Food! And more...

"Egg Noodle" Mac & Cheese!

 Starting out today.... Some of my favorite meals! Yippee! The first is a Low-Carb "Egg noodle" Mac & cheese. Great, not so quick, meal that my entire family LOVES!  We have actually had these about 1-2 times each week for the passed month... It really is that big of a hit for us. Basically, it is eggs, cheese, Lil' Smokies and cream. Plus a few dashes of nutmeg and a few more dashes of chili powder! Yum! Makes it oh so delicious! Even my kids gobble this meal down. It used to be that if we said Mac & Cheese, it meant the stuff out of the blue box... Yeah, you know the kind I meal! My oldest was so bad about it that he would not eat any type of Mac & Cheese unless it was "Character shaped" and out of a blue box! Until "we" (my sister) got him to eat "Spokane Noodles" (or Elbow Macaroni, because that is all they make in Spokane, WA. Or so he was told! LOL) . From then on it was OK to eat "Spokane Noodles" but only when he picked them out at the store because we FINALLY got some delivered to our store! Essentially, I stopped buying the special kinda because it was all they would eat and I would like for my kids to develop taste buds at some point! Now, as the oldest gets, well, older, he has started to try new things and in turn, his brothers follow in his foot steps! He tried this meal first (loved it) and then the 6 year old tried it (loved it) followed by the 4 year old who still has the jury out! The last time we had this meal (last night) I got my 4 year old to try just a few small bites, to decide if tonight was the night he was going to start liking it. Nope! He ate a hot dog and a hot dog bun (separately) and that was dinner (Dessert was Grape Jell-o). What got me started on not really giving the kiddos a chance to "pick" the meal for the evening was when my 7 year old asked if he could have some of Grandma's "Chicken" (it was pork, but we told him it was chicken). This was amazing to me. This child has only wanted to eat boxed Mac & Cheese, cottage cheese, cheese, boxed Salisbury Steak and a few other random things. He tried it, and loved it! Since then, not a meal has gone by where he didn't eat exactly what we did. And he didn't complain.

Pork and Asparagus (Yum!)

My son keeps telling me that he wants to try more and more new things because I really can cook (to his surprise!) Most of the time he prefers my Mother and I's "diet" food to the food he is eating. For example, we were having breakfast for dinner and I had made a low carb Dutch Baby Pancake(oven baked pancake) for my mother and I to eat and the kiddos and my Hubby were having regular old fashioned pancakes. Well, he wanted part of the Dutch Baby and after trying both decided that he really didn't like the "normal" pancakes. We also no longer buy "sugared" maple syrup anymore. There really is no point in having 2 different kinds of syrup in the house when it doesn't hurt the boys to have just a little less sugar for breakfast! This kiddo just never stops amazing me and I am sure that the end of that is nowhere in sight. He is a very bright boy. He even has requested that he get $2 extra on Tuesdays at school so that he can get a second helping of tacos at lunch time. Since there are only a few weeks left of school, why not! This is their last year at a "Brick & Mortar" School. Might as well let them make the best of it, right?


In other news for me...

We bought a printer to go with our nifty Internet capabilities! Woo-hoo! This is actually helpful because now I can just print my sister's Baby Shower invitations from home, rather than drive into town and pay to print at Kinko's! We also ended up picking up a really neat printer too! It has wireless printing, or eprint, so that we do not have to be hardwired into it to print from it. Another cool part to that is that we can email information from our phones (such as photos) to the printer! Well, the rest of my family can, my phone is pretty lame and doesn't send the picture all the way through! (Bummer!)

I tried to get a photo of the printer to load so that I could show everyone, but it doesn't seem to want to show up! So, it is an HP Officejet 4622 series if you want to see what it looks like! (for those who don't know or don't live here! LOL)

I managed today to purchase my outfit for my Sister's Baby Shower. I am very pleased with it. Since the shower isn't until July, I feel accomplished in having one more thing done! Also, I will be able to nurse the baby easily an still look good while doing so! I tried on 2 of the same thing but the green, yellow and blue just looked best on me. I also picked up a new tank that looks great on me! I never would have thought to try on anything with horizontal stripes because normally they make the person wearing them look 20x their regular size, but both the outfit I got AND my new shirt have horizontal stripes and they look great on me.

I also picked up a couple more pieces of material today for a couple more projects. Along with yet another ball of yarn! I have been crocheting something for awhile now and had been debating on how to do the trim. I could have used something that I already had at home, but this just about jumped off the shelf and screamed, "Use me for that! Use me!" So, I bought it! The fabric I found is my new favorite! It has Owls all over it! I keep gravitating towards the Owl water-proof material used to make cloth diapers too. I have no idea what it is about Owls and baby print that has me so obsessed, but I love it! If I could get my hands on many different kinds of Owl printed fabrics, I'd be a Mama/Auntie in heaven! I would seriously dress my 6 month old is all Owl clothing if I thought I could actually afford to buy all the material from the craft store! This stuff is so cute, I can hardly stand it! Now, if I could only win the lotto, I could buy the fabrics and then maybe grow a craftier side and make a bunch of Owl baby gear! LOL! For now, I stick to what I got! I have a few small projects to complete before my Sister finds out the baby's gender in 2 weeks. And then it is all out "gender specific" projects! Some of the things I am making for her and her baby I will be making the "testers" for myself and my baby!

Little Man is 6 months old now!

Speaking of my Little Man! He has decided that this week should be the week to cut 2 more new teeth! His top 2 front teeth started to break through this week and with that comes drool and both him and I have head colds as well! I notice this time around, that when he was cutting his bottom 2 teeth, him and I both got sick then too. Same type of thing, feels and sounds like a head cold. Stuffed up nose and sore throat with a tiny cough to go with it. Hopefully, his teeth will come fast and him and I will both get better. This type of cold is the type that causes you to e extra tired and with 4 little boys, that is an issue!

