Weigh in Wednesday's

Today was my weigh in day, was kind of worried about a possible gain as I haven't been too good the last few days. So to my suprise I lost it's only .6 pounds but hey it's better than gaining!

So that brings my grand total to 40.4 pounds lost. I still have a long way to go and I mean a long way but I figure it took me a long time to put the weigh on so I certainly can't expect it to come off quickly.

I know there are lots of things out there like programs, funky diets and even surgery to loose weight and to loose it quickly. But in the end if you haven't learned how to control your portion size and eat less and more healthly things you will just gain eveything back that you have lost. The way we are eating right now is the way we plan on eating from now on.

I am very proud of my husband first for helping me loose weight by being such a great encourager but also in his own weight loss. He has now lost 81 pounds and I couldn't be prouder of him. He is so much better at loosing weight than me. I just crave food all day especially sweets. We do buy some of the 100 calorie cookie packs and rice krispy bars (both only 2 points each) so that helps.

My next goal weight loss wise is to get to 50 pounds lost by the time Matthew leaves , which is June 1...any prayers would be appreciated.

Blessings,Joann

Matthew turns 19 !!!

Saturday we celebrated Matthew's birthday, he turned 19 on the 24th of this month. I can't believe my children are so old, makes me feel soooooo old too.

Most of my pictures of Matthew growing up are not on the computer so you will just have to take my word for it that he was a cutie when he was little!

Matthew and some of his friends and our family came over Saturday evening. The days before this day were very HOT almost 100' and because of this I decided to make his get together for the evening so it wouldn't be too Hot. Guess what it turned out to be down right cold that evening. We started out in the Gazebo but ended up inside as it was not only cold but breezy.

Here he is outside in the Gazebo~





Here is Matthew with his Birthday cake~





Matthew and some of his friends~




Katie eating some of the cake~




Me and Matthew~




Matthew reading the card we gave him~It says It's a blessing to have a son like you!




I took this picture of Matthew and his cousins with their arms folded not smiling just for the fun of it~





Here is Jennifer and Matthew~






And Jennifer and Katie (I just love Katie's smile in this one)~




Here is Chirs holding Katie and her balloon~




This is my Mom with Matthew~





We all ended up having a wonderful time.





I finished the embroidery pattern for the purses I am making for Mother's day and for Jennfier's birthday, now I just need to transfer the pattern to the fabric and start embroidering it. I made it very simple and not too detailed so it should go pretty fast. I am wanting to make purses both for my Mom and for Roger's mom for Mother's day and also a purse for Jennifer's birthday (May 18th) and would like to make matching wallets and coin purses. I am starting with the purses and I will see how much time they take and then decide on the wallets and such.

Looking well to the ways of my household

Friday I did some cleaning for Matthew's birthday party on Saturday. I had Roger help me move the table out of the dining area so I could really vacuum and mop all of the floor~

Here are all of the chairs and carpet in the living room~





Let the cleaning begin, first I vacuumed the floor~





Then I got the mop water ready, I just love this cleaner it makes the house smell real nice~




Ready to Mop~





While I was taking a break from Mopping in the dining area I did the hallway bathroom

Before~




After~




While I was cleaning I took a few minutes to put our dinner together so it was all ready to go in the oven~







Our fruit basket in need of some good fruit~




After grocery shopping it is better looking now~



Friday is also our grocery shopping day so I cleaned the refrigerator outside and inside~


Before Grocery shopping~






After Grocery shopping~







Then I went to work on making Matthew's cake ~

Mixing it up~




Ready to go in the oven~




Out of the oven~




Kitchen all clean after a day of homekeeping activities~

Clean up from cake making~





Clean kitchen stove side~





The dining area all cleaned and put back together~




It felt very good to get all of these things done, it was a very exhausting day but so worth it.

I pray that everyone has a wonderful week. I will be putting up a post of Matthew's birthday party either later tonight or tomorrow

One of the stitcheries done for the kitchen

I have a few minutes here to post a picture of the stitchery I completed for the kitchen. I have a total of 4 rectangle shaped stitcheries. They are from one of those iron on transfers~ I don't use that type very often but when I seen they had this new prim one I just had to get it~

I am putting the one that says "prim blessings" on it and the one with the sheep into a small quilted wall hanging for my dining area and then the other two will be made into seperate wall hangings for the kitchen area under the cabinets on the stove side of the kitchen.

here is the one I finished~





I have started the sheep one but just last night so not much done on it yet. I am planning on using some plaid fabric for the borders around them but not sure. I don't do well working with plaid. I always want it to be perfect looking. Those curtains I made I sewed and ripped out at least twice before they looked half way decent.

Tomorrow Roger and I have lots of errands to run and then I need to do some home keeping. I need to clean the hallway bathroom, sweep and mop in the kitchen (I washed all the carpets last night) and then vacuum the rest of our home. We are having Matthew's 19th birthday party here on Saturday night. I also need to make his cake. His favorite is white cake and chocolate frosting, also my favorite too!!

