The Diet

Around New Years, Dusty decided he wanted to start losing weight.  This led to me deciding that our whole family could start eating healthier.  We could give up fast food, we could trade in the unhealthy treats for healthier ones and we could practice better living habits.

My concern was that he would want to do something that resulted in rapid weight loss and would be disappointed if he didn't see significant results rather quickly, get discouraged and give up.  My other concern was my own weight.  I have the HARDEST time keeping weight on and gaining.  HARDEST.  I'm finally at 123 and I have to fight to stay there and easily consume 3,000+ calories a day.  I am blessed with an awesome metabolism that one day, I'm sure, will catch up with me.  But, until then, I don't like the idea of dropping even a single pound.

To help Dusty with his weight loss, we decided to utilize some aspects of sparkpeople.com.  We entered in his current weight, his goal weight and it told us how many calories he should consume a day (as well as fat, protein, carbs and so on), meal ideas, recipes, and all that good stuff.  His goal was to drop to 1500-1800 calories a day and to lose 2 pounds a week.  His total weight loss goal was 37 pounds.  This goal should be reached in about 4 months according to Spark People.



We began logging each and everything he ate.  Trading unhealthy meals for healthier ones.  Saving calories where we could.  For example, instead of eating left overs for breakfast, he started eating a yogurt with a sprinkle of granola.  Lunches were taken to work instead of fast food, and dinner stayed nearly the same.  Whenever possible substitutions were made to ensure that it was super low in calories, healthy and flavorful.  And lots and lots of veggies.  We've always been big veggie eaters, so that part was easy.

Thursday marked 1 month since starting the lifestyle change.  Dusty is down 19 pounds!  How awesome is that?  We've become a lot more aware of what we're eating and the nutritional value of every bite.  Dusty still gets to have just about anything he wants and we've eaten out only once in a month.  Super proud of him!

15 months

Little Miss Samantha is 1/4 of the way through her second year.  Which means Kaitlyn is 8 days away from being 1/4 of the way through her eighth year.  If I could figure out how to pause time, even just a little big each day, I would totally love that.

At 15 months, Samantha is growing by leaps and bounds.  She talks like crazy.  She says a lot of things that sounds like other things, like it seriously sounds like she says "Get Away From Me" when Dusty is trying to irritate her and things of that nature.  She's added "Stop" and "nuh huh" and "huh huh" to her vocabulary as well.

She's learned to dance.  Mostly, she likes to dance in circles and circles and circles until she is so dizzy she can't stand up anymore.  Then, while she is still dizzy, she does it some more.  She has some of the funniest expressions.  I wish I could get more photographed, but she's a cheeser when she sees a camera or my phone pointed in her direction.  So, some of these pictures are horrific quality.  I have to be sneaky with my phone otherwise I can't get any in the moment of what she's doing.

She loves to eat.  She's not terribly picky, but definitely prefers meat and cookies.  She will only eat now if she can use her fork.  She works carefully that to ensure each and every bite makes it to a fork before her mouth.

She loves her blankey we made last month.  One side is silky and the other side is minky.  I swear her sleep has improved so much with that blanket.  She cuddles against it.  It's really, really sweet.  She's also taken to her baby dolls.  She loves to push them around in a stroller.  A lot of her toys were once Kaitlyn's, and her stroller was used.  I mean used.  Used well.  Do you know how many stores I had to go to just to find a stroller used for pushing (until I find the perfect one I want) or at all?  It was crazy!

She really wants to start doing somersaults.  She does this constantly!  We have Kaitlyn starting tumbling this month and if Samantha keeps this up, she'll be close behind.

She's also big on head banging.  Against anything.  Preferably hard, in rapid succession.  For no particular reason other than we think she likes the head rush. 

