A Super Spring Weekend

We had a really good spring weekend. I think it was much needed! It was packed full of fun things to do. I got nothing done on the home projects but that's okay!

We started our weekend with brewery hopping and tasting. Steve and I checked out the Cider Works brewery then Fair State Brewery in Minneapolis. We played some cribbage and called it a day. The weather was perfect as we sat outside and enjoyed the day.

The kids joined Steve and I on a 16  mile bike ride from Fort Snelling, through Minnehaha park to check out the waterfall then to Minneapolis on the bike paths. It was a perfect day but super windy which made the first bike ride of the year a little more challenging.

 

We could smell the BBQ smoking up some hot dogs and we all had a craving to eat them for dinner. I grilled up some onions and we ate on the deck.

Sunday  morning the kids came with me to a rental that I clean. Its in St. Paul and we decided to make it a fun morning since I had to wait till after 11am for their check out time.

The kids ate at Truce and each purchased a protein bowl. It looked really good. After, we went to the bread smith and picked up three loaves of bread.

Sunday morning, I also stepped outside and went for a 1.5 mile run around the hood. It sure felt good to finally get back out running. I really miss my morning run. My feet still hurt and I figured might as well run again because my feet hurt no matter what. They were a little bit more sore then usual this morning but not too bad considering I ran and biked all on one day!

It definitely was not diet weekend. With the drinks, snacks and dinners it was a bust! I did make some really good pizza. Steve and I got home from the breweries and I made pizza dough. We each made our own pizza and they turned out delicious. I did burn the top of my mouth really good because I just didn't want to wait for the pizza to cool down.

Zoey was clingy last night and this morning she threw up her dog food. Two piles. Poor thing, she isn't feeling very well. I made some rice to see if that would stay down. Still waiting and she is back sleeping on the couch.

Busy Work

I've been busy doing a lot of little things. Like make dentist appointments, schedule Steve's surgery, follow up with insurance etc.. It all needs to be done and the hoops need to be jumped. Getting it all done feels great. One step closer to getting everything in order!

The snow is almost 100% gone from a little over a week ago when we got 12" of snow. A not so nice mid April snow storm. Glad to see grass and soon to be 70's this weekend and next week.

My diet it's going so well. My eyes have trouble too. I actually thought this was a clear photo of my pizza. Soo very wrong. It's pretty much how I see things up close. This is the worst part of getting old. I can't see or read anything with out some readers. Without them, this is what you get!

Speaking of diet. I tried really hard yesterday to lose weight. I cheated a little and had some chocolate candy. Today, I stopped for a Strawberry - Banana smoothie. Both delicious but not needed. Oh well, I'm still going at it and will lose the 5 pounds starting Soon. Lol..

Wish I could say....

I wish I could say.... I've been running, biking or doing my daily planks.

Seems the one thing I would say is to never stop, I've stopped. Why? Good question!

After Steve's eye accident I just didn't feel like it. We were too busy being 100% stressed about his eye, finances and just life and what that would look like going forward. There were so many unknowns. We've gotten past all that and come out stronger! Now to get back to exercise and be stronger!

I'm working on losing weight first. I feel like all my weight loss energy will go into exercise and not watching what I eat. I have to do one thing at a time. Right now its trying each day to not eat as many calories. It's a huge challenge some days! If I screw up, there is always tomorrow.

Total weight loss so far is around 10 pounds. Not exactly where I want to be but better then having gained or not lost any. I still have a month to lose another 10 pounds and I can do it!

My tough time of the day is evening. It's getting better but when I'm hungry, I tend to not think and just eat. I had some fried chicken last night just because it was easy and I was hungry. I do splurge on my apple cider drinks, but limit it to 2. I just really need to stay around 500 calories for the day to drop weight fast, which is exactly what I want and need to do. Lets try it again today and see how that goes. I'll have a full eating report tomorrow.

My food plan is the following - breakfast (150 - 200 calories)

Get in some working exercise from 9am to 2pm

Lunch soup 2 cups of all veggies and spicy! (100 - 200 calories)

Dinner - Sweet potato baked plain. (100 calories)

Snack - banana or nothing! (70 calories)

This is a diet where I'm usually not hungry because I eat enough and drink plenty of water. I just need to stick to my list and not venture off.

Roll it and Finally!!

