Nursing is Great!

I don't think that I have fully appreciated nursing before.  But I am much more knowledgeable about calories and weight gain and loss now after my weight loss journey a year ago that got interrupted with becoming pregnant.  But I have gained that appreciation now.

I did not gain any weight over that holidays and I ate A LOT.  I didn't really loose any either, but I didn't gain and I think I should have gained at least 10 pounds.  I am thinking of this because Travis and I are tracking our food now.  We started on January 2nd.

With my other kids, when I was nursing, I was a bottomless pit.  But this time I don't feel so hungry.  I think it is a blessing from God.  I don't have a scale, but I do know that I have lost 3/4 of an inch off my waist and 1" off my hips in the first week.  And I am enjoying my food.  I am limiting what I eat, but I don't feel deprived.  Some days I just want to eat all day, but other days (most days) I can just eat my food and be completely content.

But I have a day about once a week that I disregard my calorie limit.  Today is one of those days.  I am typing this as I eat some of a Marie Callender's Chocolate Satin pie, that I unfortunately looked at the ingredients of it, but I have dismissed that bad news from my head to enjoy the chocolately deliciousness of it.  As I do, I am thinking of all the calories that my cute little baby sucks from me and not feeling guilty at all.  Tomorrow I will be back to a strict calorie intake, but tonight I will enjoy.

**Morning note.  Eating junk does not actually make you feel good.  Especially when you are used to eating healthy.  I feel full of junk!

Where have you been?

That is what people should be asking me.  No posts for almost 3 months, and when I had been doing so well too.  Ok I hadn't been doing well for several months, but at least there were some posts.

This cute little guy is the reason.  

Indie keeping me busy, and up late at night, which should mean that I could write posts, but I discovered Amazon Prime Instant Videos and so I watch "Poirot" episodes instead.  

Here are some updates...

Rez became a Star Scout and finally finished his Law merit badge.  He has awesome hair at the moment and can do 15 pull ups in a row.  He is almost as tall as me.

Ocean decided to go back to blond.  I had to bleach all the red out and then tone it to the right color.  (Every time I look at his hair I think what a great hairdresser I am and then I remember that I don't do it alone.  Then, I think how grateful I am to God for his help in getting the right colors and having it all turn out good.  I wouldn't be as great of a hairdresser without him.  He is my secret weapon in all that I do.) 

He will be getting his braces off soon.  He is excited to be able to whistle again.

Daphne is growing up and getting more gorgeous.  She is sick at the moment with a fever, headache and sore throat.  She is learning to play the trumpet and the piano.  

Zelda, where do we start with her.  Her hair is much curlier than this, I had straightened the front this day.  It normally is in cute ringlets with frizz in the back.  She has decided that she doesn't like to be in a wet or dirty diaper and takes it off as soon as she does anything in it.  She got training pants for Christmas and wore them for the first time today.  We had several times of sitting on the potty with nothing happening followed by little puddles on the floor.  She is learning though.  She loves Indie and can often be seen leaning over him making him smile and occasionally  cry.

Mo, how can you not love that face?  There are some things I learned about him a long time ago.  He thinks of something and does it.  He cannot not talk.  He speaks really fast, and it is hard to understand him.  He doesn't sit still for very long.  He plays really well with younger kids.  But recently I have learned that those things add up to ADHD.  And that helped us learn some other things about him.  Like, he is paying attention when he is moving.  And his mind is moving so fast it can't be bothered with little details like how to spell correctly or write all of his numbers the right direction.

I have been trying to get our life back in some semblance of order after having a baby and Thanksgiving, Christmas, new year and having everyone out of school and Trip home for the holidays. I am still trying to get the Christmas tree down, find homes for new things and recently we had dining room benches delivered that I have to find time to finish.

Harvey is loving school.  It turns out that he is thriving with the structure and schedule of school life, not to mention he is very smart.

Julius.  He is my little buddy at home every day.  He and I play Uno together.  He will do yoga with me and loves to play computer games when I have a client.   And in the afternoons, he will watch a "move-move" and take a nap on the couch.

Trip is busy at work, home and church.  He switched to the research department last year and loves it.  Work is much less stressful when you can't accidentally loose millions of dollars.  He is working with the young men at church, which is great since we have 2 of them.  And he is the #1 kid putter to bedder.  While I am sitting nursing the baby in the evenings, he is reading stories and singing songs and leading by example:)

Help! Bleach on Scout Pants!

This is the post that I wanted to find a few months ago when I discovered bleach had gotten onto Rez's $40 scout uniform pants.  I didn't want to buy another pair, they were not that old and in really good shape otherwise.  The bleach turns the green a lovely lavender color.  

They are made of some microfiber fabric, really nice but not easily dyeable.  I looked up how to dye polyester, not an easy proposition and that is assuming you can find the right color of dye.  

So, I came up with my own solution, fabric paint.

I mixed these 4 colors to get a color that was close, then dapped it on to the bleach spots, rubbed it in and let it dry.  

After a day or so, I washed them.

It turned out pretty good, not perfect, but when you look at them you think more of camouflage than, "my what a lovely lavender that is."

I ended up buying another pair of pants for "dress", but these work great for when he is on hikes, etc.

First Day of School

September 5th was the first day of school this year.  

Rez and Ocean were the first to leave, off to 8th and 7th grades.

Daphne was the next to go, she is in 5th grade and was on Safety Patrol the first week of school.

Last of all, Julius, Zelda and I walked Mo and Harvey to school.  

Mo is in 3rd grade and Harvey started kindergarten. 

Birthdays and Cousins

Instead of wrapping Ocean's presents for his birthday, we hid them and he had to go on a treasure hunt.

First he found the card from Grandma and Grandpa.

Next, he found a remote control helicopter. 

Then there was the DS game he wanted.

Last of all, some silly putty.

The next day, we had FAT.

My nephew, his wife and baby were in town as well as my sister-in-law and her kids, from Texas.

Look at that cute baby!

Cousins we haven't seen for couple of years.

Monday was Julius' birthday.  He wanted to go to the zoo.

We always have to climb on the hippo statue.

That evening, we had cupcakes and presents with is cousins.

He got new sand to fill the sand box.

The cousins all got to spend the night.

Boulder River Trail

We decided to take a hike in July on the Boulder River Trail.  

It was a beautiful day.  

 My sister and her family came with us.  She knew all kinds of plants along the trail and ones that were edible like these wild berries.

We walked through beautiful forests.

Zelda walked almost the whole way to the falls where we turned around.

She carried her baby the whole way too.

Daphne and Julius were buddies.

There were old logs to climb on next to the trail.

Ocean is surveying  the path.

At one point there were all these ferns growing.

And large cliffs.  Harvey was trying to climb up.

There were many little crevasses for photo ops.

Rez helped Zelda join Julius, Harvey, Mo and their cousin.

Here they are again.

Zelda and Rez didn't make it in time to join everyone else, so they go their own picture.

 

One of the favorite things was to run ahead (with an adult) and hide, scaring the others that came along.

There was a part that went up and down some.

And still Zelda insisted on walking herself.

You can see how Harvey liked it.

Here is looking down towards the river.

Zelda did get carried over the rocky part.  Daphne is carrying the backpack we brought for her.

We made it to the overlook of the falls.  They were beautiful.

Plus there was a cool tree to climb under and through. 

We sat next to it and ate our dinner.

There was a drop off down to the river on the other side of the trail, so we had to keep close tabs on all the kids, but we had a fun time.

We headed back to the start after that.  It was starting to get dark, but we didn't have any problems.

It was a fun afternoon.