And Today is the New Beginning!!

 Well yesterday started off with a Bang!!  First thing in the morning, we got up and got on the scale, took our before pics and made our first juice and did some excercise.

So for starters, you can see, neither one of us look happy at taking the pictures.   Athena is starting out at 57.8lbs and by her height, that puts her at 19.2 BMI.  I will not bore you with the measurements, but as we loose I will let you know how many we loose total.

As for me I am at 211.6lbs and my BMI is 35.8, so yeah thats really bad.  I look pregnant in the pics, I am actually really discussed with myself after seeing the pics.

Since we were just starting off yesterday, I let Athena pick the first juice we got to try, she of course picked the Shrek Juice.  And actually it was really good.  Had some kale, lemon, apple, carrots and spinach in it.  If you want recipes for what we try let me know and I
will post them.

 We then got on the the machines.  Athena did 10 mins on the eliptical, while I did a little over a half a mile on the treadmill.  Then we both did 25 sit-ups each.  Then she got on the treadmill for 8 min and I got on the eliptical for 3, yeah I know I suck, I forgot about stretching, and didn't think about my knee braces and by the time I got on there I was hurting already. Not bad for our first day, at least I think!

Then lunch was coming closer, Athena kept saying, I am hungry, what are we gonna eat, my belly hurts,  That monster came out going "FEED ME MOM"...LOL   So I gave in, instead of doing juice for lunch like I wanted to do, we had a single serving of Fat Free cottage cheese and a cup of Fat Free Jello.  When dinner came around, I had already planned on us having salad, Taco salad to be exact, but for us, I boiled up some chicken, grinded it up and added the taco seasoning to that for our salad and made the bowl out of the small whole wheat tortilla shells.  

 I broke a bit last night, yes I know I am bad, I had a coke late last night, my head was pounding.  At least it was only one compared to my 3-6 a day.  I have tried cold turkey before, it is very hard for me. Coke to me is like Coffee to others.  But my head was pounding and its hard to go cold turkey, especially when your hubby keeps it around for his one a day to keep his migraines away.

I was really tired last night, sign of most of the day without caffeine.  The cheap juice made by TRU that I got at Walmart on sale over the holiday, worked great, glad I didn't spend a lot on one for now.  Sleep was a little rough, still tossing and turning, not sure if that will ever go away.

Today, We had the Digestive detox drink out of the juicer book, beets, carrots, celery, apple and lemon.  Ok, I will not lie, it does have  very over bearing beet taste, little dirty tasting like some said online, I did wash them before putting them in the juicer but it was still there.

Other than that, it was good, the lemon and apple taste helped alot.  Athena didn't finish hers, not even half I don't think.   Lunch came and I did the same thing i was doing for a while, a tomato, basil pizza on naan bread, kinda like pita but lighter.  We had that and it was very satisfying.  Since there is so much juice left, I will probably have that while everyone else is eating ribs tonight for dinner, gosh is sucks some times being on a diet.

I am refraining from much exercise today, since my knees are hurting.  I will however get on the treadmill after dinner while football is on and see how far I can go, putting the knee braces on , hoping for a mile this time.  I will get Athena to do her exercise then too.  Maybe it will help me sleep better.

As for the project of organizing my computer room, I have slowly and I stress slowly started it.  I had ordered a couple or organizing bins from Walmart and they won't be in until like Monday or Tuesday, then I can get in and clear my desk, that is the worst of all.  That is was stresses me the most.  So later tonight and tomorrow, I am gonna work on the stuff on the floor and near the printer for now.  One baby step at a time right.  I love your ideas, keep them coming.

Well tata for now, got to go start dinner for everyone else, this sucks too!  Until the Wind blows this way again, I will look forward to your comments.  One less stress  I finally took and posted the pictures.

Micah

January 1st 2013, Start of a New Year and Start of a new beginning , Time to ORGANIZE!!!

