Journal Moment

Haha.  Right before I started typing I realized I had all kinds of tidbits to share.  I thought a lot them would be quite relate-able too.  But now I can't remember much of anything.  I'll try to take some deep breaths and see if it all comes back to me.

Me as of Lately:  

I've been trying to cook more and it has worked really well.  I've been able to keep to our food budget much more easily and found a few new recipes that I really like.  It's a whole new way of life though... having to have my act together in the afternoon so I can get dinner made before the night gets away from us.  Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the hardest for me.  Tuesdays I have to have the kids fed and settled before 6:30ish so I can get them to the babysitter's in a good mood while I go to Young Women's.  Wednesdays I have to think even more ahead because we usually are at playgroup from 3:15 to about 5, which is smack dab in the middle of my prime dinner prep time.  It's pretty sad that I've been married well over 5 years and I'm just now getting the hang of this part of it.  Even worse is that I've been working in the home (being a Mommy is the best job in the world!!!) for almost 4 years and you'd think that would be one of the first skills mastered.  I thought I was doing fine because I have always been able to cook, but apparently you don't have a grip on your job description of Stay At Home Mom if you're not cooking every night.  Not to mention before 8pm.  Now this latest effort has resulted in another...um... I'm not sure whether to call it a hobby, vice, or plain old slow and painful death- my baking.

I have been baking cookies a lot lately and played around with a couple peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipes.  I ended up liking one so much that I made another batch (within a few days).  While in the middle of making those I realized swapping Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) for peanut butter could result in a new favorite cookie recipe.  So now I've been trying to find my favorite Nutella cookie recipe.  I've tried a couple and plan to tweak each of them and see if I can't create the perfect recipe.  Now I know I could just search online for a second or two and probably find one, but I've gotten it into my head that I want develop it myself.  This could be because of Marshall's sweet, naive comments that I am the best chef in the world!  I'm pretty sure that a chef would leave Google to the novice housewife and take matters into their own hands.  So here I try.  And in the meantime... a spare tire.

That's right.  I'm talking about my middle.  Last spring I made great strides in my diet and exercise routine and really felt like if I just continued in that trend I'd be happier with my body than I had been in a LONG time.  And on top of that I was training for the marathon so I figured I was pretty much unstoppable.  Well, I was able to reach my goal weight by the middle of summer and just had a little more toning I wanted to achieve but my shinsplints had another plan for me so I didn't train for the race like I had wanted to and just toughed it out and ran on the big day.  (Which I don't regret!  Anyone can do it if I did it and I really enjoyed every bit of it.)  I also backed way off of my exercise routine in order to let my shins heal and got really out of the habit.  I also got out of the habit of watching what I ate.  Now here I am just 5 pounds heavier, but I know I've lost muscle and definitely gained some extra insulation.

Colby and I were discussing the possibilities of why my stomach seemed to grab all the extra sugar, carbs, and calories I've been eating and we've come up with some interesting theories.  As it turns out, my stomach has been sharing with my butt and thighs too... but here are the theories.

   1.  I've just been putting on my winter coat.

   2.  My body has previously had a cycle of pregnancy every other winter and it must be trying to compensate for the lack of "productivity."

   3.  Possibly it could be sympathy weight for my pregnant friends.

   4.  My comment years ago that "if you're a good cook no one thinks anything of your size" is catching up to me.  (I seriously figured that I could be as lovable as Paula Deen or Ina Garten if I could just figure out how to cook like them.)

Either way, and notice there is not an option 5 with a much more realistic reason like unbalanced overeating with a disgusting lack of excercise, I am looking forward to my clothes fitting the way I know they should.  I'm also looking forward to my Spanx fitting me again, haha, or perhaps maybe even throwing them out all together.  For the first couple of months I would see the number slowly increase and I'd think it was no problem because I still was looking the same.  But these last couple of months the rose colored glasses have come off and I've seen undeniable evidence that I need to get back in shape.  I've actually been really happy with myself that I've kept it to these five pounds because there have been times that I've fluctuated 3-5 pounds in a matter of days but have recently just seen a steady, gradual change.  I am now devoting myself back to myself and see if I can't get back to where I was last year and keep improving from there.

Well, I'm pretty sure this post went in a way different direction than I planned it would, but I'll try to quickly post some other lovely things so all of you reading can really enjoy perusing my blog again.