Week 34

               I can't believe its already been a week. Where does the time go? Well lots of retailers in my area have already put their back to school stuff on CLEARANCE!!! Go and stock up for next year!!! I have enough spiral notebooks and packets of paper to get Brittany through high school. When you buy them 75% off you just can't help yourself. I hate running into town because the kids need some "little" school supply, pens, pencils etc. So I always have a stock pile :) 

CRAFTS-
I use this time of year to replace/upgrade Adyson's stash of coloring stuff, and my craft bin :) I can always use glue sticks ($0.23 for a 4 pack of glue), stickers (Not to mention if you have little ones packets of paper for coloring, crayons, markers , etc) AND save money doing it cause you are getting everything on clearance!!!

So I bought Adyson a few little things that we will use when we play school. She loves playing school. So I also bought her a few dry erase boards. 

I have started a Halloween board on Pinterest I can't wait to try some things with Adyson this year. She is really getting into the crafts this year. I think I'm going to do the Floating Ghost with her first. You use cheese cloth and spray it with starch and it dries hard. You can see it on my Pinterest board. 

GARDENING-  
Well the hubby is home this weekend and he was nice enough to weed whack the strawberry patch. I have June bearing strawberries so my plants are already done producing. So we whack them down to about 2 inches tall. I thin them out, I pull the small/weak plants out, add some good dirt and mulch to the top of them for the fall/winter season. 

My vegetable garden id done producing. So next time hubby comes home we are going to till it up and turn it into the compost patch for the fall/winter. 

FAMILY TIME-

So this last week it was decided that Brittany shoudl start cooking dinner 2 times per week. So she understands and reads recipes, can measure properly, the costs of foods, but mainly spending time with her in the kitchen. She is learning to read labels on the packages, (your different cuts of meats, chicken etc)It was fun watching her learn. I'm very proud of her! I can't wait until next week! This week she made chicken wings and salad! It was also YUMMY!!!!!  I'm going to try REALLY hard not to burn things, in my house its a running joke that when the smoke alarms go off dinner is ready!

Brittany has also decided she wanted to play Powder Puff Football!!!! We are so excited for her. I miss going to games (she was a cheerleader in 6th and 8th grade). 

My daughter is the one wearing JEANS, when its 90+ degrees outside. She was told she wasn't suppose to play, BUT she did. Proud of her for being a trooper! You can watch her practices on my YouTube channel. The links are below! 

Brittany practice
Brittanys practice 2
Brittany Practice 3

EATING HEALTHY-  
 In prepping for the fall and winter season I was looking around the internet and books for my favorite recipes for the SLOW COOKER!!! I don't know what it is about the slower cooker in the fall and winter, but I love it. I have subscribed to The Test Kitchen of Melissa Fallis blog. I LOVE how she makes everything simple, and gives a grocery list and all for her freezer meals. Thanks so much Melissa! I can't wait to try the recipes!

I was also watching Dr. Oz(it was a rerun from last season) BUT  he talked about the flu season coming and the vitamins we should be on the look out for! We all know vitamin C helps boost our system but there are a few others. Vitamin D, B6, B12. So I am looking for foods that have these little goodies in them! Good food sources of vitamin B6 include brewer's yeast, bananas, cereal grains, legumes, vegetables (especially carrots, spinach and peas), potatoes, milk, cheese, eggs, fish and sunflower seeds. For B12, fish(salmon, tuna, cod) crab lobster beef  cheese eggs. Some foods with vitamin D salmon, eggs, milk, tuna yogurt. You can read more WebMD

We are doing great with eating healthy. Almost all the "cravings" for junk is gone. I have replaced the junk with healthy versions. I'm eating more hummus and salsa now instead of your typical sour cream dips (french onion, ranch). I'm adding stuff to meals like flaxseed to my smoothies, mashed potatoes, yogurt. The least you can do is TRY something, that's what I tell my kids!

EXERCISING- 
Loving the apps I have found in the App Store. Ab workouts, Leg workouts, Arm workouts. I finally got my SHAPE and Fitness magazines. So I've been busy  cutting out new workouts and adding them to my spiral notebook. I have also found 2 workout shows on TV, Classical Stretch and Body Electric. They come on pretty early but I DVR them and watch them when I want :) 

READING- I loved The Lightning Thief!!!!! TO me is was similar to Harry Potter. But this is one of my favorite genres!!!! Trying to decide what to read next....
You can also follow me on Goodreads.com


PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYTHING IN MY BLOG IS MY OWN OPINION. NO ONE HAS PAID ME TO ENDORSE ANYTHING. 

                                                      See everyone next week!!!! 

