check out todays link ups by choosing the link below.  I will be linking up a new post to it probably Thursday as I have not relocated my disc and can weigh myself.  Maybe you have some tips and tricks of your own to share

http://www.exploringdomesticity.blogspot.com/

Family Room Undone

When I say undone, we have undone the family room finally from the chaos we usually have created in there.....This room has become one that my son has to maintain as part of his personal reward system.  He has to maintain the living room, family room, and his bedroom.  Well the poor kid has been trying and trying to get this room and he will tell me it is clean and it isn't....So I decided after we got off work today we would come home clean it together so he can see what it is suppossed to look like when it is clean.

And honestly before there really was just too much chaos going on for him to work out on his own I think.....

Here is before.

In the second picture the chair is flipped its not always like that.  I had just flipped it over to clean under it....we deep cleaned the family room....under the furniture...ceiling fan and we wiped down the base boards....(no i don't expect my son to do that every week)  it just needed to be done......

we started at 4:18 and ended at 5:56 we probably could have been done sooner but I did have a 10 minute conversation with the neighbor while recycling papers and my daughter woke up from her nap and needed to be cuddled for maybe another 10. 

Anyway...here is the after.....

I think it turned out well....i love the clutterless room...we went through stuff threw away papers etc....we moved the doll house to behind dad's chair but there is still plenty of play room back there.....And together we tackled it!!! I am happy with the results.....I doubt the blankets will always stay on the furniture...I really have to clean out my linen closet next so there will be room to store the blankets.  The only thing left to do another day in this room is to thoroughly determine what toys in the toy boxes we love and give away the ones we don't....I am sure that will be done prior to Christmas.

So what did you do today....Did you tackle any projects that you have been putting off?  I am proud of us, we worked but came home and gave something our total effort....and we even had a little play time with Aunti P and her daughter at Mcd's play place.

trying to apply given advice

Can we agree that you can do research and ask for advice and learn about new things, but if you are not willing to apply the things you learn, then it doesn't do any good.

 So I am briefly going to share with you something I learned and show you the result..... In all the books and blogs that I have read regarding wardrobe and making wise purchases when you are adding to your wardrobe you need to make sure you love the piece and ask yourself honestly if you are going to wear it. Well I have been wanting a pair of comfortable shoes for work that can be dressy or casual, depending on what I would like to wear. I have decided that just because I rent uhaul trucks and work in a partly unfinished building doesn't mean that I have to look like a slob. (I really struggled this summer...it was just so hot before we got air and regular doors put on two rooms any make up just melted off)   My sneakers are getting a little grubby too. Anyway I wanted a pair of shoes that covered my toes because i learned this summer that wet grass and opened toed shoes equal wet toes which equal yuck. And I also have sensitive feet, I love heels but with my current weight etc...they don't love me back and I can't wear them more than an hour or two and I cannot do any lifting or extended walking in them. So here is what I chose. I ended up at a Naturalizer outlet and I was shopping their clearance section (I am unwilling to spend what they want for shoes in their non clearance section) I love the added padded comfort I can usually find in their shoes, and I tried on several pair there and several pair at Rue 21 but what I found were these at the Naturalizer outlet





















 



Do you think they are too funky? I picked them because a) they were comfortable, and  b)they have a little bit of every color in them so I figured they could go with whatever I put on whether it be slacks or jeans.  I don't think I will wear them every day but probably quite a bit.  For once I feel like I made a sensible purchase not just a stylish whimsical one.  They have a flat protective sole and it is all good.

here is what they look like on

Now if I can just figure out what to do with my hair I could feel well put together on a daily basis....one thing at a time though!

Hope your "hump" day was great!!!!!!!

Sharing some information....

So I am still fairly new to blogging, and I don't know how to add buttons to my blog etc, but I wanted to share with everyone something new that I discovered  over at http://www.exploringdomesticity.blogspot.com/

They do a "Tips and Tricks Tuesday: share our healthy living / fitness tips and tricks or to look for support, guidance, or inspiration from others to make this journey a little smoother"

It is where I will be looking for some new tricks and tips and probably sharing my Transformation Thursday info.....(hmmmm maybe I should change the transformation info to Tuesdays....hmmmm food for thought)

Anyway check it out....maybe you have been there and have some of your own tips and tricks to share.  

I was curious does anyone have advice for surviving the PMS week.  Or to battle against emotional eating.  I have not been good to myself today...having a hard time dealing with the passing of the cat which I believe the emotions of it are being intensified by PMS.  And to top it off I fell this morning hurt my knee, and then I broke the portable dvd player.  So I was destructive with my eating (telling myself I deserved a treat after such a tough beginning to the day etc etc) and had something I shouldn't have.  I had a small frappe chocolate chip from Mcdonalds....when I entered that into my fitness pal, that sucker has 530 calories!!!!! and I had already drank it....no give backs......So please please feel free to leave me advice......

