Week 23, Day 1 - 11th day Raw...and struggling with being pregnant

Good morning, everyone! I am happy that I have reached week 23...sometimes the weeks just crawwwwwwls by. But then I read back in my blog when I was on week 17, and 14, and here I am - already creeping up towards the halfway through the 20's mark!

Yesterday's trying on clothes really derailed me. I was really frustrated after that - it's like *I* myself am someone totally detached from my actual body. I look in the mirror and I swear to you, that.is.not.me. It's a foreign body. I know I'm pregnant, blah blah blah, and shouldn't be concerned or as worried about it - it's just that when I tried on clothes that fit me at 32 WEEKS with baby #6 - and here I am at 23 WEEKS and they are too tight?

That has me so worried! I know that everything I'm doing right now to keep the weight down is right, yet it seems like my body is totally working against me and no matter what I do I'm going to blow up like a balloon even more. 17 weeks to go, do you know how much could happen in those 17 weeks? That is a really, really long time when it comes to gaining or losing or maintaining weight.

Last night I was so mad, I don't have any other word for it. Just mad that I'm pregnant, I don't want to be here at. all. I sometimes wonder if I'm going to have love for this baby, it is the weirdest feeling I have EVER had happen to me. I never expected it to be this hard - it is actually crazy how much I am wrestling with this! I've had babies all my married life, it is ALL I know - and all I have known since I got pregnant at age 21. Even baby #7, not a big deal - I was happy once I got used to it. I don't remember my weight being THIS big of a deal to me, but I honestly think that the DIFFERENCE this time is that I actually almost reached a certain point in my fitness journey to where I was almost there. Just within weeks of looking how I always wanted to. Then, got pregnant.

That sounds SO shallow, but to me it is something that has been so important to me ever since I started way back in 2001 after I had baby #2. Through the years I have learned more and more, tried so many different things, had many more babies and gained/lost weight many times because of that. Finally I was able to come to a place last year, where I fine tuned so perfectly what I had to do in order to become as fit as I wanted, I was *almost* almost there!

Then, the 2 red lines on a pregnancy stick - SO out of the blue. Not expected, or planned - I wonder if I'll ever get used to it?

I don't really know how to type out my frustration or how I am feeling, but one thing I do know is this: I am a fighter. I am stubborn - I turned over in my little bed in the hospital at THREE DAYS OLD! I was so mad and crying, I wanted my Mama, dagnabit! LOL so....my wheels have been turning this morning as I have been going about my Mommy duties changing diapers, getting cereal for various kids, helping to find clothes for the day to those that need it, supervising cleanup from sleepover blankets everywhere in the living room.

WHAT CAN I DO TO FIGHT THIS? I've been mulling it over. No, the answer is NOT to finish the rest of the box of Honey Bunches of Oats. With milk. I know that will taste YUMMO for like 5 minutes, then make me a witch of a Mommy for the next 3 hours.

WHAT CAN I DO TO FIGHT THIS? Certainly not skipping my workout, as I had previously decided to do this morning. Quitting is not the answer, even though it seems like the best "poor me" solution - just give up, it's not working anyway....?

Nope.

So this morning instead of eating that cereal, I juiced some OJ! Instead of my normal vegetable juice. What I would love to do, is focus on juicing and green smoothies as much as possible today. AND get my workout in, then just concentrate on the fact that God is teaching me something here. I need to focus on the family that I do have and love them, enjoy them, instead of wondering if I'll be able to love this baby - this...this INTERRUPTION in my perfect fitness plans.

I was also thinking last night, that if ever God were to bring along a situation where I was not able to reach my fitness goals and this was a test to see just how important it was for me (and if I would be able to let it go, kind of like Job - as a test of my faith in God) then He really could have done it so many different ways.

A car accident, where I have a maimed body and have to go to physical therapy for years. Or a sickness, where I am not able to workout at all, and have to take medicine that makes me gain 50 pounds.

No, instead He gave me the kindest, most generous thing *I* can think of - a baby! And with it, a baby body...I could of course, choose to just say who cares and eat Taco Bell and Burger King and ice cream every day. (yes, saying this from experience!!) OR I could continue on with my best efforts to be healthy, and be so very thankful for this new little blessing He is pouring out over our home during this time.

So -- lots of thoughts today, lots of trying to rest in God and believing His word, that He only sends the MOST PERFECT for us. And also rising up to FIGHT this attitude of "poor me" and do what *I* know is best for me, and letting the cards fall where they may. There really is nothing more I can do, other than what I'm doing. I can't eat any cleaner than I am (NOT counting the occasional junk, gotta work on that!) and I am working out quite a bit - 5-6x per week, HARD. Actually 100% more than I have in any other pregnancy, EVER.

So it's all good, really and truly - it was nice to write it out on here. I don't know if I'm the only one who struggles with these things when they're pregnant - it doesn't SEEM like it, not very many Moms talk about this sort of thing. It seems like Moms are more like soooo happy to have a baby in their tummy and feeling it move, wishfully thinking of the day when their little babe will appear. That WAS me in all my past babies, but not this time. This time I dread the baby coming, all the sleepless nights, trying to nurse (I always have a hard time - always!), the lumpy doesn't-fit-into-anything postpartum body that awaits me. The first 2 months that are always a blur and end up with many tears before it's over.

But I'll work hard afterwards too, and like I said, do what I can! That's all I can do - as long as I KNOW I am doing everything I can, and not in a slump eating raspberry filled donuts off in a corner all day or something, then I can, I can do this!

You know, and I know, that someday I will read this blog and remember the anguish and tears I went through during this pregnancy, the struggle to come to terms with it, how LONG it seemed, how hard on myself and the way that I look, that I was. I'll shake my head and think of the newest addition to our family and how absolutely PRECIOUS he is and how awesome and God is to give this little boy to us in SPITE of my wishes for it not to be so.

I'll think all these things, I know I will. I'll be so happy and grateful to Him for choosing me for this small sacrifice for such a little sweetie. I hang on to the fact that David in the Bible was the 8th child, and I know his Mom must have gone through some of what I am, to a degree. 8 children is no small feat - it requires huge self sacrifice - I know she must have felt it too. She had ALOT of sons, alot of mouths to feed, and many demands on her.

Yet God for some reason, chose this little boy, this 8th child, to be the one through whose lineage He brought forth Jesus. You can't really get much more powerful, and life changing for billions, than that! Just from one small boy whose Mother was faithful, who cried out to God in her need and trusted in Him.

This brings tears to my eyes as I know, this is the heart that I want to have. I don't want my physical self to be of so much importance that I forget the whole reason why I'm here in the first place - to become His bride and to bring glory to Him through my body. As in, through my spirit and how I USE my body - not through how physically fit I am.

DH says David is not an option as a name for this baby, but he's open to the middle name - I don't necessarily LIKE the name, as in it's my favorite or anything, but it really has a tremendous amount of faith attached to it, for me. We're thinking of Samuel David or Charles David (we'd call him Charlie). Sounding biblical means nothing to me, so even though Charles David sounds kind of funny, who cares. But Samuel David sounds more strengthening to me in the spirit - like we would be bringing forth a warrior for God.

And actually, in all truth, having baby #8 is really is bringing forth something of a blow AGAINST the spirit of the times, you know? Against the wisdom of the world that says 3-4 kids should be the max. I almost feel like naming him Samuel David would also, in a way be like me telling that spirit of "poor me" and "I didn't waaaaaant this!!" to GET BEHIND ME, SATAN! You know? I am, despite all of your temptations and feelings, going to triumph in the end here!

Well, I've wittled away enough of our time for today. =) Thanks for reading - sometimes it just helps to type away and figure things out as I am typing. Have a wonderful day, all!

Week 22, Day 7 - 10th day Raw...Bleh, I tried on some clothes...

...some clothes that FIT ME at 34 weeks pregnant with baby #6! Bleh bleh bleh. It's annoying. They were a pair of army cargo pants & some shorts...my sister borrowed them for her pregnancy and had her baby 2 months ago, so she gave them back. They DO fit, but they're just a tiny bit too tight in the butt and thighs area.

Ahhhhh yes, tempted to be discouraged and annoyed and frustrated and MAD am I!! But then I reasoned with myself that: I have been running & workout out so I'm going to just decide that my butt in particular is a little bigger BECAUSE of that. Ha ha - I know in the back of my mind it's probably not really the case, as I definitely also have a lovely layer of blubber covering that area, but it is puzzling to me as to WHY I am bigger when I have been working so hard. I mean, c'mon, I'm on TEN DAYS 95% raw!

K well, enough of the discouragement talk. I'm going to continue on working hard - I only have 23 more days until the wedding I want to feel confident and fabulous at, so I'm keeping that goal in mind.

Today has been lovely - last night I ate a big bunch of jasmati rice with lots of stir fried veggies and DID NOT eat one single chocolate chip cookie. yay me! I weighed in at 144.2 this morning, almost ALMOST to 143. I am hoping I'll be at 143 tomorrow morning so that my week 23 weigh-in can be recorded at that. But I was surprised to see I wasn't at 145 because of the rice! hmmmm.

Today I took a rest day, since I did double workouts yesterday...feels nice. My sister came over with her kiddos around 1pm so I spent the morning working hard getting the house clean so now, it's really nice....and it's hot outside today! So no more working today except for tidying and maybe folding a load of laundry just to keep that couch 100% laundry free. Oh, and maybe vacuuming....I didn't get to that, but I *did* handwash the floors and make a quadruple batch of chocolate chip banana bread! And cleaned it all up so my kitchen is sparkling. Ok maybe not REALLY, but the counters are shiny and so is the sink. =) The floor is already looking smudged again cuz of the pool water dripping off of everyone, lol. Such is life!

So far I have had:

25oz green juice
3 bananas
chocolate shake
1 tiny slice of banana bread

I'm glad I put the chocolate chips in the banana bread - the kids LOVE it! But I don't...I prefer banana bread to be cool from the fridge and just pure 100% banana bread, no added stuff. So that'll keep me from eating more, good thing!

