Oatmeal is not my favorite breakfast taste wise, but it is healthy, filling and easy, so sometimes I eat it. Well the other day I mixed some things in my oatmeal that will make it a much more regular staple on my breakfast menu!

Ingrediants

Oatmeal

Water

Peanut Butter

Honey Bunches of Oats Protein Granola

1/2 Banana

 

Make the oatmeal according to your package directions. I use Trader Joes Rolled Oats. Owen likes oatmeal and I usually scoop out about half a cup of the finished oatmeal for him. So I am only using about half of the cooked oatmeal for this recipe.

 

When it is done add in a small scoop of Peanut Butter, stir until mixed in. Now add the cut up banana and a few pinches of the granola.

 

That's it! Quick and delicious.

I like this a lot because it gives the oatmeal a really good flavor. One of the biggest reasons I don't like oatmeal is the texture and the granola adds a crunch to it, so I don't notice the texture as much!

 

Try it and then let me know what you think!! Have another recipe for oatmeal that you like? Share it with me! I would love to see them!

 

Next up...How the jeans Fit Friday! 

Favorite Recipe July

I am linking up again today with Momfessionals to post my favorite recipe for July! This is a new recipe for me and super easy! I was introduced to this pasta salad when we were on vacation a couple weeks ago, and couldn't wait to make it for myself!

 

Ingredients

 16 ounces - Pasta

5 cups - cut up veggies of your choice

8 ounces - Italian dressing

1/4 cup - McCormick Salad Supreme

 

Cook Pasta according to package directions. I use Trader Joes Brown Rice and Quinoa Pasta. Drain and Rinse pasta under cold water.
 

 



 

Cut up your choice of veggies for the salad. I am using rainbow peppers, onions, cucumber and tomatoes. (When I started the recipe I didn't have the cucumbers and tomatoes, but I added those later, after I went to the grocery store!)

 

 Mix everything together in a large bowl and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

 

I made this as a side to our steak dinner on Sunday night, Monday I had it for lunch and then we had it for a side with our chicken dinner. After that it was gone and I realized I never took a picture of the final product :( Sorry! But, seriously, it is so good! Try it, you won't be disappointed :)

 



Favorite Things under $10

Today I am doing something a little different and fun! Anyone that knows me, knows that I love to read blogs. Two of the blogs that I read are Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything. I found Andrea and Erika's blogs from the ever famous Mix and Match Mama who I reference on this blog all the time. Andrea and Erika do a bunch of fun Link Parties and I have decided to join a few. Today I am highlighting some of my favorite things under $10. Take a look!


First up, my favorite new find. Unfortunately, I have to color my hair. I say unfortunately because I am filled with gray hair and if I wasn't, I would not color it. It is a pain, it takes a long time and it is expensive. Well, I have a great stylist who does my cuts, color and highlight, but with my hair being so dark (the highlights help a bit) I see gray roots after about 3 weeks. Well I can not color my hair every 3-4 weeks. Even if the budget allowed it, who has time for that? So, I have found this....

I use this every 3-4 weeks. There is no mixing, the pump does it for you and when you finish, you take off the pump cover, put on a permanent cover and save it for next time. I got 3 uses out of one box! The price was just a tad over $10, but I colored my roots 3 times and that works out to less than $5 per time. Maybe that's cheating a little, but that's how I am justifying it in my mind :)

Next up, Caramel Machiatto K-cups. Yum, I am not a huge coffee drinker, but I do love me a latte! There is also just something about early mornings that make me want a hot drink. I haven't been able to find a good tea that I can use in the Keurig (and lets face it that is just so easy first thing in the morning) so I bought the Caramel Macchiato K-cups and I LOVE them! I won't have one every morning because they are calories (100, not too much) and I would love to drink something without calories, like tea. Plus I don't like to drink caffeine everyday. I keep my caffeine consumption to a minimum, generally, because if I drink it every day it can start to make me feel jittery. But these are good enough to make my list of favorites!

