Road Trip, New Bible Study, and First Goal Met!

Today we drove down to Powder Springs for Grammie's Retirement/Birthday party.  Basically a 2 hour drive from our house.  Not terribly bad, but with two kids, one of which is just learning the phrase "are we there yet?" and the other who was fighting sleep the entire time?  Not my idea of a fun two hours!  The picture of Greg was on the way down, fairly early in our trek.  By the time we got home tonight, if he'd had hair, he would have pulled it out.  I do have hair, but decided to forego pulling any of it out, although the urge was definitely there!

On the way down, we listened to Paper Tongues (to get us hyper and happy - love the song "Ride to California"!), some old Derek Webb and a little Caedmon's Call.  It's a good thing Gregory doesn't mind me singing along at the top of my lungs - my singing voice is no where near on par with his!  But my exuberance surely must count for something.  Noah played air guitar and air drum occasionally, when he wasn't playing with his Star Wars figurines, and Anna Grace would chime in with various sound effects sprinkled throughout.  Her "singing" is quite interesting to say the least!

It was a nice retirement/birthday party.  Lots of yummy party food there, including some delicious looking punch, chips & dip, fruit with fruit dip, and lots of little finger sandwiches... and one big 'ol cake, smack dab in the middle of the table.  I had prepared myself to withstand the onslaught of temptation by eating a Medifast Peanut Butter Crunch bar before we left Grammie's to walk over to her friends house for the get together.  And I stayed busy with the kids and with socializing while at the party to keep from partaking.  At one point, I resorted to serving other folks their cake and fetching an elderly lady some coffee to keep it from being too obvious that I wasn't eating.  Didn't want it to be a big deal and offend the hostess or anything, you know?  But I definitely considered it a victory that I didn't even sample anything...  thankfully, Grammie and Greg fed the kids so I didn't have to endure that!  :)

We had intended to go to the Percolator Coffeehouse tonight for Bible Study on the way home and to visit with our friends who congregate there on Saturday nights.  But by the time we got to Summerville, we had two very tired kids and two very tired adults.  Neither kid had napped worth much of anything at all today, so they were a trifle grumpy.  We did stop by my folks house for a potty break and ended up eating supper with them and staying for a little bit, which was nice because that made the kids happy and gave the two tired adults a respite!

One good thing about not making it to the Coffeehouse was the fact that we made it home by 8:00 and got Anna in bed fairly close to her bedtime.  Which means that with Noah happily playing, Mommy and Daddy get to relax at home and just veg for a while.  Thank You, Lord!

I do hate that we missed the Bible Study, though, because it sounded extremely interesting!  They were beginning a series on the feasts in the Old Testament, explaining them in greater detail.  That's a subject I don't know much about but am very fascinated with.  Growing up, it wasn't a subject that I ever really remember anyone talking about at all, other than a passing phrase here or there.  But several of our friends celebrate them and the celebration adds such a richness to their faith.  The first time I went to a Passover Seder, I was amazed and intrigued by how the ancient customs that Jesus celebrated Himself were all interwoven with His life and death.  So I was really looking forward to learning more tonight.

Hopefully, we can make it down there for the Study next week...  Summerville's not that far away or anything, but getting anywhere on a regular basis for us these days isn't easy!  But maybe it'll happen...  I can hope, right?

And even though it's not official, I met my first mini-goal of my weight loss journey - 20 lbs lost!!  Hallelujah!!!!!  It won't be official until Tuesday on my weigh-in day, but this morning my scale showed a loss of 21.6 lbs.  Needless to say, I was excited!  My excitement was increased by the fact that this means I get my first "reward":  getting my hair cut and/or colored.  I've been in dire need of something for weeks now, but was holding off since that was good incentive to stay on plan.  Whew!  Now I can finally get something done!  Thank You, Lord!!  :)

Zucchini Curls - Oh my goodness...

