New Challenge! Keepin' It Under Control...

I've overheard several people expressing anxiety for the upcoming holiday months. I wish I'd have thought of this before Halloween and the 15lbs of chocolate that entered my candy free zone.

Jared and I have made a pact to weigh in before the holidays and keep each other accountable to maintain our goals. My goal is to maintain my weight and incorporate exercise back into my life 4 days a week. Through my personal training I have learned that in order to maintain health you need to burn at least 300 calories most days of the week.

If anyone wants some accountability state your goal in the comments or you can message me privately.

We'll check back in after Turkey day and in the meantime I will be posting Thanksgiving recipes that have a healthy twist.  I'll entitle those posts "New Challenge Recipe" so keep an eye out!

Posting my pop challenge publicly helped me a lot with accountability. It helps to know someone else is aware of your goal and may possibly ask you how you're doing :)

What are your goals?

Thank You

Jared and I respect our service men and women so very much.  Thank you for your service, dedication, and sacrifice.

Here are two soldiers near and dear to our hearts.

Grandpa Ted

My Dad

Thank you for fighting for our freedoms.  I pray that my children will be just as brave and honorable.

I DID IT!

I made it!

Yesterday was the 30th day without pop. 

Not a single sip.

I could have had pop today but didn't realize it.  That is a huge success.  I may run to QT for a reasonably sized soda to celebrate :)

It feels good to exercise control over such a silly aspect of my life.  It's not so arbitrary when it begins to take control.

How are you doing with your 30 days?

Success?  Congrats!

Slip up?  Have no fear, you only fail if you refuse to keep trying!

All Crazy Things Come to an End!!!

The weekend is over!

Jared, the boys, and I all headed up to camp Friday noon.  Ms. Jess went with me to help cook and I was super thankful for her company and amazing dish washing capabilities (anyone who knows me knows...if it doesn't fit in the dishwasher it's probably not going to get clean).  Our sweet girl spent some time at G'ma Nita's and then headed to the Rice farm for the remainder.

All the food turned out great.  We only had one issue.  Saturday lunch, our ovens weren't cooking hot enough and our stuffing didn't set up right.  It was crunchy on top and kinda gooey underneath.  All in all I felt it was a success!

We all headed home Saturday afternoon exhausted and the kids were filthy.  Sweet Jess headed home and I started in on laundry, hair cuts, and baths.  My house is still in disarray.  We all headed to bed early due to fatigue and an early Sunday morning.  I was on the worship team and Jared asked me to sing an old song of mine to go with his sermon on the I Am statements.

We left Sunday School 10 minutes early in order to head to Topeka for  Zach's 1st birthday party.   It was a Cat in the Hat theme and so cute.  The kids LOVED it and were so well behaved.  Happy Birthday little man!  We are so blessed God gifted you to our family.

 It was fun going back to Gage park.  My mom took us there a lot when we were really little.  I have an image of my dad pushing me on a swing. 

This is my dolly on the same swing at about the same age:

 Once we arrived home, around 5, we prepared for bible study at the Moore's.  Anneliese was so exhausted and Graham has been struggling with his asthma.  We did a quick bath for Sis, and a treatment for Graham and headed out.  I'm really glad I went.  It's such a blessing to sit with people and just share our prayer concerns.  Small groups really do make life long connections.

We all slept in this morning and are committed to a lazy day at home with Daddy.  Other than school work we are doing NOTHING.  All that laundry and housework is just going to have to wait another day.

Men's Retreat Menu

For dinner tonight:

Pulled pork on homemade rolls

Fireman's Baked beans

potato salad

Late night snack:

Lots of hot homemade cookies fresh out of the oven!

Coffee, and milk

Breakfast Saturday:

Homemade drop biscuits

sausage pan gravy

homemade cinnamon rolls

coffee, milk, juice

Lunch:

baked chicken and stuffing!  The stuffing will be made from fresh bread. 

plus a veggie of some sort :)


The spouse is preaching and I'm feeding!  Please come and be nourished physically and spiritually!