Week 33

                    The fair is in town. We went. Note to self for next year do not work out the day before especially my hips & butt.... I'm so sore I can barely move. (Not to mention with me eating extremely healthy for almost a month) Good (healthy)food at the fair is hard to come by. Me dying of thirst I stopped at the first place & bought a coke( technically Slice orange for those not in the South). I was excited to "splurge" on eating healthy, I took a swig and YUCK!!! It took everything I had to continue drinking the sugar bomb! I couldn't believe how much my taste buds had changed in a month. 

Adyson had the best time! She finally grew enough to go on 90% of the rides by herself. Exciting moment for her, sad moment for me. I realized how big she really is. You can see her videos on Youtube

Still smoke free!!!


READING- I'm still reading  The Lightning Thief. I know it takes forever for me to finish a book, its not that I'm a slow reader its the interruptions. If I had 4-5 hrs to sit and read from beginning to end I could finish it! I'm half way Its sounding similar to Harry Potter but with Greek mythology instead.  I love it so far!!!


EATING HEALTHY- has been going great! I have been using oatmeal a lot lately. I have found it tastes great in anything! I'm using it in my smoothies, pancakes, and actually making oatmeal with real fruit for breakfast! No more packaged oatmeal for us! I've been using honey as a sweetener instead of sugar lately.

Blueberry & Oatmeal pancakes topped with bananas & honey!!!
YUMMY!!!!!

Long cooking oatmeal with peaches, strawberries! 

I have also found a love for wraps! Add some hummus, spinach, turkey, cheese and wrap it up!!! Or you can try my favorite which is a chicken caesar wrap! You create so many different options its unreal!

I have also been loving 4C drink enhancers! These guys do a great job for the liquid drink enhancers. It only takes 1-3 squirts to a water bottle (depending on your taste buds). I found this 4 pack at Sam's Club for about $7.50, which is an awesome deal because individually they are about $3.00-$3.75 depending on flavors, each bottle has around 24 servings, so to me you get more servings then the "other drink enhancer powders". I also like the fact that it is liquid so it mixes better, and I don't have to worry about the wrappers from the powder packets. I keep one of these in my purse so I always have it! My daughter carries one in her lunch box. Its nice not carrying 10 little powder packets, the wind blowing the powder everywhere, throwing away the wrappers.... AHHHH I love these little guys!!!!
www.4cstore.com

                         

 EXERCISING- I have an exercise board on Pinterest so I have lots of ideas. In the 3 health magazines I get every month it talks about if you haven't exercised in over a year you need to start slow to prevent injury. So in my workouts that I started August 1, I do more floor exercises right now. I need to build up the muscles I have, along with balance. I do use the video that I posted 2 weeks ago, week 31. So I pick a workout from Pinterest or from my spiral notebook, everyday (well Monday thru Friday anyway). I also do the 30 day ab workout challenge! So by September I will be increasing my workouts and challenging myself more. I'm feeling great!

NO CHEMICALS- I'm still working on this. I am slowly transitioning from boxed/packaged stuff to natural products. I haven't run out of anything lately. Although the next time I run out of sugar I want to try the new Stevia that everyone is talking about. I'm always looking at labels now and I'm more aware of the chemicals that are in everything we use. I'm still looking for a good homemade dish soap! The recipe I tried doesn't cut the grease. If anyone has any ideas leave them in the comments below PLEASE :)

CRAFTS- I am going to be starting a special project soon! I want to make my grandmother a Halloween Village for her birthday/Halloween. If anyone tells her I will be very upset! I found the idea on Pinterest!!!! I can't wait to start I will post pictures throughout the process. Does anyone have any cute ideas they are going to start/do for Halloween???

GARDENING-
NOTHING went as planned this year! The sister planting (planting corn, squash, & beans together) didn't go over well, the beans over ran the corn & killed it.

ALL (yellow, Zucchini and pumpkin) my squash died beginning of August. I have no idea why. It all turned yellow and died. 

The garden still floods when it rains. So the husband and I are going to try to raise the bed and make some new planter boxes!

The dog dug up ALL my herbs while we were on vacation. I guess he missed me! So I will have to start those over.

The 3 tomatoes that survived are doing great! The poor green pepper plants are only 2 foot tall and producing mini green peppers! HAHA Same goes for the banana peppers!
How did your gardens do this year?

MOVIES-

The Raven- Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's life or an adventure starring Edgar Allan Poe. It was a great murder/mystery movie set back in the 1840's? Similar to Sherlock Holmes in my opinion. Very interesting & would watch it again! 

Salt- great female "spy" movie! Loved it & might have to buy it! 

Temptation- Tyler perry knows how to write/direct movies!! loved it!!! Slow to start & a surprising ending!!!! 

The Possession- was a simple "possession movie" for me anyway. No scary parts just basically how a family deals with an issue like this.

