Workouts!

Today I did another BeFit workout from their YouTube channel. It still kicked my butt. I lasted a little longer with the planks than I did the last time I did them. I can really feel it in my stomach muscles.

Here's my obligatory sweaty post workout picture.

Workout

My workout today was BeFit Go cardio conditioning and Abs 30 minute circuit training video. (It's free on YouTube!) and it kicked my butt. I'd like to get better at posting my workouts on here. We'll see. My abs are pretty much nonexistent. Doing 1 sit-up is painful. So this was a good workout for me. Hopefully next time I'll be a little better at it.

Exercise

7-8 cardio 2.5 hours in the pool swam, walked laps, treaded water

Losing weight

So for years I was trying to lose weight. Finally I was successful. I've lost 160 pounds. Life is good. But, I'm still not quite where I want to be. I want to lose another 15-20 pounds maybe? I don't want to be a whiner and say its not good enough, but, well I'm just not quite there. I'm at the point now where I have to work my booty off to continue losing. And summertime is throwing off my routine. They closed the gym by my house, Jeff doesn't get home from work until late, I refuse to pay $4 per kid every time I work out, and it supposed to be 102 degrees tomorrow. So I'm committing to doing some new exercising. 3 days a week ill do cardio above and beyond what I do now. 4 days a week I'll do gorilla challenge. What are you doing this summer to be healthier?.

Mom I'm bored!

So have you heard I'm bored 57 times so far this summer? I've been trying to keep the kids busy, without spending a fortune. What can I say, I'm cheap. We've done a ton of outings with our local Playgroup. The kids had an awesome time touring the fire station last week. We've gone to the pool, played with friends, gone to parks and visited the beach. Unfortunately now that summer is really upon us (it was 106 over the weekend) we'll be looking go even more fun cheap ways to stay cool. Here's one we tried the other day. We got all the empty Tupperware containers we could find. The more shapes, the better it will be. Then we filled them with water and next we put them in the freezer. And then we forgot about them. Okay really little A did not forget about them! He asked every 10 minutes if they were ready. Eventually they were frozen so after dinner we dumped them out and they played with them. The plan was to build a castle. They spent about 2 minutes doing that, then they moved onto figuring out what the ice would do. They put each piece of ice on its own brick on the patio so they could see which ones would melt fastest. They also had to walk on the ice and see how it felt on their feet. Next they covered the ice with blankets and sat on it. They definitely didn't do what I expected but they sure had fun. And it kept them entertained for at least an hour.

Summer projects

Every summer we make a list of all the fun stuff we're going to do. Things like going to the beach, having a picnic, and camping out in the living room are included. We've made that list and already gotten started but I've also got a house projects list that I'm going to work on as well. We will see how much I actually get accomplished. Not being at the school 3 times a day will help.

- deep clean all the grout in the kitchen
- clean the carpets
- reorganize A1's room - add bookshelves
- paint A2's room.
- hang curtains for A2.
- caulk base boards
- paint baseboards
- repaint dining room table
- paint dining room
- move bookshelf for dvd's
- new curtains for living room
- caulk between counters and backsplash in the kitchen
- reorganize scrapbook stuff

What I'm eating today.

It's been forever since I participated in what I'm eating Wednesday. I get bored eating the same things over and over. So today I'm going to post some meal ideas.

Breakfast was 1/2 cup organic black beans, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar and 2 TB of salsa. (Have you ever tried Trader joes pineapple salsa? It's kind of amazing if you like sweet salsa. ) this would be good as a dip, but I just ate it with a fork. I couldn't eat it all because my tummy is angry in the mornings, I swear it shrinks overnight.

Lunch was 1 cup of broccoli ( leftover from dinner last night) with some shredded chicken and a little cheese. I actually managed to eat most of that I don't always get along well with broccoli, it makes my tummy angry too. But this was yummy.

Dinner is going to be some turkey meatballs, a bit of red sauce and some spinach salad. The kids will have spaghetti with their meatballs but I'll skip the carbs.

Snacks will be a few crackers when I take my vitamins, and a protein shake. I'm trying the syntrax mint today. It sounds yummy. I hope it is.

Tuesday.

I love the mornings. Especially when I get to wake up before the kids and have a few minutes to wake up and drink my coffee in the quiet.

And as soon as I typed the last sentence a kiddo walked out and joined me on the couch to snuggle.

