Busy….and Happy Easter….

   

 

Our new to us Jimmy’s didn’t have anywhere’s to hang a garage bag so last Sunday Jim designed and I sewed us up two. One for each Jimmy. They snap on and off for cleaning or moving if extra space is needed.

I finished up my seat cover for the bus. It turned out well and it has been so much easier keeping things together for the students.

  

What it looked like at home on the back of a normal chair.

 

Now on my bus. It turned out really well. It holds the crayons, pencils, coloring sheets and clipboards and also the Bop-It I bring for them. Some of the students are on the bus for such a long time that they need to have something to do.

I made this from a Slinky and a two pieces of wire. I found something like this in a bird magazine and it was a bit bigger and I’m sure hardier but I had to give it a try. It took the squirrels a bit of time to figure out how to eat from it but once they learned….WOW, I’ve filled it twice now.

I feed squirrels and birds. They all get hungry in all the snow we have.

Speaking of snow….it’s slowly melting but it’s still here.

 

I had my girls last Friday and we decorated eggs. Since they are older we didn’t do the traditional eggs we decoupage some, painted some, glittered some. We blew out a few and make them special.

 

My last job for Friday was cleaning the I.O.O.F Hall. The girls came with me and they love to sit in the very old chairs.

Now tomorrow I have my girls and Anton so in the morning we’ll be baking and than after lunch we are going to go swimming at the Hallett. It’s a community center where I work out but they also have a swimming pools and a slide. So that’s our day tomorrow.

It has been a great weekend. Today went out with the in-laws to the casino buffet for dinner. We had a good visit and a great dinner. Now it’s just a restful afternoon/evening.

Happy Easter my friends. I hope you and yours have had time to get together, relax and enjoy and reflect on all that ha been given to us.

Blessings!!

We have no heat….

Later we will but since last night we haven’t had any heat so it’s a tad chilly in here between my bus runs today. So I decided to bake. First some sweet potato fries for my lunch and than …. well I don’t know what to call it but here’s a list of ingredients and a picture of what it turned out like…

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp soda
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 2 banana’s
• about 1 cup unsweetened almond milk but maybe a tad more I just kept adding to it until it looked like banana bread moisture
• cinnamon
• ginger
• vanilla
• pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flax seed
• 1/2 cup oatmeal

Bake at 350 for about an hour. I don’t know if you want to call it a cake or a bread or just a good for you treat.

I will cut it into 12 pieces, should be about a 2”x2” piece and figuring out the ingredients into calories my fitnesspal says..

Per Serving: 107 calories per serving, 19 carbs, 3 fats, 3 proteins, 18 sodium and 3 sugars
I did not add the spices to the calorie counter. Just an fyi part for me.

I have to go to work so I cut this while it was still hot. See the steam off the cut up piece? It’s very dense and heavy. Sorta like the homemade cakes and breads. The taste is …. well pretty good. I wouldn’t say awesome. I think some butter on it would be great and I’m still trying to get use to flax seed. But it’s not bad at all. Less heavy would be nice too. But it’s a live and learn experience. I’ll keep trying to find that ultimate banana bread recipe.

Off to work I go. Take care and have an awesome afternoon.

What 2000 Calories Looks Like

Watch and learn. I guess it's sorta like what you guys were telling me yesterday. It's really a cool video.

Blessings!!

http://youtu.be/rgaqwFPU7cc

1 package of oatmeal….

or a piece of toast with PB or 13 cheetos' or 22 sweet potato fries, 1/4 cup of manwich with 98% ground beef, a banana, an 8oz glass of 1% milk, SF instant breakfast and unsweetened almond milk, 1 tlb chocolate chips…… Everything I eat is measured and the portions are so tiny. Except the lettuce salad or the pea pods, green beans, sweet peppers….I make the larges salad I could possible think I could finish and eat until I grow bunny ears and a fluffy tail. Anyone need a chubby, human sized Easter bunny? I’m growing one. :o)

I’m complaining a bit, I think of food before I get up, before I eat, while I’m eating, when I’m driving bus, after I exercise, during chores, watching TV. I hope that someday this stops. I’m trying not to letting my stomach rule my day or at least making it think it’s not the boss but this mornings breakfast was a package of maple and brown sugar oatmeal with 1/2 tsp of PB. 230 calories, 15 grams of sugar …. gone and I’m still hungry. I could usually drink a big glass of water but we all know that in less than 20 minutes I’ll be in a bus for 2.5 hours and not a potty insight. So I’m heading out the door, my tummy will live and the scale will go down and I will learn that, that is a serving of food and in 4 hours I can have something else.

