My New Year's Realizations

I am not a person that really does the whole New Years Resolution thing. I just want to get that out of the way right off the bat. But somehow my decision to get serious about loosing weight happened at this time of year. It is kind of funny though that this past holiday season was the first in a very long time that we actually did not indulge and over eat, bake 50 pies and eat them in a week. No, this year we scaled way back since it would be just my husband and I with our youngest and his girlfriend. A nice cozy time with family. So back to my “Not New Year's Resolution”. I have been wanting to loose this weight (all 100 lbs of it) for a while, it simply became very clear to me that it was time to get serious about it and put all the thinking about it into action.

I, like many others out there have gone on the weight loss wagon before and I like many others have failed to loose weight and keep it off. I have read books, seen tv shows, watched online videos, tried supplements and even considered saving for surgery. So why do I think this time I will succeed? There is one thing that is different this time. One thing that I did this time that I never thought to do any other time before. Ok, so now I need to preface this by saying that as a Christian, I have prayed about my weight loss before. I prayed what I call the 'Weight Loss Prayer' many times over the years. It goes something like this:

Lord,

You know I am trying to loose weight. Please help me to stay away from temptation and pie. Help me to realize that Potato Chips are my enemy and Soda will eventually kill me. Help me to keep my mouth shut and my stomach satisfied at the thought of just one more helping. And should I stumble along the way, help me to get back on track tomorrow.

Amen

Sound familiar? Come on, I know I am not the only one who has prayed this or something similar. Go ahead, admit it, nobody but us weight watchers here.

This time though, I haven't prayed that prayer. I haven't needed to. I am loosing weight and eating healthy and feeling really good. That is a big change from times past. Ready to hear my secret? The one thing that I did different this time that has unlocked the key to weight loss success? Here it is: I forgave myself for getting this big in the first place. You heard me, I forgave myself. I realized that with the weight came anger for getting as large as I did. I also heard excuses and justifications coming from my very own lips every time someone brought it up. The whole time I was still packing on the pounds, feeling miserable, and my self esteem was almost non existent. This time I decided to take a really hard look at myself from the inside out instead of the outside in. I didn't want to be this way, and yet I still ate the second helping, or bought the junk food. So why? I realized that part of me had given up. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had resolved myself to the fact that I was fat and that is just the way it was. The other half of me was tired of trying and failing. Tired of making an effort just to pack on the pounds again and we all know that when the pounds come back they bring friends so there are way more of them.

I realized I was mad at myself for thinking this way and mad at myself for not doing anything about it and really mad at myself for packing on the pounds period! I had asked God to forgive me for my sins, but had I asked him to really forgive me for my thinking as far as the weight was concerned? Had I really even forgiven myself? How was I going to resolve to loose weight when I couldn't forgive myself for getting obese in the first place? Isn't it a healing process to loose weight? Isn't the overeating of food an addiction? If so then, one must change the way one thinks about food. So what about how one feels about one's self? Sure there are little victories when you see the weight come off, or you start to physically feel better, but why is that only temporary? Why does the weight come right back on? Why do we go back to our old habits? Proverbs 26:11 says: “As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” Being a puppy mom I have seen how my dogs will “clean up” their vomit immediately after loosing it. They do it mindlessly, out of instinct and generations of teaching and breeding. It occurred to me that it is the same with my weight loss mindset. In my mind, I was ugly and fat, lazy and becoming useless, and helpless against fighting this monkey on my back. The very fact that it would be hard to take off the weight made it a daunting task that I didn't want to tackle. The contributors to my thinking were the media, other people, my family, my upbringing and my own conclusions.

Don't get me wrong I am not blaming all these things for my weight gain, I am simply saying that I allowed all of these influences into my thinking to the point of forming conclusions about myself that were simply untrue. The devil didn't make me do it, although he may have put some of that thinking out there for me to grab onto, I made the decision to believe the lie all by myself. I finally realized that in order to stop those lies, I had to forgive myself for believing in them in the first place. Then I had to forgive myself to allowing my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, to become unhealthy from excessive weight gain. It was not an overnight revelation, nor was it a quick prayer of forgiveness to finally get to the point of being able to get serious about the weight loss. On the contrary, it happened over a matter of months. A gradual progression from rationalization to realization, to action then participaction.

