Well this is going to be a random post because I have a lot of random things to share!
First off, I am tired. Geesh. These last few weeks have been busy, busy, busy! I mean, we’re always busy (aren’t we all??), but it’s been insane lately.
Daylight Savings has not helped me either. Aaaand for some reason my baby (yes, he’s 2 1/2, but I will probably call him “baby” until he’s 89 or so) has been waking up in the night a TON this week. I think Daylight Savings is messin’ him up too.
Soooo, I’ve essentially turned into a slug. Ha ha.
I told you guys before that we’ve been working on redoing our upstairs bonus room. It’s been awesome, but MAN, it’s been a lot of work. It’s been fun though.
I snapped a few “before” pictures just before we started painting…
We’d already pulled everything away from the walls so we could tape and we covered things with beautiful sheets. It was very pretty. 😉
Folks, this room is just a GIANT bonus room that we have used as a Family Room/play room/”destroyed by kids” room. It’s been a wonderful room, but it has seriously needed some work.
It’s had cream FLAT paint on the walls and extremely cheap carpet that probably should have been replaced 5 years ago. However, Kev and I are both glad we didn’t do it sooner because the kids would have probably just killed it. We’re glad they destroyed the cheap stuff and we’re hoping they’ll be a little bit gentler on our new stuff.
Here’s to hopin’!
We moved in our house about 9 years ago. We moved our stuff in, got a few new pieces of furniture, hung some stuff on the walls and we have not touched it since. In our defense, I had a baby 2 weeks after we moved in and it’s just gotten crazier ever since! We’ve been pretty much in “survival mode” and just haven’t had the time/energy/money/motivation to work on the house. Soooooo, now our entire house is in need of new paint, new carpet and serious sprucing up.
It’s a little overwhelming and it’s quite a pain in the bum, but I’ve been loving the process. I loooooooove order, organization, cleanliness and productivity! It seriously makes me giddy. I’m so happy to finally be getting to some of the projects I’ve been wanting to do forever!!
I took this pic of our upstairs today…
We painted the walls, trim and ceiling and we’ll be getting new carpet this week. Eeeee. Kev’s been working on the subfloor a little bit and has been fixing some spots that needed fixing.
I also didn’t realize what a pain it would be to clear all the furniture and stuff out of that room! I now have a random bookcase in my dining room, random tables and boxes in my family room and our treadmill is in the garage! I feel like a hoarder house.
We got rid of the plaid sectional sofa (you can see it in the first pictures) and will be getting a new (much needed!) sectional next week as well. We got that plaid sofa from some friends about 12 years ago. I think our friends inherited it from their parents….so it’s been very “loved” (i.e. killed.) Ha ha. I’m very grateful we’ve had it, but I’m also very grateful to get rid of it!
Anyway, I’ll share some more pics when we get the room completely finished.
It’s been a fun project, but a tiring one as well. My next project will be our Master bedroom. Yay!
*********************
I went to see the Beauty and the Beast movie this morning and loved it!
Our orthodontist had a “patient appreciation” party at the theater, so I took my daughter and baby to see it. It was at a fancy schmancy theater that had comfy recliners!
It was so nice to put our feet up and it made it much easier to contain the baby. He just enjoyed snuggling and I loved it. For some reason, it looks like I have a short bob haircut in those pictures. Weird. No, I did not chop my hair.
Anyway, I thought Emma Watson was perfectly cast and I loved all the music! They had all of the classic Beauty and the Beast songs, but they added a few more too. I’m not sure if those songs are already part of the Broadway play though. They might be. They were great. I love musicals, I love Broadway and I love Fairy Tales. It was awesome and I would totally see it again.
I was curious to see what all the fuss was about Disney’s first “openly gay moment” too. I must say, it wasn’t a big deal at all. In fact I’m not entirely sure what “moment” they were referring to. There were several “gay-ish” moments in the movie, but they weren’t really offensive. I did think it seemed a little bit contrived though, almost like they were trying too hard to fit it in and make the movie politically correct or something. That did seem a little weird, but whatever….I didn’t care. It was a great movie.
**************
We’ve also been crazy lately because it’s “birthday season” around our house! My darling daughter turned SIXTEEN this week. I’m so freaking out about it!
She got those flowers from a boy “friend” and I made that low-budget cake for her. Ha ha! I spelled her name out in Starburst pieces and I ran out of room. Kev and I also checked her out of school on her birthday and took her to lunch at Chili’s. It was fun.
