To be Weighed-In...Again

Seven weeks until our beach trip. I keep passing all these cute little bathing suits in Target. I am not quite brave enough to try any on.

The scale this morning said 148. Okay, two pounds down from my five pound weight gain failure last week. That is a little bit encouraging. I have stopped eating past seven in the evening. I'm not sure if that really works, but I do feel a lot less bloated in general.

I guess my big struggle is with carbs. Who doesn't love carbs? We eat pancakes for breakfast every single morning. Yes, I get up every morning at 7:30 and make pancakes. BUT, they are Fiber One pancakes, so that makes it okay, right? Right.

I am still on a mission to lose weight, but it's more like a mission to be more healthy. Eating more fiber, more protein, more fruit, and less desserts and high calorie snacks. I will continue to weigh myself each week, but I really need to learn not to expect to see huge numbers each week because that is not how it works, for me at least.

To Love Making Old Things New (Sort of)

I have had these kitchen canisters in my kitchen for over a year:

Flour, Whole Wheat Flour, and Sugar. As you can kind of see, the only one I ever used was the sugar canister. I kind of love sugar.

So, they've been taking up precious counter space for months and months and I just decided I'm going to throw these things away. But wait! How wasteful! There must be something I can use them for. I pondered on it for a second, and looking atop my cabinets to my collection of boring old vases I had an idea.

I found some old faux flowers I had purchased from the dollar store and voila:

I like the idea of hanging my grandmother's old dining ware on the dining room wall, or framing some of her silverware she gave me a few months back. There is a lot of junk in our upstairs closet that needs to be sorted through, but some part of me looks forward to going through it.

So, for this edition of Tuesday's Tip Jar: create new and interesting ways to use the things you might otherwise throw away. Or, you could just give them to Goodwill! Either way, we won't be supporting the ever growing landfills.

Linked with Tuesday's Tip Jar and Tuesday's Tips.

To be Looking Forward to Easter

Easter is coming up. In case you didn't know...now you do.

I don't even know what Josh and I have done for Easter in our previous years. I guess it wasn't that important to us. We were baptized in December so I feel like Easter this year is going to be something more meaningful.

Our church is having Easter service at Koka Booth Amphitheater, in Cary. I'm hoping my good friend Cathy and her husband will join us at church and then some yummy food afterwards. I've been trying to come up with something delicious to make, it was hard since we don't eat ham or any meat except fish. Here is my tentative menu:

Pecan Encrusted Salmon
Roasted New Potatoes
Fruit Bowl
Blueberry Corn Muffins

The forecast for Sunday looks awesome. Can't wait!

To Love the Weekend

Yesterday we went to Kohls, but Josh and I didn't find anything too special there. Lily, on the other hand, always finds something good....

She has become engrossed in practicing her crawling. Not sure if it will ever happen, but it's pretty cute watching her try.

We finally got some baby proofing supplies for the house. Some gates, electric outlet plugs, table corner covers etc etc. It was a pretty good weekend.

Friday Fill-Ins

I thought this was a cute idea. So I thought I'd try too!

1. The right word is sometimes on the tip of my brain but I can't seem to spit it out.

2 Turn off the lights and shut the door quietly, please.

3. Up until today I had never posted a Fill-in Friday.

4. On the couch, watching Roseanne is where you'll find me.

5. Ooh! What is that? A rumbly tummy?

6. Eating a snack is a good idea.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching Dexter with Josh, tomorrow my plans include shopping and Sunday, I want to get some coffee after church!

Weigh-In

I've been putting off writing this post all day.

This morning the scale said 150. 150!? That's four more pounds than last week. I didn't really think that I had gone too overboard this past week. I gave half of my birthday cake to the neighbors and only ate dessert on Friday night.

I could probably come up with a million excuses, but I'll spare myself. I'll just pretend that it will be better next week.

Tuesday's Tip Jar

"Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love." -- Mildred B. Vermont

This morning I heard a devotional about the importance of spending time with your children. Duh, spending time with your children is important. Initially, I couldn't help but think I didn't need to hear this devotional, I spend time with Lily everyday. Then, I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The point of the devotion was not only spending time with your children, but taking joy in your children. Enjoying the little moments.

I wasn't relishing the little things that happen during the day. Instead, I was rushing around the house. Doing Laundry. Folding clothes. Vacuuming the floor. Scrubbing Dishes. And, I'm ashamed to admit, sometimes surfing the internet as she played by herself.

As Lily and I proceeded with our day I tried to remember how precious time is. Work around the house can wait. The satisfaction I get from finishing the dishes is no where near the satisfaction that a bashful smile from my daughter brings. Pure love. What an awesome experience.

So, my first Tuesday Tip ever is this: Take joy in our children, if only for just a little bit everyday.

Rag Quilting

I have a problem finding the perfect bedding for our bedroom. I buy a bedding set that I love, and then realize it doesn't match the way I thought it would. Instead of returning it I just pretend in my mind that it matches good enough, but after a few months of this I begin to search for the perfect bedding again. I never find it, or I find it and it is way too expensive.

