{ Saying goodbye to August }

Living in the country, means there is always someone working on their property.  Seeing tractors across the fields, is almost a daily occurrence, and one that I quite enjoy watching.  One of our neighbors was working on an acre of field that he has.  

 

He slowly made his way around, back and forth on his tractor, while Kaia sat at our front door, watching intently, his every move.  Every once in a while she would let out a whine, or a bark.

Have you ever noticed how outside work tends to become rhythmic?  The repetition of the job, starts becoming almost comforting to watch.  Or maybe it's just me, but I do tend to find joy in the simplest of things.

 

 

As he worked outside, I worked inside, also slowly moving from job to job.  When I was a young wife and mother, I used to think that if I was not rushing back and forth through the house, then I wasn't busy, and there wasn't much to be done, or I wasn't really doing a good job.  What a silly thing to think.

As I've gotten older, and now 24 years into our marriage, I've learned to slow down, pace myself, because things will get done nonetheless, whether I'm panting and out of breath rushing to finish it all, or whether I am taking my time.  

Actually, the slower I go, the more I tend to enjoy my housework.

So that is what I did today......spent the last day of August, cleaning and homemaking.  Carpets were washed, windows were washed, laundry was done and a myriad of other little tasks, here and there, were crossed off the list.

I love productive days.  They're exhausting, but knowing that you are busy doing what you love, and taking care of your home, is everything that is good.

 

 

The weather remained dark and gloomy.  Grey clouds moved back and forth across the sky, sometimes turning a deep purple and looking quite ominous, other times dissipating to a lighter grey, but never leaving completely.

It thundered a bit, the wind kicked up, we got notifications of rain, but it didn't quite materialize.  And that's ok, we've been blessed with rain and anymore we get now, is just an added bonus from God.

I read my devotionals, I read my Bible, I answered emails and picked my newest review books.  I also answered an email for an upcoming review of some great products that will be arriving tomorrow.

I sat down and had lunch, finished off my menu plan, grocery list, and started adding items to the Walmart grocery cart for my pickup on Friday.

I watched a couple videos while doing my housework.  Just popped them on the tv and kept going with my task at hand.  Music, youtube videos, podcasts or even one of the Portuguese live TV channels playing in the background, always make the work seem easier and quicker.

Before making dinner, I managed to squeeze in my daily exercise.  I've been on and off this wagon for so long, and am quite tired of it.  I need to commit and really stick to it.  But the only way to do that, is to pick a small attainable goal, something that won't seem to big and intimidating, because those always surely make me quick.

I have started counting my calories again (even though my gynecologist told me that when it comes to hormonal weight gain, it's not that easy, it's doable but it's not as easy as it used to be when I was younger), and I picked a 7 day challenge from Lucy Wyndham-Read.  Did the first day on Monday and have not skipped a day.  

I will say, I thought about skipping today because I was so busy with the house, but I forced myself to do it, and feel much better for doing so.

After the 7 day challenge is up, I will pick another challenge of some kind, but always sticking with a 7 day or something similar.  If I pick a 30 day, forget it.  By the end of the first week I'll give up.

I am not looking for a quick weight loss plan, I know what I'm facing, I know how hard it is to lose hormonal weight especially related to perimenopause or menopause itself.  I'm willing to try.  I want to lose 20 pounds, even though I've only gained 10 the past 2 years, but still, I figure if I'm going to do this, I may as well shoot for the bigger number.  Trust me, I will be happy with even a 5 pound loss at this point.

And let me just say that real quick, I am not super unhappy with myself or my body.  I accept the changes, I accept that I am nearing 50 and menopause, and I am extremely grateful to be blessed with my life, and having reached this age.

I don't think I look awful, I just feel sluggish, my clothes feel tighter on me, and I would much prefer to lose some weight, but through prayer and time with the Lord, I have come to accept that even if that doesn't happen, I will still rejoice and praise Him for who I am, and what I look like today.

I am after all 48 years old.

So I say goodbye to August, my birth month, with a commitment to myself, to try and do better when it comes to working out, eating right, and staying active.  

Will I succeed?

I sure hope so, but if I don't, that's ok too.

{ Not the typical Sunday }

The day started like any other, up early for me, started the dishes and a load of laundry and then sat down on the couch to watch some Vlogs and my Portuguese Soap.

Once the hubby was up, we made breakfast together and then sat down to enjoy it, while chatting about the week ahead and things we have coming up.

{ Template, Exercise Video and Staying on track }

Isn't is amazing how the sun shining through in that photo almost seems to blind you?  It's like standing right there in that same spot staring at the sun with your own eyes, and not through a camera lens.

