Waz Up Wednesday's? - Ten Week Challenge

 Waz up Wednesday's is when I talk about a project I've been working on recently. It may still be a project I'm currently working on or one I have recently finished.

I know this is not a craft project, but it is a project on myself. It will also be on my to do list for the next while.

 

Have you had days, months, or years like this?

 

I have struggled with me weight ever sense hitting puberty. I really never tried to do anything too serious about it until about a year after my first child was born. I lost 50 lbs that year and still had more to go, but got pregnant.

 

I made it through the pregnancy with out hitting my highest (non-pregnancy) weight. It was great, I was motivated. I went back to work at losing weight. It got frustrating. I was working just as hard as before and losing it half as fast.

 After 9 months of that and still being 10 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight, plus a few other life demands. I gave up.

I kept telling myself I was going to maintain, just not lose any more. now I think...

 That was nearly two years ago. I've now gained it all back. I'm ten pounds shy of my heaviest (non-pregnancy) weight. Back to ground zero. I've been trying to get motivated this past year, but it only last about 2-3 weeks and then the scale shows nothing for it.

At Easter time I decided I really needed to focus on another fitness goal and not on the scale because it was just depressing me, not motivating me. I decided I wanted to run.

I have always admired those who run. Never had the desire to do it myself, as a younger person, thought it would be sooo boring. Now it sounds nice and almost relaxing. more noise in my everyday life I guess. My only problem is that I have never been able to run. If I run more then a few seconds my lungs start to burn. Even the couch to 5K plans I see out there were/are to advanced for me.

 I came up with my own plan. It's more of a step by step plan not a day by day plan. Each time I pass a off a step, wither it takes one week or five or more, I will celebrate. I will feel good about myself! I will focus on what I have accomplished not on what I still need to to.

 

I will only be working on running once a week. The rest of the week I will be doing other things I enjoy for work outs as well. I think over all fitness will help me with the running too.

Last week My sister called with an idea of doing a weight loss challenge. we have done them with our family before, but this time we wanted to have our extended family en-valved. We are basing this off the plan we found on Six sisters stuff. We extended it to a ten week challenge, rather then their eight week one, because it will then end the weekend before our annual family reunion. 

My plan:

I will be exercising 5 days a week, eating whole foods (as close as possible), and counting calories. We started the challenge this past Monday. There is points for exercising, eating right, drinking enough water, etc. We also get points for losing weight. There will be two winners at the end. the one with the most overall points and the one who lost the most weight. I'm just hoping this will get me started on my weight loss journey!

 All pictures I found on Pinterest.

Waz up Wednesday? - Garden

Waz up Wednesday's is when I talk about a project I've been working on recently. It may still be a project I'm currently working on or one I have recently finished.

We have had some progress on our garden.

We built our garden boxes.

we stapled weed barrier on the bottom. and flipped them over.

we had long staples so some of them needed a little hammering to get all the way flush.

this stinker toad was a big help "donking" (hammering)...."donk...donk...donk" I love it!

we then mixed up some Mel's mix.

added it to the boxes.

sprayed it down as we went. This stuff soaks up a lot of water, so it is advised to add it as you go. especially if you are planning on planting right away.

we decided to use some string to make a square foot grid in one of the boxes.

we are not filling each square, mainly because I have yet to see a tomato plant grow that small.

We have planted a few plants.

our lettuce and carrots were planted by seed and are just coming up. We should have planted them earlier, but the boxes were not ready.

We bought some tomato and broccoli starters and planted them this past weekend.

It is still a little early for the tomatoes so we put walls of water to prevent any possible freezing at night.

we are still planning on planting peppers, corn, zucchini, pumpkin, green beans.

 We also attached our faucet to the pipe that went out there. (it was installed by previous owners) It's hooked to our sprinkling system so we eventually want to have a dip hose system attached and we will not have to worry so much about watering.

This is a tree I bought for the far corner of our yard. I meant to have it planted earth-day weekend, but still haven't got to it.

Waz up Wednesday? - Anniversary idea

Waz up Wednesday's is when I talk about a project I've been working on recently. It may still be a project I'm currently working on or one I have recently finished.

This past Valentine's Day was our 8th year wedding anniversary. Yeah!

It's not a big one, but I wanted to do something memorable.

maybe because last year we were so busy getting ready to move that we pretty much over looked it. 

we finally decided in May to get us a BBQ grill as a anniversary/mother's day/ father's day gift.

I found this idea and loved it! 

Giving a gift every hour, at eight past the hour, for eight hours.
 (you could do this with any year)

I gave my husband a box, with all the gifts labelled with their times, right before he left for work.

