This week's obsession: Pumpkin

Please tell me I am not the only one that has been obsessed with Pumpkin recently. Just the idea of it being fall (even if the weather here doesn't show it most of the time) makes me want to have pumpkin. So finding recipes on Pinterest for pumpkin anything just makes me happy. This week I decided to try a couple.  In case you have never cooked with pummpkin, please make sure you get just plain pumpkin and not pumpkin pie mix in a can.  They are different, and right next to each other in the grocery.

First I made pumpkin muffins from a mix that I have had for almost a year. Why I didn't use it before is beyond me, because they are delicious. A great way to keep the calories down on muffins is to make mini muffins. I still get the taste and the muffins I am wanting with half as many calories.

The next thing I made was Pumpkin Fluff from recipe-diaries.comIt is delicious and super easy to make. The biggest test in my household as to if a dessert is good is Mady. She is a picky eater, and this she seems to love. We call it pumpkin pudding for her, she likes pudding. I didn't make any real changes to the recipe, except it does say to use 1 1/2 oz of vanilla pudding. The small boxes are just 1oz, so I just used one box. I think it is still awesome! Also I'm not sure where they got the calorie count from, mine was a little higher, but no big deal, just don't have a ton at one time and you should be good.

Yesterday I decided I wanted to make Pumpkin Chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to make a lower calorie version so I decided to go with a cake/pumpkin mix type of cookie. I have found a recipe at Runs For Cookies that looked good and simple, and low calorie for plain pumpkin cookies, so I decided to use this idea and create my own. Mostly because I didn't have a spice cake mix, only yellow cake, and I'm cheap so I decided to use what I had. So here's what I did.

Ingredients:
15oz can pumpkin
1 Yellow Cake mix
1 tsp vanilla
Pumpkin Pie Spice to taste
1/2 cup chocolate chips

MIx Pumpkin and cake mix until smooth, then add the rest and mix through. Using a spoon or ice cream scooper drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. They are cake cookies so they puff up like cake.

These do not have a strong pumpkin taste, I think next time I would add more spice than I did, but they are delicious. I like cake cookies, a lot because I love cake, so I think they are great. I got 32 cookies out the mix, I think next time I could get 36. My calorie count for these was about 72 calories a cookie. If you take out the chocolate chips it's even lower. Overall they are a tasty cookie that I will make again. Everyone in my house likes them! (If you have never made cookies from cake a mix like this, know that they are sticky when cooled and stay that way) Below are my cookies, aren't they a pretty color!?

My Work Out Schedule

I am no expert at working out and I still do my best at times to find excuses to not work out. Thankfully Steven is a big encourager of me and he gives me the push to get my butt out the door when he knows I need to. I have had several people ask what I am doing and how often I work out now. I want to start with when I workout. Pretty much when I can find time and my kids are asleep, most of the time. Having one set exact schedule for some things is great, but if you have a a spouse, kids, friends, family, a job, a life at all you are going to have to alter your schedule and work around things to make working out a part of your life. You are going to be able to find excuses not to do it. But finding time and getting your butt in gear is the first step. So find a time that works for you. And if that is in the morning some days and at night others, then do it. At least you are doing something.

So on to how I work out. When I started I was just walking. We would walk and walk and walk everyday. Typically the goal was to walk 30 minutes a day. Eventually I started doing Jillian Micheal's 30 day shred a few times a week. Then we started jogging during some of our walks, and I added in JIllian Micheal's kickboxing. And a few weeks ago I got the chance to join a bootcamp at my neighbor's once a week. I have gradually increased what I do and how often I do it. This has helped me keep motivated and keep going. It is easy to get bored with working out if you are doing the same thing everyday, so I would encourage people to try different things. If you are just beginning to work out and thinking that walking is the best place to start, then try just varying your route, or going a little farther each day. If you do work out videos or can get to the gym try different things that interest you. Get involved in different activities. You will start to feel better like you can do more but you have to get yourself started.

