Kiley Quotables: Edition #1

Rewind: Valentine's Day 2013

I know, Valentine's Day was now two weeks ago, but I wanted to share a couple pictures and videos from our day.  We had a great day of eating and playing our way through Valentine's Day 2013!

We started out with a breakfast of heart-shaped blueberry muffins and turkey bacon.  The girls got spoiled of course by their grandmas and papas with lots of little goodies that greeted them at the table that morning.  We then hit up the gym as usual and I enjoyed an awesome spin class with all the songs relating to love--I love when my instructors put special touches to their class every once in awhile.

After the gym, I took the girls to McDonald's to play at the playlot.  We don't go very often so they loved it!

We came home and tried to take naps, but the anticipation of making cupcakes for daddy was just too much (oh and the delivery of some beautiful flowers from daddy!).  So, the naps didn't happen and we skipped right to making our funfetti cupcakes.  Kiley did a good job actually frosting, while Ella--well she ate :)

When daddy got home, he came with an awesome surprise--helium balloons.  Who knew that balloons for a couple dollars could be such a big hit.  No joke, two weeks later and we still have the balloons-talk about money well spent!

We had dinner, put the kids to bed, and enjoyed a glass on wine.

So there you have it Valentine's Day 2013!

Motivation where are you?

I'm not going to lie, my motivation is starting to wane.  I not feeling motivated to track my points for weight watchers--and the delivery of girl scout cookies is not helping me to make great choices.  My motivation for getting to the gym is ok (probably has something to do with the childcare :)), but when I get there, I just don't feel like really getting into that long run I said I was going to do.  My motivation for updating the blog when all of the pictures and videos I have from this month seems a bit overwhelming.  I have laundry and cleaning to do and on and on and on. 

I know that it is this time of year--it's the time that this season affective disorder really sets in for me and I start to feel really unmotivated.  Before having kids, I always had some fun spring break trip to look forward to.  A week in a warm sunny place really does wonders for your outlook and keeps you motivated to keep up the healthy eating and working out.  However, since having kids, there haven't been any spring breaks. I know--whoa is me and I really do try to keep it in perspective, but I crave being outside, I crave the sun, I crave taking walks and riding my bike.  And as we have a forecast of snow and cold for the whole rest of the week, it makes it tough to keep motivated. 

Now, I know as soon as I start getting unmotivated, it is a slippery slope.  I start eating one cookie, then it's two, and then of course I am buying the Reese's Peanut Butter egg in line at Target--yes I have done all of these in the past two days :(  I realize that I need to not beat myself up over it, but I know me and I know that once I start going down this unmotivated path, it's hard to get back on track. 

So, starting today, I am going to try something different.  I am going to hold myself accountable for all of my goals.  I am going to start my day out with a to-do list and I am going to hold myself accountable for accomplishing all of those things-no excuses.  Here are my non-negotiables for each day. . .

1. Exercise
2. Track my food through weight watchers--notice I didn't say I was going to eat perfect, but I tend to make better choices if I am seeing how many points I am eating and usually I can reign it in.
3. Blog.  I started this as a journal for myself and my family and I am going to keep with it.  Granted it just may be a picture a day, but it's better than nothing.
4.  Do a load of laundry each day-start to finish--that's the hard part for me.  It's easy to throw in a load, but I have such a hard time with folding and putting away.
5.  Pick one room/area to clean each day.
6.  Get to sleep on time.  This one is huge for me because even one night of not great sleep for me affects me.  I wish I could be one of those people that could manage on 6 hours of sleep, but I'm not.  I accept that and I know it must be a priority to me to get my sleep in order to have motivation the next day.
7.  Write in my gratitude journal.  This one is SO important for me and yet I so often let it go to the wayside.  With this time of year and the SAD kicking in,  I need something to remind me of the blessings in my life.
8.  Find one thing at the start of each day that I am looking forward to!  I tend to look forward to things in the future, but forget about the everyday.  I think with motivating myself, I really need to have something to look forward to each day.

So, there you have it.  Hopefully my motivation will find me again so I don't have to force it, but for now this in my plan to stay on target.

What keeps you motivated?
Do you ever get the winter blues?
How do you overcome it?  (aside from moving from the snowy Midwest?)

I am admired. . .

A few nights ago in yoga, my instructor told us to focus on our breathing and either count and use a mantra to control our breathing.  I usually am not one for mantras, but on this particular day, repeating a few phrases was really motivating to me.  At first, they were ones that I try to repeat to myself numerous times throughout my day just to remind me of my strengths, "I am a good mother, "I am a good wife," "I am strong."  Then out of nowhere came one that sort of came out of my unconsciousness, "I am admired."  I could tell that my breathing changed a bit because that is not something that I would ever think of myself.  I don't think people admire me.  I don't think that I do anything that deserves admiration.  I am a SAHM like so many of mothers out there, and to be honest, I am don't even really think that I am a very good mom most of the time--so it hardly deserves admiration.   Yet, when I got an email from my sister a couple of weeks ago that said, "I admire you," that was probably the best compliment that I could ever receive.  I didn't know why at the time, but it hit just the right spot to me. 

