Just Another (7) Day(s) in Paradise

Compared to our "usual" weeks, we kind of laid low these past 7 days. There is a fuel crisis in our town which has the gas prices through the roof, and so I made it a point to not go anywhere that was not a necessity. We have a lot of commitments in our week, so we were far from house-bound, BUT there were no "bonus" adventures to the park/library/beach/2-B's house, etc.

Sooooo our scaled-down week looked like...

Lots of drawing at the table...

 

(Are you bored yet!? HAHAHAHA!)

And dancing...

 

 

And piano lessons...

 

We had "warm" chocolate with our cousins on a CHILLY afternoon...

 

With a fantastic deal on produce we decided to do some juicing!...

 

 

 

We replenished our stash of laundry detergent...do you realize we have spent just $9 on laundry detergent for the whole year!?!? Craziness I tell you!

 

And we couldn't have "normal" pancakes on breakfast-for-dinner-night...oh no...I was asked to make JUMBO pancakes!!!...

 

 

We finished our week together at church :0)...

 

I love this time of year...sweaters!!!...jackets!!!...red lipstick!!!...and flip-flops???

That's the down-low on our up-and-up...until next week! :0)

Dear Jennifer Hudson (Week 41)

Dear Jennifer Hudson,

Hello! How are you? :0)

I've had a rather swell week. We finished our 2nd week of the 8 week challenge at my WW meeting...just 6 more weigh-ins until Thanksgiving. :-0

This morning I was down 3.2 pounds for the week.

With less than 20 pounds to go, I am in full countdown mode...19 pounds away from goal-weight baby!!! :0)

I have just been exercising once a day these past couple of weeks. I am taking a Spin class 3 times a week, I am running outside 2 times a week, and I have been walking/climbing Mt. Helix 1 time a week.

The Mt. Helix thing is a new commitment for me. On Tuesday nights, Wyatt is in dance class for 2 hours, and so instead of sitting in the waiting room at the dance studio for 2 hours, Beatrice and I head over to my mom's house and we get to have a challenging-weekly-walk together now. That has been a fun change the last couple of weeks. :0)

In the land of food...

We were given some bone-in and skin-on chicken breasts...2 things I am not usually a fan of, but this past week, I embraced them. I first poached the chicken with some vegetables and made a delish chicken stock. And then I cubed up the chicken for 3 different recipes...

1. Chicken salad sandwiches...

 

2. Homemade Chicken Pot Pies...

 

 

3. Undecided...LOL...I've packaged up the leftover cubed chicken and have frozen it for another time. :0)

My husband is a bit of a comfort-food-connosseur and so when he praised the Chicken Pot Pies as "The best he has ever had!!!," I couldn't help but to be proud of those little puff-pastry-beauties. :0)

Any-who, that's the down-low on the up-and-up!

I hope your next 7 days find you WW-point-conscience and active!

Your Biggest Fan,
Elizabeth

FINALLY Fall was Found!

We were all so excited to welcome the month of October in our home! October 1st always feels like the official start to the holiday season...at least to me. :0)

October may have arrived, but the summer heat was going NO WHERE! :0(

There was shirt-less construction work going on with cousins...

 

 

My masterpiece...

 

We enjoyed a pool play date...

 

...where my Beatrice has continued her fearless ways with regard to the water...jumping off of the edge of the tall jacuzzi!...

 

While I got my snuggle time in with little "JJ"...6 weeks old already!

 

I just love the "extra padding" around his neck! I absolutely adore him!

 

Bea and I had a warm evening walk with Grammy...the discoveries were endless! There were multiple gorgeous dragonflies out and about...

 

And snakes!!!...ones that were living...

 

...and ones that had "moved on"...

 

We ventured to the library this week...which is something we haven't done in a very LONG time (I'm not sure why???)...

 

Of course there was the (almost) daily trip to the gym...

 

And Beatrice opened her own little restaurant "Apple Pie & Hot Chocolate!" She was quite serious about this task...she "worked" in her restaurant every.single.day. The rest of us were blessed with great service...and calorie-free food! :0)

 

And as always, there was school, school, and more school!...

 

In addition to Wyatt's required curriculum, I made it our mission in these past couple of weeks to have Wyatt master/memorize all of his times-tables. In hind-sight, I wish I would have done this last year, in 2nd grade, when multiplication was first introduced, but I didn't, and that is just one of those things you learn when you are doing this parenting/home-schooling thing with the first child. I will be wiser with the 2nd-go-around. :0) We were working on our multiplication facts at home, on breaks at the dance studio, and most often, drills, drills, and more drills driving around in the van. It was really hard work...for both of us...but we did it! I don't have any pictures of this particular mission, lol, but the accomplishment of Wyatt memorizing all of his times tables is certainly worthy (too me, at least) of a substantial shout-out in the blog! :0)

In the world of performing arts...

