Monday, Monday

Good Morning!  Well, the snow and sleet we saw over the weekend have given way to a sunny, crisp fall day.  I've delivered the children to pre-school and came home to enjoy a quiet morning and get some things done.  Instead, we have several men making a racket on the roof (beginning the roof replacement).  It's incredible how loud it is, all over the house--no quiet corners here.  I'm also awaiting a call from the plumber who is going to fix a drain problem at our rental house.

I'm very tempted to make a batch of cranberry bars and fill the house with wonderful aromas of sugary treats, but I'm thinking that it's probably more a reaction to stress than to any actual need to have delicious, calorific treats on a cooling rack in the kitchen.  If I can hold out for about 10 more minutes, I won't have enough time to finish before I have to go pick up the children from school.

Have you discovered SweeTango apples yet?  I found them at Wegman's after a friend told me about them.  They are a successor to the popular Honey Crisp apple, but have an even more delicious juicy/sweet/tart flavor.  They also have a very nice texture.  I took some sliced very thin and served with meunster cheese to our evening Bible study the other night.  People always bring "treats" to this study and I'm always trying to counter the sugary dessert type offerings with something healthy and diet friendly.  This was a hit.  Someone else had brought apples too, but theirs were incorporated in a deep dish apple pie.  I'm not saying that the apple pie went begging for attention, but every slice of apple and every morsel of cheese was gone from my plate and more than half the pie went home with it's maker.  Just saying.  Look for them.  You'll like  love 'em!

Okay, I think I'm safely over the urge to make cranberry bars--not enough time before I have to go.  :-)

My choir does a yearly community Messiah sing every year.  It's not a show up and sing along, but rather come to 6  one hour rehearsals and sing with the orchestra for a packed house.  Mostly it's the same people who come every year, but our choir swells from 25 to 70 and it a very fun thing to be a part of.  The first rehearsal is tomorrow!

I've got to figure out a way to get in a walk today, but between the roofers, the plumber, and the kids, I'm thinking it will be a moonlit walk rather than a sunny stroll through the leaves.

Happy Halloween!   (I haven't yet bought our giveaways--maybe on the way to pick up the kiddos.)

Thursday Thinking

Hi All!

I'm sitting at the kitchen table across from two year old Jack, who is, for the first time, in big boy underpants during his day with me.  I hear great reports of his potty progress at home, but have never yet had him perform successfully here, so I opted for a morning in the kitchen--nice slate floor rather than the hardwoods and area rugs in the rest of the house.  He's none the wiser.  He's happily building a huge lego tower and has a continuous loop of Thomas the Tank Engine going in case his architectural endeavors fail to hold his attention.

Fall has definitely arrived.  There are drifts of dried leaves in the yard and the nighttime  temperatures are flirting with Jack Frost.  I went to my WI yesterday and had yet another small gain which managed to wipe out my progress from the past few weeks.  I won't give up, but it is frustrating to be seemingly stuck at this number on the scale.

I try  to encourage myself by thinking of the positives.  Here they are:  I still weigh less than I did when I started 3 1/2 years ago.  I have established some healthy habits that are here to stay (whole wheat pasta, breakfast every day, smaller portions at dinner, weighing myself every day, to name a few).  DH is a rock in his support and encouragement.  I have the support of a great WW leader, Barbara, a BFF who is a fellow traveller on this road, and you all, my cyber support team!  We have a fabulous Christmas planned.  We'll drive to TX to see my brother and rendezvous with our Laura and her family.  We'll spend a bit of time in Austin and then celebrate Christmas out in west Texas at Big Bend with lots of hiking, family fun, and sight seeing.  I have several weeks before then to get myself in better shape to thoroughly enjoy the trip.

I need to remember what has worked for me and start to re-incorporate those things into my routine.  Today I'm working on tracking my eating.  The new WW e-tools have evolved so that they are really easy to use and helpful.  I have the WW app and WW kitchen companion app on my ipad and really have no excuse not to use them.

I'm continuing to work on our room now that the paint is done.  The new love seat that I'd ordered to replace to too-large sofa (DH and my first purchase after our wedding in 1973) was delivered this week. I also bought two fun ottomans (ottomen??) at Home Goods.  They were quite inexpensive and add a fun pop of color to the room.  Here's a picture.  The love seat is Pottery Barn (PB Basic in "natural").  The paint is Benjamin Moore (Gray Wisp 1570).

I'll leave you with a picture of Ella.  I had her by herself when Jack was off doing something with his daddy the other day and we went shopping.  I let her choose our destination.  Her choice?  The American Girl Doll Store!  I get their beautiful catalog and Ella loves to go through it and talk about each doll and outfit.  She'd never been to the store, but she recognized it right away in the mall.  Her eyes lit up at the sight of the store window featuring a tea party with one doll dressed up in Ella's favorite outfit--the "fancy dress" with the "fairy costume"  added.  Despite my admonitions that we were just window shopping to see things to add to her Christmas list, I totally caved and bought her a doll.  And the fancy dress outfit.  And the fairy costume.  My rationalizations--I'm the grandmother, I get to spoil her a bit.  We'll be away at Christmas (with our other grandkids) so I wouldn't be able to see her joy at opening the doll.  That was a trip that she may remember all her life.  And by the way, despite my efforts to lead her to choose "Kit" a doll that looks rather like her, she instead choose "Ruthie" a brunette doll who is Kit's best friend.  Ella told me that if I liked blond Kit so much, I should put Kit on my Christmas list!  The sharp-eyed among you may have discovered where we went after we bought the doll.  Yes, to the Hagen Daas store for a small vanilla cone covered with rainbow sprinkles.  Four year old bliss!  Oh and we stopped at the CVS on the way home to find a toy for Jack.  Not nearly as expensive, but Jack reportedly loves his new motorcycle toy.

Well, the legos have lost their luster, but Jack is watching Thomas while climbing back and forth on the kitchen chairs.  Whatever works.  It's almost three hours since he came and he's still dry and still says "no" every time I offer him the opportunity to go potty.  Something's gotta give soon!  This potty training business is stressful!