Snow Day in Hotlanta

It might snow. I think there's, like, a 40% chance of it. So what's happening? The usual freak-out-ness of it all. Schools are letting out early (but after the half day mark so that we don't have to make it up) so essentially kids are coming to school for breakfast and lunch. Of course, the high school and middle schools will be released when the "storm" is supposed to be here. We'll see. However, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I got the message that we can leave when staff leaves...so I'm outta here. Fingers are crossed that tonight's staff meeting will be rescheduled, too.

So my last post was uber-whiney-riffic, if I do say so myself. And I do. I'm still tired but actually have gotten about 5 hours of sleep the last couple of nights. On Friday I hauled my cookies to the doctor and got the pain thingy looked at. Miss Graceful, here, somehow managed to tear the fibers that connect your ribs. I didn't even know you could do that. So I'm on prescription pain meds...one for day and one for night. The day stuff isn't my fav as I have to take Nexium before I take it so it doesn't tear my stomach a new one. So I get up and take my thyroid medicine, wait an hour, take the Nexium, wait an hour and THEN I can eat breakfast and take the pain med...which take about an hour + to kick in. It's 10 am and I've been up since 5:30 and they are just now kicking in, if that gives you an idea.

Anyhow, the exercise is on hold because of this fiber tearing thing (6 wks to heal...I'll give walking a try next week) and eating smartly is not happening. I guess since we've decided to do this Daniel Plan thing when the Bible study comes in (shipping on 2/3), we're kinda doing an eating free-for-all for the things we won't eat the 40 days we are on the plan.

Wow...two hours and I'll be heading home. There's dishes to do, chili to start (of course we are having chili to celebrate the chilly! But I gotta remember to stop and buy Fritos!), and classwork to try to do. Plus getting ready for TeamKID tomorrow. It's a packed week, I tell ya! Gotta get while the getting's good.

Sleep, where are you?

I. Am. Tired. I am also extremely uncomfortable. The dogs (actually, CHEWIE) has been so whiney in the crate the last couple of nights.

Last night was the worst. I don't think there was more than 30-45 min of time between whines. I traded out the pad in their crate the other day. I don't know if that's the issue or if he was fussing because yesterday he only got about an hour of people time (Wednesdays are the worst with our schedule but more about yesterday later). I'll change the pad back out and give him a lot of attention tonight and we'll see how it goes. I'd love to move their crate out of the room but am not sure where to put it. It used to be in the dining area, but then they'd bark when any one moved in the rest of the house. It was also hard to put them up when people were over since the dining area, kitchen and living room are basically one open area. I could put them in Ken's office, but 1) he wouldn't like it and 2) it's freakin' cold out there now. It was an add on after the house was built and it looks like the insulation isn't what it should be. I could also put them in Lorie's room, but that puts them beyond the gated area and back into the carpeted part of the house. Carpets+our dogs=not a good thing. I don't know...

So the other thing that is keeping me away is this pain in my left side. It started a couple weeks ago at bra strap level on my left side. I thought I'd pulled a muscle as it ached but would HURT if I coughed, sneezed, laughed. Then the next week it moved. So I don't think it's a pulled muscle anymore. People at church think it pleurisy. I finally called my doctor yesterday (I was hoping it would just go away so I didn't have to play with this new insurance we have...but it didn't) but the first appointment available isn't until tomorrow morning. Which stinks. I'd go on a search for a new doctor but I love my doctor, especially since her hubby is my gastroenterologist, but she only sees patients in the mornings now.

So, yesterday. I was busy all day at work doing stupid things, including but not limited to, tracking down the headphones from the 3 labs. The principal decided to be nice and supply nice headphone...30 for each room. Yesterday I went to inventory the computers in the lab and noticed that the wrong headphones were with the wrong computers so I put everything to rights. I found 7 headphones that had been broken and there are 11 missing. I can't believe I had to spend the kind of time I did figuring this out. The kids aren't allowed in the room without a teacher (they are kept locked) so where in the heck is the supervision? And why can't these kids figure out that there is no money to buy replacements?! I guess when everything is just handed to you instead of you having to work for something...you tend to get sense of entitlement and no sense of responsibility.

