Simple Steps progress and Rough weekend.

Well I've been having some success at the simple steps! I am now thoroughly addicted to my water. I do still have my soda once in a while and I'm hooked on my new coffee maker, so I have two or three cups a day, but still less calories than all that Coke! My main tricks to incorporate this into my life were this: First I drink a full glass of ice water before I drink anything with flavor; coffee, soda, juice or milk. second, I try to drink a full glass before each meal. That's an old dieting trick to make you feel full faster, but it also works to make sure that you've got your water for the day (1 full glass is about 12 ounces, times 3 times a day is 36 ounces and I'm trying to make sure I drink 48 ounces a day, so that last 8 ounces is easy!) I wrote down on my calendar drawers and such to organize, one a week. So far I have cleaned out and re-organized my Pot cupboard, my coffee cupboard, the little bin on my PC desk and my silverware drawer. Not bad!The best part of that habit is that the hubby notices. Sure, I like it tidy, it makes it easier to put stuff back and all that, but I just love it when he says: Wow this looks nice! :) I've been good about collecting loose dollars and popping them in an old tin, trying to average 2 dollars per day. It's funny how that habit has made me so much more conscious of coins and small bills. I tend to keep track of them now more than I did. I'm also a bit more reluctant to spend them.

We had a pretty rough weekend. My mother-in-law's wake was Saturday and it was a very good turn out, but draining. My hubby is still having a rough time with it all and it's frustrating that I don't know how to help him. I know that loosing a parent is one of the most traumatic things to happen in a person's life, but I haven't experienced it myself yet. He lost both of his parents in the span of a year. It has to be hard. I just wish I could find a way to help him, to carry some of the burden. What is it about big strong men? Any strong emotion gets turned into anger? He's not angry at me, but he gets angry at the drop if a hat, at anyone. I know its pain, but it just gets lost in the translation!

The month after christmas...

Twas the month after Christmas and all through the house

Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste,

All holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number!

When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).

I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;

The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,

The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese

And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt

And prepared once again to do battle with dirt...

I said to myself, as only I can

"You can't spend the winter disguised as a man!"

So....away with the last of the sour cream dip,

Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip.

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished

Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won't have a cookie - not even a lick

I'll want only to chew a long celery stick.

I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie

I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore-

But isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot,

Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet.

Author Unknown

Simple Steps 2

Well the simple steps are going well! Tomorrow is the end of the first week and I've got the water habit down! Yesterday I actually drank more water than I needed without meaning to...5 16 ounce bottles - a total of 10 cups. Now I've got to figure out what my focus will be for this week. I think I'll take on two: saving 2 dollars a day and cleaning out one drawer/cupboard a week. The $2 a day should be easy - I'm just going to set up an auto transfer to a special savings account. Will they charge me if I do a tiny transfer everyday? I'll have to check that out. No sense in saving two dollars a day if it's going to cost me 1.50 in fees! The second habit should be fairly easy to establish as well, I'm going to set up my 2009 calendar and write on there what space I'm going to tackle each week this month. First is the pot cupboard, it's been driving me crazy, but every time I do the dishes I just cram things in there instead of doing it right. I need to get it together and that will be satisfying.

Other than that, I am really happy that school is back tomorrow. I love my kids but having all four of them running around has been hell on my house and I'm so sick of cleaning and re-cleaning all day long. Today is going to be a lazy day - I'm going to stitch a bit, read a bit and relax. Tomorrow I will whip this house back into shape and enjoy the two little ones; my little rascal 2 year old Ian and my sweet angel Gracie who is nearly 12 weeks now.

Simple Steps for the new year

New Year's Resolutions. I love new beginnings but I have to admit, I don't know that I've ever made a new years resolution that I kept. Maybe it's because I have too much ambition or I'm unrealistic, but they always seem to go by the side fairly quickly. This year I've resolved to do something a bit different! I'm following the plan in this book: Simple Steps: 10 Weeks to Getting Control of Your Life: Health, Weight, Home, Spirit. The idea behind the book is that each week you have a new habit to incorporate into your life for each of the 4 sections. So each week you learn a new habit to improve your health, a new one to help you loose weight, something new to improve you home (mostly organization) and a habit to heal your spirit. Having a newborn, I'm not sure if that is too big of a bite for me, 4 new habits each week, so I'm going to spread it out more and do 1 or 2 habits a week. That way it will spread out for 20 to 40 weeks, at least half the year. I do plan on really focusing on each thing until it is truly incorporated into my life and I will be discussing each step in my blog in detail. The why, the how, and the success or failure of each step. I would love to share this with others so if you'd like to join in, please feel free to email me or post a comment here and we'll encourage each other.

