Lately

Our new target opened last week and I missed it! I was major bummed that I heard no chatter about huge deals at the grand opening in all of the penny pinching websites that I follow. Actually all I did hear about it was that it is more expensive than the old Target in Florence!
Well I have been itching to go find out first hand and properly introduce myself so that we could get more acquainted. Today was just the day, after tuesdays sunny warm tease and then 2 days of rain I was ready to get out of the house. So with my small list in hand and a huge need for a new broom before small group tonight (our old broom met an untimely death by taking the brunt of a spilled bottle of peanut oil, yuck!) we headed out. Annie fully appreciated the giant red decorative concrete balls out front and I appreciated the extra wide front child seat that allowed me to sit Mia's car seat in horizontally therefore allowing me to see over her and her to interact with her sister in the basket in front! We wandered aimlessly around the new maze and picked up a few things along the way. All in all I was pleased although only shopping for things like a $3 grill brush and $1 pack of hangers I wasn't able to do much price comparing. I was bummed that because its a new store there were not any clearance racks! Oh well.

Impulse buy of the day. I have always wondered about Almond milk and whether I would like it or not. You would think that with all the thrifty shopping I have been doing I would wait to impulse buy with a coupon, but I guess thats why its an impulse... anyway I stumbled across Silk Dark Chocolate Almond Milk. Hmmmmm yes please! More than $3 for a half gallon but whatever, it was my chosen treat!
After attempting to treat Annie and I (using a gift card of course) and being told that there was no Orange Mango Smoothie available at the Target Starbucks and switching my order to Strawberry and being told that the banana order had just arrived and all the bananas were frozen in storage, I quickly changed my mind on the purchased treat and opted to make one of my own at home.
When we got back I threw a ridiculously over ripe, downright brown banana into the blender with a few ice cubes and 8oz of Dark Chocolate Almond Milk Oh. My. Goodness! Heaven! It was AMAZING! Kind of what I figure some sort of frappe would taste like if I had ever gotten one in my life. And its good for you from what I understand which leads me to my next point.

Feeling very convicted about my eating habits for a few weeks now (an entire bag of valentines m&m's in one day anyone?) and a button literally popping off of my jeans one day last week, I decided it was time for some serious action! I prayed about it, journaled all of my thoughts about the sinful part of how I was treating food, and checked out some books by Michael Pollan from the library on eating more natural foods, I asked the Lord for His help in a serious feeling of an uncontrollable idol and addiction in my life.
After failing miserably that very evening with a giant purple dinosaur shaped rice krispie treat (thank you Nickys 1st birthday leftovers) I have gone a whole week with eating no processed, yucky fake factory prepared foods. I have eaten at least 4-5 servings of fruits and vegies daily, consumed tons of water until I now crave it, and successfully only had sweets on a weekend day and they were home made (thanks for the yummy cookies mama)!!! I feel amazing! I exercised 4 times and I lost 2 pounds! It was surprisingly easy with healthy options in the house! I also experimented with making my own wheat thins, cheese its, and bread! Normally in a week I would have made cookie dough & brownies that I would have consumed all of by myself! I am involved once again in the produce co-op so I have lots of options
and "I'm feelin' good"!