For dinner I was thinking of having more stir fry with rice...but I don't know. I could tell it made me a little jittery last night, I had about 45 min that I felt really annoyed with the kids, every little thing kind of was irritating. So maybe I'll opt for orange juice instead, or a big salad...except that my spinach is starting to get slimey, I haven't had salad in a while. Maybe I'll just do a green drink with the almost slimey spinach and call it good.

Weekly Weigh-in for Week 22:

Week 5: 127
Week 8: 133
Week 9: 130
Week 10: 133
Week 11: 133
Week 12: 136
Week 13: 138
Week 14: 138
Week 15: 139
Week 16: 140
Week 17: 141
Week 18: 141
Week 19: 142
Week 20: 142
Week 21: 143
Week 22: 143

Week 22, Day 6 - 9th day Raw, DOUBLE workout this morning!

Sometimes the stars align and it just works out perfectly for me to get up early and go running. This morning was one of those times...Jack came in my room crying from a bad dream, at ... 5:50am. Argh. But it was OK - usually I go right back to sleep but this morning I was basically drumming my fingers TRYING to go back to sleep but it wasn't working.

I lay there with DH sleeping beside me thinking of the crisp, cool summer morning air out there...and how much I enjoy long distance running at a steady pace listening to good music. I couldn't just LAY there anymore so I got up & just decided to go for it.

Felt awesome, of course - as usual! I ran almost 4 miles at a 11:39 minute pace which is GOOD for me - I was able to up my pace and ran pretty good & hard especially the last 1 1/2 miles. No word of warning from my body so all is well!

When I got back, instead of stretching, I dived right into my Fit Yummy Mummy bodyweight workout since today is my day for that. It was nice not to have to stretch, just using the workout to stretch my leg muscles especially. It was challenging but not impossible by any means, to do it after my run. I might do that again sometime...I really want to continue running at least 2-3x per week so I don't lose my distance I've gained, running 3-5 miles each time.

I am noticing that when I eat SAD food the night before, especially if it is emotional-related eating, I get pretty mad at myself and the next morning am just CHOMPING at the bit to get that stuff out of my system by a good, hard workout. I know that exercise does not burn all the calories I ate, but it DOES help, and it also helps to flush the toxins and junk out of my bloodstream. So I feel good about that, and am going to juice my veggies in a few minutes to start my day off right!

Today is my doctor's appointment, at 10am. It's 30 min away and I get to take all 6 younger kids with me...since Rachel is not here to babysit. So it'll be a busy morning, but I am looking forward to a NAP in the afternoon after we go to the school for lunch.

PS I am really looking forward to hitting that 24 week mark in just 9 more days! I just think it's kind of cool to be able to say that I am still running and am 6 months pregnant. =) SEVEN months pregnant is even cooler, but for now 5 months pregnant sounds kind of....wussy. (for me) lol

Week 22, Day 5 - 8th day Raw & new upcoming event

So, DH called me today and said that we're invited to a co-worker of his 25th anniversary outdoor event/party on Saturday. These types of things I LOVE because they automatically make me want to kick it up a notch so that I feel my best on that day. I have had my share of feeling insecure about how I look and I HATE that. Well, who doesn't, ha ha! But if I take the rest of this week with a storm of 100% raw, I will know I've done my best and that's all I can do! And be confident in that.

5 days after that, is my sister in law's birthday dinner -- who I haven't seen in months and months, I think actually it's been since Christmas?? I can't remember. So I'll be motivated to continue on - and then after that is my main goal of Aug 20th which is the wedding, then the next weekend DH & I are going to Portland to spend 2 nights as a kind of last overnight trip b4 the baby comes -- even though it's not for 3 months after that, that I'm due, lol! But I plan on looking and feeling my best for that too, so lots to stay motivated about!

Today I did my in-house intervals for 20 minutes, felt great about that and my legs were complaining bigtime...too bad so sad! I can feel YESTERDAY'S workout in my butt, LOVE that! I love feeling the muscles I've worked out hard, because it reminds me that that exact muscle is getting more toned. Who doesn't want a toned butt? Hee hee

Drank my green juice, then had 2 apples, 5 bananas, and 4 cups of blueberries after that. I don't know if I'll have my chocolate shake yet today - but I suspect I'll save that to savor over a movie after the kiddos go to bed. Rachel12 is gone for the rest of the week to the beach (she stays up later than we do usually!) and DH is gone fundraising for our church tonight so it'll be a quiet evening with just me & James10 who loves to play on the computer uninterrupted. The key to making this a really nice evening, for me, is to CLEAN and get it all done right after dinner so that it feels like a sanctuary. NOT a stressful forget-about-the-dirty-kitchen evening, y'know? Oh, and candles!! Must have candles!

My MIL was kind enough to come babysit so I could go blueberry picking by myself, it was such a luxery in the warm sun, in the field by myself!! I picked 3.5 pounds and they are yummy...$1.05 a pound for u-pick near our home.

I also stocked up majorly on veggies to juice - and hit a big score with tons of bananas for 33c a pound. Also bags of 4 cucumbers & zukes for $.50 each because they're going to turn in a few days...perfect for juicing tomorrow! Maybe I'll juice twice tomorrow since I have so much produce that needs to be used up now, before it goes bad.

Ok. Signing off for now, gonna' work my little heart out for the next THREE hours making dinner, putting away produce, cleaning, laundry, cleaning......cleaning....I might even whip up a green smoothie to drink while I'm whirlwind cleaning if my energy starts to sag. Then, put the kiddos to bed and relax to a good movie or show before I retire to bed.

OOooooooo right after I published this, I went outside and the kids had spread out a blanket and opened 3 top raman packets and made a big, fat mess. Ugh. WHY is it that all of a sudden I just want to make like THREE garlic cheese tortillas cooked to perfect crunchiness and CHOW DOWN??? Like my night is ruined by one little problem? Huh. Guess I'm more of a wuss than I thought!

Well anyway, I am going to continue on with my plans, no matter what. I might make a salad later though, for the sake of some fresh ground pepper and contrast to all the fruit I've been eating. I feel quite satiated in natural sugar and need something spicy! Or maybe just plain ol slices of tomato with salt & pepper on them would do the trick. I think I will try that.

So - another flipout moment regarding food. There's no other way I can explain it, it's like I completely just CRACK in regards to my discipline and HAVE to eat something that is not raw. Or plant based. Or healthy. The pressures of my life just become too much, I guess - and something HAS to give.

Jen, I think you've been there before....and it is an encouragement to me looking at you now, knowing how you've accomplished your goal DESPITE moments like this! I think part of it has to do with having lots of littles around - I feel like my entire day consists of dealing with them, feeding them, doing things FOR them - and also denying myself of food that I love and enjoy...egads! It's rough. But so worth it in the end, obviously, thus my "stumbling forward" attempts rather than sprinting forward. Or going backwards. I like the stumble forward analogy because it creates a picture of someone who is NOT perfect, who does NOT have it all together, who can't even run in a straight line forward to the goal, for heaven's sake!

But ah, a stumble forward -- THAT I can do. Slowly but surely - and I know that if I can do 2 1/2 days of 100% on plan and then flip out, well, that's only 2x per week if you look at it that way, lol! That's eating 90% good, and that will definitely get me somewhere.

So now I'm done, no more chocolate or quesedillas or cheetos. Next up, fast until bedtime and do my workout in the morning...all raw tomorrow.

Week 22, Day 4 - 7th day Raw -- Good day today

Even though today was extremely trying at times, I have to say that looking back, it was a good day overall. I am so happy and actually amazed, at how calm & collected I am during times of stress - mainly meaning when the kids are flipping out and crying and I definitely FEEL overwhelmed. But I can totally tell the difference between having junky food in my system vs. having raw food. I LOVE it!

I feel like I've found that place where things just kind of go smoothly with exercise & diet - it's just where I am, and I am not "fighting" it (as in, wanting so badly to do a certain thing, yet sooo tempted to just eat other things!!!). That place. I am so happy to be here and am going to ride this wave as long as I can!

Today started out strong with an excellent workout - I decided to find the Fit Yummy Mummy workout I'd saved a year or so ago, that only requires body weight. I chose that because I felt like doing my workout in my room, vs the very active computer room where all the kids were (it was 10am before I was able to actually start). Also, my room has an air conditioner so that was an added bonus, even though it wasn't really that hot out - but I do get hot while exercising so it was nice!

I'd love to do this for 4 weeks, and during part of that (the end) I will be at our church's retreat center so that gives me the option to continue with my workouts *if* I want to, without having to drag weights out with me. Which I wouldn't do, actually, I would probably just not do ANY workouts if it came down to it - if I had to bring weights in order to do them.

I really, really enjoyed it. It was challenging, yet felt great - I was able to do 3 sets of each exercise even though I was fatigued and wanted to quit or do less some of the time. I just kept thinking about how I AM changing my body even though I might not be able to see it as well as if I wasn't pregnant. I know that if I continue to eat raw, especially not high fat raw, then the extra body fat (or at least some of it!) will melt off and then my hard work toning will shine through. I am hoping for *some* and that is enough to keep me enduring through a grueling workout!

One of the exercises involved something similar to crunches, and while I do think working my core is important, because of the separation of stomach muscles that I have from so many babies...I don't do crunches or any type of torso twisting while pregnant especially. So instead I just did normal planks for 30s which was plenty hard enough! I can tell my tummy is heavier than normal and that made it more challenging.

There was one exercise which involved going from a side plank to a pushup plank and then back down to the side - that counts as 1 rep, and I had to do 8 reps PER SIDE! 3 times! Yowza! That was probably the hardest one for me - but it had nothing to do with being pregnant, it had to do with my lack of upper arm strength since mostly what I've been doing is running. So that felt amazing JUST because I really love toned arms and miss them =(. So even if my arms never really lose the extra flab they've aquired and show the tone, at least I'll feel stronger in my upper body and once the baby comes, hopefully it'll melt off fairly quickly.

After my workout, because it was so late, I had to rush to the store for toilet paper and other things, then basically rushed home to unpack groceries and then take the kids to school for lunch. After that we went to the Dollar Tree so each of the kids could pick out a present for Harmony who turned 2 a few days ago - we celebrated it tonight. So cute!

