Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Our Decision to Homeschool



Many people have been texting, emailing and calling wondering why we are homeschooling.  Everyone has been super supportive, and so I felt like I was repeating myself a thousand times and it would be best to put this out there for everyone.  
 
This is not something I think is RIGHT or what everyone should do.  I don’t think I am a better parent for homeschooling and I don’t look at people who do things differently and judge them.  As parents, Rudy and myself felt that this is best for our children right now.  

Kaylee is a beautiful girl!  The Lord has made her to serve Him!  She wants to help the homeless, feed people, take care of orphans and she dreams of one day getting married and what she says, “my husband and I take our children to other places and help them and heal them, and then we can bring a lot of people home with us and feed them and give them our clothes!”  She has energy!  She has a love for the arts; music and movies!  She is a leader!  And at 6 years old that is hard to be because you don’t fully understand how to direct those leadership skills and be assertive!  Kaylee is a helper, she is kind and loving.  When you are having a bad day you can count on Kaylee to say something that is going to cheer you up!  

We were sending Kaylee to school.  And not just the school we took her from, but last year we struggled and in preschool we struggled.  We were sending her to school and she was learning, but she struggled with relationships.  She wants to love everyone and wants everyone to love her!  We unfortunately live in a world that it’s okay to not love your neighbor, and to ignore your neighbor and not be friendly with your neighbor.  Kaylee was taught in school this year, that not everyone has to like you, you just can’t be mean to one another.  Rather than sitting 6 year olds down and saying, We can be friends, let’s work this out.  

It made me sad to send her to school and have her come home every day falling apart.  I’m not saying Kaylee is blameless in some circumstances, but when the kids are 6 years old they need more guidance than what they are getting sometimes.  I’m not pointing the finger at public schools and saying “YOU DID THIS WRONG”.  Teachers have their plates full.  They are teaching these enormous amounts of curriculum, they have pressures from school boards, state testing, parents and the students.  All the while they need to maintain their families and raise their own children.  It’s my job as her mother to guide her and teach her and help Kaylee be Kaylee appropriately.  And if I can’t do that because of the outside influences of a public classroom, then we need to pull Kaylee from that setting and allow her to blossom where she is loved, safe and corrected out of love! 
Kaylee is so excited about being homeschooled.  She worries about a couple of her friends and seeing them again.  Those few friends weren’t even in her class, so we will make arrangements to see them.  Overall though, this is so positive for our family, for our Kaylee and for her future!  I don’t know where we will go from here.  When we move to Florida, will we put her in school? I don’t know.  I just know right now, right here, this is what is right and perfect.  

I woke up on Sunday morning concerned, confused, and conflicted.  Are we doing what is right?  How do I know what to do?  I picked up a journal I had only used once before but was given to me as a gift, I read the front cover, 

“Faith it does not make things Easy, it makes them possible”. 

Friday, January 25, 2013

Prayers!

I could definitetly use prayers today!  It's just been ONE of THOSE days!  

You know when you sweat, you need to put electrolytes in?!  

Yea well, when you excreet tears....you body needs carbs!  Or so that's how I feel today!

Please please please just pray.  Nothing insane is going on and my world is not falling apart, but God's love and peace is perfect!

Thanks friends!

Love

Me Carb Craving

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

ARE YOU READY?!




ARE YOU READY?!  ARE YOU READY?!  ARE YOU READY?!

I woke up, I ate my strawberries, and I drank my juice.  I put on similar clothes to what I wore last week when I weighed in and I went to Weight Watchers.  

I wore yoga pants, socks and a light long sleeved shirt, no jewelry.  I bundled up in my winter coat since it is absurdly cold, and slipped on my shoes!  I drove to the WW center, and as I approached I started breathing heavier!  I was nervous.  What if I did all this work this week, or not even work, but diligence and I lost nothing?!  That has happened before!  I walked in, I put down my clutch, took off my shoes, took off my heavy coat!  I stepped on the scale.  I saw the numbers and knew they were considerably lower than the week before.  I couldn’t do the math fast enough.


She told me and I was beyond excited!  When I left I hopped into the car and made some phone calls.  I started to cry!  Thank You Lord!  I so needed this week.  

So, ARE YOU READY?!



8.2 pounds!  I lost 8.2 pound in one week!  Eating healthy foods!  Eating whole foods!  And not eating dairy!  I am so excited! And I am so thankful for MB coming and sharing with me this way of eating!  And for all my friends and family who have been supporting me.  


Thanks You

Love Me…8.2pounds lighter!  

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Rough But Successful



I know I said I would write everyday, it’s been a rough but successful couple of days.  At first I felt super great!  But then I think my body started to realize; hey this chick is NOT giving me the yummy fat stuff I want!  So, yummy healthy food it is.  

SLEEP is GOOD!

The other night I didn’t sleep, so I struggled all day to make the right choices!  When your brain lacks rest, because of the sleep apnea, the brain sends messages to the body to fill it with fat and sugars!  So, I did good but it was an uphill battle to do so!

For breakfast I started with a glass of Trop50, did you know fruit in the morning helps speed up your metabolism for the day?!  So I had my juice, and handful of strawberries!  I then made some eggs, I put mushrooms and green peppers in it and topped it with salsa!  It was delicious!


Later in the day when I needed a snack, I had a handful of Kind granola and some raisins!  