Now I can say that I have forgiven myself for my obesity, and the self deprecating thoughts that came with it. I can now tell you that once I loose the weight this time, it will stay off. I can tell you that I look forward to this journey now because I know that God isn't finished with all this yet. I have a feeling there is much more in this head of mine that He wants to reveal to me and cleanse me from. I welcome it. For the first time in my life, I welcome the change and the hard work to get there. I welcome it because this time, I am truly doing this with Christ as my leader, in my thoughts and my calorie intake!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:8

Angel

The Spirit of Christmas Past

This is the time of year that everyone tends to reflect on family, friends, and things that make you smile, ok well most of us.  There are a few grinches and you know who you are.  Those people who think Christmas is a bunch of hooey (don't bother looking that word up, it is only in the southern dictionary).  They complain about having to decorate, the commercialism, the junk they call toys in the stores and the crowds of people who are always in the way.  I used to be one of those people.  Used to be...I have reformed.  My grouchy mood at the Holidays came mostly from being a single mother who didn't have the money to  buy my own son presents let alone the classmate who's name was on a little red piece of paper drawn out of a hat, or my parents and siblings who would all gather under the tree on Christmas morning and exchange expensive trinkets and toys.  I felt cheated and hurt every year.  Until something happened...

It was the year my youngest sister graduated from High School and had decided to move from our then home in Canada, to Alabama where she would attend college and live with relatives.  It was also the year my father decided to go on a Mission Trip for a month to the Ukraine.  This was a year that although the presents would be more lavish than I could ever afford, they would not be outrageously expensive.  This was the year I decided to not only think long and hard about each person I was buying for, but I was also going to do it on a budget of $25.00 for everyone.

Back then, computers and email was a really high tech idea and cellphones were the size of airplanes, ok not that big, but they were huge by today's standards.  Nobody could afford them either, so no one I knew had one.  Pagers were for business men, not latch key kids, and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were still fighting over DOS.  Ok now that you have some idea of how really old I am, on with the story.

I decided to do all my shopping at the Dollar Store.  Not some, ALL!  For my sister, she was setting up a new home in the summer and moving 1000 miles away.  So for her I bought pot holders, and plastic stir spoons, and a couple of picture frames with photos of family already in them.  For my Father who was going to be 6000 miles away, and in very cold weather with rations on food and soap and things like that, I bought things like "Hot Spots" to put in your gloves to keep them warm, safety pins, a loofa ( I call them buffer puffers), and a photo frame with a picture of family already in it.  For my Mother, I bought her a phone card for long distance calls, and a photo frame to put a picture of my Dad in.  For my brother, I bought a game to keep him occupied, and a touque (for those of you who don't know what this is, it is a knitted hat to keep your head and ears warm in the winter.), not much right?

Not much, except that was the Christmas that everyone was thrilled with their presents.  Why?  I didn't spend more than $5.00 on each of them.  I was bewildered to say the least at everyone's reactions at my little tokens for them.  Upon asking my Father why the gift was so great, he told me, "You really thought about what each of us truly needed, and spent what you could to get the perfect gift."

Wow.  It was that moment that something inside me snapped.  All of a sudden Christmas wasn't about the commercialism, or the shopping, or the craziness of the holiday. Suddenly it was all about the people I loved.  My brother asked me how I knew he needed the touque.  I told him that it was simple.  The last time he came to visit me I noticed how red his ears were from the cold and that told me that he didn't have anything to keep them warm. Trust me when it is 10 below Zero, if you have a touque, you wear a touque!  That Christmas for me was the beginning of something big.  Something entirely life changing.

In recent years I have been known to decorate my house with dancing lights to music, give presents bought at the store and homemade, and I have even done a few voice over's for Children's Christmas Books. I don't just give someone a present to be included in the festivities or because it is the latest toy craze (which will only last about a day if the toy lasts that long).  Now I give a gift because someone needs it.  And honestly if they don't need anything (that I know of), I give someone else a gift in their name.  Someone who was like me once.  Frustrated and frozen out of the Christmas Season because of hard times, no money and the whole idea of giving anything to anyone who won't appreciate it anyway. And you know what?  I married a man who does the same thing.

As a Christian, I believe that is what God would want me to do during this season of over spending and over eating and over doing everything.  God's gift to us was so simple, yet so powerful.  He gave us Jesus.

That too entirely changed my life.

REAL Extreme Couponing

I have a confession. I am an Extreme Couponer. Ok, so I have been for the past 15 years. Long before it was a popular cultural phenom, I was teaching my friends and family how to save hundreds of dollars a month and get items for free by using coupons. I have been laughed at walking into a grocery store with my coupon box; sneered at by cashiers who think it is a waste of time (that still happens by the way), and pitied by people who thought that I must be poor since I use coupons. Now those same people are joining this movement in droves! Partly because of the economy and partly because of the television hype.