I am going to make my own duvet cover and it's going to look exactly how I want. Well, hopefully.

I bought some fabric at Joanne's last week. I love fabric, and this fabric was on sale so that makes it even better.


I've decided this duvet cover is going to be a rag quilt. I am kind of just winging it with this project. I've never made a quilt, and I'm kind of cheating. I'm using a queen sheet as the bottom layer. The top layer will be the squares of fabric sewn to the middle layer of flannel. After I sew all the squares I will sew the top and bottom layers together on the bottom and sides. I might use Velcro or buttons on the top of the duvet cover. We will see how it turns out! This is how much I have done so far:

Spring is here and...

Someone finally has enough hair for a bow!!!

Date Night

Josh's parents came into town last night. His mom was really anxious to watch Lily for the night while Josh and I went to celebrate my birthday.

We went to The Melting Pot in Durham. So delicious. Yummy cheese, salad, salmon, shrimp, tofu, and a vegetable tray.

I couldn't wait for the dessert. Chocolaty peanut buttery silkiness.


We were so full after we left. We were going to go to get some drinks at the bar in the Hilton, but decided to just go up to our room and watch TV. I was exhausted from eating all that food. The sangria I had with dinner probably didn't help either. So, on a night when we had the opportunity to go out and do whatever we wanted without worrying about Lily we decided to just sleep. It was good.

Kirby

I just realized I have never introduced my other babby. Yes, I said babby. He is mentioned in my about me, but I haven't formerly introduced him. His name is Kirby, but he answers to many other names, including but not limited to Kirbles, Nirbles, or Tirbles.


He has been with us almost two years. We got him from a woman that rescued him from a shelter. She took in animals that didn't have a home. Many of the animals, including Kirby, were not in very good health. The day we went to meet him he was so tired and had extremely matted fur. I was so scared to bring him home because he seemed so frail. He slept on me the whole way home and continued to sleep once we got home. Honestly, we didn't know if he would make it through the night.

The next day we took him to the vet. They couldn't believe the mess this dog was in. He was covered in fleas and could hardly see a thing. They estimated his age to be about 10-12. He was put on a ton of medicine and some antibiotics. By that night he was a totally different dog. Lively and excited. He became quite the handful the next couple of days. We didn't know if we could do it anymore, but we made it through his transition period and he has become the best dog in the world to us.

Weigh-In

I'm only down one pound since last week. So, 146. Kind of disappointing, but I guess one pound is better than no pounds. It's my birthday today, so that means cake...but not until my mother-in-law brings it to me on Friday.

Lily celebrated her first St. Patrick's Day today. She loved it. We went to the park and hung out with some cool kids and swung in the swing.


This evening she gave me a birthday present. A lovely poo-splosion diaper in her car seat. She didn't even seem bothered by it. We didn't notice until we started walking into the store and there was poop all over Josh's shirt. I looked up at her face and she was grinning a mischievous grin. What a lovely way to end a lovely day.

To Love Clean Floors

Josh got me a Shark Steam Mop as an early birthday present. It's totally what I wanted, but I wasn't expecting it at all.


During church on Sunday I couldn't stop getting distracted by thoughts of steaming the kitchen floors. Cleanliness is next to Godliness after all. I really don't even like to clean, but I couldn't wait to clean the floors. I can't even remember the last time that I personally cleaned the floors. Josh will occasionally take it upon himself to do this chore, but I somehow always find more "important" things to do.

The steam mop is pretty awesome. I feel like I am actually killing germs off the floor, and I don't even have to work too hard to do it. There aren't any nasty chemicals, so that's also a plus. Now, if I could only feel this good about our carpets I'd be set.

To be Dressed by Dad

This is what happens when I go out for a morning coffee and leave Daddy at home with Lily:



That's the shirt she wore yesterday. And blue socks?!?! I will have to admit she looks pretty cute in just about everything she wears, but needless to say we had a wardrobe change before venturing out into public.

To Love the Park

The weather was so nice at the beginning of this week. On Tuesday it was in the 70's. I was super excited because I wanted to take Lily to the park. She even wore shorts. Oh, how I love those chubby legs of hers.
She really does enjoy being outside. So, we went to the park on Tuesday afternoon. She cracks up every time the wind blows in her face. Adorable. But what she really loves is watching other kids play, especially babies. It's almost like she is thinking "whoa, there are others out there just like me!"

There just isn't anything better than watching your baby discover the world and the amazement in their eyes at the "little things."

To be Weighed-In

Today I weigh 147 pounds (according to the scale in the bathroom). That's about 27 pounds too many. Realistically, it's about 17 pounds too many because the last time I weighed below 130 pounds was during my middle school years.

So, I'm on a mission to lose this weight. We have a beach trip in May and while I will probably never wear a bikini again in my lifetime I would at least like to look decent in a tank-ini or a cute one piece.

