Monday, May 26, 2014

Menu Plan & Goals

Last week was kind of one of those weeks. The fridge was leaking, the washing machine was making strange noises, an underground sprinkler was broken, etc. I was really, really grateful to have some freezer meals to use up when things got a bit crazy. With our washing machine still needing repair, it's going to be a busier week around here again as I'll likely have to bring my laundry somewhere else to wash. Keeping it simple again this week:

Monday: Leftover Spaghetti
Tuesday: Tuna Macaroni Casserole (didn't make this last week)
Wednesday: Stuffed Peppers (didn't make this last week)
Thursday: Freezer Meal (probably meatloaf) & Mashed Potatoes (went with a different freezer meal last week)
Friday:  Eating with family
Saturday: Pizza
Sunday: Leftovers

Goals for Last Week
  • 1 hour working on baby books
  • Exercise 4 times (|I think I managed to get this in 3 times)
  • 1 hour organizing closets
  • Sell some kids clothes/items online
  • Write up 2 detailed piano lesson plans
  • 1 hour working on chore charts/reward charts for kids
Goals for This Week

  • Exercise 4 times
  • 1 hour working on baby books
  • Spot clean rug upstairs
  • Get dirt from Mom & Dad worked into soil
  • Attempt to kick bad habit of biting fingernails (yep...it's gross & true...but my sister in law gave me her Thumbs Away for helping kids stop sucking their thumbs that I'm going to try)

Monday, May 19, 2014

Menu Plan & Goals

Keeping it simple this week:

Monday: Chicken Fingers & Fries
Tuesday: Perogie Casserole
Wednesday: Stuffed Peppers
Thursday: Freezer Meal (probably meatloaf) & Mashed Potatoes
Friday:  Grilling Steak, Potatoes, Coleslaw
Saturday: Leftovers/Pizza
Sunday: Potluck (I'm making Tex Mex Coleslaw, White Chocolate Rice Crispy Cake, and either Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole or Sweet & Sour Meatballs)

My Goals for Last Week:
  • Attempt to make a DIY headwrap (made from old t-shirt) for Brielle (didn't get to this....probably won't happen this week either)
  • Exercise 5 times - (Exercised 4 times)
  • Clean up front flower beds
  • Spend 1 hour working on baby books
Goals for This Week
  • 1 hour working on baby books
  • Exercise 4 times
  • 1 hour organizing closets
  • Sell some kids clothes/items online
  • Write up 2 detailed piano lesson plans
  • 1 hour working on chore charts/reward charts for kids

Friday, May 16, 2014

Fitness Friday Flops

You probably aren't going to be surprised that I'm scrapping Fitness Friday check-ins for awhile. I should probably have been calling my weekly check-ins Frustrating Fridays rather than Fitness Fridays :-). No change this week - up slightly, actually. Yep, I'm crazy frustrated with this weight-loss thing this time around. I really do not think it was this hard to lose the weight after my first 2 babies! Maybe I'm more stressed this time and that's contributing? I don't know...All I know is that unless I have something somewhat significant to blog about regarding fitness and weight loss, I'm going to scrap this Frustrating Fitness Friday stuff.
As I was going back in my calendar, I noticed that I've lost a grand total of 3 pounds in 2 months. Wow.  The sad thing is that I feel like I'm actually trying, but it's not paying off. By this same time with Nathanael's birth, I had probably lost about 25 pounds. It is tough to stay disciplined and make good choices with exercise and food when you don't see visible results. I really, really, really do not want to have to try a different "diet" such as Trim Healthy Mama again (separating carbs and fats with basically no processed sugar - a low glycemic plan, meant to prevent spikes in blood sugar), but I'm starting to think about it. If nothing significant changes this month, I'll likely reconsider trying something such as THM again.  Until then, I will journey on. I am determined...(Besides, I have hardly any clothes that fit me right now other than maternity clothes!)

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A Grocery Trip Tale

I did my giant monthly grocery trip last week. I do this trip at a large grocery store (where you have to bag your own stuff...ugh).

A typical monthly grocery trip goes something like this (with only a few slight exaggerations :-D...)

Park car. Give self pep talk and gather supplies necessary for trip. Grocery list. Menu Plan. Loonie for cart. Calculator. Flyers for price matching. Reusuable shopping bags (Got to be thrifty  green because paying 5 cents per grocery bag is really not conducive to a frugal lifestyle  I don't want a pelican to accidentally choke on a plastic shopping bag that will end up in a landfill sometime. Load giant cart full of groceries. Include large and heavy things like 20 pound bags of potatoes and flour. Steer giant boat cart throughout the store. Pile it higher, higher, and higher. Smile and wave when groceries fall off of piled-way-too-high-cart. I would make a terrible engineer. Mumble to yourself how you are saving money in hopes of taking a 10 year anniversary trip next year when people start to stare. Believe me, people stare. Try to ignore the fact that said staring people are likely thinking one or all of the following:
    A) You must have 10 + kids and/or a wolf for a husband
    B) You are a hoarder
or C) You live in the middle of nowhere, a thousand miles away from civilization and only come to town once a year.

None of which are true. Except for maybe the hoarder part. Oh, and maybe the thousand miles away from civilization part. That's up for debate.