It isn't a bad thing, but because of unrealistic expectations it can be frustrating for everyone. Because of the amount of people attempting to get something for nothing, most stores have changed or “clarified” their coupon policies. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. The good: You know exactly what the store will and won't allow. The bad: Stores that used to Double and Triple are no longer doing so because now in this economy with the amount of people couponing, they loose too much money. Also manufacturers are lowering the dollar amounts on most coupons. So it now takes more coupons to get significant savings while stores are limiting the amount of coupons you can use in one transaction. Kind of a catch twenty-two. So my advise to everyone who wants to start couponing or who is frustrated by how 'little' you are saving with coupons? Breathe. And seriously, get smart about this new found hobby. It really does pay off.

Couponing isn't that hard, but it does take time and diligence, and there are many good blogs out there to teach you how to do it. You have to be consistent in clipping and somewhat consistent in shopping in order for it to work. One of the questions I hear most often is: "How can I get $1000 worth of groceries for pennies?". Is it possible? Yes, in some parts of the country and with a TON of planning. You might have to settle for saving an average of 40% - 60% on your bill instead. Does that mean you failed? NO! Not at all. It means that you are a smart shopper who is realistic about your resources. One thing couponing should not be is stressful. If you find yourself stressed, stop watching the hype on television, and work out your own budget.

There is a way that you can go to the store and not pay anything or walk out with money in hand. Wal-mart stores give an overage if the item you are buying is less than the value of the coupon. If you were to have 100 coupons for an item and you can talk your store manager into allowing all those purchases with those coupons (good luck), AND that is the only item you bought, then you have a shot. There are people who do this and they are able to pay for the rest of their groceries with the overage they receive. But I want to stress to you that this is not the norm, just not impossible. There are many factors involved in this type of Extreme Couponing. For example:

1. You have a Multi-Million dollar network asking for special concessions on your behalf to bend the stores coupon policy for a reality television show.

2. You have 100 relatives that buy a paper but don't coupon and mail all their inserts to you the day the paper comes out so you won't miss the sale. OR you have hundreds of extra dollars to spend on a clipping service or extra papers (then my question is, 'why are you couponing?').

3. Your store Manager is on your Christmas List. In other words, he really, really likes you and will order stock for you and let you use coupons to buy it all, give you a sweet cashier who doesn't mind punching in hundreds of coupons that don't scan right and gives you your own dedicated check-out line.

4. You live in a major metro area that has store competition. I say this because if you live in a small town with limited competition as I do, the reality is that your store can pretty much make up their own local policy that will go against the corporate policy. Good luck trying to get corporate to listen (I have tried).

5. Lastly, you can shop every week, making sure you hit every sale, even multiple stores and you are the most organized person in town. This last one may or may not be totally true, but for the most part organization is key to couponing and when you are as unorganized as I am it can be a challenge, just sayin'.

So, since most of us can't make sure that all of these factors are working for us, let us continue with couponing in the real world.

The reality is that you most likely get 2 or 3 papers and clip your coupons, put them in a binder or a box (if you are organized) and make a grocery list then off to the store you go. All of this is of course accomplished in the scads of free time you have. You probably have to time your shopping trip so that you hit the sale before the next weeks sales flyer comes out and the shelves are not emptied by other coupon shoppers. Not to mention if you have kids you need a babysitter, husband needs to be home or you have to go when the kids are in school (for those of you who take your kids, you have other challenges that just can't be addressed in the space provided me for this blog). With all that going on, when you do get your coupons clipped, organized and matched to your grocery list, then have added the freebies and overages, you can feel confident you have accomplished something amazing. Not just the fact that you have now fed your family with a lot less money, but you have managed to accumulate a stock pile that will come in handy at the end of the year when you are wanting money for Christmas presents, or if you are like me and have kids in college, the semester bill is due and the school has informed you that they want half the semester paid up front now (grrrr). These are the times when your family will appreciate what you have done for them; because now you can go to the grocery store and buy meat, produce and staples instead of “all that stuff you don't need right now” (as my husband has said numerous times). Being able to reach into the stockpile when you need to is where you see all your savings. That is the time the grocery bill goes down to next to nothing.

Well, there it is. The real reason to coupon. The stockpile. Even if you don't see a ton of savings at the register, you will see it when you need it most. Couponers have lived off their stockpiles for a myriad of reasons. Loss of a job, vacation, school bills, illness, and those are just a few reasons your stockpile would dwindle. The great thing is that once your significant other sees the savings in this way, you will have a partner to help you clip coupons once you start shopping again, trust me.

