Weight Loss

While not nearly complete I've come a long way on my weight loss journey.  As of now I've lost 31lbs, that's 13.14% from my start weight!  Still have about 52 to go but I'm almost half way there!  Here is a little picture to illustrate how much I've lost so far:

That's right, I've lost as much as my three year old weighs! I've worked and sweated off a tiny human!!!

Seemed Appropriate

I haven't blogged in awhile but since we had pancakes for supper tonight it seemed like an opportune time to "get back on the horse" so to speak. My life has been full of getting my man child off to school, adjusting to gluten free living and starting a home business!  In my free time (the oodles of it that I have) I'm still running/walking and trying not to melt in this heat.  I feel like it's been hot since February and there is no end in sight.  I would love a cool Pacific Grove morning with a latte in hand chatting with friends at Caledonia Park.  Oh California how I miss thee!!!

Okay, so tonight was pancakes for supper. The fridge is all but empty and I wanted something easy that everyone (hopefully) would eat. It was actually my first go at gluten free pancakes and with the help of some Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pancake Mix I whipped up a batch. After a major bread debacle that involved throwing two loaves of utterly inedible bread in the trash and a nearly as unpleasant birthday cake for my wee baby's first birthday I was a little skeptical that 1) the pancakes would be good 2) that my kids would eat them. Not only did my kids eat them, they LOVED them.  My 3 year old ate four decent sized pancakes and I, in my desperation for normal tasting baked goods, ate well, more than I should have.  BUT THEY WERE SO STINKING YUMMY!  I doused mine in organic butter from grass fed cows and molasses and was in heaven.  All that was lacking was an icy cold glass of milk but I can't really do dairy and I just couldn't stomach the almond milk.

My other news of note is that I'm working as an Independent Consultant for Arbonne International. Arbonne has AMAZING skin care, make-up, and health and wellness products the vast majority of which are gluten free. I've had a fantastic opening month and I'm really excited to have a vision for myself and our family.  Not only do I adore the skin care products but I've been using their health products to support my weight loss journey (31 lbs total lost so far!) Check out my website!

The kiddos are good.  We just celebrated our youngest turning one! This past year has been long in many ways but it seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital.  The eldest is in school now, with the Hashimoto's and my husbands crazy work schedule coming up it was just too much to homeschool him and give it the focus needed to feel like he was getting what he needed. He's really enjoying being in a classroom and having other kids to play with, he bickers with his sister somewhat less than usual now...  Our days are settling into a good routine and it's been good to get more one on one time with the middle child. She tends to be, shall we say, somewhat strong willed and I think her getting more dedicated time with me is helping her immensely.  

As everything is leveling out I plan to get back to blogging again on a more regular basis.  But anyway, I'm back! 

A Farewell to Arms.....errr Guinness

I feel like I should write but I'm having a hard time fighting the brain fog and actually put my thoughts into words.  There has been much to process the last couple of weeks and I still don't feel like I have fully gotten a grasp on things.  This week I made an effort to do what I could, no matter how small, and to see those things as accomplishments not that I was failing at everything else.  Yesterday was my first day of putting forth a concerted effort to eat gluten free.  I'm also giving coffee the boot for the time being *GASP!* and in general keeping better track of what I eat and how I feel when I eat it.  After scarfing lots of pizza and beer the night before I woke up feeling totally lousy and decided it was time for change.  In addition no gluten I've been using some nutritional products from Arbonne.  The last couple of days with no coffee have been aided by the Fizzy Tabs and for breakfast I blended up a banana with the Chocolate Protein Mix. Yummy, and no headaches while I'm coming down off my daily 24 oz of coffee!  This afternoon I wanted to venture out and raid the bulk bins at a health food store and I found Native Sun Natural Foods.  It was made more exciting by getting caught in a major downpour that put going to farmer's market on hold.

