Controversial

I normally stay away from overly debatable issues, although from time to time a good healthy discussion ensues. After reading the article on wthr this morning about Chick-fil-a, I felt compelled to give my two-cents, for what that's worth.

The entire issue seems to revolve around discrimination, yet the politician is discriminating against the owner of the company for his beliefs. Nowhere have I seen something stating that the restaurant chain refuses to hire anyone that is gay, just simply that the owner does not believe in gay marriage. The owner has his rights to his own beliefs, right, wrong, or otherwise. I think it's sad that this is even an issue. You scream equal rights but in the process you violate rights of others.

 I'm not anti-or pro gay. I feel that the only one to judge the hearts of anyone is God. I have worked with and know people who are gay and they are just as good of people as heterosexuals I know. They are brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles, people with good hearts who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, NO DIFFERENT than myself.

That politician, I'm sure, has his own issues that he will one day have to stand before God & be judged for. The owner of Chick-fil-a, same with him. Blocking a business from building a store because of the owners belief is as much discrimination as blocking a person from working at that store.

These are my thoughts and feelings on the matter, agree or not agree, that is your right. :)

Random mom thoughts for the day

Why can't one room stay clean for more than 1 hour?

Where does all of this dust come from?

 I can only rearrange my living room so many times before I'm putting it back the way it originally started.

 School needs to start soon so I can send the big ones off, and send 1/2 the little ones to preschool each day.

Does it really matter where you sit on the couch? That temper tantrum really wasn't necessary.

I wish my husband would stop leaving his socks on the dining room floor. 2 days in a row now.

Is it really 5 o'clock somewhere? Why not here?

I really don't care if she looked at you, if he got that toy before you did, or if she told you to jump on the couch. I don't want to hear it. I've told you to quit tattling way too many times already today.

Lunch? You just ate breakfast.

Hunted

My side yard looks like a bird massacre has taken place, feathers everywhere. Oh, and a dead bat. Not sure what has turned our cat into such a hunter but he's a pretty dang good one for having no front claws. Add this to his tally of baby rabbits and you'd think we weren't feeding him, but he's inside eating every day.

Is this normal cat behavior?

County Fair

This week is the ever-so-wonderful Rush County 4H Fair. The weeks leading up to it, between the end of school and the last project being turned in, are rather stressful. This year was no different. Missy & Allie both took dog obedience, which means every Tuesday night classes from February till June. Missy took 5 other projects; veterinary science, foods, chicken poster, photography, and painting. Stephen took painting, construction toys, and cat poster.
The last project, foods, went in on Friday, and I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. We had projects due every.day.last.week. The benefits of these projects far outweigh the stress of getting them completed, so yes, we will continue to go through this each year as long as the kids are wanting to sign up.
We went to the fair last night, first stop was the Root Building to see the results of their work. I cannot be more proud of them.

Stephen's Cat Poster

Stephen:
Painting - BLUE
Cat Poster - RED
Construction toys - BLUE

Missy's Photography

Missy:
Dog Obedience (Class 1B) - RED
       Showmanship (Junior Class)- CHAMPION
Foods - BLUE
Veterinary Science - BLUE
Chicken Poster - RESERVE CHAMPION
Photography - BLUE
Painting - RED








Allie:
Dog Obedience (Cloverbud Class)- GRAND CHAMPION
       Showmanship (Novice Class)- CHAMPION AND RESERVE GRAND IN OVERALL SHOWMANSHIP

Stephen's Painting

Missy's Vet Science

Missy's Painting

Missy's Chicken Poster

We had a wonderful time at the midway with the kids. We have finally hit a stage where we feel comfortable letting the two older kids go off and ride rides, checking in with us of course, by themselves. Allie & Kendra stayed with us and kept us running between all of the different kids rides. We really enjoyed the time with the kids, and for the first time, no meltdowns! Kendra is now exactly 42" tall, so she's able to do more rides on her own. She was LOVING it. She was turned away once from a fun house by a guy who wouldn't even check her height, even though the guy running it before him had checked her height and let her go on. She was crushed, sobbing huge tears, but we were able to distract her with a ride on the merry-go-round.

