Weight Loss Explained

Okay, I have had many people come up to me and ask about the weight I have been able to loose this year.  I decided I would explain how this came about and exactly what I did to loose weight.

Lets begin  with a bit of explanation about my genetic history.  I do not come from a family that could be described at "skinny."  We are, as a collective, a "healthy" group of women in my family.  On one side, our ancestors were very hardy farmers who survived the rural Montana countryside farming sugar beats.  The other side were also ranchers and farmers who helped pioneer the Pamona Valley.  The women of our family have always been solidly built and very strong.  We are not obese or necessarily flabby people but no one will break us easily of we're handled in a rough fashion.  Given our physical structure (bubble butts and strong hips), child bearing is not a challenge.  I am, of course, speaking in generalities since we do have the occasional women who is either very thin or very tall (most of us top out below 5'4" and many below 5'2" - myself included in that group).  However, as a whole we tend to the sturdy built variety of female.  

This is me on the far right in October 2009 and 23 pounds heavier then now.  In fairness, I had given birth in May of 2009. Also, really bad dress choice.

Since this is the case, we all do have a tendency to carry some extra weight if we are not careful.  I tend to carry it distributed all over and have never had that lovely flat stomach we see so often in our models and TV stars.  Add on having given birth twice and this tummy is decidedly not firm.  Although I am not about to publish how much I weigh, I will say that I have always waffled between a size 8 and a size 12 in clothes. 

Many years ago I was told by a colleague that people can survive on a lot less food then they think they need.  This has always been in the back of my mind so at the beginning of this school year, I decided to change a few simple eating habits since I knew I could be thinner.

Here I am in July 2011, 10 pounds heavier then I am now. Side note, this is also the Teton National Park.

First let me tell you what I didn't do.  I did not cut out deserts or cheese or carbs or anything at all really.  I still eat exactly what I want.  I do not count calories or weigh food. What I did do was cut down on how much I am eating.  For breakfast (yes, I ALWAYS eat breakfast) I usually have a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and a glass of non fat milk.  I eat a cheese stick or similar for snack and then leftover dinner for lunch.  Between lunch and dinner, I have a small snack of crackers or even a piece of chocolate (or two).  For dinner, I almost always cook from scratch so I know exactly how much of what food is in our meal.  I cook simple meals that can be done in about 20-30 minutes and I do use a few short cuts but I am proud of my ability to put a balanced meal together most nights.  The trick to eating dinner is only have one helping of dinner.  I used to go back for seconds, not anymore.  Notice I do eat 5 times each day but the portions are small.  Also, when I do go out to eat, I try to order al a carte or split a meal with someone.

So, combine this eating method with the fact that I have to chase after 12 special education kindergartners each day at work and then my own two ruffians at home, I exert a fair amount of energy each day.  If I was sitting more, I would eat a little less at each meal.  So, all in all I lost about 10 pounds between August and November.  Since then I have been stable but I am fine with that.  I am a nice size 10 and I think its a manageable size and weight for me.

This is in November 2011 and I had lost the 10 pounds. My husband and I are always upstaged by our cute kids. 

Repurposed Garden: New Babies

We have new babies in our re-purposed garden!!  Almost two weeks after putting in our final boxes to our re-purposed garden, we have new growth emerging.  Each day I run out to see what is new in the garden and it is always exciting to see actual growth.  I have always been a person who opts to plant plants, that have already been sowed, into my garden.  I had a very bad experience with bare root roses about seven years ago and it scarred me badly.  I had planted three rose plants in pots (my very first attempt at growing pretty much anything) and it ended in rotting death.  That same year I discovered one gallon rose plants that were already leafing out with buds and those plants are still alive and well at our other house.  Each year they have to be hacked down from their 6'-8' heights but they are beautiful.  Lesson learned - roses like ground, not pots.  I have since never been able to kill a rose bush so they have become an old faithful of mine.

