Come join me at http://www.alittlemooreblog.com remember all new content is over there! I posted not one but TWO elf calendars for your holidays this year! Stop by and visit and check out the huge giveaway!
Guess who is back?
I know it seems early for these guys but orders for your personalized Elf on the Shelf accessories are beginning next week! Wouldn’t it be nice to check one thing off of your Christmas lists early? If you haven’t started following me on my new self hosted blog(you can find all of our old content and all new content as well) you are missing out! Come join me at http://www.alittlemooreblog.com to see all of the new elf things as well as the stories, crafts and tutorials you have been missing out on!
We Have Moved!
Just a reminder that all the good stuff here and all future posts and tutorials can now be found at
http://www.alittlemooreblog.com
Can’t wait for you to see what we have been up to and have in store!
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A New Start
A little over 8 years ago, I decided that I would journal my craft endeavors and my life as a parent down in blog form. Since then I have written over 500 blog posts, had 2 more children and have done countless more crafts. All this to say that I have grown so much since this blogs humble beginnings and I would love to continue this journey with all of you.
A new domain that I own will give me more freedom to design and develop content that I love and want to share. It will still be about myself, my family, my faith and of course the crafts.
All new blogs postings after this can be found on the new site. All pins from the past will lead you here but I would love if you came and joined me at my new blog home. All the old stuff is still there and lots of new stuff is to come!
Thanks for being a part of A Little Moore. Can’t wait to share more with you there!
http://www.alittlemooreblog.com
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Embroidered Bows
Embroidered bows may be my new favorite thing to make! We also might just be into showing our Disneyside!
In a few weeks I will be back open for custom orders! I hope I can outfit your little girls heads with some precious embroidered bows soon!
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A Little Less Moore {week 3}
Week 3 was in a sense easier and harder. Exercising has become easier. I start my day with a core workout video which gets a little more tolerable every day and ending the day with a brisk 2 mile walk. My body is starting to crave the right kinds of food because it is recognizing that grease, cheese and starches make my stomach hurt. I have to think that this is God helping me. I never thought I could turn down bread or pasta and my beloved cheese but I think I am finally to the point where I don’t miss it.
What has been harder is that I have been hungrier. I think my body knows I am exerting more energy and needs more but snacking is a a struggle. In the past I would snack on cereal or cheese and crackers and that is out of the question now.
I love salad but raw veggies still are not enjoyable. I have developed a love of juicing which makes veggies so much easier to intake. Things like celery and carrots which I don’t care to eat are delicious in juiced form. However, I am trying to be careful as to not add to much sugar as for right now even too much natural sugar does not add in weight loss.
My sweet tooth found a cure this week in a frozen banana dessert! I made it for my husband this week and even he enjoyed it.
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Slice up one frozen banana (easier to slice before freezing! Even works with brown mushy ones!)
Mix in 1/4 tsp of cocoa powder
Mix in 1 tbs of peanut butter or PB2 powder which has all the flavor of peanut butter but it 1/3 of the calories.
I put it in my stand mixer with the paddle and mix until an ice cream consistency.
As far as weight loss, I am now down 13 lbs in one month. I still have not measured inches but I know those are changing too because my clothes are swimming on me. Hesitant to buy anything new right now as my body is rapidly changing but it has been really gratifying to see a change in my clothes even more so than any numbers on the scale.
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Dieting Vs. Lifestyle Change
20 years ago I worked out so hard that I nearly passed out in a locker room. I had not eaten in days. A teacher and a few friends confronted me and gave me an ultimatum to tell my parents. I listened and ultimately ended up switching from starvation to binging and purging. I would go a day or two with no food then I would go completely out of control and eat a container of frosting. This was my reality for years. I was so ashamed. I met a boy who made me feel safe, marriage gave me this buffer and somehow my food guilt disappeared and morphed into complete overindulgence. I don’t know how the once 87 lb teen turned into a 180 lb adult. There have been moments where I wanted to be skinny again but it never truly happened because I didn’t know how because I was never successful at a diet.
So when God called me on my crap I knew that this was it. No excuses were going to suffice to avoid it. He wasn’t calling me to lose weight, the calling was to be healthy.
Diets have ends and loopholes. I really don’t want to live a life that is that easy to give up on. A true lifestyle change is saying this is the new me. A dessert ever few weeks is not the end or a reason to give up. Moderation has to be my new normal.
Today I made it through an entire workout. No stops. Even with a baby jumping on my back mid plank. The point is that 3 weeks ago I couldn’t do a plank at all. When this started a few weeks ago the goal was health and it has to remain that. Numbers on the scale are encouraging but I don’t have a goal. Just a long healthy life. Thankful for this chance to make this change and for this shift in my brain that has happened.
I used to see the quote “you can do hard things” and think maybe you can but if it isn’t easy I don’t want to do it. The epitome of laziness right here. But, saying no to complacency and yes to hard work as completely revitalized my outlook on life.
Can I really be healthy after years of abusing food as a drug? Is it possible for me to change my body type without old habits reappearing? Even at my skinniest, I was never healthy.
Today at 169 lbs and 34 years old I am on my way to saying I am healthy and unashamed of this body. It has given me three beautiful children.
So nope, this is not a diet. A lifelong journey if health and happiness. Sign me up. I can do hard things and this just the beginning.