Have a great Friday!!

Weigh in Wednesday's

Today is my weigh in day ~

Loss for this week 1.8 pounds

Total lost so far is 39.6

I am almost at 40 pounds and am very happy with what I have accomplished so far. Some days I feel like I haven't lost hardly any weight at all but I do know I don't look the same as I used to.

Have a great Wednesday everyone

Re-Evaluating priorities~ God, Husband, Home first!!

I had taken a Blogging break to re-evaluate some of my priorities. I have let my house get so far behind in the upkeep of it. I have been spending more time on the computer than in the Word of God, and my time with my husband was starting to dwindle. He was not getting the help and respect that I should be giving him. I know a lot of this is the stress due to the lack of a job right now. But I can't keep blaming my life on this one situation. I have spent a wonderful amount of time lately reading my Bible, oh how I have enjoyed this. I am now spending the time I was using on my computer reading my Bible instead. Even my posts now are written when I have some extra time and not all at once. I have found that I like the scheduled post time. So now I am writing this post on Friday afternoon but it will not be posted until Monday morning. That way I can keep it as a draft and add to it, especially pictures that take so long to get where I want them.Since Friday, I have added to this post as time allows. I used to have a Facebook page that I posted on, and I was posting on a daily thread forum and on a Christmas forum and so on and so on. It was all too much! I have thought and prayed about all of these things and have come to the conclusion that my Time with God, my husband and my home are way more important to me than any of those things. This past week I tried very hard to keep up with the daily thread and I just couldn't. I couldn't bring myself to come to the computer more than a couple of times and for short periods of time. So now I have made some changes, the first is to spend as much time in the Word of God that I can. I am going to start using the scheduler on blogger so I can type up my posts when I have time. I am going to start using my time at home more constructively and get as much done as I can. I am only going to be crafting when I have my chores done for the day. I also as you may have noticed pared down my blog list. I used to come to my blog and try and go to everyones blog and leave a comment, please don't by discouraged if your blog is not listed I still have them all bookmarked and plan on changing them out here and there. I feel right now my time is best used For God, husband and home. I am sorry if this has rambled on.

I have really let my home go for so long and I so much want to get back to doing things when they should be. I am reading the book Created to be his Help meet and I am really liking it. I have read it before but this time I am reading it more thouroughly and making sure I comprehend what I am reading. This is something I read today and it really made me stop and think about what it is saying.

"Do you wake each morning ready to make your husband happy and blessed, to serve him to the best of your ability--to be his helper? ARe you engaged in active goodwill toward you man? That is God's perfect will for you."

And then this passage a little ways further says

"When you honor your husband, you honor God. When you obey your husband, you obey God
The degree to which your reverence your husband is the degree to which you reverence you Creator. As we serve our husbands, we serve God. But in the same way, when you dishonor your husband, you dishoner God."

That last sentence really took my breath away, I certainly don't want to dishonor God but when I compare it with how I have treated my husband I certainly was dishonoring God.

Another passage I liked was this one~

"God's will is for a wife to have a merrry heart, a cheerful countenance and a glow that will refresh the most stressed and tired husband on the planet."

Here are a few things that have gone on in the past few weeks hope you enjoy all the pictures...

I went to my Nephew's 21st birthday party on Sat. April 11th. I just had to get this picture of him with a "beer". Isn't it funny how when kids turn 21 they think it is so cool to be drinking, then when you get older the fun wears off and you don't even think about it anymore~






I am hoping everyone had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday. We did, Roger's Mom, Jennifer, Chirs,Matthew and Katie came over here for an early dinner (Dylan was at his Dad's house). Here are some pictures of our nice time.


This is our table out in our courtyard (the table runner is my Spring Swap present from Vickie)~






Katie in her pretty spring dress~




Katie and Molly~










Katie being silly~




This is our very spoiled dog, sitting on the table (we were already done eating)~




Matthew and Molly~




Jennfier Chris and Katie~



Everyone eating dinner~ (We had BBQ chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots and asparagus)




I also can now show what I sent for my Spring Swap partner, it has been received by her~




I have also been working on some craft things, I got a little more caught up on the BOM's that I am doing~ ( I am making 4 sets of these for Christmas gifts and one set for me)





I am also working on some stitcheries for the kitchen~









I also finished up the kitchen curtains~









Roger has been working on the backyard, he is such a hard worker and I am so blessed to have him for a husband. He put in our lights, leveled out the ground for grass put a border around the tree, and connected all the sprinklers and waterfal to timers. The lights also have a timer.
Here are some pictures of the progress~

These are the yard being leveled~












Here are some pictures of the lights~










Today (Sunday) Roger finished up the backyard. He put in the grass seed and boy was that a job..
Here are some pictures~

The grass seed is down~





The second pass around with the Peat~



The last strip~



The yard all finished~



The lights on the EAst side of the yard~






I am praying that everyone has a wonderful Monday and start to their week.

Blessings,Joann