Here Comes 2011

And what will I do in this coming year? Well, here are some hopes and plans- all subject to change of course- due to the fact that I am small and my God is big and he may have something different in mind.

*I am very excited about the many "firsts" with our son after we finally get him home!

*I NEED to reduce sugar intake in my diet and I am HOPING that will bring on less fatique and achiness. I am seriously feeling way too old and I plan to do the South Beach diet again after my birthday as a guide for eating low sugar foods.

*I really want to reduce the excess all around me. Our house probably wouldn't feel quite so small if we made the best use of our space which means a BIG OLE garage sale as soon as the weather warms up a bit.

*A less crabby me would be nice. I hope to help this cause by drinking a LITTLE less coffee, eating a LOT less sugar, and getting back to exercising. It got really hard to get out to the Y with the kids and since then I have not worked out! UGH.

*Being more gentle with the children is always a goal of mine- to use a soft answer and a kind look rather than a harsh word and not so happy face. By God's grace and one day at a time I will continue to strive for this!

--Now I'm wondering, what on earth am I doing? I don't usually make New Year's resolutions. Well, I guess this year I did.

What I've Been Up To

The house is full of the sound of coughing children. Which means lack of sleep for this mama with an asthmatic daughter. Thankfully, Kate seems to be improving, but we have had some long nights this week of sitting up with her. After taking her to the allergist and getting her pumped full of meds (ugh) I think the worst is over. Maddie has quite the bark and the "babies" have had runny noses for a little over a month, but I am HOPING that Monday we can get back to some kind of normal.

Last night I got to do something really fun. I got to re-learn the lesson to NEVER put your toddler or baby in a warm tub if they haven't yet done their daily business. I put Ella and Charlotte in the tub to play while I got the supper mess cleaned up. Well, just as I washed the last dish, I heard the screams and I knew exactly what had happened. I walked in the bathroom to see 3 LARGE floaters and Ella STILL SITTING in the midst of it! WHY on a night when Pete wasn't home?? So I carried the girls into my bathroom to quickly get them showered and get a diaper on Charlotte. Then I began the taks of cleaning out the bath tub. Let's just say we're going to need all new bath toys. I just wasn't going to even deal with those things so in the trash they went. Thankfully, it was mostly cheap plastic cups from restaurants and a few clearance rubber duckies and a couple other things that we've had for several years- so I don't feel too bad about trashing them.

I have a ton of pictures from our fun in October that I'll try to post soon!

No More Excuses

For most of the past 8 years I have been either pregnant or breastfeeding or both. Which makes it really easy to justify holding onto extra weight. I was always just so hungry and tended to eat however much of whatever sounded good without really thinking about it. And I've never been one to exercise for fun. So while losing a few pounds (or 2o) sounded good, I knew it would take something drastic. That's why when I heard of Isagenix through a blog friend I thought it sounded like a great place to start. As of August I was finished breastfeeding Charlotte and I am not pregnant so I figured this would be a good time to learn how to eat like a normal person and not like a growing teenager or mother eating for 2. But how to do that when I USED to be a skinny person who could eat like a horse and not gain a pound? I went straight from that skinny person to a baby nourishing person and then here I was just eating for me and not really doing it well. That's where the Isagenix toxin and fat burning cleanse comes in. I decided a couple of weeks ago to take the plunge and try the 9 day cleanse and I am thrilled to say that I have had GREAT results. I won't lie, it was hard. However, it was SOOOOO worth it because I lost 13 pounds and I am truly not craving junk. My body is recognizing that I've had enough to eat way before I get to that overly full point. And here's another strange, but wonderful result I'm noticing- when I was pregnant with Peter I started having a strange itchy mouth reaction to melons. With each pregnancy it got worse- I had the reaction to almost any fresh fruit or vegetable. This, of course, makes it very difficult to eat healthy!! Well, I've been eating apples and carrot sticks again without having that itchy mouth! A fluke? Maybe. Or maybe I needed to be cleansed from toxins and lose some poundage in order to not have the terrible itchy mouth reaction?!
If you want to know more, feel free to email me!
raisingolivesatyahoodotcom

I actually signed up to sell Isagenix because I am so happy with my results and I wanted to be able to share it so you can go to rvanderwall.isagenix.com if you want to order from me.