Shopping trip number two

With the pending White Death Storm of 2014 heading our way, I moved up my Aldi shopping trip by one day to Saturday. I guess it was a good thing I did but boy, the shelves were bare and I have NEVER seen so many people in there at one time.

I spent $56.04 which brings my total to $119.88 for a family of 5. With the weather being so cold, and the kids and I are off today and most likely tomorrow, I am going to do a thorough pantry and freezer sweep. I am hoping to not go to the store until the end of the week like I usually do.

I hope you are staying warm and safe where you are. This has been one heck of a winter that started in October for us here in Central Ohio!!

I'll post some pics on my blog about what kind of creative meals I have made with what I have on hand. Going to keep it simple.

Happy Monday Friends!!

Cat

2014: Will it and it will

Happy 2014 Friends!!

I hope you all had a great Holiday and a wonderful New Year celebration.

We did something very uncharacteristic of our family: we traveled over break. 

More specifically, we went to Chicago when they had the worst snow of the century.

Danger is our middle name.

We made it there and back ok, though the getting back was the hard part.

But, I think the whole experience is one the kids will never forget:

First cab ride

Seeing Soldier Field, Trump and Tribune Towers, going to Shedd Aquarium, deep dish pizza, seeing the city streets raise to let boats thru.

These are all big experiences to kids, especially when you live in the Midwest.

Next time we go will be a summer trip. There was so much we didn't do because of the weather, but it was a trip none of us will forget.

I don't do New Year's resolutions, do you? I used to but it seemed like I was putting so much pressure on myself to do something that was quite possibly unattainable (lose  100 lbs in 4 minutes, climb Mt. Fuji). You get the idea.

Of course this year I will continue with my effort to lose weight (I really made NO effort last year, though I didn't gain any, I sure didn't put my health first), eat cleaner and help my family enjoy more fresh and less processed foods. 

With the above notion, I am switching up the way I do my grocery shopping. I was killing myself to make a weeks worth of menu's for all three meals and snacks and it always seemed liked I had a lot of food left over. I go to the grocery store what seems like every day now anyway, so I am going to make my lists based on three days at a time, with one big Aldi's shopping day on my way home from work on Sunday's. 

I am going to keep track of how much I spend and if it I am spending more this way, not wasting as much food, etc.

So here's my receipt from today

Went to Meijer for this trip. My total was 83.84 but I am going to subtract $20 from that bcz I had to buy a new coffee maker, ours died New Year's Eve morning.

So, first total is $63.84

We'll see how it goes.

I will post every time I go to the store. Aren't you lucky?

Have any meal planning tips you want to share?

I got an immersion blender for Christmas, so there will be a lot of soups in our future, and maybe smoothies if I can get the kids to drink them.

Right now soup sounds good, crazy cold here.

Ok gang, you all take care. I am off to get on the elliptical for a bit. I have a trial of Netflix and I am hoping watching something while I am on my elliptical will take the sting out of my workouts. If it does, it is worth the $8 a month!!

Happy New Year's and thanks for reading!

Cat

Or not....

Hello friends!! I hope you are all doing well. I have had a great weekend of hanging out with friends, watching Emily run in a Cross Country meet, and working.

Maybe that last part wasn't "great" but I am always glad to help out when I can.

I am tired so I am going to make this blog brief. I read a couple of things this week that have literally changed my life.

The first being, I am reading a book called "The Paleo Coach" by Jason Seib. I following him on Facebook and am always willing to learn more about nutrition and exercise. But just a few days after I committed to running the Jingle Bell Run in Dec, I read this passage:

"Traditional running, like distance running, as opposed to walking or sprinting, tends to be perceived by the body as stress, which increases cortisol, thus breaking down more muscle and storing more fat. In other words, fat loss gets really tough unless most of your muscle mass is emaciated first".

Go ahead, look up emaciated, I will wait...

