MamaLilLadies

It's been awhile since I have posted last, and I am going to really try to change that. I never anticipated on not blogging, and not using my blog as a place to write down my thoughts, what I do, and what I want to remember for the future. I made this blog to share myself and my family with my friends, family, and anyone new that came along through my life on the internet. I am hoping from here on out that I will make a better effort to use my blog to its fullest advantage, and as an avenue to improve my life on many different levels. I want to share my feelings on many different aspects of my life, marriage, parenting, self image/esteem, family, friendships, and everything in between. We all have ups and downs in life, and being able to express those can be challenging and rewarding. I want to know that I am human just as everyone else, and my life is just as real as anyone elses. I can have good days, and bad days. I am not going to be able to back track the past 6 months or so of my life as that will literally take a long time to do, but I will just start with right now, and post what I feel is of importance, and I want others to know.

Lately I have been feeling a bit self conscious about my appearance, especially my weight. I haven't been pleased with the way I look in the mirror or how I feel in my clothes. I have noticed my clothes feeling tight on me and my underwear riding up my butt. I knew this might happen as I had the Depo shot in September. My doctor told me that a side effect could be weight gain. 2 months into the shot I didn't gain any weight, but in the 3rd month, BOOM!! I gained 10 lbs!! Yikes! Completely not happy, and honestly the most weight I gained outside of pregnancy. I peaked 146 in a pregnancy, and this just gives you an insight as to where I was. This may not be a lot of weight to some, but for my size and figure its a lot. I had to go to the doctor 2 weeks ago for a small matter, and they ask to weigh you. When I stepped on the scale I was 125. NO WAY!! It was in this moment, I knew I needed to lose weight, and stop the Depo shot. I wasn't satisfied with the Depo shot as I was constantly bleeding, and it became more of a bother. My doctor told me that once the Depo left my body some of the weight would shed off, but if I wanted to lose it, I would need to work at it. I talked to my Sister In Law last night about my feelings with my weight, and she inspired me to want to really work at it, and improve my body and self image. I weighed myself last night, 11/29/16 and I was 123.4 and this morning, 11/30/16, I was 122.6. I wanted to weigh myself bloated and empty. My starting weight will be 122.6 and my goal is to reach 112. This has been my normal weight for years, and one I am healthy at. It really isn't an unreasonable weight for my figure. I have asked my SIL to share some fruit/veggie smoothies with me and am waiting for her to give me some so we can start together!! :) She advised me to do a lot of crunches and planks to help tone my belly as its a big area of concern for me. I also want to work on my upper thighs and butt. They have gotten so big!! Yuck!

Christmas is here!!! My tree is up, my decorations are out, and I put up the 2 blow ups outside. They are of a reindeer and snowman. Alyssa will be very happy to see them. I just need to get a holiday mat, and put my lights up. I have asked my husband to do it, but honestly I know he won't do it, and I will need to end up doing it myself. I am giving him until Sunday evening, and if he doesn't then I will be doing it myself early next week. I am getting a new front door and screen door on Monday so I might wait until after that. It will be easier to hang the lights, and hopefully I won't run into any problems. A female can do anything, right?? This weekend I also need to go with Alyssa to get our little real tree. Last year we started a new tradition where we will have 2 trees. One real, one fake! This year it will just be Alyssa and I as my husband is not living at home, and he made the statement he isn't in the holiday spirit this year. I took that upon myself to just do it myself. Alyssa and I can do this. It can't be hard to cut down a 3-4 foot tree, and put it in the back of my car, and put it in the stand myself!! I am challenging myself to do it and I AM GOING TO DO IT. This might even make a good vlog for my YouTube Channel, MamaLilLadies :) Haha!! Once the lights and real tree are up, I will feel so much better about Christmas being here!!

Speaking of Christmas...

I am going to make a very hard effort to do Elf on the Shelf every day, and make it a new adventure for Lil Ladies to see!! I am really hope Pinterest is going to be my friend, and give me some great ideas!!! We have had an Elf on the Shelf for a few years, but now that Alyssa is old enough to truly understand, I want to bring the magic of the elf back. His name is Tad, and he will make his appearance tonight!! :) If you have an elf, what is his name?? Leave a comment and let me know!! I also have started 2 new traditions! The first is I am going to have 24 small gifts under the tree. They will either be a DVD or a book. Alyssa will be able to pick one every day and open it. We will read the book or watch the movie depending on what she picks. The countdown to Christmas. Someone gave me this idea last year. I currently have the first 14 days done and wrapped, just need to get a few more!! Lil Ladies will not even notice if I do not say anything about 24 items being under the tree. Tad, our elf, is the one who will be giving the presents to Alyssa on a daily basis. I think she will like it. I also have a countdown using Bible verses. Since we are Christians, I have found 24 Christmas verses that the older girls will look up and read outloud! I am hoping they like it and understand the meaning behind the verses and why I am wanting to do this. I did it a bit different last year, and it didn't work out well. I saw this on pinterest and wanted to try it. I will try to post some pictures of Tad and his adventures here throughout the month!!

I am making small progress on trying to return to YouTube and my social media accounts associated with my channel, MamaLilLadies. I am going to be doing my Daily Question of the Day on my MamaLilLadies Facebook page in hopes people will answer them and make 5 new comments daily on different channels I watch. I hope this way exposure will happen for my channel and it might attract new viewers or my current viewers to interact more!! If I make small consistent steps and prove to myself I can do it, I can make bigger ones and just add to it!! Just need to write my ideas down and grow with them. I just got into such a depressing rut with my channel I gave up and said forget it. Some inspiration on channels I watch already is giving me some hope I can do this.......again!!

Alyssa is at speech, and its almost time for her to be done!! Until next time my #blessedbunch