Holy Blog Break Batman!

Esh,

My life has been a mess of work, trying to run outside while living in Missouri in January (FYI; weather in January brought to you by Sick Jokes'R'Us ), Girl Scouts, Cooking and trying to manage my houseful of tiny humans.

Doodle bug has been crawling around like a mad man, pulling up on furniture and trying to be bigger than his 10 month age should allow.

Sunshine is super pumped that her birthday is coming and then she will be old enough to go to school after the summer.

Pumpkin does not want to go to school, but says she does all kinds of fun stuff there, not sure why she has a problem with it, but oh well.

I'm 30 now, had a birthday filled with awesomeness, beer and good food. I don't feel old, but then 30 is the new 20 right? (*shudder* you couldn't pay me to be 20 again) I got furniture and running shoes for my birthday and am still trying to train for the half marathon, hopefully I don't tank it. that would suck. I can however walk a 14.30 minute mile, so that's something.

I cancelled my gym membership because i have no way to work that into the work, baby schedule right now, but I am going to sign up on Friday for the conditional 10.00 a month membership to use the treadmills until the run in April.

Then who knows what will happen.

more news later, hope everyone out there is doing well and feeling happy.

Nellie

kinda snuck up on me there

So tomorrow will be the third anniversary of the blog of Nell. Three years of the random ramblings of a chubby, crafty, sometimes crabby, often crass mommy of three. I hope everyone has enjoyed the ride, I certainly have. I'm going to be busy with life and won't have time for a wrap up tomorrow, so I figured I'd do it today, in brief of course, you all also have lives to live.

Since January of 2010 I have:
-started a blog
-realized I was a fat ass
-found a plan
-worked the plan
-lost 60 pounds
-ran in the mud
-made an awesome new friend
-gained some weight back (20 pounds)
-had a baby
-gained some more wieght back (another 10 pounds)
-ran in the mud some more
-ranted about a few things
-posted a picture of myself in my underwear
-I sent my oldest to school
-created some recipes
and
-met all of you (<- this is an important one)

Thank you for sticking with me and finding something interesting in my story.

Nellie

I feel like a Shel Silverstien Poem

The Mom who went crazy and ate the world.

Oh, dieting, why do you despise me so?

Two days on plan, and I'm feeling a little less than awesome today. I brought my lunch today (skinny soup), ate a cup of Greek yogurt with pineapple for breakfast and have had about half of my water already for the day because I want to shove chips and chocolate and gummi bears and cookies and cake and tacos and burgers and french fries and well, everything into my face.

I keep having these dreamlike mental images of myself as the semi-hot put together mom and then getting slapped with the cold camel-toed, muffin-topped, button-extended reality that I own 5 pairs of pants that fit. Know what happens when you throw away your fat pants?

You run out of pants!!

I remember the reason for this, I knew I would struggle with the weight after the baby and need some concrete reasons to be better about my food choices. Being basically broke and having no clothes that fit is a good reason.
Ick, I'm having a Despicable Me moment,

"It's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!"


I'm going to go drink some tea and pretend it's rum...

Don't Shake the baby!

So, last night the tiny dictator pushed me too far.  let's be honest, we all work for him now, he's got us feeding him, cleaning his butt and wanting to keep him happy. Why?

Because he can hold our sleep hostage. And he does, often enough to incite rebellion.

He would not settle down, nothing was making him happy and he started pushing and pinching me, which is just not okay. Something told me it was all temper, there was nothing wrong with the kid, aside from being tired.

I made sure he was fed, dry and had both a pacifier and a blanket in the crib with him, gave him a dose of Tylenol to be sure...

and I walked away.

I could feel the tension rising in me and when I realized it, I decided to give myself a time out.

I kept hearing mother's voice in my head, "Sometimes babies cry and that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong."

This started at 1:15 in the morning and he finally calmed down and went to sleep at 3. Every 15 minutes I would come in, rub his belly and tell him that he should be going to sleep. I don't know how I could tell that it was all temper, there was something about the crying that clued me in. I know my baby's cries, I know hungry, I know wet, I know lonely, I know hurt, and now I know pissed.

This morning he is fine, playing and being his normal cute self, but I have thrown down the gauntlet,

it's bed time Tiny, and you are going down,

for at least 8 hours.

Bible Study Update: 1

Morning All,

I did some research yesterday and I think I may have landed on a topic for my bible study. I am beginning this process with some research and my first topic is going to be the parables of Jesus. I want to find a way to connect these abstract teachings of our lord with parenting and leading a christian family. Hopefully it is a good direction, I'm going to step out with faith and ask the lord to bless my actions or show me the way I should turn if this path is not correct.

I am going to have to pull in some other resources for this, because I have never written anything like this before. I'll have more information about that when I figure out what they are.

So this weekend Jeeves and I are going on a date and heading to the Christian book store to find a book or bible study about the parables and see what other resource material I can find.

Here's to getting things rolling.

Have a great Thursday!

Secret...

...If you take 1 pound of ground drained hamburger, mix it with one bag of chopped spinach and 1 cup of ricotta cheese and then shove about 2 tablespoons of it into large pasta shells, cover it with marinara and bake it for 20 minutes you have bliss on a plate and a husband who wants to buy you ice cream and rub your feet. 