She's just growing and learning so fast.  She hates being told no and loves to tell us "no no" when we tell her no.  But, even while she's screaming "No, No" at us, 80% of the time she'll listen.  She loves to help clean up.  Which means everything goes into the recycling bin or garbage.  She loves to garbage dig.  She loves Elmo and Big Bang Theory.  I swear, there is a good possibility my dreams of a primary colored, bright, energetic Sesame Street party are going to be pushed aside for a neuron inspired Big Bang Theory Party when she turns 2 if this keeps up.

She loves baths, but hates having her hair washed, and hates having water on her hair or face AT ALL.

We're in disposables still, but I'm hoping that since we end the adult doseage of laxatives tomorrow we can go back to cloth!  I look forward to not having leaks, blowouts, wing drop, smelly issues and excessive poo in my garbage can.  Anyone that says they don't like cloth because of washing poo diapers obviously hasn't experienced the fun of a blowout and the challenges of washing it out of delicate baby clothes.

Samantha loves playing dress-up.  She loves wearing crowns, necklaces, bracelets and putting anything over her head to be a dress.  She'll come tell you pretty.  She loves high fives and "fist bumps" for any reason at all. 

I love Samantha's room.  One of my big things in nurseries is having something they can grow with, then, as they make their big changes early in life, like potty training, big kid bed transitions and things of that nature, they have the security of their room being familiar.  Kaitlyn kept her princess room until we moved here, so she was nearly 5?  Samantha's room has been rearranged.  Isn't it amazing how what is convenient when they are babies can be a pain in the rear when they are toddlers?  She needed more room, she needed more toy space and less room for swaddle blankets and burp cloths.  She needed more room to play and read her stories.  It's funny, Kaitlyn moved into her toddler bed at 13 months.  She was climbing out of her crib all the time.   Samantha is no where near ready.  If I converted her crib now to the toddler bed, she would be out of it all night long.  I'm keeping her in that crib until she is either crawling out or I can't lift her in and out anymore. 

Samantha has her 15 month appointment on Monday, then I'll have an accurate weight/height measurement.

The Dentist

Kaitlyn loves her dentist.  And why wouldn't she?  She gets to sit in an awesome chair and watch her choice of TVs, featuring whatever she wants with jungle animals all over the place, she gets goodies, balloons and otter pops.  Before her appointment she gets to wait in the playroom with toys, Xboxes, PS3s and even more TVs.  I would love it too. 

And, her dentist is a really nice guy.  He brings his kid to work.  He's a year or so younger than Kaitlyn and super cute. 

After x-rays and teeth cleaning, he comes over and checks all of her teeth.  None of them have numbers here, they all have names, all characters that she knows, you know, Hannah Montanna, Aurora, Sponge Bob, Cinderella and the like. 

Kaitlyn had her six month check-up on Monday.  We battle with tooth brushing.  Not really doing it, but doing it long enough.  Kaitlyn's version of 3 minutes and my version of 3 minutes is so different.  Even if my 3 minutes match the timer on one of her half dozen tooth brushes.  So, the deal was, if there was a single cavity, there would be no sugary treats until the next check-up.

After her tooth cleaning, he came over and told her that Arial had a cavity.  She asked him what she was going to do and which tooth it was.  Then, the light bulb went off and she realized it was her Arial tooth.  She nearly cried.  He reassured her it just meant she could come back and see him sooner, get a new toy and it was so teeny tiny it would only take a few moments to fill. 

Then, he took a peek at Samantha's chipped tooth for me.  He said it's so common on that tooth and he sees it all. the. time on that age.  He would be happy to grind it down for us, but it would only be for cosmetic reasons, however, she wouldn't like it (and I can only imagine how traumatizing that would be on both of us), and it would eventually do it on it's own.

Kaitlyn gets to go back on Monday.  After Samantha's 15 month check-up.

The Quilt

For the past couple of years, I've wanted to have Matthew's clothes turned into quilt.  There are a multitude of problems regarding all of this.  The first was finding someone to do it.  It had to be someone I trusted, I mean these are his clothes, when you don't have very many belongings that were touched and used by someone you miss in a short period of time, what could be a dirty, spit-up stained onesie to someone can be another's treasure. 

