Finding My Collar Bones

[JeffInJax]

Hey there smay! As the season rolls around to winter a lot of peoples moods do as well. I think you look good in the picture, so keep up your walk on the beach, you'll get to where you want to be im sure of it! I havent had ribs yet while on SB but ive really been craving them lately. Like you said its sort of an indulgence thing from time to time, and a co-workers wife has an extremely tasty dry rub she uses ill be trying to finnegel (spelling is horrible im sure) the recipe out of her. You take care

[JeffInJax]

Not to mention you hit 777 posts, LUCKY NUMBER 7's! Will be a good month for ya

[chefk]

Smay has an excellent pulled pork loin in Carolina BBQ sauce that would fix your rib craving. Guilt free too!

[smay]

Yesterday was a better food day, but there still are lingering cookies. I'm striving for moderation.

Went to the gym last night and did W5D2 of C25K. It is 2 8-minute runs with a 5 minute walk in between, and there is a warm-up and cool-down walk as well. Went really well for how long I have been off program. Next is the solid 20 minute run. I've done it before, so I will do it again. Probably Thursday night. I'm still 3 "days" away from getting back to where I was before P1 and the month and a half of canning and weddings.

Off to chaperone a bunch of 4 year olds at the pumpkin patch this afternoon. The 2 year old is being a little monster today, so I am happily leaving her with daddy.

[smay]

I'm just going to forget last week happened food-wise.

I really need to stick to 2 starches per day, and I had to many days where I was over that. Also, stayed beachy from a whole grain sense, but sugar was on the high side. Having a Tupperware party tonight at the house, and need to make up snacks for that. Going to do veggies, chips and salsa, and whole wheat tortilla roll-ups. Overall, not too bad I think. Made a meal for a friend and her family last night because she got put on bed rest as of Friday. She's 36+ weeks, and trying to hold out till Friday. She wanted us to join them for the meal last night. I made meatloaf, corn, oven roasted potatoes, and chocolate revel bars. There was a salad in there too... Not beachy at all! As I said though... back to basics, and I'm putting last week behind me.

Made another batch of salsa over the weekend as well. Mopped the kitchen floor, worked like a crazy person trying to finish the baby gift and big sister gift for my friend (still more to do though!). Have to finish cleaning the house still too.

Going to make up calico beans this week, butternut squash soup, and I need to get some zucchini to make that minestrone!!! Hoping to get to the grandparent-in-laws this weekend as well, since they are giving us a new-to-us dining room table. I love old family furniture!!! Very excited, since it is going to be much bigger than our current table. I think it's regular size is the same as ours with both leaves in, and this one has multiple leaves as well. Going to move the old table to the 3-season porch.

And chefk, since you are in WI, you may appreciate this. The Mills Fleet Farm Toy catalog came out in the paper this past weekend. The kids have already been in one big fight over who is looking at it, many toys are already circled (the girl made me circle the whole page that had Barbies on it) and Christmas is on the way!

[chefk]

Too funny! We have a Fleet Farm a couple exits up on the highway. We have zucchini on every corner farm stand during this time of year. If you're by a farm stand, pick one up, but don't bother making a special trip to the store, just make it!! Yum.

[dragonflymt]

Hey Susan!!! I am back!!!!

I hope you are doing well. I promise to check in nightly...I totally need to get back on track!

Toys and Christmas...Ugh...don't even want to think about it! I'm trying to make room by unpacking toys and getting rid of them to make room for more.

The weather just finally turned here and I'm not looking forward to the cold and snow.

[smay]

And the diet I will be following this week is the "Oh crap, I think I cracked a tooth on my breakfast this morning, and it will be Friday before I can get to the dentist" diet.

Husband has Friday off and is crazy-busy at work otherwise. I know the girl could not sit through a dentist appointment, and don't have anyone to dump her on with little to no notice, so I didn't schedule an appointment till Friday. Sensitivity to liquids and chewing. Wahoo!!!!

Dragonfly, I would happily throw away 80% of the kids toys! We need to sort and figure out what can be handed down to cousins before the holiday season. Their play room is a disaster.

[dragonflymt]

I'm so sorry about your tooth...that so stinks! Nothing worse than having tooth pain and going to the dentist!

