What a day!

What a beautiful day we had again. The weather was perfect. The kids were able to be a part of our hometown parade by riding their bikes in it. The two youngest rode with Daddy in the fire truck. I, unfortunately, slept during it since I had worked the night before.

The garden is sprouting up quite nicely. If everything grows that is planted, we are going to have a ton of veggies. I'm pretty excited to see what the summer will bring as we begin to harvest our gardens. Yes, that is gardens! We have three so far.

I am looking forward to this weekend. We are honoring my soon-to-be sister in law, Katie at a bridal shower. I'm very excited for both her and my brother. They are to be married in less than a month now (gasp) and I'm sure both of them are going to be stunning on the day they walk down the aisle. I can't wait to share photos of the blessed event!!

Other than that, not much is really going on. I have been pushing myself to stay on track with the weight loss journey. I have started adding in more exercise with the hope that things will begin to "tone" up in places that they are needed. Like, everywhere! I have retaken my measurements today but need to locate my original measurements. I know I have them somewhere. I'm curious to see how many inches have been lost. PLEASE let them have been lost and not gained! :) I'll share with you once I find them.

The kids are winding down on their school year. We have some big decisions to make regarding the kids and it isn't easy. I'm hoping for some more clarity as the weeks pass. I have a pretty strong suspicion that things will be changing on many aspects in our lives over the next several months. I guess everything will be fine in the end, right? Wait...scratch that. I know everything will be fine in the end. HE is in control, ultimately. HE will bring us to where we need to be.

I hope you all have a great week.
Much love,
-Me

The Challenge

So, how many of you have had a chance to look over the three challenges that I posted previously?

I began my first challenge today. The crunches!

If you will be joining me for this, let me know! Come on, it will be fun!!

Will you join me in this challenge?

The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, the trees have leaves, the grass needs mowing but most of all

The Sun is Shining!

What a beautiful day we have been blessed with!! This is the weather I have wanted for the last several months! I'm so glad that it is finally here.

Today has been a pretty relaxing day so far. The older four kids are in school. Tim has already had a fire run today and Jonathon and I are just enjoying the outdoors. The garden has been watered. The dogs have been fed, watered and played with. The geese are being sassy today so we had a little "chat" about their little attitudes. The chicks have been fed and "talked" to and the quail have been visited this morning already as well.

I think we may finish up the midmorning by going to brunch together after we run a few errands that need to be done.

And then, it's off to nap land for Momma. I'm working tonight so I need to have a little bit of a rest before going in and staying awake all night.

I do have a challenge that I am going to begin though. I'm looking for as many others to join me in it as well. If you want to participate, please leave me a message. I need motivation, people! :)

So far, I am down several inches and not quite 15 pounds lost! It's not much, but a start! It's 15 pounds closer to my goal than what I was a month ago. Right? :)

And so, here is the three challenges. It is a six week challenge. I encourage you all to join me and check in often. I will post more information about it tonight. Keep watching!!

Join me for the six week challenge that will increase your strength!

Pushups, Situps, and Squats

Oh My!

~~Official~~

I'm just getting a chance to sit down and relax for a minute...or two. The past few days have been very busy and filled with studying for finals and preparing and planting our gardens.

Yesterday I worked in the garden all day and well into the evening. It felt really good. Not only did I burn a ton of calories and get a lot accomplished, I also felt a deep connection to my Grandpa. I just imagined him walking there beside me, working there in the garden right along with me. I have no doubt that he is enjoying his garden up in Heaven. His gardening tradition will now live on in each one of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I also push mowed much of the side yard, raked until my arms felt like they were going to fall off, and prepared the rows in the garden for planting. I thought I had stayed well hydrated through it all but I must not have. I came inside and took a nice cold shower to cool off before eating dinner. I had a few glasses of water with dinner (spaghetti) and finished it off with some fresh strawberries...YUM!

And then, it hit.

I had a screaming migraine and no meds! I tried everything. I tried cool cloths, heat, tylenol, more water, resting in pitch black with no sound, hot towels wrapped around my head and even drew a bath of hot water and submerged my head in that. Unfortunately, nothing helped! Thankfully, I did make it to the bathroom in time for my dinner to come back up.

Just for the record, spaghetti and strawberries do NOT come back up very gracefully! There is just something not quite right when angel hair pasta is hanging out of your nostrils. Not to mention the fear it puts into your spouse when they walk in and see the toilet bowl is bright red. I had to assure him it wasn't blood.

Several times I thought about going to the hospital but I just couldn't bring myself to call an ambulance. My pulse was racing at 120-130 and my head felt like it was going to explode. After seven hours, I finally fell asleep. Thankfully, it was gone this morning when I woke up. Okay, so...around lunch time, when I woke up!

Today I worked out in the yard some more. I didn't over do it this time though. I made sure to make more frequent water breaks. I did get tomatos, onions, peppers, squash, and cucumbers in today though. We still have peas, watermelon, pumpkins, cantalope, sweet corn and a couple more things I can't remember now to plant.

