Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Two months to go

OK. It's official. I now have two months until the wedding date and I have yet to lose more than 5 pounds. The good news is that I'm perfecting the art of eating healthy. I just still eat too much.

New strategy as of Monday. I'm eating six small, tiny meals a day of very healthy food. Yesterday I had two meals that consisted of a piece of cheese and a bunch of tiny tomatoes.

I tried on wedding dress today. Yikes. It looks pretty and I know I'll have a wonderful time. The best part of being with the right man is that you don't really care if you are thin enough or pretty enough. You become content with knowing that someone loves you for who you are. Having said that, I really do want to get to a more healthy lifestyle and weight. But not for the same reasons.

Cheers!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Wedding menu

Well, on Monday, it's officially 2 months and counting until the big wedding date. I had a huge pow-wow yesterday with my wedding major domo (maid of honor) and we've got the timeline down, much of the rentals and the design hammered out and -- ta daaaaah -- the menu.

I'm not going to reveal all, but we are having a lot of seasonal foods and I'd love to include some foods from our own garden, such as beets and Brussels sprouts. It's going to be a four-course meal with lots of resting time in between courses. We are also using two very interesting main course foods and pairing them together instead of allowing people a choice -- less fuss when it comes to doing place cards and seating arrangements and keeping track of RSVPs.

News on our garden: It's a huge hit. The only problem is that it's hard to keep up with the weeding. This week we have not stop moving for a minute (why didn't someone tell me that school supply shopping is a major ponzi scheme by teachers who accumulate masses of dry-erase markers, clipboards, erasers and boxes of Kleenex and sell them on the black market!) We seriously have had zero down time this week and the next time we have the kids, we are on vacation Up North for a week. Fun! Am planning that menu as well and of course have to do a frontal lobotamy to get my mind away from just picking the kids' favorites and really sticking to foods that Tim and I like and enjoy. More on that menu soon.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

I'm ba-aaack! With great camping stories

I'm so sorry that I've been gone for so long, but it's been so busy, I hardly know where to start.

First, I've got a new major client and that always takes a lot of time to get them up and running. Another client has been very busy, so that usually means that I'm going to be busy. Then, the kids being home in the summer keeps me hopping as does Tim, who has been working hard as well.

The good news--aside from all my great clients--is that we got to get away as a family over the weekend camping. We went to Big Foot State Park in Lake Geneva, which I highly recommend to anyone who doesn't care for completely rugged wilderness camping. We had a terrific time. The kids were true sports, really pitching in. Isabel, the oldest, kept asking me how she could help. We always have a good time together and this weekend was no different. Eden was also a lot of fun. She and I went for a walk along the lakeshore walking path and it cracked me up how this 7-year-old walks like a 30-year-old power walker. I had a hard time keeping up (I was attached by leash to our dog) and she's just walking along, looking around and keeping up a pretty constant chatter about which houses, boats and gardens she likes. It was fun! Colin and his dad got a lot of quality time together, too (as did the girls, but it seems to be critical to Colin's wellbeing--he gets jealous when Tim takes time out for the girls one-on-one).

The other fun part was cooking together. The children always offered to help. The menu had to be creative to fit with my 'Eating Real Food' diet. They didn't even seem to notice. I had one rule, and that was we had to cook everything over the fire (and we did except the first night because we arrived at about 9 p.m.). Everything with an asterisk was not on the diet, but was considered essential by the kids. I had very little.

Friday night:
Cheeseburgers
Cream cheese and onion dip
Potatoe chips *
Sliced cucumbers

Saturday

Breakfast
Scrambled eggs and cheese
Bacon
Cherries

Snack
Apples and cheese

Lunch
Sandwiches on sour dough bread
Potatoe salad
Chips and dip*

Snack
Watermelon

Dinner
Turkey brats
Pesto Pasta Salad with peas *
Tomatoe slices

Sunday

Breakfast
Blueberry buttermilk pancakes with whipped cream
Sausage
Fruit

Lunch
Real hot dogs
Potatoe salad
Pasta salad

Dinner
Fish (fresh caught) steamed
BBQ chicken
Green beans
Roasted potatoes

Jiffy pop *

Breakfast
Bagels and cream cheese*
Fruit

Lunch (at a restaurant in Delavan)
Chopped chicken salad
Corn soup

I wasn't perfect, but it was pretty fun and the kids had a great time helping to cook. No one said they didn't like the food (and if they did, they ended up trying it and loving it anyway). Fun! Of course, Tim chowed down and, for once, I didn't eat as much as I usually do. Yay!