Check In - December is OVER!!

Yeah ok, so that December ending thing happened a while back didn't it?!

Being true to my blogging form I haven't posted in over a month!

So this is a catch up post and a bit of a commitment record for both January and 2013!

I can't say I had a great Christmas, nor can I say I had a bad one! For the most part Christmas isn't really my thing, but all the other family members seemed to enjoy it and that is enough for me!

I didn't get all the presents completed, but didn't really need to in the end either! I do have to finish one, but thankfully, my Sister in Law is forgiving!

On to New Year and we had a quiet family night watching some TV shows.  The youngest only made it to 11pm, but it is just a late night for her anyway as she doesn't get it yet!

Linking up with Fitness Friday over at Mountains and Musings

 

My yearly commitments come in here! I am participating in OperationMOVE over at Kate Says Stuff again this month after my complete failure in December!
My commitment is to reach 700 minutes for the month, with a secondary goal of losing 1kg per week, and a Primary goal for the year to try and reach 80kg before the end of it all!
This is a big Target for me, I started the year at 107.9kg, and am currently 107.3kg... so not really enough of a drop!  However to maintain it is what will be hard!
I have a condition called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, which in my case means that I have higher levels of 'male' hormones than the average woman, it caused me some fertility problems about 7 years ago which were (luckily) easily reversed by losing some weight.  It means I will always struggle to lose weight and will put on weight easier than women without the condition.  But if I do lose the weight, the condition lessens in severity, so I have been told!

Anyway, excuses aside.  This month I have done 270 of my 700 minutes, and also spent a lot of time in the water swimming and mucking around while I was camping.
I am home now and in desperate need of new running/walking shoes, so I can get stuck in to the treadmill again.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!
I am not a fan of shoe shopping!

Wow, happy Blogiversary? (and 3 days)

So it seems that I started this Blog 2 years (and 3 days) ago!!

EDIT: This time frame is sooo wrong! I can't for the life of me figure out how I managed to stuff it up this badly! I blame Blogger for not showing me all the posts on the day I wrote this!

I really don't care that much about when, it is the why that is more important! and really, at the moment I am not even sure that matters!

I had plans of my blog becoming ever popular, having tutorials for sewing, recipes for cooking, continuous updates of family life on the Farm that we purchased and moved to not a year before I started it.

Now it is 2 years on coming up to our 4th Christmas in our Life Long Home, and I am realising just how much I haven't done, and not so much of what I have done!

How much life has moved on and changed and grown, and just how much I seem to be the same!

I don't like it.  I don't know what to do to change it.  Maybe I am just the way I am meant to be?

I find myself wanting to say things, but lacking the articulation to make my argument.

I struggle with the idea of getting paid work, actually I struggle with the idea of work altogether!
I got excited recently about a potential job to get me back into the work force, and sorted everything out that needed doing, full medical and drug testing, only to be turned away because I have an allergy to Codeine! I have taken it before quite a few times and have never reacted badly to it.  But a definitive scratch test has told me I am allergic and not just a little, but quite severely.

Holding faith in the universe that things are as they should be is becoming increasingly hard for me.

Figuring out what my next step is, even harder than that!  Time to sit back and concentrate on making this Christmas season (that I just don't want to happen, let alone find excitement for the sake of the children) one of the best my children have had!
And I need to start by taking charge of the absolute horror that is my house at the moment.

*sigh*

Helping Hands: Do you need help?

I really wanted to do an upbeat post to start the month off, after last month's dismal #operationMOVE effort, and the grief the family has shared.

I sat at the computer for what seemed like hours.  Had a few phone calls, one from the School to tell me Big kidlet was ill, and 2 from a friend who is having a hard time of it lately.

These calls did 2 things for me, firstly:
Stuck at home with a sick 3yo I was not in any rush to pack the 2 Kidlets up and cart them on a 40 minute round trip to pick the 3rd Kidlet up! I needed HELP... so a few unanswered phone calls and a returned call later, my Mother in Law saved the day for me, even though she was busy with her own things, she found a way to help me and my sickie Kidlets out.

Second?
My friend is in real need of help, organisation and living optimally are not on the agenda, working 12hour days to pay bills that the income doesn't cover, having fallen behind on bills so a consolidation of debts is not on the cards by anyone, and contact has been made with at least 3 financial companies, none of which can help because "You are already in the red"
Not eating or buying junk because there is no time to make anything in your 16hr day, yes up to 4 hrs traveling per day... My friend needs HELP!
I offered everything I can, and the chances are unless I show up on the doorstep randomly one evening and just do it all, my offer will slip passed un-accessed.

What is it that makes people feel as though they can't access help?  Even when it is offered freely? 
I wouldn't offer the help if I didn't want to help or if I was unable to help.

I guess at least I am a listening ear on the other end of the phone!

Would you go round and just start doing?  Do a big cook up and fill the freezer with ready meals?
Offer to help and then sit back and hope to be asked?


