What’s happening?

Time is passing swiftly by. Mainly so I don’t forget … life is really hectic these days!!

Family

• Ward Temple Day – the temple is 1.5 hours away in Columbia. We all drove down & enjoyed spending time together as a family & with the ward. Scott, Chris, & Ryan went early & did baptisms. Jared & I came down later & stayed outside. I took pictures while Scott did an endowment session.
• We still enjoy our frog Pacman. He likes mice called “hoppers”. They are rather cute, but he is very satisfied after eating one.
• See the compost? We’re trying to enrich our garden. Lesson learned? Hamburger buns have so many preservatives in them that they do not break down, even after a full month! Yuck.
• White chocolate cupcakes – Jenna made cupcakes with a friend for EV’s baptism. These were not your ordinary cupcakes - they were delicious!
• I am totally in love with The Food Nanny Cookbook. Every single solitary recipe that we’ve ever tried has been wonderful. In fact, they are always best in class. I love the idea of sitting down to dinner with our family each night. We are not perfect but we are really trying.
• We hosted the semi-annual General Conference Sunday morning breakfast. I was delighted that Sunday came when I realized that I was never going to make curtains out of the fabric that I bought 7-8 years ago. Instead, I made tablecloths by cutting 6.5’ lengths of fabric! You cannot see the new tablecloths – just the round Christmas cloth. (We like giving every holiday an equal opportunity all year long.)

Scott

• Busy at work with the same project.
• Seemingly refreshed from a longggg weekend skiing in Utah with friends
• Traveling to Clemson a few times a month for church meetings
• Helping at Ryan’s & Jared’s baseball practices
• Preparing for the Nashville Marathon at the end of April
• Getting lost on a long run & ending up near the airport.

Jenna

• Trying to clean off the desk, finish taxes, & drowning in paperwork
• Exercising – step aerobics, spinning, Pilates reformer, running, whatever sounds good that day
• Contemplating the Nashville Half Marathon – swinging quickly towards not doing it because I haven’t gone much further than 6 miles since early March
• Running kids to school x 3, baseball practices & games x 2, piano lessons, Cub Scouts, young mens, etc. (Scott helps A LOT!)
• Jared’s team mom – concessions schedule, snack schedule, etc. Not hard, just one more thing.
• YSA Sunday school , family night, & dances.

Chris

• Homework, homework, homework.
• Multi-page paper for college psychology
• Running – mostly finished up physical therapy (except he didn’t get the t-shirt) – bruised meniscus – hip seems better too
• Taking the ACT – math was easy (lots of TRIG)
• Starting drivers training – doing much better. He drove to CLT with me during spring break. It was quite the adventure!

Ryan

• Baseball, baseball, baseball. He is playing on a travel ball team with his team from last summer.
• Piano lessons  (begrudgingly) – he plays well enough that sometimes Pacman (the frog) sings along.
• BASKETBALL – we bought a hoop from a neighbor & the kids play A LOT!
• Getting taller & filling out. He is getting very muscular.
• Running – not as much since we got the basketball hoop. However, he ran a 50 second 400-meter lap at school. The teachers were so surprised that they asked him if he had cut across the middle of the field. He is speedy.

Jared

• Injured his arm. He was vacuuming inside of Scott’s trunk the other day when he happened to get his arm smashed by the trunk. I was pretty sure it was broken – it just looked misshapen & even felt crooked. We went to the ER, got in a room right away, & watched Toy Story 2 & Happy Feet until we got the results. His arm is still bruised but he is much better.
• Playing baseball for the Rattlers. He likes to play 2nd base & catcher. His coach gives him drills to help him with his hitting.
• Totally into reading the Percy Jackson series. Currently on The Titan’s Curse. They are a little difficult but he really enjoys them.
• Teaching himself how to play chess & playing checkers & chess with his brothers whenever they are nice enough.
• Pinewood Derby – came in 2nd place to his best friend Cody. He was a great sport & was happy that Cody got an award too.
• Cub Scouts – his troop went hiking at a local lake. He has wonderful scout leaders.
• Sweet, happy, smiley – a joyful little boy.