With everything going on and with the ridiculous heat and humidity I haven't had the will to muster the energy to give my poor garden any attention recently.  Our lawn mower also died recently so the kids and I went on an adventure to Pep Boys.  There we traded in our old gas mower for a battery powered one and with the trade in it was only $150!  We then went to Lowe's to see what plants they had left and even this late in the season I was able to get some nice eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, and some jalapenos.  The tomatoes I put in at the beginning of the summer were taking over so I got a cage to try and corral them.

This past week was the first of the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge and I logged 11 miles!  Off to a great start!

I know I'm just getting started down the gluten free path but I already felt a little better today.  A little less tummy trouble at least.  There are certain things I will miss quite a bit, I can't imagine there is a gluten free alternative that comes close to the beauty that is Guinness.  That being said:

There once was a girl who loved Guinness,
She drank it like it was going out of business.
But then she got ill and though she wanted it still,
Guinness her glass would no longer fill.


Cheers!

First 5K EVER!

This week has been very challenging for me.  I'm still trying to process the news that I have an autoimmune disease and that I'm looking at a drastic diet change in the hopes of either maintaining a certain level of thyroid medicine or being able to go off of it entirely.  With the diagnosis of Hashimoto's disease I can look back at my past medical history and or how I've exercised and dieted in the past and so much more of this all makes sense.  I wonder what measure of my past bouts of depression can be attributed to the Hashimoto's.  There is still a lot to read and a plan of action to come up with.  I know that at the very least I'll be kissing gluten goodbye.  I'm enjoying this last weekend with one of the great loves of my life, Guinness, before I say adios forever.

All that being said, I RAN my first 5K ever today.  Once before in my life I did a 5K distance on a treadmill but I couldn't walk later that day and I've never run with much consistency until the last three months.  Yeah, I kicked the 5K's butt!  I averaged a better pace then ever before 13.23 mins/mile and I didn't take ANY walking breaks.  My finishing time was 41.31 minutes.  Having my older brother and best friend there running on either side of me helped me push through the walls, the heart palpitations and tingling hands. (Thanks Hashimoto's.)  The last mile actually really challenged me and I kept thinking, "I'm not going to let Daniel and the kids down.  They are waiting to cheer for me."  Then that last 1/4 mile my thought was, "I'm not going to let MYSELF down, I'm going to run, I'm going to train to run farther distances, and this f*****g Hashimoto's isn't going to get the best of me.  I'm going to get better."  So I finished and I finished speeding up and it was awesome to see my husband and kids there supporting me and hear everyone cheering and clapping.

When we got home it occurred to me that I haven't gone back and looked at the pictures Aiden took of me three months ago when I started this fitness journey and the journey to real health.  Wanna see the before pictures?  This was a good moment for me, I've come a LONG way!

Hashimoto's Thyroiditis

This week, and by week I mean yesterday, I got diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease/Thyroiditis.  Being new to this disease I'm FAR from the expert but at least I have some answers about why I'm dealing with pretty much everything I've been experiencing from depression to extreme fatigue to the fact that my hair is still coming out by the handful when I shower. (I was still attributing the hair loss to post pregnancy stuff.)

The bare bones of it is that it's an autoimmune disorder where my body is attacking my thyroid gland.  When my primary care doctor got my thyroid labs back his quote was, "Your thyroid levels are off the chain."  Where it gets confusing is that it's not ACTUALLY my thyroid that's the problem, while the levels are off what needs to be treated is my immune system, not my thyroid.  First course of action is to go on a gluten free diet.  Yippy.  I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not giving up beer, warm crusty bread, thick tasty gravy, and PASTA but that I am getting to keep my thyroid gland and hopefully stop damaging it and preserving any function is has left.

All this information is a lot to take in.  I have a plethora of books to read and much research to be done but at least I have some answers and somewhere to go from here.

100 Miles

I really need to get back to blogging more often, I know you're all dying to hear my fantastically interesting life adventures and laugh outright at my little quips.  It has been a busy and complicated 6 weeks.  There has been a lot going on and not enough time to get things accomplished (per usual).  Smallest of All is super mobile now and I need to rearrange the house and put up her corral.  No baby gates for this kid, she gets a whole stinkin' fence.  When she's not crawling around with a ball she's attempting to ride the dog or eat the other kids shoes, both are habits I discourage.

