10+ on Tuesday

{1} I got a bunch of decorations for Valentine's Day a while ago and had every intention of decorating the middle of January.  It still hasn't happened. I'm hoping for today.

{2}  I'm loving all this warmer weather. I could handle winters like this all the time!  Especially days like today without the wind!

{3}  TJ has been having the WORST tantrums lately.  As in yesterday there might have been a total of and hour he wasn't screaming.  I'm at a complete loss of what to do.

{4}  I spent the morning doing shoe inventory, so my living room looked like this...

This was only half of it! And please ignore the mess on my shelves.  I REALLY need to get those doors painted and hung!

{5}  I had such a monster headache on  Sunday that I decided not to go to church.  I missed it.

{6}  It makes my heart so happy that TJ loves school so much.

{7}  It makes my heart even happier that you guys are leaving such awesome comments!  I love it!

{8} Myles keeps taking his diaper off, but has no concencept of when he has to go potty.  I HATE potty training!

{9} I think I need a day with no one else at my house so I can plough through my bedroom and maybe a few other projects!!

{10}  I don't know why we pay for James to have a cell phone.  He NEVER answers it!

{11}  I need to get some crafting in soon or I think I might DIE!  (Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I have no one to craft with and I don't get around to it when I'm home! Dear Heather, please move back so I have an excuse to craft again!)

{12} Bedtime used to be SO easy at our house.  I loved it!  Between 6:30 and 7 was bathtime, then stories, scriptures, prayers and in bed by 7:30.  No arguing, no fussing.  The last week ahs been a different story.  TJ is screaming about everything lately, including bed, and has been insistent that he needs a soother, so he constantly steals Myles'.  (TJ hasn't had a soos for years!)  Myles has been playing in bed until midnight or later!  They boys share a room, so they keep each other up!  Ugg!

{13}  I can't wait til I can decorate my own house in my own style.  Sigh...

Mommy Monday - Take Care of the Minutes and the Hours Take Care of Themselve

Towards the end of last year, I was feeling like I was accomplishing nothing.  It seemel like I was crazy busy, but nothing was getting done.  My house was messy, my kids were watching movies/tv ALL the time because I wasn't around to turn it off, zero renovations were getting finished... you get the idea.  It was making me extremely grumpy.  Then, the beginning of December, we found out that I was going to be losing my job at the end of December.  I was super stressed about how we were going to pay our bills (I still am, but thats another story!) but part of me was relieved that I would be able to stay home more and feel like I am actually doing what I want to do.  My job ending ended up getting pushed back to the end of January, but I knew the end was coming.  I immediately began thinking of what I wanted to change in my life.  And the planning began. 

I mentioned in a post last week that I got a new planner.  I've also mentioned I'm a little OCD.  I love organization and I love having a plan.  I used to have some serious issues with over planning.  I would expect way too much out of day.  My to do list would be completely unrealistic.  I'm getting better.  I also used to have a hard time adapting to changes in my scheudle.  I'm getting better, but still have a ways to go.  Ok, I'm getting off topic, back to the planner.

After doing a lot of research, I decided to go with the planner Crystal designed for several reasons.

{1} It's super cute.  I mean look at it!  It's so colourful!

all images from here
I used all of Crystal's pictures b/c she is a much better photographer than me!

{2} It fits in my purse.  In September I had bought another planner, and I loved everything about it except that it was on 8 1/2" x 11" paper.  It was so big that I never carried it around and it didn't get used.

{3}  I love that the daily schedule is split into 15 minutes.  It makes my planning much more realistic and gives me more checkpoints throughout the day.

 {4} It has this great section to list ten minute projects and one hour projects.  So, each day I schedule in two or three ten minute projects and, depending on the day, at least one one hour project.

{5}  It has a great meal planning section with a place to write recipes (which is great since I find so many of my recipes on pinterest!)

{6}  I love the weekly excercise planner.  It makes it really easy for me to wake up and know what I'm going to do.  I don't waste time deciding which video or whatever I'm doing.

{7}  I love that the budget section not only has a place to plan my monthly budget, but also an expense tracker for both my personal and business expenses! 

