My busy little family

It is the end of another great week in the King universe.  I have been going all week, like I haven't felt that I have had any downtime but I have a lot of extra energy and it has been a very productive week.

Hayden got an A on his solar system project and was pretty funny during his presentation at school.  He is vey proud and we are so proud of him.   School seems to come easily to him and he really loves it.  It so fun to talk to him most days right now because he is at a really great stage of growing.  He's too cute. 

Adrianna is growing up too.  I swear over night she started growing hips!  OOY I am in so much trouble, she is beautiful.  She baked me a cake for my birthday tomorrow and it was so perfect. 

I decided that I am not quite busy enough I guess so I started a new project lol.  I have hated my basement for the 5 years that we have lived in this house.  It is dark with tongue and groove paneling everywhere.  Even the ceiling!  The carpet is icky and we have just been talking about changing it and we finally started the project.  I just got tired of it being an unusable space. We got the carpet pulled up and we found a pretty great tile floor in great condition that is original to the house.  The pattern is a little funky but we can work with it.  I love finding treasures like that in this old house.  I love this house, it has always felt like we belong here.  I love making it ours, putting our family stamp on it.  Every room really is a reflection of who we are.  Finally our Family room will be  a space that we like hanging out in. 

Tomorrow is my  43rd birthday.  I love this age!  My forties have so far been a really wonderful stage of my life.  I am having lunch with my best friend who is also turning 43 tomorrow.  That makes it extra special. Then I am spending the afternoon with my mom looking for some cool antique stuff for the family room.  I get to pick the kids up from school then we are all having dinner.  I couldn't ask for a better way to spend my birthday.

I have had a lot of energy this week.  I ate pretty clean, I had to have a piece of Adrianna's birthday cake but the rest of the day and all week I have worked hard. Believe me, it was yummy. My goal at my weigh in on Tuesday is to be down a couple of pounds.  I but I am going  to workout for a couple of hours in the morning. I have been drinking a lot of water and eating well.  I did not go to the gym the last two days with the basement work .  It has been a very busy week.  Looking forward to Tomorrow, to seeing my peeps.  This next week I will be in training all week in Idaho Falls.  Being away from home is going to make it more difficult both to work out and to eat well.  It is also the kid's last week of school so they have parties and field trips to plan for.  I also need to start on moving the wall downstairs.  We are just moving it out 3 feet to make our bedroom bigger.  I am so excited for this to be finished.  I am repurposing everything in the room.  It will be so cool!!!  Have a great week!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day for me has always been super special.  Having adopted children we celebrate everything.  We celebrate their adoption days as well as their birthdays and I tell them the stories of how they came to us every Mother's Day.  Adrianna was old enough to have memories of her own from before she came to us.  I know that those memories can be confusing for her at times.  I have always strived to be honest with my kiddos about their birth families.  I have saved every bit of information that I have ever received regarding their birth families and the circumstances surrounding their adoptions.  Every picture and memento, every piece of paper and letter and if you know anything about Foster Care, they don't come with much at all.  They usually don't have toys or clothes or any of the basics that most kids have, much less baby pictures or good memories.

I made a treasure box for each of them which houses all these things along with letters that I write to them every year on the anniversary of their adoptions and put in the treasure box.  I know that someday I will get questions about where they came from.  Adrianna has always expressed the she sees herself as different from the rest of us because she is half Mexican.  I want her to know about her heritage and to be secure in who she is.  I want her to know how much I love her and that I would do anything in the World to see her smile. 

One day we will sit down together and go through the boxes when they are old enough to have a better understanding of the difficult situations that they came from. I have never given birth so I truly cannot compare having adopted children to having birth children.  My heart tells me that it's not that different.  I have been told that it is hard to love other people's kids. People have asked questions about what it's like to adopt.  Unfortunately most of the time when one of those questions are asked it is generally unkind in the way it is presented.  Not intentionally, but people see them as "Not my real kids".  Well, I can tell you they certainly are my real kids and I am a real mom, JD is a real dad, and this is a real family.  We fight and love just like other families.    It constantly amazes me when things like that are said, and I do not respond to it well.  The love that I have for my children is the love of a mother, not having the same DNA does not matter to my heart.

