Just a Quick Update

I thought I would give you a quick update on how Star's birthday party went.  In a word, great!  We are finally getting some nice weather here after having most of September be cool, cloudy, and rainy.  The girls spent most of their time outside.  They emptied out our garden shed/playhouse, cleaned it up, and proceeded to play "Olden days" or "Little House on the Prairie".  They were so busy with their game that I actually had to convince them to come do the few activities I did have planned.

Last weekend as well my parents and brother were out as we are redoing our roof.  We are replacing the original cedar shingles on our house with tin.  It is a big job but the tin should last for a long, long time.  Hubby has put a lot of work into it but is almost done with the house.  The garage is next on the list but it should be much easier than the house.

Also today we finished harvesting our grain.  The yield and quality was poor, but it is good to be done for another year.  It went very well with not many equipment breakdowns, which is always good.

I am on day two of my sugar free week.  I have been sticking to it pretty good but I am definitely craving some sugar.  Hopefully it will get easier as time goes on.  I pretty crabby tonight but I am not sure if it has anything to do with wanting sugar or if I am just crabby (because sometimes I just am).

Well that's all for today.  We have been busy here and it shows in the lack of house cleaning I have done.  Tomorrow I want to do a thorough vacuum as LK is crawling all over and he puts every little thing he can find in his mouth.

Weigh-In Wednesday: Cutting Out Sugar

Well the scale still isn't budging and I know why.  It is because I continue to eat and drink too much, especially sweets.  I have not been doing so well at cutting pop out of my diet and when I do I replace it with sweetened tea which I love to enjoy with a sweet treat (cookies anyone?).  So for one week I am going to cut out sugar in the hopes that it will reduce my cravings for sweets.  I know this will be difficult but I am only doing it for one week to start with.  I can last one week without sweets, right?

So that is my goal for the week, no sugar!  Anyone care to join me in a sugar free week?

Star's 9th Birthday Party

Star's Birthday is this weekend.  At our place we usually only have a family party or a small party with just a few friends.  This year Star is having two friends over for a sleepover.  We printed off some paper invitations and envelopes from DLTK Kids website. (This is a great website for preschoolers and as you can see we continue to use it.)  Star coloured and decorated the invitations.  I am not planning a lot of games and activities as I believe the girls will just have fun playing on their own.  I am hoping the weather is nice so they can play outside a lot.

One of the activities we are doing is a pinata.  The girls and I made it using a balloon and then putting strips of newspaper dipped in flour and water (we used this recipe) and layering them over the balloon.  We did a couple a layers letting it dry in between (If you plan on doing this start a couple weeks in advance so you have plenty of time for it to dry. FYI putting a balloon pinata into a warm oven to speed up the drying process is not a great idea, not that I would know;) ).  I took Star to the dollar store and let her have $5 to spend on stuff to put in the pinata.  We placed her purchases in the pinata, taped it closed, and then the girls painted it.

Star and Sky painting our homemade pinata.

The other activity I am planning is a treasure hunt.  I will set up a bunch of clues that will send them all over the yard (we live on a farm so it is a big yard) and there will be a treasure at the end.  The treasure is a small key ring bead kit so if they desire they can then do that as an activity.

Oh, and instead of a cake we are having cupcakes and I will get the girls to decorate them.  I will also pick up a couple of movies for them to watch before bed.  With only a couple of girls coming over I think (hope?) it will be pretty relaxed. 

How do you like to celebrate birthdays? family only? themed party's? small and simple? large and elaborate?

Weigh-In Wednesday and Buying Exercise DVD's

Wednesday is here again.  I weighed myself this morning and the scale still hasn't budged.  It is stuck at 159 lbs. But don't worry I'm not giving up and I know I still have a lot of changes to make.  But first, how did I do last week?  I did pretty well on the exercise front exercising every day (except the weekend) during LK's morning nap.  This definitely is a habit I want to continue and I feel so much better when I do it.   I drank my water pretty faithfully as well.  On the pop front I did have 3 cans of coke over the week but that is definitely better than the 7+ cans I will sometimes drink.  For this week coming up I want to work on reducing my portion sizes and eating more fruits and vegetables.

Now I mentioned previously that I typically work out using exercise videos.  This work well for me as I do not live close to a gym, the weather is Sask is pretty unpredictable and most of the year not great for working out in, and the DVD's motivate me to keep going.  If you are looking to purchase exercise DVD's I recommend checking out Collage Video.  They have so many workout videos there with short clips so you can get a feel for what you are buying.  They also have user reviews and a bar graph showing how many minutes in the video are devoted to warm-up, aerobics, toning, and stretching.  In addition Collage Video has a forum so if you are interested in a particular video you can post there asking for others opinions of it.   Before you buy a workout video be sure to check if it requires any equipment.  This is important to know as you don't want to get a video home only to discover it requires equipment  you don't have (there are many videos that don't require any equipment).  Another option for those of us who are cheap (ahem, frugal) is to check the discount bins at Walmart and other stores.  I have picked up a number of videos for only a dollar or two this way.  Some of them were not so good but others I have really liked so I think I have come out ahead.  The other place I have purchased videos is Amazon.ca.  Because Collage Video is based in the States and I am in Canada by buying from Amazon.ca I can save on shipping and customs fees.

Do you do workout videos?  Where do you typically purchase them?

Taylor Swift Video - Mine

Since posting the video yesterday I saw Taylor Swift's video to her new song "Mine" and I really like it so I thought I would share it with you as well.  I hope you enjoy it.

A (More Real) Love Story

Hi all!  I just had to share this video with you all.  It is a parody of Taylor Swift's song Love Story. 



PS.  We love Taylor Swift here but must admit this video is funny and definately more real.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: We will use up some leftovers from the weekend.

Tuesday: I will be baking bread so we will have tuna sandwiches on fresh bread.

Wednesday: We are starting to run low on beef in our freezer but we have lot's of beef ribs left as they are not our favorite.  We will try these Slow Cooker BBQ Ribs with rice and coleslaw.

Thursday:  Scrambled eggs, biscuits, and fruit salad.

Friday: Star is having her birthday sleep over today.  I think we will either be having make your own pizza's or taco in a bag.

Saturday: Spaghetti and tomato sauce.

Sunday: Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn.

Making a menu plan means less stress when dinner time rolls around.  For more menu ideas head over to orgjunkie.com.