To diet or not to diet

Hello again!

I know! I am on a roll with this blog thing.

It's kind of funny how things are just popping in my head to talk about.

But that's what makes this blog real, right?

I have been really trying to organize my life to get everything done I want to do in a day

AND

To keep myself from just sitting around doing absolutely nothing.

Doing nothing makes me feel horrible.

I mentioned in this post how I was planning on cleaning my entire house and then doing things daily to maintain it. I have to say I have been doing a pretty good job at keeping my house neat and tidy.

It takes a lot of work and commitment to the schedule since it is so new but I know it will become second hand soon enough.

Along with organizing my cleaning I have also added in bloggy time and exercise time into that daily to do list.

I plan on blogging every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Tuesday will most likely be about my deals I found on Monday while grocery shopping.

But Thursday and Saturday could be about anything that pops into my head.

I'm really excited to get my thoughts out to you all!

I also plan on exercising 4-5 days a week. 

I may walk several miles, do yoga or zumba or even some random video on youtube.

I have noticed that when I am up and moving more than sitting around I feel tons better. I feel more energetic, my head is clearer, and I have less aches and pains.

I have also made some decisions about "diet" and my body.

You see, I am 5'2" and I weigh 154 lbs. 

That isn't too bad but I am considered obese for my height.

My ideal weight is around the 115 range.

Now, I acutally like most of my body the way it is.

EXCEPT 

my stomach. My ab muscles are weak from having my kiddos and they poke out.

I also have some fat over them that keeps my belly out further than it should be.

My measurements: chest 40, belly 33, hips 40.

I am an hourglass shape.

So, I am not really trying to lose weight. I am trying to be active and healthier.

I have come to the point that if I am exercising and eating well and I feel good then I'm not really going to worry about the astethics of it all.

As for my diet. Well what diet?

I pretty much eat whatever I want still BUT I just don't eat as much.

If we go out to eat, I will have a kids meal.

If I order an adult meal, I pay attention and I eat until I'm full or I will eat half whichever comes first.

If I want something, I eat it.

If I want a candy bar I will buy the fun sized ones and share with my family.

If I want a piece of cake, I cut half the size I normally eat.

I also try to eat fresh fruits and veggies as much as possible with meals and as snacks.

Eating them with meals is really hard as Eddie (son #1) is a very picky eater (textures) and he is allergic to some foods.

I tend to grab celery and peanut butter, apples and peanut butter, yogurt, or my favorite snack...saltine crackers with peanut butter and bananas..yum.

As far as drinking...I mainly drink water. I will have a regular coke or pepsi every once in a while.

I do drink sweet tea sometime but I really prefer unsweetened.

I love chocolate milk but limit myself.

As for results, just in trying to figure all this out I did lose some weight.

My heaviest was 167 pounds earlier this year.

So I have lost 13 pounds.

I have been stuck at 154 for a month or two.

(Oh I have noticed I will gain 2-5 lbs when it is time for my monthly)

BUT the weight doesn't bother me.

My muscles are getting stronger, I feel better, I have more confidence.

That is all that matters.

I must tell you all, accepting myself has not been easy for me.

BUT I have found that not worrying about the measurements or scales (just using them when I am curious)

and trying to be as active and healthy as I possibly can, I feel better.

I am getting better. I may not have the flat toned tummy and I may never get it but I accept me for me.

I am wonderfully and perfectly made by God. He doesn't make mistakes.

Well, That is all for today friends.

Hope to see you all soon!

Be Blessed

Erin

Deals and Steals

Howdy friends.

This week has been a stressful week already and it is only Tuesday!!

You see my wonderful hubby had an accident at work a couple weeks ago and injured his knee. 

They suspected he had a torn miniscus BUT docs found out he had just bruised his knee very deeply.

He was out of work for a week until the orthopedic doc released him to go back to work.

Most of you all know that our family is a single income family.

I am a stay-at-home mom and hubby works outside the home.

We live pretty much paycheck to paycheck.

Well, hubby will be missing a week of work on his paycheck this week (he gets paid biweekly).