We are still awaiting on our new additions to join our family. We are expecting again. Well, not WE...but our geese. We couldn't find White Wing a few weeks back. When we approached the pen, Pluto kept trying to nip at us. This was unusual for him. We opened the little hut we had built for them (that they had never used) and found White Wing sitting on a nest of six eggs! Over the next three days, she laid 3 more. So, we are expecting nine baby geese in the next week or so. We thought maybe Pluto was male and White Wing was female but couldn't be sure...and we were NOT going to sex them! I'll be sure to post a photo when they arrive!

In other news, I ask for your prayers for my wonderful sister-in-law as they try to figure out what is going on with her health. She has been in some tremendous pain and is hospitalized yet they are still searching for the reason. Please send up some prayers that she will recover quickly from the surgery, that they may find an answer, and that it may be fixed and put her on the road to recovery very soon!

I also ask for prayers for a dear friend and her newborn daughter. Please keep them in your thoughts as they are currently hospitalized and going through some testing. I know this is a difficult time for Mom and she could really use some good thoughts.

Last but not least, please think positive thoughts for a dear friend who is undergoing a procedure this week. Just keep thinking positive...positive....positive! :)

On an exciting note, I logged on tonight to find that I have officially been assigned my state EMT license! It's official! I'm legal! :) I am pretty excited about that! I do have a couple leads on some part time postions that I will be checking into.

As far as the weight loss, it's still progressing. The jeans I have on are on the verge of falling off. This is, of course, great news! I'm not weighing in for another few days but will update when I do. I also have my measurements so that I can keep track of inches lost vs weight lost. Sometimes the scales don't move but the way your clothes fit tell you that something is changing! I'm okay with that too.

Tonight we tried ground turkey in our chili. It wasn't too bad. I didn't get to add all of the things I wanted to because it was late, we needed a quick dinner and I forgot to purchase everything I wanted to add. It was a bit bland but it definately is much healthier than ground beef. It has a ton of protein and much less fat. That's a good thing!

I guess I will let you all get back to what you were doing before this. I've just kind of rambled on here. Hopefully I will have something a bit more interesting than this in the next few days.

Stay safe,
Becky

Week Two

Two weeks later and 10.4 pounds gone! Things are going well.

The kids are doing good. Emilee celebrated her 6th birthday yesterday! Oh how the time has flown by! My baby girl is growing up into a wonderful young lady. As far as the kids, they are enjoying this warm weather that we are having (in spurts anyways). My oldest just told me that he was happy to see leaves on the trees. The girls are ready to put their swimsuits on and play in the hose. (not quite yet, ladies)

We've worked out in the yard a few days this past week cleaning out the flower gardens, rearranging flowers and getting our garden ready to go. Am I the only person who has tulips that are not in bloom yet? They are up, just not opened. I can't wait to see what colors they are.

Work is going well for me. I worked a day shift last week and it was much easier to pass the time. You were busy all the time, which is exactly how I like it. Working thirds has too much down time for me. I never thought I'd be saying that after chasing after five children daily.

Tim is now laid off. We are just taking it day by day and trying to stay as positive as possible.

Other exciting news...my brother is getting married in a few weeks! That's hard for me to believe! I'm super excited for him though!

I can't remember if I posted it or not but I did pass my National EMT exam. I am now waiting on the state to send me my license. I can now breathe a slight sigh of relief.

I am going to do my best to update throughout the week a little better. I ended up very busy and my time here was limited. Okay, nonexistant.

Hoping you are all healthy and doing well,
Becky

So far....

We're doing good! We are into day 3 (or 56 hours) without any soda. My last drink of soda was at somewhere in the 8'oclock hour on Friday night.

I'm not sure if the headaches I am having are from the caffiene withdrawl, the weather or the new medication I'm taking. I guess it could be all three. I have done well with drinking lots of water today. That's a good thing!

I was able to get some good, solid sleep. That helped me a ton. Once I fell asleep, I slept very hard. I ended up waking up sweating...alot! That is one thing this new medicine does that I don't care for. I sweat much more than I used to. Thank goodness for deodorant! :)

I'm starting to believe that this might really be MY time to find ME. I am surely hoping so. I feel like each day I am ripping a new layer away. Day by day, I am trying to uncover the person that I know is deep within. Soon, the rest of the world will be able to see her as well.

The appetite hasn't diminished completely but it is quite less than before. I am just not hungry. I have increased my fresh fruits and water intake by at least 200%. I have dropped all soda out of my "diet" (I hate that word). It has been only a couple days but I can feel the difference in my body. Of course, it's a positive thing. It sure is hard though.

As they say, "Quitters never win and Winners never quit!"

Journey to a new Me

Even though I had a very disturbing afternoon, I have still managed to be without soda for over 24 hours.

