Sunday, September 29, 2013

super easy tasty treat

Watermelon.
Feta.
Mint.

The super easy, tasty, dessert pizza.
Try it, you'll like it!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Silken chocolate tofu pie

We tried a new recipe today. Silken chocolate tofu pie. Modified this recipe found on Pinterest. It is über tasty. We used cocoa in place of the coffee liquer and did a combo of dark chocolate chips and mini semisweet ones. I will post a full recipe when I have a working oven to make the kind of crust I think would be great. We just used a premade graham crust...not the best option but we are making the best of our options.

Friday, September 27, 2013

rainbow shopping

Do you shop the rainbow?  It's like having natural Skittles.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

talk to your kids

This is another really good read. It echoes a lot of what I have read, even as far back as in my college years when I wrote a paper on something similar. 
"We need to get tech-savvy, and as toe-curling as it seems, we are the first generation that will have to talk to our children about porn.
We have to tell our kids that pornographic sex is fake and real sex is about love, not lust.
By talking to them, they stand a chance. If we stick our head in the sand, we are fooling only ourselves."




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2432591/Experiment-convinced-online-porn-pernicious-threat-facing-children-today-By-ex-lads-mag-editor-MARTIN-DAUBNEY.html#ixzz2g2AW9BDj 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Shakeology sampler now available

If you've wanted to give Shakeology a trial run before committing to it, now you can! This new option is now available through me. It has changed my life- my health, my allergies, my energy. I began questioning if it was all just in my head because I'd done it for a few months now or if it was more the exercise etc. so I have gone without each off and on over the last few weeks. Holy cow. I don't know how I functioned without this. Oh wait- I barely did & took a LOT of naps and stayed completely indoors during allergy season.

Friday, September 20, 2013

affirmation of my 'why'

I love that when my children get tummy aches lately they immediately think it must be cause by eating unhealthy food (and generally that is true)...and that they feel like they need to find some healthy stuff to get in their bodies to 'flush' it out. They can be so intuitive if we let them and it makes me feel good as a parent to think my children are learning their bodies cues and reactions to things on their own. I want them to CHOOSE good things because they realize the difference it makes them feel, not because it's what they've been taught or told to do.

service


Monday, September 16, 2013

good day

That day when you finally get to a gosh dang number you haven't seen in a full year, score a new outfit on Target clearance for less than $8, and catch husband checking you out in said new outfit. Now if only I had a working oven and completely clean house, all would be right in the world. Can't have it all I guess. 

Thursday, September 12, 2013

reporting in

I have been struggling lately. I have not eaten terribly per se (yesterday's cereal binge and today's ice cream bar aside). I haven't felt like working out or paying attention to what I eat or even caring. I don't care about doing IronGirl anymore. I don't know what happened. I haven't been able to pinpoint a trigger. Heck, I go back and forth about whether I even care about the change. 

Why do I tell you this when I am actively trying to build a Beachbody business and wanting to get you to join me?

I don't know. Except I do know this: Honesty matters. Those little slips will become something bigger if I don't admit to them and what they really mean. If I am not honest with you about my journey even while trying to coach, then I am really am just trying to sell you something. That's not me. Or at least that isn't who I want to be. I want to help you. I want to change myself and I want you to experience that as well. I want the best me and the best you. I am struggling with caring about that right now, but I know that is still my truth. I know that Shakeology makes a serious difference in how I feel. I haven't been consistent with it this last week and boy can I feel the difference. It has made it ridiculously easier to slip when I haven't had it. Yes, some is mental as drinking it reminds me of a commitment to putting good things in my body. It's more than that though- it is my mood, energy, cravings, thought clarity all being affected. I believe in Shakeology so I will try to convince you to as well. I also believe the Beachbody workouts are extremely well-designed and have real science behind the structure of the programs. I have read enough things over enough years to recognize a common and consistent pattern to proper fitness, and I see it in their programs. I haven't been doing a specific program this last month and I know that has been part of my problem as well. It makes a difference. I'm not giving up because I am not going to start over. I still make better choices and have good, healthy habits that I didn't have before. It has extended to my family who have noticed the difference as I have slacked in commitment. I have been at a standstill with my body for over a month and the physical battle of that as well as the mental battle with the negative voices telling me I am just different than everyone else and never going to lose any more weight or change my body anymore etc (like I said, I'm fighting them)...well, it has taken a toll. I'm just being honest with you all because I know that at the end of the day, that matters. I don't want to sell you something. I want to change. I want to want to change, but not out of feelings of shame. I want you to feel the same because even if I don't feel it right now, I know that I have. I know that I've felt the other side of this and will again if I don't give up. I want to help you feel that too, because helping you helps me. I am so grateful to you challengers of mine and I hope to be a better coach to you soon and more motivational to you all. 

