Dieting, Did You Know...?

1. If you eat something, but no one else sees you eat it, it has no calories.

2. When drinking a diet soda while eating a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are cancelled by the diet soda.

3. When you eat with someone else, calories don't count if you don't eat more than they do.

4. Food used for medicinal purposes NEVER count, e.g. as hot chocolate, brandy, toast and Sara Lee Cheesecake.

5. If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner.

6. Movie related foods (This includes but is not limited to: Milk Duds, Buttered Popcorn, Junior Mints, Red Hots, Tootsie Rolls, Gummi Bears, etc.) do not have additional calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

7. Cookie pieces contain no fat-- the process of breaking causes fat leakage.

8. Late-night snacks have no calories. The refrigerator light is not strong enough for the calories to see their way into the calorie counter.

9. Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if you are in the process of preparing something. Examples are peanut butter on a knife making a sandwich and ice cream on a spoon making a sundae.

10. Foods that have the same color have the same number of calories. Examples are: spinach and pistachio ice cream; mushrooms and white chocolate. NOTE: Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other food color.

11. Foods that are frozen have no calories because calories are units of heat. Examples are ice cream, frozen pies, and popsicles.

12. Powerbars and other type energy bars make you thinner. In all my years of exercising (at least three times a year) I have only seen thin people eating energy bars. Ergo (therefore) they must make you thin.

13. Snickers is the same as an energy bar (see #12)

14. Tasting other people's food does not add to your calorie count.

15. Containers of food that list the number of servings as greater one are lying. Every container includes one serving. Half gallon of ice cream, box of cereal, bottle of soda, bag of chips are all one serving.

16. If you eat the food off someone else's plate, it doesn't count.

17. Carrot cake counts as a serving of vegetables.

18. If you eat standing up the calories all go to your feet and get walked off.

19. Food eaten at Christmas parties has 0 calories, courtesy of Santa.

20. Go to the paint store. You can get thinner there.

Just remember--STRESSED is just DESSERTS spelled backward.

Menu Plan Monday

Being gone five nights a week is taking its toll on my usual plan of staring at the refrigerator and cabinets a few hours before supper and hoping for inspiration. Soooooooooo... (a year later) I'm back to Menu Plan Monday. It worked the first time. Don't know why I stopped, other than I'm lazy. Maybe I'll get it together. At least we'll be eating better while I try.

My honey's on the road this week, so I'm just feeding the boys and I. This is our last Monday night that we will be home by 7p.m. Starting next week we will get home near 9p.m. OUCH!! So it will be sandwiches in the van next week, I'm thinking.

Monday--Goulash and Doo Doo Bread.
Tuesday--Popcorn Chicken, green beans and rice
Wednesday--Nachos with trimmings, fresh fruit
Thursday--Breakfast for Dinner: pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage
Friday--Lasagna, garlic bread and salad
Saturday--grilled steak, broccoli, mashed potatoes and salad
Sunday--Grilled chicken, mixed veggies in the grill wok, salad

Personally, I am struggling to eat a low carb diet, modifying a couple mainstream diets to fit my health needs. But the boys definitely don't need to eat that way so I cook for them and eat around what I can and substitute salad and low carb veggies a lot for me. So a couple of those nights, I'll be vicariously enjoying (especially those pancakes--I had one last week and need to not do that again!)

Eat well!! And visit Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas!

Grains of Gratitude and an Award

What a wet and wearing week! I thought I might mow the lawn for my husband while he was away, but that proved impossible in all the rain. I’m going to have a jungle to mow when it dries. That said, there is much to be grateful for, and I am very grateful for:

Safety in storms. We’ve not had near the horrible weather that has attacked Texas and other southern states, but Friday night we were away from home when the tornado sirens started wailing. Thankfully for us, there was no tornado in our vicinity and our home was safe when we returned. It was very stressful. We continue to pray for the victims of Ike and all who have been affected by this year’s hurricane season.

Protection for my husband. He is on the road and sampled some chicken wings at the hotel he was staying at. Apparently he didn’t eat too many, but was subject to some food poisoning which subsided in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately some hotel guests had to visit the local ER because their bout with salmonella was more eventful. My guy seems to have recovered and has a few good meals and a better night sleep under his belt, so I think he will be fine.

Flexible children. The boys accepted the news that their father would be gone longer than planned better than I thought they would. Part of his being gone meant their plans got changed and they had to accompany me on attending to things that needed to be addressed. They accompanied me to therapy I mean Hobby Lobby, and were very patient at looking at paper and beads. We ventured down the model and science kit aisles also and that helped. I found a couple ways to reward them that they weren’t expecting and they were quite happily surprised.

