Reporting for Duty

Well, here we are. It's early January. We've just returned from a long, leisurely Christmas vacation. I'm back in my routine. It's time, beyond time, to get down to business on the healthy living front.

I got a new pedometer for Christmas. I was doing pretty well at accumulating steps, but a 1500 mile car trip over two days isn't conducive to making the numbers add up. My daily goal is 10,000 steps. My sister and my daughter wear 'peds' every day. I'm joing the team.

DH wants to shed about 10 pounds, too, so we'll be paying better attention to eating good, healthy food. We'll do WW, following the old CORE (simply filling) plan. I've got to get Ella off to preschool in a few minutes, but plan to stop at Whole Foods on the way back and get a few days worth of good, fresh veggies. Oh, when we were in Austin, I went to the WF flagship store a few times. LOVED IT!

Gotta go.

Are you filled with resolve this New Year?

Home for Christmas

Actually we'll still be away until the first week of January, but it feels like home because we're with family.  Here's a picture with my brother Jay, his dog, and two of the three west coast grandkids.  We're heading out to Big Bend/West Texas tomorrow.  Hope you and yours are "home for Christmas" (or Hannukah!) wherever you are.

Tish

So far, so good

Dashing in to report that things are going fine.  Things are busy, busy, busy here as I imagine they are in your house.  We're leaving tonight for Texas.  We're going to drive two long days and then rendezvous with our Laura and her family and with my brother who lives in Austin.  We've rented a house in Austin and will have a terrific time including a 5 day jaunt out to west Texas (Big Bend) over Christmas.  We have Christmas day dinner reservations at the Gage Hotel and have rented a large private home to accommodate our group of 10.

The angel cone choir awaiting their big moment!
The recipe is from Sandra Lee.  But I used melted
lifesavers for the halos.   Yes, edible.

Little Jack, aka The Eyelash King,
surveying his new fleet of vehicles.

Last week we hosted three Christmas gatherings at our house.  On Sunday I had my annual Christmas Tea Party for the little people in my life.  We were 11 total: a one year old,  2 twos, 2 fours, and a 6 plus 3 moms and 2 grandmas.  Iced cookies, angel cones, crustless little sandwiches, cranberry bars, green grapes, dried apricots, baby carrots, and cheese sticks.  Then on Wednesday we hosted a Christmas potluck for our couples' Bible Study.  A true potluck.  I made my Cooking Light Seafood Lasagna.  Then, yesterday, after church, we celebrated an early Christmas with our family here.  We opened presents and then had a light brunch with my scones and Tami's (Nutmeg Notebook) Sausage, Cheese, Egg Muffins (a new family favorite, great for a special occasion or for a grab-and-go breakfast).

Despite all the yummy food that came through our house in the past week, I've managed to lose just over two pounds in the past week and a half.  I missed my WW meeting last Wednesday, but my daily morning scale visit confirms the downward trend.  I'm hoping that the next two weeks, away from my everyday temptations and with a ratcheted-up level of exercise, will continue the trend.  Hiking in Big Bend and rental bikes on the beautiful bike paths in Austin.  Oh yes, gotta pack my biking shorts . . . .

Gotta go.  I promised DH that I'd have the car packed and ready to go by the time he got home from work.  The laundry is done (!) but I have to pack suitcases, load the cooler, remember all the electronic devices and their respective cords and chargers (2 phones, 2 ipads, kindle, garmin, 2 ipods, laptop and camera) and I have two little guys as "helpers" today!  LOL,  I'm counting on a good 3 hour nap for both of them today!

Catching the Wave

WW just introduced their latest tweak to the program.  I'm cautiously optimistic.  Who cares that we're in the middle of iced-cookie season.  I am grabbing hold of my dusty store of good habits and am  paddling as fast as I can so I can Catch the Wave.

No news is BAD news.  Look for more posts from me.

Do You believe in Magic?

Okay, fess up.  How many of you read the title of this post and immediately thought of the Lovin' Spoonful hit from 1965??  (click here to enjoy a trip down memory lane) That was from my high school days and I loved that song.  And, while we're confessing things, I'll admit that while I don't believe in magic, I have certainly wanted the ability to wiggle my nose or wave a magic wand to eliminate the time and dedication necessary to many an undertaking in my life.

Ella at Halloween.  Here talented (other) grandmother
made her costume.

I'm not sure whether Ella believes in magic, but she certainly has a "thing" for princesses and fairies these days.  I am a firm believer in afternoon naps up until kindergarten (!), but allow them to have a quiet time if sleep doesn't come.  Ella has spent her recent quiet times  looking through the Usborne Big Book of Fairy Things to Make and Do.  I get her to fall asleep by promising to wake her up before Jack wakes up so that we can do some of the projects together.  It's worked two days in a row to get her to nap and there's nothing like some good quality time together letting her create girly, glittery fairies with construction paper, tissue, glitter, and glue.  Here's one she made this week.  The under skirt and sleeves are made from torn paper (rather than cut) and she was proud to be able to do it all by herself.  We didn't have the called-for glitter, but the book has quantities of pages with foil stickers that can embellish the fairies plus about 20 different projects to make with fairly simple supplies.  If you have a little girl in your life, this is a super gift.

As I lack a working magic wand, I've been putting in some effort to get back to a workable exercise plan.  My goal is to do some exercise every day over and above my normal routine.  At this point, I'm doing a lot of walking along with trips to the gym.  If the weather is good this weekend, I'd like to get in a couple of bike rides.

Jack is making great progress on the potty training front.  In just over a week, he's gone from wearing diapers 24/7 to being in big boy pants except for when he's sleeping.  He hasn't had an accident here since the first day and tells me when he needs to go.  Pretty amazing.  I wish it was so easy for me to learn new habits!

I've been enjoying pears recently.  I tend to like the anjou pears best.  I like them cold in wedges, or with a bit of muenster cheese, or even, like Lori has hers, with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  There's something about the texture of fresh pears that is very pleasing to the tongue, no?

It's time for me to wrap this up so I can wake Ella up for todays Art session!

Magic wands are great for bringing smiles to 4 year olds, but exercise and a reasonable diet are the ticket for making the changes I need for healthy living!

Be good!

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!