Tried a new recipe tonight that I got from the MF Discussion Boards - Zucchini Curls.  Oh my goodness, how divine!  Whoever came up with recipe, thank you, thank you, thank you!  I wasn't sure whether we'd like them so I only made enough for me and Greg to have basically one serving each.  I then ended up keeping most of them myself - at first because I didn't think he'd like them and then once I'd tasted them, it was sheer greediness.  I admit that quite freely.

Greg started MF with me back in January but keeps going off for one thing and then another.  He was doing really good this week - had started back on plan on Tuesday and was pretty much sticking to it.  Not 100% on plan, but not terribly bad, either.  But then this afternoon, despite my attempts to get him to eat a Medifast bar (even taking one to the store with us and offering it to him twice while we were out - going above and beyond in my opinion), he didn't eat anything until we got home, was "starving" and thus ate not one but TWO peanut butter sandwiches plus a boatload of chips.  So therefore I didn't want to share my yummy lean and green with him tonight at all!  But I did.  Tried to be encouraging and supportive and all that.  But I'm finding it hard to know when he wants me to push him and when not to.  When to be encouraging, and when to just shut up and let him eat what he wants...  there's a fine line between "encouraging" and "nagging", really, when you think about it.  Especially on something like this.  Part of me wants to do the tough love stuff... kind of like Jillian Michaels on The Biggest Loser, ya know?  Kick his booty into shape!  LOL - that's really not my style at all.  And I know that he beats himself up after he goes off the plan - starts feeling guilty and feeling like he's a quitter and all sorts of crazy things like that.  *Sigh*  Communication between spouses is difficult enough at times without adding something as volatile as diets and lifestyle changes to it!  So... didn't intend to say all that, but there you go.  Definitely a prayer request or four in there, so please say one for us regarding this next time you talk to your Heavenly Father!  I know it's the subject of quite a few conversations between me and God and will probably be the subject of many more in the days to come.

Anyway... back to those zucchini curls - they truly rocked!  They were good enough that he actually requested that I make them again really soon.  So I think I will...  the next test will be whether the kids will eat them.  We'll see.

So for those of you interested in the recipe, here 'tis:

2 zucchini, unpeeled

chicken broth

lf cream cheese

Cut strips from the zucchini with a veggie peeler, down to the seeds (don't put the seedy core in 'cause it will get mushy).  Put about 1/8 cup of chicken broth in a pan.  Once it gets hot, add the zucchini and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring fairly often.  Add the cream cheese and salt & pepper, stirring 'til the cheese is melted.  Eat immediately... 

I was thinking about trying it with the french onion laughing cow sometime in the future maybe?

If you try it, let me know if you enjoyed it as much as we did!

My Plans? Not Anymore...

A friend of mine on Facebook just posted this quote as her update: "Some people are reluctant to trust God completely with their lives, fearing that He may want to make a change in their plans. Yes, He will change our plans. His plans are infinitely better than the very best we could ever conceive."

I thought that was so awesome. And so timely for me. Tonight I got to chat on FB with my ex brother-in-law and then a little later with my current sister-in-law, too. My bro-in-law had sent me the sweetest message - it totally made me cry! I haven't had the chance to catch up with him in forever, so it was great to hear how things were going with him and his family. And I don't get to see my sis-in-law very often at all (since she lives in Mississippi) and don't get to talk to her much either, so that was way way cool, too, to be able to chat with her for a bit. She's got a gift of encouragment and always says things that totally bless me, even when she herself needs encouraging.

But what really struck me tonight when I was about to sign off facebook and happened to see that quote was that God took my plans from the past and totally screwed them up!  Back then, I had goals and plans and visions of where I wanted to be in 5 or 10 years.  Maybe nothing concrete, but at least a general picture in my head of how my life would look and who I'd be with for the rest of my life and all that.  But all that changed in an instant (well, not really - divorces take longer than that!).  But everything did change with one phrase - when I asked my then-husband where he'd been and he replied, "On a date".  It was definitely an ephiphany moment.  I felt a knot in my chest and yet like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders, all at the same time.  It was like God stuck His finger in the quiet little pond that was my life and stirred up a maelstrom. 

