Fun

Yesterday was a complete state of Oola for me.  

So many positive and wonderful things.  

However we are just going to focus on the Fun aspect of the day. 

Fun is one of the easiest of the seven values to knowledge, it is also one of the most difficult ones to prioritize. Well at least for me.  

Riding my horse, camping,sleeping in and reading  these are some of the things I find the most fun things. That I try and do.  If you are like me. Everything gets put infront of fun and fun only comes when I finished looking after my family, working, and spending time with my friends.  

Learning how to have fun more often has been difficult for me. I am trying to read a little everyday and riding my horses more and more. I was taught that as a mom that you were the least important person. That you just meet everyone else’s needs before you can begin to meet yours.   I try to at least once a week put myself first. It doesn’t have to be something big and outrageous. It can be something small like the entire family having a reading night or my daughter and I taking the horses out or even just sleeping in. 

How do you fit more fun into your life. Well set aside 5- however many minutes a day or week aside and do something that makes your heart sing.  That puts a smile on your face. Do something that just gets you so excited. It sounds lots easier then it is. It’s tough to find five minutes. For example I really want a nap right now. I am very tired so I have told myself that as soon as I finish this blog post I can have a nap.  I can feel it. It’s almost done. 

Yesterday I reached one of my Oola fun goals. I went fast on my horse. This may seem a little silly to some of you and even sillier to more of you as I have always really and I mean really enjoyed running my horse. It is one of the things I haven’t been able to do since my accident.  It felt amazing a free and wow the power underneath him was amazing. It was just so very Oola.  

Now onto my goals and dreams. 

This week I am going to start with my dreams. 

• I would love to go on a camping/biking trip with my husband
• Compete in SBRA (Saskatchewan Barrel Racing Association) not just ride my horse in one, but place in a jackpot. 
• Read 24 books in a year 

Goals. 

• Check out camping parks as a family to find the one that Ian and I want to go to 
• Continue learning about horses 
• Take riding lessons. 
• Read every day. 

There you have it. Value 6 Fun.  Hope everyone has an amazing week. Please feel free to follow me, and as always reach out if you have any questions 

Leeanne

Fitness

New week, new topic. This week is kinda a two part topic. What do I exactly mean by that?  Well fitness has a physical health aspect to it as well so this week I am going to cover fitness and physical health. 

In the last four years I have found that my physical health has been greatly impacted on what I put into my body.  I completely change the way I thought about eating. I use to just eat and eat whatever I wanted and whenever I wanted. If I was happy, sad, mad or any other feeling you can think of it meant putting food into my mouth. This made me overweight, tired and unhappy. I thought it was just the way I was made to be.  Then I learned to fuel my body, giving my body the nutrition it needed to repair itself and to power myself through exercise. I personal do best when I follow a paleo diet. Do I fall off the wagon? Of course I do. Then I jump back on and feel amazing.  I sleep better, my emotions are more balanced and overall I have more energy. 

Fitness 

This is a big one for me. As a preteen I was very active playing soccer, running in track and field and playing any sport I could in school.  As a teenager my family moved to a rural community and I became somewhat more sedentary. By the time I was 16 I started riding horses and riding my bike more and more however that was it for exercise. From my early 20’s until just a few years ago the only thing keeping me moving was riding my horse and that didn’t happen very often.  

Now I realize how much I love to exercise and how much my body loves to move.  Running, biking, lifting weights, swimming and riding my horse. These are the things my body thrives off of. 

This is actually a really tough week for me as I was suppose to be running a half marathon on the weekend and I had to drop out.  It was causing me more damage then good. Joints were starting to break down and I was starting to hate running.   A week after I stopped running my body feels brand new. I have energy like I haven’t had in months. I was running about 45km a week, riding my horse twice a week and then normal farm chores.  Now that I am not running I am riding twice a week, walking several times a week, body weight exercises daily and lifting heavy  with sprints once a week. I feel great. I will be doing some adjusting as time goes on. This works for now and theough the summer I will be adding more bike riding and horse riding. In the winter it will be more indoor activities. 

I do plan to run again, just not really long distances 5km-10km that will be it for me.  

Onto my goals and dreams. 

In the pst his has always been about a number on the scale or a number on my clothes now however it is about being able to do things. 

Goals 

• Be able to do a pull-up 
• Over head press 100 pounds 
• 90% of the time eat paleo

Dreams

• Complete a spartan sprint race
• Speak to teenage girls about how to be truly healthy 

Thanks for stopping by. As always if you have any questions please contact me. Enjoy your week 

FARMFITMA 

Field

Good evening WordPress family and friends. A new week a new topic. I felt it necessary to speak on field or vocation this week. 