Happy life!

General Conference: Memories and Waffles, Egg Casserole, and Salad

 

Every April and October, our church gathers together, literally (in Salt Lake City) and digitally (around TVs, radios, & the internet) to listen to living prophets deliver messages of counsel & encouragement.

For a 2:33 explanation on why conference matters.

We happily stay home in our jammies & watch BYU-TV. Another tradition associated with general conference is the breakfast. Scott’s family had this tradition for a long time & we have carried it on with our kids and our YSA’s. I did not take a picture every single year, but here are some that I found.

 

    

This weekend we have spent eight to ten hours watching General Conference. It’s been great! Except that when all is said & done, we are tired from sitting so much. I tried Tried TRIED to stay awake yesterday but must be fighting off something. I slept most of Saturday. The boys did better than I and watched almost every single speaker without complaint.

This morning, we invited the YSA’s over for our semi-annual tradition of conference breakfast. We had waffles, strawberries, whip cream (in a can!), turkey bacon, egg casserole, & orange juice. Scott is a speedy waffle maker.

Conference Waffles or Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk (or 1-1/2 cups milk plus 1/2 cup Greek yogurt)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, the buttermilk, and milk. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once, stirring just to blend. The batter should be slightly lumpy & quite thick. Let the batter rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

Heat a lightly oiled waffle iron or skillet. Cook until golden brown. Slather with butter & (if your name doesn’t rhyme with Tina) drizzle with syrup. (bleck, bleck, bleck!)

 

Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Casserole

18 eggs (3 cartons liquid eggs)

1/4-cup milk (optional)

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 cup sautéed onions

8-10 slices bacon, crisped & broken into pieces

Put onions, bacon, & cheese in 9x13-inch pan. Pour eggs & milk over. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, & Old Bay Seasoning. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until cooked all the way through.

 

After Conference Salad

1 Aidell’s Chicken and Apple Sausage, grilled

1 oz. goat cheese, crumbled (I used Trader Joe’s individual serving)

Salad greens (spring greens plus spinach)

Tomato

Snap peas

Blackberries

Salad dressing: I think this would taste good with honey mustard or raspberry vinaigrette. I just ate it plain.

Everythings Amazing & Nobodys Happy

Fat and Happy – not me!

Today, I went to the pet store & bought two little mice for Pacman to eat. And then as Scott was running out the door to go help a friend, he came back in squealing with delight. (Really SQUEALING!) He had caught a frog on the front porch & threw it in the cage with Pacman. He gobbled up the poor little frog before he had a chance. After two mice, we did not think he would go for more food… but obviously, he is hungry. I expect that he will be lazy for the next little while.

Speaking of fat & happy – we tried a new Italian restaurant that some friends recommended. The stromboli looked great!!

Dough you love me? Flax Seed Whole Wheat Bread

I love homemade bread. I know that it’s not the best thing in the world for me, but I LOVE IT! Back in the day  [when Christopher was a baby!], Costco started carrying a new-fangled gadget called a bread machine. My sweet husband bought me one for my first official Mother’s Day.  Now, seventeen years and hundreds of loaves of bread later, my Hitachi Automatic Home Bakery II is still spinning out great loaves of bread. A few years ago I decided that I wanted prettier & newer & bought a fancy-schmancy one from my favorite kitchen store. After making one loaf of bread (maybe two), I returned it to the store because it could not mix as well as my old-fashioned Hitachi.

 

I have wanted to find a great bread recipe for sandwiches. It seems like they are frequently too crumbly or the holes are too big or… I tried this a few weeks ago (& it’s waiting to come to life in the bread machine right now) and it was perfect. I am worried tonight because it’s rainy & that changes the way the bread works.

