LiLee's Journey to overall happiness

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  • mistymeadows2005
    mistymeadows2005 Posts: 3,737 Member
    OMG those sounds amazing!!! Great job on the workout...IS HATES ITTTTTTTTTTT LOL
  • katjustkat
    katjustkat Posts: 754 Member
    edited July 2020
    Hi Lilee, I'm restarting omad and just read a bit of your last posts. How old are your kids? I was wondering if they would like doing youtube dance videos with you. I used ( still would except for CV) to mercy (free) sit for some young exasperated moms and I used to put on music videos to dance with them. I think it's a great exercise for us adults and the kids really like dancing around too. Gets them good and tired and the music is destressing for you. Just a thought. Can you take them to a park and let them run around chasing a ball? Just thinking of stuff to get the built up energy out of them. I bet their grandparents would love having them more often. I just adore kids and it was always a pleasure to get some time with them now that my kids are grown.
    I trade stocks for a living, 20 years now and I understand about stress. It def makes it hard to lose weight with the cortisol factor as Steph said. You def should ask your husband for a good time for you to take a scheduled a walk alone everyday. Having it scheduled will give you something guilt free to look forward to. It 100% melts my stress away. Hugggggggssssssss from one mama to another <3 ps...my husband was a pilot and gone 4 days every week. He didn't take on the kids alone and I now regret it because I think a man and the kids really need that alone time together to really bond. They super love their dad but I don't think it's as strong a bond as I have with them. You would be doing them and him a favor by leaving them at times with him; no guilt ;0)
  • LiLee2018
    LiLee2018 Posts: 1,389 Member
    edited July 2020
    Funny that you mentioned dance videos, b/c I have looked up some.
    Since I can't really do plank exercises and that's the majority of the videos for the program I picked, I was trying to look up alternatives and came across some dance videos I was going to try out in place. My kids are 3, 5, and 7 so they're still really young and I do think they'll enjoy dancing with me.
    Thankfully their grandparents have been letting them spend the night with them which has done SO much for my stress levels. I feel more like myself right now and not snapping at everything.

    Oh and yall..
    We are definitely getting a kitten, possibly 2! We went out yesterday and bought kitten food, new litter box and litter.
    We were actually hoping to get the kittens yesterday, but they're still really young (we thought they were a little older but were mistaken). I'm so excited, but also a little worried.
    It's from barncats that my inlaws have so I'm worried that by the time the kittens are ready to be rehomed, they'll be too feral or some wild animal will get them or something. I don't want to take kittens away from their mother too soon but also worried that if we don't get them soon enough, something bad might happen.
    Anyway.... so no new kittens to snuggle up with just yet, but hopefully soon!

    And as I mentioned above. I just can not do the plank videos in the Chloe Ting challenge I picked... and I'm pretty sure the plank video is on her schedule every day lol. Oops.
    Yesterday I subbed it with one of her standing ab videos and I have found some dance videos from other youtubers that I want to try out too. Today is a rest day and yep.... my butt is resting!

    EDIT: OH! AND we also used some of our cash back from Sam's club to buy a cat tree! Should be getting that in next week some time. We're ready for some small little floof balls!
  • LiLee2018
    LiLee2018 Posts: 1,389 Member
    So this was supposed to be day 7 of my workout, but I'm taking another rest day. My wrists are just... they need more rest.
    I should've probably have done SOME sort of workout today, but MEH. I'm out of shape, old and lazy... I'm taking another rest :P lol
    I also think starting soon, I'm going to start tracking once again. I keep getting lazy and just stopping. Well that certainly isn't working for me so I need to actually stick to doing it for a while until my body is more used to eating at a good weight loss range.
    Since I've started working out though.. my appetite has been HUGE. It could be that, or it could just be hormones, or maybe both. I dunno but I've been wanting to eat EVERYTHING. I've been so dang hungry. I'm gonna be like, the only person to come out of this challenge to have gained weight and inches ROFL.


    Kitten Offtopic again
    DH said we'll be getting the kittens this weekend. It will be a little early (couple of weeks) taking them, but I'd rather take them a little early than leave them where they are. I wish we could get them now, but we're not prepared for it yet.
    I bought some early early kitten stuff on Amazon just in case we need it. Like kitten formula, bottle, etc. Also got a flea comb b/c I know they're going to be infested from living their lives so far outside. That stuff won't be here until mid week. So yeah.. just hoping this week goes by quickly. I can't wait.

