BEING CONSCIOUS

What do your children see when they step into the room?

Do you light up like a Christmas tree at the sight of their little faces? Do they make your heart dance?

What words do you use to praise their accomplishments?

I think it's important that we as parents make the effort to be a more conscious in our children's lives, to be a more conscious spouses as well. How often do we take special time out to verbally acknowledge what they have done and tell them why what they have done was so positive for you? I admit that sometimes I get lost in the "good jobs" when it comes to my kids and "thanks" when it comes to my husband.

"Thank you hun for doing the dishes. I really enjoyed being able to relax at the end of the day"

"Thank you for helping your brother to find his shoes, that was very sweet and kind."

Yes, I love the sound of those so much better than one word responses. 

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Breakfast on a Sunday morning. There is nothing else like it, no diner nor restaurant can compare to the warmth and the atmosphere of our family's home.  A diner can never make me feel this whole.

By the way, did you happen to check out those plates and notice that they all match?! If you don't know what I am talking about, take a look over here. I got these babies for free! A college friend of mine recently moved back into town and with her came a crap load of stuff from her old house that she was desperate to get rid of. I walked away with a 18 piece set! 6 dinner plates, 6 bowls and 6 saucers.

"More please!" isn't a request I always here but there is something so simple and nurturing about Sunday breakfast that wants everyone wanting more and the grown up ditch their diets and indulge a little more.

And because we never got to on Valentines day, we baked and decorated cupcakes.

The weather this time of the year is rather depressing. The cold air go through you all the way to your soul, so the only thing you can do to fight it, is to warm it up! After this Sunday, I can definitely say mission accomplished.

THESE DAYS

Today is the day that I have come to love the most out of the week.  It seems like Sundays are when I get time to think. I think about life, about what I want out of it, about who I am, who I need to be and  where I am to go.

These days I tend to dream again, like when I was a little girl who used to dream of what life would be like in the "future". I can't say I have done all that I wanted to do or that I am where I thought I would be but being here in this moment makes me smile for a lot of reasons.

Today I thought a lot about thirty. I won't be turning thirty for another 2.5 years but that age means so much to me. I think for me it means growth being that I will dawn on a new decade and I get goose bumps as I realize what that age will bring if everything works out as planned.

I want to own my first home.

I want to have completed my bachelors degree.

I want to be better off financially.

I would love it if we both had new car (or newer).

My boys will be 5 & 8!

I want to fit into myself more.

These days I learning to love every moment finding the beauty in things less desirable and finding the calm in all the chaos.  

A NEW BODY II

 *picture from today that has nothing to do with this post!*

Current weight: 148
Last week: 150
Starting weight: 150  
Goal: 130
Time Left: 14 Weeks

Yay for 2lbs down!

Losing weight is not easy, neither is staying off the scale but like anything thing else is life it must be done. When you read this please remember that everyone is different. What might work for me, may not work for you. I am simply sharing my story and hopefully someone gets something out of it!

Just to review my post from last week, my plan is and has been to stick to 1500 calories a day, mean I can eat whatever I want, nothing is off the table, just as long as I don't go over that magic number. Sticking to this really hasn't been that hard as there are so much things that I can eat during that day while keeping to my goal. The hard part was not stuffing my face just because. You know those moments when you watch an episode of your favorite cooking show and you just go "oooooh! I want that!" Those moments are terrible for someone trying to lose weight! What do I do to counteract this? I give in to my cravings! If I want chocolate, I'll have a damn chocolate but being that I know this about myself I make sure to reserve calories during that day so that I can give into my sweet tooth.

I got a jump rope from the dollar store and every night I would skip for 10 minutes to fast paced song compliments of YouTube! TEN minutes people! There is no way you don't have time for 10 minutes. The reason why I chose this route is because I wanted to do something that didn't require me spending much money, I didn't want to have to leave my house, and those cheesy work out videos really get irritating. In addition to jump rope, I also signed up for my companies Dodgeball team that plays every Wednesday nights. I also signed up for Basketball Boot camp that meets every Thursdays. Since they activities are organized by my company they are both free of charge.

