We have made plans to take a cruise in September without the kids...  I'm hoping in my head that by then I can loose 20 pounds... and the cruise is the incentive I need to make it...  I'm averaging a pound a week though so realistically I'll probably only loose 10 pounds before the cruise, but I'll be happy with that too! :)

My snacking is really my downfall.  If I can keep my snacking in check, and get my exercise consistent I think I can get a little more than just one pound a week.  We shall see.  It's hard to stay on a schedule with a house full of kids running around.  I'll have three weeks after school starts before the trip so we'll see what I can accomplish until then and then do a little boot camp with myself to see if I can kick up the weightloss in those weeks.

Budgeting and menu planning

Many many years ago when we were a family of 2 adults and a toddler and infant I was so good at budgeting our family's finances... I did menu planning and planned out 2 weeks of meals at a time.  I made dinner almost every single night and did so in a budget conscious way with lots of stuff made from scratch and not many premade short cut items.

Many years, and two kids later we are a family of 2 adults, 1 teenage boy, 1 preteen girl and two kids... our grocery bill has multiplied by leaps and bounds and I've decided I have to go back to some basics that I've long since stopped doing.

So I'm going to start doing meal plans again... I've seen lots of places where you can buy preplanned meal calenders with grocery lists etc, but the reality is while my hubby and I would enjoy the new menu items, the kids would stage a revolt.  So here is what I have planned for the next week of meals- all meals that I know 80% of my family love and the remaining 20% each night that doesn't love it, will still manage to find enough on the table to eat.

Sat- Ward Picnic (bring 3 dozen rolls)
Sun- Taco dinner night, baking day- bake cinnamon rolls and no bake cookies
Mon- Chicken Rolls, carrots, and salad
Tues- Leftovers for the kids, Bunko night for mom, Big lunch for dad
Wed- Sweet and sour meatballs, coconut rice, salad and a veggie side (corn or broccoli from the freezer)
Thurs- Leftovers or a pre-prepared freezer item (pizza rolls, frozen waffles, etc) (we will be gone all day on an outing, and have things that night for 3 of the 4 kids so it has to be something quick.
Fri- Spaghetti, corn fritters, garlic bread, salad.

Now that I have my menu, I just have to remember to not only take my grocery list to the store tomorrow, but look at the list and get everything on it- and not a bunch of extra un-needed stuff! :)

Talents

My kids never cease to amaze me with their talents. I was cleaning out my Sunday bag and came across this. All done freehand just looking at a picture on a cell phone to copy.

Checking in

We have had a busy weekend here. 4 birthday parties for the little girls over the weekend. A band concert, church meetings, watching nba playoff basketball and cheering on our Thunder team, and one child fighting a bad cough, fever and some vomit for good measure.

Sick child is still home today, but three kids are at school and having fun with the last week of school festivities. Tonight hubby scored some tickets to the thunder game so he and I will get a fun night out.

I feel like I could make excuses and not get my workout in today, but I made sure I got it in and done with and now I don't need to worry about it until tomorrow.

Well I did it

I went and changed into the exercise clothes and turned on the DVD and I did my exercise today.

I still ate junk food, but I exercised.

It's a step in the right direction.

Not a good start

Ok. I am determined to be honest here about my exercise and eating. This week I've done squat. Nothing, nada, and eaten horribly- junk food and cookies and sweets. Posting this makes me nervous because I'm going to be truthful in this blog here. And I hope that by forcing myself to be truthful about it here- I will motivate myself to change things so I can be proud of my posts instead of embarrassed.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day!! 

Happy Mothers Day to all my mommy friends, all my sisters, sister in laws, mother in law, and of course my wonderful mom.  I truly never full appreciated all that she did for us until I became a mom myself and I love her even more now for the years and years that she put up with me and my siblings and taught us to love, laugh, work, and play.  Thank you mom for all that you have done.  The example you were to me then and continue to be now!

I'm back...

I alluded to my bad allergies earlier this year, and then stopped posting completely... Allergies have ruled my life the past few months and I am hoping I'm starting to be past the all encompasing allergies.  I started getting allergy shots- the cluster method where you get three shots within 1 1/2 hours once a week... I got to the second week of the shots and had a massive allergic reaction to them and had to be moved down to the traditional one shot at a time schedule.  So twice a week I've been going down to the allergist to get a shot and wait 1/2 hour to make sure I don't have any reaction... and then go on with my day.  Oh and I get a big welt on my arm that hurts and itches for the rest of the day, and then just continues to itch for the next day... Fun, fun, fun... but this should be helping my allergies and hopefully next year at this time I won't have to be using a nose spray and taking allergy medicine and still battling sinus pressure and headaches... cross your fingers this will work for me! :)

We have 8 more school days left in the school year.  It's going to be hard to keep the kids on a schedule to still get up and make it to school on time each day.  The weather has been beautiful and the little kids have been playing outside every single day after school with the neighborhood kids.  The big kids are done with pretty much all the school work in their classes so they have no homework and want to get to do everything as if school was already out for the summer.