Why? You may ask.  Well I added another vocational hat to my head this week  and started working outside the home, a little more on that later.  

Vocation or field. This is what you get up and do every day. Many people these days have more then one field or vocation. I for example have many, I am a homemaker, a quilter, a homesteader, a mother and now an employee for a company.   

I can’t really speak on everyone else’s behalf however your vocation can be anything you want it to be.  

When I started this journey of balance back in January this was one of the hardest places for me to look at. All I saw myself as was a stay at home mom. How can that be any different then what it sounds like.  It took lots of thinking and talking with friends, and professionals to see how many different ways a stay at home mom can look.  I decided that stay at home mom and homemaker were now combined. I was going to be the best at both that I possible could. Contrary to what some might believe this didn’t mean doing everything for all the members of my household, it meant teaching my children how to do different household chores, scheduling time for cleaning, budgeting, yard work and outdoor chores so that my husband didn’t have as much to do when he got home so we could spend the time he was home together as a family.  Oddly enough when this all fell into place it freed up more time for me to do other things that bring me joy. I had time to promote and Market my custom quilting and sewing and get this blog going more regularly. Now I even have time to fit in working 30 hours a week outside the home. It’s a bit of a struggle at the moment, however we haven’t even finished week one.  

Finding what you love and finding a way to make a profit at it can be difficult and frustrating. You just have to keep plugging away. Sometimes it also means accepting that the pay may not be what you expected. I have never thought being a mom or a wife as a job and it has always bothered me that I was not bringing in any money to our household. I now realize watching my children and seeing what they can do and the kind words they and my husband give me that’s all the pay I need.  I do realize that is not good enough for everyone and most people need a paycheck.  The best advice I can give is find something you enjoy doing, if you pick a job you hate you won’t do well at it. However if you do enjoy it, you will continue to grow in the company and make more and more.  

My quilting and sewing has been a love of mine for a decade now and my husband has always been supportive of my hobby.  In the pst I have tried to make it into a business and failed. This year I am putting my heart and soul into my work and making sure to pay myself with each job. Low and behold even though my prices are higher I am getting more jobs then I ever have before. 

Because we are on a debt free plan here I have been looking for a part time job that I will enjoy however not take all my time away from home. It’s a lot harder then it sounds. I wasn’t going to just do any job. It had to be a job at a cononay I believed in, it had to pay well enough to cover my expenses to get to work plus some for the debt.  I had about given up, then came the phone call. Working for an online health food store, shipping out orders for them, working only when my kids are at school. Yay. A little extra money, still home with the kids and I believe in what the store is selling. 

Now onto my goals and dreams. 

Maintain a profitable business from home for one year. 

Continue to add value to each of my children’s lives   

Provide a healthy, happy home for my family. 

My dream is a big one. It’s way out there and I have lots of work todo to get there. 

Earn $100,000 in one year from the homestead and my quilting and sewing. 

So there you have it.  My field/vocation in a nutshell. As always if you want to talk more about this topic shoot me a message. Make sure to click the follow button to keep up with me. You can also find more about the homestead and quilting/sewing at the following places. 

Our website 

www.liranch.weebly.com
Or on Facebook

https://m.facebook.com/LiRanchandHeirloomGifts/
I will leave you with a few photos that sum up my field. 

Finance

Welcome to week three.

Each week I struggle with deciding which topic to discuss.  Something always comes you to make the choice very clear. Yesterday I was having a visit with a close friend and we were discussing my kids and money.  She looked me straight in the eye and said “You should write a blog about that”.  So is born today’s blog.

Money the root of all evil.  The number one cause of fights in relationships.  The one thing we all want more of.

Last year in August my husband and I became tired of living paycheck to paycheck.  We are a single income family and he makes good money, however we were living above our means.

We all learn about money from our parents.  They may not sit down and have a discussion about how they handle their money, we do watch them and learn from example.  This is the exact same thing our kids do.

My husband and I were living a life of if we could afford the payment then we could afford whatever we were looking for.  It was becoming over whelming keeping track of all the payments.  It got to the point we were taking from one credit to pay another card and the cycle looked like it was never going to end.  We were sitting on the deck enjoying a cold drink when he mentioned a book that his wife and he had read and they had been following for sometime and they could now see the light at the end of the tunnel.  That week I went out and bought the book.  The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey.  Both Farmfitpa and I read the book and in August we started the program.

