Menu Monday – 1/17/11

I have no special order to when we are having the meals, but these are the meals I plan on making this week.

 

• Bacon & Tomato Frittata (this was made yesterday for breakfast before church)
• Corn & Tomato Chowder with Italian bread and salad
• Macaroni & Cheese (homemade) with Salad
• Meatloaf with potatoes, green beans and salad
• Cabbage Rolls with glazed carrots, corn and salad
• Impossible Easy Cheeseburger Pie with salad

 

If you want any of the recipes for above please, let me know and I will be more than glad to share.

Second Look Saturday – 1/15/11

Well I haven’t had a great start to getting back to blogging, but what can you do when you end up sick with a nasty viral head cold mess.  I spent the last week dealing with a sore throat, not being able to breathe and waking everything 10-15 minutes due to one of the two items.  As I reflect on this past week I have come to the conclusion, I would never survive as a single mom.  I can’t imagine how they do it when they are sick.  I barely made it through this week and my husband was a big help.    More power to those who are single parents!

Now I must say I am very excited about this week, I hope to be working on an Ohio Star quilt. This will be the first quilt I have done in a long time. I have the material, just need to get to work.

Family Friday – 1/7/11

The kids received Hungry Hungry Hippos for Christmas from my wonderful brother.  They love this.  Thank you Unca Dan!

Take It Off Thursday – 1/6/11

Take It Off Thursday is going to be a series of my trials and success of me trying to be more healthy.  This came after I found I have gained 15 pounds since the end of September 2010.  This officially puts me at 45 pounds above my ideal body weight (IBW).  My IBW is not unrealistic, it is very obtainable.  It will require some work and discipline but I can do it.  To top of my journey I am going to make a promise to God.  I am going to promise to treat my body better and think more about what I put into it.  This doesn’t mean I won’t have junk but it does mean I am going to lose some weight and be more active.  I want to be the woman who is healthy, not pencil thin or obese.  I am currently considered obese according to my BMI (body mass index), but I never held much stock in that, since if you know me I am not a very big person, but I am solid.  Most people are shocked to hear my weight, I am not posting it here.

Goal: To lose 45 pounds this year.  I want to lose it slowly since I want to keep it off.  Ideally average of 1-2 pounds a week.  Would I love to lose it faster of course, but I need to be real about this.

Plan: To eat no more than 1250 calories a day, be more active and workout more often.

How am I going to accomplish it: No more soda or ice tea, drink water and coffee only but monitor my sugar intake with coffee (goal to eventually drink it black), only eat meat at supper, smaller portions, add more fruit and veggie to the menu, healthy snacks and Zumba, and lastly be more consistent with taking my daily vitamin and supplements.

So as I sit here and drink my last  Diet Cherry Dr Pepper and about to drink the last of the homemade ice tea I am starting to wonder can I do this.  Can I really give these up.  The best part is I know I can.  I will have days of failure and days that are really good but my ultimately goal is to be a the healthy woman God intended me to be.

“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” – Buddha

New Year, New Me!

It’s a new year and it will be a new me. 2010 was a good but rough year for me. I am determined to make 2011 a much better one. Last year I suffered my share of depression and had my share of feeling sorry for myself and well to be honest I didn’t like it. My husband always told me when I put my mind to something I am able to stick to it. Here is the plan, I am going to blog more about the positives in my life and my struggles, but do my best to be more positive then negative. I am going to put God in the equation. Each day will have a new theme to my blog. I am hoping this will keep it as uplifting as I can. But since I am a busy mom of two, I will not promise to post daily. I will do my best.

Here is my plan for my blog:

Sunday: Spiritual Sunday – This day can contain anything God has shown me or Bible verse that stands out to me.

Monday: Menu Monday – This day will by my weekly menu list.

Tuesday: Time Out Tuesday – Since I work on Tuesday I do not plan to post anything Tuesday.  I am also taking this one step farther and the computer will not be turned on at all this day.

Wednesday: Wise Words Wednesday – This day will contain some wise words.  They will be anything from quotes I like from anyone or from me or from God.  Some will be serious, some will be funny, some will be sad etc… Depends on what moves me.

Thursday: Take it off Thursday – This day will be my diet update.  I will be posting later tonight about my plans.  Trust me it will not be any crash diet deal, I plan to make it a life altering plan.