Anyway, I have a couple things to touch on with you all, I'm sure the first thing you noticed was the template is different yet again.  I apologize for that, seems that lately I've gone through a couple of templates and they keep changing.  I find one I like, I mess with it and publish it and then within a few days something in the coding goes wonkers and it stops working like it should, so I remove it and try a different one.

I'm really hoping this one stays for a while, if for nothing else than the fact that it's getting a little old messing with it constantly.

Next thing I wanted to talk to you about is my sidebar.  You may have noticed, and if you haven't take a quick peek over there to the right of the screen.  You should see a category named Today's Exercise.

I'm trying to stick to an exercise routine and finding it a bit hard to stay motivated, so in an effort to hold myself accountable, I'm going to be sharing the exercise routine I'm doing that day, right here on my blog.

A couple of you actually asked me what exercise I'm doing, so now you'll be able to see for yourselves and maybe, just maybe, even be motivated to join in?  These videos are super short, some routines are only 4 minutes long but they're Hiit exercises which are guaranteed to give you a really good workout in a short amount of time, and they're pretty much mostly made for women.  We all want to feel good about ourselves and workout but truthfully, we don't always have time to set aside a whole hour or even 45 minutes to do it, so these are perfect.  :)

I got up this morning, and I didn't want to do my workout but I pushed myself to do it and felt so good afterwards.  Once I was done, I took a quick shower, got dressed for the day and had some breakfast.

My favorite of the minute is toast with butter and raspberry jam.  Just loved it!!!

While having my breakfast, I quickly pulled out my Sweet Caroline Pillow and quickly sewed it.  I didn't have a cushion picked out for it, but what I do have are a bunch of old chair pillows that are getting old and ratty, so I used one of those and it was the right size.  I'm thrilled with the way it turned out, and that's one more project off the hooks :)

The kids were up and about, both waiting for a new update on their game on the consoles, so they cleaned their bedrooms, took their showers and I made them a quick lunch.  I've actually missed making them lunches and faffing about with them, they're both grown and eat when they want, make their own breakfast and lunch and so on, so it's nice to be able to do this once in a while.

I made tuna sandwiches and they also had some of these yummy cheese crackers.  They're quite nice.

And some homemade chocolate chip cookies to munch on too.  They both love my food and I absolutely love cooking for them :)

When all was said and done, I sat down and got my Cookbook review up for you all.  I have so many reviews and computer work that I need to do but time just gets away from me.  So I'm also making it a point to stay on track and get the review up as soon as I can, I hate to forget or take weeks to get something up.

I puttered around the house the rest of the day, made a delicious homemade lasagna for dinner, completely from scratch from the meat with homemade sauce (not from a jar, even though I will sometimes use it), and white sauce.

There really is nothing better than a homemade lasagna is there? 

Oh and I didn't forget about the homemaker series I mentioned yesterday, I will have that up really soon, probably tomorrow.  :)  I'm off to bed friends, have a great night!!!

{ Feeling the burn }

I've now done 3 days straight of exercise, which for me is a huge accomplishment.  I've always been good about staying on track if I'm counting calories or back in Idaho when I was doing Zumba twice a week.

I had no issue with that, my issue came after I moved to Texas and life got in the way.  I stopped exercising, and now?  Ugh, it's just a pain to even get the motivation to do it, but I have my girl's graduation coming up and summer activities and plans and really need to get back in shape.

So I've stuck with my current plan, I'm doing Lucy Wyndham-Read's May Challenge, which you can find over on Youtube.  Every day, 4 minutes, that's IT.  I know I can squeeze in 4 minutes and I have made sure to get it done early morning because the longer I let it go and the later in the day it becomes, the less I want to do any kind of exercise.

I'm feeling the burn, oh my word, I didn't think 4 minutes would hurt but Lucy is a genius and absolutely brilliant at giving 4 minute workouts that work every single muscle you need to hit to lose weight.  Be sure to check out her website for tons of exercise plans that will suit your needs.

Mister over here always thinks I'm playing around, so the minute I try to do any kind of exercise, he is all over me, drives me quite bonkers lol

He's so handsome though and such a sweet dog. :)

Except for the accidents and pottying in the house.  He knows better, he is house trained but the past month he is going outside to mess around and then coming in to do his business, which means my poor carpet cleaner is working overtime.

Extremely frustrating but I'm going to keep pushing with him to go out and I'm hopeful he will one day click and be done with this.  Until then, this cleaner is my best friend.

I finished my first review book today.  I was surprised at myself because for what seemed like ages,  I haven't been into reading.  I guess I lost my reading mojo.