Anyhow, I had to stay at work 30 minutes late to finish up a project, go by the bank to make a deposit, drive to the other end of the county to pick up a copy of Jo's physical because the band director lost hers and then get to the high school by 5 to pick up Jo from lacrosse practice. I needed to get home pretty quick after getting Jo as the dogs went out early this morning and to spend some time with them before we headed to church and to get all the stuff for my lesson tonight from various spots around the house as I'd not done that yesterday. Jo comes out with a friend and asks if I can give her a ride home. Since we live about as far from the school as you can get without going out of the county, I said, sure since I figured we'd pass her house. Nope. This friend is part of the magnet program which allows kids from all over the county to attend and she lives about 15 minutes (without traffic) the opposite way from our house. I had to call Hubby to get the dogs out. We ended up getting home an hour after I'd anticipated. I had to go to the bathroom like no one's business. My side was hurting badly, BADLY, and there was no time to do anything.

I know, I'm whining again. I'm glad I could help the girl out but explained to Jo that asking for a ride shouldn't be done in front of the friend and absolutely can't be done on Wednesdays. Of course, if I have Meg pick up Jo it's a non-problem as Meg can't have non-family in her car until after Spring Break. :)

I know I said it before, but I'm going to have to say it again. I am tired. And my side hurts. And that's all I can focus on right now. Which stinks.

I gotta find a better attitude because this one isn't doing me any favors!

If you are looking for something to read that is less whiney, this is a good one:
http://proverbs31.org/devotions/devo/replacing-my-cravings/

I am also listening to Beth Moore devotions (http://www.lifeway.com/Product/devotions-from-the-beth-moore-library-audio-cd-volume-1-P005422170) in my car on my way to work. Today was the 3rd track and I guess I need to listen to it again as while I was moved when I was in the car. 3 trips to the front office in the cold (which makes my side ache worse) scooched all the goodness gleaned right outta my heart.

Squee!

I'm in my bedroom reading through A Slob Comes Clean's blog (http://www.aslobcomesclean.com/) and watching one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies...it's plop time at the Stokes Basement. Anyhow, hubby came in about five minutes ago and asked where the checks were because he needed a new book. I told him where to find it (although I did have to get up to show him what I meant by the book-like check holder). I didn't panic and tell him to please not touch anything. I didn't feel the need to apologize over and over and I didn't feel nauseated in the least!! Ha! I'm loving my clean office area. Oh, my son is home from college and was hanging in my room. As hubby was leaving I said, "Aren't you impressed that I knew where they were?" and there were twin "yeps" coming from my man and my little man (okay so he's 6'3" and not so little).

To make it even funner...hubby just came back in and asked for an envelope and I was able to tell him where to find it....okay so I had to get up and show him where the envelopes were in the basket because, well, he's a man and apparently if it doesn't jump up and wave itself around saying "here I am, here I am", he ain't gonna find it.

But, squee!, that was freakin' GREAT!

Ta-daaaaa!

I am pretty ding-dang-dong proud of myself and I'm gonna pat my own back! I am DONE with decluttering my office and, in fact, am sitting at my desk typing this!

Ya see this trash can? It's about 4 feet high and was almost empty before this morning! And now? It's almost full!!

I wanted to spend my morning vegging out in the bed but I gave in to the good angel's argument and got up and started working on the office shelves. I was on a roll, a ROLL I tell ya, when I had to stop to take the Chew-meister to doggy training class but NOTHIN' was gonna stop me from jumping right in when I got home. Ha. I took a 2 hr lazy "moment" but I did get up and went right back to work. And now? I'm able to enjoy my little office again.

