then you know

If you have ever been surrounded by the voices of praises being sung by 200+ women...
If you have sworn you aren't an emotional person but find yourself letting all that you where holding on to go as the notes of the first song play...
If you have chatted for 3 days straight...
If you have ever shared moments of complete understanding with someone you met a moment, day or year before...
If you have prayed with, were encouraged by, and sipped coffee with dear friends...
If after it all you felt refreshed and blessed...

then you know the kind of weekend I had.  Too wonderful for more words than that.

no good

I'm not a very good blogger.  Not lately at least.  I don't know how these women with the thousands of hits a day mega blogs do it.  Maybe if I got paid to blog I would do better.  But I don't think there's anyone out there willing to pay for my thoughts.  Maybe my mom?  Mom, would you pay me to blog?  You might have to sell the place at Sunset...on second thought I would rather have a place to visit at the beach than get paid for this.  So maybe I will just try to do better.

Since I am healthy again, as in I no longer have a bad cold and/or fever, this week has been slightly back to normal.  We have done home school, I started back with language classes, I've counted my calories/exercised, and all the other normal things that take place each week at our house.  It's been a pretty good week although I'm seeing slowly and surely that I am busy most of the day and then at 8 I'm ready for bed.  I try to hold off till at least 9:30. 

My food journey has gone pretty well this week.  I'm trying a new recipe for dinner tonight.  Bean burgers.  I just heard Stan groan at the thought, but too bad.  I looked to this recipe posted several months ago to get my basic idea.  Although I couldn't find black beans that are like black beans I'm used to and had pintos on hand, so I'm using those instead.  Will it be yummy and delicious or inedible?  Only time will tell.

Also, I'm leaving on the 7:50 am bus tomorrow morning and headed to KM to attend a ladies retreat.  200 ladies and we all have at least one thing in common.  Should be a blast.  I must admit though that I'm worried about things getting too touchy feely.  Sometimes I hate that.  Especially if I don't know many people, which sounds even worse.  I might have negative thoughts towards other ladies who love that sort of thing.  Not on purpose, mind you, but because I'm immature and tend to be sarcastic and make jokes if I feel uncomfortable.  Either way, I'm praying that each of us is blessed this weekend.  And that I can be sensitive to the other nice ladies who will be there.  We are all made differently, and most likely I will be the weird one.  That is more than likely, actually.

So hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.  Next week will be yet another crazy one with some visitors in from FL.  Fun and busy.  You know, like normal life.

comfort food

Ever since I got past the near death part of being sick I have been wanting some good old comforting soup.  My good friend W brought us some Chicken Noodle soup, it was yummy.  But I had another soup on my mind; Baked Potato Soup.  For whatever reason I kept thinking about it.  It may have been that this week has also brought in some cooler weather and rain.  Autumn is coming.  I love Autumn.  It's the perfect weather for this soup.  So I decided to make it for dinner tonight.  I got the original recipe several years ago from my sweet friend Tonya (this is the story as I remember it, it may or may not be factual--this is what happens when you turn 30 and have 3 small children, details from less than 5 years ago begin to blur).  She made it for a get together.  Youth Leader's Dinner?  Dinner with friends?  I can't remember the exact occasion but it was for a group, and the soup fed us perfectly.  I had to get the recipe, although I was never able to make it the same as she did.  Mine always came out a whole lot more like loaded mashed potatoes.  Not nearly soupy enough.  So now that I have a little more culinary knowledge I decided to tweak the recipe just a bit.  And share it with you.

It should be noted that this is not a 'healthy' recipe in any way.  Some changes could be made to make it less fattening but let's be honest...it's a cream based, potato soup.  It sole purpose is to bring comfort by filling your belly.

Baked Potato Soup

9 baking potatoes

2/3 cup butter

2/3 cup flour

6 cups whole milk

3 cups chicken broth

8 ounces cream cheese

1/2 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper (or be special and use white)

1/2 cup bacon bits

green onions, chopped--amount to taste (I used about 1/3-1/2 cup)

1. Bake potatoes (usually 350 for an hour is plenty for this purpose) and scoop out flesh and set aside.  It's not important that the pieces be any specific size.  Variation is actually best.

2. In your soup pot melt the butter, once melted add in flour and whisk together.

3. Add in your milk, a little at the time, and keep on whisking.  Once it's all added keep whisking until it gets nice and thick.  Add the chicken broth and again whisk all together, making sure it's blended well. 

4. Cut cream cheese into 8ish pieces and add it into the mix.  As it melts whisk it all together.

5. Add salt, pepper (I leave this out cause I have little kids who don't want 'spicey'.  I just use some in my own bowl to make up for it.), bacon and green onions. 

6.  Add in potato flesh and mix it all together.

Serve immediately.  Freeze for a rainy day.  Make yourself and your whole family happy.  Make it this weekend.  If you feel crazy you could even top it with a little cheddar and some extra bacon bits.  Maybe even some sour cream.  I often feel crazy when it comes to comfort food.  Enjoy!