I may need to be reminded of this in the future, but I love where my family is at right now. The kids are beginning to be able to be more independent, outings are becoming more enjoyable than stressful, and it is great to see them getting along.

God Bless.

Camp

Our two oldest attended church camp last week. I love seeing how fired up for the Lord they were when they returned! Our son, who is normally quiet and reserved, was dancing around our house singing all of the new praise songs he had learned.
Thank you Lord for such an amazing place for our children to go and learn about you!

good, and getting better

     Summer has begun, and I'm feeling great! I don't have official numbers to share but from January until June, I've dropped around 10lbs and at least 6 inches total in various areas. The weight loss and inches are just a bonus though, my real success has been in how I FEEL.
When I first heard about Juice Plus from my friend back in February, one thing that really stuck out to me was when I heard someone say, " We are not a society with a vitamin deficiency, we are a society with a whole food deficiency."
   
     Once hearing about how Juice Plus helps to fill that gap, between the variety of fruits and veggies my family needs to be eating and what we do eat, I ordered, and have never regretted it. As you can read in previous blog posts from my first couple of months on the product, I noticed changes pretty quickly. I've tried to be more aware of our health, making small changes & sticking to them then adding a new change in. We are well on our way to becoming a healthier family by drinking more water, consuming more fresh or frozen fruits and veggies, less packaged foods, and taking our JP+ on a daily basis.

    Six months ago, my typical breakfast would have been a bowl of cereal with 2% or whole milk or maybe a bowl of instant oatmeal. Not too bad, right? Lunch was either leftovers from the night before or whatever I made the kids that they didn't eat.. which could only give me a couple of baked chicken nuggets and some mixed veggies. Supper was usually where you'd see a few more veggies, maybe a side salad. I was not eating enough, nor was I eating enough of the good, whole foods my body needed. My typical day now consists of a breakfast of either fruit & greek yogurt or scrambled eggs & spinach and a smoothie of almond milk, spinach, and whatever fruit sounds good. I have a snack mid morning of fruit or another smoothie, usually a JP Complete smoothie, then lunch varies, but 95% of the time contains fruit, veggie, and a lean protien source. My carb intake has went down, and whatever carbs I do take in are whole grain. Do I cave once in awhile and eat something not-so-good? Sure, but I always try to stay within reason. I don't deprive myself, I'm not starving all the time. Actually it's quite the opposite, I'm rarely hungry and have to remind myself that I need to eat.

      I still have a long way to go. If you look at it by a scale or BMI charts, I have a very long way to go especially at the slow rate those are changing. I really don't mind. Losing the weight slowly is a good thing, so they say!
 
      I know there are positive changes going on in my body, disease prevention is among the top on that list. I still have not had a migraine since February either other than one after a physical therapy session, and another headache last week after trying to run on the treadmill for 2 days.  I have noticed little things, like my nails, as annoying as it is to me, are growing so fast. My gums don't bleed when I brush my teeth at all, not that they did it on a regular basis before, but at least once a week I would notice that happening. I love having more energy, feeling more in control of what is going on, and most of all I KNOW my family is benefiting from the prevention that comes from a healthier lifestyle and being on Juice Plus. I have goals of getting more physical activity worked into our days, and eventually getting myself into a better workout routine. Raising 4 kids of my own, and having 6 others entrusted to my care on a Monday - Friday basis makes it tough. We attempted a bike ride today with 7 of the 10 here, but although the kids got some movement, I spent most of the time stopping and waiting for the shorter legged munchkins to catch up. Our evenings are filled with activities for 4H, Scouts, appointments, grocery shopping, working on the house & yard. I know I NEED to carve out time, but it's much easier said than done. I am not giving up on the notion though.

     So, now that I've come this far, I have to set myself a new goal. By then end of another six months, another 10lbs would be nice, but first of all I want to find that workout routine that will work for me. For my family goal, I want to get the kids drinking more water consistantly and keep my husband on track for eliminating soda from being a daily drink, which he's in his 3rd week of staying away from. *pats hubby on the back*

Finding myself..