Just in case you forgot where I started, this is what I was looking at last Saturday (Sorry I can't find the blasted original photos so I'm linking you to my other posts)...
http://stokes-mania.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-office-of-doooooooom.html

I got the desk area and floor cleared off by Tuesday but the shelves were icky...
http://stokes-mania.blogspot.com/2014/01/update-on-my-office.html

And now? Drum roll, if you puh-leeeeeeease!

I KNOW! One of the baskets on the shelf is actually EMPTY! And one has all my old paperwork from when I sold Premier Designs Jewelry. I want to get a business box to put that stuff in and store it some place else but since I don't need that basket for anything else, it's okay there.

I also got a couple boxes of stuff to take to my office at church and a whole box of Christmas stuff that got overlooked.


Now, the whole top shelf is full of pictures and stuff that I still need to go through, but I need other stuff to be able to sort them properly. It's not hurting anything to stay up there.

Man alive, once we get the laminate flooring put down in here, it's gonna be AWESOMELY awesome. (The doggies tinkled all over the carpets in the house so we finally just yanked them up. We got the new flooring on the living room and have to wait for finances to recover following the flooring, some medical stuff from my mess in October and Christmas before we do the bedroom. But that gives me a chance to declutter the bedroom a bit. Having to move everything out in order to remove the carpeting was pretty traumatic because it put into full view for the entire family just how bad of a clutterbug I was. I'm still traumatized a bit. NOT gonna relive that again!

So, now I got the kitchen and my office decluttered. I'm going to move on to something a little less major before I hit my closet (ugh), the laundry room (quadruple ugh) and the storage area over the garage (music signifying impending doom).

http://www.aslobcomesclean.com/2014/01/gone-the-3rd-decluttering-party-report/

It's....going

Today was our first official check-in for our weight with my sisters on our SparkPeople Team. I’m up. I should be up. I don’t exercise and I’ve only managed to keep my calories within SP parameters once over this past weekend and couple of days. But I’m not beating myself up about it. I’m tracking my food and thinking about my food, doing something about what I’m putting in my mouth will come next. I lost over 20 lbs between January and April-ish in 2012. I know I can do it again. In the meantime, I’m working on my sleep issues (I don’t sleep well at night) by joining a 4-week better sleep challenge on SP. This week’s assignment was to track things for a sleep diary and I’ve done so every day so far!

But my weight isn’t the only thing I’m working on! I’m also taking college classes, I’m the official (no more interim) Children’s Director at church, and I’m trying to get my house organized.

The new semester started Monday. I’m taking three classes this semester. I’ve downloaded the syllabi for my classes, finished the assignment for one, emailed my professor about a question about her assignment and scheduled in my calendar when I’m working on the other courses assignment.

At church, I’ve studied the lesson I’ve got to teach tonight, found someone to mail the lessons to the little kids’ classes each month, have a Nursery Renovation Committee meeting scheduled for Sunday (and have started working on that agenda), contacted the youth minister about a group I want to start for my 4^th and 5^th graders that involved him and have contacted the leadership about an accountability program for me.

With the house I’ve made progress as I’ve decluttered the kitchen cabinets and drawers and made good headway on my office. I actually sat in my office and worked in there last night! I decluttered two of the bins in the office.

With tonight being a church night, my focus needs to be on my lesson tonight. I don’t want to lose my organizing/decluttering mojo though so I hope to declutter another bin before I sit down to study my lesson again.

So while things aren’t all peachy keen, they are…going. And that’s better than being stuck in a rut any day!

Update on my office

Well, I worked most of the evening on my office. Now my bedroom is all out of sorts, but I digress. I got the stuff off the floor. The black and red box is my school stuff. That way I just roll it into the kitchen to use the table there when I need a little more room to spread out and then roll it back. I also cleaned up the top of the desk so I can sit and work on it. The shelves? Are actually worse then when I started. I'll work on them a little at a time.

