Saturday, April 26, 2014

Mission: READ MORE BOOKS!

I don't think most kids read enough. I'm on a mission at my house to get mine to read more. Thankfully our elementary school is in the neighborhood next to us and decided to put in some little neighborhood libraries. This one is a few house down from us.
After dinner tonight we took the dog for a walk and stopped at the little house to pick out a couple books to read before bed. The girls were so excited to see what was inside. They can't wait to come back tomorrow and return their books and pick out something new. We might even drop a few of our duplicate books off to share with others. Anything I can do to make reading more fun!

How do you encourage your kids to read?

Monday, April 14, 2014

14 days in

It's been two weeks, today, that I started the 1800 minute challenge so I figured I should provide a progress report.

I'm struggling. I am committed and I do want to do this but I lack motivation some days (most days). I've been trying a few different things.
Going for a run

Hiking

Workout videos

Non traditional exercise like jumping on the trampoline

I was really looking forward to the weather becoming warmer so that I could get back into running but I've only been twice and I thought I was going to die. How in the world did I run a 10k last fall? I can't even run a mile now. I feel terrible about that. I really pushed myself last year to do that 10k, did I really start off the season as out of shape as I am right now? It just seems impossible to run that much again. 

Basically, I'm getting in some minutes, not as many as I would've liked ... it's slowly but surely happening. I think I just need some words of encouragement right now. A little voice in my head that tells me "you can do this. you can be fit. you can be who you want to be."

Unfortunately the food thing hasn't gotten any better. Diet, schmiet ... this girl loves food. One day, it will all fall into place.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

#SpringPolishSwap

As soon as I heard there was going to be nail polish swap for spring I knew I wanted in! I immediately signed up and waited to be hooked up with my swap partner. My partner was the lovely Carissa from The Green Eyed Lady Blog. She sent me some awesome polish and such a pretty card. Take a look!
I am so excited about this neutral color. I literally had this exact one in my cart one day and switched it out for a bright coral. I've been thinking about it ever since! Essie polish is one my favorite because it lasts so long without chipping. Oh and I got blue glitter polish. I may have to hide this one from my girls because they are sure to snatch it up. I hope Carissa likes the colors I sent her! Go here to see what the other ladies in the swap got.

Happy Spring! And happy spring fingernails to me :)

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Back at it

To say I fell off my fitness bandwagon would be an understatement. I finished up the Jillian Michaels DVD Challenge and then just gave up. I don't know why, I felt good, I liked the DVDs. I think hating my job made me not want to enjoy anything. Now that I have a new job that I love I'm ready to hope back on board the healthy train. What better way to get my butt in shape than join more than 600 other ladies in the #1800MinuteChallenge. 

I'm sure that I'm not the first blog to talk about this so I'll save you the details. I just want to say I'm in. I'm doing it. I'm committed. Two months this time. It's for real. Like really real. I'm going to succeed. There is no other option. 
I got myself motivated by signing up for 2 races already this year. First one will be a fun run just to get me started, The Color Run on April 26. Then I'll be doing Diva Dash on May 31 (5k). I'm excited and I'm ready for better weather so I can start running again. 
I'll probably pick back up my JM DVD and give it another go even if I don't do it for 30 days straight. I think the strength training workouts are good for me aside from the cardio I'll get from running. 
The last piece of the puzzle is the food. Oh the food. It gets me every time. Details to come on how I decide to deal with this. Any advice is welcome at this point. 
Here's to continuing my journey to live this year. I've decided if I complete this challenge then I'm going to let myself celebrate. I have a couple ideas in mind on how I want to do that. But I figure I better finish first before getting my heart set on a reward :)