Before and After

So some of you may not know this, but it's been 15 months since my husband and I made one of the best decisions of our life. That is the decision to living a more healthier and active lifestyle. People always wonder what was the motivational factor behind our decision, so here is a little background.  Let's first start off by getting a visual of where we were.

Now mind you, I feel that part of the reason we neglected making ourselves a priority is because life was and is full of distractions. During that time we had endured many trials, such as having two preemies, we had flooding from Storm Lee and Katrina, in addition to a tornado all in the same week. On top of that I had various surgeries and my husband was also battling with his health as were our children and sadly it was related to the flooding in our house.  It just kept feeling like the rain cloud was following us around.  

A little time went by, our kids were growing and on the mend, we were recovering from the storms and trying to move forward with our own health.  But such is life, things happen and so yet another obstacle was in our way of making ourselves a priority. We went away on vacation, and I fell through a man hole, broke my toe and needed another knee surgery. So here we still were:

 

There wasn't a whole lot I could do with just having major knee surgery so I felt pretty limited. While I was experiencing my own challenges my husband was having his own as well. He still was not feeling100% and was still struggling with some issues. He saw  various doctors, had several tests and they found that he had osteoporosis at 34. He realized that for the sake of his health he had to do something.  

 

 

We discussed the importance of getting on track not just for our own benefit but we had children we needed to keep up with and were responsible for. We new that there would always be distractions, but we couldn't postpone this anymore because it was truly effecting our family and everyday life. Thankfully, in our little town a gym was opening and it was just the perfect time.

 

It was at that time, 15 months ago, that we chose to change our lifestyle for the better. My husband and I worked out a gym schedule since we both couldn't go to the gym together because of the kids. I would go early in the morning and he would go at night.  In addition to that, I also found meal preparation was super helpful. I planned our dinners for two weeks ahead of time.

 

(Eggplant Parmesan pizza's w/spinach)

 

It was actually saving me money to plan my meals in advance. I found Pinterest to be a great source in finding healthy, clean eating recipes. Check out my Pinterest board for ideas www.pinterest.com/galigirl80/time-to-eat/

 (Sweet Potato Burgers w/Avocado)

 

My husband and I also found another tool helpful in the beginning when it came to counting calories and recording our workouts. We used www.myfitnesspal.com. The great thing about this app is you can download it on your phone and scan things that you are eating which makes for easy recording.

 

Finally, after over a year, we find that eating healthier, exercising, and implementing alternative forms of treating our health issues,  come natural to our daily routine. My husband and I are happy to have been able to lose combined over 110 pounds.

 

 

Anytime I start to feel a little sluggish I remind myself of what motivated me from the beginning. Being able to have the energy and physical capability now to run and jump with my kids is something I don't ever want to lose. 

 

 My son one night put his hand on my cheek and said, "Mommy, when I get old I hope I look like you". So I asked him why and he went on to say "because you don't look old". 

Simple Reminders

So I sat with my son on the floor of our homeschool room today doing a math project on skip counting. I had actually saved this project from two years ago when I did it with my eldest child, knowing that eventually I would have to do it with Chase. I'm still in awe that the time has come.

Here I was thinking that I would be able to go at it the same way I taught my daughter, but it amazes me that they both took to this concept differently.  My daughter went off of basic memorization, where as my son, as you can see below, we had to take out some blocks to breakdown the concept of counting by two's. 

Here's the thing though, when I had this flashback moment, I was thinking of something else. Sitting on the floor with my little one was a great reminder of WHY we chose to homeschool. I realized that not only did my son process this new idea of skip counting differently then my daughter, but I also had to teach it differently for him to grasp it. My son in that moment needed me to be adaptable to his learning style as his teacher.

 

 

It was a good reminder that he wasn't the same as his sister, and so I shouldn't treat, teach, or expect the same. That is why we chose to homeschool over public. For moments like this, where we could address our child's individual learning & help him flourish to be the best that he can be.

 

It was a great feeling as a mom but also as his teacher to watch him comprehend this new skill and then to see how proud he was of himself.

  

It was in that "simple" moment that I was reminded that my husband and I made the best choice for "our family"

Hotcakes & Digging for Dinosaurs

Well, first off I want to thank all my friends and family for your support with regards to this blog. It has been a long time coming. It almost seems surreal to actually be doing this. Anyways, let's get to it! The norm of our life would never consist of starting our morning breakfast off like this:

But I woke up craving McDonald's hotcakes, so this particular morning, it did. Now know this, I have not eaten this type of breakfast food since I was pregnant with my daughter, who is now seven years old. But I woke up this particular Friday morning saying to my husband, "I wish there was such a thing as a coffee delivery company", and then bam, hotcakes popped into my head. My husband ended up staying home from work that morning and I felt the need to celebrate the choosing of a blog name, so this called for, yes,you got it, Hotcakes! Mind you, we won't be eating this for another seven years, but it was so worth it and my kids thought it was the best breakfast mommy has ever made.  Oh yeah, I made it all right. I drove right up to the McDonald's drive through window with my coupons in hand and ordered my kids a big ole order of hotcakes.

 

Well this out of the ordinary breakfast definitely set the stage for their homeschool day. My son, 5, has been determined to be a good reader like his sister so we had fun making silly sentences using his visual puzzle pieces. He really wanted to make something funny using a piece about a baby, so this is what he came up with,

"A baby jumped on the frog."  The box is called Silly Sentences from www.dk.com.  They have other great items using puzzles for math and rhymes. Chase has a love for math, something that I struggle with as his teacher so on this same day he was learning how to use an online calculator but I wanted him to see how to use visuals to really help him.  So we broke out some building blocks to do addition.

 

Ok so now here is where the digging for dinosaurs comes in to play. My kids have been obsessed with the thought of finding fossils, and asked if they can go digging in the woods behind our home. Because of ticks, of course I was reluctant so I decided to just let me dig in the dirt behind our garage since no one will see these giant size holes.  I was still reluctant because it had just rained and I new they would be covered in mud from head to toe, but as they said, "it's perfect digging conditions".  So, after their school day, they got all geared up, shovels in hand and were determined to go out there and find dinosaur bones. As much as I was dreading all the mud they were going to bring in the house, I still couldn't help but worry they would be disappointed on not finding anything. Well, the kids were right! It was perfect digging conditions, and though they didn't find dinosaur bones they did find something. Check it out:

This beautiful glass bottle. It was covered in mud when they trampled through the house, (just as I new would happen) handed it to me and asked me what it was. I encouraged them to go back to work digging and I would clean it up a bit to see what it was. I hosed this baby down, and after I cleaned it all off it appeared to be a beautiful glass bottle. I called the kids to the door to show them and they couldn't believe how nice it had looked. Of course, my daughter, the first thing she says, which melted my heart was, "mom, this glass bottle would be great for you to use for your oils, or even as a vase for flowers". Just when I thought they would have been disappointed on not finding dinosaur bones, they were more excited on finding something to give to me.-