It Ends Tomorrow...

Well, I'm just about done with the 24-Day Challenge and obviously, I've been very lax in blogging about it. Oops.

Honestly, there isn't a whole lot to report, so I'll give an overview. It's a lot of popping supplement pills (and gagging on them because of the taste which is weird, because I don't usually gag on meds) and being hungry. I did try out the muffins I had discussed previously. They were sweet potato muffins made with coconut flour. No sugar in these things - no sweetener at all aside from the sweet potato. They weren't bad, but they were really bland. Maybe it's because I substituted coconut oil for ground flaxseed, I don't know, but I only ate them a few days as snacks because they weren't that tasty. They needed a sweetener. Or something. The good news is that each one was only about 57 Calories, so three of them usually made up one snack and I felt like I was getting more to eat that way.

I also experimented more with "Larabar" recipes and had some good results. I followed one recipe for apple pie bars. They were pretty good, but not quite what I was hoping for. You could hardly tell there was apple in there. Sure, my cup of dried apple was a bit meager, but still. I also made a new batch of the oatmeal raisin ones I'd made before, this time doubling it, but I didn't have enough moisture for it to ball up like it should have. Instead, it just leached all the oil out of the peanuts and made them really greasy. Now I know, add some water. I also adapted the apple pie recipe to my own variation which used apples (a whole cup this time), raisins, oatmeal, peanuts, and cinnamon. These are by far my favorite and I hope to make more. Next time, I'll probably decrease the peanuts and increase the oatmeal by the same amount to see what happens. These tasty babies added up to 145 Calories, so I'm happy for that. I'm hoping to try some piña colada ones with some pineapple I dehydrated and coconut flakes I have, so we'll see if I ever get around to that.

Ok, so here are my meals for the past way too long. =)

Day 13
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Hard-boiled egg
- Pre-Lunch - Spark Energy Drink
- Lunch - Fruit Smoothie - banana, strawberries, blueberries, kale, gelatin
- Afternoon Snack - Sweet potato muffin (x3)
- Dinner - Tilapia filet, green beans, roasted beet

Day 14
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal Raisin
- Lunch - Market Salad from Chick-fil-a (no blue cheese, homemade Italian dressing)
- Afternoon Snack - Sweet potato muffin (x3)
- Dinner - Smoked Turkey Breast, green beans

Day 15
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Lunch - Smoked turkey breast, strawberries, grapes, honeydew
- Afternoon Snack - (skipped, oops)
- Dinner - Fajitas, pinto beans

Day 16
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Lunch - Egg & bell pepper scramble
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Dinner - Roasted chicken thigh over whole wheat spaghetti with homemade marinara and broccoli

Day 17
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Lunch - Leftover catfish, fresh tomatoes
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Dinner - I made tacos for the fam, but I didn't want to make tortillas I could "legally" have, so I had a taco bowl of brown rice (with corn and peppers), taco meat, and pinto beans

Day 18
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Banana
- Pre-Lunch - Spark Energy Drink
- Lunch - Salad - romaine, carrots, boiled egg, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, homemade Italian dressing
- Afternoon Snack - (skipped, oops)
- Dinner - Pork loin, carrots, kale

Day 19
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal raisin
- Lunch - Leftovers from taco night - rice, taco meat, pinto beans
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal raisin
- Dinner - Roasted chicken thigh with apple & onion sauce, green beans, peas & carrots

Day 20

- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - banana
- Lunch -Salad - romaine, carrots, boiled egg, bell peppers, diced apples, cucumber, homemade Italian dressing
- Afternoon Snack - (skipped, oops)
- Dinner - Salmon, sweet potato butternut squash soup

 I made up some soup to use up veggies that I had from my co-op since I had another veggie pick up the next day and several of the veggies weren't going to last too much longer. This soup was made with homemade veggie stock, sweet potatoes, roasted butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, onions, and garlic. Tasty stuff, and only 141 Calories per 2 cup(ish) serving!

Day 21
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal raisin
- Lunch - Market Salad from Chick-fil-a - this time, they forgot to keep the blue cheese off, so I picked out what I could. I ate this one dry to try to avoid excess calories that I took in from the blue cheese (and I'm realizing that my homemade dressing just packs too many calories.
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Cinnamon (my new favorite)
- Dinner - Salmon, green beans, carrots (leftovers)

Day 22
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal raisin
- Lunch - We braved going out to eat at TGI Fridays. I ordered the Dragonfire Salmon and ate only half of it. I have no idea if there was sugar in the salsa they put on top or the cole slaw they served with it, but the whole dish was 600 Calories, so I'm hoping not.
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Cinnamon
- Dinner - Dragonfire Salmon leftovers, plus extra broccoli that hubs brought home from his lunch

Well, that brings us to today, day 23. I'll summarize today later (if I remember). Over all, I'm not doing too bad. I had some slips on caloric intake, going over my allotment on my FitBit, but overall, I've stayed under my caloric expenditure, so that's good. I also forgot an afternoon snack several days which is surprising considering how hungry I get in the afternoons, but what can I do?

Just another day and a half and no more challenge. The calorie counting and FitBit will continue well after, however. Until next time. =)

Half-way Mark!

Well, it's the end of day 2 in the Max Phase of the AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge. That means that it's officially the halfway mark. It seems weird to say I'm halfway done. From here on out, I have less time in front of me on this challenge than I've completed, and that's pretty cool. It really feels like it's gone by fast. Despite being super hungry a lot of the time and the initial caffeine addiction I had to get over, it hasn't been that bad. Ok, the hunger really sucks. Of course, if I'm being fair, I could be eating more, I'm just trying to keep to my FitBit meal plan and calorie allotment, so that makes the challenge harder.

I started looking around for plan approved baking recipes and I've found some different treats I want to try out. One that I did try was some homemade Larabars. If you aren't familiar with Larabars, they are fruit and nut bars, natural ingredients, no preservatives and all that jazz. I made some oatmeal raisin ones that were quite tasty. Not terribly low in calories, but not so much that they were a deal breaker as a snack. The recipe called for oatmeal, raisins, walnuts (I substituted peanuts), salt, and vanilla. I added a bit of cinnamon because it seemed like a good idea. It's all puréed together until it makes a sticky "dough" which gets formed into bars - if you want, that is, really, you can do any shape you want. The recipe makes 3 "Larabars" at about 180 kcal each. Well, mine were about that. Maybe the peanuts are especially high in calories because the recipe said they are 175. No matter, with no added sugar or fat and no refined grains, it's allowed in the plan, so I'm happy. And they were tasty. That's the best part. Wee man ate one and loved it, so I'll have to keep the recipe even after this program is over.

