Quitting, Pinterest, Yard Work, and Other Boring Topics

It seems I've traded some blogging mojo for sewing mojo (and lord knows I only have time for one), so here's a little update.

• We're halfway through the Whole30 Challenge. Except when I say "halfway" I really mean 2/3 because we're ending it early. Yep, call me a quitter, but Friday is our last day. Matt would go the whole month, but he's quitting with his cranky wife so she doesn't feel like such a failure. Dangit, I just need a freaking cookie! In all honesty, this challenge will change the way we eat, but I need a little bit of flexibility. I'll post my thoughts on the whole process next week.
• I've rejoined Pinterest. I mean, I never cancelled my account or anything, but I stopped checking it after awhile. It just got overwhelming for me when I would see all of these fun projects and recipes that I didn't have the time or money to complete. I'm still not spending a ton of time on it now, but it's been fun to start thinking about crafty stuff again.
• Matt finished our fort! It's been sitting incomplete in the yard for about a year since we picked it up from a friend whose daughter had outgrown it. And now it's got an attached ladder and slide to go with the swing set. Avery is in heaven with how much she's been able to play outside lately. And since it sits right outside of our kitchen window, I can send the little kiddies outside while I cook with the windows open. Yes, even Landon because his doorway jumper works perfectly on the swing set, and he's more than content to just jump away while Avery swings and slides around him. It's a beautiful thing. 
• Speaking of the great outdoors, we're trying to get rid of the ridiculous weeds that have completely overtaken our yard. We've actually been trying to keep up with mowing and weed pulling on a regular basis so we're not that family in the cul-de-sac. However, the gas tank of our mower needs to be replaced since it's been leaking gas for forever (That can't be a good thing, right?), so we might not get to use it this week. Anyway, my point is that yard work season has officially commenced around here, and just in time for me to throw a little outdoor shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law next month.
• I read the entire Sunday paper last night. After A and L went to bed we sat at the kitchen table (in our clean kitchen, no less!) while Matt played some weird baseball or fishing game on the computer and I educated myself on the world's goings-on. I even got to do the crossword. It's the little things.
• I'm really thankful that it's cool outside today. I've had the windows open all day since the high won't get past 70. I'm just prolonging the inevitability of calling an A/C guy before it gets too hot. I forgot that ours started going out at the end of last summer. Boo, heat. Boo, spending money.

Well this has been about the most boring post ever.  Eh, I guess it's fitting because things have been a little boring around here. Not that I'm complaining. This summer will be stressful enough, so I'm enjoying the downtime, as short-lived as it may be.

Just some random thoughts for Thursday

I could eat a whole can of black olives in one sitting. It's a good thing I'm learning self-control.

Phone conversations with old friends are refreshing.

I'm thinking about getting my own domain name and ditching Blogger.

I let Avery watch An American Tail for nap time today and now I have "There no cats in America..." stuck in my head. Now you do, too. You're welcome.

Our yard needs a trampoline. Too bad the guy who was selling one on Craigslist for $25 never emailed me back. Some things really are too good to be true.

My sewing mojo is back. Stay tuned for some Etsy previews!

And that's all I've got.

Whole30 Update: One Week In

You can catch my first post about the challenge here. I forgot to post this earlier, but our starting weights were 137 for me and 265 for Matt. Matt's goal is weight loss, but mine is to lose the hideous muffin top and flabby mom stomach. 

All of the Whole30 books and blogs say this lifestyle change isn't hard, but they're liars.

When your body is used to dairy and carbs, cutting it all cold turkey sure ain't easy! Sure, most of the difficulty is just that I want what I can't have. I admit it.

BUT my pants and shorts are falling off of me. I feel skinnier. I had no idea how bloated I felt all the time until I don't feel that way anymore. TMI? Sorry.

My energy level actually feels lower than normal, but I've been assured that it'll go back up soon. I hope so.

The hardest part so far has been being around other people who aren't eating Whole30. I had some friends over for lunch and they brought food from Chick-fil-a, Sonic, and Subway. I ate apples, carrots, blueberries, and turkey lunchmeat. When we went to Gloria's with friends, they all had beautiful dishes filled with cheese, tortillas, rice, and sour cream. We ate fajita meat with salad (no dressing), guacamole and plantains.

For the sake of full disclosure, we did "cheat" a little on Sunday because there was nothing Whole30 approved (besides fruit) at the Easter breakfast at church. We got a few little sausage/egg burritos and it was too hard to separate the tortillas from the insides, so we just ate them. If it makes you feel any better, it wasn't even worth it. If I was gonna cheat for real, I would've eaten the cinnamon rolls or cheese grits. Now THAT would've been worth it.

