Hi I'm Pepper. My family and I are sharing pieces of our lives.
We hope to inspire you by showing that even small changes can make the biggest differences in your life. You don't have to go to extremes to become healthy. Just do it one habit, one meal, one walk, and one hug at a time.
Let's work together one piece at a time making better habits, eating healthier, getting moving, and most of all loving our families.
Remember a few weeks back we made Rainbow Rice! That was a great project and the boys loved the outcome! They have been staring at the bag of rice for weeks asking me to play with it, but I kept telling them I have a plan!
My plan? An I spy bottle! Inspired by Pink & Green Mama, I knew I was going to have to do this project.
Step 1: Find lots of little toys and miscellaneous items that will fit inside your bottle. Take a photo and print it.
( I wish we had found more, but we obviously are more baby proofed than I realized LOL)
Step 2: Insert your items into your bottle.
Step 3: Add your rainbow rice! (I promise the boys were really having fun, just no smiles for pictures)
Step 4: Add a good glob of glue around the threads of the bottle and close lid tightly.
Step 5: Shake and explore.
I really like games like these because sometimes Zane needs something to help him sit and relax. He loves I spy books and just staring at the pictures.
Have you made an I spy bottle for your kids or just for fun before? What do you think about making mini versions of this for Christmas stocking stuffers.
[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]I hope you will welcome Miz, one of the first guest bloggers here at Pepper Scraps. She is posting on Weigh in Wednesday about her view of herself and her goals of eating better but also loving herself! I’m sure you enjoy her post as much as I did!
– Love Pepper[/box]
Ok ladies. I think I can safely say the majority of us have a little issue about the way we look. If we have blonde hair we want brown. If we have big boobs we complain about wanting them smaller. And there’s not a lady in my life that doesn’t want to lose a little weight. Most of my friends call it “toning up” or “wanting to get fitter”. No one actually says what they mean to. Then there are the women who want to lose that last 10lbs, for the summer.
I’ve been on a downer about my weight for years. In that time I’ve been skinny, fat, and somewhere in between. Those identifiers mean different things to different people, but to me skinny was a UK size 10 (US size 6), fat was UK size 18 (US size 14). At my happiest, I was a UK size 12 (US size 8). I was curvy, fit and healthy. I rocked vintage clothes and could dance the night away with merry abandon. But even then, without realising I was happy with my weight, I felt I had to lose “those last 10lbs”. There has never been a time when I didn’t pressure myself to “tone up”. Blame whatever you want, the fashion industry, peer pressure, or a woman’s inevitable urge to put herself down – but I know I’ve never not felt the need to be something I’m not at that particular point.
I needed to change the way I view my health. Right now, there are many reasons I should lose weight. Yep, I need to lose weight. I’m not dressing it as toning up. I need to face facts here. I’m 27 year old, UK size 16 (US size 12) and I have back issues, not helped by the extra bulk I carry. I can’t dance with merry abandon anymore. My vintage dresses are in storage. Thing is, I’m constantly told I carry my weight well. It’s the most insulting compliment I receive. It’s an admission that I’m carrying extra weight. It says I don’t look as bad as “other fat people”. It’s still judgement. The worst thing is, I said to myself too!
So yeah, change. Like I said before, weight and size mean different things to different people. I know I never want to be less than a UK size 12 (US size 8), I know I look ridiculous smaller, since there’s two quite big parts of my body that stay the same size no matter what size I am. I have no desire to be a Playboy bunny! But that’s *my* goal. There is at least one woman out there who would love to get to the size I am now. It’s all relative. Self image and weight are so closely linked that it’s hard to see the other possibilities to improve how you view yourself. If you make weight loss your only focus, what happens next? Do you go straight to loving your new shape, or do you stay in that mindset of trying to achieve the perfect figure long after you’ve already achieved what’s right for you?
So I stand in front of a mirror. I look at myself, hard. It was difficult at first. It’s appallingly easy to cut straight to the negative points. My stomach hangs. Damn cellulite. I hate my knees!
Stop.
Enough.
I love my hair. My boobs remain optimistically perky considering their size. I know I’ve got shapely and, sometimes, on good day, quite lovely legs. My body is my best visual aid to my history. Every lump and bump tells a story. I’m not trying to erase that, but start a new chapter. Now when I stand in front of a mirror, I tend to like what I see. On a good day, I even like my bum!
Since I’ve started seeing my body as my greatest achievement, I’ve started treating it better. I drink more water because I like the way it makes my skin look. I eat more fruit because it tastes fantastic and I get a natural sugar rush. I slather myself in beautiful smelling lotions and I give myself mani/pedis. I don’t even miss chips (that much, I’m only human!). I only eat dark chocolate now, on occasion, and I’ve developed a taste for it. I’ve never had a sweet tooth before! I’ve started walking, everywhere. Even if there’s no destination in mind, I love nothing more than plugging music in my ears, tying my laces and power walking for an hour, all by myself. I don’t see it as exercise, but a treat.
I’ve lost more weight, consistently, since this change. I didn’t realise that I’d change my body by simply loving it more. In fact, I think I’m using the wrong word here. My body isn’t changing, really, but evolving into something that this time, I’ll appreciate. The back pain is easing off, and soon I’ll be digging out those vintage dresses and dancing the night away with merry abandon.
One of the best parts of smart phones and tablets is the instant entertainment you can get when you pull them out of your pocket. I’m going to share some our families favorite games, but I really want to hear about some of your favorite games to, so you have to comment!
If you haven’t heard of Angry Birds you are missing out. I love this game, but Zane is addicted. He loves playing Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio. Check out the cinematic trailer:
One of the rare games that I have made it through all the levels! This game is almost a mix of Plunko and Bust a Move! When I heard it was like Bust a Move I figured it was another boring remake, but no it’s so much fun!