So, that was the most exciting part of the day. I'm hoping to try some muffins tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

Here's the meal plan for today:

- Spark Energy Drink

- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake

- Morning Snack - Pear

- Lunch - Catfish and carrots (leftovers)

- Afternoon Snack - homemade "Larabar"

- Dinner - Baked chicken thighs, green beans, carrots, kale

Despite my huge helping of veggies, the hunger set in not long after dinner. It's depressing, really. Oh well. Calorie count is still at a deficit and under allotment. I just have to keep that in mind. Bed soon... Tomorrow we go again.

Starting Phase Two

I've skipped a few days of blogging, so I'll summarize those as well as introduce the second phase which I started today.

So, the last three days were more of the same as I've described. Nothing terribly exciting. I'm lacking some serious creativity in the meal planning area, so it's a lot of the same stuff. Of course, given that I've gotten peppers on sale and then got peppers in my co-op basket, I've been eating a ton of peppers. You'd think I'd be tired of them by now. That and salads, but no. I'm not. Ok, maybe a little tired of the same things over and over, but I eat what's around and try not to be picky. After all, the lack of creative meals is my fault. In any case, the past several days looked a bit like this:

Day 8
- Spark Energy Drink
- Fiber Drink
- Breakfast - Smoothie (banana, strawberry, pear, chia seeds, gelatin)
- Morning Snack - green pepper strips
- Lunch - baked eggplant with fresh tomato sauce (sauce made with tomatoes, mushroom, onion garlic, peppers)
- Afternoon Snack - hard-cooked egg
- Dinner - bell pepper and egg scramble

Day 9
- Spark Energy Drink
- Fiber Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Banana
- Lunch - Salad (lettuce, green and red peppers, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, boiled egg, homemade Italian dressing)
- Afternoon Snack - Banana
- Dinner - Baked rosemary catfish, carrots, broccoli

Day 10
- Spark Energy Drink
- Fiber Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake, Banana
- Morning Snack - Banana
- Lunch - hard boiled egg, green and red pepper strips, tomatoes
- Afternoon Snack - Spark Energy Drink, blueberries
- Dinner - (ordered in) Sirloin Steak (this probably was a bad choice), baked sweet potato, house salad

So today, I started what I called "pill pushing." The second phase of this challenge is the "Max Phase" where I guess your body is supposed to be recharged to work better or something. This phase includes a ton of supplement pills. You take pills before breakfast, before lunch, at lunch, as well as the ones you were already taking at dinner time. It's crazy. Of course, part of it is also because I'm taking some optional supplements that were left over from when Hubs was doing it. There aren't enough of them to take them the whole time, but I'll take them until they are gone. They are after all, optional. In any case, other than the crazy quantities of supplements, my meals are roughly the same. Oh yeah, except, the guide pretty much says that the Meal Replacement Shake is breakfast every morning for the next two weeks, so there is that.

Ok, today's meals:

- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Banana
- Lunch - Sweet Potato Veggie Soup (that I made on Saturday), hard boiled egg
- Afternoon Snack - Popcorn
- Dinner - Salad (lettuce, yellow and orange peppers, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, egg, homemade Italian dressing)

Alrighty. That's enough for today. I'll try to do a better job of chronicling this whole thing, but I may have to do the multiple-day summary again. Who knows. =)

One week down!

AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge Day 7: Complete.

I must have been really tired last night because even though posting to my blog was on my mind, I fell asleep anyway. Oh well.

Yesterday was a much better welcome than previous days. I didn't start and end the day with a headache, so I think I'm finally over the hump on my decreased caffeine intake. Yay!

It was a bit of an annoying day. I had my veggie pick up yesterday from Bountiful Baskets. I really like participating in a co-op because you don't get a choice of what you get and assuming you maintain the same guilt I do of letting "good money go to waste," you feel the need to use what you get and that includes things you are unfamiliar with, things you've never worked with, things you've never tried before, etc. It really expands the variety of fruits and veggies you eat, so it's really cool in that respect. I even ordered a bit extra this time because of my increased veggie consumption as a result of this challenge. I ordered my usual basket and in addition, I ordered a few additional packs. One was a juicing pack which had all kinds of cool things that I have no intention of actually juicing like cucumber, carrots, pineapple, and parsley (among others - I was surprised how nice of a size this pack was). I also got the Italian pack which I'll admit was a bit disappointing. Still worth the money paid, definitely, but it had a lot of herbs and I was hoping for more veggies - it still contained an eggplant which I was really excited about, as well as yellow squash and mushrooms which I could do without. I'll figure something out for the items I don't car for. I usually do. At the very least, it can go in a veggie stock for a nutrient packed base for any number of meals. What annoyed me though, other than the Italian pack being smaller than I hoped, was that the truck for the veggie pick up was late. I got an update in the morning while getting ready to go by text which is a nice change from having to look it up on Facebook. The truck was late. A little while later, another update that the truck would be even later. So basically, we waited around. Had I known it was going to be that time, I could have attended a birthday party we were invited to which was early in the morning. We could have gone to get the veggies afterward. But no, we waited. When the time came to go get them, the truck had just arrived and so we had to wait longer. We hadn't gotten an update that it would be even later than the last up date told us. I really dislike waiting around there because the boys are a bit wild and don't wait well in a line. Oh well. It certainly could have been worse.

Unintentionally, I did a total liquid meal day. The only solid items I had were my snacks. Weird. I wanted to see how a smoothie fit into the meal plan. It definitely means that I ate a ton of fruits - more than the daily recommendations from myplate.gov (the site is listed as a reference for meal planning for the 24 Day Challenge if I haven't mentioned that before). It turned out ok though. My calorie count was under my allowance for my FitBit meal plan, so yay! Also because of my meal choices, I was also low on protein. I had been going over on the protein recommendation on myplate.gov, so it's not a huge deal, but I certainly don't want to do the liquid thing to often. I should spread it out. Despite having mostly liquids during the day, I wasn't really that hungry. Probably because I stretched out meals. The morning Spark, Fiber Drink, and smoothie were spread out more than usual and I tried to drink my liquid meals really slowly so it took more time. It mostly worked except for at night. I got hungry after dinner pretty quickly.

The smoothie was not one of my best. It also really tested my Ninja, though I'm not sure why. I think I didn't have enough of a liquid content in it. That, and the avocado I added really thickened it. I've added avocado before, but I think the amount of avocado was a bit too much in comparison with the other items in the smoothie. I had a banana, half an avocado, a few small chard leaves and a small broccoli leaf, frozen strawberries, fresh blueberries, chia seeds, and some gelatin. It got too warm because I was trying to get it really blended up and the friction of the blending so much turned it warm. It was really thick. The flavors of the berries just did not come through. I certainly won't use that recipe again.

