Thankful

Thanksgiving weekend came and went way to quickly. Now Christmas will be here in a blink of an eye!  

I've been surfing the web for all things frugal and came across a recipie for homemade orange cleaner on Pinterest. There was tons of them actually. It's so cool, you just save up some old citrus peels and when your jar gets full pour in some vinegar.  Now I'm supposed to let this sit for at least 2 weeks. And then strain out the oranges and mix the liquid with water into a spray bottle and I will have homemade orange cleaner!!  I'm excited to try it and will update you all after I do!

On Friday my mom texted me rather early an asked if I wanted to go Black Friday shopping with her. Now aim not really a Black Friday shopper. Crazy towns of people all fighting over deals. Not my thing, but since it was 7 am and most sales actually started the night before here this year I decided to go ahead and go. I had no money but I helped her find some things for my kids for Christmas :) The best part came at the end though. We walked into Walmart and she told me to pick out a few groceries I needed.  I literally got tears in my eyes. See, we really were running out of everything. My fridge was empty and my cabnits were getting there as well.  I was so thankful!  I didn't want to go overboard so I just got some fresh fruit(which we hasn't had in weeks) ( also where the orange peels came from). Some bread, milk, toliet paper, toothpaste and some crackers. Those little things ment the world to us!  I'm so lucky to have such a great mother!  That would help out like that without me asking. Even though I feel guilty about it. Hopefully Ben will get that bonus we are waiting on so we can stock up on some necessitys. 

I found some fabric in the closet the other day and decided to drag out the sewing machine an make some more cloth napkins for us. We run out daily. I haven't bought paper towels in a long time. We have one roll I have hid in the cleaning closet that I use when we make bacon for draining the grease off. Otherwise it's cloth. I couldn't remember how to thread the needle so I googled it. Lol. Thank God for the internet!

Here is me Jess and Emma te day of Thanksgiving. Can you tell were related?  :) everyone says we look alike!  

Down

Sometimes I think I'm bipolar. My moods are up and down. It's quite ridiculous. I went from feeling happy and warm and fuzzy inside to feeling hopeless and sad. Within a matter if 24 hours. I know part of this is due to my birth control pills. The first week in the pill pack always hits my emotions hard for some reason. At least I recognize  it.  I try to not let my feelings reflect on my family but it's hard sometimes.  

Anyways I'm just bummed and it's all about money.  Not being able to buy presents this year for Christmas. And these stupid bills. And my cabinets keep getting emptier and emptier. And I keep saying Im doing this no spend challenge but in all truthfulness after November nothing is going to have changed. And we still have bills to pay so im not sure how I'm  gonna restock my food supply.  Ugh.  Sorry. Just sitting here on my phone before bed and had to get this out.  I'm not looking for sympathy and I don't mean to be a whiner. It just worries me. And makes me feel like a crap mom. 

Praying things get better !

Kohls and weight issues :(

I had $20 Kohls cash given to me the other day.  It was expiring soon and I wasnt gonna waste it so last night I went into kohls, I also had a $10 off $30 coupon,, so more or less I had a free $30 to use. Very exciting.  I hardly ever buy myself any clothes so I went in with a purpose of buying something for myself.  I really need a new pair of jeans.  I tried on about 5 pairs,, nothing fit right,,, the shirts I tried on that I though might have been to big were to tight :(     All in all it sucked.  I almost cried right there in the dressing room.  I was doing so well with my weight loss I had gotten up to 50 pounds lost and something happened and now I'm only 35 pounds lost,, which means Ive gained 15 pounds,,,, actually Ive gained 3 more and havent logged it into mfp, so 18 in a matter of a couple months...thats not normal.   I have been eating more junk and snacking,,,, I've been depressed about money issues and I'm a emotional eater.  I NEED to get this under control and get back to where I was and lose more.  It depresses me Its like I have to be perfect all the time or the weight just creeps right back on me faster than ever.   Ugh,,, I know I'm whining, but this is a real issue for me.  I need to have this self control over food.  I will get this!!!  I will I will I will I will I will I will
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I did end up getting 2 shirts,, they totaled 50 but with my coupons and kohls cash I only had to pay 20. I used my kohls card.   So Ben says I ruined my no spending challenge.. Whatever..... I"m still doing it,,, necessity......

