February Goals

A new month and new ideas for our home and family:

- maintain logging meals, vitamins and walking
- continue Friday night dates
- get a sourdough starter going
- if starter arrives and is active, try making bread
- Valentine family dinner and Anniversary dinner date
- when out for appointments this month, try to include opportunities for adventure and memory-making
- host a craft morning/brunch for mama friends
- schedule in free time with no agenda at least once a week
- try a new Crock Pot recipe
- buy flowers for our table at least once
- pursue cozy things, spend time at home, stick to routines for cultivating order

* note: I scratched the craft morning because I was feeling overwhelmed as this month ended and we had a BIG project in having a yard sale and helping my mother-in-law clean out her garage. Sometimes marking something out is the RIGHT thing to do! 

January Goals Update

Well, here we are one month into the new year already - time just marches on. I wanted to do a little update on how our January goals went:

Goal: have pizza and sparkling grape juice for New Year's Eve; talk about 2017 and what we hope for 2018; play games together as a family.

Goal met: we did this! After just getting home from a trip, I scheduled a Walmart grocery pick up order and included frozen pizza and the sparkling juice and this was extremely easy and nice to have a memorable evening for so little planning!

Goal: clean out closets in girls room to allow each to have her own, rearrange bookshelves in both their room and laundry room to accommodate each girl having her own bookshelf and opening up space in their room; make fabric curtains for their shelves to hide clutter. Before pictures above.

Goal met: This was a big one! For years, we've had a bookshelf in one of the closets in the girls room, it was our main library basically. But as they have gotten older it finally dawned on me that they probably needed their own closets. I also had two matching bookshelves in different places in the house so moved those back together and made the little curtains for them. I let each of the girls buy one item to help organize their closets. We love the difference this has made! After pictures above!

Goal: institute Friday night dates

Goal met: we will only miss one Friday due to David taking Samuel away overnight for his 10th birthday! It has been really nice having this time planned in and enjoying these evenings together!

Goal: resume logging my meals on My Fitness Pal, health journal, vitamins and walking

Goal met:Thankful to say that I succeeded on this one! Assigning certain days to walking has really helped me this time around, so I walk M, W, and F mornings before breakfast. It only takes about 15 minutes!

Goal: try a batch salad every week for the month

Goal not met: right after getting home, we did well on eating salad that first week until I saw a lot of info in the news about romaine and an e-coli scare. Rather than risk getting sick, we did not each much salad this month.

Goal: purge Christmas bins

Goal halfway met: Right after Thanksgiving when getting out our Christmas decorations, I did a re-sort of our bins. Finally after all of these years, I wanted to separate what we get out every year and what we get out only when we don't travel {tree things}. Why didn't I think of this sooner, actually I didn't - David did! Anyway, I did some cleaning out then. When we put it all away, we only got out three bins and put away what we had enjoyed so I did not drag ALL the bins back out at this point.

Goal: try one new Crock Pot recipe


Goal met: We tried Taco Soup similar to this recipe but I do not use chunky tomatoes or green chiles. It was delicious after a busy CC and ballet day and it was chilly weather, so the perfect soup weather! This is a keeper!

Goal: have tea time at least once and make gingerbread whoopie pies from the December Magnolia Journal while discussing the theme wonder.

Goal in progress: we haven't done this yet but I have the cookies made and ready!


Goal: host a mom's night and plan a movie night with a friend


Goal halfway met: instead of an evening, several sweet homeschool moms and I met for breakfast one Saturday morning and may have stayed until almost noon! It was lovely and ever so simple to plan. Movie night is still to come!

Goal: follow up on an idea to do something for someone God places on my heart

Goal met:during my Quiet Time in December, God brought someone to mind and I followed up on the idea He provided of a way to serve her and her family.

Wow, this was encouraging to me to update and look back on the things that have been accomplished this month. Excited to make a February list! What goals did you meet this month?

Glorify: Health Journal

As I mentioned yesterday, I started 2017 feeling very depleted and wanting to make some changes. I was unmotivated, not resting well, unfocused, anxious, angry, low feeling and had a lot of headaches. When we got home from Christmas, I started doing some research on vitamins. I knew I wanted to be more careful about what I was eating but still I thought I needed to do more. And I knew myself well enough to know that I'm historically low in iron and have low blood sugar.