That leaves us really strapped.

You see we have been really tight with our money since our camping trip way back in mid July.

Then we had to get school supplies and school clothes for our brood of 4.

So money is tight to say the least!

Anyway..I was worried about getting food for the week on the $50 I had left.

Let me tell you, it's a good thing I coupon AND have God on my side!!

The Kroger I go to (in Washington Court House, Ohio) still doubles coupons.

As a matter of fact they still double coupons valued up to 99 cents. 

That means a coupon worth 99 cents that doubles will be worth $1.98!!

Not too bad huh. 

And my Kroger's limit of like coupons is 5 in a transaction. That is why I buy  my papers in fives.

Anyway..This week the Kroger sale was right up my alley.

They had a few buy one get on on meats like pork sirloin cutlets and pork sirloin roasts.

They even had some frozen chicken on sale.

BUT the best of all was the "if you buy this...you get this free" sales.

If you buy Country Crock you got eggs free.

If you buy Knorr Rice or Pasta Sides you get Big K pop free.

If you buy Breyers Ice Cream you got a half gallon of milk free.

If you buy Ragu Pasta Sauce you get kroger pasta free.

And if you buy Hellmans Mayonnaise you get bread free!

Not too bad huh. So let me just tell you what I got for free this shopping trip!

I had coupons for free:

Playtex sport Tampons

Free box of cheerios

Free Kraft Singles cheese

Free Kroger Eggs.

Using the sales I got.

A 2nd dozen eggs free

2 Big K Sodas

4 Kroger pastas

Free pork roast

The rest of my list was fairly short!

Pork Roast

milk 2/$5

country crock

4 knorr pasta or rice sides

4 ragu pasta sauces

So to feed my family of 6 for this week I spent $48.48

The Savings for this week were $55.16

That is a 53% Savings.

Now I know this isn't as huge as those extreme couponing shows but I am stretching my weekly food budget as far as it will go and getting tons more food for way less money.

So there ya have it.

Until we meet again.

Be Blessed

Erin

I'm Back; Cleaning Again and maintaining it

Hello my faithful, furry followers.

I'm back!

This past month has been absolutely crazy!

It all started with our camping trip and since we have only had 5 days where absolutely nothing was scheduled!

We had 3 dentist appointments, 3 eye appointments, 3 doctors appointments, Vacation Bible School for 3 days, 3 open houses, School supply shopping, school clothes shopping, in town events, out of town events.

I'm telling you we were busy people. AND we still have an orthodontist appointment for Faith (Daughter #2).

So that is the reason I have been MIA. I haven't been on blogger much. I know I didn't comment on everyone's blogs. I have so much catching up to do. 

BUT

THE GOOD NEWS....

School started yesterday so I will be able get back into a routine, back on a schedule, and be able to take time to blog AND to read blogs.

Speaking of school starting, would you like to see a couple of the "first day of school" pics I took?

Here are my bouncing boys.

Eddie (Boy #1) is on the left and he is in the 5th grade and Sj (Boy #2) is on the right and he is in 3rd grade.

Here are my darling daughters.

Hope (Girl #1) is on the left. She is my 8th grader and Faith (Girl #2) is on the right. She is in 7th grade.

By looking at this picture you would thing Faith is the oldest but she is 2 years younger than her sister BUT she is an inch taller than I am!!