I recently went to the grocery store and just bought meat and some staples spending $50 on non-coupon items. My husband was shocked that I would do this because in his mind we still had to buy groceries later...I just spent half my weekly grocery budget! After I put the groceries away I simply looked at him and opened my stockpile cabinets (which by the way are in the 33 foot RV that we currently live in – a blog for another day) and said, “do you really need any more veggies, cereal, and snacks than what I have here?” The reaction was priceless. He had no idea that we had that much food stored away. Needless to say, the college bill will get paid and we can still eat while doing it (much to his stomach's relief).

Back to my original advice for you who are frustrated by couponing. Breathe. Take a deep breath, and start clipping and getting organized, cause Honey, Christmas Dinner is just around the corner and the price of Turkey just went up!

Some of my favorite bloggers for showing you how to coupon:

Coupon Diva's - These girls show you how and give you store match ups every week!

Budget Savvy Diva - Deals every hour on the hour, and the Adventures of Watson the Budget Savvy Kitty!

Enza's Bargains - Great deals, coupons and contests!

Couponista Queen - She is the Queen of her castle and of couponing!

Please don't forget to join all of these ladies on Facebook too for even more coupons and bargains!

What A Load Of CRAP!......

There are days when it seems everything goes right, then there are those days you wished you had stayed in bed.  We all have those days, most of us get through them without much hair pulling or without murdering someone.  But since I have started the road to menopause, I find that those days are more and more challenging.  Living in an RV makes them even more so when things don't go as they should.  Of course, as a Christian, I try to have Grace and handle little problems with dignity.  Sometimes though you can't help but throw a little tantrum, just to relieve some stress.  That is fine if you have a house and most of your neighbors are gone to work during the stresser - when you live in an RV, your neighbor is on vacation and most likely home at the time you are trying out a new vocabulary in your "back yard".

I have recently come across a problem however that no matter how hard I try it tends to be reoccurring.  The dreaded black tank.  For those of you who don't know what that is, the black tank is connected to the toilet and the sewer by the sewer line.  It is there holding water and basically all your crap until you dump it out.  Now being a Newbie, I was under the impression that when you are parked, you could open your black tank valve and leave it open while using the facilities.  No need to fill it right?  I mean, you are parked and everything goes right into the park sewer while you are connected right?  WRONG! Apparently this is a common misconception with new RV'ers.

I found this out the hard way.  One morning when my Celiac Disease was particularly bad from eating out the previous day - I found that after relieving my body, the toilet was not flushing right.  What I mean by that is that everything that is supposed to disappear down the little hole, wasn't!  I filled the bowl with extra water, and tried several times to flush the offensive material down into the sewer with no avail.  I glanced at the clock- 4 AM.  Great.  Now what?  The only civilized thing to do was fill the bowl with water and wait to see if things settle down on their own.  I waited about 15 minutes and attempted to flush the remaining liquid mess down the sewer.  Success - sort of.  It was out of the bowl, but not going completely down the sewer.  As a matter of fact, if I held the toilet valve open with my foot (commonly known as the flusher), I could still see the contents of my indiscretion right there at the top of the line.  Waiting, as if to say to me, "I know what you did last night"....and the smell was enough to send a grown man packing!

It was then that it occurred to me that mine was not the only little package stuck in the black tank.  There was obviously more from previous deposits that was refusing to take the little journey down the sewer hole.  Deciding not to deal with it at 4 AM, I went back to bed until a decent hour when I could make the trip to the RV Super Center down the road.  At which point I bought some "waste eating" chemicals, and asked the knowledgeable salesman what else I could do about my situation.  The first words out of his mouth were condemning, "You did keep the black tank valve closed while parked didn't you?"

Uh.....well......um......."no"

"Well then you have a solid mess on your hands that will take some time to get rid of.  Use this chemical for about 4 days then try to flush again, if you can't get things to move down the line then go ahead and close the valves up, fill the tank with about 2 gallons of water or about 5 bags of ice cubes, disconnect and drive for a while.  The ice cubes should break things up.  Then just connect again as usual and flush the system.  Once it is clear, CLOSE THE VALVE, fill the tank with another 3  gallons of water and put another dose of the chemicals in there and use as normal."

"And if that doesn't work?'

"Better get one of these tank sprayers so you can wash out the tank."

During my $50 purchase, I realized something.  This was one crappy day from beginning to end.

I'll let you know how things go down.....stay tuned....

Be Still and Know Peace….