And now?  Wow - I never knew I could be so happy. The plans He had for me were truly better than the very best I could have come up with. I'm almost speechless thinking about that!  All the time, He had this amazing life for me, just waiting for His timing and His moments to initiate it.  Do I regret my first marriage and all the years I devoted to it?  Nope - they helped make me the person I am today.  Do I wish God had started my new life a little sooner?  Definitely - being a mom of toddlers at 39 can be VERY tiring!  :)

So here I am, headed who knows where, with a new (well, four years new!) marriage to a wonderful man and two amazingly wonderful kids.  Do I have any idea where we'll be in five years?  Or ten?  No clue whatsoever.  And that's OK.  Because now I know firsthand that my life is in far more capable hands than mine.  And that His plans - and His timing - is immeasurably more than I can imagine.  I plan to just hang on for the ride.

I am a total pushover - NOT a good thing!

Miracle of miracles!  I survived a trip to Baskin Robins without partaking of any of the yummy 31 flavors!  Our kids have an honorary "grammie" who was visiting for a couple of days in honor of her birthday yesterday.  Well, while we were out running around today, she announces that she wants to go to BR to get ice cream for her b-day.  Yes, I am a total pushover.  So we went.  And they had my all-time fav flavor in stock, too... Nutty Coconut.  Oh my goodness.

AND to top it all off, we'd been out longer than I had anticipated and - horror of horrors! - I did NOT have a bar with me!!  Even after I posted that on my profile page as one of my success tips ("Don't get caught without an emergency backup bar, blah, blah, blah...").  ARRGGH!  So I'm sitting there, holding Anna as Grammie feeds her little bites of her ice cream (and yes, she got the nutty coconut).  I managed to not lick the spilled ice cream off of Anna's coat as we were leaving, which was definitely a victory in my book.

So I was also a pushover at a women's meeting yesterday after church...  ended up agreeing to furnish GARLIC BREAD for a spaghetti fundraising we're doing to raise money for Haiti.  So even though bread's not one of my trigger foods, having to smell all that yumminess is going to be a test of my willpower.  I will prevail and not partake!  I guess I'm just a sucker for folks laying the pleas on thick, especially when there's a cause involved.  *Sigh*    

How on earth have I survived almost 40 years with no backbone?  Or at best a backbone that disappears occasionally when I least expect it?  I thought I had gotten much better in this regard and could say an emphatic "NO!" when I needed to, but apparently my "Needing To" Meter has been broken for a couple of days.  

My Fake Spaghetti Supper (Shiratake Noodles)

Well, I had intended to take a picture of my shiratake noodle "spaghetti" when it was still nice and neat, but totally forgot in my haste to give it a taste test.  I used the noodles, Walden Farms no carb marinara, Morningstar Farms Griller Crumbles, and some diced tomatoes.  It was much better than I was expecting, I must say.  But I wasn't able to eat all of it.  Just wasn't as appealing as some of my other lean & green meals have been.  In hindsight, I shouldn't have used the full portion of crumbles allowed (2 cups - that's a bunch!) and probably shouldn't have used the full cup of noodles either.  But you live and learn, right?  Now I know!  

And I did manage to totally avoid the chocolate cupcakes we had for Grammie's birthday. Hallelujah!  A small victory?  Maybe for some, but for me - HUGE!  

Anna likes Spaghetti!

We had Grammie's birthday supper tonight - yummy spaghetti (well, I had fake spaghetti using shiratake noodles, but that's the topic of my next blog post!), salad, and garlic bread.  Chocolate cupcakes for dessert.  Anna was making some hilarious slurping and "Mmmmmm" noises the entire time.  You can see from the carnage in the picture that she totally enjoyed her spaghetti experience.  Needless to say, she went straight from supper to the tub!  

