Happy Hump Day!

So, this blogging thing takes some dedication and time.  I am still managing my time… seeking out where my true dedication needs to go, and getting whacked upside the head with life!  AHHHH.     I have committed to my diet.  With today really being day one.  I do hate to say diet. But, it is what it is.   Ok, let’s re-word that.   I am consuming less food as a daily habit to bring me closer to my goal of my desired self.  There how is that.   *ps, I am hungry*  I say, “Don’t think about a polka dotted pink elephant running backwards down a hill”….  Haha.. that’s a funny picture right…   STOP thinking about it… I asked you not too.  My tummy just had that same discussion with me over some cottage cheese I have in the fridge.     


So, I resisted most urges and mostly got through my meal plan with no additions.   I wore my body bugg yesterday and purposely did as little as I could to try and capture my lowest calorie days.  I burned 1867 calories.  I ate about 1200 giving me a deficit of 600 calories.  That not with exercise, so the results will be better once I find what I truly want to do.   I weighed in this morning at 136.  I would love to see 133 before this month is up.  


As far as acting my wage, I had some ebay buck so I ordered 20 dog food coupons that will be a $1.47 money maker at Wal-Mart. Thats right that is a $29 money maker.  I likely will not be able to get them all at one time, however a few here and there will cover bread and milk.  My ebay bucks were at about $5 and the coupons cost $10.   I paid I believe $4.95, so if you subtract that from the $29, its still about a $25 money maker.  Plus  FREE dog food.  You can't beat it. 

On a serious note

I'll admit that I thought I had plenty to say, but I believe some writes block has just crept up on me.  I wouldn't think that it being 4 am has anything to do with it.  Yes, its that early.  I get up early to beat the crowd.

I have been listening to Linda Larsen's 12 Secrets to High Self Esteem.  In doing this it ties into one of my goals for October, which is losing a bit of weight and really finding myself.    I have came to realize that I don't really accept myself.  My motivation really is coming from a place of self loathing and that is not going to produce results.   She asks that you get in front of a mirror.. in your birthday suit. My initial thought was,  Gasp... has this woman lost her mind?  Why would I want to do that? Next step is to really check out what you see...   I am riding in my car thinking... well, she had me until now, there is no how no way I am doing this.  Then, she really topped the charts by saying to do this every morning and every night while saying that I truly love and accept myself.   I have not started that process yet,  but it really made me think.  Why on earth wouldn't I be able to?   What does that really say about how I feel and where I am.    Could you?  Would you?   I will validate that in this searching, I realized that when I was down to my skinny happy place, about 15 pounds away,  I got there just by making better choices.  I wasn't in a place of loathing.  I wasn't there to punish it off of me.  It was not  a chore, it surely was not an obsession and a disappointment.  It was just me enjoying life, myself and my marriage.   The weight loss was just a wonderful side effect.

Acting our Wage


How many of you get excited when watching Extreme Couponing?  I'll tell you that the woman last night laughing about clearing the shelf aggravated me.  If they have a limit of 4 products per transaction that was put in place to ensure other people can get the deal as well.    It was just frustrating to me to see it.   Sometimes I only want two of something... and its not there.  

So I received an email yesterday that one of my credit cards was paid off.  That is the first one on our list of many that has been checked off.  We are on a snowball repayment plan, so what that means is not the money that was paid on that one will be distributed to all the other ones.   I think it was only a $20.00 payment, but still.  We have one gone!!   WOO HOO.  I made my bi-lo and CVS trip yesterday.  My Bi-Lo transaction was $99 and I got it down to $56.  Not bad for a weeks worth of groceries to feed 4 people.  I also scored free and .19 butter.  (ladies, and 2 boxes of Tampax for $1.25 a piece.)  If you have  last weeks coupons there is a B1G1 that you can use and then use 2 $1.00 coupons that were in there, and there you have it!!  Fun Fun.  

31 days to Easy Living

So, the blog community is celebrating fall and the changing of seasons and is dedicating this month to change. I will gladly jump on the band wagon. I am committing to 31 days to a tighter budget, streamlined meal plan, clean(er) house, loser pants, and a faith filled heart. Sounds like a lot, but just as spring cleaning has to happen, the changing of the leaves on the Henderson Household Tree has to happen.

Acting our wage

We never really want to act our wage do we? That is until we see that number. It is always that one defining moment when we can take off the rose colored glasses and realize we done a darn good job keeping up with the “Jones” but now who is gonna pay that bill off. What? Me, us? Not fun. The worse part about what Joey and I have done to ourselves is that we had more money and enjoyed more things when only he worked. Somehow my job involved more material things and less spendable income. We did however, face the facts and own up and started acting our wage. We opened up a debt consolidation plan, which turned out to not be the best option. It killed our credit score. We still need to buy a house one day. I pray that when the time is right the numbers will just work, or, I will coupon us into a new house.... woo-hoo.

I did receive an email showing where one of our credit cards is now paid off. When I get my next update on all of our totals I will give a comparison on where we were and how far we have made it. Joey and I toss around getting really dedicated and having our consumer debt paid off in a year. I think it’s achievable; we will just have to make sacrifices, but if we sacrificed it for a year, and we did eliminate that, oh man. To have that burden gone....... I’m psyching myself up. Are you getting excited? Do you feel like tweaking your budget? Let’s do this! (insert fist pumping)

Menu Planning

I think we need to purge the cupboards as much as we can. I think we need to be humble and eat like paupers for a bit. The kids eat at school so I think I can be creative and use what we have for a bit. In the mean time though, I will be stalking Once a Month Mom. I plan to try this to see how it works for me. I like the thought of cooking once and being done. I like knowing a good meal prepared by me is in the freezer/fridge. Grocery shopping once a month will keep me out of the stores, even when couponing, you can start to dump money. Or little purchases here and there and the last minute meal idea could cost you $30 bucks or an unplanned dinner out... that runs us $50 + that can really dig into a budget.

