Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki

Good Morning, Friends!  I didn't get back around to blogging again last night because we hosted lifegroup.  When I found out we were going to host I spent the rest of the day cleaning.  I even skipped lunch!  (Not something I'd recommend)  When Michael got home he asked, "Other than cleaning all day, how was your day?"  I was all hangry and I took it out on him telling him I'd had nothing but drinks all day and I was starving.  Fortunately, I had a meal in the crockpot.  :)  And it turned out great!  I love crockpot meals, and this one was no exception!  Dump and cook, come back at dinner time and it's ready!  My kind of meal!  I saw this blog on Pinterest that talked about a month of healthy crockpot meals.  She has it set up for 3-4 meals/week, so it's a total of 13 meals (I think), so that you can have other family favorites, eat out, or eat leftovers in the other days.  I decided I'd give these recipes a try.  Yesterday was the first recipe, Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki, and it was awesome!  I served it with rice and a steamed veggie stir fry bag from Aldi's.  Yum!  Michael doesn't like teriyaki or much in the way of Asian food, especially the Sauces, but he really enjoyed this one!  Even put a lot of sauce on his meal!  That's a win in our household!  Michael and I gave this recipe 3 thumbs up!  It's quick, easy, and delicious!  We'll definitely have it again!  Check out this blog for the entire month of recipes and this post for the Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki recipe!

Also, there's no picture today.  I gobbled it down too fast.  :P

Nothing but Drinks

I've only had drinks today.  I started the day with a "detox elixir" (hot water, Apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, minced fresh ginger, and honey).  I saw these little detox things on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.  I'll try it for a week and see if it had any effect and let you know.  After that I had 16 ounces of water (remember, you need half your body weight in pounds in ounces of water, so I need 75 ounces).  After my water I had my smoothie from the previous post.  After my smoothie I had another 16 ounces of water (32 total).  Finally, I got to enjoy my first cup of coffee today.  I've been peeing like crazy, which usually happens when I stay properly hydrated.  Also, I feel full like my stomach is heavy with liquid, but also that I'm hungry for real food.  I don't think I'd rock a juice cleanse very well.  Although I'd be lying if I said I haven't been interested.  I usually lose interest when I see how much juicers cost.  Anyone have a juicer they aren't using they'd like to donate to my curious cause?  ;)  Needless to say, I'm looking forward to lunch!  A salad with shrimp!  Yum!  Review of this new recipe later (maybe...  Just found out we're hosting lifegroup tonight, so I may be intensely cleaning instead...).  Either way, have a great day!  :)

Dark Chocolate & Banana Smoothie

When we got back from vacation I didn't get back on the scale.  While the drive down there went well, once we were there we ate out a bunch and drank and I knew the calories were adding up, but on "vacation mode" I didn't care.  When I finally got back on the scale it said 150.0.  Ugh!  I'm still frustrated with myself.  Up 3.6 lbs from when we left.  Anyway, thinking positive, I got down to 133.4 before and I WILL get there, and lower, again.  This morning I was at 149.2, little by little...  Michael and I stayed up to late watching the office last night, and didn't fall asleep until around midnight, so getting up early to make his breakfast didn't happen.  Bad wife, party of one.  However, I think he dodged a bullet by letting me try this recipe first.  That's right, this isn't a rave review of a recipe.   :P  I've attached a picture of the recipe (I'm trying the other one later this week), but it needs some alterations.  For the record, I've successfully made several different smoothies, but this one didn't do it for me.  When I make it for Michael tomorrow I'll make the following changes:
-Less spinach
-Fewer Chai seeds
-Add 1 packet Stevia sweetener
I was seriously chewing this smoothie with all the spinach and Chai seeds.  I ended up adding Stevia to mine to stomach it, I'll definitely make sure to add it to Michael's version.  Now, in defense of the recipe, I am using green bananas because we went shopping yesterday and they haven't ripened up yet, so they aren't as sweet, so maybe the recipe would have been better with ripe bananas, but since the sweetness wasn't the only issue, I doubt it.  Needless to say, I won't be making this recipe again.  But, it did what it was supposed to and it nourished me, so at least there's that.  Better luck next time.  :\

