New Year Upon Us...

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man." - Benjamin Franklin

We have been out of town for the Christmas holiday, enjoying time with our family in Florida. It was a great trip, and I felt truly blessed to be surrounded by such special loved ones. It was a fantastic trip.

We returned home on Tuesday evening with plans brewing for another New Year's Day brunch. We had one two years ago, and had planned to make it annual. Last year, everything got in our path making it impossible. This year was a good year to revive the tradition. As the original brunch, we invited the Nichols' family and Plemon's family.

Since we put our suitcases down, we have have been cleaning and organizing. I've been so busy this semester that, sadly, cleaning has been put on the back burner. Things were always NEAT, but CLEAN...not so much. I went in full force with the deep clean. Needless to say, after two days of battle....the toothbrush (favorite cleaning tool) and I have won the war against dust/dirt.


All of this was to preface the fact that I haven't really had time to sit and think about the new year creeping in through the door. I finally sat down long enough to mess about a bit on the computer, and I found this quote by Ben Franklin. After thinking about it for a few minutes, it's been decided...this is my moto for 2010. I am still thinking about what this new year will mean for me, and how to make it the best year possible. I will get back to you on that one... As for now, be safe and have a lovely New Year's Eve. Here's hoping the new year will find you bright eyed and ready to fly.


Much love- Paperwings

Christmas Spirit is Upon Me!

Just wanted to tell you all Merry Christmas! I hope you are all surrounded by loved ones for the holiday season, and are able to appreciate the blessings bestowed upon you. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, beautiful sons, and so much more. I am feeling festive and a bit sentimental, so forgive me. :) Love to you all!

Cute Printable Christmas

My lovely friend, Erin, sent me this link, and I thought it a good idea to share with you all. It's a cute little nativity scene for kids to color and put together. I wanted to try it out with my three year old, but I ran out of time (We are leaving for Florida tomorrow.) I am not sure if he would be old enough to do it anyway. He's not really into coloring. Anyhoo, there's always next year! Take a look, it seems easy enough.

Free iTunes Holiday Sampler

I found this on another great blog Freebies4mom and I thought it best to share with you all! It's a pretty decent sampler with 20 songs, and best of all...it's FREE. Get yourself into the holiday spirit by listening to some music gifted to you from iTunes! Enjoy!

Going to See Rob Bell

Just wanted to pop in and let everyone know that I am going to see Rob Bell tonight! Not that you really care too much, but he's an awesome speaker so you should care. :) If you have never heard of him, you should check his robbell.com site and read about him. Or if you are so inclined or intrigued by my own interest in Rob Bell, check out this site and watch some of his Nooma videos. They are awesome and short.

A Kind Alternative

I will be honest. I am a bit nervous about Thanksgiving. I absolutely love holiday food...I mean, who doesn't? The difference between me and a lot of people is that I HAVE NO DISCIPLINE. I rely on small food portions prepared daily before I go to work to help me keep my intake IN CHECK. When I have a table full of food (delicious food) in front of me, I have a tendency to over eat. I am especially weak in the dessert department. This is where my "kind alternative" comes in... I have found a great recipe for Pumpkin -Carrot Bars with cream cheese frosting. I cant wait to try it. Low in calories while remaining full of flavor, these pumpkin bars make a great dessert and they're relatively guilt-free. They're high in vitamin A, and a bar only contains 70 calories and less than two grams of fat. With nutritional stats like that, it's OK to go back for seconds. I hope I am not the only one who tries these out!

Pumpkin-Carrot Bars With Cream Cheese Frosting
Modified from SparkPeople

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup Earth Balance (or other butter substitute)
2 eggs
2 large egg whites
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin pie filling
2/3 cup finely shredded carrot

Cream cheese topping:
4 ounces light cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon skim milk

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Spray a 15 x 10 jellyroll pan with cooking spray.
2. In small bowl, whisk flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. In larger bowl, use electric mixer to beat sugar, Earth Balance, and brown sugar until crumbly. Add eggs, egg whites, pumpkin pie filling, and carrots. Beat until well blended.
4. Add flour mixture and mix until well blended. Spread onto greased pan.
5. To prepare cream cheese topping: mix together cream cheese, sugar, and milk until thoroughly blended.
6. Drop teaspoon-fulls of topping over pumpkin batter and swirl and cut mixture into batter with a butter knife.
7. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan completely on wire rack before cutting into squares.

Makes 48 squares.

All About the Burn

I am happy to say that I have finally begun to shed some pounds. Fifteen pounds as of this week, actually. This is very motivating to me, and makes me want to step it up even more. Thus....this post. I found this on one of my fav. blogs, fitsugar, and had to share it's simple, but effective message. :)

If you're trying to lose weight, cardio is your best friend. Workouts that get your heart rate up, such as running, biking, and using a cardio machine, are the best way to burn calories and reduce your percentage of body fat. Another fact to point out is that the faster you move, the more calories you'll burn. I'm not suggesting that you have to sprint through your entire workout - increasing your pace even a small amount will make a difference. Here are two ways to increase your speed when doing cardio.

1. Add intervals. After warming up, move at your usual pace for one minute, then increase your speed for one minute, then return to your usual pace for a minute. Repeat this sequence for 30 minutes, and then cool down. Need a plan to follow? Here are some interval workouts for all types of cardio. Remember, interval training is proven to reduce belly fat.
2. Increase your overall pace just sightly. Running at a pace of 5 mph (12-minute miles) burns 263 calories in 30 minutes. If you run a bit faster at 6 mph (10 minutes per mile), you'll burn 292 calories. It may not seem like a big difference, but if you run five times a week, you'll burn an extra 145 calories.

Increasing your speed when doing cardio won't take a lot more energy, but it'll sure make a difference to your body. You'll burn more calories, which translates to a slimmer, more defined frame. It will also help with your endurance, and make you stronger.