Make Memories

Where did summer go? I feel like this whole year is flying by. It gets colder and colder each day. Each morning it is darker and each night the sun goes down earlier. Before I know it I will be whining about snow!

I feel like I must be getting old. Don’t you have to be old for the time to fly by? My “baby” is now 9 years old. I just started to get used to writing 2008 and the year is almost over.

I now have to admit how far behind I am. I had all the winter stuff out of the closets and in boxes. The problem is the boxes never made it into storage. I guess now that helps out since I am already unpacking the boxes.  It is already time to pull out those long sleeves, sweaters, and sweat shirts. I guess I should now go into the closets and pull out summer clothes.

That will be my project this week. Okay, that will be one of my projects this week. That means that hopefully I will have it done by spring. Life used to be so simple. I remember thinking about how boring life was when the girls were little. I always had everything organized. Then I started websites and blogs.

The National Wildlife Federation that brought us the Great American Backyard Campout is at it again. Now they have announced the Make Tracks! family trail weekend. It is the Columbus Day weekend of Oct 11-13. What a great way to get outside and be discoverers just like Columbus.

What is it?

Anytime Saturday, Sunday, or Monday — grab your kids, family members, and friends and Make Tracks! Have a favorite trail — great, you are all set! Or, take this time to discover a new trail with a new window on the world.

Haven’t hiked much, or ever? No problem, you don’t need to be an expert or in top physical condition to enjoy the outdoors. Have small children? Grab the stroller. Your outing can be as long or as short as you want. Be part of a growing movement in the U.S. to rediscover the outdoors – and realize the benefits of stepping away from the computer or TV or video game and breathing some fresh air while experiencing the wonders of nature.

If you would like more information you can go to their site. They also have a great tool to help you find trails near you.

Most of you do not know that we tried to have a garden this year. For as long as the girls could remember we lived in Arizona. Yards are small in Arizona plus it is very hot and dry. This means that we have never had a garden before.

When we moved to this house in Wisconsin and they saw the huge yard we riht away wanted a garden. We set aside a section of yard and put chicken wire around it. The girls wanted to plant seeds so they could get the full feel of it. This is not a very good idea in Wisconsin.

You can not plant until the middle of May here so it is not a very long growing season. Then you add on that there was a lot of flooding here in the beginning of the  season followed by very little rain. It was just a very bad year to grow anything here. Even the farmers had a bad year. Many of them lost all of their corn to flooding.

Well, the season is almost over and I am a bit disappointed. We have about 6 pumpkins on the vines. No watermelons ever grew. We have 3 acorn squash that are just about ready to be picked. Around 6 cucumbers grew and 5 lemon cucumbers. The carrots did great. I think they would have done even better if they were not so close together. No onions or bell peppers grew. The corn finally started to grow when a tree branch fell and crushed them all. The guinea pigs have been enjoying eating the stalks though. The tomato plants are full of tomatoes but they have been green for over 2 weeks now. I am hoping that they will turn red before the first frost comes.

It might now have been a good year but we did have fun together gardening. It provided us with something fun to do together outside this summer. The girls really liked watching things grow and eating stuff they grew themselves.

Every once in awhile I get burned out on dropping my Entrecards. Right now is one of those times. I was dropping like crazy and my stats were going up really high…then I just did not want to do it any more. I was spending way too much of my time making sure I did the maximum drops and I found it causing stress some days when I did not have enough time. So I just stopped caring if I get the maximum done any more.

It does really show on my Entrecard stats. I have dropped in popularity but I just do not care right now. I figure that the ones that have stopped coming are the ones that just came to drop cards anyway. I do not write for those people anyway seeing as they do not read much.

I have been spending more time catching up on stuff around the house and yard. With fall here now there is plenty to do.

We are having a blast playing with her games. I know many people believe that kids play too many video games but they can be good. There are some kids that are set in front of the television or game system and they do not get to interact with others. Some kids have trouble distinguishing fantasy with reality. All and all though I think that video games can be a blast if you get ones that the whole family can like and you play together.

We have a few systems but we like the Wii best. The games are a lot of fun to play as a family. We could spend hours playing and laughing together. Neona got Mario Kart and American Idol Encore for her birthday. I must admit that we have been playing the games a lot.

I know most moms probably do not play video games but I have been a video game nut since the first Zelda came along. The girls will still beg me to beat parts of their games for them when they get stuck.