It's been awhile. Things have been good around here, very busy. I've been using all of my new-found energy to keep moving, in the house or out. The kids are doing well, excelling in school, growing like weeds. The mid-grading period progress reports came home last week and they're doing well for the most part, with two of them needing to work on some areas. Work is the same, except I'm not nearly as exhausted which helps me to get through my day in a much better mood. Patrick is working his rear off, coming home from work and doing the bathroom remodel nearly every night. I sure love that man. :)

I just returned from a trip. I purchased a plane ticket a month or so ago, nervously excited. Excited because I was getting on a plane which I haven't done since I was 15, and I was going to see Becky again as well as meeting Leah. Nervous because I haven't been away from my family for that long, ever. Also, I can't remember a time since Missy was born almost 12 years ago, that I did anything by myself for a long period of time. Sure, I've been to a conference in Ft. Wayne with my church ladies, but I was with familiar people and only for one over-night. Beyond that, I've always had the kids Patrick with me over the last 7 years. The fear of, "who am I without my kids & husband?" really set in. Being on my own 100% made me nervous.. I didn't have my identity with me. People were going to see ME, not a mom or wife, just me.

I learned a lot this past weekend. I DO have an identity of my own, and it pairs quite nicely with my family-based identity. I learned that I can (and do) enjoy shopping. I learned that I can form great friendships not based through my kids. I can laugh, feel, enjoy things around me, and be my own person without feeling guilty about doing something for myself. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I also learned that I really, really enjoy hiking.
Becky had asked me what I wanted to do while in Utah, and the only thing I told her was that I wanted to see the red rocks.

After arriving Friday morning around 12:30am, Bec & I took off around 8:30 towards St. George Utah. We meet up with Leah, Holly, and Robbin and had lunch, then headed to Zion National Park. We choose a 5 mile hike from the information at the welcome center that took us to see the Double Arch Alcove in the Kolob Canyon area. We had so much fun that the 4 hour hike, aka 4 hrs of cardio, didn't seem at all like a workout. The views were spectacular. I was in shear awe at every turn. I also did something else I rarely do, which is getting IN the pictures, and I had fun doing it.

I have so many pictures, but I won't overload this blog with too many.. just a handful of my favorites.

 It was wonderful to get to meet Holly & Robbin
(Robbin above, far left. Holly to the right, far left)

and the last two.. *gulp* showing how happy I was, not caring about my size or the camera.. just having fun.

Now, for a little mushiness...

I came home to a clean house, happy kids, and a worn out hubby. He greeted me at the airport with a beautiful red rose, a big hug & kiss, then listened to me talk the whole way home.  He not only spent the weekend with the kids, but he made progress on the bathroom AND painted our bedroom for me.

Thank you for everything Patrick. I love you so much and am so blessed to have you for my husband. I cannot wait to take you along on a wonderful adventure like this.

And for Bec, I want to say thank you for an awesome weekend. Your family is beautiful, you are such a great woman & friend. You're amazing for all you do for your family, for your parents, and for everyone else that is blessed enough to be touched by your wonderful friendship and caring personality.

Give Ryan a big hug from me & tell him thank you also.

Leah, oh Leah. Your spirit is even more wonderful in person than online. I knew you were crazy, and meeting you in person just confirmed it. It also confirmed how much of an inspiration you are. You're a beautiful, strong, determined woman. I know that you're going to make it through the tough times right now and come out with your fighting spirit. Your kids are blessed to have you for their mommy.

If only I had half their energy..

How many of us say or think this daily when we look at our children running circles around us? I know I have, a lot. The beginning of this year I decided that I was tired of thinking it and was going to do something about it. I didn't know what to do or how to do it but I started with small changes.

 I turned to a friend for help, Jessie, who is a mother of two and an inspiration to a lot of our group of friends. Her blog is only a small reflection of her. She's part of a group of women I met 6 years ago online, of which over 70 of us still communicate on a regular basis. It's a bond that's hard to explain, but those of us who are there just 'get it'.

Jessie helped me get started through small challenges and tips. She couldn't do it all though. I had to make a commitment to myself and be determined to change myself. Not from the outside, not on a scale, but INSIDE. It's not something that I can easily explain, but over the course of a month or two, something just clicked in my head. There was no diet, no workout regimen, no miracle cure for my lack of energy, bad moods and self-induced social isolation.

