My Graduate

 My oldest son Nicholas graduated this past spring. When people tell you to cherish those times when they are young, they are dead serious. The days may be long, but my sweet friends, the years are so very quick. This is one of  my favorites of his senior pictures. Last summer we took a trip up north to Duluth, MN to do his senior pictures. It was a special time to spend with just him.  With jobs and school, a large family, well, the last year just went by so quickly. I want to stop time. I want the kids to be small again, back when I thought my days were so very long. I want to tell myself, to enjoy it. You know what? I think I already told myself that and time still went very fast!!

 He was my first baby. He was such a happy baby and it feels like it was just, like maybe only 4 years ago. How is it that he has grown into a young man already? And a very nice young man at that?

 I used to read to him as many books as he could carry. (which turned out to be about 17) Times I cherish so much in my mind and heart.

 Here we are at his grad party end of June. I'd like to do a follow-up post about the actual grad party for future reference. Would you be bored if I did that? This was such an emotional time. In just 2 short years we will have our next graduate.

He's thoughtful and kind, loving and caring. He's faithful, has a great sense of humor, (dry as it is)  and I am so very proud of him!

He's a nice young man with a strong faith. Exactly what I've payed for his whole life.
God is so GOOD.

 Big brother, little brother. A very special relationship. My book-end boys. Oldest and youngest.

Nicholas ended up graduating with an Associate's degree from our local junior college and graduating with his homeschool class from high school. He was looking into becoming a CPA. 

(Thank you state of Minnesota for PSEO classes, all his generals are done for free!) 

PSEO=Post Secondary Education Opportunity

  I am blessed to have him home another year though,  as he continues to work full time and discerns a calling he's feeling from God to join the seminary.

 Yes, this sweet boy may have a vocation to the priesthood! Please will you pray for him? He is feeling called to be a diocesan priest. We are all very excited for him. He felt God's calling in His time though, not in the seminary's time, so it's too late to get in this year.  He will have a discerning year to pray and prepare. He gets to go spend a weekend with the seminarians next month. I'm so excited for him. This news also changes the way a mother prays for her son.

Her first-born son who will always look like this to her.

Jamie Update!

My Before, size 18 pants, XXL tops

My NOW, size 10 pants, Large tops.

Last August, actually August 31st, I decided to sign up for Weight Watchers. I've signed up online before, lost maybe 8-10 lbs a couple different times. I also did Weight Watchers with a friend many years ago, after my 4th baby. We just emailed each other what we ate and counted a point for every 50 calories we ate, equaling a certain amount of points per day according to our weight. We'd try to exercise every day as a part of it too. That time I lost 28 pounds, but then got pregnant 2 more times.  With each child I'd lose quite a bit, after 60 pound weight gains, all except 10-15 pounds, and those 10-15 is what accumulated with each child until my total amount I wanted to  lose was close to 60 pounds. 

From August 31, 2017 to August 31, 2018 I lost 45 pounds! My reason for wanting to go in was that I hated the way I looked in pictures. I love myself, I have, or thought I had pretty good self esteem. Except when I'd look at pictures of myself. OH my goodness. Like in the top picture above, I actually thought I looked pretty good. 

This past year we had First Confession, First Communion, Confirmation, Graduation and a Graduation party. I wanted to at least not worry about how I looked in pictures. That being said, the weight has come off slow. I'm OK with that.  This past summer from May until the end of August I only lost 8 pounds. 8 pounds is a size though! Down is down. 

I really liked this visual of weight loss and how it works, I found this to be true for me. Each weigh-in is just one moment in a week filled with moments. 

The reason I chose Weight Watchers is because I've found it to be the most livable. I can see myself doing this always. It's about making better food choices. It's about getting back on track with healthy eating the next day or even the next meal. I am able to eat anything I want, I just  need to count it. I do allow myself a few free days, like Thanksgiving day, Christmas Day, Easter, my birthday and special occasions but I get back on track the very next day. 

This time I joined online and meetings. I found the meetings really helpful. I liked the support and looked forward to each week getting new tips and sharing some of my own. There is also tons of support online with the new app you can scan foods at the store (or home) and see how may points an item is before you decide to purchase. There are also support things like a thing on the app called "Connect" where it's kind of like a Weight Watchers Instagram. People share their stories and it's filled with encouragement. There are recipes and restaurant foods listed, there's even an activity tracker. (you'd get all these benefits from the app with the online version of Weight Watchers) There are support groups on Facebook also I've found very helpful. Instagram has people that do Weight Watchers and post recipes and foods they eat daily. I've found these very helpful and encouraging too. 

The new Weight Watchers is now called Weight Watchers Freestyle. With Freestyle there are many new zero point foods such as: Fat Free plain Greek or regular plain yogurt, chicken and turkey breast, seafood, eggs, corn, all beans (except baked), fruit and veggies. You are given a certain amount of points to stick to each day with weekly points to do extra things like going out to eat or having treats or whatever you choose. The new zero point foods really do help you to make better choices that fill you up. One of my very favorite things is sugar-free cheesecake flavored pudding mix mixed with 1 cup of almond milk and then stirred into a large container of plain Greek yogurt. (this needs to sit for several hours though and then stirred before eating) I have this with fresh blueberries and peaches or whatever fresh fruit we have for breakfast every morning! 

I have not reached my "goal" yet, I still have about 15 pounds left to get to that. It doesn't matter to me how long it takes as long as I'm doing my best an eating healthy. 

My goal is always to workout daily. But I fail this miserably. In May I did start walking daily with my daughter, but this quickly faded. I realized although, walking is my favorite form of exercise, I really don't like to exercise. Don't get me wrong, I love how it  makes me feel. I just don't like the guilt it adds to my life when I don't do it. When I get busy, it's the first thing to go. SO I've lost this weight with NO EXERCISE. I'm not advocating this, because I do think exercise helps firm us up and obviously there are a ton of other health benefits.  I know this is a question many have, "Do I have to exercise?" The answer is no. 

Any other questions? Please ask in the comments! 

Life

I'm posting an update picture for anyone still out there to see how much my kiddos have grown! I have so many things that have happened in this past year. I'd like to start writing weekly "Thankful" posts to catch up on life things. Life has been hard for us these past few years and it's just hard to blog when when hard things happen. I always like to keep it real and hope to continue to do so.

I'm  looking forward to catching up with YOU! If you are reading, please leave a comment, let me know how you are doing, what's going on in your life and if you'd like me to pray for you for any reason!

 (this photo is actually from May, my oldest daughter's Confirmation)