Saturday, April 12, 2008

Catching You Up

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and I haven't had as much time as I'd like to post on my blog or to visit everyone else's blogs. Here is a glimpse at what I've been doing instead of blogging.


The kids and I spent a day researching plants, compost, etc, and mapped out a garden. We have about half of it planted now--tomatoes, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, leeks, and various herbs. We hope to get the rest of our plants and seeds this next week and get it finished. They have really enjoyed the daily ritual of taking out the bowl of peelings to the compost pile and watering the little plants.

I've been learning (or trying to learn) how to do little girl hair. To be honest, Jared is the better hairdresser around here, but he's not usually around during the week when it's time to do hair. These piggy tails are her first--the boys said she looks just like a bug with antennae!


I also gave Bronwen her first pedicure. Ok, so really it was just her first polish, since I didn't do anything else. She was fascinated and kept wanting to grab the nail polish. And I picked such a pale pink that you can't even tell in the picture. I'm not ready to put lipstick red on her toes yet, even if it is on mine!

We saw Henry receive a Good Citizen Award in kindergarten for the middle trimester. He was very proud, and so were we. In kindergarten this year Henry has been developing his social and leadership skills, and is coming out of his shell. Here he is with his principal.



Henry also recently completed 19 laps at his school Jog-a-thon. The activity has been so popular with our family in the years that my kids have attended public school that I'm thinking about hosting our own next year at Tiger Academy.

I created this cake for Jared's birthday, which turned out to be too rich. I didn't think that was possible--I've never had anything chocolaty before that was too rich. I did four layers of chocolate-chocolate chip pound cake with two layers of whipped ganache filling and one layer of chocolate mousse filling, chocolate ganache frosting, and toffee pieces all around. So either I've finally proved my theory wrong about there being no such thing as too much chocolate, or I've turned a big corner when it comes to food. I was actually sick to my stomach for 36 hours after I at a piece of this--and I didn't even eat the whole piece. After we celebrated with our family, I took the rest of the cake and gave it away.

I've been reading (and enjoying) this book. Sadly, it has taken me a few weeks to finish, since I have had so many other things going on. A good read.





While folding laundry the other night, I caught a bit of "I Can Make You Thin" on TLC. It plays a lot like an infomercial, but I tried out a couple of the techniques and they seem to work. So if you can tolerate the feeling that you are being sold something, you might want to check it out. I'm sure he's doing the show to sell his books, but it's not actually an infomercial. I watched the episode on cravings and found it to be very effective in giving me control over chocolate. Perhaps it has something to do with why Jared's birthday cake made me sick?


Today was Patient Appreciation Day in Jared's office. We do this event twice yearly; existing patients are treated to a free adjustment and 10 minute massage, new patients get an exam and x-ray for free. I do a food spread to keep everyone happy while they are waiting their turn. This time I decided to not go overboard--I generally have ridiculous amounts of leftovers. We ordered sandwiches from Costco, had a veggie platter, lots of fresh fruit, and some homemade desserts. I was so proud of myself for not overdoing it. Then we had our best turnout ever and I had to send someone to Costco at noon for more sandwiches! Still, that is good.
I made Lemon Raspberry Bars,

Mint Brownies,
Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies (which you must try if you haven't yet),

and a new twist on my CCP Cookies, with some added 1 c. coconut, 2 c. oatmeal (I reduced the flour by 1 1/2 cups), and 1 c. semi-sweet chips (I reduced the milk chips to 2 cups). Amazingly, although I made all that food this week, I did very little picking at it as I baked. And I was down 2.4 lbs at my Wednesday weigh-in! Yeah! Here's hoping that will be true next week, too.

I do not have a picture of the mountains of laundry that I have done in the past couple of weeks with the stomach flu running rampant through our house yet again (this has not been a good year for that,) and my decision to stop buying pull-ups for some bedwetters in the house. Enough said on that subject. If you are a mother, you feel my pain!

13 comments:

Macy said...

"I Can Make You Thin" is a fantastic show. If it makes you feel better about being sold something, he never mentions his books during the show. I have been following his four rules from the first episode and have lost 5 pounds over the last couple weeks and I haven't had time to go to the gym. I'm eating much less and stopping when I'm full. It's great.

Scrappy said...

So much to comment on! It sounds like a fun couple of weeks, except for the illness and laundry. Ned was feeling sick yesterday and my first thought was that I hoped I would not have to wash his blankets and pillows. Thankfully, a nap took care of it all.