I just dunno how the years go by so fast!

``````

When the kiddos go back to school I always miss them so much. This year I actually broke down and cried I missed them so much (I'm such an old softy). So I try to keep myself busy until they get home until I get used to the idea of them being gone all day. 

Keeping busy is easy to do these first days though. I always deep clean my house once the kiddos go back to school. I clean, organize, get everything in working order so we can all run a little smoother.

This year the cleaning was much needed. We stayed so busy all summer I didn't have much time to truly clean my house. I did tidy and tackle out-of-control rooms when I was home but my house was screaming for some tlc.

Today I get to finish up that task. I still have floors to mop, windows to clean, ceiling fans to dust, 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms to tackle, and laundry to finish up.

Once I get all this done I can begin my cleaning routine which will ensure that my house stay neat and tidy.

Do ya wanna know what this routine is?

Well, I have made a list of my cleaning tasks and have decided if they should be completed daily, weekly, monthly, biyearly, or yearly. Then I categorized them and set out the following schedule.

Daily

Morning   

Make beds

wipe/tidy bathroom

vacuum

Fabreeze furniture

Through day/Evening

2 loads of laundry (or more)

dishes

Wipe counters/appliances

sweep floors

spot clean floor spills

Weekly

Sunday-Clip and organize coupons

Monday- Meal planning, cobwebs, dusting

Tuesday- deep clean bathroom

Wednesday-Spot clean carpets, windows

Thursday-mop floors

Friday- wash bedclothes

Saturday- Mow grass, pull weeds, wash dogs

Monthly

shampoo carpets

spot clean walls

light fixtures/ceiling fans

clean oven

move furniture and clean under

clean furniture

Biyearly (April & September)

Wash walls

clean basement

wash curtains

clean out closets

move appliances and clean under them

clean blinds

Yearly

Pressure wash decks/porches/house

trim bushes

trim roses

This list really breaks down the majority of my household tasks. If I follow it, my house will stay reasonably clean and tidy. This list can also be modified to suit any individual needs. It gives you a few basic cleaning chores to do every day just to upkeep your home then one bigger chore to complete each day of the week so a thorough deep cleaning doesn't have to be done all in one or two days. It also allows you to pencil in your monthly chores on a day you have the available time to complete each task. The biyearly tasks are simple spring and fall cleaning you can complete throughout those months. 

Well that's going to be all for today. It is after noon and I need to get back to cleaning. I hope to get back on this cleaning schedule no later than Monday. 

Until next time friends

Be Blessed,

Erin

Ta-Da...Granny Square lap blanket

Hello faithful followers.

Boy time flies when you are super busy!!

Camping trip, oodles of doctor appointments, church activities.

I am so wiped out I can barely move.

But..

I did take some time to work on a project.

Every Wednesday morning I go to a women's Bible study.

We have a small group on about 8 women on a good day.

I tell you I have learned more from these women than I have learned anywhere else.

These women in this Bible study mean a lot to me. All of them are at least 20 years older than me most are 30-40 years older. I feel like I have known them for ages. They have all taken me under their wings.

They are "bringing me up in Christ", guiding me in child rearing and being a good person in general.

They don't tell me what I need to do but I learn from listening to them talk about their lives.

Well, I have plans on making each one of these ladies a lap blanket. I have finished the first one.

I made this one for the lady who heads our little group.

She truly has taken me under her wing and has helped me more than the rest.

Ok I will get on with it...

Here is her blanket in it's home on her formal living room's couch.

You can see it as soon as you walk into her front door.

I think she hugged me 3 times when I gave it to her.

She told me no one had ever done such a thing for her!

I wish I would have taken more pictures but I truly forgot as I was so excited to give it to her.

This blanket is made from Caron Simply Soft yarn. 

The yarn was great to work with.

Well that is all for today. 

 I will have to tell you all about the many things we have done in the past week soon.

Until then.

Be Blessed,

Erin

ECC Camp out

Hello again my friends.

We took yesterday (Sunday) when we got home from our church service at the camp to rest.

I was really glad to be able to sleep in my own bed after the very emotional day we had yesterday.

I wanted to tell you a little about our camping trip.

We stayed at Rocky Fork State Park near Hillsboro, Ohio.

We were in the Group camping area.

We had a blast.

On Thursday we packed up the van.