So, if I found someone that I trusted to make it, I would need to have them make my vision a reality.  I found a lot of really reputable people who have their own small businesses making memory quilts.  For anywhere from $400 to $1000.  That's a lot of money.  And you have to send your clothes to them, and wait 12+ weeks to get it back.  So, 12 weeks to be sure that you made the right decision.

The more research I did, the more I wanted to try it myself.  But, I was scared.  What if I messed it up?  And I'm not one to practice patience very well.  I mean, I prefer to make the girls things that can be done in a couple of hours. 

So, I decided to take it one step at a time.  I started by choosing which clothes I wanted to use.  There are a few outfits that are my favorites, and Dusty had a couple that were his favorites.  We kept some out and some I put in, especially my favorite sleeper because it was so textured.  We let the girls pick out some (well, Kaitlyn picked out Samantha's) to put on a teddy bear that they could keep and some to make into tiny pillows for them (Dusty's idea).

At this point, I had my clothes picked out and some receiving blankets.  Initially, I had wanted to back it with receiving blankets, but I ended up hating that idea, so I put those away.

I went through each and every outfit I wanted to use and cut out 3" squares from my favorites parts first and then filler pieces through the outfit, trying to use as much as possible.  On several pieces, my favorite part was much bigger than 3", so those I cut 4" with some 3" filler parts.  Then, I saved all the "scraps" from each and every outfit, just in case I find something else I can do with them.  I actually have an idea of making a teddy bear and filling the teddy bear with scraps?  Maybe attaching different snaps and buttons from the outfits to use as eyes and such?

I used card stock to make my squares, then traced them onto the fabric using a air erasable fabric pen.  Did you know that if you go through that whole pile and mark it, then go back the next day to start cutting, and continue it through the following day, many of those marks will have already disappeared?  Lesson learned.

Eventually I had this

Then, came the harder part, well, maybe not harder, more like tedious.  I cut out 3" pieces and 4" pieces of iron on stabilizer to attach to each and every piece.  Halfway through, I re-read the directions on the stabilizer and it said to leave a 1/2" seam allowance.  So, I started doing that.  If I did it all over again, I wouldn't have read those instructions because the ones with the seam allowance were SO much harder to sew together.

Once everything was nice and stable, I started laying out the pieces to decide how I want it to look.  I played and played until I got this.

I then had sneaky little fingers all over the place trying to ruin my fabulous design, so I had to sew it all quickly.  I went row by row and then attached each row until the were all nice and attached securely to eachother.

I decided to use some of my extra squares to make mini ones for each set of grandparents.  I wanted brown backing on ours and decided to do light blue backings on theirs.  I also used premade quilt binding, which took some playing with.

I learned a couple of lessons, the first being I should have binded it a different way, like by pulling the back up and folding it over the front.  I almost wish I would have used fleece on the back?  And I HATE, HATE, HATE the adhesive spray used to hold the layers together.  If I ever use the rest of that overpriced can, I will do it outside, with gloves on and plastic bags on my shoes so not a drop comes in the house.  It really, really sucked.

In the end, I had this

Someone saw a camera and had to get in on the action.

Our two mini ones.

And that, my friends is 500 posts.  Thanks for being a part of it all.

Decluttering

For the past couple of weeks, I've been doing some serious decluttering around here.  I guess with how spring like it feels, it just seems appropriate to do some spring cleaning.