I'm starting my new exercise program and goals this week.  Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, and the couch to 5k program.  I will get myself back into a regular exercise routine and get rid of some of this excess weight so I have more energy to take care of my family!  I'm going to start posting on this blog to keep myself accountable and make sure I get that exercise in each day. 

Friends

I'm thankful today for friends... we have now lived here longer than I've ever lived anywhere in my entire life!  I am a person that I don't want to take advantage of friendships and I have a hard time asking people for favors.  Today I was glad though that I feel I have a good enough relationship with a family that are our friends that I could ask a favor. 

I've been dealing with allergies- and the fact that they are already really bad now in February just makes me want to cry thinking of how bad they will get when the real spring allergy season hits.  I'm planning to follow up on the allergy testing I had done two years ago- and then chickened out when they wanted me to do allergy shots- I think I will be starting the shots this year.

We have a friend that is an ENT dr... (Ear, Nose, Throat), so when I texted his wife if he had any suggestions of what I can do to drain the fluid from my ears that had been there for the past week- he said I should just come over and he would take a look in my ears and make sure they were ok.  I saved a co-pay at the weekend walk-in clinic, and probably an hour or two of time waiting around for them to tell me the ears were full of fluid and I just needed to continue to take OTC stuff to get them to drain. 

So I'm trying the Neti pot for the first time ever tonight.  Rich is also battling a cold and he tried it this afternoon and said it's surprisingly easy to use... hopefully my ears will drain and I can get rid of this fluid filled feeling soon.

Smash

Ok so I posted that I liked the pilot of the new show smash.

Unfortunately it seems to be going down hill. It's becoming all about sex and affairs... Give me more storyline about creating the show with a little less in my face sex drama. Giving it one more week and then it's going to get deleted from my recording list if it keeps going in that direction.

ha ha... oh well

I couldn't keep up with daily posts... but I'll still post as I can.  I don't think anyone else reads this blog so it's just my rambling thoughts...  :)

Tonight was chocolate chip cookie night... now they are all out of the oven, and cooling on racks... the kitchen is clean and I will have one night this week that my kids will go to bed happy with cookies in their tummies... lol!

Smash!!!

Having just gotten back from New York where Rich treated me to three broadway plays, I had to watch the pilot episode of Smash- about a broadway show being written, cast and the stories behind it.

I loved it!!! Looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds. :)

Posts

So the goal to post every day was a lofty one... I am not going to beat myself up about it though. Life gets busy and I am just going to enjoy this place to talk- even if it's only to myself when I get the chance to get on here. :).

I was buying milk at braums today while the manager was ringing up my purchases, and correcting some incorrect prices, talking to another worker, taking a drive thru order, and answering a question from another customer- all within the space of about 60 seconds. I mentioned he was muti-tasking today and he told me this was one of a few jobs where his ADHD comes in handy and is helpful instead of detrimental.

A pretty positive way of looking at things. No excuses- and looking at the positive that comes from it. If only more people could keep that outlook in life.

Concert

I took my daughter to a Greyson Chance concert tonight with her best friend. There were no seats. We stood for 4+ hours. I think I earned some cool mom points tonight. The band that played before him was a local band. The bass guitarist (on the left) is the guy I told my daughter she should crush on...lol.

Sunday Afternoons

I love the simplicity of sunday afternoons.  Some people ask why we don't go out to eat, grocery shop, and do other things on Sundays.  We reserve Sunday's as the Sabbath to attend church, and to spend time with family.  I love the easy going afternoons when I don't have to worry about any schedule because we don't schedule things on Sundays.  Playing games, talking, reading books, cooking and baking.  Those are my perfect sunday afternoon activities and I love that I can count on having that time to do something we love to do without any schedules to follow on that day of the week. 

Guilty Pleasures...

Ok... just finished watching my guilty pleasure- The Bachelor... I'm embarrased at times to admit that I watch it.  It's like a train wreck and I can't imagine putting myself into a position like that- but yet I still pull it up on Hulu each week and watch to see what will happen.