Back to my new babies. So, because of the rose lesson, I have always erred on the side of plants instead of seeds for my garden.  This year I am trying to venture into growing plants from seed where possible since it is such a savings in terms of budget.  In our garden I planted the following plants from seed:

• peas
• pumpkin
• mesclun lettuce 
• watermelon (a later addition last weekend along with cayenne pepper plants)

I did grow some winter mesclun lettuce from seed successfully this past year and it tasted great.  Here are the baby mesclun plants that have pushed their way out of the ground this week.

Hello baby lettuce!

They appear small now but I learned this past winter that they will give a wonderful consistent harvest for quite awhile when cut regularly.  This is a mix of lettuces so we will have MANY salads with our dinner for a grand total of $0.99 worth of seeds.  Great value since I have paid about $1.99 for a head of lettuce which usually lasts for about two or three salads.

Baby pea plant

Peas are planted along the same length as the lettuce but they are on the south side of the planter.  This means they will get more sun when the weather heats up.  Since our summers can easily get to 100degreesF, my lettuce needs lots of shade to keep producing. I am planning on having the beans climb up so they shade the lettuce.  I am still looking around the property to find suitable climbing materials to reuse in the garden.

New pumpkin plant

The pumpkins have also started to push up and I was very worried about these little guys.  I had found a packet of seeds tucked away in my desk at work from when we had done some planting at school four years ago.  I really had my doubts that any of these seeds would actually germinate but now I have four plants popping up.  If the rest come up, I will definitely be thinning pumpkins.  On the bright side - we won't have to pay for pumpkins at the pumpkin patch! As a side note, a pumpkin seed was accidentally planted in a small planter at school and today I noticed that a pumpkin plant is growing there for the fourth year in a row.  These are truly hardy plants! 

Our family at the pumpkin patch in 2010. We failed miserably at the corn maze.

Simplify

Life is simple at the Happy Acres Goat Farm.  We should all be so lucky!

As it says in my bio, I am a special education teacher and have been for many years. I started working with kids in the summer of 2000 which makes almost 12 years of teaching. In that time I have worked for two private pre-schools and five schools in four different public school districts. I have taught kids from age two through 18 and can say that I am probably best with the younger kids. I currently teach a program for kindergarteners with disabilities. 

Over the years, I have met all kinds of people who love kids and all kinds of people who would rather forget childhood is a stage endured by all. Today I had the pleasure of meeting a group of ladies who fall into the first category. 

Some of Stephanie's goats waiting to meet the kiddos

 Each year we take kids on field trips to a variety of places. Today we took 100 kindergarteners to the Happy Acres Goat Farm. At the farm we met the owner named Stephanie, her sister, and her friend. They have created an environment that embraces what it means to be a kid.  Normally when we take kids out into the community they usually hear the following comments: "Don't touch that;" "Don't pick that up;" "Step back;" "Stop talking, you need to be listening;" and the list goes on in the same fashion.  Today, the kids heard the opposite from these wonderful ladies.  At this farm our kids were encouraged to interact with the lives surrounding them.  The picked up baby goats, got muzzled by a one-eyed horse, heard squealing baby pigs, milked a momma goat, tasted fresh from-the-udder goats milk, smelled animal poop, and laid on happy farm dogs. 

As we walked around, the specialist in me kept saying to myself over and over, "This is what being five is all about.  Sitting in a classroom doing math and language arts lessons carries so little meaning compared to this interaction with life."  

Squealing baby pot-bellied pig

There is a student who is not in my class but struggles with a very troubled home life.  Consequently he has a very unpredictable emotional state and academics are not always his friend.  During the field trip he was disturbed by all of the smells and crowding kids.  Mostly he was at the back of the group, hesitant to join the large groups of kids mobbing the animals.  When it was our turn to go into the baby goat pasture, he chose to stay outside alone and watch.  At one point, Stephanie's sister allowed us to take a goat out of the pen so he could hold it but then we returned the baby to the pen.  After some time, his teacher and I noticed something.  This young boy had decided to let himself into the pen so he could grab and hold more baby goats.  He was smiling all this time.  This simple interaction with young life changed his whole mood for the trip. 

