What's in a Wardrobe?

Do you have a closet full of clothes but always feel like you "don't have anything to wear"? Do most of your clothes not fit you very well? Do you never feel "put together" or always awkward in the clothing you are wearing? Do you find yourself spending money on clothes looking for quantity instead of quality? Do you ever go out in public in your "lounging around the house" clothes that are riddled with stains and holes from wearing them so much?

If you answered yes to any or all of those questions, know that you aren't alone. I can answer yes to every single one of those questions. I'm especially guilty of that last one. While my "lounging around the house" clothes might not be riddled with stains and holes, they definitely look worn out. They especially look stellar on days that I have spent most of my time at home with both girls and forgot about the early morning spit-up from Layla or the food Brooklyn threw at me that stuck to the side of my pants. Or, like yesterday, the dried up pee on my left pant leg (at least it was dry and no one else knew it was there!).

If you're a mom to one or more kids, you've probably gone out in public (especially grocery store or pharmacy) looking, well, frazzled and dumpy. If not, kudos to you! Tell me your secret because that has happened to me way more times than not. And trust me, if you know me and have been around me for a while, you know this is true. You've probably gone out with me wondering what I was thinking wearing what I was wearing and feeling embarrassed to be seen with me in public.

Well, fear no more! I'm working on fixing this problem pronto! I recently stumbled upon Project 333, a wardrobe minimizing project to help you get control of your wardrobe and have only what you need and what looks good on you. I'm not going to give a whole run-down of the entire program right now but if you click the link, it will take you to their site and then at the top, click the "getting started" tab and it will tell you how to get going with your wardrobe make over. I will tell you some basics about it though. It's a project to get your wardrobe down to 33 items that you will wear for 3 months. This includes your jewelry, shoes, clothes and any other accessories. It does not include your underwear, pajamas, workout clothes or "lounging around the house" clothes (those are the same as my workout clothes in my wardrobe).

I think it's an amazing concept and one that will help me refine my style and put more thought into each article of clothing I buy. Everything needs to be able to work together and if an article doesn't "go" with several other pieces, then you don't buy it. Simple as that. I have the worst habit of going out, seeing something on sale, buying it and then getting home to find that it doesn't go with ANYTHING I own! Then I either have to return it, try to make it work with something (which is doesn't but I pretend I'm trendy and doing something that is on the fringe of becoming popular) or go out and buy other things to match it. None of those options are appealing to me right now and I don't know why it's taken me so long to see that this is just not the way to go about getting a wardrobe.

So after reading up on the project, and also reading various online articles about developing a "mom uniform", I decided I first needed to figure out what my style was going to be. This was hard since my current style is "blah". Yes, you read correctly. I have a very blah style. Boring clothes that fit awkwardly or that are super baggy to hide my post-pregnancy jiggles and in boring colors and styles that aren't suited for me at all. There isn't any excitement for me in my daily dressing and getting ready. I always dread going out because I have to find something presentable to wear. If I can't find anything presentable, I end up going out in the best I can make do with and it's not a pretty site!

There are a few factors that went into figuring out what the best options are for me at this point in my life:

1. I just had a baby and am larger than normal I want to be.
2. I'm doing Weight Watchers and am slowly losing that weight.
3. I love comfy clothes that aren't binding and that are comfortable whether I'm sitting, standing or lying down.
4. I have always liked my clothes to be loose fitting (even in my thinner days).
5. I'm not into making bold statements with my wardrobe. I like pretty simple styles that are classic and will stay around for quite some time.
6. I'm not a huge fan of patterns or stripes. I'm more of a solid color gal.
7. Shoes have to be super comfy for me. I would live in flip flops if I could but a cute, comfortable pair of flats will also make me happy.
8. I don't wear much jewelry. I like to find one pair of earrings, one necklace, one or two extra rings and a bracelet that I wear all the time. 

