When picking her up
no squeal "Mommeeeee" today
"Look at my boo-boo"
Just a tiny cut
to a 3 year old it's BAD
"I need a band-aid!"
Band-aids are magic
with super healing powers
Instantly alright
*click the Haiku Friday button to view more haiku*
Today was the first weigh in of Weight Watchers. I'm excited! I'm down 4 pounds! Now I know the first couple weeks are when these big drops happen and it's after that that I'm going to have to just keep to it and not get discouraged when the scale doesn't move too much, but this week I'm celebrating. Yay!! I've decided to make weekly goals for myself and this week I've set a goal to drink 4 glasses of water a day. I'm TERRIBLE when it comes to drinking water so I'm not going to go crazy, but I think 4 is doable and will make a difference in the amount of soda and whatnot that I'm drinking instead.
In other news this week - my little boy is crawling. (Just shy of 9 months) I think he may have done it first on Tuesday. I saw him out the corner of my eye while I was doing something with K-Girl, but then he didn't do a repeat performance so I wasn't sure. Wednesday though he took off and definitely did it. And it wasn't long before he had gotten into the crayons and other miscellaneous things that are not for him. Should be interesting.
I got my Cricut machine! I was frustrated. I started scrapping again and once again I ran into the old problem I had that I could never find the right thing for a title for the page. I went through everything I had and just couldn't find the right thing. That's when The Husband told me to just go get it. I love it! I finished my first layout with it, but it's not that great. But I'm excited about it. I'm going to start the kids monthly/professional picture albums now and I'm also looking forward to making their party invitations and whatnot with it.
I'm also about a week away from finishing my current crochet project. Yes I'll share, but it's a present so you may have to wait a little longer than that as I don't want them to accidentally see here before they get it, ya know?! But it feels great to be getting back to a few of these things that I really enjoy. It's all thanks to my wonderful hubby though. He knows I need a break and he has no qualms about taking over the evening with the kids and letting me sneak away to the office to work on my thing. It's nice. I'm looking forward to it as I get more and more back into it. Right now I'm having some issues getting my creativity flowing again. I'll get there though. ;)
I'm sick now which stinks. I hate being sick. Preschool is just great for teaching K-Girl all this wonderful stuff and I enjoy the break, but man the germs! We are usually pretty lucky and don't catch much, but no luck this time. She was in school one day last week and wouldn't you know she picked something up. She's on the tail end of her cold and just has a bit of a cough here and there. I feel like I've been hit by a big truck. My head is going to explode. Fun stuff. So hopefully I'll feel better, because I had big plans in the way of cleaning up around here for the weekend.
Alright well I think that's about it for the news of the week. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Robin from Heart at Home tagged me to show off the front of my refrigerator. Not only is it the fun of showing the picture but it is also a contest! Click on the banner to see other refrigerators and get in on the contest fun.
Here's mine...
We've got Leap Frog Letters and Farm Animals up there, some preschool art from my daughter, a picture of my kids, a random post-it (not sure what that's about), a few appointment cards, a photo calendar of my kids and my nephews, and then the preschool calendar.
Ok so I announced on Friday that we're back to Weight Watchers and we know that WW never goes well if a meal plan is not in place. We do Weight Watchers Flex Plan so we count points. So today I'm getting back to Menu Plan Monday with OrgJunkie. I'm going to try to give you as much info as I can so that if they sound good to you you can give them a try as well.
1. Deep Dish Pizza Casserole - makes 6 servings @ 7 Points each
Ingredients
1 pound ground round
1 (15 ounce) can chunky Italian style tomato sauce
Cooking Spray
1 (10 ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) preshredded part skim mozzarella cheese
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Cook meat in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat until browned, stirring until it crumbles. Drain, if necessary, and return to skillet. Add tomato sauce, and cook until heated.
3. While meat cooks, coat a 13x9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough, and pressinto bottom and halfway up sides of baking dish. Top bottom of pizza crust with meat mixture.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 425 for 12 minutes. Top with cheese, and bake 5 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese melts. Cool 5 minutes before serving. Yield 6 servings.
