My week in pictures and few words…

Game night last night. I of course lost, I never win Monopoly but you know what, I don’t care. We had a blast. This is my mama and my nephew Scott.

My pickings on Monday. The squash on the left is a volunteer (from my best friends garden) and it’s a mixture of spaghetti squash and butternut. Really tastes awesome. They have lots more of these. I have had a bumper crop of green peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes and rhubarb and have traded my produce for other produce and have a cupboard and freezer full of goodness.

I’ve been making grape jam. It came out beautifully and it set up so I really have jam, not syrup.

It’s suppose to freeze really hard tonight so I cleaned out the garden. There’s a wagon full of tomatoes that need to ripen and a bucket full that’s really close. I picked the onions and peppers too so tomorrow will cut them up and get them into the freezer.

I also made a fruit jam out of apples/plums/grapes. I had just a small bucket of grapes and plums so not enough to make into a sauce or jam so added apples and another success.

And just fresh out of the oven…

And more of this…

Getting my harvest did and done and ready for the winter. It is awesome being able to just go to the freezer or canning cupboard and add a touch of meat and have a meal prepared in minutes.

So there’s my week when I’m home. I have been driving bus, doing daycare and driving bus and canning and driving bus. I know I said it three times but since I drive anything with wheels on it for the garage I have 3 trips to Brainerd each day by van, 2 preschool runs in a mid bus and activities each evening in a full size bus. I’m not complaining since it keeps me busy and hopefully when I get my first paycheck from this company it’ll be worth all of this. A living is all I want to be able to make, paying the bills and help Mike in school.

I reported in to Allan today, minus another pound. Down 12 lbs now for the month of September plus the last week in August. I can keep this up and soon with be back to where I was a year ago and then can work on a bit less. I have been thinking about rejoining my gym. It an expense I don’t know if I can handle yet but will looking into it none the less.

So that’s my week. It was a good one and now a new one starts tomorrow. Got some shopping to do, got some apple/rhubarb sauce to make and hopefully we can go fishing and see if we can find the sweet spot where the sunnies are hiding this week. Fish for dinner, oh so yummy!

Take care my friends and have a blessed weekend. Good luck in whatever you are doing, planning and more.

What’s up…

  

Apple/rhubarb sauce. I think the best I’ve made yet. It’s lightly sweetened and healthy for us.

               

Finished my mama’s sewing room. I love this final touch. It looks amazing on her all and it just gave the room the right feel.

 

We went fishing today. For the first time in many, many years I caught my limit. It really was an awesome time out today. I’m not a filet person though so it takes a few pretty good size fish to get me enough for dinner. Tonight I just fixed it with 1/2 tsp of butter and some garlic pepper seasoning. It tasted so good. Then I had some of my apple/rhubarb sauce for dessert.

I’ve been trying to come up with some low calorie, low fat, low carb recipes. Tonight I made a blueberry bread. I made it in a regular bread pan and it comes out like this… 129 a piece (that’s cutting the loaf into 8 slices), 27 carbs and1 fat. 8 slices aren’t to small a piece but not a meal full either. What I’m trying to come up with is a take it with me breakfast. I still need to try and get the carbs down. I don’t know how yet but will keep trying.

I also made a new chicken recipe from an old one I found. This ones pretty good too. Baked chicken that tastes awesome according to Jim. I only ate the chicken without coating because of the extra stuff I don’t need.

For a 4oz skinless chicken breast it’s 274 calories, 23 carbs and 11 fats (the fats are the better for you kind, made with olive oil). However the carbs are still up there because of the flour coating.

So I have a question, what’s flax seed? I bought a bag of it today, suppose to be good for you however I haven’t tried it yet. It’s expensive if you ask me but hear good things so working at it. I’m suppose to bake with it, add it to smoothies and ??? well not sure. I know it’s in the Oat heads oatmeal I like.

So it’s a new week. I lost a pound plus a touch last week, just over 10 lbs now but it’s not really a loss since I’ve loss this already but soon I’ll be back in virgin territory and can really get to counting. 

