Alterations

Green beans, corn, carrots, magic beans....what have my teens eaten that have made them grow this quickly?   Or is it that there is some sort of Elves and the Shoemaker pixie that works in the reverse that steals into the house and sews clothes that are smaller?  

I wanted to go ahead and post some of my changes, but mine, I'm glad to report are about shrinking.  Here are my "before" and current photos.  

Afternoon at the Children's Museum

Geckos

A couple of months ago MomII bought a membership pass to the Children's Museum while all of the grandchildren were around.  Unfortunately, only 2 of the grandchildren got to go the first time.  This weekend, however, we five plus Grandma went to see the Gecko exhibit.  Our family hadn't been to the museum in a few years, so it was fun seeing some of the standard exhibits, but the Geckos were our focus and well worth the trip.

The National Geographic Treasures of the Earth exhibit stirred my curiosity.  It was divided into three parts:  Egypt (updated the old section); underwater section--a professor from IU thinks he may have found Captain Kidd's ship off the coast of the Dominican Republic; replicas of the 3000 Chinese warrior statues.  Now I want to do some further investigation on my own!  Apparently, H was really into this part too!

H has fun replacing his face with part of the reconstruction parts of the statues

Here he is again, this time HIS head on the statue

To round out the day, we stopped by Bumblebee for another photo opportunity.

My niece and nephew, who have been living in Mexico the last couple of years will be home next month.  I am looking forward to going back to the museum and taking them with me.  Maybe next time they can take my picture as a Transformer!

Smiles

Before

Brace Face.  Railroad Tracks.  Metal Mouth.  Tinsel Teeth.  What other slang can you think of for those of us who have endured orthodontics?  My boy H started ortho this week.  He was in some overall discomfort the first two days.  He's experienced some sore spots in the back of his mouth where some wires are poking, but he is using his wax liberally and found the water pik fun to use.  (our bathroom wall has never been so clean :) )  It's weird, but I think we can already notice a shift in some of the teeth.  Makes me wonder why the appliances have to stay so long if there is a noticeable difference in such a short time--and no wonder his mouth hurt if his teeth did that much moving in a couple of days!  I've been proud of him for keeping his mouth so clean too.

After.  He alternated red and blue bands around the brackets.

Mr. C experienced some firsts this weekend too.  He traveled with his Venture Crew to northern Ohio to ski.  He came home a little sore, but had some good stories and much success.  He made it further than I did my first time skiing.  (Also my last time.  My skiing trip --also my honeymoon-- ended in a torn ACL my first trip downhill.  Long story and too involved to write about here.)  C has also been pushing himself and experimenting with some allergies he's had throughout his childhood.  He has been allergic to Silly Putty, dog saliva and reacted terribly to horses.  He's moved past even wanting to play with Silly Putty.  With dogs he's learned to keep his hands away from his face after petting them to curb reactions.  Horses have presented a bigger issue.  However, today, his group rode horses.  He took some allergy tablets and braved riding today.  He came home a little stuffy, but it is hard to tell if it is because of the horse or being outside in the dampness skiing all day yesterday.  So proud of him for trying something and overcoming!

These boys sure make this momma smile!

Mother Daughter Tea

Last night Miss K and I dressed up and headed out for a night of tea with her AHG group.  What fun to walk in and see everyone dressed up, wearing hats, using fancy tea pots, plates and tea cups, and using their best manners!  There was a fashion show planned so I sat poised with camera in hand waiting, but it never happened.  We ended up sitting, talking and sipping tea for the evening.  Nothing much to write, I just wanted to share a couple of the photos H took of us before we left for the evening. 

Crammed

I don't have a photo to share today, and that is part of the reason I am writing.  Confused?  Let me explain.  I started a new diet.  To date I have lost 12 lbs.  B's taken weekly photos of me so that I can see the difference.  Truth be told, I haven't looked at these photos yet since they are on a different camera than I normally use and I am lazy enough not to upload the photos from it to the computer to view and use.  Pitiful, I know. 

