slowing down to see the awesomeness

Do you ever have days where you feel like your eyes are wide open to the world around you?  I am having one of those days. 

My morning started with my son waking me up at 7:11 a.m.!  7:11...YIKES!!! We usually leave the house at 7:20 on school mornings.  This was definitely not the way to start an awesome day.  I ran downstairs and made myself a Diet Coke...because, can any of us truly function without some sort of caffeine first thing in the morning...even when running late?!?  I told the boys that as long as we got out the door by 7:30 we'd be fine and that none of us need to panic.  I made them a fast breakfast (i.e. poptarts) and told them that I'd make their lunches later and deliver them up to the school.  As they ate, I prepped their morning snacks and decided to go ahead and get a head start on their lunches, and I was actually able to finish them!  I couldn't believe the way this was turning out.  We were rockin' and rollin'!  In less than 20 minutes we got up, my oldest son showered, I got breakfast on the table, prepped snacks/water bottles, made two (healthy) lunches, and got them to school with 5 minutes to spare before the tardy bell rang.  What had the makings of being a rough morning, really was turning out just fine.

Once I got back home, I finished my Diet Coke, made myself a Green Monster, and then started noticing what was going on outside.  Stuff that happens everyday, but that I am too busy doing busy work and/or chores to notice and truly appreciate. 

These are the things that I've stopped and noticed today, and that I've appreciated oh, so much more.

*Each morning my dog walks along our back fence.  Our house backs up to a lot of woods and there are a lot of smells first thing in the morning.  She loves to walk all along the backyard and fence to sniff around.  I sat and watched her and wondered what animals had been in the yard or near the fence last night.
*Hummingbirds coming to my feeder on the back porch
*Lots of chirping in the trees
*Playing tennis with great friends on a beautiful day
*Going to our golf/tennis club with same group of friends and eating outside
*Appreciating the fact that our waitress was exceptionally busy (and slow) which meant we had more time to spend outside with good friends
*Watching the (very) senior citizens "made the turn" playing golf and hoping that when I'm that age that I'm still active and having fun with friends
*Impromptu play dates for my children
*Taking the cover off our golf cart and feeling like I'm driving a convertible
*Popsicles
*The boys (7+ of them...) are outside hooping and hollering and sounding exactly like little boys are supposed to sound

And the list continues...I've got 7 more hours until bedtime!

So - I challenge you to "open your eyes" today and share in comments some things you "see".  Sometimes the most mundane and routine things in our lives are what we'd miss the most if they were not there anymore.

a half.com sale and things to do today

I did pretty good with my to-do list yesterday and having it posted on-line, I think, encouraged me to work harder to get things crossed off!

Here's my list for today:
Drink 64 oz water
any kind of exercise - tennis for 1.5 hours
Eat 5 servings of fruits/veggies - 4 so far w/my Green Monster
Clip coupons for The Grocery Game
log my spending for April
vacuum upstairs
get snacks/drinks for son's baseball game
Prep movie to mail for half.com sale

In the past I've always listed my things to be sold on e-bay.  I've read that many bloggers use half.com to get rid of stuff.  Last week I posted a Danielle Steel book, but haven't had any takers yet.  Yesterday I listed (and priced to sell!) 2 movies that I watched over the weekend.  (At Blockbuster I bought 3 movies for $20.  One if for my son and he loves it and wants to keep it.  The other 2 were for me and I didn't like the movies well enough to want to watch them again in the future.  I started to put the movies in the donations box and remembered half.com!!!)  Anyway, I listed the movies for $4.99 each and have already sold one!  So, that'll be about $5 to add to our Family Fun Fund when the $$ comes in!  We should have a nice little amount in the fund by the time fall rolls around!

Last week my youngest son and I weeded out his baby books that he doesn't want anymore.  Several of them are hardbacks and in great condition.  I think I'll check half.com and see if there is any demand for children's books.  It may be worth it to list a couple just to see if anyone wants to buy them!

ojb updates and a list of things to do...

I should officially be "out" for the Operation Jiggly Bits challenge.   I'm not sure how many servings of fruits/veggies I ate this week, and I know that I for sure didn't get all my water in each day.  Exercise was only playing tennis and that just doesn't cut it for me unfortunately.  So - I measured myself this morning and everything was pretty much the same.  I'm VERY PROUD of my fellow OJB challenger at Nutrition 101 who has made it below 140#!!!  I know what she means about working and working and working only to see a couple of pounds come off.  The older we get the harder we have to work to see results.

So - this is my challenge for the week.  My in-laws are coming in 1 1/2 week.  I've got stuff I need to get done to prep for them.  I also need to pay attention to these jiggly bits...although on my body, it's not so much jiggly bits as it is a "baby bump" for a non-existent baby.  If you know what I mean... 

