June has come and gone in the blink of an eye. It's hard to believe that the girls have been out of school for almost a month! WHAT???
I thought that life would get less busy when school ended. I was wrong! We had a few days of solace before the summer travels started. I am thankful for that time to recuperate and I am also thankful that we have the means and ability to travel.
On June 6, Princess Cranky Pants left for NYC on a trip with her theatre and choir classes. It was a whirlwind of sight-seeing, drama workshops and Broadway musicals. She had a blast! It was the trip of a lifetime for her and it left her wanting to do more travel. I don't blame her at all.
On June 16, we left for MN to attend my oldest niece's graduation party and visit with family in MN and IL. It was busy, exhausting, at times stressful, peaceful, relaxing, and long overdue. I am currently trying to catalog everything that we did in the month of June and I think that it might take me awhile to get the pictures sorted and everything documented. Whew! What a crazy and fun month it was. I'm looking forward to keeping busy in July and August.
I'm currently working on DIY projects, recipe testing, museum trips, and other fun summer activities. I'm crazy tired, but, I'm crazy content.
30 June 2017
31 May 2017
Summer is COMING!
At the end of the day tomorrow, I will have a freshman and a first grader! Where does the time go? This year has gone by very quickly and I am not prepared for summer. It's time to make my summer bucket list. Perhaps this will be the year that I tackle more than two Pinterest ideas. Or, maybe I'll just not do any DIY this summer and just soak up the nothing that needs to be done. We'll see how that works out.
23 January 2017
Accountability
I have fallen away from my 3x a week gym visits. I was doing well until November/December hit and we encountered the holiday crunch time. It seems like school events multiply during the months of November and December; add to that holidays like Thanksgiving & Christmas and a birthday and it's a recipe for insane busyness. That's not a good excuse. There's never a good excuse.
I couldn't fit going to the gym into my schedule and doing my workouts at home proved to be difficult for me. Weight loss and working out is very personal to some and it's hard to do it with a "familiar" audience. At the gym I don't care because I don't know the others there and they are there for the same reason that I am. That's not to say that I think that my family is going to judge me because that isn't the way I think about it at all. It's a conundrum.
Add building a house/closing on the house to the holiday craziness and it seems like a recipe for failure. I fell into the trap of "I can do it tomorrow." The problem with that statement is that it is always today and never tomorrow.
So. Here I am. A new year and celebrating my ONE year anniversary of my gym membership and I'm questioning what it is that I am looking to get out of the membership. I know that when I was working out regularly, I felt fantastic. I found that counting my calories gave me an accountability that I needed to work out and lose the weight.
I'm ready to do this again. Can I do it? Will I fail? I suppose that it up to me, isn't it? All things are possible as long as you hold yourself accountable.
I couldn't fit going to the gym into my schedule and doing my workouts at home proved to be difficult for me. Weight loss and working out is very personal to some and it's hard to do it with a "familiar" audience. At the gym I don't care because I don't know the others there and they are there for the same reason that I am. That's not to say that I think that my family is going to judge me because that isn't the way I think about it at all. It's a conundrum.
Add building a house/closing on the house to the holiday craziness and it seems like a recipe for failure. I fell into the trap of "I can do it tomorrow." The problem with that statement is that it is always today and never tomorrow.
So. Here I am. A new year and celebrating my ONE year anniversary of my gym membership and I'm questioning what it is that I am looking to get out of the membership. I know that when I was working out regularly, I felt fantastic. I found that counting my calories gave me an accountability that I needed to work out and lose the weight.
I'm ready to do this again. Can I do it? Will I fail? I suppose that it up to me, isn't it? All things are possible as long as you hold yourself accountable.
11 January 2017
The journey.
In the first quarter of 2016, Mr. Lovebug and I made our second biggest decision in our marriage up to this point. We signed the paperwork to start the homebuilding process. We were given the time frame of 6-8 months and that is almost exactly how long it took.
We learned quite a bit during the entire process.
1. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. The timeframe that they give you is total time; it can take several months to break ground and a lot of that wait time is waiting for permits.
2. If you're currently renting, it's a good idea to plan that timeframe around the end of your lease if you're in a lease and not doing month to month.
3. Be involved in the process and if you see something is not what you asked for, ask them to change it sooner rather than later. It's easier to do make the changes if it's not too far into the process.
4. If you are afraid to speak your mind about something, make sure that you have an advocate.
5. Be patient. It's a lot of hard and tedious work to build your home from the ground up. Being kind and patient with your building contractor will go a long way.
6. Don't overestimate where you think the progress should be when you think it should be there. It's a LONG process and rushing will only make for shoddy craftsmanship.
We are still learning from this process and we've been in the house for 11 days. It's crazy how that works.