ANYWAY, as the eternal procrastinator I was searching for something easy and free to help keep me motivated and accountable as I continue to work towards my weight loss and fitness goals.  As I don't really want to pay for a gym membership, personal trainer, Pilates reformer, or 6 months at a health spa at the moment so I started googling.  It went something like this.

Step one: Find a challenge.
Step two: Con a friend and fellow procrastinator to do it with me because it's more fun that way.

I was stoked to find this little gem.

100 Mile Fitness

It was pretty easy to sucker a friend to join me, and we're not just going for 100 miles, we're shooting for 128!  Our first miles will be running that 5 K together on SATURDAY!!! YIKES!!!  I actually can't wait, I'm starting to get excited for it.

Anyone else out there want to join us??

Duh

Wow, I just figured out how to add pages.  It's amazing what one can do once there isn't anyone awake needing to go potty to running full tilt into the fridge.

Me? Procrastinate?

If there were one thing I could get a PhD in it would be "How to Procrastinate."  I'm notorious for putting things off until the last minute and somehow I assume I'll accomplish a miracle and get whatever task is before me done.  I'm so good at procrastinating that even my babies all arrived late.  I've been putting off blogging because I wanted to try and figure out how to add page tabs to my blog, presumably is CAN be done but I don't possess the technical skills to figure it out.  Some blog hosts (I think that's the correct term) have templates that allow or have pages but I wasn't keen on starting over.  I wanted some way to organize my ramblings, have different pages for kids, weight loss, homeschooling, parenting (You know, because I have ALL the answers.) gardening, Navy spousedom, etc...  Then the solution, an oh so simple solution, came to me.  Labels.  I have a standard set of labels for what I talk about regularly and then, using a widget, create a label "cloud" and it's as good as having a tabbed page.  Ta da!!!

That being said, I'm going to go procrastinate about creating a schedule and routine for my life to get things like my exercise and eating back where it needs to be.  I also need to get militant with the tiny humans, they thrive on routine and I'm not providing it well enough right now.  One thing this Professional Procrastinator needs is accountability, I'm self aware enough that I know I'll have a close to impossible time reaching my goals without it.  Ah, more to figure out, I'm gonna go watch TV now...

Home Again

Well, we're home after an amazing 9 days with my in-laws in Augusta, GA.  I'm sitting here enjoying my first green drink in over a week and it's OH SO GOOD!!  Nothing like starting the day with coffee and what amounts to an entire bag of fresh spinach and a variety of fruits.  Yum!

It was great to do some running with my husband.  He was very encouraging and knew how to push me past what I thought I could do.  There were a couple of fantastic spots we enjoyed while we were in Augusta.  The Greeneway Trail (as seen in the picture) in North Augusta was really nice.  Even with the heat the trail is through a tunnel of trees and the shade was very pleasant to run through.  We also had a fun family run/bike ride at the trail between the Augusta Canal and the Savannah River.  Lots of wildlife and beautiful scenery, it was a good break not running on pavement for once too.

One of the best parts was getting to go out without the kiddos for dinners in which I didn't have to feed a baby, answer a million questions, and cut up and or share my food with a small child.  We went out more in 9 days then in the past year and it was fun to sample some new places in Augusta and go back to some of our favorites.  I really loved the Rooster's Beak.  The gourmet tacos were delicious and the unique flavors made for a memorable dining experience.

My weight loss journey is still having ups and downs.  Last weigh in I was down to 212, that's 24 lbs lost!!!  The goal for the week is to finally set a solid routine and get back to my more careful eating plan.  Gotta register for that 5 K, less than a month to go!

Okay, I need to go chase down Smallest of All.  Having a mobile baby makes life ever so much more interesting than it was before! (Like I need more excitement!)

Quick Update

I was looking at some old pictures and this is from last summer.  I miss my sweet girls long hair and pigtails!

The last couple of weeks have been busy as usual.  I've had a lot more ups and downs as far as my mood goes so my doctor upped my medication.  We'll see how it goes, I was totally wiped out yesterday but that could be from any number of things.

