I have been attempting to use more natural products. I made diluted mix of vinegar and tea tree oil to clean the house and I add lavender essential oil to mellow out the tee tree smell.

I love Doctor Bronner's lavender scented castile 18-1 uses soap. I love the fresh scent and the natural ingredients. I use it as shampoo and body wash. I follow it with a diluted apple cider vinegar rinse.

 I also like Doctor Woods Shea Vision Black soap for my face. It has lessened my break outs and the smell is fresh. 

I tried...

It works. The bottle says 24 hours but with all the working out I do and this Florida humidity it wears off for me around dinner time about ten hours.

Getting Out of My Rut.

Summer is flying by so fast. The children go back to school in a month. I need to get my but in gear. I have not hit the treadmill or anything else since July 4th. I have been so obsessed with sewing moved working out way down on the list of things I need to do. It is right above laundry. I am still counting my points though and staying on track with my eating and getting in my good health guidelines.


I had to go to the E.R. Monday night. I was sewing. (surprise!) What I was working on got stuck in the feeding teeth and I was trying to work it free without any damage to the fabric and D.D. was talking to me and I must have put my hand in the way of the needle while the presser foot was down and the needle went right through the top of my finger nail and broke off. I had the needle poking out right below the tip and the thread sticking out of the my finger nail.It was not too painful. We were going to pull it out with pliers ourselves but thought better of it being as we were not sure if it was broken in pieces inside my finger and I needed a Tetanus shot. We arrived at the E.R. at 10:30 P.M. and left at 4:45 A.M. I was not surprised at how long I was there. I was surprised when the Doctor gave me a pain pill instead of Novocain. His words were "why give a needle to remove a needle?" I am sure that would have been fine had I not been waiting long and my finger was swelling a bit plus scabbing over.The needle was not budging and he was pulling on it pretty hard.  Lets face it if that was all he was going to do I could have stayed home Had a little rum and Made D.H. pull it. I had to ask for demand Novocain. I am still sewing. I think I might want to open an Etsy shop.

I Am Obsessed!

There are a few things I do that totally are the most important brilliant things that everyone must love because they are so great and I love it and am amazing for doing them and letting them take over my life and interfere with my house work and all other activities and are so worth all the money I spend and room it takes up because it is as necessary as food. I have been doing some of them for years steadily (taking pictures of my dogs) and I have had many obsessions that while all consuming at the time they did not last too long, depending on who you talk too. Quilting, knitting , crocheting, workout DVDs, bread making etc. (In all of them I have mediocre ability.)   I have a new one. It is a Doozy.

Any way, I am officially minus 30 lbs thanks to Weight Watchers and exercise I feel great.I also have a tan kind of. Yoga was Great. I have not been since the kids summer vacation started but I plan on going back when the kids are back in school. I have gone to the gym a couple of times and that was cool. I think I want a membership but that might not bee in the budget. I love over night oats.

I am getting a tattoo for my birthday. Still not sure what I am thinking hibiscus and roses.

Instead of buying tons of cloth menstrual pads I have been on a sewing kick and making a whole lot of them myself. I really am having a good time with it.I just wish I was better at it. I am going to have a sewing lesson at my local sewing store. Did I mention my new obsession?  I am behind on my laundry. I also need to clean the garage and make work space for the tile man that is coming to re-tile and put a new bath in the hall bathroom. We were supposed to paint the outside of the house this week while D.H. was on vacation. That did not happen. We slack.

Publix subs are amazing!

I Just Have To Keep Moving

I seem to have lost my momentum. My goal is to lose 2 lbs. a week to reach my goal in October. I was doing great from the end of January until April. I am still counting my points and exercising. (sort of). The push is not there. Groupon was running a special for Metabody fitness centers, 30 classes for $20. I am going to try one yoga class. I have never been inside a gym and the last exercise class I took was Jazzersize with my sister in the very early 1990's. Hopefully that will get back to working hard. I also plan working out to one of my many DVDs 4 times a week. I do not like being uncomfortable. There are many areas in my life that I want to work on and change. That is a whole mess of uncomfortable. I need to plan dinner better and put my dinner points in at the beginning of the day I think that will help me make sure I have the points for a satisfying meal.

One of the activities that I allowed myself to get distracted with to avoid working out is sewing. I have been making cloth maxi pads. I have tried a few different patterns and have ruled a few out. I need to find one that  works with my limited skills. I am not to worried since no one will see what they look like when I am wearing them. The switch to cloth pads was not for any selfless reason like saving the planet or being green. Nor was it a desire to lessen my exposure to harsh chemicals. It was not to save money, all of witch great reasons to switch. The reason I made the switch was all of a sudden at 35 years of age I was having an allergic reaction to every brand of disposable pads. And how does one save money when one is buying all sorts of fabrics and do-dads to make them.

