Sunday, October 23, 2011

Ferguson Daily Deed

A couple of months ago I decided to implement a simple concept in our house and called it the Ferguson Daily Deed. I wrote out the days of the week on our whiteboard and started picking one thing to put beside every day of the week. Something that seriously needs to be done or organized in the house with the hopes that if ONE thing got done each day it would help with the harmony in the house. So we were really diligent...for the first little bit...and then...it..all...slowly...STOPPED!

Really we always seem to have the best of intentions and then it all seems to head south. Well, tonight I have started up the ol' Ferguson Daily Deed board once again. Tonight it was the pantry...blahhhhh!!! I was tired of not being able to close the door, have boxes and boxes of stuff on the floor, stuff just thrown in there and balanced precariously on something else...etc, etc...

I threw out so much stuff it was truly unbelievable.It's amazing how fantastic I feel knowing that SOMETHING was completed today around the house. After I expressed my relief today to Mike he said it made him happy too since a happy Mommy/Tracy is a happy household. LOL

My recycling bin in the back is now full and I have a functional pantry once again....oh and guess what?? I found a rogue soother buried along with the 2nd cordless phone that has been missing for at least the past 18 months....!!!!!

I would have taken a pic of the before and after, but I seem to have misplaced my camera  :S
Guess we'll have to add "search for camera" onto the list of this week's daily deeds!!

It's all about the baby steps my friends and I am trying my best to make the chaos in this house all come together!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

We have a 5 year old in the HOUSE!!

If you know anything about me, you will know that I love birthdays!! Not just mine, but EVERYONE'S! I feel that no matter what your age, just being here and living life is reason to celebrate! That, and we all need at least ONE day a year to have the focus on them. I truly believe that I love birthdays so much because my Mom always made sure my brother and I had great parties. We didn't have to do much, she just made sure we got to have some friends over and a cake and a good time! No matter what was happening in her life or in our house, birthdays were never overlooked. I told myself a long time ago that I would be the same way (yes, sometimes we WANT to be like our Moms ;)
Today was Miss R's 5th birthday! She was super excited and so we had some dinner after we got home from work, had a quick visit with Grandpa, then headed to the mall to surprise her with a Build-a-Bear trip! They were FANTASTIC there! They made her a badge for her birthday, gave her oodles of attention and then sang her a great song (as she buried her face in Daddy's leg). We walked away with a very happy birthday girl with her new bear on her back and decided to pick up some cupcakes from the Buttercream Bake Shoppe kiosk in the middle of the mall (you do what you have to do for the sake of the children). We then went over to Gramma's for a tea and cupcake and came home. Nothing too crazy, but we always make sure the kids do something little on their actual birthday!
I can't believe she's already 5 and out of all of my kids she is the one that I feel is growing up the fastest. It also freaks me out that she is a mini ME!! Yikes! But I wouldn't trade it for the world. She is so much fun and full of life and has such an amazing personality.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

SUCCESS!

Last May I blogged about the dreaded subject of weight loss where I mentioned that this was an ongoing battle (as it is for a lot of us) and how I could think of every excuse NOT to get into shape but was obviously never motivated enough to actually DO something about it.
Well, this past April I (along with some major encouragement from an amazing friend) decided that enough was enough and made the leap to join Weight Watchers at work. Figured, hey, why not? I have had NO success on my own so how about I learn from the professionals on how to eat properly. I promised myself that I would only focus on one thing at a time, and not get overwhelmed with having to stick to a new eating regime AND getting into a structured exercise schedule. What did I choose to focus on first? FOOD obviously! I had to learn how to evaluate my relationship with food and why I wasn't losing weight (besides the obvious full bag of chips on a very regular basis) and what I had to do about that. This journey has been HARD! Some days way more than others, and I have to say that if it wasn't for my fab friend at work I wouldn't have gotten this far! She has kicked my butt whenever I get frustrated and has praised me when I needed to hear it. We have been real with eachother and I am so very thankful for our partnership through this!
So far I have lost 22 pounds and feeling amazing! I am now smaller than I have been since before I had any of my children and that is coming up to 10 years in January! WOW!! I can't say that I have conquered the battle with food but I am now better equipped to deal with cravings and know that if I lose control (which I often do) I know how to get back on track! The bottom line is....I needed to get to the point where I wanted to be healthy more than I wanted the food!
This now leads me to my next challenge...EXERCISE! There are very obvious reasons to exercise. It's good for you, will aid in weight loss but one of the MAJOR reasons for me is that it can help in fighting any recurrences of cancer. I have read quite a few articles and listened to a lot of stories lately outlining that exercise can actually reduce the chance of cancers coming back. Sign a girl up! The U of C recently opened up a gym for cancer patients and cancer survivors free of charge for this very reason! AMAZING!
I ran tonight for the first time in almost a year and guess what??? It's SOOOOO much easier to run when you are 22 pounds lighter! Go figure! I have always been an off and on kind of runner. Sure I've done some races but did I really enjoy it?? Not really...except the finishing part!! But I'm thinking that now that I've achieved the weight loss part of this adventure and I'm feeling better about myself as a person I can now actually believe in myself to achieve a fitness goal beyond a 5 or 10 km race.
GOALS: I never really understood goals. Not to the point where you actually put a time limit on yourself to achieve something. I was all about the "one day I would like to do that" frame of mind. But I now realize that without that deadline you either just forget about it or FAIL. So now my SIL (goal setter extraordinaire) and I are going to team up and keep the motivation going and be eachother's "Jiminy Crickets" if you will and work towards the Calgary Half Marathon in May.
One NEEDS goals...something to look forward to...something to keep you interested in what you are doing...BRING IT ON!