I Live With My Parents.

Hello, my name is Jessie, I'm 28 (ish) years old, I've been married for almost 7 years, have two kids... and I live with my parents. 

Changing the way we do things requires alot of change. 

Since the beginning of our marriage, A and I always wanted to be "debt free"... isn't that everyone's goal? Many people have done Dave Ramsey's class or read his book, taken on his principles, budgeted and started to pay down debt. Kudos to you. A and I always knew what we should be doing and for many years we'd pay something off only to have something else rear it's ugly head and we'd tack on another monthly payment to our budget. Truth is, we weren't getting anywhere. If you go back and really see Dave Ramsey's principles, they work... but they require sacrifice and some tough decisions. 

A and I have had a dream (for at least 5 years) of building our own house. While we could have long ago, we didn't want to be house poor. So we put it off... and off... and off. We continued to live on our land (on which we were going to build) in the little itty bitty trailer o' fun. A 14 ft wide, 76 ft long beast. It was home, it was where we began a family, it was where we became the Purcell(S), and it is also where the Lord yanked my pride out from under my feet. 

After we bought it, A and I worked hard in making it our own and making it livable until we were ready to build our home.

 Jump ahead four years and two kids later, we had made some progress, but we still weren't getting anywhere fast.

It was time to change the way we did money. 

So, we put our land on the market. 

And all those motorcycles in the garage that we just.had.to.have. went up for sale too.

That furniture we didn't need? Gone.

In 6 1/2 months our place sold. We started to look for a place to rent... and that didn't make any sense if we ultimately wanted to settle all of our debts and start living debt free. So we accepted the invitation of moving in with my parents. 

When I tell people that we made the choice to live with my parents, I see some surprised looks, some looks of horror but others of sheer support, did I mention we have some awesome people in our lives? It is temporary, my parents are in the process of building their third (and FINAL) log home, so they will be moving out later this year and we'll continue on renting the house from them. 

We still have one motorcycle to sell and one final payment to get rid of, but because of our "radical" choices, we went from "not even close" to "debt free" in less than a year. 

Our dream is to still build a house and that dream is very alive, but A and I will be damned if we return to the place where debt has a grip on us. We're spending the next few year(s)? or however long it takes, to make sure we can build a house we can afford. In the meantime, we budget, we save and we only buy things if we have the cash for them.

We have less stuff, but honestly, we have so much more.
Peaceful mind and a hopeful future.

Straw Bale Gardening

Another way we're changing the way we live is going from this:

to this:

I swear our neighbors think we're growing something illegal.

The choice to convert was pretty much out of necessity; we moved from a few acres in the county to a small-ish backyard in town. While we still have two raised garden beds for lettuce and herbs:

This will be our first year in exploring the world of straw bale gardening. I can't take credit for the work or the idea, but my husband and Dad can. Dad heard about it from a PA in his doctor's office, shared it with my husband and the hardcore researcher that he is went balls to the wall with it and here we are. 

Growing, harvesting and preserving our own food is extremely important to us. Not only do we can (or freeze) a majority of what we grow, we are also a family of hunters and the meat in the freezer is mostly what we've taken from the land or bought from a local farmer. We've learned so much over the years about when to plant what for this area, where to buy seeds (our non-GMO seeds we bought from HERE). Gardening is a trial and error labor of love (and sometimes frustration). We've had many gardening fails and some extreme successes and we're hoping that this straw bale thing is going to work. Anything that I don't have to weed or 'till, sounds heavenly to me. Hopefully even once we're out of town for good we can use this permanently. If it works. Do we sound skeptical... or hopeful?

So if you google "straw bale gardening", you'll get alot of information, but most of the information (according to my husband) always pointed back to one book....

So we bought the book.

The basic principle is you condition the bales with fertilizer etc so that they are ready and prepped for soil and plants. This is a process and I'm not going to lie, a little time consuming. A did a "test bale" and planted some peas along one side and VIOLA! They came up! Since it's still early in planting season in our neck of the woods, we've been covering with plastic to make little greenhouses and to protect from frost. One warm day and a little laziness on our part, our greenhouse turned into a sweat shop and we fried those little boogers. So, back to square one with that test bale, BUT we now know it works!!

We have traditionally waited until May 15th to start to plant, because by then the threat of frost was just about nil, but we have always felt behind and we felt the heat of late July and August just stunted some of our plants and they didn't produce like we thought they should. So we started earlier this year and it's much easier to cover with plastic just in case we do have frost.

