Essential oils to the rescue.

My husband has been somewhat skeptical of my essential oil use. He's also diabetic and has pain, burning, and tingling in his feet. This is somewhat typical of diabetics.  I made this rub for him and within a few applications he could move his toes without pain and could feel the bottoms of his feet!

I've been using dōTERRA oils for several months now and every time I use them I am impressed.

Getting back on track.

This summer if flying by at a pace I'm struggling to keep up with. Between working three 10 hour days every week and having weekends full of commitments and places to go, I have not done much in the way of preparing the house for the even busier hustle and bustle of fall. Not to mention we've relied heavily on junky convenience foods and many shortcuts that are not doing our bodies any good.

BUT, every day is a new day and a chance to make changes. I've started tackling the dining room and hope to finish that as well as moving on to decluttering the counters in the kitchen. I also need to figure out a workable meal plan so that we can have a home cooked, healthy meal at night and on the days that I do not work. Our grocery budget is way out of control and, as I said, has been taken over by very unhealthy foods. A lot of the problem with meals and foods is finding lower cost options that aren't full of heavy carbs and grains. My body just can't do that. I've lost 40 lbs so far and have no intention of putting it back on. Pinterest, of course, is a good source of inspiration but I find myself overwhelmed at the grocery store and then end up falling back to old habits. My husband needs to have meals ready to take to work as well as food accessible when he wakes up and gets home from work. His hours are long and odd so keeping a healthy diet could really help him.

Organizing the house... another area that completely overwhelms me. I just want to move and start over. Seriously. I have no idea what to do with the stuff we need to get rid of. Stuff that truly is garbage. We can only put so much stuff out for the trash collection every week and finding a time to go to the land fill is nearly impossible. This is a lovely house but the layout is not optimal. Our second story is virtually unused. Clutter piles up in every nook and cranny and the more that I do, the more mess I seem to make.

I'm working on it though. Trying to concentrate on baby steps.

Weight loss progress.

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Summer 2013 ::Inspiration::

Summer 2013 ::Project Organize and Declutter::

As the title suggests, I am declaring the summer of 2013 a time for organizing and decluttering.  I have two more finals to take this week and then I am out of school until mid-August.  I will be working three days per week (9-10 hours/day) but that two weekdays and two weekend days out of every week to be productive.  My schedule will likely be rather hectic this coming fall and I'd like to have all my ducks in a row when that time comes.

I've started to lay out a master plan and I'd like to break down all the big tasks into smaller ones so that I can also assign some things to the kids.  I have a notebook that I have been writing all of my ideas and lists in as I come up with them. I think I will make each of the older kids a mini version of that with their own lists and progress charts. They will each have a reading log to complete for the summer as well.  I promise I'm not *that* mom but I do like to fill summers with a mix of fun free time and structured time so that they aren't behind when school starts again. 

Pinterest has been my friend throughout this process of scheming and planning.  I've found many good ideas and would love to implement as many as my time and money allows. 

Keeping It Real ::Grocery Shopping::

I plan to use this blog for random stuff that I don't feel the need to bore my Facebook friends with and to track my journey as a wife, student, and mother. I'll just jump right in with this...

"Real food" is a hot topic right now.  A disturbing trend that I see is that families are discouraged from attempting a healthier diet due to budget constraints.  I recently read some comments that essentially put down families that put a cap on their grocery budgets.  It's awesome to have a bunch of disposable income to devote to food purchases but it's far more common to have a strict monetary limit.  There are only so many other places to economize but you can do your best with what you have.

This is from my grocery trip this week.

And here is what I brought home: 2 dozen eggs, 1/2 gallon whole organic milk, 32 oz Chobani yogurt, 3 (16 oz.) bags frozen vegetables, 4 cans diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato paste, 1 jar unsweetened applesauce, organic ketchup, blackberry fruit spread, 1 lb cod fillets, 2 (8 oz) bags shredded cheese, 2.25 lbs top round steak, uncooked corn tortillas, 1.5 lbs bacon, 12 oz bag string cheese, 24oz sour cream, 2 lb whole carrots, 2.09 lbs asparagus, 3 avocados, 3.25 lbs bananas, 4 lbs strawberries, 1 bunch celery, organic baby lettuce, 3 cucumbers, 4 green peppers, 8 lbs white potatoes, 2.36 lbs pears, 3 red peppers, 1.08 lbs turnips, 2 pints grape tomatoes, 2.78 lbs sweet potatoes

In the interest of full disclosure, we don't eat grains for the most part, the corn tortillas are not a commonly purchased item. Three mornings a week the kids eat breakfast at daycare and I generally don't eat breakfast at all. I have quite a bit of meat in the freezer and I order some things from Amazon and other internet sources (gluten free/paleo baking supplies mostly). I would say an accurate estimate would be more like $150/week.  Not a lot is organic though, I live in Podunk and selection is lacking, and I'm working to source more of our food locally.