Oh My, Oh Deer!

Coming to work, I had to stop for a car that was stopped in my lane, not turning, just sitting there. I was a little annoyed until I tried to see around it and saw there was a deer in front of it. That's pretty common in our rural area, so I wasn't surprised. Then I saw a flurry of movement lower down, and as the deer stepped out to continue crossing the road I saw clustered tightly around her legs, three little fawns, so tiny and thin they were obviously newborns. I would say the most they could have been was three days old, but they might have been even born during the night, they were so tiny.

We usually have does come around our house every year with one or even two fawns, but it is unusual to see three. I didn't get a picture darn it, they were through the bushes and gone before I could do anything. (The photos are from the internet)  The doe was healthy and well-fed, so I think she has a good chance of being able to feed them all, if she can keep them safe from cars and coyotes.

First stop on the Bucket list

My brothers, Mark and Wayne, came for a visit the last week of May from their homes in Georgia and North Carolina. My youngest brother, Wayne, has just arrived at that point in his life where retirement is beckoning as his nest is emptying. Not to be a cliche or anything, he just bought a red Mustang convertible, and would like to drive it around the world. That not being possible, he has set a goal to travel all around the continental US and to go to the four corners of the country.

With that in mind, his plan for this trip was to get the first corner done, so we made a trip around the Olympic Peninsula with a hike out to the tip of Cape Flattery at Neah Bay. With our mom along, this was a four day jaunt with what remains of our original nuclear family. That is a sweet thing. Though we miss dad and Brian, we feel blessed to be able to be together as we are.

I warned Wayne that May travel on the peninsula is a dicey proposition, weather-wise, but he was philosophical about it since it was the only time slot that both he and Mark could make, saying that when visiting a rain forest, you have to expect to get rained on, and that he would bring along boots and rain gear. We did get showers, mist and steady rain, but also some sun, enough to make a good balance.

I'm getting the pictures uploaded to my family site, so I thought I'd make some entries here with a few choice shots.

Pomegranetes in My Lunchbox

The red plaid lunch box was the ubuiquitous accessory for little girls in the mid to late 1950's. Mine went with me to school in Tropic Utah most days. Tropic is a tiny town in the valley below Bryce Canyon Utah, one of a triad. The others were Henryville and Cannonville. My dad was ranger at Bryce, and a school bus took us between the park and the school via a dirt road that traversed a perilous feeling switchback road down the cliff face of our high plateau into the warmer (tropic) valley below.
Normally the lunchbox held a waxed paper wrapped sandwich of some sort, bolognae, tuna or peanut butter on Wonder bread, some Lays Potato chips, a home-made cookie, and healthy extras like carrot sticks or an apple. A nickel taped to the lid was for a carton of milk that tasted of wax and cardboard when drunk from the folded out spout. Sometimes though, my red plaid lunch box went home with more exotic contents than it came with.

Once a week at a certain time of the year those of us who could talk our parents into letting us have an extra nickel could go to the back door of the kitchen during lunch recess for an extra treat. We would watch for the produce delilvery truck to arrive and race back with our nickels to buy pomegranetes. They were a nickel each, so we would all come away with one of the heavy round leathery skinned fruits.

The fun then was getting them open, since none of us were allowed to carry pocket knives. The trick was to throw the fruit repeatedly on the sidewalk in front of the school until they cracked open. Then we could pry the tart-sweet ruby seeds out in clumps and devour them. When the bell rang to end lunch recess, we trooped in with our mouths and hands stained red, carrying what was left of our juicy treasures-usually about half the fruit. These would be secreted in our lunch boxes and go home with us to be finished after school or brought the next day in our lunches.

I can still feel the delight of sitting cross-legged on the grass with the sun warming my hair giggling with my friends while we burst the juicy seeds between our teeth, and the pleasure of saving away the remainder, like a ruby trove in my plaid lunch box.

Dieting with Harry is no fair

So hubby got on board with the eating plan last week, and there's an upside and a downside to that. First the upside-When we're on the same page with what we're eating there's a lot less sabotage-from him or from myself. From him because I'm not juggling what he wants to eat with what I want to eat and getting sidetracked eating with him. From me because if he knows what we're eating and not eating, it's hard to eat off the plan when we're eating together. Our recent four day weekend away did way less damage to either of us because we were discussing and making food choices with the eating plan as a guideline.

The downside-It takes awareness and effort not to get discouraged losing weight along with Harry. He's one of those guys that carrys a lot of muscle weight along with the optional weight, so I have to keep in mind the adage that he will lose twice as much twice as fast on twice the food and not let that discourage me.

