Friday Favorite Fives

Happy 1st day of Spring everyone! What a great day to have on a Friday heading into the weekend :) 

Well, today is the day that I have been writing about my favorite five things of the week. Thank you to all my encouraging readers that send me notes and continue to support my ramblings and writings. I am so glad that some of you have picked up on this idea of looking at your blessings in life as opposed to what is wrong or missing. It definitely makes a difference for me and I hope that it does for you as well :) 

Favorite fives from this week;

• a good restful night of sleep! Anyone who knows me can attest that sleep doesn't come easily to me. Since we started watching what we eat and I started getting some exercise, sleep is starting to come much more easily to me now.
• a good haircut! For Spring, I went a little shorter more angled and had a great time being pampered by one of my best friends who happens to be my hairdresser :)
• homeschooling my kids! St. Patricks Day this year was one of the best days that I have had with them in a while. Definitely one to go in the memory book of their school portfolio
• Pandora on line radio! I can listen to the music I chose all day long without commercial interruption! 
• Loving and gentle reminders that even though I have just a few actual, blood related family members who even show any interest in my kids and my family at all, God knew all about it and keeps bringing in just the right people into our lives to help fill voids and make us all feel loved just the same. God is good and His timing is perfect as usual!

I hope that your weekend is beautiful and wonderful and that something makes you stop even if just for a moment and appreciate all that is around you. 

Hugs!

Weekly weigh in....

Ok, so this little cartoon made me laugh in great proportions and I HAD to share it with all of you!  Makes sense to us all now, doesn't it?!?!?!  Laughter is good for the soul and it actually burns calories so you should make sure to do it as often as you can (:

Week 3 is gone and now we are on to week 4! I can't believe it has almost been a full month since we started our healthy journey in our family and we really are getting to the point of  not really missing some of the old treats we used to enjoy regularly. The kids have been such troopers through the changes and very encouraging to me! I just love them! Now, for my big news though {{ drum role please}} I met and passed my first goal, I lost the first 10 lbs!!!!!  Actually my total loss to date this morning, stripped naked on the scale was a total loss of 12 lbs!! Woot!!! I am so psyched and on top of the world. Again, though, the thing that I am loving the most besides all the compliments that I have started getting (thank you friends and family for knowing how to encourage me) is the energy level that I have. I just am ready to go all the time and I love it!! I really love having the energy to really sing, dance and praise God with the kids on Sunday morning, man, we rip it up in there lately!!! Exactly what I asked God for when I started this journey was to make my body, His Temple, healthy and energetic for His purposes!! 

One more week to go, hopefully my goal for the month will be met. If not, I am oh so excited with what has happened so far and thrilled that we as a family are making the best choices of fuel, not food, that we possibly can!

Hugs from a smaller me!!

Friday Favorite Five

What a week!! It's been a great week and I mean it.  Not just your typically, don't really mean it kind of answer when someone asks you how your week has been, but a great week!! So, in my new Friday fashion here are my Favorite Five blessings of this week~

• watching my 11 year old son work hard at sports even when there is adversary against him. He keeps going and plays so hard and with all that he has.
• teaching a kids choir and watching little kids praise God (you should experience this for yourself sometime, there is nothing like it)
• new recipes with lots of veggies and other ingredients that have one job, to fuel my body. Not to over stuff but to fuel and keep me going!
• my 7 year old that sits by me when I am on my treadmill and tells me every minute to minute in a half, "I bet you have lost 20 lbs now mommy, and then says it again in a minute or so, because he sees me working so hard!!
• how God is teaching me new things everyday about myself and my relationship with him. I have been a Christian a really long time, so it is so exciting to me to learn something new and see just how it was designed for me by my Creator.

I really hope this is a great weekend for you! I challenged my teens last night in my small group that I teach: Ask God to give you the opportunity to share Christ with someone. Either by your actions or your words be a blessing. I hope that you get the same chance sometime this weekend!!

Hugs!