There comes a day in everyones life after your kids are grown, that your mind starts to wonder "what if" and you start to look at other possibilities for life other than paying a mortgage and living in suburbia.  For some, that is when they find that special parcel of land in the country that seems to say "Buy Me, and go in debt again...", for others it is the call of the open road.  For us, it was both (ok, not the go in debt again part).  My husband and I always said we wanted to purchase about 10 or 15 acres, put a doublewide on it and be free to travel around the US and see God's creation.  Living in an RV fulfills only half that dream.  That would be the ability to travel half.

When we sold our house and got rid of our stuff and moved into a 33 ft. RV I thought "This is going to be great!" , and it is....for the most part.  We moved to an RV park in Mineola, TX called Somewhere RV Park, yeah I know, but you gotta live somewhere right?  It was really great, close to shopping but in the country, lots of full-timers to learn from and best of all, a fenced dog park for Winston and Madi to play in.  The bad part of living there was that my husband had to make a 45 minute drive to work and a 45 minute drive back every night, and since his hours were anywhere from 3 pm to 6 am, it didn't settle my little heart.  Ok, I was afraid he would fall asleep on the way home.  It also didn't help that all my new neighbors told me about the wild hog and deer accidents along that particular stretch of road.  Don't get me wrong, my husband is a good driver - I am just not a good waiter.

SO.....

We set off to find an RV park closer to my husbands work.  Picture this, Hubbie works at a Truck Stop off I-30, looking at the map, just 2 inches away (that would be about 10 miles to all you drivers), is a very large, very beautiful, inviting Lake.  Cypress Springs Lake has been voted the most beautiful lake in Texas by travel magazines, and rightly so.  It is stunning; but all the parks around there that allow camping do not allow monthly full-timers.  So no staying on the lake.  Bummer.  I did however stumble on a website for a park that was right between the lake and hubbies work, this might be ideal for us right?  So I called the owner to have him show us and tell us about his park.  Turns out the website was only up for about a week before the owner took it down.  He didn't really know anything about having a website and didn't see the value...duh....that is how I found him!  Anyway, we looked at the park and discussed price and such and drove around the area looking at the town.  We told the gentleman we would pray about it and get back to him, but on the way home we decided to stay where we were since it would be difficult for me to buy food since I have a special diet.  Celiac disease is not something you can play around with, if you can't eat gluten don't, if you can eat gluten, why put yourself through that?

The VERY NEXT DAY...for all those speed readers....we called the owner and told him it was not going to work out and why, "but thank you for your time".  I have to admit, I get disappointed when something does not work out the way I want it to.  My husband still had to drive, and that lake was so beautiful and my little heart was so set on living up there.  Another Bummer!  That afternoon, after I had resolved myself to living with the sand and the train that were my only complaint at Somewhere RV Park, the owner of the other park calls us with the offer of a lifetime.  He wants us to come and manage his RV park, AND he is willing to not only give us free rent and utilities, but he is willing to pay me $100 a month to compensate for having to buy my food online!  Ok, for those of you who know me, you KNOW I was doing the 'Little Angel Dance'!  Then my husband told him, "we will pray about it and get back to you at the end of the week", WHAT??!!!  Pray about what?  Are you joking?  It seems God just dropped this amazing opportunity in my lap and YOU want to give Him a chance to say NO?????  Pffttt!

Fine, I'll pray.  And I did.  It went something like this:  "Lord, I love you and I know you love me.  You know my heart better than my husband.  You know Lord that I sold my beautiful house and all my belongings to live in less than 300 square feet.  You know that I have always wanted to live on an acreage but not go into debt to buy land (the park has 30 acres, 28 of which is meadow and it has a fishing pond on it).  Please help my husband see that this is exactly what we wanted and Lord, if You know it is a good move, make it happen - (insert back of mind translation: "Lord, don't let him screw this up for us").  I love You Jesus, in Your Name, Amen."

Waiting the 3 days to the end of the week was excruciating!  Of course I didn't let my husband know that.  When Friday finally came I woke up and and immediately said, "today is the day, right?

Well, to make a long story just slightly longer, I am the new Manager at Still Meadow RV Park in Mount Vernon, TX!  Whoo Hooo, I get to clean bathrooms for other people!  LOL, ok that is NOT the reason I love this job that I have now been in for 1 month.  I love the people that I meet from all over the world, I love the full-timers that live here, and I LOVE being on 30 acres with a pond and close by a beautiful lake!

Check out the web page I designed for the park and you will see why I love living here, oh and come see us if you are on the road!  We have a lot to offer here that you might not know about....sorry that is the promoter in me coming out....better stop while I am ahead!