Just rambling this morning. Need to eat like a thinner person. Practice, learning, become just a tad bit wiser….or at least trying.

Take care my friends and have an awesome day. It’s going to be a beautiful sunny, 30* day. I can handle that. Back to the gym for Week 2 Day 1 on my C25K and some stretching. Than a walk with Kim and the dogs.

Honesty…

I have always used that as my policy on my blog. So I have something to tell you and it is the most embarrassing, most disappointing, most discouraging news I could ever tell you. However my partner in this has been honest from day one…so I am going to be too.

I once weighed in at 179 lbs…a bit less but I won’t count the stupidity I did to get there. The 179 was a healthy weight, a good weight for me and a weight I will be weighing again this year. I don’t mind turning 51 this year is I can weigh close to that. I won’t be there yet because …. well I am right now weighing in at 201.4, two weeks ago at 206.6. I am no longer in the onederland and I am very upset with myself. 2 years ago I was 179, than Mike went to college and my world came undone and …well so did I. However I am back and I am working hard to get back to where I want to be.

Deb and I have picked Mother’s day. It’s a good day to shoot for the 180lb mark. It’s 2 lbs a week and so far I’m a bit ahead so that means on those weeks where I’ve worked hard but nothing has happened I should be okay.

Honesty is the best policy and I’m sorry I let you guys down. I have been trying to get back on the wagon, I keep trying and trying but my heart just really wasn’t in it. I really didn’t like Mike gone, now it doesn’t mean I wasn’t proud because my Lord am I, was I, it just meant I didn’t think I could do this but I did, I learned, I lived and now I’m going to live some more and get this right.

Week 3, the beginning. Today was an awesome day. I ran 2 miles in 27:11. Also 10 minutes on the elliptical. For some reason my C25K didn’t register my Week 1 Day 3, so today I did it again….Tomorrow I’ll do Week 2. I do need to do my stretching, I didn’t do today so will tomorrow too.

Take care my friends and thank you. Thank you for being there for me. For supporting me, for helping me and for putting up with my stupidness. My blog, healthy, wealthy, wise … NOT but learning. Learning….every single day!!!

Blessings!! 

Week 2 completed, week 3 started….

I am down 6.4lbs. So I’m working at this.

My goals are 1200 calories or less a day but not to many less. I try and make sure I’m not over 8400 calories for the week. This week was 7597. My goal is to work out 3 times a week with the C25K and some strength training. I went 5 days and completed Week 1 of the program. I am to drink 100 oz of water a day and 6 out of the 7 days I did this, Sunday I fell short by 20 oz. No eating after 6:30, all days but Sunday and Jim fixed us brussel sprouts and a glass of milk at 7:30 because we were starving, could of been worse. Sleep is so hard at times. It’s not that I don’t go to bed, it’s just that I don’t sleep. Menopause I think has some to do with that so I just do my best to get my 7-8 hours in. So all in all it was a good week.

Now this week I am going to continue on the same path. It’s working and my partner is doing awesome too so onward and downward we go.

I would like to add one stretch exercise I do each and every day. I am very bad at stretching. I have said it before it’s just something I don’t take the time to do but it’s time to get one good one in each day and learn a new one each week. This week is going to be lower back stretching. I found this youtube video I can do and understand and it’s a good place to start. If you have any other ideas I’m game. I don’t want a full route yet because I know very well I won’t do it but if I start small and work into one, well that’s my idea.

I am back to my regular bus route plus my midday routes today and than the rest of the week will be normal and time to do things I need to do. No school on Friday/Monday so that means I’ll be having daycare. We are going to work on some special Easter crafts on Friday and on Monday go swimming.

It’ll be another great week or at least I am going to try my best to keep on the track that I’m running. Speaking of running, thank you everyone for your words of wisdom. I will do my best and let the Lord worry about the rest. If I run a 5K in 50 minutes, than so be it. I’ll try to get better each time but will just be happy that I can do this.

Take care and do have the most blessed week possible.