Kenny had to update my computer so I had to spend some time consolidating and cleaning up stuff on my hard drive. I've still got some work to do on that, but I can at least find stuff without looking too hard.

Kinda proud of myself. But I'm not one to rest on my laurels. I have to start on my homework tonight and study for the lesson I'll teach tomorrow night at church, but I will try to spend at least 30 minutes each night this week on my office.

Still a long way to go, but definite improvement, I must say!

 

 

9 commandments of the bathroom

I'm looking around my computer for a file. I'm not finding the file but a whole bunch of other fun things, like my "9 Commandments of the Bathroom" I created in 2009 for our girls. Cracks. Me. Up.

The 9 Commandments of the Bathroom

 

1. Thou shalt keep thy bathroom clean for it is true, four young ladies must use it daily. Also, guests to our home must use it for Kenny’s bathroom is disgusting. Thus it is so.

2. Thou shalt use toothpaste to clean one’s teeth. Toothpaste should only be on the toothbrush bristles, your teeth, tongue and gums. One should not feel the need to decorate the counter, the faucet, the soap, the Kleenex box, the hair spray, etc. If some toothpaste should go astray, it must be cleaned up. Thus it is so.

3. Thou shalt hang up used towels and washcloths on the many hooks in thy bathroom. Used towels and washcloths shall not be wadded up and stuffed inside the cabinets, left on the floor (of the bathroom or thy sleeping chamber), or on the counter. When washcloths become crusty, it is past time for cleansing. Thus it is so.

4. Thou shalt not leave thy dirty clothes in the bathroom. Neither the inner nor the outer room. Dirty clothes shall be taken to thy sleeping chamber and placed inside the dirty clothes basket. Thus it is so

5. Thou shalt let thy mother know BEFORE one runs out of shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper. Thus it is so.

6. Trash shall be taken out weekly or before it overfloweth onto the floor, whichever cometh firsteth. Thus it is so

7. Bathroom users who are in the midst of their monthly shall deposit the dirties into a separate plastic grocery bag and that must be disposed of into the trash outside DAILY!! You shall incur the wrath of the mother if she sees (or smells) that you are not doing so. To do so would be not wise. Thus it is so.

8. Thou shalt put clean, folded towels away as soon as they are placed in the bathroom. They shall not stay on the floor or counter. Thus it is so.

9. Thou shalt turn the lights off when you leave. Only the lamp shalt remain on. Thus it is so.

 

THUS IT IS SO!

 

The office of DOOOOOOOOM!

My plan for the Christmas Break was to organize the laundry room because it is AWFUL! But I changed that plan and decluttered the kitchen because the laundry room, although really bad, was functional. The kitchen was getting more and more dysfunctional. So...kitchen it was. I still need to do some cleaning in there, but need to move my decluttering focus somewhere else. You would think I'd do the laundry room, right? Makes sense! But no, I'm going to, gulp, tackle my office. Pictures tell a thousand words but my feeling toward my office can be summed up with one: embarrassment.

  See what I mean? This is not a large room! It's maybe 6x6
 It just gets everything dumped. Plus, usually there is a baby gate in the doorway to keep the dogs out. Obviously I'm not doing any work in this office. It's a storage spot. And not a particularly organized one. I just realized that I see two Christmas presents that never got wrapped. And a big bag of trash. Why didn't I just take that out the front door? Why is it stored in my office? Sweet freaking mercies!                                                                              

It's staring at me accusingly...

...Or it would be if it actually had eyes. That cabinet. That one kitchen cabinet that keeps me from saying, "Yes! I've decluttered my kitchen cabinets and drawers!" I don't know why I'm not taking care of it. It's not a particularly messy cabinet. It's under the sink and won't take me but a couple minutes to actually do. But I don't want to do it. Hmph!

I know I'm being silly and immature about it. Cuh-rap...

