Dreaming of Summer

  Can you do the Broom Dance?

Broom dance, broom dance,

"What the heck is dad doing?"

I can do the broom dance, broom dance.

No, really I can do the broom dance.

Okay, I can do the broom dance, broom dance, broom dance.

Can you?

    Are you super confused by my random post?  Don't worry you are not the only one!  Ha. 

    We had a BBQ last summer and played this silly, fun game called the Broom Dance.  It was hilarious, and these pictures remind me just how fun and wonderful summer is.  It maybe 15 degrees outside, but I'm planning for more summer fun this year!

Blessings to you and yours!



There's Fat and It's Tuesday #3

   The Lumberjack's Wife brought back Fat Tuesday. Can I get a Woo Hoo! 

Dieting adventures this week:

Day One:  I was freaking out a bit, as I had gained one pound the week prior.  I decided to start the week smart, and meal plan.  I also prepped meals for work.

Day Two:  I lost my pound.  Sweet!  I best not celebrate with cake, instead I'll stick to Slow Churn Brownie Fudge Ice Cream.

Day Three:  Weightloss, again, without an enema.

Day Four:  Just maintaining.  Pondering, why is it so easy to gain weight and so hard to lose weight?

Day Five:  No weight loss again.  Annoying!

Day Six:  Maintaining.  Seriously!

Day Seven:  Weight loss again.  Sweet!  I lost a total of 2.4 pounds this week! 

  Overall, weight loss this week has been good.  At this point in the competition I was hoping to have lost 6 pounds, and I have only lost 4.4.   That's a bummer, but I am pleased with the loss this week.  I might have to resort to extreme measures and exercise, though I am not sure I am ready to breakout the big guns, yet.

Blessings to you and yours!

Sunday Night Dinners

    Whatever happened to Sunday night dinner's?  You know what I'm talking about, salad, hot and fresh homemade dinner rolls, roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, creamed pea's and fudge ribbon cake for dessert. 

Source

    Well, maybe you don't know what I mean, but at least you have an idea of why I've struggled with a weight problem!  Ha!

  This week I decided to bring back the official Sunday dinner.

   We dined on  New England Style Roast Beef, double stuffed  baked potatoes and zucchini.

New England Roast Beef

Chuck Roast

1/2 cup of horseradish

1 cup of water

salt and pepper to taste

 Heat oven to 325.  Place roast in 9x13.  Spread horseradish over roast.

  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  Top with one cup of water.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake 2 hours. 

  

     I have to admit after cooking I felt a little like:



Source

   You know, with my mad couponing skills and now homemade Sunday dinners, I just might be the total package.  Ha!

Blessings to you and yours!

Gratitude List:

12.  Precious kids.  Last Tuesday I wasn't feeling well and my kids were SO sweet.  Noelle started the morning by coming into my room and asking me if there was anything she could do for me.  Christian followed up by asking if I would like a cup of coffee or tea.  Gracie wanted to know if she should make breakfast for everyone (she's only 7, so I said no).  What sweet kids I have!

13.  Blue skies.

14.  Strong hands.

15.  Hugs and kisses.

16.  A new book, A Thousand Gifts.

17.  Text messages from my mom.

18.  Laughter.

19.  Cousins playing dress-up.

20.  Lower numbers on the scale.

21.  Flickering candles.

22.  Brownies and ice cream.

23.  My friend, the Lumberjack's Wife, and her sweet plug for my blog.  My stat's doubled in one day!  Return the favor and go check out her blog- she's hilarious!

Couponing and Such

    Couponing.  This word simply makes me shudder.  I want to be a good steward, and quite frankly, I always like to have extra money.  Last weekend I attended a Women's Conference and learned about this magical thing called couponing, now to be honest I did not realize that couponing is actually an intense part time job.  I assumed couponing meant you clipped a few coupons in the local Sunday paper and you actually remembered to use them while grocery shopping.  Apparently I was wrong.

  Couponing is intense, and you have to be strategic, and not an impulse shopper.  Hummm...already seeing some red flags.  Well, this week I spent an hour and half, on two different day's, checking out couponing websites and whatnot. Guess how many online coupons I printed?  Yep, you guessed it- NONE!  I'm a bit of a researcher and a bit of a skeptic.  Can I really save money, neurotically couponing or will I end up purchasing a bunch of processed junk I wouldn't normally buy?  Humm...  Can I really save money if my husband likes to eat fairly gourmet food and I like to buy lots of fresh fruits and vegetables?

  I wrestled with this idea all week.  The lady that led the class has a family of eight and spends around $200.00 a month on groceries!  Insane!  We spend....well, significantly more.  I did a little research, and if I couponed and spent $200.00 a month on groceries, and saved the rest of the money I usually spend on groceries for a year, my family of five could go on a trip to Maui for 14 days, including hotel, airfare, car rental and $1500.00 spending cash.  Humm...couponing is sounding slightly better, slightly. 

Source

   So, here's what I'm going to do.  I going to "attempt" to start couponing, but I am not going to change the way we eat.  If I save any money, I will put  the extra cash I save in our saving account.  Hopefully this time next year we'll be taking a sweet vacation or at the very least I'll have a sweet new wardrobe.  I'll let you know what happens.
   
    In the mean time I'm going to be dreaming of:



Source

and

Source

      Here are a few sites you might want to checkout if you plan to start couponing:

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

http://moneysavingmom.com/

http://thefrugalhousewife.com/

Blessings to you and yours!