One of the questions I've been getting a lot is, "What CAN you eat?!?" Here's what we were eating last week:

• Sweet potatoes (diced and roasted, baked, or shredded for hash browns)
• Eggs (scrambled, fried, or hard boiled)
• Fruit (strawberries, bananas, blueberries, apples)
• Veggies (spinach, carrots, onions, tomatoes, green beans, bell peppers)
• Avocado!!
• Meat (bacon, chicken)
• Trail mix (y'all, the deluxe raw trail mix at Sprouts is amazing; walnuts, cashews, almonds, pistachios, red and white grapes, and we add unsweetened coconut flakes)

This week we're adding:

• Breakfast sausage
• Olives
• Coconut milk (to be frozen and mixed with cocoa powder)
• Coconut water (EW!!)
• Almond milk (also, ew.)
• Almond butter
• Celery
• Ground turkey
• Lettuce wraps

Another question we get a lot is, "Why are you even doing this?"

Simple answer: we want to eat better. The Whole30 is a 30 day detox designed to change the way you eat. It's basically a super strict version of Paleo. We won't stay on the strict Whole30 after this is over, but it's already changing the way we view food. I'm also learning, gasp, self control. I don't need to eat cereal every night after dinner. I don't need to have dessert every day. I don't need to eat cheese on everything. I do need to be able to pronounce the ingredients for the food we're eating. I do need to feed my family more whole foods and fewer processed substitutes.

What the future of our eating will actually look like is still up in the air. We still have 20 days to figure it out. Until then, I'm trying not to think about the fact that Blue Bell is on sale at Kroger right now.

Easter Celebrations

We had a great time celebrating Christ's resurrection this weekend!

After we got back from Opening Day, on Friday evening we went to our church's Good Friday service. It's always an appropriately somber service, and God really slapped me in the face with the ugliness of my sin. I so often take the brutality of the cross for granted (or worse, treat it as simply a piece of home decor), so it was an important reminder for me.

On Saturday morning we took a break from yard work to take the kids to our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It was the first event ever put on by our HOA (hey, at least those dues are finally going to something), so attendance was pretty low. But that just meant that Avery got more candy (aka bribery for good naps)! We finished up the yard when we got home, and then I went up to church to work on some bulletin boards and prep for Sunday. That evening Avery and Landon got to spend some quality time with the grandparents while Matt and I went to Gloria's with some of my oldest friends.

Sunday brought sunshine! And then LOTS of rain. Avery woke up to an Easter basket full of goodies from NeNe and Pop Pop. They sent each kid adorable PJs, swimsuits, a puzzle, and eggs (jelly beans for Avery and Cheerios for Landon!). Matt and I didn't buy any Easter gifts for them this year; we will in the future, but it won't be anything outlandish.

Photos courtesy of Allison Jean Photo

We went to church in the morning, where we jealously watched our friends and family enjoy the vast array of breakfast casseroles brought to our annual Easter breakfast. I taught the 1st-3rd children's church class during the worship service, and I really enjoyed hearing their insight when we talked about doubt/belief and Jesus' resurrection. There's one little boy who always blows me away, not with his Bible knowledge, but with how much he genuinely loves Jesus and really thinks about the questions he's asked.

After church we had lunch at my parents'. Thankfully they're doing the Whole30 challenge right now, too. Avery was gonna hunt eggs outside, but we had to settle for an indoor search lest we be drenched. I don't know where all that rain came from, but it poured.

The kids took good naps while we planned our menu for the week, and we were even able to do a little grocery shopping after they woke up.

Matt and I ended the weekend playing Bohnanza (I won!) and crashing early.

I'm SO thankful that we serve a savior who is powerful over even death! What a great reason to celebrate!

Catching Up With Old Friends

Sorry for the lame title. I'm not very original these days.

Jennifer, one of my oldest and dearest friends, was in town last week, and I got to see her TWO times!

I've known Jenn since we were just dorky 6th graders at a little private school in small-town Texas. We went through our awkward junior high and dramatic high school years together, but we really became close friends during college, even though we never attended the same school.

We lived together when I got my first teaching job, and she was a bridesmaid in my wedding.

Jennifer always makes me laugh and is one of the few people who genuinely think I'm funny. She's always called me out when I'm being ridiculous and has the rare ability to encourage me when I'm down.

She lives in New York now, and our friendship has definitely taken a hit from the distance, but I still love this girl and was so thankful to spend some time with her this week.

We reunited with our friends Julie and Kari came over for lunch on Wednesday. Apparently I hadn't seen Julie in a LONG time because she walked into my house and had no idea who Landon was. I see Kari all the time, but I always love hanging out with her and her little kiddies.

