A little bit of this and that

Okay, so I didn't realize it's been two months since I decided to diet. I've lost a whopping five pounds. The metformin made me sick, and we lost our insurance, so I stopped taking it, and with Earl home my motivation has been low. However, we did start seeing the dietician at our pediatrician who has been awesome. My terrible habits have rubbed off on my oldest, who at his current rate of growth will turn into me. When I made an appointment to see her, I thought she would hand me a food pyramid and say have fun, but she has been a huge help. We see her every three weeks, and she gives us family goals to work towards. With her encouragement, we have reduced the amount of screen time (well I still spend to much time on the computer), switched to 1% milk, we are trying to add more fruits and veggies in our diet and working on adding a regular family walk to our day. She said if we develop good habits, Alex will turn into a healthy adult, and I will benefit also.
We have also realized that Alex's adhd has gotten out of control. He is a wild child! So we are working on a healthier diet now to also see if that will improve his control. I decided to work on one habit every two weeks and then maybe it will stick. Our fist goal is to give up cereal, and switch to a high protein breakfast. Eggs, and a caffeinated drink with added protein. We are also going to add some brain boosting vitamins and minerals back in.

A Fresh Start

I haven't been on here in a while. I tried to change something, and then lost my 101 list and was frustrated so I quit. But my doctor put me on Metformin, a diabetic drug that does numerous things. The main reason for this was it is the only medical thing she can do to help me lose weight short of gastric bypass surgery (which is not an option right now.) With this medicine, the best way to make it work is a low carb/low sugar diet. When a friend offered to help me, I sent her the following.

"I need the help. I am not bitter or worried, just afraid to fail. I just don't know how to cook. Today for dinner we had macaroni and cheese, steak and asparagus. I always do a carb with meals. my favorite lunch is ramen noodles and if I eat breakfast it is usually dinner leftovers. I have a terrible diet. I can't make it through the day without my coffee and soda. I need a complete overhaul and when I look at the big picture I give up. I don't even know how to start. I guess an accountability partner would be a good thing"

I recently read another post that said when you begin something tell everyone so that they all hold you accountable, because it is more embarassing to fail in front of your friends and random strangers. So I am telling everyone. I don't know where I'm going to start, I don't know what how I'm going to do this. but I do know that with God everything is possible, and like my friend said, he didn't design me to be unhealthy or unfit, and with prayer God will give me the strength to change things. Any advice is welcome!

The aquarium!

We went to the Roanoke Aquarium this weekend while camping in the Outerbanks. It was small, but fun to walk through. I think my favorite part was the cage that is the same type of cage divers stay in to study sharks. I wish I had gotten a picture of the four kids in there! We camped in Oregon Inlet in the National Seashore and it was windy! Our tent broke the second day, so we have to replace a pole, and we had to move to a hotel. Caroline stood out the most this weekend, at the top of the lighthouse she stuck her head out of the railing, looked straight down and said hi mom! While on a scavenger hunt at Pea Island Nature preserve we were looking for a bug, and she said very excitedly, "look mom there is one on my finger!" I looked and there is a tick crawling up her arm!

an alone weekend with lots accomplished!

Earl and I had a long weekend, while the kids went to Asheboro to the zoo with the grandparents. We took naps, watched movies, went shopping and relaxed. It was a great time to connect and look at the way our lives are moving. In those decisions, we are giving up fast food for the next 30 days, using our extra money and income tax to pay off debt (hopefully by the end of the summer we will be debt free except for the mortgage!). This is the first step to accompishing some of my goals!

I also spent some time this weekend and made a summer schedule for us to follow, so hopefully this will be the beginning of another goal!

Tomorrow I'm joining a group on facebook to read Power of a Praying Wife during the month of June. Join me!

Finally, I adjusted and modified some of my goals to make them more specific. The point of this is to make them more defined and to give it enough time to make it a new habit.

PS. since the kids went to the zoo, I'm going to mark it as once!