Weekend happenings

I'm feeling a tad better today. I'm not that snotty, its just so much pressure in my head and it wont break up!  Life goes on as normal around here though.  The no spend challenge is going strong,, when there is no money to spend it makes it pretty easy :)  Now this weekend is when I will get paid and that is normally what I use to go out and buy groceries, but no this time,, its going to the doctor bills, thats gonna be the hard part but we still have plenty of food.  Sunday morning I made strawberry pancakes!  They were super yummy!

Here is a quick snap of my fridge as of today,  just a hodge podge of stuff in there.  Lots of condiments.. But my cabinets are still plenty full and my freezer has food.

I did a very bad thing on Friday.  I thought I was doing a good thing.  I went through the cabinits and freezers do a inventory and made of list of what we had.  Well when I was going through the garage freezer and counting apparently I sat out one of the bags of venison meat to count what was under it.  Stupid me forgot to put the bag back in and the whole bag got ruined.  6 lbs of ground venison and 1 roast. :(   I didnt know it until the next day when Ben went out and smelled/saw it on the ground :(  I cried!  I can't believe I wasted meat!  I was so upset. We still have 7 more packages of it that I didnt sit out so we arnt out, but now I really hope the boys will get another deer   We really do rely on that meat because I just dont have the money in my grocery budget to buy hamburger right now.   I'll be more careful next time I go through the freezer, thats for sure!!!!!

Sunday I had a baby shower to attend,, the baby had already been born,, Meet Jacelyn.  I will  be watching her when her mom returns to work sometime in January!  I'm excited!  She is so precious and little and sweet!

Saturday was my Grandma Baldridge's 77th surprise birthday party!  It was a great success and she was so happy!  I'm so glad all the family got to share this occasion!

Here' s Jess holding baby Zayden.  He's a  all full of sweetness also! Last night I made potato corn chowder and it was YUMMY!  Everyone liked it.  And tonight we are having burritos made from the pinto beans I cooked in the crockpot last Friday.    Bean and cheese is all you really need and they are still so yummy and very affordable!

Sick :(

I think I have a sinus infection. My head hurts so bad, there is so much pressure it feels like its gonna explode!~   So I want to write but it hurts to bad to concentrate. Hopefully I'll  be back soon,  no spending going on though in case you were wondering, although the whole family got into a big argument about it last night :(

No spend challenge

My house smells yummy!  I've got a crock pot full of pinto beans cooking on low.  Were having tacos for dinner and we will use them in those, but there will be lots of leftovers.  Ill freeze some and we will eat some throughout the week.  Makes for yummy lunches!  I love having things going in my crock pot.  Just knowing dinner is mostly taken cared of makes me feel good.  And normally if anything is in the crock that means we will have leftovers.  I consider leftovers free food Yall!! 

So I decided yesterday our household is doing a no spend challenge for the remainder of the month.  The only thing we will buy is gas for the car and Thanksgiving is coming up so if I need to take something to my moms for that we will have to buy that.  Otherwise no money spending! 
I haven't been spending much money,, only on groceries, but we have some doctor bills that need paying otherwise they are gonna be sent off to collections so my grocery money is going for that!  So really this no spend challenge is more out of necessity than for fun, but everything seems better when you make a game of it right? 

I went through the outside freezer and the inside and went through all the cupboards as to see what I will have to work with.  I think we will be fine.  I made a list(love making list), so it will be easy to keep track of what we have and help me in deciding what to make. 

I'm doing little updates on snapchat, add me on there if ya have it. everdaymomof3
I'm also gonna   update on here

I'm Back?

Back to blogging? Maybe,, not making any promises, but its been calling to me lately with tips to share.  Life has been crazy, but really who's isn't.  Everyone has there own issues within there households.  I think everyone struggles.  We just don't always talk about it.  While at the moment some of my life issues are money and raising the kids, others probably have their own set of problems.  I have to remind myself we don't know what goes on behind closed doors and its okay to struggle.  It doesn't make me any less of a woman, wife, or mother.  It makes me human.  And its ok. I know everything will work out. It has to right? 

Summer busyness....

OH wait, it's not ever summer yet is it?   It sure feels like it this week and I love it! We were 85degrees yesterday!  Emma and the childcare kiddos played in the sprinkler!  It was the first time of the season and they loved it!  We have been super busy with soccer and track... practically every single day of the week taken up by those events.  School is coming up to a close here soon, Emma is done with preschool on Friday and the big kids the week after.  Its hard to believe next year I will have a kindergartner, 7th grader, and 9th grader!!!  Emma will be going to all day kindergarten!  So it will be the first time since I have had children that I will be babysitting while not having a kid of my own here. It's gonna be so weird!!  Speaking of kids, the are yelling for me so I've got to go.  