 

 

FLAX SEED WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

1-1/2 cups water

3 tablespoons canola oil (olive oil)

1/4 cup honey

2-2/3 cup bread flour

1-1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup nonfat milk

2-1/2 tablespoons flax seed

1-1/4 tablespoons gluten

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

2-1/4 teaspoons SAF yeast or 2-3/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast (SAF yeast is better)

 

Place ingredients in the pan according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Now, I will teach you a little of what I’ve learned about using a bread machine. Start the bread machine & open the lid. (It’s okay! It’s not against the rules in the beginning of the dough cycle.) If the dough is not forming a ball, add a few tablespoons of water until everything starts to come together. If it’s too wet, add a few tablespoons of flour. Adjust until the dough looks like dough. I use this step even when I am delaying starting the bread. I let the first spin happen & make sure the dough will be right & then turn the machine off, set the timer & let everything bubble a little. My fingers are crossed for a beautiful loaf of bread at 5:35 a.m.

One of my favorite bread books, European Breads from your Bread Machine, encourages using the bread machine as a place to hold partially processed dough to help develop more complex flavors. The method is similar to making a sourdough starter, letting it sit on the counter, & then proceeding with the loaf of bread.

Part of making homemade bread is getting over the fear of it not working out. The bread machine helps by making the environment just right for rising. I guess I have some funny ingredients in my cupboards, but they seem normal to me.

Good luck & let me know if it works.

 

Update: I made this bread last night & added too much water. The dough looked a little more like cake batter than bread dough. But the taste? Still yummy. Our spread of choice? Nutella, of course.

REEDY to run… I think

I am running a 10K this morning – and guess what?! It’s downhill. Results forthcoming.

Oh Bother!

 

Do you ever just have one million things bouncing around in your head? I look at my to do list from last month & even last year (?!) & it seems that the more things change the more things stay the same. I think it’s helpful to make a list of (all) some of the things. There is nothing on my list that is particularly important but all of these ticky-tacky little things keep me occupied.

In no special order:

• Where are my keys?? I vaguely remember realizing that I was doing something that was going to make me misplace my keys. Luckily, we have a spare set that is usually in the right place when we need them. However, every single day when I go to the gym the snooty front desk clerk sneers at me & asks if I have found my keys yet because she doesn’t want to type my 10-letter name into the computer.
• What color should we paint the family room? And should we paint it or should we pay someone to come & risk life & limb to reach to 20-foot ceilings?
• Where are we going to buy crickets for the frog? Cold weather has made the little creatures scarce. He will eat worms too but it feels like spoon-feeding. I have to hold the worm gently in front of the frog’s face until he decides to eat. When he lunges at the chopsticks, I jump & the worm flies around in the aquarium & burrows into a hole. Nice!

• Which color of granite should we have installed in the kitchen? I had picked out Giallo Napoli (very similar to Santa Cecilia) but when I went to pick out the slabs, the color was different – darker & more golden. Now I am wondering if we should glaze the cabinets so it will be easier to match the granite. (We currently have natural maple-colored cabinets.)
• What is the best way to back up my photos & genealogy & other important documents? I have external hard drives but no regular time for doing it. It would be great if I could just have it automatically compare between two files & update everything.
• How should I rearrange my office so that it can include scrapbooking & our everyday life? What is the best desk? Why does that beautiful window take up 1/3 of the available wall space? Ryan is getting old enough that he wants his own room.
• What do you do with old textbooks? Goodwill will not take them. And they’re getting old.
• Where am I going to find the motivation to lose the remaining 25 pounds? I am pretty habituated to eating clean foods (& I feel pretty rotten when I go astray!) but have gotten lazy on my food journal. I love LoseIt! & when I journal what I eat, the scale moves.
• Will my hamstring ever stop bothering me??? The logical answer is rest – but I rested for 1-1/2 weeks following the half marathon & as soon as I ran today, the pain returned.
• And why can’t I make my desktop computer do what I would like it to? Since the dawn of time (or close to whenever I bought this particular computer) there has been an issue with the graphics card. If I update the computer, everything crashes frequently. I am now 42 updates behind though & iTunes will no longer update our toys. It takes A LONG LONG TIME to download the software to perform the updates & then I get wonky error messages time & time again.  I have typed this entire blog entry, uploaded pictures from the state cross-country meet, & skipped around Facebook a few times trying to wait for  the download to complete. Ugh! I am about ready to pull out the tape measure to see if the progress line is moving or halted.
• Time passes … still waiting on the computer!

