Bakeapalooza

This year's Baking fest is complete! Cinnamon roasted almonds, muddy buddies, chocolate bark, ginger\molasses spice cookies, chocolate mint cookies, spritz cookies, and magic cookie bars.

I had a couple more things I wanted to do, but I got lucky getting two Sundays in a row with the baby out of the house. Asking for more would be nuts. Now to get them parceled out and shipped to friends near and far.

A Fun Fact You May Not Have Known

The worst part of a root canal is when you have to go to the bathroom during the middle of one.

Also, the ouch factor afterward. Someday I shall again eat food that needs to be chewed.

Promises Kept and Promises Broken

I promised myself when I started this blog that it wasn't going to be a weight-loss blog. Unfortunately, I think it's just one of those things I'm going to have to talk about now and then. Maybe I'll start those posts with a big warning, "Weight-management talk ahead! Flee while you can!"

The short version, I gave up on remembering to bring food to work and went grocery shopping during my lunch hour one day. I brought food back to keep there so I don't have to remember to bring lunch. For 3 weeks I have not purchased food at work beyond a couple bottles of water and a stick of string cheese. The first 2 weeks I lost 10 pounds. (I also gave up soda except for a treat on Saturdays). For some reason the 3rd I didn't lose any, but I was also stressed out. Hopefully the loss of weight will resume this week.

A note: My diet was very, very bad, so yes, just the elimination of soda and eating breakfast and lunch that I didn't have to buy at work was enough for 10 pounds to basically fall off. Knowing my weight and the change in calories I should drop quite a bit more before I reach calories in = calories out again.

I'm also trying to put myself on austerity measures with money. I've been doing pretty well, although after 3 weeks I'm really feeling the pull to old habits. The need to go out shopping for Christmas gifts isn't helping. But I hope to pay off my new car loan way early by being good with money now.

I want my new to me car back! One day after picking up my car the check engine light came on and back to the dealer it went for repairs. I hate the loaner car but I'm grateful to have it. Thankfully any repairs to the car that are needed are covered by warranties. But that along with 2 visits to the dentist made last week very rough. Hoping for a quieter one where I can get my Christmas baking done this coming week!

Doctor tomorrow

Yup, I have an early morning doctor's appointment, and I don't want to go. Basically because I'm fatter than a year ago and I can beat myself up about it just fine without help from a doctor.

Thankfully this doctor is a nice guy but he won't ignore the weight (as well he shouldn't!). Bah. Oh well.

I got my annual haircut tonight. Maybe the loss of hair will affect the scale?

Nah, I didn't think so.

Fail!

So, I found out Monday morning that if I don't make my lunch the night before, it's not happening. I've still been buying my food at work. I'll admit, I would have done it today anyway, because today was Taco Salad day at work, and our usually sub-par cafeteria does a fabulous Taco Salad.

Tomorrow is another day, though, and I'll try to meet my goal for the rest of the week at least.

A small goal

I have a small goal for this week. Generally I either forget or wait too long to pack up my food for work and end up buying everything I need for the day from the cafeteria and convenience stores at my work.

My simple goal this week is to bring my food this week. I'd prefer to spend no money at work this week, but I won't beat myself up over up to $10 for the week. We'll see how it goes.

I Am Weird

My husband is out gaming. My in-laws took my daughter so we can go on a day trip with friends tomorrow. I have a night to myself. What did I do?

Organize my fridge, and then go outside in the dark and pull super-sized pliestocene era weeds from behind the house. In the dark. Without knowing what animals or poisonous plants might be lurking.

I have some veggie plants in pots in the back, and the goundspeople for our townhouse complex must not have wanted to move them (understandable), so grasses and weeds have grown 2 to 3 feet tall back there around the pots. At least at 9:30 at night it's not hot and terrible outside. I'd garden at night all the time if I could.

Dinner with my 18 month old daughter

Eat leftover pulled pork. Mmm, nommy, nommy, nommy.

Eat leftover baked potato. Mmm, nom, nom, nom.