I've weeded out so much in the cabinets under the counter, taking out every kitchen gadget that seemed way cooler on TV or that I haven't touched in the 3 years we've lived here.  I've taken EVERYTHING out of Samantha's room and totally rearranged it and gave her so much room.  (I would love to see more pictures of people whose nurseries have changed from super cute to super functional in that first and second year lol!)  I've taken 2 huge garbage bags out of Kaitlyn's room, rearranging some things and making her the deal that if she is attitude free for 30 days she'll get a complete room makeover, complete with new paint and wall art.  I've gone through my craft "corner" and drawers and gotten rid of a huge garbage bag of stuff that was just shoved in there.  I've gone through my closets and donated 2 huge bags to charity.  I've gone through medicine cabinets, through my office shelves in the closets, through picture frames, changing out the old with the new (although I still need to update like crazy, time is just flying and these girls are changing so much every day!), through purses and drawers and cupboards galore.  And it feels good.  It feels clean.  It feels refreshing.  It feels simple.

I've noticed too, when there is less room for high quantity, there is more room for high quality.  And with life being as short and unpredictable as it is, I much prefer high quality.

After an awesome ending to a great weekend, I find that it's the same way with people.  I like having high quality people in my life.  I like having life being truly drama free.  I like spending time with people I really and truly like and care about and having fun things to talk about besides the latest squabble with the same people, or the gossip of so and so.  I think that it also helps make for deeper conversations and closer bonds.  We are truly blessed by having such wonderful friends and amazing family in our lives.  I want this year to be about enriching those relationships, creating more intimacy with the people I love and enjoy spending time with.

I think we're off to a great start.

*PS- This is my 499 post!  WOO HOO!!!!  For post number 500, I'm hoping to share with you all something I've been working on.  Fingers crossed I get it finished this week and can post and share it with you for post 500!

Setting Good Examples

I believe there are many different ways to parent your children.  There are right ways, righter ways, different ways, more different ways, and as long as you love your child and genuinely have their best interest in your heart with every decision you make, there is no wrong way.  I believe that being a good parent is about not always taking the easy way out, while still allowing yourself some shortcuts, and sometimes using that "mommy is a grown-up and grown-ups can make their own decisions, when you're a grown-up, you can make those decisions too."

I cringe when I see certain shortcuts being made in front of kids.  Be it your kids or another's, such as mine.  One of my biggest pet peeves (aside from the obvious and sickening violent and disgusting acts against children) occurs in front of Kaitlyn's school each and every day, and when we're driving around.  I'm a huge fan of using frozen veggies in food to save me from having to cut any, but I would never stop 10 feet short of a crosswalk to cross the street.  WHY?  Why do people not take the few extra steps to walk in the crosswalk.  Especially in front of a school?  Why have your kids cut through traffic with you, darting in between cars when they aren't tall enough to be seen over most dashboards all so you can save yourself a few feet and what, 3 minutes?  At most?

Earlier this school year, Kaitlyn's questioning of parents jaywalking in front of the school led me to start realizing exactly how impressionable she is now.  She's at an age where she really does pay attention to everything around her, and she reacts to it, thinks about it, comes up with questions about it and critically thinks about it.  Which is awesome.  But, it also means that we have to be more vigilant about teaching her which behaviors are ok to emulate and which behaviors should be completely and totally ignored.  Of course, it doesn't help that she is one of the nosiest kids I know :P

Gratitude

Dusty and I have this conversation, ALL the time.  You know how when you have a headache, or a cold, or a runny nose and all you can think about is how miserable it feels.  When it's over, you realize you feel better, but you don't really think about it on a regular basis.  Unless you feel awesome any particular day, you don't really stop during the day and say "wow, it feels great to feel normal" or "yay, I don't have a runny nose today!"

It often makes me think about how often I can go through a day and not really take in how fortunate we are or how thankful we should be.  When times are at their darkest, it's easy to concentrate on those awful moments and wish for how things were or "should" be, but why don't we do that more often on the normal days?

How often do we stop and think about how blessed we are on just a normal hum, drum day?  How often do we stop and appreciate the simple things in life?  Toast or warm socks?  And if we spent more time thinking about how thankful we are for the little things, maybe the world would filled with a few more smiles.