Lastly, I love to have polish on my nails, but don't paint them nearly enough because I don't have time to paint and allow time to dry. I can paint my nails pretty quickly, but the drying time is forever!! And nine times out of 10, I end up banging or smudging them and that drives me crazy. Or I do it before bed, think it is fine and wake up in the morning and there are lines all over my nails. So, I don't paint them because I don't have time to be still waiting for them to dry. Then I bought this....

 

Amazing!! I painted my nails for date night Friday night about 10 minutes before we went out. Within 5 minutes I was finishing getting ready, I rifled through my wallet looking for a card, etc. And not only did I not smudge it, there was absolutely no lines or dings on my nails. It has passed the test as far as I am concerned and this will be a staple in my house from here on out! Try it, you won't be disappointed!

 

Go on over to Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything to check out all the other favorites!

Hope you are having a great week so far!



Weekly Meal Plan

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I am posting my meal plan a day early this week, because tomorrow I am linking up with another blog to list a few of my favorite things under $10. Last week I did great sticking to the meal plan. Saturday night we ended up just making some quick nachos for dinner while we watched a movie after the kids went to bed. So I moved the chicken I planned to Monday night. This week we don't have much going on, so I am cooking almost every night. Boo...

Week of July 28th

Breakfast

Oatmeal with fruit or English muffin with Peanut butter and jelly.

Lunch

Turkey pita, Pasta salad or dinner leftovers.

Dinner Plans for:

Monday - Sheaffers Teriyaki Chicken with Rice and Green beans.

Tuesday - Peanut Pasta from Mix and Match Mama (Can you tell I like her recipes?) served with a side salad.

Wednesday - Egg sandwiches with Turkey Bacon and a side of fruit! This is a quick meal that is perfect for when we rush out to dance right after dinner.

Thursday - Beach Dinner - Mike is getting out early and we are taking dinner to the beach. We are going to try to do this every week from now until the end of the summer! I may pack sandwiches, but I may just take the night off and grab Subway on the way!

Friday - Pizza night! Homemade with a side of cut up veggies.

Saturday - Pineapple Guacamole Burgers from, you guessed it...Mix and Match Mama. These look amazing and perfect for a Saturday night in the summer! I will serve with salad or cut up veggies and fruit.

Sunday - Grilled Shrimp Tacos from Mix and Match Mama. These look yummy and quick and perfect for a Sunday night after a busy weekend!

Now I am off to make my grocery list.

If you didn't get to read about my new grocery list, click here. You can download it and try it for yourself. It worked great for me at the grocery store!



What to look forward to this week on the blog...

Monday - Favorite things under $10

Wednesday - Linking up again with some favorite recipes!

Thursday - Oatmeal recipe that I made up and it is great!

Friday - How the jeans fit Friday #2 

 

Have a great week!

How the Jeans Fit Friday

If you read my Moving Forward post, you know that I am taking the advice of my friends and ditching the scale. So instead of "weighing in" on the scale each Friday, I will "weigh in" on the Good and bad from the week and take a picture in a pair of goal jeans and report back on how they feel this week! I bought these jeans when they were on sale back in April hoping they would fit good soon after. Well.... now they fit worse than when I bought them :( So rather than have a weight goal, my first mini goal is to fit comfortably into these jeans!

 They don't look terrible when  you take a quick glance, but lets look a little closer. Notice the top of the jeans, that is not the way the shirt is laying that is some major muffin top...uughh. Then check out the back pockets, they need to move up a bit to be more flattering. I am maxing these jeans out, but I was a little bit happy when I put them on, because honestly I didn't think that I could button them and I did. So I will try them on every Friday and report back. Next week I think I will wear a colored tank to see a bit better, but at 6am I didn't feel like going to change into another tank after I took the pics :)

 

On to how the week went!

 

The Good....

