Heaven - Michigan, same thing?

I apologize for my lack of blogging lately. We have been out of town (in Michigan) visiting our family for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a wonderful, restful time spent with the people that we love and that love us unconditionally.

We returned to church yesterday recieving lots of hugs and "we missed you"s. That also truly touched our hearts. The cutest thing happened yesterday. One of my friends little girls ran up to me, threw her hands around my neck for a big hug and said to me, "We are so glad you are back from Heaven." Michigan - Heaven, same thing, right? Either way, that was Heaven just having hugs, knowing we were missed and back with our friends or should I say "family" again.

I haven't weighed in yet since my return so I'm trying to get back on track with my weight loss this week. The past 10 days were spent not caring about what I put in my mouth and totally enjoying every second of it. Oh...and also as promised in a prior post, I'm going to get back to the Y for exercise this week too. After a brief discussion with a friend yesterday, maybe we should just try to maintain during the Christmas season. That way, we can still enjoy the treats and really hit it hard in January.

Thank You Friends

Lately, our life has been a little crazy. For the past 5 weeks, our family has had our routine interrupted. Not due to anyone's fault but because our family is very scheduled, this has been hard on all of us. But what I've found out in the last 5 weeks has been incredible. Friends are the backbone of life. If you have good friends, you have a great life, no matter if its mountains or valleys that you are facing. God created each one of us for friendship.

I started my weight loss journey with 3 friends last January and 11 months later, we have a small network of about 7 of us that keep each other accountable and weigh in together each week. I couldn't do it without them. They are my cheering section and my worst critics too but I rely upon them for that.

But, its just not about losing weight. Its about a friend babysitting your child for 3 hours so you can get something done and not waiting for your response, just insisting and strapping him in her car. Its about having a house full of people and your friend still insisting that your kids can stay while you go to an appointment. Its about friends bringing meals when you are down and offering to take you to coffee when you need a girly chat and an evening away from it all.

That's what life is about. Relationships, friendships and doing life together. Thanks you gals for showing me something extraordinary in spite of my grumpiness these past 5 weeks. I love you and I'm thankful for you as this Thanksgiving day approaches.

"Greater love have no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Trade = Exercise for a new Room

I haven't been to our local Y to exercise since the middle of October. In spite of what everyone thinks, I really do like to work out. But, the quest to lose weight hasn't totally depended on that. I still lost 1.8 pounds this week. Yeah!

So what's been going on that I haven't made exercise a priority? While my mom was here visiting in October, we ran across a great new comforter set that I just loved. You know the rest of the story. The color on the walls in the master bedroom didn't match the new bedding so I had to repaint the walls. Then, the bathroom looked old and worn next to the new paint so I repainted that too. All of this painting took place during nap time. Its been crazy but it is finally done! See the pictures. I love to decorate and I always have fun with it. Oh...and don't forget to check out the Caiden Binder originals hanging on the wall. I was able to coax him in to doing that for his mom. : > ) (P.S. By the way, feel free to steal that idea if you ever need budget conscious art!) So, I guess that trading exercise for two newly remodeled rooms isn't so bad. Don't worry Y, I'll be back after Thanksgiving!

Shopping On a Budget

Last week, I managed to clean closets and sort out all of the clothes that I can no longer wear. I should be happy because they are just too big but it is also a little depressing, knowing that you just can't go out and replace your whole waredrobe. In a effort to recoup some funds to purchase some new clothes, I decided that I would have a yard sale. Despite an intense amount of effort between Thursday and Saturday, I made a modest $70.00. Not too bad for a yard sale but I had big plans for the money (buy new bathrooms things since I'm trying to redo our master bath and buy new clothes for Caiden, Dale and I). The money was just not going to stretch that far.

Then, the lightbulb went off. I have several "budget conscious" friends that have been shopping at our local Goodwill store and finding some great things. Dawson and I ventured there today. I'm proud to report that I got a almost new pair of Gap jeans for about $8.00 and two shirts for under $5.00 each and a pair of black boots for $6.00. I am so excited. Plus, I found a few little things for Caiden and two new pictures for our master bathroom. I guess shopping on a budget isn't so bad afterall.

Not great, but good!

I cannot tell you how happy I am that Halloween is over. We still have some candy left in the house but most of the "good" stuff has been eaten since last Wednesday. That's another great thing about still having lil' kids. They can go trick-or-treating for an hour max and be totally content with the amount of candy they get. I remember being an older kid and trick-or-treating for 2-3 hours and getting so much candy we didn't know what to do with it for months.

I weighed in on Saturday and was down .8 pounds. Woo Hoo! A big accomplishment for me this week especially since I didn't do well journaling or watching anything I put in my mouth. Its a new week and I'm back on track. Saturday's weigh in wasn't great but good so I have a little to celebrate. You keep on track this week too!