Smallest of All is mobile, I can't believe she's 9 months old!  She'll get up on all fours and rock and she is a pro at low crawling like a soldier avoiding enemy fire.  The middle child turned 3 about 10 days ago, I cannot believe how time is flying by.

I've hit a weight loss plateau.  At my weigh in last Saturday I hadn't lost any that week and the week before I only lost half a pound.  I need to reevaluate my plan and start consistently adding in strength training to the cardio work outs.

There is a lot going on in my head about how I think I want to organize and keep up with my blog.  I really want to see this journey through to its end and be an encouragement to all the other crazy busy mommies out there.  Somehow I want to figure out how to have tabs so I can have section for weight loss, parenting, homeschooling, etc...

Gotta get my little screamer down for a nap.  She keeps going for the dog's bone and the dog keeps following her around looking for spit-up...

Sidelined By A Horsefly

After irritating my knees a couple of weeks ago I finally got back to the Couch to 5K Training program this week.  I jumped right into the Week 3 routine, I was bored with Week 1 and I wanted to get back on track to run a 5 K July 4th weekend.  My one comment is that 3 minutes of jogging is a really, really, really, really, really, really, really long time.  I know that I'll adjust and get to where it's easier but man alive I was glad to be done with my workout on Monday.  I was all set to continue on Wednesday when I was suddenly and viciously attacked by a horsefly on Tuesday while I was at the beach with the kiddos.  I was kneeling to help the munchkins get dried off and in clean clothes when the stupid creature bit me, TWICE, on the BOTTOM OF MY FOOT.  It went something like this:

Me: "OUCH, son of a gun that hurt!"

Aiden: "What?"

Me: "A stinkin' horsefly just bit my foot!"

Aiden: "What's a horsefly?"

Me: "A really big fly that bites!"

Aiden: "Did that just hurt like the dickens!?"

Me: "YES!!"

We finished up getting cleaned up and back to the car.  I placed calls to a couple of people to look up if it was safe to take Benadryl and what to do for a horsefly bite.  I had to drive with the cruise control so I could itch and put pressure on my foot, the pain and itchiness was nearly incapacitating.  By the time we arrived at Publix 40 minutes later my ENTIRE foot was swollen and painful.  I managed to get the couple of things we needed and got home to wash my foot, apply cortisone, and wrap with gauze.  The Benadryl knocked me out and I got the best night of sleep I've had in years, however the swelling persisted well into the following day and I had to push my workout until today and I'll finish out the week on Saturday.  And THAT is how I was sidelined by a horsefly.

In other news, I did weigh on last Saturday and I'm down another pound for a grand total of 21 lbs so far, only SIXTY more to go to reach my final goal!

Worth A Thousand Words

Yesterday evening marked the end of what was, all told, about two months of my sweet husband being gone.  In the scheme of military separations 2 months isn't bad, but it is just long enough to really feel like a long time.  He got off the ship a little later than planned so I had a chance to shower (YAY!) and then the kids enjoyed a "picnic" in the car on the way to base.  After a lovely evening walk on the beach to search for treasures we got to go get daddy.  The kids were so sweet seeing him, especially Emma.  All the way home she was asking things like, "Daddy, are you just going to come to my house to play with me?"  "Are you going to stay at my house for a little bit?"  Once we were home Aiden got to show off his mad reading skills and Madaline just smiled and said, "Da Da Da Da Da Da!" Over and over and over....  Can't wait for two whole days with him this weekend!

(I apologize for the lousy quality of these pictures, my phone's camera stinks.  I also apologize for the weird layout, the baby is crying and I gotta finish this up!)

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

Yesterday was one of those days that had me ready for bed at 7, and it would have happened too if things hadn't been so caddywompus.  By time time I was actually getting into bed at 11 I kept thinking of this song from Sesame Street:

One of these things is not like the others, 

One of these things just doesn't belong,

Can you tell me which thing is not like the other,

                             By the time I finish my song?

What I would like to know is if you can pick out the thing that did not belong in my day yesterday.  I'm quite interested to see if any of you can guess!

