Bikini Body Mommy

Through a friend's mention of this short and sweet (and FREE) workout program, I decided to give the Bikini Body Mommy (BBM) 90 Day Challenge a try - even though I will never wear a bikini, even if I had a bikini body. Once I got past the first day (where she insists on you taking pictures of your body in a bikini and take measurements), I was hooked! The workouts are all under a half hour - most closer to twenty minutes. And they work so many different muscle groups! You really FEEL like you just had a good workout! And without much time!

But the REAL reason this workout is so fun and successful is that Briana (BBM) is not a Jillian Michaels. She is a real mom working out and panting and groaning right along with you. Sometimes she has toy cars/trucks she has to step over when her son is playing right by her side. Sometimes she has to take a quick break to catch her breath or shake out some muscles. She adapts some exercises as she gets tired. She is real!

So you can go to the BBM site and print off the workouts so you know what you are doing and then watch the videos and work along with her. Or you can just go to her youtube channel and watch the videos (that's what I did). But YOU NEED TO WATCH THE VIDEOS! Not only because Briana is so real, but because without that timer pushing you, you can easily "cheat" or even give up. (You can take two minute breaks instead of one minute breaks - so not only have you just lost intensity, but now you have just added ten minutes to your short workout. So then you aren't as eager to work out the next day because you think of it as a longer workout. Or you think an exercise is too hard so you just don't do it. But if you watch the video, you see Briana adapting for herself because it IS hard - so then you feel better about yourself.)

Back to the taking pictures... yuck! But Briana wants you to be able to look back and SEE a difference, and not just rely on the scale. And taking measurements defines those differences. So I sucked it up and took my very first bikini -actually, underwear- pictures (gross!). And I measured. (Again, yuck!) After that grossness was over, I enlisted my thirteen year old daughter to join me in these workouts. Accountability is always good and teaching her to be strong and healthy is important, right? And Briana does focus on being strong and healthy - not being "skinny."

She also has a meal plan which I may try out now because I rewarded my workouts with sweet treats, which almost negated all the hard work... Not quite though. This morning my daughter and I completed the 90 day challenge and I took my measurements and lost 4.5 inches in my waist, 2 inches in my hips, and an inch on each thigh. (No, I'm not sharing pictures!!!) Best of all, I am so much stronger (as is my daughter)! --Remember, that is without changing my eating habits - actually, that is with eating worse than I did beforehand - those darn desserts! Even without the meal plan, but with eliminating desserts, think of what I could do! BBM is doing a 2.0 Challenge and I'm in! Are you?

Removing Water Spots

Do you have water spots ruining the beauty of your wood furniture? Our dining room table - which I love - was really starting to show its wear and tear. Lots of little scratches and nicks are visible but the numerous water spots are what was really causing it to look bad. I tried polishing it. I tried the mayonnaise trick. (Pinterest fail.) Twice. I gave up...
...until I saw another idea on Pinterest: Use a hair dryer! It worked!!! I am so excited! I wish I would have taken a before picture of the whole table because I got rid of at least eight water spots. Three were rather large - like this one:

Be patient. This takes a while - like twenty minutes. But that is still less time than refinishing even a tiny piece of furniture! On high, I put my hair dryer close to the spot.

Once I realized this was working - slowly - I grabbed a book to read while holding the hair dryer. I definitely recommend having something to do that still allows you to rotate hair-dryer-holding-hands easily and doesn't require any kind of listening.

Keep the hair dryer close to the spot and be patient!

Ta da! The spot is gone!

When you are done, moisturize the wood. I used olive oil.

Thunder Shirt

Sophie has never liked loud noises. But for some reason this year the fireworks were driving her crazy! Pacing and yelping and trembling. And this was the weekend before the Fourth! This was just from some little neighborhood fire crackers. So we invested in a Thunder Shirt. We figured if it doesn't work we would just take advantage of the money back guarantee.

So the next night before the fireworks could get started we got Sophie dressed in her Thunder Shirt. She immediately laid down and went to sleep! Of course there weren't fireworks that night! The next night the fireworks started, Sophie began trembling and pacing, we put on the Thunder Shirt, and she relaxed. She still kind of looked around like, "I wonder what this is" but she really didn't care. Since then, we have dressed her with the Thunder Shirt for more fireworks and for a thunderstorm. I LOVE this Thunder Shirt and so does Sophie!

Wow!

I have really ignored this blog for a while.

I am very excited about Pinterest and have been trying out some new ideas - from decorating to cleaning to landscaping. I realized I had been keeping my own version of a Pinterest book for several years. I have ideas in there I tore out from magazines: family games, party ideas, crafts, home ideas, etc. So, in an effort to consolidate my Pinterest board online with my dated notebook that has been ignored for far too long, I have scanned some of the pages from my book to post here and then pin on Pinterest. I hope you enjoy the following posts about summer games, Christmas ideas, and more!

23 Things You DON'T Need to Buy

This was a fun article with lots of great hints from the All You Magazine. Things like:

• instead of buying wall filler, use white toothpaste.
• use white bread to clean wallpaper.
• use salt to remove hardwater stains
• use White-Out instead of appliance paint for the little nicks.
• use a banana peel to remove scuff marks on leather (shoes, furniture).
• use olive oil to remove oil-based paint from your skin.
• spray weeds with vinegar to kill them in the cracks.
• use vinegar to kill germs in the bathroom.
  
• use baking soda to clean the barbecue grill.
  

And my favorite:

• Use a pillow case to clean fan blades - the dust stays in the pillowcase instead of flying around the room! :)
  

Microwave Popcorn

I just found this article recently about making your own microwave popcorn. How cool! For Christmas I bought my husband a microwave popcorn jar that makes FABULOUS popcorn so I probably won't use this hint but I'm sure some of you will find it handy!