An Apology for the Negativity

Good Morning, Friends!  Sorry for the negativity the last couple days.  Not what I wanted for  January.  Michael and I are reading a book, Love and Respect, together on Wednesday nights while the kids are in Kids Connect at church, before choir.  Last night as we were reading Michael said he thinks of my mood as peaks and valleys.  I get super excited about things, but I also get super down and upset about things, there are times I've considered seeing a professional or getting on medication to normalize my mood a bit more, especially the valleys.  Michael, on the other hand, is more even keeled, he may get a little excited or a little bummed, but for the most part his emotional range isn't as great as mine, for better or worse.  I think this also can be applied to our introvert/extrovert personalities and our tendencies for spontaneity.  I'm extroverted and love to be spontaneous.  Often these qualities come across as good things...  I like being around people, I feel energized by going out, being with people, hosting people.  I like do things spur of the moment, like buying a dog or a grill, I tend to act first and think later.  Michael, my introvert, my anti- spontaneous husband, is the exact opposite.  He thinks about things to the point that I think he over thinks them, he recharges by being home in the quiet, large social gatherings make him anxious, and aren't fun.  The amazing thing is that we check and balance each other.  Michael keeps me grounded when I get too excited or upset, and I get him, occasionally, to act on impulse and figure out the details later.  Tuesday was a good day to have Michael to balance me.  I was frustrated because the basement had a bunch of pee spots and smelled horrible, well, maybe frustrated isn't the right word.  I was furious.  I was crying.  I was discouraged and felt like a horrible housekeeper and pet owner.  I felt like I couldn't do anything right and our house would forever stink because I couldn't handle my job as the person in charge of our home.  I angrily saturated the floor in baking soda and vinegar until they ran out, then I measured the stairs and entire basement living room to get a price to recarpet.  I told Michael I wanted to get rid of the dogs.  He told me no.  I continued being upset, but with no more cleaning supplies I just cried and felt like a failure for hours.  Can you see yet the range of emotion I'm capable of?  When Michael got off work he went to Lowe's where he bought a black light.  Then he spent the entire evening cleaning spots, vacuuming the basement, and steam cleaning the basement.  Acts of Service, anyone??  He called me down and took care of things because I was so emotional I wasn't going to be of any use.  That's what life's like when you're married to me.  Bless my amazing husband for putting up with me.  So like I said, usually my extroverted and spontaneous tendencies are positive, but Tuesday it was good having Michael to calm and balance me.  I love him a lot, possibly in a way he's not able to feel for me based on the ways each of us feel emotion, but he loves me more than anyone else and that's amazing.  So anyway, sorry for being negative, I'll try to do better.  :\

Feeling Better

Well I spent a lot of time and 5 full sized towels working on the basement.  Then I ran out of vinegar and baking soda.  I was fed up and cranky, as you can tell from yesterday's post.  Michael got a black light on the way home and went to work on the basement.  He treated areas, let them dry, vacuumed, and steam cleaned the basement last night.  The basement smells much better now thanks to all the work we did last night.  Hopefully things stay clean for a while.  Michael and I are a little bitter towards the dogs now and they were both kenneled all night long.  Harlee started howling before 7am, so I got up and let her and Gabby out, but have no intention of letting them back in any time soon to mess up the basement.  So she's standing outside staring into the house howling at me.  Enjoy the cold and stop peeing on my floor ya dumb dog!  At least they aren't at the pound this morning...

Tough Choices

Vacation is over and reality is smacking me in the face upon my return.  Came home to a basement that REEKS of dog pee.  Felt the carpet, wet, but not soaked or warm, ie: it's been there a day or two without being sopped up.  I am at my wits end.  I hate that my house smells.  I hate that my dogs won't stop peeing on my carpet.  I hate that I spend hours upon hours trying to clean up these messes and get rid of the smell.  I am ready to get rid of my dogs and replace the carpet.  I am so over it all.  I used up all my vinegar and baking soda trying to clean up at least a dozen new urine spots in my basement with several left untreated.  I am on the verge of just sobbing.  I just can't take it anymore.

Sometimes You Just Need Chinese!

That's right, Friends, I ate Chinese food for lunch, and it was delicious!  Was it extremely healthy, probably not.  Did it taste good?  Absolutely!  I tried to exercise moderation and good choices as best I could considering what I was eating.  I scooped 5 or 6 tablespoons of chicken fried rice into my bowl, 5 pieces of sesame chicken, and 1/2 an egg roll.  I also grabbed all the broccoli that I found in the container, but as I was loading it into my bowl I thought it probably wasn't any good for my considering it was dripping in sauce, so I put back one of the pieces of chicken.  Best I could do.  I also snacked on some of Mama's veggie straws while I was in the kitchen after turning laundry (I've said before that Chinese food and snacks are my kryptonite).  I don't know how many calories the Chinese cost me, but the veggie straws were about 130.  Overall, I still think my day is going pretty well.  :)  We're off to Overland Park in the next half hour or so, I think we'll hit Ikea since Michael has never been there, then go to Nick and Maggie's just before bed, then back up bright and early to head to Minnesota!  More on that later!  ;)