I love this little guy…

He eats banana’s, dinner rolls, carrots, cereal, almost anything I put in his tray feeder. He doesn’t like lettuce, eggs, dog food and apples. He’s in the feeder every morning looking for me. I share what I have with him and he sorta just sits there and smiles.

I hope you all had an amazing weekend. Ours was fantastic. We did what we needed to do. We got to have an awesome breakfast. We sewed together. And am now resting while Jim fixes dinner.

Blessings my friends. I’ll have my update tomorrow.

Times … I searched….

• 13 min/mile pace finishing 5K in over 40 minutes
• 12 min/mile pace finishing 5K in around 37 minutes
• 11 min/mile pace finishing 5K in about 34 minutes
• 10 min/mile pace finishing 5K in 31 minutes
• 9 min/mile pace finishing 5K in about 28 minutes
• 8 min/mile pace finishing 5K in around 25 minutes
• 7min/mile pace finishing 5K in between 21 minutes 30 seconds and 22 minutes
• 6 min/mile pace finishing 5K in 18 minutes 30 seconds

Every Runner is Running Their Own Race……

Another site says….

Best Answer: Anything under 30 minutes is solid if you're just starting out...below 25 is pretty good, and the closer you are to 20, the better.

Well I just guess I’ll see. I did it once in 34 minutes. I was younger and didn’t hurt. Now I’m wiser and will just do my best and see where it takes me. Guess I shouldn’t dwell on time, just running the race to the best of my abilities.

C25K….just help me learn to run/jog do my best. Week 1, Day 3 is finished. Next week we’ll try some more. I have until June 8th to learn and practice. Then we’ll just see. I’m hoping other 5K will pop up around here. If anyone hears of some around here please share. I know Aitkin will have one, Deerwood will and Crosby will. I think Garrison had one last year…don’t remember when though, will have to see. Also in August there’s a mud run in Fergus Falls. I’m trying to convince Mike he wants to do it with me. We’ll see.

Just wanted to share what Kalei's best friend suggested....research it.

Week one, 2 miles in 30:22 minutes….. Next week ???

Blessings my friends. Time to get dress and get to my cleaning job. No bus driving for me today. My school’s out on spring break and the route I had this week was preschool and they don’t go to school on Fridays. I got to sleep in until 7:00, oh it was nice.

Take care and God Bless!!

Mike sent this to me this morning…..

And I wouldn’t want it any other way. I love you Mike!!!

Blessings everyone. Have a great day!!

My wish…

I asked Deb tonight (she’s my partner in crime right now) if she thought…..

I have a 5K on June 8th..... do you think I will be at weight and strong enough to jog the full thing? I so want to be.....

I think this is my goal for now. Other than the being at weight and finishing the C25K so I can complete this the way I want too.

I have a time in mind but I need help to see if it’s realistic…. what is a decent time for a 5K? What are your thoughts. Just curious and I know everyone is different but just curious.

Week 1 update… and …

So my week went pretty darn good. My pedometer ran out of battery on Wednesday so I can’t be sure I made 10,000 steps or more each day but I know I walked, hiked and jogged. I’ll say a good. I stayed with-in my 1200 calories 6 out of 7 days. I got 100oz plus of water each and every single day. I didn’t quite get my 7-8 hours asleep each night but am working on that. I lost 3.6 lbs. Now these are pounds I have lost and gained over and over again but am hoping that this will be the last time I have to lose them.

This week my goals are the same except I’m adding no eating after 6:30 at night and I’m starting the C25K program and today finished Week 1 Day 1. Yes I started it last week but didn’t do well so I kept on working on it till I got it right and today I started and finished it with no big troubles but still pain in my left leg. I am going to keep working on it and hope that the pain in the leg adjust to the fact I’m doing this. I walked at a 3.5 and jogged at a 5.0.

I also got in 30 minutes of strength training and my goodness my arms hurt. I have to shovel coal into the furnace each night and tonight I got 25 shovel full's in and quit. I needed probably another 5-10 but good enough, I’ll go out before I go to bed and finish up. I also had to shovel snow, lots and lots of that junk. You know what, I’m so sick of snow. Here’s our last snowstorm. See the fence? It’s a 5’ chain link fence that is covered just about to the top. See the snow on the shed? We had that all cleaned off. Snow, snow go away come again another …..lets just say 8 month.