Anna's Turn

Since my last post was exclusively about my son, I figure I'd better devote this one to my little princess.  She's currently safely in her crib, theoretically to take a nap.  It's a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, though, so I'm feeling kind of guilty that I don't have her outside running around like crazy.  Of course, that's what she's been doing all afternoon...  just in the living room.  Running around like crazy.  I stayed after church for a Women of Hope meeting, so Greg brought the kids home and was going to put them both down for naps (per our normal Sunday afternoon routine).  Well, Anna Grace may have been in her crib with her bottle and the lights out, but she did NOT take a nap.  Neither did Noah, for that matter.  When I got home around 2:30, both kids were wide awake.  So I went ahead and got them out of bed (per Greg's request! LOL) and brought them into the living room.

Anna loves computer cords, and remote controls, and anything that she's not supposed to have.  Nothing makes her happier than to get a hold of something that she doesn't think is allowed (and usually Noah lets her know really quickly what is and is not allowed).

 
This morning at church, she decides to explore a little.  Which gave me fits!  A little background:  we arrive at church by around 8-ish to start setting everything up (church in a box - convenient!) and try to start our practice around 8:45.  There is a ton of stuff to do in those 45 minutes, so let's just say my attention is distracted at best.  And once we start practice, it only get s worse.  Usually the singers (and Daddy) try to help keep her in sight, but she can be sneaky.  And this morning, Daddy was distracted himself since our sound guys wasn't going to be there today.  So Anna picks today to decide to wander around - weaving in and out of the rolling stacks of chairs and trying to sneak behind the blue curtains so she could high tail it out of the building if someone would oblige and leave the door open (at least, I'm guessing that was her goal).  But thankfully someone would usually see her and either yell or go grab her before she reached freedom.

She's such a little explorer!  Much more so than Noah.  And that is just so cool to me.  I mean, I know we all have our own individual DNA and that our code makes us unique and that's the way God created us.  But doesn't it just blow your mind sometimes to look at children and to look at their parents and to think that these little human beings came from them?  Some things are obvious - like, where did Anna get her headstrong personality?  Her daddy, of course!  Where did she get her sweet side that comes out when you least expect it?  From her mommy, of course!  :) But there are these little hidden nuggets, characteristics that crop up unexpectedly out of nowhere that to me serve as assurance that we do have a Creator and that He loves to surprise us.  He loves to show us through so many things - in this case, my daughter - that I should not be complacent and think that I know how things work.  Au contraire!  God's ways are far above our ways and I surely do not understand all the intricacies of personality that he has tucked away in one tiny little package called Anna Grace.

I don't think I conveyed what I meant in that last paragraph at all... I'm trying to say that just when I think I "know" her, my daughter will throw me a little curve.  A new side of her revealed.  Yes, she's not even 2 years old yet, so I know she's still growing and changing daily.  But sometimes in the day-to-day stuff of things, I begin to get in a rut.  Begin to think that I understand what she's doing or thinking or feeling or wanting....  NOT! She is her own person.  And it's just fascinating to see how she's unfolding.

Dancing with Noah

My three year old amazes me.  You never know what he's going to come up with next!  He's been doing Just Dance on the Wii tonight for the first time with Mommy.  His interpretation of some of the dance moves was absolutely hilarious.  He liked the Beach Boys and MC hammer best, I think.  Then after we danced to a few songs, he decided that he wanted to play school (with him being the teacher of course).  He proceeded to walk around the living room, pointing at random items with one of his new unsharpened Spiderman pencils, and ask, "What is this?"  Basically, my answer could be whatever I wanted - his reply was always, "Wrong!  It's a _______ !"  For example, he'd point at the wood stove and say, "What is this?"  "A frog?" I'd guess.  "No, Mommy - wrong!  It's a rectangle!"

Now, he's changed gears again, and is air drumming with the aforementioned pencils.  He's pretty good, actually!  Wants to play along with the songs on Just Dance...  oops!  Now he wants me to dance with him again!  A mommy's work is never done.  Time to go boogie to "A Little Less Conversation".  I love my little man!  Certainly there is never a dull moment...

