And the winners are…

Anton did our drawing today. Oh I know I could do the random do-hickey but having the kids do it, well I like it better.

 

 

1                         2                                 3

This is really cool. Since Deb is getting prize two and three I get to give her the grand prize. I appreciate all of you that did this 5K with me. If the winners will send me their addresses I will make sure there’s something in your mailbox in the next couple of week or so.

Take care my friends. Thank you again for joining me in my quest to get healthy. Blessings!!

P.S. Thank you Deb for helping me with the prizes. I think that was totally awesome and so appreciated!!!

Lunch!

Fresh from the garden this morning, in fact you can see the peas are still wet. I’m excited….YUM!!!

How’s your day going?

Blessings!!

Did you Take your Pants for a Walk?

WOW!!! You guys were fantastic. WOW!!! Really. There was hiking, biking, walking and running. There was times that made a rabbit jealous, distance that were awesome and planning on how they’d get it done, well an architect would be amazed. I am so very proud of you all.
So who did this with me….well please don’t be mad if I forgot you because I’m trying my hardest to not forget anyone (if I did forget you, please tell me and I’ll add your name/blog).

• Michele
• Deb
• Deanna
• Betty
• S
• Casey
• Pam
• Jo
• Ronalee
• Blogwobble
• Kody
• upinthecosmos
• Nanette
• Angela Pea
• Rochelle

A couple of you signed up but never got back to me if you completed so I’m not going to include you in my prize drawing. I will wait until Tuesday to draw a name to give you a chance to tell us how/what you did.
I am very proud of you all. I am so sure that Rochelle is too because you signed up and completed what you said you would do.
Now something extra great. Deb has offered to add a couple of prizes to this too so that means we’ll have 1 grand prize that I have and she’ll have 2 smaller prizes to send to some lucky ladies. Isn’t that awesome!!!!?!!!! Thank you Deb. So on Tuesday or Wednesday I will announce who wins a prize and everyone won a place in getting healthy and moving your butt!
Thanks everyone for joining me. It is so much fun hearing from you and learning from you and well just being part of your getting healthy. It has helped me so much.
Take care and have a great week. Blessings!!!

SSDC - Week 8 Update and meeting a fellow blogger..

So our challenge was for the week to do something we feared. Well I was thinking all week about what I would do and I just didn’t come up with anything until I got to thinking I’d have to tell you I failed but I didn’t, I think what I’m going to tell you about is not a fail at all.

So what do you think I did, well there is something I really hate to do and I avoid it almost all the time but this past weekend I did something with someone very special. I went for a 12 mile bike ride with Michele. We also went for a hike which was awesome because we went to Minnehaha Falls, a place I have never been too and found to be a beautiful place. I have to share pictures but first I want you to see the bike I got to ride. Michele brought it special from her cabin in Wisc. Here at home I ride a man’s mountain bike. It was what was on sale about 20 years ago and I have ridden it for years and though I hate it, it is what I have. Well when I no longer have so many bills and Mike is done in college I am buying myself a bike like this one. This bike was awesome, easy to pedal and I didn’t even fall off or get hurt.

 

So while I’m telling you about this I’m going to share a few pictures. I live about 120 miles north of Michele and last year Michele drove up here to visit me so it was my turn to go visit her and see what her part of our beautiful state we live in. Now I expected lots of people and really there were but not in the sense I was expecting. Really I didn’t know for sure what I was thinking but it really was an excellent adventure.

   

This is Minnehaha Falls. It was serene and beautiful and the people, my goodness the people were so fun to watch and to see others enjoying the outdoors like we did, well I was pleasantly surprise. Like I said I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but this was most excellent. I come from tiny towns with all of us outdoors but when we are outside there’s 1 person for every mile or two. Down there, there’s a person for every 100’.

After riding to the falls we hike along side the stream and enjoy the flowers and trees and each other.

On the way back to Michele home I had to stop and take a pictures of this bunny. Michele says they decorate it for each holiday. I would love to see that.

