An End to Day 2

Well, things were better today. I managed to get part of the kitchen and the dining room cleaned, but everything else took a back seat when Nick and Sam started fighting over the Wii, then by the time I made lunch, got that cleaned up, ate lunch myself and sat down for a couple of minutes it was almost time to pick up  Levi and Rowdy from school. When they get home all hell breaks loose so I can't get much done as I am constantly tracking down Rowdy and breaking up fights between all 3 boys when they are home.

I walked for 1/2 hr while Levi's team was doing their warm-up, then when they started playing kill the duck I finished my lap and walked over and sat down to watch him. He is doing much better than he was, I just wish he would get over the fear of going up against the bigger guys. I talked to two of his coaches today after practice, and they told me what to work on with him, so after he gets out of school tomorrow we're going out in the yard to work on his stance and getting off the line faster. They want to play him on defense also instead of just the offensive line and he wants to do it, but until he gets off the line faster and gets his butt up on the air it's not going to happen. So this is something that we can work on together and it will give us both exercise and get us out in the yard and out of the house.

On another note, I made this awesome Cheezy Zucchini Bake for dinner tonight. I found the recipe online and it sounded kind of good, definitely healthy, but I didn't like all of the ingredients in it. So, after tweaking it in my mind, I planted myself in the kitchen before practice and made dinner. I used ground turkey instead of the hamburger the recipe called for and my family couldn't even tell the difference! I had eaten ground turkey before and liked the taste, and since it's much healthier than hamburger because it's leaner I bought a few pounds of it at the grocery store a couple days ago. Paul gave me this awful look when I bought it. I told him, "I'll use turkey one day and hamburger another and you tell me which is which. If you get it wrong, I'm using turkey for just about everything but burgers". So tomorrow I'm making a hamburger helper or casserole with the turkey that is left, then I'm going to make something else with hamburger and see if he can tell me which is which. I'm hoping he gets it wrong so he will eat what I cook and won't insist on not eating what everyone else is having for dinner.

Anyway, back to the zucchini... I also cooked some spaghetti and when I served it I put a thin layer of pasta down and spooned up a helping of the zucchini over it. Everyone loved it (well, except Sam, but what 3 year old eats baked zucchini?) and they all voted that it is a recipe they would eat again. Thank God for that because I have zucchini coming out of my ears right now! I can't give it away fast enough. I think my one plant out in my garden out front has 12 of them growing right now or something stupid. What in the world am I going to do with 12 zucchini that are all ripe at the same time?? If anyone wants some, just let me know. I posted the recipe for the zucchini bake on my recipes page, which is actually a doctored guest book... lol. There's a link to the right of this if you are interested in it. It's actually very easy to make, doesn't take much prep time, and is great if you have a cook timer on your oven. Paul didn't go to football practice with us tonight, so I just reduced the temp to 300 degrees, increased the time to 1 1/2 hrs, and told him to check it here and there. When I got home it was ready to go and, like I said, tasted WONDERFUL!

I didn't snack today either. Well, I didn't snack on Snickers  ;)  I did have a yogurt with a little bit of crumbled Crispix cereal mixed in with it. For those of you who have a Smith's or Kroger's grocery store around, did you know that they sell a generic store-brand yogurt called "CarbMaster"? This is perfect for those who are watching carbs or calories. It's a low-calorie, low carb yogurt that I think tastes just as good as the light yogurt only it has 4 grams of carbohydrates per serving instead of 12. This is perfect for people who don't want all the sugar or calories but love yogurt. I usually don't shop at Smith's because Wal-Mart is cheaper and has more of a variety, but Paul talked me into going to Smith's because we didn't have a lot of time and I'm glad he did!

Someone told me today to not do too much right off the bat, to take baby steps so it wouldn't be too overwhelming. I pondered that all day and decided that person is right on some levels. My main problem has always been that I want to change everything right away, see results immediately, and succeed in everything I do. Instant gratification has always been my best friend, or worst enemy, depending on how you look at it. I have made soooo many stupid mistakes and spent money soooo foolishly because of the high I get from having this right now or getting this immediately, only to suffer the consequences at a later date. So, while all the changes that I am making are to benefit me and my family, I have decided to focus on one or two things at a time instead of trying to change who I am overnight. I'm still going to stay on the diet and follow my daily goals, but not feel guilty when I have a Snickers attack like I did early this morning. Likewise, I'm going to work on keeping the house up and getting the laundry done, but I'm not going to feel horrible or get down on myself if I don't get it all finished by a set time. Baby steps... that's what I need to take. An infant has to learn to roll over, crawl, pull themselves up, and then take a couple of steps. So I have decided to break the first parts of a child's life down and relate it to myself at this stage.

1) Rolling over - Deciding that I need to change.

2) Crawling - Implementing a plan for change.

3) Pulling themselves up - Following the plan to the best of my ability, but realizing that not everything is going to be perfect, especially at the beginning.

4) Taking a couple of steps - Changing what doesn't work and adapting my plan to best fit my lifestyle. 

5) Standing up in the middle of the floor and walking - Tweaking the plan here and there to fit my changing environment, realizing and accepting that everything will not always be the same, and making sure I don't fall back into the habits that led to this in the first place.
6) Off and running - Living life to the fullest every day, accepting and adapting to change, and not falling back into old habits.

From what I can tell, right now I'm only pulling myself up, working on taking a couple of steps. It's going to take some time to be off and running. Who knows how long it will take? There is only one who knows, and He has out lives planned out for us. No matter what He throws at us, even if there isn't an explanation for it immediately, there is a reason. What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger. It might feel like it's going to kill me, but it won't. I have had some crappy things thrown at me during my lifetime, and it was hard being a single mother even with the help I had, but that has only made me stronger.

A former co-worker of mine heard me talking about my weekend one time and asked me, "How do you do it? I would go complete insane!" My reply to her was, "I have to. My children depend on me, other people depend on me, and if I didn't do it then who would? And what kind of a person would I be?" I don't want my answer to be "I have to" anymore, but instead "I want to." And realizing that and accepting it is one of the first steps to change my way of thinking about household chores, going to work (when I finally find a job), and everything else in life.

Well, once again my bed is calling to me earlier than normal. So, on that note, goodbye until next time!


Quote of the day:
"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living."
---Gail Sheehv