OK so I feel a little scared right now!  As you can see from the pictures, I have a huge mess and a lot of work to do!  Where to begin, where to begin?????  Any ideas and suggestions gladly appreciated!  OK, so this is what we call the computer room.  Its where my husband and my desk and also the baby, (better known as Athena the 6yr old).  We have the small fridge, our Keurig coffee lifesaver. And all electronic and books needed for homeschooling.  Thank God the other 3 kids are not in here anymore, cause it was even more cluttered then.   I have ordered 2 organizers that I found on Pinterest, but they will not be here till later this week or early part of next week, that's OK, I think it will take me that long just to decompress it all.   I love having a clean desk, however the kids are always bringing me things and somehow they never make it off my desk.  I want to create an in/out box and some sort of hanging folder system for the kids, but not sure how I want to do all that.   I need to have a place for just my books, not mixed in with the kids.  Oh and a place strictly for school supplies.   We are using an old extra desk for the fridge and coffee stuff, I think we really need a better set up for that some how.

Well if you have any ideas let me know.  Today is January 1st, I am at least going to start getting rid of some of the paper clutter today,  There are no football games I want to watch so after our wonderful New Years traditional dinner of Prime Rib, Potato and Salad, I will be back up here chipping away, one section at a time.   I will post pics of my progress as I go.  I would gladly love links to pictures of anything you think might help as well.

Starting tomorrow, the baby and I start our other new years task, trying to loose weight.  Later tonight, I am going to get weigh In's and some measurements as well as pictures.  I will post those tomorrow.  This is the best way I can figure out to be help accountable to what I want to do.  Something else I noticed and now makes me scared, pictures say allot!!!   I didn't realize how bad this computer room looked until I took the pictures last night, now it makes me afraid about posting the pictures of myself, but it has to be done, for the better, of my health and for baby girls!!   I want to rid myself of all the pills I have to take for pain, cholesterol, and diabetes too!!

So good bye for now, I look forward to hearing from you all!  Oh and by the way, HAPPY 2013 NEW YEAR!!!!!  It feels like this could be the best one yet!!

Micah

Well I did it!  I announced to the world what I am doing for the next year, I guess that will really hold me accountable now.  One more day left of 2012 after today, and tomorrow marks 12 yrs that I have been with the man of my dreams, my best friend and love of my life, and father of my kids.  Its been a long haul so far, hoping to stay on the journey for many more years to come.

 Ok, getting focused now, I have a plan, just not sure what to attack first.  We have a house that is over 4500 sq ft, there are 5 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, library/panty, (its split by a make shift wall right now, testing what it would be like with a real way someday soon.  There is the computer room where we have our computers and my youngest daughter and have most all the homeschool supplies and of course the laundry room.   Then there is the back porch, and the basement.  I won't even talk about the 3rd floor, there is a full one bedroom apartment up there, that we were going to make into a master bedroom suite, but there is still a lot of work to do up there at this point to be able to achieve that.

There is the garage and the 2 different storage rooms over there that I would like to tackle this spring and summer.  And of course, I want to start a garden and maybe even build a greenhouse.   So the big question is where do I begin, there is so much to do in each one  I am going to go around and take some pics tomorrow and post them.  Let me know what you think and where I should start.  I kinda blew my budget already this month, I had to buy the ferrets food and litter, got them a playpen to play in and got a couple of organizing bins, also had to get the 2 older kids their Kindles so they an start reading some wonderful books I have found for free on Amazon and other places.  So whatever and wherever the projects begin this year, I do not have much to work with.

I am thinking of the computer room though, I have most of what I need to do in there, I just need to get my but in gear and do it.   Well I will wait to see what you think of the pics I post tomorrow and let me know where you think I should start and if you have any ideas I am open to all suggestions!!

Off to where the wind may blow today, and it looks like its football!  LOL   I only have two more days to slack off and chill out before the new year begins!!

Micah

 For some reason, Christmas eve night while making cookies, I had to ask Matthew to come help me, I just couldn't do it anymore.  My back was aching and seizing up.  By 130am, I was done!  Off to take a hot bath then hubby put some icy hot on my back and off to bed.  When I heard an alarm go off at 630am, I swore, I was gonna kill a kid..lol   Well I heard snickering and whispering going on for a couple of hours longer till finally they dogs were like, if the kids are up maybe we should be up and started jumping on the bed..lol  Kids went crazy as every, could not wait to rip into everything, before you know it, it was already 11:15 and dinner still had not been started.  My back was still aching bad, my dad called and said they would come early so his girlfriend could help me.