So I did a few things I have never done before. I drove into the cities and went and visited someone by myself. I went for a 12 miles bike ride on a new to me bike and enjoyed it. I ate 2 fish taco’s and they were pretty good (not something I would have ever ordered if left on my own). So for this week’s challenge I passed.

Next week is a no sugar and no snacking after dinner week. I can do the no snacking after dinner, that’s something I don’t do now. The no sugar, hummmmm, well I’ll give it my best. With daycare it’s hard no to have snacks at snack time. I’ll stick with fruit and hope I can forgo the sweets.

A new week to try and do our best and become the healthiest we can. Good luck everyone. Onward and upwards (or really downwards on the scale). Blessings to you all!!

Found one…For Deanna’s week 3 food challenge….

Now this is awesome. We tried this as a daycare and it really truly was awesome. The kids loved it this afternoon after we went to the park and came home hot and sticky. I didn’t get anything pictures but if you click on the picture of the pineapple you can go check out Christine’s blog that had this. You gotta try it. I am now officially out of that greek yogurt and not positive I’ll buy the plain stuff again but maybe a flavored one or just stick with the regular stuff I like best.

Pineapple "Ice Cream"

Ingredients

• 1 whole pineapple, cut up into bit size chunks and frozen
• 1/4 cup sugar 
• 3 heaping Tbsp non-fat Greek yogurt

Directions

1. Combine ingredients in food processor until smooth and combined.  Scrape down as needed.  Enjoy!

I hate being part of a challenge and not doing it so made sure I got this done today. A day late but at least not missed. Take care my friends and have an awesome weekend.

Today’s the day….

For my Take Your Pants for a Walk 5K challenge….however, if you tell me before Sunday evening that you did it, even over the weekend, I won’t mind a bit. I won’t have time to write up a post until Monday anyways, so if you want too, please join me and a bunch of awesome people getting off your butts and just moving. Remember you don’t have to run or bike or hike or walk or jog, well really you have to do one of those but it’s not timed, it’s just for Rochelle’s challenge of signing up for a 5k and doing it and for just you, to get happy, healthy and feeling good.

I am done on the computer for until Monday. I’ll do an update then and also tell you how everyone did for the 5k. I do have to apologize to Deanna for not getting in a recipe this week. I will try and do both next week. I just haven’t had a moment to really do any cooking/baking other then what’s required to feed 6 kids 3 times a day and they have their favorites so we stick with them.

Blessings everyone. Have an awesome weekend. I’m heading down to see Michele tomorrow, E.Jane is sick so won’t be joining us this visit but maybe again in the future. Sunday is family day. Take care my friends!!

1/2 the corn saved…..Thank you Hubby!!

Row 1….

Row 2….

Rows 3 and 4….

And these sacrificed their lives so the other might live…

Now we can hope and pray that we don’t get any wind for the next few days so they can re-established their roots.

Blessings!

Did you take your pants for a walk yet?

Friday is the final day for my:

This is just a reminder if you haven’t you have a couple more days. I’ll post this on Monday (hopefully) about everyone that joined me. There’s still time to join too as long as you get your walk, run, jog, hike, bike in by Friday and to me by Sunday.

Take care my friends and have an wonderful day. Blessings!!

No more corn!

Nope, last nights storm took it all. The night before that only one row but now it’s gone.

It’s a short root crop and can’t just be stood back up or even stacked up, so no corn for us this year.

The wind only bent the tomatoes, I think they’ll be okay.

The same for my peppers. At least it didn’t hurt the most health ones.

Plus we got more rain.

With Tuesdays rain and last nights we have had just about 3”. It will make the grass grow more (and by time I get to mowing it when it dries out some it’ll be almost tall enough to bale and it was just 5 days ago I mowed) and the weeds in the garden (I better till it again).

What can a person do, nothing at all. Just save what we can and process what we can and hope that others did better and exchange fruits of our labors when we all get enough.

Today I have just 3 wee ones and we are going to Kim’s to get her boy scout donation things and then go to the park. I am hoping it dries out some before we go though otherwise they’ll get pretty wet. Tonight I go help set up for the garage sale. I have picked up goodies from 4 families so have a suburban filled up. A good couple hundred bucks of stuff in there for them to sell.

