Starting over...

You can't say you didn't know.  About my not being perfect that is.  It's right there in the "About Me" section.  I never promised you daily or even weekly blog entries, wait a sec, I might have...but you can't blame me for not following through.  I mean, I'm horrible about finishing what I start.  I always have been.  Well, most of the time.  I'm also not very good about keeping resolutions--haha, that's so much of an understatement that I actually laughed!  Anyone who has read this blog knows that posts are spotty at best and I can go months, even years, between them.  There are lots of things that I'm not good at.
But...

You know what I am good at? 

Starting over.

Yup. 
I can do that. 
Sometimes I do it quite a lot (that's why I'm good at it! ;)).
Sometimes a lot more than other people do. 
Sometimes way more than I should.

But...

The fact that I CAN start over, well, that kicks ass!

Why? 

Because if I couldn't start over, I could never improve or change or grow.

So, I'm starting over.  Today is not the First Day of this process, but it's the First Day of blogging about it so that will have to be good enough for anyone who chooses to join me on this journey.  You haven't missed much so it's all good, but I'll fill you in on what's happened since I last wrote...

I left off back in January of 2010...

Family Stuff~

Kids are growing like weeds!
The Eldest is nearly 12, entering Middle School this year and we're both freaking out! He's doing well, but we're having issues with pre-teen angst and attitude.  I need to remember to breathe deep with this one. ;)  He's still my sweet boy and loves choir, LOTR, Legos (still), photography and will be taking violin this year at school.  He is growing up too fast and I miss my little punkin', but I'm excited for this next phase in his life, even if he isn't. ;)

The Middle, oh my, the Middle...he's been a handful this past couple of years.  He's been diagnosed with ADHD and depression and has had trouble in school.  He's spent more time in the Principal's office than I ever imagined possible. Thankfully the teachers and principal have been fantastic and have been instrumental in making his time at this school successful.  He was recently tested for the EL program and will be going to a new school this year! We always knew this kid was smart and this proves it! :)  He's excited and nervous about it as am I.  Aside from school issues, he's still my little lovey.  Still the most affectionate kid I know and wears his heart on his sleeve.

Girl Number One...I read through this blog before posting and laughed as I read earlier accounts on Miss E.  She was such a patient, calm, sweet baby...sigh.  Now she's not.  Ha!  She's loud and bossy and whiny and impatient.  She's also funny and thoughtful and kind and helpful.  So she's a typical five year old.  She loves to draw and draw and draw and reminds me of Devin in that way.  She's silly and has a laugh that just cracks me up.  She is also sporting a very wobbly tooth!

Girl Number Two...good gravy this girl!  She's going to be a handful when she hit the teen years, I just know it!  I used to worry about Miss E driving me batty, but this one...oh this one!  She's so headstrong!! I know that can be a good thing, so I try to embrace it, but I tell ya what...I'm about ready some days to sell her to the gypsies! Ahh, but she's still sweet, and nutty and snuggly and five.  She's not as big as her sister in size, but makes up for it in volume and bouncing. ;) 

The Hubs and I are good! We're currently in the midst of discussing household projects and such that need to be done and trying to be Responsible Adults and do those before the ones that we want to do.  We've been here for nearly five years! That's a record for sure!  It's such a long time that I'm starting to get antsy.  I won't lie, I'm ready for a change.  However, now is not the time for big moves and such.  No worries though, opportunities for change abound so I'm sure I'll find something.

Health Stuff~

I continued to lose weight, got down to 135 or so actually!  Ran a 5K, felt fan-freakin'-tastic about my body and had energy to burn. I was working out 6X a week, an hour at a time.  It was awesome. 

Then the holidays hit.  I slacked off and got lazy.  I had all sorts of excuses as to why I couldn't keep up with my workouts--it took too long, the kids were all home from school and it was hard to do my workouts with them around, it was too cold to run outside, the list went on.  Then I got depressed.  Turns out that They are right--exercise boosts your mood.  You might not recognize it at the time (and I was on meds at the time and could easily attribute my good mood to that), but it does and when you stop exercising...watch out. 

Well, if you know me, you know that my drug of choice is food.  It's my first go to when I'm depressed or anxious.  Every. Single. Time.  This time was no different.  Despite getting back on the wagon multiple times, I kept falling off. I also started having intense pain in my feet and had surgery last summer on my left foot so that added to my lack of movement.  This past year and a half have been tough.  Depression, pain, recovery, self loathing, weaning myself off of my anti-depressants...it all added up and I gained back every pound I had lost and added 37 more on top of it.  Yup.  You read that right, and for those of you who don't know (or who don't feel like reading past posts to find out...), that means I was sitting at 237. 