I had every intention of posting about my healthy endeavors of last week and my game plan for this week, but when I woke up Monday morning I was anything but the picture of health.  Kirby's 'possible' sickness of last week relapsed on Saturday.  Fever, stuffiness, cough, the works.  I stayed home with him (and Judah out of ease) on Sunday.  By that evening I was having some major sneezing and the beginning of my own stuffiness and coughing.  Monday morning I woke up the living dead.  Fever. Aches, everywhere.  Full on head cold.  I regretted ever doubting how bad Kirby said he felt.  I spent the entire day in bed.  Only leaving to go to the bathroom.  I probably slept a total of 9 hours through the day.  I don't know what I would have done without Stan and my Big Sister.  By the afternoon Judah was starting in with the usual.  I took NyQuil and slept in a comatose state most of the night.

Bennett on the other hand started in with the coughing and general miserable feeling right about the time I went to bed.  Bad news for Stan since Bennett has a VERY sensitive gag reflex and threw up several times during the night.  Thankfully he knows the drill of heading to the toilet by this point.  He has been quite pitiful today.  I'm still not feeling great.  Judah is better, however not anywhere close to 100%.  Stan is starting with coughing now so I'm hoping tomorrow I'm feeling much better cause it's looking grim for him. 

All this to say, next week I'm going to force you to hear all about my weight loss progress.  This week you are off the hook cause I'm living off toast and not exercising.  Although for the record I went and did 30 minutes of swimming on Saturday.  That could be contributing to some of the achiness.  I'm inclined to think it's not at this point, though. 

happy friday

I'm really excited about this weekend.  In about the same way I looked forward to it when I had an outside-the-home full time job.  This week felt long and tiresome.  We had some people in town to do 'stuff' around the area so Stan was traveling the first part of the week.  Not longer than usual but him being gone the beginning of the week, for whatever reason, made it feel long.  Tuesday was a particularly frustrating day of school.  Wednesday Kirby woke up sick, don't know for sure if it was due to missing daddy (happens quite often), or being upset from the previous days school time, but he did end up runnng a bit of a fever.  That night when daddy and peeps got back they planned a dinner out.  For pizza.  Kirby thought he was miraculously better.  He still didn't get to go.  So if he was playing sick a little (or exaggerating at least) he learned a good lesson.  If you are too sick for school you are too sick to do anything else.  Yesterday and today were both great school days.  And the blessing of homeschool is we still got everything accomplished for the week.

I think also this week has just been tough cause I've been trying super hard to count calories and exercise.  What used to be second nature is taking some adjusting.  It means more effort on my part.  Which I am absolutely and totally willing to do, I need to take better care of me and in the process my family.  We will all be better for it.  I can't imagine what next week will feel like when I add in my own classes.  Tuesday and Thursday, two hours each, studying the hardest language ever known to man.  Plus making sure I get in adequate studying time.  I CAN DO IT!!!  With the Lord's help, cause let's be honest, I am lazy.

So our weekend plans aren't really that special.  An afternoon date with my Stan for coffee and quiet.  Pizza and a movie with my boys (and best yet, we are getting the pizza from the same restaurant they ate at earlier in the week...meaning I don't have to cook).  And tomorrow I will sleep until the boys drag us out of bed.  That's the best part of Saturday.  No 5:30 alarm.  We may go swimming with friends, we may stay home in our pj's all day.  Don't know for sure.  Sunday will be wonderful and restful and all the things I love most about Sundays.

So there ya go.  Nothing big happening.  Just rest and family time.  What are you up to this weekend??? 

status report

After a very frustrating morning of homeshool I thought checking out some blogs would help be feel better...but nothing new was up since last night so I thought I should probably write something myself.  Especially since I really wanted to write this yesterday, but didn't get to it.

I was inspired by this blog.  She has done amazing in changing her diet and exercise routine to get herself (and her sweet little family) more healthy and lose some weight.  OK, maybe I should say a lot of weight.  She's done awesome!  I wrote her and said in many more words, 'HELP ME!!!'  She is also a busy mom of three and has made it work, I want the same.  So in slightly copying her post I'm gonna do my own little status report.

--As you may remember I had a goal to lose 30 lbs in the last 6 months before I turned 30.  I was quite close to that goal, making it down 26 by that deadline.  Within a few weeks after I got those remaining 4 lbs off, but have teetered back and forth with about 5 since the end of March.  I haven't been consistant with exercising or counting calories. 

--I made it through the summer without really gaining but definitely not losing.  Just bouncing in that 5 lb. comfort zone but truly wanting to lose 15 more kilos or 33 more pounds.  I'll be quite happy with right at another 30.  From where I am today.  That will put me about 10 lbs lower than I got before our big move and allow me to fit comfortably in most of the clothes I own.  Like each day I wouldn't have to wear my yoga pants because that's all that really fits.  And going up the stairs at my friends' apartment complex won't nearly give me an asthma attack.  Cause let's face it, high altitude living is hard enough without being overweight and out of shape.