This month I am helping myself, #operationMOVE is on again and my aim this month has been reduced to 500minutes.  I am helping myself get healthy and motivated, feel less fatigued and depressed and get more things done in a day! 
Christmas is getting closer and it is time for me to start thinking hard on those small handmade gifts, made with love and filled with wonder!

xxx
Katie

It's Thursday...

and the blogging world (the one I seem to associate with the most) is having an "I {heart} my body" day....

Then over at Kate Says Stuff, Kate is hosting her last "Thankful Thursday"!

Quite frankly I can't bring myself to be loving of my body or Thankful for much of anything...

Well no, not really true! Although I am struggling in every way with just about everything I am meant to do at the moment.
The house is beyond messy,
The dishes are piling up,
The washing (after finally getting about 8 loads folded) is now piling up in the laundry, again!

My husband's Grandmother Passed away on Monday morning, at 94 years old, after about 10 years in a nursing home.  It is one of those things that is going to happen no matter what, and although you can be completely prepared for it and see the life coming to an end before your eyes, it still hits everyone hard.

The funeral is tomorrow, I will be going provide as much support to my hubby as I can.
I am thankful that I have the opportunity to stand by him and be a tower of support when he needs it.
I am thankful he had the chance to see his Nan a week or so before she passed.
I am thankful that his Nan had the chance to meet her Great Grand Children.

I have had 3 weeks without a home internet connection, the issue was resolved last night.

I am thankful the issue was resolved.
I am thankful to have an online community (albeit small) to miss
I am thankful for the blog, that has barely any hits or followers, it is my place to purge.

The only photo of my face that I like!

So in the case of 'body love'

I have been trying to do this operation move thing, this month it is going incredibly badly.  I have had no motivation and the only time I have done any minutes to count are the times when I have had no other choice, such as walking around the supermarket yesterday.

What I love about my body is..
 - the fact that I do not feel obliged to shave/wax and match in with other's expectation of what I should look like.  I have body hair and I am proud of it!
 - I love my stretch marks, they are a natural tattoo that show I am a mother.
 - I love my tattoo, it is a connection that means a lot to me.
 - I love my breasts, they provided life to my children.

Linking up with We Heart Life
and Kate Says Stuff (link up top)

Because shit happens and there is always something to love and be thankful for...

xx Katie

Time Flies!

The amount of times I have said here that I would try to blog more regularly, are just wildly overpowering the amount of times I have actually blogged more regularly!

Things seem to get on top of me, but at the same time I seem to be getting NOTHING done!

So as it stands, I was going to take on Blogtober this year... so much for that idea!

I committed to OperationMOVE last month, with a target of 600minutes, I am slightly disappointed to say I didn't make my target!  I got to 420minutes however which was an achievement for someone who barely leaves the house!

So for October I have challenged myself further and joined up with a new outlook and a new target of 900minutes!  I am currently at 270!  Seeing it like that makes me feel like I am on target... and I am, BUT!  What you don't see in this is that these numbers are made up of only a few days effort! I walked around Hobart for about 2 hours on Tuesday getting from our parked car to the car yard to test drive a new car, then to the bank for money and back to the car yard to pay and drive away in our new ride!

'02 Subaru Forester - New to me Car

Then Friday... or was it Thursday... heh, either way! I spent the day Cleaning house and vacuuming... I have allocated 120 minutes of 'move' time for my day of cleaning. 

Today I spent 30 minutes, possibly more, walking through the supermarket, pushing a trolley full of children and groceries.

So now I have written that out I don't seem anywhere near as committed to the exercise as previously implied! Do I?

Please check out what OperationMOVE is all about. HERE

A new challenge for myself, now that we are well into Spring and fast approaching Summer... Drinking more water! I have a 1 litre bottle (just a crappy plastic one) that I am currently aiming to drink at least 1 of per day, over the month I aim to up that to 2 litres a day minimum.
I do not drink enough and have also found my children don't drink enough, so it is time to step up, lead by example, and get drinking!

My 5yo Boy has, finally, at last, woo-fucking-hoo!, decided he no longer needs any nappies! I had argument after argument with him about night nappies and doing #2's in the toilet not the nappy... he held on until bed time or did it first thing in the morning, so as not to use the toilet. 
After falling asleep without a nappy and sharing that moment of panic in the morning because we forgot the nappy, He was DRY... and a couple of nights later he fell asleep without a nappy and we put him into bed without getting him in one... DRY again, and now he uses the toilet all the time, BY CHOICE! WOOHOO


Now to work on the 3yo!

Mr 5 and Miss 3 are also both on another round of anti-biotics, Bronchitis and tonsilitis!

What else it going on? We are getting 3-4 fresh free-range eggs per day from our hens. Unfortunately their new pen is still not complete, and we are no closer to having a single garden bed in our designated 'Garden Zone'.  There are plans for this but well best intentions...

Sometime over the next month some house repairs should start! Over the same time frame I hope to start the process of applying for employment! 

I am currently having a clearance sale on facebook,   Check out the album lots of things at reduced prices.