The Best Laid Plans.....

Over the summer I ended up ordering the 21 Day Fix program and a month's worth of Shakeology, the bag not the individual packets.  I started the workouts while on vacation at my mom's and then continued when I returned home.  I did a few days of Shakes while on vacation and did some at home but have never consistently stuck with the Shakes or the workouts.  I joined an accountability group on FB that is run by my Beach Body coach and still didn't do great because my eating sucks. 

I am trying to get serious about it because I would really like to drop a few pounds by the time Chad comes home from deployment and before our military ball in January or February.  I did a little prep today for the upcoming week.  I roasted some broccoli with olive oil and salt and pepper and I roasted two small sweet potatoes with some olive oil, cinnamon and honey.  I portioned them out using the correct color containers and then put them into containers in the refrigerator to reheat for lunches this week.  I only got two servings of broccoli out of what I bought and 4 servings, the 4th is not a full serving, out of the sweet potatoes.  I put those in the same container as the broccoli and will add some cooked seasoned chicken to make a full meal.  I will be cooking the chicken tonight or tomorrow.  Monday and Friday are the only days i'll be home for lunch this week so that is when i'll be eating these meals since the other days i'll need to eat in my truck on the way from a class to a volunteer training.  On those days i'll most likely pack a turkey, provolone and spicy mustard sandwich since it's easy to eat on the run.  For snacks i'll be eating apples with PB drizzled over them, raw almonds, and cheese sticks depending on the day and where i'm at container-wise. 

I have a few new recipes I will be trying out this week, not sure if they are Fix friendly or not but i'm sure they can be.  My schedule is going to be crazy this week with a class starting up and my volunteer training.  It will look as follows:

5:30 a.m.- Wake Up/Coffee
6:00 a.m.- Wake Samuel to get ready for school/Begin workout
6:30 a.m.- Samuel to bus/Workout over, head to shower and get ready for day
7:00 a.m.- Wake Addison and Eli start them getting ready for school/Have Shakeology
7:50 a.m.- Kids to bus
8:30 a.m.- Head to class at library in town
9-11 a.m.- Class

On Tuesday:
Be at USO at Noon
On Wednesday and Thursday:
Be at USO at 11:30

I am not an early morning exerciser, so i'm hoping letting myself wake up and have a cup of coffee first will help.  I also will have a small snack so i'm not working out on an empty stomach.  I wanted to get this all down in writing somewhere so I can look at it and see if there are any adjustments that need to be made.  I'll update throughout the week on how i'm actually doing so I can see where I may need to adjust for the following week.       

Long time no see!

I'm a horrible blogger!!  It's been almost a full 8 months since I've posted to or even looked at this blog.  Yikes!  We are still in the midst of a deployment so it seems like the days go by very quickly and i'm tired all the time.  No rest for the wicked.  I really need to get back into writing because I love to write, i'm just not sure what to write about.   

It's almost back to school time here in Upstate New York.  My oldest, Samuel, will be starting 6th grade and heading to the Middle School.  He will have a big adjustment with the bus coming an hour and a half earlier than last year and having to move rooms for classes.  Addison will be starting 3rd grade and is super excited because the teacher she had for 2nd grade moved up to 3rd this year and she got her again!  Eli will start Kindergarten so he will be going to school on the bus and staying all day, huge adjustment for him and me. 

I signed up for a Microsoft Word class through the local library and that will start the Monday after school starts so i'll be busy the first month of school, not sure what i'll do after that with no kids at home.  I'm thinking that I would really like to volunteer at the USO.  I also want to get my resume together and apply to be a substitute teacher in the district, make a little extra money and get some experience to see if teaching is what I want to do.  I'm really itching to go back to school, I just don't know for what and i'm a little nervous because it's been so long since I've been in school.

Anyway, not much else to catch up on really.  Chad was home on R&R the end of June/early July and then the kids and I went to Missouri in July to visit my family for 3 weeks.  I started the 21 Day Fix and didn't do so great my first round, skipped workouts and my eating was bad.  I did lose 1/2 an inch in my thighs and hips.  I'm starting over tomorrow and hoping to do better. 

   

Two Week Menu Plan

I try to menu plan regularly but sometimes it just doesn't happen.  I sat down this morning and planned out the next two weeks until payday and at lunch, the kids chimed in with some ideas.  Turns out that they are excited to start helping cook dinner and cleanup afterwards.  It will be a test of my patience but Samuel, my 11 year old, is really excited to learn to cook things and Addison, my 7 year old is excited to do the dishes.  Haha  Eli, my 4 year old, is excited to do whatever.  We are going to be trying a few new recipes as well. 