I'm going to start blogging on my weight loss blog again.. I'm getting serious in that department again.  

http://jill-ahealthierme.blogspot.com/

Home

So we've been home for a few days and obviously I still haven't updated my blog.  I've been trying to catch up on the laundry and the household stuff.  Being away from my house just throws me off.  I feel like I get behind.  Alas I will need to be getting used to it though because with Bens mom moving only 3 hours away instead of across the country we will be taking long weekends out there much more often.  I am happy about it all though.  I can't imagine not seeing my mom for so long and I hope the two(hubby and mom in law) can build there relationship. 
Being away from home not only makes me feel behind on my household duties but apparently in the fitness area also.  While the hotel we stayed in had a workout room and I did use the treadmill 2 of the 3 days we were there(yay) I still ate like crap!  Seriously when we returned home my scale was up 10 pounds!  :(   I thought the next day it would look better....Nope.  2 days later and I'm only down a few ounces.  I have got to get back on the right eating track and keep losing!   I feel awful and like a fat slob and I hate it.   I need to learn to make healthy choices outside the home as well as in.  I can do pretty well when I'm at home but get me out to a restaurant and its a free for all.  Good thing we dont go out to often! 

Hopefully I'll be back with some pictures soon!

Ohio

Its 7 am and Im laying in a hotel bed waiting for the oldest 2 kids to wake so we can get our day started. I can never sleep well in hotels. This was a unexpected weekend trip and Ill tell you all about it once we return home. Were headed that way today. Until then heres a couple pics

Spills and sleepless nights

 Oh today is just not my day.  Last night Emma woke me up at 3am,,I do not know why she does this.  She's been doing it quite often.  She wakes up and runs through the house(sounding quite like a crazed elephant), stomp stomp stomp super fast in a dead run, so I know shes coming before she gets there. She has to come all the way across the house to get to our room.  Does she try to crawl into our bed?  NO.  She knows she not really allowed to do that.  She wakes me up(although shes already awoken me with her stomping run through the house) and says "Mommy, take me back to bed".   Now really, what is the point of that besides to just wake me up?   I know shes only 5, I know she has probably woken up and having trouble getting back to sleep, but all that just to make sleeping me get up and follow her back to her room and tuck her back in and turn on her music box.  This is almost a nightly occurrence.  I guess it wouldnt be such a big deal accept for once I get up and go back to bed I have such a hard time falling back to sleep.  I lay there dog tired but toss and turn and think of things,,things I need to do, things that are emotionally bothering me, last night it took me 2 hours, so from 3-5am I was laying in bed feeling bad cuz I wasnt very nice to her this time when I took her back to bed, thinking about the food I was going to make today to put in the freezer for  quick meals for the kiddos in busy times, thinking about missing my dad, wondering why he doesnt call or come around, thinking I need to be a better mother......seriously people my mind races.   And this normally doesnt happen unless Im woken up by the lovely Emma.  ugh...   Enough of that,, just so you know, I love her to pieces and I'm just venting because I'm tired and dont know what to do to make it better.

So fast forward to 6:30am,, Jess wakes me saying I need to write her a check for a yearbook,,I get up do that, send her off to school, hop in shower to get ready cuz fairly new babysitting girl is coming at 7:15 this morning.  Before I'm even out of the shower Emma is up,  once new girl arrives shes crying and sad,, She doesnt like her mom going to work and is having a hard time with it bless her heart, but it sure makes for a long day.  I hope this wont last long!
I didnt mean for this to be a day in the life post so lets skip forward to around 10am, I start my getting ingredients out for my marathon baking and spill almost a whole container of cocoa powder all over the kitchen floor,,, what a stinking mess!!!  That was not easy to clean up, especially when I have to tell a 1 year old to stay away and out 500 times while Im trying to clean it up and every time I tell him to get out he throws a fit.  (deep breath)  First I get the pancake sausage muffins done, then corn dog muffins, and applesauce bread!  I sure thought it seemed like more than it looks like here

LOL   the hot dogs in the muffins arnt really a surprise are they?

