9 Days of Destruction

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Goals

LAST WEEK’S LIST:

30 mins jogging?, 5 mins abs (I went with a friend to her gym and did a 45-min spin class … I figure that’s a decent substitute)

30 mins walking, 5 mins abs (one day this week I cleaned for a good 2 hours; I figure that was another decent substitute!)

30 mins zumba, 5 mins abs

30 mins weights, 5 mins abs

try a bar workout?, find one on youtube (well, first of all, I found out it’s spelled “barre” workout, not “bar”). Secondly, I found 5 good-looking videos on youtube and added them onto a playlist. I’ll try them next week. Good enough).

Record last video of home videos (I realize this has been on my list for about 6 months. Well, I tried my darndest to get this done but discovered that I’m more behind than I thought. I had lost of the editing work I’d done, so I redid some of that, and got some of the videos ready to record. But I’ll have to work a lot more on this).

Do one craft with the boys (when I wrote this, I was thinking doing a craft at home, something creative. But on Saturday, we went to “artypants” at the art museum here and they made sculptures. That counts!)

Finish reading In Defense of Food

Read 2 Magic Treehouse books with the boys

Rearrange bedroom

Clean and straighten out back closet

Update jewelry blog with new stuff

Jewelry to Julie and Perry

Get milk kefir grains (?) and start a batch of kefir

30 mins yoga or similar, 5 mins abs

TO THIS THIS WEEK:

30 mins jogging, 5 mins abs

45 mins barre

45 mins zumba, 5 mins abs

30 mins walking, some yoga (10 mins?)

45 mins weights, 5 mins abs

work on home videos (get through July 2011)

Finish reading Away (Amy Bloom)

Do one craft with the boys

Read 2 Magic Treehouse books with boys, read several board books with Feefs

Update jewelry blog with new stuff

Jewelry to Perry

Get milk kefir grains and start a batch of kefir (still not sure where to get some)

Try these new recipes:

garlic pesto chicken with tomato penne (http://cdargis.tumblr.com/post/18818836004/garlic-pesto-chicken-with-tomato-cream-penne)

Avacado egg salad (http://www.neverhomemaker.com/2012/06/family-and-food.html)

Sleep-slim smoothie (http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/sleep-doctor-sleep-slim-smoothie)

Grilled veggie tacos (http://www.edibleperspective.com/home/2012/7/20/fresh-grilled-veggie-tacos.html)

Homemade Monday: Homemade Baby Wipes

I'm going to try to make something homemade once a week. I realize this is very ambitious (well, actually, the homemade part is really easy; uploading pictures to the computer, editing, then getting on here and writing a blog post about it -- now that's the time-consuming part). Anyway, this week's project was a total bust. It's actually pretty funny how wrong I did everything. First of all, you're supposed to use Viva paper towels. I didn't have any on hand and didn't want to go to the store, so I used Brawny instead. My first mistake.

You're supposed to start by cutting the role in half with a knife. It looked horrible already.

Uh, not that way, Hope. In half CROSSWAYS!! (My second mistake).

But that's okay, I figured it out and cut them in half the correct way: 

Then because they were such different sizes, I further cut some of them in half again to make them roughly the same size: 

Then gather your necessities. The recipe is (for one WHOLE roll of paper towels): 4 cups of water, 4 Tbsp of baby wash, and 2-3 Tbsp of baby oil. A few things about that. I think that much water is a lot. That could be because I used Brawny, and Viva would have been a lot more absorbent. Secondly, I don't have baby oil, so I used 1 Tbsp of fractionated coconut oil and 1 of olive oil. Then I added a few drops of melaleuca (tea tree oil). One could also use a few drops of lavender or frankincense essential oils, just for a nice touch. 

Make your mixture and put it in a baking pan (or whatever will work), then place your paper towels in the pan. They will soak up the liquid, but you'll probably need to turn the stacks of paper towels upsidedown once. 

Place the stacks in ziplock bags or in wipe containers. And there you have it: 

SO, if you decide to do this project, make sure you use VIVA paper towels and cut them the CORRECT way! And play around with the liquid recipe.

*Have you ever made homemade wipes? Do you think it's worth it? 'Cause I'm not sure it is!

List

LIST FOR LAST WEEK:

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins zumba + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 20-30 mins walking+ 5 mins abs

Clean out car (well, Chad did with the boys!)