So keeping in mind all of those things, here is what I've come up with so far in the line of what I'm going to be looking for:

• leggings and other comfortable, fitted and flowy pants that have an elastic waist
• long, dress-like tops that come down well past my rear end to cover the fitted pants I'll be buying
• some light weight cover shirts that I can wear over tank-tops (think flowy, white linen button up shirt to wear over things only not just in white)
• a nice white shirt and a nice black shirt (for wearing under things or just with a pair of jeans)
• one pair of jeans that fit me great and make me look good (this one will be hard and might have to wait till I lose a little more poundage)
• A white and black (and maybe brown) camisole
• A couple pairs of bermuda shorts that are flattering in basic colors like kakhi and maybe white or black
• A comfortable pair of black flats (I already have a really cute pair of brown ones)
• One cute beaded "fun" necklace that has several colors so it can be worn with several different outfits
• One silver ring to be worn on my right hand (I already have a pair of earrings and a bracelet to fit my needs and I don't wear the bracelet very often)
• A cute scarf that can be worn as an accessory (so it would have to be one of those really light-weight ones that won't be too hot to wear in the summer)

That's about all I've come up with so far, which is still a lot for me. This is going to push my boundaries in the wardrobe department. I haven't tried to have "cute" clothes in a very long time so it will be fun and frustrating at the same time. I'm going to build it slowly. I obviously don't have the money to go out and buy all this in one fell swoop, especially since I'll be looking for quality clothes instead of the cheapest thing I can find that fits. That also doesn't mean I'm going to spend a fortune on clothing. I'm just going to find things that are better than what I've been buying.

So what is your wardrobe dilemma? Do you think Project 333 would work for you? Go check it out and at least see if some of the concepts would work to help you with your wardrobe.

Late weigh-in #2

Well, week 2 of being on weight watchers wasn't as successful as my first week. If you rememeber, I started at 198.2 and then at my first weigh-in I was down to 191.5. At my second weigh in, I was up to 193.2 and it was hard not to be a little disappointed. I know I stuck to my diet, I even had one less point and still didn't use all my extras. But such is the way of weight loss. Everyone has been encouraging me and reminding me that when you are losing weight, your body does have to adjust to the new way of eating so it may fluctuate at the beginning. I'm hoping to see a drop this week though. I don't know what to do differently though since I wasn't cheating last week. Well, I do know one thing I could do, and that is exercise. I still haven't started that.

I have found it much harder to get going on the exercise than I thought it would be. Getting up earlier than everyone has proven to be more difficult than I expected. A few different scenarios play out in my mornings:

1. Layla will wake up and want a bottle around 4:30 am. By the time the bottle is done and she is burped (and sometimes gets a diaper change depending on if it's super soaked) and put back in bed and has settled in, it's already almost 5:30. I have two choices at that point: try to go back to sleep for another hour or so OR get up and get going for the day. That usually feels way to early to get up so I always try to go back to sleep.
2. Brooklyn will wake up anywhere from 5:30-6:30am and go hysterical in her room. I have to get up and go console her. Again, if it's 5:30, I just don't have the will power to stay up and try to work out or read my Bible. If it's 6:30, I usually have no choice BUT to wake up because at that point Brooklyn won't go back to sleep.
3. No one wakes up until 7 or 8 am and I sleep straight through! I haven't set an alarm since most mornings this doesn't happen.
4. I DO get up before anyone else has woken up. This usually happens on one of the few mornings that both girls sleep till 8am and I end up waking up sometime around 7am. On these mornings, I get up and make my coffee and try to get my Bible reading done before the chaos begins. Working out never even crosses my mind on those days. 

So I've basically come to the conclusion that I need to find what works for me best. When am I feeling my best and more likely to work out? Well, I'm a night owl, so for me, it will probably be sometime in the evening. I am going to try a few different times to see what works the best with having the girls around. Maybe while Layla sleeps and Brooklyn eats in her high chair. Or maybe only once I've put them both to bed. Or they are both awake but get Brooklyn in her room playing and put Layla in the swing or bouncy seat (I highly doubt this one will work once Brooklyn saw me "dancing" around to my video - she would want to join in and I would end up hurting her somehow with a misplaced kick or jab!)

Whatever ends up working for me, I really want to get with it and boost my weight loss and kick it in the face! 

