One of Those Days

Ever have one of those days where you feel like all you do is clean up messes?

Well, today was was of those days.

In a matter of 24 hours I had cleaned up my share of #2, vomit and broken glass.

I woke up to my son having gone #2 in his diaper. He loves to go in after it so of course it was on his hands and under his nails.

Then in the afternoon our Great Dane decided to go #2 in my front room. Thank goodness we have not replaced that carpet yet. It is still the ugly mauve carpet they had when we moved in. I not only had to clean that up really well, then scrub the areas. Now I have to rug scrub the whole room. For those of you that don't know, Great Danes can poop, A LOT.

My second oldest daughter spilled her apple juice on the kitchen floor. Which we all know you miss some and before you know it your feet are sticking to the floor.

I go upstairs to go into my bedroom and one of the dogs has thrown up half chewed grass. So another cleanup, and rug scrubbing.

Then my son, that is my 17 1/2 month old son snuck into his sisters room and brought down a snow globe. Then proceeded to drop it on the top glass part. Now I honestly thought that the people that made those for kids(this one was a Lion King one) made then out of some kind of indestructible product. Really I did. So you can imagine my surprise when this one shatters. I am happy to report that my son was not injured at all.

I had to first pick up the glass, then towel up the liquid that was inside. Did I mention this one had glitter instead of snow? Yeah, so glitter was sticking to everything!

Because of all the spills, etc. on my kitchen floor, I had to mop my floor. On my hands and knees of course.

I am so done with cleaning up messes.

It was one of those days where I had to remind myself that anything that I wanted to do had to be put on hold. I am a mom, so I had to simply put everything else down and mother my kids. Even if I wanted to look at the Sunday paper, work on my blog or simply drink my tea in peace. And that is okay, I will eventually get to do those things.

But right now my kiddos need me.

Fall Decorations

I couldn't take it anymore and I got out my fall decorations on September 3. It was a gorgeous cool day.

This is what I got out. Enjoy.

I will post this soon, this is made from dollare store stuff.

Close-up of the sunflowers.

On porch, so cute.

Wooden pumpkins from local craft show.

Also from local craft show, but these include the bark, these are my favorite.

Scarecrow, from same craft show.

I have had this sunflower for years. Our first place we lived in after we were married, I had decorated with sunflowers. This is still from that house.

Wreath hanging on our pantry door.

With the exception of the wreath above, I keep these up until Thanksgiving.

Fall definately works for me!

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my 14th wedding anniversary.

I love you Kip. I hope to enjoy many more years together.

Eating to Lose Weight and Stay Healthy

Some of you have been wondering just how/what I have been doing to lose weight.

I originally started with Weight Watchers. That worked at first, very well. But my subscription expired and I didn't want to spend the money to extend it. Not to mention I have been reading a book that goes into detail the food that I need to avoid to help my stomach. I will eventually write about my stomach problems, but they are long.

So, I decided to give this diet a try. Although I don't really like to call it a diet. It is really a lifestyle change.

I have really changed the way I eat. This is what my typical dinner consists of. Rice, vegetable and fish. In this case it was salmon. I couldn't tell you the last time I had red meat or milk for that matter.

The rice and the green beans are steamed, the salmon was grilled on cedar planks.

I eat a lot of vegetables and rice now. I am so used to eating healthy that when I do eat something junky, my stomach revolts and I am sick for a day or two!

This is blackened catfish, orange rice and green beans.

Pizza with no cheese and a salad.

It has been very hard. And while I have upped my exercise, I have not lost a single pound in over a month. I don't know if I am trading fat for muscle. But I have lost 30 pounds total and am hoping to lose another 10-20. We will see. I am not stressing over it, I want to be healthy, not super skinny.

On a typical day I eat 1/2 cup low fat granola and a banana for breakfast along with peppermint tea. If I am really tired, I will drink coffee. However I am supposed to avoid coffee. But some days it is a must.

For lunch I will eat tuna with plain pasta or a spicy black bean burger with rice. Or I will eat leftovers from dinner, always very heavy on the veggies and rice or pasta.

A snack will consist of soy yogurt with some berries mixed in, more low fat granola, a piece of fruit or a couple of homemade ginger snaps.

By the time dinner rolls around I am usually very hungry. I try to eat carrots or peppers while I am cooking but some days I succumb to my craving and steal a chocolate chip cookie. Only to feel like I am going to throw up later. Why do I do that?

It is the strangest thing. I have figured out that my main culprit in my stomach issues is chocolate. That used to be my favorite thing and my downfall. I am not one of those people that can eat a nibble and be satisfied, I have to have a lot. And a lot makes me vomit. Enough said. So, you would think I wouldn't want it at all, but I do. It is a learning process. I am trying.

My exercise routine consists of either doing one of my exercise videos at 5:00 a.m. before work or running with my little man in the jogging stroller. I enjoy the running more but some days I have to settle for the video. Also on the days I work I walk a couple miles on my morning and afternoon breaks. Not to mention I find every opportunity to play with my kids. Today for instance I spent half the day playing soccer with my kids or pulling them in wagons.

Friday

So Friday I spent the morning making copies of the kindergarten newsletter. Almost 900 copies. That took a little over 2 hours. While keeping my 17 month old son occupied. It was okay, thank goodness since it is a monthly thing for me. But honestly, I am happy I can help. I enjoy volunteering at the schools.

When I came home, I opened every one of my new windows. It was heavenly. The high today was only 79 and there was a very strong breeze. It made the house very nice and breezy it was wonderful.

It makes me feel like fall is on it's way. I love fall, it is my favorite time of year, no contest.

In the fall, my favorite thing to do besides cook is bake! So instead of cleaning the bathrooms like I should have been doing, I decided to do some baking!

I baked two new recipes to me, Gingersnap cookies (my favorite since I can't eat chocolate chip anymore) and vinegar cookies, which reminded me of a kind of sugar lace cookie.

Gingersnap Cookies

Vinegar Cookies

I love to bake! Unfortunately I also love to eat them, so I do have to practice self control.

My New Smoki'n Hot Camera

I have a new toy. Really it isn't just mine, but I will be the one to use it the most. We have been needing a new camera, as you could probably tell from my photos I post on here!

No matter what setting I tried, I simply could not get the photos to turn out very well. That was starting to frustrate me.

So, we decided to bite the bullet and did our research and bought the number one rated camera we could afford. I won't tell you the cost, because I am still in sticker shock over it.

However I will tell you that I have been playing with it and am happy to report that I will be posting many more wonderful photos in the near future.

Stay tuned!