Take car to Columbus to check engine

Have tires replaced

Read two World magazines

Read chapters 20-28 of Acts

Make one homemade thing

Read pages 100-150 of In Defense of Food

Do some “homework” with Ethan

Email those two ladies about Paparazzi and see if they’re still interested

Jewelry to Andrea, Julie, and Perry

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins air climber + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins zumba (or similar) + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 20 minutes circuit training + 5 mins abs

Record last video of home videos

Do one craft with the boys

TO DO THIS WEEK:

30 mins jogging?, 5 mins abs

30 mins walking, 5 mins abs

30 mins zumba, 5 mins abs

30 mins weights, 5 mins abs

30 mins yoga or similar, 5 mins abs

try a bar workout, find one on youtube??

Record last video of home videos

Do one craft with the boys

Finish reading In Defense of Food

Read 2 Magic Treehouse books with the boys

Rearrange bedroom

Clean and straighten out back closet

Update jewelry blog with new stuff

Jewelry to Julie and Perry

Get milk kefir grains (?) and start a batch of kefir

The deed is done; my hair is gone

I know you're just DYING to know if I got my hair cut and what it looks like. Here ya go.
This is what it looks like when I first get up in the morning, complete with scared face:

Here's what it looked like when I tried to straighten it, then went out in the Alabama humidity and got sweaty:

And here's my favorite way that I do it. It's just too hot to have ANY hair in my face, so I pull a little of it back. On this day, I used a bling pin:

Ambition in a List

TO DO LAST WEEK:

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins zumba + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins air climber + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins zumba (or similar) + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 20-30 mins walking+ 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 20 minutes circuit training + 5 mins abs

Record last video of home videos

Unpack car

Clean out car

Upload pictures to Snapfish, label, share

Read 3 World Magazines to catch up (only read 1)

Read 6 chapters of Acts

Catch up on reading friends’ blogs

Read pages 63-113 of In Defense of Food (got to page 100)

Check freebieshark.com, southernsavers.com, and moneysavingmom.com a few times

Earn 250 swag bucks (started at 1503) (got 245, that’s close enough)

Do some “homework” with Ethan

Weed garden

Write a blog post: Adventures in gardening

Email those two ladies about Paparazzi and see if they’re still interested

Jewelry to Lynette, Julie, and Perry

LIST FOR THIS WEEK:

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins zumba + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins air climber + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 30 mins zumba (or similar) + 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 20-30 mins walking+ 5 mins abs

Work out 12 minutes surge training + 20 minutes circuit training + 5 mins abs

Record last video of home videos

Clean out car

Take car to Columbus to check engine??? Have tires replaced???

Read two World magazines

Read chapters 20-28 of Acts

Make one homemade thing

Do one craft with the boys

Read pages 100-150 of In Defense of Food

Do some “homework” with Ethan

Email those two ladies about Paparazzi and see if they’re still interested

Jewelry to Andrea, Julie, and Perry

Adventures in Gardening

Earlier in the spring, I decided to plant a garden. I didn't do much research, and this is the first time I've ever planted things, so this has been a learning experience. I've already learned so much like

a) not to trust the back of the seed packets about when to plant them

b) that zucchinis are supposed to be planted in a mound, not in rows

c) that watermelons and zucchinis need A LOT more space than I gave them

d) that maybe letting my kids help put the seeds in isn't such a great idea because they end up putting 5 seeds in one spot, which leads to the problem stated in c) above.

and

e) that I should never bend over as much as I did when I was tilling the garden, which was the last straw for my sciatica and the reason for which I now have to go to the chiropractor 3 times a week. But all that is another story.

Here we are getting the garden ready. The kids LOVED the mud.

 Fiona really loved it: 

Ethan loved the pick axe: 

And I just couldn't resist doing a picture like this: 

mmmm, yummy.

Here's Ethan with the pick axe again: 

And Fiona still lovin' the mud:

And one last one of Ethan weilding his weapon:

Okay, now time for the actual garden.

I planted basil in the first two pots there, and tomatoes in the one on the right: 

And here's the garden. Have you ever seen a more lovely looking garden? No, wait, don't answer that. I know, I know, it's over-crowded. Like I said, I've already learned a lot. Anyway, I have cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon, broccoli, and dying onions. I don't know what I did wrong with the onions. 

I even have this lovely hibiscus plant that I haven't killed yet. It flowers most days: 

I tried to transplant a few of the watermelon plants so they'd have more space. Here they are. I don't know if they're going to make it or not: 

And here are zinnias that I planted at the front of the house. They're actually flowering! So exciting. I also planted marigolds, but none of them sprouted. I don't know what I did wrong there either. 

So, there you go. Gardening has been fun so far, and the kids have enjoyed watching things grow. I will, of course, check in later about whether or not we actually get any vegetables out of our garden. Here's hopin' we do...