I gave the kids some corn dog muffins for lunch along with some peaches and chex mix,, they really liked them.  Im hoping to put the rest accept for maybe a few cuz I know Gary is super excited to try out those muffins when he gets home from school today, in the freezer.  Soccer season is starting and things are about to get crazy here!
After I got the kids started I got my lunch ready, leftover crock pot fried rice and grilled chicken from last nights dinner.  Ben made sure to save me some so I could have some for lunch.  I was so excited,,, put it in the microwave(which we keep in the laundry room due to lack of space in the kitchen), got it out.  It smelled so good! I was carrying it out to the table and low and behold that bowl slipped right out of my hand and spilled all over the floor!  :(
I was so sad I could have cried.  I didnt even bother cleaning it up, the dog was already there enjoying what I was supposed to be eating... So instead I tried out the corn dog muffins I made and they were really good so I ended up eating 2.  Plus some hummus chips with hummus and raw carrots and grape tomatoes.  Over 500 calorie lunch that was only supposed to be around 300.  
Lets hope the rest of the day looks up,  ,I think we are going to Apple Bees for dinner tonight for a treat so at least I dont have to cook anymore!

And I hope you all dont think I'm a terrible mother now for complaining about Emmas sleeping habits.

Homemade poptarts

So the kiddos had school canceled Monday due to snow(Spring is here but the snow and cold weather are also still here :(  Anyways we have been talking about taking a try at making homemade pop tarts and I decided today was the day.  I am loving Laura's recipes and cant wait to receive her book I ordered in the mail! I mixed up the dough and let the kiddos help with the rest.  We decided to fill them with strawberry spreadable fruit and nutella! (notice the flowers in the background? Bennie was sweet and got them for me the other day, just because) 

Here's a few on the pan waiting to go in the oven.

Emma pressing the edges with a fork to seal them.

Enjoying the fruits of her labor!  Still not a low calorie snack but the ingredient list is all healthy and homemade so I feel better about serving these as a snack instead of the boxed poptarts.

And just because,, here's a pic of my girls..  I love when Jess helps out and acts loving with her sister :)

Soup and the Ballet

Remember that chicken in the crock pot from my last post?  Well from that one chicken I made a crock pot full of chicken broth that I froze some of, and then I turned the rest of the broth and leftover chicken that we didn't eat the night before into yummy homemade chicken noodle soup!  I kept it simple, chicken, broth, noodles, carrots, onions, and seasonings simmered on the stove for a couple of hours.  It was yummy.

 Saturday we were treated to the ballet.  My mom bought tickets for all of us(thanks Mom).  It was Cinderella, the girls really enjoyed it as did I.  The only problem was I had nothing to wear.  My old dressy clothes are way to big and sloppy looking but we managed to throw some pieces together and I didn't look to bad. :)  The shirt and skirt were some of my sisters old things,, mom had the skirt, it was what she had worn to her high school graduation.  New to me though :)

 They didn't let us take any pictures during the performance but I took a couple beforehand.  Jess and Emmas smiling faces

 And me and Amira :)

Afterwards we went out to dinner.  Yummy Mexican food!  I splurged on my calories and just ate what sounded good.  Yum

Just another Monday

Oh Monday how I loathe you. Today was a busy one too. I played catch up with the laundry( actually still have quite a bit of folding to do). Bens mom was here over the weekend! They came all the way from California and are moving to Ohio so instead of being across the country they will only be 3 hours away. So it will be a easy long weekend trip to get to see them. We are thrilled. Anyways I disnt really do any laundry owr the weekend.
I put a whole chicken in the crockpot this morning for dinner. A couple hours before it was time to eat I threw in some carrots. That was a super yummy and easy dinner. We also had baked potatos to go along with it.
I Made some pumpkin chocolate muffins for the kiddos. I only kept out a few and put the rest in the freezer to rtake out as needed for lunches. I also made some smoothie pops. Ill talk more about that later. We are really excited about them!
Then this evening we had a freshman soccer meeting for Jess. Even though shes not a freshman yet apparently they start conditioning tomorrow for next school year. Crazy!!! Im excited for her though and I know she is going to learn a ton and I hope she makes some great new friends and enjoys being part of this team.

Life in pictures

We've been busy.  And I didn't wanna go to long without posting so I decided to post some recent pics from my phone for you guys...
Here is Ms Emma hangin cool in the car reading her books

She just looked so darn cute I had to snap a pic!

Here is a pot beans ready to be cooked and transferred into re fried beans without the re fry.   There are pinto beans, a whole onion, lots of garlic and some seasonings. Then I filled up the crock pot with water, turned it on high for 4 hours, then low for about 2 or 3 hours.  Then I drained out just a little water then used a potato masher to mash it all up. .It was delish!!  It made a ton so we froze some and ate some. :)

Here is me.  Ben told me to send him a picture while he was at work on Friday and I was busy so just snapped this one of myself really fast.. He asked how many times I took a pic to send him because he said this is the best looking picture of me in a long time.  lol..  I dont see it.  But its sweet of him to say that.