So a couple bells went off in my brain when I read this:

1) I have never lost weight by running. Even when I ran 7 or 8 miles each weekend day and some during the week, I never lost any weight (I know this is true for ME , you may have a different story and I respect that).

2)I hate running.

Yay!! I have a reason to not run anymore. I will gladly walk the Jingle Bell Run with my friend and just enjoy it. For me, my greatest weight loss comes from aerobics, squats, push ups and healthy eating.

Not running. Ever. Unless being chased.

The second thing I saw was a movie called "Fat, sick and nearly dead". It is about an Australian man who was over weight and decided to come to America and do a SIXTY day juice fast. You can watch it online for free and I really recommend you do. It is about an hour, forty in length, so pick a rainy day. Well worth it. The second half of the movie is about a man he met along the way and how he changed his life. Can't get thru it without Kleenex. Warning you now.

As a cook, drinking my meals is totally foreign to me, but once you see all the science behind it, you get roped it. My lovely neighbor offered up her juicer for me to try and I got the kids involved. They loved watching the fruits and veggies go in and come out juice. I know I could do a breakfast juice every day of fruits because I do not like to eat fruits but seem to have no problem with them in liquid form.

It is the veggies I have an issue with. I eat plenty of veggies and feel like I could skip this aspect.  I am going to try for a week and see how breakfast goes before I totally commit to a juicer.

I warned Griff not to go to school and tell everyone we are "juicing". I don't need Social Services at my door!

We took Jack off all medications, hoping to clean out his system and start over. I don't feel like he has improved at all this year so there must be another component I need to look at. He is my little guinea pig and I feel for him though I love his ability to try anything!

That's it from here. Lots of Paleo cooking going on and juicing, too. Hope you all are well and I would love to get one more follower for an even 16.

I am a little OC that way!!

Best wishes to you. 

Cat 

It's Jacktober!!!

Hey Friends! October is here, or as we call it in our family, Jacktober!! Yes,the baby of the family is the only one who gets a whole month named after him, but the names of the other kids month's would not be so fluid:

Emuly

Grarch

You can see why Jacktober has prevailed!!

Our Fall weather has been nicer than our entire summer but it still causing the leaves to fall. This is my favorite time of year as I see Fall as a chance to reset and make things right.

In that vain: Tom and I have taken on what we call our "October Smackdown". Our youngest will be 10 on the 20th and we really feel like there should have been a cut off on keeping the "baby weight". Ten years is a bit much, yes??

So I have been running again. My neighbor and I are signing up for the Jingle Bell Run which is 4 days after my 44th birthday. I needed a kick in the pants and this is it. Two days of running remind me that I am not 30, let alone 40 anymore, but I know I can do a 5k. RIGHT???

Chaos reigns supreme most of the time in this house since school started. Em is learning how to drive. Griff has more homework than all 5 years of Elem combined and Jack is just trying to deal with what life throws his way.

Tom and I are in a good place, thankfully. Summer seemed hard on us and I think it was bcz we didn't go to the pool as much and everyone had a lot of extra energy. We are working as a team more and talking a lot more about the kids stuff and what each of us need.. If you can't talk to your main squeeze, who can you talk to?

He did say something that made me laugh for a really long time today. We were talking about something and he told me that he was the "Total Package".

I feel for those of you who don't know my husband. His lot in life is to make me laugh and he hit BIG on this one. Tom is a wonderful man and I love him to death but to put that statement out there, was pretty bold. Even for him. But thinking about it, for me, he IS the Total Package.

And yes, I know I used all of our real names in this post and I will continue to. I am fairly sure all 15 of my followers are peaceful!!

Run like the wind and enjoy Jacktober!!

Cat

The Great Wave of Organization

Happy Labor Day, Friends! I hope you are all enjoying this long weekend, I know I am. I spent the last day and a half organizing some critical parts of our house. The reason for the bee in my bonnet? Snacks. Well, not the snacks themselves, the need to HIDE the snacks so the kids don't eat them all at one time. The threat of "You will have nothing to pack in your lunch this week" is not working, so I need a place to hide them so I can ration them.