New friends for the boys. Roo met a boy a couple years older than him this summer. We hoped he might join the boys at the ballet school and things worked out so he could. What a great young man! He and Roo seem to have hit it off and he is smart and has many of the same interests as Roo, he’s nice to Boo also (not all friends are nice to little brothers). He is homeschooled and so has some of the same experiences as Roo does and he has a sweet younger sister who…

Has become friends with Boo. She’s a year older than he is, in fact she’s just about in between both my boys. But she has an easy going personality and she and Boo have found some common ground and really enjoyed each other’s company. There was a wicked storm that rolled through while we were waiting for the older bothers’ class and Boo was really upset (storms really stress him out.) This sweet young lady found things to distract Boo and they rode out the tornado sirens and heavy rains together. Her mom says she doesn’t like storms either, so I think she bucked up the courage to help someone more afraid than herself.

Old friends that remain. Last year was a struggle with a few friendships, but blessedly both the boys and I have had a few friends remain true. One particular mom and her children we get to see twice a week now, where last year it was only once a week. Both children get along with both boys and watching the four together is a treasure.

Another longtime friend graciously watched the boys for an afternoon when I had to be gone. She is a new mommy and so she and her baby girl (my god daughter) and the boys watched sign language videos together. I guess they had a great time.

Blogging friends. You know who you are. Your blogs are like a special greeting card from a friend. My sweet and transparent friend at Do You Weary Like I Do? gave me this lovely award--which I would give right back to her.

The rules were:

* Display your award.

* Link back to the person who gave you the award.

* Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

* Put links to those blogs on yours.

* Leave a message on the blogs of the people you've nominated.

* Enjoy your award!

I could never limit the blogs I love to seven, every blog on my side bar gives me inspiration, joy, hope, laughter, renewed faith, a fresh view--I'm sharing the award with all; but here are seven who bless me daily:

Renee at 2 Peas in a Pod (even though she got the award already). She blesses me!

Heidi at God's Grace in Practice. Her blog title says it all.

Annie and Izzy at Pray for Izzy!. Annie has another blog that I love too, but at Izzy's I lost my heart to this precious girl. Their courage has been inspirational.

Gemma at searching and pondering. Gemma tells it like it is and has been so supportive to me as I'm daily fighting with weight loss.

Linds at Rocking chair reflections. I somehow don't picture her in her rocking chair (although she really should rest her knee more!!) and truly enjoy a trans-Atlantic trip each time I read her blog.

Carrie at Quite the Normal Life. I don't know about the "normal"--she has quite an eventful life, but I always feel like I'm visiting someone I've known for a long time when I stop by.

Christine at Brady's Bunch. Christine is the originator of Grains of Gratitude. She needs to know that this award is for both her and darling Brady who also stole my heart from the first time I visited them.

Whew! What a long post! Thanks if you made it through.

My prayer for each one of us is that this week is filled with "an attitude of gratitude."

Prayers!!

Julie

Seven Years Ago Today...

...I was the mother to a thirteen month old and an almost four year old. We lived in a teeny tiny town out where the sandhills start, about ten miles past nowhere. I think seven years ago I got up at about the same time as I did today--later than I planned. The boys and I were walking daily with a friend of ours; and after getting them ready we went downstairs to watch something Barney-ish. But instead we found devastation on every channel.

My friend arrived, not having turned on the television that day. I let her in and we sat and watched and cried in disbelief as the terrible day unfolded. I called my husband to see if he knew what was going on. I called my family, nine hours away. I called almost all my friends in my phone book that day, just to hear their voices.

Seven years ago, today, for me at least, the world changed.

We are grateful no one we knew was lost that day. But people we knew were shaken. Men my husband worked with were in one of the Towers the day before. The brother-in-law of woman I walked with was in an office building so near the World Trade Center that he saw people falling, and even jumping to their deaths.

At the time it seemed like nothing would ever be the same, but as with all life people moved on and things kept happening. But today we stop and remember. There aren't very many moments that I remember exactly where I was when something happened somewhere else in this world. But I remember where I was "When the World Stopped Turning."

God bless the heroes who were there seven years ago today. God bless the heroes who are there everyday for all of us. God bless the heroes who serve in our armed forces, who fight for freedom.

Where were you seven years ago today?

Things I Know to Be True

There are just some things in life that are undeniable facts. Such as:

If your husband is in a different time zone your mother-in-law will certainly call. At a rather late hour.

And since you love the man so much, you will take the call because you know he is already asleep and if you don't she will proceed to call him and wake him up.