And here is Gary and Emma, we went to the Home and Garden show with my parents yesterday and they had a little booth with a real live tortoise.  The lady asked Emma if she wanted to pet it and she wouldn't but Gary did!  Arnt they just the cutest kids!

Now I'm waiting for Ben to get home from work, then we are gonna have lunch then hit the gym.   Its day 2 of our free 7 day membership at the fitness center.  It was sooo nice working out there yesterday and having all the options of the different machines.  

30 Day Shred Results

Are you guys tired of hearing about the 30 Day Shred yet?  :)  Well its done so I shouldn't be talking about it for awhile. I'm going to report my progress on it though.  Not huge numbers but still losses so that's good.  I wish there was a way to measure strength cuz I know I'm stronger! I can actually do a real push up now when I couldnt when I started!  I did things on level 2 and 3 that I never thought I would ever be able to do so I would defiantly call that progress also!   So for the numbers...
In weight I went down almost 4 pounds....nothing superb but I guess if you talley it up that's a pound a week.   As far as body measurements goes
My neck stayed the same,,
My waist went down 3 inches! ( I was very happy about that,, i thought my pants were getting loose again!)
My hips went down 1 inch
My right arm,down 1/2 inch
My left arm, down 1/2 inch
Right leg,down 1/2 inch
Left leg,down 1 1/2 inches

I'm pretty happy with these results,, I know I gained muscle in my arms and legs, but I still have a lot of fat on them so I'm glad for the loss.

For exercise now I think I'm just gonna keep mixing it up with different circuit workouts, and dvds.  Next week we are going to take advantage of a free one week membership at a gym that my mom works out at.  That will be different and fun!

Prepping for the week

Its Sunday night and were ready for the new week. Tomorrow we have 2 orthodontist appointments. Wednesday Emma and Bennie get to do fathers night at preschool! And Thursday I go to the preschool and help with the 3 year old fathers night. So a busy werk ahead.

Saturday Ben worked and then we had our appointmant to get our taxes done. He gave us a rough estimate of what we would be getting back. Its a decent amount but not as much as Id like. I was hoping to be able to pay off more debt than I will be able to. But its better than nothing I suppose and I will just need to make a strict plan to pay off the rest.
Today Ben was off and we had a nice relaxing day at home. Jess and I knocked out our last day of The Shred!! I really am proud of myself. I stuck with it and finished it out. I know Im stronger and tomorrow morning Im gonna take my measurments and see the results. Ill post them here!
Besides that we watched a couple movies. I also made granola bars and banana chocolate chip baked oatmeal muffins to eat through the week. Then we watched a episode of Pretty Little Liars. A new netflix show Ive become sucked into.;-) oh the little guilty pleasures.
Days like today are some of my favorite. When we stay home and veg!

New Diet Plan

My husband and I started our "healthier living journey" 2012  probably around February.  While I have lost 48.4 pounds I still have 32.6 to go  before I THINK I am where I want to be.  I say THINK because I've never been this weight in my adult life.  I've always been heavy.  I'm the fat one in the family.   Although I don't think I would call myself that anymore.  But I'm still to heavy.  I'm not in my "healthy weight range".  I'm not comfortable naked (not sure I ever will be).  

Throughout this whole thing I haven't really wanted to consider myself on a "diet".  Ive done that before and ended up gaining half the weight back that I lost.  I have really tried to not tell myself that I can't have any certain food, reason being then I'm constantly gonna want that food. That's just how I am.  But since I've been playing around at this back and forth 5 pounds for months now I think its time to stricken it up.  I've been trying to figure out how to do that without being miserable.  I Love food!  And I enjoy eating.  I normally stay within my calories too, but for some reason I' m not losing anymore so here is what I'm going to do for the time being.  No more crackers/chips for the next two weeks at least so I can see what the scale does.  If I really feel the need for something of that nature then I will pop some popcorn with coconut oil.  At least that is "clean".  I was getting a little crazy with the flavored peanut butter also so I'm going to limit myself to only "real" peanut butter or the PB2 for the next little while also.  Also I will be keeping trying to incorporate more veggies into the mix.  I'm finding a lot that I didn't even know I liked!  I am still going to allow myself one "cheat meal" for the week.