  

So week number 2 and I am hoping to keep doing what I know and learning more in the process.

I hope you all are having a great beginning of the week. I learned a new bus route today….really 4 runs each day. 15-20 kids each run. It’s head start and I thought my preschool bus runs on Monday and Friday had small ones on it, boy are these even smaller. I am missing my regular route but my school is on spring break (laughing here….spring break building snowmen and sledding) so when asked to learn and drive another route, it’s what I am doing.

Take care my friends and have an awesome week.

Mike sent me this….I love it….and….

With plenty of trips to Wyoming and many years on the road and hundreds of thousands of alphabet games this would of been awesome to find. At least some of the times…..

Today I was not tip top on my challenge. I had a constant in the bus from 6am-4pm and then to my cleaning job to finish up the laundry and home to do chores and ….. I am out of energy. Might be starting a cold too since I’m pretty stuffy, hopefully not! I didn’t get my 10,000 steps in, I didn’t stay on plan, I did drink all my water and I did log it all. Oh and I did get some bathroom exercises in, just not a lot. So tomorrow is another day. We are suppose to get up to 15” of snow so I think I’ll be doing an exercise video first thing in the morning and staying on plan menu wise. I’m also going to add something more to my challenge, no eating after 6:30 pm. Just a smart thing that needs to be.

TGIF!!!! and it’s payday though I paid two bills and I have $85.00 left for two weeks of groceries. Not bad really, that’s better then last payday. Thank goodness for my extra jobs to be able to save for the trip to see Mike graduate. I got the plane tickets paid for now, 2 at $187.00 each. Next will be car rental, motel for two nights, food, attractions on the way home and …. I’m sure more. All is good, it’ll happen, I’ll make sure of that!

Have a great weekend my friends. Enjoy, relax and rejuvenate.

So what do you think?

I made these for a friends fundraiser banquet. I try to make something different each year and I think this is the first year I haven’t had a full beaded necklace. I like the black, silver and red together. What do you think?

Something super cool and a question and a couple pics to share….

 

Look what I found at the library today….isn’t the super cool. I love that the title matches my blog. It’s awesome. I’m going to read it and just see what good stuff it has to offer and I’ll share as I go. Just maybe they’ll have something we all can learn.

 Good or bad? What do you think? I’ve tried them once before and my mama uses them occasionally, I’m wondering what you think.

 

I had to do some mending and sewing on a patch for hubby this past weekend. And Monster Bobby was there to “help” me. Mending is not my favorite thing to do, sewing patches either especially after Mike being in Scouts and making Eagle which means 50 patches had to be sewed on, not including the different ones from each year and each position he served as, but having Bobby “help” me makes it just a tad bit better.

 

My husband collects rubber duckies. Lots and lots of them so today while Joss and I were are our new Family Dollar store I found these, a mama and her babies. Just had to get them for him. I have a suburban I was going to share a picture with you, but it’s covered in a foot of snow so that will have to be another day, that has 5 ducks glued to the roof where the marker lights would go. We call that suburban “Ducky”, of course.

Day 3 has been going good so far. It is amazing how fast the sugars add up when your just eating normal stuff. Oatmeal with 1/4 tlb pb, a banana, thin sliced turkey meat, milk …. and nothing bad for me. I am a bit hungry today but am trying to ignore it and drink more water. I am really wanting some chips or a chocolate chip muffin or …. well it won’t happen but I’m awanting. :o)

Hope all is well with you. Joss is just finishing up her lunch, we went to the library today and then came home for play and lunch. We’ll be heading back to town in an hour. Still a great day.

Day 2….

A good day today. Calories at 1229 ( a tiny bit over but I did have a tiny piece of b-day cake at the bus garage). I worked out at the gym for 1.5 hours doing both cardio and strength and let me tell you, I can tell it’s been awhile. My steps are 10,014. My water was awesome so hopefully I’ll start to feel human again soon and I got 7 hours of sleep last night.

I am so tired of winter. It’s only March so we are looking at another 4-6 weeks of this but I’m wishing for spring. I want some green grass, warm water, garden dirt under my fingernails, prettier clothes ….that means I have work to do though so it’s a good thing winter is still here.