I was watching Spring Bake off on TV and they made rolled cakes. I've never had much luck making a perfect rolled cake. They always crack. the trick is to use Angle food cake or make a chiffon Cake, with a little sponge spring to prevent cracking. I think the angle food / sponge cake is probably a little too spongy. I think next time I'll make a chiffon cake. I wanted to try their technique of piping a design into the cake. It worked!! First you put down parchment paper on your pan, then color some of the batter with food coloring. I used a decorating bag and just a round narrow tip. I piped out flowers and vine leaves. Rolled it up and let the cake cool off. I looked up how to stabilize whipping cream. Add a little gelatin. Since I had strawberry flavored, I used a little of that in the whipping cream. I chopped up the strawberries and also added some on top. I cut off the ends for a clean look. It turned out exactly how I was expecting!

We will be eating this tonight with Beef tenderloin. The kids offered to make us dinner tonight. Can't pass that up!

 

The baking TV show also made some cookies using corn starch that melted in your mouth. I upped the sugar since I though it was a little on the non-sweet side. Topped them with some melted white chocolate and dusted them with powdered sugar. They were just okay. Maybe I'll re-make using orange juice and orange zest.

I'm still on my diet. Eating around 1200 - 1500 calories per day. The weight loss is slow. I'm eating most of my calories 1000 at dinner. We've been hitting up going out, so I have an apple orchard which is around 200 calories. We had some thin crust pizza with just a tiny bit of cheese. I've also indulged in popcorn and some fried chicken wings. I don't eat the skin but do like some of the fried crunches. My weight loss progress I can tell is slow. I'm getting there. I'm just not where I was hoping to be at this point. No worries. Plenty of time before June to lose another 10 pounds.

We got some great news this week. Steve is ready for a full cornea transplant in his right eye. It will be scheduled the middle of May and then he should be able to see again in that eye. His accident was back on November 2nd and he hasn't been able to see clear in that eye ever since. We had three options for surgery. We picked the most aggressive. The main goal is to be able to see again and sooner then later. He will always wear a color contact lens due to the color loss from the iris.  He might also get a lens prescription to see more clearly if needed. We could have opted for a 50% chance of the cornea relaxing with an incision to loosen it up, but then he would have to wait another month to have a lens put in which means two surgeries instead of just one. Or the other option was to get the full cornea and then again wait for the lens at a later surgery to get the most clear sight. It's not a big deal to get laser surgery on that eye or a prescription for contacts or wear glasses. He is fine with the lens how ever it turns out. I'm sooo happy he will get his vision back. Right now it's like he is looking through a thick fog. His eyes fight each other to see and it's making life not so fun for Steve.

What to do on a Sunday when Plans change??

I started off wanting to go cross country skiing this morning. The kids both decided to go with. We all didn't plan very well for the cold temps. I should have dressed warmer! Logan couldn't get his ski boot in the ski's and we gave up! Then my work schedule was changed once again for the day. That's okay because I really didn't want to work all morning! 

I feel extra hungry this morning so I ate my lunch at 10 am and then had my snack too all by 10:30am. 

I think we got at least 16" of snow yesterday and they said another 2 to 5" today. Where are you spring?? I'm ready for green!! Not white!

I think Zoey is confused at this weather too. She loves it. But I sure don't!

Weekend Splurges!

 

I'm all about a little splurge on the weekends. We went out Friday night and met up with neighbors at Union 32. One of my favorites now. They have 32 beers but the nice thing is that they also carry ciders or some type of non-beer drinks with fruit flavors. Something I can drink! I had my 1oz tastes of a few different drinks, and then settled on one full glass of Loon Juice Strawberry. It was good enough to eat with my three small pork tacos. I splurged on some popcorn too. In all I ate most my calories for the day all at Union 32 but well worth the splurge. I was still at 1500 calories for the day. Not exactly 800 or less but still in the lose, not gain numbers.

Current photo of my weight loss progress for the day. I'm losing belly fat!! Feeling better but not enough weight loss at this point (after 1 month) for my liking. I'm thinking the next 10 pounds I'll start to really notice my weight loss. No giving up now. Plus, we've been invited to Brainerd at our neighbors cabin in June. I have a weight loss goal date to get to and I have to keep going!!

April fools joke on us again. So much for Spring!!! We might get foot of snow. I'm just not liking this spring weather!

 

I don't think Zoey minds the snow. She was happy to run around in the back yard and eat snow!

It's that tax time!

I only like tax time when we get back money. This year we get a little of both, we pay in and we get back. We pretty much break even. It's just the though of having to write out a check when we just got some money back in March. Easy come, easy go.

I reached Day 30 of my diet on Thursday. I had a lighter work day on Wednesday, which was day 29 so I decided better reward myself now for my dieting efforts. I finally used a gift card Kendra purchased for my birthday last year. It was well worth the wait. It was wonderful! Loved the color I picked out. I copied the girl who did my nails. She had light pink with one finger in silver sparkles. I did the same for my toes. I'll have to do a color change when it starts to come off as it's only $10. It was a much needed reward.