Tucked in for the night.

We (er, I mean the hubs) completed conditioning and prepping the bales...

And we all planted last night, A did most of it, but Little Man and I (and Rory) helped in between dinner making, throwing rocks and fetching balls out of the woods. There still a little more to be done, but the bulk of it is in.

Rory, of course, fell asleep in the Ergo, she snuggles her head down like this, slept all through dinner and some planting. 

So, for this year we have (and will have): peas, iceberg lettuce, leaf lettuce, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, cilantro, onions, chives, tomatoes (beefsteak, yellow, cherry), green beans, kidney beans, black beans, cabbage, peppers (green, red, banana), sugar snap peas, kale, squash, zucchini, potatoes and goodness, I know I'm forgetting something. 

I'll keep you updated on our progress as spring turns into summer and summer turns into "oh so many squash I could die". If you've felt like you've never had the room or couldn't build some garden boxes, this could be a great solution. A few things to remember though...

1. Straw and hay are not the same thing. Straw is the hollow stalks of things like wheat, great for spreading over grass seed, or planting things in. Hay is greener, sweeter, heavier, full of nutrition for dems farm aminals. 

2. It could be a little expensive to go full-on organic. Although we have shifted way out of using different chemicals and bug repellents on our garden, we just couldn't afford to go completely organic on the straw bales this year. The start up with stakes, plastic, soaker hoses, bales, and then the fertilizer etc was a little pricey (keep in mind). Next year our only cost will be the bales and fertilizers so hopefully we'll be able to make the switch.  Remember this is an investment!

3. Like I said before, it's a process, as all successful gardening is. So just throwing a straw bale out in the yard and calling it a day, may not cut it.

If you have questions, ASK! And I'll ask my husband.

My Journey Back after Baby #2.

Here is my quick disclaimer before we get started: I am a certified ACSM Personal Trainer and work as a Wellness Instructor at a local retirement community. I am not a registered dietitian or a doctor and everything I write about is what has worked for me, my family and my clients. Although I attempt to do the most accurate research on anything I promote or on any of the changes I've made in my family's life, I'm always open to learning more! 

As I stated before, pregnancy isn't good to me... or maybe I'm not good to it. I don't know, I think there's a little bit of both. If you've seen me pregnant, you've seen me grumpy and hangry. As a fitness professional, I'd like to think that I did what your supposed to... gain the correct amount of weight, eat the healthiest foods, and prepare in the most proper of ways. I did just the opposite and I ended up here:

Both times.

While I don't mind sharing how much weight I gained in each pregnancy, I walk the fine line of being encouraging or DIScouraging, so we'll skip the whole number thing altogether. Because when it comes to weight, numbers aren't everything. 

So after baby number two, I knew the drill, knew (and constantly reminded myself) that it was going to take some time and I'm still doing that because I'm only 6 months out. I have no magic formula (because there is no magic formula) to weight loss. No shakes, detox diets, pills or a single workout can ever replace hard work, lifestyle changes and discipline. Although I don't have any easy answers for you, I did make some choices that make weight loss stick after babies.

COMMIT TO BREASTFEED. I nursed the first little one until he self weaned at 17 months and Baby Girl and I are going strong at 6 months exclusively breastfed. To new (or soon to be new Mommas), nursing is hard work but GOOD work. I can talk about all the benefits of breastfeeding to baby and Momma, but girl, you know if your nursing, you're burning anywhere from 200-500 (or more) calories per day depending on your supply? Now, be smart and supplement your diet based on the extra calories burned, for good guidelines, look HERE.  Also, nursing releases two main hormones, oxytocin and prolactin which establish milk supply, help to shrink your uterus back to it's original size and also help baby bond to momma. More info on that HERE and HERE. It's a no brainer, if you can...do. Some women have issues with mastitis, thrush, low supply etc. and it's hard to stay committed, so no judgement if you've chosen a different path, but pushing through the hard times with nursing has paid off 1000 fold for me. 