And you know that if he should choose to sleep through the call (yes, there's a lot of history in that statement), your mother-in-law would call your father. Who would then panic and call you to make sure you aren't like, you know, dead or something. (Not that I would have any experience with that happening before. Or anything. Much.)

Ahem....

Other true things:

If your husband might be in that still same different time zone, appointments you have been waiting for WILL become available. NOW. And you have to choose to take your sons with you or find a baby-sitter.

Which really doesn't help with school.

Especially since another there is another true thing:

If your husband still has his watch set for a different time than you do, at least one of your sons will have a crisis in remembering how to...oooooooooooh...say... do math, read, and get ready for bed, and possibly some other things.

This son will, however remember exactly where every button you have is, and talentedly push them.

All.

At the same time.

And you will have a meltdown of epic proportions.

And finally, a new thing I learned to be true...

If the second set of keys to your car are in another time zone. With the man you are married to, of course. You will go to Sam's Club. Get items you need. Load them in the trunk.

And then lose the car key in the five steps to the drivers seat.

Did I mention the trunk release is broken, not only in the car, but also on the key fob?

No? Well, it is.

Did I mention the key fob and the key are separated?

No? Well, they are.

These things would allow your very orderly, oldest son to try to think of two hundred ways to help. None of which are practical, but sweet, nonetheless.

It would also allow your youngest son to panic and think you might have to live in the parking lot of Sam's for, oh... say... a few weeks at least. And have to go to the bathroom. All of a sudden, like.

This would allow you to have the time to realize that if someone had left the second set of keys (which operate NOTHING in another time zone at the house, you could call a friend, have her come pick you up and go get them.

But he didn't. So you can't.

Thankfully you at least might have unlocked the car to load the trunk, using the key to open the trunk so the car alarm wouldn't go off.

This would also, thankfully, allow you NOT to have to dump the contents of your purse on the parking lot. The backseat worked much better, thank you.

And mercifully, after only ten or forty people have seen you making a spectacle of yourself, you will find the key.

And then you will realize as you drive home, you could have managed to get into the trunk via the back seat. Which apparently your sons know how to work, but failed to remember during the crisis. So you would have found the key not to be there anyway. But would have made a much more brilliant spectacle.

After getting home and unloading the contents of the car you will find the only thing that will make life better is a nap.

Those are things I know to be true.

A List...or Stream of Consciousness Writing...

Or..."Blogging through the Writer's Block."

Or...A Lot about Not Much.

There's stuff there, just not getting it together coherently. So you get...this:

The cat and the dog decided that 4:30ish was the correct time to wake "Mom" up. And when "Mom" rolled over and said, "Go away!" they both (I am not kidding) went into their preparing for puking routine. Both of them. They are a feline/canine team and they won.

That noise had me up and kicking them out into the rain. But being the softie I am (heart, not body--although that is soft too) I couldn't leave them out. And I was up and unable to go back to sleep. So at 4:48 I turned the coffee pot on.

School has been good. It is taking a lot more time this year. The boys are working hard mostly. Sometimes they work hard to see what buttons of mine they can push more, but for the most part they are doing a great job. With school, that is. Oh yeah, the buttons too.

I've had to give up on some of my more "relaxed" approaches to schooling. It was good for a time and I am an advocate of relaxed schooling. I am envious of those who do it well. But it was time for a new approach. I hope to write more about that soon.

Planning is the easy part of anything for me. Follow through tougher. And staying the course is even harder. But I'm working on that.

I thought I'd be caught up with everything after a three day weekend.

I was wrong.

I am more behind than I was before. But I spent an inordinate amount of time in my jammies. Loved that.

Weight loss and I are battling a lot these days. I'm convinced air has calories. I'm just sayin'...

Water might have calories too.

Did I mention I was up around 4:30? I will fall apart about 3:00. Sadly I won't be able to call it a day until 9:30 and then I will get a hormonal surge second wind and be up until past midnight.

And my pets will wake me up needing to go outside.

The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore: When you let him in he wants to be out; He's always on the wrong side of every door, And as soon as he's at home, then he'd like to get about. --T.S. Elliot Old Possums Book of Practical Cats

The cat has gone in and out about fifty times since I was up. Okay, I'm exaggerating--he only went in and out about thirty-one times. And then he came in and puked on the carpet anyway. Of course he had eaten a whole can of food. Because it made for a more impressive mess.

He is now trying to sit on my laptop as I'm blogging.

He is very lucky he is old. Seventeen years this month, in fact. I humor him a lot because he's made it this long.

I've had a lot of ideas for posts.

Too bad I haven't put them out there.

School is taking a lot more time this year. Did I mention that? I still love it and wouldn't trade it for anything. But I think I was caught off guard.