{Well, after a brief dancing interlude, he's finished dancing for the moment.}  Let me paint a better picture for you:  he's wearing his Spiderman jockey shorts and a long sleeved orange striped shirt, plus his Darth Vader belt.  Holding a blue light saber.  Actually, the light saber is a post-dance addition.  When he dances, he's fond of throwing in some "hurl-yourself-on-the-floor" moves, along with some break dancing of sorts.  Kind of intriguing, really, to watch him.  I'm amazed that he's not black and blue.

So now, he's leaning against me, drinking juice from a blue dinosaur sippy cup.  What an amazing little human being.  It totally blows my mind that God blessed us with such awesome kids - what a miracle to be parents!

Oops - time to dance again!  Gotta go!

Lunch

Well, today is Thursday.  What does that mean at the Sullivan household?  Well, Worship Team practice tonight for starters.  And the kids are usually at the Parents Day Out program at Rock Spring (yes!!).  Which translates to a trip to the grocery store without someone asking for every toy or every bag of candy or every pack of gum we pass!  Much less stressful, I must say.  And today - wonder of wonders! - I'm going totally by myself.  Solo.  No adult supervision whatsoever.  Well, color me happy!  Not that I mind Gregory going with me - he likes to shop, too.  But there's something about grocery shopping (especially at Wal-mart) that he just can't take after about the first 15 or 20 minutes.  So I've learned that when he's with me, I have to prioritize and get the essentials first, then if the need arises for us to head out of there, I'm covered.

And when we all four go, that's definitely needed.  Because on the days when Noah is allowed a special treat, once he picks out what he wants, he's ready to go home right then.  So wait until we're finished to let him pick it out, you say?  Wrong!  Because there are few things more annoying than a three year old who knows he's about to get to pick a toy or some gum or candy or whatever - "are you done yet?  how about now?  can we go to the toy section now, Mommy?  how about now?  Pleeeeeeease!"

Anna is the calmest of the bunch - usually.  Unless Mommy is stupid enough to go too close to naptime... then all hell breaks loose.  She has her Daddy's vocal chords for sure!  

So what does all this have to do with the title of this post, namely, "Lunch"?  Absolutely nothing, other than the fact that I'm waiting on our Medifast soup to finish cooking so I can eat and then go grocery shopping.  I've learned never ever to go hungry, especially when dieting!  Our soup today is the Maryland Crab Soup - super yum!  When I ordered it, I was envisioning something akin to Clam Chowder.  I know, I know - I'm not a crab aficionado or anything like that!  Never been to Maryland so what do I know!  It's actually a dark broth with lots of veggie and big chunks of crab...  very tasty.  I enjoy the Medifast version so much that I'm eager to one day take a trip to Baltimore to try out an authentic version.  But that's a ways down the road for sure and for certain.

Ah!  I hear the little beep beep that signifies that my wait is over!  Lunch is served!

"Morning" vs. "Good Morning"

Since when did most folks (me included) start leaving the "Good" off of "Good Morning"?  When did it cease to be a wish for the other person to have a good morning and more of a declaration or acknowledgement of the time of day?  I passed a couple of people on my way into the building from the parking deck and we all mumbled a quick "Morning".  Of course, the fact that it was 6:15 and the wind chill was 16 may have been the cause.  It didn't seem much like a good morning at the time!  Then I noticed that I did it again when one of the guys walked in the front door of the office.  Called out "Morning!" before I even thought about it.  He replied, "Hello" which I found interesting for some strange reason.  But since I wasn't bestowing upon him a wish for anything - good or otherwise - but was just making a statement of fact (like he didn't know?), his greeting could have been counted the more civil of the two. 