Here’s to a new week full of adventures, learning new things and working out butts off. I have a schedule that beyond busy. Like my Monday, work at 7:00 first trip to Brainerd, 8:00 second trip to Brainerd, an hour an a half off to go pick apples with Kim than back to the bus garage for special Olympic bowling practice, 1/2 hour off till drivers meeting, then another trip to Brainerd and then after school activity till 6:00. After all of that a walk with the dogs to go and be the gardener for our neighbors and water their new trees. See why I’m trying to come up with meals on the go or pre-prepared or well I don’t know healthy and easy and filling.

Anyway, I wish you all the best week possible. Here’s to getting healthy, wealthy (or at least making enough to pay the bills and a small start towards the wish list) and wise. Blessings my friends!

Honesty is the best policy…right?…

So since this is a weight loss blog (along with my life blog) I figured it’s time to be totally honest with you guys and tell you how it really is, at least for me that is.

As much as I would love to say I lost 60 lbs and have been doing awesome it would be a lie that would make Pinocchio nose grow longer then a 50’ Christmas tree. Now I didn’t gain all my weight back, just almost 1/2 of it. You see, finding out Mike was going to college far away, dealing with family illness, dealing with hubby issues, well dealing with some negativity stuff I just did not handle well. I did try and I tried hard but I guess not hard enough to be where I was really happy. So this brings me to now and the beginning of another journey to losing 30 lbs and getting to a happy healthy weight.

I can’t go backwards, I can look back and learn though and I think that’s what I have been doing this month. I chose September to get back to life. Get back to taking care of me and getting happy, healthy and strong again.

I joined in on Allan’s Challenge, Grandson of the DDD Challenge. I know how some of you feel about Allan and I am not here to argue with you. I’m here to just say he has helped me in many ways both personal and business and most importantly the weight loss so I’m giving this challenge my all. I’ve lost 9 lbs so far and am hoping to keep it up. It’s a bit difficult working the two bus jobs, a daycare day here and there, activities, scouts, family and more but I am going to give all. I’m not going to share or post regularly about this challenge. This one is for me to get back to where I want to be before the holidays start up. However I still think blogging and be accountable for what I’m doing is a big help so once a week I’ll check in and tell you what’s what and how things are going. What I’ve learned and what stupid stuff I’ve done to not get to where I want to be.

I’ll still be sharing my regular life too, heck I have too cuz sometimes there are things that just have to be shared.

Like being a gardener here. It’s a “cabin” for our neighbors. They have worked hard in their lives and now have this cabin up here on our lake and they had planted some 20 new 5-6’ pine trees and since it’s dry here I water them 3 times a week for better than an hour each day. It’s not a money maker but I was able to get groceries without any problems the past couple of weeks.

Jim and I spent yesterday shooting up 450 rounds of .22. We found out I’m the better shot between the two of us and had a blast for 3 hours.

My walking partners this weekend were much different then my usual ones. As we were walking by our neighbors farm these guys/gals ran over to the fence and joined us from fence line to fence line.

My usual partners.

My mama’s room is now finished except waiting for some wall art to put up. I bought her a new sewing machine, sorta like mine (mines the in the back), and she’s already made drapes for the kitchen and repaired some of my dad’s jeans.

Today between bus runs I’m roasting these. I get home after 6 each night (my day starts at 6) and starting next week I even have some activities that will get me home after midnight, so planning is the key to all my meals now. Thank goodness for menu ideas because I’m a menu dummy and for some stupid reason can’t put two and two together to make anything decent. But my garden is doing awesome so here’s what I did up.

Carrots, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, some purple weird ones I tried out, yellow, red, orange and green peppers, garlic, zucchini, and acorn squash. Add a bit of chicken breast and there is at least 3 good dinners here and a lunch too. I have tomatoes galore so will slice some of them up to add to the mix. Can’t beat it.

So that’s life here. Learning to eat right, make a living and combine the two into making me healthy, wealthy and wise.

Blessings my friends!

Not dead….adjusting….

