Weight Loss update

Okay, so I did no exercise this week because I'm still recovering from my surgery, BUT...I lost 4.1 pounds! I went to my Weight Watchers meeting today and I was free because I made it at my goal for my Lifetime Membership! I was so stoked. I haven't been at goal since I got pregnant with Eliana. Anyhow, I still want to make it to my ultimate goal of 125. So, if I'm feeling good this week I will add exercise three times this week for 30 minutes. Then I will add a day each week after that to get to the five days a week goal and Saturday fun day exercising with hikes, bike riding, etc. I added this cute ticker from Ticker Factory - they have fun tickers to countdown just about anything. Very fun! My hubby says he wants to lose with me. He recently lost 50 pounds! But has regained about 8. He says he wants to lose about 15-20 pounds, so we will do it together. I can't wait to see the results. Maybe we will treat ourselves with a trip to Hawaii (in my dreams)!

Losing baby weight

Welp, it's time to admit that I need to lose my baby weight. Eliana is officially 6 1/2 months old and I'm not losing any more of the weight I gained naturally, so it's time to get back to counting points and going to my Weight Watchers meetings. Today I am 150.5 lbs. and I have about 25 pounds to lose. Eliana has started taking rice cereal occasionally so I have 30 points I can eat per day. I downloaded a cool app for my iPhone where I can keep track of points, exercise, and more, so I'm all set. I'll keep track on here occasionally with how I'm doing and any tips I come across from meetings, etc. I'm going to start with adding exercise three times a week and work up to five times a week with a hike on the weekend by three weeks from now.

God is so good

Wow, what a week. I had my surgery on my ear on Monday and it has already been almost a week. Everything went very well and the doctor got all of the tumor. But, I bled more than they thought I would during surgery so it took longer (three and a half hours) and so it was harder for me to wake up from the anesthesia. I got home in a daze and a lot of pain. But, the pain medication did it's job and now today I just have to take ibuprofin for the pain.

We are so blessed to have Wes work for such a great company like Cisco. They gave him the whole week off and he was able to step in and take care of the kids and house like a pro. He has been such a blessing to me and the children. He is such a wonderful husband and Daddy and I appreciate him so much! He also took them on a field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and out hiking and geo-caching today. They love their "Daddy Days."

My parents were so generous as well to watch the kids on the day of the surgery and Eliana did fine without me. She ate her rice cereal and was happy to nurse soon after I got home. We were also so blessed by the amount of people that prayed for me and for the support from friends with meals after as well. The Lord truly gave me such a peace going into the surgery. I thought I would be scared and worried, but I wasn't at all. I knew that it was all in the Lord's hands and that He wants His best for me. I know that the prayers helped with how I felt too. I knew that everything would be alright and that the Lord would take care of everything. I don't think I can say that I'm thankful for the experience, but I am thankful for one more experience to have where I was able to put my whole trust in the Lord for my life and my well-being. He is so good and His goodness always shines.

Two Year Olds

“Wachusay?” (What did you say?) and “Lemon See” (Let me see) are among the many words my two year old Joshua says daily. Two year olds are adorable and I am enjoying my little guy more than ever. He is an adventurer at heart and it is so much fun to watch him just enjoy life. He gets into EVERYTHING, likes to try everything new and dangerous, makes messes by the minute, and loves to kiss his baby sister and “hode her pweez.” He is such a love bug and so inquisitive. His latest love besides Eliana? "Snayos and roy-poys" (snails and rolli-pollis). He just loves to go in the back yard and find “baby snails” and let them crawl all over him. Priceless.

These days go by so fast. My oldest is almost 15 and creeping up on adulthood. I want to slow down and enjoy each and every moment and make them last! Our days with our children are so precious and I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed us with this wonderful bunch of seven beauties.

Wes and I went out on our weekly date night the other night and saw the movie “Back up Plan.” It was a cute romantic comedy that was pretty funny. There was one scene at a park where an experienced dad of three kiddos was giving advice to another dad who was expecting his first child on what having children is like. The experienced dad was saying “Most days are awful, awful, awful, aaawwwfffuuullll, awful. But then something magical and wonderful happens and you forget all the awful that happened. Until…the awful happens again and it starts all over again.” Then, his younger son comes up and sits on his lap and the new dad asks “Is this one of those magical and wonderful moments?” The experienced dad says “Yeeeaaaahhhh.” Then he notices something is in his son’s hand and asks “What’s in your hand, son?” His son says “Poop, Daddy” while opening his hand to show him. His dad then says “Oh no! Is it a cat’s poop that you found in the sand?” Son says, “Nope.” Dad says “Is it your poop then?” with a hopeful look on his face. Then the son says the unthinkable, “No, his poop” while pointing to another little boy in the sand box.. Ha, ha, too funny. Who can relate? It’s good to be able to laugh at the “awful” stuff sometimes, isn’t it? 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful Mommies. Have a wonderful day with your little blessings. Remember to thank you the Lord for all He has given you and have joy in your hearts! Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Distractions

Do you ever get distracted? Do you lose focus on what you were doing to find you go to bed and question whether you accomplished and finished any of your tasks that you set out to do that day? I do...all the time. I'm constantly multi-tasking throughout the day and I leave something I started to go take care of something else or someone else and come back later to find my 2 year old got into whatever "it" is or I forget about entirely for a few day! So...I have been thinking and praying for a solution. The solution is to live more simply! We already live a pretty simple life relatively speaking, but there are two areas of our lives we can improve on in order to bring more simple living to our home.
1. Organizing and decluttering our home (which I've already been working on)
2. Revamping our daily schedule (and being more strict with it)

Number two is definitely an area I need to work on. Since my newest blessing arrived last November and the illnesses that have plagued our family we have gotten totally off our normal routine. I have noticed that the children have acquired attitude problems as a result. Because I have not been enforcing a schedule and they have been "allowed" freedom to choose when to do chores and school they have attitudes when I tell them to do something because they think they have a choice. They have been able to choose privileges first before chores and responsibilities because there has been a lack of accountability from me! This is totally my fault and I am doing them a disservice by allowing this to continue since the unwanted behavior is then being practiced everyday instead of the behavior I want! God wants me to train my children to be hard-workers, to learn to be diligent and obedient, to be servant oriented and kind. When I allow them to choose their own schedules because I am too tired or lazy to reinforce a schedule I have put in place for our family then of course they will choose the easiest route or the most fun choice. Who wants to work hard if no one is requiring you to? This reinforces selfishness, laziness, and disobedience. The opposite of what I want in my children!

So...I am convicted by the Lord to choose the right and hard choice for me too. It's hard to keep my children accountable! I would rather take the easier route too. I would rather sleep in a little, have my coffee in the morning instead of exercising and hang out for a while. But, when I do this it's 11:00 before I know it and I've accomplished nothing! Then I feel bad for not getting more done and that's no way to start the day. I have been distracted and I've let bad habits seep into our days, but NO MORE! I know a schedule will keep me focused on my tasks and help my children stay focused as well.

A schedule will also allow me to have more time since I will be getting more accomplished! More time will free me up to do things I have been wanting to do. I have been wanting to sew and do some other projects, but haven't found the time because I'm always putting out fires? Why? Because the children are running around not having a focus or purpose either. A schedule will allow my children to have more time for things they want to do too. With summer coming I need to get us back on track. Time to get back to the basics and re-read my MOTH (Managers of Their Homes) book. If you don't know about this website, check it out. The Maxwell's are such a blessing to others with their encouragement and help for homeschooling families.

Until next time...