Monday Weigh-In: Week 20

Oh dear, this is dreadfully overdue isn't it? Making a Monday post on a Friday is quite unacceptable. Plus I just typed that today is Thursday, and when the realisation hit that it's actually Friday I feel even more awful. Well, not awful exactly. Just a little bad.

Anyway, I did weigh myself on Monday (and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday...), but Monday's weigh in showed a 2lb loss for the week. I'm getting there slowly. Isn't it that slow and steady wins the race? I'm doing the slow and steady bit. Now I'm waiting to win the race.

I can't believe that I've been doing this for 20 weeks now. It seems so long, and am prepared for it to take another 20 odd weeks at this rate to reach goal. Have any of you reading this lost weight and how long did it take you to do it? What method did you use? I'm always interested in other peoples stories.

While I think of it, a previous commenter asked what a stone was. One stone equals 14lbs. So far I have lost a total of 2 stones and 9lbs, or 37lbs. I have another thirty odd pounds to lose to get to goal. It seems so far away!

Our poor, poor children

They've got a point, you know...

Monday Weigh In: Week 19

Another week has passed by and another pound has gone! This now makes a total loss of 35lbs so far. I've got pretty much the same again to go yet though and just typing that has suddenly made me feel that it's so far away.

I mean, 19 weeks is a long time! And that was with great losses at the start. Now that it's settled down into losing tiny amounts at a time it seems like it'll take forever and a day.

Still, I shall not be disheartened because, no matter how small, a loss is still a loss.

My clothes are getting larger now. It's not very difficult as I'm still wearing maternity clothes. As I've mentioned before, they are all I've lived in for the last six years or so. The addition of an extra stone of weight after each child resulted in an extra five stones in six years. That's a lot of weight. I'm loathe to spend money on any clothes at the moment though. I have a couple of pairs of never worn trousers in a smaller size in my drawers. I couldn't even get them up past my knees at once stage. Last week I tried a pair on and managed to get them all the way up and fastened! Don't feel too happy for me, my thighs still looked like rabbits in a sack. I'm thinking it'll take another half a stone or so to lose before they sit comfortably.

I'm ashamed at having allowed it to get this far. I mean, it would have been much easier to lose a stone at a time wouldn't it? So why didn't I? Sometimes I don't understand myself but am so frustrated that I've let it get to this.

I can see my body shape is changing now too. Certain prominent lumps and bumps are smoothing out and becoming less obvious. It's nice to see something changing visually that isn't just the numbers on the scales.

Hopefully week 20 will be a good one. How are you all doing on your journeys?

Getting creative for Christmas

I've been a little quieter than normal blogging-wise lately. One reason being that I'm getting ready for Christmas. Yes, you heard me. I haven't been Christmas shopping though, well sort of.

I bought fabric and made this...

This quilt will be my mum's Christmas present this year. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to make, hence starting it in plenty of time. You never know what'll happen to distract you from the task in hand, after all! Fortunately it didn't take very long at all. If you know my mother, please don't mention it.

Yes, Aunty M. I'm talking to you. Amongst others.

If you're interested the tutorial can be found at Moda Bake Shop where there are so many creative ideas that I wish I had time to do them all! The kit containing much of what you need to make it can be found at The Quilt Shoppe, one of my newest favourite haunts. Even though it's across the Atlantic I still find it very cost effective (read as "much cheaper") to have the fabrics shipped over than to buy it here in the UK. Also the service is fantastic. And no, I don't have a personal interest or know anyone to do with the shop - I just think a place we're happy with should be mentioned.

I'm now waiting on some more fabric to arrive for a couple more projects. I've no set pattern to work with for these but have a few ideas in mind.

So that's the first handmade gift this year. Hopefully I'll have some more things to show you in due course. Do you have any ideas for me to try?

Will you join me? Please?

It's that time of year again.

October.

Almost Christmas.

Yes, really.

It doesn't just mean that Christmas shopping for those nearest and dearest to us is around the corner, but also time to give a little extra thought to those further away.

Each year our family supports Operation Christmas Child by Samaritan's Purse. Operation Christmas Child is a long running appeal where children who have never known the joy of receiving a gift at Christmas are given a shoebox filled with gifts.

The gifts don't have to be expensive. They don't have to be anything flashy or over the top. But they'll be appreciated. Wholly, lovingly and joyfully appreciated.

Like this...

The boxes needn't cost much to put together. Here are a few ideas of what you could include:

• Soap


• Flannel


• Toothpaste


• Toothbrush


• Hairbrush


• Colouring pencils


• Colouring book


• Christmas card from you and your family


• A small toy such as a yoyo or ball.
  