We have a date when the only payment that we have will be our mortgage.  October 21, 2021.  It seems so far away yet so close at the very same time.

How are we doing it? Well I recommend you buy the book or listen to Dave Ramsey’s podcast.  Our short version is that we have a budget that we are sticking to, we are paying extra onto our debt every check, we are clearing out the house, garage, barn and selling anything that no longer in use or has value to us.  Farmfitpa is picking ot when possible and doing the odd side job.  I have found some part-time work that I will be starting next week.  We are only buying things that we need not the things we want. Both of us are shoppers and this is really tough.  We talk once or more a week about where our money is going.  This is the biggest part that is helping us the most.  We both can see that the other is working hard at learning new habits and talking about it makes it so much easier.

We are also taking this time to teach money smarts to our kids.  Some of the things that we have instill in them are as follows:

• 1/2 of your pay goes into savings
• give money to charity/church each check
• know what you want to purchase and save for it
• you don’t do your work you don’t get paid

You may be thinking how can an 8 and 10-year-old understand having a job well.  We raise chickens and each of the kids is responsible for an aspect of keeping chickens.  At the end of the month we take all the money from selling eggs and split it.  That is where they get most of their money.  My 10 year old also started her own saddle cleaning business and has done well with that.

We are hoping that teaching them young they wont run into the same mountain of debt that we have.

As with other weeks here are the short and long-term goals that Farmfitpa and I have in the finance category:

Short term

• pay off next debt by October 2017
• post at least one item a week for sale
• a minimum of $100 a month extra onto debt

Long term

• Be debt free
• have a net worth of a million dollars

One of the quotes that I am living by right now to help me get through these tight times is ; Live like no one else today, so that I can live and give like no one else.  Dave Ramsey.

Have more questions for me about Finance please feel to contact me and ask away

 

Leeanne

 

Friends

Week two of the seven key areas of life that I try to keep balanced.  This week I will be talking about friends.

Now just to make it very clear I am not talking about my friends personally , only about the relationships I have with them and how I interact with them.

For as long as I can remember I have been the doing friend.  I am the person that will go out of my way and give up things for myself to help my friends.

As a work from home mom, I find it very difficult to make the time to spend time with friends.

I have started a private Facebook chat with a group of women who I am close to.  I call them my tribe.  Each one of them brings something special to the group.  Some of them are really close friends, some are new friends and some are acquaintances that I hope to build into friendships.  Some of them know each other and some no one else in the group other than me.  Right now this is a huge support group for me and I hope with time the others become friends to and it can be a support group for all of us.

I am a needy friend.  I am a talker and a doer.  I am also an open book, I share lots with those who are close to me and if someone is going through something that I have been through I share what I did to help me through it.  I also find that I get hurt very easily, I take things so personal.  I often over react to the little things and damage the friendship.

My goals for the friends area my life are as follows:

• to become a better listener
• to spend more time one on one with my friends
• to expand my small circle and let others in
• to have a supper date with friends once a month.  This could be our house o theirs
• stop, think, think some more, and then approach the friend when I have a conflict

 

My Dreams for my friends are:

• a girls weekend (it is in the planning for January)
• a friends and family holiday

The friends category is a tough one and very much dependant on the person.  Some people like being on their own and others are so very social.  Some people who work in a very socail job where they have clients, it can be difficult to have a very clear line between friend and client.  There is also making the difference between friend and acquaintance.

 

Church, horse, chicken, child, quilting, crafts, and family friends  I love you all and hope to become a better friend.

 

Leeanne

Family

The first and most important to me value. Family. 

Family can be different for everyone.  For me family includes my husband and children. Then our (my husband and I) parents, siblings, nieces, nephews and grandparents.  For others it could also include Aunts, Uncles, cousins, adoptive or birth parents, and really close friends 

As a work from home Mom, I spend lots of time on my family. Some days it feels like that’s all I do. 

Currently I am trying to build stronger bonds with my husband and both children. There are several things that I do daily to achieve this. 

With my husband. I pray for him morning and night. I also have a book that I write one thing that I love or appreciate about him everyday, even on the days that it is hard to find something.  We keep a picture frame on the island in our kitchen, where I write special notes to my husband about the things he does to make me feel extra special.  

