Not me Monday ~ Garage Sale Edition

I would not wait until the night before my garage sale at 11:30 p.m. to price all my stuff...no that would be stupid.

I would not let my child sell lemonade and as they pour it let it spill all over the table, down the pitcher, down her leg and all over her foot. And then let her walk around all day in her sticky flip flops - nope not me! I would not get annoyed with a person asking for less for something from me....and everyone give extra to my girls. Hahahahahaha Nope I would not let something like that bug me.

I would not let my girls take a bunch of scraps from our garage & pink duct tape and make a fort in our front yard for all the people to see as they come to our garage sale....nope I would never do that.

I would not put up all these crazy signs up on the last day to try to get rid of stuff....I would never be so desperate!!!! Those signs would not make just about every person laugh as they shopped around.

I did not love the 300 bucks I made .....nope not me! hahahahahahaha

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Freeing the Fat Friday ~ Inner Beauty

I am finding that eating healthier is not as bad as I thought it would be. I have found that a lot of my problems were just not thinking about what I was eating or better yet...not caring. I have also come to the conclusion that eating right and exercise has to be scheduled. Summer around my house completely destroys, demolishes and blows to smithereens the very idea of a routine. I am not a schedule type person it goes against every fiber in my being and summer supports my nature.

Meals

I love, love, love my new web site that helps keep track of what I eat Sparkspeople.com ! It really helps. I am really getting a feel of 1,200 calories is every day. I have also found that the quality of food I have been eating is far superior to my nasty processed food I was eating.

I have also found that there are a lot of yummy options that are sugar free that really help. I have to still keep in mind moderation. Eating a whole tub of sugar free ice cream is still not going to help you free any fat. Nope the carbs or the fat content will kill you.

Exercise

Can I say another GRRRRRRRRR! This summer schedule is going to squash any consistent exercise program. I had a garage sale this week and my life has been consumed with it. With all the craziness...I hope it burns a few calories. : ) When school starts...exercise schedule WILL start.

My poor bike is lonely!

God's lesson for me!

God has so much he wants to teach me through this journey. One of the main reasons is that if I have a healthy relationship with food and stay healthy I can be an example to my children. God wants every part of me to glorify Him. I want my kids to see that in me! As my kids grow, especially the girls, I want there body image to be about what is going on in the inside and not about the outside. I want my attitudes to not be defined by my outward appearance but how God sees me. I want an inner beauty.

1 Peter 3:3-4 (New Living Translation)
3 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. 4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

I LOVE this verse it is my hearts cry. I want to be the woman that oozes Jesus. To be that....I need to die to self and its ambitions. I need to pick up my cross and submit to Him in everything....even my eating habits. I want this temple to bring honor to Him!

Food's favorite friend!

Smoothies....Can I get a Woo HOO! So easy to make and soooooo yummy! My kids love them! Here is all you need....

• Fruit


• Milk
  
• Ice


• Splenda (if you use sweet fruit you like a banana you might not need it...taste it and see)
  
• Blender

Peach, strawberry, banana, you name it you blend it.
Mix them up...sneak some veggies.....and you got a great healthy drink. Keep your blender on the counter so you will think to make these wonderful treats. Use a fun cup and straw to make it even more fun for the kids. Try it ....they will love it!

Life Change Challenge

I am going to keep this at exercise until I get it right...pray with me on this one!


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Wednesday's Walk ~ Sunflowers

I don't really have time to do this today sooooo this one will be short.

I drove by some sunflowers the other day and I wanted to take a picture of my kids in them....

I happened to be by them today...

I happened to have my camera...

I happened to have a kid with me....

She wouldn't go in the tall grass...

So we grabbed this picture instead...

And then we got ice cream with friends...

I love summer time memories!

Jenilee at The Goodwin Family is hosting Wednesday's Walk.

Freeing the Fat ~ Use Help When Found!

Ok, I know....I know it has been two weeks since my last post. It is summer and summer around here can get very, very busy. I had a wedding and National Fine Arts that kept me from writing. However, with all this craziness it did not keep me from thinking about this life change of mine. I have found that being away from home has made it very difficult to keep track of everything and let my calories get away from me.

But drum roll please..........
A good friend of mine told me about this fantastic free site that can help with this.
Sparkspeople.com



You are gonna love it. You can put every piece of food that you put in your mouth in and it will calculate it for you, give you summaries on how you are doing, watch your water intake and track your exercise. It has recipes, support groups and more. It is fantastic! Go sign up and you can come back and tell me thank you!
I am not a good calorie, fat, carb counter and this does it for me for free...Can I tell you how much I love that! In fact, I just went in and put my breakfast while I typed this.... 270 calories, 38 carbs, 7 grams of fat and 8 grams of protein....toooooo cool!