See, it doesn't have to cost much to makes a child feel loved and special and happy. How many of those items on the list do we take for granted? And yes, something as simple as a bar of soap does make a difference. If you're creative you can even knit something for them.

It's not just for those of us in the UK either. Samaritan's Purse has offices all over the world. Here is a list to make things easy for you ;-)

Samaritan's Purse UK or you can go straight to the UK Operation Christmas Child site instead. You can drop off your boxes at various collection points (details on the website) between the 1st and 18th November.

If you are in the US you can go to Samaritan's Purse here. You can drop your boxes off between the 16th and 23rd November and find your drop off locations here. If you can't put a box together you can also make a donation for one instead.

Australia and New Zealand Samaritan's Purse can be found here, Canada is here, and then there's Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Hong Kong.

There are lots of ways we can help no matter where we are the the world. I want us bloggers (and readers and lurkers... I know who you are and will mention no names) to do what we can and see how much of a difference we can make. I know that this is also something my children love to do and look forward to each year.

What can we do?

We can...

1. Make up a shoebox gift, or two, or three, or four... you get the picture.


2. If you can't or don't want to you can donate.


3. Knit something. If you aren't putting together a box but want to knit something on the site for someone else to put in the box let me know and we'll arrange it.


4. Put up a poster, leave leaflets where they'll be seen, talk about it, volunteer. Details on all these things can be found on the websites above, as can resources you can use.


5. Blog about it and add yourself to McLinky so we can come visit you. Put a banner on your site. Link to this post.

Remember, the more people we tell the more boxes we can send and that means more children will have a Christmas to remember. Just one Christmas, that's all they ask.

How many boxes can we send?

Monday Weigh-In: Week 18

It is week 18, isn't it? I haven't gone back to check.

Anyway, this week brings nothing different. I've stayed the same. Not moved at all. Nothing.

That's ok. I don't feel upset or disheartened or anything because, after all, it's better than a gain. A loss would have been nicer but there you go!

This losing weight lark is a funny old thing. Some weeks I know I've been really good yet ended up losing very little or even nothing (like this week), and other weeks I'll lose more than expected with a few pounds coming off at once. It seems it takes time for our bodies to catch up on things. That they're slightly behind and need a little time to show any differences on the scales.

On the other hand it might just be that my scales need batteries.

So, how are you all doing?

Monday Weigh-In: Week 17

I can't believe I'm seventeen weeks into this weight loss lark. It's quite a long time really, isn't it? When you think about it.

This week's weigh-in (yes, late again. I know!) has brought a 2lb gain just as I expected it would. When you take into account last weeks upset tummy giving an inaccurate loss for that week, plus this weeks yummy goodies left over from the baptism then yes, a gain is what I expected.

I think it might be my second gain in the time I've been doing this though so all things taken on board and I'm not actually worried or upset at all. This week I'm getting straight back on that weight loss wagon, yes I am!

I still haven't got back into doing the Wii Active. Time is quite scarce at the moment. Days are always busy, moreso now the summer holidays are long gone and schooling is back underway, which wasn't the case when I was doing the Wii Active last time. Evenings are also very busy as I have several quilting projects on the go or in the pipeline, a couple of which are Christmas gifts. Getting the sewing machine out isn't easy and can actually be a great stress inducer when the younger children are around. Hence, I'm resigned to doing much of it when they're in bed. The knock on effect of this is that at the end of the day I am very tired and mistakes can be common which is what happened last night.

I digress.

As it stands this week my results are as follow:

Starting weight: 13st 5lbs
Current weight: 10st 13lbs

My next goal is to get down to 10st 7lbs by the end of the month. That's six pounds in 25 days. Doable? We'll soon find out!

Dig in!

We've been on the waiting list for an allotment for almost three years. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, I'll try to give an explanation.

Here in the UK many local councils have areas of land which are divided into "plots" and rented out to people to allow them to grow their own food. They are a great way for people to grow their own produce even if they don’t have a garden or enough space for growing. Some allotments also allow you to keep bees, goats or chickens too. The yearly rent is very low too and the plot is a fairly good size.

Unfortunately, a lot of land is being (or has already been) sold off to developers and the number of allotments has decreased dramatically. There is such a demand for them too and waiting lists for plots are increasing rapidly.

If you'd like to know more there is plenty of information at the Royal Horticultural Society website and the aptly named Allotment Vegetable Growing website.

So, like I said, we've been waiting for almost three years. That's three years of emails, phone calls and general badgering of the Parish Council. Three years of asking how much longer they expect we'll be waiting. Three years that I'm sure they wished we'd move far, far away in order to stop bothering them.

This week we had the call!

We have an allotment!