I need a vacation, nothing in the future is planned but I still need a vacation. Jim is the only one at the store that makes hydraulic hoses and since we are in the middle of some big machines and farms and trucks we just can’t pack up and leave for a few days so no vacation is planned. Oh well that is life of a small business owner. Just like my daycare, you just can’t close the doors and go anywhere’s, I have 3 families that need me here. Oh I did take two days off when Mike is home the end of August but not in a row so easier for them to deal with. Just a Tuesday to take Mike and Scott to Valley Fair and then Friday for Mike and I to spend the day hiking and talking.

Okay, kids are due, time to fix breakfast and see where the day leads us. Take care my friends and have an awesome day. Blessings!!

Wordless Wednesday…almost to late…

Well a couple words….I love this picture!

Blessings!!

Midweek…

I have done nothing with either of the challenges I am in. I haven’t done anything fearful or scary for my exercise and I haven’t tried a new recipe. I am so sorry ladies I just haven’t had a moment to do anything yet. I do have a few more days and am hoping to do something for both. I just wanted to be honest and tell you where I am.

But I have been busy, here’s part of my week in pictures:

 

Took the 3 littlest one to the park.                     Make peanut butter dark chocolate chip cookies

                                                                                   (from the awful peanut spread)

  

     

                 Made birdfeeders from Kool-Aid containers.

Help Jim rebuild an old trailer we had into this beautiful, very useable licensed trailer.

Had a picnic and games at our neighbors cabin.

Worked at Jim’s store a couple of evenings.

  

Still working at my parents. Now trying to get things stored in containers that are easy to stack, take less space and manageable. The bathroom is taking shape again and soon we’ll get the freezer room cleaned out and some shelving put up. We need to find some shelving or something for my mama sewing/craft room but not right now. The sewer guy came today to take care of things, $180.00 later it works. YEAH and thank God but my goodness is that expensive.

 

Went to the creek to throw rocks and play in the water.

 

Work in the garden. And can you see what the wind did to my corn. UGH!!! It was getting over 6’ tall.

 

One of my tomato plants up at the house. And we got more rain, a bit over an inch. The garden needed it and it has helped with the smell and goo from all the flooding so we welcomed it.

So it’s not boring here and I am trying to lose weight, get stronger and tone up and just be healthy but there are days I just do not have enough energy at the end of the day to do anything but have a glass of milk, eat a banana and go to bed. No complaints thought, I’d sure rather be busy and able to do then bored out of my mind or not able. Nope, no complaining here. Heading out the door shortly to head to mama to finish the bathroom, pack up the stuff they are donating to the boy scouts and get home to spend some time with Jim. Take care my friends and God Bless!!!

Life….

First my challenges…

So it’s

Week 8 - (begin July 22) - EMBRACE A FITNESS FEAR

I really don’t know what to tackle this week. I’m not a member at a gym, I haven’t had a minute to spare for anything extra other then my walking/jogging. I’m just not sure BUT…yep but…I will figure out something.

This week for Deanna's Try Something New challenge is just that this week, be adventuresome and try something new. I asked if it has to be healthy but really that’s a stupid question, of course it has to be healthy but I found a recipe in the Taste of Home magazine for chocolate dipped pretzels I want to try and I want to try roasted peppers. I remember Biz making them last summer (I think that was when), and they looked so awesome I’m going to look up how to grill peppers. She has tons of recipes she’s shared with the world and I’m just going to see what she has.

And for my Take your Pants for a Walk challenge, well I took my daddy’s pants (and him in them) and me for a 5 mile walk. A bit over the 5K but since I didn’t run we added the extra 2 miles to make it a good walk to add to the challenge. I took some pictures to share and we walked the 5 miles in a 87 minutes. So it wasn’t a slow walk and both of us were tired by time we were done but it was so great just spending time with daddy.

