Tuesday

So first the good news...

I had my weigh-in.  DOWN 2.6!!!!  I am so super excited and it was incredibly motivating to finally be making some progress.  Hopefully next week will also hold a good number provided that I do what I'm supposed to do in the meantime.  I also went home and walked on my treadmill for another 30 minutes.  So now three out of four days I've done some exercise.  And to really make my night, the Biggest Loser finale was on.  I just love that show.  Hopefully when it starts again in the fall I won't be starting where the contestants do :)

And now not so good news....

I took Brianna to get her physical.  She is fine and healthy, but I have to take her to get an x-ray on her back.  Two years ago her pediatrician told me there was a very slight curve to her back.  So slight that she wasn't even sure it was there but not to worry and just have it looked at at her next physical.  Well, she's grown quite a bit and apparently her slight curve has gotten much worse.  The doctor estimated its about 9-10 degrees off.  When she pointed it out it because obvious how uneven her shoulder blades were and I cannot believe I didn't notice it sooner.  She said that the growing is what would have made it so much more obvious.  So we need to get Brianna an x-ray just to make sure that the curve isn't too much and she'll get another x-ray every year after that to keep an eye on it.  But she has scoliosis.  It's not too bad though cause worse thing that would happen would be that she might have to wear a brace at night while she sleeps to keep it from getting worse.

So that was my day yesterday...on top of dealing with a super moody baby that did not get much sleep.  I ended up putting him to bed at 7:15pm.  Boy did I have a ton of time last night to do whatever I wanted.....which I spent walking on the treadmill and then relaxing watching the Biggest Loser finale.  And to make it better he slept until 7:15 this morning....a whole 12 hours!  And he's in a much better mood today thank goodness.

Tonight is choir practice which is the highlight of my Wednesday.  I just love to sing.  There is almost nothing more fun to me than singing and I do it ALL the time.  I love music.  Time to get back to my day.  Laundry to fold and my bedroom to clean :)

Reflection

This may turn into mulitple posts of reflections but here is the start.  I have had a long day.  Oliver did not sleep long enough and was super cranky.  I did not have the energy or desire to do any of the chores I needed to do around the house.  Finances are seriously depressing me as I ponder going back to work but then I wonder how I'm going to pay for daycare.  I've pondered moving as well but I'm not sure we'd even be able to rent something as cheap as we bought our house...so in the meantime we make do.  It just makes focusing on anything positive difficult. 
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On top of it, tomorrow is weigh-in day again.  I was actually very good this week.  I only went over my points and had to use my weekly allowance once.  I got in over 2.5 hours of exercise, which is a good start to forming a habit.  Yet somehow I still feel like I'm going to go to my meeting tomorrow and have gained again.  How can this be, I wonder??

Part of it is probably my lack of medication in a few days.  I have completely forgotten to take it.  But despite that, I was still able to get some of the house picked up, laundry done, bed made, and fit in some exercise.  So its not like I sat around all day doing nothing.  It's not even 9pm yet, and Oliver is in bed asleep and the other two are playing quietly.  I could do some crafting but I already squeezed some of that in today too and I think I just feel like being lazy for the rest of the night.  I have to wonder though....how do people do it?  How is it that there are moms out there that really are like super moms that can seem to keep up on everything??  I'd love a few tips....My next chore is to tackle the master bathroom....it needs a good cleaning....as does my bedroom.  I always put those rooms off until last because no one but me and Charlie ever see them and I think they have been put off enough. 

I am trying to keep up my motivation to accomplish my goals.  It is definitely not easy.  Time seems to be slipping away while I make next to no progress.  Life seems to continually get in the way.  I know God hears these things in my head and is constantly throwing me signs that things will be ok, but I really need to get my head in the right place. 

There is a scripture that seems to be constantly popping up in my life here lately....
This is from the Contemporary English Version of the bible which I like because it translates the text into words I can understand......Philippians 4:6-7

6Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. 7Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.

And so I pray to God.....to please help heal my heart and to give me the strength and courage to make it through each day as I need to.  And as always, thank you for my family who mean the world to me.  I love them all dearly and am incredibly blessed.  Thank you.

Sleepovers

Whose idea was the first sleepover??

I just let my daughter have 6 friends over....six 11 year old girls.....loud girls.....yes, I was glutton for punishment.  I spent all day cooking and baking and ended it with a pounding headache.  Overall I think it went well.  The pinata was a huge hit and the girls got all hopped up on chocolate.  I'm not sure how well they slept, but that's the beauty of having a long house....put them at one end and me at the other and I didn't even have to hear them :)  Now I am just waiting for them to head home.  I hope Breezy appreciated it because it was expensive and a lot of work!

The weigh-in Tuesday did not go well, but I am hoping for better results this Tuesday.  I have been much stricter with what I've had this week.  And I'm going to get a ton of exercise collecting for the Crusade for Children....I just hope people are home to donate!  It is a seriously important charity effort...and as I just found out they are really short on help.  That is sad considering how much this helps people, especially children to get the treatment they need.

I guess its time to get this day started.  I'm in need of a shower and some breakfast.  I miss Oliver already.

Recovering from the weekend

What a weekend....I was exhausted!  Saturday went very well for the Ladies' Tea at church.  I enjoyed myself a lot and I was even pretty responsible when it came to my points.  I picked Oliver up in the afternoon and when I got him home he was unbelievably cranky!  He just threw fits and temper tantrums on the floor.  It was mentally draining since I didn't know what to do for him.  As best I could tell, he was just really tired.  Charlie was supposed to be home to help me but he ended up detained at a scout function for 4 hours instead of one.  When he did make it home I was exhausted and Oliver magically cheered up.  By then it was like an hour to bedtime.  At least he slept all night.