With all of that info, I went to a site I trust which is Beeyoutiful.com, I've been using their Tummy Tuneup successfully for years and am a huge believer in it for keeping away tummy bugs! Anyway, they have a lot of great info and articles so I started reading about various vitamins and benefits, etc.

I had already been sporadically taking iron and Beeyoutiful's Super Mom vitamins but I wanted to do more and be more consistent about it.

To do this, I knew I would need a way to keep track of things and also a way to gradually add so that if I had any side effects I'd be able to figure out what had just changed and maybe what didn't work. So I started a health journal. An empty journal I already had became dedicated solely to this purpose. On Sunday afternoon/evening I would write out a list for the week and then use it as my checklist for the week in keeping track. And I would only add one thing per week.

For example, the first week I took a probiotic and Super Mom and breakfast and a second Super Mom at lunch and that was it. The next week I added iron on Tuesday and Thursday only. The third week I added Magnesium twice a week and so on.

The first thing I did was sit down and make a list of all the things I wanted to improve about the way I was taking care of myself. Eat more salads, take Vitamin D, increase walks, try protein powder, etc. Then as I was writing out my weekly checklists, I could refer to this overall goal list and see what I still hoped to add.

I weigh myself every Monday and write that at the top of my week so I can see the progress from the week before. 

While I can't point to one thing in particular that I've felt benefits from, I would say that overall I have noticed how much better I'm feeling. And like most natural-health things, it is such a little bit at a time and over the long haul rather than quick simple results.

For now, this is my most successful weekly plan {shown above} and what I'm restarting with this year as I'd gotten a bit lax about it skipping a couple of months.

Some of the vitamins I take are just from Wal-Mart and some are from Beeyoutiful. My favorites from Beeyoutiful are:

Tummy Tuneup: this is a very easy to take and easy to store probiotic, it is shelf stable so it doesn't have to be kept cold. I've been using this for years and love it! My kids can take it too - when they are too little to swallow the capsule, I simply opened it up and sprinkled it on applesauce or dissolved in water. Cannot recommend this highly enough if you are averse to the stomach bug as I am ;)

Super Mom Vitamins: I tried these years ago and did not love them but gave them a second try and am glad I did. The suggestion is to take four capsules per day and I started with one for a long time and now take two. They are loaded with lots of vitamins but don't include iron which is why I take a separate iron supplement. I order the veg caps because they are smaller and I can't swallow large pills easily!

Other favorites:

Daily probiotic: In addition to Tummy Tuneup {which we use only when we are exposed to a tummy bug} - all of our kids and myself take these tummy gummies daily. This is one of those things I won't be without now - I'm a huge fan, they taste great and I am grateful for the benefits we receive from taking these regularly. My sister just told me there was a Wal-Mart brand now but I haven't tried those yet.

Iron: sometimes iron can be hard to take - but I really like Slow Fe and have had very minimal side effects from taking it. It is a great option for people like me who are historically anemic. I have been using this brand for years.

Other things like Vitamin D, Magnesium, etc. I'm still unsure if brand matters on - like I mentioned earlier some of mine are just from the drug store and some from Beeyoutiful and I'm fine with that for now.

I'd like to learn so much more about vitamins! So far, when I check out a book from the library about vitamins I get very overwhelmed so I've been sticking with things I'm already familiar with or have a personal recommendation on.

Some of these are affiliate links just in case you decide to try something. I'm not a doctor or a medical professional, again, just sharing what has worked for me. I love the journal because it keeps me accountable and gives me a place to log how I felt that week and what worked and what didn't. 

Do you take any vitamins? Or keep a health journal?

Glorify: Tracking Meals

This is a topic I haven't really approached on my blog before - I've kept to myself and quiet because sometimes it seems like when I share something, my commitment to it is challenged in a way that is hard and unexpected.

But with my word of the year and really wanting to be real and honest, I've decided to open the door on it and share what has worked for me. I also want to acknowledge that our health and body is something very personal and very unique and individual. No two of us will likely have the exact same experience and our needs are very different as well.