I want to take the pictures with the three birch trees and turn it into wallpaper or a mural. I love this one and would love to have it on my wall in the someday going to be my sewing room room.

So a bit of uncertainty this week but I’ll get my ducks in a row. Life here hasn’t been easy (I’ll explain in a bit) but it’s been great spending lots of time with mama and daddy. My calories are in check though I haven’t been faithful on myfitnesspal but the days I did make it I was around 1200 calories (some days a tad over, most days less). I can feel a change in my body this week. Back to the way it’s suppose to feel when a person is losing weight and gaining health. So all is moving along in the right direction.

This coming weekend I am going to meeting Michele and E.Jane for lunch and then Michele and I are going to take a bike ride to Minnehaha Falls. I hear it’s the most beautiful spot to go and I’ve never been there so on the 28th I will be meeting up with two blogging friends and seeing things I haven’t seen before. I’m excited. I am really in the need of getting away and since we haven’t been able to go camping or spend time just relaxing I am going to go and enjoy. Oh I can’t say I haven’t gone anywhere’s, it’s only been a month since I was in Wyoming visiting Mike but it’s time to go and do something again.

Now about my ducks….as you all know I have been working at mama and daddy’s just about every day off or evening possible and their basement is really coming along. Mama’s room is purple. She is in love with her room and I love watching her eye’s light up when she goes in there.   I wanted her to have a room to go when she needs to sew, craft, get away or just be and I think this is going to be the perfect room for her.  

Work in process.

My helper..

The bathroom was done, daddy’s room is done, next was going to be the furnace room but yesterday the world decided things were just going to good, getting done to fast and decided to set us back at least a week if not more. Mama and daddy’s sewer blew up. I really mean that in the real sense. It all started out with the drains running really slow, water backing up in the laundry room. So it’s time to borrow a snake and see if we can find the clog….nope couldn’t get the snake to go where we needed it too. Okay lets try water, well the water took the path of least resistance which was back into the laundry room and now the sewing rooms closet. Okay lets try pushing air down the drains to see if we can move the clog. Wow, do you know what happens when you put 100lbs of air behind a clog that decides to move just past a elbow in the pipe that leads to the newly cleaned, plastered, painted bathroom ….. BOOM!!! Toilet paper, poop, water, greasy, dirt, anything that a sewer line holds blows out of the toilet at a speed so fast it blew the lid off and so hard it blew the drain cover in the shower off. And all that goo is in the now not newly finished bathroom. Lots more Mr. Clean, lots more water, paper towels, face mask, different clothes and so much more and the bathroom is cleaned but the wall near the pot needs help. The sheet rock in the laundry room, I cut off the wall to clean between the studs. We rolled up the hoses, put the tools away, cleaned up everything and called the plumber and went out for supper. We could cry, we could scream, we could do lots of things but the only way to deal with it all is to…..well just deal with it. I told mama to bring her laundry over tomorrow and we’ll get that done. Her and daddy can come and take a shower then too. I will fix them supper tomorrow night and bring it over when I get back to work putting their home back together, again. The plumber is coming out on Wednesday and I hope do whatever they need to do to make everything work right. I know all of this problem is from all the flooding and the fact the house is almost 50 years old so we’ll work on it and get it livable and move forward.

So while doing this, I’m also doing that and working 50 hours a week day caring. I am trying to keep my garden alive so worked in that tonight in the 95* heat picking peas and radishes and watering for over an hour. Then we decided to go visit our best friends until dark. It’s always so nice to just take the golf cart 2 miles and visit for a while. The lawn needs mowing again, it’s been needing it every 5 days or so and it’s a 4 hour job. This week is also our Boy Scouts garage sale. I’m going to volunteer on Thursday to help set up and then the rest can sell it all and donate the rest. I’m going out for dinner with a dear friend too on Tuesday. Hummmm, see why I need Saturday, a day to run away. Not from my life, just to get a rest from it a little bit.

I hope you all have a blessed week. Really life could be horrible worse here so really there’s no complaining, just work that needs to be done and will get done. One day at a time.

Take care my friend.