Frankenweenie- was a Tim burton special  but all done in black and white. It was ok.

Hotel Transylvania - was a cute monster/vampire cartoon for kids. I loved it! 

Lorax- adyson loved it! I love Dr. Suess!!!

Mirrors- Seems to be the adult version of Poltergiest 3. Seeing things in mirrors and the "spirits" in the mirrors taking control. Its OK. 

Let me know what you thought of the latest movies you've seen. 

Week 32

First with all the flooding in the mid states, my thoughts and prayers go to all those involved. My family was not affected in any of the flooding in Tennessee. Well this is the first full week of school, so I'm getting better about the routine of a bedtime and the alarm going off at 5:15am.

It's been fun playing catch up this last week. I'm caught up! How exciting! Does anyone else feel like this when they return from vacation? The yard to mow, stalls to muck, water buckets to clean, animal pools to clean, laundry, cleaning the house, reading mail, etc. But we got it done.

I have discovered Trader Joe's and Whole Foods this week. My impressions Whole Foods, mine is as big as a regular grocery store lots of choices. Pricey! The same brands from Kroger to Whole Foods, and the item at Whole Foods was $0.50-$1.00 more. The positive about Whole Foods I LOVE the bulk section of the store, nuts, granola, herbs, seasonings, oats, rice, etc The prices for this were cheaper then any other store! So I will probably shop Whole Foods for the bulk bins and that will be about it!
Trader Joe's had awesome prices on organic produce and some boxed items. Their deli meat  and cheese was the cheapest of all stores. I loved the lay out of the entire store and how they promote bringing reusable bags into the store. They didn't have bulk bins at my Trader Joes.
So in a nut shell the 2 stores are 1/2 a block from each other. I would have no problems shopping between the 2 stores for all my needs. I wish they were closer, as it stands I guess I will make a once a month trip for things since the stores are 40 min from me.


EXERCISING-I've been doing great! I have worked out everyday this week! I found my work outs from the magazines I subscribe to. I get SHAPE, Fitness and Women's Health. I got an awesome deal after Christmas last year from www.discountmags.com if you bought 3 magazines for 3 years it was only $18. Thats right 3 magazines for 3 years!!! I cut the workouts from the magazine and glued them into a spiral notebook. So everyday I have a different workout to do. I'm building up my balance, muscles and endurance just from the simple workouts. I wake up a little sore everyday which lets me know I did the workout right the day before. I have pinned TONS of exercise stuff to my Pinterest so go check it out!

Adyson was trying to do this exercise. I think she did a great job at it!!! 

EAT HEALTHY- I have discovered the love of smoothies!!! I have started a Pinterest board of smoothies. I only have a few pins but very excited to try them. I have realized over the last week you can't mess up a smoothie. Its really a handful of this and that and blend it together. I have found that peanut butter has a strong taste in smoothies. To me if I add peanut butter to my smoothie that is all I can taste so I choose not to add peanut butter.
 So far my favorite has a little of everything in it.
fruits- big bag of  mixed frozen fruit from Sam's Club, measure out 1 cup portions & put in individual bags
Oats- I bought a 10 lbs box from Sams Club
Milk
Protein Powder- Picutred below, I buy at the grocery store. I like this powder I bought vanilla so I can add                                       it to anything. I will try another protein powder when I have finished this.
Spinach
carrots
banana
nuts- almonds, chia, etc (Chia seeds are a great source of fiber (6g)  and Omega 3 (2.9g) in just a tablespoon!!! You remember these little seeds....Cha Cha Chia Pets? Those little black seeds that grew green "hair" for our Chia Pet?) I found mine at Trader Joes!!

                       

I mix everything up depending on my mood that morning. I do take a multi-vitamin every other day. If you eat healthy, ( I have not had "processed food" in almost 1 month) there is no reason to take a vitamin everyday.

SMOKE FREE FOR 3 WEEKS!! 😀🎉 I feel so much better. between eating healthy and quitting smoking its amazing the amounts of energy I have. I haven't felt like this in years!!!!

READING- I forgot to add my review of "Perfect Fling" by Carly Phillips on last weeks blog, so here it is!

 It was funny & romantic(a few exotic parts), I loved it!!! Great plot, and characters were life like!

I have started The Percy Jackson Series. I know I'm a little old for it but I love those kinds of stories. I loved Harry Potter too! The first book in the series is The Lightening Thief. Yes I know its already a movie. You must remember I am ALWAYS behind when it comes to book/movie stuff like this. Yes I know the 2nd book was turned into a movie that starts soon. I'm getting there!!! 

MIND GAMES- I know I'm 32 years old, but I can't help myself when it comes to Disney's game Where's My Water. I downloaded it for Adyson, she loves it too, and yells at me when she catches me playing it. I think its addicting!!! You must help Swampy the crocodile get water to take a shower. So you have to route the water around obstacles. LOVE IT!!!!