I'm back. Betcha didn't even notice I was gone. I felt like such a doo-doo head typing that first paragraph that I got up and cleaned out that last cabinet. I threw away a box of Carpet Fresh for pets since we don't have carpets where the pets are anymore, an empty spray bottle of Urine gone as it was EMPTY, and moved some cleaners back to the laundry room where they are supposed to be stored. (Oh, wow, is it going to be a major BOOGER to clean out that laundry room!) So that means, drum roll, if you puh-lease, that my kitchen cabinets and drawers are decluttered! Woo-hoo! Big Girl Booty Dance!!!

Now, don't get me wrong, my kitchen is not clean. I desperately need to wash/scrub/whatever down the fronts of the cabinets and drawers, my appliances are kind of gag-worthy and if you walk barefoot in the kitchen...your feet stick a little. Luckily for me it's winter and freaking cold so no one is walking barefoot so that gives me a little breathing room.

Wow. I can't believe I'm done! Feels good. Gotta remember that next time I get to a plateau with my cleaning...it feels good to get something done!

SparkPeople

I've been a member of SparkPeople.com on and off since 2008. I'm back on. If you want to friend me, my SparkPeople userame is Tootlyb. Just be sure to mention that you read my blog so I don't think you are a stalker, okay?!
SparkPeople page

The Pinterest experiment

Well, I tried. I'm not going to call this experiment a "fail" but it certainly wasn't a total "pass" either.

I am not a meal planner. I get bored way too easily making the same stuff over and over but trying to find new meals that my family will actually like (they are pretty picky) is hard. So I proposed an experiment. With all of us home over Christmas vacation and needing food for all three meals, I had to get creative. So I created a Christmas Break meals board on Pinterest and added all the kids as contributors. Then I told them to find meals that they'd like to try and pin them. I got one pin from one kid. Joy. But I found a bunch of meals to try, so that was okay.

First problem I ran into...my kids are all teens+ and they like to sleep in. Like past noon, sleep in. So the first couple of days with me getting up and making breakfast? A total bust. I enjoyed the breakfasts all on my ownsies.

Second problem we ran into was lunch. Lunch, also, was kind of a bust because while they hate (HATE) the normal routine of making a sandwich for lunch or scavenging for leftovers, having a fresh meal at lunch freaked them out. Except, of course, the couple days we were on the road and pulled through a drive-thru!

Last, and this one is all on me, I forgot that while I love stuff with cheesy goodness involved, my son does not. And I'd pinned a LOT of cheesilicious recipes! You should have seen the look on the cashier's face when I bought the cheese I needed for the first week.

The second week of Christmas Break, I reverted to the kids' regular favorite meals, which made them happy.

Today we should be in school on our first day back but the wind chill was below 0. For us? That's pretty cold. I know a lot of people in the north or who transplanted here from the north are making fun of the school systems for doing so but here's the facts...we are not geared for this kind of cold! We don't have the clothing and our buildings don't have the insulation. It just is what it is. So make fun of us if you will, but it would make more sense if you tried to think of how you would handle this weather without a coat, scarves, hats that were made to withstand that kind of cold. See what I mean?

In the meantime, I've got a Potato Soup in the small crockpot (from Pinterest) and chili in the big crockpot (not from Pinterest).

 Christmas Break meals board on Pinterest

Menu Planning Monday

This is my first time trying this. Well, not my first time menu planning. My first time trying to link up. With anything! Luckily, this is an easy week so the menu is an easy one.

So here goes:

Monday...frozen pizza and salad. Husband has a meeting tonight son went back to college. Easy breezy night for me!)
Tuesday...Chili. School's closed because of the low temps. We'll be eating chili while it's chilly!
Wednesday...Grab and Growl (leftovers). Church night so we all eat at different times.
Thursday ...Italian Chicken.
Friday...Eating Out. It's Lorie's last night before she heads back to D.C. for the second semester.
Saturday...Sloppy Joes.
Sunday...BBQ chicken.