• I followed my meal plan for the week. The only night it was different was last night because I had planned for leftover lasagna, but it was my birthday and Mike ended up cooking Shrimp Scampi for me! Otherwise, we ate what I had planned each night.
• I made the yummy lasagna and subbed ground beef for ground turkey and it was still delicious. I realized that I was making burgers on Monday so I didn't want ground beef so much this week and chose the turkey and I am glad I did. It was just as good! The other good thing about the lasagna was that I only ate one piece! It was so good, but I really wasn't hungry so I told myself I would save the leftovers and would be able to have it again. I did it! Portion control at its finest :)
• I am finally getting my steps in again! I went for a couple of walks and one day did some pretty serious rock climbing near the ocean for over an hour. I was beat! I feel back on track!
  

  
• I got up at 6am each morning this week (except my birthday, I did 7am, but that's a good exception!), one morning I even did 5:45 because I had a bunch to do before going out. I love that time in the morning!
  

  

  Right now I am drinking a latte from my new coffee mug Olivia bought me for my birthday! Love it!

The Bad and the Ugly...

• This week my bad things are situational. It was my birthday week!
• I went out to dinner Wednesday night, had a few drinks and dessert (but when I was full, I didn't make myself finish it). My dinner choice wasn't awful. I got a Greek pita with sweet potato fries. I guess it could have been better, but I didn't think it was terrible.
• Last night Mike made Shrimp scampi and of course I had ice cream cake, but I didn't say oh its my birthday so that means I can eat crappy all day. I just splurged at dinner and dessert.
• I didn't get my steps in on my birthday either...
  

  
• Tonight we are going out to dinner for a date night and I plan to have fish or seafood. That is what I am craving. So I will try to make it on the lighter side. A couple of glasses of wine or a few beers will round off my evening I am sure...it is my birthday week afterall :)

All in all I feel good about this week. Yes, I didn't eat completely healthy and light every meal, but I don't feel that I overindulged and I didn't beat myself up about dessert on Wednesday night and even kind of felt good about the fact that I didn't finish it! So I think my new strategy is working.

To end today I want to show a few cute pics of the kiddos rock climbing at Fort Williams the other day! You will see that I wasn't kidding about serious rock climbing, but we had so much fun! Olivia was off climbing with her friend most of the time, so I didn't get a close up of her alone. She wouldn't sit inside the "cave" with Owen. What a great picture that would have been if she did! I don't look my best in the picture of the three of us, I don't even think my eyes are open, but look at Olivia's smile?!!! She looks great! Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Yay, for the weekend!



Star Wars Party

Part of my journey this year is to start a realistic budget that we can stick to while still being able to live comfortably and save for our second floor. Mike cringes a little at birthday time and Christmas because I sometimes go a bit lot overboard! So my first challenge was to give myself a budget for the kids birthday parties this year. I gave myself $200 for each party.

I love to plan a party and this one was no exception even if I did have to hold back a little :)

This is the breakdown...

Invitations: $15.53

Decorations: $37.70

Games: $34.03

Costumes: $45.78

Light sabers: $13.62

Food: $74.23

Total: $220.89

 

I went a little over but I am happy with this. There were a lot of other things I could have bought that I didn't. Trying to stick to a budget helped me to get just necessary things to throw a great party! Now for the cuteness and to see exactly what I spent the money on!

 

Since Owen's 2nd birthday I have used Sprout My Party on Etsy for his invitations. I have either used her stock invite or she has custom made one for me, like this year! If you check out her Etsy shop here, you will see that Owen is famous and his picture is on two of her invitations. Tractors and Fire trucks! Check it out, she is great to work with! How is this for cuteness?

 

 

Included in the price for decorations is also the paper products. I bought Star Wars themed large plates for breakfast and Star Wars napkins, but went with green and black small plates, cups, silverware and balloons to save on cost. I also bought a few cheap packages of star wars stickers that I put on the cups to make them Star Wars themed without the huge cost. The stickers were $1.88/package and each package had 32 stickers. I used them on the treat bags and the cups and still had some left over for Owen. The biggest unnecessary cost was the large decoration that we hung on the fence. I wanted to use it for pictures. I got a couple, but I don't know that it was worth it at $15.