The nice lady called and asked if we were still interested. She asked with a laugh, as it's only been two weeks since the last time I emailed her to bug her enquire as to our position on the waiting list. She said the paperwork would be sent out immediately for us to complete and return. We were happy!

Two days later we received said paperwork. Lots of it. Michael said he didn't remember having to sign so many papers when we bought our house. But sign we did and, attached to the last piece of paperwork in the envelope was a shiny key. The key to mud and dirt and sweat and tears and snails. Let's not fluff it up at all.

Gardening is hard work.

So I've heard.

Anyway, we've signed the paperwork, filled the forms and sent our first years rent of £25 (approximately $40 to those of you in the US). Not bad at all, I don't think!

Our highlight of the day is going to see our plot. I bet reality hits us when the overgrown mess is in front of us and the realisation of how much work we need to do before we can grow anything is before us.

It might not be in such a bad state.

Maybe.

Ah well, since when did hard work kill anyone? At least that's what I'll be telling the children when I arm them with spades and encourage them to get digging.

Hopefully this will be another way of becoming more frugal and saving a little more money. I need to find some very cheap but half decent tools for the plot. Spending lots of money on it wouldn't be frugal but, I imagine, would be very easy to do.

We've never done this before (not on this scale anyway, do a few pots and raised beds in the garden count?), so if any seasoned fruit and veg growers are out there we'd be glad to hear your tips and tricks, especially any cheap and cheerful ones! What tools are a must - but won't break the bank? Where is the cheapest place for seeds, but the seeds must still be good quality? How can we have a bumper harvest next year for as little outlay as possible?

All advice is welcome (and needed!) and please feel free to post links in the comments section below to any blogs, posts or pictures you might have if you grow your own.

Friday Flashbacks: The Waltons

Sunday mornings were a time to look forward to when I was younger. It was a time to be taken back to bygone days on Walton's Mountain.

I used to sit there engrossed in the tales of the happy, extended family. I wished I was part of it! Of course, I knew it was only a story because, after all, nobody had seven children, did they?!

Each week had a story with a moral, usually a story that would have me in tears (not very difficult to do), and a lesson learnt for someone and a happy ending. A new fairytale every week.

And how I loved the very end of each episode where the family would say their goodnights.

I've tried telling the children all about this programme but I feel my description doesn't do it justice. Perhaps one day they'll get to see an episode and then see what the fuss is about. I wonder if they'd love it as much as I did when I was growing up?

Or have kids changed too much now?

Or was I just easily pleased?!

I wonder how many large family parents have memories of growing up with The Waltons in the recesses of their minds?

Ah, yes, you Waltons, you have a lot to answer for!

The Big Baptism

After Friday's problems with the money not going through to the right account in time for the shopping to be delivered, things were to get worse before getting better.

In order to solve the issue of having no food or drink for our guests we took out a temporary overdraft in order to purchase what we needed. So much for trying our best to become debt free. However, the up-side to it was that I ended up going to a different supermarket to the one the shopping was originally ordered from, and luckily they had deals on much of the stuff, including the drinks. We ended up saving over a hundred pounds! This will now cover six months car tax on the minibus.

The weekend then kicked off with an ongoing problem with Ben reaching a climax, ending up in him leaving home. Life has ups and downs. We're on a down at the moment I guess. It's hard.

The weekend was also spent busily trying to prepare for Sunday. Cooking and food preparation took up much of the time and when we weren't doing that we were trying to get the hall we had hired ready. Tables needed setting up, balloons needed inflating and displaying, drinks needed arranging. This was done over Saturday and Sunday morning, but as we'd fallen behind getting everything ready and were rapidly running out of time we decided that we had to forgo Mass on Sunday morning. Thankfully, our friend and Godmother to be of our youngest two children did still manage to go after helping us to set up the hall in the morning and it was so lucky she did.

It turned out that the Priest taking Mass was unaware that any baptism was being held that afternoon. The main Priest had told him that ours was in the main church in a town nearby along with four other families. This was certainly not what we had arranged with him months ago, and so a lot of confusion later and the mix up was solved, thank God. Can you imagine what would have happened if our friend hadn't have gone? There would have been no baptism, a hall full of food and drink and guests who had travelled for nothing.

With everyone's help the show went on. A member of the congregation offered to collect and take back our non-driving priest, and the altar servers all offered to return for the baptism. We are truly thankful to everyone and that everything turned out ok in the end.

It seems that this weekend has been a real test for us. Something or someone didn't want it to go ahead. It didn't work though because it did go ahead and was a wonderful day in the end. The children looked beautiful and did us so proud. It seemed our guests had a good time, at least, we hope they did! We missed a lot of people who couldn't be there to share the day with us, but know that their thoughts were with us regardless.

Yes, a good day in the end.