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Whole 30 Day 1

So, today is officially Day 1 of our Whole 30 challenge. Basically if you haven’t heard of Whole 30, you go 30 days without eating sugar (including alcohol!), dairy, legumes, and grains- it’s a complete diet overhaul. After the 30 days is up, you slowly reintroduce foods into your diet to see if they’ve had any effects on your digestive system and/or energy levels. The added bonus is hopefully a few pounds lost.

My 16 year old daughter, myself and my husband are all giving this a shot from today until February 1st. Yesterday, I washed and chopped a bunch of fresh fruit and vegetables and meal prepped two meals. I made a breakfast casserole that we are going to use as breakfast and lunch and a beef stew for dinner tonight that is in the crock pot right now.

For week one, we spent $204 on groceries which included 3 boxes of kcups and some staples like almond butter, ghee and various oils and vinegars. Also, tons of fresh produce! My goal is to start posting some of our favorite recipes, especially those that were a hit with everyone.

Tomorrow, there will be more breakfast casserole. Thank goodness for that. Dinner will be grilled chicken and asparagus. I’m thinking about some sort of coconut milk, banana and almond milk smoothie for breakfast or lunch tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll mix my coffee in with that somehow. I’m just not sure yet. The Whole 30 program really does not encourage smoothies or snacks, but I’m still getting the hang of this program, and I’m not used to eating three meals a day anyways. I’m much more of a coffee with creamer kind of person and that’s the only thing I’m struggling with so far today.

Any advice? Words of encouragement? Whole 30 family friendly recipes so that I’m not making two meals?

 

 

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New Year, New Me

Did anyone else think there would be flying cars by now??? My kid self would be really let down by the future I think. Anyway…

I am really looking forward to saying goodbye to 2017. The past couple of years have not been easy. I am ready for a new beginning to a new chapter in life and 2018 seems like a good time to start. So instead of making resolutions this year, I am going to make goals for the year. Here they are:

  • I am going to learn how to embroider like a boss
  • I am going to read books again
  • I am going to purge things from my home that I don’t need – at least once a month
  • I am going to do the Whole 30 once in January and depending on hard it is, maybe do it again…
  • I am going to work out and get into better shape
  • I am going to strive to be the kind of mom/woman that my daughters can be proud of and look up to and want to be like when they grow up.

I think that’s enough and it’s reasonable. And now that I’ve written about it and put it on the internet for the world to see, maybe I will hold myself more accountable…

What are your goals for 2018?

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My last Christmas Post (I hope)

I hope if you are reading this you had a wonderful holiday – whatever you may celebrate in your home.

I get a little crazy over Christmas myself, so I’m going to try and wrap up all of my Christmas posts into one long one. One of my goals this year was to make as many homemade presents as I could. I wanted to make more than I did, but I did make more than I ever have in my life! I posted previously about a pillow and a cushion I was making for my aunt and uncle in-laws, I made my mom a pillow as well with the same fabric that I used for that pillow. I made this pillow for my mother-in-law:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bib for my husband’s coworker:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this pillow for a friend of the family:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made new tree skirts out of blankets for our Christmas Trees. Tree Skirts cost too much, and ours really needed replacing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, this about sums up my post right now. I think Santa dropped off the Grinch because my kids are at each other’s throats and making me crazy. I am going to say the “Serenity Prayer” (or at least the tiny bit I know of it) over and over in my head right now.

I sincerely hope both your holiday and winter break are going much better than mine!

 

 

 

 

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Kids are annoying…

Ever have one of those days where you are getting everything done for everyone but you? I had one of those days yesterday.

I printed out over 150 pictures at Walgreens to go through and send to my Mother in law, picked up the high schooler, made gingerbread houses with the second grader at school, got all of the girls beautified and took them to get their pictures taken with Santa, bought them all smoothies, found the perfect ornaments for teacher gifts to go along with the gift cards I had purchased, picked up pjs for Christmas Eve from Wal-Mart, honestly the list could go on and on.

I was doing all of these things for everyone else and then my kids started fighting with each other and acting like jerks!

Why? Why do they do that? It’s so annoying. I know it’s just because they are kids, but the whiny kid in me wants to say, “Hello? Don’t you see everything I’m doing for you and your dad and your teachers right now? Can’t you be nice if only for this reason???” Thankfully, my whiny kid can keep her mouth shut and use her parenting voice and just put the kids in time out when we got home. It is nice to vent though. Later on, when I was finishing up the rest of my presents for the in laws, my husband made sure to say thank you and that he appreciated my hard work. That is always nice to hear.

Presents for the in-laws are wrapped and sent, so I’m done with everyone besides immediate family!

How is your holiday prep coming? Kids making you crazy?

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ICE! at Gaylord Palms

We just went to ICE! at Gaylord Palms and saw the Christmas Around the World 2017 display. It was beautiful! I have wanted to go for years and we finally made it. ICE! is basically a room with sculptures made entirely of ice set to a theme and the room is kept at 9 degrees to keep everything from melting. It is a really “cool” experience, especially when you live in FL. The Gaylord Palms is a beautiful hotel as well. I had never been there before but the hotel itself is an experience – there is an atrium and there was a Christmas Tree display. It was just really cool. I am so excited we finally got to go!