Yep, this is what it has come to!

My organizing started with the back closet

I moved all my larger kitchen appliances in there, added the old tv stand as some shelving and have a place to hang bags of snacks, as well as freeing up space in my pantry. See that rice cooker on the top shelf? That made some valuable room in my hutch...

I put a lot of wine and beer glasses we rarely use down there. Easy enough to get to if I need them. I moved them out of my cabinet so I could do this...

I put our bigger coffee cups on the top shelf so I could move the more kid friendly (read plastic) onto the bottom shelf so they could reach them easier. I am nice like that.

Then I decided to tackle my cook book cabinet. This is the before...

Kind of wonky and not at all easy to get to anything. This is the after..

Much better!!!

Two more projects to go. The fridge and the front book case... here are the before and afters...

Finally, the book case!!

No more little kids books allowed, only chapter books. I am putting some of the classics in a tote that will go in the basement. Maybe someday my grand kids will read them. Or not.

For those of you who don't know, I broke my thumb on Monday night and have been in a splint since then. Has made my cooking life a challenge to say the least and I have a huge blister on my thumb so I am going without the splint for a couple hours. May try bandaging it without the splint, just to keep it still.

I have also kicked butt on the weight loss front this week. I was at 153 at the beginning of the week and this morning I am 148.5. Lots of eating well, no alcohol, and getting about 14k steps in a day. No hard core exercise bcz of my thumb but am making sure I exceed my step goal.

I have to get the upstairs cleaned today and the downstairs done tomorrow and I will feel like I made the most of my time off. Not to worry, there has been plenty of kite flying, cooking and napping going on.

Have a great rest of your long weekend!!

Cat

The Summer of Self Knowledge

Happy Saturday, friends!! I hope this blog finds you all doing well and for those of you who had kids start back to school this past week: Hallelujah!!! I started back to work and my kids start back this coming week. I am so glad to be back to work and off the couch. 

I spent a lot of time on that couch this summer and over the course of the 10 or so weeks I was off, I learned a few things about myself. Thought I would share.

1.Though I tell myself at the start of every summer that THIS is the summer I am going to work out and get the last couple pounds off, it's not going to happen. I have learned and accepted that being on my feet for 6-8 hours a day for 9 1/2 months warrants me laying on the couch for a couple weeks. And any weight I may gain (this summer it was 3 lbs) I will burn off the first week of work. And I did.

2. I have become a master at the art of what I like to call "conversation redirection". Having a child who is ADHD and Autistic has really honed this skill and he put me to task all summer. Question to parents out there: is it normal for 9 year old's to want a new toy EVERY SINGLE DAY??? Or is this an obsessive thing he has going on? And when he does get new things, it is never good enough, he always wants something else. Here is where I have become the master of redirection. He wants everything NOW and I have learned that if I tell him no local stores carry the item and it will take 7-10 days to ship, he drops wanting it. So if he asks you why local stores don't carry any toys......go along with it....please.

3.If I am going to ask someone for advice, I best be prepared to hear things I may not want to. This is a hard one to swallow but I am working on it.

4.Punching a punching bag is really good therapy. You can picture anyone on there and pound away.

5. I have some really wonderful friends. I mean, I knew this anyway, but was reminded quite often over the summer. My bestie, Beenie Weenie, gave me the best advice ever about relationships: In a marriage, though you are going thru the same things, you will both react differently. This really has made me look at how my hubby and I react to things, and there really is no wrong way to go thru a difficult time. And a shout out to Mighty Mouth for being there for me for the past 14 years. You are a keeper. And to my neighbors, nothing but love and summer nights on the porch. 

6. Sometimes, medication is the best way to go. After three years of trying to deal with youngest's ADHD thru diet and herbal medications, we have decided to try medication. So far it is going well and if it helps him be successful in school and friendships, then it is the right thing to do for us.

And lastly....