Twenty Four Very Long Hours

There are a couple things that are getting me "through" right now. Grapes, Strawberries, Watermelon and Pineapple. I have also been drinking water, OJ and Kiwi Strawberry Propel. Which reminds me...did you know:

Mountain Dew vs Propel (16.9 oz)
240 calories vs 20
90mg sodium vs 160
65 total carbs vs 5
65g sugars vs 4g

Also, one pound of body fat is equal to 3500 calories. In addition to that, I read on a website that a 20 oz bottle of Mt. Dew has approximately 10 teaspoons of sugar in it. The sugar in five 20oz pops equals 1,920 calories! Almost 2,000 calories!!!

For those of you that don't realize what a tough challenge that is for me, I can only stress how much of an addiction I have to soda and caffiene. it would not be uncommon for me on any given day to consume 2-4 20oz sodas. That's approximately 768 to 1536 calories per day from ONLY soda! Talk about empty, nonnutritional calories.

After the recent visit with my physician, we had a candid talk about the hold that "pop" had on me. It truly is an addiction, much like smoking or drinking. I found myself craving it so much. There were times that I didn't have any in the house and would leave in the middle of the evening just to go get a soda to satisfy the craving. It was that bad!

I'm not someone who particularly likes sweets. I don't like chocolate. My body can't tolerate ice cream. And so, my craving was for soda and the energy (although short lived) it provided me with.

It has taken me a good two weeks to convince myself that I can do this. I will kick this soda habit. And in the end, I will feel like a totally different person. A much healthier person. Someone who isn't drinking soda after soda just trying to make it through the next couple hours only to have my sugar levels crash at warp speeds, requiring even more to satisfy the cravings.

And so, I have begun the journey to a new me. Hopefully having an end result with less of me.

I'm hesitant to post exactly what my goals are. I realize now that it is because I am afraid of failure. Nobody wants to fail. Especially when you have people reading your inner most thoughts on a topic such as being addicted to something or as you battle the bulge. I thought if I could keep my failures to myself, I wouldn't be "failing" in public. Honestly, I have only been fooling myself. I now realize that.

And so, I will put my goals down on paper tonight and I will share them with my readers. My hope is that it will keep me motivated as I travel this up hill journey.

I have lost weight since I have started this only 3 days ago but for now, I think I am going to post weight changes once a week. That may change, we will see. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Time to reflect...

It's quiet here at work. The phones have been silent most of the night and I have even managed to read 140 pages of a new book.

I have had a lot of time on my hands, as you can see. I have spent this time to reflect on many things that have been stirring in my head. Do you ever get those moments? The ones that you can seem to drift off into thought for what seems like hours at a time? That is me. The only exception is that mine have been for days at a time.

As I had posted previously, Tim has received his last day to work. He will work one more week before he is laid off long term. At this time, they are estimating it to be approximately one year or longer. Of course, there is nothing that is written in stone. It is all a guessing game at this point but that is what his committee man told him.

In light of the upcoming layoff, I'm feeling pretty good. Perhaps it is because I now have my EMT class finished and am now searching for employment. Even a little extra cash will go a long way. I know that in time, all things will work out. This is just a way for us to be reminded of the many blessings we already have. A subtle reminder to not be greedy.

That reminds me... While shopping today with my oldest, I overheard a conversation between a father and a son. Apparently this child wanted more than one toy but only had $20 to use. The child was around 10-12 years old, I would guess. After several minutes of the mother arguing with this child, the father asked the boy to come to him, making sure to tell him he would not be mad. From the next aisle over, I heard the father explaining to his son how he shouldn't be greedy. He stressed that the child only had $20 to use for his toy(s) and no more. He reminded him of the necessary items that he needed, such as clothes, shoes and food. And then went on to tell him that he could choose something in the $20 price range or he could leave the store with nothing. In the end, I'm not sure what decision the child made. What I do know is that I was encouraged to hear this father talking with his son about not being greedy, especially during times like these.

Another event we witnessed today was a pretty horrific vehicle accident. Knowing that it occurred just moments ahead of us was all the more reason for us to count our blessings. My thoughts are with those involved, whoever they may be.

I'm gearing up to take my National Registry exam next week. I plan to take it mid week and celebrate on Friday! It will be a much needed celebration. Now if only I pass. :) *sigh*

I've started writing again. In my free time, well...when I have any to speak of, I write short stories. I haven't written any in a while because I was occuppied with other responsibilities; however, I have more time to devote to them now. And so, with new inspiration, I have started the writing process again.

In other news, I have also ventured out and have begun a weight loss program. Not a typical program like Weight Watchers, although I hear they are wonderful. This program is something my doctor and I discussed and have come to the conclusion to try. I can only hope for the results I desire. And so, with lots of hard work, willpower, determination and the yearning to gain a new figure...my quest has begun! ::: crossing fingers :::

My shift is up in about 40 minutes so I am going to see if I can go finish my book. Then tonight, when I return to work, I can start another one!

I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying this wonderful weather we are being blessed with (locally). Before long, it will be time to plant the garden! Yikes.

Have a great day,
Becky