Christ-centered challenge group

Remember the Christ-centered 12 step challenge group I mentioned previously? It's still going to happen but I am postponing it a week to get more ducks in a row in my life first. I'm doing it because I know *I* need it. So if these describe you and you want to be a part of it, I would love to have you. Size will be limited. Current challengers or BB coaches ok. 
- at least 20 lbs to lose
- struggle with body image or let how you feel about how you look affect what you do
- willing to work on the inside first and involve religion
- willing to be my 'guinea pig' 

*I will be allowing those who are not using Shakeology or a BeachBody workout THIS one time only (because I want the group for myself  ), however if there are more people interested than I would like in the group the priority will be to those willing to make that commitment. Also, as it would be completely free to those then you would be ineligible to win prizes from me- but you'd still have the prize of the change.

*You have a week or until space fills to let me know.

marriage and money

If you don't follow Dave Ramsey on FB, you really should.  I love how so many of the quotes he shares about financial management are so applicable to all areas of life.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

remembering

I have remembered all day as have all of you. I have thought of the loved one who should've been there but wasn't. Of the loved one who had a miscarriage from the stress of the day. Of the untold ripple effects. Of the visit to NYC and PA that I returned from only a week earlier. Of the stories we tell our children and they learn in school, of their parents living through a moment that defined our story. I overheard my 6 year old teaching my 5 year old about today. I listened as my 10 year old interviewed myself, my husband, and my dad about the day for the class assignment. I thought about this rising generation. I have to hope that we are teaching them to be a little better....to have hope and resilience in an ever-darkening world...to find and see the light....to know that they are never alone...to realize that beauty and good can come from all things. I hope that if we can't give them a better or more sure future, that we can at least give them tools to handle what lies ahead with strength, resilience, dignity, peace, faith, light, and love. And respect. We honor those lost with love.

parenting tip

If you have a child like my daughter, there isn't much that they care about except books.  She isn't into toys or video games.  She just likes to play with her siblings, outside, or read.  So how do you ground a child like that?  What do you do when their room is covered in stuff and they just keep not getting it clean like they are supposed to?  This:
That would be the book she is currently reading locked up inside several bike locks.  Needless to say, she was not happy.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

another great article

Oh how I love this. Especially as a Christian mother of boys, who lives in Las Vegas. Especially the last part:
"I think it is vital that we teach our boys that there is a difference between finding someone sexually attractive vs. reducing another person to a sexual object. We would do well to teach our boys that one does not have to lead to the other. (We would also do well to reassure our children that sexual attraction is TOTALLY NORMAL).

Speaking of sexual attraction being totally normal, something else really bothered me in Mrs. Hall’s post. She said:

We hope to raise men with a strong moral compass, and men of integrity don’t linger over pictures of scantily clad high-school girls.