As far as exercise I have been rocking it better than ever with that.  I have 2 days left of Jillian Michaels the Shred and then I can move on with my life. LOL   Not stop exercising but just adding new and different things.  I really do enjoy the circuit type workouts though.  I'm defiantly gonna incorporate lots of those in the mix.     I'll keep Ya ll updated!  Here's hoping for big loses!

Mason Jar smoothies

It doesn't take much to get this mama excited.   Someone really should have been here to here the scream that came from me today.  I was minding my own business, killing some time browsing pintrest(which by the way if you haven't discovered yet I highly recommend it!  I came upon this picture,,, showing a mason jar on top of a blender..hmmmmm,,,  I immediately started feeling the excitement and had to get right up and find a mason jar.   I found a regular mouthed one and walked my curious self right over to our blender..   Unscrewed the bottom blade part from the regular container and tried to screw it on the mason jar.   That is when the scream came out... Screams of joy!!!!!!  I really wanted to try it out right then but had to wait until later after my workout when I was going to have my protein shake.. (have to use my calories wisely).

Finally it was time,, first I put my goodies in the mason jar, one frozen banana, one scoop of chocolate whey protein powder, a few ice cubes, and some water.

Then I screwed on the blade part being very careful not to stab myself :)

Sit it right on the blender and tada!!!!!

Yummy!(That would be the arm of my husband in the background wondering why he married such a crazy freak that gets excited about using Mason jars on the blender)  He loves me!

Pure happiness right there... Who doesn't wanna drink right out of the Mason Jar(must be my southern roots showing there),, and I didn't have to dirty up the blender and this jar can easily go right into the dishwasher!  Sorry I look so utterly horrid,, this was after my workout remember and I never look pretty after all that sweaty-ness! Speaking of workouts,, only 6 more left of Jillian Michales Shred! Yay!  This level is a killer!

And in all the excitement Emma kept bugging met to take a picture of her with the lanyard on and with her little bear she found in her toy box today that her brother and sister got her when she was first born in the hospital.  Isn't she the cutest?

Whats the silliest thing you have gotten excited about?  I know I'm not the only one....

For more kitchen tips visit Tammy's website She always has great tips!

Contentment

Contentment.  This is something I have struggled with and worked on my entire life.  As a child it always seems your friends have bigger and better things,, the grass is always greener concept.  Well unfortunately as an adult I still struggle with this.  Lately it has gotten so much better though.  Here's the thing. Most days I am happy.  I am more or less living the life I have always wanted.  I have a husband that loves me, I've got great kids, I am able to be home with them.  There have been quite a few times I have despised my house but I have finally come to terms with the fact that this is where we are meant to be right now.  The payments are right and we can not afford a bigger house payment.  Everyone has there own room,, granted it is only 1000sq feet and there are 5 of us, plus extra littles here through the day but we all fit and its cute and comfortable.  It is our home and will more than likely be our home for quite a while. It could be so much worse.  The main thing I want right now is to get out of debt!!!! I want it so bad! I wish every other thing in life wouldn't keep coming up making it near darn impossible to pay down the credit cards.  All in good time.  If we want something really bad and are willing to work for it we can make it happen eventually right?

The only time I get down about my life is when I'm around other people,, listening to them talk about where they are going or all there grand things,, mostly I'm home though and hardly talk to anyone besides my family. lol   I guess that's something I need to work on.  Jealousy of other people.  I'm sure somewhere out there in the world might be jealous of me.   Like I said my life isn't bad at all!  I'm so lucky to have these great kids and man that would walk to the end of the earth if I asked him to.

What do you do when you feel the jealousy monster creeping in?  Or is it just me that this happens to?

Level 3

Today was day one of level 3 of The shred.. .. I know I've said it at the beginning of every single level but OH man, this one is rough!  Traveling push ups, sumo squat jumps, regular squat jumps, rock star jumps!!  The list goes on.  I am doing things I never thought in my life I would be able to!  I'm so proud of myself, and of Jess.    
 So 9 days left of this and then we will be on to something else.  I'm loving my heart rate monitor that I ordered. Its so nice to see how much I am actually burning and how hard I'm working from day to day.
Its late and I'm tired but I just wanted to check in here..