I wasn't sure if I needed to add sides. But since my family is not vegetable-friendly we mostly eat green beans, corn, and peas along with salads. Sad, but true. (My child who doesn't even like peas thinks she wants to be a vegetarian. Sadder, but true, is that it's because it's a fad at school not because of any "real" reason.)
Menu Plan Monday

Saving Mr. Banks

Lorie, Jo, and I went to see "Saving Mr. Banks" this afternoon after church. It was also a mini-celebration because the church voted to keep me as the children's director. The past 6+ months I've been the Interim Children's Director and now? No "interim" to see here anymore, folks! I don't know what the actual numbers were...know it wasn't unanimous so there something to worry over. :) But, whew! What a load off! Now to get to some planning for the year, decisions about VBS, asking for help on a planning committee and prayer group, starting a group specifically for the 4th and 5th graders to prep them for the move to youth group! Yippee...

But back to "Saving Mr. Banks." I love Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson so that made this movie a "must see" but to show the background on how "Mary Poppins" went from book to movie? I couldn't wait to see it.

It pains to me to criticize the movie because it's Tom Hanks! Emma Thompson! MARY POPPINS!! But the first part was slow. Very s-l-o-w. Luckily for me, since it almost hurt that I wasn't enjoying the movie more, the last half hour was so beautiful. I sat in my chair and wept (which is hard to do sitting between Lorie and Jo. I've got to say that I'm impressed that they didn't do what they usually do when I'm moved by a movie and ask in a mocking tone, "Are you crying, Mom?!" which TOTALLY takes me out of the moment and messes it up for me).  I won't see it again and won't buy the video, but I'm very glad I got to see that last half hour...and I guess that half hour wouldn't have made much sense without the first part of the movie. I totally want to do some research on my own on P.L. Travers and, of course, watch "Mary Poppins."

Shopping day

I really dislike shopping. Don't get me wrong. I like getting new things. I just don't like the physical act of having to walk around and find the stuff I want to buy. I don't get into the "hunt." If I could find it online, and be guaranteed that it would fit and look right, I would do all my shopping online. But my girls, they like to shop. I lucked out in that Meg's friend invited her to sleepover and shop with HER. Kenny3 declined the "joy" of shopping and big Kenny had to work today. All I was left with was Jo and Lorie. We had to start the day with Jo's piano lesson at 10:30, which meant I got to sleep in (go, me!). We dropped her off and then popped over to PetSmart to get food for the dogs since they are getting low. We made one stop for Lorie and then went to meet up with Jo. After we got through be-bopping through the stores in the strip mall we were at, I was done. Ready to go home, done. But not Jo. She was ready to S-H-O-P! So, being the amazing mom that I am, drove to the mall. Blech. I managed to buy myself a child's size t-shirt instead of an adult size one. Darn it. I could take it back, but I got it 50% off anyhow. It's not worth the gas money to drive back. 5 hours. Oh my. 5 hours of walking around stores. Not my cup of tea. And then after getting home, I went back to the PetSmart in Loganville to sign Chewie up for his training classes (which start next week) and a Walmart run to make sure we have supplies in case something whacky happens with this cold front that's coming in on Monday. Then I spend about an hour at the church getting ready for tomorrow.

Eating-wise, I didn't do so good.  No breakfast, a Subway Club sandwich meal for lunch, and spaghetti for dinner.

Organizing-wise, I didn't do a blasted thing today in the house.

Tomorrow I'm teaching Sunday school and during the Worship time for the 3yr-kindergarten class. Tomorrow is also when the church votes on whether or not to have me as their children's director (for the past 8 months I've been the interim children's director, tomorrow the church decides whether or not to drop the "interim" part). I'm having a hard time keeping my fingernails out of my house.

After church is a RCYS (Rockdale Christian Youth Softball) committee meeting so big Kenny is staying after for that, Kenny3 and Meg are going to get lunch and come home and deal with the dogs, Lorie, Jo, and I are going to see "Saving Mr. Banks."