I decided to scrounge up an old picture of her since she’s growing up waaaay too fast. Here she is at her 4 year old birthday party….
She has always been such a girly girl and I’m very happy ’bout it! I sure miss all the curls, ribbons, PINK everything, play jewelry and toy makeup. It’s been a loooong time since we’ve done any “little girl” stuff around here. I miss those days. 🙁
Oh and HEY, you can see our plaid sectional sofa in that picture. It actually looks newish and a whole lot less dead! Ha ha.
My cutie pie son turned NINE yesterday. I cannot believe he’s getting so old too! We had a fun (i.e. crazy!) birthday party for him. We took 6 little boys to Top Golf and McDonalds and we had a great time. Our son said it was “Epic!”
I must say that Top Golf is a pretty dang amazing place. I also must say that I looked into pricing for birthday parties there and I about died. It’s pretty much a gillion dollars and they require a minimum of TWELVE kids! I don’t know about y’all, but I DO NOT want to ever take TWELVE kids to Top Golf! I seriously wonder if Top Golf is trying to discourage people from having kid’s birthday parties there???
Sooooo, we just took the six little boys there on our own and it cost us $35. Super cheap and they all loved it. We also decided to take the kids to McDonalds afterward instead of buying food there. They all had so much fun and it was so simple….yet crazy! While we were at McDonalds a lady said to me, “You are a brave woman!” Ha ha. I told her that’s why we took them to McDonalds instead of having the party at the house. 🙂
I don’t have any pictures to share since I don’t have permission from all the parents, but just imagine a group of six darling, crazy boys yelling, dabbing and making faces in every picture. It was fun.
*******************
Well, on to the healthy stuff! I finally caved and had some sugary treats! All of the birthdays ’round here did me in. Last Sunday I made a cake for my two March birthday kids and brought it up to my parents house.
Aaaand I decided to eat some. Aaaand I don’t really regret it.
However, I made cake again a couple days later on my daughter’s actual birthday and had a piece then too. My darling son decided he didn’t want cake on his birthday, but instead wanted my very favorite donuts!! Gah! Soooo, I decided to me a nice, supportive mom and have one some too. 🙂
But that’s it. The birthdays are over….at least for a couple weeks. My 6 year old is turning SEVEN the beginning of April.
The struggle is real. Ha ha.
However, even though I’ve indulged in the birthday goodness, I don’t feel outta control. I’m still eating well and I’m still doing two low carb days a week. I’m lovin’ the low carb days because it always resets me and gets me back to 100% committed again. I’m thinking about changing it to three low carb days a week. We’ll see….
On my low carb days, I always start my day off with a normal (not low carb) breakfast….usually oatmeal or protein pancakes with a side of scrambled egg whites.
I love to top the pancakes with a light smear of Jif Whips peanut butter, a drizzle of Walden farms caramel syrup and some whipped topping. SO GOOD!
I usually keep a stash of chocolate protein pancakes in my freezer so I can just pop them in the toaster, but this past week, I made a fresh batch (I always triple the recipe!)
You can see my scrambled egg whites cooking in that pic too! The protein pancakes are extra good when they are fresh off the grill! My baby loves them too!
You better believe I still put that itty bitty baby bib on him because I refuse to believe he is actually a toddler. Sniff, sniff. Seriously folks, this “last little baby growing up” thing just about kills me. I cannot handle it. Lately he’s been making some progress with potty training and you’d think I’d be happy ’bout it.
I’m not.
I love his cute little “diaper bum” and I don’t know if I’m quite ready for it to go away. I know I’m weird.
Anyway…back to my low carb days….
After my “normal” breakfast, I do low carb stuff the rest of the day. I usually have some sort of protein shake, a Greek yogurt creation and a meat and veggie thing each day. The past couple of weeks I’ve been buying a yummy salad from Astro Burger too!
I know I could make something like this at home, but it’s just so nice to let someone else cook a meal for me sometimes too! These salads are the best too and they are huuuuuuge! It’s so satisfying on a low carb day. This particular salad was their Greek salad with chicken added. I also love their Cobb salad or regular grilled chicken salad too.
It seems like they always dump half a container of feta or bleu cheese on there though, so I take most of that off. I get the Tzatziki dressing on the side and it’s yummy and low cal. Woot.
