Getting Healthy

Five babies can really do a number on your body. Especially when you love unhealthy food. I have used food as a crutch most of my life, but I didn't like what it was doing to my body, self image, and confidence. So when a good friend became a coach for Take Shape For Life and asked me to try it out in December, I took a leap of faith to change my relationship with food.

The first month I did the Medifast 5-1 program to jump start myself and teach myself portion control. I couldn't justify the cost for more than a month so I made the most of it and lost around 8 lbs the first month.  I continued to lose, but a slower pace from there- even hitting plateaus as I started to gain muscle from my daily morning workouts.  I found the Daily Burn program and alternating them with  my treadmill runs.  I had my ups and downs- cheating days and perfect ones, but I kept my goal in sight.

Almost five months later and I am down 21 lbs and four pant sizes- I'm wearing a size that I have NEVER worn before!  I eat better- not just better- I am no longer controlled by my appetite or cravings.  I make things like zucchini boats and cauliflower pizza (both delicious). I went to an activity with the girls the other night and totally ignored the dessert platters.  I get up a 6:15am, 6 days a week and work out- something I couldn't imagine a year ago.   And it feels great.

So here is the proof in the pictures.  My health journey :)

Violet's Finished Room

Only took me a year... The other rooms should be done this week too. 😊

Memorial Day Water Fun

Water games for our day off. It's great to have some family time!

Jokes By Liliana

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To die and go to heaven.

(shaking my head)

Do All Things Come in Threes?

Because if they do, we're waiting for one more injury.

#1- Yesterday Luca got a head cut glued after Daddy didn't check for cealing clearance before happily throwing the boy in the air when he arrived home from work. (He still feels awful.)

#2- Violet fell (jumped?) off the couch into the glass front of the curio cabinet. Just a few cuts, but the sound was awful. (I'm not upset about the cabinet - it was a hand me down that was getting pretty worn, and didn't fit with my new furniture. Great excuse to get rid of it, actually. )

#3- TBD...

Self Punishment

Put myself in time-out out on the front porch after putting the kids to bed tonight. At least the view is amazing.

Absolute Adorableness

How to Stop a Grumpy, Continually Moving Hurricane??

Put him outside in a chair with a snack. Didn't move for an HOUR AND A HALF!!!!

End of the Year Field Trips

I got brave this year and signed up for 2 field trips in one week- The Pittsburgh Children's Museum with Moira and Pricketts Fort with Liliana. 

I got to ride the bus with Moira (and left the kids with a sitter) which was fun- the PTO actually got us charter buses, which I figured made sense with a bunch of kindergartners who might need to use the bathroom on a 1.5 hr ride. The museum itself was great with tons of hands-on exhibits. We might make a trip up there during the summer.

The littles and I met Liliana at Pricketts Fort, which is only 10 or so minutes from our house.  I would have enjoyed this more without the said littles, since Luca got bored fairly quickly during the historical lessons (which I was interested in, oh well). It was a beautiful day though, and Liliana loved having us there. Wish I had taken more pictures.

It's nice to do more of these things now that Luca is older.  Imagine what I'll be doing when he goes to school! :O

Think Before You Promise Money

So, if you ever promise your kids money for picking all the dandelions in your .75 acre yard, you might want to make some estimates in your head first.  Because the might pick over 1,500 of them and you might owe them each $15.00.

Won't happen again, but at least they worked hard!

In the Newspaper!

Moira's teachers very kindly sent home this paper with Moira on the front page planting flowers on the school grounds. Pretty neat!

Night Mouse

When I first saw her this morning I thought someone hit her- or maybe she was stung by a bee... and then I remembered the mess we found in our bathroom last night- mainly my make up.

Bedtime to Violet is when the other kids go to bed so that she can do what she wants until Mom and Dad come upstairs.

My Dogwood Tree

I was so excited when I discovered the Dogwood tree in my yard... they are my favorite. And check out the blue sky today!

Finally! Softball!

After years of waiting, one of my girls has decided to try out softball! I can't tell you how excited I am! Maybe the exclamation points convey that?  !!!

Go Moira!

Luca the Destroyer

Don't get me wrong, my girls got into trouble, and lots of it. But when they got caught getting into said trouble, they had the decency to stop and look at least slightly ashamed.

Not Luca. When he gets caught doing something he shouldn't be (which is about every 15 minutes) he rushes furiously to finish what he started. And then he throws it, if possible. For example, this morning  he was playing with someone's cup of water they left on the table (both of which are strictly forbidden) and I walked around the corner. He saw me and frantically started spreading the water as much as he could, laughing as he did. Or, how about when I found him pre-dinner trying to eat from a glass bowl on the table. Luckily I caught the bowl before it hit the ground. I didn't make it in time for the dinner plate the night before- it shattered into many smaller pieces. The dog food is thrown at least once a day, as well as phones, pens, controllers, and his sister's toys. I often have to change his pants mid morning due to him being wet from a water adventures in the dog's bowl.  And he's never sorry; not one bit. Unless you count the trouble he's sorry he didn't get to finish.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean up a board game he just dumped as I wrote this.

When is This Phase Over?

That is syrup. There's more on the chair and table, as well.

Nothing is safe. Especially my sanity.

Ugh.

Exploring the Yard

Sometimes I watch my kids with amazement as they run all over our yard, play in the woods behind our house, and discover unique rocks they can climb; not because I didn't have that growing up (cuz I did), but because they have never had it.  They grew up as inside kids for the most part, and coming here was a huge adjustment.