Here are some pics from ICE!

Pictured above is a really fun ice slide that you can go down.

At the end there is this amazing nativity scene and angel: 

Random Pictures throughout the Gaylord Palms and their Christmas tree village:

If you ever have an opportunity to visit, I highly recommend it. My family and I had a great time. It really is a beautiful place.

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Preparing for Guests

Edit: I’d like to do a quick update to see how much of my list I actually got done. The following week and a half has been ridiculously insane and hectic in my house so I am just now sitting down at my computer! I actually did better than I thought.

I’m not sure how other people are when they prepare for guests, but I go a little insane. Some may even say a lot insane, but I don’t really know what normal is.

I’ve already got the guest bedroom ready with fresh sheets, so it looks as nice as it can. Their bathroom is clean too. They are coming to stay and watch my children while I am gone for the weekend, so I am extra appreciative and trying to make up for the fact that I won’t be around to host them.

So, here are my To-Dos for today:

  • Make Dining Room Table
  • Make Kitchen Table
  • Clean up Office
  • Vacuum Daughter #1 Room
  • Clean out Car/Vacuum
  • Get Oil Change
  • Make Tree Skirts
  • Wrap Presents
  • Wrap Pictures
  • Make Christmas Crack
  • Pack
  • Shower
  • Decorate Outside Tree
  • Finish Outside Lights
  • Clean my bathroom – did not get to finish this
  • Wash my Sheets
  • Wash Daughter 1 Sheets
  • Make Banana Bread
  • Clean out fridge
  • Give dog a bath
  • Work on Website
  • Straighten Daughter #2 and #3 Drawers
  • Run to store
  • Pick up kids from school

As I write this post, I’m waiting for my car to finish the oil change, so at least I’m wrapping that up. I almost never get one of these lists completed, but I do try my best.

What does your guest prep list look like? Also, what am I forgetting to do???

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Zippers are the Bane of my Existence

I mentioned previously I’m trying to make more homemade gifts for Christmas this year. What a mistake that is turning out to be! The Jacksonville Jaguars stadium cushion has been a little difficult. I’m going to list my mistakes/frustrations:

1. Only buying a yard of fabric – this means I have to be very diligent on measurements. No mistakes, and if I make a mistake, I’m hosed. I tend to make a lot of mistakes…

2. Enlisting my mom for help! My mom has been off from work and she came over to help me organize my sewing area and to give me some tips because I’m still very new to sewing. I’m very appreciative, thanks Mom! However, I said, “Mom, I need you to help me figure out these boxed corners because I’ve struggled with them before.” She proceeds to send me in a totally different, possibly more difficult direction with the cushion! Is it harder? I don’t know yet! I still don’t know how to do a correct boxed corner and my eyes were glazing over doing it her way…

3. Now to the zipper. I’ve tried installing approximately 8,098,567,456,432 zippers since I began sewing. No really, it’s been that many! Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but I’ve tried many different ways, watched many different videos, read tons of tutorials, tried invisible and regular zippers, etc. I have yet to get it completely right. My mom has not ever tried a zipper. So I explained to her the basic process. Together, we figure it out! Finally, hallelujah! But guess what?!? We forgot to account for the seam for the zipper when we cut our fabric, so I have to rip out the zipper and will have to do it again! I rip the zipper out of the too small fabric and call it a night.

4. Now, I’m on to Day Two of the cushion. I’ve learned finally how to do a zipper, and I’m actually excited. I’m going to show the darn thing who’s boss. I cut my fabric, allowing for tons of room, and go in for the kill. Guess what? My bobbin runs out of thread! I didn’t realize it until it was time to pivot, so I thought I was halfway done. I was pretty devasted.

5. So after reloading my bobbin, in my frustration and hurry to tackle the zipper, I loaded my thread wrong twice in a row!!! My machine started making that dreaded sound and I haven’t been so aggravated in a while. I actually let out a very loud yell of a very bad word that I will not repeat here.

I did manage to finish the zipper and sew a couple of pieces together before I had to leave for an appointment. I hope the rest of the piece goes a lot more smoothly than that did!

Anyone else have something that they just can’t seem to figure out?

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Slowly getting back into Fitness…

One of my biggest accomplishments in my “Finding Jenn” journey has been quitting smoking. Per my quit smoking app, as of this post, it’s been 246 days and 22 hours – not that I’m counting or anything…

Quitting has been tough! When I was at the peak of my “Slump”, I was using it as a crutch and using it to aid in an eating disorder I had developed. I’m in a much healthier place, but I’ve also gained a bit too much weight back for my liking. I’m going to try and lose the extra pounds in a healthy way, through diet and exercise, not cigarettes, coffee and not eating!

So, today I ate healthy and ran/walked, for the first time in awhile! It felt good! I only made it 1.7 Miles, but baby steps are ok with me.