Salads!!

As I'm sitting here typing right now I am trying to convince my brain that I am NOT  hungry!  I ate a perfectly fine lunch and do not need to eat right now.   I am trying very hard to get back on the right track with my eating and weight.  I need to shed some pounds,,, I feel like a lump, and when I see pics of myself it disappoints me.  Granted I'm still 70 pounds lighter than I was 3 or so years ago but I still need to lose quite a bit more to get back to where I started before I got pregnant this last time. 

I bought fresh veggies over the weekend and made up them all into a salad so it was all premade for me and ready to eat for lunches and dinners....even the kiddos have said the salad taste yummy!  I think already having it cut up and ready to go is the key for me cause during lunch time I'm to busy to cut up all the veggies, this way I can just dump them into a bowl and add a little dressing. 

I know its possible!  I've did it before,, Its just so much harder this time!   Anyone have any good healthy snack ideas that will not give to many calories, but still make you feel satisfied for more than 30 minutes?

Then and Now..11 years later

This is our wedding picture from October 22, 1999.

And this one is of us on Saturday, October 23, 2010!     Bennie's hair went from his head to his face.LOL  I think he is much cuter now! 

Oh how the time just flies by.  I can not believe its been 11 years that we have been married.  It is something I''m very proud of.  All to often in today's world I think couples view marriage as just a piece of paper that can be throw out with the garbage.  Yes I'll be the first to say marriage is HARD, very hard!  But with a little faith and a LOT of compromise I think couples can work through most things in a marriage.   My best advise I guess would be to not sweat the small stuff and pick you battles.  The last being very important.  Honestly Bennie aggravates me at least 20 times a day but I choose to let things slide by.  NO one is happy arguing and fighting all the time.  It's miserable for us and defiantly miserable for the children.  It's taken me most of our marriage to realize these things.  I have grown and learned so much just in the past year.   Another thing I would say, at least in my marriage is guys will be guys.  They are like little boys hidden inside a grown mans body.  The like there toys and hobbies and they defiantly have fears... Not all men will admit to those fears outloud, but a lot of times they are dealing with them on the inside and we wives have to realize that.  Men need to feel loved and appreciated.  If I can show him these things our life is just better because he feels better about himself and things and therefore shows me more love!

We celebrated Saturday night by going to our same restaurant as always on our anniversary,, Red Lobster! YUMMY!  We joked while there about if we will still go there when were 80,,,, walking in with our canes and grey hair excited about shrimp fest! LOL   We had so much fun.  Without the stress of the kids along with us things just flow better.   Every couple needs to get alone time every once in a while.  We also went to a couple stores that we dont get to very often, then came home relaxed and watched a movie.  Nothing to exciting, but we were together and enjoyed each others company, so it was a wonderful night for me!    Here's to many many more years together!

An update with pictures

Life has been busy around here lately...We had my mom's dog for a week while she was on vacation,, the kids really enjoyed having him around,,

 He did a great job with the kids, in the pic above Emma and Bree were playing babies with him.

 Here is my niece Mira on the left.  I watched her for my sister while she worked on Sunday.  We went to the park and let the kids play, they loved the Merry go round! 

On Saturday I watched a different childcare kiddo all day long until 9:30 at night.  I love babysitting but I've decided I defiantly need my weekends.  I need that time to recharge and just hang out with my own kids.  I've noticed this week has been so hard and I really think its just from not having a break. 

Tomorrow is Ben and I's 11th wedding anniversary!  Wow!  We'll go out Saturday to celebrate,,without the kids!  Woo HOO!  I'm so excited and ready for some alone time!  

P.S.-sorry for the quality of the pictures,, they were taken on my phone.

Calgon take me away.....

Sometimes I think I should change my name,,,,,change it from MOM to DAD.....lol,,,,life around the house would be so much easier.  That's because whenever something goes wrong,,like God forbid someone looks at another the wrong way,,,or someone gets hurt,, or someones hungry, or something needs to be cleaned, when they say MMOOOOMMM I could just sit there and watch t.v. with my feet propped up and ignore it all.  You never hear them yell dad,,,its always mom!     Why?   

Sorry, I'm just a little grumpy and tired and in pain.  I was sick on Monday and Tuesday plus I've did something to my back and it hurts pretty bad.  It doesn't make a difference though cause this house doesn't clean itself and dinner doesn't cook itself. OH well.    Sometimes I just wanna run away...not forever, I could never live without my babies,, but just for a little while.  I really wonder what would happen,,,would the house fall apart?  Would the kids run around dirty filthy, and hungry?  I can just imagine the laundry piled up the the ceiling because if at least 2 loads don't get done everyday that's what will happen. Oh the horror just to imagine!!!  I didn't do much for 24 hours due to how I was feeling and you shoulda seen the house then! 
So am I a terrible mother for wanting to run away sometimes?   Anyone else ever feel like this?