 

 

Each child received a Jedi robe which I made out of a pillowcase. Simple, no sew and the kids LOVED them! I got the idea from a pin on Pinterest that led me to the blog, 3 Little Things. I got some fabulous ideas from her blog! These costumes were definitely costly because I couldn't find pillowcases as cheap as she did, but they were worth it. I also had some extras, so if I cut those out, I could be closer to my budget! Then I made the same pool noodle light sabers. I found noodles at the dollar store so that was great for the budget! They were cheap and simple to make.

 

When guests arrived the kids got to put on their robes and then we had breakfast. I served themed food as I see all over Pinterest. I got most of my cute breakfast ideas from this blog I found through Pinterest, All Betz are off, click here for her Star Wars Themed party. We had green yoda yogurt (green food coloring in vanilla yogurt) with optional fruit or granola additions, Leia buns (cinnamon buns), Hans casserole (egg, bacon, potato and cheese casserole, recipe found here), Starship Pancakes (They were all supposed to be shaped like starships but after the millennium falcon, it was clear we didn't have time for that, so we had one starship and the rest were flying saucers :), and Fruit sabers (grapes on a stick).

 

After breakfast we moved on to games. All the games were to learn how to become a true Jedi. The first game was fighting each other on a balance beam. All the kids picked a partner and took turns fighting with the light sabers on the piece of wood. We would let them go for a minute or so and then count down from 5, clap at the end and have them take a bow.

 

The second game was trying to keep up a balloon with the light saber. This was a little difficult outside with the wind. We lost a couple over the fence, and it was hot so we had a few pop, but it occupied them for a bit and they seemed to enjoy it.

Doesn't he look serious??

 Then Darth Vader came and this was by far the highlight of the party for me and everyone else. I asked them if Darth Vader came to the party did they feel they were ready to fight him? Did they learn enough to take him on? Well let me tell you, he could barely round the corner when all the kids attacked!! It was hysterical. My husband was a trooper! After a few minutes, Darth Vader surrendered! Some of the kids were shocked when Darth took off his mask and "it was Owen's Dad!" Too cute! I used the tablecloth idea from the 3 Little Things blog and also had to purchase the mask, that I did not add into the budget because I am considering it part of Owen's gift since he has barely taken it off since we bought it!

Those are the looks of kids having fun!! So cute!

 

Half Jedi/Half Darth Vader

 

Then I had purchased a millennium falcon pull string piñata. On the piñata there is only one string that works to pull the candy out. So I had everyone come and try to pull on a string (holding out the one that would work) and when no one got it, I told them their final challenge was to use the force to get it open. So we had one of the kids demonstrate how to use the force and they all closed their eyes and put their hands out and I pulled the string that worked to empty it. They were quite excited for the candy (and I am quite upset that I have no pictures of it)! I had gotten these Darth Vader heads after Easter time and used those in the piñata. The only disappointing thing was these were a bit big to really flood out. I think smaller candy would have made a bigger impact on the "force" working, but they loved it anyway.

 

 

 

Finally, they were all presented with their official Jedi training completion certificates which I found here for free on the blog Libbie Grove Design. Check it out, she has lots of party ideas! We took each of their pictures with their certificate which I plan to print and send off with thank you cards!

 

After all that, we had cake (well cupcakes) and ice cream to celebrate the birthday boy. I had ordered these kits from William Sonoma which I got on sale for $3.99. (click images to take you to Williams-Sonoma)

I made Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting for the "dark side" and White cupcakes with vanilla frosting for the rebel side. Making the cupcakes was easy with those cupcake wrappers and the character picks, and it cut down on cost for sure since I just bought two boxes of mix and two cans of frosting to use with them and we had 48 cupcakes!

I think the party was a huge success. The kids enjoyed themselves, I enjoyed watching them have fun and that makes it all worth it!