The first one was to be opened at 8:08 am.

Each gift had a quote added to it. some were funny some just sweet.

(some of the ideas came from other sights so click on links below pictures for original  posts)

I started off with a funny gift.

magic 8 ball

Quote:

Things that matter most, must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.

9:08

8 book marks

Quote:

I wanna be your favorite hello and your hardest goodbye

10:08

I made lemon bars and didn't take a picture of them apparently.

Quote:

Pucker up! because I love you!

11:08

8 fortune cookies with things I hope happens in our life

Quote:

Sometimes on the way to the dream you get lost and find a better one

12:08

8 coupons in a coupon book

Quote:

Happiness is being married to your best friend

1:08

8 heart/butt cookies

 Quote:

I love you with all of my butt, I would say my heart, but my butt is bigger!

2:08

library checkout  card with 8 major things in our life and book light

Quote:

Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite

3:08

scroll of 8 things I love about him

Quote:

I loved you then, I love you still, I always have, I always will

It was a lot of fun putting this together. My husband still talks about it. He did say it made his day feel longer, but that it was okay because he liked it.

Waz up Wednesday?- Rotating Compost Bin

Waz up Wednesday's is when I talk about a project I've been working on recently. It may still be a project I'm currently working on or one I have recently finished.

To buy a rotating compost bin it can cost you about $100 or more.

I came across this site on pinterest, for a vertical compost bin.

I like the horizontal ones a little better, so we took what we learned from that site and changed a few things.

Here is what we did:

you will need:
(2) 2x6x10 treated wood
(2) 3 1/2″ Butt/Mortise hinges
screws and nuts that fit the hinges (don't use the screws that come with the hinges)
(1) heavy duty latch that can se'curely shut.
screws and nuts that fit the latch (do not use the screws that come with latch)
(1) 1/2" galvanized pipe (we used a 4' one, but you could probably use a 3 1/2' one if you can find it. you will fined this in the plumbing section of the hardware store)
1/2" caps for the pipe
a small piece of 3/4" PVC pipe (we had this on hand from a recent plumbing project)
1 1/2" wood screws
a water barrel (we used an old one that use to belong to my Grandpa. It is a 50 gal. What is important for this project to work with our de-mentions it to make sure the barrel is about 3' tall)

Tools you will need:
saw (handsaw or circular saw will work)
jigsaw
phillip screw driver
pliers
drill with drill bits, philip screw driver head, and hole saw slightly larger then galvanized pipe (I think we used 7/8")
a square
(2) pipe wrenches (you maybe fine with one)
measuring tape
marker of some sort (pencil, marker)
pipe cutter (or box cutter will work)

Okay let's get started...

...first cut the 2x6x10 boards into 3 equal sizes. you should then have 6 boards approximately 3'4" long.


take two of the boards and make a "T". make sure it is exactly center and use the square to make sure it is square. screw together and repeat this process one more time.

You should now have 2 "T" shapes. turn them so they are upside-down T's and take the two remaining boards and line them up like the picture shows.

your stand should now look like this.

Drill holes with hole saw about 2" down from top of wood post and exactly center.

On to to the barrel...

find exact center of the round ends of the barrel. This was pretty easy sense there where two seems that met up in the center. Using the hole saw drill a hole on each end.

for the door you want to first mark out where you want it. we just looked for seems or lines in the barrel to mark where we wanted it to be.

After it is marked use the drill head to make holes in the corner large enough to get your jigsaw blade in.

Saw the sides of the door that the latch and hinges will be attached. (DO NOT saw the other two sides yet)

lay the hinges where you want them and mark the holes. drill starter holes on those marks.

screw the hinges on. Do the same process for the latch.

Once the hinges and latch are screwed on proceed with sawing the remaining two sides of the door.

Open the door. using the pliers and screw driver tighten the nuts to the bolts to fully secure the hinges and latch.

Take the PVC pipe and cut two 1" pieces off, using pipe cutter or box cutter. A saw may work as well.

Here is the tricky part. you will want to take the galvanized pipe and put it through one of the wood post, then a PVC pipe, then through the barrel, through another PVC pipe and through the other wood post.

once you've done all that you will want to put the caps on the end of the galvanized pipe, using the pipe wrenches.

You made it! You are done!

now find a spot for it and start saving all those food scraps and grass and you will have nice compost in no time!

Waz up Wednesday? - Lego Floor Bags!

Waz up Wednesday's is when I talk about a project I've been working on recently. It may still be a project I'm currently working on or one I have recently finished.