But the point of that paragraph, lol, was to say that I always juice first thing in the morning - I have not missed that, not once. And I wanted that to be the first thing I had to eat - it really sets the tone for the rest of the day for me, for some reason. So I ended up drinking that first meal of the day, at 1:45pm. Didn't really mean to take that long, but evidently fasting for this morning was in the plan.

Tomorrow I plan to do intervals here at home, 20m total including warmup, which will be nice & short. But then, dreaded shower, blah. But it's weird, it's like I can't wait for tomorrow to come just so I can complete day 2 of my good old plan that I used to do, that worked SO amazingly well for me back in the good old days. It's nice to be doing something I know worked, and to have those high hopes that it'll work again.

I feel like I'm starting to see really tiny little changes in my body already from eating 98% raw for the past 7 days - I've gotten a comment or two that I look radiant (maybe preggo glow? Or maybe the green juice is working?) and also it seems like the shape of my body looks better in clothes. But I don't know...it's hard to tell if it's all in my head or not, lol. I'm looking forward to day 14, though - it seems like having 2 weeks raw under my belt PLUS exercising religiously, hard, and regularly should bring about some magical results! Ha ha... or at least, I can HOPE and that is what will fuel my fire anyway. =)

Eats today:

25oz green juice (zucchini, carrots, apple, celery, spinach, & beets)
chocolate shake (walnuts, bananas, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey, cocoa powder, water)
64oz green smoothie (spinach, bananas, water, strawberries, vanilla extract, & honey)
1 cup stir fried veggies
1/2 cup salad

I feel really good about my intake of greens - it seems like every day except maybe 1, I've been able to either have a huge salad OR 64oz of green smoothie. That + the juiced veggies. I love the nutrients those things bring, but most of all that I'm getting in veggies instead of JUST fruit. I do have some nuts though, but in the end my days usually do end up being lower fat as opposed to high fat - but not NO fat, so I think it's a good even mix.

I've also been able to do my skin brushing just about every day - I do it before I take a shower so every day that I take one, I do it. That amounts to about 5 out of the last 7 days - I'm happy about that! It helps with getting toxins out of my system AND with cellulite over the long term.

Tonight I was tempted to eat the last half of a donut from Harmony's party....and popcorn while I ate the movie...and the chocolate bar sitting on top of the fridge...and the remaining 5 pieces of corn bread...and some of the pasta dish we had for dinner.

So it's not like I'm not tempted!!!!! BUT - I am finding that the cravings or temptations are pretty darn mild compared to what they normally are! I am super duper thankful for that, I feel very satiated and satisfied over all, with what I am eating now.

Chanting, "it WILL be a good day, it WILL be a good day.."

...even though my feelings are most decidedly *not* with me right now. Funny how grumpy heat can make you!! Today has gone fabulously well except for when I came home from church and had in my hands a casserole given to us from a church friend - Zita. Which is basically exactly like lasagna...my favorite. I had a moment of weakness and had a spoonful..and another...and another.

I started to feel that roving animal instinct where I eat cooked and then decide to screw it all and eat whatever I want, stuff myself silly. INSTEAD I made a big 'ol chocolate shake, it was the most perfect consistency ever!! Consistency is always different depending on how many ice cubes, the size of the frozen bananas, etc. That totally got me back on the straight & narrow, so except for that little blip on the radar, I've done great since then eating-wise.

Attitude-wise, rrrr, I can totally tell I ate cooked food, esp the meat, blah. Plus the heat has all the kids on edge - they didn't like the Zita for dinner so wanted cereal instead, too bad for them. But it made them grumpy. And the house is still in the "aftermath" stage of the whirlwind of getting everyone ready for church - I decided to have Rachel12 do all the dishes since she "forgot" to do them last night while she was babysitting.

Actually, she informed me that because I didn't "tell" her to do them, she didn't have to. Even though, um, it CLEARLY states on the calendar that it was her night to do them. Hmmm. So now at least the dishes are done, but the kitchen still looks not quite up to par - she didn't exactly clean anything after doing the dishes. The new floor looks trashed cuz of water tracked in on dirty feet, and I don't have a mop so...if I want to clean it I have to get on my hands & knees and wash it by hand.

OR hire a child to do it. Hee hee.

So my feelings are not with me, I kind of just want this day to be OVER - I'm going to tackle the house & an interval run in the morning when it's cool. It's not super duper hot out, but still mid 80's to US in the northwest where we've pretty much had rain all summer so far, feels hotter than the dickens lol!

In one hour, though, I get to go to a girls' night out celebration for my friend Elmina at Raindrops on Roses - we're celebrating her reaching 50 pounds lost! Yay! So that'll be nice, I just need to somehow get through the next hour...I wonder if I just went in my room and locked the door and put my covers over my head --- if the kids would notice my absence? And behave? As in, not get into anything and make big messes? Hmmm....

Date Night Picture

So this is not a very good one of Bret, but at least it captures the moment! Here we are on our date night last night, hanging out on the sidewalk in front of Venti's, one of our favorite places to go for drinks and really good vegetarian/vegan food.

Week 22, Day 3 - 6th day Raw & ahhhhh date night!

My friends, what a wonderful day I had yesterday!!!!! It was like the most perfect day ever in the life of a raw LIFESTYLE. I say lifestyle because that is what I am striving for, I realized. I can't be 100% STRICTLY raw for the rest of my pregnancy, but I *can* be 100% most of the time with a few good "other" decisions once in a while. For me, those other decisions are social occasions, but very rare ones at that. It is important for me to be able to look forward to and make good food decisions but also be able to be semi-normal during these times. Actually the main thing I'm talking about is date nights. =)

So yesterday I woke up at 9am and the house was still sleeping for the most part, so I siezed the moment and did my interval run. LOOOOOOOOVED it!!! I felt back to my old self when I did that routine, the old self that was disciplined and did it 3-4x per week without fail and LOST SIGNIFICANT WEIGHT in the process. Brought back memories running my old route and it felt just plain ol grand!

Even though I woke up hungry, I ran on an empty stomach with a good drink of water...worked out fine, I felt great. I power walked for 5 min, then sprinted for 40s, and rested for 60s for the next 15 minutes. I was definitely rusty but most of all, I was PREGNANT and I could tell! My sprints were not smooth, they were kind of, well, waddle-ish lol! I loved it though, and finished up just in time to jog up & down the 3 hills at the end for about 4 minutes, then sat at my normal resting place for 5 minutes immediately following as per instructed in fitnessblackbook.com. Then, powerwalked the rest of the way home, 20 min, for a total distance of 3.5 miles.

What a way to start my day!! I love love LOVED power walking as opposed to running - it is such a pleasant way to do cardio...and gives me more opportunity to pray, to think. I like that I got the running out of the way. =) But I still do enjoy running so it has it's place, just not after intervals. lol

The rest of the day I had 32oz of green juice, biiig salad, lots of blueberries, and then we went on our date! We went to Baja Fresh where I was super careful. I had stir fried veggies, guac, salsa, pico de gillo, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, black beans, and all of this on 5 small corn tortillas. It was their veggie fajitas of which I told them no rice, no cheese, and no sour cream. I also had 4 chips and felt pretty good afterwards - I didn't finish my plate, too full, my tummy felt a little squeamish but not bad at ALL compared to when I ate all that bread, meat, cheese, and sugar the other night.

We then went to a sweet little cafe and sat outside and talked for about an hour, I ordered a glass of red wine and enjoyed that very much! I usually just have maybe 1 glass per month when I'm pregnant and feel ok about that. It was balmy out and really nice...our movie started at 9:50 so we had some time! I had taken the time to straighten my hair and put on a little makeup and because of my diligence in raw & exercising the past week, felt really good about myself...it felt nice to have some of that confidence back. DH said I was beautiful when we were sitting there...that totally MADE the night for me. =) He rarely says that!

At the movie, Thor, I decided to order & split dessert with DH...aaaahhh it really topped the evening off!!! I ordered my fave, peanut butter mountain - whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, brownies, reese's peanut butter cups, and hot fudge. Totally sinful but totally dreaaaamy. I ate half, and afterwards did feel the normal faster pulse but did NOT feel really awful! I'm glad for the ability to only have half, and am excited about my choices because since they seemed to work, I can look forward to the same again. =)

Today I am EXTREMELY sore from the past 2 days of doing intervals at home, and sprint intervals. So I'm calling it a rest day, and plan to do my next workout tomorrow. 100% raw for me again today, beginning with my green juice soon!

PS DH took a couple of pictures of us which I would love to share but he's sleeping and I can't figure out how to send them from his phone to mine so...I'll update this when that happens. =)

Blueberry picking, calling the police...all in a day's work!

Today has been crazy busy, wow, I feel like I just need to put my feet up!! The morning was nice, though - I was able to sleep in and then do my interval workout which, I suspect is going to make me pretty sore tomorrow morning.

Got the kiddos ready, headed out to the school for lunch at noon, then over to Macleay to pick up Rachel12 & my sister Destiny11 - then to the blueberry field where we were able to get 14 pounds of blueberries for $12.50! Wowsa! Super yummy although it was tricky cuz alot of the berries ARE blue, but when you turn them over they're still that sour looking reddish color.

The kids did really well, we stayed there for about an hour until my tummy started feeling heavy and I could tell it was time for a nap!

Came home, saw that the neighbor girl6 was home so I told Marie5 she could go see if she could play. Brought Harmony2 in, put her down for a nap, and heard Marie really crying. Like she had really gotten hurt - I rushed outside and found her friend's mom (and the two little girls) on my porch crying...I won't get into it, but basically it was a physical domestic issue between the Mom & Dad, and she told me to call 9-1-1.

I am pretty calm in times of emergency, actually probably TOO calm - I told her yes, I'd call 9-1-1 and then shut the door in her face after bringing Marie to me and comforting her. Oops! Not very nice of me, but at the time I didn't want her or the issue to enter my house - there's kind of a spirit that comes with that kind of thing, you know? I don't know...mama instinct I guess.

Marie had witnessed something?? I don't know, she said she was just crying because the Dad had thrown something and the Mom was crying so it scared her and her friend. I don't think she actually was in the house but who knows...either way, I don't care WHAT they say, my girls are not allowed to go over there anymore. But their friend can come here, no problem.