There you have it! Sorry it took so long to post, it's been a hard week to get around to my computer and I've been greatly distracted by the first two books of the Hunger Games series. I'm only allowing myself to download the third one to my Kindle when I lose my next 5 pounds. Or maybe I should make it when I reach my 5% weight loss goal. That might motivate me a little more! We'll see!

Thankful Thursday: Being Thankful for My Husband (and father of my kids!)

My husband and I have been working really hard lately to put more effort into our personal time together. We had lost the sense of intimacy and friendship. If you observed our little time we have to spend together, you would have seen two people living in the same house, doing their own thing, just getting by. A lot of things contribute to this state of our marriage: having a new baby, 70 hour work weeks, a cluttered home, church commitments, TV, computers, doctor's appointments, personal frustrations and much, much more.

In our Sunday school hour at church a few weeks back we went through a video series called "6 Secrets to a Lasting Love" by Dr. Gary and Barbara Rosberg. It was very good and very convicting and eye-opening. When you're just "getting by" in your marriage and you watch marriage videos or read books on marriage, it's hard to hear what they have to say sometimes. Many times it felt like the finger was pointing straight at me. Other times I would think to myself "Huh, I sure hope Waylon heard that!" Overall it was a great series for us to go through and I really think that several couples in our church got a lot from it.

One of the things I've been convicted about lately is my attitude towards my husband. I love him very much and can't imagine my life without him but believe it or not, I'm not always the most loving person towards him. I am a short-tempered person (something I am praying and asking God to help me change) and can be very short with my words when I'm frustrated. It's not loving and it doesn't convey the fact that I am so thankful for everything he does for me and our girls.

So today, on my Thankful Thursday post, I want to list some things about my husband that I'm thankful for. Please feel free to list some things you are thankful about your husband for in the comments. It would be great to read all the uplifting words about our husbands (and fathers of our children), especially as we approach Father's Day this Sunday.

So here are mine:

I'm thankful for...

• How much he loves me
• For the fact that he pursued me for so long and didn't write me off
• For his patience with me and our girls
• For his hard work and long hours he puts in at his new job
• For working hard so that he could be promoted and set us up to be in a more stable financial situation
• For having a sense of humor that I appreciate and laugh at
• For the fact that he is much thinner than me, therefore motivating me to lose more weight!
• For still helping me around the house when he is able to, even though he works long hours at his job
• For being such a wonderful daddy to his little girls (Brooklyn loves her Daddy!)
• For being a kind person to all people he comes into contact with 
• For saving himself for marriage and not compromising himself
• For the spiritual strength he shows
• For being mature when I sometimes don't want to be
• For his calm demeanor when our "discussions" get heated and I blow my top
• For his fearlessness in the face of possible failure
• For staying calm when things around us are crazy and seemingly out of control
• For loving the Lord with all his heart and seeking to be a Godly man, husband, father and son.

There are so many other things I could list about my loving husband but that would take too long. I'm working hard to show him my thankfulness. I feel even more strongly about it now that I've spent a day with him at his job and see how hard he really does work to be successful in sales. It's a tough job and I could never do as well as he does. 

Waylon with Brooklyn a few hours after she was born.

Waylon with Layla just a few minutes after she was born.

Waylon, I love you very much and am forever thankful to the Lord for bringing us together in marriage. I'm thankful for the children we have together and the wonderful father you are to them. Happy Father's Day!!

    

Weigh-in #1

So I've been on Weight Watchers for one week and am quite pleased with the system. I really think it's going to help me change my eating habits and look at food differently. I thought it was going to be really hard to follow, and it is, but not nearly as difficult as I imagined. I'll admit that the first three days were the hardest. I found myself getting hungry pretty fast and when I'm hungry, I'm grouchy, just ask my family! But on the fourth day, it suddenly wasn't as hard anymore. I was so happy when I realized that.

Counting my points is making me realize how much unhealthy snacking I did. What's worse, I was snacking when I wasn't hungry. I would eat a pop tart or a bowl (or 2) of cereal just because I wanted something sweet. I love how this is making me change my eating habits and how I think about food. I really want to change my mindset towards eating and my health and I think for me, this is the way to do it. I hope my resolve sticks because I already have great results this week!

