...just a note...

(I wrote the first part of this last night...)

I'm being naughty right now...  I'm not making the pot roast that I had planned for dinner.  Instead, I'm hanging out at the park with my two youngest kids while the big one is at Girl Scouts making a scarecrow for our town's upcoming Scarecrow Fest.  We need this.  We all do.  So it's okay that I'm being naughty.

I'm proud of myself for posting so much lately...  I think I'm going to challenge myself to do a post every day of October.  I figure that I've been pretty motivated lately -with life in general- so I might as well keep up the momentum.

It's been awhile since I shared about my weight loss...  I'm currently down 20 lbs. from where I started in January.  Not as much as I'd like, but going in the right direction, so I'm pleased.  (This is where I started writing today...)  I've been using My Fitness Pal -I'm "Zappacat" on there- I love the social aspect of it, especially the encouragement that my friends and I give each other.  

Tonight, Moo had Girl Scouts again...  and again tomorrow...  but they're working hard, so I get it.  I hung out and "helped" (wish I could have done more, but I guess squirting paint on plates for them and throwing some stuff out was still kind of helpful)...  It was fun.  Plus, she had a field trip out in the woods (and in the rain) this morning...  also lots of fun.  Needless to say, I'm exhausted at this point, but it's neat to see her in her "natural habitat" and I'm getting to know more of the moms at school and am finding out that most of them are pretty cool ladies.  

So, yeah I guess there was no real point to this post when I started, but I think it can relate back to my New Year's resolution to be a better version of me.  I honestly feel that I've made a lot of big changes.  Not every day is a great one, but in general my quality of life has improved because of the changes that I've chosen to make in my life that all relate directly to me and my insecurities/health/goals/passions....

In short, I'm a lot happier than I was ten months ago.

My husband took this picture of me today.

...I don't think it's horrible.

Are you making changes in your life?

What have you done lately that's "out of the ordinary" for you?

its all about the small joys in life...

...like coffee.  I like coffee - a lot.  Especially good coffee.  I've heard talk of cold-brewed coffee over the last couple of years, but I never realized just how insanely easy it is to make...  that is, until I watched this video last night!  Needless to say, I RAN (quite literally, actually) to my kitchen, dumped some coffee grounds and water into a glass, stirred it, covered it and left it on the counter over night.  This morning, while the kids were getting ready for school, I popped a coffee filter into a funnel and strained my coffee-mud into a glass.  I am now enjoying a vanilla "iced" latte.......  this is one of those moments when I wish that we had ice on hand, but our freezer is too full of food to be able to run the ice maker.  Eh, next time...?

As soon as I made my coffee this morning,

I prepped a jar of coffee for tonight...

Good stuff, I tell ya.

On a completely different note, I pulled my monthly goal from my inspiration jar a few days ago...  and this month's winner is, (drum roll, please)  "MAKE MOUSSAKA!"  

I'm really excited about this one!  I mean, it's really nothing special for me to try a new recipe, even if its something totally new to me (i.e. seitan, which I now *love*)...  but this one should be special for my fiance, given that he's mentioned (more than once) that he'd like for me to make it.  Plus, I hear that its kind of lasagna-esque and he swears up and down that he doesn't like lasagna...  this could help to bring him over to the dark side.  ::evil laughter::

Let's see...  what else did I want to say...?

Oh!  I finished the first of the series of embroideries that I have planned...  and I'm onto the second.  I think I'm going to wait until I've finished a few more before I start sharing pictures of them...  or maybe not, we'll see.

I went to the country this past weekend for the craft show...  which was cancelled due to bad weather.  Blech.  That was totally disappointing.  But, since I was already in the area before I found out that it was cancelled, I got to spend the day with one of my very best friends and her kiddo, which was awesome.  And lunch and the little diner down the street from her was pretty great, too.  

I'm getting the feeling that there was more that I wanted to write about today, but I can always come back and post again, right?

If you try the cold-brewed coffee, let me know what you think!

February's inspiration...

...from my inspiration jar is "Exercise/get moving 3x a week."  Not a bad one.  I'm not sure if I put this on the list of things I was going to put in the jar, but it's one that I need to make a point of following through with.  I'm going to start today by lengthening the walk home from Rye's bus stop this afternoon- instead of the two blocks home, we'll walk a few extra blocks.  I'll make it at least twenty minutes and get the kids involved, too.

I'm also working on changing my eating habits, adding LOTS more veggies and upping my proteins with lots of good, organic, cage-free eggs (they're TWO DOZEN for $5.99 at Costco!  Cheap!) and Greek yogurt.

Another change I'm making this month is omitting the use of grocery bags...  this one is going to take teamwork with my fiance, but it was kind of his idea so it shouldn't take too much prodding, right?  We already have a whole bunch of reusable shopping bags, and I'm making some that are smaller and lighter weight produce bags (with these patterns).  Now to remember to bring them IN the store!  I remembered to bring them with me the other day, but then forgot them in the car...  if I had been alone, or even had another adult with me, I would have gone out and gotten them, but I wasn't going to with the kids with me.  Next time.