Police = scary to me. I am always paranoid that someone is going to call them on us for some reason or another, especially with so many kids - I mean, you just never know 1) what kids can say and 2) what people observe your kids doing and feel the need to step in. You know? And my house...of course I panicked and was like OMG is my house clean enough??? For the POLICE??

I knew they would come talk to me. But turns out they were super nice, and didn't come in my house at all anyway, but it was nice to have an excuse for a little whirlwind cleaning just in case. =) I'm happy to say though, that eating raw has enabled me to clean much more than normal, and I was pretty happy/okay with house my house looked. That's a yay for me!

But I was also praying alot - I hate being in emergency type situations like that, and I'm thankful that God is always and ever watching and aware, and takes care of us. However, my blood pressure INSTANTLY rose and I was no longer hungry, even though I was hungry on the way home and looking forward to sitting down to a nice salad. Not gonna' happen - my heart was pounding for like an hour after, plus I was cleaning...so I just went ahead and made another big green juice - 32oz - and drank that.

My 3 older kids are gone this afternoon to various birthday parties/play dates so it's especially quiet right now, since the 2 little ones are napping. Just the 5 & 7 year old girls are up watching a quiet movie. I should go try to lay down for a bit....

Week 22, Day 1 - 4th day of Raw ~ Pregnancy Intervals...hmmm...

So because of eating that @$%@$^@ food last night, I especially wanted to get some cardio in this morning. I felt like crap all night long - ugh - I dearly paid for those moments of enjoyment eating whatever I felt like! NOT to be repated again anytime soon, for sure!

My babysitter spent the night at Grandma's so I couldn't go running, but instead I did intervals - which are REALLY great for having a kick butt workout when you're pretty mad that you gave in the night before. I don't know if it really does get it out of my system, but it sure fuels my energy when I'm mad at myself, ha ha!

So....intervals.

While pregnant.

Interesting thing, that! Much different feel than before, let me tell you! My go-to and all time fave interval workout consists of doing an exercise for 30s, then resting for 60s. Repeat for 15 minutes - alternating 4 different exercises. THREE of which involve jumping - like jumping jacks.

There's only one that feels comfortable to me now, waah! Jumping types are just too weird feeling - uncomfortable but I can't really pinpoint why. It just is, so I'll refrain from those for now.

I'm trying to think of something else I can do besides that one "ice skating" movement cuz it gets boring AND my legs start to burn and KILL about 10 minutes into it. But maybe that's the point?

At the end, my face was beet red, I was breathing fairly good, and sweat was a-comin' down my face. So all good there - mission accomplished! And in just 15 minutes too, can't beat that! It makes me want to go back to my routine of working out 3x a week and doing intervals 3x a week...I'll bet I could do intervals pretty well if I did them in sprints when I'm running. Like maybe 15m of interval sprinting, then run...making it a total of 3 miles. I like that idea, I think I might try it tomorrow.

I'm still running into the problem of looking down at my legs and seeing so much cellulite where there was little to none before. And knowing that whatever workouts I do to build muscle, I won't even be able to SEE it because I am not in the process of getting lean right now, or losing fat. I mean I AM trying, but it's going to happen on a very very miniscule level, if anything. So it's kind of deflating and makes me want to just do cardio until after the baby comes cuz, what's the point?

Today my hope is to have TWO servings of green juice (one in the morning, one in the afternoon probably) instead of one to jumpstart cleaning out my system from the crappy food eaten last night, and also to have green smoothies and blueberries, since we're going picking today (finally it's a nice day!). That means skipping my chocolate shake & salad...we'll see. I look forward to the shake so much, so we'll see.

Now, to go take a shower...am I the only one that HATES taking showers?? Like, really hates it. It's not bad once I get in of course, but blah, the whole process is just really annoying especially when I was totally clean this morning from yesterday's shower and the only reason I *have* to take a shower is cuz I worked out. The lazy self in me wants to just sit here and blog...and maybe next time skip the workout altogether so I don't HAVE to shower...rrrr.

Discipline is good, my dear, discipline is GOOD.

Wanna hear something cool? It's about maternity clothes...

So my sister in law gave me 2 BIG tubs full of maternity clothes, all folded very compact and nice. I was excited! Yay! Only thing is...

...not one.single.thing. fit me! Not one. Hmmmm. It was actually kind of cool and inspiring - they were mostly size Mediums & Larges - which is just about the size that I *always* wore in maternity when I was pregnant and eating 100% SAD food for my first 5 pregnancies. They were cute clothes, too - lots of skirts, lots of pants, tops...all things that I need, but I they just swam on me.

So after I was done, I pulled back on my size 2 (!!) Gap maternity pants and realized that even though I FEEL like I am larger than a seal sometimes, I am actually pretty small still. As in, small boned - small person type small. YES I have cellulite in ABUNDANCE where I didn't have it before, and YES I have more flab on different parts of my body than I did BEFORE I GOT PREGNANT, but not MORE than I had in my last two fabulous pregnancies.

So I was encouraged in that, even though I didn't end up being able to get any new maternity clothes after all. Waaah! (but a good waah =)

Oh, pooh.....

So I had a flip out moment tonight....not very happy about it, but it's going to be something that I am on guard against in the future. I ate TOO LITTLE today - I just had about 2 cups of cherries, 25oz of juiced veggies, and a 32oz chocolate shake by the time dinner came. So of course I was starving and my plan was to make a salad, but it's so much easier to grab something....and dinner looked of course, DIVINE.

Confession: ouch. Cinnamon rolls (2), 2 open-faced ham & melted cheese sandwiches, and a plate of tortilla chips with ham & cheese melted.

I'm going to pretend like it didn't even happen. Except that, I don't plan to eat anything else for the rest of the night since my stomach is already grumbling about the flip out.

AND!! I am observing some interesting behaviour - DH has been working insane days this entire week and it's because his co-worker is on vacation. He leaves at 5:45 and has never come home sooner than 8:00 - one night it was 10pm, and tonight I think it'll probably be that again or later. Poor guy, and he's also operating on a calorie deficit (I can't believe how hardcore he is being...so motivating for me!) AND running every single day and on little sleep! But anyway, the behaviour on MY part, is that in the past whenever this has happened, I usually have rough days due to no help, and as a compensation, allow myself some "fun food" at night especially after the kids are in bed. Or during naptime. Always junk - chocolate, donuts, etc. Like I "reward" myself for having such a hard day, OR I use it as something to look forward to so I can get through the hard day.

I saw that in myself tonight, like I wanted to revert to that, EVEN THOUGH I am not having hard days!!! That's the thing - it was almost like nostalgia or something, like a memory of something I used to do. And as I type this, it occurs to me that it actually is amazing that this week has been totally great for me! It's been just kind of "annoying" that I have to put the kids to bed myself, and I miss DH's company, and his reinforcement when they talk back or don't obey. =) But it hasn't been an extreme hardship to the point where I'm slamming doors (um....did I just say that??? Yes, I am normal....I think!) and just wanting to go in my room and LOCK THE DOOR and put my head under the covers. Interesting.

I'm anxious now, to run in the morning and get these toxic foods out of my body. Hopefully DD12 won't spend the night at Grandma's where she is now for a party..hmmm. But if she does, I'm going to do intervals or SOMETHING cuz I really feel the need to MOVE IT MOVE IT.

....and enter the cinnamon rolls into the picture...!

So here's where the rubber meets the road. And where in prior circumstances, I would have chosen to *add* fat to my butt & thighs in the form of cinnamon rolls! My dear friend Rosy M. dropped off 12 big fat juicy yummy frosted cinnamon rolls for the family to enjoy. Oh, my.

I've been known several times this pregnancy to drive to the nearest grocery store JUST to buy fresh made cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting - and promptly ate like, 2 of them. Or maybe 3? Maybe it was 3. Over the course of the day, anyway.

Yowza. And I wonder why my weight gain is creeping up? Granted, I didn't do it ALL the time, maybe 3x max over the course of the last 20 weeks, but still.

In the past, especially when someone has given us food like that, YUMMY food that we rarely get, it's extremely hard for me to say no. I rationalize that we don't get it very often, that the kids can only have one half each which of course leaves tons left just sitting there.

That's also why meals after baby are hard for me to resist - very good minded people bring over dinners and meals and it is SO WELCOMED - I am so grateful!! But it's also hard for me to say no because everything is already prepared and so delicious sounding when you're dealing with postpartum hormones, lack of sleep, and breastfeeding. =)

Anyway, all this to say that I am currently munching on cherries and plan to make a chocolate shake later to deal with any cravings these cinnamon rolls are trying to create. =) Annalise, I promise I will not give in!! =)

Week 21, Day 7 - 3rd day of raw & JUICING thoughts

Juicing is working out so well for me! I feel SO GOOD about what I'm doing for my body, it is amazing the difference JUST in my head when I drink 25oz of veggie juice instead of a bowl of cereal, for instance. It's like it steers me in the right direction for the day and starts everything out right.

Today's juice was actually pretty yummy - pleasant to drink, even Marie(5) took 2 sips from it. I included:

1 cucumber
4 celery stalks
1/2 small beet (this is a powerful kidney cleanser so I want to be careful...I've gotten too much before and gotten nauseous immediately)
3 carrots
2 small apples (makes all the difference in the taste!!)
1 medium tomato (that was about to turn...might as well use it up!)
1/2 cup of shredded cabbage mix, needed to use it up before it goes bad

I feel like I've already gotten a powerhouse of nutrition for my lil babe this morning and the day has not even started yet! The juicer IS a pain to clean, but it really only takes a few minutes and then it sits there all shiny and clean all day long, waiting for tomorrow morning. =)

This morning I weighed in at 143.6 - yay! I love seeing that 143 number again, and I am also happy with how slowly the scale is moving down - a big giant jump down would be concerning for me, but a few ounces every day seems perfect for losing fat and not baby weight. My goal right now is to get down to at and least maintain 142 lbs for the next 2 weeks. If I do that, I will be bang on my main goal of only gaining 25 pounds for this pregnancy.

