Over Indulgence...

Oh my goodness.  Trying to keep my weight down and treats around the holidays simply aren't mixing well this year.  Some years I feel like a ROCK STAR and abstain from over eating.  And usually being gluten free and dairy free helps me to say NO to most foods.  But considering the fact that I have learned how to make delicious gluten free, dairy free foods...I'm in trouble.  Big trouble!

Party mix is something we keep in the house from Thanksgiving all the way through until New Year's Eve.  And last week I just HAD to make sugar cookies.  Oh my!  What is wrong with me!! And Cassie and I ate most of them ourselves.  I should have shared a LOT more.  So, Friday, we had brownies for the church Christmas party...yumm-O!  I ate too many...BUT they're SO good! Do you see my dilemma???

I have a friend who is on a Paleo diet...among other allergies...and I decided I wanted to make a treat she could eat too.  Of COURSE I had to taste test those cookies.  My self-control must have disappeared. Flew right out that big open window! And then on Sunday we celebrated our 3rd son's 14th birthday....with chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting.  My stomach is not quite right tonight.  It could possibly be the two large pieces of cake I ate...

Today I had sugar cookies with icing. Notice that's plural.  I didn't stop at just one, but I should have. I just had my kids finish them off.  Sigh!! Then I made them polish off the cake.  Phew!  THAT is way too much temptation.  It's just SO delicious!! After all that...I still ate a brownie after supper. Blah!!  The kids will have to eat those too.  Ugh.  And I made party mix today...which I snacked on this afternoon.  I wasn't really hungry at supper...but I ate a plate anyway...yikes.  Wise choices...where are thou?

I know better than this, and yet there are times where I find myself unable to restrain my hand from grabbing those treats. The best way for me to combat this is to get rid of all treats.  Sad face....

Every week day I exercise...I purposely KICK MY BUM...yes some days I actually do butt kickers...and then I follow my workout with a healthy breakfast.  Fruits, veggies, protein...

But for some reason when I hit late afternoon and supper time I lose my will power.  I need to regain my desire to be healthy.  I need to remind myself that I'm worth it.  I FEEL better when I keep the weight off. I feel better when I eat right.

I think I know what my New Year's resolution is going to be this year....

What's your New Year's resolution going to be?  

#newyearsresolution
#weightloss
#dietingishard
#eatinghealthy
#healthyfoods
#fitandhealthy
#ilovetoworkout
#ilovetoexercise

Christmas is getting closer!

It's been a couple of days. Oops!  I have planned to write every weekday, but somehow life just gets so crazy and it doesn't always happen.  And today, the only reason I am at my laptop is because it's Friday and I don't have to be in bed by 9 pm to be able to get my boys up for seminary at 4:50 am.  Yay for Saturday!!

Tonight was our church Christmas party.  It was fun.  Relaxed.  The kids had a blast.  The food was good. Of course.  Where else can the kids load their plates up with mounds of food, that will never fit into their stomachs, and get away with it?  They all do it.  Unless their parents are seriously watching their every move.  One child, a friend at church, piled three large pieces of ham on his second helping along with several sweets.  I told him he better eat every piece of ham.  Haha!  The sweets were gone, but the ham was not. Eyes are MUCH bigger than stomachs!

The little ones raced up and down the hallway...over and over again.  Even after being told to walk many, many times.  After a while I just gave up.

There was some entertainment.  And close to the end, a friend and her brother were going back and forth about whether or not to sing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer".  Me, being me, said, "Yeah, you should totally do it!" What was I thinking.  The next thing you know, I'm being roped into singing with them...on this very rusty, unpracticed, song. Oh well.  It was fun!

Then we sang some Christmas hymns together and Santa came in.  I was SHOCKED when my shy little 4 year old ran right up to Santa and gave him a big hug.  So CUTE!  And then she climbed right on his lap and got a gift.  The rest of the kids gathered around watching, hoping to be next.  I organized them a little bit and helped them form more of a line so they could each have their chance to sit on Santa's knee.  Even my quiet, timid 7 year old went right up and sat on his lap.  And, of course, my ornery 11 year old sat on his lap too.  What a stinker!!

#christmasisalmosthere
#christmastime
#sittingonsantasknee
#churchchristmasparty
#ldswardchristmasparty

It's a MOOSE!!!