Bea and I had fountain-fun while Wyatt was taking his piano lessons...

 

And there was dancing...

 

 

...and dancing...

 

...and drumming!...

 

When the heat just would NOT let up, Wyatt threw common-sense out of the window, and declared, "It's Fall...I'm wearing a jacket!"...even though it was 100+ degrees outside!

 

I thought he was crazy!...and told him so!

But the following day, when the temperatures were still soaring, and I was itching to decorate the house with our Fall/Halloween decorations, I figured, "Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" So I cranked up our A/C, and put a pot of simmering mulled cider on the stove! The kids helped make peanut butter cookies for our decorating party...

 

There was snacking during our viewing of "It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown"...

 

 

 

And then the decorating commenced...

 

My FAVE decorations that my hunny bought me years ago ((fluttering heart))...

 

And since the pancake molds were discovered in our box of decorations, and because it just happened to be breakfast-for-dinner-night at our house, we decided to cap off our decorating evening with Halloween pancakes :0)...

 

I should have known that wasn't the end of our Halloween-decoration-prep though...Wyatt looooves to decorate his room too...with homemade decorations! We spent another evening crafting and creating together...

 

 

 

And would you know!?!? Fiiiiiiiinally the weather has cooled down!!! What a wonderful relief from the heat! What an exciting change to our year! We are THRILLED to welcome in the Fall Season!!! :0)

Dear Jennifer Hudson (Week 40)

Dear Jennifer Hudson,

I had an exciting week in food, and weight loss!

In food, I ventured to a delicious breakfast joint called "Snooze"! Four of us shared a "flight of pancakes", which included a Boston Cream Pie pancake, a Pineapple Upside-down Pancake (with cinnamon butter, and a sweet cream sauce), and finally a Sweet Potato pancake (with walnuts, maple butter, and a caramel sauce drizzled all over it)...YUM!!! ...

And then, because those pancakes were for sharing, we ordered our own entrees as well...(which I ended up sharing this also)...a gigantic breakfast burrito!!!...

 

Everything was really quite tasty!!!

On a healthier note, my family had the privilege of hosting the rest of our family at our house for our weekly Family Dinner Night!

I lightened up a recipe from "The Barefoot Contessa" (a chef/show on the food network)...and made a reduced fat/calorie version of her "Fresh Herb Dip"...

For the main entree I stuck to my WW cookbooks...I made a Greek Salad...

 

...and "Wine Braised Chicken with Artichokes and Olives..."

 

Everything came out perfectly! :0) And for dessert, I kept to the same path, using my WW cookbooks...I made "Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting"...

Those did not disappoint either! I highly recommend all of these recipes! :0)

So for this week on the scale, I was down 6 pounds. :0)

That is the great news!

The not-so-great-news, is that we are now at the 1st of October, and that marks the end to another quarter of 2012. I wish I had super exciting results to share like I have been able to do at the end of the prior 2 quarters, but I don't. :0/

With all of my ups, and downs...and then, more ups...and then, some downs...I am almost at the same place I was at the start of the 3rd quarter. To be exact though, I am up 5 pounds since the beginning of July. My measurements are very similar to those in July as well. I didn't lose any inches, but some of the measurements were exactly the same, and others were slightly bigger, but by no more than a half inch. So the 3rd quarter was basically a wash.

That is not the best scenario for my end-of-the-year-finish-line.

But the good news???...It's not over yet!...I still have 1 quarter left!!...also known as 3 months...or, 12 weeks...or 84 days...or 2,016 hours...or 120,960 minutes (and trust me, sometimes I feel like I have to accomplish this journey one minute at a time...decision-by-decision...to eat the cake, or not eat the cake).

For WW, they give you a "Healthy Goal Weight Range" that you need to fall in to, in order to meet your goal weight. You select a single number within that range to aim for. I currently have just 16 more pounds to lose to make it to the top of their range. But my personal goal, (and it is within their range for me) is 22 pounds away.

I SO want to still aim for that (personal) goal by the end of the year!!! It will be a serious challenge...but what's new???...consistent weight loss has ALWAYS been a challenge for me.

So I have no (other good) choice but to keep pressing on. :0)

Your biggest fan,
Elizabeth