Easter Basket/Box Mailed

This year I didn't do anything Pinterest cute for Brady and Jason's Easter basket like I did last year.

For cutesy Easter basket ideas - check out the post from last year here: 

I just mailed Brady a St. Patrick's Day box 2 weeks ago. Eater arrived very quickly this year and my boys get goodies two times this month. They are so very spoiled.

 No frills or thrills this year, just basic Easter basket goodies. 

 I've decided just to send bags of candy instead of dividing it up. Plus I purchased a bunch of smaller items too. 

 It's nice to add the Easter grass to the box and bag for a true Easter Basket feeling. I added just a 12 x 12 Easter scrap book paper and the image of Happy Easter to the box and bag. 

 Last year I started just doing a paper bag for Jason since he lives in town - it's much easier and I like this much better then storing the baskets to use once a year. 

A peek inside Jason's Easter bag.

Happy Easter to my spoiled adult boys. I love you! 

Weight Loss Journey Started

Yes, I've started a weight loss journey again. It's embarrassing to admit that I am doing this again and again. I lost 50 pounds in 2008 and thought I had conquered my body issues then. But, over the years I gained it back and a little bit more as it goes. 

I get tired of having to do this over and over again, but I must. I hate that I can't have a body that is naturally skinny. It's not like I sit around and eat bonbons all day long watching TV. I am very active cleaning houses 5 days a week and try to eat nutritionally. 

My body weight has been an issue my whole life. It gets tiring - especially when people who are naturally thin just think overweight people are lazy.

I've been on my weight loss journey for 7 days now and have lost 5 pounds. 

I use a free program called Spark People here. It's what I used 8 years ago and am using again because I hate spending money to lose weight. Free is always better. 

One of the things that Spark People encourages is doing "streaks". How many days in a row can you log on to the site, how many days in a row can you log your food, how many days in a row can you exercise and more. You also can earn points - which have no value and can't purchase any, but fun to earn and keep you motivated. 

There are also free recipes on Spark Recipes here to browse and make - so your diet doesn't become boring and you lose interest.  That is what I was doing yesterday making a list of groceries before I go to the store today. I found some great recipes I'm going to try this next week.

One of the things that helps me is to track my food and exercise everyday.

I love Spark People nutrition tracker which breaks down nutrients your body needs. Here is my over all nutrition for my first week on my journey: 

I love that I can see the nutrition I get from the food I eat. I always have a terrible time getting enough protein in my diet - isn't that strange? I also struggle to keep my sodium low and have to play around with my food diary to make sure I keep it in range. I never am able to meet the Potassium and Magnesium requirements and I take a supplement daily.

I'm not much of a milk drinker and Calcium is also low. I started drinking diet hot chocolate again to increase that number - but I'm still below what I should be taking. I don't have calcium supplements, but need to start taking them so my bones don't get weak as I age. 

 Here is what I ate and log this week: You can click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see it better.

I love the recipe I found for Low Calorie Chocolate Mug Cake. It hit the spot when I'm having cravings for 58 calories: Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

2 tsp self raising flour (I use all purpose flour and add a pinch of baking soda to make it self rising)

1 and a quarter tsp cocoa powder

2 tsp brown sugar

Pinch of baking powder (not essential but it helps!) 

A few drops of vanilla essence 

Enough water to make a smooth mix

Directions

Add all the dry ingredients in a cup. Add vanilla essence and enough water to make the mix smooth. Microwave (my microwave is 100watts) for 1 minute. Allow to cool and enjoy without feeling guilty!

Serving Size: 1 cup  Number of Servings: 1

 Wednesday I decided to add the vitamins I take to see if it would boost my Magnesium and Potassium levels - which I am always low on. Unfortunately it didn't increase those totals - but I've left them on. 

Also on Wednesday I was starting to get hungry and weak and so I added more protein by barbecuing 2 hamburger patties. (I had 3 left in my freezer and BBQ them all and saved 1 for Thursday).

After eating 2 hamburger patties, I did feel much better and not so hungry. 

 Friday I needed flavor and some carbs. I decided to have a tuna sandwich for lunch. I don't purchase bread and use my homemade white bread recipe. I've added the recipe into Spark People so I can add it to my plan. 