Need a laugh?? Since I like to "keep it real," this is what Owen did while people were having cake. Yes, we are glad he didn't wet his pants, but he clearly needs to learn about having some privacy :)

 

 To make it easier for people to get ideas if you are looking to plan a Star Wars birthday party I started a Pinterest for the blog and I made a Star Wars Party board. I put all the pins I used for ideas, plus some I did not. Click the "See on Pinterest" icon below and it will bring you right to my board on Pinterest!

Follow Sandy Litcher's board Star Wars Party on Pinterest.

 

 

Sorry it took so long to get this out, but we have been so busy so far this summer! We are finally settled down and enjoying a laid back few weeks before school starts again! Next up will be Olivia's Cupcake Wars party!

 



Weekly Meal Plan

Good morning! The start of a fresh new week! It is 6am and I am blogging! Don't forget to read my last post here to see what's going on with my new routine. The only bummer is that my kids are also awake, so no quiet time this morning. Oh well, better luck tomorrow! Last night I sat down and planned our meals for the next week. We have a few things going on this week, so I won't have to cook every night which, of course, I love :)

Week of July 21st

Breakfast

Oatmeal with fruit or English muffin with Peanut butter/jelly

Lunch

Turkey wrap, Grilled chicken salad or dinner leftovers

Dinner Plans for:

Monday - Meatloaf Burgers from Mix and Match Mama on wheat buns with zuchinni from my garden!

Tuesday - Lasagna with a salad. I LOVE lasagna! Love, love, love it! I never make it anymore because it doesn't fit in my "diet." Now that I am losing the diet mentality, I am cooking it up and just making sure to watch my portions. A nice big side salad with help with that!

Wednesday - Egg sandwiches for the family - this mama is going out!

Thursday - Leftover lasagna with a salad. Aren't leftovers the best thing about lasagna??

Friday - Macaroni and Cheese for the kids - Date night for Mom and Dad, Lucky us!

Saturday - Sheaffers Teriyaki Chicken with Rice and Green beans.

Sunday - Steak with a Pasta salad filled with veggies on the side!

Today I am testing out a new grocery list that I created. Have I mentioned before that I hate meal planning and going to the grocery store? Well I do! So, I made this printable grocery list to, hopefully, make things a little bit easier! I am testing it out at the store later this morning!

 

 

This list has things that I typically buy on a regular basis and is broken into sections that follow my grocery store. I made only two columns so that I would have plenty of room to write notes beside some of the items and I could fold it in half at the store to easily follow along. I just crossed out things that I did not need this week, wrote notes next to some items when needed and put extra things on the lines. Here is what it looked like this morning before I went to the store.

 

 

 

 

Want to try the list? Download it here and let me know what you think!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Moving forward...

First of all, I want to thank everyone who answered my questions from my last post! click here to read. I got some comments on the blog, a few e-mails, plus I had a couple of chats with friends. There seems to be at least one quote or piece of advice that sticks with me from everyone! Today I am going to sum up the information and let you all know how I am going to put this in place in my life.

1. Instead of trying to jump in with exercise five days per week, start small and work up. I am less likely to get discouraged that way.

2. It is 90% about diet and 10% about exercise.
The first two made a big impact because when I finally hit rock bottom and decide to do something about my weight I go all in (5 days/week exercise and some diet) but it isn't my lifestyle (yet) so I struggle and fall behind. I only got 3 days of exercise in this week and then I am beating myself up about it. I cheated and ate that brownie, Oh well, I guess I will eat the rest of the brownies and start again tomorrow. Sound familiar?? So if I start slowly and work up, I can be proud of myself for my getting those two workouts instead of having to say, Why can't I do it??

3. It isn't about motivation, it is about making a choice.
So true, I don't have to be motivated to do my workout (although someday, I hope to get to that point), I just have to make the choice that I am doing it and I won't regret it!

4. Put the scale away, it can be discouraging.
This makes sense. I focus too much on the scale and when it doesn't show what I want I get discouraged. Well clearly I did crappy this week, so I will take the weekend off and start really strict on Monday. Sound familiar? The problem with this, is Monday, I am 5 pounds heavier and I work that off all week instead of just moving forward.