Keeping it Real

In reading through my last few post I notice I sound pretty darn happy. Happy, healthy, fit and active. What a great life I must have. Lol. No really my life is just fine but it is defiantly not all those things. Honestly in the last 4 days I have had two major meltdowns where I was bawling and feeling life life couldn't get much worse. I also get teary eyed quite often during my workouts. Sounds silly doesn't it? I don't know what it is but sometimes it just seems so hard and makes me wonder if I will ever look like what I want to look like. Idk but i keep pushing right through the tears because the only way I will ever find out is if I keep on going.

Ben and I the opposite of a perfect relationship, but we try, we push through all these roadblocks life keeps throwing at us. Some days I wonder why did I ever marry this man, he is so unlike me, but i did marry him and I had 3 kids with him. He provides the best he can for me and them. He tries. He would give me the moon if he was able so I have to keep looking past faults.

My kids, I love them so much. I would die for them. They are great, get great grades, but they arnt perfect either. They are just like any other kid. They are mouthy, tend to not listen. Gary keeps disobeying like crazy! For two years Ive told the kid do not get breakfast at school. I feed him here. I cant afford to buy school breakfasts. He continues to eat breakfast at school every chance he gets. SMH. I don't get it. We punish him. He still does it. I told him dont download anything on the ipod without asking me first. He still downloads stuff. We know cuz whatever he downloads automatically goes to Ben's phone. He knew this. But still did it anyways!!! I just dont get it!
I could go on and on with the woes thats is me, but I wont. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't giving anyone the wrong impression. Actually I dont even know if anyone is reading this!
I just keep going, doing the best I can with what I have. Im reading this book right now. Hoping I can learn a thing or two.

A fit family and our menu.

Another weekend come and gone,, almost half way through Feb!!  It really is true that as you get older life just moves on faster.  And the weekends sure do fly by.  Through the week our days are pretty much the same,, get up kids go to school Ben is at work, I babysit until 5:30 every night which then we have dinner, clean up dinner, workout, get kids ready for bed, watch a little TV, wait for 3rd shift babysitting girl to come and then go to bed to get up and do it all over again.  The weekends are always a little different and as of lately working out is part of those also.  I am really happy that fitness has taken over our household.  I cant believe I'm saying this but I am loving being active.  I really cant  wait until the weather warms up some I we can get outside more often and take walks and I"m dieing to go hiking somewhere.  Tennessee and all those hills are really calling my name.  I bet we could tackle them a lot better now than we did a few years ago! 

Jess and I right before doing The Shred.

 

We took a little sneak peak at level 3 of the Shred and since the mats were open Emma decided to do some of the stretches with Evil Jillian.

Saturday the sun was out and even though it wasn't really warm we took advantage of it and the whole family went for a walk. Gary wanted to ride his bike.  We went for 2 miles!  Our ears and cheeks were frozen but its all good.  I loved getting some fresh air. Emma was whining on the way home about being cold and tired but hopefully this summer when its not freezing she will be more into it. 

I really wasn't this far behind everyone, my shoe was untied so I stopped to tie it and snapped a pic while I was back there. 

 

Ive decided to start posting our menus again like I used to.  Keep in mind that lunches are always subject to change, just depends if we have leftovers or not and what the kids and I are in the mood for..I also don't always eat the same thing as the kids in the mornings and lunches,,if you want to see exactly what I eat find and add me at myfitnesspal.com  my user name is everydaymom. 

 

I also always have a veggie or two at dinner but dont always right then down on the menu plan because we just have whatever one sounds good that day. :)   More or less nothing is written in stone,I just like to have a basic plan.  This little markerboard came with a calander set my mom got me for Christmas,, I love it for posting our menus on the fridge. 

If you need some dinner inspiration check outhttp://orgjunkie.com/ There are tons of menu plans there every Monday morning

Saturday happenings

Oh lovely Saturday.. I love them.  No extra kids here besides my own.  Ben worked this morning, and he has to work tomorrow.  He's bummed, but it sure helps out with money.  This morning the kids and I slept in , had breakfast, then Jess and I did the Shred.  Shes been doing it with me, which helps out.  Its always more fun to have someone suffer along beside me :)  Then we all took showers(cuz we were sweaty and stinky), and then Ben came home.  We had lunch, cleaned up, then made our grocery shopping list.  Tomorrow is super bowl Sunday we planned out a fun and fattening filled day for that, then made the menu plan for the rest of the week.  

All our lovely fruit, I love when we get home from the store and have a overflowing fruit basket,, although it wont look like that for long,, This wont even last until next weekends shopping trip.