--Eating goals:  I am back to using CalorieKing to count my calories.  I've looked into several things, like the blood type diet, to give me a few ideas.  But overall I must say that calorie counting is what I know works.  Especialy since for my blood type (A+) it suggests being vegetarian.  AH HAHAHA!  If you know me you are laughing hard too.  But as a challenge I am going to try to have days where my protein comes from vegetable sources.  And I did find quite a few other food suggestions that I really feel could be advantagous to me.  And basically I know I will have to get more creative to not get bored and make this all work with what I have available.  Another big thing is that I'm going to try really hard to be consistant on the weekends.  I had been doing well during the week but then not keeping up on the weekends and basically undoing all my work.  Pretty counter productive.  So I'm committing to count calories even on the weekend.  Even if I go over, I'm gonna be honest with myself about it.   

--Exercising goals:  It boils down to having to do 6 days a week.  Of something.  I may not get in some intense cardio each day, but I will be moving my body.  When I think back to what has been the most challenging for me in the past, as well as giving me constant goals to work toward, I keep coming back to running.  I am so happy that my foot is doing much better.  Like, I hardly have pain, better.  I've found some things to help me keep the plantaar faciitis in check and so I am going to begin running again.  It releives stress like nothing else and can give the greatest amount of workout in the shortest amount of time.  So yesterday I did some intervals to ease back in.  My goal was to walk 5, run 5 and get at least 15 minutes of running in.  I did it.  Not beautifully.  Not speedily.  Not wonderfully.  But I did it.  When I first took off I felt good until I felt that familiar throat burning, chest about to expload feeling and looked down at my watch to see it had only been 3 minutes.  But I pushed through.  And I will continue to do so.  Because of scheduling I may only get to do two mornings each week, so it's gonna be a slow process.  Also, with the discovery of a nearby pool, I really want to start swimming a couple of days a week.  That's my first true love anyway.  And I'm aiming for yoga about 3 times a weeks too.  I'm hoping some days will be yoga and something else.  We'll see how it works with my free time.

--The one thing my friend said was helping was to blog about her progress.  Now I'm not saying I'm going to turn this into a food blog.  Or an exercise blog.  But I am going to write about some things.  Things I discover through this journey.  Things I want to whine about.  Things that I develope an obsession with interest in.  Lucky for you.  Stick around if you are intersted.  Don't if you are not.  If you do find it worthy of your time, and are perhaps good at eating and cooking healthy foods, I would love to get ideas.  Maybe a fun exercise activity.  Or some awesome healthy (and easy, please) recipes.  Do you read helpful blogs?  Send the address my way. 

So here we are.  I'm not exactly setting a time goal on this.  I mean I would like to have lost it all yesterday, but I didn't.  Mainly I want to be down before we head to the States, just under a year from now.  A goal of a year is really too long.  I'm gonna think on that part.  20 by the end of the year?  All of it by my next birthday?  I just don't know.  Right now all I know is it's not going to be any easier tomorrow than it is today so I'm done putting it off.

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

This week has been absolutely crazy but I finally got around to downloading our vacation pics.  First off I should say that we are apparently not big on recording family memories.  Any time we were really anywhere doing something fun we didn't have the camera.  Like when the boys played with friends and got to feed a giraffe and elephant.  And even just played at the play ground.  Thankfully we got a few good beach and pool shots and attempted some family shots.  Not sure we will ever get one with everyone looking, but we tried.

The view from our room.  Out beyond this was the beach.

Over to the left of the pool was a play ground.  The boys loved it!

The imposing storm on the horizon.  We had a tropical storm later that night--like all through the night--but thankfully by the next morning it was all gone and the sun came out.  I had left our wet beach things out on the balcony.  They didn't dry.  Also, they didn't blow away.  Which is good.

The boys got to build a small sand castle.  I didn't get many pictures cause I was wrestling a very cranky Judah at the time.

A very happy Kirby LOVED the pool time each day!

Bennett too!  He didn't understand why we couldn't live at the hotel, and therefore have a pool in our yard,  forever.

The pool waterfall was really fun. 

And what we loved best of all was that the boys got good an worn out each day.

I desperately wanted to get some good shots of the boys.  This was the result most times.  Goofy faces.

This was the best one.  I don't know why I thought we could get a good shot of a 5, 3 and 1 year old all at the same time.  Sometimes I lose reality.

And even though I really hate full shots of myself, I knew I would want to remember our family from this trip.  So this is our best family shot.  4 out of 5 looking in the general direction of the camera is not too shabby if you ask me.

Next time maybe we should take a professional photographer.  Kari?  Lora?  Anyone interested?  Anyway, we had a nice time.  We learned many things on this vacation, like relaxing is impossible with small children and 5 people crammed into a hotel room.  And it will be soon that we won't be able to all fit in one hotel room.  Stan and I did each get some time on our own to relax (mine was an hour and a half massage, can we say oh yeah?).  Next time we might try teaming up with another family so Stan and I could get a date night--although I should note that some friends that live there offered to watch the boys one night but we really wanted to hang out with them since they live far away and we don't see them often.  It was wonderful to get away and hard to come back knowing we were jumping right into a busy September.  More on that later.

Is it too soon to already start planning our next vacation?