Right now I am walking 6 - 7 days a week, running 2-3 times a week, doing a workout video 2-3 times a week and doing a bootcamp workout 1 time a week. Wow that sounds like a lot more when I write it down. 8 months ago I didn't think I would ever be able to workout more than once a week. And I never thought I'd be able run a mile. But I can. It has not been an easy road though.

If you are like me you want to be able to see how often you are working out and what you are doing. So a couple months ago I got a big teacher calendar to be able to write down how many miles we are walking and how often I am working out. It has also turned into a master calendar for our family. I also write down our goals for the month. How many miles we want to walk and how many separate work outs I want to do. This month we want to walk 50 miles and I want to do 20 work outs. Hopefully that will help put me closer to losing the 8lbs I have left for the year :)

Getting Ready for Halloween!

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, I'm more of a Christmas girl. But I do think it's a fun time to dress up and the kids get candy, and the parents sneak a little. I love to see all the little kids dressed in their adorable costumes and I'm excited that Mady is a little more excited about Halloween this year and getting the whole concept a little more. She was very excited to pick out her costume, which she ended up choosing Minnie Mouse, kind of a surprise after she talked about a princess crown for like a month. We have yet ot find one for Brynn yet. They had none in her size that I liked, but there is still lots of time, so I'm not worried.

Something different here in San Diego that I don't think I had ever really seen or noticed I guess is people decorating for Halloween. I remember people putting out some little things in Indiana and Texas, but nothing like people here. They really get into it. So we decided to join the Halloween decorating trend last year, nothing big, but we did get some things. It's fun for the girls to help with.

This year I decided to get a little crafty and try out making a wreath for our door. It was ambitious for me, because I've never done it at all. It didn't end up being exactly what I thought it would but I do think it is really cute.  I got the idea from Pretty Dity who made an adorable one and I thought I could do soemthing similar.  It's just a straw wreath (still wrapped in plastic), with yarn wrapped around it, and then decorated.  It was not hard to do or that expensive, the part that took the longest was wrapping it in yarn.  I knew I was only goign to do one color, because I would get obssesive about making sure each color had the same amount of yarn and that would start to annoy me.  So anyways, here it turned out.  What do you think?

This weekend we also went to a pumpkin patch, which really was more like a mini fair.  They had food stands, face painting, a hay ride, a straw maze, tons of stuff.  The girls loved it!  We had lots of fun and found pumpkins for both girls. And Steven got to try his first funnel cake, so it was a great day for all of us.  

It will hurt!

  

I saw this yesterday on Facebook and couldn't help but think of how true it is.  I have seen it before floating around Pinterest and such, but I really understand it now.  Having and meeting a goal is hard.  If you want to lose weight, get yourself in shape, meet a physical goal it is likely that at some point it is going to hurt.  Literally you may injure yourself., but also it is going to hurt you a little to say no to things sometimes.  And you are not going to wake up one morning and have lost 15lbs or be able to run a marathon.  You have to make changes to your life to see the results that you want.  Any pill or things like that, which tell you you don't have to make changes to your eating or exercise routine to lose weight or change your body is a lie and probably extremely unhealthy for you.  Don't do it.  Anyways, I like this quote because it's true.  Because it's hard.  People often ask me how I have lost weight and made the changes and while I can tell you how I eat a lot more vegetables and fruit and cut back on my total calories.  Or how I get up early to workout before my kids are awake, that really is just half of it.  You also have to make sacrifices, you have to dedicate yourself to your own health, you have to have the willpower to keep going even when you can't see the results right away.  You have to make healthy decisions.  