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Three Weeks and Ten Pounds
I took an unintentional blogging break the last few weeks because I had to concentrate on me and build some new healthy habits. Usually I would sit and edit pictures and blog with a snack to my left and indulging the whole time. I thought I weighed 175 lbs but stepping on the scale on my birthday a week after I cut out processed foods the scale proved me wrong and not in a good way. It was discouraging and inspiring at the same time. So while I am not sure what my true starting weight was I am now down 10 lbs since my birthday weigh in.
Here is the plan. Don’t starve. Don’t make myself throw up. Cut out processed food. Figure out how to exercise.
Seems like a ridiculous plan when I look at it but as someone who has done and or failed at the above before to say I have successfully cut out processed food and am doing this the healthy way is an improvement over my high school and college version of myself who used the above mentioned alternative weight loss measures.
The key to my success has to be God. Three weeks ago I tried to stuff my face with pasta and I literally gagged. Every semi bad health choice I have attempted to make in the last few weeks have made me sick. I know that is God saying you can’t do this on your own and I have plans for you so let me help take care of you.
A week into this change my gut had been healed. I didn’t know it was sick. I thought cramps, gas, bloating, headaches were all just part of life. I keep saying how good I feel and in part it is to convince myself not to fall back into bad habits because I want to feel good.
Knowing that God is in this with me makes this journey seem possible and knowing He wants to live in me is such a motivator. I know He could use me at any place in my life and at any size but he has called me out of a gluttonous life for a reason and I don’t know what that is in preparation for but it excites me.
The picture is of me this morning. Three weeks and 10 lbs down into this journey. The pajamas were tight a few weeks ago. I wish I would have measured because I am down inches in addition to pounds. So it isn’t officially when I started but it will have to serve as the before picture. Not sure if there will ever be a total after but as far as a work in progress in weight and life, it serves as a happy reminder if who I am, what I am and who I live for and while it’s not flat abs and muscles it is a humble start from a woman after God’s heart and not her own and that is a change worth documenting.
And no…I haven’t given up Diet Coke. One thing at a time people!
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How to Throw a Murder Mystery Party for Tweens
Hello readers and Pinterest fans!! My blog has moved from here to www.alittlemooreblog.com All new updates, tutorials and crafts can be found there!
A few weeks ago while having lunch with a dear friend we started talking about our daughters birthday plans and her daughter said she wanted to have a murder mystery party. Her mom had scoured the internet and Pinterest but left coming up a bit short of the perfect theme. Things were to gory, to focused on the death or too character intensive for the guests. Back in my previous like as a youth minister we used to do a Murder Mystery Dinner fundraiser and we would have a cast act out for the guests and it was up to the guests to just enjoy the show and interact but they didn’t need to have to much back story or prep time other than just to arrive and have a good time. So, when I suggested that to my friend Leigh Ann, she gave me the look of that looks like too much work and I volunteered.
It took a few days to develop the plot while she recruited willing participants to act like fools for her a bunch of 10-12 year olds. Surprisingly, more people than what you would think are willing to act a little crazy for kids and a great time. To start planning your own party it is important to cast people that are willing to improvise. You need quick thinkers who are willing to act in character the whole time. Leigh Ann developed a motley crew that ended up being absolutely perfect. I wrote basic parts that gave everyone a back story and how they fit into the current mystery. We let them decide how they would dress and work in their own quirks.
Here is how we set the scene
Here were our cast bios
A little bio for our cast of characters was enough to spawn a lot of fun over the course of the evening. We served them dinner and acted out around them at a fancy table.
When the kids arrived we let the kids pick out new names to help get them ready for the night.
They were served (extremely poorly but with the greatest of intentions) by the new butler.
We all exaggerated and acted our little hearts out!
I am sure you have your own crew that you can imagine in these crazy roles.
It truly was a lot of fun and the perfect mix of appropriate mystery since we didn’t focus on the death but rather the disappearance. The girls all had a great time and I think I can speak for all of us adults when I say that we did too. I hope this inspires your next murder mystery party!
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Time For a Change
On Wednesday night the fam went out with the Inlaws and I stayed home with the baby who hadn’t napped yet so we knew that exposing her to a restaurant was in no ones favor. I made a some angel hair pasta and while little mama went crazy over it. I took a bite and felt sick. I had not over are and I truly felt it was one of those moments where God nudged me to say I want better for you.
This is a far cry from the feelings about food and my image that have plagued me in the past. Not wanting to take another bite was not in an effort to be thin. Nor was it an ache of embarrassment due to my size. Albeit, these were my motivations in the past it wasn’t enough for me to say enough is enough.
175 lbs
Yes, as torturous as that number sounds it is what I weigh. It is packed on to all 5 feet and barely 4 inches of me.
I could blame it on having three kids. I could blame it on stress. I could blame it on lack of self control.
But, I won’t.
The blame lies solely in complacency. Specifically my ability to not only not think about my size, what I eat or even look at my appearance. Somehow I just was ok with it all due to just being able to ignore it.
But, in that carb filled bite of pasta I wasn’t ok anymore. I confided in everyone who sees me or talks to me daily. Without accountability this can slip into a phase or a good try.
A true lifestyle change take action in addition to accountability and honestly I don’t know exactly how I am going to change but we are on day 3 now of being committed which to be honest is longer than most of my whims.
So here’s to a change. Time for me to take some pride and ownership of this temple that God himself chooses to dwell in.
Open to suggestions, comments, recipes, workouts and support!
A Little Moore 