So where to start? Well the book lists these four for the first week: Drinking eight cups of water a day, walking twenty minutes a day, clearing out one drawer, cabinet or closet space every week and saving two dollars a day. I'm going to keep it simple and start at the beginning. Eight cups of water a day. We all know that we should do this, but it can be a hard habit to establish. i know that I have tried this one before and I have a tendency to get busy and just forget to drink anything, much less my water. So how can I make sure I do it? Well, I'm going to drink out of something special. I like my water ice cold, so I've got one of those metal water bottles that I will use. It's 16 ounces, so I only have to fill it up 4 times a day. I'm going to try and look for times that I can make it a habit to drink from it. Take it in the car with me; drink while I'm at the computer LOL!(reading blogs)Make sure it's next to me when I sit down to nurse or when I get a moment to stitch. I'm trying to quit drinking soda, so the water will be my substitute for that. Did you know that if you drink one cola a day, that at the end of one year you'll have gained 10 lbs? That's the reality of why I am overweight. I love soda, particularly Coke and I can drink 3 or 4 a day without even trying. :) That's a habit to break instead of start! So here we are

Week one, Simple Step number one: Drink eight cups of water a day!

God rest ye merry gentlemen...

I love Christmas songs. Carols - music, all of it. LOL! My family thinks it's a bit cheesy, but they put up with me from the day after Thanksgiving until January 1st, I play it where ever I am and sing along. (grin) Now I'm definitely not your next American Idol, I haven't got a singing voice at all, although I do enjoy singing. I usually crank the tunes when I'm cleaning house and sing along, It makes it all go faster and improves my mood. During the year I've got a pretty varied playlist; everything from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra to Prince and Michael Jackson to Avril Lavine and Gwen Stefani. Well my Christmas music runs the gamut as well. I got two new Christmas CD's this year; Elvis and the Jackson 5. Last year I got Colin Raye and Bette Midler. I probably have a dozen different christmas albums and I love them all!
So a few more days til chrismas and I'm all ready except for a bit of wrapping. I'm taking the kiddies to get pictures with Santa today (hope my 2 year old doesn't freak out this year) and then I'm hoping to cuddle up with my chrismas music, a cup of cocoa and my stitching. A bit of peace for the holiday. The new year will be full of resolutions and difficulty, so I could really use a calm, a silent night and a bit of peace and a little of God's grace or even just a bit of cuddling with my little Grace. LOL! Happy holidays!

Sad news

Wow, December is flying by and I'm almost ready for Christmas. (Sigh) Still battling the blues and of course the universe is kicking me while I'm down, LOL isn't that the way it is? My Mother-in-law, who I loved very much and has been an important person in my life since I was 16 years old, has passed away. My husband was able to fly to Portland and be by her side, holding her as she died. I'm so glad he was able to do that because they were particularly close and I'm sure it comforted her to have him there. I know for sure that it helped him and his older sister who was there as well. It was really nice to see the sibling bond strengthened by this tragedy. When my father-in-law passed away last year, my Hubby's sister was alone with him and was very angry at the family because it was so hard for her and she felt like everyone just abandoned her to the task. This time she called and my hubby raced up there to help and offer support. She essentially taught him how to say goodbye and gave him the strength to do it, and in return he was there to help her be strong. It's amazing and wonderful. All in all, my mother-in-law's death was a good thing on several levels. Even though I'm sad, I'm so grateful for the results. My husband has a new outlook on life and my mother-in-law, who was miserable in her sick, painful body and trapped by a diseased and damaged mind (dementia and alzhiemers) is now free of that misery. God bless and keep her. She will be missed deeply.

Blue Blue Blue

Baby Grace is 9 weeks old!

I am normally an upbeat positive kind of person, but lately I have really been struggling. I figured I had a touch of the Baby blues since my 4th baby was born in October and I’ve been getting little sleep and dealing with a 2 year old and a pubescent 11 year old. Perfectly normal to be out of sorts, I told myself. Well apparently it’s a bit more than just the ‘baby blues’. My OB told me I have Postpartum depression. I have to admit, I was both shocked and a bit embarrassed. I’m such a “glass is half full” kind of person that I could be depressed seemed weird. I’m pretty old school about depression – I think it’s way over-diagnosed today and I honestly think that some people use it as a crutch to not deal with reality. I figure that I’ve got a pretty good life, my reality doesn’t need escaping – so why would I end up depressed? Apparently I’ve held a rather simplistic view of it. Depression is a physical thing, a chemical imbalance in your body. Now you can treat it with medication, but I’m not much of a pill taker, so I’d rather not do that. So my option for treating this imbalance is to strive to correct it with behavior. I’m supposed to do things that used to make me feel good; get outside, exercise, be social and be creative. All those things help pull a person out of depression and they’re all things I like to do. However, and this is a big one and probably why people get deeper into depression; I not only don’t have TIME to do all those things, I don’t really feel like doing those things. I FEEL like hiding in my bathtub with the door locked and never coming out. I Feel like going back to bed with a weepy romance and a big bag of Oreo’s cookies. Lucky for me I don’t have the time for those things either! LOL! So I’m trying to do what I can. I’m going to try to finish up as much Christmas stuff as I can early so I have a bit of relaxation time before and after the holiday and maybe I’ll get some stitching in. I’m going to my Bunco group tonight after 2 months off because I’m squeezing in social interaction, even if it’s damn inconvenient and I really feel pressured by my family to not go, I’m still going. I’m going to start my Fly Lady routines again and see if I can get this house under control, because when it’s tidy and clean I’m happier. And most of all, I will not resort to comforting myself with food – I will exercise instead! If I can do all those things I’m sure I will be able to pull myself out of this depression.