2. Spaghetti Amatriciana - makes 4 servings @ 6 Points each
Prep Time - 20 Minutes / Cook Time - 10 Minutes
Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
4 oz Canadian-style bacon, diced
1 large onion(s), finely diced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cup canned tomatoes, chopped
8 oz uncooked spaghetti, cooked al dente and kept hot (reserve 1/4 cup of cooking water)
1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, or to taste
Instructions
Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat; cook bacon until browned. Stir in onion, raise heat to medium-high and cook until lightly browned; stir in red pepper flakes and tomatoes.
Toss hot spaghetti and reserved pasta cooking water with tomato sauce; season to taste with salt and pepper. Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.
3. Hatfield Traditional Ham Steak (2.5 servings each @ 2 Points each), Pasta Roni Parmesan Cheese (1 cup = 7 Points), and Corn (1/2 cup = 1 Point)
4. Busy Day Crock Pot Chicken & Rice - makes 6 servings @ 7 Points each
Ingredients
1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
32 1/4 oz Campbell's (U.S.) 98% Fat-Free Cream Of Chicken Soup (3 cans - you can use all chicken or substitute one of the cream of chickens for a cream of mushroom)
3 serving Rice-A-Roni Chicken (1 box)
Instructions
Put chicken and soups into the crockpot, turn on low for 8-10 hours. When you get home, cook the rice according to package directions. Serve the chicken and gravy over rice.
Easily Doubles!
5. Freschetta Brick Oven 5 Italian Cheese Pizza - 1/4 of pizza = 7 points
6. Chicken Parmigiana Sandwich - makes 4 servings @ 6 points each, and McCain Sweet Potato Crinkle Cut Fries & Honey - 2 Points per serving for fries & 1 Tbsp = 1 Point for Honey
Prep Time - 10 Minutes / Cook Time - 25 Minutes
Ingredients
1/4 cup fat-free Italian salad dressing
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4-oz pieces
1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
1/4 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
8 slices reduced-calorie bread, Italian-style, toastedInstructions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Place Italian dressing and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls. Dip chicken in dressing and turn to coat; dip chicken in bread crumbs and turn to coat.
3. Place chicken in prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes. Top with tomato sauce and cheese and bake until chicken is no longer pink, about 10 minutes more.
Place each chicken breast on 1 slice of bread; top with remaining slices of bread and serve.
7. Baked French Toast - makes 2 servings @ 6 points each, and Esskay Smoked/Sliced Turkey Bacon - 1 piece = 1 Point
Prep Time - 10 Minutes / Cook Time - 10 Minutes
Ingredients
2 large egg(s)
1/2 cup fat-free skim milk
2 tsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 slice whole-wheat bread, thick
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small piecesInstructions
1. Preheat oven to 425°F (220ºC). Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Lightly beat eggs with a fork in a shallow bowl. Whisk in milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.
3. Soak bread in egg mixture, then transfer to baking sheet. Sprinkle with butter and bake until golden, 8 to 10 minutes.
So they say to give credit where credit is due right? Well today I was thinking how E-Man has been such a terrible sleeper and all but then I had this revelation. The book (The No Cry Sleep Solution) said it's a gradual change and it's not going to happen overnight. Well I realized that his sleep has gotten better. It's FAR from perfect, but there has been improvement. That initial post was written Jan 2. It's now the end of February and it's been just over a month now since he's been on my lap. So I suppose that "Operation Free My Heiny" would be over. Now I still might have to tend to him to get him back to sleep in the evening hours before I go up to bed myself, but he no longer comes down to the couch. He always goes back to bed.
We moved his crib back into his bedroom last Monday. I was frustrated about those few times that he would actually not have woken up by himself at our bedtime, but our coming to bed woke him up. I cleaned up his room (it had become a catch all from the office cleanup project) and that night he went back. He took to it rather well.
Now my next step is trying to get him off the breastfeeding to sleep association. I have been taking him off when he seems done - even if that meant that he's asleep and I could disturb him. I put him up on my chest and rock him and rub his back before putting him down to bed. It's been tricky some nights, but most nights I can rub his head and calm him down to sleep once in his crib. Only a couple times have I had to actually get him back up to calm him down. My goal in maybe a week or so of doing this and making it a point to get him off every time before he falls asleep is to feed him with the lights on and then go brush his teeth and coming back and rocking for a while before putting him down so that his feed to sleep association is gone. I think if I can successfully do that then we will be ready to work on the overnight attachment to me while sleeping thing. And maybe in the meantime I'll prepare myself for our end to co-sleeping. There are definitely things that I will enjoy like being able to sleep on my stomach again and rolling over if I want to, but I know I will miss those times of closeness with my little guy.