You don't believe me? Here's what I mean. I'd been on the new eating plan two and a half weeks by the time he'd been on it two and a half days. At that point I'd lost two and a half pounds. He had lost three. Then we go away for four days, with a plan to stick to the diet two meals of three and have a little slack on the third meal, with one splurge meal on Valentine's day. Our goal was to come out of the weekend at least at the same weight we went into it.

So, Tuesday evening, after our first day back at home, we checked in with each other. Harry was despondent. 'How was your weight this morning?" I asked him. 'Higher than it should have been.' he groused. 'Wow. How bad was it?' I sympathized. 'I was up a pound.' 'oh.' 'How about you?' he asked. 'Um. I was up three pounds.' 'Good lord...'his eyes widened. Like I said. Twice as much, twice as fast, or more...

The better news postscript is that at least two of my three pounds was water weight from excess salt and a long car ride and was all gone this morning. I'm afraid to check in with him, he'll most likely be down three pounds today...

Day What?

Tonight's dinner, ready to stuff the veggies, avocado and a pan toasted Portobello GardenBurger in the pita halves...It was good!

Time for an update on my eating thing-I'm not going to call it a diet-no, I haven't quit, just having to reassess my over-optimistic plan to give a day-by-day account. Besides, there's nothing more boring than reading about every radish and push-up of someone else's eating and exercise plan.

I did well on the four day jump start last week, not fanatic about it, but good enough to come down a pound and a half. Then I just did my own thing over the weekend, but made choices with the idea of not totally sabotaging my good week. Such as, a turkey and veggie on ciabatta instead of the burger and onion rings I'd have treated myself with ordinarily-Yeah! Then no dinner while I wrangled four grand kids (6 mos. to age 5) for the evening while their mom and dad had a much needed date night. Added to over four hours walking around the zoo and some reasonable portioning on Sunday, I was elated to find myself down another half pound Monday morning-better than I expected!

I didn't go in to work this week-I'm on call, and wasn't needed, so I had time to finish working out menus and got to the store for what I needed for the next step after the jump start. I watched portions and ate lots of veggies until I could start for real yesterday.

I am having so much fun! Avocados, nuts, waffles layered with chocolate chips and smothered with sweet cherries, breakfast tacos... Well, the scale will tell, and we'll see what happens. The food is interesting and stuff I really like.

The down side is that I'm feeling full when I eat but hungry not long after, especially after lunch and supper. I feel like I did years ago on Atkins, when I ate strictly on the plan, lost weight, but would eat and eat all that protein and veggies but always felt empty. It's either the lower carbs, lower sugar, or I was really eating a lot more before than I realized. I'm trying to figure it out so I don't sabotage myself. So far I've gotten through by having two pieces of dark chocolate, which is allowed although not a part of the meals I'm eating. Then I have a couple of Altoids and that seems to help, plus I drink water so I'm not confusing hunger with thirst.

I learned a really cool trick for keeping a cut avocado from browning. I'll put that in a later blog.

Zoobee Zoobee Doo

Grandma!
Kevin and Andrew
Jake showing Zoe where we are on the map. He was really into tracking our progress on the map.
Sara and Teage-Papoose
Look Mommy, a snake!
A Young Harry potter
Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys
It's the only way to stand when you're looking at flamingos...
Cousins! Hayden, Spencer, Logan, Gracie, Zoe, Andrew, Jake on the Komodo Dragon sculpture
We had a great trip to the zoo Saturday. Kevin and Jessica came down from Ferndale with their three, Gracie-6, Spencer 4, Andrew 3. Elizabeth came from Shelton with Logan-6 and Hayden 4. Steve and Sara were up from Portland with Jake 5, Zoe 3, Leo almost two, and Teage 6 months.

The weather promised showers and sunbreaks and delivered showers and showers and mostly misty rain. As true Northwesterners, we thought nothing of setting out to the zoo with nine kids under 6 on a rainy day in January. Slickers and rainjackets and a couple of umbrellas were all we needed to get through the day, and spirits never seemed fazed, or even dampened by the drizzle.

All exept Elizabeth were there by 11:30, she joined us when we were checking out the monkeys. The kids stayed happy and energetic through 4 1/2 hours of ambling from one exhibit to another and a lunch break, wiith energy to spare at the end. (They were still clambering over the brass animal sculptures outside the zoo as we prepared to go our separate ways.)

Some of what happened-

*Jake age 5 followed a map carefully as we went from place to place.