7. I have my hands full with my three kids, work and starting my new business. Most of the time I feel like none of these gets enough of my attention, but at the end of the day, I feel like I did my best. And I am thankful to have a husband that loves and supports me to a ridiculous degree. Again, I knew this but was reminded over the summer.

As far as the FitCat part of my life, I am running again on the weekends. I don't wear my watch, I don't time it and I go as far (or not) as I feel up to. Week days I am doing a program that my hubby put together that goes like this:
3-5 minutes on the elliptical, full speed
a few minutes on the punching bag
a few minutes high knees on the mini tramp with arms over my head
back to the punching bag
back to the elliptical and do another round.
Takes about 13-15 minutes and kicks my butt!!!

I manage to get over 10k steps in every day between work and after work activities, so all is good in that dept.

Are there things about yourself that you are surprised to learn? I think the best thing about life is learning new things. I am always asking people, sometimes strangers, questions. You would be surprised by what people know.

Have a great weekend. I hope to post more since I feel more in a groove with being back to work. 

Cat

No more laying down

Hi Friends!

Last time I posted, we were back from our vacation and I am happy to say we are back from a mini vacation!! We were fortunate for our whole family to be invited on a friend's trip to Kalahari Water park for an over night and then a day at Cedar Point on Sat. Kalahari was a lot of fun but no joke, I think it was SNOWING at Cedar Point. The wind was blowing so hard and the rain was freezing, the kids waited in the down pour to ride one ride and then we went back to Kalahari for the afternoon. Despite that, we had a great time and are grateful for the chance to go.

There have been some heavy things going on in my life but instead of laying down and dwelling on them, I am choosing to lift myself up and enjoy the good, silly, fun things. Here are a few:

My new business, Great Gatherings, LLC is up and running. For those of you who don't know, I provide assistance when you are having a cookout, graduation party, baby shower, etc. I can help you plan your event and I help set up, maintain food and beverage service, and clean up. It is a great way for you to enjoy the event you are hosting. I am doing Holiday's too. We could all use a stress free Holiday in our lives.

Enough tooting my own horn.

I entered a contest on Diet Bet a month ago. You put in $25 and have 4 weeks to lose 5 or 10% (this is how much I am in the contest, I don't even know the rules!) of your weight and whoever does this and exceeds their goal, wins the pot. I thought this would be good motivation for the miser in me (I hate throwing away $25!) but alas, I do not think I will be the Biggest Loser or the Diet Bet Winner tomorrow come weigh in time. The good news is, despite wearing nothing but elastic shorts all summer, my weight has remained the same. Roughly. Meh.

My only daughter turns 16 on Weds. I hope when I grow up I am like her at 16. She is the best person I know and I love her too much to put into words. If you know her, consider yourself fortunate. She is a true beauty.

I still fill in at the Assisted Living Facility. I truly enjoy my time there as they remind me of what is important. I start back to work in THREE weeks. Looking forward to it but need to get my butt in gear and find a week for child care for the boys. Hoping Daughter can do some of the days but she is so busy (again, BIG LOVE to her). It will all work out, it always does.

Here is my latest challenge that I will be posting on FB: In an effort to clean out my freezers and pantry, I am not going big food shopping for as long as I can. I am challenging myself to come up with all meals from what we have on hand. I want to get it all cleared out before I go  back to work so I can stock up, cook what I need and get things ready for another school year. Each day, I will post a pic on FB of what creative thing I made for a meal (or two) with what I have on hand. I may have to make a milk run but that would be it, until I can't make anything else.

I feel like I need something to focus on that takes my focus away from the not so pleasant stuff. I feel like this summer has been a big waste and a lot of that has been my attitude about everything. There were days when I wouldn't get out of bed till after 10am bcz I just didn't want to deal with life. Depressed much? Yep.

Something in me snapped this past weekend and I am not going to take life laying down anymore. I have a renewed, albeit exhausted spirit and I am going to give my best to all I do.

I will post this and then post a pic of our dinner. Have a great week!!

Cat