Books books wonderful books

My new hero is Novella Carpenter.  She wrote a book called “FARM CITY; The Education of an Urban Farmer” about her adventures building a garden and raising chickens, rabbits, pigs, and honey bees in a run-down ghetto in California.  She also has a blog (www.ghosttownfarm.wordpress.com) I just finished her book and enjoyed it immensely and have started following her blog.  I’m hoping to learn from her experience tips and tricks that will help with my little back yard garden (especially once I convince hubby to let me get bees, and maybe rabbits, and maybe chickens…) if you are even a little interested in having a garden in an urban (or even not urban) environment.

Do you even workout bro?

Two workouts, two days!! (I started last night instead of waiting until today just to get a head start in case I miss a day) 

The endless cycle

Today I had a doctors appointment with my reproductive endocrinologist to prepare for an IUI.  So far this month I have taken a pill to stimulate follicle growth (Femera) then when I stopped taking the Femera started another pill to stimulate growth of my uterine lining (Estrodril) these two medications work against one another so they can't be taken at the same time.  Apparently the Femera didn't do its job quickly enough so now tomorrow I get to go off the Estrodril and restart the Femera....all these synthetic hormones being put into my body are starting to really jack with me and I'm starting to really understand the weight gain that comes with these treatments.  So far I have been able to stave off the worst of it, I've gained a couple of pounds during treatment but been able to lose them before starting the next cycle ... But with each progressive cycle it's getting harder to loose the weight and I'm convinced I'm going to have to start making a more concentrated effort if I want to avoid regaining the weight I lost last year before we started the treatments.  

So since my 31 birthday is a little over a month away I'm going to steal an idea from a friend of mine and commit to 31 workouts before my birthday.  I'm hoping that adding a more regular workout schedule will help me keep off unnecessary weight and keep me on this healthy path. 

I'm also going to have to fight off my sugar cravings a little better ... But that is a whole different battle.  

Wish me luck!!! 

5 Year Plan

So I mentioned last week while we were traveling that hubby and I had come up with some ideas that would alter our current 5 year plan.  While I think that it is important to share specific goals with others in order to help yourself achieve them I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to share these specific ideas with the entire blog-o-sphere at this particular moment.   However I did want to take a brief minute to talk about how to build a good plan for your personal life and what we will be doing over the next month or so to put our 5 year plan into writing.

1. Set SMART goals.  (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely)

2. Set intervals at which to measure each individual goal (6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc)

3. Outline how you intend to reach your goal/what action steps you are going to take

4. Determine what you really want to achieve by accomplishing your goal (i.e. if your goal is to pay off all debt why do you want to do this? To be financially free? To save up for a down payment for a house? Etc.) 

5. Reevaluate your plan and goals regularly to determine if they are still relevant

   If you write out your goals and follow this outline for setting up your personal 5 year plan you will be well on your way to accomplishing them.

    

Answered Prayers

While we were in Louisville we put the finishing touches on the house so that it could be put on the market for sale.  On Friday afternoon it was officially listed, and we had a showing scheduled less than 2 hours later and a couple additional showings over the weekend.   On Sunday we received an offer, Monday Morning they accepted our counter offer and the inspection is already scheduled for tomorrow!

One of the finishing touches I put on the house was to bury a St Joseph statue in front of the house so that he could go to work for us helping us sell the house quickly, I believe our prayers have been answered and he certainly wasted no time going to work for us.   

I would appreciate prayers from everyone that the sale goes smoothly and that the inspection doesn't show any unexpected expensive issues that need fixed!

Back to normal

Our trip home included a vacation from watching what I eat and I managed to gain 8 pounds…that’s almost half of what I lost last year and managed to keep off over Thanksgiving and Christmas.   The majority of it is already gone because I know I wasn’t drinking as much water as I should and probably ate too much salt but all the same it has pointed out to me the attention I need to pay to getting rid of the last 20 (or 40) pounds I want to lose.  So I’m starting back at tracking everything I eat and maintaining my Advocare regimen that helped me maintain the 16 pound loss so far.   It’s a good time of year for it though, with farmers markets starting up and vegetables sprouting in the garden I look forward to a great summer full of fresh vegetables.

Motorcycle

While we were in Kentucky Hubby & I went to the Circuit Clerk and took the test for our motorcycle permits.   (I scored higher than he did!!!) So now we can legally drive motorcycles…I have no clue how to drive a motorcycle so I think it’s kind of scary how quickly and easily they set you free on the road with a permit.  The next step (because I have no clue what I am doing, and because hubby has so little clue what he is doing) is to take a practical riding course that actually puts us on motorcycles to learn what we are doing.  Once we complete the course we can send proof to the Circuit Clerk and voila we can have our motorcycle licenses.   My hope is to be able to get hubby a motorcycle for Christmas so I have officially started saving my pennies!!!! 

So my dear readers (all 8 of you!) do you or anyone in your household have/ride motorcycles? What tips and tricks do you have to offer?