Hodge Podge

Whew! The boys went back to school yesterday!!!! For four weeks and then they are off again for 3 weeks........sheesh! It's all good though, I will rest up and prepare for round two.

I have made myself extremely busy lately with the boys out of school for the month of May and taking on 2 new projects and not had much time to blog. Here are some updates on my life and my Random Fact for this week.

1) I started up a Toddler Group for Baby Girl! I found 5 (and maybe 7) other moms with kiddos under 3 who want to get together and do a pre-pre-school if you will. We do a very short circle time for very short attention spans, play with bubbles, sandbox and other large motor activities, read a story, have a snack, free play, do some art, etc, etc, etc. Yesterday was our first meeting and even though several things fell apart (behind the scenes) I could tell I was the only one who knew and all the kids and moms had a good time! We are meeting again tomorrow so hopefully I will have most of the "kinks" worked out in how I want the group to go and flow. All-in-all I think it is a good thing for Baby Girl and I. Social interaction for the both of us galore!!!

2) I am just beginning to sell new and gently used Gymboree clothes on ebay and Craigslist. I bought some things for Baby Girl a few weeks back from a woman who has been very successful supplementing her husband's income by doing this. She has decided after 5 years that she's done and is closing her store. She agreed to meet with me and show me the ropes. And what ropes they were! It's not as easy as it sounds to make a profit selling Gymboree online but it's not that hard either. There were definitely tricks and secrets and she let me in on them! Nothing magical or illegal, you just have to know what to buy, when and for how much. Then of course you need to know what to list it for. She also let me purchase a few items of her remaining stock at wholesale price to get my feet wet along with all the free advice I could write down in 2 hours! I am slowly going to list thing and see what happens! I just want to pay down our credit card debit.

3) DH and I started yet another weight loss diet. Last week was week one and we did it! No cheating either. We are doing our own brand of Atkins. It's worked for us in the past and it keeps us both from being hungry. That's one thing neither of us do very well, make good choices when we are really hungry. Our Atkins-ish diet keeps us full and I have lost 6 lbs so far! The biggest hurdle for me is no sugar. I'm still craving it but it's been almost 10 days of a sugar-free me! I've been extra grouchy and I run to sugar-free whip cream at night but that is actually tapering off. Both the being grouchy and running to sugar-free whip cream. Because running to any food, sugar-free or not, is my goal! I can never keep my weight down if I use food to feel better. I'm also re-reading this book called Feeding Your Appetites by Stephen Arteburn which is about what God created appetites for and how they fit into our lives. Basically, you satisfy your appetite for God first and it keeps the other ones in check. There is workbook in the back that I didn't complete the first time I read it 4 years ago (incidentally the first time I read it I lost 60 lbs.) so I'm doing the workbook and it's excellent as well!

Random Fact: I have been between 30-105 pounds overweight since I was 15. The only reason I list this fact is that I'm trying (yet again but with a great attitude) to finally get to healthy weight once and for all! Wish me, um, not luck but wish me the best!