Too Excited To Sleep

Going to Disney World!!!!!

It's been a busy day and I think the fact we're leaving for Disney World in 2 days has officially hit me - so it's going to be a short post because I need to think about getting organized! 

Today:

Woke up
Weighed myself - down 8.5 lbs on day 14 of the 17 day diet
Went to work
Had lunch with the Hubs at Panera
Went to Target to buy items for our trip
Went back to work
Got a 30 minute massage, had a consultation and an X-ray to determine why my sciatic nerve dislikes me
Came home to this

Ate this

Chicken Sausage & Green Peppers and Onions

And will spend the next hour or so planning for this



Cheers!

What's On The Table?

Up to this point my diet has been a bit bland with chicken and pork and fish - not much to write about in terms of food.  Tonight I resurrected one of our old time favorites for dinner - Bruschetta Chicken!

Bruschetta Chicken

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)

1/4 cup KRAFT Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette Dressing, divided
1 tomato, finely chopped (I use a can of diced tomatoes)
1/2 cup Shredded Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (I use a tablespoon of dried basil)

Heat grill to medium heat.

Cover half the grill grate with sheet of heavy-duty foil. Place chicken in large resealable plastic bag. Add 2 Tbsp. dressing; seal bag. Turn bag over several times to evenly coat chicken with dressing. Refrigerate 10 min. Remove chicken from bag; discard bag and dressing.

Place chicken on uncovered side of grill; cover with lid. Grill 6 min. Meanwhile, combine remaining dressing, tomatoes, cheese and basil.

Turn chicken over; place on foil. Top with tomato mixture. Grill, covered, grill 8 min. or until chicken is done (165ºF).

I'm typically not much of a veggie person, but I'm trying.  I'll be honest there are many times I'd rather not eat as opposed to only eating vegetables.  I want our kids to be better veggie eaters than I am, so I'm making an effort to put more on the table.  A few weeks ago while "camping" I was introduced to this amazing seasoning: Morton Nature's Seasons.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This has completely changed my view on vegetables.  A little olive oil and this deliciousness and I'm sold.  Check it out!
 
Cheers...

Weekend Roundup

First football game of the season Friday night - unfortunately the Greenwood Woodmen suffered their first loss.  Despite the loss, we all had a great time at the game and I think for the first time in my life I ate a salad at a football game - darn 17 Day Diet.  The girls went home with my parents after the game and Hubs & I headed home to get a good night's sleep.  Our plan was to get up early and vacuum the pool before heading to Evansville.  Needless to say a night without children we didn't awake until 9:30 - I can't tell you the last time we slept until 9:30 - it was AMAZING! 

We head off to Evansville around noon - make it to 465 and I realize I have forgotten my outfit for Aquapoolooza - whoops sorry Hubs we had to turn around.  The typical 3 hour trip to Evansville took us 5 hours due to horrible construction delays on 70 - never going that way again!

We make it to Evansville just in time for the start of Aquapoolooza II and boy was it a great time!!!

Great live entertainment, great food (which I had to ignore), and great friends - what more can you ask for!

Now technically on the 17 Day Diet there is no alcohol for the first 17 days, but apparently the doctor who authored the book hasn't been to Aquapoolooza.  I'm a beer girl, always have been always will be, but I know beer is not the best choice when low carb is the goal.  I had to come up with a Plan B for my buddies at the party who are also participating in the diet.  Here is what I came up with:

Skinny Jeans Mojito

Rum
Blackberries
Blueberries
Mint
Truvia
Club Soda

Verdict:  Quite tasty, but a lot of work to make.

The John Daly

Seagrams Sweet Tea Vodka
Crystal Light Lemonade

Verdict:  WINNER  WINNER!!

Strawberry Lemonade

Parrot Bay Strawberry Rum
Crystal Light Lemonade

Verdict:  Scrumptious - a must try!

There's still a lot of summer left so when you need a refreshing cocktail I highly recommend one of those above.

Cheers!

Are You Ready For Some Football???

Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

Vince Lombardi

It's officially football season.  My favorite time of year!  Football is all I've ever known - born to love it.  I love cool Friday nights at high school games.  I love tailgating at college games or watching them from the comforts of our couch on Saturday afternoons.  I especially love Sunday afternoons watching our beloved Colts.  I love the game and everything that goes along with it: concession stands, tailgating, chili, ice cold beer, fall weather, friends, and family.  I must note that I have won our fantasy league, the BFL (Bartenbach Football League) twice.  Yes, a girl has been the Super Bowl champion twice.  Next time you see Hubs, ask him how many times he's won.

KK loves going to football games.  It's hard to believe she's already been thru 2 seasons.


Season 1



Season 2





It's hard to believe that last season I was pregnant with Rea Rea and now I'm already planning her first birthday party.  I'm certain she will love football the same as her sister. 

Tomorrow night we'll be down in Greenwood cheering on my brother and Greenwood High School.  They play Columbus East - yes they have the #1 quarterback in the country who just signed with IU.  Should be a great Friday night!

Cheers...

Million Miles a Minute

My grandma used to say to me "you're going a million miles a minute!"  That's when I was 5 and now at 32 I'm going even faster.  I feel really busy, but am I really busy?  I feel lazy, but am I lazy?  I start a million tasks, but rarely finish one.  I can't remember what I'm doing from one minute to the next.

I am at my computer a lot, and when I am not working, emailing, blogging, playing Words with Friends, Pinteresting and Facebooking, I am on the phone, texting, running errands, chasing kids, cooking and generally busy with my family and my home. Keeping house is not my highest priority. My friends all know this to be true. It is not a virtue, I confess. I become absorbed with life and and my projects that housekeeping falls by the wayside.  I have a cleaning lady and then I fire the cleaning lady because I want her to do housework better than I would do it.  So I decide I can just do it myself, but I never do!


For my grandma, keeping the house in order was a top priority. My grandma had an active family, but kept an orderly home. She did not make having children an excuse to be sloppy. But then, she did not have a computer and did not spend hours a day working, blogging, and Facebooking. She organized her time and never wasted a minute.

I'm going to try that.  I'm going to stop wasting so much time just wasting time.  Starting today I'm going to get organized.  I'm going to regain control of this house.  I'm going to file all of my recipes.  I'm going to clean out my closet.  I'm going to clean out my kid's closets. I'm going to actually cross things off my to do list at work and at home.  I'm going to get the garage back in order so I can park in it.  I'm going to make time to exercise.  I am going to slow down and focus!  Stay tuned...

Cheers!

Blessings

First an update for the end of Week 1 of the 17 Day Diet - down 6 lbs!!  With the radical change my diet has experienced, I would have expected a 20 lb loss, but I'll take 6.  Trekking forward into this new healthy lifestyle.  For those I promised menus and recipes to, that will start soon.  I need to get a bit more organized and continue to figure out how to cook like this.  Let's face it those recipes that I typically use aren't exactly on the 17 day plan.

On the topic of food and eating , I think it is something that most of us take for granted.  We go to the store, buy a cart full of groceries, spend $100 and think nothing of it. Heck, half the time we end up throwing a portion of it away.  We stop on the way home from work and pick up something convenient, give our kids choices at dinner and send our kids to school with a full stomach each morning.  Our kids have a snack cabinet full of healthy and unhealthy choices that they can freely pick from when they're hungry.  This, however, is not the case for many kids in our city, state, country.  We all are aware of those children that suffer in other countries, but we rarely talk about those who live right down the street from us.

I grew up in a family where giving back came naturally.  My dad participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters, my mom donated her time freely and often, my dad took in any kid that was struggling, and those are things that have stayed present in my mind as I've become an adult.

We, personally, have spent a lot of time trying to figure how best to give back.  We are clearly blessed and have so many things to be thankful for and so many things that we take for granted.  It's easy to take the approach of "oh I'm just one person, what can I really do." 