I'm really worried about tomorrow. I know I shouldn't be. But I am.

Ugh...

That's about what I think about when I think about today. I didn't have plans for today and ended up being a lump most of the day. I'd kicked around taking the girls to the mall today so they could spend Christmas money from the grandparents and Aunts (Thanks, Grandmommie, Popops, Neena, Grandpa, SuSu, Auntie Annie, Uncle Greg, Auntie Lori and Uncle Wayne...know it's not fun to send gift cards/checks but the kids eyes are alight in anticipation of shopping!). But then Meg didn't get up until 12:30 (gonna be hard come Tuesday and she has to be at school by 7:45!). I never did know when Jo got up. She did end up cleaning her room and going through her closet, so I'm okay with it.

So...me. I had a thing of yogurt for breakfast (still taking the antibiotic). I got hungry again and then realized that *ding* it was lunch time. Hooray. My fridge is full - FULL, I tell you- of leftovers, so instead of making the potato soup I had on the menu, I did the leftover thing. I'm doing good with my water. I have no issue getting at least 64 oz in me daily. But now I'm trying to get half my body weight in water in me. I've done it the past 3 days and I'm on track for today. I'm on my 3rd 32 oz bottle. Go, me!

Dinner tonight is spaghetti, so high carb. Eh...I'll just watch my portion. I hope. Anyway, that's the plan.

Exercise has been non-existent except for walking the dogs around the house. I'm hoping to get my rear off the bed and at least walk in place for 15 minutes. We'll see how that goes. I'm a wonderful planner, but not so good in the follow-through.

Organizing...I got to a couple more of the kitchen cabinets. I have 5 more to go...the worst 5. I'm not happy about this. I guess I will be once I'm done. But my mojo has bleched out on me. Plus, I really, REALLY, need to wash down the cabinet/drawer fronts. It's a little gnarly.

Tomorrow I've promised to take the girls to the mall. Jo has her piano lesson at 10:30 so Lorie and I can hit some place Jo doesn't want to go. Then we'll shop at the stores by Music & Arts and then drive down to the mall. Meg is going to her friend's house (and to the mall with her tomorrow). I also hope get Kenny 3 out from behind the computer. Course going to "girl stores" probably isn't high on his list.

But on the plus side...I did take a shower today. I read my Bible reading. My bed is made. I did get a little more done on my kitchen project and I know what I'm making for dinner. I pretty much way far ahead of the game (my game).

Okay, so time to post and then get off this bed and walk in place. 15 min. I can do this. I can do this!!

Weighing in Jan 2014

Oh crap! I'm really not wanting to do this. But I do know that what you put down on paper (or on a blog) provides the accountability that is necessary to push ya over the edge. At least I hope so!

So...the numbers from this morning:
Weight: 182.6 lbs
Chest: 34 in
Bust: 38 in
Waist: 35.5 in
Hip: 45 in (ouch!)
Butt: 47 in (double ouch!

And here are the pictures from yesterday...triple ouch!

I'm thinking that I need to get the girls to take the photos since I'm a little fuzzy. I also need to work on better jeans. Yikes! And last, these don't make me look as big as I actually think I am but I am not about to take pictures of myself in my bathing suit, or some such, and post it.

So for breakfast I had a thing of yogurt to combat the antibiotic I'm taking for my sinus infection. I also had two pieces of toasted white bread with margarine. Sorry, gotta eat what I got, people.

For lunch I made roast beef "sandwiches" where I took roast beef deli meat and swiss cheese and wrapped it in a croissant and baked it. I used some French onion soup as the au jus. I warmed up some leftover corn and had some chips. Don't judge. I'm going to eat normally (for me) until the kids go back to college because 1) I need to have normal food in the house for them and if it's in the house I'll eat it and 2) I have a buttload of food that I bought with them being home and I'm not about to throw it away.