Another Day Another Breakfast

Good Afternoon, Friends!  My times are going to be a little thrown off today because I have been getting everything ready for Michael and I to leave for Minnesota!  Tonight we're headed to Overland Park to stay with Michael's brother and sister-in-law, and tomorrow morning we'll drive up to Minneapolis to visit Nate!  I'm so excited!  Well, because I've been packing bags and packing things into the car, taking Dayton to and from school, and shopping for the last few items on my list, I haven't been sticking to the traditional time frames for meals.  (Another thing I wouldn't recommend, but sometimes life happens and you just have to roll with it.)  I didn't get my breakfast eaten until after 10 this morning.  So now it's 1pm and I'm not even relatively hungry for lunch.  *sigh*  So much for keeping normal food hours today!  Anyway, I told you yesterday that my breakfast was pretty standard for me.  I decided I'd show you my breakfast again today and you can see how similar they are and compare one day to another.

Today for breakfast I had a veggie and cheese omelette.  This is a go-to for me for breakfast or lunch because it's chalk full of veggies and the protein in the eggs keeps me full until lunch.  First I sautéed 1/4 of a yellow bell pepper, 1 green onion (I ran out of regular onions somehow, this nearly never happens here, I usually always have 1-2 lbs in mixed colors on hand), and 1/2 of a zucchini.  I estimate the calories for my veggies at about 35, they are also loaded with Vitamin C!  Fulfilling 170% of my daily needs!  Score!  No colds for me!  *knock on wood*  Here's all my breakfast ingredients:
Veggies - 35 cal
Egg x 2 - 140 cal (175 total)
Milk - 10 (185)
Cheese - 45 (230)
Toast - 45 (275)
Butter - 30 (305)

So that's my breakfast.  I sautéed my veggies first, then removed them and cooked my eggs in the same pan.  I added the veggies once the eggs were basically done and added cheese to the top before folding the omelette in half.  I love this meal because I can use up random veggies I have left over in my fridge.  :)

Love to chat more, but I have laundry to fold and finish and more cleaning to do before it's time to go.  Only 1 hour until naptime!  Glad my Mama is here helping today!  :D  Toodles!

Throwing Mud at the Wall

See What Sticks.

This was a phrase I used a lot with cooperating teachers while I was teaching.  We used it to describe behavior management techniques, comprehension strategies, even seating arrangements.  Today I used this phrase to describe what has become a daily (often twice daily) battle of wills at bedtime when my children are supposed to be going to sleep.  I feel like we have been fighting this battle for years, and when I think back, Avery was probably the same age Connor is or younger when these battles started, so I think I really HAVE been doing this for years.  My children refuse to go to sleep at night.  Little terrors will stay in their rooms just long enough to make Michael and I go to bed, and then, once we're comfy and cozy, they'll sneak out and play until all hours of the night.  Often we hear them, sometimes we go back and scold them and redirect them back to bed, occasionally we just ignore it and hope they don't destroy too much.  (So I guess we get what's coming to us when they really do...)  Their favorite activity is pulling the drain up in their bathroom sink, filling the sink with water, squeezing new tubes of toothpaste into the watery mess, pumping hand soap into the brew, sometimes conditioner is handy and they throw that in for good measure, then they use their solution to either brush their teeth, clean their toys, wet washcloths, hand towels, or regular towels (for costumes, of course), or simply to drip and splash all over the bathroom.  Needless to say, this has happened several times and Mommy isn't ever very happy about it.  But that's not the point of this post.  We are still trying to find the best method of keeping our kids in their beds at night.  The last week or so I have taken to sitting on the floor in Avery's room telling her to close her eyes every time she peeks until she finally falls asleep.  Without Avery leading the charge, Connor goes to sleep rather quickly in his own room.  This worked for a while, but Avery has gotten good at looking and activity like she's asleep so I leave, and soon she and Connor are playing again.  Often, when I leave assuming she's asleep, I believe Connor has already fallen asleep, but when she sees the cost is clear, I think she goes to his room and wakes him up to play with her.  They play more cooperatively together after 9pm than any other time of day.  Before we've tried locking them in their rooms (so we can get in but they can't get out), threats, bribery, routines, nothing seems to work.  So today I'm trying something new, another form of bribery, but tweaked a little.  I did something like this during their nap times when they were little, but tonight I decided to pull it out of my bag, dust it off, and give it another shot.  I put 5 m&m's in two bowls.  A pink bowl for Avery, a green bowl for Connor.  And I told them I was setting a timer for 30 minutes.  I warned them that every time they even opened their bedroom doors, I would eat one of their pieces of candy.  My hope is that in the 30 minutes of quiet, they'll fall asleep without getting a sugar rush right before bed.  ;)  Of course, I'm good for my word.  If they stay in, I'll take their candy into their rooms, even if they're asleep.  And if they're not, they'll still get the candy, because they earned it, and tomorrow night we'll try 35 minutes (although we won't technically be here tomorrow, so Monday night).  Right now they have 10 minutes left.  I haven't heard Avery in a while but Connor is still talking to himself.  Neither of them has stepped foot out of his or her room.  I'm pretty impressed!  Here's hoping that with this quiet time, even if they aren't totally asleep, they'll fall asleep quickly after their reward.  Wish me luck!  How much could 5 little m&m's hurt, right???  ;)  Night all!