5. Work together with your husband as a "team" to make the time to exercise.
Mike and I really need to work at this. Because exercise isn't a habit for us, we really have to work on encouraging each other to start doing it. We aren't spring chickens anymore (although Mike will tell you he is:)...we need to start taking care of our bodies!

6. Do not diet. Don't do something that I can't stick to for the rest of my life. Learn to eat correctly and most of all use the theories, everything in moderation and portion control.
I am not going to count points for the rest of my life, I am not going to stop eating carbs forever or eat frozen meals long term. I need to stop stressing so much about food. Eat what makes my body feel good and treat myself in moderation.

7. The hour in the morning will pass either way, do I want to sleep through that time and regret it ALL day, or get up and do what I need to do and reward myself with a quiet cup of coffee or tea??
This will absolutely go through my head every morning, every day for the rest of my life. LOVE this perspective on time!

Thank you to Mix and Match Mama, Robin, Matt, Elizabeth and a few others for their answers!!

Now, how am I going to put this advice to work in my life? Here is the plan....

• I am going to start waking up at the same time each morning. I am going to start at a reasonable time for me (6am) and work backwards. Once I get used to the new routine, I will get up a little earlier until I find a time that works for me.
• I am going to use this time in the morning for quiet time, blogging and getting myself organized in the food department (grocery lists, meal planning and prep). Only two days a week, at first, will I use this time for exercise.
• I am going to lose the diet mentality. I am not going to deprive myself from foods I enjoy, but try to really tune in to how foods make my body feel.
•  I am going to ditch the scale. On weigh in Fridays I will take a picture in my jeans and a tank top. Each week, I will give you the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, take a picture and let you know how "the jeans fit!"

There you have my new outlook. It was great to be away and to have all this advice to think about and to really dig deep and decide what was going to work for me. I really thought about why I tend to "fall off the wagon" a few weeks in and how these tips could keep that from happening. I also realized how much I love blogging. I missed it while I was gone!

And just because I LOVE these and this is FUNNY and we all need a little funny in our day!

 

Have a Great Week!!

 

Weekly Weigh In #2



Ok Readers, today I am asking some questions. If you have struggled with weight or just changing your lifestyle to healthier eating and exercise, tell me about the moment it just became your way of life. What clicked for you?

Here is why I am asking. This week I am not weighing in. I am not because I know I will be disappointed and I don't want to do that to myself. Last week, I felt that I did really good and lost 0.2 pounds (click here to read Week #1). This week, I did terrible so I can only imagine what the scale will show. Honestly, I just don't want to disappoint myself, I don't want to get down on myself because I feel like it will make my motivation worse.

I don't understand this week because last week I felt so motivated. I looked at the calendar and decided what time each day I would be able to squeeze in my workout. I had things planned for dinners, breakfasts and lunches. I followed  the plan besides my nights out. I felt good. Although it didn't show on the scale.

This week, Monday was Olivia's birthday, Tuesday her birthday party, Wednesday we went to a birthday party and it was Owen's birthday. So you can already see one thing that happened this week. I ate cake. Every. Day. I also was busy and my mother guilt kicked in. I was trying to prepare for the party Tuesday and then decided rather than getting my workout in, I would take the kids for a swim before the party. Wednesday, I woke up exhausted. I felt like I had no energy to get a workout in before we left for the day and then of course it never happened between being gone most of the afternoon and then celebrating Owen's birthday. So now, I am beating myself up. I want to know what is wrong with  me? If I want to lose weight so bad, why can't I keep my motivation?? One bad choice in eating leads to more. Why?

I know that I love getting up before the kids to have some quiet time, then I can work out earlier. I do it for a week and then "I am too tired to get up." I know I love how I feel when I work out. I do it consistently for a bit and then I start coming up with excuses. I know I feel great when I eat great, when I am organized and prepared with food. I do it for a few weeks or less and then I don't have time. Do you see a trend here?

