Food

Hi friends!













Life has been busy since the arrival of little C. Lots of photography, CrossFit, paleo eating & family time. I'm hoping to blog more often about my journey getting fit (again). Here are some pictures to catch up a little.

This guy is just getting bigger and cuter every single day.

 Apparently he thinks he needs to try and keep up with big bro and walk early. 9 months old and already standing?! Stop it baby C!

 Man, this kid is just cracking me up. He is turning into such a cool kid. I love hearing the funny things he has to say. He just loves his little bro, too.

         

Our fridge is looking a lot like this, these days.

I'm doing a lot of this.... 

And this.... 

Listening to a lot of this.....

And, eating this......

The pancakes are a treat,not a regular thing :) Almost every breakfast looks more like this... 

I'll be posting more of what we are eating and doing soon!

I want to be a millionaire.

If you were to invest $125 a month (in mutual funds averaging 11%) from age 25 to age 65 you would have just over $1,000,000. There is no reason we shouldn't all have $1mil at retirement. Younger than 25? Even better. I started investing at 19, and if I only ever put in $100 I will have $1.6mil at 65.

"But, I don't have an extra $125 a month!" Really? Take a look at last month's bank statement to see what you spent your money on. Pizza? Starbucks? Beer? Are these things more important to you than becoming wealthy? How you spend your money says a lot about the things you value.

"You can't average 11%, the stock market is in the toilet!" Let me just say, I don't claim to be an investing expert. I just take a common sense approach. The S&P 500 has averaged 10.88% since 1980. The Russel 2000 Value Index averaged 12.66% since 1980 (as 2 examples). Call me an optimist, but I believe long term investing in the stock market proves to be a wise choice.  Investing the past 5-10 years has been volatile, but long term investments are still strong!

I am the 99% ;)

A new day.

I let myself get way too stressed out yesterday. I had many, many things to do and on top of everything my house was a MESS. Everytime I came home and saw the condition of my house, it put me in a bad mood. I dislike the fact that if my house is clean or dirty it determines my mood. I saw this on Pinterest and saved it. http://amygregson.blogspot.com/2011/09/housekeeping.html


She has a great idea (similar to what FlyLady teaches). Spend 30 minutes a day doing predetermined daily chores and 30 minutes a day doing that day's specific chores. Set a timer, and when the timer goes off... stop cleaning. If you don't make it through all the items that day in the 30 minutes, just pick up where you left off the next week and continue down the list. I am blogging about this so hopefully it will force me to stay committed to it. I'm tired of losing the battle of having a clean house. This begins TODAY. If you need help in this area like I do, I encourage you to type up your own list and get started ASAP. Maybe you can help keep me accountable too ;)

You shoulda had a V8.

We heard a message about tithing in church Sunday. We have been giving 10% of our gross for a while now, so I listened but nothing really "hit home." We're already tithing.

As we were driving home from church, Philip asked me if I heard God at all during the message. I told him, not really... we're already giving 10%. He said he heard the Holy Spirit telling him we should give 20%. 
 
Whoa. I immediately starting thinking of all the reasons we shouldn't give that much.... thinking of our financial goals and how much longer it would take to hit them if we were giving 20% instead of 10%. God reminded me that every time we increased our giving, He was faithful.


We crunched the numbers in our budget that evening. Thinking, praying... how are we going to do this?

For the purpose of this blog, let's say the amount we were going to increase our giving was "$200."

I went out to check the mail.
Inside there was a check. For... exactly "$200."

I was in shock. I couldn't believe God! I was doubting His faithfulness. He is so merciful! I am such a fool. It's like God smacked me on the head and said .... "You shoulda had a V8." How much more plain could he have been? A check for the EXACT AMOUNT we had been discussing increasing our giving by.

I tell this story not to brag or seem arrogant, but to show how amazing our God is!! I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the day.

Fasting from sweets

I have an awful habit. I always want something sweet after dinner. I've tricked my body into thinking I HAVE to have this treat every.single.night.

In church this morning, during the prayer, my mind started to wonder. Before I knew it I was saying to myself "Fast from sweets this week to pray about xxxx." Whoa. Where did that come from? I knew immediately the Holy Spirit was telling me to do this. It was so completely random and obviously from God.

I have probably thought about some sort of chocolaty goodness at least 15 times today. Lots of praying going on over here.

It's a lot easier to stick to something when you promise it to God. I would have caved tonight if I'd made the promise to myself and not Him.

Here's to a week filled with no sweets! Hopefully I can "untrain" my body this week!