A few people have asked about what I have been eating. I decided that it would be easier to just make a post about it. I have combined a few different ideas and made my own style. I took some of the No Carb Diet, added some from the No Flour, No Sugar Diet, and then added in some good old healthy living stuff.

I did not like that the No Carb Diet does not really allow fruits and vegetables. I also did not like that usually people on the No Carb Diet eat unhealthy meats. Meats that are loaded with fat and cholesterol or with nitrates.

I did not like that the No Flour, No Sugar Diet allowed you to eat the very starchy stuff like rice, potatoes, and corn. I do think that this diet would be a great diet for maintaining weight but if you are trying to lose weight it would take longer if you ate starches.

So I combined all the ideas and eat my own way. It would probably be easier to tell you what I do not eat. I do not eat anything made with flour or any other starch. I do not eat starchy vegetables. I do salads, green vegetables, and carrots. I also try to eat meats and meals that are low fat. I do not eat anything that contains sugar. This can be tricky because sugar hides in many things. I do keep a few things on hand that are sugarfree and sweet for when I get tempted to cheat.

My cheat-busters  keep me from ruining my diet. I always have on hand these sugarfree things…

• Sugarfree gum in many flavors
• Sugarfree pudding
• Sugarfree Jello
• Cherry Coke Zero
• Sugarfree powdered drink mix
• Splenda, so I can still indulge myself in my sweet yummy cappuccinos

I know many people will go on and on about how the body needs carbs but not all bodies really do.  Carbs are just fuel plain and simple. No real nutritional value just fuel. Yes, athletes and very active people need the extra fuel to keep going. People like me that spend a great deal of time sitting on their butt in front of a computer really do not need the extra fuel. We will just take that extra fuel and turn it into more fat on our butts. It does not really take much fuel to sit in this chair.

You will all remember how Noelle recently went to camp. It was a mandatory trip since it was during school days. The trip cost $70 so I was already concerned that some families would have trouble with the money. It was right after school started. This means that families just spent a lot on school supplies and school clothes. Our school supplies alone cost $250 for our three girls.

Well last Friday a note was sent home from school. It stated that a large number of students in 7th grade got scabies from camp. It wanted to notify parents that this is something that they should look out for. Noelle did not display any signs so I set the note aside and forgot about it.

We had a long weekend of birthday stuff for Neona so I never thought about it again. Monday morning (Neona’s birthday) I woke the girls up for school. Noelle complained that her arm had been itching really bad all night. I pushed up her sleeve to take a look and found a lot of red itchy bumps. I quick looked online and found that scabies takes a few days before you show any signs.

So on I took Noelle to the doctors office. There are only 2,000 people in this town so there is only one doctors office. They knew all about the outbreak at school and did not bother taking tests. They did say that now the whole family had to be treated. So off we went to buy $80 in creams.

The rest of Neona’s birthday was spent getting everyone showered, creamed up, doing tons of laundry, and deep cleaning everything.  I have been doing laundry and cleaning for what seems like forever since then. I keep washing sheets and blankets on top of my normal laundry so I feel like I will never be done.  I have been going through tons of sheets because I have been making everyone keep sheets on the furniture too. Yes, I am a little bit nuts but I am grossed out by this.

I do have to point out that I actually do have the tons of sheets and blankets that were needed. I tend to be a pack rat when it comes to them. James has asked me many times why I do not through out stuff when we buy new ones but this is why. You never know when you might need them. Okay, maybe I am more nuts than I thought.

So in the end the camping trip cost the original $70, $80 in creams, the doctor’s visit, and lots and lots of laundry soap and disinfectants.

Some people have asked me to give progress here and there with my new “lifestyle”. I will not call it a diet because diets are temporary. This is supposed to be a life change. I do not know if I will be able to keep it up for life. I have cheated here and there but I think it is a great goal. I do not cheat often and it is better to have a goal than no goal. I have not changed to the No Four & No Sugar one yet. I am kind of combining them both and making my own. I am eating vegetables again but I am leaving out the really starchy ones like corn and potatoes.

At first I felt hungry all the time. When your body is used to starch and sugar you crave more and more. I let myself eat as much food as I wanted but no carbs at all. After a week I stopped being hungry all the time. I actually was seldom hungry any more. Add on that I felt better than I had in ages and that I had more energy. Then the weight started to come off.

I have now lost over 10 lbs and my jeans are too big. I have not exercised at all. I do think that I will start exercising again though. I am 34 now and I want to feel younger and healthier again.  Maybe I will be in my mini skirts again someday.