Awake at 4 a.m.

Baby throwing up all over (as I was ready for bed)

Freaked out dog that didn't want to go potty at 10 p.m.

Heard a lion roar from my back yard

Took a nap

Pulled up poison ivy that was growing in the yard

The day, with all it's nuttiness, wasn't really bad though I was just tired.  There were actually some really great moments.  I got a surprise call from my hubby and I CANNOT wait to see him today!!!  What a long month this has been with him gone!  He gets to have the whole weekend off and I am so thankful that we get to spend some time together.  I also can't wait for him to finally me my amazing sister-in-law!  My older brother and I got married 6 months apart (EIGHT YEARS AGO!!!)  and my hubby and SIL have never met each other.  That's what the lives of two active duty Navy families will do to you!  I just hope that having them in the same place at the same time won't cause a break in the Time Space Continuum....

Other bright spot, Starbucks has the Mocha Coconut Frappuccino back on their menu.  Until yesterday I had never tried one and I didn't even know they existed until I read an article about them a few weeks ago and I've been salivating about them ever since.  If you hate coconut then you won't like them but if you do: BEST. DRINK. EVER.  I am going to have to show some amazing restraint not to end up at the drive through ever opportunity I get to enjoy the chocolaty coconutty goodness.

Okay, time for my second cup of coffee before Smallest of All wakes up and I need to check on the poor dog.  Her leg has been swelling some and if it's not improving we're going to have to head to our vet to have it checked out.  No matter what this day holds I know at the end of the day my hubby will be home!!!!!!!!!!

My Hard Work Is Paying Off

I know for me it's easy to get tunnel vision about my day to day life.  Getting wrapped up in the bickering and fighting and the constant whining can feel overwhelming and make me feel like I'm raising a litter of honey badgers not children.  And then we get thrown little bits that make it all worth while.  While the cleaning ladies were here yesterday we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch.  As we were enjoying our meal an elderly couple sat next to us and Madaline proceeded to charm the socks off of them.  All of the kids were displaying a rare feat of excellent behavior and exemplary manners.  Emma looked like she was ready to climb to the man's lap and give him her best Emma hug and Aiden was smiling indulgently at his sisters.  We had some small talk about how old the kids are and how many kids they had (who are now all grown) and as we were getting ready to leave the lady told me what a happy family we were.  She said it was so nice to see kids with such lovely smiles, just like their mom's, and that they were so well behaved and pleasant to sit next too.  The gentleman was so charmed by Emma he told her if we didn't leave soon he'd have to keep her.  For once, instead of making a comment about how this was a rare moment of calm, I just said, "Thank you!"  It was lovely to have someone notice and comment on the good, not just say, "Boy you sure have your hands full!"  As we walking out she said again how happy we all looked and I said, "Well, we have so much to be thankful for and happy about."

My Crazy Weekend

I'm finally enjoying a moment with all the kids sleeping and the poor dog quiet in her crate.  I had her out for awhile and the neurotic pacing was getting to me.  I'm thinking she's just uncomfortable and wants to be confined so she can rest.  Here are some pictures of her leg wound, don't look if you get all weird at stitches and stuff.  I'm telling people this happened while she was frolicking with another dog, she'd be embarrassed if I told everyone it was really the skink/Godzilla getting the best of her...

Here is pathetic Daisy with spooky green eyes.

Nasty cut.

Closer view of nasty cut.

Now moving on from gross out wound pictures I had a couple of parenting successes today.  I'll go ahead and brag about them so that when everything goes to crap tomorrow I'll know why. (insert cutsie winking face)  My sweet almost three year old LOVES her pacifiers.  She also loves to drink, "milk in a glass" (baby bottle) and she drags around Grandma Bear something so loved that the cleaning lady asked if it was a dog toy today.  (Emma was incensed and put that lady in her place by the way.)  The time to give up these things has long passed and I just really haven't felt like going through the process of her going through pacifier and bottle withdrawals.  Today was the day to begin the process and after having milk in her bottle this morning we packed them up in a box and she said goodbye.  The new rule is milk at meals, up to this point she has refused milk in anything but a bottle and that didn't change this evening but there wasn't a fit at bedtime when I told her no more bottles.  Score one for Mommy!  The pacifier is going to be trickier.  We gathered them up and put them in a bowl this morning with the promise that she could have them back tonight at bedtime.  Other than a meltdown around 4 she did really well.  After a few minutes of the freak out I told her we would set the timer for 5 minutes and she could haver her passi until it beeped.  She wasn't thrilled to give it up but she did and the rest of the evening went really well.  Score two for Mommy!  Tomorrow I'm going to have her cut the one off her car seat buckle.