I will not lie and tell you that it is easy to do this.  It's not.  But it's also not the hardest thing I've ever done.  On days when it seems to be too hard sometimes I think of the hardest thing I've ever done.  It is extremely hard for me to talk about even 2 1/2 years later, but the hardest thing I have ever done is tell my husband that his brother was killed in Afghanistan, over the phone, while he was also deployed.  I am not looking for your pity.  While it is still hard for me to talk about I have found strength in Geoff's death and the obstacles that we have overcome since then.  I am able to think of the moment my parent's sat me down and told me what had happened or when Steven called and I had to put aside my sorrow and be strong for my husband.  I think of those moments on the days when I think I can't exercise or run farther or I want to give this all up.  While it may make me sad I am also able to  remember the strength I had in those moments and remind myself that I have that strength still in there.  This is easy in comparison.  

So I encourage you to find your own strength.  Think of the moments that you have overcome a huge obstacle or been stronger than you think you can, then use that strength that's in you.  II promise when you finally meet a goal, you will feel strong.  And all the sacrifice will be worth it.  

And today I have lost 70lbs!!!  Yay!!!  Just 10 more to my next big goal!!

I DID IT!! One Goal Down!!

Yesterday afternoon was hectic around here. You know those days where you are just ready for it to be over. When you just want to take a few minutes to yourself. Normally I would have told Steven that before dinner I was going to go for a run, but it was hot and we had to run an errand, so that wasn't going to work out. So I had to go ahead and wait till after the girls were in bed. This was the first time I was going to run after dark, not that I am scared or anything, I just usually don't. But I needed to. I needed to get my frustrations of the day out.

So I walked over to a park area near our house where a baseball team was practicing, so there were lights and I ran around the outside of the second field. I began by promising myself I would run around it once (I had no idea how far it was), then I realized as I was getting back to the beginning that I could do it again. So I did it twice, no stopping, but I knew I could do more. Soon I was on my 5th time around wondering how far I had gone feeling like that was it I couldn't run any farther without walking a little. I knew it was farther than I had ever run without stopping, but I still didn't know how far. So I pulled my phone out of my bra (yes I know I should get one of those arm bands or something) and saw that I was at .79miles. I was surprised I had gone that far, and it just made me all that more determined to finish out and run a mile. So I kept on myself and I kept running and running. And the next thing I knew I heard the 1 mile mark!! I ran a whole mile without stopping!!! I was so excited!! And the funny thing is I started to walk for about half a block and decided I wanted to run more! So I ran a couple more blocks and headed home.

I was and still am very proud of myself. I didn't think I was going to be able to run a whole mile without stopping until I had lost a lot more weight. I know there are some people who could not run at all and go out and just run a mile and do it faster than I did. But that has never been me. I am not a runner. But I proved to myself last night that I can do it. My time was not fast. It took 12:30 which is not fast. It actually is the same amount of time it takes me to walk and run it combined. But I ran the whole thing. I didn't let myself stop. And you should know that before last night the longest I had run without stopping was just over 1/4 mile. And now that I know I can do it, I am excited to work on getting my time faster!

You may be wondering what would keep you motivated? Well honestly I kept thinking about how I just wanted to go farther than I had before. Then I kept telling myself that it was be awesome to be able to walk in the door and tell Steven that I had finally accomplished one of my goals. I even thought about the show Extreme Makeover: Weigh loss edition. I love that show (I dislike the Biggest Loser). And one thing that I notice everytime I watch that show is that the trainer, Chris, pushes the people to go beyond what they think they can do. Which you should do each time you work out, but this time I kept thinking about one of the men who weighed 400+ lbs and he made him run and run, and just kept telling him to move his legs. No matter how fast he was going he was to keep his legs moving. I knew that if a man who weighs hundreds of pounds more than me could keep his legs moving and run, I could too.

So I am proud myself today. I didn't think I would be able to run that far and I did. It also gives me motivation to find a race to sign up for. I do not expect to win or anything, but I would love to try sometime. I challenge you to keep trying for that goal you don't think you can reach. Give it your all and see what happens.