There are so many other things I love about the planner, I really love every aspect of it!  One of my very favorite things about it is that she has really designed it to promote finding balance and being inspired.  There are great quotes throughout, places to record your thoughts and inspirations, a whole section to list ways to be more balanced... Honestly, I could keep on going!  I only have one thing that I wish it had, and that is a grid style monthly calendar.  It does have a page for monthly appoinments, but I just function better with a grid I guess!  Even with working in January, I found I accomplished SO much more!  I'm hooked!  The best thing was that it is really inexpensive.  It's only $30 plus the cost of paper & ink and a binder (Staples for $6).  Total was about $45-50 dollars.  Worth every penny!  And next year I won't have to buy a binder! 

Self Reliant Saturday

Today's post is lame. In fact, it's non-existent because I've been working since 8 this morning and won't be done until 11 tonight. But, I'm earning extra money to pay off debt and save for our house. So that's what I did today to become more self-reliant. How bout you?

{this is me being exhausted}

DIY Friday

Ahhh! I had a whole post written and somehow it disappeared! So, here it is in short form. I don't have a very exciting post for you this week. There was not much DIY brilliance around my house. However, I have a good reason. I was busy planning my DIY brilliance. (OCD, remember!) So, here are my main goals for this month.

{1} hang closet doors that have been in my living room for months

{2} paint and hang doors for entertainment unit

{3} clean/declutter/rearrange my bedroom & sewing room

{4} paint TJ's room green

{5} get Dad to commit to changing the color of the kitchen cabinets, then do it before he changes his mind!

{6} use my newly organized sewing room to do something crafty!

There we go. Now it's time to get to work!

Thankful Thursday

I'm a planner.  A list maker.  Maybe a little OCD.  I love planners.  I wasn't super thrilled with the one I had last year, so starting September, I began looking for a new one.  I tried one from Clean Mama Printables and it had some good aspects, but I didn't like that it fit in a big binder.  It wasn't easy to carry with me.  By December, I decided I needed a more portable planner (yes, I know I have and iPhone 4s, but technology and I rarely get along.  I'm trying, but I still don't have it mastered!)  I was on the hunt.  I wanted it to be cute and functional.  After many hours of searching, I came across this on pinterest (yay pinterest!)

image from here

I love it. It fits in my purse and it has all sorts of fabulous stuff with it. One of the fabulous things that came with it is the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge. She has collected 30 different quotes and then a journaling challenge along with each quote. I've decided to make it a 30 week rather than 30 day. Really give myself time to think! I may not blog all of my answers as they're pretty personal. In fact, I may end up not blogging many. But that's not the point. The point is I want to be more aware of my blessings. And this will help! So here goes!

Gratitude Challenge #1

Journal Challenge

This one is really challenging for me at this time. I feel like the last 10+ years have been so full of drama and trials that its hard to distinguish where one begins and another ends. (I've said countless times I should write a soap opera based on my life!) I know I've learned some things from them, but I'm sure hoping that what I've got so far isn't all I'm getting out of these doozies! But I'm trying. I especially love that last paragraph. I often feel guilty for not getting all "what am I supposed to learn from this" in the midst of some trials. But I don't need to feel guilty. I don't have to be grateful right now. I just have to determine to work on being grateful someday. And in the meantime, look for the joy in the other areas of my life. I kind of love that thought.



So, there you go. Week #1. Want to join in? Let me know! If you want to, I can try and figure out how to add one of those things where you can add your link. I may have to bribe someone smarter than me with brownies, but I'd do it! Even if you don't want to join in, try and spend more energy looking for the joy in your life this week!

Weight Loss Wednesday

I think this is by far the most difficult day for me.  It also the most necessary.  I have battled with my weight my entire life.  The thing is, I don't eat a lot.  I don't even eat very unhealthily (generally!)  I never have.  (Ok not quite never.  There was a breif 3 month peiod I'll talk about in a minute!) My mom never cooked with salt, I really don't like the taste of it.  I don't drink a lot of soda (maybe a 3 or 4 cans a week) and its always diet (I know, aspartame will kill me!).  I used to be quite and active person and, even now, I don't just sit and watch tv.  I'm moving.  I may not be working out like I used to or running or playing soccer, but I don't sit a whole lot during my day.  So, why am I gigantic?  There are a few reasons.

#1     I was my smallest while in university and even then, I was a 10/12.  However, I felt great about myself then.  Not because I was "skinny" (clearly a 12 is not skinny!) but because I felt healthy.  I had so much more energy and, while I was still a little self conscious, I learned to truly love myself, inside and out.  Then life happend and I had to move back home.  I was so depressed, I literally did nothing but eat, sleep and cry for three solid months.  It was an awful time.  I gained a TON of weight (not literally, but close enough!) I really just didn't care about anything.  At all.  I gained over 80 pounds in 3 months.  Yep, you read that right.  Crazy.  Stupid. 