My dinner was veggie soup. I actually meant to make sweet potato soup. Because I had eaten some baked sweet potato the other night, I needed to use up the rest of the potato. I have no clue how long they last once they've been cut up an there is some left over, so I wanted to use it up. It turns out that my sweet potato to veggie ratio in the soup was lower than it should have been so, it was more of a veggie soup. No biggie though. It was still pretty tasty, just not what I planned. The soup contained  veggie stock, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and yellow squash. It was only lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, but the pepper really came through and gave it a nice kick.

Anyhoo, here are my meals for yesterday:

- Spark
- Fiber Drink
- Breakfast - smoothie (banana, avocado, chard, broccoli leaf, strawberries, blueberries, chia seed, gelatin)
- Morning Snack - hummus (eaten straight off the spoon)
- Lunch - Meal Replacement Shake
- Afternoon Snack - banana
- Dinner - Veggie soup (veggie stock, sweet potato, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, yellow squash)

And I'll send you off with a lovely pic of that beautifully orange soup (divided into jars for easy serving - one jar per serving):

25% Done!

Ok, so, end of day 6 on the 24 Day challenge means I'm a quarter of the way through.

Today was pretty good. It flew by. I was working on some projects for the kiddos (educational games, activities, worksheets, etc) and trying to get laundry and dishes done. I feel like I blinked and the day was over. No nap out of either kid which meant emotional meltdowns out of both of them this afternoon.

I am doing better with what I've decided is caffeine withdrawal. I had a headache this morning, but it hasn't returned this evening - don't worry, I'm sure it'll show up before I post this write-up tonight. Still dealing with hunger issues. Calorie count today was within my budget even with my giant dinner. Honestly, I was hoping to eat a lot and fill myself up. No dice. I was hungry several hours later.

Alrighty, today's meals:

- Spark

- Fiber Drink

- Breakfast - oatmeal with blueberries

- Morning Snack - hard cooked egg

- Lunch - Meal Replacement Shake

- Afternoon Snack - popcorn

- Dinnner - egg scramble with broccoli leaves and red and green peppers, baked sweet potato chunks

Ok, well that's today. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

More Milestones?

24 Day Challenge day 5 complete. I'm at the halfway point for the cleanse phase.

Today seemed hectic. I ran errands and worked on worksheets for the boys. Meals got delayed, my afternoon snack forgotten. Oops. Oh well. Still had hunger issues today but got too distracted to eat. Could have been the cause. Oh well. At least I didn't deal with headache issues for most of the day until the evening. I overshot my calories again, but I'm still under what I burned. Not by much though.

Ok, today's meal plan:

- Spark

- Fiber Drink

- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake with banana mixed in

- Morning Snack - hummus on whole wheat tortilla

- Lunch - Salad with romaine, carrots, red bell peppers, tomatoes, hard-cooked egg, and homemade Italian dressing

- Afternoon snack - forgotten

- Dinner - Mexi dips, chicken on while wheat tortilla

Here's a pic of dinner: 

I did a chips and dips tray for a movie night with the boys. I added some chicken, but the dips are salsa, guacamole, beans, and cheese dip. Of course due to the challenge, I didn't eat the cheese dip (Velveeta dip, the rest were homemade from real foods). In place of the chips, I did a taco with the last whole wheat tortilla I had and then I used some of the chicken strips for dipping.

Good night! The adventure continues tomorrow.

End of Day 4 in 24

I feel like I've reached a mini goal. Mostly it's in my head. Or entirely. 1/6 of the way done. Starting a new phase. Kinda. Still the cleanse phase, but with probiotics. Which I forgot to take. Doh.

So bad headache again waking up. Went away after a bit. Only other issue is hunger. And another headache. This afternoon I started to get that dull pain, this time all over my head and my head started feeling cloudy. I drank an extra Spark and it helped temporarily. I think. But the hunger. After lunch, after afternoon snack (of course, dinner was really late), and after dinner. Once again, going to bed hungry. Joy of joys. Also, once again, I'm under calories burned, but over on my daily allotment for intake. No bueno.

Ok, today's meals:

- Spark first thing

- Fiber drink

- Breakfast - egg, red pepper, broccoli greens scramble and strawberries

- Snack - popcorn

- Lunch - salad with romaine, tomatoes, carrots, red pepper, hard cooked egg, and homemade Italian dressing 

- Snack - banana

- Dinner - steak, green beans, sautéed spinach 

Day 3

Still surviving. I was a total zombie again waking up this morning. Headache again, too. Not sure if it's related to the plan or just poor sleep I've been getting.

I need to figure out a way to ration my meals and figure out what lasts longer. I just have issues with being hungry. Of course, today, it was in part because we went to run errands today and it took about two hours for the boys to pick out toys for their gift cards. I made the mistake of leaving without eating my morning snack. We got back at a time I'd consider late for lunch. At least the delay  of meals meant that I was good until dinner. Of course, evening again, hungry. Ugh. Not liking this. On the upside, for a third day in a row, I've kept under my calorie allowance on my FitBit "meal plan."

Headache coming back. Meal planning then bed, I suppose. Oh, and here are my meals for today.

- Spark first thing

- Fiber Drink

- Breakfast - egg and chard breakfast taco with whole wheat tortilla and strawberries

- Morning Snack - banana

- Lunch - Meal Replacement Shake

- Afternoon Snack - hummus on whole wheat tortilla

- Dinner - chicken soup

Number 2, Day, That Is...

Giant headache when I woke up this morning. Of course, I had gotten one just before bed. Killer headache, the kind that makes you want to stay in bed. If I didn't have to get the kid to school, I would have.

So, Spark drink first thing. I hoped the caffeine in it would help with my headache. There has got to be some special method to mixing this stuff up. I can't get it all to dissolve and I'm left with nasty chunks. That means that I either end up chewing on them or adding water. I ended up doing both. My headache did finally go away. Who knows if it was related.

Since I was in a rush this morning, I prepped the Fiber Drink and breakfast shake one right after the other. I was shocked at the difference in the peaches and cream fiber drink compared to the citrus. WAY better. No more rat food in a cup. It's much more like the Spark, but a bit thicker. I can handle that for the next 8 days. I threw in some frozen strawberries to mix with the breakfast shake. Hubs picked up a Ninja system last night so I got to play with my new toy - single serve blending, insanely quick, no pouring, heck yeah! I'm loving this new gadget!

I did some shopping today to pick up some veggies. Our house was sparse of fresh fruits and veg since our Christmas trip. The co-op I participate in was also out for the holidays until this week, so I'll get a whole bunch more on Saturday. I went a bit overboard ordering extra items, but considering I'm really boosting my fruit and veg intake, I figure it's worth it. Plus, as I said, we were out in that department, so I also consider it restocking.