I FINALLY went for a run this morning! No, I didn't not want to...ugh. But last night I was watching a movie on my laptop in my bed and DH went to bed at 9:30 - so I had to turn it off and just went to sleep with him. I know that if I go back to going to bed earlier, getting up earlier won't be so hard. And I was right! I was asleep by 10:15 probably after a few interruptions from the kids, and come 6:50 I was waking up and feeling that headachy feeling when you're still tired but know if you continue to sleep it'll be just too much sleep.

So off I went - I was a bit nervous about running 3 miles since I haven't run in a whole week!! But I took it super slow, like as slow as power-walking slow, ran a 5k in 43 minutes, ha ha! Like the world's slowest time EVER. But I didn't care, I regulated my breathing so it wasn't too hard, and when I got back I had worked up a proper sweat and my face was also flushed/red. No hills today either, I did that on purpose. My hope is to go running for the next 3 days in a row but we'll see...grand aspirations usually don't happen in my life, lol!

Today we have on the agenda, possibly blueberry picking - $.85/lb for u-pick! Super good price, and good thing since I only have about $10-$15 to spend. But it's pretty cold & windy out there, and showers are on the horizon, so I don't know...maybe it would be better to wait until tomorrow when it's supposed to be 77 and sunny.

I'll update as I eat today, to document how much and what I eat. =)

25oz veggie juice
2 nectarines & 2 peaches, cut up & drizzled with honey & cinnamon

Week 21, Day 6 - 2nd day of raw & MAJOR produce stockup!

This morning I woke up super hungry! The last thing I felt like eating or drinking or making, was green juice but I did it anyway. I'm pretty determined to do that for 30 days in a row and see if my skin improves at all.

I was also supposed to go running, rrrrrr. I am just not feeling it these days! I don't know why - it was a beautiful morning too, but I was just so.very.tired this morning when the clock said 7:30. Just not ready to get out of bed and go running. I don't know if it gets worse the more I put it off, or if I'll be able to get back in the groove? I hope I will, I really do.

Eating, though, is going fantastic! YES I am tempted by all manner of things - super random things pop in my head that sound really good, but it really is just mild and I am not chomping at the bit or sitting on my hands to keep from eating any of it. So far today I have had 3 big bananas, green juice (cuke-apple-beet-carrots), and a chocolate shake.

DH texted me to say that he is down SIX POUNDS after just 2 days of eating low calorie, healthy vegetarian food - and also he has switched up his running to include more hills. Not fair though, huh? He's trying to lose 12-15 pounds in 5 weeks for the big Hood to Coast race which goes from the mountains to the beach, running in teams. I'd say he's well on his way! So motivating for him!

I, on the other hand, weighed in just 6 ounces less than yesterday. Poo. That's OK though, I just need to relax and let go and see how things go in the next 28 days. 144.4 this morning.

DH & I got invited to Famous Dave's BBQ for a birthday gathering on August 4th. Hmmmm. I am not sure if I'm going to stick with 100% raw or have something like grilled salmon or maybe even just bbq'd corn on the cob with no butter. Whatever it is, it'll be low fat and as plain as I can get away with! I don't want to be the stick in the mud but at the same time, how badly do I want to see results with this 30-day challenge? That's 15 days from now, I will be solidly more than halfway through ... I guess we'll see. I might just be realllllly lame and bring my own container of something yummy like cut up watermelon or maybe a fruit salad. Just so I can actually be eating something when everyone else does, you know?

After THAT we're all supposed to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. Pretty much nothing on that menu is agreeable to eating raw unless of course I get the infamous go-to "plain" salad with no dressing (but I could bring my own). The dilemma is that my OWN salads are so delicioso that why on earth would I pay like $8 for a PLAIN one? Lame-o.

This is where eating raw, and exclusively raw for the sake of HEALTH, becomes extremely annoying. You can't really have a normal social life and enjoy the things you used to enjoy (such as going to a restaurant and perusing over the menu and choosing whatever suits your fancy like everyone else). If you DO, then you compromise your health and the degree of health that you've been working towards faithfully, day in & day out, not giving in to temptation. It brings you back to ground zero because then you have all the toxins to get rid of and your body has to work hard once again to rid itself of junk.

On the other hand, if you are eating raw primarily to be healthy but also not to gain weight in pregnancy such as I am, then small allowances such as one night eating "healthy" low fat cooked are allowed. And then, you can have a life! Only problem with that, is it is dangerously close to just getting off the wagon altogether since your body is once again introduced to sensations and tastes it has long since forgotten from many days of eating simply fruits & veggies.

K so on to other things - Lucy from England was here this morning to help me out and I took the opportunity to leave for some much needed grocery shopping! I am so excited about everything I got, I can hardly wait until I'm hungry again so I can make my next scrumptious raw meal!

I'm most excited about the 2 BIG bags of cut spinach I got - so I can make more salads and easily make green drinks. I can also juice it, too. The other thing though, is 2 big bags of oranges...I have been dreaming of fresh squeezed ICE COLD orange juice lately - so I'm looking forward to that.

I found a big bunch of bananas for 33c per pound at Norman's and grabbed all of them - maybe 10 pounds worth. I'll be freezing some, giving the kids some, and they're also nice to grab and eat on the run like when we went to the park today and I was SUPER hungry but there was no pre-made smoothie waiting for me.

Other finds - peaches, nectarines, plums (all 3 mix & match for 89c/lb), bright red cherries, and then lots & lots of veggies for juicing, mainly cukes-celery-carrots. In all I spent $60 - yikes - alot of that was the above mentioned summer fruit. I didn't buy any watermelons either, as Costco was out of them --- I need to be careful what I spend, our $$ is low now until we get paid on the 5th. Yikes, 2 weeks away. I should probably eat the most perishable things first so wait on the oranges. Waah.

Today is Harmony's 2nd birthday!!!! She was born on the freeway while DH was driving 102 MPH...and then careening around corners FAST as he got off the freeway and tried to drive to meet the midwife in the parking lot of Payless Shoesource. I delivered her myself while he drove, what a wonderful experience that was!! But, NOT to be repeated he has told me several times, ROFL - so I will have to pay more close attention to certain birthing signs with this baby. You can read all about her birth here - it's quite the story!

We're not doing anything special for her birthday today, but Grandma AND the kids want to celebrate it (I lean more towards the camp of "if she doesn't know anything about it, why do anything???? awww super mean mommy!) with her so we probably will maybe on Friday. I just have NO extra money to get her anything right now, not even to buy a cake....poor baby. She's 2nd to last in a long string of 6 summer birthdays and I am worn out from trying to make the other kids' birthdays fun for them. Not to mention the $$$, geesh! No-one ever told me that the older they get, the MORE EXPENSIVE birthday parties get!!

But check out this gorgeous birthday cake, isn't it totally fun looking??? I'm tempted....but I can just see myself taking like 2 hours just to put it together (not to mention the time spent cooking each layer since I can't do them all at once!), and time is so sweet to a Mommy of almost 8. The kids sure would love it though.

For some reason, all I can think of when I see that is the FOOD DYE involved and how bad that's gotta' be for you! Ha ha not like any part of the cake is even remotely good for you in the first place, lol. It's just the dye that makes me nervous since so many health issues are linked to especially the red & blue dye.

My rings seem more loose today. Probably less water retention, I'm thinking. I'll take any small victory in the weight containment department that I can get!

12 Kids ages 12 & Under!

Today I had 12 kids ages 12 & under here....pretty crazy but fun and made the afternoon go by way faster! I had 4 of Daniel's kids here (my brother) and also Michael M. (10) over to play with James10. Here's a picture I snapped with my crappy cell phone camera - Michael had gone home at this point.

Tereza, I totally thought about that family in Mexico who have 11 kids ages 12 & under...that's what it's like around there, every single day! Wow. I love watching alot of kids because when they go home I feel like we just don't have very many after all, hee hee!

I worked hard today, we are almost caught up from being gone for 9 days to Macleay...almost. My dryer takes 4 cycles to dry, about 4 hours, so the laundry is slow going. But it's just about done, I still have half of the 8 sheets we brought to Macleay to wash. The pile on my couch is getting bigger and bigger - but I think I'll tackle it tomorrow, get it all done at once.

Today I swept & washed the kitchen floor, vacuumed all the main living areas, kept the kitchen clean (wow, big and ONGOING chore in itself! Our dishwasher ran 3x today!) and also washed some extra dishes that had gotten a film of dust on them from the kitchen floor remodel project.

Speaking of kitchen floors, my wonderful Dh worked HARD for a solid week whenever he could, sometimes 12 hour days, to rip out the old torn and weather vinyl and put in beautiful tile. It looks so nice! But it turned out much lighter than we thought, and now shows just about everything. It looks dirty already and I just washed it a few hours ago. Little water drips turn into slightly dirty spots from many little feet and it looks discolored. But it is SO nice when it's clean - hopefully I'll be inspired to keep it looking that way.

I'm really tired, but I feel good inside. From eating raw, I love that feeling. I have had alot of energy and have been able to keep an even mood and not flip out at the kids even once! Compared to when I eat SAD food, yowza, totally opposite...every little thing grates on my nerves. Interesting.

Tomorrow I hope to tackle the bedrooms, or at least 2 of them. Funny how, even though I've been working hard for a solid 4 hours now - the house still looks slightly messy. The couch cushions are all messed up, there are DVD's littering the movie room floor, my palm tree has moss in the planter, and the 1 year old I was babysitting got it all over the carpet around the tree. Then of course the couch in the other room is piled high with laundry, and don't even look in my bathrooms or bedrooms.

Sigh.

But it's a good thing, I feel good about how much I worked today, I definitely worked hard and did not give in to idleness or laziness. But now I think I'm going to go lay down a bit and rest my tummy which is feeling tired.

My plan today was to eat a big salad right after naptime like I usually do, but when I got up I realized that the floors needed to be vacuumed before the 1 year old came over cuz he likes to eat everything still! So I didn't have time, and when they got here, well, didn't have time at ALL to sit down and eat a salad. So I made the salad but at the same time, used part of the greens to make a green smoothie and that was a GODSEND when I started to get hungry and needed something to just grab and drink/eat while trying to take care of everyone and get dinner ready. Green smoothies are so wonderful for on the go Mommies, I have to say!!