Update: I wrote this original post in November. And it is true. The problems are pretty much the same, except I found my keys. I took Ryan to the injury-fracture-after-hours clinic because he hurt his hand or his foot or something. (With six injury-related visits in a year, it’s hard to remember.) As I exited the car, I prepared for a long visit by leaving my purse in the car & taking the laptop case with me. I left the keys (Scott’s copy of my van key) & my cell phone in the car & locked the car. I didn’t realize what had happened until we started walking out of the clinic & I realized I had no keys. The spare set was missing at home & Scott was in a church meeting without his phone turned on. (Lovely…) My visiting teacher’s husband & three children came to the clinic to pick us up & take us home to wait for Scott. When Scott arrived home, he looked in his suit coat pocket (?!) and there were my missing keys & cards for every possible business & the gym.

Just so you know…

The other night I went to the movie I Am Number Four with a few friends. I hadn’t really checked out kids-in-mind but I had sort of surmised from her description that it might be a little scary. And generally, I don’t watch scary movies (because they make me SCARED). As the previews started, I started getting a little nervous. You know… plugging my ears & covering my eyes… not one preview was for a movie that I would have any desire to see! If I didn’t shield my eyes or plug my ears, I could have nightmares for WEEKS (and possibly even years). They tried to find another movie for me to see but it IS February after all. (I guess the flops come out in February excepting the Bieber movie…) I endured the movie well – the lead actor helped. I was even entertained.  I took one break when things got intense. And I giggled when things got really stupid, predictable, & intense. I missed Twilight (on purpose) but I think that this movie probably had a similar target audience. When I arrived home, I was able to relax & enjoy the evening with the family (probably watching basketball). Only once, during a commercial, did I have to do a double-take when I saw someone wearing a hoodie. (The bad guys wore them too.)  So… now you know that I am afraid of any kind of suspense, drama, action, etc. I will not go see the horrorific horror flicks, but sometimes James Bond or Inception or Inkheart are so good that I’ll endure the uneasiness. But I usually wait until I am at home with my laptop on my lap to keep me warm & distract me from anything remotely intense.

You Can Thank Me Later Shake!!!

I read a web-site called Phit-N-Phat. Corrinne eats REALLY REALLY healthy & I always learn great things from her. I have never met her but have read her blog for years.

This shake is heaven in a glass!!! One serving – 135 calories. And it truly tastes like chocolate ice cream!!!

Layer in the blender.

1/3 cup water

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1/4 packet sugar-free pudding (heaping tablespoon) – I used cheesecake!

Add ice & more water (so the blender will move). Blend.

Optional (yummy!): Add 1 packet of diet cocoa or 1 tablespoon Trader Joe’s sipping chocolate.

135 calories, 0.3 g fat, 18.3 g carbohydrate, 10 g sugar, 14 g protein. WeWa+ 3.

Sodium is kinda high depending on which brand of FF cottage cheese you choose.

"I went on a diet … and in fourteen days I had lost exactly two weeks." ~ Joe E. Lewis

I have been working out with a personal trainer & eating pretty healthy since May 2010. I lost twenty pounds, ran a half marathon, and got a lot stronger. I have written down every BLT (bite, lick, taste) for the last year. As of August, the scale quit moving.  Scott gave me a bodymedia unit for Christmas (like the bodybugg on Biggest Loser) & I have been able to accurately estimate how many calories I am burning & eating every day for the last two weeks. Weight loss theory says if you burn 3500 calories more than you consume, you will lose one pound. Two weeks in, a 14,000 calorie deficit & I am not seeing results. (Patience isn’t one of my strongest personality traits…) I am at heart a mathematician & a rule follower. I am following the rules & I want my body to follow them too. For now, I am going to stay the course, lower my dietary fat percentage & sodium a bit, and wait for six weeks before I get really freaked out. (Although, I already am a bit freaked out.)