So what does any of this matter?  Not a hill of beans, actually.  Why even bring it up?  Don't really know, except it struck me that it's probably a shift in our culture.  I mean, when you pass someone on the street, are you actually wishing that they have a good morning these days?  Most times, do we even say anything at all, though, really?  And actually (I  must like that word today), are we wishing them a good morning or just bragging about our day?  "Yes, I'm having a gooooood morning!  Don't you wish you were?"  One thing this little discourse has done, though, is it's made me think about what I say.  A much needed thing, I think!  How often do I say things without thinking?  Like when the cashier says, "Come back and see us" and you were expecting her to say "Have a nice day" and so you say, "You too" which makes no sense at all in light of what she said.  I'm not even talking about the things I say when I stick my foot in my mouth or hurt someone's feelings inadvertently by not thinking before I speak.  That's a whole 'nother story!

So maybe today, I'll be more conscious of the words that come out of my mouth.  Maybe today I'll pause before blurting out what first comes to mind.  Maybe I'll truly take time to actually wish someone a "Good Morning" and mean it.  Or maybe I won't - after all, it's early yet.  My intentions to have a good morning myself may be thwarted.  And I know that when you're having a bad day, it's awfully hard to be pleasant and greet someone with the wish that they have a better morning than you.  [OK, God just nudged my conscience.  Yes, Lord, I know it's hard, but not impossible.  Yes, that would be the right thing to do, wouldn't it?] 

So that's my unlofty goal for today:  to wish upon everyone I meet a good morning, no matter what my morning is looking like.  And who knows?  Maybe in wishing that on others, it will be reciprocated back to me tenfold.  Hey, I could get real ambitious and even say a prayer for the person I'm talking to!  Interesting concept, huh?

So...  good morning, O Reader of my blog!  May your morning be filled with unexpected blessings and may each moment be saturated with the loving presence of Our Heavenly Father!  [And if I happen to encounter one of you live and in person today, hold me accountable for my greeting please!  Call me on it if I slip up and just mumble, "Morning!", OK?]

{And on a totally unrelated note, did you notice that I started 4 of the 5 paragraphs in this post with the word "So"?  I'm sure you did, since you are a person of great distinction and discernment (after all, you're reading MY blog, aren't you?)  Well now, how tacky is that?  Are you even allowed to start a sentence with that word??  Hopefully none of my former English teachers are following my blog... I daresay they would be totally convinced that I slept through all of their classes...}

Cooked Radishes? Oh, heavenly!

OK - I admit I was a bit skeptical when I saw folks on the Medifast boards talking about cooked radishes being an amazing substitute for potatoes when you're having cravings.  Yeah, right!  Radishes?  C'mon!  But today I had some time on my hands (since I did NOT get to take a Sunday afternoon nap...  ironic isn't it?  I post about the wonders of such a thing and then don't get one!  How sad is that?  But little Anna woke up just when I got Noah to sleep...  figures!), I decided to try cooking the radishes that were languishing in my fridge before they turned into a bizarro science experiment.  So I sliced them up and put 'em in the pan...  they were rather stinky when they first started cooking.  But I persevered.  Realized when they were about done that I had totally forgotten to add the onion (which would have been sooooo divine), but decided to press on regardless.  After about half an hour, they're looking pretty good and smelling lots better, so I dish them up and sit down to try them.  WOW!  They were unbelievable.  Soooo yummy!  So needless to say, I have added radishes to my grocery list.

While I was devouring my new favorite veggie, Anna toddled over and said, "Bite! Bite!" (or at least her version of it).  I gave her a little bite, thinking she wouldn't care for it.  Wrong!  She kept on asking for bite after bite, and I hate to admit it, but I was begrudging her every single morsel.  Eventually she became distracted and wandered back over to where she was happily taking cookbook after cookbook off the shelf, sitting down amongst them all, and looking for all the world like she was contemplating what to fix for supper.  I'm sure she'll want a redo of the radishes, but she'll have to wait.  I don't plan on venturing out to the store today.  Well, not unless the call of the radish gets to me.  Yumm-o!

