Counting our Blessings in 2013

Well, 2013 is finally coming to an end and what a year it has been for our family.  I realize it has been a year since I last posted on the blog. I only meant to take a few months off, but then life just kept happening.
     Let me start this post by telling you about the past 12 months.  My husband took a job a couple of hours away in March, when I was 6 months pregnant with child number 3. He was working out of town 3-4 days a week until June, when the kids and I could move up with him. On  June 12th we had baby #3, Beckett, the happiest baby you will ever meet. We were so excited to have another healthy, beautiful child.  Three weeks later my husband found out that he had cancer.  To say it was a shock to us would be an understatement.  My husband is a very strong, healthy man, something I had taken for granted until then.  I was scared.  I tried so hard not to show it, but I was scared.
      One week later, we closed on our house on Wednesday, Thursday he went in to surgery to have the tumor removed.  Friday, with him still in the hospital, my mom and I closed on our new house and moved our stuff in. Saturday afternoon he joined us in the new house.  A couple of weeks later, we found out that the surgery did not get all of the cancer.  He was now going to have to go through three rounds of chemotherapy.  In August, my daughter started kindergarten, my son started preschool and my husband started chemo within a week of each other.  My days were filled with dropping off and picking up children, checking on my husband,  grocery shopping, unpacking our house, and everything else a typical house wife does on a daily basis. The hardest part was watching my husband, who just the summer before was stronger than he has ever been (thanks to our addiction to the gym), now coming home worn out and in pain.  I wished that I could trade places with him, but he says if I was the one going through chemo, then we would all be in trouble. In October, he finished his nine weeks of chemo and his blood work came back clear. We were thrilled!! The first of December he went in for a cat scan.  His lymph nodes appeared swollen, which is a sign of cancer.  We were once again scared. What if it had come back? After weeks of waiting, he was finally able to go in for a full-body pet scan.  The Friday before Christmas we got the call that he is 100% cancer-free!  It was the only Christmas present that I needed.  I am so excited to have my healthy, on-the-go husband back. Meanwhile we have also begun the remodel process on our new house.  I guess our life wasn't busy enough.
            I titled this post "counting our blessings" because so many good things have come out of this year. My husband's attitude through this process has been absolutely amazing to me.  He has chosen to look at his cancer as a blessing.  It has changed so many parts of our lives for the better. We still have a long way to go to become the people we want to be, but feel like this year has been a nice wake-up call to get us going. Which brings me to 2014.  I'm in the process of setting goals, coming up with challenges for our family, working on budgets and designing meal plans for us in 2014.   I had a lot that I wanted to do this year, but there is no way I could have known what my year would be like.  I wanted to run a half-marathon this year, so guess what one of my big goals for next year is.  Sometimes we are lucky just to make it through the year and don't meet all of our goals, but we end up accomplishing things that we didn't plan on.  New challenges will present themselves along the way.  You can't get discouraged or disappointed, you just have to take it one challenge at a time.
              I don't know what 2014 will be like, but I learned this year that we have some amazing family and friends to help us get through whatever comes along.  I want to say thanks to everyone in our lives who sent up prayers for us, sent us cards and gifts, called us to see how we were doing,  brought us meals, watched the kids for me, helped us move, and so much more. I especially want to say thanks to our parents,  we could not have made it through the year without you.  It all meant so much to us and we feel so blessed!

            I plan on keeping up with the blog this year.  So get ready for lots of posts on healthy eating, running,  challenges and more!

My Grocery Shopping Rules

For anyone who might be wondering, I thought I would put in writing my rules for the grocery store.  I hope they can help someone else when they are making that oh so very frustrating trip to the grocery store.

1.  Stay on the outside walls of the store.  Your freshest, healthiest foods are mostly going to be along the edges of the store.  When you walk in, start in the produce section, then work you way around the store...dairy, meat, freezer, bread.  Rarely should you have to go into the aisles.

2.  Buy as much organic as you can afford.  If you need some help on this, refer to the dirty dozen (the list of the most contaminated foods that you need to buy organic)

3.  NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!! That's all there is to it, don't buy it!

4.  Check the ingredients.  Don't buy anything without reading the ingredient list first, you may be very surprised at what you see!  You should know what the majority of the ingredients are.  And what you don't know, look it up.  These are things you are feeding your body.  Would you take a pill if you didn't know what it was or what it did?  That is basically what you are doing when you put a bunch of chemical and artificial ingredient filled foods into your body.