My plans for this week is to up my work out a little. YouTube as a whole slew of work-out videos and as much as I don't like them I kind of have to suck it up and do it. BeFit is a channel that has a lot of 10 minute videos including some Jillian Michaels so I will add some more cardio at the end of my 10 minutes of jump rope!

There is so much that I could write about my week and what I feel and what I have learned but I will save that for another time. Please, if anyone has any tips let me know!

A NEW YEAR: A NEW BODY

"This is the last summer I will spend this way," I say every summer as I disparagingly catch a glance at myself in a full length mirror, usually under terrible mall florescent lighting.

I have been saying this for the past 5 years now.

As I was in our laundry/storage room this afternoon looking to knock the dust of some workout gear I found a picture of my 20 year old self. She had the brightest smile, the nicest skin, and a sizzling body. I miss her.

I am by no means fat but I am definitely not where I want to be. 

I hate being self conscious.

I miss being able to walk into a store and pick anything off the rack and not worrying about how my belly will look in them.

I am tired of having to suck in my gut.

I hate wearing spanx.

Another part of my New Years resolution is to lose 20 pounds. I will be doing this with a combonation of "diet" and exercise. I use quotations because I don't personally believe in denying myself a certain type of food, but I do believe in amping up the fruits and veggies so that I can have a treat here or there in moderation. I will be sticking to 1500 calories a day and working out 6 days a week.

Starting Weight: 150
Goal Weight: 130
Time Left: 15 Weeks

DOCTOR MOM

During the weekend I got to play Dr. Wife to my sick husband who has the flu, just like the rest of North America, am I right? It was actually fun to wait on him while juggling everything else in the house; being the 1940's wife for once because goodness know, I'm not always like that. 

"Do you want me to put a dvd in?" I asked. (we don't get cable in our bedroom)

"No.." He groans. 

"I can get your tablet!" I suggested

"No.." He audibly mumbles. 

"Okay Pup," I kiss him on the forehead and leave him in peace.

Everything was fine up until I noticed one of the boys started to feel warm and started talking all funny. Then the other one started to feel warm and began talking all funny. Oh no! I thought. The last thing I wanted was for them to get sick so on Sunday Joshua spent a good portion of his time in his room drinking soup, eating crackers and guzzling down as much juice as he could take. Lucas anchored himself to my lap wanting nothing more that for me to cradle him in my arms...so sweet huh?

Today Aaron was healthy enough to go back to work but Lucas still had a fever so we kept them home which means I had to miss work today. I hate having to miss work because I actually love to go, but at the same time I would have hated to risk sending Lucas to daycare or leave him with a babysitter. When they are sick I'm sure all they want is their parents and all we want is to be there for them.

LEARN

"If your life were a book, what would the title be?"  Someone asked at work today while I was in a fog of exhaustion. I was staring at the computer screen for hours on end.

I stopped what I was doing.

I sat back in my chair tilting it slightly.

I thought.

"That's a hard question," I replied still scratching at my brain. I was surprised that this innocuous question had me so deep in thought. "This requires a lot of self exploration." 

It's not as if I live(d) the kind of life style the stands out and on it's own worthy of an unique and captivating book title. If I were an exhibitionist perhaps I would call it Letting it All Hang Out or something of a similar wit. So I thought to myself, in these short years that I have spent on this earth what is it that I have learned about myself.

Then the answer came.

The title of my book would be All the Thing I Didn't Know. 

What I learned the most about myself is that I don't have all the answers to everything. As time went on, as I got a bit older and had a few more experiences I learned just how much I really didn't know, how much I had left to learn.


Apparently there is this thing or tread going around with different bloggers. They pick their "word" for the year as an alternative to the regular new years resolutions. Well I have set some resolutions but in addition to that I will also choose a word and my word is, as you might have guessed, Learn.  I want to learn about myself, about others, about this wonderful world I live in. I want to learn about mothering and loving my husband and most of all I want to learn to be a better me.