Back to Normal

The kids are back to school today and Paul is back to work so I'm hoping things get a little back to normal around here. My eating at least. We finally finished those cake truffles from Paul's birthday. Those are terrible little things!!

I stepped on the scale this morning and I am about the same as 2 weeks ago (within 1/2 a pound). So I pretty much stayed the same over Christmas and New Year's. Pretty good since that's when most people gain so I think I did ok.

Today or tomorrow I will open up my new Walk Away the Pounds DVD and get moving, hopefully with Michelle because that will make it more fun.

Andrea


Breakfast
oatmeal with brown sugar
apple

Lunch
apple
2 slices cheese
handful of almonds

Supper
my dad's famous rice geesa (rice, beef, pepper and onion dish that's really only famous in my family)
another 2 cake truffles (ok it was more like 4 but now they are gone!!!)

Exercise
Walked to the rink in town, the kids skated while I walked a few laps, then walked back home
We all went for a walk around town (20 minutes)

Paul's Birthday

Today went pretty good except I had stomach cramps almost all day. Not the funnest time of the month.

It's Paul's birthday today. The kids and I had planned to take him out for supper tonight but he wasn't feeling that great so we just stayed in instead. Maybe we'll go out tomorrow when we are in Regina. I made some cake truffles (I made that name up). I kind of copied part of a recipt from another blog that I follow and made a few changes. I had made them for New Year's eve when we had some friends over and I thought no one would like them but it turned out everyone loved them, even the adults. So here's the recipe, if anyone's interested.

Cake Truffles

1 box of cake mix - bake the cake according to box
1 1/2 cups icing (I made butter cream icing)
1/2 cup dry oatmeal
chocolate to melt (I used some of a giant chocolate bar that I got at Walmart but you can use any chocolate that will melt well)
chocolate sprinkles

When the cake has cooled, crumble the entire cake with your hands into a large bowl. Add oatmeal and icing (use 1 cup icing to start). Add enough icing so that the mixture forms a workable dough. Roll 1 inch balls and let them cool in the fridge. Melt chocolate. Using a skewer, poke the cake balls and dip them in chocolate and place them on wax paper. Sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles then let them cool in the fridge.

Not very weight conscious dessert but a nice treat.

Andrea


Breakfast
1 poached egg
1 slice toast
yogurt

Lunch
bowl of chicken noodle soup
coleslaw

Supper
mac and cheese with peas
some spicy beef and pork
2 small cake truffles

**I forgot to add that I walked 20 minutes

Happy New Year

Happy (late) New Year's! I hope you all had a fun time celebrating it. We had fun with some friends over that night.

I haven't been on here very much the last few weeks and I'm probably up 2 lbs because of it. I don't know, I haven't wanted to step on the scale but it feels like it. I've definitely eaten a bit more than I should have. I'm kind of looking forward to the kids going back to school and Paul going back to work because it's just a little harder to say no to food when they are always around snacking on things when I know I'm not hungry. So I know I've said this before and haven't stuck to it, but I need to keep track of what I eat on here for the accountability. And I need to get exercising, either on my treadmill or using the new Walk Away the Pounds DVD I bought. Michelle even said she would want to do it with me.

So I will be back on here tonight or tomorrow morning letting you know how today went.

Andrea

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! The gifts are opened, candy and chocolate have been nibbled on and I could use a nap!

We started out our morning with breakfast. I had made a 'make the night before' breakfast casserole so that I only had to put it into the oven this morning. Paul and I enjoyed it but the kids were way too excited to eat breakfast. We opened Oma and Opa's (that's my mom and dad) gifts while we talked to them on Skype. Then we finished the book "Bartholomew's Passage". We were given this book as a gift at Paul's work Christmas Party. It's an advent book, it has a chapter to read each day of advent and it finishes off on Christmas morning. It was a really exciting book. The kids would always beg me to read another chapter because each chapter ends with a cliff hanger. So this morning we finished the book and it was a really good ending. I was told it is one of a series of 3 books so we will have to find another one for next year.

Then we opened the rest of the presents. That's always a little chaotic! I think Matt's favorite gift is the remote control car from his cousin Caleb. He hasn't put it down yet. The kids are all in their new pj's too and Michelle's in her new slippers from her cousin Rachel. Josh is wearing his New Jersey Devil's hat from his cousin Kurt and Ben's been playing his handheld Battleship game from his cousin Maddy. I love my 'FAMILY' Picture frame that I got from Michelle. Last week while I was shopping with Michelle, I showed her a frame with different pictures of letters that spelled out the word 'FAMILY' that I liked. She went home into Paul's shop and started taking pictures of tools that looked like letters. Then she did some editing on the computer, put them into black and white and then framed them. I love it. Paul and I also got a similar gift from my sister Jen and her husband Geoff that spelled out 'JOY'. I love them both.


Anyway, there are too many gifts to mention but we love them all, especially the ones that were sent with love from Ontario!!

I hope you all have a great Christmas.

Andrea

Crazy Weekend

Friday after school the kids and I planned to head to Moose Jaw to do some shopping, stay over night and then come back on Saturday. We were about 15 km's from Moose Jaw on the highway in complete fog when my van started to die. I pulled over to the side and it completely died. It seemed like the alternator quit. I called CAA, got the van towed to a local mechanic and took a cab with the kids to the hotel (I had already booked a hotel because we knew we were staying in town). Thankfully the mechanic could work on it Saturday morning and we had it back by 1:00. So we walked to the mall, did some shopping and then took a cab to pick up the van. It could have been a lot worse, it was only -5 and not -35 like last week.

Andrea

Compassion

The other day the kids and I watched Extreme Home Makeover where they helped the Ward family. The Ward's, a mother and her two grown children who live in Erie Pennsylvania in a rough neighborhood, run a youth development centre out of their home. They feed, give gifts to and just help kids in the neighbourhood that need it. While we watched it, I cried (it doesn't take much to make me cry) and Michelle just looked at me like I was crazy. Well, today about an hour after Michelle came home from school, she called me down to her room. I couldn't come right away but when I finally went down, she was bawling. When she finally told me what was wrong, she said that she didn't want any presents for Christmas this year. She said since watching that show she felt like there were so many other people who don't have as much as we do so she didn't want any presents this year. Oh, I almost cried. I was proud to see that she cared so much. You don't always see that side of her. We talked about it a bit and decided we would think of how we could help others more this Christmas. Then we were listening to Adventures in Odyssey online and it was about a family whose dad was in prison and they didn't have very much money for gifts so Whit and the gang helped them out. So what is God trying to say here? I'm not sure what we will do, there aren't really people in our small town that would need help and we're an hour from Swift and 2 1/2 hours from Regina. Any ideas??

Andrea


Breakfast
cereal with milk

Lunch
chinese - mostly veggies and some beef and chicken

Snack
2 cookies (Josh baked brownie cookies and Ben and I made peanut butter kisses cookies)

Supper
1 pc pizza
small salad

Crafty

This was one of the things I made for the auction at the school last night. I had seen something similar, just wine bottles with lights in them, so I thought I'd give it a try and copy it but add a few things. I had to drill a hole in the back of each bottle to feed the lights through. Paul told me I needed a diamond drill bit for glass and it worked perfectly. This summer when we went back to Ontario for a visit, I just popped into a 'make your own wine' place and the guy there gave me a bunch of labels and seals for the top. The stand I made from two boxes I picked up at the dollar store, painted black and glued together. And the grapes I got at the dollar store too. It probably cost me $8 to make and it sold for $45.

The other thing I made I can't show you yet because I also sent one back to Ontario as a gift. So you'll have to wait until after Christmas.

Andrea