FIND YOUR SECURITY. This shouldn't be listed as number two, but as number one, "A", first and foremost, above all else... you get the picture. My hope comes from Jesus. The author of my faith and my life and in whom I put my trust. For many years, I struggled with having to BE something and until recently I always struggled with trying to make sure everyone else was what I thought they were supposed to be. I have finally come into my own in realizing that everyone else is not my concern (one of the major "way we do life" focus shifts of the past few months). While this doesn't mean, we don't care for others, it means we try to stop making others feel (or even believe) the way we do. The only thing I can do is live very presently and securely in my faith and love others with the great big love that comes from God. Everything else, right/wrong, good/bad, yes/no is in His hands. And it's from this secure place that I've found the strength to find grace and love for my own physical body. Whether I'm ripped (or not) it really makes no difference in the kingdom of God... and that takes the pressure off and gets my motives in line for why I do what I do and why exactly I want to be as healthy as possible. 

BE CONSISTENT. With food, with working out, with a routine. Don't give up after only a month, or two, or even three! I preach about lifestyle changes NOT a diet or workout to get you "there". As we age, it gets harder to lose the weight and harder to get back to where we used to be. If it was a piece of cake losing the weight after Baby #1, but for Baby #3 the weight just won't budge, there's a reason. "If you never had problems losing or maintaining your weight in your 20s or even in your early 30s, you may not be ready for what happens next,” warns Madelyn H. Fernstrom, Ph.D., director of the Weight Management Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Your metabolism slows by 5 percent each decade. Compared to age 25, you’ll burn about 100 fewer calories a day at 35 and 200 fewer at 45. Do nothing, and you could gain eight to 12 pounds a year." (source) Just remember, what used to work, may not now and it's time to kick it up a notch.

EAT REAL FOOD. The "trend" you see on Pinterest and in the media is all about "clean eating", while this term has grown in popularity, it really isn't a new concept at all. Basically, a good rule of thumb is "stop buying so many boxes and bags". Boxes of cereal, boxes of crackers, boxes of granola bars, bags of chips etc. Many boxes and bags contain processed foods, lots of unknown strange sounding ingredients, high in fat content and preservatives that can mess with weight loss and so many other aspects of your health. Cooking Light wrote a small overview of the "clean eating" principles that I think is really good. Read it HERE. I'm not a stickler just yet about it all (we're still evolving), my Little Dude still loves his cereal in the morning, I've got him down to organic cheerios and I buy those Annie's Homegrown Bunnies (and call them Goldfish). So it's not all or nothing, but it is taking baby steps to a healthier diet. Start making small choices and pretty soon, you'll see a big difference.

Anything else that really worked for you after babies? 

   

Change Change Change...

This is officially the first post since I announced I was pregnant 14ish months ago. We'll get to what I've been doing since then, but take a second to read below.

As you can see, I have a new blog format. I switched domains from a paid one to a free one and it's   g e t t i n g   t h e r e.  I'm still figuring out all the little gadgets and widgets and whatnots that make blogger work, so bear with me for a few posts and while I update everything. Secondly, I spent about an hour and copy and pasted all of my past posts from my old domain to this blog, so if you've seen a workout you liked or an old post that you wanted to read again, they are all there. Third, while my posts transferred relatively easy, all my pictures did not. So you'll see just a broken link where a picture used to be. The truthful part is, I have no intention of fixing them, sorry.

So, 14 months ago, I was knocked up and sick, sick sick. Pregnancy is not good to me. Days are long, headaches are brutal, energy is low, and the weight packs on. This picture below is on my due date.  Rory Girl decided to join us four days late.

After a pregnancy that seemed like forever (to me), we welcomed our baby girl two days after her big brother's 2nd birthday. Another emergency c-section... another natural birth hope not fulfilled. BUT, Little Miss was so healthy that I'm moving past the guilt and failure... again. Maybe we'll save those thoughts for another post. Rory Rae melded into our lives seamlessly and I cannot believe she is six months old already. Happiest baby around and she's already doing pushups. 

So life has changed for us, but mostly... we're starting to change the way we live. While although this started out as a fitness blog, it's going to morph into just how we do life. Looking back, my husband and I have always been active people, attempting to make good health choices, both past athletes and growing up on farms. I think the entrance of littles into our lives had us beginning to start making conscious choices. Instead of taking things at face value, we now want to make sure that they're good and true before we subject our children to our choices. This has lead to alot of research (and much continuing research), alot of hard decisions and a morphing of focus. We've got some great friends, and some great resources that help us make informed decisions. What I've learned through all of this is each family needs to do what works for them. What we do and the changes we've made (and are making) are for US, no judgement on others for what they do or don't do and we just ask the same from others.

So... here's to this go around. Shattering the Box.