Feowyn

I finished my nieces name painting for her birthday. She is named after the Queen Anne's Lace flower.

Yes, it is and the pieces were huge! Also, I forgot to add my husband came up with a new family rule. We do not have "problems", we have challenges and we beat them.

It was actually only a little over 24 hours, but yes! Wow, was it weird. I did google hangout with them Saturday morning though. Turns out a ladies retreat, the arrival of a new nephew, a niece's birthday party and my baby boy's first birthday party aren't very cooperative with food tracking. It did however get me 3 1/2 pounds this week so I'll take it! I've been pretty consistent on my workouts. My water could be better though. On to some pictures! The goodies: This was dinner Friday night at the retreat. This rice was so good. I went back for more. This was part of my breakfast the next day. I won't show you the baddies I had. (pizza, popcorn, cookies, snacks...) This is me with POW Jessica Lynch. My new nephew was born last Saturday while we were at the retreat. Today we celebrated my littlest guy's first birthday. He was born on my nieces (the new baby's oldest sister) 10th birthday. Now we have a few weeks of not too much going on and hopefully spring finally arriving!

Thinking of you today. We're getting snow on top of snow. At least it's not single digits or below anymore. Keep kicking butt!

Not a bad start I can't get to bed on time to save my life.

Hello all! I'd like to join you. I like doing photography, acrylic painting, writing, and playing music. I do lots of crafty things too if that counts. I started a painting over a year ago and I'd really like to finish it. I also have hardly done any photography in the last year or so. I have three little ones and they keep me busy, but the youngest will be one year old tomorrow and he can play for a while by himself now. I'll try to post some things when I do them.

Great lighting on your portrait

Quick update on the road, I'm at a ladies retreat until tomorrow night. There will be lots of food and I will be enjoying it. I'm moving tonight's workout to tomorrow and I brought my giant water bottle, so I should be set for a fun weekend.

Goodness, how did it get to be Wednesday already? I'm still sticking with a fairly simple challenge this time. I had some success with the last one and that was very encouraging. I just need to focus on doing it, not if I think it's working or not. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a shrimp trying to gain some healthy weight and take better care of myself in general. #1 Paint the Fence No less than 1,800 calories a day. With three little ones, I sometimes struggle with getting enough to eat. When I pass this, I'll bump it up a bit. #2 Wax on Wax Off Body weight workouts 5x a week. I was pretty consistent with these last time. I really like doing them and I definitely have more energy when I stick with it. I've done the first two so far. #3 Sand the Floor Drink 6-8 cups of water a day. Again, Monday and Tuesday are done. #4... Not a clue here. If I think of something later, I'll add it.

How exciting! I wish you both the best in planning for your future little one.

Hey, there! I hope you get feeling better soon. You definitely have some obstacles to work around, but you can still make some positive changes in your health. You may want to check out a TEDtalk from Jane McGonigal. She talks about how living life as a game helped her recover from her concussion. Take it easy and I'll try to check back soon.

Hi, Clax! Your challenge looks really good. Not only did you not give up after the last one, but you learned what went wrong and you're tweaking your goals to set yourself up for success. On top of that, you're rewarding yourself with something that supports your main goal and colorful shoes are great 25 lbs seems like quite a bit to lose in 6 weeks. You may lose inches and body fat but gain some muscle from your workouts (that's a good thing). Your overall weight may not change that much but how you look and feel will. Also, you can still go out with your friends and eat ok. Depending where you go, you could order a chicken breast, side of veggies, and maybe some rice or something with water and still have fun hanging out. I'll try to check back in for updates

How exciting! Can't wait to hear how everything goes...and please please post a pic of your costume

following

I haven't really been "tracking". The water is getting to be more of a habit. I would guess I'm making my goal about half the time, which isn't great but not bad for not tracking. I think I've been a little short on the food, but now that I have a phone again, I can start keeping track again. I have been doing my workouts. There is something about that time after the kids go to bed and I have some quiet time to do them. I definitely feel better in the morning when I do them the night before and it's gotten to the point where even if I miss because I'm dead tired, it feels weird not doing them. The next few weeks are pretty busy, but I'll try to update when I can. My daughter turns three on Tuesday. I'm going to a retreat the 27-28. My youngest son turns 1 on March 2nd, the same day my oldest niece turns 11. Somewhere in there I'll be getting a new nephew. I may throw an event in there for my business too haha.