I could write a whole other post on that past year and half, and maybe I will one day, but not today. 

Today I'm just writing to get back on the blog wagon. 
Today I'm just getting it all out there so I can clear my head.
Today I'm saying hello again to anyone out there who's reading. 
Today I'm doing what needs to be done.
Today I'm...

Starting over.

Week #2

Ahhh, so I'm actually posting on time this week! Yay me!

I wish I could write something funny, entertaining or both, but I'm fresh outta stuff like that.

My brain is mush tonight and all I'm really wanting to do is go to bed!  However, I'll at least recap the week:

I got all of my Week Two Goals accomplished and actually started on Week Three!  The purging and organizing is coming along nicely and I've already had a bunch of stuff hauled off to charity. Yay!

I am in the middle of my first ever embroidery project that I was hoping would be completed by today, but it proved more time consuming than I had thought.  So in order to accomplish my weekly goal to create something I whipped up some repurposed canisters (pics to follow soon).  I'm not entire sure where they're going, but I'm sure I'll find a place for them.

My mother is also in the midst of purging and reorganizing her house.  We chat about our projects every day and we finally decided that a blog is in order!  So be on the lookout for a post regarding our blog Like Mother Like Daughter to be coming soon.

Well folks, as I mentioned above, I'm pretty beat.  So I'll say goodnight and wish you all peaceful slumber!

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year!!!

I'm a day late posting this (well, about 7 hours late if you want to be technical ;)) but a day late is better than not at all right? Right! So let's get to it!

A new year is upon us! Many of us are exercising more, eating right, organizing their stuff, setting new goals and making resolutions. It's a great time of year right? A fresh start, a clean slate...ahh...

I'm right there in the thick of the New Year hoopla. I've set new goals for myself, goals I've set before and goals I'm sure I'll set again in my lifetime. :) Among them is the goal to purge and organize everything in my house.

Now that we've lived in our house for over 2 years--and believe me, that's a big deal! (While Chris and I have been married, the longest we've ever lived in one place is about 18 months!)--it's finally time to completely unpack.

I think it's safe to say that we've led a somewhat nomadic lifestyle in the 12 years we've been together, moving from place to place, packing and unpacking and I'm glad to be done with it. However, it's taken me some time to finally get my head around being settled. But, I finally have and now I'm finding myself wanting to decorate rooms and find places for all the things I've kept in boxes--because really, why bother unpacking it all if you're just going to move again in 18 months right? ;)

So anyway...

My goal for 2010 in a nutshell is:

Unpack, Purge & Organize -- EVERYTHING

Oh, and to create something once a week. Anything, be it a craft, sewing, crocheting, photography...it's got to be something though.

And for the first week of January I made this:

Cute little pocket calendars!  I found them on this blog http://www.creaturecomfortsblog.com/home/2009/12/11/printable-2010-pocket-calendar-by-sam-cheryl.html and since I have a ton of scrap booking paper and zero scrap booking skill, I decided to put the papers to good use and use them on the calendars. :)

Inside each pocket I will be putting weekly to do lists or goals, like this~

I'm hoping that this will help me to stay focused on my goals. ;) If not, well...at least it looks cute right? Haha!

Once again, Happy New Year and I hope that this year brings you happiness and joy!

January 6th

It's here, it's here, today is here!!!! :)

Not that I'm excited or anything. ;)

The boys have just gotten on the bus and here I sit, with just one child awake, happily sipping (or rather gulping) her morning milk. The other child is blissfully sleeping. :)

Ahhh...can you hear that? It's nice and quiet! It's music to my ears!

Haha!

It's funny, Dev was actually more excited about school starting back up than he was about Christmas! According to hubby, Dev was up 3 times before 6:00 AM because he couldn't sleep. (I didn't know this because I had retreated to the couch to get some actual sleep--let's just say it's quieter there ;)) By comparison, on Christmas Eve he went to bed at 8:30 without a peep, slept all night and didn't get out of bed until 7:30 or so. Hmm...that's not quite how I did things when I was a kid LOL I guess he likes school huh? ;)

As for me, I'm looking forward not only to the reduced volume of the house, but to the return to our 'normal' routine. The whole day seems to just have a nice, although some days hectic, rhythm to it. I tend to stay in a lot more than I used to (something I'm working on) and having to go out everyday to get Ry from school ensures that I get at least a little fresh air.

Today is also special because it's my Brother and my Best Friend's Birthday!!! So, Happy Birthday to you two!! I hope you have a wonderful day! :)

Well, I guess I should get crackin' on that whole 'routine' thing 'eh? Have a great day all!