I have changed the way I look at food, from eating as little as I could to eating what my body needs. I always considered our diet as good, decent. Whole grains, lean meats, veggies & fruits. Jessie & a few other ladies in a facebook running group helped me realize my body was in starvation mode. I tracked calories for awhile and I was only consuming 1000-1100 per day. I added smoothies to my routine, and eventually made other changes in what I ate. I'll be honest, the scale has not changed much. Initially, I did lose a few pounds, but I'm staying pretty steady right now. I've added more variety of veggies and even incorporated them into my normal, daily foods. For an example, breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs, but I chopped up about half a cup of baby spinach & cooked it into the eggs, topped it with some homemade salsa, a little sour cream and some guacamole. My homemade salsa had tomato, onion, carrot, green pepper, some jalapeno pepper and a little bit of another pepper I cannot remember the name of right now. There is very little salt in my homemade, canned salsa in comparison to store bought. The guacamole is store bought however, Wholley Gaucamole brand. This is roughly 210 calories.

After seeing a show about milk allergy, I decided to cut dairy and see how I'd feel. It did make a big difference in the bloated feeling I was constantly getting, so I've stuck to very limited dairy.

Jessie gave me some workout challenges, which we had to modify slightly from time to time with my back & shoulder issues but I did them. I cannot run like I would LOVE to do, but I can walk. And walk. And walk.

If you follow my blog at all, you also know about me starting Juice Plus about a month ago. With all of the other changes I had already made, it was the icing on the cake. Within a couple of weeks I felt my energy increase, my mental clarity improve, and my daily mood drastically change.

I can honestly say that I've not felt this good physically in a very, very long time. Mentally, I'm clearer than I can every remember being, and emotionally I feel great, I'm happy. I'm able to half-way keep up with the kids and I'm not worn out by the afternoon hours. Feeling overall better has helped me to deal with things much better than before, keeping things calmer and more peaceful around the house. I'm not yelling at the kids nearly as much as before. All of this is without any major weight loss. It's all through nutrition and making mental commitments to change.

I can happily say, I have half their energy now. Life, is good.

This and that

Bathroom:
It's been a busy couple of weeks around here. We've begun the process of remodeling a bathroom, starting with a big trip to Menards last weekend. My wonderful in-laws kept the kids for the afternoon and Patrick and I had a 'date' day to try to purchase everything we would need in one trip. It was fun, and it reinforced one of the things I knew about us. We have similar tastes and are able to compromise easily. That's one thing I really love about him, his willingness to listen to my ideas and explain why I'm wrong (which we all know I never sometimes am) without putting me down. He is so patient and if my idea is better than his, he's willing to accept it and do it whichever way is better. It made choosing everything from the flooring to the lights to the faucets so much easier. I cannot wait to see it all come together, but for now, I'm going to enjoy the demolition!

The bathroom has needed updating for awhile, nothing serious, just design wise, until the floor started getting bad. There are two areas that have caused some concern, one by the bathtub where there's a soft spot in the floor and then around the toilet. We've changed the seal between the toilet and the floor and still have some leaking so the only other explanation is that the floor is going bad underneath, causing the problem. We don't want to wait until the problem becomes so bad that it's an immediate issue, so we're getting it taken care of now, on our time.  I will share some before, during and after photos once we get going some more.

Bragging moment:
The kids all got their 3rd grading period report cards also, I'm as proud of them as ever, honor roll all around! They've been working very hard to do well in school and it's showing. Missy has missed honor roll all year by one grade (C or C+) and she was able to bring it up this period to a B.
My children amaze me daily, and I love them so much. Being a parent can be so tough at times, and you go over things time and time again, feeling like nothing you say is getting through and then there are moments like that when you realize, something did. We are trying to work on respect and responsibility with the two oldest right now, hoping to get something in before they become full blown teenagers. Wish us luck!

As for Me:
Also, just a quick update on me. I have continued with physical therapy for the duration the pain doctor prescribed and had my follow up with him earlier this week. He did some injections into my shoulder, a mix of numbing meds and steroids. My shoulder feels better than it has in a really long time, which makes it hard to remember to take it easy. I have full range of motion with my right arm and no pain. It is wonderful!