Dinner

Good Evening, Friends!  Thought I'd finish today by telling you about my dinner and my total calories for the day.  Today has been pretty standard as far as the types of food I usually eat.  Some days I snack more, some days I have a heavier lunch and dinner (today my dinner was kind of light), some days I have to make good, low cal choices throughout the day because I'm eating out in the evening (and I might not know how many calories I end up eating while I'm out).  Every day is a little different, I just have to be conscientious of what I'm eating and be careful not to go overboard.  Here's how my food day ended.

Between lunch and dinner I had another cup of coffee (35 cal total).  For dinner I had a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich (approximately 310 cal total).  So let's total it all up...
Breakfast - 250
Morning Snack - 60 (310 total)
Lunch - 450 (760)
Afternoon Snack - 35 (795)
Dinner - 310 (1105)

As you can see, I didn't quite get to my 1200 calories today.  I consider anything from 1100-1300 to be a good day.  But I wanted to see where my total was before I indulged in a little dessert.  ;)  So now that I know I'm under, I'm going to enjoy the last Ding Dong in the box in the cabinet!  :D

Welp.  I take that back.  I made the mistake of looking at the back of the box.  I thought it was going to be about 150 calories, but turns out it's over 300!  So I decided I better not.  :\  Rats.  Darn good choices.  :P  Oh well.  Another time.  :)  Hope you guys had a good day and made good food choices.  Wish you all the best on your health goals in 2017!

Average Lunch

Good Afternoon, Friends!  I thought I'd continue what I started this morning showing what a typical food day looks like for me.  For lunch today I had leftovers of dinner from last night.  I do this for a couple reasons.
1- Food doesn't sit in my fridge long enough to go bad.
2- It's quick.
3- It's easy for Michael to grab leftovers out of the fridge and take to work, then I don't have to get quite as many meals prepared throughout the week.

Last night for dinner I went out with a friend, so I didn't actually eat this for dinner.  Instead, I ate a healthy grilled shrimp salad from Applebees (370 cal!  Woot!).  But this is what Michael and the kids had and there were leftovers for lunch today.

When I started changing the way I ate and prepared my food I measured and weighed my food to know the exact amount of calories I was ingesting.  I also used MyFitnessPal to log everything.  I highly recommend these two strategies to anyone starting to change the way they eat in order to lose weight.  It keeps you a lot more accountable when you can see how many calories are associated with every last thing you eat.  That being said, I've been at this for a year and a half and I don't keep as careful track anymore.  So I can't give you the EXACT calories that my lunch was today.  :\  Sorry.  But I ran some numbers into MyFitnessPal and I estimate the meal to be about 450 calories(ish).

Lunch:
Baked Chicken Parmesean
Buttered Brussel Sprouts
Whole Wheat Angel Hair Spaghetti

Again, sorry that I didn't weigh and measure everything to get you exact numbers.  If this meal looks good to you I recommend both recipes!  Try them out!

Have you checked out those calorie calculators yet?  Read my breakfast tips post from this morning and check them out!  (Links included!)

Healthy Breakfast Tips

Good Morning, Friends!  I ended up talking to two fairly random people about food and dieting yesterday and thought maybe I should begin blogging about such things again.  :)

I've referenced MyFitnessPal and their blog several times before, but one article really sticks in my mind for breakfast tips.  I remember reading this article shortly before I began eating healthier and it shaped the way I planned my meals over the last year and a half.  I was surprised to read that I wasn't eating enough and needed to eat more for breakfast.  Instead of trying to stay between 100 and 200 calories, I now aim for 300-400.  It sounds strange, but you really won't lose weight well if you eat too little.  I find my weight loss is at it's best when I eat right at 1200 calories/day, not much more or much less. 

This is the number that works best for me, but is not necessarily the number that works for you, be sure to consult calorie calculators like this one or this one or this one to find appropriate, healthy calorie ranges.  I like to consult at least three different calculators and average the results to find a number to stick to.  Your weight loss will be the best when you're eating just the right amount for your body.  You have to consider your activity level, starting weight, and how much you want to lose weekly.  Please do it the healthy way.  :)

Here's what I ate for breakfast today, which is a fairly regular breakfast for me.  I was under the 25-30% mark, so not long after I finished I ate a couple mandarin oranges to get my breakfast calorie total up.  I wholeheartedly believe (from experience) that one of the keys to healthy, safe weight loss is not skipping meals.  Eat every few hours to keep your metabolism going throughout the day.  Long periods without actually slow your metabolism which isn't going to help you in the long or short term.  Once again, do it the healthy way.