5.  Make a menu for the week and a list.  And stick to it! If you have a game plan before you step into the store, you are less likely to walk around aimlessly picking up whatever sounds good.  It can be very dangerous, expensive and wasteful buying a bunch of food that you don't know exactly what you are going to do with.  And you are more likely to buy junk.  Have a list and a plan!

6.  No cokes.  If you are going to drink some coke every once in a while, then get a single coke while you are out to dinner, or buy a single coke for a special occasion.  If you have it in the house, you will drink it.

7.  Stay as whole and natural as you can.  Keep your food real.  Would you rather eat food, or chemicals?   I prefer food.

8.  Buy yourself one treat.  It's unrealistic to think you are going to eat healthy all week long without any type of treat.  Just make that a natural one.  Like all natural ice cream, or a small dark chocolate bar.  Reward yourself for sticking to your plan at the end of the week.

9.  Balance your carbs, protein and fat.  Your body needs all three to process all of your food correctly and get the most out of each food.  The new plan we are going with right now is about 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight per day, 1.5 g of carbs per pound of body weight per day, and 1 g of healthy fats per 4 lbs of body weight per day.  We'll see how that works, it may change soon.  But the point is to keep your meals balanced.

Good luck!

February Challenge- Less TV, More Reading and Music

This is a tough one for us.  Neither my husband nor I are big readers.  Both of us are trying to do better and I'm currently working on teaching Ella how to read.  Her goal is to be able to read some books before the baby gets here so she can read to the baby.  So cute! I'm also trying to cut back on the kids TV time.  So far, they are handling it better than I am. :) I was using their TV time as my time to get things done, and sometimes it takes a long time for me to get everything done.  This month, I'm cutting it down, keeping a record of how many hours are spent watching tv in this house and how many hours are spent reading or listening to music.  This may be embarrassing , but i think it's what I need to do to get back on track.  And no it's not a coincidence that I'm doing this challenge on the shortest month of the year.  I do plan on making permanent changes from this month though.

February
5.  1 hour 45 min.
6. 3 hr.
7. 3 hr. 15 min.
8. 3 hr. 30 min.
9. 2 hr.
10. Not sure (some one else was watching them)
11. 4 hr.
12. 2 hr.
13. 2.5 hr.
14. 2 hr.
15.  at their grandparents house
16. " "
17. " "
18. 2 hr.
19. 2 hr.
20. 2.5 hr.
21. 3 hr.
22. 2 hr.
23. 3.5 hr.
24. 2 hr.
25. 2 hr.
26.  3 hr.
27. 3 hr.
28. 3 hr. (It has been a little more the past few days because I have been so sick)

We also have been reading to them more and listening to a lot more music.  We averaged about 3 hours of music everyday.  The kids are loving music more and more everyday. I love seeing that!!

I am so glad that we did this challenge.  It has made a world of difference in our lives and it really hasn't been that hard.  We have tried to keep the tv time under 3 hours everyday.  The first week was a little tough, mostly for me.  I wanted to just turn the tv on a few times to get them to sit still so I could get some things done.  By the end of the week they weren't even asking to watch anything.  We got down to a routine.  Watch about 45 minutes to an hour in the morning while everyone is getting up.  About an hour for lunch in the playroom (while I either relax or get some things done) and sometimes some tv at night after dinner, before bed.  The changes in the kids have been wonderful!
* They have been playing together better, less fighting.
* Their imaginations have gone crazy! It is so funny to listen to the things that they come up with now.
* Their behavior at church has improved a lot.  It is easier for them to sit still for longer periods of time.
* Bedtime has been easier.  They are so worn out by the end of the day, it doesn't take long for them to fall asleep.
* I feel like we have spent more quality time together as a family and it has been great for all of us.
* They don't ask to watch tv, except in the morning when they first wake up.