The rest of the day was pretty similar to the day before.  But I was still feeling GREAT!  I felt lighter and fresher!  HUH, kind of like the food I was eating.
Saturday was a tough day, I woke up and I felt sluggish and not 100% me.  I spent the morning running around doing things I needed to get done, I packed my snack and me and kids were off.  On the way home from running our errands, I grabbed the kids lunch and I went home to eat.  I will not lie to you, I ate a few chicken nuggets off the kids plates, but I paid for it.  That sluggish not 100% me went completely to horrible stomach pains and awful trips to the bathroom.  I know that might me a lot of information, but I will not touch the stuff again.

I don’t think the food made me sick by itself.  I was already not feeling good, and I eventually ended up running a fever.  But that night we went to my friend’s 30th birthday party.  We have been friends since we were 5!  And so she has seen me go up and down in weight all these years!  She was so encouraging and told me this is my year.  And that she was here with me along the way.  Thank You everyone for being so encouraging and something she said was that she was helping me along the way and I just feel so blessed and honored so many people want to be involved!  

The party was a buffet! That is like a fat person’s dream come true, but the skinny girl inside me was cheering me on the whole time. “VEGGIES VEGGIES VEGGIES”!  It helped my stomach was still weak, but I was hungry.  So I filled my plate with the steamed veggies, they were delicious and a scoop of the potatoes!  The potatoes were delicious too, but it’s moderation.  I was happy that I could follow my plan while being out at a social gathering and I skipped dessert!  

Oh yea, did I mention I wore heels?!  That might not seem like a big deal, but heels are a confidence thing, and I felt confident in the days before and how I was feeling that I put those heels on and I wore them to the party!  My feet hurt, but I looked GOOOOOOOD!

So my friends, not having to count all these points is like a weight (no pun intended) off my shoulders! I’m proud because I am eating healthy and realistic! 

Grace’s 2nd birthday was today and I made a small gluten free, dairy free cake, with dairy free icing!  It was a little bland, and I mean just a little…but I had a slice and walked away from the cake!  

I’m looking forward to feeling better and to the week ahead!  

Prayers!

Alissa

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Satisfied



What a GREAT day!!!!!!  I didn’t have any phone calls from celebrities!  I didn’t get invited to the TODAY show!  But today was a great day! 


For breakfast I had a glass of orange juice, Trop50 (it has less sugar than a normal orange juice), and an apple.  I usually will NOT drink OJ without a bread of some sort, it’s a lot of acid on my empty stomach.  I think that will change as my days of no dairy go on.  My body is still trying to rid it’s self the yuk from dairy.  My tummy did not agree this morning, but I’ll do it again tomorrow!   
I was surprised, I wasn’t hungry again for hours!  Probably about three hours later.  I had Kind granola and dried cranberries!  It was delicious and Grace and Isabella liked it too!  Below is a picture of the granola suggested to me, and a copy of Marilu Henner’s book!  



Rudy was home today and he was going to spend the day with me, running errands, driving Bella to school and then he suggested lunch out!


I panicked! Complete truth!  I got all worked up about how I have my food here to make a healthy salad and I’m afraid if I go out that I won’t make good decisions!  After a few minutes of contemplation I decided that there was way too much to do to not eat lunch out!  And I promised myself I would eat a grilled chicken salad!  



We ran our errands, dropped B off at school and headed to the mall.  “Let’s go to Muldoons!” Rudy suggested!  Pit in the stomach!  I love fried foods, burgers, French fries!  At first I agreed, and then I was honest!  I told him, if we sat there and ate, I would be so tempted to reach across the table to what he had and pull a fry!  I couldn’t do it!  I’m not strong enough to make food a social gathering!  I need to get in and get out!  Food court it was!  I went to a place that had a salad bar and I made a yummy grilled chicken salad, with veggies, pico de gallo, and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing!





It was satisfying, healthy and I was proud!  Doesn’t it look pretty too?!

We picked our babies up from school and headed home for snack and homework!  Uh OH!  Is anyone else have picky afternoons?!  It’s not quite dinner time, but you are starved!  The kids grabbed this and that, and I grabbed my Kashi cereal and my almondmilk!  I wasn’t kidding when I said that almondmilk was good!  I ran out and bought myself some last night!  I had a healthy, satisfying snack that held me over to dinner!  




I didn’t get a picture of dinner!  But my neighbor is so sweet and sent me over a cup of Quinoa!  Don’t ask me to pronounce it, one minute I can say it and the next the works flee from my head!  I know it’s healthy and can be used as an oatmeal, rice type of dish!  I had it with my dinner.  I FILLED my plate with lettuce, green beans and quinoa!  I put a little bit of the balsamic vinaigrette dressing on my salad and was surprisingly satisfied!  I actually left the table feeling FULL!  


I know I said the word satisfying a lot in this blog and I hope that is something you take away from this!  I feel satisfied!  I ate healthy today and whole foods!  Foods that my body needed!  There have been times when I am counting points or I eat something and I get angry because MAN, I ate my points and I just want more!  


I learned to be more honest….some of you probably think I am honest enough already!  But I found that telling Rudy exactly what I needed because of certain weaknesses of mine allowed him to respect me more and help me better!  If you can’t be honest with those around you, how can they help you?!  


Day One= success!  


I’ll talk to you tomorrow!


Love 


Satisfied