School is coming, school is coming!

I've been off work now for three weeks.  I'm getting some great sleep, I'm getting my house organized and I'm doing a lot of cooking and reading.  It occurred to me Monday morning that I should probably create some kind of schedule for myself and the kids each day - or maybe get up before 8 am.  School is coming and we are all going to have to get up at 7 am soon and get out the door by 8:15 am.  It's going to be a shock to their little minds, and mine.  We have all of our school supplies and we are counting down the 14 days until school starts.  Since I was feeling motivated and all scheduley on Monday, I got up at 7:45, did some research on the internet, got the girls to clean their rooms and did a few loads of laundry.  The one thing we do every evening is go outside from 6:30-8pm and play with the kids on the block.  They ride bikes, go to the playground and play hide and seek while the other moms and I hang out and chat about our To Do lists. 

 Things still left on our summer fun list include - a second visit to Cedar Park Resort, a visit to Ontario Place, a bike ride at a local conservation area and camping overnight - just me and the girls - at a nearby Provincial Park.  There are a few other things I'd like to do with the girls this year - but I think I'll wait until cabin fever sets in around February to visit Science Centre, Casa Loma and the Royal Ontario Museum. 

We've already had a great summer but it feels like it will all be over before we know it.  Maybe getting up earlier won't be so bad - it will mean some extra time to myself and a longer day of fun.  What is your summer looking like?

Things that I looked up on the internet this week:

What came first?

What is Missy Elliott saying backwards in her song Work It?  I’ve always wondered and when the song got stuck in my head the other morning I decided to look it up.  She is saying “I put my thing down flip

it and reverse it” backwards.  Whew, another of life’s mysteries solved!

How do you make peanut butter cookies with natural peanut butter?  I know it’s easy with regular peanut butter – add an egg and more sugar! – but I wanted to see how much more sugar I needed to add with natural peanut butter.  Turns out after checking with a few of my favorite sites, you still use the same ratio of sugar to peanut butter (1 c PB, 1 c sugar).  Using the natural peanut butter saves you the extra sugar (and whatever else) that is actually in the peanut butter but that’s all.

What is a uvula for?  My eight year old asks the most interesting questions these days.  Do you know what a uvula is for?

What came first, the chicken or the egg?  Hah!  A common back and forth in my house these days with my oldest, after puzzling about it for a while we looked it up.  My interpretation of the answer on Wikipedia - the egg.  

Picky Eater

My 8 year old daughter, Maddy is a picky eater.  I blame myself.  I fed her jarred food (blech!) and for years I asked her what she wanted to eat and gave her options instead of just giving her what we were having.  My daughter Tee is a great eater, she'll try anything and eats everything we put in front of her.  I started her on natural foods that I made myself with a lot of variety.  This is one of the great things about having two children, that you learn from the first and try not to make the same mistakes with the second.  But I digress.  Maddy rarely branches out and tries new things and would eat hamburgers everyday if I let her.  She likes to eat cereal, vanilla yogert, plain pasta, toast, rice, chicken and some veggies.  So the other day I gave her a hamburger for lunch on a bun I bought at a bakery.  It looked a little different than the buns we usually buy but it was still white bread (not those dreadful wheat buns that Maddy doesn't like).  But when I came back with Maddy's cup of milk, this is what I found.  She had taken her dislike of crust to a whole new level - and peeled her hamburger bun.  Sigh.  Before and after. 

Who me? I've been working.

For 20 years I've been an employee, save two maternity leaves where my boss was a squalling baby.  And now I'm unemployed.  I had a great sent off from my job and am genuinely happy that I'm at home with my kids.  So now what?   I'm going to have a great summer and start writing my business plan.  I'm in no rush to get back to work but I am thinking about what I'm going to do when the kids go back to school.  I will be blogging and waiting.  And that's all I can do.  For now, I'm enjoying two weeks off with my husband and kids and not thinking too much about the future.  And it's nice, and I'm happy. :)

Losing weight is hard

I'm turning 37 this year.  My body is changing and shifting.  My elbows ache and cramp.  I try not to have a full bladder, ever, just in case I sneeze and  my feet ache when I get up in the morning.  My metabolism has slowed down quite a bit in my 30's.  Yes, its incredibly sexy to be 36.  I can't eat what I want either which is the most painful for me.  I love me a good poutine or whopper, a chicken nugget or three and cheese, wonderful cheese. Suddenly "everything in moderation" doesn't apply.  I am watching carbs, sodium, sugar, fibre and fat content. I thought I would lose this weight like I did in my 20's but I was wrong.  These are the things I have cut from my diet:
Raw sugar
Peanut butter
Processed foods - except pasta, salami and trisket...and including cake, macaroni and cheese, frozen burgers and chicken nuggets
Chips
Bread 
Baked goods 
Cheese - except for skinny cow and the occasional slice of pizza 
Roti - Omg I love roti but recently found out the sodium and calorie content is more than a big mac!
Fast food - including French fries
Eating between 7-9 pm

Basically I'm eating a lot if salad, tuna, veggies, fruit, meat, home made soups, whole grains and high fibre granola bars.  I'm not restricting myself completely though.  I will occasionally (meaning once a week maybe) I'll have some French fries, cake or veggie dip so that I don't feel deprived. 