But now I have a yummy salad waiting for me in the fridge that I plan to eat when things settle down a bit around here. The kids are still kind of crabby from being gone (anyone else's kids do that? Oh my goodness, the past two days they have been SO grumpy!!) and Rachel12 is blaring this KidzBop music that is kind of grating on me, lol. I crave peace and quiet...hmmm...why did I have so many kids again? LOL j/k but I think I'm going to sneak over to the TV and turn it off and see if she notices that her CD is no longer playing. =)

Week 21, Day 5 - First day of eating raw = success!

So far today, doing WONDERFULLY on raw. I feel great, and of course part of that is knowing I'm DOING something and not just wallowing in wishing things were different but then chowing down on something bad for me!

So far I have made and drank 25oz of vegetable juice - today's consisted of beets, celery, carrots, cucumber, lemon, apple, and it wasn't very good. LOL. But I know it was good FOR me, so that's what counts! There are some better combo's in the book that I'm going to try - I kind of just pulled everything out of the fridge that I had and combined it. Live & learn, lol!

I had one small tomato and also a 32oz chocolate shake. Yum! After naptime I plan to enjoy a big salad - it's nice cuz that is one of my fave afternoon meals, and at the same time I can make a nice salad for DH's dinner and have it ready in the fridge. I will probably have a green smoothie around dinnertime, and then enjoy some blueberries later in the evening.

The plan was to run a 5k this morning but then Rachel spent the night at Grandma's...and Bret is leaving at 5:45 every morning this week for work. So that got bumped to tomorrow, and then I plan to run every other day for the rest of the week to get in my quota of 3-4 runs per week.

Still need to skin brush today...I'll probably do that tonight before bed.

Oh! I weighed in at 145.0 but I'm going to fudge that number a little tiny bit and call it 144.9. =) Just for the sake of peace of mind...it's a good starting number, I think. Plus I DID have pizza and ice cream later in the day yesterday so I know it's still in my system (pizza is all gone now, thankfully, and so is the fudge so just plain vanilla ice cream isn't all that appealing to me anyway).

Looking forward VERY much to having 3-4 raw days under my belt and around 1 week's time, starting to see some changes! Can't wait!

PS it is AMAZING the power that comes when you do a challenge with someone. We're going blueberry picking together later this week and I am looking forward to that - it's fun when you find someone who is in the same place as you - in this case, doing low fat raw vegan as well as being pregnant as well as running! Pretty cool. =)

Update @ 11:25pm:

Today was a complete success...very happy! Here's what I had to eat:

25oz of green juice
1 small tomato
32oz chocolate shake
big huge salad
60oz green smoothie
9 dates
2 cups of blueberries

Looking back on my day, I didn't have very much juicy fruit. Interesting! I didn't plan it that way...but the huge salad is a favorite of mine, as is the chocolate shake. The green smoothie and green juice are a necessity and both did include fruit, but I never actually sat down and ate just fruit, except for the blueberries super late at night since I couldn't sleep. The dates were cuz I was craving something SWEET after eating the savory salad.

Overall, good day - I wonder how many calories I had? But eh, too much work to count them all, especially when you make a big salad and eat like 3/4 of it...and also when you juice things. Too complicated - I love how simple raw is! C you tomorrow! (and you can bet your toosh I'm going to be weighing each day, I'll let you know how that goes too!)

Week 21, Day 4 - 30 days of 100% Raw starting....now! (and future preggo weight goals)

Hello, my friends! Been a while! Got back yesterday from a 9-day stay at Macleay for the first vacation week of the summer. Lots of emotions from super nice to be there, to wondering WHAT I was thinking, to soooo thankful I could be a part of it! Hee hee... I'm sure you Moms can relate.

I am actually pretty happy with how I ate - it was FAR from perfect, but there were even a couple of days were I was 100% raw. Some days I ate raw until the infamous SNACK BAR (love to hate that!) where I would inevitably have some ice cream...or fries...or nachos...but not usually a ton. It was at night when I was back in the dorm that I usually had a harder time.

Stepped on the scale fully clothed after eating when I got home and it was 147 so that's not too bad - I figure I'm probably 144-145 in the morning in a fasted state. But I didn't dare weigh myself this morning because I had pizza & ice cream with DH while watching a movie last night, yay! That was super nice...REALLY nice. But not so nice how I felt, ugh.

So we all know how motivating it is to do a challenge with a friend, right? Well, my friend Annalise who I met online and who lives nearby and I've met - is about 6 weeks behind me pregnancy-wise, and also has been raw on & off in the past. It's pretty cool because she also has a SAD pregnancy and a raw pregnancy under her belt so she KNOWS the difference just like me. I know what going all raw will do - it's amazing! It's just so darn hard to stick to it, dang it!

But anyway, I have a wedding coming up that DH & I are going to on August 20th...it's for his best friend growing up, and alllll these people that he grew up with that I haven't seen since we got married. Or never even met at all. So of COURSE I want to look good, feel GREAT, fantastic in fact - I want to rock this 8th pregnancy! =)

I'm looking for a dress that I love, that will look great and I can also wear to other occasions - something like this one:

Only not in red...red is not my color. Waaah! Otherwise I would probably buy it, I LOVE it! So that style is what I'm looking for, fitted from the torso up, about knee length, with a full skirt. And not too spendy! I think I'm going to take a day and scour all the consignment stores in the area that have maternity clothes - doesn't it make sense that there are other Mamas out there who have had weddings to go to, and bought a nice dress, only to wear it once and then had their baby and...uh...now what do I do with it? Sell it, of course!=) I also checked out Ebay but it's just really hard to SEE the dress when it's not on a mannequin.

My goal is to be 100% raw until the wedding day. That is 30 days away. So, I guess that means, raw for 30 days!

I also wanted to say that I am challenging myself to 30 days in a row of veggie juicing in the morning. I want the raw glow! So my main goals for the next 4 weeks is to:

1) juice every morning - probably mostly cucumbers, beets, carrots, and celery
2) skin brush each day(such a pain to do but I'm going to focus on the RESULTS I'll get from it)
3) run at least 3 miles 3-4x per week - focusing on the tingling fresh skin glow this gives, feels sooo great!!
4) one vitamix full of green smoothie per day (so basically 2 big fistfulls of greens)
5) focus on low fat raw, mostly, but not necessarily exclusively (I love avocadoes but feel BEST on 80-10-10)
6) Drink drink drink water!! Lots & lots of water...whenever I think of it, guzzle that wonderful stuff down. =)

It's going to be challenging for me because I have gotten used to enjoying a plant based dinner with Bret - like stir fry with rice, or herbed potato wedges. BUT on the other hand, I SWEAR, if I can't go 100% raw in the summer, what the heck?? Something is WRONG with me, lol! All year long I wait for blueberries, watermelon, cherries...so I really and honestly have no excuse. But I'm so glad Annalise is doing it with me, it really really helps!

I'm also kicking around the idea of doing an orange juice fast day, and also a bananas only day or two. Most of my meals are mono meals (meaning the meal consists of only one fruit, and lots of it - like a huge bowl of peaches, or just watermelon, or 2lbs of blueberries for breakfast, hee hee!) anyway, but I think it would be nice to give my body an extra boost to cleanse. Maybe a watermelon only day too.

I am hoping also, to get my weight back down to the 130's. No, I don't want to LOSE WEIGHT as in dieting and all that, but I do think that I have gained just a little more than I should right now - according to where I am at, compared to my last 2 pregnancies. This should happen naturally anyway, from going raw - I won't be restricting calories in the least. Just yummy fresh fruit & vegetable goodness, as much as my little heart desires! I think the absence of salt, and processed food in any form, is going to flush out some of that undesired fat on it's own.

I also have never posted my weight goals on here. These are my loose goals for the rest of the pregnancy according to my hope of only gaining 25 pounds this pregnancy. So here goes!

Starting weight: 127
Current weight, week 21: 144

To reach my goal, I will have to be this weight at these weeks of pregnancy:

Week 23: 142
Week 25: 143
Week 28: 144
Week 31: 145
Week 33: 146
Week 36: 148
Week 38: 150
Week 40: 152

Aaaaand then, if I lose 15 pounds within 2 weeks of having the baby like I have with my last 2 babies, I'll only have 10 pounds to go until my pre-pregnancy weight, and 17 pounds to go to reach 120 pounds which is where I was at my best, last Christmas.

It's fun to speculate and dream and see where I *could* be...my loose goal is also to start power walking at about 3 weeks postpartum, starting slow. Working my way up to being able to run again and/or workout by 6 weeks postpartum. If the baby is born in December, which I think it will be if it comes at my normal 6 days late (due date is Nov 25) then that gives me all of December to recuperate, and to rest.

January I plan to ease into working out and get into more of a routine hopefully, we'll see...and then hit it hard from February-May and see if I can be back down to my normal pre-pregnancy self just in time for summer.

I'm not so sure about the whole breastfeeding factor though, because calories & fasting is the way that works WONDERS for me, and I have no idea how to factor that in with breastfeeding especially since I always have a milk supply problem as it is! We'll see.

And now, gotta' go take a shower so we can make it to the school in time for the free lunch program for kids. C ya!

Week 20, Day 1 - Taking a breather from packing...whew!

I got up early this morning and decided to dedicate this entire day to packing - so at 6:30 I was at my computer working on my spreadsheet for meals. I did this last year and it worked out SO well - every day had a meal & snack planned out, detailed down to each ingredient. I get so overwhelmed trying to figure out what to pack and what to make for dinner, etc...yowza. Each summer we stay out at our church's retreat center for a 9-day vacation one month, then a 17-day vacation another month. The 9-day one, we have to bring all our own food. The 17-day vacation, we can choose to purchase meals for 7 of those days. They do run a Pool Cart which offers hotdogs & hamburgers, and also snacks after the meeting at night - but those can get spendy so we opt out of those if we can - at least for all the kids, every night.

I planned out each day and printed it out - it looks something like this:

Breakfast: Smoothie/Cereal
Lunch: DH Pool Cart, Kids PB&J, Baby Carrots, Grapes, Chips, & Popsicles.
Snack: Fish Crackers/Cheese Sticks
Dinner: Taco Salad w/Meat or Refried Beans, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Olives, Cheese, Avocados, Tobasco, Salsa, Cilantro, Lime Wedges, & Chips
Snack: Snack Bar @ Macleay

I'm planning on drinking alot of smoothies and eating mostly raw, so I didn't plan out my meals & snacks...it'll be just the fruit we have on hand, plus salad stuff.