My boys got Legos and Duplo blocks for Christmas this year.

What a pain in the butt to clean up!

not to mention all the times the vacuum go over them.

Dear Santa,
It was so great seeing my boy's faces when they opened the Legos you brought them, but now my vacuum is unhappy. So for Christmas this year I'm asking for a new vacuum! 
Thanks, A Mom 
P.S. after all it's your fault!

My boys hate cleaning them up also.

I'm sure you have seen these around and I even saw some for sale for about $64 (Eeek!)

I've also seen some cute ideas of putting each lego color in it's own bin.

Maybe my kids are not normal, but all I thought of when I saw that was..."Those bins will just be dumped out and mixed together in a matter of seconds."

Talk about a bigger pain when it comes to cleaning up!

I like the floor bag idea, yes some of the legos do manage to wonder off the bag, but over all they are SOOO much easier to clean up!

No more using a dust pan to scoop them up over here (yes, it's true, bigger surface area then my hands meant faster clean up! don't judge!)

I used 6 (3 of each color) yards of fabric. some cotton rope and eyelets.

The rectangle one I don't like as much. it does give a larger area to play, but not as easy to pull together.

The round one is AWESOME!

(I apologize now for not taking photos of the process, I hope words will be enough)

So I took the three yards of fabric and folded it in half and cut down the fold.

Then sewed them back together side by side. (I hope this makes sense)

Cut it into a perfect square. ( I am planning on using the extra fabric to make other bags or pillow cases for their rooms)

then take some butcher paper, string, and a pencil. Divide the squares length in half and cut the string to that length.

Tie the string to the pencil. holding one end of the string, draw with the pencil, at full length, a quarter circle on the paper. cut along the pencil line.

Fold the fabric square in quarters and pinned the paper to it (make sure the rounded edge is away from the folder parts of the fabric). Then cut along the rounded part of the circle.

Unfold the fabric and you have a circle my friends!

Do the same for the fabric you want to use for the inside.

On the outside fabric, find a spot along the edge (about an inch or 2 in) to put your eyelets (make sure they are big enough for your rope to go through.) Put two about and inch or two apart from each other.

Okay now you can sew the two parts together, make sure you leave several inches to flip it right side out again and then sew that part together.

Now you will want to sew another line about 3-4 inches in from the side, all the way around. making sure that the eyelets are in between the edge and the new line.

weave the rope through the eyelets and around the edge of the bag, making sure there is enough to allow the bag to lay flat. tie a knot and you are done!

Thanks for stopping by!

Waz up Wednesday?- Garden

Waz up Wednesday's is when I talk about a project I've been working on recently. It may still be a project I'm currently working on or one I have recently finished.

source

 I grew up in a family that always had a garden, a pretty large one most years.

I learned a lot about gardening and have lots of great memories of working in the yard as a family.

Me at about age 3 with our 40lb squash

I realized lately that I didn't learn as much as I thought I did. Or maybe it just didn't stick in this head of mine.

Thank goodness for the internet and Pinterest.

Now that we have a yard and are not trying to grow plants out of planter boxes. I'm realizing how much work and how much cost a garden really takes.

I'm sure some can do it a lot cheaper then we are doing. We decided to do the square foot garden thing. or our own version of it anyway.

I liked the look of raised box gardens with the gravel paths around them.

My dream Garden.

source

We also needed a way to keep the kids and dog from digging in it. so we have put a fence up around the whole thing.

I think the white picket fence is going to have to wait.

Our puppy(?), Neville, loves to chew on EVERYTHING and bury things.

We gave him a stuffed penguin for Christmas.

The next day it was nowhere in site. We thought we saw stuffing and blue fabric as the remains until this week...

as we were tilling up the dirt we had a few surprises pop out of the ground (besides the ass-fault that was just covered up by top soil)  several dog chew bones, ripped up dog blanket, and the penguin, still in one piece.

the previous owners had put in curbing all around the out side. We really liked it...at first.

 When we started writing down what we wanted in the yard and trying to figure out where to put it all. The curbing had to go...or at least move.

SO we have fenced in the area (okay maybe the post are only up) where we wanted the garden to be. We've been moving some of the curbing a few feet, digging up grass, moving dirt around to make a flat area, and praying we would not dig up or need to move any sprinklers (we don't, at least not this year.) 

We moved some of the grass we dug up to the side of our patio where we were thinking of putting cement until we looked into the cost. The sprinklers do not cover that area, so we will have to use a hose with sprinkler head. It is only temporary until we can get some cement in there.