Happiness Project! Be Healthy!

I know I know, about time!! 
                   

Well April is my "Be Healthy" month, and I am using the quote "everything in moderation" to help me through it.  I really want me, and my family, to be healthier as a whole.  We are trying to use greener, healthier products in our house, trying to be healthier with finances, healthier as a Christian, and of course - eat well and exercise.  Perfect timing for this, since the weather is becoming nicer and there a whole bunch of weddings coming up (one of which I am in, my brothers!) that I'd like to look nice for!

Everything in moderation is to help me stay motivating, not to give me the excuse to eat whatever I want, as long as its "in moderation'.  It is more for the exercising.  I really do love to exercise, but I'm so busy and so TIRED all the time (I know, exercising makes it better blah blah blah, but you don't know me...this body doesn't work that way!!!) that finding the motivation to work out above all the other stuff I do is hard.  Half the battle is getting my work out clothes and shoes on, and either getting out the door or on the treadmill!  So exercising in moderation looks like this: I need to walk for at least 10-15 minutes a day.  Ok - it doesn't sound like a lot, but a wise doctor told me to start out this way, and build from here.  If I tell myself I have to work out for a hour today....um, yeah, I'm not going to do that!  A whole hour?  When I have so much other stuff to do and I am so exhausted?  Not gonna happen!  But....10 or 15 minutes?  Anyone can spare that;) 

Anyways, for my Happiness Project, each month has a goal and there are about 8 resolutions to help reach that goal.  Here are my 8 resolutions for April: Be Healthy Month:

1. Exercise every day for 10-15 minutes.  Walk, run, yoga.  Just do it!  AM exercise preferred...
2. Choose fruit/veggies whenever possible.  W-H-E-N-E-V-E-R!
3. Drink water.  Lots of it!
4. Take Vitamin D.  I'm severely low all the time.  This does not help my inclined-to-be-tired body.
5. Every night before bed have quiet time.  It helps the stress of the day melt away before I sleep.
6. Get to bed every night by 11pm.  This is really, really hard.  But, I know it's ESSENTIAL for health.
7. Keep a food journal everyday.  I hear this works wonders!
8. Act as I want to feel! 

That last one is borrowed right from Gretchen herself (author of Happiness Project).  Act as I want to feel.  I want to have lots of energy, I want to be thinner and super healthy, so gosh darn it I'm going to act that way!  We will see if that helps;)

I'll let you know what works for me, and what doesn't.  I eat fairly healthy right now, we don't do a lot of fried or fast foods, but I could cut back on things...like putting mayo on sandwiches, or eating sugar without thinking about it, or choosing healthier snacks to put in my lunch, etc.  It's a long road, changing little habits here and there - but I'm sure it'll be worth it!  I just really want to be an all around "healthy" person.  But...I want to be able to eat a burger here and there w/o complaining about it and making everyone around me miserable because they are eating a burger, lol!  I loathe those who feel that they are "better" because they can say no over and over to a piece of cake?  Eat some cake darn it!  It won't kill you to eat it once a month at a birthday party!!  I don't want to be a skinny girl, just a healthy girl.  I think I can manage that.

Since it's already 10:18pm and I have to be in bed in 42 minutes, it's time to sign off!   Let me know what works for you in your quest to be healthy!  Is it easy?  Is it hard?  I'm all ears!

PS I'm halfway through Catching Fire, I'm once again obsessed with these Hunger Games books - but NO staying up all night for me this time, I'm being healthy;)

PPS I was at the DR today (as part of my launching this months goal) and when she asked about babies I said, "well, we don't really know - we go back and forth between saying we want them now, and wanting to wait a few years..."  Her reaction to this?  HAVE A BABY!!  She said we will never "be ready" so we should just have one now!  LOL - isn't that funny?  I've heard this before, but coming from a doctor - it feels like a perscription!  HA!

Menu Planning!!!

Admist all my reading lots of books - I do try to be organized and run our home well!!  It does not always work out, and I'm still learning!  I've only been married for 10 months, and have only been a "mom" or a stepmom for that amount of time too.  Needless to say, theres a lot to learn on both accounts!  Learning we all like to do in free time, how clean we are, what our weekly menu looks like, it can be overwhelming sometimes - but in a good way!

I'm linking up with one of my fave blogs, a bowl full of lemons this week to learn how to plan a menu, shop for only those items on the menu - and be frugal while doing all of this!

If you like menu planning + frugal, you may want to check out 5 dollar dinners she has TONS of recipes on her website and if you want to, you can pay to sign up for her weekly or Since we are on Dave Ramsey, I'm not doing that, but I am using some of her menus for this week to make up my own $5 dinner plans.  The cool thing is, I picked all menus that include food items that we already have here at home, so this week its like $0 dinners;)  Anyways, I've only planned this week, and have only done dinner - since Ash and I are both in school all day (her learning, me counseling) and Dave sleeps during the day and works late at night (nurse) dinner is really the only meal we all eat together.  Of course, our breakfast and lunch items take up a bit of our weekly grocery budget too - but more on that later. 

Anyways, here are some pics I took of me planning our menu this week, and getting ready for weekly menu planning from here on out:

My Recipe Binder, which you can read more about how I made it, here

 Downloaded from $5 dinners, this is our monthly menu plan for April, not totally filled out yet....

 I printed out a TON of $5 dinners and keep them in the Recipe Binder

 I'm also going through a lot of my cookbooks and writing down our faves on this handy sheet, found randomly on the internet, and keeping this in the Recipe Binder too so its a one stop shop for all our favorite meals....

