2013. Here I go again.

I at first thought I was the worst blogger ever.  I've been gone since August, and when I came back to look at this, I cringed.  Then I realized that there are MANY other bloggers our there that take breaks.  Maybe they don't do it as frequently as I do... or for as long, but that's okay. 

Here I go again. 

2013.  It's a new year.  It's time to start afresh.  Time for resolutions, goals, hopes... Losing weight is always at the top of our lists.  After that we want to save more and spend less, spend more time with our kids, live life to the fullest, and so on and so forth.  And in three months very few of us will be doing them any longer. We lose steam.  Give up.  Spend our money on other things. In fact, did you know that only 8% of the people who make resolutions actually accomplish them?  Where do they get this stuff?  Apparently, someone actually collects that info. Check it out.  Interesting stuff.

So this year I'm cutting the crap.  I'm not going to make any resolutions I won't keep... except one:  LIVE.  If life is what we make it, then I'm going to make it great! 

So talk to me, People.  What are your new year's resolutions? 

Cutting Inches. Cutting Public School.

So… I’m cutting inches!  Yay!  Woot!  So far I’ve lost 2 inches on my hips, 2 inches on my waist, and 1 inch on my chest!  As far as I can tell, I’ve lost only fat, which is ideal.  My clothes fit better. I have more energy.  My hubby has already lost 13lbs and about 5 inches, too! 

How am I doing this, you ask?  ViSalus.  I have a shake for breakfast and lunch, and I eat healthy snacks in between.  I then have a healthy dinner.  I’m pretty much doing the Paleo/Primal diet and the ViSalus shakes.  I walk at lunch every day to get that cardio going, but so far that’s it.  I’m going to start weight training this week to build up some more lean muscle. 

Also, today is Megan’s last day in public school.  We’ll give her some time to “de-school” and then jump right in with our homeschooling plans.  While we’ve added something pretty big to our plates, we’ve also scraped off the public schools and all that entails.  We got a lot of skepticism from traditional school folks, her 1^st Grade Teacher included, but I think overall we’re doing the right thing for her.  Public schools are a 1-size-fits-all when it comes to teaching methods.  If your child doesn’t fit that “size”, your child falls through the cracks.  Megan is a kinesthetic learner, which means she learns best with hands-on interaction.  Most schools barely touch this learning style.  As we homeschool, we can actually cater to this.  I want to use her strengths to help her learn.  So, I think we’re doing good things here.  If you have any experience teaching kinesthetic learners, I would love to hear it! 

So that’s it for now.  From now on, I’ll try to chronicle the weight loss and homeschooling in separate posts for more simplicity. 

What's shakin'? I'm back. Again.

Today I decided to brush the dust off my blog and start talking about crap again.  It’s been too long.  In my defense, work has been crazy busy for like three months straight.  It’s still crazy busy.  However, if I don’t give myself an outlet other than Facebook, that crazy busy is just going to become CRAZY AMY.

What have I been doing, you ask?  I only have like 8 followers, so if you guys want to know, then I’ll tell you.

Working.  A LOT. 

Have I been cutting crap?  Not really.  I’ve been adding crap, but I HAVE lost 6 pounds.  I’ll tell you about that in a few minutes.  What have I added? What have I cut?  Here ya go.

•  My daughter now takes singing lessons.  That’s an add.  My recent pay raise pretty much pays for it. 
• We stopped going to Awana, because my daughter was just NOT getting enough sleep on Wednesday nights.  That’s a cut.  While Megan got a lot out of it, it was complicating bedtime and Thursday morning.  The amount of sleep a 7-year-old gets seems to be pretty important.
• Speaking of my daughter, we’ve decided to homeschool this coming school year.  That decision was a tough road to walk, but we think the benefits will outweigh any detriments.  If you’re the praying type, please keep us in prayer.
• My husband lost his job.  There went the rest of my pay raise.  Now my income is paying for all the necessities, but there is literally nothing left over.  That’s a cut.  Can I just say, though, that I love having him home full time.  It has really removed some of the other stresses from me, even if we are a little strapped for cash at the moment. 
• We started a business.  That’s an add.

And that brings me to that 6 pounds I recently lost.  When I say recently, I mean in the last seven days.  After hounding some people and doing the research, Rob and I decided to try out the ViSalus 90 Day Challenge.  After only a week we’re both seeing results.  Rob also lost 6 pounds.  That energy dip that usually comes mid-afternoon has been non-existent for the past week as well.  Overall, I’m already feeling a little better.  We’re so sold on the product that we’ve decided to become distributors.  Our goal is to replace Rob’s within 60 days.  I’ll let you know how that goes, and in the meantime, if you want to try a sample, let me know.  I’ll USPS you some. 

Cut the Crap Day WHATEVER

So here we are a month later. Much has happened. Crap has been cut, but still not to the extent I had hoped.

• Rob got a work from home job as DSL tech support. He just completed training on Friday. We’ve cut the crap a lot with that job:
• He doesn’t have to drive to work, so we’re saving a ton on gas. He has a ’79 K5 Blazer. When I say “a ton”, I mean it.
• He’s eating at home obviously, and he’s already shed 20 lbs. He’s cutting the fat! YAY!
• We finally got our tax incentive for buying a house. I can’t say we cut the crap with that, but we did get new furniture, new carpet, and a new TV. I must say, my house is looking GOOD.
• We rescued some terra cotta planters from the curbside… as well as some patio furniture. Rob is going to sand down the patio furniture and repaint it. So… even though we didn’t cut the crap on that, we cut the amount of crap going to the landfill. AND all it cost us was some water, cleaner, and two cans of spray paint.
• Xander burned his hands on our door threshold on Friday. After an ER visit, much Tylenol and Motrin, bandages, and some sleep, he’s doing fine. We have an appointment with the burn specialists at Children’s hospital tomorrow morning. Part of keeping Xander comfortable means keeping the AC cranked. I want to make sure he doesn’t have any undue swelling. So, that was kind of the opposite of cutting the crap. We’re actually using more energy and will pay for it in our next bill.