Sunday Afternoon Naps

When does a person's view of napping change?  At what age does napping go from being something you fight tooth and nail to something you long for?  I can personally attest to the fact that 3 year olds are not fond of this practice.  We start preparing for the battle about half an hour ahead of time...  psyching ourselves up for the inevitable struggle.  Part of the problem is that I still end up laying down with Noah in order to get him to sleep.  Horrible, I know.  But when I was pregnant with Anna, I certainly didn't mind "having" to do that - I welcomed the excuse!  And some days, to be honest, I enjoy being forced to stop everything and lie still for the 15-20 minutes it takes to get him to sleep.  The problem comes on days when it takes more like 45 minutes to an hour.  When he fights me every step of the way.  Usually not fight as in a physical sense, but with every manipulative emotional ploy available in his three year old arsenal.

This is compounded more by the fact that I fall asleep extremely quickly.  Greg says that by the time my head has hit the pillow, I'm gone.  I get that from my mom - she can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, too.  I also attribute it to a clear conscience, but Greg disagrees with that, too.  So I'm falling asleep and Noah's waking me up to ask for his juice.  I fall asleep again, only to be awakened because he needs to get up to go to the bathroom.  I'm asleep again and he's poking me asking questions about the ceiling fan...  this could go on for hours in his little world.  But in Mommy's world, I get more and more ornery with each bout of interrupted dozing.  Not a good thing.  Eventually, he does fall asleep and I have to fight the urge to shake him and wake him up.  Sometimes my Mommy instincts are way off!

Sunday afternoons in my opinion are just made for napping.  Especially cold and snowy Sundays like today.  Anna Grace usually is wiped out after church (aren't we all?) so she goes to bed immediately.  The rest of us are fairly quick to follow, usually after wolfing down lunch and with mild complaining from Noah.  But I think even he realizes that Sunday naps are different.  Special, somehow.  To me, it's part of "keeping the Sabbath".  Relaxing and recharging your batteries for the week to come.  We've already had an awesome time of worship plus fellowship with our church family.  Plus a great sermon from Pastor Michael (who dyed his hair red for Valentine's Day - made it rather hard to take him seriously!).  So with the afternoon stretching before us and with Monday morning just around the corner, what better time to grab a few extra Z's?

I'm sure there are those of you reading this who are anti-naps.  You have my sympathy.  These days, I grab the peace and quiet when I can.  I used to try to clean house or do laundry or something constructive during the kid's nap times but then realized that I was biting their heads off all the time.  Now that I embrace the art of napping, I find that I'm a little less of a witch with them.  At least most of the time...  it's something I'm working on (and that God's working on in me), but I certainly have a ways to go with it.

So having said all that...  time to go snooze!  May your Sunday afternoon be filled with peaceful thoughts - whether awake or dreaming - and may your day of rest recharge you and energize you for all that the week holds.

Temptations on Valentine's Eve

In my life pre-Medifast (aka, up until 3 weeks ago!), Greg and I would have carefully planned our Valentine Date Night.  We would have picked one of our favorite restaurants (P.F. Chang's probably - yumo!) and would have gotten my folks to keep the children for the evening.  Last time we went to P.F. Chang's, we ordered multiple appetizers, an entree a piece, plus dessert (a full sized one and a mini!).  We would have polished it all off and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  No wonder we're both the size we are!!  

This year, our Valentine's date was a little more restrained.  We went to O'Charley's (early - around 5-ish) and I did splurge and order the prime rib (entirely too fatty for Medifast unfortunately) with asparagus and a side salad (no croutons, balsamic vinaigrette on the side).  The prime rib was the first time I went off plan knowingly, so I'm feeling really guilty about that.  But tomorrow's a new day and I plan to get back on track!  I did manage to not give in when Gregory mentioned dessert (he's going back on the diet on Monday) and so we left without ordering appetizers or dessert - downright miraculous for us!  We had a great time, though.  Actually a great afternoon/evening all around.  Greg's mom left to head back to Mississippi around lunchtime and my folks were keeping the kids, so we actually got to have (gasp!) couple time!  Hallelujah!  :)  For those of you who do not have kids, believe me when I say that you have to grab your time when you can!  So an entire afternoon to ourselves was priceless indeed and was exactly what we both needed.  Sometimes it's great to get to just hang out with the one you love and just BE.