 My dinner turned at really good this year.  Although it was a bit late hitting the table, food was good and we ate well. We got everything put away after dinner, I gave the kids dish duty and off to the tub I went.  I was hurting really bad.  Bath didn't help much, so a muscle relaxer was in order..., that was at 730pm last night.  I got up at 230 this afternoon...lol   It helped some, my son rubbed my back and I passed out.   I have the best husband in the world I think anyway!   He told me to go to bed and he handled the kids the rest of the night and I remember nothing, except someone kept coming to check to see if I was still breathing..lol  

Well Christmas has come and gone, they kids for the most part are happy with what Santa brought them.   I get things like well that wasn't on my list or I put so and so on my list and didn't get it.  Well you know as parents we try to do the best we can, sometimes it seems like some are never satisfied, but in the end, all I can tell them is you should be happy with what you got because there are some kids out there that don't even have roofs over their heads or food in their tummies, let alone all the toys you got for Christmas!   

Some people have told me my kids are spoiled, and I have to say yes in some ways they are!  But at the same time I always told myself that if I ever had kids I wanted to be able to give them everything they wanted and needed cause I sometimes did not have that growing up.  I also use the things my kids have as learning tools, meaning if they don't do their chores or schoolwork, they have those same things that they can loose the privilege to have.  I am blessed in this life to give me kids the things they want as long as I approve of said things that is.

Well the new year is fast approaching, 5 days left in 2012 and then my new start on life begins!  I will go Wherever the Wind May Blow!, hopefully in the direction of something good~~

Starting to put my ideas together for 2013!

Well, part of my plan for this blog is to keep me on track!  When I used to work, I was one of those people who was well organized and could accomplish anything, you know one of those can do a thousand things at once sort of gals.   Now that I am married (gosh its almost been 12 yrs on Dec 31st) and have kids (4 of them)...lol  Its seems as though, I can not stay organized, can not get anything done, can not remember anything, you know that CRS disease, can't remember s**t, well I have it bad!

So I have several ideas for this year that I want to do.  First and foremost, I am working on myself for once. I have diabetes and it seems like its only good when I am at a higher weight,  anytime I loose any amount of weight it goes way up.  But, if I work really hard and get up and move more, I think I might be able to bring both my weight and diabetes in check.   I also want to do it for my daughter Athena, she is a bit over weight for being a 6 yr old, so I want to do it with and for her as well.

 Secondly, I want to get back to being more organized in my home and teach that to my kids as well.   I have a 4500 sq ft + house with 14 rooms and a basement + back porch, there is also the shed in the garage and the back yard, that I want to tackle this year.  I want to challenge myself to a budget of 150-200 a month to tackle all the main rooms of the house to do make overs, I want to do the before and after pictures and share what I have done.

I also want to start some sort of a hobby of some sort, sewing, painting or something new.  I am also taking more of an interest this year in gardening.  I want to start a nice garden, and dabble in some aquaponics, since we live in Iowa, it is cold here 1/3 of the year, but we have a 4 season room that we bring our plants and potted trees into in the winter months.  I want to be able to have our own fruits and veggies that we can have fresh year round.  I was even thinking of building a greenhouse if all goes well.  I was even thinking about getting some chickens to start raising for eggs and fresh meat as well.  We live in a small rural town, so I still need to check more into this one.

My hubby and I never had a honeymoon, so I want to work towards my goals this year and plan for a nice big celebration for our 15th wedding anniversary in 3 yrs, you know something nice for us as a family then maybe a getaway somewhere tropical for just us!!  :)

Well now that you have an idea at least what I want to start out with this year, follow me on my journey and maybe we can learn from each other!!

Micah

What I am up to now!!

Well this is my first post, hoping this goes the way i envision it!  I wanted to start a blog for the new coming year of 2013 for a few reasons.  One I am embarking on sort of a journey of sorts, one is to loose weight and get in shape.  I need this badly!  And reason number two is, I want to try a few new things this year and want to document it.  

As some of you know or don't know, I am a mother of 4 kids, my son Sean the oldest is 11, Katelin is 10 turning 11 in January, Madison turned 8 in Oct, and Athena turned 6 in Nov.   I homeschool all 4 of them, by choice. Sometimes this is very hard and sometimes very easy.  The 3 oldest were diagnosed with ADHD in varying degrees, and the baby, well she is just over active, meaning she has trouble concentrating and sitting still for school work.

As for myself, I am a mom, ex-military, and all around DIY'er.  I love to cook, travel, and come up with ideas for things...lol  So watch out over the next year what will come out of me, it may surprise both you and me!!

Thanks for following me and I hope this works out!