But after thinking about it I decided that I definitely needed to give credit where it was due and to acknowledge that our sleeping has improved though we have a long road ahead of us.
Weight Watchers begins
weigh in was one sixty one
higher than I hoped
a huge incentive
five hundred in cash for clothes
can't wait for shopping
So yes it has officially started. After whining and complaining about being procrastinators The Husband said we're starting "tomorrow" (this was last night's conversation). The plan was to start Monday - and then Wednesday - and then Monday. I was afraid we'd just keep putting it off.
After a trip to Old Navy last night (K-Girl needed "comfy socks" and wow did they have awesome sales for the kids - 40% off anything regular price...but back to the subject at hand) I realized just how bad I want to be able to get new clothes yet I refuse to buy myself any right now because I don't want to spend money on clothes that hopefully won't fit me for long. We've sweetened the deal this time because who doesn't work harder when there are incentives?! With our tax return we are going to take out $500 for each of us and when we achieve our goal we get to go shopping. Since neither of us have much clothing at all if we'd actually reach our goal we will need this and being that it's out of our tax return it's not like we're going to be breaking the bank for it either. It's "extra" money. I'm very excited.
After we had K-Girl we did Weight Watchers and had great success. We were both doing awesome but then something happened and we fell off the wagon. I really want this time to be an entire life style change. We need to break the bad habits. I've realized that I'm a big time emotional eater so I need to watch that and find better ways to "comfort" myself other than going to the junk cupboard. Good thing is that the "junk" in the cupboard will be healthier options now so that does help. We need to do this for ourselves and for our kids so that they grow up seeing us making better choices and might make better choices for themselves. Both The Husband's parents have now been diagnosed with diabetes so that's a big one for him. My family has diabetes in it as well and I myself had gestational diabetes with my pregnancy with K-Girl so that puts me at a higher risk for developing type 2 later in life as well. So there are a ton of reasons why we need to do this not as just a diet but as a total change.
I so badly want to join a gym but I don't see that happening. Cost is a huge factor and then if it wasn't cost it would be time. I don't see letting E-Man in a nursery as he's way too needy. They would call me back in like 5 minutes to get him. ;) And I wouldn't feel right going if The Husband couldn't and time is an even bigger deal then. Maybe we'll figure something out that we can do without a gym membership. I know once it gets nice out again family walks will definitely become part of our evenings. I just would love to get active again. Last time we did Weight Watchers we didn't incorporate exercise at all. I think I need it. I think it would do wonders for my mood and for making it a permanent change. I think back to high school when I did basketball, track, field hockey, and whatnot and I was in shape. I want to be able to run again. I want to be able to drive by a jogger and not feel like running them down with my car because I'm jealous that they can do it and I'd keel over if I did it right now. ;)
I believe my goal is going to be 140. Last time we did it I started out at 169.4 and in sixteen weeks I was down to 143 and that's as low as I could get. So if this time I can't seem to hit 140 I will be just as happy to get to 145. I'm shooting for that 140 though. We'll see what happens. So I've done it before from heavier, I know I can do it this time.
Weigh-Ins are Fridays which is kind of better than Monday because if you do have a bad day they almost always tend to be on weekends so having it Friday it has enough time to get out of your system and whatnot.
I'm going to make a little tracker over on the side to keep track. I'll probably mention it here too, but I'll make sure to keep the side updated.
Oh and the last thing - meal plans will be back on Monday! :) And I'll try to keep them detailed when I can and have enough time to do so. The first week or so may have some not so WW friendly meals though as I refuse to throw away perfectly good food. We'll just eat in moderation and when it's gone replace with healthier options. So look for that starting Monday.
*click the Haiku Friday button to view more haiku*
Today I wanted to take a moment to tell you all about a new purchase we made - Power Failure Night Lights! For a while now I've wanted to get some of these, but I kept putting it off and putting it off. We were at Lowe's and they had some for about $10 each so we bought two. These are truly just back ups. They don't have a night light function but if they detect a power outage they will turn on their light feature. Nice and a good idea for some areas, but I was hoping more for a dual purpose night light. We went to Sam's this weekend and while looking around we found a 3 pack of Sylvania Power Failure Lights for $20.00. I thought after spending $10 each before that this was a good price and they said that they had the nightlight feature. So now K-Girl and E-Man both have one of these in their rooms and we have one in the dining room. The two that are solely backup lights have been put in the family room and our bedroom where we don't need night lights. I've always been worried about when the power goes off. I hate when it happens at night and you're suddenly in darkness and have to scramble to find a flashlight. These should put an end to that. And what's better is that my daughter is so happy to know that if the power goes off she will still have a light. I think that gives her a certain piece of mind as well. And hopefully next time we do lose power at night it won't mean that the family is all up until it comes back on or pulling a slumber party. So yay for power failure night lights! Works for me!