This is definitely going to be a permanent change in our house.  My husband has commented many times how much nicer it has been this month.  This last week I have been sick and the kids were AMAZING! They hardly fought all week and have come up with so many new "games" to play together.  I have loved laying on the couch watching and listening to them.  Two to three hours may still seem like a lot to some of you, but they aren't just sitting and watching tv the entire time.  It just means that the TV is on during that time.  They are usually playing or talking during this time too.  Every family is different.  For our family this has been a wonderful month and I highly encourage everyone to start paying attention to how much time they spend in front of a television.  Keep track of it for a whole month and it may surprise you how quickly two or three hours can sneak up on you.

January's Goal- Exercise Daily

I'll start this year with the typical new year's resolution,  start exercising!! I've been working out pretty consistently for almost a year now,  but after a rough holiday of sickness and traveling, I got out of the habit.  This is a great way to get back on track.  It's also a great time to grab a friend to take with you.  Everyone is trying to be healthier this time of year, so take advantage of it and get a workout partner. I'm lucky that my husband has turned into a gym nut, so we are encouraging each other to stay on top of our workouts.  This is also a great time in my pregnancy to be concentrating on exercise.  I'm almost halfway through and have more energy right now and I'm not too big to do most of the exercises.  So here is the "how" in keeping my goal.

1.  Keep a log
2.  Schedule at least 30 minutes of exercise into each day
3.  Find different ways to workout, even if I can't make it outside to run or to the gym
4.  Make sure my husband is reminding me and encouraging me, and I'm doing the same for him

January
7- 45 minutes @ gym- arms
8- 1 hour @ gym- legs
9- play with kids for 1 hour (serious exercise)
10- 45 minutes @ gym- back and chest
11-
12- walked around Ikea for a few hours
13- 1 hour @ gym- abs, arms
* Week one done, not bad, but needs improvement.  I'm also trying to eat a lot healthier and that goes for the kids too.  We just had banana, pb, and cocoa powder ice cream for our special treat, they loved it!
14-Chase kids around
15-Gym 1 hour
16- gym 1 hour
17- gym 45 minutes
18- shopping
19- play with kids
20-rest
21- clean house
22- gym 45 min
23- gym 1 hour, ran 1 mile
24- gym 1 hour
25- clean house- scrubbing floors, etc.
26-
27- rest
28- gym 1 hour
29- shopping, cleaning
30- gym 1 hour, ran 1 mile
31- gym 45 min, ran 3/4 mile

January...done.  Plan on continuing 4-5 hours of exercise each week.  On to February.

What are you working on this month?  How are you going to accomplish this?  Who can you get to help you or do this with?  Reward yourself if you do accomplish your goal this month.  I saw on pinterest where someone put a dollar in a jar every time they exercised.  At the end of the month, they used that money to buy something for themselves.  Great idea! Good luck!

New Year, New Start

How many of you have made new year's resolutions?  How many of you actually plan on sticking to them?  You may be thinking, I know I won't stick to them, so what's the point in making a resolution?  I say, go ahead and make them, but make them doable for you, be realistic!  I have decided this year to make 12 goals for me and my family.  Just like I've done the challenges for the month, I plan on focusing on one goal each month, and continue working on that goal throughout the year while I focus each month on a new one.
    I've made my list of 12 goals, but as my business manager minded husband has pointed out (many times), I also need to make lists of ways to accomplish these goals.  They don't have to be dramatic changes or complete 180's of the way you've been living.  Just something that maybe you've been doing, but need to concentrate on a little more.  If it is a big change, maybe make that your goal for two, or if needed, three months.  Give yourself more time to work on it.

Here is my list: (not in the right order)
1.  Less TV, more books and music
2.  Exercise Daily
3.  Read the Bible More
4.  Work on Ella's reading
5.  Pay off debt
6.  More dates!!
7.  More family time
8.  Invite more people over to our house
9.  Finish project on house
10. Eat healthy
11.  Save money
12.  Try new foods

Make your list!  Yours may be 3 goals, 5 goals, or 10.  It doesn't matter.  Pick some things you want to work on this year.  Examples:  Give up sodas, eat more organic,  cook more, eat out less, start running, join the gym,  spend more time with family... whatever is going to make your life better, happier.  When you are happier, it's easier to be healthier.  Good luck!