So I know everyone is waiting with bated breath as to what my weigh-in was yesterday morning.

I got up and weighed before eating anything yesterday morning and I weighed: 191.5! I was thrilled! So that makes my weight loss a total of 6.7. I do have to say that the new scales I bought don't seem to be the best and they only measure in increments of .5 so I'm not getting the exact weight. I'll probably shop around for a better set. The one my brother has measures body fat too and is similar to the WW one that they sell on their website. I might reward myself with one if I lose another 5 pounds this week. That would be a nice treat for myself!

So I'm 6 pounds away from my 5% goal weight of 185.2 and I think it's very doable. I plan to add working out this week (although I will be doing my first week of training with Waylon so it might not happen, not to mention, I'll be on my feet all day at that job so it could count as some activity).

Since I lost over 5 pounds, my daily point amount went down one point. I started with 33 points a day and now I'm allowed 32. While I'm not thrilled to losing a precious point of food each day, I'm excited that it means I lost weight! Today I'm going to the grocery store to get more fruit, vegetables and non-fat, sugar-free stuff like butter and creamer (things I eat on a daily basis).

I posted some goals for last week, let's see how I did with them:

1. Buy digital scale. check! Although I'm not a huge fan of the ones I have, they are better than the old ones I had.
2. Increase my water intake. check! I increased it but not to the amount I need. It's a struggle for me since I don't really like water.
3. Join the rec center and work out twice. Didn't do this one. In fact, I don't think I'm going to join the rec center yet because I honestly don't know when I'll be able to do it. With two kids and working for Waylon, I don't know what my schedule will be like and they aren't open very early or very late so it's hard to plan work outs that don't fall under regular hours. I will focus on doing my videos here at home and maybe getting out and walking on nicer days in my Shape-Ups.
4. Lose 2 pounds. Double check! Lost 6.7!
5. Try drinking diet coke. Check! I ate out a couple times at Chick-Fil-A and drank Diet Coke each time. It wasn't so bad when I was drinking it with food. I don't think I can just drink one for the enjoyment of it yet but I'll get there.
6. Eat one vegetable a day. Check! I ate a lot of cucumbers as snacks and steamed broccoli with my frozen meals. It helped the food last a lot longer!


What are my goals for this week?

1. Lose at least 2 more pounds.
2. Work out with my videos 3 days.
3. Increase my water intake from last week.
4. Try a new recipe (there are lots of WW recipes online)
5. Take my measurements and see if I've lost any inches since taking them last. (I'll post that info next time so we can see what my initial measurements were compared to the new ones.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how WW is working for me. I can see how it would be very easy to cheat and not count little "snacks" here and there but that's where you start slipping and stop seeing results. I've been counting everything, even if it's small. There has only been one thing I didn't count because it was going to be way to hard to figure it out for such a small little thing, but I mentally counted it as a couple of points and just didn't use two points for that day, so I think that's pretty fare.

I might even post some before and after picks once I reach my 5% goal to see if we can see a difference! Oh boy!

Just call me crazy.

Yes, call me crazy if you must as I'm sure some of you will after reading my post today. After a mere 3 months of being a stay at home mom, I'm already going back to work. Not as a teacher though. I will be doing office work and recruiting for none other than my very own husband. I guess I should have titled the post "Just call me super crazy"! Working for my husband had never sounded like anything I would venture to do, but here I am, about to do just that.

Some of you already know this (family and friends who I see frequently), but my husband has recently become an "owner" of his own business. It's not quite what everyone thinks of normally. He works for a company that sets up booths in different retail stores (think large wholesale membership stores and electronic stores) and signs people up for satellite cable services. When you get down to it, it is a management training program. They hire people to man those booths and make sales and eventually train them to manage their own area. For example, when Waylon was hired, his boss "owned" the Fort Worth area. When you "own" an area, it means you are over the stores in that area that sell this particular satellite cable service.