I have been waiting to get the bikes out.  My family gave me flowers first thing in the morning and my husband got out the bikes, cleaned them up made sure they were ready to go.  Yay!!! I love these days!!! Homemade breakfast burritos, fresh fruit, trail mix, and juice packed in the backpack and we went for a two hour bike ride.  It was a beautiful day.  My son proposed to me, my daughter hugged me so tight she took my breath away.  It really was exactly what I wanted for Mother's Day! 

I have been very blessed and I am so thankful for the life I live.  My journey is as much about the inside as it about the outside.  This day my heart is overflowing!

I

So far, it has been a triumphant week.  I have managed to avoid the break room at work with lots of treats for employee appreciation week.  Lunch will be provided tomorrow but I am feeling good about my choices and I am certain that I will be able to make the healthiest choices for me tomorrow as well.  I have been working out every day this week and I am holding strong on the scale.  I have not lost but I have not gained either and for me that is a triumph, a success and a reason for celebration. I am battling a pulled muscle in my upper back which has forced me to lighten my workouts (holy crap talk about PAIN, wow!!)  but I am still getting up every day and going to the gym every day and working around my injury.  

 

On the home front it has been another great week.  My kiddos are gearing up for the end of the school year and Adrianna (who is turning 12 very soon) is working hard to make sure that she ends the year with decent grades.  Hayden has been rocking A’s and B’s all year so for him it is not as much of a struggle.  I am so proud of my kiddos!!  The weather is getting warmer and it is finally starting to feel like summer.  Time to get the bikes out, return to our family’s summer tradition of early morning Sunday bike rides and picnic breakfasts at the park.  It is a wonderful way for all of us to spend time together, get our bodies moving and enjoying good, fresh whole fruits and grains and some fresh air.  I have not had the opportunity to spend as much time with the hubby this week as I would like.  We have both had pretty full schedules and lots going on so the emotional connection has not really been there.  Hopefully we will be able to grab a few moments of mom and dad time to connect with each other this weekend.

 

I have not really had much time for any relationships this week and I find myself missing the people that I care about A LOT!!  My connections to my friends and family are very strong.  It is that human interaction that fuels me on most days.  It is being inspired by others and having the opportunity to inspire others that I live for!  I may not see you or speak to you every day but you are always in my thoughts and in my prayers. 

 

Weeks like this week in which I am being pulled in so many different directions and find it difficult to keep up,  I have to remind myself to stay as grounded and focused as I possibly can.  It is easy to let every thing else take over and we forget that we have to nourish our bodies, our hearts, and our minds.  Our bodies naturally want what is not good for us and our hearts often cry out for those that will break them.  We decide which will prevail.  We decide which we will fight for.  Have a wonderful rest of the week, find something that inspires you and challenge yourself to be an inspiration for someone else!!

One breath at a time

Happy hump day!  I weighed in today,  I have been fighting a lot of fatigue this week and I just wasn't up to going in yesterday.  It is just a fibro flare up and it will pass, hopefully soon LOL.   Although my flare ups have diminished substantially the fibro likes to pop up every once in a while just to remind me that I'm human.  My weigh in was very good.  I have lost the 10 pounds that I had gained.  Yay!  I have been working out every day except yesterday and even though I am feeling the pain I have forced myself to go and workout because I know that I might be struggling just to get through it but I will feel better when it's over.  With fibro pain you are never are quite sure where it will show up.  Most of my pain is in my neck and hips and my right arm.  I don't take pain medication unless I absolutely have to and most days I can get by without it, this week not so much.