I was going to ask you how the potty training was going? I'm not getting anywhere. Haley turns 3 Nov. 5th and she goes every once in a blue moon. Really need to get her trained...less cost on pull ups!

[JeffInJax]

Hey there Smay,
Sorry to hear about your tooth, that really sucks =/ Slipups happen, i probably ate too much over the weekend too since i decided to "add a few calories" to slow the loss a little bit. Keep strong, you're doing great

[smay]

Made chefk's minestrone last night. Oh my yum! Prep took me a little longer since I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned, and I had to blanch and peel them. It's not a pretty chefk picture, but it's a picture of a chefk recipe! And it's way bigger than I thought it would be, but I'm too lazy to downsize.

Soup's on!

DSC00411.JPG (243.93 KiB) Viewed 649 times

It was excellent, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. The husband asked if I will be making it again, before he was done eating his bowl. Used 12 small to medium-ish size tomatoes in place of the 2 cans. I "x"ed the bottoms and tossed in boiling water for about a minute to release the skins. Peeled them and tossed them in seeds and all. Served over a spoonful of whole wheat spiral pasta and topped with grated Romano. Husband said that it was so hearty that he didn't even think it needed meat in it. That's a big deal for him. Also, means I have another Lent option!

**Disclaimer** Gross things related to children follow.

Potty training... the girl has been so much easier than the boy! We still wear pull-ups at night, since she's wet at least a couple nights a week. We do panties during the day and even when we go out on longer drives now. She seldom has accidents, but I usually have to talk her into taking a break. She was really good in the beginning going by herself, but now she doesn't want to stop what she's doing just to pee. She doesn't have accidents because of it though, she just holds it forever. Some days by the end of the day she has went potty all of 3 times, and that is including after getting up right away in the morning. Bladder of steel I guess. She's not 100% trained, but I do consider her basically trained. I didn't do anything too crazy either. Just started pushing it a little more, once summer vacation started and I wasn't running to preschool for the boy all the time. She picked up on it pretty quick, but I found that as long as she was wearing a pull-up, she figured it wasn't a big deal to pee in it. So moving to underwear during the day was the big game-changer for us. She's pretty good with poop too, but will hold it and only go every other day, and I have to convince her to take the effort to go.

And speaking of children. The boy said his tummy hurt around 7ish last night. Threw up. Got him cleaned up and put him to bed. Half hour later, he throws up in bed. I get laundry going and we set him up on the couch to sleep there, and throws up a few more times. I end up sleeping on the love seat right next to him all night, and every 10-15 minutes from about 9 till 3 am he throws up from sinus drainage. So today I am tired.

The only high note of yesterday is that my tooth feels better. I ran to Target after preschool drop off and picked up some anebesol and put it on my gums and from that point on I was good. No more shooting pain, just a little dull ache here and there. Still keeping the dentist appointment just to make sure, but I'm hoping for no work now.

[chefk]

I completely ignored everything after the disclaimer note. I let me eyes wander and saw things like "poopie" and "pee" and decided I made a good choice, but um...good luck with that!!

Glad you liked the soup! Glad your husband liked it too! We had a version of this at our local Italian place and my husband was like, "you make this, and I'll marry you!" We were already married, but I figured it doesn't hurt to have a bit of extra ace up my sleeve. It just got this really rich deep flavor as it cooked. You're right, you don't miss the meat a bit. Glad you tried it!! (freezes well by the way if the batch is too big)

[smay]

And now 50% of the house is sick. Spent a few hours at urgent care with the boy last night. Food yesterday was terrible, and not nearly enough. Husband came home from work at 10:30 today feeling ill. I guess 4 more kids in preschool are out today as well with the same junk. The only thing I can think of, is that when it hits me, I'll definitely lose some weight...

Not much else to update today.

[chefk]

Oh it's a nasty bug going around. We were lucky and only the oldest daughter got it, but she was down for like 2-3 weeks. Sinus, throat, stomach... everything. It's a good thing you're looking on the bright side!

[Beaching It]

Wow Smay, reading your potty story brought back many memories of those days for my kids (now 6 & just 9)... it does get easier and easier. Your puking story also reminded me of bugs in our house. Yuck!! Hope you avoid it. Hang in there. YOur soup looks yummy!!

Lisa