That is a huge bonus with Spark People is you can add your own recipes to get the nutrition value. It's a huge thing to understand and know what you are eating. Plus not having to change to diet food but a regular lifestyle eating plan. No frozen dinners or paid food diets. It's real food you normally eat, but in a healthy diet you are aware of how many calories and nutrition you get from the food you eat. 

I made a chicken stir fry to get some flavor from onions, garlic, ginger, celery, carrots, broccoli, zucchini with a little drizzle of soy sauce. It was over white rice because brown rice doesn't store well and I'm a food storage girl and will use my food storage. But that is me and my life style. The stir fry was delicious and hit the flavor spot I needed. 

 I am eating left over tuna sandwich and stir fry today.

I also added a normal breakfast today with bacon, 2 eggs, 1 slice of toast with grape jelly on it. My sodium is high because I added the bacon. I've been good all week and don't feel bad about having a real life on this journey.

Exercise:

I started out on my exercise bike at 15 minutes. Later in the week I did 15 minutes two times. Today I was able to do 30 minutes in a row - the back of my thighs start to really ache and that is what makes me stop. I have to stretch them out when I'm done. But I'm super excited that I was able to it.

I do crunches on my exercise ball. 3 sets of 20 crunches.

I've also did a couple of exercise videos on Spark People. They are usually 10 minutes long and there are a lot to choose from. I put it on my laptop and try to follow along at my own rate. I found out that I can barely do a jumping jack. That is one of my goals is to be able to do a jumping jack again. 

It's sad getting older. 

I plan to update my weight loss journey every Saturday. It will take me a year to lose as much weight as I want to. I hope this will keep me motivated and on track. 

Your welcome to join me on my weight loss journey, join Spark People for free here, and comment your success in the comments below. 

I should also mention there are spark teams you can join to encourage each other. I'm on these teams:

Boise/Treasure Valley

Spark Idaho - the official team

Latter-Day Saint Ladies over 40

LDS Ladies

When I was successful before I was very active in the team goals and challenges. It makes it fun and keeps you motivated. 

I hope you will join me on this journey! 

St. Patrick's Goodie Box

I'll be the first one to say I got carried away with Brady's St. Patrick's Day Goodie Box.

 I found so many fun green things, that I just kept adding them to the cart. 

But, it's all in good fun making memorable goodie boxes for my son away at college. I think it's more enjoyable for me because I have such fun putting them together. 

Here is what I sent to Brady for St. Patrick's Day. 

 The box decorations:

I'm so lucky to have you as my son!!

I Love You.

 This is everything I put in the box - lots of green things!

 Irish spring soap

Mint flossers

Green toothbrush

Hello - breath freshener

Puff Tissues

Krazy Glue

Scotch tape

Scissors

Green ruler

Green packaged pencils

 M and M's.

Mike and Ikes

Mug full of chocolate gold coins (his favorite thing in the package was the mug)

M and M's minis

Chewy Spree

Green Ring Pop

Sour Green Skittles

Fruit Roll ups in a green box

Parmesan Goldfish in a green box

Sour Punch ropes

Sour Neon Worms

Air Head Xtreme Bites

 For his kitchen:

Green towels and green (and white) dish clothes

Green utensils

Green dollar shamrock that I made from an idea on Pinterest here. 

The dollar shamrock was my favorite thing in the St. Patrick's Day goodie box. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

March 17th

Don't forget to wear GREEN and don't get pinched!

Brady First Internship!

Woo Hoo!! 

Brady, my adorable and exceedingly smart kid has been hired for his first internship in his chosen degree - Computer Science. 

He is going to work for Delcam.

Here is a little about the work he will be doing as an intern.

It's going to be a great opportunity for him to learn and get experience in a lot of different areas. 

I'm very excited for him and this new learning opportunity. 

Hope as Betsy Ross

 Hope, my niece was able to participate in her school's wax museum for Presidents Day, February 12, 2016.

She looks adorable!

 She is Betsy Ross

Elizabeth Phoebe "Betsy" Ross (January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836), is widely credited with making the first American flag purportedly in 1776, according to family tradition, upon a visit from General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and changing the shape of the stars he had sketched for the flag from six-pointed to five-pointed by demonstrating on the spot that it was not difficult to cut the latter.