    DH is the one that suggested that maybe we take 2 of them home, then he went back to no no.. just one, but pfft NOPE! I heard you sir! We're getting 2! lol
    The calico (might be a tortie? colored, but pretty sure it had some white on it too so I'll just call it calico)... we're definitely naming it JJ (Jinx Junior) after a calico we used to have... and the 2nd... I'm not sure. It'll be a little orange tabby. Think we'll let the kids (mostly my daughter) name that one.
  • volgirl1322
    volgirl1322 Posts: 2,086 Member
    OMG so cool on the kitties.....you must post lots of pics :)
  • mistymeadows2005
    mistymeadows2005 Posts: 3,737 Member
    YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS KITTENSSSSSSSSSSSS - I'd BETTER get lots of pics!!! Even if they're 12 weeks old, they're still young enough to train up!!! Bubs was house raised, but so was Smidge and the BIG DIFFERENCE came from how much people interaction right when they're babies - so basically if you just sic a kid on them at all times, they'll be VERY social for the rest of their lives :) Not hard to do when you have kiddos :) Bubs gets constant attention and because of it, he's the easiest cat I've ever had (short of the separation anxiety, but I just take him everywhere with me and that solves that LOLOL - he's easy in the car because again, SOCIALIZED)

    Can't wait to see them!!!
  • Leah_62803
    Leah_62803 Posts: 292 Member
    KITTENS! That's super exciting. We have one senior cat (17) and then last year me and the kids talked my husband into adopting a kitten from PetSmart. About 2 weeks later I was coming home from the store and found a tiny kitten in the middle of a busy intersection. So now we have 3! :D
  • LiLee2018
    LiLee2018 Posts: 1,389 Member
    Leah- Awwwwww! I always hoped to find a kitten in our neighborhood. We have a feral colony that lives in the storm drains. I've seen them a few times and had a TNR one w/ its ear snipped that I would feed whenever it came around, but I haven't seen it in years.

    misty- Then these kittens we'll be getting should be the most socialized cats ever b/c I'm sure my kids aren't going to want to leave them alone lol.

    vol- I definitely will be taking and posting a bunch of pictures!! :)
    Gonna spam yall with all the kitten photos as soon as we get them!

    Day 8 and oh look at that.. it's a rest day. Why yes... yes I will rest.
    Did spend a couple of hours trying to fix my darn carpet cleaner, but where it's leaking, I can't get to without having to unscrew a whole lot of stuff and I probably wouldn't be able to reassemble how it's supposed to go lol.
    We just need one of those sprayer things people use to like... spray pesticides on their gardens. They're fairly cheap and it's all I would need. Just something I can put the carpet solution in that I can spray on to the carpet. The carpet cleaner still suctions up just fine.
    Anyway.. that was my fun filled day so far.
    About to go have a blast cleaning up child #2's room next! WOO! So fun..... :neutral:
    Gotta get this house somewhat organized before we get the kittens. If we had gotten them when we originally wanted and if they had been older (so freely roaming)... we would never see them b/c of how messy this house is lol.
    SO many toys.... SO MANY. I would chuck it out on to the curb and put up a free toys sign, but it's been raining here lately. Plus I'm not sure how many people would want dirty, broken, drawn on toys :P lol
    Oh AND later once I'm tired of cleaning the room.... I have laundry to fold and put away b/c once again... kittens. Don't need them looking at our mountain of clean clothes and thinking it's a good spot to pee on.
    Man....I make it sound like we're living in a disaster area.... and we are. We are. Not even gonna lie about it lol

    Diet is going fine... except for the watermelon. /cry I can't help myself. I love it AND it's on sale! I'm not going to say no to a big juicy delicious $3 watermelon!
  • Leah_62803
    Leah_62803 Posts: 292 Member
    I completely understand about living in a disaster area! I've got 3 kids and I feel like I can't keep on top of the mess. I've been trying to make them more responsible for their own messes but it's been tough.
    Plus, I've got a ton of pets to clean up after. :D
  • LiLee2018
    LiLee2018 Posts: 1,389 Member
    Day 9 workout and... I only did one video.
    I tried out inclined planks using my soda to lean on and it was better on my wrists, but felt like I had to really concentrate to engage my core. BUT it worked and I was able to do a lot more plank moves.
    I skipped the leg/glute video I was supposed to do though. I started it and my legs just were not having any of it! lol
    So yeah.. I mean, I didn't do as much as I should have but oh well.
    Child #2's room is clean.... now working on the worst one.. child #3's room.
    My oldest... and holy crap she is a little hoarder or something. So much hidden messes everywhere that she tried hiding beneath mountains of toys.
    So many flipping toys. I'm partially (ok mostly) to blame since I love a good deal and get my kids clearance stuff often or go overboard on Christmas/birthdays. SIGH. I did this! /cry

    AND I'm not even half through folding either. AND I still have the living room area to clean up which is becoming a huge mess b/c my boys keep 'discovering' toys they hadn't seen in forever and then bring it out in to the living room to play with /facepalm
    It's a never ending cycle
  • Leah_62803
    Leah_62803 Posts: 292 Member
    I’ve put some of my kids toys up in a closet before and sort of rotated them out. Because they’d always get bored with all their toys and it was a mess. So I’d put some of them up for months and then pull them out and they’d be excited. Then I’d quietly pack up more. Keep them rotating so it’s not such a mess and they don’t get as bored.