Healthy Me

Yep, I have fallen off that wagon. Not all the way mind you, I managed to catch a foot and am being drug behind the thing. There’s a lot to think about when you’re down here. I will be counting points again. That’s always my easiest way of getting back on track and getting some perspective.

I also will be starting back on a easy going exercising plan. Today I went to the gym at work and did two full body circuits.   Tomorrow morning is cardio, and a pic of my weight so we can keep track of it. Please join me with Posts to let me know where you are too.   I have a picture of Lunch,  baked chips, a spinach, cream cheese (skinny cow, garlic and herb) and turkey low carb wrap, one piece of dark choc, and some Tazo green tea.    Dinner was leftovers from last night, some squash casserole, shout out to pbfingers.com, and a stuffed pepper with turkey and brown rice and more red and yellow peppers.  I had snacks of an apple, 100 calorie pack of almonds and cottage cheese.  Breakfast was plain jane oatmeal with a banana mashed up in it,.

Is it almost Monday already?

So another weekend has basically came and gone.   The house is still messy and I have a stomach bug.  I feel like crap and still have put on 3 pounds...   Its all those crackers.  boo.  (oh and maybe that bang bang shrimp at 9 pm the other night......) So I will be visiting my treadmill in the early morning.   I have been recording TV shows that I either just never get to watch or that I fall asleep during.  I am making a promise/deal with self right now that I can only watch those movies/shows on the treadmill.  I may go to Zumba a few times this week.    I sure do miss it and it burns about 400 calories on me a session.  

We went Friday night for a painting class and both of us ended up loving it.  It felt really good to be that expressive and have something pretty to take home.   We will definitely go back.

Extreme Couponing

Ha!!  That sounds so funny!  We actually did have a good trip yesterday.  Couponing at our finest.  I do have to compliment my husband because the Walmart portion of the trip was his planning.  The total on all products was a whopping $180.00,  we paid taxes and all , drum roll......$25.00.   How awesome?

We have 28 bags of cascade dish washing tabs, 5 bottles of scope mouth wash, 10 things crest toothpaste, 5 crest floss, one pack oscar mayer hotdogs, 3 packs oscar mayer deli meat, 2 packs oscar mayer bacon, 10 Fage yogurt , 2 bags assorted chips 4 cans libby veggies, 1 carton eggs, 2 packs of hamburger meat, 4 things organge juice, coffee creamer, almond milk, 8 Fuze drinks , hotdog buns, hamburger buns, one loaf of bread and 2 things of jello

When I Grow Up....

Do you ever wonder if you are where you are supposed to be?  I am in a two day seminar and when I am in these along with being in Church, a fire ignites inside of my very being and I just want to speak.  I want to speak and I want to share.  I want to pace, get loud,  and be funny.  I want to see emotional impact.  I want to reference all the great things I have read, along with all the Bible verses that rock your soul.   I want to inspire, I want to be great, do great,  I really want to touch lives.  Is it still okay to day dream what you want to be when you grow up? A columnist? Guest Speaker? Motivational Speaker? A journalist? An Author of some renowned book? Do a show? A DVD? A movie??

Do we ever really arrive in life?  Or is it all just one journey?

In Butter's World

In Butter's world,  the food bowl is always full and her cup floweth with everlasting  waters......  What, am I the only devoted cat owner that turns the faucet on every time she jumps up there and talks sweet kitty talk? I like to pretend that she has some rare kitty deficiency in which she has to have water straight from the tap or she will not survive.  But, just so we are straight it has nothing to do with cleanliness, because freshly flushed toilet water works just as well.  I thought once the kids were big enough that I would be able to use the restroom alone.. I was wrong.  Butter is there waiting for the flush and if I shut the door then the fuzzy butted one thinks she is cut off from all human contact and swats my toes from under the door and meows as if she is on her death bed...a slow agonizing death from a broken heart because she was abandoned for more than two minutes.   Though I have to be careful to let her in, she has a personal vendetta with any and all paper products.  It started young.

My post today started about how Butter and Itty B's food bowl is always full.  They have a fuzzy little cat house to play and sleep on.. the fuzzy butted slips in a night or two piled up with me in the bed.  I just wanted to reflect that its how I feel about God sometimes.  He always fills our hearts and gives us plush alters to come visit him on.  We just take it all for granted sometimes.  I know I do.  This comes a little from my 31st bday being yesterday and a bible verse I found today.    God sneaks them in on me and when he sends them to my inbox in various ways, I listen.  Getting an email from the Boss is serious enough in itself, but when the email comes from Jesus....  lol, you have my undivided attention.   I said today that I welcomed my thirties because I had tons to do and nothing to prove.  So please join me my friends  on my journey to forty and be apart of all the blessings along the way.  

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Lets Start a Blog, Take 2

Wow, so many moons have passed and I have failed to touch my blog.  Boo.  I'm a slacker, but life trudges on.  First off,  A moment of silence for 9/ll.     I wanted to put that out there.  I'll be back soon to catch up.

Lots of love,  MJ