We need to remember that the simple life can be the best education we can give our kids because it gives their lives meaning. Isn't that what we are all seeking? Simplify. 

So you think you can talk?

I have a very dear friend who I always think of as the one person who has grown into adulthood with me.  Since I did not ask permission to use her name online, I will simply call her J.  J and I met over eleven years ago when I had just left college and she was in her first year of college.

I had graduated from UCSB with a degree in directing and, shockingly enough, had no job prospects.  I went to a temp agency and they placed me as an operator in a company that made breast implants (after 6 months you earned a free pair - who says corporate isn't generous?).  Needless to say, I hated it so I quit after three weeks.  That day there was an add in the paper for a job at a local private preschool.  I had worked in a preschool in college so I applied.  After getting the job, I was introduced to this young blond girl who would train me on my responsibilities as the aid in the 2-year old room.  That day I met a girl who will be a true forever friend of mine. 

J and I several years ago - pre Mommy-hood.  Notice there are no dark circle under our eyes and we're in a bar.

When I say that J and I grew into adulthood together I mean that every major life happening that occurs once you turn 18 happened at or near the same time for us.  We did our nights out on the town, trips to Vegas, and enjoyed to the Santa Barbara lifestyle together.  In 2002 we met our future husbands and moved in together. Shortly after that both of us were engaged and our weddings were 364 days apart.  My anniversary is July 18th and hers is July 17th.

My little man and me in 2009

The last major adult step we both took was mommy-hood.  I had kids in 2007 and 2009, she had her first in 2008 and number 2 is due in two months.  This brings me to my real focus for this post.  J and I live about two hours apart now and try to get together when life allows.  We also try to hold the occasional phone conversation.  Yesterday was one of those times we decided to attempt some girl phone time.  If any of you have small children and have ever tried to be  social on the phone, you can probably guess what happened.  During our selfish 10 minute attempt at conversation, my daughter grabbed a handful of rice and threw it across the kitchen floor, my son had screaming fit because his sister stole his toy, J's son was battling a melting Popsicle while watching his Daddy move large furniture, and in general they were all yelling for a thousand other reasons in attempts to get our attention (well, if I am honest, mine were yelling and her son was much calmer). To top off the cacophony that was our three kids, J's phone and mine kept cutting each other off.  I am starting to think the three of them were also somehow able to manipulate the phone company onto their side so we would have technical difficulties.  Both of our phone signals were going in and out so most of the conversation consisted of the following phrases: "Can you hear me?;" "Hang on a second;" "No you may not grab that;" "You are not making good choices right now;"  "I'm sorry, my kids are going nuts;" and "Are you still there?"  It is as if kids see you pick up the phone, can sense you really are interested in the person on the other end, and silently think, "So you think you can talk?  We'll teach you."     Finally, J and I raised the white flag and gave up on the phone call.  We will be seeing each other next weekend for some girl time and realized that was going to have to do.  Of course as soon as I hung up, my kids became interested in some cartoon and were fairly calm.  If you don't believe toddlers/youngsters are calculating, you are gravely underestimating the youth :  )  Its a good thing they're cute.

Re-Purposed Garden Phase 2

Well, we have just finished the second phase of our re-purposed garden.  We were able to get two raised beds from a very unique find.  My parents own an interiors shop (carpet, window coverings, etc).  They had a client who ordered custom made carpet - very pricey.  Carpet normally comes any length but almost always in 12' widths.  Because this was a custom made piece, it came 24' wide.  The company who made it had to package in in a wooden crate.  That crate has been sitting out at the dumpster at my mom's store.  Geoffrey and I decided it would be a perfect addition to our re-purposed garden.  So, yesterday we went to the shop and Geoffrey was able to cut it down to two 10' boxes. We took them home and this morning, we got to work turning them into a garden. 

Geoffrey, hard at work.