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another blog about nothing.

Wow I have not shared on here for quite a long while. YEARS. I am either real busy or very boring. Lets face it I really did not have much going on. I think I am going to start fresh. This is a new blog more like a semi public journal that has the potential to get read by someone but has no purpose or value for anyone not even me. It might even  be another two years before I write an entry. I am going to make a short list of things I want to write about stuff I am into for now.

Menstrual cups
Cloth Menstrual pads
Weight Watchers
Jogging for beginners
recipes
natural hair care
Food, recipes, restaurants,
Health and fitness

Food Temptation UHG!!

Every time I open my cabinet to get a dish out I am staring down the barrel of a bag of crinkle cut potato chips. They are left over from the diet break my DH took this weekend. It was quite a break. DH went to Orlando on Saturday with a few friends, a good time was had by all. If I go to Orlando, or anywhere for that matter I would definitely not be counting calories. I am Happy he enjoyed himself (only a tiny bit jealous). The problem I am having right now is that last night was the WWE Royal Rumble and he and his friends had some chips and dip. There are some left. So while I was making my tuna salad with fat free sour cream I noticed the chips. OUCH. If I could have just one I would, But I can not.

My meal plan for the week

lemon chicken pasta toss w/ baby spinach

vegetable bean burgers

pork loin

garlic lime chicken with olives with greek potatoes

steak chili (prob. over pasta)

The picture above is the lemon chicken pasta toss. It was very easy and quick, very low in calories and fat. I liked it but next time I might add some hot peppers or wasabi to give it a kick.I am not sure how I am going to do that loin. I think I might do it pulled with BBQ sauce. we will see. I took it out of the freezer yesterday and it is still frozen solid.






I forgot to mention DH and I are tracking our diet and exercise on livestrong.com. It has lots of things to help you keep track of food, fitness and goals. There is also diabetic resources and support. Also if you want to quit smoking there is help for that too. wish I new about it in November

Happy New Year ! Yes I Know it is a Month in.

I hope everyone has a happy and blessed New Year. I hope every one had a joyful Christmas too. We had a quiet day together enjoying my husbands lasagna. My children were happy with there gifts and treats, probably because daddy did most of the shopping. Although my husband enjoyed all the gifts I gave him.(even the slippers). The first year in ten that there was not a clunker, and there have been some doozies, the butter bell comes to mind as a big one. I always felt so bad for him because I love everything he picks for me. This year it was a cook book. "The Take-out Menu Cookbook" that was my favorite. I love it! More importantly my family loves what I am putting in front of them. The biggest hit so far is the goulash. My goal is to try and make one from each nationality each month. I am so great full I do not have a picky family.

DH and I quit smoking the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was not pretty. Fast forward to the end of January we are still not smoking but I have gained 20 lbs. I have to say it was really painful to quit this time. I think I might have gone into a depression for a while, I am only now starting to feel normal again. It probably had more to do with the junk food I was putting into my body. We ate out so much in December and January. So now hubby and I are on the right track, counting calories and making better choices. Meal planning is important for making sure I stay on track, and I am helping keep my husband on track too(left overs= his lunch). It helps us stick to the grocery budget also. I even got off my butt and played on my Wii fit. I have a great workout game EA Sports active that really kicks you in the butt and I need to just get up and do it. DH is talking about getting the Kinect for his Xbox. That would be good for us both but I will believe it when I see it.

The great thing about all these little goals is they tie into the one huge goal we are working towards, STICK TO THE BUDGET. Not eating out so often, meal planning saves money too and we save $52.00 a week by not smoking. Our goal is to pay off our credit card dept and live within our means. Again. There was a time in the beginning of the decade we paid off the car and credit cards.That was very relaxing. We are fortunate enough that our tax return this year combined with the bonus DH gets from his job will cover it. Paying it off in one swoop would be ideal but we have a few things around here that definitely need repairing. We might pay off most of The card and use a couple grand to do that. I am leaning towards paying it off and building up the savings with all those payments we don't have to make. Being a home owner there will always be something that need fixing, isn't that what savings are for? Now if I stick to the diet though that will blow the budget out of the water. I will need a new wardrobe.

We have been very busy around here this month. we rearranged the house so now I have an actual dinning room. WooHoo I wanted this to happen since we moved in but I had to wait for it to be DH's idea. ;) We moved the futon and kids T.V. with the Wii and DS' Xbox into the office. The office was consolidated down to one desk. you know what that means? DH and I are sharing a desk. It has been about two weeks and we are still alive... I mean happily married what ever. So any way back to my dinning area. We bought curtains and some wall decorations. All picked out by me. DH picked out something too, a small television. Yeah I said it. It is like having a new home. And we did not spend oodles of money. Our next project is my bed room. If I find it under our laundry.