September In Review

I actually got to sew this last month! I can’t tell you how great it is to get behind the machine again!

I worked on gifts, and completed quite a few!

I’m going to be teaching a few new friends to sew also! I’m so excited!

Life is crazy so without further ado…

Completed quilt for my godson.

Pouch for my BFF gift exchange!

Felt alphabet for a friend’s first birthday

Started a ton of gift bags for Christmas and church secret sister gifts!

Started a Christmas quilt

Travel pillow to go with quilt

Taggy toys (one for my little man and one for a gift)

Nursing cover (baby shower gift)

Another baby girl’s first birthday!

Crazy! A Quilt Story

My godson will be baptized Sunday. Being a member of the church of Christ, the godparent thing is a new concept to us. It didn’t even occur to us until yesterday that we should get him a gift.

I googled it, and didn’t find many ideas we liked one thing I kept coming back to was the quilt.

I’ve never made a quilt before but I have wanted to. The thing is, my family doesn’t need any quilts. Our Mamaw gives beautiful quilts as gifts and while it. Would be fun to make one, it would just end up being clutter.

But a baptism quilt… Genius!

Of course, I’ve never made one and I have less than a week to figure it out. We’ll see how it goes!

Mmm chicken!

My hubby came home from the store last night with TWO chickens! They were on sale! Somebody knows my birthday is this week… Haha!

Time to make some broth!

In other news, we’ve been installing new windows on the house. It was a random thing… But we are replacing all of the windows. Three are done and we have to put in the order for the others. I can’t wait to get them in!

I’ve been eating like crap and not working out. This is a hard week for me. It’s my moms birthday and the anniversary of her death. It will be one year Saturday. I’m not making excuses, but I do not feel the need to overload myself right now. I’m going to focus on my boys and get through August. After that, well hit the weight loss and good eating.

Oh but I will keep making broth! Yummy yummy broth!

Ooo Crafty Crafty

I got a chance to see today! I have a friend who lives overseas and she is having a baby soon! I keep meaning to make something to send to her… And then I don’t.

Today I finally had a chance!

I made what I am calling my “baby shower gift set.” It includes a burp rag, reversible bib and a door quieter.

Not too bad for a 2 hour nap-time this afternoon.

I haven’t sewn in months! It felt so good to be back at it again!

New Job

I started a new job today. Well, I officially stated it. I’ve been doing this job for a few weeks without the benefit of the title.

My new job is hard but rewarding. I work long hours and there are so many things to learn! It’s worth it though. The people I work with are so much fun. I love spending time with them.

So what is my new job?

As of today, I’m a stay at home mom!

What We Ate: 3

Yesterday I had an amazing breakfast! I woke up early and made breakfast burritos for my husband and I. We had egg and onion and bell pepper! Yum!

For lunch I had two pb&j sandwiches.

For dinner we had more breakfast burritos!

Not the best or worst day, right? Let’s talk snacks…

Granola with milk
Chocolate and icing (I know)
Sausage balls
Champagne

That’s all I can think of but I’m sure there was more. I ate ALL DAY yesterday! Oye!

What we ate: 2

I have a weird way of losing weight. It’s definitely not a diet plan you’ll see anywhere.

Want to know my secret?

I eat more!

America is such an overweight society. Over eating is extremely common. Convenience foods and huge portions all combine to make a culture of eating too much.

Because of this, we are taught very early that to lose weight you must eat less. Period. It’s so engrained in my mind, that I had so much trouble even when I knew I wasn’t eating enough. How could I possibly eat more!?

Let me explain.

Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of snack foods around. We ate great meals, but I never consider snaking something you do regularly.

When I moved out, money was tight (of course). I also didn’t know much about cooking. So I ate crap for meals (hello Ramen), skipped breakfast, and didn’t eat any snacks.

My body was starving and I had no idea.

When I started researching ways to lose weight, I looked at calorie counting. I really didn’t want to do it, but I was already running regularly so I needed to try something different.

The first time I logged my meals I was shocked. I didn’t eat enough!

I tracked for a few days without trying to change anything, and found out I was not eating enough to sustain my body WITHOUT working out!

When you don’t eat enough, your body goes in to starvation mode. Every bit of food that comes in is hoarded so that your body can use it later. You’re not going to lose weight that way.

I started eating more (although not necessarily better) and started losing weight immediately.

I still fall into that trap. I’m not used to snacking and I’m just now learning to really cook. I struggle to eat enough, and I struggle not to cut back our food when we start getting a little fluffier.