To find out what works for others head on over to Rocks In My Dryer for Works For Me Wednesday!
Wow it's been a while since this has happened - both kids are sleeping. E-Man had me up at 6 and some change this morning. I managed to keep him relatively quiet till The Husband's alarm went off and then after that with Jack the cat being way too interested in E-Man and my attempts to send him flying off the bed sleep was out of the question. And what was worse was that K-Girl woke up around 7. She usually is good for more about 8:00 lately. So by 10 I was ready to throw in the towel already. K-Girl was promised a trip to the pet store tonight so I know we're going to be out a little later and she has school tomorrow so I decided a nap was in order. If I had sense I would have napped as well, but I decided with the neglect that this poor blog has seen lately that I would sit and relax in front of the screen instead. I may regret that decision later. But the quiet, oh yes it's nice.
And before I get into rambling anymore I will answer the commenter's request for more pictures...not that you had to go twisting my arm or anything. ;)
This is the new fun. Well perhaps not as new anymore, but still equally as fun. We dug out K-Girl's walker and E-Man is LOVING it. He wants to be on the move so badly so this fills his need for speed...and the ability to chase his big sister around a bit.
K-Girl has a blast with him too, although it almost always ends with me having to tell her for the 100th time to stop ramming into her brother at full speed. I swear one of them is going to end up in a puffy collar. ;) Now if I could only figure out how to keep him from opening cupboards and drawers. Surprisingly enough we have only had one pinched finger incident.
Aren't they cute? Don't let them fool you too badly. ;) But this is one of my favorite pictures so far of the both of them together... Not that it takes much since typical pictures turn out like this...
And last, what would pictures be if I didn't throw in some fluffy love?!
Ahh yes the simplicity of a prefold. 
There's more to come on that topic in a not too far off post.
So tomorrow starts our weight watchers again. Now that The Husband is done with the trips and the holidays are over it is time for the weight to come off. Tomorrow is the first weigh in. I'm a little nervous, but ah well. It can't be as much as when I started after having K-Girl. The Husband seems excited about it and he's swearing that he's going to keep track of points and everything this time so that should help. It's so much easier when you have a partner for accountability. This also means that meal plans are coming back. I'm excited about this. We're signing up for the Sunday paper again and I'm going to go back to my coupon craziness. I'm looking forward to it. Yes, cloth diapers, compost, and coupons - can life get any more exciting - whoa watch out! haha
I've been bitten by the craft bug and I need to figure out a way to release it. I've finally started crocheting again - yay! Although I'm off to a rather slow start. The pattern has been making my head hurt. Confusing! Then with the office taking shape there is actually a possibility of scrapping VERY soon so that is exciting. However it is making my desire for a Cricut even worse. Perhaps I'll get to scrapping a bit by next week. Hopefully this weekend we can finish setup up there and I can get to work. I also have been dying to dye my prefolds. I was going to go to WalMart today and get some Dylon but it just so happened I wandered by a post on DiaperSwappers announcing Dylon on sale at JoAnn's. So I got 12 packs so that I can make a prefold rainbow for like $25 something after shipping. I got the initial sale and then a multiple product discount AND I found a code for an additional 10% off my total order. I ended up saving $15 and some change! I think that's pretty darn good. The downside is that I have to WAIT till it gets here. But that's ok. I will be patient. But after I dye I think I may try my hand at embellishing them as well. I pulled out my sewing machine and everything. Now I'll just need to figure out how to use it. Oh my poor mother. hehe Don't worry though...I'll be sure to post anything I actually complete here too.
Alright well one is up so I should go before my quiet is all together gone. :)
Yes it's been 3 weeks without a post. ~sigh~ It's been busy, but I think life is returning to normal (or well something like that) around here. Maybe that will mean you'll hear more from me.