Play dough fun

It's such a beautiful day outside.  The littles are all napping now but I think when they wake we will get outside and enjoy this weather before it disappears!  This morning they wanted to play with play dough.  We have a big tote full of play dough toys and they always have fun playing with it.  Well I went to get it out and.....oh no.....the store bought dough had dried up, someone forgot to put the lid on,,imagine that.  :)   But have no fear,  SUPER MOM is here (haha,,,yeah right).  I told the kids we could just mix up a batch all on our own.  I've did this before and honestly I like it better than the store bought.  I think it last longer and you can make as much as you want and choose the colors.  Here's a pic of the finished product.  This is only about half, they were playing with the rest already. 

Here's the recipe that I use.  There are lots of different ones out on the Internet but I like this one and it make just the right amount for us. 

Homemade Play dough:

2cups flour

1/2 cup salt

2 Tablespoons Cream of Tarter

2 cups hot water

2 Tablespoons veggie oil

food coloring of your choice

I dump the dry ingredients into a pot then add the wet ingredients, minus the food coloring.  Turn on heat to medium high and stir, stir, stir,,,,,until it starts getting clumpy and separating from the sides of the pot.  Your arm will feel like its gonna fall off.    Then I put on some thick cleaning gloves(cause its very hot) and kneed it like you were making some bread.  Then you can separate it into as many sections as you'd like and add the food coloring to it,,and kneed and kneed some more. 

That's it. Not to hard accept for feeling your arms gonna fall off. :)  My kiddos love playing with it and when I make a fresh batch it can keep them entertained for at least an hour!

Yesterday evening I was able to get out with some friends for dinner.  Just us ladies with no kiddos!  It was so nice and relaxing to eat our food and chat without having to worry about kids fighting or trying to get outta there seats!  I had a great time.  I think it's fun to get together with other moms and share kids stories and pick their brains on what works for them for this thing or that.  It was a great evening and my family managed just fine without me here at home.  Everyone was bathed and in there jammies when I got home waiting for me to tuck them in!  The kitchen was cleaned up, thanks to Jess, all homework was done.  I had left a list for them just in case Ben forgot to remind them what needed to be done.  I was very proud of them all!





Monday ramblings

We had a nice weekend.  We really didnt do anything,,, we went to my mom's house on Saturday afternoon and visited.  Sunday we stayed home.  It was great!  I think we needed to just hang out and relax.   I did a lot of cleaning on Sunday,,another advantage of staying home!  The greatest thing of all was since we stayed home we didn't spend any money! Woo HOo!  I am also proud of us because I stuck to my guns and we didnt eat out.  Sunday during dinner I said to the family,, I'm so proud of us we did really good this weekend.  My husband knew exactly what I meant cause he said, I know but it was hard.....that puzzled me,, I said I was talking about not eating out, and he said I know.   I'm not sure why it's hard for him to not eat out,,,,I'm the one cooking and cleaning up the meals. LOL   I guess he just enjoys the treat of having something different every now and then.   Last night after dinner I made apple dumplings!  They were sooo good,  and sooo fattening!    I'm gonna really try and start watching myself and what I eat.  Florida time is coming up and I don't want to feel like a big blob while were there.  I really wanna get back to where I was before I had Emma,, its just so hard for some reason!   Not much else to say today,,, Enjoy your day

Fall decorations

I thought I'd show off my outside fall decorations. 

 This is a gourd that we spray painted white and colored the eyes and mouth to look like a ghost

 Our scary witch.

All free courtesy of grandma's pumpkin patch and my stepdad's bale of straw,,oh and the leftover corn stalks from the garden!

Frugal Friday tip--Reusing coffee grounds

In a effort to up my traffic on my blog I'm going to start participating in some blog carnivals.  Over of Life as Mom every Friday they have tips for being frugal.   My tip this week is about coffee. 

My coffee maker is kinda cool.  You can use it to make a pot of coffee or you can use it to just fill up those reusable themas cups.  You can see it here.  I didnt pay nearly that much though.  Through the week when its just me I make myself a themas full of coffee,,,,I'm a little addicted and one just isn't enough.   So when I go to make my second cup I reuse the grounds that are already in there and just add half as much as I normally would.  It taste just as good and strong and fresh!   Coffee is not cheap and this is a way to make it stretch.  I do the same thing on the weekend cause Ben and I normally go through two pots,,, he doesn't know though, I 'm sure he would think it was awful...so shhhhhhh , don't tell him. :)  hehehe

For more frugal tips check out Life as Mom