Today was an absolutely crazy day.  Crazy in a...very active toddler kind of way.  Crazy in an...I'm about to pull my hair out kind of way.  Crazy in an...I'm trying desperately not to lose my temper kind of way.  

And I am finally sitting at the table and can breathe a sigh of relief.  Sigh!!! It's over! Could you hear that from your house?  Oh boy!

This morning had an altered schedule and caused me to have ALL five children getting ready for school at the same time.  Plus a 4 year old...insert big cheesie grin...at 6:30 in the morning.  So happy!

We were all ready to leave and go to the eye doctor by 8:05am, which was a complete miracle.  On our way to the eye doctor I saw the road sign that I've been wanting to take a picture of since we moved back here.  I was running early so I pulled over to the side of the road and hopped out.  I was SO happy with myself.  Haha!  It wasn't until just now...as I was uploading the pictures...that I noticed that someone had added some extra parts to the sign.  I can't believe I didn't notice that when I took the picture! Todd and I got a good chuckle out of it.  But... Um...I can't upload THAT!  Although some people might find it humorous, some may be offended.  

Thankfully...I have a few photo editing tricks up my sleeve.  

So here is the road sign...edited version of course...it makes me laugh a little every time I see one.  Why? Because it's something you only see in places like New England.  It's NOT something I ever saw in Missouri or Texas.  And it's part of home.  It makes me smile.  I love it!

Don't mind my puffy tired face.  I should have taken a picture of the kids...but that would have required getting them out of the car, posing them, and re-buckling.  That just wasn't worth it.  LOL!

The road sign I didn't have time to take was a snowmobile crossing sign.  

What is something that makes your home state unique?  Post it in the comments.

#maine

#mainethewaylifeshouldbe

#thewaylifeshouldbe

#onlyinmaine

#toddlers

#thejoyofchildren

Oh! No!

Oh Holy Hannah!
Today started out as a nice day.  It was warmer outside.  The sun was shining.  And all I needed to do was fold my mountain of clean laundry while waiting for the propane company to come out and check on a possible leak.

I somehow, miraculously, convinced my 4 year old that she could let ME pick a show to watch while I folded laundry.  A Christmas miracle.  Haha!  So, there I sat, folding laundry, and watching a cheesie Christmas show on Netflix.

My husband woke up, he works nights and sleeps mornings, and we began talking.  Somewhere in all the talking my sweet 4 year old left the room.  Now, normally that wouldn't be a big deal.  She will either go find the kindle and start playing a game or watching a show OR she will go find her toys and play happily.  Either way, the quiet was wonderful.  Sigh!

All of the sudden she appears in the doorway...C...O...V...E...R...E...D... in poop.  Both Todd and I exclaimed, "OH! NO!"

Oh yeah.  Poop! All the way to her little knees. I don't think I've seen my husband jump and run that quickly in a while!

She had taken off her dirty pull-up and attempted to clean herself up.  Todd followed her to her bedroom where he found a pile of dirty wipes on the floor in front of her dresser.  EWWW!  So Gross!  The entire family room and bedroom spelled so thick and strong.  Oh yuck.  Now THAT was just Craptastic!!

It took two of us to get her...and the floor...cleaned up.  Yes, ladies and gents...I do believe we will be starting to potty train this one very soon!

I guess our day was just NOT exciting enough for her.  She had to liven it up!  Or stink it up, I guess!

And then, the propane guys came to look at our system and check for a leak that we were SURE is there.  We couldn't find it before.  And they couldn't find a leak either. Well, that's because there was NO leak.  The awful smell, that truly smelled like propane, rotten eggs, etc, was not propane at all.  Get this...It was the dead deer carcass that SOMEONE forgot to discard a few days ago.  It smelled so awful. On Saturday, when we smelled the "propane" smell... it was strong.  After we shut the propane off and opened the windows I saw the a tote that I didn't recognize in the basement.  Being the inquisitive one that I am...I opened the lid and got BLASTED with rotten meat smell.  I closed the lid as fast as I could possibly slam it down, but it didn't do any good.  The smell was out.  It it was FOUL! To think that THAT was the cause of the nasty odor the entire time.  Oh my!

We all had a good laugh about that one!

