One Year (and 35 pounds)

A year ago this week, I do not know what got over me, but I decided to start my weight loss journey.  I was at my highest weight ever.  Now I am a year into it and I have lost 35 pounds.  I have dropped from a size 18 to a size 12.  But what amazes me are the changes that I can see in the pictures, especially the two family pictures below.  They were taken almost a year apart to the day.

 

I am far from done with this journey.  I am hoping to continue and get more of this weight off, but I am just rejoicing in how far I am come in 12 months.

Gymnastics

Just by chance one Sunday I was in nursery with a couple who was talking about putting their children in a gymnastics class.  I asked a bit more and realized that there was a class for Grace's age.  I also just happened to be subbing at the same school that it was going to be held at, and I knew the person who was in charge.  So I spent the next week trying to figure out if there was an opening for Grace, because the classes started that Saturday.

Grace got in!

 She loved going to school.  She loved listening to her teachers.  But more than anything she loved doing flips (somersaults) and jumping on the three trampolines.

 Each class started with the children having some time on the climbing wall.  (we WILL be putting one of these in our backyard)

Glen liked to watch, but he wanted to run and play with Grace so badly.

After about two months of the classes, they are now done.  Grace still talks about her flips and her trampolines.  I might just have to look into getting her into another session of classes this fall.  It was good to get out.  It was good to see Grace playing as instructed.  She got to climb, jump, run, walk on the balance beams, flip on the uneven bars, swing on ropes to name a few activities.  She was also almost always asleep by the time we got home.

Yeah, we might have to do this again.

Glen at 15 months

It is a little late in coming, but a week or two back Glen had his 15 month check-up (which was late also).  He is 32 inches tall, 24 pounds.  75-90 percentile for everything.  He is most likely going to be a big boy.  He did great the whole trip.  Grace needed everything that was done to Glen done to her (except for the shots!)  And the doctor was kind enough to play along.  I am so glad that he is understanding in that way.

Crazy Idea

Sometimes I have some crazy ideas.  I am glad that Matt is there to balance me out and either talk some sense with me, help me see a different side of things, or to run with my crazy idea no matter how crazy. 

This is one case that I am so glad that Matt is right there with me in running with this crazy idea.

We had three very large, over grown, and to be honest...not very pretty bushes in our backyard.  We knew that we wanted to take them out as soon as we moved into the house.  It wasn't till this winter that we got them down.  But in the meantime they left a very large dirt area where grass would not grow beneath the bushes.  Matt wanted to know what we should plant or seed in that area.  I told him NOTHING!  I stated my desire to leave it as a dirt patch to let the kids play, dig, and get dirty in an area that is not my garden and that I do not care about.

 Every night this week I have been in the yard either working or just sitting with the kids watching them play in the dirt pile.  Grace loves to bury her feet with the dirt that she digs up with her shovel.  Glen likes to pick up the dirt and put it on top of his head.  I am ok with that!  Yes, they always need baths afterwards, but they have so much fun and they are so tired afterward because they have worked/played so hard.

 Thank you Matt for running with this crazy idea.  I am so glad that our kids will have an area of their own to explore, learn, dig, and just get messy in.

Easter 2013

Happy Easter everyone!

We started out our weekend Easter celebrations with an Easter egg hunt at the local parks and recreation.  We tried to get a good family picture, but it was not easy.

 Glen discovered grass once again (now that it is not covered in that horrible white snow)

 He was happy to just sit around while waiting for the egg hunt to begin.

 He found two eggs and was quite content with that.  One for each hand that he could bang together.

 Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the bunnies.  The kids love them.  I only got a picture of Glen with his, but Grace plays with hers daily.

 Grace at the Easter egg hunt.  She found about seven eggs and was just as happy as could be.

 Now for Sunday, before church we went on the deck to get some pictures.  Grace wore her new Easter dress and also a new coat that I was holding on to for Easter.