I’m going to ignore the age specifics here, since she’s referring to her boys who are in high school. But I want to point out that many men of integrity DO linger over pictures of scantily-clad women. The fact that Mrs. Hall thinks these things are mutually exclusive is not going to prepare her sons well, either. In my counseling practice I’ve seen MANY men of integrity who struggle with looking at pornography. Of course, some men do this and don’t have moral convictions about it, but I’m referring to men who hold religious beliefs that place this behavior outside their own moral code. I’ve seen pastors of mega-churches, Christian authors, elders, church leaders struggling with pornography . . . I’ve seen great husbands and exemplary dads who struggle with their impulses as it relates to sexual imagery. Plenty of good men struggle to adhere to their own convictions about sexual imagery or lust. And I’ve also seen that most of these men, when raised in Christian homes, had families that shared a pattern of behavior:

They were taught to be ashamed of their sexual feelings
Their parents emphasized female bodies as “forbidden fruit”
They were taught all-or-nothing thinking in relation to sexuality (i.e. Good men aren’t even tempted by this stuff)
Their families lived in denial about adolescent sexual behavior
Their families never normalized sexual feelings
Their families held the reigns too tight, failing to equip them for life in the real world

These kinds of parental behaviors often lead to the very thing the parents are trying to avoid, because when we pair shame with normal sexual attraction, over and over, we are telling our boys (and girls) that there is something wrong with them. Shame is the fuel for addiction – why saddle our children with that potential? We’ve got to normalize sexual feelings and within that, teach self-control and respect."



http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2013/09/on-respect-responsibility-and-mrs-halls.html


I would personally add that we just plain need to normalize feelings and stop shaming behaviors & attitudes toward children, ourselves, and each other. Addiction of any kind (pornography, video games, gambling, overeating, drugs, alcohol, etc) is bound by shame.

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2013/09/on-respect-responsibility-and-mrs-halls.html

after the fire

One of my kids stayed home sick from school today so we decided last minute to go for a drive to the cabin. So gorgeous. My heart was filled with gratitude to see the beauty after the fire... To see the desert being replenished and to see a place we love safe. I couldn't help but think about how it is with us when we are 'burned' and put through trials, but made ever more beautiful by the Lord as He nourishes us and strengthens us and makes us whole again. Seriously, Mt Charleston has never looked more beautiful.





All images Copyright Hobbyholica

Monday, September 9, 2013

feeling good

Today: paid multiple bills, paid off a debt, took kids to two different dr appointments- including one across town, ate healthy, went to Hobby Lobby & spent way too much on supplies for my kids' campaign posters, went to dinner with the kiddos, laid on the grass in a drizzle, watched 4 different rainbows form and fade, watched a lightning storm with my kids and listened to them play hide and seek and roll down hills as I tried to get a picture of the lightning, read a story with my son, and sanded a puzzle while checking out a new show. My house is a mess and I still haven't finished a fraction of what I need to...but I think it was a pretty good day & I'm feeling pretty spent.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

sticking to goals as a mom

Want to know how to stay on point as a mom? Tell your kids your plans. I've intentionally never talked to my kids about my weight or weight loss because I don't want them to become focused on that themselves. However, this time around I HAVE talked with them regularly about my goals that are related to healthy living and to my challenge group. I've involved them in exercise with me and I've shown it as an example and priority. Welllllll.... This last week I slacked. I had excuses...some good (pulled hip muscle) and some not (no time). I focused on a lot of other things that were also important to me and a priority. Didn't think anyone noticed. Well, yesterday P (9) asked me if I had been exercising lately and when I replied that I hadn't the last few days she asked why I didn't do it while they were at school. Today W (10) pointed out that we didn't do plank Saturday yesterday...or the last few. (In my defense I did do a week or two without him).

Friday, September 6, 2013

change hurts

All kinds of change are hard and often painful to some extent. Physical changes may make our bodies hurt from time to time. Mental and emotional changes may leave us feeling battered and worn down. You may feel from time to time that you are physically being stretched. Think of that as you being a rubberband. As you are stretched, your value is increased. Growing pains hurt. Being chipped away at and molded hurts. You can try to run from the pain but the fact is that LIFE is sometimes painful. So instead, choose to embrace that. Embrace the pain as sign of growth and change. Welcome it with open arms and watch your experience with it change.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013