Park Days

We went to the park yesterday with Joe and Petra for the last time. We had a good time playing together, even if it did rain on us. The kids had lots of fun, although they scoured the woods and built a fire instead of climbing on the equipment!

little bits begun

#43 I purchased a kids worship song that sings several of the songs we sing at church. The kids and I have enjoyed singing along in the car, and I'm hoping this is the first step to having them sing along in church. I did see Alex try harder this week than in the past.

#54 I switched to a homemade furniture polish, made up of lemon juice and olive oil. It works great! I tried homemade dishwasher soap, but it was a failure. I may try again in the future.

I have completed a week of the Lord's table Bible study. It is really eye opening.

Strawberries, #69

My sister and I took the kids strawberry picking yesterday. It was lots of fun! We picked enough strawberries for me to make 7 pints of jelly, freeze 12 cups, make a strawberry pie, serve them as a dessert to the family and as a snack for breakfast and lunch today! One more goal checked off the list!

Pressing On

Yesterday my dear friend Suzanne and I went to Wilmington shopping. We had a really great time wandering through the outdoor mall window shopping. I'm going to call it a mom's night out, even though I had Daniel, because it was such a refreshing time.

My mom taught me to crochet while Daniel had surgery, so I've started a something. It may be just a baby blanket for Caroline's dolls! I should modify my goal now to finish it :)

The kids and I have started a daily Bible study, but I don't want to mark that as complete until we've done it steadily for a month. I thought about Elizabeth George's good, better, and best philosophy in her book a Woman after God's own heart. My previous post about this great Bible study method is probably "the best", but in this season I need to do just good. So we are reading a section, talking about it and doing what we can with it. We started in Mark this week.

Planning

This is a lighter week for us, so I want to begin working towards Bible time with the kids. I think I am going to follow the Heart of Wisdom method, but I am struggling with being a perfectionist in it. There are four basic steps to this approach. The first is to create an interest. They suggest doing this by remembering first with prayer for understanding,what you learned yesterday, ask about prior knowledge of the passage, and share what I have learned from this. the second step is to read the Bible, chronologically so you read through the Bible in a year. This is where my perfectionism first comes in-they reccomend the Narrated Bible, but I could also find a list and just follow the readings. During the reading it is reccomended to use Bible study tools like dictionaries, an atlas and a concordance. They also reccomend using who, what, where, when, why and how to begin learning inductive Bible study. The third part is to expand on what was learned with a writing project, a craft, or a worksheet (these are just examples). The fourth part is to share what was learned. They suggest creating a Bible portfolio for this purpose. That is explained here http://heartofwisdom.com/homeschoollinks/creating-a-bible-portfolio-2/. This is where I get overwhelmed. I love all of this, but do I follow all of it or just parts? I think it is to ambitious to have a project and a notebook activity ready, unless I planned it out a month or so in advance? I need to keep thinking this out and pray and talk to Earl. I was hoping to start tomorrow.

I did find a list of chronological reading http://www.ewordtoday.com/year/31/cmay01.htm

#11 and #78

#11-Wake up with Earl. I have been waking up with Earl this week, and we've been praying together every morning, which is such a huge blessing. I tend to go in spurts with this, but I enjoy my time without any kids awake, so I hope to continue. I won't cross this goal off until I have been doing it about a month so I know it's a habit.

#78-use reusable grocery bags I shopped at Aldi yesterday, and had to use my grocery bags. It was so much easier to carry groceries in and put them away this way. I am going to put them in my car again, and try it next time I go to the store. I don't think I'll cross this one off the list yet either.

Joining the Blog World

I have decided to start blogging. My sister started a list of 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days. At first I thought it was strange, but then I kept thinking of all the things I want to accomplish and decided i would make my own list! It's not complete yet, I have to pray about all the goals I want to accomplish. But this is going to be my place to keep track of my accomplishments with this list, and whatever else I feel like talking about.