My other one lately is diet Mt Dew... For years I rarely had any soda at all... just never had it, didn't want it and was fine without it in my life except for rare times we would go out to eat.  Now I just enjoy the taste of it and I drink it more often...  I think I do need to cut it out and go back to just good old water. :)

And then of course there is always chocolate.  I can do really good about eating well and healthy and then something chocolate will pop up and I'll just have to have one bite.  I will never be able to cut it out of my diet compelely- I don't want to, but I probably could cut back on it. :)

Just had to share...

Yesterday I read a wonderful article.  I cannot say it any differently or better...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/dont-carpe-diem_b_1206346.html

Go and read it... and enjoy!  Love your kids, do your best and don't beat yourself up. :)

New years resolutions

Sometimes it takes a week or two to get things lined up and started.

Today was day 1 of P90X2.

I got through it. I am a wimp now, have to do modified pushups etc... but by the end of it I will not be a wimp! :)

Polar express hot chocolate.

Found the recipe for this on pinterest. Looks so incredible. I have to try it!! :)

Date Night

Coming home with yummy leftovers and hubbies traditional chocolate shake...

Ok... so I don't think I'll make it 365 days...

But I might be able to do 365 posts for the year...

Hubby has been out of town so I'm doing the solo parenting act this week.  Thankfully he comes home today and I can get a good full night sleep. :)

I've been printing out a backlog of pictures this week...

Have I mentioned that I LOVE the zoom lense?  My kids don't like me taking pictures of them, so with the zoom lense I can hang back and take pictures and they don't even realize it. :)  Love those two red heads and their smiles!

From chaos to organized...

A good friend came over today to help me tame my pantry and get it organized... so I could find stuff in it again...

Here are our after pictures... :)

Out of the ordinary

Whoops!  Missed yesterday.  But I think I probably will miss sunday's on occasion, and I'm fine with that.

Today Hubbie takes off on a buisness trip.  That means the kids get processed junk food this week... I don't cook when he goes out of town.  It works out fine since he really only takes 2-3 trips a year.  It also makes it easier on me to single parent for the week- the kids know if they act up their junk food get's tossed. lol!

Organizing

It's January. When we all think of organizing.

Here's my To Do folder for photo's. Each of the folders inside of it have at least 100+ photo's to be sorted through and put in a better location.

I think it's about time I start to tackle it. Lol!

Enjoy the moment...

Another week in the books... and it's the weekend again. Time to recharge the batteries (even with a short school/work week we wound up drained by today) and gear up for next week. I've got five little girls running around the house (two of my own and three friends) and another little girl over at a friends house this afternoon.  I love hearing their squeals of laughter as they have fun.

So my thought today is to just make the time to have fun... the girls only had an hour we could get them all together to play for, but for that one hour they are having so much fun... and I need to remember to just take the short amounts of time and enjoy them. :)

Project this week

Here is my project this week. It's time for some new chair class signs in primary.

Rewards

I've been working on loosing weight. Both by being more active, and eating better. To help me stay motivated I gave myself rewards for each 5 pounds lost. It's going slowly, but the scale is going down. Today I was able to get one of my rewards. My nails done. :).

A Good Quote

I was reading through some blogs the other day and came across this quote:

“Keep perspective. When you have done all that you can reasonably do, rest the burden in the hands of the Lord. When I take a small pebble and place it directly in front of my eye, it takes on the appearance of a mighty boulder. It is all I can see. It becomes all-consuming—like the problems of a loved one that affect our lives every waking moment. When the things you realistically can do to help are done, leave the matter in the hands of the Lord and worry no more. Do not feel guilty because you cannot do more. Do not waste your energy on useless worry. The Lord will take the pebble that fills your vision and cast it down among the challenges you will face in your eternal progress. It will then be seen in perspective. In time, you will feel impressions and know how to give further help. You will find more peace and happiness, will not neglect others that need you, and will be able to give greater help because of that eternal perspective.” -Richard G. Scott (1988)

I'm a worrier by nature.  I recently accepted a rather large calling at church and found that I was starting to worry about things for it- and feel out of touch with my kids and family.  I'm realizing that I focus in on problems of others whether large or small and make them larger than they are in my mind and let them take over a disproportionate amount of my thought time... So this is a good reminder to me to do what I can, but not stress and worry over the problems.  They will be worked out in time and I can do what I can, and leave the rest in the Lord's hands.

Picture or post a day

I see lots of people doing pictures a day... I'm going to tray and do a post a day- whether it's a picture or just a written post.

Here's the picture for today. It's what you expect to see weather this time of year. We are warmer than usual and I just want this weather so I can bundle up in warm clothes, turn on the fireplace and read a book with a mug of hot cocoa. :)