In my adventures making baby food I made absolutely nasty summer squash which Madaline quite literally spat out at me.  (I can't blame her, it tasted like bitter grits.)  She LOVED the mashed mango and bananas that she got instead and tonight the butternut squash was a huge hit.

As busy as this weekend was it had been a couple of days since I'd checked on my garden and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw!  I'm looking forward to enjoying these veggies soon!

Cute little banana pepper!

Cherry tomatoes.

Not cherry tomatoes.

Itty bitty green beans.

Wax beans, they're almost ready!

Aww, it's just a baby squash!

And last but not least, after this crazy weekend and a pretty good but long day I just didn't want to fight with kids eating their supper.  I did the only reasonable thing, I made pancakes.  And boy, were they ever good.

Weekly Weigh In 4/30/11

This weekend ending up being far busier than I was expecting and for an added bonus I ended up with our poor Daisy at the 24 hour Animal Emergency Hospital.  We were spending the day with friends, kids playing, dogs playing and Daisy ended up with quite the laceration on her hind leg.  LOTS of stitches and several hours later she was put back together and we made it home.  She's doing well, pretty mellow on the pain meds and is enjoying taking liberties like laying on me and snuggling.  The worst part was actually getting everyone back in the house and settled.  When we have normal days I love that my kids are creatures of habit, Madaline eats at 6:30 and is in bed at 7.  By the time 10 pm rolled around last night with only a brief nap in the car seat on the way home she was beside herself.  She was so happy to see her own bed she literally rubbed her face on her sheet, grabbed her Eeyore, and didn't make a peep until this morning.  Her naps today were awesome and she was happy to go right back to bed tonight.  Routine when days are routine are awesome, when we have an unusual day, they can prove to make things more difficult.

My weight loss competition with Dad is over.  I took win with 11 lbs lost!  Dad lost 9!  I so appreciate this support he gave me with this challenge.  My weight loss total thus far is an even 20 lbs!  That's a fourth of the way to my final goal!  Here are some things that weigh 20 lbs.

One of these:

Eighty of these little guys:

About 2 1/2 of these:

Wow, I just got completely sidetracked by the news that Osama bin Laden is dead.  Somewhat more momentous news than my weight loss.  Thank you to all the U.S. Military men and women that have worked and fought tirelessly to see this day come.  Thank you to those that gave all in the fight to keep us safe and secure.  Your sacrifice is not if vain and you will NEVER be forgotten.

Daisy v/s Skink: Round 1

This is Daisy. Daisy is pretty much your average Labrador. Loves to play fetch, wants to sit in your lap, sleeps on her back with her legs splayed, and is terrified of dishwashers. So maybe the dishwasher phobia isn't so typical, but I digress. Recently I was giving the kids dinner and I was amused by Daisy out in the yard tearing full tilt around the grill over and over and over and over and over and over. Occasionally she's stop and stick her head under the grill cover only to resume her frenetic racing in circles. Eventually she moved on to do her "I'm looking for something really really hard!" routine around the yard and I went out to investigate. As I came out she refocused her attention on a toy wagon and I noticed a teeny lizard tail sticking out. Yeah, not so much.

What we have here is a full grown male broad-headed skink. The one taking up residence in our yard is easily 7-8 inches long and they can reach lengths of up to a foot. This is what we see when we look at it. I'm pretty sure Daisy sees something more like this.

