We Have A Winner

Last night I tried a new recipe for dinner and low and behold it actually was a success. When my son said "mom, this is really good" and my daughter said "it's okay", I knew I had a good one. It was a teriyaki stir fry using chicken and soba noodles. The recipe was really simple and I am convinced the soba noodles were much better then your plain jane spaghetti. These soba noodles were made with buckwheat so that has to be good. Right?

On another note, I started my semi P90X program. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out but if based on last night's workout I probably won't be able to feed myself tomorrow. Which is humouors since I wasn't able to complete 1/3 of the exercises they were doing. And I think I bruised my tail bone doing the Ab Ripper Cd. Ouch! I will keep you updated on my progress or lack of. But if doing 1/3 of the workout gets me 1/3 of the results then I am okay with that especially if you consider my current state of flabbiness.

Hope you all have a great day!

Pop Tarts

So as I'm sure you all are aware school has started once again. It has gotten off to a great start for us. Neither of my kid's got "the teacher" that everyone said you didn't want to get. Both of their teachers seem very nice. Unfortuantely this year I don't get to send my kids off to school every morning which was my usual job. Now I leave the house before everyone is up and leave my husband to the task of getting the kids up and ready for school. Lucklily for him I still pack their lunches before I leave. Side note on that, he never even asked if he needed to make the kid's lunches for school. Just like a guy he assumed it would be taken care of and of course it was.

Now this morning my husband had an event at work that he needed to be at no later than 6:15 so I went into work late so I could take the kid's to school. Trying to be the creative and fun mom that I am I decided I was going to make homemade poptarts for breakfast. How fun! I mean I basically gave my kids mini cherry pies for breakfast. Who does that? Me that's who. Were my kids excited? Were they over joyed? No, my kids wouldn't eat them. My especially picky daughter wanted a smoothie. Okay I can do that. So I made her smoothie. My son wasn't up yet so I put the remainder of the smoothie in a glass and put two of the poptarts on a plate and put them on the table. I went and woke him up and told him that breakfast was on the table. While I was getting ready he came into my room to tell me, "Mom, I don't like the poptarts. I like the ones from the store better. Are you mad?". Was I mad no, were my feelings crushed to little pieces and thrown in the trash, yes.

I guess no more trying to be creative for breakfast. I will just leave that for the lunches that usually get thrown away and the dinners that my kid's turn their noses up at.

Monday

Hey everyone! It's Monday, again. Yeah! It is the Monday before schools starts and I am getting excited. I love the routine of school. I like to have a plan and know what to expect. Not so sure my kid's are as excited as I am though.

Just wanted to check in and let you know that I am still here. Anticipating what exactly I will be putting in my kid's lunch boxes this week. I will have to let you know how that goes.

The Royals

So I don't know if you noticed but it has been a little on the warm side here in the Midwest. It doesn't bother me to much since I am in an office all day. Well yesterday I was given tickets to the Royals game for last night. Keep in mind that it was over 100 yesterday. For some reason no one wanted the tickets so I took them. I have to say that it really wasn't that bad. I remember going to a 1:00pm game in June and sitting on the 3rd base side and just died. We didn't even make it through the entire game because it was just sweltering. The game last night was at 7:10 and even though it was warm it wasn't nearly as bad. But there was no sun beating down on us and there was an occasional breeze. But here is the best part about the game last night. I actually made dinner before we went out there and therefore we only spent roughly $8 bucks for two sodas. How about them apples. I think that is pretty good since you just assume you would eat those wonderful vendor creations called food. I will pat myself on the back for that one.

I would also like to mention that I did not go out to eat all weekend. And if you know my family that is pretty impressive. Every meal was made at home and the only exception was when we went to the movies Saturday morning. I let the kids get some kid sized popcorn and a tiny drink.

Now if I could just get myself to start working out. I'm not sure how to get the movitivation. You would think that my ginormous rear would be motiviation enough but for some reason it isn't. I think about it all day long and how "tomorrow" I am going to start but it just doesn't seem to happen. I obviously have some kind of mental block.

Saturday morning I was going to go for a short run while my daughter rode her bike. Obstacale number one, rain. Not that dedicated yet to go running in the rain and certainly didn't want my daughter to be riding her bike in it. Then I was going to go on Sunday instead. I wasn't going to have any kids since they were spending the night at a friend's house. Then I was planning on going to a 10:00 yoga class and Ashley wanted to go to a 2:00 kid's yoga. Well, let's just say that none of that happened. My life gets in the way too much. I delayed my running Sunday morning for a few minutes and a good thing I did because my kid's were dropped off at 8:30. Scott wasn't home so I guess it was a good thing that I was. So then I decided to go ahead and go to the store which meant that I missed out on my 10:00 yoga class. Then Ryan had a bday party at 2:15 which meant that Ashley missed her class. Which I don't think she minded too much since we took her to the pool instead.

