Friday Weigh-in

This post is dedicated to my friend and reader Sara. She pops in comments here and there, and I knew she was trying to be more healthy. She is keeping to her plan and looks terrific! She really helped inspire me this week. Her tip - more veggies and water. I tried to focus on that week. It was hard because I'm not a big veggie lover, but I am trying....Thanks Sara!!

This week I lost another pound. So far that makes 13. It seems like it is taking forever and I can feel that I am in a slump. The newness has worn off, and the workouts are becoming harder. I have found it helpful that we are signed up for a 5k. I really want to run it without stopping and that helps get me out the door.

The good news it that I can now run two miles without stopping. That is such a huge improvement over where I started. I am dedicated to making this a lifestyle which is helpful too. It's not just about the weight, it is about being healthy for our five kiddos and the sweet DH. Have a great weekend!!

Weak Things Become Strong - FINALLY!

For the last ten years, I have been fighting with clothing. I can sort and organize a million coupons but clothes were kicking my trash. Keeping track of the sizes, the seasons, what's stained, what matches, what to save, etc. just makes my head spin and I would literally shut down.

Recently we were handed 8 bins of clothing. A wonderful blessing, but a mental nightmare for me. I made DH literally sit right by me to help me and this time I finally figured out a system!! So bring on the hand-me-downs because I can rock it now!!

First step: Sort into sizes. Don't worry about seasons, matching outfits, etc. at this point.

Second step: Sort into pants, shorts, long sleeve, short sleeve, dresses, etc. Then cascade layer them so that you can see exactly what colors and how many repeats you have. I allow 10 of each category and I get rid of any patterned bottoms. (This is key for me. Pattern bottoms are so hard to match with other things!!!)

Third step: Take your tops and place on top of cascade. This makes it really easy to see how many pants the shirt actually goes with. If it doesn't go with more than two or three, the top gets tossed.

Fourth step: Keep a tally of what you have in each size so that it is easy to pick up what you need at yard sales. Having plain bottoms also makes this easy because you can get really cute tops without having to worry about if you have pants to match.

Fifth step: put in bin and store away until needed.

I am so excited about this!! I have been working on it for such a long time and it finally clicked!! I'd like to know how you organize your clothes. Please tell me so that I can tweak if need be.

What Did the Doctor Say?

Hopefully by now my DMIL has picked herself up off the floor from the doctor post. :) (Don't worry, DH and I are doing just fine.) But I have had many inquiring minds want to know two things: 1. How did DH handle the situation and 2. What did the doctor say when I called him.

DH was a super star through the whole thing, which I give him major points for. But he said that he appreciated the fact that I told him I had these feelings up front AND that I didn't like it. He said it would have been much different if I had been trying to hide it and he found out from someone else. Like I mentioned before he said that we all get tempted with these kinds of feelings, it's what we do with them that matters. Do you see now why I feel so strongly about being faithful to him?! He is AWESOME!!

Now for the Doc...First of all it was a totally awkward conversation for both of us, and he handled it well. He said that these situations are common and that I needed to go to someone I felt totally comfortable with. He thought I was talking about just my care, and said that he would see me at the twins' check-up. I just wanted to get off the phone at that point and didn't correct him. I think he'll get the picture when we don't schedule with him. ;)

DH thought it was pretty gutsy that I posted this. But I am so shocked with all the marriages I see failing around me - many due to affairs. I want to be a voice saying that these things don't "just happen". We may be tempted, but we also make conscious decisions and have control of both our feelings and actions. I hope that this post will give others the courage to tackle this head on, save their marriages, or at least make them stronger. Use it as a conversation starter. We need to fight for fidelity!!

Dececeptively Delicious - Sloppy Joes

Happy Monday to everyone! It has been a while since I critiqued a recipe so let's do that today... Jessica's sloppy joes leave much to be desired. She packs in a lot of nutrition with both butternut and sweet potatoes. However, the tomato past makes it a really pasty texture and the taste was really bland. So I give this a 5 out of 10. My kids ate about half of their serving before calling it quits. I even had a hard time finishing it out.

If you want a really fast and good sloppy joe try this.