Breakfast:
Egg x 2 - 140 cal
Toast - 45 cal
Butter - 30 cal
Coffee - 5 cal
Creamer - 30 cal
Stevia - 0 cal

Total - 250 cal
Again, I added a couple mandarin oranges to get up to 310 cal for breakfast.  Surprisingly, I feel stuffed!  That will help me make it to lunch and not snack between now and then (when I get in trouble and forget to make healthy choices).

What did you have for breakfast this morning?  Was it 25-30% of your daily caloric needs?  Take some time today to try the caloric calculators and determine exactly how many calories are going to help you optimize your weight loss.  Try hitting that number exactly for a week and see how your weight loss goes.  :)  Happy Wednesday!

Relaxing Morning and Breakfast in Bed!

Everyone who knows my husband knows that he's a pretty amazing guy.  He takes good care of me and the kids and does a great deal to make sure we're all healthy and happy.  Today he went out of his way to make my morning great!  We don't have any plans for this weekend, so I didn't get in a big hurry to get up and out of bed this morning.  When the kids got tired of snuggling in our bed and started getting rowdy, Michael got up with them and took them out of our room so I could rest some more, something he does on a semi-regular basis on the weekends.  After some rest and checking my various social media accounts, Michael came back into our room with my new tray he got me for Christmas!  It's a serving tray with fold out legs that also works for breakfast in bed!  He had made me an egg sandwich, bacon, yogurt, and milk!  Later he came back with coffee too!  Complete with whipped cream and caramel drizzled on top in my new "Don't let the muggles get you down" mug that I got from Sis for Christmas (a few days late because it didn't come in in time).  The coffee was the eggnog flavored coffee that I also got from Sis!  It just tasted creamy with some additional spices, don't be freaked out by the eggnog coffee thing.  ;)  What a pleasant way to start my day!  And, to make it even better, when I finished my coffee I noticed words at the bottom on my cup.  My sister got me an even cooler cup than I initially realized!!!  The words at the bottom of my cup said, "You've just been poisoned".  I absolutely love it!  Needless to say, I'm having a pretty splendid day full of fun surprises!  I'm hoping Michael and I will get a chance to spend a good chunk of the day playing board games, but I think he's going to watch some of his new Star Wars movies (he got all 6 for his birthday).  We watched episode 1 last night before bed, it was the first time I'd ever seen it!  Hope you're all having a nice Saturday as well!

Love and Peace,
Jen

Resolutions Revisited

130 by 30

That's the goal, here's how the first week has gone: AMAZING!
-Down 4.6 lbs (water weight melts off at the beginning really easy, but I'll take what I can get)
-Went down each day this week except one (where I stayed the same as the day before)
-Continued to go down despite going out to dinner and dessert with Michelle, having cake and ice cream for Michael's birthday, and going out to dinner for Michael's birthday
-Under 150 again!  (Started at 151.4 on Dec. 31, now at 146.8 on Jan. 7)
-Only 16.8 lbs to go!  Exactly 3 months to get it done, need to average 5.6 lbs/month or 1.4 lbs/week
-Feeling a little thinner when I look in the mirror
-Not snacking as often
-Not drinking as much coffee
-Thinking positive (which is easy when the weight is coming off quickly and easily), January's Health Goal

As exciting as it is to give such a great report this week, I need to be realistic with myself and know that these types of results are limited to the first 7-10 days and I will see a leveling off in the weight loss to more reasonable numbers each week.  However, I do love the rapid water weight loss to give me motivation and excitement to keep going.  :)  Next week I would expect to see 2-3 lbs lost, and following that I would expect 0.5-2 lbs lost each week (if I stick to my appropriate calorie allotment).

Challenges coming up...

Next weekend we're going to Minnesota to visit Nate, that will be a decent amount of eating out plus "vacation" mindset.  Michael and I have already discussed a few ideas to help with road trip weight gain.  We talked about packing healthy snacks for the car, not just junk like we usually do: carrots, apples, tangerines, celery with peanut butter and raisens, babybel cheese, yogurt, beef jerkey, and granola.  I've gone out twice this week and still managed to lose weight, so choosing the right menu items will also be key.  I think being out and about will help as well.  I tend to snack a lot at home because I'm home all day and it's convenient.  I think not having snacks readily available (or only healthy ones) will be good.  The trip is really my biggest challenge coming up, I got through Michael's birthday week fine and the rest of January should be fairly easy.  I'm going out to dinner with Nate's girlfriend, Kaydee, who lives here in Wichita on Tuesday.  But after being successful at two dinners out in the last week, I'm feeling confident in my restraint and healthy choices.  Still, I'm going to try to gear us towards a healthier restaurant and check the menu ahead of time for a good healthy option.  :)

Hope you all have had a good first week in the new year!  Stay tuned for another post soon featuring a couple new Christmas presents and my relaxing morning.  :)

Happy Birthday, Michael!!!