*Gracie age 6 took lots of zoo pictures for her family with her Fisher Price camera (with a little help from dad and little bro Spencer).

*Tears happened only twice-When a monkey slapped the glass in front of Andrew's face, and when Steve helped Zoe into her coat against her wishes.

*Zoe 3 took care of pushing brother Leo the last hour in his stroller

*Elizabeth and boys got nose to nose with a lion (through the glass) before they joined us.

*Everyone got nose to nose with a Komodo dragon

*Teage was quiet and happy with his view from mommy's baby carrier, with never a fuss or tear.

*Spencer did his best to be a flamingo.

Hottest must sees for the 2-6 year group were:

"I want to see the elephants!" Jake

"I'm going to see the Komodo dragon!" Logan

"Where are the flamingos?" Spencer

"Grandma!" Gracie

"That's a snake!" Hayden

Day four

Insights and news from the last 24 hours:
1. Down another half a pound..Sweet! Even if it is just water, it's nice to see the scale go in that direction.

2. I have an iron will and a firm resolve...until Bethany's mom shows up in class with muffins warm from the oven....it was the smell that melted all my resistance...

3. Ok, small muffin at seven doesn't mean I can't get back on track for the rest of the day...Smaller breakfast at 9:30, prescribed lunch at noon. Will be walking four miles today, though my right knee is not too happy at the prospect.

Day 3- Weird Breakfast

This morning it was supposed to be unsweetened cornflakes, a cup of milk, 2 tbs raisins, and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds. I don't like cornflakes, they get soggy too fast, so I got grapenuts instead. They don't have sugar and they are whole grain. I checked the calorie equivalent, and it turns out the listed half cup serving is double the calories of a serving of Corn Chex or Cheerios. Hmmm...So I measured out a quarter cup. It looked pretty lonely and small in the bowl so I added the raisins, then what the heck, dumped in the sunflower seeds too, then topped it all with the milk. (I confess I added some splenda, not ready to eat cereal with no sweetner)

And, oh my, it was soooo good! What a surprise! It took awhile to eat with all that chewy stuff in there and was really satisfying. I had toasted the sunflower seeds previously, and that flavor with the nutty wheat and the sweet raisins was really good. It kept me full until lunch too, no late morning 'tummy grungies"! I will do that again even when I don't have to eat that combination for a diet.

Day Two

Like I said, I'm more of a do-it-yourself gal when it comes to dieting...but I still learn a lot when I try to follow a specific plan like I am now. So you can guess it wasn't a perfect day, but I don't count that a failure either. I'll admit I'm not totally bought in to this jump start thing. The authors bill this as a motivation booster that takes off a quick couple of pounds and inches through dumping water weight and getting the intestines emptier by avoiding bulky foods and lowerin quantity. That's supposed to give me lots of enthusiasm going into the plan with the higher calorie count and fewer food restrictions.

I just figure the water weight that comes off fast is just a salt shaker away from coming back, and I need the fiber to function properly ;). Then too, I know for a fact that that initial quick loss boost won't be enough to carry me all that far. So I find myself not taking this part as seriously as the authors would like. I ate the breakfast just as prescribed, and only changed the lunch by adding some veggies. Then dinner was completely different, but close to the same number of calories and the balance of veggies, carbs and protien. The dangerous part was that I needed to use up some half and half, so I made a quart of strawberry ice cream, which I tasted and then packed away in the freezer. Hubby is not ready for the house to be clear of desserts, so that's a challenge, but then I do better if I can eat a taste of anything I want. That helps me keep from craving and binging.

I WAS down half a pound today, LOL, but I'll be more excited when I know I've actually lost some fat and not just some water..

Weight loss-Day one of a new start

This year's iteration of 'We're going to lose that weight this year" arrived in the mail mid-December, ordered by my husband-with my name on it?! I'm thinking, "Hey, if you're going to order a new weight loss plan, man up and put your OWN name on it!" I'm more the 'do it yourself' kind of dieter, and I've never found a plan yet that we could stay on for any length of time, so I'm sceptical. It all sounds good to Harry when he's watching the infomercial, but in practice he usually morphs the rules of whatever diet he's doing into a clone of Atkins, which lets him eat a lot of meat and bacon. What's worse, whenever we diet together he loses twice as much twice as fast on twice the food...no fair!