#2     I have a very serious hormone imbalance.  Its why they thought I couldn't have kids and why my 3 little monkeys truly are miracles (I know every baby is a miracle, mine are just more so!).  Its why I'm tested for ovarian cancer regularly (I've had a couple of scares and its no fun!)  Its why my skin/hair/nails/ect don't do what normal peoples do.  Its why I'm super irregular (TMI?  Sorry!)  What does that have to do with weight loss you ask?  Well, estrogen is the hormone that makes girls girls, right? (I know, oversimplifying it!) My body goes through cycles.  I either have almost no estrogen or I have crazy excessive amounts.  Estrogen holds on to fat.  Thats why women naturally have a higher percentage of fat than men.  So, while my body is estrogen deprived, the little that is left is working overtime.  Like, 90 hour week kind of overtime.  One of its overtime duties is to hoard fat.  It fights to hold on to it.  While my my body is overrun with estrogen, its not fighting to hold onto it, but there are way more estrogen girls running around holding fat's hand than in a normal female body. 

SO, getting to the point, it is about 10x more difficult for me to lose weight than the average female.  Let me give you an example.  Shortly before I got pregnant with Kezia, I had decided the time had come to really get serious about this whole weight loss thing.  I joined the lifestyles program, which is run through the local clinic.  Basically, its a program to educate you about food and what you should and shouldn't eat, proper portion sizes ect.  They have this amazing scale that measures bone density ect and lets you know what weight would be ideal for you as well as fat percentage and water percentage and stuff like that.  So, I was going for weekly weigh ins.  I signed up for a bootcamp.  I got up at 5 am 3 mornings a week and went to this crazy stupid workout.  It was intense.  Even the skinny girls thought so!  The days I didn't have boot camp, I'd still get up at 5 and do a workout video of somekind.  After bootcamp/video, I'd do yoga for 45 minutes.  Most days (at least 4 days a week) my friend and I would load our kids in the stroller and go for a walk.  I'm not talking a walk around the block either.  I'm talking minimum 2 hour-usually closer to 3 or 4 hour walks.  Then at least 3 evenings a week I'd go for another walk or do another dvd.  Once summer came and the pool opened, I added early morning water aerobics after bootcamp, followed by morning lane swim and then occasionally afternoon lane swim.  I was watching what I was eating SO closely, keeping a journal, everything I was supposed to do.  I did this for just over 6 months.  Want to know the most I lost in a week during that 6 month period.  0.2 pounds.  Yup, not even one whole pound in a week.  And my fat percentage barely moved either.  Meanwhile, my friend who was doing the same thing I was doing was averaging 5-7 pounds a week.  Talk about frustrating.

So, why am I telling you all of this?  Because I know that this is going to be a very discouraging challenge for me and I need your help.  If you see me, even if I don't really look like I've lost anything, lie to me ;)  Don't let me give up, no matter how much I might yell about only losing .2 pounds.  Make me keep going.  Just keep sending your love my way.  I'll need it!

10 on Tuesday

1. My to do list in the house feels completely insurmountable, but I'm determined to push on.

2. James is in the final stage of interviews for both fedral and provincial positions and its looking more and more like we're going to be moving. Not going to lie, not looking forward to it.

3. January has flown by. At this rate, it's going to be another year of not being ready for Christmas!

4. I am going to pick up our newest order of shoes this week and am SO excited!! There are some SUPER hot shoes coming!

5. I can't get enough of the Big Bang Theory. Love it!

6. I finally figured out how I want to arrange our bedroom, now I just need to make the time to do it!

7. Tomorrow is my last official day of working with Terry. I'm kind of happy about it though. I'm not sure how we're going to pay for living, but I've been feeling really overwhelmed lately and feeling like I wasn't doing what I should be for my kiddos. Now I have time to really focus on them and raise them the way I want to.

8. James is in charge of organizing the graduation dinner for his class and they are doing a couple of fundraisers to help lower ticket prices. The first one is a bake sale on the 13th. I love baking so I'm very excited, but would love any great recipe ideas!

9. I HATE the wind!!

10. We got a dog and I love her to pieces! I was really nervous, but she is so well trained and great with the kids. The first night we got her, TJ pulled up a box next to her kennel and slept by her!

And because they were missing yesterday, here are a few recent pics of baby girl.