#craptastic
#poopeverywhere
#itsapoopykindofday
#propaneleak
#propaneleakthatsnotaleak
#deaddeer

Blessings raining down

I’m sitting here with tears rolling down my face. Thankful for some pretty wonderful blessings. Things that may seem small, but are huge right now.

It’s amazing and wonderful how Heavenly father blesses us.  When we need it most He is raining down blessings upon our heads.  If we just take the time to see the blessings we will be in awe of His love and goodness.

He blesses us through the kindness of others.

He allows us to repay those acts of kindness with what little we have and then He adds too that.

It’s amazing when you can really see it.

How has He blessed your life?

Country girl livin' in the city...

I missed blogging yesterday.  I do believe I was on the phone and taking care of other essentials for several hours.  Oh the life of a mom! Plus having a lovely cold doesn't help my motivation any.  

I finally found some motivation and had a thought while driving.  I am a country girl. I grew up in a small town. I use to think I would always live in the country. That I would never leave.  

And then I left.  I moved to Kansas City, on the Missouri side.  

I didn't know that it was important to lock my doors for several months after we moved into our little apartment.  In the country you don't need to lock your doors.  One day someone mentioned to me that I should really be locking my door and so I started locking it.  Not very long after that a man tried to get into our apartment. He banged on my door. Jiggled the lock.  And eventually went away.  

That scared me enough to remember to dead bolt my doors every day...all the time.  

Then there was the day that there was a double homicide at our complex.  The man who killed his wife and brother forced his way into another woman's apartment to use the phone.  Needless to say we moved to another apartment complex about a month later.  

When you live in the city you learn rather quickly which areas are not safe.  Which areas you should avoid at night.  And where you need to go in pairs.  Sometimes you can see it. You can sense it. Feel it. 

I learned to make eye contact with people and smile as I walked by. Which is extremely hard when you're an introvert!  The only down side to making eye contact is sometimes you get unwanted attention.  Haha!  I had one guy, on hospital hill, turn around after I walked by and asked me if I had a man.  I smiled and said, "Yes I do.  But thank you!"  Now THAT is something I never had to do in a small country town.  

Now that I'm back in the country I still lock my doors.  It's a habit.  But the safety I feel has dramatically increased. I still look people in the eye.  It's a good habit.  

I loved the convenience of city living. Everything is close by.  So much at your fingertips.  But I missed the beauty of the country.  I missed the hard work that has to get done in the country.  There is SO much more that needs to get done in the country.  And I love it.  But I'm weird.  Haha!  I love keeping busy.  

I love that in the small town everyone knows each other. They know each other by name.  They are friendly with one another.  They build relationships of trust by treating one another well.  Yes, I know this happens in some places in the city too.  But it happens more often in the country.  It's a culture.  

It's amazing the things I had to get used to in the city, ways I had to adapt, that now I can let go of. But one thing is for sure.  I'm more comfortable here in the country than I've been in years.  

You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl!

#youcanttakethecountryoutofthegirl #countryliving #smalltownsarethebest #whereeverybodyknowsyourname 

Randomness

I'm sitting here, on my laptop, on Facebook.  Getting sucked into the never-ending posts and comments.  Getting lost in the funny banter,back and forth. Laughing at the memes. Realizing that this must be THE TIME to be on Facebook because there are so many of my friends commenting, posting and liking right now.  I'm usually not on the computer at this time of night.  I'm usually busy finishing up dinner.

It's hilarious, sometimes, the conversations that happen on Facebook.  For instance: A friend posted and asked a question about how many days in a row one should wear the same pair jeans.  Haha!  Several people weighed in.  I even joined them. Apparently, according to one person, you're not supposed to even wash jeans very often.  They are made to be worn multiple times without washing in between.  Um yeah.  Well, I usually wear the same pair all week long.  Unless I spill something on them.  If they look dirty or feel dirty they go in the wash.

I tell my kids to wear their jeans for more than one day in a row.  Most of them don't.  One of them does though.  To the point that I have to make him wash them.  That's when they stink.  Gross boy stink.  Haha!

It was great for a laugh.  Sometimes we need that.  Mindless silly stuff that makes us laugh.

What made you laugh most recently?  Post in the comments.

#randomness #sillyfacebookbanter #laughingisgoodforthesoul #howlongdoyouwearyourjeans