My Monday update - week 2

Ok, so we finished week 2 and we are really feeling the difference! Both of us are doing really good at keeping within our calorie count and we are starting to not feel so hungry now that our bodies are realizing that we don't need to overstuff ourselves to feel full!!  Frank did have to up his calories a little bit since he wasn't getting enough and ended up most evenings feeling very hungry. That makes him happier and me too :) We both have lots more energy and just our moods in general are up and light! Such good changes have been made in just a short time.

So, I weighed in this morning and was so pleased to see that I had lost another 3.5lbs!!! That's 9 total in 2 weeks!!! I was so excited, I didn't expect that much because we did allow ourselves a couple of "treats" this weekend, but I guess my hard work is paying off.  I am walking on my treadmill daily and hoping to get up to a run in two weeks, we'll see. Also, saving to buy that Wii Fit so hopefully will get that by the end of the month too to help with some more arobics and strength training. Either way, it is just so nice to have the energy and the drive to get up and get going. If nothing else that is the benefit of this that is making me the happiest!

I can't tell you how much Frank has lost. He didn't do a beginning weigh in so he isn't sure. He just knows that his pants are looser and he feels so much better. That's good enough for him right now!

So, bring on week 3! Here we come and we are more eager to get into it then before :) 

Hugs!

So blessed!

This evening we were in the van driving home from a very busy day. It was just all the boys and I, since Kendra was off with her sweetie and his family (:  Out of the blue, Cameron says, "Mommy, I love you more than all the world." Aww, thanks Cam, I said. Quickly Austin jumps in with, " oh yeah, well I love her more than that. I love her more than all the galaxies times 10." Well, not to be outdone, Colby leaps in with his, "I love her more than both of you. I love her more than all the worlds, galaxies, stars and times 100 million." I chuckle and get all warm and fuzzy inside. This goes back and forth with lots of "times this and times that"!!! Not to be outdone,  Frank breaks it up with, "I can beat you all! I love her more than all the grains of sand on every beach in the whole world." 

Not sure who loves who the most around here, but I do know that the men in my family sure do love me and I am oh so blessed to have each one of them in my life!

Hugs!!

Friday Favorite Five... week 2

After a really great week this week it is hard to pick just five things as my favorite but here is my list of some of my favorite blessings from this week (: Enjoy and happy weekend to all my readers!

• Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion from Bath and Body, my friend tells me that I smell great all the time and that THIS scent smells best on me (:
• Unexpected text and notes from a hubby who loves me more each day and loves to let me know that he is simply thinking of me
• Fresh clean sheets and bedding on any bed in the house,  I love the look, smell and feel of  fresh, clean bedding
• Finding bargains at TJ's, Joann's and any other store that I might be in.... I love bargains
• Time with friends! This past week, I had brunch with a best girlfriend, a visit with my best friend, and coffee this morning with two new friends (:  I love friend time!!
  

{{Hugs}}

First week check in...

This is exactly how I felt this morning upon stepping on my scale for the first time since last Monday... I lost 5.5 pounds!! Yipee! I am so excited to see the scale moving down again! For those of you that I haven't shared this with, Frank and I started a new and healthy way of eating last week, together! I am so happy to have him beside me in this journey :) He has never dieted before as opposed to me who has tried and failed at them all. He is so supportive and I am so blessed to have him love me just as I am no matter what my size and shape may be. We aren't on this to get to be the next Brad and Angelina (although they are beautiful and if there were such a plan to make me look like her, I probably would do it, LOL) but we are on this to get healthy and to help stop some of  the body aches and pains that we are getting from getting older and unfortunatly heavier.  

So, our journey had begun and we are doing pretty good. We did have a couple of weak moments and did have a couple of "cheats" over the weekend, but all in all, I am really happy with my first week and am right back at it again this morning. Mondays will be my accountablilty day on my blog, so keep checking in to see how we are doing! One of the things that I am doing this time, that I haven't in the past is being accountable, first to myself and to God, as I know that this body isn't mine. It is His and His temple and I need to do a better job at keeping it healthy. Second to Frank and my BFF, nothing hidden between us :) Third, on my blog where you all can read the ups and I know the downs that will come on this journey, but hey at least we're working on it, right?

Hugs from a 5.5lb smaller person this Monday :) :) :)