This diet has been difficult in some ways and the best ever in others.  There are fast results which is very encouraging and is a great motivator to stay invested in the program.  I'm learning to adapt to smaller portions and coming up with my own spices and flavors to what would have before the diet seemed to be bland food.  Some of the food is good enough that my mother took down one of the recipes to share with her sisters!  No tasteless cardboard here, friends! 

After this amount of success, however, I thought that my clothes would be falling off of my body, but that hasn't happened.  As I dressed after showering today, I slipped into one of my favorite pairs of corduroys and they fit beautifully.  They were comfortable.  I didn't have to suck in the gut to fasten them or even do the jump and pull to get them up and over my hips.  (You know you've been there.)  After getting over the disappointment of not needing new apparel yet, I wondered just how much I'd crammed myself into all of my clothes.  What I thought was "fitting" was really "almost splitting the seams".  D-E-N-I-A-L!  I had heard or read a few years ago not to size up clothes so that you could feel the discomfort and then want to lose weight. 

My problem has been that I spend my life stuck in consistent motivation and action with no results, thus causing continual discomfort in the clothes I crammed myself into.  How extremely aggravating to be doing all of the "right things" (drinking water, eating right, trying different regimens, exercising, not eating desserts/treats/junk) and not have any visible results.  I've developed slightly elevated cholesterol despite my efforts too.  Grrr!!!

I don't think this diet is for everyone.  I have learned through trial and error myself that what works for some, does not work for everyone.  We all have different bodies, chemistry, heritage, lifestyles, genetics, likes, motivations, energies, etc. which make us unique in what finally helps us achieve our health goals.  This is what keeps me from stating just what my diet is. 

Be encouraged to try different things.  To try different combinations.  To experiment with your body.  To know that M.D.s don't know it all--but always let them know what you are trying.  Find a doctor that listens to you and treats you like you know something too.  (Stepping down off my soapbox now...)

Cheers to all who find that they no longer need to cram!

Sabotage!

School in session



While it may not be evident from the above scene, I have made progress on my "pile".  I sometimes find it discouraging and somewhat of a distraction to have school stuff spread out on the work table since it makes progress difficult to remember.  School is a daily task, however, so there is not much I can do to avoid the clutter on the table while in session.  The kids have their own baskets and shelves to store their books, binders, assignments, schedules, etc. under the table and for the most part they do a fantastic job of putting everything away when they are finished.  (Yay Mom!  Kids are learning to be organized!) 

It occurred to me that I sometimes sabotage the cleanup and ordering process myself when there is this much clutter on the table.  It seems overwhelming to tackle the big things when I have the daily tasks staring at me.  So what do I do?  Procrastinate.  Chronicle it here.  :)  Begin something new to avoid the old.  Knit. 

I'm telling myself the cure is baby steps.  Today, I will tackle 30 minutes worth of stuff and try not to sabotage myself.  (No, you may NOT start the Valentine's Day crafts you bought yesterday until AFTER the 30 minutes of work on the pile!  --Do you give yourself pep talks too?) 

Pile of Progress

I've decided to be more positive and complain less.  Part of that is finding the silver lining of everything.  Practically I've been active with my Pile I spoke of in my previous post.  My cousin, who also blogs, posted her pile and we are now knocking our piles down simultaneously.  I love the accountability.  To add to the accountability, I'm going to try to post my progress here.  (See, I'm being positive already--knowing I'll be successful.) 

I am still having trouble posting pictures from my computer, so I cannot post a picture of the bag I made.  Remember the rug that I wanted to turn into a bag?  Well, it was part of my Pile, but now it is part of my success!  While crafting is fun for me, it also occupies much of my desktop now, so my thinking is that getting that part reduced, I'll have more room to do the less desirable projects (scrapbooking for school and school records to Excel). 

Guess I need to add, "contact Blogger regarding posting pictures".  :)

Here you can see the side panels I made.

Yeah!  I figured out the problem with posting pictures.  Well, not actually, but I found another way!