Some bad news though. I realized that I ordered the wrong thing for the challenge. Rather than getting the Herbal Cleanse, I accidentally ordered the Fiber Drink by itself. That means I don't have the extra pills to take at night. I'll finish up the probiotics that I have from when hubs was doing it (when those start in a few days) and then I'll use some probiotics I have at the house. Coach said it'd be ok and that way, I wouldn't have to return and reorder and throw off the schedule. She said the Fiber Drink would still help and that sometimes people will do use just that. Crisis averted.

I was pretty hungry come snack time. The banana did not hold me over at all and I couldn't wait for lunch. Lunch didn't keep me full that long either. I had a nice salad which was awesome on the calorie count until I added the dressing. Even homemade Italian dressing is not free from calories. But at least it's tasty and since the veggies were minimal in the Cal department, I could afford the salad dressing. But yeah, before too long, I was super hungry again. I tried to distract myself and managed to make it a few hours. I pulled out the hummus I made last night (using the Ninja) and slathered that on some lettuce and munched away while the kiddos had some on crackers. Not a bad first try on the hummus, but I didn't get the chickpeas fully cooked. I have that issue with beans. I really need to soak them, but being able to cook them from dry in the pressure cooker is just so convenient.

Not surprisingly, my snack didn't hold me over for very long. I was excited about dinner, though. I had grabbed some peppers at the store and planned to do fajitas. I decided I'd attempt to make tortillas with whole wheat flour instead of all purpose since whole wheat is actually allowed on this challenge. I was surprised at how well they turned out. I typically hate the taste of whole wheat foods, as I mentioned in my post a few days ago, but I must have been bitten by some radioactive spider that made me attempt this. I was pleasantly surprised.

The bad news is that despite the filling dinner with surprisingly decent whole wheat tortillas, I'm hungry again. Today has been a day full of lots of hunger. It's bothersome. I'm going to see if doing a big breakfast again will help tomorrow. I also got in the new set of shakes I ordered so I can try out Chocolate Mocha. Sounds tasty. We'll see. That will be my lunch. I'm going to need to figure out more filling snacks because it's not fun being hungry and making yourself wait until the next meal. Again, though, I kept to my calorie allowance according to my fit bit plan. This time, I was just over by several calories in regards to my allowance, but I'm pretty sure I'm still under expenditure, so that's especially important. I also have some more time to burn a few extra calories and adjust my allowance so I'm no longer in the red on that. Anyhoo... another day survived. I'm going to see if I can figure out a meal plan for tomorrow, then it's off to bed. But not without first knowing the outcome of the BCS National Championship, that is.

D-day

So, here it is. The start of my 24-Day Challenge. I actually spent quite a bit of time texting my "coach" last night working out some of the details. I finally figured out what all I was going to do and I even worked out a meal plan for the entire day.

So this morning starts out and first thing, I get an energy drink. This is a good thing because of my "need" for coffee. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and I actually didn't feel like I was dragging early on. It did lack that soothing warm sensation though which is especially nice now that the weather is turning icy.

Next up comes a fiber drink. I'd be ok if I never had to consume it again. But I do. For another 9 days. It's not that it tastes bad, but it makes me think I'm drinking rat kibble crushed up, mixed with water and just enough gelatin to make sure it oozes down. Yeah. Taste, not so bad. Texture, no thank you. Then you have to chase it with a glass of water. Sounds like a good plan to rinse out, but after that, you feel full so you don't even want to think about breakfast. Until you do.

I was actually excited about breakfast. Scrambled egg with Swiss chard mixed in, grapes, and oatmeal. Of course, the oatmeal was far from ideal - no milk and no sugar. Oh well, it was filling. I almost wasn't hungry at snack time. My snack was a hard boiled egg. 

I kinda put off lunch, partly because I wasn't hungry and partly because I was afraid I'd be hungry later in the day. For lunch I drank a meal replacement shake. The taste wasn't bad, but I need to mix it up better next time.

Noah and I went to a movie and I watched him munch half-heartedly on the popcorn he begged me to buy while I drooled at it. Not really, but it would have been nice to enjoy. I was starving when I got home and was so ready for my snack - more grapes.

The grapes didn't hold me over for too long. Dinner couldn't come soon enough. I made salmon and I really piled on the veggies with oversized portions (for me). Dinner was tasty and I finally felt full again. Temporarily. I'm hungry now. 

I'll probably go to bed before too long, it's after 10:30 and sleeping will hopefully make me forget the hunger. One thing that's exciting is that for once, I was actually under my calorie allowance on my FitBit which hasn't happened since I set up a "meal plan" (basically just a weight loss goal/calorie intake calculation). Now I need to decide what to do for my meals tomorrow. Good times. We'll see how another day goes. So far, things aren't looking too bad.

Coffee and Zebra Cakes

So, it's been forever since I actually posted to my blog. It's in part due to being busy, but also, despite the busyness, I don't consider a whirlwind of playdates and grocery shopping to be terribly enthralling. Considering my lack of ability to ingrain humor into my writing, you my readers (yep, I actually have a whole two followers!) are being spared the details of my day-to-day life.

But, alas, I now feel like I have something to write about. And it very much has something to do with that seemingly random title. Visualize the wonder that is coffee and zebra cakes:

Yes, that is actually coffee. I know to many the color seems off, but when you have my sweet tooth, the bite of coffee is a bit too much so in order to get that glorious caffeine surge and the whole body warming effect on a cold morning, I add a bit of coffee to my sugar and cream (and that's real heavy cream, not some diluted half & half or artificial creamer junk). Yum! In my mind, this is the color coffee is supposed to be.

So, why the obsession with coffee and zebra cakes (which make a really good combo by the way, move over coffee cake, you are no longer needed)? Well, I've had this for breakfast the past two days. Great start to the day, if you ask me.

I suppose that then begs to question, why did I have this for breakfast? Well, I'm about to embark on a journey for the next month (or so). I am joining the ranks of the many new year resolutioners. For those of you that know me well (which one of the two? Both? Can I be that lucky?), this is SO not my thing. I'll explain:

The program I'm doing is the Advocare 24 Day Challenge. If you are unfamiliar with the company, they are an MLM (multi-level marketing) type of company that makes health and wellness products like you'd find at your local GNC - you know, protein shakes, supplements, etc. The 24 Day Challenge is intended as a kick-start to better eating habits. It uses a set of their products in a 2 part program (cleanse & max phases) to help flush out your system and recharge it to work better. At least, that's the idea. During the challenge, you eat a restricted diet of lean meats, fruits, veggies, complex carbs, and low-fat dairy. Nothing processed, refined, or artificial is allowed or it needs to be restricted. Basically, it's your conventional weight-loss health plan. With supplements.