Some of this month's inspiration...

(yeah, I know I misspelled "exercise")

February is going to be a good month.  Garden planning, seed starting and hopefully starting to compost (depending on the weather), lots more changes!

...remember when I mentioned changes?

...I didn't forget!  I swear!  This year, rather than having a New Year's resolution, which I surely would have broken by now, I decided to make some life changes and set realistic goals for myself.  Some of these changes are definitely much bigger than others...

The first one was changing my eating habits and, in turn, my family's as well.  We are now "flexitarian," so to speak....  not in the fancy "the only meat we eat is free range, organic, no antibiotic, etc." sort of way (I wish we could, but with a family of five living on one income, we just plain can't afford it).  We are simply limiting our meat-based meals to every-other dinner or less.  That was an easy enough change, given that we're all pretty open to trying new foods.  :o)

My next change is challenging myself to drink more water.  I want my eight cups a day.  I feel better when I drink it, and I start to lose weight, which boosts my self-esteem.

Another change was having my no-more-babies surgery.  Done and recovering.  No more worries, yay!

Other changes include being more active, playing more (especially with my kids), starting to compost come springtime, and completing at least one challenge from my inspiration jar each month.

....which brings us to the inspiration jar itself...

Things it's filled with are:

• poach an egg
• make croissants
• make pot stickers
• make pirogi
• make myself a skirt
• make myself an apron
• finish Rye's doll (I started crocheting a doll for her a year ago and *need* to finish it!)
• make moussaka
• finish O's painting (same deal as Rye's doll)
• finish my zebra painting (yeah, this is something I started in high school -it's about time I finish it)

...I'm sure I'll keep adding to this list as time goes on, too.

Oh, and I have to plan our September wedding.

Looking at all of it here, it looks like a lot...  but I know that if I break it all down I can totally do it.  And I'll do it all well, goshdarnit.

Happy New Year!!!

Well, here it is, a little after noon on New Year's day and I'm finally getting moving...  Though it's not like I had all that much recovering to do from last night.  I stayed home with my kids, my mom came over and I babysat my niece.  All in all it was a quiet night.  I even got to give my fiancee a New Year's kiss...

I realize that it's been a little while since I've posted and I have to catch you up on how our crafty Christmas went!  I managed to finish most of the gifts that I had planned...  with the exception of the rag rug for the girls and O's bean bag chair.  Which was fine, they each still got a total of four handmade gifts from me alone.  I made them each slippers, a robe, an embroidered pillow (which was also what I made for family members) and two sketch books based on Amy Karol's idea.  The only change that I made was using plain poster board instead of backer board, which made them a little less sturdy, but a little bit less expensive.

Rye's robe

Moo's robe

O's robe

Rye's pillow and Moo smiling over hers

O and Moo's pillows

Kitty Gramma's pillow

Rye's initial reaction to the sketchbooks.....  

"a blank book?!?!  Ooooh, it's a sketch book!" (then came the smile)

My mom (Kitty Gramma) made them all kinds of stuff!  Oh, let's see if I can remember it all....  O got a hobby horse (from this tutorial).  They all got really cool overnight bags- I want one, they're so neat!  She also made them growth charts that match the quilts she made for them last Christmas, and the girls got a wall hanging for their room that ties together both of their quilts.

The girls' wall hanging

Rye's overnight bag

Rye's growth chart

Moo's overnight bag

Moo's growth chart

O's overnight bag

O's growth chart

My Gramma (Puppy Gramma) made the girls their super cute corduroy jumpers that they're wearing in the photos.  (She said that O will get something handmade from her soon)

I got a toasty fleece circle vest thingie from my future mother-in-law.  It's adorable.

I made my fiancee a pair of slippers, a simple fleece blanket (the kind where you tie knots around the edges), and two hot/cold rice bags (video tutorial here).  All of it was camo themed.

rice hot/cold packs

The kids also got TONS (too many, if you ask me) of toys from us, the grandparents and Santa.  Moo didn't get the bike she wanted.....  yet.  But all three kids got helmets and a promise that they will get to pick out their own bikes.  Rye got the Barbie kitchen she asked for, and O even got the dress-up bin he asked for.

It was a good Christmas.

....back to New Year's stuff...

I don't like the idea of "resolutions."  They're stupid promises that people make to themselves and end up breaking weeks, or even days later.  I'm not down with that.  I've been through enough broken resolutions in the past that I'm not going to waste my time with them.  So this year, I'm going to try something new.  I'm going to make some major lifestyle changes.  I think that that's as far as I'm going to go with that topic for now...  I'll share more in a future post.  Just remember "CHANGES."

....and now it's nearly 4:00 and I'm *finally* posting!  Eh, at least I got around to it today...