Almost four years ago {I can still remember the day, I was taking photos for this post} I was feeling really disgusted with myself - I had let myself get pretty lazy and was eating anything I wanted anytime. I'm a comfort eater and stressful days are common. Really my biggest issue was that I wasn't feeling comfortable in my own clothes - they were tight and not fitting right and I was feeling icky about that and wanting to make a change.

I don't remember a lot of the details that got me started, but I knew I didn't want it to be about my weight necessarily. Not a number anyway, I wanted this to be about me feeling better about myself because it was affecting my outlook in many areas of my life. I got serious about logging my meals using My Fitness Pal and trying to add a little more activities to my days.

My Fitness Pal is great because it is FREE and is easy to use either on your laptop or device through the app. It really doesn't take long once you get into the habit of typing in your meals and keeping it up to date. I also like it that I can eat whatever I want really and am making my own choices about what to eat just in manageable portions. A thrifted food scale has been a help in this as well.

The most successful way for me is to plan out my meals the night before - it only takes me 2-3 minutes to type everything in and once I see it in front of me, I can make changes or adjustments and then just eat that plan for the next day. I love it. When I leave it for the day of, I'm not nearly as successful as I'm more likely to eat what I want and hope it works out {usually doesn't!} and it reminds me of something as simple as a grocery budget. When I plan my meals and shop from a list, I'm much more likely to stay on budget than if I go randomly through the store. Same is true with planning out my meals and portions and counting my calories. 

Within a few months, we had this family photo shoot at Christmas time and I remember feeling so good that day. I was so happy! It was cold and I felt so much better about myself and enjoying this time we were having together. And I kept this up for a while and then slowly got lazy again. One year ago, I was in the same place - really wanting to re-start this area of my life.

Last year was really hard and stretching in many ways especially through the Fall - and when I got to my parents house for Christmas, I was exhausted, weepy and just generally depleted in many ways. It was really on my heart to not only re-start logging my meals but also to look into adding vitamins into my life.

Jumping back in was great and in a couple of months I was feeling so much better and by summer - I felt even better and enjoyed the healthy glow that had returned to my heart and life. Like everything, it is not a one-size-fits-all fix it plan and it isn't even easy. But I have found that it has worked for me and it has been a blessing, why do I keep getting lazy and falling off the wagon only to have to start again?!

Here we are in January again and my pants are snug and I'm back to it, it gets easier to start again each time because I've developed some habits that are fairly easy to pick back up again even when I let them fall by the wayside.

Losing a few pounds is great and even better is how it affects my attitude and outlook. When I feel better about myself that shows and gives me confidence and joy. Next time we'll talk about vitamins!

May God be glorified in the sharing of these words and in how we take care of ourselves!

2018: Glorify

Happy New Year friends!

I've sort of been on the fence about having a word for the year as the past few years it just hasn't stuck with me or clicked like it did when Slow was my word! But on a stressful day just before leaving home for a month, I was driving Rachel to ballet and the word glorify came to me as I realized that the source of many of my current struggles is simply being focused on myself.

I don't feel like....
I don't want to....
I'm irritated about....
I'm frustrated about...
I'm worried about...
I'm too tired, weary, overwhelmed, etc.
I this, I that.

All of this has really opened my eyes to how very selfish I am and much of our struggles at home are my lack of diligence, discipline and my ease at falling in discouragement. I want this coming year to be focused on glorifying God.

There are some specific areas that I am seeking God to work on in me and specifically that I would glorify Him in these things.

Body: watching my portions, taking vitamins and walking
Marriage: date nights and setting aside more time for David
Tongue: watching my words
Mothering: being engaged
Finances: wisely stewarding and saving
Outreach: sharing my faith and reaching out beyond my normal circles or comfortable people
Time: relax, lessen expectations and control
Mind: Scripture memory
Teacher: homeschool encouragement
Writer: seek God on how/when to proceed with future writing, heal from publishing experience
Home: organize and purge but with grace

My goal and hope is to focus on one of these areas each month - I'm glad there aren't twelve so I have a little room for grace. Right now, I'm searching God's Word for appearances of this word glorify and letting those thoughts sink deep into my heart and mind as I contemplate what they mean and how to apply the truths learned to my own life.

We sang a new song at church and it fits perfectly with this theme!

Did you choose a word for 2018?