Ok, well, it doesn't sound so bad, why is this not my type of thing? Well, the problem is that I'm scientifically and especially nutritionally minded. Here are some things I tend to avoid in my normal, day to day life:

• Chemically produced artificial supplements - I'm all about getting vitamins and minerals in the most natural form possible. Most supplements don't fall in that category. Artificially made (aka, synthetic) vitamin and mineral supplements just don't get used by the body as readily, which is why many of them can have astronomical levels of them and you don't end up overdosing. Part of this program includes consuming quite a bit of supplements.
• Artificial sweeteners - I prefer the real deal, hooray for sugar! Sometimes honey or pure maple syrup. If I want something healthier, I opt for coconut sugar or even stevia extract. Either way, my sweeteners are the real deal, some refined, but real nonetheless. Many of the products I'll be consuming are sweetened with the equivalent to Splenda. Don't worry, the irony of the real food diet and synthetically packed supplements and artificial sweeteners isn't lost on me.
• Vegetable oil - I prefer real fats, like butter. Butter is my friend. As a healthier alternative, I also use coconut oil and olive oil (nut oil and fruit oil, not vegetable). This program will allow me to use coconut oil and olive oil (as well as pretty much any other veggie oil available - gross) but I have to say, "so long" to butter
• Low fat foods - Fat means flavor. When foods are low fat, they tend to fix the flavor issue with added salt. That means you can take in too much sodium and mess up your electrolyte balance, retain water, etc. I'm not all about a high fat diet, but in moderation, I'm a fan. Fat doesn't just get added to your thighs. Your body does have to break it down first. The problem then, is not the fat, but the excess glucose in your system once it's broken down. Your body will convert it back to fat if you don't use the glucose (aka energy) and fat gives you a lot of glucose. During the program, meats need to be lean and dairy needs to be low fat.
• Cleanses/detoxes - I am so against these on so many levels. I truly, in the furthest depths of my soul really dislike these (by using dislike, I'm being nice). I'm completely, utterly, and vehemently against them. Why? They don't work, at least, not in the way that proponents of them would have you believe. Our bodies adapt, it's what they were made to do. Anytime you cut things out of your diet, your body goes through withdrawal because it had been depending on it (for whatever reason). It then has to readjust to utilize what it is getting (either in place of what was lost or what's left in your diet). This will happen regardless. You don't need fancy diets or supplements, it's not proof that you were addicted to something, the body just has to adjust. Any perceived improvement is psychosomatic or a result of you feeling better after the withdrawal symptoms resolve. Certainly cleaning up your diet isn't a bad thing and can make you feel better in the long run, but there is no reason to shock your body into it. I can and will happen over time and without the nasty withdrawal symptoms if you make gradual changes. But yes, the first 10 days of the program, I will be going through the "cleanse phase" - joy. <-- dripping="" here.="" insert="" li="" sarcasm="">
• Whole grains - Now this seems weird, I know. Everyone knows that whole grains are better. And to be honest, I'm not really against all whole grains, mostly just whole grain wheat and whole grain rice. Give me the white, processed, stripped product any day. I'm not a fan of whole wheat bread - even worse, whole grain, multi-grain bread - gross. To me, this is all about a palatability issue. They are gritty and dry and don't have a great flavor (the same reason I'm not a fan of seeds and nuts). That being said, I do actually keep whole wheat flour in my kitchen and have used it in combination with regular white flour for breads and muffins. It just dries things out so much, you have to be really careful so that foods are still edible. I'd rather avoid breads and things made with all whole wheat than switch to eating them. I'm cool with whole grain oatmeal though. And corn is ok. I'll willingly eat popcorn. =) So, yeah, because I can't have refined grains, I'm going to have to alter my diet a bit. Fortunately, breads and pastas aren't a huge portion of my diet anyway, so it's a minor adjustment in that area.

I suppose the next thing left to answer then is why on earth I'm doing this when it goes against so much of what I know about nutrition? Well, there are several reasons:

• We had most of the program products in our pantry. A while back, hubs wanted to do the program. He ended up getting sick about a week in, completely unrelated to the program, so he stopped. He never really picked it up again. I have a solidly ingrained need to not let things go to waste, so this gives me an opportunity to not let that money go to waste.
• A friend was starting the program with some other friends. I consider it a way to get some moral support and someone to keep you honest, so to speak. I don't know that I'd be able to keep up with the whole program if I didn't have someone to keep me going.
• I wouldn't mind losing a few pounds and cleaning up my diet. Lately I've been a bit too lax with the treats and given my recent addiction to coffee in addition to that (and you see how I like my coffee), I've added on a few pounds. I kinda need a kick in the pants to straighten up my act and eat better.
• It helps support my friend's business. The friend that is doing the program sells the products so it helps her with her business, and I'm all about supporting home based businesses where I can. After all, I have my own home business(es) and I'd like my friends to help support me as well.

So there it is. I'm keeping in the back of my head that it's only a month. I can do this for a month. I fully believe in my body's ability to adapt, so even though many of the diet components and conditions aren't what I'd consider ideal, I'll rely on my adaptability and keep on moving. I'm also glad that the program is broken up a bit so you kinda have mini-goals. It's like a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. And hey, if I loose a bit of weight due to the reduction in caloric intake, I certainly won't be complaining.

My idea then, is to chronicle this little "adventure" here on my blog. We'll see how successful I am with that considering I've gone, what, almost a year without writing a post? Yeah... I might be setting my sites on journaling this process a bit high, but we'll see...

And so it begins...

Ah, Lent... Yep, it's that time again. Pretty much everyone you run into is familiar with the idea of giving something up. If you are Catholic, it's almost an expectation from those around you. There are many people that aren't Catholic, other Christian sects, that will also give something up for Lent as well, but mainly, it seems associated with Catholics as accurate or inaccurate as that may be.

This time honored tradition is intended to be a form of self-sacrifice as we make preparations for Easter. We remember the suffering of Christ for our sins just prior to His resurrection and although our own "giving something up" would never match the sacrifice of our Savior, it helps to ground us and bring us back to the gravity of our sins. At least, it's supposed to.

When I was young, I noticed that giving something up for Lent became a very much a contest of who could be more sacrificing. A person who loved soft drinks suddenly took every opportunity to declare, "Oh, no, I can't have that, I gave it up for Lent." It almost becomes a competition prior to the start of Lent, "So, what are you giving up for Lent?" A challenge that, to me, comes off as, "How holy are you? Are you a good Christian/Catholic? Can I come up with a better sacrifice than you?" Lenten sacrifices take on a whole new face when during the six week time period things that are given up become new topics of conversation. "I'm sorry I'm so tired lately, I gave up caffeine for Lent and it's really wearing on me." Today's social media avenues are a great medium for expressing one's plight, "Day three of no chocolate. I would love a Snickers right about now." I can't help it, but all I see is, "Look at me, look at me, aren't I holy?" with a side of "Feel sorry for me and these religious practices I've adopted."

