The Plan is Simply This. . .

I have this plan. It includes an early to bed and early to rise sleep pattern for the whole family, a daily exercise routine for me, eating healthy, losing 25 lb., studying the scriptures every day, and keeping the house clean. . .not just tidy. . .really clean.

How am I going to do this you ask? Let me break it down.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Simon starts school on Wednesday (I can't believe he's in first grade!). When he does start school, I want everyone to start a nightly routine. At 7:30 all of the kids will start getting ready for bed. Showering, brushing their teeth and whatever else. By 8:00 they will be in bed with family prayer said, songs sung and lights out. Malia usually goes to bed around 9:00 and right after I get her in bed I will be able to get myself ready. I'd like to be ready and in bed at 9:30. Getting to bed early will allow me to wake up early. The kids and Ben (If he's willing to participate) will be woken up at 6:00. For me, the plan is to get up at 5:30 (man, that sounds really early!). Eight hours of sleep should be more than plenty, right!? Yes, I'm right. :) That brings me to the next portion. . .

My Daily Exercise Routine

I read a book called This is Why You're Fat and How to Stay Skinny Forever, written by Jackie Warner. It is a very stupid title, but I really enjoyed the book. So much so, that I bought it. From reading that book I have learned a lot about eating habits and about the foods that are good/bad for you and why you should or should not eat them. She also talks about getting exercise. She says that it is better for you to do 20 minutes of exercise with varying levels of difficulty in the work out, than to do a 45 minute work out and stay at the same level. She also believes in lifting weights and doing different types of workouts using the weights.

That being said, I am going to start out by doing a 20 minute workout on my elliptical every morning. Ben and I were doing P90X before we moved to NC, and I will eventually start doing that in addition to the elliptical. However, for now we will stick with adding one workout at a time so as not to burn myself out and give up. (which is what I usually do with my all encompassing plans)

Eating Healthy and Losing Weight

I have decided to try out Jackie Warners method for eating healthy. It includes eating oatmeal, two eggs, and lots of fruit and vegetables every day. In addition you "eat clean" for a week and have two "cheat meals" on the weekends. She says you shouldn't have any sugar, but I'm not totally on board with that one. She compares sugar to cocaine and says you shouldn't have any at all. No milk, no ketchup, not anything with any kind of sugar. I don't buy that one. I did appreciate the fact that reading her opinion on sugar made me pay more attention to how much sugar is in different things. I am more aware, just not that extreme.

When we got home from Utah, I weighed a whopping 145 lbs. Ugh. That is almost as much as I weighed when a gave birth to Simon! I do not feel like I look fat. However, I do feel fat. I don't like weighing that much and I need it to go away. Since we got back from Utah, I have been following her diet, and I have lost 5 lbs.! I'm hoping I continue losing the poundage. . .if I do, and I get to my goal weight (120), Ben and I are going to go to Europe next summer! I'm guessing that we will be going whether I reach my goal or not. . .but I really want to work hard at it, so I should be able to make it!

Daily Scripture Study

Nolan will start preschool in about two weeks. He will go from 9:30-1:30 on Monday through Thursday. I'm hoping that by waking everyone up at 6:00 to get ready for the day Isabella and Malia will be able to take a nap while Nolan is at preschool. That will give me at least an hour of quiet, alone time. That is when I will study. I imagine it won't happen that way every day. There are bound to be issues with girls going to sleep or errands that will need to done during that time. If there are days when I need to study at a different time, I'm hoping I can accomplish that when Ben gets home from work or after the kids go to bed in the evening.

Keeping our House Clean

Katie and Angela love a website called flylady.com. I looked at it the other day, and now I love it too! It is a system for keeping your house clean. . .all the time. Right now I am doing the beginner baby steps. It is a series of habits that you start with. The first one is to keep your sink shining. Flylady says that if your kitchen is clean, it will be easier for you to keep the rest of your house clean. As the kitchen goes, so goes the rest of the home. You have before bed and morning routines and the house is broken up into zones. You start a new zone every week and each zone is thoroughly cleaned each month. It's great. I've only been doing it for a week, but I'm loving my clean sink and the routines so far! I'm pretty sure Ben is enjoying that the house has been a lot cleaner. I bet he can't wait until I start cleaning the different zones. It makes him happy to have a clean house. Heck, I'm even happy when the house is clean. :)

So that's it! That is my plan.

Wish me luck! :)

Good To Be Home

We have been back from our month long trip to Utah for about a week. We had so much fun! My mom flew here to NC on Monday, July 5. She came to help me fly back to Utah with the kids on July 6. She's such a nice mommy. Then Ben joined us on July 23. Anyway, we stayed with my parents for the first two weeks of our trip and for the last two weeks we stayed with Ben's parents. We went to the splash pad at Gateway, did lots of swimming and playing in the water in both back yards, went four wheeling, ate tons of Cafe Rio, drank way way way to much Dr. Pepper (that was me. . .the kids ate way too much junk food in general), went out with friends, went to the temple (!!), took family pictures, had the annual Bliss 24th of July BBQ, spent a day at the Drummond's annual campout, and everyone was thrilled to meet Malia (she rolled over for the first time while we were there!). It was good to see all of the family and some of our good friends. . .but I have to say. . .it was really nice to come home, get the kids back on a normal schedule and get back into our routines.

When we first moved to North Carolina, I quickly realized how I often took having my mom and Ben's mom around to help for granted. It was, for the most part, very easy living in Utah. We never had to worry about a babysitter, if we (more like if I) didn't want to cook dinner we just went to one of our parents house to eat, we could go to the temple as often as we wanted (and we tried to go once a month), I could go to the store without kids, and if I just needed a break I could call my mom and she'd come to my house or I could go to her house. She would help with the kids or I could let them run around out back and not have to worry so much about them. When we moved I had to figure everything out again. Now I have to take kids to the store or wait for Ben to be home or take Ben along (not his favorite activity). I went to the temple once last year because it takes about six hours round trip. I have to cook dinner. . .or order pizza (which we don't do often) or nobody eats. We have to plan babysitting carefully so as not to overload people too much. . .and I don't get breaks. These sound like complaints, but they really aren't. . .other than the frequency of my temple trips. I love living here. I love that I have had to figure things out for myself. I don't mind taking the kids to the store so much. It's not my favorite thing, but I've learned that sometimes it just has to be done, so I make the best of it. I feel like I am closer to the people in my ward because we have to rely on them more. Ben and I are closer because I turn to him for comfort, entertainment, a listening ear, and to relieve me from parenting duty at times. I liked living in Utah. I could move back there sometime. That time isn't now. I love living in NC and visiting Utah. It was strange really. When I got to Utah it just didn't feel like home. . .or that it would be home anytime soon. It is good to be back in our own house, in our own beds, doing our thing, day in and day out. It's just good to be home. :)