I read through the review books but it was so mechanical, like reading because I knew I had to but not really enjoying the process.  So I thought I would try and kick start it by going to the library and grabbing some interesting books I knew I would enjoy.  That didn't work.

I went to the book fair and bought a bag full of books, thinking that this surely would get my reading bug back.....well that didn't work either.

And then the first book of many came to my door and I sat on the couch two days ago, grabbed the book when I had about 30 minutes free time, and forced myself to read it.

Just like that, I remembered why I enjoyed reading so much, and I fell into the blissful lull that is sitting with a new book and immersing yourself into the story.

It didn't hurt that I found this book so fascinating and literally could not put it down.  I can't wait to tell you all more about it next week.

With my first one out of the way, I am now ready to move onto my next lined up review, and that is for The Marriage Bureau.  I don't know friends, but just from the cover and the little blurb in the front, I think I'm going to enjoy this one too.

I feel so content lately, like I'm truly back to myself, to the things I like and to the life I have always enjoyed.  It also helps that I've been sleeping well and getting enough rest.

I think the last piece to the puzzle now is to get back into my food blog.  I have a few recipes I need to put up, like this one that I tried tonight.  It is from one of my Gooseberry Patch Cookbooks.  The whole family enjoyed it, it is quite inexpensive to make, pretty simple and filling as well.  All big pluses in my book :)

I apologize if my posts often seem a random jumble of words, I tend to write how I think and I sometimes jump from one subject to the other, but I'm keeping it as real as I can here, and this is me so I hope you don't mind.

My days may seem boring, as a homemaker there's not always exciting stuff going on, but I think it's important for me to record what I'm doing on a daily basis because what may seem like boring, non productive days, will be interesting and fun to look back on in a few years from now.

With that in mind, I finally sat down this morning and started making blog books out of my posts.  I would love to do a book for each year, but there's just no way I can do that without it becoming extremely expensive.  So for now, I'm doing month at a time, and that's still expensive as well which means I'll be buying blog books for the rest of my life hahahah

If any of you have used blog to book programs, or websites, and know of a cheaper easier alternative, please let me know in the comments.  I'm currently using Blog2print.

Oh and last but not least, I watched the first episode of the Victorian Slum House series, and I can tell you that I'm going to enjoy every minute.  It does make you think and appreciate what you have, but that's for another day, maybe tomorrow because the episode made me think about a lot of things, namely how we are so quick to complain about how bad we have it without even realizing that some families went through incredibly hard times.

Definitely a post for another day :)

{ OUCH OUCH OUCH }

I think I just found 100 or so muscles that I had no idea existed, and the reason for it?

Jazzercize!

I'm determined to get back into short wearing shape now that the weather is getting all hot again, because there's no way I'm going out there in my desperately-needing-a-tan-thanksgiving-and-christmas-weight legs. Nope, not happening. But let's face it, I'm not one to diet, there just is NO way on earth that I can tell my body what to eat and what not to eat.

I'm one of those that the minute my body finds out I'm trying to diet, it goes completely beserk. I'll be raiding the refrigerator at 2 am starving to death.....craving junk food....miserable and depressed, cranky and impatient with everything and everyone. It's no way to live, believe you me, you would not want to be stuck in a house with me for even an hour LOL

So I'm doing what I can, which means, I allow myself to continue eating what I want to eat, but I have to exercise. Which is not easy because I'm not into the whole gym thing, I lack the motivation and will find any and all excuses to NOT go that day.

For me, it has to be something I can do at home, so I'm going back to Sparkpeople which I've had success with in the past. As a matter of fact, the first time I tried it, I lost 6 lbs the first week.

Along with that I'm going to start Jazzercising....but......OY....OY....OUCH is all I can say. I did this video and now I'm sitting here aching and feeling the pain but happy because it means it's working.

Who knows how long this weight thing will last, I'm easily distracted, it might just be that within a week I'll give up on it again, but for now I'm determined to stay focused and to try my best. If I could just get that water intake in....that's a biggie with me, the whole water drinking.

So anyway, now you know what I'm up to.

Other than that, not much is going on. There's lots of little bird making and heart crocheting and reading. Oh the reading. I think I have 2 or 3 books going right now. *snicker*

And there's cooking

And baking

Hence my reason for the sudden need to loose weight LOL

Now I'm going to go pop some motrin and relax....why don't you tell me if you exercise too, or what has worked for you in the past?
Or if you don't like exercising, are you happy with your weight or do you want to loose some?

Do you go to the gym or exercise at home or what? Talk to me people, tell me something, anything that means I'm not the only one wanting to wear shorts but too scared to do it LOL