So I guess my weekend didn't go exactly as planned but I guess there is always tomorrow. Except when do my tomorrows run out? When do my tomorrows turn into todays? I need help. Any suggestions?

Strike One

So last night I actually took the time to cook dinner. Yesterday morning I had pulled out some pork chops from the freezer so I would have something to cook other than frozen chicken nuggets or frozen pizza. But first I started on the cheesey cabbage. It was a very simple receipe so I thought it should turn out okay. I cooked up the pork chops and simmered them in some Tastefully Simple Sauce and then threw some peas in the microwave. I also set everything on the table for the kids to make their own salad. I barely got dinner started before I heard complaints, mostly from my darling daughter. I don't like pork chops, I don't want cabbage (keep in mind that is what she picked out). As we were about to sit down to eat my son asked if we could eat his red pepper that he had picked out (I love that kid). So I just cut it up instead of making the recipe for that. I cut it in slices then cut it up into little pieces and put a piece on each kid's plates. Ryan ate his right away and said it was just okay. I ate mine expecting to have to wash it down really fast(I was really not looking forward to it but wanted to set a good example). To my surprise it wasn't that bad. Ashley of course refused. She also refused to try her cabbage and didn't want anything to do with her pork chops. Really? Does this have anything to do with the chips and salas you were eating when you came home? She did however eat a lot of peas, which they happen to like anyway and made herself a big salad. I was smiling, until she took two bites and said she was done. Right about now is when I would like to say, fine, I give up. But I am really going to make an effort.

Needless to say, Ashley sat at the table until the dishes were cleared and most were washed. So when we couldn't wait any longer, we told her that she just needed to eat her salad, which she made herself, and the rest of her peas and then we would leave. We had to go to the store for a few things. Dad told her that if she ate those two things we would stop for a treat on the way home. She said she didn't care if she didn't get a treat because she was full.

Off we went to the store and stopped on the way home for our treat. Scott and I just got a shake and Ryan had a sip or two. Then Ashley decided she wanted to try it. Of course we both said no. But all of a sudden she was very upset that she wasn't able to have any. I'm confused. I thought she said she didn't care. I thought she said she was really full. Suddenly she was starving and she really needed something to eat. She was crying and being very dramatic. Imagine that, my daughter being dramatic.But I held firm. No treats for you.

Maybe she will learn? I hope.

Experiment

In my quest to get my kids to eat better I decided to try an experiment. I took the kids to the grocery store with me Sunday morning. That in itself is an experiment. If I left them to do the shopping we would have nothing but soda, oreo's and ice cream in our basket. What does that say about me? Ouch! Anyway, I told the kids that they both had to pick out a vegetable that they have never tried and we would make it at home. Ashley picked out cabbage while Ryan decided to go with a red pepper. Now, I feel that I should be trying these items along with the kids but the thing is, I HATE onions and peppers. I don't feel like I can tell my son that he has to try something but I won't. What kind of example would that be setting?

So, Sunday I just ended up making spaghetti since we had a late dinner. But yesterday at work (during my down time) I did some recipe research. I found one for cabbage that was called cheesy cabbage. It looked pretty easy and sounded kind of good. I mean it called for cream cheese and regular cheese so how could you go wrong with that? In my search for Ryan's red pepper I came across one that didn't sound too bad. It has rice and cheese in it. It looks like a stuffed pepper of some sort.

I was already to try at least one of my finds last night when my husband called me at work to tell me the roofers finally showed up to put our new roof on and that it was just too loud in the house so we would have to go out to dinner. Twist my arm why don't you. Needless to say after a somewhat short trip to the pool we ended up at Red Robin. Although my kids both had mac-n-cheese for dinner they both had fruit to go with it instead of a side of fries. In fact, Ryan ended up with apples and oranges. I was so proud!

Maybe I will try my experiment tonight.

Saturday, Saturday!

It finally happened. I actually got out of bed this morning and went for a run/walk with my sister-in-law. We met at 7:00 am and logged a little over 3 miles. Not bad for getting out on our first outdoor run in a long time. It was a little steamy but not too miserable. We are going to try and do a 10K in September. After I got home the family and I jumped on our bikes and rode up to Starbucks for breakfast. Iced Soy Vanilla Latte, pumpkin scones and oatmeal. I know it wasn't the best breakfast but it was a start. Plus we rode our bikes which added another 3 miles to my total for today. Can you believe it? Over 6 miles logged on my first day. I feel excited and ready to go. Come on excessive heat, let's go!