 Shopping took forever!! The stores were packed,, guess people were stocking up for super bowl?? When we came home we had dinner, then decided we needed desert.  So Jess was looking online for a recipe and I suggested we look at momto9's blog.  She has yummy deserts  We found this recipe for heavenly bars.. 

Cooking at home makes for lots of dirty dishes

 The bars turned out just as heavenly as promised!  Jess did a great job as always.  I don't even want to know how many calories were in that little square I ate. Good thing we exercised this morning!  

My nice clean shiny sink! (wanted to make sure everyone knows I don't leave a  messy kitchen for to long!)

PS..   For the whole entire time I've been typing this Miss Jessica has been sitting beside me making fun of me and the way I type and write and spell and talk,, and shes laughing right now..  Good thing I know she loves me deep down.

Shred update and a date night

Yummy sushi oh how I love thee

Honestly I could eat it every single day!  Ben and I finally got out for a date night Saturday night...We went to Noa Noa, it was our first time there and I loved the atmosphere and the food was delish!  Plus we only had to pay less than $10 because I had a gift certificate from one of my childcare families!  yay!  It was nice to just be us.. Ben said it was nice and quiet,, no kids fighting, screaming, no one saying ewww that looks gross(something Emma has been saying quite often since I've been trying to cook healthier lately).  We just left the kids at home(something I feel blessed to be able to do now that Jess is older and can watch Emma).  We dont stay out long when we do that just in case and Jess had a phone to call us if she needs us. 

 

 

Here is sweaty old me after doing day 6 of the 30 Day shred!!

The soreness is getting better even though I feel like need a hand rail to get up and down off the toilet most days because my legs are so sore. LOL   Its so worth it though.  I'm feeling stronger everyday!  I feel so good and actually look forward to the workout!  I cant wait until the weather gets nicer here so I can get out and take more walks again.. I'm contemplating attempting to jog again this summer... It hasn't worked out before but I'm willing to try again.  I'm just happy,, happy to be taking better care of myself!  Oh and finally the initial gain after starting the program has came off,, I'm pretty positive it was my sore muscles retaining water.  So I've been drinking lots of it to keep it moving along,,, the only problem with doing that is I have to pee all the time!!!  ugh

Sore!!

Ok so Ive done 2 days of the Shred Its day 3 morning and Im so sore! The front top half of my legs are on fire. My rear end is sore. Chest and arms a little. But I know that all a good thing because that means my body is changing for the better!
The bad thing is the last two days I have stepped on the scale my weight has gone up a pound. Each day!!! Ive been staying in my calories so Im not sure whats going on. Im guessing its because my muscles are swollen? I hope thats it. I took measurments of my body this morning so I can track that on top of the scale. I dont want to get discouraged. I wanna be a hot mama!!
Tonight me and Ben are going out to dinner with a gift certificate I got for Christmas from one of my babysitting kids parents. Gotta love a free meal and a mini date night!!

Fitness

Ok, so I'm getting a little excited.  I've decided that I'm going to restart Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred!  I've tried it once before but never even got to level 2.  So I"m gonna start and I WILL  make it through the 30 days!  I feel that I should be in better shape than I was the last time I tried it and I know I weigh less so I know it wont be easy but I'm gonna try again!  Yay!  And then I'm gonna move onto another program.  I was looking on YouTube and there are a LOT  of options on there!!   So now I just need to figure out a start date.......   I could wait until Feb 1st and that would be easier to track the days.  Oh why put it off,, I will start tomorrow.  Better do it while I'm still excited about it!:)  Ill keep my progress updated on here

Weekend birthday party



We had a great weekend.  We had family over to celebrate Emma and Gary's birthdays.  We had the party here at our house and I made food and Jess made the cakes!

 

 

She did a amazing job!  She wants to study culinary arts in school! Its nice having someone else that likes to cook around the house although she prefers to make deserts I think,  Which is fine and dandy unless you ask my waistline. LOL

It was nice to have everyone over to our house.  I'm so glad everyone could make it!  The kids both got things they wanted and everyone was happy I believe. 

 

My family has been begging me to make granola bars again... that's right, we don't buy those anymore either.  this is the recipe I have been making.  Everyone likes it accept for Gary, not sure why.  I cut them into 24 bars and they come out to 120 calories.  I do want to try some different things out and see if I can make them healthier.  This recipe uses butter,, I'm wondering if I could replace it with coconut oil.   Here are the bars setting up before I cut them

 

 

 

And here they are in the "cookie jar". (which we never have cookies in)