Meals for the week:

I have been using my 1,200 calorie meal plan my doctor gave me. It is working out pretty good. My dinner last night was very good. Oh, that site I mentioned also has meal plans there. I will probably be checking it out in the future. I have been very satisfied.

Here is a recipe for you ( I made these and the whole family likes them)!

Very Blueberry Muffins
(I got this recipe from the Splenda site)
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup light margarine, softened
1 cup SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated
¼ cup honey
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup 1% low-fat milk
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed


DIRECTIONS
Place oven rack in top ⅓ of oven.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Lightly spray liners with nonstick cooking spray.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
Beat margarine at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add SPLENDA® Granulated Sweetener and honey beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Fold in berries.
Spoon batter evenly into paper lined muffin cups. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan immediately, and cool on wire rack.


NUTRITION FACTS
Servings Per Recipe: 12
Amount Per Serving

Calories: 160
Calories from Fat: 45
Total Fat: 5.0g
Saturated Fat: 1.0g
Cholesterol: 35mg
Sodium: 280mg
Total Carbs: 26g
Dietary Fiber: 1g
Sugars: 8g
Protein: 4g

Exercise

Grrrrrr....this is my biggest problem! I can't figure out when to fit it in. I am going to continue to try to figure this one out. I will keep you posted.

God's Lesson for Me!
Did I ever tell you all I have IBS?! I do and when I don't eat well...I am a mess. I think it is God's clever way of getting my attention.

In kids church last week I shared with the kids about Divine Healing. I taught them that God heals us in many ways. One of those ways is with our own bodies. He made these bodies that can heal themselves; but we can make our bodies sick by not taking care of them. We have to make good choices to keep it healthy and strong. How true....I need to do my part and eat healthy to keep myself healthy. I can then rely on God's promises for the rest. God shared with me at the start of all this that if I do my part then He would help me, and He has!

Food's Favorite Friends!

Diet Coke! I have to cut down on it because it messes my stomach up...but some days it just hits the spot!

Life Change Challenge

Exercise...it will really make this work!

Next week...

Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!

National Fine Arts Festival

Last week, I had an amazing opportunity to be an evaluator (2D & 3D Art) at our Assemblies of God National Fine Arts Festival here in our State in Detroit! It was so awesome and hard at the same time! Three days of hard work! Here are some pictures! I was also able to go to the Celebration Service on Friday night to see the top winners...they were unbelievable! Oh, just to let you know how big it was there were 12,000 students that participated in it this year....Wow!

Here is the art gallery 120+ pieces of 2D plus 40+ of 3D art (this is only half the other half was photography(200+), graphic design & t-shirt design)...
Here is some of the art....

Celebration Service...Awesome!

Oh and way back in the day when I was a teenager I was able to be in National Fine Arts at Minneapolis. Here are some pics....

Here is my entry for the art division! It hangs in John's office bathroom now. LOL
John doing his thing in the short sermon category!

We received a Superior for Small Vocal Ensemble.

For all you A/G people it was a General Council year!

This is so a "NOT ME"....but I could not wait Jenilee....

Oh, and a funny side note....During the judging, people would stand around us and make comments and we would have to politely ask them to step away. On the third day I was writing and a man was making comments about one of the pieces....I had had it at this point. I was just about to shush him. When I looked up that man, I was annoyed with, was Dr. George Wood, Superintendant of the Assemblies of God along with Jay Mooney, National Youth Director. I am sure glad I did not shush them! YIKES!

However, I told the other evaluators what I had almost had done and we were all laughing out loud. I told Dr. Wood what I almost did and he got a good chuckle out of it and said I could shush him anytime. LOL I know all you A/G readers would get a kick out of that story.

Teenagers and their talents amaze me!

You can go here and learn more about National Fine Arts Festival!

Wednesday Walk ~ Old Photos

As per my friend's request here are some old photos of my hubby and me. John has always been this brilliant kid. He is so amazingly smart. He has so much information in that noggin of his...it never ceases to amaze me. He says he was a good little kid, he never got in trouble.

I did alright in school....it was more of a struggle for me...especially in high school and college. I was a good kid too and shy at times. I lived for art class. It was my favorite day in elementary.

John and I went through a nerdy stage but sorry to say that I do not have any of those pictures here at our house. Boohoo!

Even way back then God was laying out the path for us...God is so cool! This reminds me to pray for my children's spouses even now as they are young.

I love him...and he loves me!

Jenilee at The Goodwin Family is hosting Wednesday's Walk.