Updates of sorts

Well, the week that I challenged myself not to eat out, we didn't eat out at all Monday-Friday, but did a couple of times over that weekend. I did all my workouts that week too and did pretty good last week. This week I haven't been feeling well AGAIN (either a cold or the worst allergies EVER) and I didn't work out Monday or Tuesday, but I did this morning. I feel almost human so that's a good sign, right?

So the challenge to myself for the rest of this week:
1. Do a new workout (Serenity loaned us some workout DVD's)
2. Do a 3 mile workout
3. Work on a budget for April

Spring forward tonight!

Don't forget to spring forward tonight, set your clocks forward one hour!

How does everyone else feel about the time change? I don't like it, I wish they would just leave the time alone, one way or another. Ugh.

Getting back on track

The last few weeks have been chaotic and disjointed and add that to the fact I wasn't feeling great, well, we've been way off track. We've eaten out too much. I exercised consistently, but not very enthusiastically and not as much as I had been, and well let's just say financially, we've spent money on things we probably shouldn't have.

So this week, we are focusing on getting back on track. Tom and I agreed to no eating out. For myself, I set some personal goals:
1. Fill out my food diary consistently
2. Drink at least 8 glasses of water
3. Work out 6 days and two of those days do a 3 mile workout.

Counting my blessings

Yeah, I know, I've been MIA again. If you follow my other blog Cruising with Coupons, you may already know I was down with a super bad head cold last week.

Last night my sweet husband said to me possibly the most romantic thing ever. He told me "Everyday when I count my blessings, you're number 1 on the list".

So today that has me thinking about blessings.

Tom, you're #1 on my list too!

A few others:
My 4 kids (I always count my son-in-law as a kid now)
Grandbaby that's on the way
Extra days off due to the weather. I had two days off in the last week due to the bad weather. The first one (last Thursday), I was able to sleep all morning and take it easy all day and I think that's what finally got me over the hump on the cold. The second one (Tuesday), I was able to finish up our taxes so that I could get my youngest daughter's FAFSA done.

There isn't enough time or space here to share all of my blessings, but I'm curious. Have you counted your blessings lately?

This week's goals

With all the drama of hitting the cow, car hunting, etc. I've neglected to post goals the last couple of weeks. So here goes:

1. Finish getting our taxes ready by the end of this month
2. This week I am working in the kitchen area cleaning.
3. Post a debt update by next week.

For one year now

Today I want to brag on myself a little lol. One year ago today I started an exercise program. For the first time in my whole life, I have stuck to that exercise program consistently for an entire year!! I've exercised at least 5 days a week almost every week for the last year (I think there was one or two weeks where I might have only exercised for 4 days).

Found a new to us car

So, Saturday morning we went car hunting. The very first car we looked at was a 1997 Buick Park Avenue. We both really liked it, the lady was willing to come down to $1800, and we wanted to buy it right then, but felt like we needed to look around more. So, we did. Well, we ended up contacting the lady on Sunday and buying it. Here it is:

Car Hunting

Well, if you haven't heard yet, the car was totaled. I am sad, but not surprised. We got $2500 from the insurance company after they paid off the lien at the bank. We had let our son use it as collateral on a loan a few months ago. So now we are car hunting. I believe with all my heart that God has a car out there for us right now. Just as he provided the Mitsubishi when we needed it , He will provide us a nice car now.

 The Mitsubishi right after we bought it. (see the original post: Our New-to-us vehicles)

The Mitsubishi after it "met" the cow"

On that note, if you know of anyone who has a good, reliable car for sale, please let us know!

We are so blessed

Last night on the way back from church, I hit a cow and really did a number on our car. You know, our only car.So why am I posting today that we are blessed?

Well, number one, no one was hurt. Not Tom, not the two boys in the back seat, and not me. I was covered from head to toe in glass from the driver's side window shattering and didn't have a cut on me. I am sore, but not unbearably so.

Number two, before 9:00 last night, 4 people from church had offered us a car to borrow plus our oldest daughter offered to let us borrow hers! The first person that called brought the car right over so Tom had a way to work this morning.

Number three, we have full coverage insurance. So it will either pay for the repairs or if it's totaled, we'll get the money to find something else. And our deductible on that car was only $250.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the cow. It walked away. There wasn't even any blood or hair on our car. My son made the comment "Well of course not, Mom. That cow probably weighed more than your car" LOL.

Am I stressed out? You bet. Am I still shaken up? Yes. Did I dream about cows last night? LOL, yes.  But mostly I feel peaceful and blessed. God is good. All.The.Time!

Goal update for this week & goals for next week

Earlier this week I posted about how I think goals are important and about my goals for this week.

Tom and I finally had a brief budget meeting over supper Friday night. I got a menu plan done for the next couple of weeks and my shopping lists made (and shopping done). Other than milk, we should be good to go for a while. If you want to see some of the deals I got, check out my posts over at Cruising with Coupons. I worked on the preliminary budget for February and on the bathroom/office. I was down in the back a bit so I didn't get as much done as I had hoped,but I'm making progress.

My goals for next week:
1. Finish the February budget
2. Work in the office and our bedroom cleaning and de-cluttering.
3. Eat at home all week.

