Weekly Weigh In...

While I'm being accountable by going to my meetings every week and weighing in, I might as well come here and let all of my friends on the interwebs in on it, also. I seem to have fallen into a pattern. I gain slightly, lose big, then lose small. Overall, it all works out to losing steadily. I can't say that I'm fond of the weeks I gain. Last week, I gained .8lbs. No biggie, but I don't like it either. I went in today knowing I would break my little pattern. I binged pretty heavily on Saturday night/Sunday morning. The rest of the week, I ate pretty clean. Mostly proteins, good fats (more on this later), veggies and fruits. Very few grains. I weighed in this evening, and to my surprise, I lost 3.8lbs this week! WOOT!

Anyway... About my idea of "good" fats. I think most fat, in it's natural state, is good for you. Many vitamins are fat soluble. To absorb them, you need some fat. I've also noticed that my skin gets extra dry when I eat too little fat. Now, olive oil is one everyone seems to agree on. I use extra virgin olive oil, and I get it unfiltered, if I can. I rarely cook with it, because that changes things, and it's not quite as healthy. If I cook with fat, I use Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. It's high in saturated fats, but it helps to combat candida (yeast) in your body, and actually works to aid your metabolism. I even use things like *gasp* butter and *shriek* bacon fat. I just don't go hog wild (get it!?!?!) on them.

Enough of me on my soap box... I'll get off now.

Anna, a girl with so much... Um... Character!

All of my kids are wonderfully smart and unbelievably unique. All of them. However, one in particular has been making me laugh, and she's amazed me with her want to learn.

I present do you, Miss Anna.


The above shot was taken by the fabulous Chera, and I love these random photos the best. Sure, we tried to pose them, but really, this is their true personality. Not long ago, I heard Anna described as "spunky"... Yep. That's pretty much it.



This picture (taken with my phone) shows her trying to be Miss Diva. This is her most common pose, and she does it for every.single.picture.


See what I mean?

This girl is doesn't simply try to get attention, she craves it. Almost as much as she craves knowledge. I'm darned near worn out from all the questions. I have to remind myself that this is a good thing. Just this Sunday she was asking us to teach her about multiplication. Really? Kid, you're FIVE. So, I guess a lesson is coming soon, if she wants.

She's also not fooled easily. In her prayers, she asked God to make one of her baby teeth fall out, so that the nurse would give her a toothbrush and tooth necklace. I laughed, but told her that it will happen one day, and we don't get to decide when. Eventually, we started talking about the Tooth Fairy. I told her she'd get some money in exchange for her tooth. She said, "Yeah, but is this Tooth Fairy real?" I said, "Well, if you don't believe in the Tooth Fairy, she won't give you any money." She replied, "Okay, I'll believe in her, but really... Is she real?" Oh dear.

Blogging about the fact that I haven't blogged...

I've become one of those. I promise to get better. I feel like the deadbeat dad who's forever promising to take his son fishing, but always bails. I will not be a deadbeat blogger any longer.

SO... How's about some updates?

Emotional Baggage: It's good. There's very little. Not to say that I don't have good and bad days, but the good are FAR outweighing the bad since I started taking Prozac. My wonderful, understanding husband could not understand why I was so sad, angry and emotional all the time, and it was taking a toll on us. He's a pretty anti-meds kind of guy, so seeing him become a believer is pretty funny.