 Glen looking cute, as always.

Matt was trying to get a picture of them before church on the stairs.  They had other ideas.

Once again, Matt tried to tried to get a good picture of the kids before church.  But as I said before, they had other ideas.

 After church we went to Mamaw and Papaw's house where we had an Easter egg hunt.

 Grace found a lot of eggs.

 Glen found a few.

 This egg, Glen was content to pick up out of the straw.  Hold it, then shove it back into the straw over and over and over.

 Then back into the house to start dying eggs.  Grace did this longer than any of the other kids.

 Following are just a few really cute pictures of the kids.  Enjoy.

Pork Barbecue and a Tomato

Grace is an interesting child.  Since this past summer she has loved tomatoes.  But the way that she loves to eat them is to eat it like an apple.  While grocery shopping today Grace could have begged for anything in the store but what she begged for was a tomato.  So I bought her a tomato.  As soon as we paid for it she asked me, "tomato paid?"  I said, yes we paid for the tomato.  "Eat it" was the following question.  So I let her start eating the tomato even before we left the check out line.  This was what I saw in the rear view mirror while driving home.  It was gone before we drove into the driveway.  If she is going to beg for things, I am glad it is fruits and veggies.

I tried a new recipe today.  It is simple as can be to put together and as soon as Matt walked in his first comment was "man that smells good!"  So I am going to write it here so that I can find it again, and others can try it out if they wish.

Pork Barbecue

3-4 lb pork loin
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 cups cider vinegar
2 tsp. sugar

(This is where I stop.  I put the above ingredients in a gallon ziplock bag and stick it is a freezer so that I can have it ready for whenever I am ready to cook it.)

Cook in the crockpot on low for 8-10 hours.

Remove pork from cooker and shred meat.
In a separate bowl combine:

1/2 cup ketchup
crushed red pepper flakes to taste
Tabasco sauce to taste

Put shredded pork in the bowl with the ketchup sauce, mix well.  Add additional vinegar juice from crockpot  to make it as moist as you wish.  Add additional sugar to mixture to cut the sour of the vinegar sauce (it will not make the meat sweet, just cut the sour flavor so that it is not as overwhelming).

Serve on buns, and maybe with cole slaw.

Matt gave this one four stars!  And I agree :)

Upcycle?

Recycle, upcycle, going green, call it what you want.  I call it playing and living with what we have without having to spend too much money.

About two years ago Matt and I got some items passed on to us from his Grandfather.  In those items we found some adult bibs.  As soon as I saw these bibs I had a vision of turning them into child aprons for when I have my kids cook with me.  But it was just an idea I could never figure out how I wanted to alter them to make them work.  

One day I was talking to a friend about a saying that I wanted to embroider on a shirt for Grace and Glen, but I had no idea of where to have it done locally.  She quickly told me that she has an embroidery machine and that I could use it any time that I want to.  Since this project was in the works much longer than the shirt I decided to work on an apron for Grace.  I got a very cute picture of pots and pans and I added tie straps around her waist.  She loves it!

 The other day I got a wild idea that it would be fun to have a tub of lids for the kids to play with.  Most everyone that I talked to thought I was crazy for giving my children lids to play with, but I thought it would be fun and creative.  So my family started collecting lids and at this moment we have 10, I am hoping to have more soon.

 The kids pulled them out of the container, put them back in, pulled them out, repeat and over and over.  Glen banged them together and stacked them up.  Grace sorted them by metal vs. plastic, color, and also by what was largest and also what was smallest.  This morning Grace begged to play with lids again.  It was nice to see her play and enjoy such a simple toy.

While Grace played with the lids, Glen decided this was a great container to hold his puzzle pieces.

 Driving around town I often look back in the back seat to see this, Grace and Glen holding hands and looking at each other.

Sometimes I even find this, Grace and Glen content to hold hands even if they do not look at each other.

I have a feeling they are starting to be great friends.