Goals are important

Today I've been thinking about goals and how important they are. They can help keep us focused and encourage us. Without goals, I tend to get overwhelmed and spin my wheels.

Last Friday I set the goal to make a menu for this week and to do a budget for the rest of this month. I am happy to report that I have done both. Tom and I still need to go over the budget, my goal is to do that tonight. My meals were so well planned that we didn't even eat out once over the weekend! My goals for this week (to be done by Friday)

1. Have the budget meeting with Tom.
2. Prepared a preliminary budget for February
3. Plan menus and shopping list for next two weeks.
4. I have been working on my house. My focus this week is the bathroom and the office. I will continue working in these areas.

5 year blogiversary!

Well, it all started 5 years ago today with this post:
Day One-introduction and goals

Hard to believe I've been doing this for 5 years! I'm not as good at writing here as I once was, but I'm trying.  

We've gone through a lot in those 5 years. Graduated two more kids from high school, Graduated a kid from college. Married a kid off. Graduated myself from college. Went through 15 months of Tom working 32 hour weeks. Tom had shoulder surgery, I had tracheal re-section surgery. Through it all we've become discouraged and depressed, but we've kept trying. We haven't given up. That's all we can do right? Keep trying.

Hope that all my friends and family out there have a blessed week. I am praying for each of you and ask for prayers for us as we continue into this journey. Eventually one day I WILL be posting on here that all of our debt is paid off!

And life happens

Last Saturday, Tom woke up running a high fever, coughing, chills, aches, and generally feeling like poo. We ended up gong to the ER on Sunday only to be told that since the flu is a virus, they couldn't really do anything. They did give him a prescription for some cough medicine. He stayed home Monday (his fever finally broke late Sunday) and has been able to work the rest of the week, although he's been pretty run down. So far (thanks to mega-prayers, I am sure), I have stayed healthy other than fighting a cold (but no fever, aches, etc). I am grateful for that since it was a busy week; I had somewhere to go Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights.

So all that to say, I haven't had much time to think/work on goals this week. But I am setting some now for the weekend.

By Monday, I will have:
made a budget for the rest of this month
made a menu for next week

What are your goals for the new year?

What are your goals for the new year? I know New Year's resolutions are a big thing right now. I generally try to set goals for myself each year. Last year I wanted to get healthier and I've done that (and still working on it).

This year, I plan to:
Continue working on getting healthier
Work on paying off our debt

Those are my two big goals for the year. Over the next few days, I plan to write more details about how I want to meet these goals.

First Place 4 Health

A lot of people have asked me about how I've lost so much weight. So I wanted to write about that today. Last year, on January 30th, I started working out. Since then I've worked out 5-6 days a week most weeks. In March, after feeling like the working out had become a habit, I decided it was time to work on my eating habits. I knew I needed help with that and I began praying about it, asking God to lead me to the program that would help me. A few years ago, a friend had told me about a program called First Place and had sent me some books and tapes about it. I read the books but at the time wasn't ready for it. But now I kept feeling the Holy Spirit nudging me towards it. I resisted. I kept looking for other programs, other ideas. But God didn't give up on me, He kept nudging me. So, I talked to our pastor about the program. He'd heard of it and thought it was a good idea to start a class. I talked to a friend of mine in church who unbeknownst to me had been praying for a program to help her lose weight. So in June, we started a First Place 4 Health program at church. We completed our second session in December. As a group, we've lost over 300 pounds in our church.

First Place 4 Health is a Bible-based weight loss program started at a church in Texas in the 1980's. It is based on the Bible verse from Mark 12:30  that says: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

First Place 4 Health teaches you how to put Christ first in all 4 areas of your life: mentally (your mind), physically (your strength), emotionally (your heart), and spiritually (your soul). We learn about eating healthy, exercising, and how to put Christ first in our lives. There is an excellent Bible study to go with the class and the group support is wonderful. We pray for, support, and help each other. 

We will be starting a new session next week. There are Sunday night and Wednesday night classes. Sunday night class orientation is Sunday, January 6th. Wednesday night is January 9th. if you think you might be interested, I encourage you to come to one of the orientation meetings to learn more. 

Classes are at our church, Bethel Hawley Baptist Church, 7 miles north and 1 mile east of Nash. If you want to come and need directions, just let me know.



First Place 4 health website

The Holidays

I don't think I ever realize how hard the holidays are for me until they're over and I feel that weight lifted off of me. 2012 was full of ups (celebrating our 20th anniversary, Serenity getting married) and downs (our car conking out, Serenity losing her job, other family stuff). But that's life, right? Gotta pick up and move on. So I'm ready to get back on track and live frugally and tackle this debt again. Not sure where to start, so it's back to Dave Ramsey's baby steps. That means starting with getting $1000 in an emergency fund. So I'll be brainstorming some ways to do that. Any and all ideas appreciated!

I close today with this reminder:
God is good all the time. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

A New Year and New ME!

Hello out there everyone! Hope that each of you had a wonderful and blessed holiday. I enjoyed some time off as well as some time with family and am back to work and into routine today. Wanted to share this picture with you, I bought some actual jeans at the thrift store on Saturday! I cannot tell you how long it's been since I've worn actual jeans!