Juice Plus:
I'm also almost to the 1 month mark on taking my Juice Plus. I'm still feeling more energy, clearer minded, and just all around feeling better. My mood has changed for the better and I can tell it's still working it's magic. With my job in daycare, I have kids coming in and out on a consistent basis with snotty noses and coughs, and I haven't had so much as a sniffle. I consider myself to have a decently strong immune system anyways, but I would still get very minor colds before when I'd have kids here with these types of symptoms. Patrick has started on Juice Plus, and we have all 4 kids taking it. The three oldest love it, Kendra is a little resistant, but she also doesn't like fruit snacks right now. Crazy kid.

I'm also very excited to have 3 wonderful women in my life that are starting JP too. I'm thrilled that they're going to experience better overall health through this, as well as their children who they sponsored through the Childrens Health Study. I've already heard from one, after just a week and a half, that she's noticing slight increases in her energy. This isn't as much about a business to me as it is about helping people, and each one that begins their journey to better health & nutrition helps me feel more & more fulfilled. My mom also started JP, and she's noticed her nails growing like crazy and her hair doesn't seem as brittle. Each person will have a different experience depending on what their body needs, but everyone can benefit from the prevention that Juice Plus provides.

Clarity (and day 14)

Mommy brain. The kids sucked my brain from the womb. Blonde moment. I could go on and on with the names & excuses for it, but anyway you look at brain fog, it's there. It's annoying. It's frustrating.

What do you do about it? You learn to cope the best you can. Making lists. Where did that list go? Ugh. Sticky notes? The dog or kids run past the fridge and they get knocked off into oblivion. Family calendar? Sure, if you can remember to keep things written down.

For years I've struggled with this and I know other moms that have also. It makes things seem even more overwhelming than they have to be, and the first time you forget a major event for one of the kids.. the guilt, oh the guilt. I've tried lists, notebooks, sticky notes, and anything else I could think of. Raising 4 kids and running a business out of your home can surely be overwhelming. I'm not a highly organized person, but I'm trying to do better. Via pinterest, I've been finding little ways to help organize and thanks to the site, I don't lose them, although this doesn't help with my mental clarity.

I have however started to notice that I'm not nearly as foggy lately. I'm positive that my recent lifestyle changes have something to do with it. I've changed by diet, adding more variety of veggies & fruits. I've added good calories, and I'm trying to stay more active. Physical therapy has helped me decrease the pain in my upper back & neck, reducing the number and severity of my migraines. Then, almost two weeks ago, I started Juice Plus+. It was the kick my body needed to rev up my energy and I've been able to think clearer, and I just feel better overall. It has really made the difference in my opinion. I'm waking up easier, staying awake throughout the day, and I'm definitely noticing less brain fog.

The better I feel, the more it makes me look into nutrition and the more I have learned. The benefits of eating more and more variety of fruits, veggies, and berries just astound me. The body has such an amazing ability to heal itself, but if it's not being fed the things it needs to be strong, it's not going to be. Now, I'm not becoming a vegetarian by any means. I still love some good bbq pork or a nice steak on the grill, but, a good diet high in F&V's make it easier for your body to process the meats & dairy. I have cut milk out of my diet, replacing it with almond milk. I still get dairy in cheese & yogurt, but I've noticed less bloating & gas since taking milk away.

 It has been simple, small changes that seem to be helping me feel the best. For years I've tried to do what other people did that worked for them, but I'm finding out that it isn't what works for everyone else, I needed to find what worked for ME, and I think I've finally done just that.

As for the rest of my family, after just a week and a half, I put everyone on JP besides Patrick. It just makes sense to have them all getting the extra nutrition. As for Patrick, he mentioned to me over the weekend that he should 'probably start on it too', so we've placed his order and he's sponsoring Allie in the childrens health study. He started taking it this weekend, taking mine while we wait on his order to arrive.

 Kendra has decided she doesn't like gummies, but she's also boycotting fruit snacks and frosting on cake & cupcakes right now too.   I did find that I could open up the capsules and mix the powder into applesauce and she will eat that without knowing that the applesauce has been modified.