When you become an owner, you are incorporated and have your own business name and your own office and are in charge of everything. It's a little overwhelming right now as we look at everything that goes into running this office. But I know my husband and he is a very capable man. I have no doubts he is going to be wildly successful in his business. Today was his first day to be in his stores selling. I spent the day with him yesterday at his office setting everything up. It was a long day but it was fun to work along side my husband and have a hand in helping him.

I will be his office admin, which means I will be doing the recruiting for him and setting up his interviews. I will be spending a lot of time on the phone making calls for the first and second interviews and answering any questions his new employees have about their first day. I'll also do other sundry things for him in the office. Some of this I can do from home, which is a real blessing, but I will also go up to the office a couple of times a week too. The nice thing about the job is that you aren't tied to one location as long as you have a computer and internet connection.

Obviously, I will have to make arrangements for child care so I am actively looking into that. I know my parents will help out in this area also but I am probably going to put Brooklyn into a MDO program at least two days a week also. She loves the play time and interaction with other kids and it will give my parents a break as well. I'm not sure what I will do about Layla but I'm sure we can figure something out. She definitely won't go without lots of attention, wherever she ends up going. I'm just not ready to send her to be with someone other than family at this point. She also sleeps enough that if I'm working from home one day, I can still get stuff done while she sleeps.

I know it seems crazy to some that I am going back to work after only staying home full-time for three months. However, for Waylon and I, we both feel that this is the best thing for us at this point. Waylon's success at his job depends hugely on the person recruiting for him. We really need him to be successful so who else is going to be more motivated to help him than me? I doubt there is anyone else out there that fits that description. On top of it all, I do enjoy working when I have a job that I don't dread going to. This will give me the flexibility I need, the extra time with my kids I was wanting, and, the extra time actually getting to see and interact with my husband. I miss him so much on the days he works. Now I will get to see him and even better, help him in his job. I see it as a win/win situation.

I've also been burdened lately by Proverbs 31 and trying to be more like the wife described in that chapter. Verses 11 and 12 have stood out to me a lot lately: "The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life." I'm going to be sacrificing some time with my kids and not getting some things at home done because of this job, but, my husband needs and wants me by his side in this journey and I don't want to miss out on this opportunity for the two of us to grow closer in a way we would not be able to if I was staying home full time. I'm going to do my best to make sure "he will have no lack of gain" and that I'm always seeking to do him good and not evil. I'm not much of a housewife and I know I could get a hang of it eventually, but right now, my talents and gifts are needed with him at his job, so that's where I will go. I'm excited and just a little scared about this venture. A lot is hanging in the balance here. I'm praying God will bless Waylon with divine wisdom and insight as he interviews and hires employees that will make him more successful. I'm praying that He will give me the insight I need as I recruit people for him. I don't believe we can fail if we keep God on our team.

Please keep us in your prayers as we step out in faith. I start my training next week. I will spend a week in the field with Waylon and his employees, selling in the stores. The next week I will be trained in recruiting for about 3 days and then I'm all on my own! Lord helps us!

I promise the next post will have pictures of Layla. I can't believe she is 7 weeks old already, it doesn't seem possible!

Also be looking for my first Weight Watchers weigh-in post either Sunday (if I have time) or Monday morning. I'm excited to post the results I'm already seeing!

Watching my Weight: Getting It All Out There.

I've taken the plunge and joined Weight Watchers; something I never thought I would do. I've always thought I could do the weight loss thing on my own and that I didn't need to pay for a system to help me. Well, I think it has finally sunk into my stubborn head that I'm not disciplined enough in my eating habits to lose the weight I need to lose on my own. So I did it. They have a great special right now that if you pay for the first three months in advance (@ $17.95 a month it comes out to almost $54), they wave the registration fee of $29.99. So I did it. I figure three months is a good amount of time to let me know if I'm going to be able to stick with it or not.

So far I have liked what I've seen online. I did not join the plan that includes meetings. I'm just doing it online and I have a friend who joined the same day as me without knowing I had joined. So we are going to keep each other accountable. It always helps when someone else is going through the same thing with you.