I rarely watch television, but I've been watching the convention. That's cut into blogging. And reading what other blogs about the presidential race is cutting into my blogging.

I try to steer clear of theological and political debates on this blog. But I'm going to just throw this out there.

Sarah Palin is fabulous. I would have ended up voting for John McCain, I have an incredible amount of gratitude and respect for his heroic life, but I've not always agreed with everything, but now...I'm wound up about the race. Now I'm watching what I would have let go past before. Now I'm talking back to the television and acting all sorts of crazy. And for the record, I probably shouldn't include politics in a post with cat puke, but somehow I get the feeling Mrs. Palin has had to deal with the everyday "mom stuff." Good, bad, and gross.

But if I were her--I might have kept the chef. My family might have insisted.

Enough about issues. Let's continue with me.

Roo an I will be out of the house five days a week until mid-October. Then we will have to be out seven. Boo, thankfully only has to be out two days (he can stay with Daddy for three). When Nutcracker hits he will be out four days a week.

This is too much. I'm not sure how to do anything differently.

I was always going to be the mom who didn't drive her kids everywhere.

Guess what?

I was wrong.

The year is two-thirds of the way over. How did that happen?

Off to be responsible for a while. And find toothpicks for my eyelids. NOW I am tired. Now I could sleep. Ugh.

Hopefully something substantial will find it's way into the blog soon.

Just a Suggestion

When you have two children asking questions, a dog who wants out, a husband in the mood to chat for a moment it is NOT a good time to cut your bangs.

I'm just sayin'...

This has been a Public Service Announcement brought to you by the Overwhelmed Mommy Association.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig...

Sunday night I kept feeling like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home..." Praying that if I'd click my heels I'd wake up and it would all have been a dream.

Unfortunately it wasn't.

But I was so blessed by your prayers. Thank you ladies, so very much. My heart was so touched. And it really helped me survive.

Until the vehicle incident it wasn't a bad weekend. Somewhat stressful, but not anything surprising. We celebrated my youngest son's birthday with family (the "real day" was last week). This weekend was also the one year anniversary of my mother's death.

I've been trying not to let the two events meet in my son's mind. When he is older I don't think he will have an issue. Grandma did not die on his birthday--but mighty close.

The van thing...just was one straw too many on this camel's back. And it was...ahem...rather pricey. Over $500 pricey.

But, if you remember back a bit I talked about us not moving. Thankfully that choice and others we've made (and GOD!!) have allowed us to have money set aside so we could cover the repair. It wasn't something we wanted to do. But I felt so blessed that we were able to do so.

The time the boys and I got to spend with my father was good. We spent time with my sister and her children. We visited our second zoo in eight days.

And so now I am home. Stiff from the drive. But so ready just to have my little idiosyncratic life back. I will make an attempt to catch up on my blogging over the next few days.

Be it ever so humble...











Thanks again for your sweet prayers.

Off in search of my pillow...

Julie

Prayer Request

The boys and I are on the road. My husband is at home. Four hours from here. Our vehicle broke down about an hour from where we are staying.

If you have a spare prayer could you offer it up for us for the repairs to be minimal, honesty from the mechanics and that the repairs be made in an expedient way.

Compared to what other people are going through, this is one of those teeny, tiny, very little, very annoying setbacks. But I am just a little overwhelmed. Everyone is being very kind and thoughtful, I just wanted to be headed home tomorrow morning. Whine, whine, whine...but I'm still asking.

But as I see it, my situation could have been so much worse. And the tow-truck driver was very nice and helpful. Small mercies.

Hopefully I will be blogging from home soon.

Thanks,

Julie

Grains of Gratitude

How does life go on after a loss? I'm not sure but it does. And it is by God's mercies that we continue to go along with it.

There are events which the pain fades mostly away. Those are the events that I try to remind myself and others won't be more than a "blip" on the radar five years from now. Six years ago we were in the process of losing our house--today it is not the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning. There are days I don't think of it at all. Time and space and much love and many blessings have filled the gap of that thing. And to be honest, I lost a house, not a home and the difference between the two is HUGE.

Then there are losses that involve people. I don't think those holes are ever completely filled. But we somehow manage to go on. And with time and God's grace those losses aren't always the first thing we think about when we get up in the morning. But there are always little points in the day when we realize things won't be the same again.

But that doesn't mean we live without joy. God is too good and even in our personal times of trouble and even watching the evil that invades this earth we need to cling to Him and know that His hand is over all and heaven waits for us.

This week I just want to say I am grateful for love; for His unending, unboundless love and also for the love of those who make my life a joy.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35

I am grateful for you! Spread some love this week!

Brady's Bunch is where Grains of Gratitude originated.