    I hate working out so much. I have (or had, I’m not sure if I still have them) some exercise videos around the house and I got a little stab of guilt every time I saw them around the house. Maybe I should pull them back out...
  • LiLee2018
    LiLee2018 Posts: 1,389 Member
    Leah_62803 wrote: »
    I’ve put some of my kids toys up in a closet before and sort of rotated them out. Because they’d always get bored with all their toys and it was a mess. So I’d put some of them up for months and then pull them out and they’d be excited. Then I’d quietly pack up more. Keep them rotating so it’s not such a mess and they don’t get as bored.

    I hate working out so much. I have (or had, I’m not sure if I still have them) some exercise videos around the house and I got a little stab of guilt every time I saw them around the house. Maybe I should pull them back out...

    That's what is so great about these YT videos. Free so no guilt about 'wasting money' on anything if I don't do them ;) ROFL

    I'm taking another break day today. AF should be arriving soon and I had a bad headache this morning (most likely PMS).
    So since I'm not exercising, decided to put together the cat tree we got in yesterday... that is until I got to a part where the manufacturer drilled some holes too deep for the screws you're supposed to use so now the parts are all over the floor, partially put together. BOOO

    BUT yesterday I did manage to finish cleaning up my daughter's room. WOO! Good gracious. I need to go through all of the toys again and throw more away. 3 bags of trash from her room. THREE!!

    Thankfully my boys are keeping their rooms clean for now. Not sure how long that will last though, but if I can just get them to clean up before bed really quick. Get it through to them that it's easier to clean up a little bit now before it's a huge mess that takes longer to clean.

    Now to just tackle this living room and then more laundry. When are they going to invent a self cleaning house already? I'll take a robot maid too if that's easier for science to create. ;)
  • katjustkat
    katjustkat Posts: 754 Member
    So sorry you're getting headaches! That's gotta be super hard with little kids :'(
    You can use bigger screws or break off pieces of wood toothpicks and shove them in the hole to take up space for the screw to fit.
    When my kids were young, I always preached mutual respect...you respect me as a person and I'll respect you as a person. We weren't "I'm the boss" parents. If my kids wanted to play or go somewhere I would say "mommy has all this work to do first and I'm going to be too tired to take you or play with you". That always worked and they would volunteer to help in what we needed to get done so that we could go have fun. And we did. I didn't want to be their slave and I didn't want them to be mine. Hubby was a pilot and gone 4 days a week so I was alone a lot. Luckily we weren't stuck indoors with covid...that would have been super tough because I always took them places where they could run and play and...get tired.
    I think it's super important to get kids to help care for their home. Gosh so many people grow up and are miserable once they have to care for themselves because they aren't use to it. My mom did everything for us growing up....I don't think I ever made a bed or picked up a dish. She would always so no no no...go do your homework I've got this. But...I def think that made it harder for me once I got married and boom had a lot to do :s
    I hope we see better times soon. Gotta be super tough being stuck at home with lil ones. <3
  • jadepearl
    jadepearl Posts: 3,113 Member
    I know what you mean about headaches <3 My vertigo is coming back hard and strong :( Couldn't even do any exercises lately :( When my kids were younger, I got 3 big boxes for each of them and before bedtime, I will tell them to clean-up and place all their stuff into their boxes. Now that they are both 12 & 14, they still use those 3 boxes which I got for them so that their rooms are always neat and tidy :) We are going back into Stage 3 as a lot of people are talking about the 2nd wave now :(
  • Leah_62803
    Leah_62803 Posts: 292 Member
    So.....Kittens???
  • LiLee2018
    LiLee2018 Posts: 1,389 Member
    Leah_62803 wrote: »
    So.....Kittens???

    LOL We just got them yesterday. Got home a bit later than I had hoped, but we did get our 2 kittens :)
    Not great photos, but there will be more!

    On the way home. Both of them grew up in inlaws storage building and were absolutely TERRIFIED of the sun. Never experienced that before, but they calmed down once in the carrier
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    Both absolutely filthy and covered in fleas. Both got very stressful baths (for everyone) when we got home, but they both still have a lot of fleas on them. Another stressful bath is needed.
    I cleaned out our garden tub in the bathroom, put down blankets, their little house and... they love their little comfy soft house
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    Blurry, but this lil orange nugget is Mia. Daughter named her after some cartoon w/ an orange cat in it lol. She's still off color. Looked like she had made herself comfortable in an ash pile or something in the storage building they were in. Hopefully another bath will reveal little white socks.
    She is SUPER sweet though. Purrs like crazy and makes tons of biscuits and not afraid of much... except for the toilet flushing.
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    And this is JJ!! I love her sweet little face. I didn't even notice that she had one of those split faces until we had her home. She's a bit more nervous than her sister, but I heard some purrs from her early this morning
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    They're both still SUPER young (about 4 weeks. I thought they were a little older, but oh well), but I think it was the right decision to get them now. Where they were at, it was filthy and both absolutely covered in fleas. It's been challenging to get them to eat, but I'm being patient and going slow and well.. just trying my best. JJ kinda sorta takes a bottle, but Mia doesn't so I have to slowly squeeze some formula in, wait for her to finish swallowing, then repeat. Going to try a slurry of kitten formula mixed with wet food later. Both need to be fattened up a lot more. They're both eager to eat, just not very good at doing it yet.