Jenn with Kari's little boy, Micah

I can't tell who was having more fun, Jennifer or Landon

Jenn and Julie

Friends!

Me and Julie

Jenn, Kari, Julie, Me (photo courtesy of Kari's 5 year old)

Me and Kari with our munchkins (minus a sleeping Micah)

And then on Saturday night we met Jenn and her husband Daniel, Betsy, Betsy's sister-in-law, Julie, Andy, and Bethany at  Gloria's in the Bishop Arts District for some yummy El Salvadorian food, complete with heated political debate. :)

Me, Julie, Jennifer, Betsy, Betsy's sis-in-law

I think we're gonna have to go back to Gloria's when we can eat for real. This Whole30 thing really puts a hamper on what you can order out!


We ended up eating fajita meat, salad (no dressing), guacamole, and fried plantains. I have never wanted cheese, sour cream, tortillas, and chips so badly!

So Jenn and Daniel, I think you've been in New York long enough and will welcome you back to Texas with open arms.

Opening Day!

It's baseball season again, folks! Matt and I went to Opening Day two years ago, but we never really thought we'd get to go again because they changed to a lottery system where you sign up just for the opportunity to get Opening Day tickets.

But my sister is awesome.

She still has connections in the ticket office, so we were able to score some seats at the first game of the season at a totally normal price. Did you know that the average price of tickets for that game was $264 each?!? Yeah, that was the second highest in all of baseball this year.

Ours were a little cheaper than that. Like $246 cheaper. We took our own lunch and snacks (partially because we're cheap but mostly because of the Whole30 challenge), shared parking costs with my brother and sister, and ended up spending a whopping $48 on the entire day.

And it was a GREAT day.

I was a little nervous about taking Landon with us because he's not usually content to sit still for longer than, oh, five minutes. But he was awesome! Avery loves Ranger games, so she watched, cheered, and snacked her face off. Landon napped for most of the game and made friends with our neighbors the rest of the time.

So here's how we managed to take two kids under 3 to the most crowded day in baseball:

We left our house around 10:15 for the 1:05 game. It would've been earlier if, ahem, Nick and Allison had gotten there on time. We managed to avoid traffic on the way to the ballpark and drove through Whataburger for Nick and Allison to get food for the game. FYI: The smell in our car was torture for this Whataburger lover.

When we got to our normal parking lot, they'd jacked up the prices from $5 to $40! We knew that the Rangers lots were only $12 that day, so we decided to press our luck and find a different lot. We ended up at one of the Cowboys Stadium lots, which also had a charter shuttle. Score. We even got to stop and take a few pictures. It was SO gorgeous outside!

We got into the park around noon and found a table to eat lunch. Since it was still so early, we were able to take our time getting to our seats.

Our seats were pretty high up in the stands, but that also meant that we were covered in shade from the 3rd inning on. And that meant that Landon napped for most of the game.

It was a close, exciting game, but we won! After losing in the last two straight World Series, here's to hoping the third time's a charm. The boys look good, and I LOVE that Murphy is in the starting line up now.

I'm so glad it's April. Play ball!

Whole30 Challenge

Y'all. Things are about to get crazy around here.

Matt and I started the Whole30 challenge today, so our eating habits are getting a major makeover.

If you've never heard of the Whole30, it's a program that basically resets your body by letting it heal and recover from "all the inflammatory, gut-disrupting, calorie-dense but nutritionally sparse food groups for a full 30 days."

That means that this month we'll be eating only meats, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and eggs. The good news is that there are SO many options within these categories that "getting bored" really shouldn't be an option.

The bad news is that sugar is out. Cheese is out. Bread is out. And obviously so are a lot of other "comfort foods." But really, if I see food as "comfort" there might be some other issues I need to deal with, haha.

So now our kitchen is stocked with sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, eggs, blueberries, almonds, Larabars (for emergencies), tea, and lots of other natural foods. I'm still trying to stick to our $250 per month grocery budget, but I'm pretty sure we'll go over it while we stock up some essentials. Eh, at least I won't be able to make a quick trip through the drive thrus "just this once." Those quick trips deplete the checking account fast!

We have a pretty good support system to help keep us on track. First of all, I'm so glad Matt is totally on board (maybe even more than me!). If I had to cook separate meals, I'm pretty sure this would be a fast failure. My parents are also doing the challenge again (they've done it before and eat mostly paleo the rest of the time), and I think Aaron and Chelsea might be also based on the annoyed text message Aaron sent me after Chelsea saw the link I posted on Facebook. :)

I won't be doing a daily challenge update or anything (boring!), but I'll keep you posted as we try to make it through April with a completely new outlook on food. Should be fun interesting!