 See?

 The Monthly Menu plan will live in this binder too, as well as the Pantry stock list.  This list was compiled on $5 to help us figure out what staple foods and items I always need in my pantry to make most of her recipes, its a good list of things that most people usually already have too - I only need to buy a few things to complete it!

These are other free printables from $5 dinners - shopping lists.  There are two here that I like, one has space to list the meals for each week and what to buy, and the one the left is a list separated by sections of the grocery store....I like both!  I honestly think I'll fill the right one out during my meal planning time (probably on Sat when I cut coupons) and then transfer the list to the left one so that its shopping made easy in the actual store (who else tries NOT to forget anything in one part of the store, only to realize you have and go allllll the way back to the aisle to get it....so annoying!)

Anyways, so there is a lot that goes into this.  Couponing, meal planning, organizing, recipe building and searching, being frugal and being healthy (April is my BE HEALTHY month, I promise the Happiness Post on that is coming....) it's a lot to think of!

Saturdays I get my paper, I will sit down and find 7 meals (or 6 if we are going out that week, which we usually do once) and recipes from my books, my binder, or the internet.  From those, I will make my list of what to buy,  trying to be as frugal as possible, which is why I like $5 dinners and coupons!!  Then, I will clip coupons from the paper that I know I will use, the rest get recycled.  Never buy an item just because you have a coupon, only buy it if you actually eat it, and honestly only use them if its a good deal!  I also get on the computer and search coupons that way, again ONLY printing ones I know I will use.   Using the circulars from the paper, I will figure out where to buy my food.  Usually I go to the ShopRite right across the street, but if Target or Wal-Mart have a really good sale (last week W had 24 pop tarts for $5, can't pass that up since Ashley eats about 4 pop tarts a day!  She's gotta cut back...we're trying!)  Then, after gathering my coupons (I use little coupon pouches from Target), deciding what stores to go to, I'm off to shop!

I'll still be tweeking this process as I go.  I'm new at this.  But there is something nice about KNOWING what is for dinner every night, and preparing in advance.  It's also easier on our wallets, which is great since we are doing our Total Money Makeover!

So that's how I am planning my meals and menu!  Any tips or sharing of your process would be awesome!

FYI - I did finally finish Sense and Sensibility, it was SO good as I already said, way better than the movie.  I'm starting Book 2 of Hunger Games, I'm so excited:)

Cake Pops

Today I attempted to make cake pops again!  This isn't one of my April books, although now that I think of it, it should be!  I have never tried to make the bride and groom pops before, so it IS something new!  Maybe I will add this as a April book - I'd have to figure out what to bump until May....hmmmm

Anyways, this is the book, I got it for Christmas and have made one set of pops that were ok.  I get better with practice!!

Here are Bakerellas Bride and Grooms:


Hers are really cute - my dipping chocolate dried up before I could dip the grooms tuxes, so I improvised....


Here are mine:

These are practice pops, but I have two showers coming up that I have to make these for, I'll add ribbon to the final pops.  Aren't they cute??  Even though I didn't dip the grooms, they still look dapper, don't they?!?  These pops are chocolate cake mixed with fluffy white icing, dipped in white chocolate! 

I'm proud of myself:)  Practice makes perfect! 

I'm still working on Sense & Sensibility (from March) will prob finish that tonight and move on to April books finally!! I can't believe the weekend is over already, goes by so so fast...

Linking up with a bowl full of lemons for:



and also with...

Happy April!!! Where is Spring?

I don't know about you guys, but here in MD it's frigid and cold and rainy and basically just miserable!  I'm reading for Spring!  I'm ready to work in our garden for the first time!!!  We moved in last year at the end of May, and got married in June and really couldn't work on the garden until July - which at that point it was like, why even bother?  I want my world to look like this:

                                         

Flowery and beautiful!!!  Maybe on of my books needs to be something on gardening this month?  I don't know, lets see where I'm at!

My preliminary April 10 is looking like this so far:
1.  Catching Fire, Collins (Book 2 of HG)
2.  Mockingjay, Collins (Book 2 of HG)
3.  No Plot, No Problem, Baty (How to write a novel)
4.  Bella Tuscany, Myers (Bio of sorts)
5.  The Host, Meyers (writer of Twilght)
6.  Screwtape Letters, Lewis (Spiritual)
7.  Maybe this Time, Crusie (chicklit)
8.  Cake Pops, Bakerella (cookbook) specifically the Bride and Groom pops
9.  Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, Stewart (more kidlit, I'm obsessed)
10.  Pioneer Woman, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, Drummond (bio, chicklit, love story)

I've got a lot of kidlit and YAlit on my list this month, but that's ok.  I'm really excited about reading all of these!!  I may switch out one or two if I find a garden book or a cook book or something that I like.  I can always read some of these in May.  I've ordered some of these books because I want to own them, they should be arriving Monday or Tuesday.  I'll do a photo shoot of them all when they get here.

Later I'll post my Happiness Project goals for April.  This month is all about Being Healthy.  Let me tell you, I started out REALLY great by pigging out on junk food last night with a friend - watching Tangled (see?  I'm SUCH a kid!) and eating chocolate cake and cheese curls and candy, lol.  "Everything in moderation" so no more pigging out this month!!  Today I am working at my parents house stripping wall paper, sanding and painting - its a good work out.  Anyways, will post more about the HP later on today:)

Happy Saturday!

10 books? No, I'm challenging myself more this month!

I'm going to read 20 books in April!!  That's right!!!  The big 2-0!  Yikes!