My New Vice...

I can't seem to take a step back from my newest love, Mr. Kindle (aka "the boyfriend" as J calls it). Instant gratification in the form of brand new books at my fingertips in less than 60 seconds = a mom that has read 20 books in 30 days. I've read:

-The Whole Southern Vampire Mysteries series (books 1-9) by Charlaine Harris
-The whole Harper Connelly Mysteries series (books 1-4) by Charlaine Harris
-Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
-Breaking Dawn (of the Twilight Series) again!
-Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson
-The Queen of Clean cleans Everything (ok, mostly skimmed through that one)
-The Queen of Clean gets Organized (again... skimming here)
-And I know there are some others I'm forgetting about

The Kindle helped keep me company while the baby and I were pitiful and sick with colds. We are both recovering quite nicely now.

And, now that I've read and read and read, and I'm not feeling quite so sick, I'm trying so very hard to develop a new vice. An awful habit that includes a clean home. A homey home. A comfortable, clean and maybe even decorated home. And, if it isn't asking to much, perhaps I could fit in a little bit of time to read a book about time management, ha ha ha.

Caveman Craze...

So, I've been waiting for several weeks to fill you all in on something that J and I have recently embraced. I wanted to test the waters first - make sure it was doable before I started writing about another diet fad that would end in failure in a few weeks.

Here we are - two weeks later - and not only are we thriving and losing weight, but we are learning that there is so much more to this than a diet. We are well on our way to embracing our primal past and getting in grove with the way our genes are meant to thrive.

Specifically, we have been following the methods detailed in a book called Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. There are 10 laws, some of which are tougher to follow than others. J and I have given up grains completely (including rice and that nasty whole grain crap) and have embraced plenty of meat of all varieties, fats, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. We don't count calories, we eat until we are full, and the net result of that has been J losing 10 pounds and me losing 7 pounds in the last 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks on the program, I feel ready to embrace the fitness portion of Primal Blueprint. There are 3 types of exercise I need to get: Walking at a slow pace for a long time (at least 5 hours a week), Sprinting periodically (maybe 1 or 2x a day) for a very short time (less than a minute) and lifting heavy things.

Expect more posts from me in the future on our new way of life :)

Perfect Situation...

My days have been strange lately. I successfully made it through my 4th wedding anniversary, and also my 27th birthday. 27 doesn't feel much different from 26, although I have a greater sense of urgency to crack down on my bad habits, get organized, and really put some effort into my family's home. The only problem is, this isn't really our home. I have a lot of bad feelings about this house, and no good feelings to counter them. Lots of things are broken around here, and I don't care to fix them. I'd rather endure them until our lease is up in October, and try to find something more suitable (perhaps something we can do a lease/purchase on).

Other things that are broken? My washing machine. My husbands neck (ok, pinched nerve, not broken neck). The washing machine repairman still hasn't fixed our issues ($185.00 later) but in all fairness, he is supposed to come back in a few days to try and fix it again. My husbands neck is slowly being repaired by the chiropractor up the street (at the low low price of $145.00 per visit, and only 4 visits so far to barely start making him feel better).

But, no matter how insanely expensive things are getting, and no matter how fast things are breaking, we keep on keeping on.



Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone :)



p.s. - everyone around me is having babies and getting pregnant - I'm starting to get the bug again! Agh! My hormones better cool it - I can't handle the extra laundry with no washing machine!

Kindle, How I Love Thee...

O. M. G. For realz. Now that I have you, I don't really know how I lived without you. But, I can already tell that you are going to be a problem for me. I have no problems hanging up on phone calls, pushing pause on my mp3 player, even ignoring the "new post" button on my little blog here when I need to. But - to walk away from you in the middle of a thrilling read? Ouch. It stings. It burns. It causes me to stay up until midnight reading even though I have the alarm set for 5am. I question my need for sleep, even then, because "Josh does always say that Marine's can live just fine on 3 hours of sleep a night." Hmmmm... Oh, crap, I better just go to sleep already.

The negative? I am soooooooooooo tired this morning when I pry my eyes open (finally, after much debate about if being tired = being sick and a justifiable sick day). The positive? I was so entralled with my book lastnight, that I was able to ignore snacking out of boredom. Food? No thanks, I don't want to get crumbs on my Kindle.

So, like most things in my life, it is going to take an effort to make sure I'm attending to the other important things in my life (ie, husband, baby, animals, house) before I spend another 5 hours entrenched in a good ebook.



P.S. - Buy a Kindle.
P.P.S. - If you buy a Kindle, you should also probably buy it one of those nifty Kindle covers. I didn't. I was all "OMG $35.00 for a frickin' cover?" I am now on the search for a cheaper alternative, but I am ultra paranoid about doing my Kindle harm while I tote it back and forth from home to work without a cover, just flopping around in my tote bag, going to battle with my Zune, Blackberry and car keys.

March Madness...

March is my second favorite time of the year (after the time period of October 31st through January 1st cause I lurve me some Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas) and not just because my birthday is in March (the ides of March, to be exact) but because it also happens to be the month of my wedding anniversary (4 years!) and the month that it finally really truly warms up in Arizona!

I'm really trying hard to celebrate life. I really admire a couple of bloggers out there who rock the holiday world by celebrating even some of the more obscure (only obscure because I had never heard of them) holidays. When I think of their households, I'm sure it must rock to be growing up in them. I especially admire Grace over at Uncommon Grace and her dedication to bringing magical delight to her children all year long through the celebration of various holidays.

Because I'm not yet fully versed in all of the holidays out there, I'm going to try and make a bigger deal out of the holidays that I DO know about. So - St. Patrick's Day? Here I come!

And this year, because I like to stay hip with technology as much as I can afford to, my husband bought me a Kindle 2 for my birthday! It should get here today, and I'm super excited to be part of the e-reading world! I've already got a few ebooks purchased from The Kindle store, so as soon as it arrives I will be able to curl up with a book (well, probably not since I'll be at work, but you know what I mean). It should help take my mind off the fact that I'm turning 27 this year - when the heck did I get to the tail end of my twenties?