Pumpkin decorating for toddlers

Well my craftiness attempts are in full swing this week. We went to Micheals on Sunday and spent more than expected, but this project was a pretty cheap one and can be reused many times. I took my inspiration for this from a post I have seen many times and thought was really cool on pinterest. It is the felt Christmas Tree that you can redecorate over and over.  I thought it was really adorable and I know at Christmas I want to give it a try, but I started to think why couldn't I do something like that for Halloween too.  So I did!  And it's super easy and cheap.

I decided I would make felt pumpkins with different eyes and noses and mouths.  It is definitely an easier way for the girls to get to decorate pumpkins than actual pumpkins.  So I picked up Orange, Green, and Black felt from Micheals.  I knew I wanted to make 4 pumpkins so I could have a couple extra, because let's face it with toddlers things get destroyed often in our house.  On Sunday night I cut out the pumpkins and decorations for them, along with some leaves and vines. It took me maybe an hour, because I cut out lots of differnt faces.  But I figured they are mix and match so the girls will get lots of uses out of them.  I did decide to get googly eyes to put on some, because they are fun, and were pretty cheap.  And after playing around with it, I found that it would be best if the pumpkins had some sort of packing to make them a little harder.  So I searched the house to figure out what to use, and I found file folders.  They are hard enough to make them a little tougher, but they are still flexible and easy to use and store.

Yesterday I gave the girls the chance to try out their new pumpkins and Mady loved them. Brynn liked it okay, but still is a little young to understand what to do. It didn't keep Mady occupied for hours or anything, but about 20 minutes, and she said she wanted to do it again. So I am happy about how it turned out. Oh and I mentioned that it is cheap. Here is how much we spent on this.
Felt - .30 each * 10 pieces = $3
Googly eyes - $1
Hot Glue Gun - Had it
File Folders - Had them (if you don't have a box, it's worth picking some up just to have some around)
Total Cost - $4.00 and could be less if you use less felt and no silly eyes.

I am also working on a second project right now. A Halloween wreath, well a double wreath actually. I finished one part, and I am working on the second. Hopefully I finish it this week and it turns out as cute as I want. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

September Progress

Good Morning! It is October! Can you believe it!? Where did this year go?? My mom always told me that time went faster when you had kids, and she was right. This year has flown by and I can't believe we are starting to talk about the holiday season.

September here was a busy and crazy month. We were in Indiana for a good chunk of it which helped the time go rather quickly. Brynn turned 1! And my baby brother got married! It was such a great trip seeing so many family and friends. We had a wonderful time.

When we got back I was pretty sure things would calm down, they didn't. Ants, a leak, half wall replaced, ants still, and an ear infection all effected our last week of September. But none of that will stop us, although the illness will slow us down. But no complaints, because the truth is, it could always be worse. Everyone has those weeks where things just don't go as expected and that's what happened to us. No big deal. As we were dealing with an overly cranky and sick Mady this weekend, I couldn't help but think it could be much worse. She has an ear infection, that's all. There are kids out there dealing with much worse and parent's taking care of those children not knowing when or if they will ever get better. I know that we will have another few rough days, but things should get better soon. We are lucky.

As far as my weight loss and excercise progress go, this month was pretty good. I lost 9lbs, which was pretty unexpected, this past week at home was rough and I didn't lose any, but overall for the month I did great. Just 11.5lbs left to lose to meet my end of the year goal. Exercise wise was okay. Nothing great, but I did do some working out. I am hoping to see bigger strides this month toward my running goals. I did get up and workout this morning, which is a great way to start the day, week and month for me. And it was fun, even though I am still hurting from the bootcamp workout I did with a group of ladies on Friday. My neighbor Karla certainly knows how to kick your butt, in a good way.

Well I am excited for October and all that it will bring! I have even started to getting crafty for the month. I know, I know, crafting and I don't go well together, but I think I have found some simple Halloween/fall things that I can actually do. Enjoy some of the pictures from this month!