    AND exercise is on hold for a few. AF arrived along with another headache this morning. Greeeeeat :\
  • Leah_62803
    Leah_62803 Posts: 292 Member
    Oh my goodness!! <3

    I love them!! I’m a sucker for orange cats. We have two! We used to joke that we are an orange cat family but that our black and white boy snuck in.
    The calico is adorable too!! So cute.
  • katjustkat
    katjustkat Posts: 754 Member
    Look at the blue eyes on the calico! Wowsy. The the orange kitty is soooooo cute too. Lucky little sweeties. I bet you wanted them all. That was so nice that you took two home so they could have a cuddle mate. I love the you tube videos by 'Flatbush cats'. He's a guy in NY that does a nice job rescuing kitties. He genuinely cares and gets the young kittens homes once they're acclimated to humans.
    A baby bunny fell into our window well and I've been feeding him and keeping him company for about a month. He's outside but I stuff his lil rabbit hole under my front porch with leafy greens and carrots at night because two cats come around a kill all the rabbits. Then another baby got orphaned when the cat killed 4 of its 'siblings'. So now I have two that let me get within a foot of them and they know my voice. The cats are domestic so that really bugs me that they kill for fun and not for food.
    Those kitties are gonna give you lots of love. I bet the kids are lovin' them <3
  • LiLee2018
    LiLee2018 Posts: 1,389 Member
    katjustkat wrote: »
    Look at the blue eyes on the calico! Wowsy. The the orange kitty is soooooo cute too. Lucky little sweeties. I bet you wanted them all. That was so nice that you took two home so they could have a cuddle mate. I love the you tube videos by 'Flatbush cats'. He's a guy in NY that does a nice job rescuing kitties. He genuinely cares and gets the young kittens homes once they're acclimated to humans.
    A baby bunny fell into our window well and I've been feeding him and keeping him company for about a month. He's outside but I stuff his lil rabbit hole under my front porch with leafy greens and carrots at night because two cats come around a kill all the rabbits. Then another baby got orphaned when the cat killed 4 of its 'siblings'. So now I have two that let me get within a foot of them and they know my voice. The cats are domestic so that really bugs me that they kill for fun and not for food.
    Those kitties are gonna give you lots of love. I bet the kids are lovin' them <3

    I've been watching a ton of Kitten Lady videos on youtube which have been SUPER helpful and informative. I'll check out his channel too :)

    That's so sad about the bunnies. I just do not like outdoor cats. Mostly b/c cats just straight up kill local wildlife which isn't fair to the wildlife. I understand barncats. They're used to keep rodent population down (the ones on inlaws property weren't even their cats, they either wandered to their property or were dumped there by someone years ago). But everywhere else? I just don't like it. NM that there is a very high risk of them getting run over or killed by a larger predator or just getting hurt from who knows what. And then you have them peeing and pooping on other people's property. I'm part of a few garden groups and SO many people have problems with neighbor cats coming and using their gardens as a litterbox.

    Oh the kids are OBSESSED lol. They're almost constantly in and out of the bathroom that we have them in. It's super cute and they're learning to be gentle with them. I mean they kinda sorta already know to be gentle since we have dogs and had a cat before, but this is a new level they have to learn since the kittens are so little.

    More photos!

    Should've gotten them another little house so I could wash one while they use the other
    They love this thing
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    JJ eats better out of the bottle than Mia. Doesn't like regular kitty formula but really loves a slurry ( formula mixed with a little kitty wet food). I need to strain it next time though. I can't remove all the little chunks and as soon as they get a chunk in their mouth, they stop eating.
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    My daughter photobombing lol
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    Mia is just the absolute chillest sweetest kitten ever... until she wants to play with her sister, then she seems to pester until the other kitten gives in and starts playing too lol. She LOVES being held and purrs constantly. I couldn't get great pictures of her on my lap b/c she wanted to use my belly to make biscuits.
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    Both are getting another bath today. Not looking forward to that, but need to get the fleas off of them.


  • mistymeadows2005
    mistymeadows2005 Posts: 3,737 Member
    OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG they're so cuteeeeeeeeeee <3 Keep the pics cominggggggggg <3