I was feeling so positive and motivated and I know I will come back from vacation feeling like that again. But, what is going to happen over vacation? I am debating taking my T25 with me. Will I do it? I'm on vacation. I know I won't eat great, I will try not to eat terrible, but I'm on vacation. I will drink because I am on vacation. So not only did I not lose weight before my vacation, am I going to come back 5 pounds heavier??

I know I have tried to stay positive and this post is anything but positive. But I promised to "Keep it Real" and this is Real right now. I had a long conversation with a friend of mine a few days ago and she is feeling the same way, so I know some of you are also feeling these things. So I hope that I am showing you that you are not alone. But, for people on the other side of this feeling, for the people that exercise everyday and don't feel right if they don't, for the people that eat healthy as just a way a life and not a constant struggle, tell us your secret.

Here are my questions:

• If you struggled with your weight. What was your "click" moment when it became your way of life and not a struggle anymore?
• How do you get your workout in everyday? When do you do it? Same time every day or whenever it works? 
• If you made yourself from a night person to a morning person, how did you do it?
• How do you handle food? Do you diet? Is healthy eating second nature now?

I will tell you the reason behind my questions...

When my friend and I talked the other day, we talked about the "click moment" the moment when all of a sudden someone just says I am doing it and goes and doesn't stop and everything I long for, falls into place for them. Talk to me about that moment.

I need to figure out when to workout and I need to stick to it no matter what. How do I do that? How do I stay consistent even when I feel tired?

I badly want to become a morning person. I could stay up until midnight every night no problem, but that time isn't being used as a workout time or meal prep time. That time is used blogging or watching TV. By the end of the day I am not necessarily falling asleep, but my body is tired and ready to rest. I want to wake up before the kids, blog and have some quiet time to myself. I want to workout early and get it done. I know I can't do it right out of bed, because I need to wake up, but if I got up and had an hour or two to myself to do some quiet things, workout, shower and then start my day...this would be my perfect world. I want it so bad. How do I do it??

Mike and I talk about food. All. The. Time. He wants to diet. He thinks that if we diet and see some progress we will feel more motivated. I agree that with some progress on the scale I will probably stay motivated longer than a minute, but I want a lifestyle change. I feel like if I do a diet that as soon as I come off the diet I will go back to my old ways and put the weight back on. Sound familiar to anyone? Certainly does to me! So, advice is welcome. Do we diet and make some progress? Is trying clean eating not working for us? He wants to do weight watchers. I would love some advice!

I am going on vacation starting today. Please share my post this week. I want to hear what everyone has to say. I know there are others feeling just like me that also want to hear. There are people out there that have gotten through this struggle and have reached their goals and I want to hear what you have to say. There are people out there that have never struggled with weight, but there is a reason for that...what works for you??

People have told me they can't comment on the blog. If you have trouble posting a comment on here, read my "Thank you" post here. It gives some instructions on commenting. Please Share and Comment!

Since I am being a little negative with my feelings today. I will leave you with some motivational quotes!

 

 

Have a great Week!! 

Happy Birthday Little Man

Owen turns 4 today!

How has 4 years passed since this sweet, squishy boy was born?



Seems like yesterday....

He was so squeezable!

 

Him wearing a hat, makes me smile. Every. Time. Clearly it doesn't have the same effect on him :)

 

Owen has grown into a sweet, caring, hysterical, curious, brave, stubborn, wild and crazy little boy!

 



He loves to play pretend, drive or pretend to drive any big machines like tractors and 4-wheelers, swing, run, climb, dig, play with trucks, help daddy, use tools and play outside. He loves his little friends, his sister, Star Wars, the beach and to make people laugh!

 

We have not had a dull moment since this little man, made us a family of four. What a gift we were given to experience both a girl and a boy as parents. We are truly blessed!

 

 

Our family :)

 

Happy Birthday Owen!

XOXO