Projects and plans.....

I have neglected this blog for a long time. I have a lot of excuses but the bottom line is that I have not been here writing.

BUT.......

This is a new year and I have projects and plans for 2011. Some of these projects and plans include this blog, others are personal and some are for my home and family.

The most intensive project I am undertaking is Project 365. Project 365 is a photography/scrapbooking challenge. The basic idea is to take at least one photo every day of the year and then make scrapbook layouts to incorporate them all. I am excited to take on this challenge and see if I can do it. It certainly incorporates two of my greatest loves. I will be featuring my layouts and photos here quite often.

Other projects and goals for 2011 include keeping the weight loss trend going. I started weight watchers in November and lost throughout the holidays. I am very proud of that. I will continue to work toward my ultimate goal of getting to a healthy weight. I also have a goal of changing the way I react to situations at home and how I deal with the kids. I need to be more positive in my approach to parenting. This is going to be a big challenge but it is one that hopefully will bring many positive things to our family.

The last challenge I am taking on is the clutter and chaos in my home. A change is necessary. There is just too much stuff in this house. I need to get rid of a bunch of it. In order to get that done, I will be more active on the Manage Your Life on Scrapshare.

Clutter, clutter everywhere

I admit that I am the world's worst housekeeper. Sadly, my children are no better and DH..... well, let's just say that if it falls around DH there it sits.

But, I am sick to death of the mess. It needs to go away!

So to this end I posted a question on the Manage Your Life forum at scrapshare asking for guidance on what to do. I need help. Ideally, that help would be someone with a magic wand to wave and make it all go away. Since that is not likely to happen and I can't ask my friends to help me out AGAIN, I must conquer this problem on my own. Hence asking for advice from my online friends who are wonderful by the way.

Now I have a list of ideas and a desire to implement them. Now I need to find the follow-through. That is where this blog is going to come in handy. It will be my gotta get it done/how far have I come journal.

First up is to rid this house of garbage. I may need to buy stock in a garbage bag company.

Progress

Well, I have been remiss in posting for a few days but I have been working my own weird little program.

Unfortunately my program did not include a sinus infection, reactive airway/asthma issues and antibiotics. Despite that I am actually down 1.2 pounds this week. Added to the 1.6 I was down last week and I am very happy with the current results on the scale.

I need to work on my portions a bit more and my food choices overall. There have been a lot of meals out and that has to stop. The garden and other things are keeping me more active but I still need to get a true exercise program in place.

So all in all, positive steps with more work to do.

Sadness and a heavy heart

I do not like to use the word HATE. It is such a strong word and carries such a heavy meaning that I try really hard to keep it out of my everyday conversation.

However, I have to say that I truly and completely HATE cancer. It is such a cruel disease in whatever form it takes.

In the last two days I have learned of the passing of two very dear souls. One was a wonderful woman that I only knew through her posts on Scrapshare and the scrapbooking work she shared with us. I understand from those who knew her "in real life" that she was as warm, funny and giving in person as she was online. She fought a galant and courageous fight. Our online community held our collective breath over each of her posts in recent months, hoping for a miracle. Sadly, that miracle did not come to fruition and we lost Amy much too soon.

Today I received the news that a wonderful man who has been a pillar of our 4-H community for many, many years lost his battle with stomach cancer. This man gave hours and hours of his time to helping the youth of our county learn valuable lessons in many areas of the 4-H program. He gave of his time selflessly and without care because he knew that these children he was helping are our future. He was honored just this past November with the 4-H Distinguished Service Award at our annual Leader's Dinner.

Amy shared something a few months ago that really touched my heart and it seems even more meaningful now.

"I perceive myself having bad days all.the.time. But you know what?They're NOT bad days. They're one more day I get to spend withmy family. One more day I can tell them I love them. One more day...I can get hugs and kisses. So see, they're NOT bad days. They're BLESSED days."

Such profound words and something I will strive to remember for a lifetime.

Please hug your family and friends today. They are so important.

Determining goals

The first "Looker" challenge:

Let's Know Where We Are So We Know Where to Go.

So where am I? And where do I want to go?

I am currently a laptop/internet/TV junkie who needs to clean up her act. That is true of many parts of my life but my health/body is getting top billing right now. My weight is the highest it has ever been - 225 pounds. That is a lot to carry around on my 5'2" frame. It must change.

So where do I want to go in the next 8 weeks?

I want to set attainable goals so my desires have to be fairly simple to start. I want to improve my stamina, elevate my eating and lower my body weight. Sounds simple right? Yeah not so much. Apparently those are lofty goals. So I need to define them better.

Improve stamina - I want to be able to walk for 30 minutes at a 15 minute mile pace. That means that I should be able to walk to the kids' school and back in 30 minutes. I can't do that right now so I have to get moving.

Elevate my eating - I want to increase my fruit and vegetable intake from the one to two a day I get now to 4 to 5 a day by the end of the challenge. As this is summertime, that should not be hard, well except for the fact that the weather we are having here in the PNW is preventing me from planting my garden.

Lower my body weight - This is the biggie. This is the one that matters. This is the one that is hardest to do. So while I want to set some wild number as my goal, I must be realistic. A realistic goal for me is 1 pound a week so I am going to set my goal for 8 pounds over the next 8 weeks.

My biggest issue tends to be impulse purchases at the store. A candy bar here, a box of Mike and Ikes there, oh a stop at the deli won't hurt. So I need to plan better. A menu and shopping list before going to the store. A side benefit of that would be a savings in cash as well. Plan outings to avoid meal times or plan and pack accordingly. Summer is a busy time for our family so all of these little things will help me help myself and my family be better on track.

Sarah, one of the unofficial leaders of our merry band of girth reducers, ended her post with the following:

You'll often hear Elaine and I talk about "eating our frog" .. Mark
Twain asked if you had to eat a live frog every day, would you put it
off and spend the whole day dreading it? Or would you gulp it down at
the first opportunity so you'd have the rest of your day? EAT YOUR
FROG.

So my frog is before me. For today it is getting up and getting moving. I am doing that by cleaning house to start with. No I mean literally, no figuratively. I need to clean house. Do you have any idea how many calories you can burn cleaning a filthy house like I have? There is picking up and running things to appropriate places and vacuuming and sweeping and moping to be done. Clothes folding and lifting dishes to their spots. Yep, I am going to get moving and many areas of my life are going to benefit from it. GO EAT YOUR FROG!!

A new challenge

I am a bad blogger. I know it and my friends who come here occasionally looking for an update know it.

For that I apologize. I am sorry I am such a slacker.

My excuse? Life has gotten in the way. There has been so much going on in the last few months and the next few look to be just as crazy.

However, I am working on a new me and have joined a bunch of other women in a challenge that will hopefully keep me focused on that goal. We are all a bit tired of our increasing......errrr...... fluff?, girth?..... whatever word you would like to through in there and we are bent on changing it over the next 8 weeks or so. It is called "Momma was a Looker" challenge and was started when my Scrapshare buddy Elaine got together with a friend of her's and decided to do something for themselves to deal with their.... errr.....girth..... and then they invited their friends to join them. So, since I need the motivation, encouragement and support, I joined them.

My plan is to update this blog regularly over the next few weeks with info about what I am doing and how it is working. Summer is upon us and it is time for me to lower the jiggle factor a bit.