We had to reinforce the ends and replaced the bottom pieces of wood with chicken wire.  In between these two long, narrow beds, we also built a lower bed that measures 3' x 10'.  The wood used for this bed was almost all found about to be put into the trash. This bed also has chicken wire all along the bottom.  Because we wanted all three beds to be the same length, we did have to purchase one 2" x 10" board for one side. All in all we spent about $15.00 on materials for this garden. The chicken wire was found in my mom's garage and she let us have it in exchange for part of the harvest : )

Next came the hard work - filling all of the beds up with dirt. Shoveling dirt is never something I enjoy.  Filling three pretty good size beds was a bit exhausting.  I freely admit I hate manual labor.  

Here we were almost done - where is my beer?

For dirt, we used what we had around the property.  Some family members have their cows grazing out here so we were able to get some pretty fertile soil.  We had done the same thing for the dresser beds.  The bed closest to the fence was easy since we drove the tractor right up to the fence and dumped.  All the others needed to be done with a shovel and wheel barrow.    Once they were filled, planting began.  Here is a look at the end product:

Please ignore my sweatshirt on the fence

So what went into these beds?  Here's a list:

• cucumbers
• squash
• zucchini
• lettuce (mesclun - cross your fingers, it may get too hot for lettuce)
• peas
• strawberries
• melon
• potatoes
• pumpkins
• dill
• basil
• marigolds

We put the lettuce where it will get a lot of shade so hopefully it will grow.  We just love fresh lettuce so we'll think positively.  I also planted oregano in a pot so it won't run wild in the garden.  This garden was a lot of work so I am looking forward to eating well this summer!

Tomatillo blossom!

Scrapping

Some you are aware that I am a scrapbook-er.  Thanks to my friend Jill, I started seriously scrapping about five years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter.  I now have four books I work on regularly: Daughter Book, Son Book, Travel Book, and Home/Holiday Book.  I really enjoy this craft because I can accomplish a goal in a relatively sort amount of time.  Some crafts take days or weeks to complete and I just don't have the attention span to follow through with these.  Scrap-booking, like cooking/baking, I can do in one sitting and be done with a project/page/meal.  Since we have been living in this country home, I have not scrapped at all.  After moving all my materials, things were disordered and generally a mess.  I needed  to get organized. 

When my sister moved into her first apartment after living in the dorms during college, she bought a computer cabinet that would serve as her desk.  The cabinet stands about six feet tall and looks much like an armoire.  It has been standing in the living room of this house for several years.  While I was on Pinterest, I saw someone had turned a TV armoire into a closeable scrap-booking center. Here is the link and picture for what inspired me:

http://pinterest.com/deveaupchina/scrapbooking-ideas-storage-and-fun/ 

So Thursday night after putting the kids to bed I set to work.  I transformed my sister's old computer cabinet into a scrap-booking center.  I am very pleased with the results. 

Closed cabinet

Open cabinet

I know mine isn't nearly as snazzy as the Pinterest example but now I have everything in an assigned place.  Over time, my goal is to upgrade/coordinate containers.  For now, this was a cost-free endeavor.  For paper storage, I did go to three different stores looking for plastic paper holders but found none.  All I could find was wood build-it-yourself cabinet/cubes.  Luckily, I saw some plastic stack-able trays at my mom's store and she wasn't using them.  Now I have organized paper storage!  My daughter helped me sort it into warm tones, cool tones, and neutrals.  One feature I love about the actual cabinet is the foldout table.  It closes by folding up and the cutting mat stays right on top of it.  The TV armoire didn't have a table so I feel lucky.  Next to it there is also a pull out keyboard tray that I can use for additional work space.  Under the table is a drawer with drawing supplies and a shelf for storing my scrapbooks.  The baskets are sticker storage, arranged by categories.  One of the top shelves holds my portable paper storage and the other shelf  allowed for storage of the kids painting materials.  Now I don't have to worry about unapproved painting jobs all over the house.

I was so inspired, yesterday I developed and ordered $25 worth of pictures for a total of 10 pages I need to finish.  My usual pattern is that I do very little scrapping during the school year and then hammer out a whole bunch of pages over the summer.   However, since I was so inspired by this organization idea, I am hoping to get a pretty good jump start on my pages. My daughter already helped complete one page for her 4th birthday party.  Yeah!!