After planning it all out, I went to WinCo while the kids were still sleeping (Rachel babysat...SO nice!!!) and came home while most of them were still sleeping, lol! Stocked up on everything yummy we need, then I made a BIG batch of spaghetti meat sauce, and another batch of taco meat, and another batch of refried beans for Bret & I.

In the evening after we put the kids to bed and they're sleeping soundly, Bret & I like to go visit different friends' campsites or cabins...and it's nice to bring a snack to share; there are always lots of goodies put out to feast on. The trick is to bring things I know I don't really like, because if I DO like them, I'll eat them before we even share, back in my dorm room! I know this by experience. =) So I bought mint chocolate cookies, not my favorite at all, I don't like mint. And lots of chips - not really a trigger food for me so much, and Ritz crackers with the spray on cheese. Ritz I can get hung up on, but hopefully having yummy grapes nearby will deter me from that. =)

It's now 9:20pm and I'm exhausted! But most everything is packed, or at least put on the list and I can just put it all together in the morning. I still have to pack myself, so I'll probably do that in the morning...I'm too tired now. And of course all the perishable food. I also wanted to make a big batch of spaghetti noodles, Jasmati rice, and homemade salad dressing...hopefully I can get to those. But if not no big deal - it's just harder to cook those thing when there are multiple big families using the kitchen in the dorm room for dinner.

Bret just left with a BIG truck load of stuff to unload in our room - all the kids' clothes in their backpacks, lots of non-refridgerated snacks & food, all the bikes, the baby bed, the big double stroller, the bed rail gates for the bunkbeds which for some reason they ALWAYS fall out of.

My hope, my plan, is to eat mostly smoothies since I'll be on the go most of the time - I find that mainly I love to eat delicious and not okay foods when I'm alone and can read a good book, surf the net, or watch a movie. Not much of that going to happen this week! The MAIN THING I know, is to make sure I don't get hungry - cuz if I do, then everything will sound SO good and I'll just chow down.

4 years ago when I was pregnant during the summer and went to Macleay, I actually lost 5 pounds because I drank mostly smoothies and walked EVERYWHERE - the property has 30 acres of land and the campground is pretty far from the main hall. Not super far, but it all adds up when you're going to the pool, then back to the dorm, then the playground, then the campground, then a cabin or two, the gym to do laundry, then the main hall...repeat repeat repeat. =) That's why I love my double stroller...makes for less carrying!

I'll be updating a bit while we're there, probably when I wind down at night. See ya!

Week 19, Day 6 - It's a BOY!

Awww...it was so cute to see the little guy in utero. =) He looks like a sweetie, yawning and opening & shutting his little fist. He was also doing all sorts of yoga moves, lol, including moving his little knees all the way up to his forehead! I guess he was trying his best to give us the most adequate view of his little baby boy parts.

I am disappointed that we're not having a girl, but it is nice to find out ahead of time and be prepared and now be able to scout out cute little tiny baby boy clothes at garage sales - one of my favorite things in the world to do!

Also, I think it's pretty darn cool that now we're going to have 4 boys and 4 girls. That makes it so easy when people ask me how many of what we have, lol. Right now I ALWAYS have to stop and think - um....4 girls and..3? Yeah, three boys.

I am thinking of super cute family pictures with 4 boys all dressed in the same colors, and 4 girls in a row the same. It just kind of rounds it out really nicely. And of course, our current 3 boys couldn't be any different if we tried, no clones going on here! So it'll be fun to see how this little one fits into our family, and maybe we'll get another brown eyed boy. Currently we have just 2 kids with blue eyes/blond hair - and they are both boys! I have always wished for a blue eyed girl, but that's okay - Harmony's brown eyes are to DIE for and make up for any lack in that area, lol!

I ran this morning, just 4 miles. As I was running, I was chastising myself for WASTING all these gorgeous summer mornings!! I MUST make use of them - I know far too soon it's going to get dark sooner and it was wayyyyyy not motivating for me to go running in the dark.

Today is a full day, again. In exactly half an hour, Lucy from England is coming over to help in our home for a while - she is such a blessing! I am going to see if she'll do the handwashing that is getting backed up, and then I'm off to the dentist to see what they have to say about my cracked root canal tooth. Oh yes, realllly fun!

After that, I zip on home to take the kids to the school for lunch, then we'll be bringing Rachel12 to a summer party at the Schroeder's house. Then back home for naps, OR if the pool is open, we'll probably hang out there for a while - R needs to be picked up at 4pm. 6-8 is the pop can drive...busy, busy! Somehow I hope to fit in a trip to Costco...and I need to go to the bank...and would also like to return the cherries I bought at Fred Meyer, they are not very good.

I guess I better go hop in the shower before Lucy gets here! =)

Week 19, Day 5 - Ultrasound & Big Family Musings...

So....let me just say, it's interesting having lots of kids. It's not like they're all these obedient little clones of you that dutifully do what you say and willingly jump to help when there is something overwhelming for Mom. AND it's not like, when you do something fun & nice for them (that takes more effort than normal on your pregnant part) they jump up & down with joy and jubilantly have a WONDERFUL time with no bickering or complaining that, "this is soooo boring....!"

That's been my day, hee hee.

(And by the way, ultrasound appt is in 1 hour - stay tuned for results, hopefully I'll have some news for you: boy or girl? Right now we have 4 girls and 3 boys so this could be the one that makes them "even steven" or the one that makes the girls WAY outnumber the boys =)

Today I woke up determined to be raw, once again, as is my usual mantra each & every day! I didn't, however, want to go running at. all. But probably part of that was cuz yesterday was a crazy day of course, being 4th of July and all. Basically I ran around like an energizer bunny in the morning cleaning the house (I absolutely cannot STAND coming home to a messy house, it stresses me out so, so much and I try to make sure that never happens if I can possibly help it) and then gave the kids an early lunch and early naptime, since we had to be out at Macleay by 2pm. James had a sleepover with a couple of boys so I had 8 lunches to make - no small feat on a small counter with little ones wanting to sit and watch on said counter! =)

The 2pm start time didn't really happen, we made it out there by 3:45 - in time to hop in the pool, only to realize that Rachel needed a suit so off she & I went to the store, came back, only to realize once again that it was time to get OUT of the pool and eat. Then SERIOUS potluck craziness with all the kids crying and wanting this or that, trying to balance flimsy paper plates double and triple in my hands while shooing the kids along in the line. Whew! At one point I was like aack! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
Late night with fireworks, both little ones 3 & 1 were scared and shaking and crying a bit, but still enjoyed the "pop pops" - DH & I held them tight in their blankies and Jack3 finally figured out a genius idea - put his blanket over his head and watch the fireworks THROUGH the flimsy worn-down material. LOL.

So anyway, got to sleep probably around midnight - and just did not have the umph to go running. I haven't run in 3 days now...I can feel my determination to continue running slipping away from me, walking instead just sounds soooooo nice and peaceful in the early morning. I don't know, we'll see - maybe I'll just cut it down to running 3 miles. Running is still completely comfortable for me, it's just not EASY I guess, it takes effort like ANY workout does, especially hills. It's not "pleasant" like being cozy in your bed - walking feels alot closer to that, to me.

The house was still pretty clean this morning from us being gone all day yesterday so that was so nice!!! I tidied up in the morning knowing that the day promised to be HOT - 87 - and then got kind of ansy and decided that we were going to DO something. So far this week we've been getting an email around 1pm if the pool at Macleay is open today...but couldn't wait that long.

So we trooped out to the car and went to the school for lunch at 11:45, ham & cheese w/pretzels, baby carrots, orange wedges, and chocolate or plain milk. The school we are going to, has a library day on Tuesdays where each child can get 5 books each. YES that makes me sooo nervous, my kids are not very good with books but mostly, somehow, we seem to be really adept at losing them, even in our small house! I hope it works out OK, they sure had fun picking them out.

After that we went to Roth's to grab a few things for the crockpot roast dinner I am making (our kitchen floor is smack in the middle of being replaced so that means NO dishwasher and NO oven = crockpot & bread machine dinners, fun and I have to get creative cuz I can't warm anything up - we don't have a microwave either!) and of course, free cookies for the kids. I love that about Roth's, our local grocery store - their cookies are nice sized and yummy, almost homemade or even bigger than homemade, and they can each get a free one up to age 12.

Back home while I kept the engine running and they looked at their books, I ran in the house and dumped the contents of what I got (onion soup mix & cream of mushroom soup) at the store in the crockpot, along with SUPER quickly peeling & chopping 8 potatoes, carrots, and an onion. Can of tomato soup, some water, a good shake of a few spices, and then I grabbed 6 towels and the other stuff we needed for water play - swim diapers, 4 swimsuits, sunblock.

We went to a waterpark we'd only heard about, here in town - over by Fred Meyer in Keizer. From the road you couldn't see ANY water, but we drove in to check it out - and they had this really cute little fountain playground with mostly kids ages 1-10 or so playing. I thought, aaaaw so fun, let's have a fun day!

Ha. Yeah....right.

As SOON as we pulled up, they started complaining. Oh, my...it was a DUMB playground...it was too hot...they didn't want to be here...hmmm. But of course as we were pulling IN to the park and I told them if there wasn't water then we would just play anyway, they complained about that. LOL! Isn't that a part of our nature as well? When we're having a bad day, everything is bad no matter what!

I finally got the 4 younger ones' swimsuits on & swim diapers on those that needed it, and brought everyone over to the water area, put down some towels, plopped down, and told them - okay, go play! Didn't work, they all just stood/sat around me complaining that it was too hot, there were too many kids, etc. Finally a few of them ventured into the little streams of water but it was like they were allergic to it or something. Fuss fuss fuss, toooooo cold, Mom! Grace7 had left us and gone over to the OTHER playground around the corner where I couldn't see her, so I asked Isaac8 to please go tell her to come back to me right now, that was NOT okay.