So, my challenge is to write my to-do's each day and work towards meeting my daily goals.    My goal overall is to get to 140# by the end of the challenge along w/a waist measurement of 30".  Am readjusting my beach vacation goal to be at 135 pounds.

My Monday To-Do's:

Drink 64 oz water
Eat 5 servings of fruits/veggies - only got 3 servings in today....
Exercise - anything...just something  (played tennis for 2 1/2 hours)

Replace generic picture in "the boys" frame.  (I still have the picture that came with the frame...2 1/2 months later)
Mail my Rx refill
Make my Grocery Game List
clip coupons - will move to tomorrow's list!
Mail birthday cards to M & V
Send baseball pictures to GG, G&G, B, & J
take clothes to cleaners
go to grocery to get veggies for dinner
Flex Spending for J's visit to doctor
Make bank deposit

So, that's it for now!  My Monday posts are starting to have a recurring theme of how many excuses I have and/or what I didn't do to more forward on the OJB challenge.  But, to follow Carla's thought line of not beating ourselves up...I am DOWN from when I began the challenge and have just maintained the last 3 weeks.  So, it's not all bad, right?

it's usually never as bad as I think it's going to be

April has been such an off month for me on so many levels.  My main computer is seriously acting up and isn't saving any documents.  So, in order to update my spending/budget spreadsheets I have to go use the basement computer which is s....l....o....w....e....r.... than Christmas.  My spending this month has been much like my eating.  I'm trying to keep all in moderation, but really couldn't tell you how many dollars I'm spending or how many calories I'm eating.

One of the things I didn't do this month is get cash out of the bank at the beginning of April to put in our envelopes.  I like to spend cash on things like groceries, eating out, my fun money, entertainment, etc.  Things that if not watched closely, could quickly get out of hand and add up.

This has been in the back, front and all over my mind for the entire month.  Yes, I know I'm in total control of this situation, but I keep wanting it just to go away.  To turn the calendar over to May and to start fresh.  Since I haven't been using cash, I've been putting everything on my American Express card (to be paid off at the end of the month).  Well, last night I had a "nightmare".  The American Express bill came and it was, to be perfectly honest, more than $10,000.  In my dream my stomach was in knots.  How could I let this happen?  I'd assured my husband that I wouldn't need to ask for any money to be transferred from savings to checking in order to pay for day-to-day expenses.  I'd given him my word that what was in savings would go (100%) towards meeting our financial goals...not towards pizza delivery!  And not only did the American Express bill come with a $10,000 balance, but also we received our electric bill and it had a $900 balance!  Ugggg....what a way to spend a night's sleep!

Well....it's past lunch now and I just sat down to the computer to look at the real life damage at American Express.  And what a relief!  I don't have an outstanding balance of $10,000!!  In fact, it's not even close.  To be perfectly honest, (eyeballing it...) it looks like we have been spending just slightly more than what we would if we were on the cash-system this month.    So, while I'm thankful that it's not as bad as it was in my dream, it makes me realize that when I let up from monitoring our spending, I worry about it.  I worry about it big time.  I'm thankful also that in less than a week I'll be able to turn the calendar over to May and start the month with my cash and a "clean slate".

a more productive day!

I've had a much more productive day today! As soon as I dropped the kids off at school at 7:30 this morning, I started my errands! I know today is Earth Day and I really wish that I contributed something positive to our earth, but didn't. Or should I say...I haven't yet! As I was running errands though, I recognized that I was saving money almost everywhere I went! That is a good thing, right?

Here's what I've been doing today.

*I went to Kroger's "Meat Madness" sale. We LOVE rib eyes and have one almost every Saturday night along with sweet potatoes, asparagus and a bottle of red wine. I bought a whole 16 pound rib eye (the butcher sliced it for free...14 steaks) for $82. I SAVED $65.72! And while I waited for it to be sliced, I bought 2 Mother's Day cards!

*Got the oil changed and saved $6 by remembering my coupon! I usually forget to take it with me!

*Bought a 5 month supply of Zyrtec at the grocery store and saved $40 with coupons.

* I got my hair cut and colored. I didn't save money and this took 2 1/2 hours out of the day. The energy was "off" at the place where I get my hair cut, so it wasn't quite as enjoyable as normal, but I got to read the last 3 weeks of People magazine!

* I have been needing to get a Hole-In-One shadow box made for my husband. He made a Hole in One in December and wanted his ball, scorecard and course map framed. There are several places on the Internet that will do it, with the cheapest being around $130 + S&H. I really didn't want to spend that much money unless I had to. I went to Michael's and found a shadow box frame and felt that I can use. I went to a trophy store and ordered a plaque plate to go inside of it. Total cost for my DIY shadow box project is $32!!! Once it's complete I'll have to show you my DIY vs. Professional ways to do it and see what you think.