It's also been 3 weeks and I still have no after pictures from my bathroom. That's because well I haven't tackled that project yet. Oops. However, my husband took off work on Friday and in that day we turned our extra bedroom into an office. It went from you can't even find a path to walk through the room to an actual office. There's an area for me to craft and there's a desk for the computer and for bills to be paid and whatnot. It still needs a little love, but it's for floor space and workspace and it's a million times better than before. It's exciting. We can finally give it a proper name. It's is now...the office. Woohoo! Go us. Now if only I would have taken pictures. Oh well. There will be other projects.
On the family front -
The Husband is done with his trips and is home with us other than if they decide to send him somewhere here and there, but that should not mean anything for more than a night or two here and there. I can live with that.
The kids well they drive me crazy, but I love them. It's been interesting lately. K-Girl has been a bigger sass than usual. She's spoiled and she knows it. Something has got to change but I'm not sure where to start. That's where we are with that. I've also decided that there is no more naps for K-Girl which is a very sad sad thing. However, most days she now goes to bed and is asleep within 10 minutes or so so I really think that was the reason she was not able to sleep at bedtime.
E-Man still doesn't sleep. He doesn't come down to the couch anymore but he still requires my attention usually at least once during the evening and he wakes up the moment that we come up to bed. I think he's going to be getting evicted again soon.
I read the book "The No Cry Sleep Solution" and it's really great in theory, but some of it is hard to adapt. Like the bedtime thing. When we don't get done with dinner until 6:00 *if* I have dinner on the table when The Husband gets home from work we have less than an hour till 7:00 bedtime. Then if there is ANY errands to run or anything to be done in the evenings well then well throw that idea out the window. It's hard. She suggests that the hour before bedtime is dim and quiet. Nothing with K-Girl around is quiet. We've got to commit to some kind of a routine that will work better though now that The Husband's home and most days should be about the same. When The Husband was traveling we were on a pretty good routine though since we started the night off a LOT earlier. I mean sometimes I was able to have the kids in their jammies by 6:30. But that doesn't work.
Another thing that the book said is the that in order to achieve success you have to whole-heartedly WANT change. Now I thought that this was silly in the beginning, but the more it goes on the more I can see that this is a valid point for me. I DO want my evenings back. I DO want E-Man to be able to nap during the day. I DO want to get a good night's sleep. I DO want to be able to put him down and know that he can put HIMSELF to sleep/back to sleep. But at the same time I'm going to be very sad when he no longer needs me as much in these baby ways. He's the last baby I'll have and that's a bit sad (though take note that it's not enough to ever make me want to do this again). He's already 8 1/2 months now. He's getting bigger by the day. And believe me or not but I sleep WELL when he and I are sleeping together.
I guess what I want is the best of both worlds - I want him to be able to put himself to sleep/back to sleep and to take naps. To sleep in the evening from bedtime till like maybe 1:00 or so and then I would have no problems going to get him and letting him finish out the night in our bed. Yep I think that would be perfect. Now if only I could figure out how to make that happen. And if in the process he sleeps through the night in the meantime then I'll be alright with that too.
Other than the whole sleep thing, E-Man's updates would be that he is now getting himself up into a sit, pulling up onto his knees, and although he wants to crawl VERY much he is managing to scoot around so he's somewhat mobile. It's starting to get interesting. He also pretty much hates all baby food other than fruit. If it's a puree he's not very fond of it. So he's eating a lot more off the table. It's proving somewhat interesting on his tummy. Yogurt was not so good. Oh and he's got two teeth and I believe more on the way shortly gauging by his disposition lately.
What else? As if I haven't written a book already. ;)
Oooh an exciting find at Sam's yesterday - We now have a composter. Yay! It was only like $40.00 and from what I hear they are usually a lot more than that so we got one and I can't wait to get it set up and started! More to come on this I'm sure. hehe
And other than that I've just been stewing over what in the world I want to do with myself once the kids are both in school. Yes I know that is a few years off, but I figure if there is any schooling that goes into it I could get started on that in the meantime. I'm just not sure though. I wish I could just get a gut feeling about one thing that would make me feel like I'm on the right track. I have some ideas but nothing I can say that I feel strongly about yet. Oh well. That's why it's best I start this now. ;)
Ok well I feel better now that I've given some attention to my blog. Next I need to get that bathroom organized so that I can post afters. Hopefully next week. :)
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