P.S. Just so y'all know, even though I'll enjoy the quiet and return to 'normal' I'm gunna miss havin' my boys around all day, sigh...

Epiphanies

I had an epiphany the last few weeks of 2008. While I was figuring out what to get the people on my Christmas list, I found myself getting overwhelmed. You see, I planned on making most of the gifts and it was a long list. Add that onto my regular list of Things to Do at Christmastime and I was feeling in over my head.

Every year it's the same thing, handmade gifts or not, I make a giant To Do List for Christmas which usually includes tons of cleaning, shopping, baking and crafting--well guess what? I almost never get it all done. Sure, cleaning gets done when guest come over (although there seems to always be things thrown into a closet hidden behind a bedroom door), shopping gets done--but usually last minute and baking, well, if I manage to get it done, it's because I've stayed up until 2 o'clock in the morning. Not fun. What about the crafts? Well, that's usually the thing that never gets done. I've always blamed it on lack of time or having too much to do--I do, after all, have 4 kids to take care of on top of everything else.

Well, that's a bunch of hooey.

I know this because I actually succeeded in doing each and every thing on my list this year--in a timely fashion even! LOL

I sewed a ton, I cleaned, I baked--even tried my hand at chocolate covered pretzles for the first time, I even crafted--I made handmade ornaments!! So, it CAN be done. And here's how I did it:

Mini Lists

Yep. Mini Lists. I figured out that, for me, Big Giant To Do Lists are overwhelming. Sure, they're nice to look at *if* you finish them, but just looking at a giant list sends me into a sort of desperate sense of pre-failure that leaves me feeling overwhelmed and helpless. I look at my list and wonder, 'where on earth do I start?' and then I just keep staring at the list and looking around my house and looking back to the list...

Sure, I try to give myself pep talks and get everyone onboard with my To Do List, but it usually ends the same...everyone feels grumpy and stressed out and complains most of the time about the chores I've doled out, sounds fun huh?

Nope.

So, Mini Lists. What I did at Christmas was to take my Giant List and divide it up into smaller daily lists. Instead of writing 'Sew gifts for A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I' I wrote things like,

Monday~ Cut fabric for A, B & C's gift
Tuesday~ Cut fabric for D, E & F's gift
Wednesday ~ Cut fabric for G, H & I's gift
Thursday ~ Sew gifts for A, B & C
...and sew on... (haha, get it? "sew on" Bwahaha, I crack me up! :D)

I found it much easier to look at these lists as do'able. I didn't get overwhelmed! Wow! And the best part--I actually DID the things on my lists!!

Ahhh...



Which leads me to my next epiphany:

Fast forward to the last couple of days of December. I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to make any Resolutions and I'm thinking of all the things that I want to change and get done.

Lose weight -- well, isn't that ALWAYS on the list? ;)
Keep up on the housework
Spend more time playing with the kids
Learn more about photography
Get organized

Screeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaach!!! Whoa there! What's that? Or-gan-ized? What on earth does that mean? How does one get or-gan-ized? How do I start? How will I benefit from being 0r-gan-ized? Hmm...

Could it be that *if* I were more organized my life might run a bit more smoothly? Hmm? Could it be that if my house were more organized that there might be less stress in our house? Hmm? Could it be that if things were more organized that I might be able to keep up with the housework? Spend more time playing with the kids? Learn more about photography?!?! Heck, I might even be able to--blog more!!!

Hmm...

I think I'm onto something here. Yup. I am!

Can you guess what I did next? Well, if you guessed "Made a mini list" you're a WINNER! Haha! Yes, that's exactly what I did. Sure, I made a Giant Master To Do List first, but only so I could get everything all out of my head (where it's been taking up way too much space I might add) and so I can look back on it later when I'm all finished and gloat a bit. ;)

Then, before the New Year even began, I started conquering that list. Yes, I started kickin' that list's butt!!! And you wanna know what? It feels GOOOOOD! It feels good to cross stuff off of my list and it feels Fantastic to look at my finished work. Has it been hard? Sure. Time consuming? Absolutely.

Worth it?

Oh you betcha! :)

I feel fantastic! I have more energy than I've had in a long time and the drive to get more done--for those of you who know me, you know that's saying a lot. ;) It's also gaining recognition. My husband asked me the other day,"where's all this stamina coming from? How are you getting all of this done?", to which I replied,

"Well you see, I had this epiphany..."

Hope you'll join me on my ride, it might bumpy, it's bound to take a while, but, it's gunna be FUN! :)

Baby Steps...

Well here we are at the end of another year...amazing isn't it? Every year it's the same thing, no sooner are all the Christmas gifts unwrapped and littering your floor (well, at least that's how it is in our house ;)), then the New Year is upon us.