I couldn’t find it on the android market, we actually got it free from the Amazon App Store, so the link will take you to the amazon app store (& is an affiliate link).
Now this game was not approved for tablets but I loved it so much I had to have it on my tab. The easy way to work around this is to get on your phone and add it to your account. Then while on your tablet go the Amazon App Store and click install. It was easy and I only have a glitch once in a while.
Another game I got free on Amazon App Store that I love. We have the full version but I linked to the lite version for you to try it out. The idea is that you have a worm that eats only one kind of fruit (they match the color). You want to drag them through the fruit they match and they will eat it away. More fruit will be thrown at you and you want to get your worms to leave spots open for the new fruit. I think this game is tons of fun and very unique.
This was my husband’s pick for games to share with you. He has a few games that he likes but he says out of all of them this is the one he always comes back to. Zane also really enjoys playing this game too. It’s basically pinball in your pocket!
This one of the first games I looked for when I got my android phone. I had seen it on a friends iPad and knew that Zane would love it! It’s one of those great mindless games that is just addicting enough that you always seem to come back to it. And they have the best squishy sound as you squish the ants!
Now your turn!
Okay there are so many good games out there now I want to hear your favorites!!
As I have gone through this project, I have learned so much more about myself than just a photo shows. I’ve learned more about sharing myself. And today I’m going to take a break from what I normally write about on my blog and on this project and share a part of me you don’t see in my photos. What I right about may offend you or turn you off of my sight, but this is part of me and I think I would rather you see the whole me and love me as I am.
John 10:10
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose to to give them a rich and satisfying life. – John 10:10 NLT
As I sat in church and listened to the words my mind wondered to a past month of feeling of sadness for those I’ve met who have been hurt. And I wrote this:
My heart breaks for those I have met where these thieves, these false prophets. Their hearts have been hurt in the name of Christ but they do not even realize that they have been deceived. They did not meet the true God, they were introduced to a god that has been created by a human, a human that has created a god with human imperfection of hate, selfishness, and more. And this imperfect god destroys lives.
“There is one thing to know God and then there is to experience God.” – Joel Dombrow
I’m sure you’ve read this 1 Corinthians 13 many times at weddings, in marriage books and from your own Bible. But this verse is talking about a perfect love, not a husband and wife love, but God’s love. Replace Love with God in this verse and you will slowly see the beauty of His love.
Join Project 52: Self Portraits
Lynda (from Daily Window) and I are not going to be putting up the linky anymore, but still want to invite you to participate in this project with us. I hope you will join us!
If you want to use the Project 52 badge feel free and grab it and use it on your post. You don’t have to do every week with us you can post just once even and you don’t have to follow the weekly theme either. We just hope that you will join us for some fun.
This week we didn’t do a lot of actual crafts as just learned. I found some really neat activities so I thought I would share them with you.
If you are new to A Craft a Day
A Craft a Day gives you five activities that you can enjoy with your kids, one for each day of the week. Most of these activities work well for preschoolers, but you may be able to adapt them for your toddler.
I will post the crafts on Saturdays so you can use the weekend to get any supplies that you may need. We are making our way through the alphabet this year so if you missed a letter you can find it here.
The Crafts:
Skeletons Snacks – I saw these and thought they were great! I didn’t put them on cupcakes, we just put them on plates.
My Body Felt Board – If your little one is good at cutting you can have them cut the pieces out on this project, but with Zane I just cut them and showed them how they worked. He loved learning about bones in his body.
Layers of the Body -I was planning on making these layers with elmer’s glue and tissue paper, but again I wasn’t supermom so we didn’t make it to this project.
With & Without Bones – Since Zane was so intrigued by having bones I thought this would be a great activity to explore it more. Especially since he asked “Why do we have bones?”
Homemade_Food_Pyramid – This was a great activity and I was surprised at how quickly Zane picked up that we eat sweets very rarely and we should eat lots of fruits and veggies. This was also great to work on his cutting skills. You can find an example of the new food pyramid here.
Supplies: marshmallow, food pens or food color and toothpick, white chocolate covered pretzels, toothpick or lollipop stick, felt and/or cardboard and/or craft foam, scissors, glue, tissue paper, saran wrap, large precut triangle marked like the food pyramid, magazine and/or shopping ads, scissors, glue, gloves, flour, popsicle sticks
Are you Supermom?
Now I’m not supermom and I don’t expect you to be either. We don’t always get to each activity, sometimes life is just too busy. Hopefully you may try one or two of these activities with me and my kids! You don’t have to do every single one. You don’t have to be doing preschool with your child. I just hope to give you a resource for some great fun with your kids!
Be Featured
If you do any of these crafts and happen to take a picture or write a blog post about it please make sure and share your link in the comments. Also don’t forget to link the original crafter! I may feature you and your blog on the following weeks post!
These are very basic instructions on how to install a plugin on your self-hosted WordPress blog or website.
Step 1: Click “Plugins” Step 2: Click “Add New” Step 3: Search for the plugin or kind of plugin you are looking for Step 4: Look for a plugin with a good rating Step 5: Click “Details” under the plugin you are looking at and read about the plugin Step 6: Click “Install Now” Step 7: Click “Ok” in the pop up prompt Step 8: You may need to login to install the plugin* Step 9: You will see the installation process run (can take a minute) Step 10: Click “Activate Plugin”
You can get this information in your hosting control panel or contact your host.
Additional Setup
Some plugins will need additional setup once you have installed them. You can look through your side menu in your WordPress Control Panel for the plugin and you will find the additional setup. Most good plugins will walk you through this setup.
Questions?
Please add your questions in the comments! I will answer you in the comments or via email.
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