This was pretty much my before picture. I notice my weight gain in my stomach mostly. Extra fat I don't need! I should post an updated picture of my weight loss. I was hoping to feel thinner and look like I've lost a bunch of weight. It has not been a quick process. I've struggled with keeping my calorie count low.

Today's picture. I probably should have put on the same tank top but close enough. No one has noticed any weight loss. I can hardly tell myself. I did weight myself so I do know that I've lost at least 10 pounds. I was hoping for more like 20 at this point but I'll take whatever I can get. I weighted myself probably two weeks ago. I'm afraid to weight myself for fear I didn't lose any additional weight. I've been keeping my calories around 800 to 1200 for the most part. I can't seem to eat less then 800 so that must be where I need to be for my sanity. I'd like to drop weight fast but I do know that I'm more likely to develop better eating habits if I do it slow, choosing healthy foods.

I discovered that 1 cup of cauliflower is only 25 calories. Its crunchy and fills the void when I just want to munch and not eat many calories. It seems to do the trick in the afternoons when I just want to sit and eat.

I not only eat my chili veggie soup, but I've added in plain sweet potatoes, some protein once in a while like chicken or pork. Salads with a tiny bit of dressing. Just eating veggies and not sugar! I do have a few drinks on the weekends but keep that to under 2 glasses.

I still have plenty of time to lose weight for the summer and 10 more pounds would be nice. I'll just keep at it, slow and steady and not worry about my actual weight. Stay off the scale. That's how I lost 40 pounds 7 years ago. I never stepped on the scale. I think that was key to my staying on track for losing. I felt good and could tell by how my clothes fit.

It was national dog day this week. I don't take enough photos of my Zoey,  

What we are doing!!

We are in the middle of finally getting our roof fixed after all the hail damage last spring. We tried to get it done in October but that never happened. I was a bit worried about finding a roofer but it all worked out!

 I'm amazed it all came together for us. I was having a hard time finding a roofer in our per square price range and then I got lucky! Find a roofer that called me back, answered all my questions and was a good price. Best yet, he could start ASAP. We are switching home owners insurance and needed the job done by April 15th or the 25th at the latest. This late April snow didn't help either. Thankfully, the snow we got on Sunday was only 1" and it quickly melted Monday. They were able to start Monday at noon and will be done today at 7pm. You don't know how stressful this has been to line up everything and get this done on time!

Zoey is a bit unhappy about not being able to go in the back yard to run around. No worries as its just one more day and tonight she can have the back yard once again. I just hope I like the new roof colors. I think it will look fine, pretty similar to the last roof color.

Logan made Claudette a cake for her 80th birthday. She requested a lemon cake. He made 4 layers of cake with his new frosting.

 

Steve made an omelet with leftovers from our salad on Sunday night.

I'm still on my diet. I have gone up in calories to 1200, 1700 but now I need to get back down to 500 or less the next 10 days. We have a party on the 21st and I'd like to lose at least 5 more pounds, 10 would be better but I'll take any weight loss! Since salad dressing made my stomach burn from the acids, I'm back to my chili spiced veggie soup. I don't make it hot to the point of burning my stomach, just good chili taste and low calorie.

Seems everyone is trying to lose weight

April Winter Continues

April sure is playing a trick on us in MN. I was not too happy to see more snow. It was almost gone 100% and now its all back again along with Cold, cold temps. We need our roof shingled and this snow is not helping!!!

I

I stayed home from work on Tuesday because the kids had a snow day. We were to get up to 9" of snow. I think throughout the day it was more like 6.5". The streets pretty much stayed clear of snow since it just melted away. I could have easily worked and the kids could have had a school day but then again.. it was nice to have a lazy do nothing kind of day. I felt a little guilty for doing nothing but you need days like that.

It was difficult staying on my low calorie diet Tuesday with so much home time and no exercise.  I haven't been keeping up with my 500 or less calories per day. It's more around 1000, some times over and some times under but always more then 500. I can't say this is going to be quick weight loss for me at this rate. It's been 24 days of dieting and probably only 10 pounds of weight lost. I have till June 1st to lose what I'd like and that doesn't mean I stop come June 1st either. I just have a goal date of when I'd like to be weighting at least 20 - 25 pounds less. Quick weight loss is more fun to see results fast but it's hard to maintain that. I get hungry! For me, it's once I start eating at dinner that I want to keep eating until I feel full. Sometimes I am not hungry but still crave something sweet, like last night. I really wanted to buy some peanut butter filled pretzels. I grabbed the large bag and was about to put it into the cart and Steve reminded me, that I am buying them for me to eat, No one else! It's not like he told me not to buy them, but I needed that reminder, don't do it. Just don't bring them home and they won't call me to eat them up! I put them back on the shelf but was still craving food when I got home. He had some granola cereal, 190 calories for 3/4 of a cup. I tried a few clusters, and a few more, eating at least 3/4 cup. Oh well, it's better then grabbing the Easter candies. I can live with this extra calories for the day, which brought me up to 850. All but 150 calories were consumed from 4:30 to 8pm last night. I have to work on my evening eating!!