The kids soon joined me and what ensued involved lots of shrill screaming from Emma, Aiden giving chase, and the skink bolted across the yard all the while avoiding everyone and scampered up the tree. (Who knew they could do that??) While what we saw was pretty much a goofy dog running around looking earnestly for a largish lizard I'm pretty sure how Daisy saw herself was more like this:

Now she and the skink are caught in some sort of twisted cat and mouse game. Daisy is constantly looking for it when she goes outside and I'm pretty sure every now and then it shows it's face and throws insults at her to keep her interested in their epic struggle. I'll let you know how it turns out...

Misc Pictures

Radishes from our garden! Lots of things have buds but this is our first harvest.

They're super peppery but GOOD!

Hunting Easter Eggs!

Breakfast!

Best. Honey. EVER.

Weekly Weigh In 4/23/11 and Green Smoothies

The past couple of weeks we've had grandparents visiting, multiple appointments with multiple doctors, and just a touch of the gloomies. I've been fighting almost constant tiredness and it's hard to know if it's a side effect of the Zoloft or that I'm singled handedly parenting three kids under the age of six at the moment. As of tomorrow I'll be switched over to taking my meds at night to see if that helps. Every now and then I've felt like I had good thoughts but by the time I have a chance to get to the computer to share them with all my devoted fans I'm wiped out or I've forgotten them completely.

Dad and Mom were here for Easter so we got to weigh in and he's at 9 lbs lost!!! I'm so proud of him! I lost another 2 lbs for a total of 8 so far for the competition (17 overall!!). This week I'm gonna have to get going again working out to see if I can take the edge and kick his ass!

I'm almost done with my 14 day Green Smoothie Challenge. I feel awesome and I really look forward to my two green smoothies a day. I have one first thing and then again mid afternoon. It is really helping to control my appetite and my cravings for junk food, sweets, fast food, etc... are GONE. To help control the cost and also to keep it super quick and easy I'm using pre-cut fruit, washed organic spinach and or mixed baby greens, and water. Sometimes I include a frozen banana to add a bit of creaminess to the texture. A couple of the smoothies I've made have been fairly awful in color, berries and spinach lead a concoction that looks just like thick black mud, the taste isn't that bad though. My favorite combination is banana, mixed fruit or strawberries, and spinach. Next time I'm at Sams I want to load up on mangoes and freeze them to have on hand. Below are my smoothie ingredients, YUM!

Here they are all ready in the blender, have I mentioned that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Vitamix?

Away we go! It's so much fun to watch this machine totally transform these ingredients in 35-45 seconds. Ta-da! A quart of yummy goodness!

I've only done smoothies so far but this thing can make soup, juice, sauces, salad dressing, bread dough, peanut butter, almond milk, mixed drinks, and of course, ICE CREAM in about 15 seconds. Aiden can't wait for me to try that one!

Hopefully this week I'll get back to feeling more like myself and I'll post more often and regale you with funny anecdotes about the kids and dog. I may even post a few more pictures tonight, I don't feel like trying to reformat this entire post though to add them.

He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary."

John 20: 15-17

Weekly Weigh In 4/16/11 and Other Misc. News

This week has been busy but good, my mother-in-law was here for a few days and I got to take TWO naps! I also go to get lunch with one of my closest friends and I had the pleasure of introducing her to sushi. It agreed with her and we're hoping to make it a regular thing.

Part of my eating plan has been to have a fruit smoothie in the mornings with a scoop of protein powder in it for breakfast. The blender I had was one I'd gotten almost 8 years ago at the exchange for about $20. All things considered it's gotten the job done and been a good blender with the daily use though it started to make weird sounds and would speed up and slow down on whenever it felt like it when in use. After some research and talking to a couple of friends I decided to get a Vitamix. Among this blender's claims to fame is that you can make ice cream in it in about 15 seconds. While I was doing my research I started reading up on green drinks and I'm now on day 3 of a green smoothie challenge. Each day I'm drinking 2 quarts of green smoothies. They are various combinations of water, fruit and greens like spinach or lettuce. For the most part I've been pleasantly surprised that they're not nasty. I am figuring out what method is easiest for me in my crazy life and actually enjoying drinking huge quantities of spinach, lettuce, and kale each day. This lovely machine is what makes it all possible. :)