We learned quite a bit during the entire process.
1. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. The timeframe that they give you is total time; it can take several months to break ground and a lot of that wait time is waiting for permits.
2. If you're currently renting, it's a good idea to plan that timeframe around the end of your lease if you're in a lease and not doing month to month.
3. Be involved in the process and if you see something is not what you asked for, ask them to change it sooner rather than later. It's easier to do make the changes if it's not too far into the process.
4. If you are afraid to speak your mind about something, make sure that you have an advocate.
5. Be patient. It's a lot of hard and tedious work to build your home from the ground up. Being kind and patient with your building contractor will go a long way.
6. Don't overestimate where you think the progress should be when you think it should be there. It's a LONG process and rushing will only make for shoddy craftsmanship.
We are still learning from this process and we've been in the house for 11 days. It's crazy how that works.
16 November 2016
The Gratitude Project
Almost three weeks ago, on the fifth anniversary of my dad's passing, I started "365 Days of Gratitude." It's a daily effort to find something to be grateful for in everyday. It seems like such a simple thing to do, but, it was surprisingly more difficult than I thought it would be.
Let me start by saying that I am normally a very optimistic person. I try very hard not to let the situations in my life dictate my attitude. To say that some of the recent years of my life have not been easy would be an understatement. Some of those years have been pretty awful and nasty. I became a negative and angry person. I didn't like who I had become. I didn't want that to be the model my children learned from. I decided that it was time to make a change.
The Gratitude Project is a conscious effort. It takes time. It takes thought. It takes looking at certain things with a different perspective. That is what makes it worth it. It can be life-changing if you allow it to be.
There is something beautiful in every day. Find it. Embrace it. Celebrate it.
Let me start by saying that I am normally a very optimistic person. I try very hard not to let the situations in my life dictate my attitude. To say that some of the recent years of my life have not been easy would be an understatement. Some of those years have been pretty awful and nasty. I became a negative and angry person. I didn't like who I had become. I didn't want that to be the model my children learned from. I decided that it was time to make a change.
The Gratitude Project is a conscious effort. It takes time. It takes thought. It takes looking at certain things with a different perspective. That is what makes it worth it. It can be life-changing if you allow it to be.
There is something beautiful in every day. Find it. Embrace it. Celebrate it.
21 July 2015
Tuesday's 10
1. We're getting into the hotter days of summer and I'm feeling miserable and unmotivated. However, I still get my walks in because it makes me feel good.
2. My kitchen mojo has been lacking lately but I whipped together an awesome pancake batter for dinner last night.
3. My hubby spoils me; he bought me a FitBit Charge which I've been wearing non-stop from the minute it was fully charged out of the packaging.
4. The most difficult part of my fitness journey is logging my foods. It's also made me realize that I need to make some big changes in the food I eat.
5. I watched Saving Mr. Banks last night; I've been wanting to watch it and finally found it at the library so I checked it out. I loved it.
6. I have also been taking advantage of Netflix's DVD trial offer. I started with the two DVDs at a time back in 2008 and when we lived in Hawaii I stopped the DVDs because we just weren't watching them fast enough to justify the cost.
7. My hubby does all of the pancake and waffle-making in our house, unless he's not here. Even when he's not here, I rarely make pancakes or waffles. I'm just not as good at it.
8. This week's menu excites me a little bit. I am looking forward to trying a lot of new recipes this week.
9. I planned recipes by what was on sale this week and spent less on groceries than I normally would have. I feel pretty good about that.
10. I've only cooked with quinoa twice but this week I have THREE quinoa recipes to try. I need more protein in my life.
2. My kitchen mojo has been lacking lately but I whipped together an awesome pancake batter for dinner last night.
3. My hubby spoils me; he bought me a FitBit Charge which I've been wearing non-stop from the minute it was fully charged out of the packaging.
4. The most difficult part of my fitness journey is logging my foods. It's also made me realize that I need to make some big changes in the food I eat.
5. I watched Saving Mr. Banks last night; I've been wanting to watch it and finally found it at the library so I checked it out. I loved it.
6. I have also been taking advantage of Netflix's DVD trial offer. I started with the two DVDs at a time back in 2008 and when we lived in Hawaii I stopped the DVDs because we just weren't watching them fast enough to justify the cost.
7. My hubby does all of the pancake and waffle-making in our house, unless he's not here. Even when he's not here, I rarely make pancakes or waffles. I'm just not as good at it.
8. This week's menu excites me a little bit. I am looking forward to trying a lot of new recipes this week.
9. I planned recipes by what was on sale this week and spent less on groceries than I normally would have. I feel pretty good about that.
10. I've only cooked with quinoa twice but this week I have THREE quinoa recipes to try. I need more protein in my life.
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