I have been pretty active (for me) this morning. I took the dogs on their walk and have done 2 loads of laundry plus I decluttered all the drawers in the kitchen and half the cabinets (okay, so two drawers and two cabinets were already done. What's the point of lying on my own blog?)

I really want to finish the cabinets in the kitchen and desperately need to scrub the cabinet fronts because, frankly, they are really disgusting. I also need to work on my office because I've put our new insurance cards and the new Medflex card in a "safe place" i.e. my office, and I need to use them to get my birth control pills from Walgreens. Plus, the office is really disgusting!

I also thought I would go and get the girls Christmas checks cashed but it's raining outside, so...no.

Okay, so I don't forget it, here's what the character Amy said on The Big Bang Theory episode I'm watching, "Whenever I'm around Sheldon I feel like my loins are on fire. In the good way, not the urinary tract infection way." Bahahaha!

Throwing down the gauntlet

My older sister threw down the gauntlet today, which ticks me off because I should be the gauntlet-thrower, thank you very much. She texted my younger sister and I and told us her goals of losing 25 lbs by her birthday (12/22) next year, decluttering 15 minutes a day, and starting her Couch-to-5K plan (I guess to run a 5K this year?). She's going to check in monthly with her weight and measurements with us.

So I can't, CAN'T, let my big sister get one up on me so I'm going to go BOLD and do it in public (that's right, Annie, I'm going PUBLIC with my fat butt!). I took a front and side photo of myself today and will post them tomorrow along with my weight (gulp) and measurements (double gulp). On the first of each month I will post an new set of pictures and numbers.

I'm also signed up to read the Bible through chronologically and I've encouraged my kids to do it with me. Hoping they will. I need some accountability there.

I don't want to commit to declutter for 15 minutes a day because my days are so whackadoodle in the first place and I'm not sure what Jo's soccer schedule will be adding to my schedule for the second place. I'm going to set goals on decluttering certain areas of my home during certain months. I really wanted to get into my laundry room over the break but that's not happening. However, I've done pretty ding-dong-dang well decluttering the cabinets in the kitchen. I've only done one drawer and a couple cabinets so far, but that's further than I've gotten in the laundry room, so I'm going to stick with the kitchen for January. Besides, I really need to get that kitchen under control.

I do like Nony from A Slob Comes Clean's way of decluttering and reorganizing things. She asks two questions: 1) If I needed this item, where would I look for it? and 2) If I needed this item, would it even occur to me that I had this item? I have so many weird and whacky things that I'm keeping  for "just in case" that I really should just get rid of. Luckily, I have the children's ministry resource closet to donate the plethora of stickers, stamps, and other crafty things to.

The other thing that I've pulled from Nony is "delusions of craftiness." That I totally understand. I keep thinking that I'll make something (darn you, Pinterest!) but most of my craft projects end up looking like a 3 year old made it so it's a little bizarre that I have so much craft crap in my house. Yes, there are certain craft items I need to have on hand so the kids can do basic stuff for school projects and for their own craft projects (my sister, Lori's, genes must have jumped sideways on the family tree), but the reality is that I would more likely than not go out and buy the stuff they need instead of thinking that I actually have it on hand. I need to use the craft drawers I have to container-ize (a la Nony...by the way, you can find her at www.aslobcomesclean.com and on Twitter and Facebook)  those craft items and donate the rest. And I probably should make a list of what I actually do have once I've containerized what I'm going to keep so maybe I can check the list before going to buy something? That might be more organized than I could ever hope to be.

But I digress, so tomorrow I need to weigh, measure and post (blech, that already makes me a little nauseated). I guess I need to decide whether I'll do the Daniel Plan or not. I certainly don't eat that way and not sure if I could get the household to go in on it with me. I think it would be too difficult to do it on my own. But that could be an excuse, too. I'm good at excuses. Maybe THAT needs to be my 2014 major goal: no more excuses!

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!