Today is my sweet hubby's birthday!!  I love him sooooo much!!!  He is an amazing husband, a wonderful dad, and the best partner in life.  Today he turns 29, the last year of his twenties.  For a few months we're the same age.  ;)  Today is also the day we met, TEN YEARS AGO!!  It's hard to believe we've been a part of each other's lives for so long, but time flies by when you're with the one you love.  Michael's celebration is getting spread over a couple of days.  Yesterday he got free Starbucks for his birthday, I took it to him at work.  I baked his birthday (cup)cake yesterday afternoon and we had cake and ice cream after dinner with the kids.  This morning I got up early and made him pancakes for breakfast!  I tried to make the number 29, but totally failed.  There's a reason Michael is the birthday pancake maker in our family.  ;)  He appreciate the thought at least.  Tonight Michael and I are going out to dinner and the kids and I have a few presents for him.  It's not as much fuss as I usually like to make over someone's birthday, but that's why I made sure to do it up right in July when I surprised him with a half birthday celebration.  ;)  I love him so much and wish him the happiest birthday!  Make sure you wish him one too!

"Getting my 'dad' on"

My dorky husband just got up out of bed and tucked his t-shirt into his sweatpants.  I laughed and asked what he was doing.  He said, "Isn't it obvious?  I'm getting my 'dad' on!"  Then he laughed and went to send the kids to bed.  :P  What a nerd.  ;)  Hope he ends up having a wonderful birthday tomorrow!  :)

New Year's Resolutions

Good morning, Friends!  Hope 2017 is finding you all well.  I figured I'd get on here and share my New Year's Resolutions in order to keep myself just a little bit accountable or to have record that I made resolutions at all so I have something to look back on next year to assess my progress.

First off, on New Year's Eve, Michael and I wrote down several different goals and changes we wanted to make in our lives.  We focused on health goals and financial goals, choosing a new aspect to focus on each month (ideally building on the month before).  In January our health goal is to "Think Positive."  We both have some weight that we want to lose.  We went up a bit (over 15 lbs in my case) over the fall and winter and want to get back down to those ideal Spring and Summer weights and bodies.  However, starting to really hit a diet hard (especially in January) can be rough sometimes.  It's easy to get down on ourselves.  So this month we're being positive about our accomplishments, what we're already happy about, and where we're going from here.  Of course, making some dietary changes like more water and less snacking has been helping our weight and therefore making us more positive and hopeful for the journey ahead, but even in the times when our weight plateaus or we snack a day and end up going up a bit the next day, we're looking for positives each day.  Even if it's something as simple as the scale stayed the same but I look skinnier to me or my jeans fit a little better, that's positive.  Even if it's, the scale went up, but when I went out to eat with my friend I ate a salad, drank water, and did my best to make good choices, that's positive.  So in January we're not putting a big, strict goal on ourselves, we just want to start the year off in the right mindset.

Our financial goal for January is to sit down and assess our financial situation.  After the holidays things always seem to be a bit tighter.  Fortunately, we're be doing our taxes soon, and that usually ends up with a decent tax return.  We'll have taxes to pay for converting my KPERS to a Roth IRA, but we should still end up with a decent return.  Also, Michael and I are considering diversifying our retirement contributions, especially in June when Michael is due for his next raise.  Up until this point we've added more money to his 401k contributions at work.  Between what he's putting in and the company is matching, he's got 13% each month going to his 401k.  However, the company is only matching (1/2%) his first 6%.  So he's putting in an extra 4% each month that's not being matched.  While that's all fine and good, we're considering putting his next raise elsewhere.  Our guy at Edward Jones is great!  He's managing portfolios for Avery, Connor, and, like I said, a small Roth IRA for me from my couple years of teaching.  Depending on how big Michael's raise is in June, we'd like to put another 3-5% per month into another account with Frank to mix things up and diversify our retirement accounts a bit more.  Along with all those long term plans, Michael and I want to sit down and take a look at where all our money is going each month.  We live fairly frugally, but there are places we could cut back to keep our savings growing and keep our monthly bills from being so tight.  So that is another goal of ours this month, to assess where we are and plan where we can make changes to better our financial health.