Another phenomenon that happens, though surely less frequently, I'd hope, is the sacrifice that really isn't a sacrifice. "Oh, I'm giving up skydiving" for someone who never goes skydiving, or "I'm giving up McDonald's" for a person who never goes. More often, this type of sacrifice is probably more likely seen from one who only has minimal interactions with the "negative" item, a person who eats ice cream once or twice a week to give up ice cream really isn't a sacrifice, or someone who gives up exercise when they really want an excuse to get out of doing it.

Possibly the most common habit is that of giving up something that the person perceives as bad. People choose unhealthy dietary habits that they feel have become excessive, intake of chocolate or soft drinks. Some decide to avoid certain spending habits they feel have gotten out of hand and decide to give up Starbucks visits or regular trips to the video store. More recently, perceived social media addictions are coming under assault with a large number of people bidding farewell to Facebook and Twitter for the next 40 days. While these things may fall under that category of sacrifice, I'm not sure that it achieves the purpose. In the case of some, it's an excuse to jump start self-improvement, but does that really do anything to bring glory to God? It may benefit your health, your pocketbook, your relationship with friends and family, but what about your relationship with God?

And all of this for what? Does giving up chocolate really bring you closer to God and closer to being the type of person you want to be for Him?

In more recent years, we've heard at church (at Catholic churches anyway) a recommendation to alter the perception of Lenten sacrifice. Rather than being encouraged to give something up, we are encouraged to take on something that brings us closer to God. Suggestions include attending daily mass or getting more involved in charity work. Sometimes it is difficult to work such things into our schedule. It is a sacrifice, after all.

No matter what we choose for our Lenten sacrifice, should we choose to participate, I think it's important to keep in mind Matthew 6:16-18. Just sayin'.

Welcome 2013... two weeks later

The last time we spoke, it was September. I could make excuses about not updating my blog, but the truth is, I was lazy and it wasn't a priority. How's that for honesty?

The holidays hit as they typically do, with me not planning nearly enough. What else is new?

Halloween approached and I only fleetingly considered taking the kids out, but had no real desire, so I didn't bother considering costumes. Ok, I really wanted to dress at least one of my kids as a pirate, but didn't really want to do the work, so I let it be a fleeting thought. Halloween morning, I was convinced (or was that guilted?) to take the kids out by one of my neighbors and spent the afternoon sewing a pirate costume for Noah and scrambling with items August already had to make him a train engineer for their first time trick-or-treating. It ended up being a great evening and the boys had a blast once they got a hang of the concept.

Our Thanksgiving plans seemed to change by the day. The in-laws were coming, then not, then they were, then not. We invited my brother and his family and they joined us. Preparations were in the works for one, then two Thanksgiving dinners. I bought two turkeys only to discover we had one in the freezer. Then we only ended up with one Thanksgiving dinner and my in-laws were unable to join us. Regardless, it was a wonderful meal. I was successful in my first attempt at cranberry sauce made with real fresh cranberries and my first time ever making pie - a fantastic pumpkin pie made from scratch all the way down to the homemade pumpkin purée. Yes, I'm bragging.

Christmas came upon me before I knew it. It didn't help that I somehow missed the memo that my in-laws wanted to celebrate two weeks early when they came for a visit. How I missed that, I don't know, but I went with the flow and had their gift shipped to them since I ordered it while they were here visiting.

I thought Christmas day would be a nice calm day with just us. We had gone to visit my family last year and since Taran's parents had just been here to visit, we decided to stay put. The morning was great with cinnamon rolls for breakfast (this time I cheated with cinnamon rolls from a can) and Taran and the boys opening presents. It was lovely and picturesque until the power went out. Come to find out, there had been tornadoes in the area and the high winds knocked some trees down on power lines. So, there I was, Christmas night cooking by candle light and flashlight. That was an adventure. At the same time it was kind of nice having the "mood lighting" and I was slightly looking forward to another candlelit evening the next day. Taran went in search of a generator since our fridge and freezer were losing their cool (ok, that was a bad pun) and came home early from work the next day to get the van and run to pick it up along with other supplies. I had been out that morning obtaining candles, flashlights, and other supplies to help us get through the next several days as the electric company predicted our power would be out for the rest of the week. We got the generator up and running. We had minimum power for the most essential things including the fridge, the deep freeze, and some to outlets for charging our phones. I was ready to hunker down and relax in the less hectic lifestyle of electronic "needs." A few hours later, the power returned. In the end I think it was only about 30 hours that we were without power. Despite not really needing all the supplies we gathered, it's nice to know we now have them in case we should need them again. Not having a generator was one thing that worried me living in Houston with the occurrence of hurricanes here.

A week later, my brother and his family came to visit again. They came bearing gifts from my family in the Dallas area where they had gone for Christmas. We celebrated Christmas for a third time with  presents all around and had a nice visit with them.

After the whirlwind, I finally have had the opportunity to realize it's January. A new year. I have projects to work on and books to read and more things I want to get done than I have time for. I'm not sure what this new year will bring, but I'm looking forward to getting things done. =)

Sleep deprivation

Lack of sleep is not my friend. Not just my lack of sleep either.

Stripped bed, drawers cleared of all contents

Noah has decided lately that he doesn't need naps. I whole-heartedly disagree. His behavior indicates that he needs them, yet he refuses and decides it's a better idea to destroy his room by stripping the bed, emptying the dresser, and getting into anything and everything he can. Several weeks ago, his antics resulted in knocking down the dresser and busting a hole in the humidifier tank. Good times.

A moment of rest. After destruction,
of course.

So, I attempt to have him nap, he continues to refuse. August most days thinks that half an hour's snooze in the car is sufficient for his own napping needs. This leaves him wonderfully refreshed to play the entire time Noah is avoiding naps in his room. With the two of them and their lack of sleep, they don't always have the best attitudes when the joke of nap time that I'm continuing to delude myself exists is over. I'm getting exhausted.

Turns out I need naps that I'm not getting too. Last night's insomnia doesn't help much either. Noah's internal alarm clock does not make exceptions for sleep I miss at night, no matter the reason, which for me, has been all to often recently. =/

Coffee, anyone?

Back to the daily grind...

I had hoped that a weekend away would help to reboot my toddler whose behavior seemed to be escalating to new heights of physical outbursts, but I was sorely mistaken. While he had a great time with his grandma and was relatively well behaved while there, returning home meant returning to his previous state. Oh well, the adventures in parenting...