At least for most of them it was.  For Violet and Luca this is all they will know. It will be so natural to them. And that makes me so happy- makes me happy that we made the decision to move away from the "big city" and raise our kids here.

So here's a picture of the two littles discovering one of our big rocks. I'm so lucky.

 

It's Time (Out)

I haven't done time-outs with the girls for so long I almost forgot about it. We're trying to curb some violent tendencies in the boy, and this seems to work, for now.

Still, so dang cute, even when he's in trouble!

Mom's Weekend Away

Kaylon's travel with the job has at least doubled, if not tripled what it used to be, leaving me a little frazzled at times (ok, who am I kidding, a lot frazzled). So Kaylon very sweetly bought me a ticket to go see my family in Arizona when he saw that he had a long weekend coming. Funny enough the reason he had a long weekend was because it was EASTER. And the tickets were nonrefundable (are any tickets refundable anymore?). So with a slightly guilty conscious that I was abandoning my children on a holiday weekend, I boarded a plane to a weekend of no-mommy responsibilities.

I love my nieces and nephews. I never expected it to be like that with my siblings kids, but it is- total unconditional love.  They fought over who would give me the first hug. They told me all about their friends and classes, and I loved it. We went to the Phoenix Zoo, which someone I had never visited before, right from the airport.

 Our attempt at a selfie.

Then things got exciting when we went to lunch and Emma fell and split her forehead open.  The poor people at Chick Fil A probably thought we were gonna sue them.  We cleaned her up and had to take her for stitches.  No temple visit, but I got to eat some pizza with the other kids.

It's interesting how playful I get when I don't have anything to do- the kids got me to jump on the trampoline quite a bit (great exercise). Of course I also got to spend time with my sister and we had the boys over at various times on Saturday. Quite relaxing.

Before I left on Sunday Ang took me to see Mom's grave for the first time since the funeral. The grass is coming in nicely and she's gotten some neighbors recently- one of them a friend who also lost a fight to cancer. I should have taken the picture closer, but I forgot till we got back to the truck.

Course poor Kaylon got stuck with a weekend of vomit- I guess no good deed goes unpunished, right? But that also meant he got lots of snuggles from the little dude. I'm grateful he is willing to do things like this for me.

 

Degrees of Safety

Maybe I should give up and leave the step stool out since the rocking horse is a bit more dangerous...

Mother's Skillz

Thought i was totally on the ball this morning- up at 6 to do my workout, got the girls ready for school, started the laundry, even got to take a shower (gasp!) before the younger two got up- and then at 8:40 i remembered that Luca had an appointment at 9:00, 15 minutes away. Pretty proud that i was only 5 minutes late!

Forgive the Deluge

I am making up for neglecting my blog for so long by using Facebook to update it.  I know it's a lot of posts.  I'm sorry for all the emails for those of you who get updates.  Well, not sorry enough to stop.  Feels good to get 'er done.

Nothing Can Stop Him!

As you can tell, he's pretty proud of himself. I took away the step stool, so now he uses his train to get whatever and wherever he wants. Got a cupcake off the counter with the same method this morning.

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

All my kiddos in green!

Spring!

Mother Nature listened!  She sent some sun and warmer weather which we decided to fully take advantage of. An added benefit was a certain little boy left his sick sisters alone for a little while. Yay!

Kindergarten Curriculum?

I have been very careful not to expect too much from my kids.  School came easy to me, but I knew that that didn't guarantee little child geniuses.  Grace and Liliana are both good students, both getting high marks in their classes. I'm very proud of both of them.

Then there is Moira.

I've always known that she was smart.  Too smart for her own good. But then she started adding numbers faster than Liliana, and listening to Grace practice multiplication.  It didn't take her long to understand the concept behind it ("it's just a faster way of adding, mommy").  She is constantly asking us math questions using infinity, googliplexion, and other various big numbers. 

And she's in kindergarten.

Today Kaylon printed off the multiplication tables to 12 and pi to the 50th decimal.  She's loving it. 

Good thing her mom and dad both graduated college...

Well Played Mother Nature

Well played- saving the biggest snow for March. But know that it is your last Hurrah. I insist that spring start next week! 

That said, my backyard is gorgeous.

  And the kids had a great time.

It Had to Happen Eventually...

Luca can open doors now.

Nothing is safe. Sigh...

Surprise! We brought home twins today!

Meet the newest (and most loved) members of the family: Gertrude and Grover.

They are replacing some antiques... So excited to do laundry now!

Apples to Apples

Everyone should play Apples to Apple's with Liliana at some point in their lives.

No seriously. You should come visit now just to fulfill this on your bucket list.

Watching Liliana defend her choice is hilarious. It's hard not to give her the win every time

Ever See "Ant Bully"?

Luca's new name is "Peanut the Destroyer."

 I don't know if my house will survive him.

McInelly Fashion. Coming to a Store Near You

Heat Wave

 We got an uncharacteristically warm day today (50-60 degrees) so we went for a Sunday walk along the river. Fun stuff.

When Parenting Tactics Don't Work

Me: Liliana, if you can't pick up, you'll be grounded from electronics.

 Liliana: Mom, there is more to life than electronics.



Well played, my dear, well played...

Happy 6h Birthday Moira!

 Presents, a train ride, dinner out, no chores, and a day all about her- what more could a girl want?  Our rule following sweetheart is growing into a beautiful girl.  We are so lucky to have her in our family!