I think I may have had a visit from both of those guys at one point or another. This was fun reading what we all came up with. Side note: Yay for having a great day Artemis!

I know there's nothing I can say to make the pain any less. I'm so sorry to hear of your family's loss. I hope you can find the answers you need to make the best choices for you and your families.

A complementary meal-related goal is to know what I'm doing for dinner by a certain time every day. Ideally I would cut up onions for dinner while waiting for breakfast to cook, and have dinner ready to throw into the oven or the frying pan before doing anything else. This is a great idea! I'm not the best in the kitchen and I struggle sometimes getting dinner ready on time. I like using the crock pot, but I usually don't remember to put the things in it earlier in the day. I hope this works out for you.

I've just got some bare bones here. I still need to work out a lot of details. I found this picture and tweaked it to give a visual idea. My enemy is fear. I'm afraid of everything. Most things I don't even try because I'm afraid- of failure, embarrassment, the unknown, so-and-so might be mad at me. You name it, I run from it. I like my pond nice and smooth. I avoid ripples at all costs. I imagine sharing this might get me in trouble, but I suppose that's why I'm here. Anywho, here she is. Her name is Liarae. She uses fear to control and paralyze. She brings darkness. She feeds your mind with shame, anger, and sadness. If she has her way, you drown in it. She’s cold and distant. She allows no one close to her except her one trusted adviser. She is the Queen. She’ll take your land. She’ll take your sons and husbands for her armies that are more than three times the size of any other kingdoms. In the village, there is talk of an illness long ago, but no one really knows what happened to the happy little girl they remember. This was the plan, of course. The truth was locked away. There is a secret. No one can know or all would be lost. The pain, the solitude, the sacrifice would all be for nothing. She can’t turn back now. What she has given up has already been too much.

I haven't been very good with my tracking either. The app on my phone is much easier than the website, but my charger quit on me so I'm sharing one, which means my phone is dead half the time and most of the time I don't bother with going to the website on my computer. I have some recipes on my page, but most of the time I have to do each thing separate. It can be annoying and take a while. It's very helpful, but I totally get you on the living by the numbers thing. I think we can still finish thing strong.

Great job!

You're still doing something. That's what counts. I hope things get a little better for you at school.

Started slacking, missed three workouts last week and missed tracking my food some. No gains. Blah. I'm gonna go workout now...

Oh goodness, I get so involved in everyone else's threads I forget to update my own. Things are going pretty well. I have missed a few days on the food, but not too bad. I seem to drink most of my water in the last half of the day. I just really don't want it in the morning, but I guess if I still get it in I'll take it. I haven't been keeping track very well, but I would guess it's been about 50/50 on that. The workouts are going great! I did all five the first week. I'm a bit behind this week, but I can catch up over the weekend. I'm really liking them. I feel great after I do them and I even notice a difference in my energy level the next day. I'm doing body weight workouts at home and I also use things such as milk jugs for weights. I have a long 1" dowel rod that I've been using as a barbell. I tied plastic bags to my milk jugs and I slide the bar through the loop in the bags. I call it my ninja stick and I feel awesome when I pick it up. I've done a variety of things with the kids- watch movies, play games my 5 year old made up, playing outside in the snow. I've missed some days though. I need to do better with that. Overall, some areas can use some improvement, but I'm happy with things so far.

Hope you're doing ok! I'd love to hear about your trip when you go so don't disappear on me