She refused to come. But I couldn't very well leave all the little ones (Rachel12 who would normally be able to watch them, was very grumpily across the field playing on her ripstick) just to go get her. So there I was sitting there in the boiling hot sun with hot kids around me, refusing to go get wet because it was "too cold" in the water...rrr.

I was pretty much on the verge of flipping out at them - I was tired and hot TOO but wanted to make it good for them, so we were on an adventure, for crying out loud! I just said okay, fine guys, we are LEAVING. I grabbed our stuff and gathered the kids and just put them all in the car - amid protests that they wanted to go play on the OTHER playground. I was getting mad at that point and said nope! It's way too hot to just play in the hot sun like that, and we are NOT doing this again. I'm thankful I was able to explain to them in a calm voice.

But it did a number on me, I was so frustrated - it's not like I have tons of energy, you know? I had eaten raw up until then, a chocolate shake & also grapes - but I was like I WANT TO EAT SOMETHING!!! Like emotionally I needed something good to eat to counterract this kind of sucky day. But I knew that I set the tone, you know?

So we all went to Arby's drive through and I got them each $1 curly fries, and myself a chicken BLT. I know, so bad! CHICKEN, even! But it was good and hit the spot and calmed me down. =)

After THAT, I was like - hey, it's 2:30 and my appointment is at 4:15...how fun would it be to swing into Blockbuster and rent some movies for them to watch while the littles are napping and I'm at my appointment? To make it easier for Rachel - they were all so grumpy and I was hesitant to just up & leave them in her care...they needed more TLC than she is able to give them.

So we trouped in there (first taking a few minutes to put on various clothing over swimsuits & shoes - and of course Jack informed me that he pooped in his swim diaper, lovely) and I had the girls (Grace7 & Marie5) pick out one movie, and the boys (James10 and Isaac9) pick out one, and Rachel12 pick out one. Of course they all wanted one and I was tempted since it's only $.99 ea, but then I remembered that it's only for one night, and that would mean like, nonstop movies going until tomorrow night if we were going to get through them all!

So here I sit, typing away, as the movie has now started and the two littles are napping. Turns out the Macleay pool IS open today until 7pm so IF my appointment doesn't run too late, I plan to grab a quick dinner (I wonder if it's possible to eat a pot roast "super quick??" I'm tempted to just get McDonalds...$1.25 per hamburger happy meal every Tuesday after 4pm...hmmm...) and go out there. Maybe DH will meet us out there after work.

Tiring day, I'm ready for a nap! I missed my cutoff time for putting bread in the machine so I guess we'll just have plain old store bought potato bread with jam - but at least it's homemade strawberry jam; it's pretty yummy.

Tomorrow I have an emergency dentist appointment at 10am for a tooth that cracked on Sunday - it is a root canal tooth that never got the cap on it and it split right down the middle and HURTS. I hate dentist stuff, I never have time to go - and it always costs so much money! The root canal cost me $600+ if I remember right.

I have a feeling this week's weigh-in is going to be up, more than normal. I've been losing my "umph" for the whole working out and being healthy thing. That always happens when my "goal" that I'm working towards, this time being family week and days on end at the pool, approaches. It's like once I'm there, I don't really care as much anymore.

Hopefully I can go to bed early tonight and get up early tomorrow for a nice run - probably just 3-4 miles though. I'm realizing about myself, that some of my goal to run 15 miles per week is a matter of pride - it's honor that I want from other people. Like, wow, you really run THAT much and you're PREGNANT?!! But yesterday at the picnic I felt like I got a renewed vision for what is really, so important in life.

I don't want to be seen/known as the cute little pregnant Mom of 7 kids, wow, she looks great. That is such an earthly and carnal goal and honestly does NOT bring any happiness!!! I want to be the Mom of 7 who CLEARLY has a life with God because of what radiates from my spirit - no matter how I look. In the end, that is what matters so completely and totally in this life, both for myself and for the saving of those around me (especially my children).

I've been noticing that come 8pm I am practically spent and don't have any energy to pray with the children properly or do anything extra. And it's because of my early morning hours taken up running. So if I can get up at 7am (instead ofr 5:30-6) and run for just 45 minutes instead of 60-80 minutes, then maybe I'll be more even and stable AND can stay up a bit later to be with DH or Rachel and just overall, be there for my kids.

Wow, super long post! And now I better run. =)

Week 19, Day 1 - 5 Mile Run + Workout, Family Week prep, +....strawberry picking!

This morning I did NOT feel like running. ugh. Not not not. But once I got out there, about 10 minutes into it, I was glad...listened to a Venus fitness podcast that helped get my head in the right place. I ran exactly 5 miles, it felt great!

Once I got home, I did 3/4 of a workout, which is a first for me, combining the two. I think I felt like my run wasn't all that hard since it was barely 5 miles, compared to running a 10k which is 6.2 miles. It's all in your head, I tell you! =)

I did only 2 weight workouts this week and I really wanted to do 3 - yesterday was my running day so I skipped it and did it today, BUT today is supposed to be my 3rd weight workout of the week. So I did THAT too, only I skipped 2 of the exercises that are primarily for legs: squats & lunges. Instead I did just the arms but I did them 3x each instead of the normal 2x. So, a pretty good workout in all, I'd say!

Push Press - 8 reps 3x
Side Plank Pulse - 10 ea side, 3x
Reverse Fly - 8 reps 3x
Weighted Ball Mountain Climber - 12 ea leg, 3x

Today is the first of July!! And the first day of summer around these parts, apparently. We've battled gloomy days the ENTIRE spring & summer - and finally, FINALLY the 10-day forecast has all sunny days, NO clouds, except for one partly cloudy day, and the range is 74-83 degrees! I am SO stoked!

I am printing out a calendar today, and hanging it on my wall. I know what I have to do each day, and I'm going to be buying stickers and using a visible system so I can get the satisfaction of watching my month unfold. At least, I think -- we'll see how it goes. It might just be easier to view it online, we'll see.

I have managed to stay at 141 pounds for two whole weeks! I'm excited about this, it's so nice to see the scale slowing down a bit, instead of a steady 1 lb gain per week. If I gained a pound per week, I'd have a total gain of 40 pounds! Yikes!

Today we are planning to go strawberry picking - I am enjoying doing fun, almost free, things with the kids. I don't anticipate picking much, bending over isn't very tolerable for me, and Harmony being almost 2 needs constant supervision at a place like that. But for the kids, to be able to pick & eat as many berries as they want, is super fun!!!

Yesterday we went on adventures too - a trip to the library with all 7 kids is especially tricky, and I got paged more than once to the administration desk from a little person not sure where Mommy was, lol. I got some more fun thriller novels to read in the sun during naptime, and a few movies for them - monster truck documentary for Jack(3). He watches those over & over and over....I try to turn the sound down so I don't go nuts, ha ha!

After that we headed to the Kroc Center, kind of like the YMCA - a family activity center. They are serving free cold lunches for kids there this year so we got that and ate it in the grass in a circle. Since we are members until September thanks to a scholarship, we went in and the kids enjoyed rock climbing and playing Wii games, while I sat with the little ones in the daycare room (the kids won't let me leave them there, except for Jack) and played Thomas trains and baby dolls. Then I joined the bigger kids in the game room where Marie(5) and I played a game of memory, and a game of domino's.

It gets kind of tricky because they just changed the rules so you have to have a parent with you if you're under 10. But the game room is clearly for older kids than toddlers, so if I go in there with my toddlers so the olders can play the Wii, the toddlers get bored pretty quickly. They open the dominos and checkers games and play with them for about 5 minutes, then start throwing them...it's tricky. I wish they would stay in the daycare room, but oh well - it's not something we do all the time. I just have to be strategic in knowing the best time to go so the littles are in the best mood.

I'm sooooo excited for family week at Macleay coming up! Getting psyched up to tackle the whole thing, actually. =) We'll be there for 8 nights, 9 days...and I am glad I saved my spreadsheet on dinners and meals from last year. It worked out well to just alternate the same meal every other night. I think we had spaghetti and tacos...so I cooked up tons of meat and froze it beforehand, and also cooked all the spaghetti noodles too. I bought pre-shredded cheese for the tacos, and lettuce already cut...it made everything SO much easier! For DH & I, I premade all the salad fixings which lasted us most of the week.

Dinner is REALLY chaotic when you have to make it to the meeting by 6pm, and have been in the pool all day and have to share a kitchen with 4-5 other families, some of them with lots of children. Last year I had a crawling baby underfoot so it's going to be a world of difference having a 2 year old, in that regard!

Then of course there's all the packing, although I don't have NEAR as big of a challenge as those coming from farther away - Canada, and such. We are going for the 4th of July picnic and they've allowed us to spend the night, and leave some of our things in our room since we'll be coming back just 4 days later. That means way less packing/hauling in the long run...we can leave our bikes, 2 playpens, all the sheets on the beds (we have extra just for Macleay), the bunkbed "gates", etc.

I'm also having fun mapping out my runs! My PLAN (and I say this tongue and cheek because I've never done this while pregnant on vacation = exhaustion so...) is to continue running 15 miles per week while I'm there. But the tricky part comes in to play because at night, DH especially LOVES to socialize. He loves to walk down to the campground and hang out with various friends - and loves for me to come with him. These nights can get super late, even 1-2am. There's no way I'll even want to get up early enough to go running and shower BEFORE the kids wake up. Hmmm. Cuz I also don't want to miss out, those times are super fun!

So my plan is to do shorter runs, but do them as many mornings as I possibly can. Maybe 5 3-mile runs, for instance. But also, DH has taken some of the days off so it's possible that he could go running, come back, and when he's done with his shower (kids will have been dressed & fed by me), I can go. I just LOVE the very early morning runs, when everyone is sleeping and it's just me and God, and my own private thoughts which often don't get much time in my busy days. That, and the sun just gets hotter and hotter so if I'm taking off on a run at 10am, that could get pretty warm. I love the crisp morning air of a summer day with the promise of warmth later in the morning.

I don't plan on doing any weight training while out there, cuz duh, I won't be bringing my weights. But I might do a few body weight exercises like squats, pushups, lunges...we'll see. All I can go by is past memories on how it will be but honestly, while I HAVE stayed out there when I was exactly this pregnant in the summer, I have never worked out and been pregnant. So we'll see!