*Next stop was to get a golf bag organizer that was on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond. I had a $5 coupon, but a fellow customer noticed me using it and gave me a 20% off coupon to use instead. Instead of saving $5, I saved $12!!! Thank you to my fellow Southerner for the random act of kindness!

*Fabric was next. I am wanting to recover the cornice boards in my kitchen and found some swatches that I LOVE for $35/yard. I found out about a shop called Frugal Fabrics with equally awesome fabric for $7.99/yard. So, I returned my swatches and will go to the FF store on another day!

Now...for other things on my to-do list for today:
1. Help son with book report
2. Put wall tape/velcro on the back of frames so they'll quit shifting
3. Put away my sewing machine that I used on Tuesday
4. Change light bulb in basement that's been burned out for a week
5. Plant ferns in pots
6. Call and request 2nd recycling bin
7. Order Rx refill thru Home Delivery company
8. Take boys to both of their baseball games
9. Write letters, mail pictures for 7 different people
10. Watch NFL draft tonight with boys (hubby is out of town!)

I'll update my post while watching the draft tonight and mark of what I got DONE!!!

***Edited to update to-do's. Can anyone tell me how to do a "strike through"? I wanted to strike-thru what I'd done, but can't figure it out!!! Thanks!

ojb updates and more

What a week...what a month this has been! I feel like I'm just turning my wheels trying to keep up. We've had lots of unexpected visitors and it seems as if we should just put a revolving door on the front of the house, along with a sign that says, "Food and laundry services not included." Just joking...but it feels good to vent a bit. Our budget and routine are completely out of whack.

For the OJB challenge...I'm not excelling at this challenge! I truly expected to be all over this and getting into swimsuit shape. The good thing is that I'm not backtracking and there is still about 7 weeks away before we head to the beach.

Here are my numbers for the week. Everything has been the same now for 2 weeks straight.

STATS: Beginning....Current
weight: 142...142
Chest: 37.5...36.75
Waist: 31.5..31.0
@belly button: 34.5...33
hips: 39...38.75
thighs: 22.33...21.75
arms: 12 1/4...12

My husband left today for his annual golf trip with friends and will be gone for 5 days. I'm really wanting to get some of my stuff taken care of, to-do's crossed off the list, eat healthy meals, drink all my water, and get some good cardio in (something in addition to tennis...). I need to get my head and mind cleared and back to my "old self" of feeling in control and on top of things.

So, instead of allowing myself to get overwhelmed, I'm going to clean the clutter up from my house and my mind and start enjoying this beautiful weather. As it is, I'm letting this gorgeous Springtime get by me.

I'm signing off and spending a solid 8 minutes clearing kitchen clutter/papers before it's time to get the kiddos from school!

Ahhhhhhh...I already feel better!

unplugged...

...until Monday. I'm setting myself "free" from distractions from the computer for the weekend. Anyone care to join me? I'll let you know on Monday what fun things (or things that I've been putting off...) that I do over the next 3 days!

Ciao!

it pays to recycle...

...literally! The company that picks up our trash has always offered free weekly recycling service. Up until a month ago, we have always had the little recycling bins to use. It doesn't take long at all to fill up one of the little bins. We had two of the bins, and still they were always overflowing.

We NOW have a BIG recycling bin (on wheels!) and they come to empty it every other week.

But get this! Not only do we now have a really big bin, but we are being REWARDED for recycling! How wonderful is that? Our bin is identified and each time we recycle, we're given points for the weight of materials that is recycled. We'll then be able to redeem our points for gift cards to area stores.

I'm anxious to see how well this works. I went on line this morning to check my points. We've have our bin emptied twice now, but the website shows "No Pickups". I love the concept, but I'll have to let you know just how well it works with the points system. And I'm curious to see how many points we're rewarded each time!

discussing goals with a financial advisor

We set several financial goals for this year.

1. Top off Emergency Fund(EF) with 6 months expenses
2. Save 15% towards retirement
3. Save more for both boys college expenses

We topped off the EF in February and are currently saving 6% for retirement. We have room in the budget to increase this to 15%, but haven't yet made it "official". We have $$ in the boys college account, but currently are not adding to it on a routine basis. (i.e. only birthday checks from grandparents designated for college are going into it.)

We met with a financial advisor a couple of weeks ago and he suggested a few things.