Being the busy person I am these days (and that's without working outside the home at this point), I have decided that I will not try to cook my own lunches and dinners at the beginning. I'm going to focus on getting some breakfast meals that I like and that are easy to prepare and for lunch and dinner I will eat their frozen dinners, Smart Ones. I used to eat one of these everyday for my lunch when I was working and they are some of my favorite frozen dinners so this will be very easy for me. I also bought some of their frozen desserts to treat myself to every once in a while. I like that they have a great variety of entrees and desserts for me to choose from so I shouldn't get bored. Once I'm used to fixing the breakfast, I will start trying to fix some of their lunch and dinner meals. Most likely I'll fix larger portions and just eat it for several days. If I like a particular meal, I don't mind eating it over and over again.

Now I'm going to do something that might shock everyone who reads here: I'm going to tell you what my starting weight is. I know, that's crazy right? Well since I'm not going to the meetings to have someone else see my weight, I thought I would put it out there for all my readers and use that as motivation and accountability. Afterall, if I tell you all what I weigh, do I really want to come back each week with reports of gaining or not losing? Not at all! I'm going to want to give positive reports of actually weight loss. So I ask that you be encouraging in your comments any time I post about my weight loss journey! Also, if you want to join me, feel free to post comments about your weight loss goals and achievements. It will be fun to see how much weight you are losing along with me and it will definitely spur me into action if I see you are dropping pounds right and left!

Ok, so here goes:

Starting weight: 198.2 (I took this weight Sunday afternoon after eating lunch)

5% goal: 185.2
10% goal: 175.2

Ultimate Goal: 155 (I was at this weight for quite some time a few years ago and it seemed pretty easy to maintain. I feel like it's a healthy weight for me to keep up. I might find that I want to lose more once I get there but for now, this is the weight I'm striving to get to.)

Phew! It's out there and it felt good to put it out there! This is by far the most I've weighed (without being pregnant) and I am very disappointed in myself. But I'm using that disappointment to motivate me to lose it and keep it off. I will also be joining the rec center in my area and start working out. My goal is to make it there twice a week and do one of my video workouts here at home once a week. If I can manage that consistently, I will be feeling very good about myself!

This week my goals are:

1. buy a digital scale (I had to take my weight at my parent's because I have an old dial one that I got for a buck at a garage sale)
2. increase my water intake
3. join the rec center and work out twice
4. lose 2 pounds
5. try drinking diet coke (ugh!)
6. eat one vegetable a day (sadly this doesn't happen normally)

Memorial Day 2011

This memorial day we spent the day by going to lunch with my parents and grandparents. We went to Cheddar's, one of the least expensive restaurants in our area. You can always count on getting a lot of food for a very reasonable price. I did not take pictures of that part of the day. For some reason, I've never been a fan of taking pictures of groups eating out. It's just not my thing and I never remember anyways; I'm always too focused on eating!

Unfortunately, my husband was unable to spend the day with us due to it being a very busy day in the sales world. He's a salesman so he had to work and he did quite well that day so it ended up being a good thing that he went in to work.

After eating, I took the girls over to my parent's house and we got Brooklyn's little pool from last year back out and let her go for a swim. It's already in the 90's here in Texas so there were no worries about her getting cold.

I think it's safe to say that this girl LOVES playing in the water and had a blast Monday!

Then, there's this one, who didn't really know what was going on but had a relatively pleasant time outside sitting in grandma and mommy's laps. She eventually dozed off and started sweating so I took her in and put her down to sleep in the air conditioned house.

Ummm, couldn't you just BITE those adorable cheeks? I could! But I don't, I just kiss them, a lot!

Was she trying to tell me something?

I guess I will allow you to see pictures of me right now even though I am very unhappy with my weight and will be working hard at changing that this summer!

Hopefully we were all mindful to take some time and think about why most of us are able to have a paid holiday each year. Many men and women have sacrificed their lives for us to have this holiday and we need to make sure we remember it and say a prayer of thanks to the Lord for what they did for us and what He did for us as well!

How did you spend your Memorial Day? Are you ready for summer? I sure am!