Finally, I told Michael yesterday, if I narrowed my New Year's Resolutions down to one item, it would be: 130 by 30.  As I mentioned before, I put on weight over the fall and winter.  During the spring and summer months I stayed around 135 lbs, give or take a couple pounds.  September was a particularly bad food month when I went up nearly 10 lbs and then continued to trend up through the end of the year.  The last day of 2016 I was at (basically) an all year high for my weight.  In December I went over 150 for the first time in all of 2016.
**Sidenote: 150 was what I weighed when I got pregnant with Avery, so even at my highest for the year, I was at or below my pre-pregnancy weight.  So as far as thinking positive goes, even though I'm up, I'm still healthier than I was 5 years ago so I think that's a good thing.
Since 2017 has begun, Michael and I have tried to eat healthier.  I pulled out recipes from my healthy recipe binder that we already had the ingredients (or most of them) for, so we only spent $30 in groceries this week.  Today is only the 4th of January, but I'm happy to report that I am down 2.6 lbs!  I have 18.8 lbs to go, but I am trending down and have been every day so far.  Some days I go down as little as 0.2 lbs, today I was down 1.2 lbs.  I was especially excited this morning, because I went out to dinner (and dessert) with my good friend Michelle last night.  Making healthy choices when I go out to eat is a struggle for me, but I did it yesterday!  I ate soup and salad and they only cost $7!  Then, when we went to a hipster bakery for dessert afterwards, I only ate a little of my brownie and brought the rest home to Michael.  I was THRILLED when I got on the scale this morning and saw a number in the 140's for the first time of 2017!

Anyway, back to my resolution...  I turn 30 in a hair over 3 months.  It's a steep weight loss goal, but I would like to weigh 130 (or less) when I turn 30.  In June of 2016 I weighed the lowest of the entire year at 133.4.  My goal was 130 lbs and I want supposed to get my new clothes until I reached it, but we were going to Kansas City and I was almost there, so I went ahead and went on my shopping spree.  This year I'd like to hit that goal that I set for myself in June 2015, to get all the way down to 130 lbs. We'll see how it goes.  At the very least I'd like to hit 130 this year, but if I could do it by April 7th, that would be tremendous!  Time will tell.  2017 has started off well, I just hope I can continue to build on that momentum.

So those are my biggest goals for this year.  Pretty standard as far as resolutions go.  Stay tuned each month as I discuss different health and financial focus points each month this year.  February is a dual month, our health goal is the same as our financial goal, no eating out.  That means we'll be having date night in for Valentine's Day, but we're looking forward to these different goals each month and to see how they improve our health and our finances.  :)  Thanks for reading!  More later!  Love ya!
-Jen

Last Day Off :(

Well, my friends, the holiday season is at a close.  My favorite time of the year is over.  The best part of the year that I wait all year for is gone and the bleak winter is all that's left.  *sad face*

Today has been great!  Michael got the day off for New Years and we all enjoyed a nice quiet day at home together.  I'll have one more day "off" with kids tomorrow before Dayton starts school again.  It's been nice to spend the days at home without having to run to the school a couple times a day.  Oh well, summer will be here before I know it and then we'll be at home for the days again.  :)

With the holidays over, our regular craziness starts up again.  Mondays are gymnastics, Wednesdays are Kids Connect and choir at church, Thursdays are Life Group, and Sundays are church.  Then we try to fit in everything else in the spaces.  Craziness!

I'm having drinks with one of my oldest friends, Michelle, tomorrow!  Michael's birthday is on Thursday!  We're going to visit Nate, in Minnesota, in a week and a half!  And on the 18th Michael and I will celebrate 10 years together!  January is going to be plenty busy!

Hope you all are looking forward to a nice January as well!  Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Good Morning, Friends!  It's almost an hour into 2017 and I'm feeling optimistic and hopeful and thought since I'm not quite ready to sleep I'd blog a moment.

I wish you all happiness in 2017.  I wish you peace and love and joy.  I hope that you treat others with kindness the same way you'd want them to treat you and those you love.  I pray that we all give each other ample grace and patience and mercy this year.  I want everyone to give their beat and show their best and put their best foot forward.  I hope everyone rises to the occasion and this year is awesome!

I haven't been looking forward to this year for the last couple of months, but I hope that 2017 proves me wrong. 

I am looking forward to a few things this year, though!  In just a couple weeks Michael and I are going to Minnesota to see Nate!  It's been about 6 months since we've seen him and we miss him terribly.  We're excited to go see him finally!  Michael and I are planning a family vacation in March (if the dates work with our hostess) to Texas.  The kids did really well on our roadtrip to Colorado last spring, so we figure we'll push our luck and try for another family vacation this year.  In October Michael and I get to go back to Vegas for his biannual business trip!  So many fun trips to look forward to.

