Leaves

 We have one, deciduous tree, but it drops ALOT of leaves.  I mean, ALOT! 

 I informed the kids that after church we would be raking leaves and bagging them up.  The kids' friend, MacKenzie, asked if she could hang out with us today.  I told her sure thing as long as she was willing to work. 

I got to stay home last night and pass out treats while the boys and Todd went trick or treating.  I gave myself exercise credit for getting up and down for two hours.  The best part was that I didn't eat one piece of candy.  I wasn't even tempted!  This morning the boys and Bonnie went through the loot.  I offered to buy their candy off of them, so after picking out a few pieces that they wanted, I bought the rest.  No one really seemed to care or lament the loss of their candy.  I am glad that sugar is becoming less of a controlling factor in our family.

Tonight I go to my Prism Weight-Loss class.  I am excited to see everyone and hear how they are doing.  I have had two good days were I haven't felt starved.  In fact, I couldn't even eat all of my oatmeal this morning.  Hopefully, I am turning a corner on my attitude towards food.

Halloween

Happy Halloween

Feeling Ugh!

Right now I feel "Ugh!"  I think my body wants to be sick.  My body wants to crawl up in bed with a nice, warm blanket and a cup of homemade chicken soup.  But that just can't seem to happen.  So I feel Ugh!
Brian IS sick.  Yesterday, about 9 in the morning he came downstairs from working on his schoolwork and asked if he could go back to bed.  He didn't get back up until after one.  Today, he came to church with us and slept on the couch in his dad's office all morning.  He is starting to sit back up and interact more this afternoon so I think he should be ready to go for tomorrow. 

By the way, did you realize that tomorrow is Halloween?  I am not prepared for it.  To be honest, Bonnie and Brian are too old for it, but Bryce is all excited about it and trying to pull a costume together.  A friend told me that she knows a mom who buys her daughter's candy from her after she goes trick or treating so that her daughter doesn't have all of that sugar.  I am thinking about making a deal with Bryce. 

As far as the diet goes, I have been hungry all week.  It doesn't help that I made cookies, muffins and pies all weekend and couldn't eat any of it.  I didn't even lick my fingers.  It might also be that I am coming down sick, which explains why I am craving a giant bowl of chicken soup.  On the bright side, I was able to wear a skirt that I haven't worn in years and I know I have dropped a size in my pants because they are hanging on me.  Four more weeks to go before the big weigh in.

Ten more minutes til dinner, choir concert at seven then off to bed. 

Friday

Yeah for Friday! 

It has been an odd week here.  Bonnie didn't have school Wednesday or Thursday due to parent-teacher conferences and with us getting ready for our missions conference I just didn't have it in me to do school after lunch this week.  So I let the boys off the hook in the afternoons.  Although I did push them to get majority of their work done in the mornings while we were at church.  That means they got done their math, language, spelling, penmanship for Bryce  and all of that plus history and science for Brian. In reality they got the majority, if not all of it, done, I just wasn't going to stress over anything after lunch.

My afternoons were spent prepping for the weekend,  that means, house cleaning, food prepping, baking, etc. So now it is Friday and the conference begins tonight.  We start off with soup followed by the missionaries sharing with us about their mission field.  Right now, the boys are upstairs with Matthias whose parents are missionaries to Thailand  Actually, this is Matthias's grandparent's house that we are living in.  The boys are having a blast with him.  The weather outside is pretty nasty - rain, grey, and gloomy, but the Weather Channel says it will be gone by 5 pm.  Of course, I am not going to bank on it.  I just want the rain gone by tomorrow so that we can go on a hike with our missionaries.


Of course, I am still sticking with my diet.  Tonight is soup night so that is easy.  I will just have a cup of soup that I brought so I know what is in it and the calories of it.  Tomorrow I am serving breakfast to the ladies and their children.  I am making some muffins that I can't eat so it is a bit challenging to make things like muffins, cookies, and pies knowing that their sweetness will never cross my lips, but I try not to dwell on it.  My biggest challenge has been trying to figure out what to pack for our lunches tomorrow since I can't have a sandwich.  I think I am going to have an apple, celery sticks with peanut butter and some dill pickles wrapped in cream cheese and ham.  This is one thing I do know, my pants are super loose!  I like that .  I am eager to try on some clothes that are hanging in my closet.  I can't imagine where I will be in five more weeks. 

Here is to a super busy weekend!

Getting over the Hump

My daily devotions with my diet program stated that day 4 of the journey was when most people hit a wall.  The temptation to snack or break their resolution hits them.  I was surprised that by mid-afternoon I found the urge to munch.  Here's the thing.  I had been eating a lot of low calorie food so I could munch, the challenge was finding the right things to munch on.  My favorite snack is a piece of lunchmeat covered in cream cheese with a pickle spear in the middle.  Wrap it all up, and it is a yummy low-calorie snack.  By the end of the night, I still was under my daily caloric goal so I drank a glass of fruit juice and had a cup of coffee with Stevia and a tsp of creamer to meet my minimum goal.  My one concern was the major headache that plagued my evening.  I really believe it is from not having coffee that mornng.  I am going to stay off the coffee for the rest of the week and see how it impacts me.

On another note....Snow is in the forecast.  I am so glad I got the yard winterized last weekend.  Todd and the boys have been working hard at getting our firewood stockpiled and yesterday we fired up the woodstove.  

Staying on Track

I am at the end of Day Three of Week One of Phase One.  I have tried some new recipes and so far all but one was approved by the family.  The whole business about writing everything down is not so bad.  The thing I don't like is measuring everything out before I cook it.  It is taking me twice as long to put together a meal because I have to make sure everything I add to the pot is measured.  Hopefully these new recipes will be a part of our normal menu and I will memorize them.  My big victory for today was sitting through Sunday School class with cookies and sticky buns being consumed all around me.  I was not tempted in the least bit.  Tomorrow night will be challenge number two as we have Bible study at our house which always means having a snack.  Fortunately, I don't have to make anything since Diane offered to bring a pie.  Yet, again, I won't be able to eat any of it.  sigh....It is not so bad though.  I am satisfied and especially thrilled that my clothes are getting loose again.  I look forward to the day when I can successfully wear clothes in my closet that are the next size down.  When we moved from Michigan I was wearing a size 8 blue jean.  I would love to be able to wear them again. 

So here is to the start of another week....