Mike sent me this earlier this week, I love that hats. I love that the ears have holes for them. Plus, aren’t those the cutest faces ever?

Okay, enough of this. I have to get to work. I learned a new bus route today, a sub for head start (it’s a 4 run route so today I learned 2 of them between my regular route and on Monday will learn the other two and drive the two I learned today because my school is on spring break next week), and after each route I sit and type out my directions to go with theirs so that I can just glance and remember the landmark for a pick up. I’ve lived in the Crosby area all my life so I will use something like, I went to school there …. when the school was there (it was a school called Ironton middle school but they tore it down), I’d say, oh Cindy use to live there …. like 25 years ago but I remember where it was. Turn at the green old truck, go past the yellow mailbox to the blue one… those kind of directions. Something that would do no one any good but me but it’s me that will be driving the head start bus next week so I better hop to it.

Take care my friends and have an awesome evening. I’m off to a good start so will take a break from boring you to death and update on the weekend. I have my sewing project I need to find time to do and also a jewelry set I need to make up for a donation to the Whitetails Banquet coming up. I’ll share these when I get them done.

Day 1 of this challenge….

So my food goal was 1200 calories and I came in at 1166.  My steps for the day fell short, 8769 today but I did get in a 3 mile walk plus normal movements. My water will be awesome as soon as I finish up my last 20 oz. I fell way short on my 8 hours of sleep and am really feeling it.

So my goals for tomorrow, stick with the 1200 calories, the 10,000 steps, my 100 oz of water and 8 hours of sleep. And I’d like to get in some extra exercise. I’m going to start back up my little potty exercises. Each time I go the bathroom I do 25 of everything I can think of. Like deep knee bends, lunges, jumping jacks, counter push-ups, bend overs and twists. It adds up by the end of the day and they only take like 5 minutes or so to do. Of course I can’t do them at the bus garage but I’ll do them at home before and after work. I’m also going to go to the gym tomorrow and start the C25K program again. There is a 5K in June that I would love to at least match my time for last year or beat.

Onward and downwards, I’m hoping and trying. Good luck to my partner too. It is so awesome to have someone that is the same as me working to the same goals.

Take care my friends. Blessings!!

For me…

New week, new challenges and a new lease on what I know I must be doing.

This weeks challenges are:

10,000 steps each day. With the bus driving and extra routes it’ll be difficult but that’s what a challenge is.

100 oz of water each and every day. The same thing, with driving bus and no potty, well a challenge made to be.

7-8 hours a sleep each and every single night. This is a must, with being gone from 6am-6pm each day I need to be sure I get my time in the sack.

1200-1300 calories a day. For the first time since the start of my diet I made out a weekly menu. I haven’t got much for grocery money this week so I’ll pick up milk, fruit and fresh veggies. I planned with what I already have here. I’ll roast a chicken on the dinner spinner. I have our eggs. I have waffles, a couple frozen dinners. Healthy Choice soups there were on sale last week. 45 calorie bread and a few more things.

All this I already know, all of this I just have to get back into doing. It’s time. I’ve said it before it’s just time.

Take care my friends. Take care of yourself…you’re the only one that can do it. I’m learning.

It’s snowing and snowing ….

 

 

Under this foot of snow is a nice thick layer of ice. However it’s only suppose to last a few days and then warm up to the 30’s. Today is a good time to start a project.

It’s going to be a seat cover with pockets for my bus. I need something to put all the kids goodies I bring for them to do to keep them out of trouble. I bring them cards, games, coloring pages, crayons, pencils and a few other things off and on and there just isn’t room up front to have that stuff safely. So we’ll see what I come up with this weekend and hopefully it’ll fit and work.

Just checking in and saying hi. Hope that life is treating you all wonderfully. Busy here but always am. I picked up a few extra bus runs and activities the next two weeks. Gotta save for Mike’s graduation. I’m going to do something I’ve never wanted to, every going to want to do again, scared to death to do and well….I’m flying out to Wyoming on the 24th of April. I don’t want to fly, but I can’t drive for $200.00. So on the 24th, bright and early in the morning Scott and I (I’m taking Scott with me) are getting on  two different planes and going to watch Mike graduate and then ride home with him but along the way take Scott to things he’s never seen before. A once in a life time trip for him, or at least the 1st time in his life.

Take care my friends and have a blessed week.