Stephen is doing well on his JP, but we have had him taking his Miralax every other day still, just to keep things going and we'll slowly start backing him off of that as his body adjusts to the JP. His digestive health has become a huge concern to me recently after finding out about a family history of Crohns that has been recently discovered. I feel good about our decision to give him JP even more after receiving an email about how good nutrition high in fruits & veggies can help improve overall health for people with autoimmune diseases, but I won't get into that here.

I haven't noticed anything different in Missy & Allie, but it's only been a week, and they're already healthy, active, crazy kids!

One other thing I experienced was yesterday, I think my body was fighting off something but instead of getting or feeling sick, I just felt off. I took a late afternoon nap and woke up feeling fine.

Happy Monday everyone!

Day 7 - JP+

 Today is my 7th day on all three blends, garden, orchard, and vineyard. Not much has changed since my Day 3 update, but that is in either direction. I still feel good as far as not running out of energy as fast. I'm making it until 6 or 6:30 each evening before really starting to feel like I'm slowing down at all. Not being as worn out as early has also helped my mood, I feel happier & it's easier to deal with things that are thrown my way. That includes kids. I've not been as short with them and find it easier to deal with an overly active 4 yr old, drama queen 8 & 11 year olds, and repetitive questions from a 12 year old.

I know that what I don't see or feel happening is prevention. My body is getting the variety of fruits, veggie and berries that it needs and it's slowly replacing what I've been feeding my cells with the nutrition from Juice Plus. I'm very excited about Juice Plus but trying to contain my excitement so people don't think I've gone wacky being on something for merely 1 week.

One of the biggest things I'm finding out also, is that it's not just taking pills each day that is helping me. I've been making lifestyle changes that started before Juice Plus was introduced to me, and with everything combined, I just feel better. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I just do.

I'm learning more and more each day about Juice Plus+. I'm slowly becoming more comfortable being able to share Juice Plus+ with everyone else as my 'story' slowly develops. One of the hardest questions I have to answer is a simple one. What is Juice Plus?  The answer is simple, but hard to understand. It's whole food nutrition in a capsule or gummie form. That is the simple answer. To truely understand it, you have to read about it, hear about it, learn. The concept was hard for me to get at first. Fruits and veggies in capsules? I cannot even begin to explain this better yet, but there is a video on the homepage of my website that does explain it, found under the pictures of the bottles of JP+. You can find that here.

Kids are waking up from naps so this is all I can do today, have a great week!

Financial Health

Finances can be stressful. Stress is bad, we all know that, it does all sorts of bad stuff to our bodies.

Several years ago my mother in law asked me to attend a Dave Ramsey FPU session with her. I cannot thank her enough for that. I may not follow the system perfectly, but it helped me to figure out how to gain control of our finances. We do backslide and it hurts, it gets financially frustrating which turns to physical, emotional, and mental frustration. This is where I am at today. I've failed to follow any budget the last couple of months and I can tell. I'm working on getting things back on track for March, which is only a couple of weeks away. The hardest part is keeping up. We used to struggle with making sure we had enough money to pay a larger bill, it would come due and we'd have to pay it which would make it harder to do smaller bills. I thought I'd share what we do to avoid that now.

To help keep up, here are two terms I'll use, and the context I'm using them in.
Auto-draft - Done through a company, they automatically take the payment from our account
Auto-pay - Done through our bill-pay at the bank. We set up the payments and automatically pay them from our account.


The first thing we did was set up an auto-draft through our mortgage company. Some places will do this, some will not. We did not use our bill pay through the bank at the time, so the mortgage companies auto-draft worked for us and started us on using weekly payments. They had what they called a bi-weekly draft program, but since we got paid weekly, we asked if they could break it up even further into a weekly payment. They were happy to oblige. Now, this program did have a start-up fee. I cannot remember what it was now, but they broke it up into payments also. They figured up our monthly payment (for ease of understanding lets use an even $1000) and did auto-draft of $250 each payday. On a 5wk month, we do make an extra payment, which has its advantages. It reduces the life of our loan and even more importantly, the amount of interest. Our loan has been cut from a 30 year to a 23yr loan by doing this program.