What about you?  Have you found found that you've had to change your diet over the years?  What do you cut out when you are trying to lose a few pounds?

Weigh loss update

I'm happy to report that I'm down 3.5 inches and 4.5 pounds :)

Tag Team

Today was a tag team day today.  Do you ever tag team with your spouse?  The tag team reference is from wrestling where one wrestler would tag out of a fight so that he/she could get a rest while the other one fought the battle.  Yes, I watched wrestling, lol.  I like this term because parenting can be like that.  With family day being a holiday Monday this year in Ontario today was our Monday.  My husband was off work today which made things so much easier.  He got up with me and the kids and while I made French toast (tag) he got them dressed.  Then he drove me to work (tag) and took my seven year old to her appointment.  He picked me up from work and brought me home to a mostly completed dinner .  I made broccoli and cheese sauce while (tag) he relaxed and after dinner (tag) he took my oldest to brownies and got gas for my car while I (tag) made banana bread with my youngest.  Then the little one had a bath given by me and (tag) he put her pjs on.  Then it was time to pick up our brownie so I went and now (tag) he's giving her a bath.  The little one is having her banana bread and after her bath so will the big one.  Soon it will be bedtime which we alternate and it's his turn.  Teeth brushing, stories and back rubs from daddy tonight.  Having a partner who helps makes all these tasks so much easier and it occurred to me that these everyday tasks would be much harder if I had to do them all myself, especially when they were babies.  Imagine not having a break from a baby unless family or friends came over...GAH.  But tonight is a good night so I'm enjoying it because there are nights when it's not so easy and when my spouse isn't so helpful.  There are still lunches to be made and clothes to be put out for the next day but I don't mind because tonight it's been a good tag team night.  Thank you honey. 

Life, Luck and the Universe

Ever wonder about how you got to your place in the universe?  How did you end up in North America , raising kids, living where you live, with the job that you have?  How did it end up that you fell in love with the person you did?  Most of us are here because our grandparents or their parents emigrated here from other places, such as my great grandparents, who settled as farmers.  My great-grandparents settled at a lake an hour north east of where I currently live.  My grandparents inherited the land but settled in Toronto.  So there are the basic logistics of how I got here.  I should explain, that the reason I’m even thinking about this is because I want to go on a vacation.  Don’t get the connection?  Well.  I was thinking about how some people are so lucky.  They were either born into a place of privilege or just were given opportunities along the way that propelled them into their place in life.  I had to work for every single thing I’ve ever owned.  I started working in fast food places when I was 14 so that I could afford Doc Martin’s and leather jackets.  I worked through college (2 part time jobs and a full course load) so that I could rent an apartment.  (Graduated with honours too tyvm).  I’ve had about 10 different jobs in the last 10 years.  Some of them similar, some very different to what I went to school for.  It’s been an interesting ride and I’ve worked very hard over the years.  But I’ve never had a tropical vacation.  When I was 24 I went to work at a full-time career and bought a house.  All of my savings were used for the house and then for my wedding.  And now, my car is paid, my daycare costs are declining and I still agonize over paying for a vacation.  And yet some people, also through hard work, and some just by luck or privilege have had many, many tropical vacations.  Or traveled abroad a time or two.  And then there is the exact opposite of the spectrum, those less lucky than us, who worked hard but were not lucky enough to buy a house or who were plagued with health problems.  I guess I fall right into the middle.  Neither lucky nor privileged (financially but very blessed family wise) and not doing too badly either.  I just want to take my kids someplace warm, for a week, and do nothing but play and sleep and eat.  That's all.  It would be great if it could happen without me having to save money for it...lol.  I think I'll try something that has worked in the past for me, visualization.  Because feeling sorry for myself isn't working for me.  I’m going to tape pictures of sandy beaches, blue skies and tropical drinks to my fridge to motivate myself to get to that vacation.  And maybe, just maybe, I’ll win the lottery, or a promotion will fall into my lap or the stars will align and I’ll get that vacation just by sending it out there into the universe. And I'll take that negative energy I'm sending out by wishing I had more money or status and turn it into something positive. 

