Moms know a lot -- but Grandmas know more

I know it has been a while since my last post and I promise you that I wish I had been able to write more but as you read what I've been up to you'll understand why I've been a little bit busy. 

The first few days of the trip did not go as smoothly as I had anticipated. In fact it was total chaos for me. Rylee was not adjusting well and was having quite a few meltdowns. This was totally not like her at all -- so understandably I was frazzled. This happened day and night too. I was feeding her at her normal times (even with the time change) and this was not a tired cry. 

Her screaming escalated and I started to think that perhaps it wasn't just travel like I had thought but maybe something was wrong. Everyone was being so helpful and trying to figure out what was wrong but nothing was working. 

Then a few days into the trip my aunt says "maybe she's going through a growth spurt". I had been feeding her enough by normal standards but maybe she needed more. Then it dawned on me that they have a 6 month growth spurt. 

Rylee has never acted and different in a growth spurt so I didn't know what to expect. As soon as I started feeding her more she was back to her normal happy self! During the day anyways. She was waking up often during the night to feed (at home she sleeps through the night). 

By the end of the trip she was fully back to herself during the day (minus the normal long naps) but was not sleeping more than 45-60 mins at a time. She would wake up every time she was out down so it made for very long nights. 

We had a really good time with my family and I got a new appreciation for single moms (granted my family was right there and a BIG help but it's not the same as her daddy). 

We are still on route home -- stock up the diaper bag -- turn around and fly to Chicago tomorrow! 

I'll write more about my trips and such soon. I'm really looking forward to getting back to our normal schedule soon! 

Cleaning house

Today was a very productive day. We had a meeting at church this morning then went to get a few groceries. After we had lunch and Rylee went down for her nap I used the time to get some much needed cleaning done. 

Lately I've been having the urge to do a good deep clean so I've been working room by room at it. Last week I got the two most disorganized rooms organized and so today I just had to clean them. I cleaned every nook and cranny and even vacuumed all the ceiling corners for cob webs. 

Then I moved all the furniture in my dinning room and living room and swept and mopped the floors, cleaned the window ledges, the ceilings for cob webs and put everything away. 

After that I tackled the kitchen - cleaning out all the cupboards and re organizing things. I cleaned out the fridge and the freezer as well. I plugged in a wall sentsy and popped in a pumpkin harvest cube and my whole house smelt amazing! Now tomorrow I will tackle the lower level. 

When I had finished all of that I started staining the threshold for our kitchen:

It still needs a few more coats before it's done. 

Since Rylee and I will be going to BC on Tuesday we went out to dinner with my in laws to spend some extra time with them before we leave. We went to the Palasad and I had the most amazing salad. It is called Apple and Goat cheese. It was delish!

Rylee had mangos tonight for the first time in a baby fruit bag:

They were a big hit but quite messy! 

Tonight we are going to put our feet up and watch the season 5 finale episode of SOA to get us ready for the season premier on Tuesday. 

I hope you are all having a good weekend! 

Let's drop the T's

I’m back! I’m sorry for the temporary LOA but I have returned!

I’ve been spending a lot of me time lately and doing lots of thinking, and reflecting. I’ve been working on making small but positive changes in my life, both at home and at work, you and happen to have caught me on a good day!

I want to share with you something that I’ve been working on lately, and that is dropping the T’s. Okay, so what does that mean? Let’s turn can’t into can, won’t into will, shouldn’t into should and so forth. So much of our lives are spent thinking about the things we “can’t, won’t shouldn’t” do. For example, I can’t accomplish this goal, I won’t make it, I shouldn’t try. So, let’s drop the T’s and move forward.

Now you’re asking…what does that look like? Well, I’m not an expert by any means, but here is what I have come up with (I will do 1 example of the few plans that I have come up with for myself and then you can fill your own goals and make your own plan!)

My plan

What do I want to accomplish? Getting back to my goal weight

Why this is important to me? So that I can live a healthy life, fit back into my clothing, so getting older isn’t as hard on my body, to be able to be an example and to show to everyone that it can be done a healthy way!

How am I going to do this? I am going to make a commitment to myself to loose 1 pound, one day at a time and not look at how much I have to loose total.

I will make my weekly meal plan, and stick to it.

I will get to the gym at least twice a week to start, and build up again from there.

I will see my trainer at least once a week, preferably twice.

I will treat myself once a day, or a minimum of every other day.

I will track everything I eat.

Now it might look like I have put a lot down for how am I going to do this, and yes I started it all at once, but for me these are small changes that I can make to sustain my weight loss/maintenance long term – which is very important to me.

I have made some other goals in terms of finances, my emotional/mental health, and house work. I used a plan for each one and made sure that I started out SMALL. I did not throw out everything in my kitchen and promise never to eat junk food again, because let’s be honest, I’d fail after a few days. I did however look at the small steps that I could take that would get me there. It might take longer than I want, but I will get there. I have also been sending a list of everything I eat to my mom, it will help to keep me accountable.

On a different topic, I have some very exciting things coming up in my near future!

Next weekend: something huge is happening (I can’t post more details right now since it is a surprise for someone, but the wait will be worth it).

May: Going to Chicago with my parents and husband for the long weekend. We are going to a business conference, but it will still be exciting. Plus it’s the same weekend as our two year anniversary!

July: I am going to BC again to see my family <3. This time my parents will be there at the same time as me so it will be extra exciting.

August: Camping!

September: Women’s retreat

Food for thought: When you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything you want