There's a lot more to look forward to that I'd love to talk more about, but Michael is tired and ready to turn the lights out, so I'm going to turn in.  Happy New Year, Everyone!  Love you!  Wishing you an awesome year!

Merry Christmas!

Good Morning, Friends!  It's been about a month since I've blogged.  Sorry it's been so long!  I got off facebook and haven't been back on in any permanent capacity since the election.  For a while I continued to blog in lieu of Facebook, but then the holidays caught up to me and even that went by the wayside (which shouldn't have stopped, because I have a half-finished blog talking about how I'm thankful for my hubby, and I really should have finished that one).  Today is Christmas, which means it's going to be crazy busy, but for now I'm up (too excited to sleep, up since 6, out of bed since 645) and the kids are still in bed so I thought I'd take a moment to blog here in the quiet, some about the last month, some just randomness.  :)  But if the blog ends suddenly, it's because the kids woke up and Christmas had to begin.  ;)

During the fall I made a "bucketlist" of things I wanted to do.  I like to round my seasons into nice even months, so when I say "fall" I mean Sept-Nov.  I'm pleased to say that we completed almost everything on our list!  It was really fun making time to go do some things we don't normally do.  :)  In a last minute effort to complete another thing on our list, we even took a walk around the block in the fog on Thanksgiving morning.  :P  We didn't get to everything, though.  While we went to Manhattan during football season, all of our season ticket holding friends were out of town that weekend, so we didn't get to tailgate.  I worked on knitting a scarf for Avery, but I didn't finish it (though it's definitely long enough at this point, especially for her).  We did get our apple picking done, we basked pies and made soups and chili, went on a hay rack ride and talked about what we were thankful for.  I liked having the list, that encouraged us to do a few things that we normally don't do, so much that I made one for winter too!  We're working our way through it and having a ball!  :)  Always making memories!

Some of the fun things we've done so far with the kids this month are: carriage rides in Bradley Fair, writing letters to Santa, hot cocoa, and driving around to look at Christmas lights!  Having a list of fun to-do activities for the winter will be great in the next few months when the winter is in full force.  I'm not a huge fan of the winter months so it will be good to have some activities to keep it interesting.  ;)

We have been quite busy at church throughout the holiday season.  We were in choir again this year, which is always busy around the holidays.  Our church also does Drive Through Christmas where we tell the Christmas Story outside with real actors, scenes, and a track that guests play in their cars to narrate what they're seeing.  Michael and I were Mary and Joseph at the Inn again this year.  It was a little chillier than last year and I felt like I was out of commission for a week after the cold I had got worse, but it was all for a good cause.  4400 people drove through, saw the show, and heard the story of Christmas!  We also collected over 3000 lbs of food for the food bank and to help families at McConnell.  The whole event was a huge success!  Along with Drive Through Christmas, our church has Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve services.  We only attended the one Friday night this year, as the choir didn't have to sing and Michael didn't have to play, freeing up our schedule a bit to choose.  Also, since Christmas is on a Sunday this year, we're having one big family service at 10 this morning.  We considered not going, but the kids get to wear their pj's to church, which is a very rare treat.  Mean old Mommy never lets them leave the house with their jammies on generally.  :P  So we'll be back at church again in a few hours.

We've had a lot of different Christmas celebrations and parties so far this season and several more to come.  So far we've had a Lifegroup Christmas Party (at Bricktown Brewery, great sweet potato fries, I got spa socks in the White elephant gift exchange), Christmas at Grandma Heorman's house (bread bowls and soup, yum yum yum, I got a new wallet and cash for patio furniture!  Woot!), and Christmas at Mama and Daddy's house in Towanda (Super tasty Hawaiian roll sandwiches of every kind you can imagine, tons and tons of presents, my Mama loves to give, lots of fun nerd presents, kitchen stuff, and my Jordy Nelson jersey that I've been wanting for years)!  #EMAW #WildcatNation #BleedPurple #JordyNelson #TalkingInHashtagsIsFun  It's been a wonderful holiday season so far!  The kids have been spoiled rotten by everyone!  Especially my mom and dad, who got them each a Kindle Fire Kids tablet.  :)  They played with them all day and night yesterday until the batteries were dead.  :P  But the spoiling is still just beginning.  They have yet to open their presents from us and Santa, one of which includes a car!  Plus we're going to Glenn and Linda's tomorrow, so I'm sure there will be more grandparent spoiling.  ;)  I just love seeing the happiness on their faces that this time of year brings!  It's all been so much fun!

Well, we're giving them 10 more minutes, until 8, to sleep, and then we're waking them up (because we do have church to get to and I'm sure they'll want presents first).  I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Hopefully you'll be hearing a bit more from me soon now that the holiday craziness is coming to a close.  :)  Merry Christmas, Friends and Family!  Much love from our family to yours!