Weight Loss: Slower than before the miscarriage, but still going well. 54.6 pounds lost since April 20. That includes the nearly two months I knew I was pregnant. That's pretty good. I seem to have fallen into some sort of lose/lose/gain pattern lately, and I'm not sure what's causing it, but I'm still mostly losing. I even managed to lose over the Thanksgiving Holiday. I wouldn't know if that's ever happened before, because I've never been brave enough to get anywhere near a scale during the holidays. That means I have 22.8 pounds to lose to get to a "healthy" BMI, though I'm already feeling really healthy. Then again, the stupid BMI chart listed me as overweight back when I was 170 and in a size 8. Meh. lol

Kids: Allison is doing great, but I worry that she's overloaded. She's a very smart and capable kid, so I'm letting her keep doing what she's doing as long as she can keep her grades up. Anna is a total smarty pants. Her MAP scores showed that she is where they expect 2nd grade kids to be in the Spring. (I forget the actual score, I'll have to look in my file... lol) Her math abilities put her on a 1st grade level. Her teacher is giving her different homework than the rest of the students so that she can be challenged. I'm VERY happy with her teacher. She has issues talking out of turn, but this is Anna. I expected that. We have a deal that if she gets "Purple" or "Superstar" level behavior for 5 days in a row, I will bring her the lunch of her choice (probably some junk from McDonalds. Nothing says love like rewarding good behavior with food, right?) Ezra is Ezra. He's such a smart, funny little kid, but we're working on getting him interested in some learning activities. He has no interest in learning most of the general academic stuff, so it's a challenge.

I also have plenty of pictures and video to post, but we wouldn't want too much excitement in one post, would we? I have to save something for the future, so that I can keep my promise, right?

Audiobooks

Why have I not discovered them sooner? Okay, so it's not as if I didn't know they were around. Goodness. Of course, I know that. I just never thought I would never be interested. I mean, I rarely read. I read magazines and articles. I will read historical biographies occasionally. Overall, however, I just haven't the attention span.

For whatever reason, I wandered into the audiobook section of Allen Public Library the other day. I saw the novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Oooh. I'll check this out. There was no loss if I didn't like it.

I am addicted. At least to this book. I already have the next one here by my side. Son of a Witch by the same author. The second in the series.

It's even caused me to temporarily abandon the Pandora application on my BB while in the carpool lane (sounds GREAT through my car stereo speakers). That is big, folks. LOL!

The people who live with me...

...might want to run for cover. I'm thinking they've already given it some serious though.

I'm not sure what is going on with me, but everything aggravates, saddens, or downright angers me lately. I promise it's not intentional. BELIEVE ME. I'd rather just let all the little things slide off my back. And I should make a conscious choice to do so. I'm trying. Just not successfully.

I think one thing I might do is just lay low while the family goes to church and lunch. I know that Hank doesn't want to spend time away from me, but it might be relaxing for them not to worry about me getting aggravated/sad/angered over something small. Boo.

Still... I need to go into tomorrow preparing myself just to let the small stuff go. Totally. Let.it.go. I'm not saying it will be easy. If it were, I wouldn't be having these crummy days. But a conscious choice is where it starts.

So... I'm going to try.

A walk in the park...

Ezra and I headed to the park today for a little walking, bike riding, and snack before we had to pick his big sisters up from school.

First, we pack our snacks. I'm trying to make snacks and lunches more interesting. I haven't ever really done the Bento thing, but I figured I would start giving it a shot. Take that into account as I'm showing our park snacks.

Ezra had peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat, grapes, and cheddar cheese.

This was my snack... Some killer Asian Slaw, Pear, and Ham and Cheese skewers...

Here's the park we went to. There's a mile long trail (okay, slightly less - .9 miles) around this pond.

And this was my view the whole time. Yes, I know he needs a helmet. We're getting him one as a reward for learning to ride so well. This is the first time he's really ridden much of any distance, and he's never ridden without me beside him. He's darned cute, isn't he?

Back on the WWW...

The Weight Watchers Wagon, that is.

Well, I officially started back right after the miscarriage, but I dind't really get my act together until a few days ago, and had my first weigh in today. My last weigh in (July 7) before I found out I was pregnant, had me at 208.6. (FTR, I started this little journey at 241.4.) The weigh in today had me at 209 exactly. So, 4/10 of a pound isn't so bad for two months off the wagon.

Now, here's to getting under 200! Then onward and upward (or downward, in this case)!