My husband and I have two children a 10 year old girl and a 8 year old boy.  I really struggle day to day to find the time to spend some alone time with each one.  I do pray for them twice and sometimes more each day. I try and spend 10 or 15 minutes a day with just them. Usually for my son we spend this time doing his reading for the day.  I am struggling more with my daughter as she believes she is too cool to spend time with mom, which I am ok with.  I just want to make sure she knows I am always here for her.  My daughter and I do ride together weekly and I hope as the weather gets nicer we will be doing this more often. 

When I read this blog back to myself at least as far as I have gotten so far. I think “WOW. I got this “. Then I remember the goals I want to share these with you. I have have several little goals to get to the big giant goal. I am going to share with you the two big giant goals I have. These two goals currently don’t have a to be done by date. There are two of them because one is a husband and I goal and the other is a family and I goal. 

Dream one 

For Farmfitpa and I to go on a kids free weekend holiday. In the perfect world this would include somewhere we could take the bikes or the horses. 

Dream two. 

The Farmfitfamily goal is to take an over seas holiday.  10 days where we leave the farm behind us and explore a part of the world together that none of us have been to before.  

“Goals are the milestones to teaching your dreams ” The Oolaguys. 

Find me on Instagram @farmfitma

Thanks for stopping by this week. 

Have an amazing week 

FARMFITMA 

Values

If you follow me on social media you know I am all about living an Oola life.  

What exactly is an Oola life.  It is living a balanced life within the seven key areas of life.  

Family, finance, fitness, fun, friends, faith and field.  

I was introduced to Oola back in January and have been attacking it with full force.  Oola what is what lead me to start reading more personal development books.  

The book I am currently reading, I started reading to help me focus more on my field (vocation). It is called Insipred Destiny by Dr. John DeMartini.  On page 20 he starts talking about values. He list seven values we all have.  

Spiritual, mental, vocational, financial, familial, social, and physical. 

Interesting those seem remotely familiar.  

As I learn to focus my daily life on what my values are I see so many things changing.  Learning what is really important to me has been so eye opening. 

I have always been a people pleaser, making sure everyone around me is happy and has what they need before taking care of me.  Then beating myself up to no end when the goals I have set for myself are not reached.  

The chapter I read last night was the brightest lightbulb moment I have ever had.   I will give you are short version.  When you are living in accordance to someone else’s hierarchy of values you will fail to reach your goals.  People are put into your life to help you find and realize your own strengths.  When you live your life to your own hierarchy of values and you recognize and accept all your traits you will achieve your goals.  

No two people have the same hierarchy of values and that’s a good thing.  It’s what makes the world work.  The trick is to accepting and supporting others values while still staying true to your own.  

My values change and that’s ok.  Right now running and paying down debt are at the very top of my list. That doesn’t mean that I am ignoring the rest it just means that I wake up and go to sleep focused on those two things.  In June when my half marathon is done, it will change again and it July when the kids are out of school it will change again. It will always be changing, however there are items in each that I will always remain passionate about.  Over the next seven weeks I am going to take you through where I am in each of the values and also where I would like to be within them.  

Each night I set myself seven intentions for the next day. One in each value. I give myself the goal of attaining 3 out of the 7.  In a year that 1095 intentions that I have made and accomplished that would have never happened had I not spent the time to examine and strengthen my values.  

If you want to here more of my story and what lead me here please don’t hesitate to contact me 

Farmfitma@gmail.com

Leeanne 

Improvments

I am about 5 weeks out from my half marathon and I will not lie, the training is starting to wear on me.  Running 4-5 times a week is getting old and with the weather getting nice, I want to be spending more time in the saddle.

This week is a taper week for me.  The training plan that I am following has a taper week every third week.  I am taking this week to think about where I am and where I was last year at this point.

I will say that I am glad you guys are reading this and its not me telling you.  If we were sitting across from each other I would be crying.  Just so you know I am crying as I write this.  On each difference that I am noticing I will first share what is happening this year and then what was happening last year.

First off.  This year I love to run, I enjoy every run, even the ones that I have to finish at a walk.  Even when the runs don’t go as I planned.  When I am slower then I want to be, I am not beating myself up, instead I am looking at how good I am feeling at the end of each run.  Last year I had to make myself run every run, at this point I was dreading each and every run.  I would push myself so hard last year and knock myself down over and over after each run  telling myself how much better I could be doing.

After I run I feel amazing.  My left hip and calf are a little sore.  I foam roll after almost every run.  I am stretching before each run.  I can run in the morning and continue with my day.  I have a very good recovery time.  Last year at the end of my run I was done, depleted, and completely done.  I was not foam rolling, and I was not stretching.  I was very unproductive after my runs.  I would have to take Advil before going to bed so I cold sleep.  I had horrible recovery.