Steer the ominous grocery  ship  cart up and down the aisles. You are as strong as a lumberjack. Load it with things you would never consider buying such as bleu cheese because, hey, when it's 7:30 pm and you've been in the store for 2 hours already, even moldy cheese looks crazily scrumptious. Load piled-way-too-high cart of groceries onto grocery belt. Bag groceries. All of them. The ones you can fit, anyway. Load ridiculous amount of groceries back onto cart. Remember where you put the cartons of eggs. Oh no. Can't fit it all back on the cart. Must push and steer massive cart, boat ship (yep, it's now a ship) with one hand while lugging huge package of paper towel in the other. You are a strong woman, strong. People stare. Again. Smile and wave. Again. Never Mind. You can't wave. Your hands are full. Unload groceries into car. Drive home in a stupor. Stumble into the house carrying far too many bags. Show off your incredible grocery-bag hauling ability Politely make small talk to the neighbours. Remind yourself you are a strong woman when your arms start to give out. Okay, maybe you are not so strong. Kind husband takes pity on tired, exhausted, and verging-on-grumpy wife. Said wife must now find a place to store a month's worth of groceries. Husband picks up bleu cheese, raises eyebrows, and questions wife. Tired wife just smiles and nods. Smiles and nods. Husband is unconvinced that moldy cheese can taste good. I'm sure Pinterest can come up with something that can make even bleu cheese taste good. Right? Please tell me I'm right....

Exhausted, put the kids to bed, turn on a semi-interesting documentary, laugh about how the psychologist who is spewing ridiculous psycho-babble looks exactly like your university english prof, and eat the only reasonable thing a person can have for supper at 8:30 p.m. A coke float.



Monday, May 12, 2014

Menu Plan Monday

I had a wonderful Mother's Day filled with time spent with those I love the most. I was well-loved, well-fed, and even came home with a few new clothes, all courtesy of our awesome families.

Here's what we plan to eat this week:

Breakfasts: Yogurt with Strawberries & homemade granola
                   Oatmeal
                   Eggs
                   Toast
                  (all with fruit on the side)

Lunches: Salads for me, Sandwiches for kids and hubby with veggies & fruit on the side

Suppers:

Monday: Tacos (using leftover taco meat from freezer) (Taco Salad for me)
Tuesday: Sausage & Perogies (one of my all-time favourite meals)
Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas (NEW). I am very excited to try this new recipe as chicken fajitas is one of my favourite foods, and Mel's Kitchen Cafe recipes have yet to disappoint.
Thursday: Mennonite Style Chicken Noodle Soup (using leftover chicken from last week's roasted chicken) & Homemade Rolls (from freezer)
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Leftovers/Pancakes
Sunday: Leftovers/Tuna Macaroni Casserole

Extra Goals for This Week:

  • Attempt to make a DIY headwrap (made from old t-shirt) for Brielle
  • Exercise 5 times this week 
  • Clean up front flower beds
  • Spend 1 hour working on baby books

Friday, May 9, 2014

Fitness Friday

Nothing too significant to report this week. I'm down 1.8 since last week (0.6 lower than my lowest since starting to really work at this). I was actually pleasantly surprised with the small loss since I didn't exercise much at all this week. I don't know what happened, but this week just seemed to fly by faster than usual. The only deliberate exercise I can remember was doing the 30 Day Shred once. I was, however, really busy running around after 3 kids all week.
In other news, I did our monthly grocery trip yesterday. It was exhausting. I confess I was really having to fight off the grumpy syndrome after that. I came home around 7:30 pm (having skipped supper), put the kids to bed, and was so crazy hungry by 8:30 pm that I crashed on the couch to watch a documentary and had a coke float for supper. Yep, a coke float. That's really going to help this whole weight and healthy eating thing, I know. But, hey, after the minor success I had this week, maybe I should be eating coke floats more often ;-). Just keeping it real.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Menu Plan Monday

I am keeping things simple this week. Brielle, who is normally an extremely content baby, has been quite fussy lately. I am hoping to get a few projects done around the house and get some work done on the kids' baby books and photo albums.

Breakfasts: Choice of oatmeal, toast, or eggs (all with fruit on the side)
Lunches: Salad or leftover soup for me, leftovers for the kids, pita pizzas for one lunch meal
Suppers:

Monday: Hamburger Vegetable Soup & homemade rolls (from freezer)

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday:  Roasted Chicken & Mashed Potatoes

Friday:  Leftovers

Saturday: Tuna Macaroni Casserole

Sunday: Leftovers or something simple

Friday, May 2, 2014

Fitness (or lack there-of) Friday

This past week was not the greatest. I did not lose anything...in fact, I gained a pound back. I'm not overly surprised since I didn't watch what I was eating quite as closely, "cheated" more than once, and didn't exercise quite as much. It still stinks, though, as it reminds me just how crazy hard I;m having to work to make any progress this time around! Despite not having as great a week, I still didn't think I was doing so poorly that I would GAIN!
I am sure I didn't have to work this hard last time....maybe I'm getting old(er) ??

In other news, I'm planning on watching the Raptors game tonight. Though I played basketball in high school, I have never really been into watching NBA basketball on tv. Around here, we prefer watching hockey and football on tv. I was SO excited a couple years ago when the Lakers just so happened to be playing the Nuggets in the playoffs when we were on our family holiday in Colorado. We were able to get tickets, and it was definitely one of my favourite (and craziest) family holiday memories. And yes, I am just as big a sports fan as my husband (if not more!). He doesn't care quite as much about watching basketball as I do. But I don't care quite as much about soccer as he does.  The Raptors are just way too exciting this season for me to not to hop on the band wagon! I was a big Raptors fan way back in the Vince Carter days...

And on that note....when I think back to how crazy fit I was in high school, how I could play an entire high school basketball game without sitting on the bench, and how...umm...unfit I am now, it's kind of sad. With a lot of hard work, though, I'm sure I can improve from where I am now. I can still remember the amazing feeling of being fit (healthy, full of energy, and strong), and I would love to feel somewhat close to that way again someday.

It's a crazy time in our life and for many, many reasons, I just love this quote (I think it's an African proverb), "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now."

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