There's Fat and It's Tuesday #3

Source
 

   Well, I have bad news today, I gained one pound this week.  It's shameful, I know.  Here's the tragic story of how my weight loss went astray.

     1.  Tuesday started out like any ordinary day, I woke-up, had a 400 calorie breakfast, and went to work.  The day progressed swimmingly, and I stayed within 1600 calories.

    2.  Wednesday started well, I had a 400 calorie breakfast.  Around lunch time things started to get sticky, you see, I was having lunch with a friend at a popular Mom and Pop restaurant.  My plan was to stick with a Cobb salad and have my dressing on the side.  This plan would have been great, as Cobb salad, in itself, is a healthy choice.  You do need to request your salad dressing on the side, as you can quickly consume too many calories worth of salad dressing, and who wants to do that!  Well,  my resolve to have a salad failed miserably and I ended up consuming a delicious mushroom burger, sans the bun.  This too would have been fine, if I had not topped off my burger with delicious homemade fries.  Yum! 

   3.  Thursday started in failure, I met a friend for breakfast.  Folks, this is never a good plan, restaurants are not low calorie factories.

   4.  Friday I consumed four, four hundred calorie meals.  Woo hoo!  Finally!

   5.  Saturday started well, but I attended a Women's Conference and blew my calorie goals by having a pumpkin scone for breakfast and eating the lunch at the conference.  Ladies and gents, don't waste calories on mayo and cream cheese.  It's not worth it!

   6.  Sunday I stayed within my calorie limit.

   7.  Monday I woke up and weighed myself, I had gained exactly one pound.  Bummer!  I weighed myself three more times, just to make sure, and I still had gained one pound.  Bummer, again!

   Lesson learned, stay away from restaurants and Starbucks, they are the enemy.  So far this week (Monday and Tuesday) I have stayed within my calorie limit.  I also prepared my weekly menu ahead of time and make sure to stock up on the groceries I needed.  I know that I need to plan ahead and prep meals so I don't cheat!  So far I am coming in 5th place in our "Biggest Loser" competition.   I need to pick up my A-game!

   On a side note, I developed pictures for the first time in years this week.  Take a look at some of these doozies:

Yikes! 

It's frightening, my arms are WAY bigger than Sandy's.

   The funny thing about these pictures is that I deleted the one's that were the most horrific!  Sandy hadn't seen our vacation pictures for quite a while and his comment was, "Hon, I don't remember you having such big arms."  Good thing love is blind.  :)  (Note to Taylor:  It's okay.)

Last week.  (Not sure I'm lovin' the brown hair.)

    

Blessings to you and yours!

Gratitude Week 4

   Psalm 66:1

"Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;

 Sing the glory of His name; 

 Make His praise glorious.

Say to God, "How awesome are Your works!"

                                                       NASB

       We serve an awesome God.  Life gets crazy, but isn't it such a blessing that we are His!  Today my post will be short and sweet- just my gratitude list.

1.  Sitting in church with my family, and holding crayons for my littlest while she colors.  This season of mommyhood is rushing by, and I just want to push the pause button. 

2.  Shopping with my oldest.  I love our conversation and how she asks my opinion on her fashion and make-up.  (Now, she doesn't always use my opinion but at least she asks.)

3.  I'm grateful for new neighbors and the words Grace spoke upon meeting them. 

           Grace:  "I've been praying for you since I was a little girl.  I've been praying for a friend in my neighborhood."

     Melt my mommy heart.  I'm not sure our new neighbors are Christians and they may now deem us the weird neighbors, but I am so grateful to have a little girl that lets her "light" shine.

4.  My son.  Christian is a ton of fun and I am grateful he still asks me to tuck him in and pray with him.  I fear these days will pass to soon.

5.  Sweet friends who read my blog and encourage me.  I love you guys!

6.  Good, predictable books.

7.  A cup of peppermint tea and my bible.

8.  Good conversation and breakfast with a friend.

9.  No snow!  Yeah!  Rain~boo!  (Oops, this is a grateful list not a complaining list).

10.  The sound of belly laughs coming from Christian and Grace.  Sometimes these two kids can seem a little loud and crazy, but the joy they have playing together.  Grace prays for her "best friend" Christian.

11.  Committing to having a family night every Sunday.  

Blessings to you and yours!



I hate developing pictures!

 
  Does anyone else struggle with actually developing the pictures they take?  I take ALOT of pictures and I rarely, if ever, develop my pictures.  Sure, I download em', upload em', resize em', but they just don't get developed.   Well, today was D-Day, D for develop picture day.

    I decided to develop the pictures we had taken on a family vacation to Disney World in May of 2009.  I've been meaning to get these pictures developed for quite some time- I even keep my souvenir photo album on a table in my living room.  Often people visit us and pick up the photo album and start thumbing through it, they quickly notice it doesn't have any photo's, it's just a prop. 

  I began the process of developing my pictures by downloading my memory card to my computer.  I started at 8:15pm, the download finished up around 9:45.  Nuts, just nuts!  Then I hop (or click) over to the Costco site, and need to setup a user account.  I get my user account, and need to redown load all the pictures I want to develop.  So, here I am at 11:00pm, my pictures are downloaded and will be available for pick-up tomorrow. 

  I've learned a lesson today, I need to develop my pictures at least every six months or plan on never developing them at all! I also should have popped my memory card into my computer and downloaded the pictures only to Costco, not to my computer.  Live and learn, live and learn.

Blessings to you and yours!