Update on my LIFEPROOF case...so I bought mine from Walmart. The case works wonderful. I got online to register my new case (yes you have to register the case, it has 2 serial numbers) I was having problems registering my case. So I called customer service at LIFEPROOF (which I waited in line 35 minutes before I got to speak to a person) where it was explained to me because I bought it from Walmart it does NOT have the same "water warranty". You only get the water warranty if you by the case from LIFEPROOF directly or from Verizon. So when you get online to look up prices you will notice that the cases are $10 more BUT WORTH IT for the warranty I think! So I took my case back to Walmart , got my money back. Then ordered it from LIFEPROOF.

Moral of the story- ALWAYS buy direct from the company whenever possible!



Hope you all had a good week and have a great weekend! Leave me your questions in the comments below. Let me know if there is anything you would like to know! 

Adyson was getting frustrated with me at the store!!! haha

Week 31 School Starts

Well we are back from Florida, it was bitter sweet leaving. I miss the beach and relaxation, but I missed home even more. We got our school shopping done before we left so I didn't have that to worry about that. Now I've been playing catch up for the last week. Tending the garden, playing with the animals, Brittany mowing all the yards, etc. and ALL THAT LAUNDRY!!! But the trip was worth every minute. 

I've already been scoping out what the kids want for Christmas! Since there is 145 shopping days left. I think we are going to keep things simple this year, but we'll see as we get closer to Christmas. I'm getting ready to start my fall projects. One of them I found on Pinterest, and looks really cool. I'll be making a Halloween Villiage as a birthday present for someone special to me! I post before and after pics!

While down in Florida and learning to SUP (see pics from week 30) I wanted a waterproof case. After 3 days of non-stop research I finally settled on the Lifeproof fre case. I chose this case for several reasons.
1- Lifeproof has the most accessories for the case. This way I don't have to take the case on/off the phone all the time. Example- Lifeproof makes an armband for the case, so I can go running with my phone using the waterproof/dustproof armband, I can buy waterproof headphones and go SUP while listening to music! If I am going to pay $75 for a case I want it to have the best options/accessories available.
2- The best ratings for waterproofing. I have taken my phone in the ocean, shower (to listen to music) and have had a wonderful experience. If you are going into deep water, the case is only rated for a 6 foot drop into the water. So I bought 2 of those floats you use to keep your boat keys from sinking, and hooked it to my phone worked like a charm, my phone didn't sink more then about 6 inches!!! Very pleased.
3- Phone options available, meaning I can use the camera, volume buttons, etc without having to "unplug" a port/button to use my phone. 
4- Best color options. I wanted something bright and colorful, especially since I knew I would be in the ocean I wanted to see my phone if it fell. So I got "hot pink"! 
The only draw back to this case is the sound. By that I mean that the sound/call sounds a little muffled, until you get used to it. I can hear everyone, they can hear me just fine. The ringtones/music sound a little muffled but I have already gotten used to it, now it sounds normal to me. I am totally willing to give up a little sound to know that I can drop my phone in the sink, ocean or where ever and know it's waterproof! 

LOVE IT !!!

I can't believe Brittany started high school this year! She is growing up so fast. 

2nd day of 9th grade! (I missed the 1st day because the bus came 15 min early)

EATING HEALTHY- So I was playing around and also reading about fitness and nutrition while we were in Florida. I came up with this AWESOME snack. 

Banana dipped in peanut butter, then roll it in granola, now drizzle some honey on top!!!! YUMMY!!!! I can only eat 1 banana when its dipped, rolled and drizzled on, so filling!

We are doing great at eating healthy. I am drinking smoothies for breakfast and the possibilities are endless. My favorite so far is:

Strawberries

blueberries

spinach

greek yogurt

granola/oats

fruit juice

protein powder

Put in a blender and blend until smooth!! Yummy!!

I'M STILL SMOKE FREE- ALMOST 3 WEEKS NOW. I FEEL GREAT!!! 

EXERCISING- very proud to say I have gotten up at 515 the last 2 mornings and worked out. Just some floor exercises. Its only 15 minutes, which I can only do HALF. I did not realize how out of shape I was until I attempted to do this video. I must say it targets the main muscles (legs, arms, back, abs) so I will start slowly over the first few weeks and work my way up. I also found a cool Podcast on my Iphone. Its called PodRunner Intervals its FREE. The set I'm listening to is "First day to 5k". Its a Podcast you can listen to and it tells you when to walk, jog, sprint, etc and times you along with plays the music for you! Go check it out! 

 

Well until next week, have a great weekend!!! 

Yes this is Adyson wearing 5 inch wedges, she thought she needed these!