And I know that I look okay, my belly shows that it has carried babies, but I have muscle tone, cardiovascular endurance, a great recovery heart rate, and even a great resting heart rate. However, my body fat percentage is at 40%. So somewhere inside, there is fat trying to choke my organs. I would like to be here with my family & friends for a long time to come. You can read more about body fat percentage here.

 

I could have spent the 1000 calorie per day deficit on A LOT of yummy things. For example, treats like the goodies I saw in the bakery case in Charleston last weekend. I wanted to order one of everything!!! (The “Eat like crap = Feel like crap!” mantra prevailed.)  I thought about ordering something sensible & then decided that a small splurge would fit in with running around Charleston chasing Scott running all day long. My outfit?  I was wearing two coats & Scott’s sweat pants as a scarf & fleece gloves in my pocket (I didn’t want to get lint in the éclair).

So, for now I have increased the intensity & frequency of my workouts. Here is last week – I know it is a little crazy, but my body feels good. (I haven’t taken ibuprofen all week!)  I am aiming for two workouts per day for a while. One intense workout & one 30” extra burn at night. I am scheduled to run the Tybee Island half marathon in two weeks.

 

Monday: Run 4.5 miles on the treadmill. Massage. Yoga.

Tuesday: Elliptical for 40” at 5:30 a.m. (I was awake?!) Spinning.

Wednesday: Pilates Reformer (LOVE LOVE LOVE). Ran 6.5 miles (great until the GI issues kicked in).

Thursday: Personal training (mostly weights – very very hard!). That night: 400-calorie treadmill torcher (walk for 5 minutes, then add 1% incline every minute up until 10%, back down 1% at a time, started running at 3% & ran until I hit 30”.

Friday: Step aerobics, Zumba party (FUN FUN FUN & TOUGH)

Saturday: Spinning.

 

On a funny & related note, the physical therapist’s office called yesterday. “Um, we haven’t seen you for over a month & we’re wondering if you are okay?” My hamstring is still nagging but usually only in the background. My hips are still wonky & I hope that eventually they’ll be all better. We booked an appointment.

Too cold to swim today!

 
 

I was helping my mom learn to upload pictures from her digital camera. Look what we found!

Snow Day?

The kids all came home from school with ideas on how to make it snow tomorrow. It IS Chris’ birthday after all & it usually occasionally snows on his birthday.

• Wear your pajamas inside out.
• Wear your pajamas backwards.
• Put ice in the toilet.
• Put a cup of ice on your bed.

Let’s see what happens…

Gingerbread House, part two

 

The house is completed. Do not worry about the other one. It is still undecorated & may remain so. Much of the candy has been nibbled & interest has died down considerably. I love the roof that we all came up with together.

Boredom Busters

This is my workout room in my basement. Scott painted the cute stripes on the wall about 5 years ago. There’s a small TV with a VCR, a DVD player, & DISH with DVR. It should be easy to workout – cute room, lots of fans to keep me cool, all of Scott’s trophies from his childhood to inspire me to accomplish great things. And yet, I am still pretty uninspired whenever I hop on the treadmill.

You may or may not know that I am not crazy about running outside when it is below freezing & windy outside… or raining… or too hot… or … you get it! I tried running on the treadmill the other day. I had a little snack, wore cute clothes, took my iPod with me, & settled in with last week’s Biggest Loser episode. They were even running a marathon – inspiring, right??? Eh, not so much! I lasted for 3.5 long agonizing miles before bolting out of the house to run the final 2.0 miles on the road.
It was not so many months ago that I did almost all of my cardio workouts indoors. This is just a small blip in the road – spring will be coming in a month or two – but I need to prepare for next summer when the blast furnace gets turned on again outside! I collected a bunch of different workouts online & have linked them here so I can remember them when I need them, & so I can share – maybe you will do some & let me know your favorites. Most of these workouts include interval training – alternating bursts of higher intensity with lower intensity workouts. Interval training burns more calories, improves aerobic capacity, and alleviates boredom. Great benefits!!
Here are a few workouts to try:
The bike, elliptical & treadmill cross training event
The 2000 calorie workout (treadmill, one week, assorted workouts)
Run/Walk: The 20-Minute Treadmill Hill Workout
20-minute 300-calorie workout
Lindsay Price’s Treadmill Workout
Burn 500-calories with Treadmill Intervals
And Fitness Magazine’s 25 Best Cardio Routines including a couple of the above
Running Planet’s Treadmill Hill Workouts
Runner’s World Treadmill Workouts
And from the vaults of my memory, here’s a happy workout that will let you know you’ve torched a ton of calories. Walk at a comfortable & brisk pace. At 1 minute, increase the interval by 1.0. Add 1.0 for each minute until you reach 10.0. Then decrease by 1.0 each minute until 5.0 & then start back up & then all the way back down again. Walking at 10.0 is difficult enough for me that a walking workout is plenty for me.
And after we have done all of this running we can stretch - http://www.runningplanet.com/training/dynamic-flexibility-stretches.html.
Happy running, jogging, or walking! My next adventure is the Tybee Island half marathon. It  is just two months away, not that I am stressing out or anything!

