Melon Joy

I got a melon baller. I’d never had one before. I didn’t realize how easy it is to handle a watermelon with one.   I love my new melon baller.

Diet Challenge–Saturday
Hey, it’s Saturday. I can go a little crazy.

Breakfast–Two Eggo waffles with butter stuff and Lite fake maple syrup and hot tea

Lunch–Bowl of cheese twists, bowl of watermelon

Supper–We were at a potluck, and I had a small serving of bow tie pasta with veggies, corn pudding, and sauerkraut; two half-dollar-sized slices of bratwrust; five small meatballs in tomato sauce; a square of pineapple upside down cake; and a handful of peanuts. (It sounds like a lot, but it really wasn’t. I do mean small servings.)

Snacks–Two handfuls of dried, mixed fruit, half a bowl of cheese twists  (Isn’t it lovely how versatile cheese twists are? They can pass as a meal or a snack!)

Exercise–.5 hours gardening
                2.5 hours dancing at a square dance–SUCH fun! I love to dance with my husband.  Only the fifth time ever in my life to do it, too.

Five Things from Random

ElizabethDNB tagged me, so I thought I’d play along.  Even if you weren’t tagged and feel like doing this quiz, please feel free! Now I’m off to take a walk. But first,  I must rouse my sleeping teens from Summer Morning Slumberland. (And brush my teeth)

Five Snacks I Enjoy:

Jax Cheese twists (oh, what a surprise!)
Chocolate chip cookies  (no, really? I had NO idea!)
Pretzels
Chocolate chip ice cream
Candy (Dots, Sugar Babies, and more)

Five Things On My To-Do List Today:

Shopping
Go pick up Hunter from camp
Take TGD out to early Father’s Day supper
Pick up pool chemicals
Make the kids clean the house (mwa-ha-ha!)

Five Things I Would Do If I Were A Billionaire:

Pay off my mortgage
Give lots of money to missions, especially IGM (Independent
Gospel Missions)
Give money to libraries
Travel internationally with my family
Wonder if it was really worth the stress to be a billionaire

Five Jobs I Have Had:

Waitress
Telemarketer for Stanley
Steemer Carpet Cleaner
Online English Teacher
College English Teacher (composition)
Writer of math supplements and English teacher’s manuals.

Five of My Bad Habits:

Do I have any? (Oh, so very funny.)
Not being terribly tidy
Leaving half-used tissues lying around
Inconsistency in many areas (not cheese twist eating)
Gockle says, “Chewing ice”
Being impatient with TGD and the children and then saying,
“I’m not impatient!” and getting mad
 

Five Places I’ve Lived:

Curwensville,
PA
State College,
PA
San Antonio,
TX
Norman, OK
Cambridge,
England

Five Random Things:

I love to rock in rocking chairs.
I have been known to get motion sick on  pool rafts. Don’t even mention the back seat of a car or a spinning ride at an amusement park.
I have the tiniest pinkie toenail you’ve ever seen.
I like to sleep with my ears covered by my hair just so spiders won’t crawl into my ears while I sleep.
I really think I like gardening, but when you get right down to it, all the digging, planting, and weeding is annoying.

Now I get to tag five people. I’m going to tag my newest Xanga friends–

Sandibell

Quilt_Cats

You_Taste_Bittersweet

MightyShell

Katiegrl_20_2008

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Diet Challenge–Friday

Breakfast–Slimfast bar and hot tea

Snacks–bowl of watermelon (with a dash of salt–YUM!), 100 calorie yogurt

Lunch–Popcorn and soda special at Target (so sad they raised the price to $1.50)

Supper–Super Bird from Denny’s (turkey sandwich with cheese and lots and lots of extra tomatoes) and seasoned fries

 Exercise–2.25 mile walk with hand weights

  

I Love Summer!