It has been a fairly quiet week so far.  Other than a moment or two of drama with my children life is good.  JD and I have found some common ground.  We are working on our relationship and both of us really want it to work for the sake of our family.  It feels like we have found each other again.  It is like we started over.  It is an every day process and we are working every day at it but I look at him now and remember what it was that drew me to him in the first place.  I am very happy, I am loved.  We are communicating in ways that we have not been able to before and much of the anger that was within our home seems to have dissipated.  It is a beautiful thing!  Date night, we have not been on a date together for years.  This last weekend he planned everything, got a sitter, took me to dinner and then we went to play some pool where we met.  We laughed and talked and of course he beat me at pool but not by much lol.  It was a really great night! One that we both really needed.  The kids were still awake when we picked them up so we came home and all of us climbed into my king size bed and started watching a movie.  It wasn't long before the kids were asleep but we definitely made some good memories.

I have decided that I want the kids to be more involved with our healthy eating plan.  Adrianna has been cooking with me for a while.  The last couple of days she has gotten up when I leave for the gym at 5 am and gotten dressed and ready to go so that when I come home at 6 she can help make breakfast.  Today we made banana pancakes and smoothies.  I love spending those moments with her.  She asked me what I wanted for my birthday.  It got me thinking, I have all that I need right now.  I have a wonderful family, my marriage is strong again, I have some really special friends.  I have so much to be thankful for.  I am truly blessed and the only thing that I want for my birthday is to know that the people that I love are happy. 

I am hoping to walk a 5k race on Mother's Day with my daughter.  I had hoped to run it as one of my goals is to run a 10k race within this next year but I am not quite feeling confident enough to run this one.  I will get there, it is a process I must remind myself of that every day and I am working hard.  One day at a time, One breath at a time...

Living in the sunshine

Today I let go of the last piece of my former self.  Throughout this journey I have not packed up or given away any of my clothes.  I only recently began buying clothes that actually fit.  So today, I cleaned out my closet.  It started with a lost pink hoodie and ended with me letting go of my fear and the deep seated insecurities that have kept me fat for most of my life. 

I was looking for a pink hoodie that I have never been able to wear.  My husband gave it me a couple of years ago and today I decided to try it on and see if it finally fit.  I pulled out so many clothes as I was looking for it that I just sat on the floor in the middle of the chaos and I decided this is it.  "I am just going to do this, I refuse to allow myself to get this big and unhealthy ever again so why am I holding on to it?"  "Why is it so hard for me to just let this go?"  I created a couple of different piles at first.  the "go" pile and the "maybe" pile.  By the time I was finished there was no "keep" pile, it all went.  I though about the way I felt about myself then compared to the confidence I have now.  Packing up all those things and making room in my closet for the new smaller things was a very cathartic experience.  It's hard to explain the emotional shift that I felt in doing this.  I realize that I am lighter and stronger but most of all happier than I was then. 

This journey is not something I am simply visiting.  I intend for it to be my life and my family's life for the rest of my life.  I do not need to hold on to the skin, the covering that those things provided, kind of a safety net of never being noticed.  I have maintained a strong workout schedule this week.  I went to the gym every day I have been eating clean all week and really watching my calorie intake.  I will weigh on Tuesday but I can already feel that my clothes loosened back up so I must have lost the extra I gained last week. 

Adrianna and I went for a 3.5 mile run today.  She finished the full route on her scooter while I ran.  We talked about her friends and "Jimmy".  He is the latest crush.  We got out in the sunshine and lifted our spirits and we spent some pretty great moments together.  By the way I never did find the pink hoodie LOL...

Family week

Today we celebrated my son's 8th birthday.  It was a really great day, I got an early start so that I could at least get in part of my workout while getting everything ready for Hayden's party.  The last couple of weeks have been pretty sporadic with my food plan.  I thought that I was doing okay  because I have been working out but when I weighed in on Tuesday this week I have gained.  In retrospect I can feel it in my clothes, they are a little tighter so I have been working hard all week to get it back off!