It was reward diet day, on Thursday. I was in need of hair color to get rid of  a few grays around my hair line. Decided to do a root touch up and then a little lightened around the face.

I'm still making my favorite crack candies for my customers. Dieting doesn't seem to make me want to eat them up, thankfully!

Snow Day!

Yet another snow day in MN. The kids were happy to find out that not only do they get a snow day, but another day off on the 25th for an at home Ipad school day. Because I work for myself, I took the day off too. Lucky for me, it was easy to reschedule more work for tomorrow to make up for staying home.

I want to finish our front dining room arch. I've painted over the red and decided to just do it all in white, like our trim. I still have one more coat of white paint to cover up all the red. Steve took the ladder for work today so I'm out of luck on finishing this up until tonight.

I did finish the trim around the last two doors. Steve just needs to do two more coats of enamel on the doors and the last of the main floor doors are done! Super happy about that because then we can start the trim upstairs. We just have 10 doors to paint and the trim around the doors. My job is the trim and Steve will do the doors. Makes it easier to divide up the painting. My next project is to paint the red wall the same color we have in our porch, which is called dry brown. Not a gray and not a brown but a mixture of the two colors. I'm tired of red walls! We will still have red in the office, which I hope to paint over to a grayish blue, but more on the blue side. We also have two new pendant lights above the kitchen island to install and change out a ceiling fan for a light. Little projects that can make it look a lot cleaner and freshen up the space. I have a few more projects for Steve, like painting our dining room table/chairs black along with the front cabinet. I think we will do something about the golden oak floors too. Dark or gray is what I'd like! We are keeping the upstairs maple light since that floor is too nice to re-do. Its all a work in progress.

I wanted to try a new pizza place over the weekend, but its never easy to get into them as the wait is super long. We decided to go on a Monday night. No waiting and we got right in to eat at dinner time! We went to Red Wagon. It was rated 4.7 stars.  We tried the Red Wagon pizza which was more traditional, then the other half was a pickled radish, jalapeno, pork, with spicy sauce on top. I didn't like that side so I stuck with the other Red Wagon pizza. I ate 2 more slices then I planned but I blamed it on the thin style pizza with little to no cheese. It can't be that high in calories??

A fun night out and such good pizza. We will be back after we try two more pizza places that are on my to go to list!

Since we are suppose to be getting 9" of snow. Might as well break out the cross country skis again. It might be a good day for skiing even if the trails are not groomed. The snow should stick around all week so I plan to ski as much as I can until it melts.

 

Zoey is happy to get out in the back yard. We don't let her run around when it's all wet and muddy out back. She was happy to go run around and play in the snow with her furry "friends".

Easter 2018

Oh Easter Day! I made these cute Peep fruit treats for brunch. I completely copied Pinterest!

Evan with his Easter Basket. I hit plastic eggs filled with candies around the house for him to find with Celina and Logan. Since my three kids are too old for a candy hunt, this is the next best thing helping Evan and of course eating it too.

 

Logan out did himself on this cake. Kendra helped find the perfect Swiss meringue butter cream frosting. Kendra supervised and Logan got to work, making the frosting and cake from scratch. It was the best cake EVER with that buttery frosting and light vanilla cake. The decorations were cute too and so simple with coconut and some biscotti cookie crumbs. Raspberries and basil leaves for the extra touch.

 

This morning, Celina and Logan both used my Readers to take out a sliver in Celina's finger. You can never have too many pairs around the house!

 

It's been super slow dieting progress. Probably doesn't help that I have a little cheat weekends with wine. I still have been staying low on calories and have only lost 10 pounds in 20 day! I was hoping it would be more like 15. I'll get there. I just have to stick with it!! I'm treating myself to a weight loss reward Thursday with getting my hair colored a bit lighter for the summer and to cover up my few gray hairs around my hair line. The joys of getting older, harder to lose weight and those pesky gray hairs!

 

What a great invite from our neighbor friends for the summer at their cabin. This was taken a few years ago and we always get a good laugh.