This past week I took off from the Couch to 5 K training because I'd aggravated my knee and was giving it a break. I plan on resuming starting back with week one on Monday and seeing how it goes. Even with taking a break I weighed in this morning (I've changed my weigh in day to Saturday) and I've lost 3 more pounds! That's a total of 15 lbs in four weeks! So I'm down to 221. I'm hoping all the green drinks help these next 22 lbs melt off so I can get under the 200 mark! In the competition with Dad we're now tied again at 6 lbs each, we'll see who takes the edge this coming week!

Other things of note this week include Madaline getting 2 more teeth for grand total thus far of 7 chompers. She's enjoying the great wide world of baby food and is loving yogurt, carrots, and mixtures of applesauce and carrots and the current favorite of beets and carrots. I just have to strip her down to her diaper when she eats it to avoid bright pink stains on all her clothes.

The farmer's market was fun this week. We got some grass fed beef, tomatoes, yellow squash, honey, bread, orange juice, salad, fresh mozzarella and we were bummed that the guy who sells eggs was out. Apparently they got dropped, literally, he's saving me some next week though.

Emma has transitioned from her tricycle to Aiden's old bike with training wheels and Aiden is reading like crazy. Not just little sight word books but EVERYTHING he sees he's reading. It's amazing and exciting to watch. He will now come up to me and throw facts at me that he's getting out of his school books on his own. Last night he was explaining how when undersea volcanoes erupt the magma cools making new rock and that's what pushes the old rock up to make undersea mountains or when they're big enough, islands.

On Tuesday I had a cleaning service come and clean the house so it's been wonderful having a nice clean house this week with everything in order. It's so much easier to maintain when it's all clean all at once.

The big bummer of the week, last year we got swarmed with thousands of caterpillars/tent worms creeping out of the woods and all over the house. They're back, and they're gross. I hope they don't eat my garden.

Gonna go drink some kale now....

Farmer's Market

After being here for a year the kids and I took off this morning and headed to the Fernandina Beach Farmer's Market for the first time. We used to love the weekly market on Coronado and in the spirit of improving my/our diet decided to see what they had to offer. The market is pretty small but what they had was AMAZING! The produce was beautiful and I got some beets, green onions, zucchini and strawberries. I was completely taken in by all the gourmet food available. I can't wait to try the homemade pasta with olive tapenade. The honey is Key Lime honey and is fantastic. It would be a crime to put it with peanut butter, much better eaten by the spoonful. I was also excited to get fresh pastured eggs, homemade marinara sauce, cheeses, and artichoke salad. YUMMY!!!

Slaying The Laundry Monster

I hate doing laundry, not the washing so much but folding laundry is my nemesis chore. I appreciate clean folded clothes that are organized but actually getting them to that point is another beast entirely. Meet Laundry Monster, he's been living in our "dining" room for probably 6 weeks. He has varied in size as we wear and wash clothes just dumping them back on him to grow and morph into this mess you see. Not only was all this laundry set to be folded I also needed to sort through all the kids clothes that they've outgrown and finally ditch all my maternity clothes. I sorted out three BIG bags of stuff to give away! I also needed a plan and thanks to the Fly Lady came up with a plan for my laundry room and how to approach the laundry in a totally different way. Things will get folded right out of the dryer, the kids have their own baskets, and I'm going to hang up everything that can be hung up. It'll be quicker and it will keep the clothes from getting the wrinkled spent weeks in a basket look. It took probably 4 solid hours of work to go through my closet and deal with this pile and the laundry room but I'm done! Still a few things to hang up but what a good feeling to have a plan!

This is the laundry room before. I can't imagine why I didn't want to spend any time in there...

Work in progress. Notice the how the monster is no longer visible...

Laundry room after. Yes, that is now my laundry angel on the wall.

And the monster is VANQUISHED!!! (Please ignore the scattering of toys. I was conquering laundry not the toy monster.....)