This morning I got up early and went running while it was still kind of dark.  I love that time of the day, just me, my music, my heartbeat and my feet hitting the pavement. Once I am able to find a rhythm with the music on my Ipod and my breath it is almost autopilot from there.  I find solace in running alone at that time of day.  It gives me the opportunity to clear my thoughts.  I ran 4 miles.

 I came home and showered and went shopping for a couple of last minute things for Hayden's birthday and while I was out I found the perfect suit for him for Melissa's wedding in July!  yeah two things off my list!  Then I came home and baked two birthday cakes because as my sweet boy puts it, not everyone loves chocolate cake the way I do so we should have one for everyone else too.  I have always baked two cakes for every birthday both from scratch one chocolate and one not chocolate.  My family has come to expect it now and even my extended family loves it lol.  One of my favorite things is bringing some of the people I love, friends, family, extended family together.  Food is usually a big part of that, I like to feed my people, I am Italian after all, come to our homes and prepare to be fed!  Then we went to play laser tag.  That is the first time I have played but we had a blast! These moments with my family are the moments that I live for.  Hayden's best friend Josh is spending the night so I made homemade pizza for the kiddos and a yummy shrimp and chicken stir fry for Mom and Dad doesn't it look delish!!
  I am staying on my food plan and I am going to workout this evening on the total gym as soon as I get the kids settled with their movie.  Even with everything going on this week I have stayed grounded and happy and able to find time to move my body and move my family.

It has been a very busy day and very busy week.  It has been a week focusing entirely on my family and my blessings.  Hayden's adoption anniversary and his birthday are so close together.  I love that.  Adrianna's adoption anniversary is also just before her birthday, 10 days before.  Thank you God for those two little people!  They bring such light to every day.  They keep me young and they keep me grounded. 
 
I am ready to settle from my day, have a glass of wine, (I earned it today) and think about the people that I love and the people that I miss, I will squeeze in the total gym first however.  Today I am at peace.  I am happy and very thankful that my cup runneth over....

Building Memories

Sunday afternoon, I am looking around and smiling and thinking how truly blessed I am.  I had a really good workout yesterday that left me feeling refreshed and rejuvenated...I spent a couple of hours getting my tattoo worked on. and then played games the rest of the afternoon wiith the kids.  I found some good recipes for kid friendly, healthy snacks and we decided to try a couple of them out.

 Adrianna is at the age where it is time that she learns to cook and we have been working on that for a while.  I love to cook, and I hope that I can share that passion with her.  We made homemade granola bars, low calorie homemade trek bars, and smoothies.  Jd had to bust out the power drill with the wooden spoon attached, You know the ultimate in redneck blenders LOL.   My kids learned something about nutrition and we all had so much fun.  I really enjoy my family and am thankful for them every day.  Today we all got up early and went for a hike up the mountain.  Breathing in the fresh air, once again racking up the mom memory moments with my kiddos.

I am trying hard to incorporate healthy habits into my activities with my kids.  We are planning Hayden's 8th birthday party in two weeks.  So far he is not convinced that his friends will like carrot sticks better than cheesepuffs for snacks.  He is liking the idea of tumbling and getting to climb a rock wall so hopefully the snack part of it will move down the list of priorities for him.  JD is going to take him and let him shoot his BB gun for first time, that kid is so excited he can't hardly stand himself! 

I plan to spend some quality time this evening with my total gym and a movie with my family.  I am loving that the weather is finally clearing up a little.  I can't wait to get outside again. during the summer I love taking my kids for early morning bike rides on Sundays and have breakfast.  Can't wait for that again. 

I will be starting school again soon so I am trying to find holes in my schedule that I can dump school into now so that I can get adjusted by the time it starts...I think it will be an easier transition for all of us. 

I am strong, happy, and ready to start a new week.  My goal this week to lose another 5 pounds, move and get my family to move in some way doing some thing fun together at least once a day for the next 7 days.....We are building memories...