The New Year.

It looks so Important typed out like that--in Capital Letters and everything--it just begs to be celebrated and looked upon with a certain amount of hopefullness.

Is that why people make resolutions? Because the New Year is Important? Because it is an Official Holiday? Or is it because it signifies a New Beginning? A Fresh Start?

It's funny, because when I look back on things that happened in my life, I usually recall my age at the time, not the year. My Brother, on the other hand, can recall not only the year, but the month and sometimes even the day that things occurred in his--and many others'--life. We like to tease him about his incredible memory, laughing at how accurate he is and how 'no one else would ever remember that'--but for the record, I find it amazing and I'm a little jealous of him. I wish that I could recall things like that!

Anyway, I digress...

I remember very few years as being monumental or all that memorable for that matter.

1972 ~ The year I was born (although this technically isn't a memory for me per se, but rather a
fact of my life)

1989 ~ The year I graduated High School

1999 ~ The year I got married

2000 ~ The year I had my first child

2003 ~ The year I had my second child

2006 ~ The year I found out my third child would actually be my third and fourth children
         ~ The year I had above mentioned children

2008 ~ The year we're in currently and therefore the one freshest in my mind

See? Not a whole lot of years stand out to me. My age at certain events however, do. I won't go into a long laundry list of ages and events--none of them are all that interesting or entertaining--but I just thought I should mention it.

Anyway, I am hoping that the New Year will be a year I will remember as The Year I got my life together. The year I Finally became Organized. The Year I got rid of all the old useless stuff I've held onto for years and years. The Year that I took steps to Better Myself. The Year that, when I look back on it, will bring back memories of goals accomplished and happy memories made.

Yeah, I hope that 2009 will be that year.

Will I be making resolutions this year? That's a tricky question. I plan on making lifestyle changes and doing my best to be a better person, but are those really 'resolutions'? Or are those lifelong goals? Hmm...

Well either way, I'll be taking steps forward to a future filled with New Experiences and New Possibilities, New Friends and New Places to see, New Ways of doing things and New Plans...yep, everything will be all nice and shiny and New and I'll start out my journey with Baby Steps.

Because after all, if I start out taking giant steps, I might just trip over my big 'ol feet and fall flat on my face! ;)

Happy (Soon to Be) New Year to you all!

A break in the Facts...

Just a quick blog update because I'm sooo far behind! I've been up to my neck in painting and bbq'ing with family this weekend, but wanted to update anyway.

Let me first warn you--no pics. Sorry, didn't want to risk getting paint on the camera or anything ya know. So, the 'ol camera was tucked safely away in the office all weekend.

So, let's see...

The living room is painted! Woo hoo! While it is not a dramatic change at all (in fact, it's nearly the same color), it is, CLEAN. The walls were horrid prior to painting and it is so nice to see clean, soot free walls. The prior owner burned candles--must have been 24/7 by the looks of some of the walls in our house--and despite trying to clean them, they were icky to say the least. We also have a newly painted bathroom, complete with a new towel holder and tp holder too! Yay!!! All that's left to do in that room is replace the sink and faucet, mirror and light fixture...ya know, gut it! ;)

Next I think we'll paint either the 'playroom' (aka 'future dining room') or the kitchen. We'll have to see what we have energy for. I don't mind painting at all, in fact, I rather enjoy it--but it comes down to time. It's tough to paint with 2 curious toddlers running around.

Besides that, the boys are enjoying school--Dev more so than Ry--but he's coming around. The girls have adjusted well to not having Ry-Ry and Brother around, and are just giddy when we go to pick Ry up and when Dev walks in the door after school.

We managed 3 well days after the start of school and on the 4th day we received the gift of snot. Oh joyous day. It started with Ry and made the rounds...then, we got a blessed 4 or 5 day break and now, we've got 2 out of the 4 with--you guessed it--snot. Poor Em is a mess. She also has a slight fever to go along with it. She and Dev both have stuffy, snotty noses and watery eyes. Man, now I remember what I don't like about back to school. Ugh...I hate snot...

Other than that, I'm down 15 lbs so far! Yep! Oh, and I guess I should add that I ended up getting up to 200 before I started the 'ol weight loss mission (you can blame major water retention for that!) so I'm down to 185. Hopefully that sticks, because I fell off the wagon big time tonight (Damn AF is coming soon--damn her!!)!!

Alrighty, well, nothing amazing or fantastic I know...but I'm updated now right? Right! :)

Lastly, I'd like to send well wishes to everyone who lives in the areas that were in the path of Gustav. I pray that everyone stays safe and take care!!