A gift to the hubby, and a blessing he has decided to pass on .....

So there has been an interesting development here the last week or so.....as I have mentioned in a month it is our 15th wedding anniversary.  Well the day after that is my husbands birthday.  Hubs will be 43.  His cousin was selling something and since we have been budgeting (will share more budget info soon) we had the money to make a purchase, it was something my husband has wanted for a long time and honestly, I am guilty of not appreciating him....so when he expressed his interest, we poured over the budget together, decided to not take a trip to Disney at like he had suggested and we were planning for in January, and instead he bought this from his cousin:

What can I say, it's been 15 years, we have never been able to purchase toys...we were to busy being wreckless and careless without any sense of planning, and I want my hubby to know I do appreciate him, but we have both said this is his birthday, anniversary, and probably Christmas gift too.  I am excited to see him excited.  And to be honest I want to ride it too.  He has to take the course or something and get his permit to be able to drive it on the highway, and he has been giving the kids little rides around the shop at work, and me too.  I like it I look forward to eventually having some romantic rides.  We may still take a trip to Florida with the kids, it just may be in the Spring instead.

Now onto another interesting development in the heart of my husband.  We are a two car family, but for years, we haven't always needed two because he has had some kind of job that offers a company vehicle of some sort.  Well at the present he has the tow truck and he is on call six days  a week anyway, and I have been driving our car because it is better on gas then the Ford f150.  A couple months back there was a mechanical issue with the truck, and the hubs has just decided it is not a priority to get it fixed for whatever reason.  The truck does still run, but we are not 100 percent if it is just an exhaust leak in the truck or what but we have not driven it since the car got fixed for the second time a couple months ago.  Anyway my husband loved this truck, we just payed it off in February, but as I have mentioned since we are keeping our home on purpose and with a purpose now, we have been decluttering.  One of the men who came to get some of the things we were giving away, takes items to bless other families in need.  He has a large van that has been breaking down and cost him over 130.00 to fill. 

This gentleman came to the house to get some more of my clutter last week, and I had to leave for work, but hubby remained behind this time, and said he met Mr. Jay this time when he was picking up the stuff and said he noticed he was struggling with his van and wished there as something he could do.  Said I wish we could afford to give him our truck .  I looked at my husband and said you know i was thinking the same thing a couple weeks ago, but I didn't dare bring it up to my husband because I knew there was no way he would give up his truck.  And I said technically we can "afford" to give away the truck because we don't owe anything on it anymore.  So since hubs and I both had the same idea, we decided to pray about it and see if this is what the Lord wanted.  Today we called Mr. Jay, had him come look at the truck and told him what we were thinking. 

So my husband has decided to give away his Ford F150 to a man who is about doing the Lords work, I couldn't be more proud of him......I have to finish getting our stuff out of it, and then Mr. Jay has agreed to take ownership and will be making the necessary repairs.  After all we have not been using it, so i guess it was just a piece of clutter in a sense, and I know we could have traded it or sold it, but we just don't believe that is what we were supposed to do. 

So what about you, got anything sitting around that your heart is being prompted to let go of?  Mad love to my hubs for giving himself to God's will.



(unfortunately today took a sad turn....on an off and very sad note, we came home this afternoon to find out mama cat (swirl) had apparently died from complications of her spay surgery i guess, i contacted the spca told them something was wrong wanted them to check her out and they called me back today, but apparently mama died while we were at work.  My son is heartbroken.  If I had know I would not have had her spayed or I would have kept a kitten.  But we have consoled our son who is heart broken, and we had an impromptu family night in our room and watched Wreck it Ralph)  I hope none of you had any unpleasant surprises today, and only super awesome blessings.!!!)


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Transformation Thursday (the beginning)

So I thought I would start something new for accountability for myself, I have been working on the house and what not lately and trying to do a little crafting.  As I have mentioned before my husband and I will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary in almost exactly one month.  A year ago I had this idea to have romantic pictures of us taken, and in my head the idea was that I would be able to wear this sexy dress and show all the weight I hoped I would lose.

Well the end of that year is pretty much here, and I didn't keep or even work toward my goal much.  I quit months ago.  So my husband says that it isn't too late if it is important to me, to start now.  (Although he loves me as I am no matter the shape and size)  He says that he is certain I can make changes in even just the one month we have left before I want some pictures taken.