In addition to everything else today and this week, my Hubby started mowing the lawn! Yippee! I say started, because our ride on mower was broken until yesterday when our neighbor fixed it and got it running again. He was unable to finish because the belt for the mower blades broke! Literally shredded and came off in chunks! Yuck! Not a pretty picture. So, my Mother stopped in at Baxter's Auto Parts in town while we were in that area. They said they would have the part in 1 hour. So, we went shopping. Came back in 1.5 hours and still no part. Left, and went to another store, this time across town. And when we came back, still no part. Found our way to another store and then back to Baxter's and 4 hours later, part was ready! When we got home I took the boys to play at a friends house so that they could swim and jump on the trampoline and I could visit with their Mommy. Also so Hubby could finish mowing the lawn. Well, the part we were in town so long waiting for... Too long... Can't be used! Gotta get a new one! So, Lawn... Not mowed all the way! (sigh) Hopefully tomorrow it can get finished. We will have to wait and see.

That is all for now. Hopefully I can make it back in here to fill everyone in on more "Me Details" sooner than I did from the last post. I will try to start posting a little something even if it is literally a little something! For now... Enjoy your week! 10.5 more days of school left for the little ones! Yikes!

~TTFN

A not so short, short little bit by me....

Everything is listed today in bold, italic and underlined "topics" so that you can pick and choose what you read!

Sorry in advance for the lack of photos. I will try to not leave them out again. I love photos and hope others enjoy them when I post them as well.

ENJOY!

My Diet: I have noticed the last several week/months that my diet seems to be on a flat line. As in, I am not losing a pound from week to week. I think I need to get this part of me under better control. I was "Journaling" on my computer for awhile (I figure it could make for an interesting read one day) but I seemed to have stopped that once I started this. (Here's hoping for my reader's sake's that I never start a new blog without telling them, I may disappear here and be lost in new blog land! Yikes! LOL) I was keeping track of exactly what I ate, how many carbs were in each and every meal and every part of that meal. Such as; if I ate a salad I listed every single thing I put into it and that items carb count and then added it up!

I know that not many people would want to read the lists of things I consume on a day to day, week to week or even month to month basis. So, I do not plan on listing my food intake here, but I need to do something to get myself back to losing rather than being stuck. Or even worse, gaining! Ugh. I have lost around 35+ pounds since I had my baby almost 6 months ago (slow down time, slow down!). Only about 17 of that is from this diet though. The rest was all the "pregnancy" weight. I gained well over that during my pregnancy so it feels good to be below my pre-pregnancy weight. 

Deliveries of the package kind, not the baby kind: I have been waiting and waiting for my BzzKit from BzzAgent to arrive so I can test out the super cool Dr. Scholl's For Her High Heel Insoles. My mother went and picked up the mail today and brought back a package. Sadly, it was not my BzzKit. But thankfully, it was another package we were waiting for! My Husband's Aunt recently went to Florida and offered to buy our family T-shirts while she was there. (She really is one o the neatest Aunties in the world! I love her to pieces.)She sent me a bright pink shirt that I absolutely love since pink is my favorite color. and the hubby and all 4 boys each got a shirt as well. The baby however got 2! LOL. He will have to grow into them but that is OK. It is the first "way too big to fit" thing he has gotten. I will post photos after I get them de-tagged and washed! One of them says "LIFEGUARD" on it and is red... too cute. Another is neon orange. I completely love them!

Online browsing, cloth diapers: I spent a lot of time today looking into cloth diapers. I guess simply looking for see if I could find any super cheap ones or even any companies that are giving away free cloth diaper samples or things like that and I entered a few contests to try to win some of them. I would love to do this. Specially after seeing all the super cute ones my sister has gotten and the fact that they have gotten super easy to do from back in the day when they were all the "fold your own" type. I love the All-in-One kind that you basically slap the thing on the kiddo and go. But I think I would prefer the pocket style. I am not sure since I do not own any. I even posted a craigslist ad as well in hopes that someone may donate to myself and my sister. And I even stated there that I do not care if they are pink! I will for sure put a boy in pink. I have no issue with that. (My 6 year old is the one who hates the color pink for boys and I have no idea why.) I tend to stray far from dresses on my baby boys, but pink is alright! I know how hard it is to afford diapers when 3 to 4 adults are working to make ends meet but now that only 1 person has a job, diapers will be even harder to afford. I would like to take as much stress off my family as possible and I wouldn't mind using the cloth diapers on little man. Also, I know this is something my sister will be using and she is getting all my boys' old clothes no matter what she is having. And to be honest, I will probably use any older looking items I get and leave the newer looking stuff for my sister that I get. But, I am not as "crafty" as she is and I do not think I could make my own cloth diapers like she can/does.

Plants: I started a "garden" inside last year. it consisted of a couple types of flowers, tomatoes, bell peppers and parsley. Well, all of the plants were taken outside except the parsley. I believe I have posted photos of it here recently. Now the plant is too tall to take photos of the entire thing! I would say that the entire plant stands roughly 7-8 inches tall and has started to sprout off of the other parts of the plant. I will attempt to keep better record of the plants growth as it was my first attempt at planting anything other than pre-grown flowers bought at the store! Even those never lasted long! This baby is growing though and just in the last month! Maybe it got jealous of the huge Avocado tree growing next to it (which appears to be waiting for the parsley to catch up!)

Well, that  is all for tonight. I am pretty tired and think that I can hold off until tomorrow to type a bit more! As always, I hope everyone out there is happy safe and healthy! 

Until next time....

~TTFN