Tag Archives: changes

Mid-week JUMP!

This week has been drastically different, in a good way, as far as exercise and food choices go. Of course, it’s only Wednesday…..however, one major change is that I’ve (so far) been able to wrap my brain around “One day at a time”.  Eating that elephant in small bites is a lot easier than tackling the entire thing.  Therefore, my planning for lunches has helped tremendously–especially at work when I hit the “hungries NOW” AND making it through the evening without that little “somethin’ somethin'”.

While I can’t say I’ve gone CLEAN EATING so far, I have absolutely cut a lot of junk and made some substitutions, i.e. brown rice with my sausage and spaghetti sauce instead of pasta.  Not quite the same, buuuuuuuuut, extremely filling and satisfying.  And I’m curious for those of you out there who have “cut the processed stuff” and gone clean….how long did it take you to lose the “craving” for sugar and junk?

This articleby Candace Cameron Bure via Peak313 was great, and my favorite “vision” in fighting against temptations is this excerpt:

In my book, Reshaping It All, I talk about “the eye covenant” found in Job 31:, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman?” Using Job as a role model, many committed husbands, like mine, have decided to make the same covenant with their eyes. If a beautiful woman walks by, a man may take notice, but if he gazes at her for a while, his mind will travel to places it shouldn’t. So rather than looking her way, he turns his eyes and his attention to something else.

If this covenant helped Job overcome lust of the flesh, it can also work for us in regard to food! Instead of fantasizing over lunch, or spending the evening meditating on what dessert we’ll have, let us turn our thoughts and attention to something else. Use this covenant of the eyes to avoid the snack isles while shopping, passing up free samples instead of stopping to consider them, replying “No, thank you,” the next time someone passes a brownie your way and to stay focused on the car ahead of you when you drive by a fast food chain.

Thankfully, this week’s challenge Scripture verse is ALL about cravings and I find God’s timing is once again perfect.

1 John 2:16

For everything in the world, the sinful cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father but from the world.

Mid-Week, post Labor Day blues…

I’m not really blue (although 3 day weekends are always SO nice…).  I am confused.  Mondays off of work/school always throw me for the rest of the week.  It’s a full-on conscious effort to remind myself exactly what day it is, and in order to make sure the kiddos get to where they need to be WHEN they need to be there.  Therefore, today my mantra is:  Today is Wednesday.  Phew.  Now to repeat for the rest of the day!!!

Here in the states we celebrated Labor Day, which is defined  by the US Department of Labor as:  Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. I Labor, therefore I get a day.  However, Hubby labors and worked, so did lots of other people…..still a reminder and a paid holiday for me, so I’ll take it!

A few other things Labor day signifies, officially, unofficially, either way it’s a benchmark:

Fall:  It’s a comin’.  Maybe not here in the South where we will continue to swelter enjoy 90-degree temps for another month or so, but it is coming!

Pumpkin:  Fall flavors @ Starbucks.  Pumpkin spice cream cheese (oh MY!!  I bought this weekend and holy cow!!  Delish.  Go get some).  Pumpkin muffins.  Pumpkin cookies.  Pumpkin pancakes.  ‘Tis the season of pumpkin!  Enjoy!!

Fashion:  No more white pants, shoes, etc.  WhatEVA!!!  When we are enjoying 90-degree temps, I WILL be wearing white, just sayin’.  Deal.

End of the beach season:  Maybe for others, not so much for us.  In fact, I avoided the beach this weekend because I know NEXT weekend I won’t be fighting the crowds.

Back to school:  We’re in week 3 here, but at this time of the year, the entire country is BACK TO SCHOOL!  AMEN!!  Perfect time to hit Disney if you are a local…NO lines, baby.