Friday: Family Friday – I also work Fridays, my plan on this will be to post something positive, uplifting about my family.  It could be a story or it could be just a picture.

Saturday: Second Look Saturday – I will use Saturday to review my week.  How did I do reaching my 2011 goals.

This fall I won’t be a virgin any more…

tattoo virgin, that is!!!!  Come on, I have two kiddos already and have plenty of witnesses that know I was seriously pregnant and gave birth to them myself, not to mention Mike and I are about to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary this October.

I have always wanted a tattoo, but never was brave enough or knew what I wanted.  When I married Mike I figured the Tattoo was out of the question since he didn’t really care for them.  I would have never been told no way you are not allowed to get one, I was just a I would prefer if you didn’t.  Well not only did he surprise with with a almost surprise birthday the BIG 30, my gift was you are welcome to get a tattoo.  The only requirement was to wait until our money was a little bit better.  Well I knew that wouldn’t be long with the upcoming major change.  So I have been doing a lot of thinking about what would I get.  Today was the day that this amazing idea came to me and I found the perfect picture.  I was hoping for something to incorporate my children’s names and birth dates in but yet feminine, well after no luck finding stuff that I loved, I gave up on that.  I decided if it will be permanent I want it to be something I love.  I did know I wanted flowers but nothing traditional like a rose.  I immediatly thought of an Orchid.  So after looking up the meaning this is what I found on Proflowers :

Orchids can impart a wide variety of messages, but historically the meanings of orchids have included wealth, love, and beauty. To the ancient Greeks, orchids suggested virility, and after the rise in popularity of orchid collections in Victorian England, the meaning of orchids moved towards being symbolic of luxury. Orchids have also been believed to carry various healing and protective properties, allowing them to ward off disease. The Aztecs were said to drink a mixture of the vanilla orchid and chocolate to give them power and strength, and the Chinese believe orchids can help cure lung illnesses and coughs. Today, the meanings of orchids are generally regarded as a symbolic of rare and delicate beauty.

I thought this is perfect.  So the search began and it ended pretty quickly with the below picture, then it was to decide placement.  With help from a very close friend it was decided the outside ankle would be best, not sure if left or right is better or if that even matters.  I plan this fall to get my first tattoo!  I am so excited.  Once all in the house sleeping, except the mama (unless I decide getting up early is better to think, lol), I plan to compile our new budget and this will determine if the tattoo will happen in September or October.

What kind of face are you putting on today…

After waking at 7:30 am, showering and actually remembering to take laundry downstairs with me to do, I have accomplished my required routine for the day.  WOO HOO!

My morning started out with officially drinking a half of a pot of coffee (through our the morning, not all at once), taking my vitamins, feeding the dogs (and taking them out) and doing the dishes.  I checked email and Facebook.  Then it was breakfast time.  While enjoying my cream of wheat I was able to sit and enjoy Good Morning America, which is something I don’t get to do often.  Usually breakfast is accompanied with cartoons.  It was great getting some mommy TV time.  Next thing I know is Ms. Alaina appears, she is in a great mood and all and before you know it Mr. Thom is calling me saying ‘Mommy I Awake!’   So cuddle time began and so did mommy slowly drifting off to the ZZZZZ land (at this point I only had about 1/4 pot of coffee in my system) to only be awoken to ‘Mom can you put on cartoons’ from Alaina.  Right then and there I had to decide what kind of face was  going to put on.  I knew that I currently did not have the correct face.  So it was time to change it up.  I made the kids breakfast, folded laundry (along with having one more load in the washer and dryer, so that is 3 loads total already) and the kids dressed, it was time for mommy to get her behind in gear.

First on the list was to turn the TV off.  Once that was accomplished the kiddos dug out the Mr. Potato Heads, I thought how appropriate.  If you don’t like his face you just change it.  While they played, I finished cutting out my coupons.  They are not organized and  I will work on that later this week, they are at least cut out.  We had lunch and then it was NAP TIME.  It was workout time, which I completed with out complaints.

I also have supper in the fridge ready to go for when Mike gets home.  I just need to cook the ribs, which are marinated in Zesty Italian Dressing, make the string beans (from our garden) and some potatoes.

I am hoping for a wonderful peaceful evening with the family.  Then tomorrow I will be at work again.  So that means my routine will not happen tomorrow, so wish me luck that on Wednesday I can get back on track.