Team

The absolute greatest joy in my life has been being a mom and a wife. Two things I would never trade for the world.  But I spend so much time running errands, cleaning the house, being a mom and wife that I am beginning to feel like no one is on my team.

Maybe I'm exhausted from only getting four hours of sleep a night, in order to get things done. But, I feel completely and urtterly alone and taken for granted lately. 

"I love you" has become as routine as saying goodbye on the phone....and the number one thing I say anymore is, "What do you want me to do?"  Can I get someone on my team? When does someone do something for me???

Doggy Odor

Having three big dogs and the fact we've fostered over 17 dogs in the past year and a half means that...while our house is clean, it also smells of dog.  Here's a new DIY for the week to take care of those problems.

Supplies

 empty spray bottle

water

mouth wash (yeah, that's right mouth wash)

newspaper

In an empty spray bottle combine 

2 parts water to 1 part mouth wash.

spray the mixture onto whatever upholstery is soiled.

Lay newspaper over the sprayed area and let dry. 

The newspaper should absorb the smell completely. If not, repeat the process.

Your cushions may smell minty fresh for a few days, but once that wears off the smell will be gone!

DIY Febreeze $0.15 per container!

Homemade Febreze: What you'll need: 

• 1/8 Cup of fabric softener
• 2 tablespoons Baking Soda 
• Hot tap water 
• Spray bottle 

Combine all in bottle, shake well and use! 

Credit to: When the Dinner Bell Rings

Time to take control

Here I sit, Coca-Cola in hand, cigarettes in the ashtray next to me....

In October of 2007 I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome).  We tried metformin, unsuccessfully, and also metformin combined with clomid, unsuccessfully. Obviously I am able to have children, I've had two.  We've since put things in perspective and decided to steer away from using any fertility medications. I'm not exactly sure why, but for some reason we just stopped. Maybe it was the painful and utterly horrible menstrual cycles that they caused me (when I actually had one) or maybe it was the nasty mood side effects.  Either way we stopped.

Lately I've been reading more into PCOS and realize that it is not only infertility that it is messing with. My entire health is dependent on caring for myself and treating PCOS rather than letting PCOS control me.  In the past 5 years I have gained nearly 40lbs. Luckily I have stayed at that 40lbs for some time and not gone above it. I'm still yet to hit 200lbs exactly but that's not exactly comforting when I look at myself in the mirror. It's nothing compared to the tole that it has taken on my self esteem, my daily activities, and my marriage.

I need to start looking at this as a real medical condition, not just a barrier to having more children.  To start taking care of my body. I am at risk for heart disease and diabetes just to name a few things. I read this article today and I lost it.  I'm not going to be a victim of anything, I'm not going to be "robbed" of anything. Not if I change the outcome with some life style changes....

Article from The Daily Muse on PCOS


I also saw this today.....

OUCH!

And this one....

Double OUCH!



It's time to do something about this... It's BEEN time..... I need to get back into control.

Do the Damn Thang!

Well classes start on Monday. I am as unprepared as I will ever be, in good old Holly fashion! So if my blog goes even further into oblivion I guess you can assume that I've fallen asleep in one of my text books and the drool has worked as an adhesive and so there I lie!

Law school.... friggin law school! AHHHHHH let's do the damn thang!

Help!

So much has happened and changed in the past two and a half years since my husband and I got married.  I really really want to renew our vows next summer.  See, we didn't have a wedding. We knew that if we waited until we had enough money for everything that goes into a wedding that it would be years before we were married. To us, a big wedding was never the point. We simply wanted to commit to each other and celebrate our relationship and our love by making our family official.  We got married at the court house on December 7, 2009.

But, I have always wished that we had spent more time on it, put more effort into it. I love that we had our close family with us and that it did not send us into debt. I wanted to get married in a garden, with a cute tea length dress on, bare foot with hundreds of beautiful flowers around us, the sun shinning and the birds singing.  That's what I wish we had done.  But alas, we didn't.

And so now here I am wanting to plan a vow renewal ceremony similar to the wedding I had envisioned.  The problem is that Tim seems to think we have to wait until at least our five year anniversary and that we have to do it on our actual anniversary.  This is Iowa... there are no gardens in December :(   I'm trying to explain to him that there are no rules to these things, and that we can do it any way we want.  What I'm getting back is, "Okay. If that's what you want."  That is not the response I'm hoping for at all!

How can I get my wonderful husband to love the romance of it all? Maybe the real question is....how do I get him to fall in love with me all over again?  

The Big Move

Not what you think but I sure wish it was! (What I wouldn't give to move!)

I'm starting a challenge for myself. Moving from a fat filled, chemical ridden diet to a more natural diet. I won't label it raw vegan, or even vegan. Something somewhere between vegetarian and vegan. Let me explain this to you...

I have read so many stories, watched so many videos and cried so many tears over the animals in the food industry. From the way they are kept and treated to the way their bodies are processed and packaged into a meal that you (even I) feed your children.  It really makes me want to vomit.

As sickening as it is to me, it will be very hard for me to pull away and think consciously about what food I am putting into my body. I, like many Americans, have spent my whole life not really thinking about the food I eat. Just blindly eating it.  Oh this looks good! Nom, nom, nom! In the process I have gained upwards of 50 lbs and spent so much of my time staring at myself in the mirror wondering how in the world I will take this weight off or how it got there in the first place.  Wake up Holly!

So, it's already nearly 1 pm here and I've consumed enough sugar and crap to make starting this diet today null and void. But tomorrow is a new day and the start of a new week. It will be very interesting to see how this new outlook will effect my health (for the better including fertility), my weight, and our family dynamic.

Of course I will continue updating.

Health