Hopefully now that I am staying home, I will be able to overcome my snack aversion and get us on a healthier road!

So what did I eat today?

For breakfast I had my waffles and coffee again. I also ate 4 sausage balls. I made a batch of these yesterday to keep on hand. Yum!

I had some grapes when Braden had breakfast and a mug of my homemade broth a little later.

For lunch, we had leftover squash spaghetti. I finished off the chicken salad in another tortilla wrap. Yum!

For my snack, I had some granola and milk.

We had a treat for dinner! Fresh caught catfish with a lemon-cilantro-butter-wine sauce! We finished off the rest of the squash too.

Once again I ate too many cake balls, but the good news is that they’re gone now. Lol

After writing all if this, I guess I was hungry!

I did my morning workout no problem. This evening was a little rough. The second time through I stopped after the jumping jacks. My left ankle, knee and hip have been achy this afternoon. I blame the toddler who plays a little too rough with his fragile mommy! Haha! Still, I did something.

Now to relax with the last of our champagne. Happy Wednesday to everyone!

What We Ate: 1

My food “goal,” if you will, is to eat balanced, real food meals. I’m trying to buy more produce and do the preparing/cooking myself.

I think we ate pretty well today.

For breakfast I had two waffles with a little syrup, and a cup of black coffee. The waffles were made using the Bisquick recipe. I made two batches Monday morning to keep the family in breakfast foods.

When Braden got up I ate some grapes.

My dad brought Whataburger for lunch… Not so great. Haha. But I don’t turn down a visit with my dad or free lunch!

For an afternoon snack I had a chicken salad wrap. These things have become addicting. I use the left over chicken from the whole chicken I made last week. I just added the Aldi mayonnaise and wrapped it all in a tortilla. I added grapes to mine yesterday and that was yum too!

Dinner was Parmesan pork chops fried in coconut oil with spaghetti squash spaghetti with home made sauce. We also had corn in the cob with a cilantro like butter I made.

Of course we also ate a ton of cake balls. Yum! That kills the healthy eating part, but you gotta live a little, right?

I did my pinterest workout twice.

I am loving this super simple routine. It’s short enough to fit in just a few minutes. It’s not what I’d do ideally, but it is better than nothing.

Here’s the routine (done twice):
50 x jumping jacks
5 x pushups
20 x situps *
20 x mountain climbers
30 second plank
7 x burpees *

I made a few adjustments since I am recovering from the csection.

I do crunches instead of situps. I physically cannot do a situp, so this is a necessity.

The other change I made was to skip the burpees, although I do plan to add those back in later. I was doing them when I first started and my form was horrible. I’m so tired by the time I get to that point. Bad form isn’t reason enough, but I hurt my ankle one day because of it. I’m going to wait until my core is a little stronger before I add those in again.

I do this twice a day if possible.

Complicating the Details

Why do we get so hung up in details? It truly is an all-or-nothing attitude, an it drives me crazy!

I’m making chicken stock for the first time. I was going to make it over night, but I didn’t plan my bird-cooking time right at all. At 3pm the chicken was ready to go. So I needed to start the broth.

Hindsight: I guess I could’ve put everything in the fridge until later… But that didn’t occur to me at the time. Haha!

I froze. The recipe I happened to be looking at said “low for 8-10 hours.” that would be late though! I don’t want to stay up! Is it ok to leave the bird drippings and bones on the counter until tonight? Again, the fridge has not occurred to me at this point. Oh my goodness! What do I do!?

I looked at other recipes: “high for 6 hours” “simmer for 12 hours” “low for 6 hours.” the cook times ran the gambit.

Again, I froze. How do I know the right way!?

Then something occurred to me. I’m making broth for my family. This is a good thing. It’s also a simple thing. Carcass + water + heat. So why was I complicating it?

I filled up the crock pot and put it on high for 6 hours. I’ll take a look at it and taste it then. Well see if I want to cook it longer. If I do, I will.

So simple.

Crazy beautiful!

I’m feeling the itch to create at the worst possible time! Lol!

I can’t get a ton of stuff out because we’re trying to sell. I don’t really want to buy fabric because I don’t want to bring anything new into our home. Not to mention, WHEN would I do this? Lol!

I think I’ll settle for writing a bit and maybe painting some windowsills.

Who would have thought my life would be so crazy right now!? Crazy beautiful!