Tymber's Art is a Winner!

My sweet niece Tymber won 4th place in an Art Show!

 I'm so proud of her and her talents. 

She is very creative and has been making beautiful things her whole life. 

 She has placed sea creatures all around her pottery piece. 

What a brilliant idea. I love how it turned out. 

What a wonderful achievement to win 4th place in an art show, showcasing artists from 3 different high schools in her city.  

 Congratulations Tymber! We are so proud of you!

February 2016 Financial Wins

Another great month for financial wins!

Total Extra Income for February: $441.70

Blog Ad check this month was $152.62

It's always wonderful to get a check from my blog. Thanks again for clicking on those advertisement links - it supports my time working on Primary lesson ideas and keeps the links up to date. Thanks again for your support!

Swagbuck wins in February was 8908 or $89.08

I started February out with a swagbuck total of 6683 or $66.83

I cashed in 10700 points for $110.00 in Amazon gift cards. 

Feb 2: Cashed in 2200 for $25.00

 (first $25 card per month is discounted)

Feb 2: Cashed in 2500 for $25.00

Feb 3: Cashed in 2500 for $25.00

Feb 15: Cashed in 2500 for $25.00

Feb 22: Cashed in 1000 for $10.00

Total Amazon credit: $110.00

I was hoping to have enough Amazon gift card credit to pay for my annual Amazon Prime membership of $99.00

Unfortunately they wouldn't take the payment out of my gift card balance. I was really sad that I couldn't get it for free. 

But, on the bright side I did have $110.00 to spend for free with Amazon - which is amazing and fun to have free money.

My current swagbuck balance going into March is: 4891 or $48.91

Swagbucks has made some changes and it seems to be getting harder and harder to earn any money. I don't know how long I will continue this way to make extra money. It's just getting too hard and taking to many hours to earn just a dollar a day. It's not as fun as it used to be. I'll probably continue to do minimum stuff, but as the weather gets nicer I'll be outside having a life. It's too bad that they have made it so hard. If you do swagbucks, do you feel the same way with the changes they've made? 

In my cleaning business I did earn an additional $200 for some extra cleaning jobs I did while a customer was on vacation for a couple of weeks. I did some major extra cleaning and my poor body paid for it with 5 pain patches. Ha ha ha Sometimes those extra cleanings really work my body more then usual. However it was a nice bonus!

I also had a request for a one time only deep cleaning which I turned down. It's my policy that I don't do one time only cleans. I will only do a deep cleaning if I am able to bring on a new customer on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I've learned through years of being in business that it's not worth doing one time only cleans without getting a regular customer out of it. It's too hard to bring a house to my cleaning standards, so I refuse those referrals. 

They can call places like Merry Maids who employ a fleet of house cleaners to do the one time only cleans. It's just too hard for a one woman cleaning service and not a benefit to my business. 

It's funny when people get so shocked when I turn down business. But, there is only so much of me available each week. My main priority will always be current loyal weekly and bi-weekly customers. 

My business is doing great and I have enough customers to support me. I'm also debt free and don't need the extra work. 

My savings account is starting to increase again. I've tried to be as frugal as I can all month. I've been on a no spend for the past 2 and a half weeks. It's always a great exercise to challenge myself not go to the store for as long as I can. 

I will be going to the store today to purchase hamburger for $1.88 a pound or 3 lbs for $5.64. The sale ends today and that's the best price I've seen in a long time and I am completely out in my freezer. I'm hoping to continue to try and not spend much money throughout March beyond my budget for regular expenses. I have budgeted $200 for extras and food but hope I am able to save most of it. We'll see if I can on my next monthly report. 

I'll leave with this favorite quote of mine:

If you don’t know how to save, no amount of money will ever be enough.

This is why I challenge myself to not spend as long as I can - it helps me be more disciplined to get out of the mindset to spend and not save. This has always been hard for me - as I am not a saver I am a spender. That is why I was in debt. Even now it's still hard to be frugal and a wise consumer. I'm still working at trying to curb the desire to spend mindlessly - but I am doing much better.