On one of my low carb days this week, I decided I needed bacon. Soooo, I made waffles, bacon and eggs for dinner. I had two slices of bacon and I made myself an omelet.
It was awesome and I’m sure I’ll do it again.
I made another interesting, easy, simple thing this week on one of my “regular” (non low-carb days) that I thought I’d share too.
It was a yummy chicken quesadilla…
I just heated up a low carb tortilla in a frying pan on the stove and stuffed it with some cooked chicken (from my freezer) and a stick of shredded string cheese. I topped it all with lettuce, salsa, cottage cheese and a little ranch.
It was yummy, comfort-foody, quick, easy and filling. Win, win, win, win, win. I will make it again for sure.
Well even though I’ve had some indulgences this week, I’m still feeling committed. Ya know, eating well and living a healthy lifestyle really is a daily commitment. I have to decide every single day that I’m going to take care of my body! It’s so easy to get off track, get frustrated and throw in the towel.
I’ve been particularly frustrated the past couple of months because although I’ve been eating pretty well and exercising my butt off, I really haven’t seen any results. The scale has seriously just fluctuated up and down the same two pounds….even on my low carb days.
It’s been legit psychotic and has made absolutely no sense to me.
But, I’m not letting it get me down. I’m just reminding myself that I’m taking good care of my body even if I’m not seein’ the results….yet. I’m still convinced my body is in an overworked, crazy, physically stressed out state. I feel happy. I don’t feel emotionally/mentally stressed (other than normal, day to day stuff.) But, I know I push my body to the max, I hardly rest and I think my body is ticked off at me. Ha ha.
I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to get my sleep, but I told y’all that Daylight Savings and my darling baby who likes to wake up all night long have been killin’ me!
I know that sleep is vital to overall health. Folks, it’s just as important as diet and exercise. But, somehow “mother” and “sleep” don’t seem to mesh well together. However, my body keeps reminding me who’s boss and I’m learning that if I don’t adequately rest my body and my brain….I completely fall apart.
Sooooo, I’m going to try to make sleep a priority once again in hopes that my body will chill and will decide to actually respond to my hard work and healthy efforts.
I also know that hormonal imbalances can totally mess with weight loss too. I’ve talked to two different “uber healthy” people recently who have been frustrated because they’ve been gaining weight for no reason! They both told me their hormones were out of whack.
I’ve kind of, sort of been tempted to get my hormones tested because I’m curious, but I think I’ll take the “chill out, de-stress, actually get adequate sleep route” first. In the meantime, I know that eating a healthy diet and regularly exercising can only help!
Oh, and BTW, I don’t have a skewed body image. I’m actually at a healthy-ish weight right now. I just feel like I’m carrying more weight around my middle than I usually do, which is weird. I also feel poofier and just bigger than I’d like to be.
Anyway, time will tell. I like living a healthy lifestyle, regardless. Soooo, I plan to just keep on pluggin’ along in hopes that I’ll eventually see the results I’m looking for.
Well, speaking of sleep….I gotta go to bed! I will leave you guys with a new promotional video that my gym released recently.
We filmed a lot of this promotional footage months ago, but this is a new rendition that I thought was awesome. I love my gym SO MUCH! It is such a positive, fun environment and incredible, effective way to workout. So much love!
I loved catching up and reading what is going on. I find house projects so overwhelming but once finished, so satisfying. You will be so happy I am sure. Happy birthday to all those in your house who have birthdays. I always celebrated the cheapest way. As long as there is some cake and a couple games, I found the kids were fine. Bowling is always a cheap option.
How is Kev feeling ?
It’s so good to hear from you Karen! I hope all is well. Yes, home projects are so overwhelming. I can’t believe how much work this one has been, but I’m lovin’ the results! It was soooo needed!
I’m all about cheap and easy birthday parties too. Ha ha. We’ve done bowling before too. 🙂
Kev is doing well! Thank heavens. I just hope he continues to stay well!!! The only thing that’s really bugging him now is his knee from his ACL surgery last August. It’s doing okay though. Thank you!
You look great in that video, and I love the colors you’re painting your bonus room.
Thanks so much Beth! That video was a lot of fun. 😉 I’m so so so excited with how our bonus room is turning out. It’s been a loooooong time comin’!
Happy Birthday to your daughter! I can’t wait to see Beauty and the Beast. Such a classic.
The video was awesome! The camera loves you.
Thanks so much Char! <3 I think you will love Beauty and the Beast. It was so well done.