Taking Care of Me

This is my new salt scrub.  I found a pin on Pinterest, I was intrigued, I did it. :o)  The jar on the left is about a cup of sea salt, a 1/4 cup coconut oil and 1/4 cup almond oil.  The jar on the right is about a cup of sea salt, 1/8 cup olive oil and 3/8 cup almond oil.  I added a few drops of skin safe essential oils to each for smell-good purposes.  I've not tried them yet, but I have high hopes.  My skin is a wreck.  I have a lovely condition called keratosis pilaris and I need to exfoliate regularly to help shed the dead skin cells.  But...I don't.  Of course not.  I'm always in a hurry to be done with my shower because there are ten million other things waiting for me when I'm finished. 

No more.  I'm taking care of ME this year.  I take care of my home, my girls, my hubby, and my furbabies, but so often, I neglect myself.  But, if I'm not in good shape, who's going to take care of them?   

So, once again I'm taking control of my eating and I'm exercising (more on that little revelation in a moment).  I'm flossing more than once a month (not quite daily yet, but I'm working up to it), washing my face every night (thank you Kirkland brand face wipes!), and doing my best to get at minimum 7 hours sleep every night. 

I'm important too!  I just need to remember that.  So, the exercise revelation--I actually like it!  I forgot all about that, and how good it makes me feel.  It's very easy for me to make excuses not to do it, but the thing is, it feels good when I'm done (definitely NOT during some days) and I'm always full of those delicious happy endorphins.  So, I'm making a point of taking the time to actually do it.  It's easy during the week when the weather is nice (i.e. not precipitating or overly windy) because Bean and I just hit the trail.  It's a bit more difficult during the weekends.  It's been cold and gross the past two days so I used the dreaded elliptical (who LIES about distance gone!!).  I MADE the time.  :o)  Knowing me, though, I need to make it a part of a weekend routine if I want it to stick.  I'm working on that.

I'm amending my New Year's goals to be "Take care of me" since that covers many of my original goals.  I need to remember that I'm not just a mom and wife and housekeeper.  I know it's a minor thing, really, but that salt scrub is a symbol for taking charge of my life once more.  :o)

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Weekend Sparklies:

1.  Holy cow this was the most divine dinner:

I made the crust, I made the sauce, I sauteed the mushrooms and caramelized the onions and grated the cheese.  It was unbelievable! :o) I'll be posting the recipes I used over on FYB tomorrow.

2.  We took care of "the girls" so Mom and Dad could attend Dennis's celebration of life.  From their accounting of it, it was a beautiful tribute to a wonderful man.

3.  Brien managed to fix the passenger sliding door on my van--thank goodness!  It broke and we didn't make it to church as a result.  But, the door is fixed now. :o)

4.  I found a wonderful and inspirational blog kept by a woman who has lost 125 pounds. 

5.  Lissie emailed to let me know Pandapas Pond is full of water once more.  Hallelujah! :o)

No milestones.

****ETA****
Well, it's official, Bitty will be missing her first day of school tomorrow.  I just put her to bed with a fever of 102.3.  She was chattering and chilled and couldn't get warm.  I dosed her with ibuprofen and snuggled her under her covers. She's having no symptoms other than the fever and just generally feeling pitiful.  She was fine this morning, and by just after religious ed, she was ill.  Poor Bitty.  I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow on the off-chance it's 'flu and we can get her some Tamiflu.  We'll see.  This is one of the times it really sucks to be a parent--you have a sick baby and can't do a thing about it.  :o(