Sometimes with season changes come other changes:  Spring cleaning, fitness changes, furniture re-decorating, garage sales,and so on.   For me, season change usually signal a change-up in my fitness routine and this is what I’m doing to kick off Fall:

Peak 313 has a 5-week challenge starting on the 10th…a Monday, of course!  It’s up over 200 people!  WOW!  I’m always up for a change; I  get  bored so quickly.  It will be good accountability and challenging.  Of course, I’ll still be hitting my track routine during cheer practice and the gym @ lunch a few days a week…so this will be extra!  5 weeks never sounds so bad in the beginning does it?  There’s still time to join in, you can click HERE if you want to find out all the details, etc, etc, etc….

That’s it for today….time to get crackin’ on the day!  Happy Hump day!!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes….

Our fluffy, fatty learned to climb and jump and last night he decided to pull an all-nighter. Cats. Dirty little stay-out!!

Back-to-school always brings a new routine with it and, try as we might, it ALWAYS takes a couple of weeks of tweaking and a TON of patience as we all get in to our new groove.  I’m a structured person and change is rarely easy on me, however, God’s grace can carry us through…..if we let it and so far……so far…..a fairly successful week.  We only have a few binders to purchase and some extra loose leaf paper…not bad, not bad…

1.  Oldest son started high school.  New faces, new classes, taking the bus for the first time EVER and so far….so far…..he only got on the wrong bus the first day (coming home).  Aside from that, it appears his transition–especially the waking @ 5:30 a.m. change, has gone pretty well.

2.  Youngest son’s academic brilliance overshines his common sense on occasion and had a little lapse of such during a rainy afternoon resulting in major miscommunication with Dad.  All ended well, its times like these that I have to keep repeating to myself……he’s only 13, he isn’t using his full brain yet…he’s only 13….it’s painful though.

3.  Oldest daughter forgot her backpack one day BUT remembered her lunch.  Dad to the rescue which meant getting snagged in morning school traffic….GRRRRr…..tweak, tweak, tweak….must get in the habit of remembering all that’s to be remembered…

4.  With rain ALL week long the girls FINALLY had practices last night, so we’ve had mostly all family dinners this week!  Which I love.  And which will also be the biggest challenge for me with these evening practices messing up our dinner schedules, but see how good God is??….he eased me into it this week.  How often do YOU have family dinners??

This puppy is on sale now and has some GREAT dinner ideas….a lovely addition for our weeknight dinners…save money….save time…eat well….I like it, I like it!!

5.  Hubby has taken on the coupon challenge and is in the researching phase (and accumulation phase) of coupons and how to work the sales.  He is a detail guy and has infinitely more patience than I in these matters and I look forward to him steering this ship AND saving us some cash!!!  We’ve reigned in our grocery bill for our family of 6 (2 teen boys included) to roughly $600/mo…but I know we can go lower.  What’s your average??

6.  I finally broke down and bought new sneakers.  My work ones are shot, so I’ll swap out my walking ones for work (not my favorites) and use my new ones for walking.  Broke them in on the track at practice last night….3 miles!!  Nice.  Add to that 2 days at the gym (3 today) and I’m feeling pretty good about this week.  Woop woop!!  Definitely helps to manage the stress level!!

My feet liked these….on sale@ Kohl’s…

7.  Having dinner and a night out with one of my oldest girlfriends tonight and several other high school friends. She’s in town from California and it’s going to be a min-high school reunion!  She and I have been friends since 7th grade!!  It will be fun…but with an early game tomorrow morning this Mama will be home early-ish so I’m not so grumpy tomorrow.  That leaves Hubby on practice drop off/pick up, etc, etc….he’s the Bomb and a Blessing.  Balance.  All Balance.  A constant work in motion, isn’t it??  Have  a great weekend!!

Join in @ Conversion Diary and check out what Jen and the rest of the world have been up to!

Put a Fork in me….it’s Friday!!

Finally Friday…WHEW, because I think I am done with this week!!

Join me @ Conversion Diary and see what everyone else is up to….all the cool kids are doing it ;-)….and apparently Jennifer and I have similar dinner plans for the evening (we have friends visiting also!)….except our store was OUT of brisket…..URGH!!!  Wish me luck on the London Broil…..