Nibble on roll from pulled pork sandwich that kind of tastes like pork. Yum, yum, yum.

Sip milk now and then.

Put down bit of potato and hit a pea just right so it flies off your plate and onto the floor. Go oooooooh. Start slamming hand into peas and flinging them all over.

Mommy declares dinner over. Mommy is a no-fun poopyhead.

Progress was made...

As my father's day gift to my husband, I stayed home today while he took the baby out to his folks house and tried to get the back room arranged for his new computer that will be here in a couple weeks. I made good progress, but there's still plenty to do.

I'm going to feel so good when it's clean back there, the kind of clean that it will stay because I found homes for everything that was cluttering the place up.

Yay!

Here We Are Again

My plants are mostly all in! They're all in pots. I'd like to plant a little in the actual tiny bit of ground I have, but I'd have to break it up by shovel and I'm not sure I want to do it that badly.

So, my husband ordered a new computer this week. He's never had one that would actually run the newest games, and he decided it was time. Since he's so careful with money and great at saving, I can't give him a hard time about making a big purchase. And it will be nice to have a second computer in the house again. I just hope he doesn't spend all his time computer gaming after it gets here.

Anyone ever noticed how hard it is to change habits, even when you truly believe it should be done? It's hard. These habits developed for a reason, and the reasons are still there. It's very had to replace several poor coping methods with better ones. But I've become more and more aware, and at least this time I can't shake the thoughts about it. I guess that's a step in the right direction.

Life is Busy

Well, it is when you take your daughter to Wisconsin on your own.

We've been home about a week now, and things are still busy and a little stressful. Without giving too many details the state of our state's economy is threatening both my and my husband's jobs (at least not on a permanent basis) and the waiting is killing me.

So I've been trying to focus on good things. Like how much help strangers gave me in the airports after they saw me pushing a stroller with one hand and hauling our carry-on and her car seat around. One woman even installed the car seat on the plane for me! Thank you again, First-class passenger in green.

My father-in-law took the baby today while my husband went with my mother-in-law out of town on some family business. I busied myself with cleaning up in my living room. It's a little disheartening to see how it doesn't look all that cleaned up. But it's just small and crowded and never going to look nice and neat.

Ah well, it is what it is.

I did get my plants in this weekend, so I'm very happy about that. And I learned that I can get a community garden plot at my work for next year! We'll see if I do well keeping up with them this year. If I do, maybe I'll take the plunge.

Small steps to big changes.

I promised myself when I started this blog that it would just be for some of the wierd, random observations I have about my life and life in general. But I think I need a place to chronicle the changes I want to make in my life. So following is a big, long post about some thoughts I've been having lately. Feel free to skip it. I'm sure I'll have some silly rant or weird observation to put on top in the next few days. :)

Over the last couple weeks I’ve been reading a book called “Radical Homemakers”. It’s been a fascinating read and it’s rattling around in my brain. Of course, I picked the book because I felt it would be interesting, but I didn’t realize how many buttons it would hit for me.

I’m seriously considering asking my husband to read it.

All my life, I have known that a regular 9 to 5 kind of gig or a high-powered career was not for me. It’s just not. I don’t want it. I’m not afraid of work, but I want the work I do to be in support of my life, not someone else’s interest. I want my work to be of value to me, rather than being valued by someone else by the dollar. I don’t hate my job, but I do hate losing the time, which I value much more highly than the money.

So this book starts by talking about the changes in society of the last 200 or so years that have made us into a 2-income household nation, and made us think we need all this money. The author calls it an extractive economy. The second half is drawn from her interviews with 20 households (couples, singles, families) who have decided to live their lives for themselves. These are not people who are not working, they are just not working for someone else. They are working to support themselves in such a way that money is NOT the thing they need most. And I love this idea.

I don’t want to be as independent as some of these people have become, but I do want to invest more of my time in myself, my husband, my daughter, my marriage and my home.