So things were progressing along quite nicely this evening - watching a little Backyardigans with Noah, typing on this post... when suddenly he asks for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  OK, not a problem.  PB&J's not one of my favs, so usually it's not a temptation for me.  But when I get into the kitchen I see 3 separate kinds of candy that Greg's mom bought the kids for Valentine's.  That got my attention.  But, OK, still not a problem.  I can handle this.  OK.  Unwrap the bread...  ever notice how good fresh bread can smell and well, feel?  Soft and a little mushy?  Now for the peanut butter...  unfortunately, it's some G's mom bought while she was here which means it's creamy... my favorite.  Greg prefers the Jif Extra Crunchy - not nearly as tempting.  Spreading it on the bread... resisting the urge to lick the knife!  Then the jelly, which unfortunately Noah "helped" with, resulting in jelly on my hand and my arm.  Had my hand halfway to my mouth before I caught myself!  Not good!  Must resist!!

I had planned to fix myself a yummy Medifast french vanilla shake and add some new flavoring drops that came in the mail today (pina colada flavor - yum!) but decided that the kitchen was NOT a safe place to be tonight.  So I grabbed a Medifast Peanut Butter Crunch Bar and a glass of water (along with Noah's still tempting PB&J) and headed out at record speed.  Whew!  Disaster narrowly averted.

But I have to say that overall, I have not been tempted much on this diet.  I went to a party today at a friend's house and she had cupcakes and chip & dip.  Didn't phase me at all.  I haven't been hungry, thanks to the requirement that you eat every 2-3 hours.  So it's much easier to not succumb when temptation knocks.  That plus the fact that according to my scale this morning I've lost almost 15 lbs so far (my official weigh in isn't until Tuesday, so I'm not "counting" that yet...).  But knowing that this is working is definite incentive to stay on plan.  Even when chocolate Valentine's candy is beckoning and when Noah has PB&J breath all evening...  I WILL do this.  With much prayer and with God's help, I will lose weight and be healthy by the time I'm 40!  Only 8 months to go..... scary thought!

First Posting for 2010

Welcome to my blog! I just spent an inordinate amount of time trying to locate this old blog... tried every user name, e-mail, and password combination I could think of that I've used for the past 10 years... but to no avail. Then suddenly, wham-o! Found it! Made me very happy, needless to say. Not that there was anything earth shattering here. The main reason I started this blog way back in 2005 was because a friend of mine (who later became my husband) was doing one and it sounded like fun.

Fast forward almost four years - same scenario. Greg is once again blogging and so I thought, hey! Why not? After all, I have just as much to say as anyone. Especially on topics that don't really matter. I can discourse for days on the merits of one brand of peanut butter versus another or on the Imagination Movers vs. the Backyardigans vs. the Wiggles (yes, I do have a 3 year old in the house). But I thought this blog would be a good idea for another reason. I think journaling is good for the soul. Spilling your heart out on a sheet of paper (or a computer screen) can be very cathartic. So you'll probably get more information than you want to about me and about my struggles and my life, if you decide to stick around or come back for a visit. You'll hear a lot about my relationship with God. A lot about my struggles to be a better person. Right now, you'll hear a lot about my struggle to lose weight and my program-of-choice, Take Shape for Life (aka, Medifast). You'll hear stories about my kids and about my husband and probably about my friends and my co-workers and my folks and my family. Most of it may in fact bore you to tears. Actually, unless you are one of the above-mentioned friends or family, that's probably a given! Nothing here will be new revelations or noteworthy opinions or offensive rants worthy of comment over a water cooler.

So having said all that, if you're still reading, cool! Thanks! Welcome to my world and to my blog! :)