I had a good start to 2013. 

it began with sleeping in. 

let me just let that sink in. 

My son and I slept for 10 hours, it was heavenly. 

Then I woke up and made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch. 

Jeeves, Mutti and I watched a movie. 

I created the above amazing-ness for dinner and make chocolate pudding pie for dessert, and then we watched another movie. Mutti headed home and my munches and I headed back to bed. 

If the rest of 2013 is this relaxed and awesome, I'm in for a good year. 

So here's the plan for today, I'm going for a jog when I get home. It's cold outside but I'm going to give it a try. We'll see how it goes. I've got gloves, a thermal shirt, a good hat and a pair of sorely underused running shoes. I think I'm ready to get a running start at this year. 

Thanks, Kate and Lydia!

I am a huge fan of Rants from Mommy Land, and I'm also a sarcastic crafting wild woman, to that end I drafted the following segment to be considered for the RFML blog only to discover that the section had been retired last year, (bummer-town, population: me) so I asked for permission to post it here, (because they gave me the inspiration) and they agreed, so enjoy. 

Domestic Enemies of the Crafty Mom

 Kids: So, if you are a crafty Mom it’s a fair bet you are making stuff for your kids, however getting them to try on their new, stupidly involved Christmas dress so you can hem it is like trying to dress an oiled cat. Then they finally get in on and don’t want to take it off, (it’s so pretty, like a princess) cause they need to finish eating their chocolate ice cream…and nacho cheese Doritos.
             That, or, “I don’t like it” (whiny) and “It’s itchy” (shut it kid, you think everything you wear is going to be comfortable? Teen-dom is gonna be rough for you) and “I want to wear my polka dot jammies to church instead” (on Easter? No dice chief, you are wearing this itchy, pretty, dress so no one will notice that mommy’s socks don’t match)


Husbands: These remarkably helpful individuals who take out the trash and kill bugs are no help when you have finished a new shirt at 10pm. It’s been a long day and you’ve sewn the same seam six times. What would take a childless woman two hours, has taken you eight; thanks to an experiment in how much Captain Crunch will fit into the bag less vacuum cleaner.
            You are all excited about your sewing prowess and he thinks that since you have interrupted Fox News it must be “magic time”. Then realizing his wrongness, (hello, I’ve been crafting all night) his response to your creativity is “Oh, …nice…”  This is the same man who jumps on the couch, throws food, and occasionally feigns a drawn out painful death when sport things happen on the TV. Dude, seriously? Fake for me a little, please?

Craft Stores: the people who run these dens of sin must have one of the lesser demons on speed dial. Can we say gluttony, greed and envy? I swear they have us on government wire taps and when our bank accounts are just low enough, they run the best freaking sale ever, and with everything you will ever need to do all of the most amazing projects you’ve ever wanted to do. So, you either do without the awesome teal knit fabric with little apples flying across it, or you don’t buy diapers that week. (But you can make some with your new fabric.)

Non-crafters: Sure there are a ton of folks out there how understand the time and work you put in to crafting, and they even understand why, but nothing takes the “look what I did” out of your sails like some snitch commenting about how she just doesn’t have time to “make things” (this said as if crafting were the social equivalent to shoveling sewage) and that she has so many “more important things to do” (yeah, like tanning and watching jersey shore re-runs). This irritates us crafters more than anything and for the rest of the day we are plotting revenge and googling car bombs instead of enjoying the comments from strangers about the epic cuteness of the crocheted pumpkin sweater our daughter is wearing while sitting in a big pile of pumpkins. (No really, that’s awesome…right?)

Moochers: Every family has one, somebody who finds out that you have a skill and seeks to exploit it for their own gain. These are the people who “just love everything you do” and “aren’t you so talented?” These are also the people who show up at your house under the guise of a friendly visit and hand you a bag saying, “here I bought this pirate costume pattern and some black fabric, I’m sure you just have the rest of the stuff you’ll need laying around the house, right? Kthanksbye…”  Oh and they need it by next week. Um, no. (In related news: in a fit of irritation at this very situation, I may or may not have “accidentally” made a costume that was held together so poorly the woman wearing flashed a bar full of people, don’t judge me)

Holidays: Yes, I am awesome and yes, I can make stuff. But, dear Maude, why do I feel the need to decide each year that I am going to “save some money” and craft gifts for everyone on my list. This decision usually comes in October at which I decide that “I have plenty of time” and I’ll wait till things go on sale. Which usually happens on December 20^th , at which time I become a reclusive hermit who lives off of red bull and pop tarts. You’ll know the time this has happened because I can be seen walking through stores at Christmas time covered in bits of thread with strings of cooled hot glue stuck to my pants.

            The best to-do list in the world cannot save you from holiday crafting. The entire holiday season is one long mantra of “I’ll get caught up tomorrow.” Then on the day of a given family event your dressed up family irritably waits with you in the car as you finish sewing the last thing and shoving it into a gift bag as you pull up to someone’s house. “Wow, you really like it, I’m so glad, no, it took no time at all…why yes, that is Captain Crunch in my hair”  

Oh, oh, oh and Happy New Year!