Manic Mondays

Oh man the busyness! The weekend before last my husband ran his second ever marathon, AND did it 15 minutes faster than last year! That was the Sunday. The day before, our almost seven year old ran a 1.2 mile race. I was so proud of them both that I stood at the finish line crying the whole time. I was emotional...


Have you ever had one of those days where nothing....and I mean NOTHING goes right? Yeah. I had one of those on Friday. I just wanted to give the whole thing back and start over! But, after Friday, things started to look up...I mean at that point where else could things look? After the massive fail that was Friday, I threw my sister-in-law a baby shower and it turned out rather well (if I do say so myself). Then Sunday came and I enjoyed it because Sunday probably is my favorite day of the week. We get to go to church and worship and sit and listen to what the man of God has been given to say....This week he stepped on my toes just a little. I am a champion procrastinator. Guess what the message was about? So yeah, I've determined I'm going to stop wasting so much time. I started UN-procrastinating by getting up and going to the gym this morning (like I always do) but instead of showering and crawling back in bed like usual I ate breakfast and started straightening up the mess that is my living room. By the time the first kid woke up I was standing in the middle of the room feeling pretty accomplished!

Last week we had a delicious pasta dish on Meatless Monday (I love pasta). I adapted a recipe to be meatless AND to not use oil to sauté the veggies because...uh...calories! It's called penne rosa. It's a tomato cream sauce but instead of using cream and butter it's got fat free yogurt. Everyone enjoyed it even more than the spinach walnut penne I've made and everyone (even the picky three year old) said they'd eat it again. Score one for Momma! Look for the recipe on my recipe tab.

Speaking of going to the gym this morning (which I did somewhere up there) I set the stationary bike on a harder program that I normally do. Halfway through this program I did the math and was like "alright! If I keep going like this I'll go farther than I've ever gone!" But shortly after that I was pretty sure I was going to die. I slowed way down and it looked like I wasn't going to make it as far as I thought after all. I heard the little voice in my mind say "nope. You're not going to do it." Then, I felt determined. I said to myself, "It's possible...pig...that I don't have the strength to finish strong" But I kicked in the afterburner and said "drop your sword..." Then I grinned like a crazy lady...because I'm hilarious....and because I was going to finish strong because I wanted it...I wonder if anyone around me noticed the crazy person grinning at her internal conversation with herself. I hope not. I'd hate to get kicked out of the gym for creeping the other people out.....

Realizations and Resolve

Things have happened. Some good. Some meh. First for the good. I came to the instant realization this morning of just how much smaller I am. I mean I knew I had lost 25 pounds. I saw that on the scale. I knew I wear a smaller size clothes now. I saw that in how my clothes hang where they used to hug. I knew I could maneuver more easily in tight spaces. I saw that in the fact that the shower curtain no longer touches me....I HATE for the shower curtain to touch me...don't ask why...I haven't a clue.. But today, standing in the shower dreading having to shave my legs, that's when I realized...I'm really a lot smaller than I used to be. Strange as it sounds I despised shaving my legs because of the acrobatics involved. It required contortions just to reach the vast expanse that was my hamstring...or so it seemed to me...but today it was like "there you are.....that was easy". When did that happen? And why did I not notice until now?

Now for the "meh". We had strayed away from Meatless Monday... Or meatless ANY day. We went from veggie meals two to three times a week to having them only occasionally. It's more expensive to buy fresh fruits and veggies. I really need to learn to garden. But not only that, it was so simple to slip back into my routine of buying only what's on sale and preparing from what I have in the freezer. But guess what happened. My weight loss slowed down. My energy flagged....but I'm blaming at least part of that on this gloomy winter weather! Something else happened too....my kids complained of.....slower digestion! Their little bodies were getting so much good nutrition and fiber from those meals! I didn't understand how much they mattered. So, I've started them on a fiber supplement but I've got to get our menus back under control! Veggies are good for you! Now I need to make my grocery list....and there needs to be more veggies on it!

New Year, New Food

Our family had no New Year's plans this year. Our six year old could not wrap his head around this concept. He said, "How will we celebrate the New Year!?" I was not about to stay up all night so, being half Cajun and half Creole, I decided the best way to celebrate at a decent hour must involve food. So I offered this idea to my poor confused son. New Year, New Food. He said,"huh?" So I explained: this is a new year we've never had before so let's look through my recipes and find some food we've never had before. He was cool with this. Especially since he got to help me choose the food.

So on a search we went. My son, being the fruit of my labor, got excited about a soup recipe in my "Eating for IBS" cookbook that has crab in it. He loves crab. I would have never chosen this soup myself because, reading the recipe, it sounds a lot like Chinese egg drop soup with crab in it. I've never had egg drop soup but I've seen it on a buffet. It just looks unappetizing. But I DID tell the child we'd try something new....so here we go! Off to the store on New Year's Eve to find the few ingredients we didn't have. The store we went to was close to home and, in case you've forgotten, we live out in the boonies. So, unsurprisingly they were out of crab.  My son was HIGHLY disappointed. I told him we'd just substitute some small shrimp, which the store did have. He tried his hardest to convince us that this was a culinary emergency that warranted a trip to "town". I, however, assured him that it would be just fine with shrimp. He was not happy with this decision but knows that what Mom says goes.

Back at home now we made the soup. It took, quite literally, less than 30 minutes to throw together. Then the hubby and I spent a few minutes fine tuning seasoning because it was rather bland. Once we got it to our liking we served it with some rice (of course). Both my husband and myself thought it was pretty good. My daughter doesn't like anything these days (so she says) but she ate two bowls. And the tiny gourmet? He said, "it would be better with crab.......can I have some more?"