An update on my fast

Well, I am four days into my fast. I have to say, after I made it through my caffeine withdraw on Friday and Saturday, I am feeling great! I have had my moments when I wanted to quit, but I overcame! It was especially hard when poppy bought Nat an ice cream sundae, but I didn't partake. I actually have a bit more energy and I am even saving money, by not running to McD's! Nat is coming along for the ride too, we are making healthy snack choices! I will keep you posted! This fast will last until October 20th, at which point I feel like it won't be a fast anymore, but a new way for me!

Positive Changes

As I have turned another year older, I have declared a few lifestyle changes, and of course I am blogging about it so I am held accountable by any and all the read! I thought I would make a list of 31 resolutions, but my list is not yet complete. (I chose 31 because that is the age I turned on the 18th.) Here are a few to top my list:
1. I am fasting for 31 days all soda, fast food, candy, ice cream, cookies...you get it
2. I will spend at least 31 minutes a day involved in cardio excercising
3. I will spend 31 minutes a day of uniterrupted time with Natalie. No TV, no phone, no internet, nothing...just my girl and me. We will do whaterver she wants; play, read, dance, talk...
Ok so this is where I stop for now. I will keep working on it. If anyone has any additions to my list, fell free to help me out!

Reflecting

So I sit here at my salon, doing my personal laundry, drinking a tea that I just bought at the grocery store and listening to Natalie "making appointments" on the unplugged phone and it is 10:15 PM! Why you might ask, am I doing these random things and keeping my daughter up so late....Well let me unload....Everyone I know in Ohio experienced the incredible wind storm on Sunday afternoon, no secrect there, and many people lost electricity. I know my family and I are going through what many families have gone through this week, but we seem to be a minority in our city. You see those of us residing on one of four streets are the only families without power. Many schools and businesses in other areas have suffered power loss, but as those places get back to normal and get their power restored, we sit in the dark. We have learned alot so far this week and made some changes, that are starting to seem like hidden blessings. We threw all of our food from the freezer and fridge away. We have flashlights everywhere and Natalie knows right when we walk in the door to pick up her flashlight so she can move about the house. We have had no television, which surprisingly, I do not miss at all! We have played dora memory game by flashlight, along with reading books. Natalie had her 3 year old check up even though the doctor's office had no power. By the way she growing and developing just perfect. We seem to be talking more and using our creative brains more. Yes it is quite frustrasting that we can't just flip a switch and have light, or open the fridge to get food out to cook, but when I reflect on this whole experience, I have to say, we could have it alot worse and instead of thinking "poor me",I am going to consider this a blessing. A blessing that I have learned to live in a way that could bring my family closer to each other. A blessing that I have learned different methods of interacting and entertaining with my daughter and learning how to deal with inconveinence. So who knows how long this will last, but it can't get any worse. I can handle this and anything else God might have in store for us, He wouldn't send it my way if I couldn't, right?

Apple Picking

On Monday evening, Nat and were playing outside and I had this brilliant idea that we should to an apple orchard Tuesday morning and pick apples. So I asked her if she thought that would be fun, her reply "wowie bozowie" (those familar with Boz the bear picked up on that) "yes mama, you are the best!" So I found a farm and even a recipe to make homemade applesauce and apple butter. Yes I am feeling slightly Betty Crockerish. Well it rained all night and by morning everything was a soggy mess, however we intended to go apple picking! We got dressed in our jeans and sweatshirts and nat wore her frog boots. We drove to the farm with sucj excitement to pull in and find out they were CLOSED! I am thinking what in the world...the website said they were open...I must be reading the sign wrong! Natti yells in the back "we're here, let's pick those apples". I then told her the news and her reply was let's go to another farm". I called my mom to share our bad news so she tried to find another farm for us to go to. Everything is closed on Tuesdays! I was having a real bad attitude about this...not sure why, it was apple picking afterall. I told the girls at work and later when talking to a friend, I told her too. Later that afternoon, after baking bread and finger painting, Nat said "this was a fun day mama, we can pick apples another day" I thought, oh my! I have had this bad attitude all day about picking apples and she has had a great day just being with me! My 3 three old gave me a serious attitude check!