This worked so well for us that I started using our bill pay through the bank and set up the rest of our bills up for weekly payments on auto-pay. Our utility bills that fluctuate were hard to do this with, so I got them on budget-billing through the utility companies, then divided each monthly payment by 4 and set that amount as our weekly payment. Over time, we will get ahead on these due to any 5 week months, which means after one year you should have the ability to take a month off if you choose. For loans such as a vehicle, or credit cards, this method also helps you pay extra to reduce the duration & interest.

I set up our very last bill on weekly payments today, the nasty, nasty cell phone bill. I will still have to watch it since it fluctuates, but if it's higher than usual, at least it will just be a small portion that will need paid and not the huge bill all at once.

My husbands income covers all of these auto-pay or auto-draft items, His pay is consistent & direct deposit, so this method works for us nicely. His check hits the bank on Friday, and all the bills are out that same day. Everything is paid and on time. We still have 3 things besides the mortgage that auto-draft, but they are smaller amounts and not a worry.

The downside, and the only downside I've found to doing this, is that there are a LOT of transactions each week to record and keep track of.

I suppose there could still be companies that won't accept weekly payments in this manor, but it would take a simple phone call to find out.

*When starting up with a weekly payment schedule, watch your bills closely the first month. If you start you weekly payments late in a cycle, you may still need to make an extra payment at the due date to get it on track with the company's billing cycle.

As an extra step this coming month, we are going to also open a second checking account. The original account, BILL account, will be left with direct deposit and all of the auto-drafts and auto-pays. The new account, SPENDING account, will be used for things like groceries and gas, shopping, etc. We know everything that is set up on the BILL account will be taken care of without interruption from our regular spending. I will try to update on how this works for us at the end of month 1, March.




*disclaimer - I'm not a professional financial guru. This just reflects what I know and what we try to do. It's not a perfect system, it's a work in progress*

 As I glanced through some pictures this afternoon, I noticed something. Lets see if you notice it too.

February 2012

October 2011

Dressing up the blue box

Thought I'd share one of my simple tricks that I've used over the years to get kids to eat more veggies, in particular, broccoli. I've had many kids start coming to my house that would absolutely turn their noses up at anything, and I mean anything, that was green.

I would start them off by really hiding it. I steam the broccoli in my small micro-cooker and then use my food chopper to chop it so fine that it can be almost completely hidden in the cheese sauce from a box of mac n cheese. As they start to not be as picky, which is where we are now, I am able to steam it in larger pieces and just mix it right into the pan. It's simple, and it mixes something most kids love with something that, well, they don't love quite so much.





I promise I will try to figure out how to rotate this, but alas, I've had a sideways day so why not a sideways picture?

Day 3 - Juice Plus+

      It's been 3 days since my Juice Plus+ order arrived. I started on the garden & orchard blends right away. My upline Jessica had provided me with a bottle of Vineyard blend over the weekend, so I'm a few days ahead on that.

       I can't say I've noticed any huge benefits yet, but there is definitely piece of mind that has come along with it.


      There are a few small things I have noticed. The first may be a little too much information, but I spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom yesterday. I haven't had trouble with constipation or anything, but things were definitely moving better than usual. Second, I had some more energy yesterday than usual, nothing extreme, but it wasn't until about 6:30pm when we took a walk that I started yawning and feeling like I was slowing down. This usually starts to happen around 4pm. I'll take an extra 2.5 hours!  Third is that I'm constantly drinking water, resulting in constantly, well, you get the picture.


Stephen has continued to take his gummies and has done well without his miralax. He rushes down the stairs each morning to get them. I'm still waiting a couple of weeks to make sure they continue to work once the medication is all out of his system.




To see what Juice Plus+ is, read what the experts say, and watch a short video, visit my website here.

Family

It has been so long since we've had family pictures taken and I realized that very soon, I'd be standing in front of the kids with the way they're growing, so when my sister in law asked if she could take photos of us and the kids to help her start off her photography, I was more than happy to let her! The following photos are from our session this weekend, a few of my favorites, all courtesy of Maci Rae Photography.

And there you have it.. a snapshot in time, our family, February 2012.

 And I cannot leave out this one, waiting on spring...