Your Patient Appreciation Day sounds like a lot of fun (for the patients), I wish I could have been there, I could use a massage!

"I Can Make You Thin" looks like a great show. I wish I had cable so I could watch it. I really need to work on stopping when I'm full.

Wow, that cake sounds so rich! I am not a huge chocolate fan, so I bet I would have been sick from just a bite. It looks pretty yummy, though.

Congrats to Henry on his Good Citizen Award and on running his jog-a-thon. He is growing up too fast, and it has been way too long since I saw him!

I love Bronwen's toes, with or without polish! I love the hair too.

I really need to get my garden planted, yours looks great! That is such a fun family activity.

Unknown said...

Thank you for sending Brady home with leftovers. Your cookies and the brownies ROCK!

We are glad that Brady could be there to help. He really enjoyed helping. We need to plan something soon! It has been too long since we have seen each other!

Lynell said...

I just wanted to say "Hi". What a great post. Your family is darling and it was fun taking a peek into your happy, busy life.

Andrea said...

I love the garden! I really enjoy having a garden. I want to do better about planting herbs and drying them too. I have parsley right now and I really enjoy using it.

Your cookies look fantastic as always.

Sorry about the stomach flu. That is not fun.I also feel your pain about the pull ups. Timmy wets the bed about once a weekmaybe 2. I hate spending the money on those.

Yvonne said...

WOW!!!!
Looks like lots of busy fun at your house.. your desserts make me want to run to the cupboard right now, but I am doing WW as well, and can NOT afford those points! Congrats on your weight loss, I have been checking out "Thin" too, but I keep falling asleep! Maybe he should do another one called, "I can make you not tired"! The video clip did not seem to be about cravings...did I do something wrong?
Glad to see that you are enjoying life!

Sonja said...

Thanks for catching me up!
Your garden plan is great! I love all of the things you are planting. We are also beginning to plant this week. eek! It's a lot of work.

Your daughter is sooo cute. I've always struggled with doing my girls hair. They have very fine, straight hair that is difficult to 'do'. It is fun to see how different they look with pig tails and pony tails, though. So grown up.

A cake that's too rich? Who knew?

I really like Chaim Potack's "I Am The Clay."

Thanks again for the update. It's always fun to see what you are up to. :)

mindyluwho said...

I love the book "The Chosen". I've read it a couple of times now.

That's hilarious about the cake being too rich. I've yet to find a dessert too rich for me!

Rebecca said...

Thanks for leaving me a comment today. I have really enjoyed hearing others' stories and knowing that I'm not the only one.

I would definitely like that chocolate cake with toffee, I love both of those items. And, I think the piggy tails are cute.

Ice Cream said...

Ok, I loved just the little clip of the I Can Make You Thin show. I need to check it out.

LOVE the bug antannea. She is so cute. I am going to make the CCP cookies for family night tonight. How do you make the lemon raspberry bars? They look so yummy.

Rebecca Blevins said...

You have been busy! I wanted to at least leave one comment before I go do other stuff, and I'll catch up on the rest of your posts soon. The kiddos are going outside to play, and I need to mop the floor!

It sounds like your Patient Appreciation Day went well! Everything looked so yummy.

I'd love to hear what you're doing about the Pullup situation. Did you say that's just at night, or during the day? I'll have to look again. I took Princess off of Pullups except for nighttime. She's the only one I ever had them with, because the boys weren't ready until they were three. Then we just didn't go anywhere for at least a week while they trained.

Michal said...

rebecca,
regarding the pull ups, i am strictly opposed to them when potty training (you can see one of my earliest posts, which was about potty training, here. (i am such an html moron that linking that took like five mintes.:)

i have used pull ups at night because a certain unnamed six year old is still having problems with wetting the bed about half the time. the three year old does less than that if we are vigilant about taking him to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but sometimes i am lazy. i quit buying pull ups because i was sick of spending $30 every time we needed pull ups when i would rather be buying a cute pair of spring flats or something else equally fun (i am that selfish.) it has made for more laundry, but i am also more vigilant about waking kids up to go potty at midnight than i used to be!

nickandstaci said...

It was so nice to see you at PAD. You look great, very thin! We loved all the yummy goodies you made. My fav was the brownie and Nick loved the lemon bars. You are such a talanted baker!
Looks like you guys have been busy! I would love to do a garden one year, maybe next year... I think it is great for the children.
Love Bronwen's new hair do and fancy nails. Too Cute! Don't worry you'll get the hang of the hair thing. Girls are so much fun!