But that said, I read it over and since it comes from a major health magazine and will let me eat the occasional quarter cup of chocolate chips, I thought it might be good to give me a jump start. The thing I want to be different this time is that I don't want to go into this with that euphoria that dissipates after awhile along with any hope for long term change. I'm going to follow along with this plan and see what I can learn from it. I'm looking for slow, long-term change as I work on the issues that got me here in the first place. That means persisting and resolving problems as they come up.

So today is day one of the four day jump start start to the Flat Belly Diet plan. It is intended to be lower calorie than the actual plan that starts on day five. I want to do the four days today through Friday and then go easy through a weekend of time with family and grand kids, and start the main plan next Monday.

I made the 'Sassy Water' this morning and have been enjoying that, it's full of cucumbers, lemons, mint and has fresh ginger in it. Breakfast went well, actually a little more food than I usually eat. I was hungry at noon and ended up making some changes to it. I had an avocado on its last 'legs' (that's an image, and avocado with legs-I feel like that sometimes) So I subbed that and some cuke for the tomato and rolled them with the string cheese in the deli turkey. It was really good. I also finished up half a cup of tapioca pudding afterwards. That's gone now.

This four day plan is supposed to be followed precisely, so I need to do better than that. Even so, I was very hungry by mid afternoon when I got to make a blueberry smoothie. The chicken is thawing for dinner, and I'm set for that, but I'm not liking how hungry I am right now. I must have normally been eating more than I thought I was. The dieters in the book all sounded like they white-knuckled this part, so I'm with them, it's only four days. I should be able to do anything for four days-right? Hmmmm. Not so far. We'll see.

I did the usual weigh and measure this morning. Uggggggg. That's motivating. At least I didn't gain over the holidays, and I'm not at my highest weight. That's something new for me. Some of my work on causes must be helping.

What to do with my day?

For anyone out there who's thinking that all you have to do is get the kids raised/not have to go to work and then you'll have plenty of time to get all those things done that you can't get to now, guess what? It ain't happening. At least if my life is anything like typical.

I'm not working this week, the patient load is at an all time low, which is not unexpected for this time of year, and of course having one 20 year old at home is not much impact compared to all those years with all those kids in the house. That easier schedule has been in place much of the past year, and I find myself still with plenty to do and then some. It's actually a pretty cool dilemma, one I have longed for for years and years, and I'm loving being able to add some things to the old to do list that could never fit there before. Still, prioritizing is more difficult thatn when I only had time for the essential necessities. It's pretty easy to prioritize when you only have time to work, eat and sleep, more difficult when there is extra time to use.

I try to plan out these suddenly emptier days to be productive and balanced, and maintain an ability to switch in a moment to other things that crop up. Today I had a great experience teaching. I was so grateful for the help I got from the spirit in teaching the lesson. I had only just had time to read it a couple of times earlier in the week. I got serious after nine last night to sit down and get it nailed down to specifics. As I read through the chapters again, (Alma 17-19, some of the best Book of Mormon stories), I realized that the way I'd planned to blend two lessons together weren't going to be adequate to cover the material. So I read and marked the chapters, formulated some ideas,and went to bed still not firm about what I was teaching beyond the historical account. I ended up with a principle to focus on that wasn't mentioned in the lesson manual at all. So I was looking for extra help from the spirit.

It ended up that I wasn't able to do the scripture chase game I planned, and my summary and application were more hurried than I hoped, but half the class passed of their scripture memorization for the week, and in the teaching of the lesson, I found the flow was spontaneously going from one scripture to another, back and forth in the chapters in a way I hadn't planned out, but was unified, engaging, and covered all that needed to be covered with some important insights coming out. I was definitely teaching beyond either my ability or my prepartaion. I was relieved that the material was all covered and the foundation laid for Kim to continue on with Chapter 20.

So back home with a rough plan for the day. Breakfast, finishing up the pictures I uploaded here last night, a needed half hour snooze, (five hours sleep last night) and then finishing up visiting teaching filled up my morning. I got home hungry, and got a call from Harry asking me to go into Tacoma with Chris's tire and to get all the tires on my car replaced. Whoops! There's the monkey wrench. A quick lunch-today's the first day of my New Year's eating plan, so no burger at the drive through...cleaned up the kitchen, and then off to Tacoma.

I was home by two thirty with new tires all around, which was pretty good time-wise, and even with all the other things I want to do, I decided that my resolution to blog more consistently needed to be honored. The only way to blog consistently is to sit down and do it. I'm trying to figure out exactly where and how much blogging I want to committ to, and not get spread too thin, but see what fits in with what I want to create in this medium. This is my experiment. This entry is too long, but it maybe lays a foundation for future entries...