Here is our menu plan for the next two weeks:

Thursday January 2- Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic biscuits and carrots and Ranch
Friday January 3- Pizza (either frozen or delivery)
Saturday January 4- Tacos
Sunday January 5- Alfredo Pasta Bake

Monday January 6- Hamburger Helper with peas and bread and butter
Tuesday- January 7- Hotdogs and macaroni and cheese
Wednesday January 8- Double Crunch Honey Garlic Chicken with stuffing
Thursday January 9- Shish-ka-bobs (hotdogs and cheese, ham and cheese)
Friday January 10- Whatever night
Saturday January 11- Chili Dog Casserole
Sunday January 12- Chicken/Potato/Green Bean Dish

Monday January 13- Burgers w/homemade sweet potato fries
Tuesday January 14- Chicken nuggets w/wild rice

Happy New Year!

I have to say that aside from Chad deploying in the latter part of 2013, it was a pretty great year for our family.  We bought a camper and took several awesome camping trips, visited fun places while traveling around the Midwest visiting family and got to see some old friends.  We took a semi-last minute trip to Disneyworld and had the best time ever. 

This year Chad will be home, not for a very long time, but still...this year.  We will celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary this month via Skype.  Eli will turn 5 in April, can't believe it, and Addison will be 8 in July and Samuel 12 in September and be starting middle school, almost a teenager (yikes!).  My brother and his fiancé will get married in October (OMG!!).

2014 has a lot to live up to and I hope it surpasses all expectations. 

I am still trying to figure out my Word for this year.  I have a few possibilities but nothing is jumping out at me.  Christmas is almost completely gone from our house, just the kid's trees left to take down.  I have many home projects in mind to get started on.  First up will be the kid's bedrooms.  They each need to be gone through piece by piece and reorganized and cleaned up, maybe even rearranged.  That will take a while so for now that's the only project i'm going to focus on.

We are having the traditional beans today and i'll make cornbread and fried potatoes to go with them.  Of course, i'm the only one that will probably eat them but at least i'll be happy.           

Decorations

The front of our house.

 My electric fireplace.

 Our Christmas tree.  Since this picture was taken there's now a tree skirt underneath the tree.

 My special kitchen tree.  This tree contains all my special ornaments that I've received from my MHH friends each Christmas in July during the ornament swap, ornaments the kids have made, my mom has given me and Chad has given me.  This tree is pretty much completely full now, I may have to move up next year and get another or a bigger tree.

 I ordered these and the refrigerator handle ones through one of the kids fundraisers at school.

Disney Ornaments and Elf Visit

We are back from Disneyworld!  It was a great trip and a wonderful distraction from our impending deployment angst.  We were so busy and having so much fun we had no time to dwell on the fact that deployment is coming. 

Our ornaments from Disney:

Our Family Ornament

My ornament.

Samuel's ornament (it reminded him of the Haunted Mansion ride).

Eli's ornament.

Addison's ornament.

Chad picked this one out.

 

Our elves made their appearance this morning with an early gift from Santa.  The kids were super excited to find a Wii U.  

 

Disneyworld here we come!

I think I have failed to mention that we are heading to Disneyworld this month!!  Things have been kind of up in the air with the deployment so I didn't want to post it and then have to change it.  We are booked for the All Stars Music Resort.  We wanted Art of Animation but they didn't have any rooms that qualified with the military discount, so we took what we could get.  We can go explore the other resorts if we so choose so we may do that.  We will be purchasing the military park hopper tickets where you get 4 parks and can hop from all 4 every day if you want for 4 days.  They are way cheaper than going through Disney.  We did not do the dining plan because we are pretty confident that we can spend much less per day than it charges.  We will not be doing any reservation needed restaurants (we have picky kids) and no character dining either.  The only must eat at restaurants are Rainforest Café and maybe TRex.  We've eaten at both before but now that we are in the North Country there's nothing like that around here so we want to take advantage. 

We will be allowing the kids to do a makeover each.  Addison will get to do The Crown Package at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and the boys will do pirate makeovers.  Maybe Chad and I will play along as well.  :) 

Our MagicBands came in the mail on Monday!  They are customized to the colors we chose for each person and have our names on them.  Too cool!  Can you tell i'm a wee bit excited about this trip?