Anything and Everything!

-Post number 900!  That's something, isn't it?

-I was given a gift from my spouse.  He has a wonderful tradition, when he performs a wedding ceremony he gifts any payment he receives to me to spend how I please (can't be spent on bills).  When he performs a funeral he uses any payment towards books and writes the family's name in the cover.  I purchased a ring to wear in place of my wedding ring due to the allergy issues I've been having.  I'll post pics if it ever arrives (this sentence deserves a blog all it's own, long story).   

-This weekend is the men's retreat at MLCC!  I am going to prepare the meals for the men.  We've already purchased a ton of pork butt and I'm going to rub them down and start cooking them this evening.  Dinner tomorrow night will be pulled pork, home made buns, potato salad, and whatever else I can think of!  YUMM

-I'm still pop free.  I only have 6 days left of my 30.  I am going to go back to drinking pop.  There are just some foods that taste better with soda.  My goal through all of this is to gain control and practice moderation.  My days of 52oz buckets is a thing of the past.  This has been good for me.  I've recognized just how much control I was allowing a beverage over my life.  Ridiculous!

-I'm not planning on going into a lot of detail, but... I have started taking a probiotic.  I have a lifetime of GI issues that I've seen several docs about and been through a barrage of tests only to be told they don't know why.  I go through spells of being miserable about once a month and it lasts for more than a week.  Since I've started taking the probiotic all my issues have been slowly fading away.  The only reason I blog this is to inform.  If anyone else out there has GI issues, you know how consuming and miserable it can be.  Try a probiotic, the pills have a much higher concentration of live bacteria than the yogurts that are out there.  I am currently taking Sustenex but when I finish it I'm going to try the Pearls.  I'm so thankful!  I just thought I'd share.

-My boys are finishing up lesson 50!  The weeks fly by.  Elijah is learning by leaps and bounds.  He really seems to have the same kind of intellect his Daddy has.  He captures things so quickly and permanently.  There are some things that he's picked up on much quicker than either of his older brothers did.  It's really fun to see how unique each of them are.  They each have very different strengths.  Brennan LOVES science and history.  Tanner LOVES reading and math.  Elijah also LOVES reading and math.  1st grade is still pretty basic so Eli's interests will be more obvious next year.

-I only worked on Monday this week.  Monday was such an awful day I've really enjoyed not working since.  With the men's retreat this weekend I didn't ask for more hours.  I've had 4 days in a row to wake up with my family and feed them breakfast while enjoying a cup of coffee.  That was something I used to take for granted, not anymore!

Great Balls of Fire!

Our sweet Papa Richie brought us a fire pit Thursday.

Most of my fondest memories of my Daddy are around a camp fire.  I've told Jared for years I would love to have a fire pit in the back yard.  I can remember eating pizza on a Friday night in June sitting out back at Dad's with a fire going.  Yes, in June...in the dessert.  We just sat far enough away not to feel the heat :)

Let alone all the actual camp fires.  Most of our time with Dad was spent in the mountains camping.  Dad cooked my first rainbow trout over a camp fire.

As soon as Richard unloaded it I started planning for our first camp fire!  Cindy C. called and was chatting and I told her all about it.  Since our hubbies had a board meeting we decided to try out the pit together and make a meal out of it!  She brought us some hot dogs and marsh mellows.

I attacked our brush pile for lots of kindling and we had a fire roaring in no time!

What a blessing to have a huge fenced in yard where the boys can just run!

Anneliese really loves to have her picture taken :)

It meant a lot that they loved it as much as I do!

"Nate Coke-ah"

Best buddies, Liesey kept asking him to sit by her :)

My goal is to remove the dying lilac bush next to the deck and make a patio from paving stones that connects to the stones at the base of the deck steps.  It would be a beautiful addition to our backyard and small piece of my dad I can share with my kids.

Thank you Papa Richie, it means more than you could ever imagine.  I love you!