Sunday was another exhausting day.  I was trying to let Charlie rest from all the work he did for scouts on Saturday so I tried to take care of everything....laundry, cooking, dishes, cleaning.....I finally passed out on the bed after hours of running around.  In addition, I still have May DT projects to complete, Breezy's birthday favors, a birthday card for my sister and I have to buy her a gift....eek.  Not mention I'm glutton for punishment since I'm allowing Breezy to have six friends over to spend the night....six girls that I'm sure once they all get together it will turn into wild children.  I hope hope hope its nice outside Friday so they can run around out there for awhile and get some of their energy out.

I will have to say that I am SO PROUD of myself for what changes I made last week.  The laundry, even after getting through the weekend is still caught up, kitchen is still clean....this week is Zone 3, bathroom and extra room.  Since we have 3 bathrooms, I will have 2 bathrooms to clean plus it will include the kids bedrooms.  Thank goodness two of my kids are older and I can just supervise :)  Joey has already gotten a start on it for me.  The kids' bathroom is looking good!  Laundry is in the washer, dishwasher has been emptied, bed is made....I'm feeling good!

Tonight is weigh-in night.  It's probably not going to be good since I start TOM yesterday and am super bloated.  I would love even down .2....anything is better than up so we'll see what happens.

Day Two

Day Two went much better than day one.  I was able to stay a lot more motivated.  Oliver was FANTASTIC yesterday and I got to take a 2 hour nap!  Plus I got some of my Flylady stuff done, laundry is back on track (which is a HUGE deal for me) and I was also much more responsible with my points. 

The highlight of my day, besides catching up the laundry, had to be dinner.  I used the recipe builder on weight watchers and input all the ingredients and directions for my chicken noodle soup.  To my surprise, it was only 4 points per serving based on 10 servings.  YAY!  And actually we ended up getting 13 servings out of it so now I am sure that 4 points is a good estimation.

Water intake is going well and I've even managed to squeeze in a little exercise.  I'm being very conservative with my points today because I have big plans for dinner.  I am going to have my favorite queso dip.  It's 3 points per serving (plus 3 points for the chips per serving) but you know how easy it is to down chips and dip.  I could probably eat 5 servings easily but I'm going to have to stop with 2.  No more than 12 points on one of my favorite foods.  And in reality, I should probably even limit it to 1.5, but we are having a light dinner and I plan drinking a ton of water, as well as not eating it too late at night.  Some exercise is also in my future since tonight Charlie is planning on going to a flag ceremony at the baseball field and it will be the perfect time for me to take a walk in the park with Oliver...the cutest, sweetest baby in the whole world!  I may be a little biased in that respect but he is absolutely wonderful.

Time to go make Oliver some lunch so he can get to naptime and I can work on some more cleaning.

Day One

I suppose that all journeys begin somewhere.  Well, today is my new day one.  I spent today doing a lot of thinking as it seems like I am constantly having trouble reaching the finish line when it comes to my goals.  I seem to struggle to finish anything.  This is definitely a quality that I do not like about myself.  So yesterday I had to put my foot down and really do some serious thinking...mostly about changes that I am needing to make.  Did I really need to make myself a cake for mother's day.....umm...NO.  But I did it anyway, and it was good, but I have bigger goals in mind that I need to start taking more seriously.

Tuesday I made a big jump toward those goals and went to my first Weight Watchers meeting in nearly three years.  It worked for me last time.....and I can do it again.  I don't know what it is about the meetings but actually going works.  As my leader said this week, it's the cheapest therapy in town!  It's the only place that for $10 a week you can come in and complain, cry, celebrate, and receive valuable information to help on the weight loss journey.  Going to a psychologist would be $100+ an hour!  So I will take myself to the weekly meetings and hope that I'm not the only one that doesn't occasionally get a 5lb star. 

I'm already receiving tests as to my resolve.  I swear it was the minute I decided to make changes that I once again got sick.  And despite the fact that I was feeling really crappy, I went to the meeting anyway.  Go ME!  I just happen to be one of those people that is very sensitive to germs.  They love me.  You'd think after all this time i would have caught every cold virus in Mt. Washington, KY but that doesn't seem to be the case.

At one point several months ago, I was doing really well getting on board with Flylady.  I was shining my sink, doing my laundry everyday, and even swish and swiping the bathroom.  I'm not exactly sure where that all went wrong but I fell off the wagon in a big way.  This week is Zone 2: the kitchen.  My goals are simply to get my kitchen clean so that I can start keeping it clean and shining my sink and getting my laundry caught up so that I can get back to just one load a day.  I am making good progress on that goal.  Yesterday I got all the laundry done except 2 loads so I can do those today plus everything that we accumulated yesterday.

In addition to all of this I have a birthday card to make and I've got to start thinking about my sister's birthday which is coming soon! 

I've made a good start to this day by getting up early to get a jump start on my day.  Some caffeine will definitely be required but I will persevere. 

And because I have quite possibly the cutest baby on the planet, here's a picture of him. :)

Winding Down

This has been a super long day for me.  But I am SO excited because I got a new lens for my camera and I cannot wait to test it out outside.  Poor Oliver doesn't know what kind of photographing he's in for :)  I also got another Cricut cartridge for my collection.  I think the kids had a lot of fun as well (they were jumping up and down with excitement so yeah...they were happy).  But now it is so time for bed.  I am tired.  I'm hoping to get some crafting done tomorrow.  Good night!