Massage and Chiropractic Care

I get a massage every three weeks and it hurts.  It hurts oh so much.  However the moment I walk out of the office I feel like a brand new woman.  We are focusing on my legs and lower back.  The results that I am seeing are amazing.  I go to the chiropractor every three to four weeks, for maintenance.  I am having no huge concerns with either one.  Last year I was also getting massages every three weeks during training, however we were working mostly on my back and shoulders.  i was going through some huge personal events last year and carrying so much tension.  As for seeing the chiropractor.  At this point I was seeing Dr. Kiva three times a week for two weeks and then, once a week until just after my race.

The biggest and most rewarding part of this years training is that its for me.  I am healthy and happier going into this years training.  I am running for me.  I already know I can do it.  I know that I can run 21 km, I know what I am going to feel like after the race and the next day.  I am going to savor every moment of my training and my race.  I did the training and ran last year to prove to others that I could do.  To show all the naysayers that they were wrong.  I was distracted by so many different things during my race, and after.  I was so focused on others and not at all on my self.

 

This year I am so in love with this and even though there are days that I have to drag my feet out the door or onto the treadmill.  I am enjoying this and am enjoying watching my times improve, my form improve and most important that I am doing this with very little pain.

Thank you to all who are supporting and cheering me on this year.

 

Leeanne

 

 

 

Who is an Athlete?

This question has been on my mind for a couple of weeks now.  A few things have spurred it on.  The main thing is that I have been job searching and have applied at a few gyms and fitness centers.  Most of them have been online applications and require a photo with your resume.  This irritates me to no end.  Please let me tell you why.

I am 5’4″ and a size 16.  I carry most of my extra weight around my waist.  I don’t think that my size and shape have anything to do with how I can perform my job working in a fitness center.  My size doesn’t reflect my knowledge or experiences.

My size or anyone else doesn’t determine if some one lives a health and fitness centered life.

Going back to the original question who is an Athlete?

My answer is anyone who makes time in their day to focus time to bettering themselves in a sport or fitness activity.  It is someone who enjoys and finds happiness in pushing their body to the next level.  This person will be spending time on researching ways to make their body work better for them. They spend time or hire someone to help them fuel their body and peak their performance.  An athlete can come in many shapes and sizes.

A stranger on the street would have no idea that I run 4-5 days a week, I lift weights 2 times a week and I am riding my horse once to twice a week.  I am always looking for ways to look after my body so that it can perform better and watch what I put in my body.

Are you an athlete?

What do you think makes someone an athlete?

Pet peeves.

We all have them. Some irritate us more then others.   

What is your biggest pet peeve? 

Right now I am very focus on my health. Including my nutrition, fitness and mental health. 

Which means these are where I am finding most of my pet peeves lately. 

I am going to briefly talk about my three biggest pet peeves right now.  

Number 1

When someone who is of average body weight starts a weight loss plan and continually talks about how they use to be over weight.  As a person who is over weight, actually if you go by BMI I am considered obese. This drives me crazy. Yes I think it is amazing a great when anyone meets their own weight loss goals however don’t make it out to be more then it was.  I am very open about my weight loss and it is for health as well being not just too look better in a bathing suit.  

Number 2 

Now this one makes me sound like a through and through running snob. 

You are only a marathoner when you have completed a marathon. A full 42.2 km.  

If you have run 2 half marathons (21.1km each)you are not a marathoner. 

It is a huge achievement to run any distance race. It takes weeks and weeks of training.  I am in my 6th week of training for my 2nd half marathon, in no way shape or form am I a marathoner. I will only be a marathoner when I run a full 42.2km. 

Number 3 

Now this one could be viewed as jealous. However I can say I am not jealous of the next group of people, I can honestly say I wouldn’t want to give up a day of my life to live one of theirs.  

Motivational speakers who’s lows are higher then mosts people’s highs.  When your low spot in life was when you could only own one home instead of three, when you have to only have your nanny part time, having to cook your own meals or not travel over seas every couple of months.  

I have had many ups and downs in my life over the years. However I know that I have not struggled near as much as others have.  There are days when I think things can’t get worse. Then with a moment or two of reflection I see how blessed and extremely lucky I am.  

My biggest struggle with pet peeves right now is letting them go. It really doesn’t affect me. Dwelling on them will only bring me down. So instead I just need to shake my head and let it slide if my back and carry on with my journey. 
FARMFITMA.