Christmas tree veggie tray

I've seen these made with broccoli but raw broccoli is not my favorite and it doesn't agree with me so I made my own version. I peeled 2 cucumbers and sliced them up and then laid them out in a tree pattern. Then I decorated with cherry tomatoes, carrots, and bell peppers. It took me maybe 15 minutes to make the whole thing. I served it with guacamole and some ranch. Nom Nom. What's your favorite healthy holiday dish?

The coolest kid. Ever.

I seriously have two amazing children. They're kind and intelligent and hilarious and I just love them more than anything. Today Amelia got to be an extra in a movie for a friend of a friend. They needed kids and Amelia volunteered. So this morning Mia and I ran errands, picked out gifts for friends and did some cleaning. Then we drove to Long Beach for this movie. She had so much fun. After they wrapped, it was late and we were hungry so we stopped at Denny's for dinner. We talked, and laughed and Mia said it was "the best day ever". Then we got on the freeway and drove back home while we rocked out to Taylor Swift, Adele and P!nk. And while we were driving on the 22, singing (yelling) "we are never, ever, ever getting back together..." I started to think for a moment that I'm truly blessed. Did I have fun being at the movie shoot? Eh, not really. It wasn't my thing. Did I totally enjoy seeing my daughter having an amazing time? Heck yeah I did. I'm so thankful that someday my kid can look back and say she got to be an extra in a movie.

Yeah, he's a mamas boy...

Anthony came and got in my bed tonight. He brought his blankie, a comforter and two pillows with him and now there's not room for me in my bed. If there were any blankets left in his bed I'd go there...

And then as he's snuggling me I say good night my sweet boy. And he replies, "Good night my sweet mama."

Aww

Anthony told me, "I love you mama. I'm gonna marry you someday." He's such a sweet boy.

Do you ever just want to scream?

It started off as one of those days. Ya know what I mean? From the time I woke up things were going full speed and not in the direction I wanted. The kids had made themselves cereal, and a big mess for me. I got the dishwasher going, and laundry started, and then the power went out. Vacuuming wasn't going to happen, and neither was my shower. I was irritated. And then for whatever reason, I decided to stop stressing.

That little voice in the back of my head reminded me to enjoy this day with my kids. I don't have many days home where we don't have plans. So, it's noon. We're in our pj's. The power came back on and the laundry finished and the dishwasher ran. I scrubbed one bathroom. The other is still dirty and my couch is covered in clean laundry and ya know what? That's okay. I can vacuum tomorrow. The clean laundry can sit one more afternoon. I'm going to go make a craft with my kids. And we'll probably make a mess. And that's okay too.

Late!

So technically I missed a day because its 2AM and I'm just now posting. But I'm saying it doesn't count because I haven't slept yet. Breaking dawn 2 tonight. It was great! I had so much fun! Next up I wanna see Les Mis.

Pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies

So yummy! I got this recipe from allrecipes.com I messed with it of course, and it turned out pretty well. Here's my version of pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients


2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*1 12 ounce package ( or 2 packages see note below) NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels *

1 cup chopped walnuts

Vanilla Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1tsp cinnamon


recipe yields 36 cookies

Note about chocolate chips. The original recipe called for 2 bags of chocolate chips. I made it that way a few times and it was just so chocolatey that it overwhelmed the pumpkin flavor. So I halved it and my family likes it much better. If you really love a lot of chocolate try it with two bags. Let me know which way you like it best!
Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
COMBINE flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in pumpkin, eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets.
BAKE for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. (18 minutes is perfect in my oven) Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle or spread with Vanilla Glaze.

Sing it!

Ant is walking through the house singing at the top of his lungs, " 'pidaman, pidaman, does whatevah a pidah can..." He loves his Spider-Man....

A day off..

No school for the kids and no work for J today, so I got some cooking done (super yummy make ahead burritos, they I'll post about later this week) and j and the kids worked in the yard. The peach tree is no longer taking over the patio. Yay.

Wait, whose jeans are those?

I want to post a picture because its hilarious. I went to Zumba and J dressed the kids. I came home and Anthony was rocking his sisters skinny jeans. They're 3 years apart but almost the same height and wait. Apparently Mia's pants ended up in ants room and so that's what j dressed him in. I want to post the picture but someday it would probably embarrass him so I won't. It was pretty funny though. :-)

Oops.

I missed a day. I was laying in bed, almost asleep last night, and it popped into my head that I hadn't blogged yet. Next thing I knew it was morning. Oh well! :-)

Aww

Mia had a rough day today and now she doesn't feel good. So she's snuggling her daddy. :-)