  1. Mid-week I started feeling a little sluggish…blah, summer colds.  No boot camp for me this week, just no energy, but I’m packing my gym bag and hitting it at lunch time and going to class Saturday morning.  There.  I said it.  Now I have to do it!!
  2. I finished pulling my 222 blog posts off of iWeb and moved them over to WordPress.  Since my hard drive crashed I didn’t have the luxury of pulling them over later before iWeb goes away “poof” June 30….I know, I’ve been whining about it all week, I’m done.
  3. Started a novena this week for my dear friend’s daughter who leaves for Boston for radiation therapy on a very rare cancer in her head.  She’s young, vivacious and has an incredibly strong faith.  If you could offer up L in your prayers, her husband, her parents and her doctor and his team, I know they’d appreciate it!
  4. Speaking of prayers, we’ve added the Bishops fortnight for freedom prayer to after dinner.  After yesterday’s ruling, it’s even more important.  It’s not over yet!!!  There’s so much left to do!
  5. Adoration was my lunch break yesterday.  I had to process the ruling and gain some perspective.  I left with peace and renewed spirit.  God IS in control and this time on earth is temporary.  I wanted to stay in that awesome peaceful Adoration bubble, but I had to go back to work….<sigh>
  6. Littlest wanted to make a dessert for the fam last night so we whipped up a pumpkin pie.  Not too bad.  Crushed up some graham crackers and butter for the crust.  1 can of pumpkin.  1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  2 eggs.  cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger.  Bake @ 425 for 15 minutes and then @ 350 for 40 minutes.  Serve with some ice cream (we were out of cool whip) and voila!  She was so proud.
  7. Took the girls and 2 friends to see Brave for our youngest’s birthday.  I mean she DOES have red hair….we had to go see it!!  Super cute movie although the bear was a little intense.  Big sister was worried little sister was going to have nightmares.  Fortunately, they wrapped it up well after the “scary” part (yes, I jumped in my seat!) and we all slept well.

Well, I am the “early girl” today and should try to be on time….finish the week strong!  Blessings and happy weekend!!

It is done. PTL!!!

iWeb you may disintegrate, self combust, implode…whatever.  I have my blog.  I moved it.  No thanks to you apple people!  I only waited until the bitter end because I was just SURE someone was going to figure out a simple way to move my blog off of iWeb before it “goes away” forever on June 30.  Sadly, that just never manifested.  Or my search engines completely bite.  which is a possibility.  However, I managed to get my 222 blog posts over a 3 year period moved over to a 2nd WordPress site so that I can sort them out and re-blog (bonus for me! and you!)  at will.

As I was madly cutting, pasting, dragging and dropping this past week I did get sidetracked a few times re-reading old blogs.  Something I just don’t do.  I don’t love the same song over and over, the same TV show, the same movie more than once (OK….VERY few exceptions* on that one).  It was interesting.  and funny.  and sad.  and bittersweet.  and insightful.

Do you re-read any of YOUR old blogs?  Journals?  I’m curious.  Have I just been missing out in NOT re-reading my old musings?  Hmmmmm…..

Well.  I have a few other things I’m mulling over in my brain before I put it to the blog, but be assured….I have so much to share with you….maybe not all 222 posts but plenty of them!

Now I’m off to put some cortisone on this garden issue on my forearm…..it better NOT be poison ivy, that’s all I’m going to say!!!  And then I’m off to bed!

**Movies I will watch more than once, in no particular order:

Under the Tuscan Sun

Steel Magnolias

Fried Green Tomatoes

Star Wars (purely as a matter of chance….2 boys who’ve watched them a zillion times and 2 girls who are being newly indoctricated…starting with #4.  of course)

Pretty Woman

Father of the Bride…1 &2

Cheaper by the Dozen 1&2

there might be a couple more, but that’s just off the top of my head…what about YOU?