At least we had a good trip. The traveling portion was filled with fewer cries and fussings than I anticipated, likely due to leaving at an ungodly hour so as to take advantage of sleep opportunities. We arrived at our destination only a few hours after the boys normally awaken in the morning and we only stopped twice to switch drivers and acquire sustenance.

We did the normal visits with the relatives and had a few extra activities like stopping at the natural food store which was also home to a small yarn shop. I have never seen such a huge collection of natural fiber yarn. I picked up some wool with plans of making some longies (pants that also act as a diaper cover) for wee man. I'm excited about the project. We also visited with a friend of hubs' and Noah had the opportunity to pet some goats and meet his first horse, so that was cool. With the exception of getting mauled by mosquitoes while we were there and August running a fever part of the time, it was a good trip.


So now it's back to the daily grind, keeping the kids from torturing each other and attempting to keep them free from horrible injury. Ah, life with toddlers...

Worst Blogger Ever...

I'm not sure if the problem is too many blogs, too much going on, or just plain laziness. Perhaps a bit of all three. It's seriously been almost two months since my last post and I can guarantee that this one will be neither riveting nor lengthy. You'd think that in that time period, I'd have all kinds of things to report and therefore I'd have at least a short novel, but no.

The summer so far has been low key. Not much change from our normal routine. So, what then, have I been doing? Well, here's the abbreviated version:

Female watermelon bud.

I've been keeping up with my container gardening. I've harvested about 8 or 10 cucumbers, 7 or 8 tomatoes, several beans (black-eyed peas, lima beans, and pintos), and some of my basil, oregano, and sage. I also have some peppers growing, I've sampled a few jalapenos and I'm just starting to see some bells show up. I have a watermelon plant that just got it's first female flower bud and a sweet potato plant that is doing who knows what under the dirt.

The boys have been doing their thing, making messes, getting into trouble. August has been working on teeth lately. I recently got him a teething necklace and no, that doesn't mean a necklace he chews on. It's an amber necklace that is supposed to help with pain due to natural acids that are in the amber beads. It's a super cool concept though I don't know that I can say I can tell a difference in his disposition as a result. At least it's one more thing I can do to try to avoid drugging him. Noah is still being Noah. Wild man. He is constantly surprising me with new phrases that come right out of my mouth. It's wildly amusing.

One of the gifts I made recently

I've been keeping crazy busy with diaper cakes. The orders are coming in regularly, along with some I've done as gifts. I also recently had a mama blogger review a pair of my shoes which was super exciting. I opted to do a giveaway too, so I'll have another pair of shoes to make up soon.

Aside from that I'm keeping up with my regular mommy meet-ups, mall trips, play dates, and meetings. Same ol', same ol'.

Hey look, I managed to type up quite a bit. I guess life isn't as hum-drum as it seems sometimes. =)

My little one is a year old today...

I can not believe it's been a year since my precious wee baby joined our family breathing on his own. 8 lbs 5oz of cuteness was born a year ago today at 6:31 PM. He was precious and started life as a champion nurser, knowing exactly what to do. He has turned into an adorable curious toddler who loves to explore and play with dirt. Of course he still loves his mama and checks back in for frequent nursing sessions, but he is incredibly independent.

This weekend we celebrated his birthday with a party. We had family and friends celebrating with us at a train themed party. It was a lot of work, but I think it was totally worth it. He won't remember, but he'll have plenty of pictures.

I had a lot of help to prep with my in-laws, some college friends, and my friend Laura. The food was the normal party fare - veggie tray, fruit tray, ham & cheese tray, deviled eggs, etc. I also made a cake, cupcakes, ice cream and cookies which was a bit overboard for dessert, but I wanted to make sure there was enough cake for everyone and I had ordered the train cookie cutters and wanted to make sure they got used. 

Decorations were a bit minimal, but hopefully, they were effective. I had railroad crossing signs in the front yard which my friends helped make and I drew a train track on the front walk in chalk. We had railroad signs sticky-tacked to the walls. The mantle was displayed with a banner of pictures of August throughout his first year as well as a slightly larger picture of him from a few days ago. I also set up a toy train and some play train engineer gear that we'd received as party favors. Thanks to the boy's great-grandma, we have several train blankets that were draped on the back of the living room couches and chair.

I didn't plan for much in the way of activities. I hoped that people would entertain themselves/each other. After sharing my musings about having a smaller house, a friend recommended using backyard space for small activities like chalk and bubbles and this sounded like a good idea. I picked up some no-spill bubble containers which were fantastic, and I offered a box of chalk. I also made a train out of large boxes. The engine had a door the kiddos could climb into and one of the cars with holes cut in the side was complemented with homemade hacky-sacs to create a bean bag toss game. For his birthday, August got a slide climbing toy from his grandparents so that was also set up in the yard. Noah's toddler slide was also set up. The final kicker was a toddler-sized mini bounce house that a neighbor generously leant us. It was amazing and I think the kids really had fun.

I made party favors as well, which I feel probably could have been better, but oh well. I included a train matching/memory game that I found online and printed up. I also printed my own sticker sheets with train stickers. For a little treat, I added chocolate train candies that I made up with some train candy molds I ordered. The favors were placed in paper bags decorated with train stickers. I would have liked to add more things to the bags or offer a cuter favor package, but there was only so much time. I also had more ideas for the party in general, but again, time was not on my side. Well, that and I didn't get started nearly soon enough.

We had a pretty good turn out, not too few, not too many. The house wasn't crazy crowded or empty and it appears I had just the right number of favors. I was so happy with how it all turned out. Now, I get to sit and be reminded that I no longer have a baby. =(

Time just keeps on going...

Walking around

Well, it apparently has been over a month since I last wrote anything up. I feel like things are status quo, but I suppose there has been quite a bit of change. The biggest thing is that August is walking now.


Let's see, what else...

Homemade tortillas

Homemade ravioli

I've been going a little crazy. My friend Laura tells me I'm becoming a sheep because I'm adopting more habits similar to the moms in our mom support group. In this case it's related to food and dietary habits. I've starting watching what we eat a lot closer. I'm trying to get away from processed foods. It's just that so many things can just be made by hand and though it takes time, often the fresher version is better. On my list of things I've opted to make instead of buy are ravioli (although to be fair, I think I've bought the canned kind once and never any other kind), tortellini, tortillas, tomato sauce, loft house sugar cookies, enchilada sauce, and sandwich bread. I've also made fruit snacks and fruit roll-ups for the boys, but I'd never purchased those for the kiddos; and I've been harvesting my own chicken stock, though that was something I rarely had in the house as well. I have many other things I want to try to make as well. For now, I'm trying to use up the items I have in my pantry before making their substitutes. It is a little hard though. Now that I've decided I want to be smarter about the way we eat, it's hard to eat those items, but that's ok. Otherwise, I'd feel like I wasted the money on them. My biggest thing is that for the packaged items we currently use, I want to find good substitutes for them rather than remove them from our diet. I feel that if I do that, I'm more likely to keep from purchasing them than if I try to remove them entirely. So far, it's been good.