Skip ahead to this morning at church--throughout the season of Lent, our church is focusing on the book.

Now, I must be honest and tell you that I am only about one chapter in, but I can already tell you that what my love language is from the above example.  My love language is most certainly through Words of Affirmation.  Simply put, I feel most loved when those that love me are open and expressive in telling me most specifically how much they appreciate me.  However, now that I know that about myself, I also know that in my role as SAHM is know for a fact that my girls a very rarely, if ever, going to tell me how much they appreciate me.   I know that they are not going to say thanks for cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.  I know they aren't going to tell me how much they appreciate me driving them to school, picking them up, being at every party, school function, field trip, etc.  I know that most (ok, probably all) of my "job" is thankless.  It's just everyday life, but realizing that I also thrive on those statements of appreciation, I realize how that one statement from my sister was able to touch me so much more than even a simple, "I love you" would have.  I just need to know that someone's life is better because I am in it, and not just knowing it, but hearing it from them really goes a long way for me. 

Now of course there are other love languages and the key is to figure out what your love language is and even more so--to figure out what others love languages are.  To know that, helps us to be better partners, wives, parents, friends, daughters, sisters, etc.  So, thank you to my sister for knowing what my love language is.  Somedays it is just the thing you need to hear to make it through the day, and on that particular day that I got that email, it meant the world to me :)

Longing for Spring

It's been a slow week on the blog-sorry :(  I guess it's just that time of winter where we are starting to get cabin fever and nothing really exciting is going on around here.  I am ready for some nicer days to get the girls outside, and I know they are ready for that too!!! Our swingset looks at us longingly saying "come play on me," we have bikes that need to be ridden, and a pool that has been closed for far too long.  I know I should be excited about the 2 inches of snow that we got, but really, I'm kind of over it now.  A couple of weeks ago it looked pretty when we had a good snow, but now, it is just annoying me (and we haven't even had a lot of snow this year).  But, the light at the end of the tunnel-I did sign the girls up for swimming lessons yesterday for the SUMMER-as in swimming outside!!!! So, I have to believe that Spring is right around the corner.  Come on Spring!!!!!

Home

So Kevin and I had an awesome time on our date night down in the city on Saturday night.  We went to the auto show, went to happy hour, had a nice dinner and met a friend out for drinks afterwards.  We slept in on Sunday morning and went back to our favorite breakfast place and my favorite cupcake place.  It was so great to be able to spend time together and just get to enjoy each others company.  And it was nice to get to wear a nice "going out" dress that I knew wasn't going to get dirty hands all over it before I even left the house.

But, I must say that after seven short months, the city no longer felt like home to me.  I got to about 9:00--right after dinner and I must say that I was ready to go home.  I missed my girls, I missed my dogs, most of our friends were busy doing their own things and couldn't meet us out, times had changed and so have we.  While there are things that I miss about the city, I feel at home here at our new house.  Maybe it is because I grew up 10 minutes from our current house so the area is so familiar and comfortable, but I feel a lot more at peace here.  While the bustle of the city is nice once in awhile, I realize that it's not the place I wanted to raise my girls.  I'm so glad that we decided to move when we did because I now see them making friends that they will have hopefully for a lifetime--kids they will ride the bus with, kids that they will invite over to play and in the summer spend countless hours outside before I have to call them in, friends that they will have sleepovers with and share memories with.  And for me, while making friends has been slower as one would expect for a 30-something, I too am glad that I can make friends that I hopefully will be able to call when I need someone to pick up one of my girls from school because I am stuck in traffic and it's nice to run into a friendly face that I know almost everywhere that we go.  It's nice to hop into the car and drive somewhere without worrying about the parking.  It's nice to know that this is the place that we are going to be long-term. I feel much more at home now than I even realized I did before our weekend away.  I guess I am just a suburban girl at heart :)

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!!

Whew, it's 9:00 at night and we have been on the run practically all day.  Between holiday parties and getting back to the gym and girls not napping, it has been a busy but good week.  But, more on all that later because today we are wishing my mom and the best grandma in the world a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Today we hope you get a cake. . .

 Don't be shy. . .

 And don't just watch others eat your cake. . .

 Really dig on in (or start by rubbing it on your legs Ella-style). . .

 And enjoy your day!!!!

Hope you have a great day! We love you and can't wait to see you soon. XOXO!