1 lb. brown hamburger drained
1 can condensed tomato soup
mix together, heat either on the stove or in the microwave.
serve on whole grain or whole wheat buns.

*Tip. Buy your meat in bulk and brown it with dried onion all at the same time. Drain, let cool, the divide into quart ziplocks putting one pound in each. Then freeze. When you need to use it, thaw in the microwave and it is ready to go. SO handy to make dinner go faster.

Friday Weigh-in

So sorry to skip the midweek post. It has been one of those CRAZY weeks. So I am triple posting today to make up for it. I promise you won't want to miss these posts. ;) Read the Fidelity one first and then the date night. It will make more sense. I tried to fix it, but I am out of time. (Babies are up and DD3 is begging to play.)

It is time for the Friday weigh in....I lost another pound! That makes 12 total so far and I am now only 8 away from what I was before I got pregnant with the twins! See small steps turn into big distances.

Last night I was able to run over a mile without stopping and then mostly ran another 2 miles. I never thought I would be able to do that!! Yeah baby.

*Tip. This comes from Dr. Phil's Weight Loss Solution. Don't have junk food in your house. If it's not there, you can't eat it. Make your environment healthy and then you don't have to have will power to say no to the junk food.

Date Night

During the doctor saga, DH and I decided that we couldn't be passive about our marriage. We needed to keep dating each other, even though it seemed impossible with five kids. To find and pay for a sitter every week would be so expensive. So we do at home dates.

Once a week, we feed the kiddos an early dinner and have them in their room by 7 or 7:30. They can play or read, but they have to stay in their room. And then it is lights out at 8:30. They are in charge of this themselves. The older DDs are in charge of DD3. This has worked out nicely.

We get take-out and have a kid free dinner. Then we watch a movie, play a game or Wii. It isn't much, but it is time to just hangout and reconnect. We LOVE it and look forward to it every weekend.

I'd love to know, what do you and your significant other do to keep the flame burning brightly?

Fighting for Fidelity

Did I get your attention with the title of this post? I have been mulling on this one for a while. With the revelation of Arnold's affair, fidelity has been the big talk this week. I have been floored when I read an article saying that it was not realistic to have sex with the same person (being the spouse) for the rest of your life. So the new popular thing to have "negotiated monogamy" where both people can have sex with other people and it was okay. REALLY?! Well, it is time to fight back! Affairs cause so much damage. It is time to fight for fidelity!!

I have to start by saying that I think (and DH does too) that it is normal to feel a spark of attraction for another person. But it is what you do with it that is important. Do you fan the fire or put put it out?

Probably the shortest way to do this is to tell you about my recent struggle. There was a new, young, really cute doctor that joined the practice we go to. Every time we went to see him I noticed that I was getting more and more attracted to him.

Now, I had heard moms talk about the crushes they had on their pediatricians and always thought it wasn't fair to the husbands. (Even though these women viewed it as "normal".) I know if my DH got decked out for a co-worker I'd flip, and I didn't think it was fair that wives do it for their doctor.

When I found myself in a similar situation I decided to douse it. I feel so strongly about being faithful (both physically and emotionally) to my sweet DH that I decided I was going to get rid of the emotions to make sure nothing of the physical would EVER happen. ALL affairs start with emotions.

What did I do? Well, DH and I had a very open discussion about how we both need to be careful. I told him about the struggle with my emotions with the doc and reiterated my determination to be faithful in all ways. I decided that I needed to remove the situation from my life and promised DH that I wouldn't schedule with that doctor anymore.

But I was still struggling. So I did the ultimate douser - I called the doc. I told him that I wasn't going to be scheduling with him anymore - not that he was a bad doc, but because I was too attracted to him. (Pretty gutsy huh? ;)

I did this so that he would know he needed to be careful around me. (He was starting to become more casual with me and had told me that he and his wife had just separated.) I also didn't want to change practices, and may have to see him again. I needed to make sure that we could have a good working relationship.

You know what? After that phone call, the internal struggle stopped. I had taken steps to make sure nothing COULD ever happen. It was over and I felt so peaceful. The fight to protect my emotions and my family was so worth it. I NEVER want to put my family through what affairs do and I will fight forever to be faithful!