So I am going to start once a week logging my weight in on Thursdays and provide whatever updates there may be and see if there are any changes.  I started by purchasing this:

I know  I have vented about my weight before and I got some great tips and I completely plan on using them, and I don't expect this 5 day weight loss kit to be magic in a box or anything...I picked it up simply to give myself a starting idea I put my meals for a day in a bag and told myself when the food is gone, I am done eating for the day.  That is it.  If I eat it all by noon then too bad for me.  So this is more to just give me some more helpful ideas and show me what a portion size is for the moment...I know I can make my own food and save money etc....but I wanted to set stricter limits on myself where there is no pot of spaghetti to go back to after I dished out my so called portion. 


This was breakfast 

 

That is a double chocolate muffin from nutrisystem with a glass of vanilla Almond milk...I did ok with that ate it around 8 am and didn't have my snack till about 2 hours later

 

Now the snack was not provided by Nutrisystem this is an Herbalife protein mix given to me by a friend that I have never used, and in an effort to be a better steward I want to use up what I have.  Anyway I added a splash of coconut coffee creamer and some almond milk again.

I ate cheesy potatoes provided by nutrisystem for lunch and we grilled our own chicken on the grill the guy that works next to us has out back at work. 

Dinner was lasagna with meat sauce.....

 

Ok to me that is the smallest portion of lasagna ever...I am sure if I had made a big pan my portion would have been twice the size of that and I may have went back for more....but I behaved myself ate the lasagna and had some cabbage with it......and ate my nutrisystem cookies for dessert.  So far not too bad. I drank six glasses of water today.  Big improvement for me.  Honestly it is 8 pm my head says I want to eat, but I am not going to.  I hope to  go back to the YMCA to go swimming at least twice a week starting tomorrow night again.  We will see. I am trying not to have any expectations, just to learn new things, and see what happens, but really try and take better care of my body....

 

Ok and here is to baring it all......here is one of those embarrassing side profile pics that really let it all hang out, my hubby took it, and he I told him I want you to take one of those horrible side profile pics, and he sweetly and seriously says...you can't possibly take a bad picture you are always beautiful....yep maybe I will keep him around for another 15......

 

 

I am weighing in at 269 today.....and I logged my food intake completely honest on fitness pal at www.myfitnesspal.com

Today I ate 1709 calories but I still have 234 remaining.....and I need to reduce my sodium and sugar intake according to the log.  We will see what it looks like next week, and if I can honestly keep my eating in check.

 

 

in my neck of the woods

we have been busy we went camping for Labor Day weekend...and I would love to share some pictures with you, I even remembered to actually take the camera and make sure it had batteries in it....but what was missing?  The memory card so that idea is a bust.  But overall we had a good time.  The kids had a little bit of bad attitude off and on and one or two meltdown moments for the two year old...but overall it was a good time.  We enjoyed the pool.  We packed up a day early because of the weather.  Hubs didn't want me to have to pack up alone and put wet gear in the car.  And we got packed up just before the storm hit....so his idea was awesome. 

When we were preparing to go camping we found some sleeping bags and blankets that had been in a closet and just really needed to be washed after being stored for so long.  When we moved the blankets we found this. 

What we found are those big gaping holes that even though you can't tell because of the light in the picture lead to the outside of our house.  The wall was built on a row of cinder blocks or something and you could see outside daylight. That same day we moved the blankets we found a dead baby snake in here....umm i bet that is how alot of the mice and maybe that baby snake got in......And why the room is either so drastically hot or cold.  So if a little crack being sealed in a window or something can help with heating and cooling costs, we are hoping that this winter sealing these holes will make a difference in our utility expenses.

I went to lowes and bought this stuff for 3.72 a can.  It took 4 cans to fill the holes.

Here is the finished project.......

And that led me to clean out one storage bin from that closet and i will be able to reorganize it a little and get some other things in there that need to go in it.  One of our outside storage areas is flooding. 

We also picked up a freezer this week so we can start building up our food supply.  I bought some meats on sale at Food Lion this week and didn't realize there was no room for them in the regular freezer.  So Hubs said we needed a freezer bottom line...go get one....so I did.  This week our son went back to school...he started second grade.  We have been working on getting our two year old to sleep in her own room and not with us or her brother.   We also went shopping this week on our day off and picked up an outfit or two our anniversary photo shoot that will be happening in one month.  I am not sure if the photographer is backing out on me, but in the event that she does, I am working on a back up plan.  It is also my husband's birthday so I am brainstorming all kind of ideas for celebrating etc, but the budget is getting tight, because work is slowing down for the hubs now that all the vacationers have gone home.  Oh and I almost forgot we said goodbye to the kittens who were six weeks old.....and mama Swirl has been officially spayed so no more babies for her.  That is our week in a nutshell.

So what have you been up to.. I would love to hear about your week.  When winter comes, does your budget decrease or expenses increase?  How do you cope?