Well the first part week is over with no kids. It is interesting not having toys all over the house. Today I did a good cleaning and put everything away. Oh I still have Joss (my littlest one) next Tuesday and Friday and I did have after school daycare on Friday but it’s not the same as every day. Starting Monday I work full time driving bus. I work for both districts on Monday and then just one for the rest of the week. I get to work with special needs young adults which really will be different from the wee ones and regular bus kids but it’s a challenge I’m up to and will enjoy.

This has been my goal this weekend. Just to relax and not worry. It has been a hard year so far but I am hoping that things can calm down and get into a groove and just get better. Now life isn’t bad, it never is….it’s just had some really tough moments.

My new challenge has been going pretty darn good, even with it being my TOM I lost a pound. Now comes more planning ahead. With being out of the house by 5:45 in the morning, getting back at 10, leaving again at 1:30 and getting back home at 6, well meals better be planned. Also the water, you just can’t pull over and go potty with a bus load of kids so holding it is an issues so not drinking before the runs make getting in a gallon of water a day interesting, not impossible, just interesting.

I hope all is well with you guys. Take care and have an awesome weekend. Blessings!!!

What do you have in your kitchen?….

This is so cool....Just click "here"....and put in all you have in your kitchen and it will come up with tons of recipes with all the calorie count and more.

my fridge food

Whats in your Fridge?

Go, check it out. It really is cool.

Blessings!

Did you know….

Question:

Anton asked me today, what makes the rattle on a rattlesnake rattle. I don’t know, I didn’t have a clue….without looking it up, do you know?

Answer:

A rattle snake is born with a button on his tail and they lose there skin up to for times a year and each time it leaves just a bit of skin on the snake. After a while these pieces of skin add up and since they are dried they brush against each other making the rattling noise.

Now isn’t that cool.

Summer Sizzle Slimdown Challenge 2012

First and foremost thank you so much to Rochelle for hosting this challenge. The best thing about this challenge was the life that Rochelle gave this challenge. She showed us not all of us our perfect but we all can learn something new, do something we never even thought about trying and share and learn from each other. I joined this challenge not as a weight loss but as a learn to move my butt and start getting the body I really want. Well for the weight loss part I found out, for me that is, putting away the scale was something stupid. It didn’t work for me as almost 20 pounds found it’s way back unto my body. How a person can gain that much and not really notice I’m not sure except maybe it’s because of the exercise I was doing (am doing) and maybe it’s not all fat. However a number on the scale showed back up that I had never ever wanted to see again and that really hurt.

I did surpass my goal of 650 miles for the year and have upped it to 1000. I hit my 650 mile mark 1/2 way though the challenge and one of Rochelle’s weekly challenge was to push yourself and I decided to move my butt even more and have already gone another 115 miles towards the new goal.

That was all I did though. I need to work on some exercise program now to not only get in the cardio part but the strengthening and toning. Oh but I have learned a lot of stretching exercises so limber is helping. Thanks to one of Rochelle weekly challenges.

So now it’s onward and downward. I do have a challenge I’m part of but for me it’s just going to be a quiet one with a little bit here and there on how it’s going. Like the first week was awesome, I did well with a 8 lb loss however, I know it wasn’t all fat and all, it was the water going in, the crap flowing out and the menu that I can follow. Now if I can just keep going like I’m suppose to, get some muscle groups tight and just get to a better, healthier me all will be good.

Thank you again Rochelle for this challenge. Good luck to everyone and when you have a moment or two stop by and say hi. I will do the same. I just can’t imagine doing this alone, you all have been an inspiration for me.

Blessings!!!

Pictures….

 

The first batch of the year. Everything from my garden. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and onions. It turned out awesome.

“My kids” and their fort.

 

Rachel had her very first volleyball game. I got to go and enjoy watching her play. I love volleyball. It is my game. I played in high school and was really a pretty good player. I am so proud of her for all her hard work and to hear her encourage her team…that was awesome.

 

Mike now goes to school at 5:45 am. This is his view as he’s walking to school in the morning.

More pictures to come next week. Tell me when you get bored seeing them and I’ll ……. well I’ll keep sharing but you can skip reading if you want too. You won’t though, I know it!

Blessings my friends!!!