Mud Pie Heaven

 

I wanted to make a special Christmas dessert for family night, so I tried this one from Sister’s Cafe. While you’re there, notice how beautiful all of their food photography is! My piece looks half eaten. This recipe is definitely not DJ-the-trainer-approved. But it received two thumbs up from all five members of the family!

Mud Pie

1 package Oreo cookies

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 gallon peppermint ice cream (we used Publix Peppermint Candy), keep frozen

1 jar hot fudge

1 container Cool Whip, mostly thawed

Crush Oreos (I used the food processor) – mix with melted butter. Press into bottom of 9x13-pan. Slice ice cream into 1-inch thick slices & arrange in pan. (This is such a great idea! Even layers & you don’t have to melt the ice cream!!!) Smooth out with a butter knife or frosting spreader. Add layer of hot fudge (unheated). Top with Cool Whip & crushed Oreos. Keep frozen unless serving.

I had problems cutting the pie without making a mess. I started dipping the knife in hot water before each pass & it was MUCH easier. Enjoy!

Calories? … do you really want to know? 24 small servings or 12 large servings.

12 large servings, 525 calories, 29 g fat, 75 g carbohydrate, 6 g protein. If you want to work it out, you have to go to a spinning class & sweat everything out for an hour.

It sure tasted good though…

Gingerbread Houses… a lesson in patience?!!!

In an effort to have a more meaningful holiday season, we asked the kids what traditions they like & what doesn’t matter. The only thing they mentioned was gingerbread houses. We have done this once! Funny, huh? Reading the scriptures & other meaningful stories, going to see the lights, baking goodies for family & friends, singing carols, and everything else – and they remember the gingerbread house that we made last year. OK.

I took Jared to AC Moore (craft store) with me & picked up a kit. The kids expressed that they wanted the biggest house possible. (Of course (boys) would we expect anything else?) We bought the kit & unveiled the pieces. It was too small. So while out & about today, I saw another bigger kit (with fondant!) and brought it home. I found my Wilton cake decorating kit that I’ve only used 3-4 times in a short period of time. (yes!) I made the icing & carelessly schlopped it into the pastry bag. (Have I mentioned that I hate having sticky fingers???)

The directions said to assemble the house. (Wait? Did I assemble last year or just decorate?) I don’t remember ever doing this before but okay … the roof broke in half so I repaired it. House number one is structurally sound.  My fingers are gooey & the icing is oozing out the top of the pastry bag onto my hand & the counter every time I use it. On to house #2 … Put the walls up & let them set. Check to make sure the roof fits… too small! Try to make it fit. Break the back in half. Glue it back together. Let it dry. Wash hands. Try putting the roof on again. Break the back in half…

Did I mention that meanwhile Christopher & I tried (successfully) to charge the van’s battery after the interior lights were left on all night? Luckily, the van starts fine now.

And I am resting… and contemplating going to Publix & buying a preassembled house from the bakery department.

Why am I doing this? Because most of the magic at our house has died down, except Jared is so excited that he has been carrying the box around & talking about the gingerbread house & how he’s going to decorate it for days and days. I guess this is why I do a lot of crazy things … because I love to see my kids’ delight.