After a lot of time and a lot of research we chose to adopt an IPS school for the Blessings in a Backpack program.  Every school in the Indianapolis Public School system qualifies for the Federal free breakfast and lunch program and a high percentage of children qualify to participate in this program.  This means that for many young students the only meals they receive are breakfast and lunch Monday - Friday.  They come to school hungry each morning and starving after a long weekend of few if any meals.  The Blessings in a Backpack program sends a backpack of food home each weekend of the school year with these students. In those schools that have been fortunate enough to particiapte in this program the results have been outstanding:  Test scores go up and problems go down when children come to school fed and ready to learn each Monday morning.  It costs just $80 to feed a child for an entire school year - that is less than most of us spend on one weeks worth of groceries.

We chose a middle school in Broadripple with hopes of raising enough money to feed 175 kids this school year.  In this school, 100% of the children qualify for the federal meal program - 100%!  Our fundraising efforts have been slower than we expected, but we know we are doing the right thing.  Even if we can impact the lives of 50 kids, it will be more than worth it.

For more information check out their site:

http://www.blessingsinabackpack.org/home

Tomorrow Buffalo Wild Wings in Broadripple is sponsoring a give back night for us.  15% of all those meals purchased showing our flyer will go towards the fundraising efforts.  If you're in the area, come out and join us!

Cheers...

Cheap Composting

I'm anything but GREEN. I don't recycle, I use way too much plastic, I think organic is great but rarely buy it, and I don't pay much attention to what I buy or where I buy it. Chris aka Hubs, drives a huge SUV and I drive something somewhere in the middle. Needless to say we leave plenty of room for improvement.

For the past year or so I've been wanting to start my own garden - why, I have no idea. I like the idea of fresh tomatoes and typically those at my local grocery store are just a day past green. I've also taken an interest into the idea of composting- why, again I have no idea. Maybe my subconscious is telling me to do something good for the environment or maybe I want to give a good jump start to my 1st garden next spring. I've been asking Hubs for a compost bin for quite awhile and he looks at me like "oh great another one of your incredible ideas." And a good compost bin starts at around $100 which is pricey for "one of my incredible ideas". So I decided I would build my own on a budget. With a little google research I found a way to start my compost in a cheap trash can housed in the corner of our driveway.

I rounded up some "green" and "brown" waste products

Drilled holes in my trashcan (clearly we need to have our driveway repaved - geez!)

Added the items to the trashcan and found a cute little helper to assist in the watering (make sure your helper wears her shades on top of her head - that's the only way this will work).

And there you have it - a compost bin for under $15. I'm collecting green and brown waste throughout each day and then my helper and I go out and throw them in the bin each evening.

Stay tuned to see how this experiment goes.

Tomorrow morning ends week 1 on Cycle 1 of the 17 Day diet. I have to say I'm feeling healthier and eating more items that can contribute to my compost pile as opposed to a landfill somewhere.

Can I Become a Blogger??

I'm going to give this blog thing a whirl. Mostly at the urging of my best friend because she thinks I'm interesting, entertaining, exciting, and cook a lot (I'm hoping to prove her right). She might just see that we eat a lot of cereal, our house is often a center for chaos, I run around like a crazy person, and rarely shower on the weekends! We also just started the 17 day diet series and need to keep each other updated on progress and recipe ideas.

Several years ago we started our own little fictional craft company called JaCkS Crazy Crafts - so I'm hoping this blog will inspire me to spend some time crafting and being a bit more creative.

I'm hoping along the way that I pick up a few followers and learn a thing or two about myself. My goal is to end each evening that I'm in town with a post. I hope it keeps you entertained and it helps me keep a better record on the daily happenings of our crazy world.

I'm throwing out the disclaimer now that I'm anything but a good writer - I'm an accountant. Please don't critique my grammar. I will probably keep my blog a secret from my English major dad - ha!

So sit back and grab a glass of wine or cup of coffee (depending on the time of day!) and follow along.....Cheers!