One, decrease our EF to about 3 months and put rest of that money in our retirement account. The next suggestion was to save 16-17% of our income each month for retirement to get us to our goal of what we wish to have when we retire. So, that I was pleased with...it was just about $150 more each month that I've been wanting to do. Moving onto college savings, he ran the #s on what it will probably cost for our darlings to go to in-state public school (about $120,000 for 4-years) and what it would cost to go out-of-state public school (about $220,000 for 4-years). The suggested amount to help cover the cost of this is $500/month from now until the youngest graduates in (hopefully) May of 2024. And, with the $500/month, that will cover about 1/2 of the bill.

So - We've got some things to think about. We worked so hard to get our EF to 6 months and I'm hesitant to move the money around. BUT...my husband's job is more secure now than it was when we chose to save 6 months expenses rather than a smaller amount. Next, it's more important to both me and to my husband to have our retirement savings at a comfortable amount than it is to 100% fund our kid's college expenses. We hope and pray that we can pay the majority of it for them, but they will probably need to work and pay for a lot of it themselves.

We live rather frugally and when we do "splurge" it's usually on things that will make memories, like weekend trips and vacations...not on lots of new clothes, new cars and other "toys". We could give up a lot of things and make it easier to meet our financial goals, but I'm not sure we're ready to do that at this point. We really need to sit down and take a good hard look at it.

I'm curious about you. If you are meeting all of your financial goals, is it because you've made lots of sacrifices in order to do so? And what are day-to-day things that you sacrifice to meet your goals? Just curious...

operation jiggly bits - week 4

This past week was Spring Break and as I'd hoped we had absolutely nothing planned and were without a routine all week. We went to baseball's Opening Day on Monday, had friends over, went bowling, stayed up late, slept late and pretty much loved life during the whole week!

My OJB goal was to MAINTAIN this past week and that's what I did. Absolutely no changes! NOW....8 weeks from today we make our first of two trips to the beach for the summer. Trip #1 to the beach is adults only, and Trip #2 is us with the kids. So, I'm wanting to get to around 131 pounds by Trip #1 and to my goal weight by Trip #2 (which is 129). That means it's time to get serious.

The past 3 weeks I've implemented some wonderful habits that have been part of the OJB challenge...exercising, drinking lots of water and eating lots of fruits & veggies. Now it's time for me (and hubby too!) to take it up a notch and start working for some serious results. It's not going to be easy, but according to this website, if I keep my calories around 1200 each day (I think that equates to about 24 Weight Watcher points), and have moderate exercise each day, then I "should" meet my goals. The nice thing about this time of year, is that it's FUN to grill some chicken or fish and eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits.

My goals for this week are all the same challenges....lots of water, exercise and healthy eating. I want to cut out a lot of the crap though and eliminate a few glasses of wine that I'm drinking throughout the week. My goal this week is to end the day at 24 WW points. I'm going to allow myself to "eat" my Activity Points. If I don't see progress quickly enough, then I'll probably change my mind about that!

Here are my numbers showing Original, and...This Week:

weight: 142...142

Chest: 37.5...36.75
Waist: 31.5..31.0
@belly button: 34.5...33
hips: 39...38.75
thighs: 22.33...21.75
arms: 12 1/4...12

operation jiggly bits - week 3 check in

A VERY quick check in for my Operation Jiggly Bit check in. This is Spring Break week and we've been out of town...

First...as for my goals for last week. All were met and kept. The easiest? Meeting my exercise goals and drinking all of my water. Most challenging? Avoiding junk food and processed food! That is something that I will continue to work on and weed out of my diet!

Here are my numbers! I'll post my original along with this week's numbers.

weight: 142...142

Chest: 37.5...36.75
Waist: 31.5..31.0
@belly button: 34.5...33
hips: 39...38.75
thighs: 22.33...21.75
arms: 12 1/4...11 5/8

Last week, My 1/2 Dozen Daily posted information on finding out your frame size. I tell you what! That was an eye opener for me. I am 5'3 1/2" with a large body frame. My ideal weight is around 129 pounds. I've always "felt" like I should be low 120's for my ideal weight. In previous weight loss attempts, I get to 132 and feel GREAT, but think I need to lose 10 more pounds. That has always been when I've given up and gained all the weight back. Now I know that the weight where I feel really good (around 132#) is really close to my ideal weight!!! I've always picked a number out of hat and thought of what number I'd like to see on the scale. I've never taken into consideration that I have a large frame and that my ideal weight would be adjusted!

With this being Spring Break and us being so off-schedule, my goal for this week is MAINTENANCE! I want to drink my water every day (that's something I can easily control!), get my exercise where I can and make good food choices as much as possible!

signs of spring

We're about 14 days into Spring and finally I've been able to open some windows and turn off the heater! We still need the heat in the mornings, but it's wonderful knowing that soon we'll have the windows open 24/7 for a few months!

Here are other signs of spring in and around our home!

time to fill out the census...


daffodils blooming in our flower bed...


and my new Easter dress!