If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen.

One sure thing about becomming a mom, you will spend more time in the kitchen.  This weekend I was off 3 days and a lot of that time was spent in the kitchen.  It was mostly because I didn't have any other plans for the weekend (bliss!) and my husband did all of the running around, picking up kids, dropping off kids etc.  So I got up at 7:45 am twice this weekend -(without the kids waking me?!) and headed to the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast, cleaned up after breakfast and it started from there.  I got the girls 30 glasses of milk or water or juice, plus snacks, lunch and dinner.  I grated, I crock potted, I fried, boiled and baked.  And it occured to me today that my kids don't even like my cooking much but there I am anyway toiling away.  I spend so much time in the kitchen, preparing lunches, throwing stuff out, rinsing and sorting recycling that my kids will actually come to me while I'm sitting in the living room - while their dad is in the kitchen - and ask ME to get them stuff.  I don't mind the kitchen that much though, it's cozy and warm and to keep up with eating healthy I try to make a lot of things from scratch.  And the kids?  They love to help with mixing or slicing mushrooms.  Now if I could just get them to eat the good stuff I make, I would be thrilled.  Where do you spend a lot of your time?

Throwing stuff away

This month I've thrown away:
A blender
A heater
A cool air mist humidifier
A small food processor

There were all broken and couldn't be fixed.  It seems like such a waste to throw away these large items.  I wonder if I had purchased a higher quality item, would they have lasted longer?  Likely.  Oh the things you learn about consumerism as you get older.  The blender I had for 10 years and the small food processor at least 7 because I used it to make baby food.  They were all old items and I finally had to let go.  Funny how they all seemed to give up their life around the same time but they don't owe us anything, they all lasted a good length of time.  I also had to re-purpose some old towels into rags and donated a large bag of clothes this month.  It seems like the more I look and reconsider, the more items I realize I can do without.  I still have a long way to go as our garage walls are full of items I don't use but it's a work in progress.  With every month I get rid of a little more and try not to purchase too much to replace them.  I was given a new food processor for Christmas and will likely buy a new humidifier and the cycle will begin again.  Good bye crap!

Update

I'm still at it!  Going to the gym 3 times a week and still enjoying it.  I'm still finding it hard to stay away from the french fries and candies but this change isn't about totally changing my eating habits - it's about getting active.  I'm happier and feeling stronger and more toned.  I haven't "weighed in" yet, I'm going to wait until a month goes by to do that - but I am more conscience about what I'm putting into my body.  I don't want to ruin what I've started or want to feel that I've just lost a workout by eating badly.  Eating well was never really been my issue, it's the inactivity.  So on Sunday nights I make some roasted vegtables and eat them for lunches instead of a sandwich or a burger and I think that's a good enough change.  I bring veggies and fruit for snacks and I'm staying away from the potato chips.  I'm sleeping better too.  All in all it's been a great start and I am looking forward to keeping it up and seeing and feeling the changes I'm making for the better. 

Me

Firstly...I have been trying to post pics but they are posting sideways so I had a pic to share but decided not too because of this. Any tips?

OK so I did my first workout last night and it felt great.  I also was weighed and measured and my body fat index was taken.  Big sigh.  Here goes...
Weight - over 200 pounds.  Suffice to say that I'm heavier than I've ever been, even heavier than I was at the peak of both my pregnancies. 
Height - 5'9"
Measurements:  bust 46 inches, waist 40 inches, hips 46 inches.

So there we are.  Yep, I'm overweight.  And I won't even mention my body fax index...gah!

Onward and upward....or in this case downward :)

The journey begins

My weigh loss journey that is.  I have a goal and that is to be fit by fourty.  I have never been this heavy except for when I was 8 month pregnant.  I want to be in the same shape I was 50 pounds ago, three years ago, 1 year after having my second child.  I was doing yoga and pilates at least 3 times a week and walking 20 minutes a day.  After going back to a sedintary job and also trying to manage the lives of two little ones and their schedules, I've have had little time for myself.  The time I do have I spend on the couch or cleaning my house.  We do get out and enjoy activities together but it's not enough for my 30 something metabolism.  So tomorrow begins my journey as I've joined a program that gets me to the gym three times a week.  It feels really good.  And you know that book I'm reading?  It has been a great motivator for me.  And it advised to make your goals public so that you stick to them and so that you are accountable for them.  So here I am world wide web, make me accountable!  In 6 months I hope to drop at least 20 pounds and by next January be close to my goal.  Go me!  I'll post a "before" pic tomorrow as I'll be weighed, measured and ready to share more of the details.