My container garden

I've also started up a pretty decent garden this year. I've purchased a few seeds, gotten seedlings from friends, and used some beans I had and sprouted them. It's been about a month since I started. I tossed some of the peppers I tried to sprout which never came up, but I've had decent luck with most of the other plants. Good growth on a bunch of them, though no flowers yet. The only thing I've been able to harvest is some Swiss chard given to me by a mom in our mommy group. I really can't wait to see how everything does.

So, yeah. That's us lately. Add in an Easter egg hunt and crawfish boil last weekend and aside from that, it's been just about normal. Here's to more normalcy. =)

Busy, busy...

The holiday season hit me like a Mack truck. Before I realized it, I was going crazy trying to get things done. I had gifts to purchase, boutique orders to fill, travel plans to make, and things to look forward to and plan after the holidays. So, yeah, it was like I got caught up in a tornado with one kid in each arm and no clue how to hold on to anything else.

My sibs and I with my mom and her sister.

I did manage to get through my list of Christmas gifts. Of course, since this year we took our first ever family pictures, those became the gifts for many of our family members. I also had a few gifts that I made by hand like a scarf for a friend, slippers for a friend's kiddo, and earrings for my sister. We actually were able to go up to Dallas and have Christmas with my family which was awesome and my mom was crazy giddy about it since all my brothers and sisters were there and all my mom's grandkids. The weekend after Christmas, Taran's parents came to visit so we had a second Christmas celebration, complete with turkey dinner. I was giddy to have a real Christmas celebration at our home. Since the past couple of years we haven't been able to go anywhere, we didn't do a whole lot and it felt just like any other day to me. Not this year! It was fantastic!

Just before Christmas, I had a diaper cake I was working on. It was a huge challenge since I had to hand make many of the items on it. The gamer/geek/StarCraft theme doesn't lend itself easily to diaper cake making due to the sheer lack of available baby items of that theme so my only choice was to not fill the request for the theme, do a shabby job incorporating random stuff, or make it myself for a clean cohesive theme related cake. I picked the last option since I'm not all about putting forth half efforts on these. In the end it turned out great, but it was crazy time consuming at a very busy time of year. I managed though and I couldn't be more proud of the end result.

Nursery set for one of the mamas.
My first rag quilt. It came out awesome!
I was so proud of myself!

Just after Christmas some of the moms in my mommy group threw a baby shower for two moms that were expecting babies. I had to hurry to get gifts together for these mamas. Since both were cloth diapering mamas, I couldn't very well do a traditional diaper cake which is my stand-by gift, so I opted to make each mama a set of nursery items including a blanket, blocks, hat, and burp cloth. I put them together in cakes for them. They turned out adorable. The extra kicker was that I was able to use a lot of materials I already had (with a few new ones) so I cleared out some of my craft purchases which have been taking up space on our dining room table. Yay!

During that time period, I also had an order for two pairs of shoes, my first shipped order for my baby boutique! Super exciting! Shortly after the baby shower, I had an order for another diaper cake which I had to get to my friend in less than a week. Fortunately, this theme was much easier, but so incredibly cute and I was super excited to make this cake too!

Speaking of all that with my boutique, I reached over 100 fans on Facebook. I decided to hold a drawing for a discount on a next order as well as an auction. I put several items from my inventory in the auction and added a few more new things that I made up recently like burp cloths, crocheted hair clips, and a baby beanie. I wanted a good variety in the auction which turned out great. Several items sold which is also super exciting. Next time I run and auction, because I'm sure I will, I'm going to do some more publicity so that hopefully I get a few more bids and sales.

You'd think that after all that, things were slowing down for me, but no. Last week alone, we had appointments for August, Simon (the cat), and Noah. August is 9 mo old! I can't believe it. His appointment went well and we got a good report, so to speak. Simon had his appointment Thursday and he also is doing well. Noah went to the ENT for a recheck on his tubes on Friday. One tube is out, the other is in place; everything looks good.

In my spare time (really? That exists?), I've been working on shortening my stack of "to read" magazines. I've also been working on a few crochet projects like some plush veggies and other ideas for hair clips for the boutique.

As if I didn't have enough to do, I've taken on this need to clean obsessively. I think it's a mix of having family come into town and an urge to watch the show "Hoarders" that is putting me into clean-up overdrive. My house is cleaner than it's been in a long time. And even after the in-laws left, I've lost a bit of momentum, but I've still done some of that nitty gritty detail cleaning that we all like to put off like wiping down the cabinets and cleaning the appliances and baseboards.

Ok, well, this blog post is WAY too long. It actually was written over a couple of days and now I need to go bake cookies!

Merry Christmas and political correctness

This year I've received a stream of emails and seen a number of Facebook posts about how people are annoyed at the phrase "Happy Holidays." Over the years, it seems that the issue of using the phrase is reaching a volatile state. I think using phrases like "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" probably started out as a way to combine the end of year holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Year's and just wish happiness to people and their families throughout this time of year. Then, I suppose, people perhaps were becoming offended by the phrase Merry Christmas and therefore other people in an effort to show respect to those who perhaps don't celebrate Christmas switched to using these generic well wishing phrases in hopes to keep peace. This is all, of course, merely my own speculation. In any case, it seems that now using a phrase such as "happy holidays" is now considered politically correct. And of course, as a result, devout Christians are in an uproar. That begins the stream of emails and Facebook posts about how you should always wish somebody "Merry Christmas" otherwise you're not a real Christian.

It's all ridiculous really, Christian or not. The fact of the matter is that Christmas in and of itself is, in fact, a national holiday. It doesn't matter how you celebrate it or if you celebrate it, it still doesn't change the fact that it's a national holiday. Being that it's a national holiday wishing somebody "Merry Christmas" should be as mundane as wishing them "Happy Thanksgiving." I'm not sure what genius it was that decided that it's more politically correct to say "Happy Holidays" but honestly – it's ridiculous. Christmas is sanctioned by the government therefore "Christmas" it is, and whether or not somebody chooses to celebrate the national holiday it's still just as politically correct to say "Merry Christmas" to them. Yes I'm Christian. Yes, I celebrate Christmas. Yes, I recognize it for the origin as a celebration of Christ's birth. I can always wish someone a Merry Christmas keeping in mind my personal views and celebration of it; however, given the fact that country recognizes this holiday I never feel any hesitation to wish somebody a Merry Christmas, even if they're not Christian, even if they don't celebrate the holiday. I'm still well within my right and just as respectful and certainly just as politically correct for wishing them a Merry Christmas.