There are some steps I need to take before I can move into this kind of lifestyle. Of course, according to many of the people interviewed for the book, the first step you take is a step into the lifestyle.

First, I need more energy. I never have any, and it’s because I take very bad care of myself. My weight is out of control and I have no endurance. Convincing myself I need to lose weight has never helped me. I’ve known that for a long time and done nothing. But the pursuit of energy, with no worry about whether I lose weight or not, that I can do. Exercise for energy, not weight loss, that I can do.

One step at a time, I’d like to get myself into a position where I can work only part-time. I may look into doing something like medical transcription, which I could do from home. Ideally, I wouldn’t work at all, but I’m not certain I’m willing to go to full growing food and raising animals mode. I have to figure out how I could contribute to the home so we need less money while I work on the energy getting. I want to learn to properly garden, and learn to can and store my food. I want to learn to live with less plastic (although I don’t think I’ll convince anybody not to give our daughter plastic toys, and I’m not sure I want to; but at least those can be donated and used again).

I think I may be completely insane at this point, but if a major lifestyle change is what’s needed to take better care of myself, my husband, and my little girl, then that’s what it’ll have to be. I want to be here a long time, and not regret lost time when it’s time to go.

Getting ready to garden

Tomorrow my husband is going to take the little one to Grandma and Grandpa's. I think I'm going to stay here and clean out my gardening pots.

I was a bad girl last fall and didn't clean out the plants, and this spring now I've got a great garden of weeds growing in them. So before I can buy new plants for this year and get them in the ground, I need to clean out the pots.

I'm SO not looking forward to that.

Way too much crap

I'm pretending we're moving.

Our lease is coming up soon, and although we intend to sign for another year, I'm pretending we're moving. I am packing away anything we don't need in labeled boxes to go in the basement, and hopefully tossing or donating anything we just don't need at all.

This will probably take about a year, and then we actually will move. (Note: Biki-cat, please come home before we move away, otherwise how will you find us?)

Last night I started packing away RPG books, and holy crap do we have a lot... And there are plenty staying out too. Yikes.

This may be a bigger job than I thought.

Anyone else?

So, who out there wonders why they're working in a 9 to 5 job when they know it's just wrong for them?

Yeah, me too.

Dear Bloggers,

If I load your blog and music starts playing, I'm leaving. Just sayin'.



Ok, I'll explain a little. See I'm already listening to music, and your music and mine probably aren't going to get along. And sometimes, I'm at work on my break and my co-workers don't appreciate your music.

So hey, feel free to share your music...

Via a link I can click.

If I were an Evil Carpenter...

I'd install the handrails for stairs at a slightly different angle than the stairs and see how much it messed people up.

As I'm neither evil nor a carpenter that isn't going to happen. But it would be cool to be a carpenter. I'd love to learn to build furniture.

Today's randomness...

What is with all the local radio stations suddenly playing "Peaceful Easy Feeling" all the time. I like it, but it's weird. At least they're off their "Don't Speak" by No Doubt kick. I never loved that song but I didn't mind it. Now I can't stand it.

More randomness...

Last week I saw a truly atrocious number on the scale. It is the number I have always feared, the number I've always said "Well, at least I don't weight THAT much." Well, now I do, and I'm going to have to do something about it.

Much scarier than the number is that my heart has been having some palpitations. I don't know how I'm going to do it but I have to. Yikes. Scary time.

The Grocery Store

Poor neglected blog, I haven't forgotten you, I promise.

Today I went to the grocery store. I usually try to avoid doing that during the day on weekends because it's very busy.

And I understand that. I don't mind waiting a moment while someone picks out their cucumbers before I can do the same, or waiting for someone to clear an aisle because they are actually shopping.

But all you soccer moms clogging up the aisles with your shopping carts butted up against each other like fort market, chatting away about whatever you all chat about in the store... MOVE IT!

Seriously. There's a whole area in the front of the store with booths to sit in. Go chat there. All I want is some freaking cheese! I don't want to wait fifteen minutes to get to the Mild Cheddar. And don't give me the stinkeye when I politely excuse myself and ask to get past you. I'm actually doing this thing called grocery shopping.