We arrived at the camp site at 1 pm on Thursday afternoon. 

It was super duper hot!!!

We unloaded the van and set up our tent.

Our tent is the Ozark Trail XL Vacation lodge. 

It is 20 feet x 11 feet and is 6 feet 6 inches tall.

We fit 4 twin air mattresses and one queen air mattress in our tent and still had room to move around.

Here is the view from our tent. What the picture doesn't show is the lake.

Here you can see our tent and some of the other's tents...ours was the biggest one there.

This area is the kitchen area.

It has a fridge, two stoves, an industrial sink. There is also 2 bathrooms and 2 shower rooms in this building.

A lovely view of the sky from the first night.

Sitting under the shelter house listening to the conversation around the campfire.

Here you can see the grove of pine trees down one of the trails in our camping area.

Here is a peek of part of the lake down a trail

And another.

On Saturday we had a fishing derby for the kids.

Here is the view from where we fished.

Here are 3 of my kids.

My other kiddo and an extra.

These wolf/coyote cutouts were all over the area down there.

Rocky Fork Lake hosts a lot of Canadian Geese.

I believe these were used to keep the geese away from certain areas.

Here are some geese swimming.

A picture of the Rocky Fork Sign.

The camp had a dog costume competition.

Here is the winner.

We got some rain on Friday but we had torrential downpours on Saturday.

Here is Sj and his friend playing in the rain.

I really do wish I took more pictures but we stayed really busy.

We usually woke up between 6:30 and 7 am and showered.

I would sit and watch the birds eat bugs until breakfast at 8am.

We also had morning devotions and guest speakers every morning.

We had to bring our own stuff for lunch and we usually had free time after lunch.

Every evening we had dinner at 6pm.

We had a music and a guest speaker around 7 each evening.

Then we would do a Bible study after the speaker. 

We concentrated on 1 Corintians 3 for the whole weekend.

Then around dusk we would have a campfire and we'd sit around and chat.

We also had group activities. We had a scavenger hunt, a water balloon fight, corn hole games, volley ball games. We also made ice cream in ziploc bags. 

On Saturday we had a quick storm move in and we didn't get a chance to completely close up the tent so some of our things got wet. We decided to pack up everything during that free time on Saturday and leave after the Bible Study that evening.

On Sunday we went back to the camp ground to attend the church service.

Me and another young man were baptised in the lake.

After the baptisms we had lunch and we helped everyone clean up and we all came home.

Our Smokey was really sick and weak and near death when we arrived home.

He took his last breath last night at exactly 9 pm.

Watching him pass was a horrible thing but I was blessed to see this wonderful kitty come into this world 2 years ago and I was blessed to see him take his last breath. We buried him by our gazebo in the back yard under a lilac bush. Our whole family is really upset over his untimely death. We know he was poisoned. We are pretty sure who did it but we don't have evidence to fully prove this person did it.

Unfortunately our neighbor's cat is also experiencing the same early symptoms as Smokey.

We thought his early symptoms were heat related but we were wrong. 

RIP my beautiful Smokey kitty. We love you.

My friends I am excited to tell you all that I didn't experience any anxiety while we were camping!

It was the longest time I have spent away from home since the symptoms started 10 years ago.

My kids had tons of fun as did my hubby and I.

We also have many bug bites as souvenirs.

Oh and Hope has a couple of spots of poison ivy.

But there you go my friends.

I am sorry if this post is a bit melancholy.

I have a heavy heart that will need some time to heal.

Be blessed my bloggy family,

Erin

We're Back

Hello again my friends.

I just wanted to stop by and let you all know we are back from our camping trip.

We got home last night. 

We decided to come home a night earlier due to some very strong storms that were gonna move through our area.

We had a lot of fun on our trip. 

I did manage to take a few pictures.

That marks the longest I have spent away from home since all the anxiety and panic attacks started.

I didn't have anxiety one bit!!!

We went back to the camp site today for our church service.

I was rebaptized in the Lake.

When we got home, our poor kitty Smokey wasn't doing so good.

He took his last breath at 9pm this evening.

We know he was poisoned.

We have a good idea who it was but we cannot prove it..

This sad time is why I will not be uploading and rambling about our camping trip today.

I will post a new post tomorrow or Tuesday.

We all are just so overcome with sadness over Smokey's unexpected passing.

Be Blessed,

Erin

Testing from phone

This is just a test post from my phone.  I'm Not sure how to add more pictures or possibly a video.