This post was inspired by Weigh-in Wednesday posts on this blog. I'm not really sure if losing 17 pounds in two months is a realistic goal. I've heard so many times before that the key to weight loss is lifestyle change, so I'd like to make that my main goal and hopefully the weight loss will follow soon after.

So, here goes nothing.

To be Extreme

I read an article earlier today about "extreme" couponing. I was interested because I have a friend who is awesome at "saving" money at the grocery store. She has a great eye for sale items and is coupon crazy. She and I grew up together and our moms would clip coupons every Sunday. I guess that's where she gets her skills, but sadly I did not inherit these abilities.

I started thinking that couponing couldn't possibly be a genetic gift, right? I could totally coupon and probably save tons of money.

My friend gave me some tips, hints, and some websites with lots of lovely coupons. I printed some out and it felt pretty good to know that soon I would conquer the grocery store with these newfound couponing skills. My ego got the best of me and my first coupon excursion was a failure. I might have saved two bucks. I just didn't end up buying most of the stuff that I had printed out coupons for.

As I was reading that article today I felt much better about my whole coupon experience. I do have to give credit to many of the people who search and save loads of money, but who needs 1,142 packages of Jell-O? What about 30 canisters of meat seasoning?

I understand that everyone wants to save a buck and find a deal, but I guess this kind of extreme coupon clipping just isn't for me. Maybe if I was a hoarder it would be more appealing.

To be Home-Made

I've always wanted to make Lily home-made baby food. I just never knew where to start. Plus, I had always envisioned it as this time-consuming process that would be a huge mess in the end, but after realizing how much money we're spending on jars of store bought baby food I thought we might as well give it a try.


We went down to the farmer's market in Raleigh yesterday. We got some apples and some sweet potatoes. Lily loves her sweet potatoes. I baked them for an hour at 400 degrees. Peeled the skin off, pureed the chunks in the food processor, and poured them into the ice cube trays. The clean-up was pretty easy. Most of the time I am tempted to just leave all messes for later.


This morning Josh and I were so excited to see Lily's expression when she tasted the delicious home-made yumminess. They were so colorful, so they were probably going to be the best thing she had ever eaten in her whole entire life. Much to my dismay she was not pleased, well not as pleased as she usually is when she eats her Earth's Best. She still ate them because, well, she loves to eat.

I think I'll try some peas next...I'm sure she'll go crazy over those!

8 Months

Yesterday, Lily turned eight months old! I can't believe it. It seems like time has gone by so fast, but I remember soon after she was born and it felt like time was going so slow. I thought the colic would never end. Now she has four teeth and sits up on her own. She has started to balance on her hands and knees and then promptly flopping back onto her belly. Looks like I really need to get on top of that baby-proofing.

To be Rad

A couple of nights ago I watched a show on TV about "radical parenting." It sounded way too interesting to pass up. The most interesting family were the "unschoolers." Their children didn't attend regular school. They stayed home with their parents everyday and made most decisions for themselves.

If I had seen this show nine months ago I would have thought some of these parents were a little whacked out. I was trying to be open-minded, but I couldn't help but think about how these "unschooled" children would function in the "real" world. What if they wanted to go to college? How would they get a job and support themselves? Where is the structure? Then I realized how harshly I was judging this family for what they believe is best for their family. Who am I to criticize a parenting style?

The parents on this show were obviously hardcore devoted to their kids. They were teaching them everyday through real life experiences. I can say that this lifestyle would not be for me. I love routine and I think children thrive on structure, but then again I haven't met all the children in the world. But these parents were all about their kids and I thought that was pretty rad.

To Love Pretending

Last night the couch was a choo-choo train.

This morning it was a flying dragon.

I'm not sure how Josh comes up with this stuff, he must still possess the imagination of a five year old child. I do know that Lily loves it. She loves playing pretend and she's only eight months old?! It's adorable.

I'm starting to think that Josh should be the one staying home because I don't know how to turn the bed into a floating life raft or the play-yard into a submarine surrounded by sharks.

Guess I'll just have to stick with reading/singing and Lily and I will anxiously await for the imagination station to get home from work.

To Love Makeup

No one ever taught me how to apply make-up.

I walked into high school with an obvious foundation line between my jawline and neck, horribly crooked eyeliner, and a full head of slept on hair. Yikes. Through the years I somehow managed to improve my skills in applying makeup. I found bare minerals, but my makeup regime remained fairly simple.

After having a baby, making myself up had been put on the back-burner. I was looking through all the pictures of Lily and me and realized how washed out I looked. So very pale. I would apply a mineral foundation, but didn't bother putting any color on my cheeks. I've always been scared of color. This past weekend I decided to change all that. I went to Ulta and picked up a starter pack of pur-minerals.

I had no idea what to do with this stuff after I brought it home with me. So I turned to some trusty you-tube tutorial videos. I didn't have all the supplies that the girl in the video used, but I had enough. It definitely inspired me and as I finished applying my makeup I was pleasantly surprised. Now I see why so many people are addicted to makeup. By the way...makeup is a weird word.