Once Upon a Time...

I had three cats.

At about 9:30 each night, they magically turn into vultures who specialize in triangulation.

Miraculously, at 11:00 pm, after they have been given kibble they turn back into cats.

They're kind of like gremlins that way.

Best of Intentions

Tonight I'd planned to go out and join a gym.

Instead, I decided to stay home and eat stuffing for dinner. I do not regret this decision.

Ok, so I am going to join the gym. But the no enrollment fee deal is going for another couple weeks and I'd rather go on the weekend than run out at night.

But I still don't regret the stuffing.

Dangerous!

Last night I did something dangerous.

I picked up my little monkey girl from day care and instead of going straight home, we went to the grocery store. I had decided earlier I just didn't feel like cooking, so I was going to let the grocery store do it for me.

People do this everyday. I don't. Generally because I'm lazy with a capital L on occasion. In fact, the capital L isn't really enough capital letters to express how lazy I can be. So I have so far avoided the temptation of letting the store cook for me because I didn't want to get into that habit.

So we bought some meatballs and some dressing and some fruit from the salad bar. And the monkey loved her dinner. Loved.

I may never cook again.

And in case you're interested... 1 week caffeine free! Next step, dropping soda altogether. At least the everyday habit.

My husband went to a hockey game with his dad...

Therefore, it is time to eat crappy pizza for dinner and then have Cool Ranch Doritos for a snack.

Mmmmm, cool ranch doritos.

From the "Things that shouldn't annoy me but do" files:

I have a co-worker, a lovely person, with whom I have the same conversation at the end of every day.


CW: Good Night!

Me: Good night, co-worker.

CW: Have a good night!

Me, in my brain: YOU JUST SAID THAT!!!

Caffeine update:

Except for accidental ingestion, I have been caffeine-free since Friday. The accident was that I bought myself a bottle of Dr. Pepper. For some reason I'd always thought Dr. Pepper was caffeine-free, so I thought I was being good.

Wrong!

And apparently everyone I know in life knew that Dr. Pepper is not caffeine-free. So I sipped at the Dr. Pepper on Saturday with my lunch and got rid of the rest. So it was less than a can of soda, not too much.

As of Monday so far, so good. A bit tired but that's to be expected.

My nemesis

Caffeine has struck again.

I now have a really good reason to quit the Coca-Cola habit. Apparently my body can't take the stuff anymore. It's been making me shaky in the late afternoon. I finally figured out it was the caffeine today when for the 3rd day in a row eating didn't get rid of the shaky feeling, and I had a headache so bad that I thought something was seriously wrong in my head.

So tomorrow it's a can, and then weekend I'm done. I'm not looking forward to the withdrawl headache though.

10 years ago...

10 years ago this August, I moved from the Midwest to the Northeast where I live now. I drove with my now husband in my Ford Taurus. Everything I moved with was packed in that car. Clothes, books, music, and kitchenwares. That's it.

So how is it, 10 years later, I have so much crap!

Asparagus

It's good. Who knew?

The World of Blogs

I didn't discover the world of blogs until a few months ago. A net friend recommended The Pioneer Woman, then I discovered Wendi Aarons, and today I discovered a load of grammar blogs.

My people! The ones who know their from they're from there. The people who know when to use your and when to use you're, and where apostrophes and quotation marks belong.

Apparently March 4th was Grammar Day. Yesterday. I can't believe I missed it. But I'm going to plan something big for next year. Maybe with a semi-colon theme.

;

See how pretty it is?

____________________________________________________________________

Today, I listened to this. So should you.

Caffeine is a double-edged sword. The delightful jolt of energy, the sweet fizzy refreshment.

The horrible, horrible headache when I have too much, or not enough.

I may be single-handedly keeping the Coca-Cola company in business.

Tomorrow I shall once again try to throw off the shackles of the bottle.