I loved England. I really did. But, I am so, so, SOOOO glad to be home now that it is summer at my house.  No homeschool, swimming in the pool, pleasant walks, gardening, parties, eating out on the deck, sitting on the wicker porch swing or rocking chair, the fans blowing… Sigh.  I just love it. 

Not everyone at my house is so wild about summer right now. Poor TGD is suffering with the most miserable allergies. They are causing a flare-up of his Meniere’s Disease, a dizzy thing.  Even with a constant Puffs Plus and dizziness, he and Wit managed to tear off and replace the front steps on our porch today.  The boards were nailed over seven risers and glued to the risers. What a job it was to pry them off!   I’m proud and pleased and now have to paint. (So many P’s.)

I’m not sure how to post my food and such for the day. It will make for a lot of boring entries. Perhaps I should post them separately? Today, not. Tomorrow, maybe.

Diet Challenge–Thursday

(I only included drinks if they had calories. I had a diet root beer and loads of water today.)

Breakfast–Slimfast bar and hot tea

Lunch–Fruit smoothie (banana, 1/2 c. strawberries, 1/4 cup skim milk), bowl of Jax cheese twists

Snacks– 1/2 bowl cheese twists, 1/4 cup raisins, 100 calorie yogurt, 20 Sugar Babies, hot tea

Supper–Grilled venison steak, two small baked potatoes with Parmesan cheese and butter stuff, double helping steamed broccoli,  cooked grape tomatoes


Exercise–2.25 mile walk with 3 lb. hand weights
                3 laps around the pool with arms only
                Lots and lots of gardening–digging and planting

Diet Challenge

Would anyone care to join me in a diet challenge? Remember, the word “diet” just means the food you eat.  I am tired of ending my day wishing I had done a better job with my food choices and exercise.  I think I might need some accountability.  And, perhaps you would like to be that accountability?

Here’s the plan.  Write down everything you eat and drink for the day. Then post it on one of my entries or on your own site or whatever works best for you. You have to do this every day. Let’s say for one month.  Three weeks?  How about July 4th is our last day of the challenge.  Also, you should aim for some type of exercise each day, even if it is ten hastily-done sit ups before bed.  Write that down, too.

Do you have to cut calories? Nope. But hopefully, I’ll be too ashamed to eat an entire movie-sized box of Jujufruits if I know I have to write about it the next day.   One thing which I am going to try to do (and encourage you to have the same goal) is to eat five fruits or vegetables every day.  It’s summer, they taste good, and I like them. Why is it that so many days I get to the end of my night and eat a handful of raisins just to get ONE serving?  That’s just awful.

So, are you with me?  Can you do it?  Let’s see what happens. (And maybe, just maybe, I’ll drop those pesky five pounds!)

Buzzzzzz

Cinderella at the Ball

Yes, I’ve been gone for a while.   I’ve been busy turning my horses back into mice and cleaning up the remains of a smashed pumpkin.  (Or maybe visiting relatives, shopping to restock shelves and outgrown clothes and finishing portfolios.)  But, I did get to go to a ball. Yup! Honest and for true. The Spring Ball (think homeschool prom but not all homeschoolers) was this Friday, and I got to be a chaperone and photographer.  I was just going to wear the dress I wore to The Globe Theater, but I found out that most of the other moms would be in floor-length formals.  AAAH! I hadn’t bought a floor-length formal since my wedding dress. 

What to do?

Visit my mom’s closet, of course, where she had the perfect dress in just my size that she had worn several years ago to a Mardi Gras New Year’s Eve party.  It was spaghetti-strapped and backless, but I found a perfect cover thing at Wal-Mart.

The ball wasn’t solely for my enjoyment, even though I had a fabulous time. My children and their friends also had fun swing dancing, waltzing, fox trotting, and eating. They had a dance instructor come to give everyone lessons before the “open dancing” time began.  (Wit and LibbyK were waiters as they have not achieved 10th grade status yet, hence their lack of formal attire. But, they got to dance, too.)