Just Maintain

After reaching my first goal, my plan was to take a month off from losing weight and just try to maintain the weight loss and to lull my body into a false sense of comfort. I hate it when I override my original plans because I think I know better after putting more thought into it. I need to remember that my first instinct is usually the right one.

Part of the problem is that when I'm on a roll I want to go, go, go. I'm on a roll dammit, why stop now? I had lost three additional pounds when the little voice said, "Maintain". Noooooooooooo!! Against my better judgement, which isn't always better, I continued with my original plan to give my body a rest and to focus on maintaining my 30lb weight loss. I enjoyed myself over spring break and indulged on Easter Sunday. (Oh See's Candies get thee behind me Satan. Or not.) I still continued to count calories and to exercise.

The four weeks will be up on May 1st and then it's time to start working toward Goal 2. Believe it or not, I'm actually excited to see how close I can get to my goal by the first week of August. We're going back to Yosemite then and I want to get a picture of me at Yosemite this year and compare it to last year. I know, I need a life. But, honestly, sometimes it's the little things that keep me going.

Just This Once

Ordinarily, I don't post photos of my children. It's not that I'm completely paranoid, it's just that I think they are entitled to their privacy until a time of their choosing. I think this is especially important for my youngest son as he's not able to speak for himself. Nevertheless, I've decided just this once to post a photo of my youngest son, albeit an altered photo with his face blocked out.

Today we went to a Beeping Egg Hunt for blind and visually impaired children. We've been going for several years, and this was the first year where he actually knew what to do right away...without complaining. For each beeping egg that a participant finds, a volunteer will exchange it for two plastic, candy-filled eggs. Yum. He's not too thrilled with the eggs containing jelly beans, but he loves the eggs containing Hershey's Kisses.

While I don't believe that Easter eggs and the Easter bunny are symbols of Easter, I have no problem associating them with springtime. I am also overjoyed that someone somewhere took the time to think creatively about how to include blind/visually impaired children in this springtime event.

Chunks of Spring Break

So, the kids are on spring break this week and that means I have to get them out of the house at least once a day until they go back to school on the 25th. OK, I don't have to get them out of the house, but it makes vacation time go alot smoother. Getting out of the house can be something simple like going to the library (which we did on Monday) or going to Target (which we'll do today). I need to do something to break up our long days.

While we are at home, my time is divided into chunks- 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there. Occasionally, there is a 20 minute stretch. You see, while my oldest son can entertain himself with Legos, or by drawing, or playing his DS, my youngest son needs a bit more help to go from one activity to another. He will happily listen to his CDs one after the other; however, I need to change the CDs for him otherwise he might chew on them or use them as a makeshift hammer. He has several alphabet toys and loves to press the buttons to listen to each letter sound. On a couple of these toys, I used 3D fabric paint to create raised alphabet Braille dots on each letter button; however, he still wants me to help him find the right letter.

I don't mind any of this, much. Admittedly, there are days when my chore list seems far too long and my chunks of time are not enough to complete them. It can be frustrating to start a task and then be continually interrupted. I've had to learn to go with the flow; to do what I can within those chunks of time. That might mean it takes a half hour to fold laundry or that I need to prepare dinner a little at a time starting at 3:00. Or...oops. Time to change a CD. :-)

BFD - April '11

April has been a busy month so far, and I totally cannot believe that it's half gone. Imagine my surprise when April 12th rolled around and I thought, "OMG! What am I gonna do for BFD?" Talk about scrambling. This month's BFD was literally cobbled together at the last minute.  My mind went into overdrive trying to think of what to make at the last minute that would be a crowd pleaser. Almost immediately I thought, "Coffee cake". You really can't go wrong with coffee cake. And potatoes. Potatoes with cheese. In spite of this poor planning on my part, I think it turned out pretty well. This month's BFD consisted of:

Lemon and Cheese Coffee Cake
Sour Cream and Cheddar/Potato Casserole
Fresh Strawberries with Leftover Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Batter with cream cheese mixture 

For being thrown together at the last minute, everything turned out yummy. I did not make the coffee cake exactly as directed. Instead of using loaf pans and sandwiching the cream cheese mixture between the batter, I used a 9x13 pan, poured the batter in, then I spread the cream cheese mixture on top. I tried to swirl the cream cheese mixture into the batter (think swirl brownies), but it didn't swirl too much.

Coffee cake w/icing

After baking, I let it cool and then drizzled it with a simple powdered sugar icing. The end result was a very moist coffee cake (did I mention that it's a sour cream coffee cake?) with just a hint of lemon. If you're looking for more lemon flavor, you might want to double the amount of lemon juice called for in the recipe. This was a big hit with the kids!

I forgot to take a picture of the potatoes in their baking dish, but you can see them in the first picture. These were soooooooo good! And if I sound pleasantly surprised, it's because I am. The recipe only calls for five ingredients. Out of those five, I substituted three of them: margarine for butter, garlic salt for the onions, and Costco shredded cheddar/jack cheese for the cheddar. So simple and tasty. The hardest part was shredding the potatoes, and even then, I used my handy dandy KitchenAid Slicer/Shredder Accessory. The potatoes were a big hit with the grown-ups.

I guess I better start planning now for May's BFD. Although, I guess this experience can be a good example of what one can accomplish when the proverbial fire is lit under the proverbial butt. Still.