Fit Mommy Friday and Other Things

Posted on December 23, 2011 by JoAnn

I didn’t realize until now that I haven’t posted anything for a whole week, so this will be a Fit Mommy post and a catch up post too.

Fit Mommy Friday:
I have kept up with my T-Tapp MORE exercises all week. I’m trying to do the bootcamp, which is doing the workout every day for 14 days straight, then you switch to every other day. My 14 days won’t be up until the 30th. I don’t know that I will do it on Christmas day, but I’m trying very hard to get it done all the other days. I’m also suppose to measure myself tomorrow, but I don’t know if I will. It’s Christmas Eve and I have some dishes I need to make before we go spend the evening with friends, just not sure I’ll have time. And truthfully, I’m not real worried about it right now, so I might just skip it another week.

I went to 2 Christmas parties this week, and I have to say I think I did pretty well at them. My portion sizes were better than they’ve ever been at a party, and each morning following the party I woke up hungry. That is a good sign for me. If I wake up and I’m not hungry, it usually shows that I ate too much either the whole day before or at least the night before. If I wake up hungry, it means I ate a proper amount, and that I didn’t gorge myself the night before. I really do hope I can keep that up this weekend with Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day.

You can visit AnnieKate for more Fit Mommy Friday posts.

Other news:
It’s been a busy week, I really can’t believe how busy it’s been, but a good busy. I’ve been keeping busy with cleaning, laundry, Christmas parties, Christmas baking and lots of work at Homeschoolblogger. I was trying to get things caught up before this weekend because obviously I won’t be working. I do enjoy my work, but starting a new job, after not working for over 16 years, and starting around the holidays, well lets just say it’s taking some getting use to. I understand my job, it’s just the actually getting it done part that is hard. I usually only work between 2 and 2 1/2 hours a day, which really doesn’t seem like much, but it really is. Trying to fit it in with holiday plans and life it general has been a learning curve. I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of it, and I think once the holidays are over, it will all flow more freely.

Thankfully yesterday we had a fun, family day. My parents were coming out and we decided to make it an impromptu early Christmas and we opened gifts from them. First we had lunch, then they came back to our place. It was really a blast, and we were blessed with some fun gifts. My mom always likes to fill our stockings with silly, fun things. They are always fun to open.

Then my parents blessed us all with a bit of money, you can tell how blessed the kids were.

They didn’t have all our gifts that we gave them, the main one was left at home, but we did give them something to open, at tin of homemade cookies and candies.

My mom always makes us these beautiful beaded calendars every year, and I love to see what picture she picks for me. I always enjoy every one she makes.

It was a blessed time, and I’m so thankful the weather was clear and my parents could make it out. We then went to see some Christmas lights around town (a post about that soon). All and all it was a blessed day and I’m so thankful for everything we got to do.

Be Sociable, Share!

I got to see my parents!

Posted on December 22, 2010 by JoAnn

Dad had the last tube taken out yesterday, and it all went great. The doctor says everything is healing just fine. They are staying at a hotel for a couple of days before going home, just to make sure all is ok. So today they decided to come up to our town for lunch which meant I got to see my parents today, and I was so blessed by that. Unfortunately hubby had to work, so he missed seeing them. But the kids and I met them at a Chinese Buffet restaurant and had a great time there. Dad is looking and doing great. I usually don’t eat Chinese food, and I didn’t think there would be a thing Paulie would eat, but I was wrong. They actually had some nuggets & fries there (which believe me when I was a kid Chinese restaurants never had yummy food like that), and lots of other yummy stuff. We came home right after that and are now curled up on the couch watching a movie. It’s nice that we are done with everything, and can relax at home. But I’m really liking these impromptu family lunches.

Today and tomorrow should be pretty mellow for us. Nothing really planned, all cooking & baking are done for now, so that’s nice. I don’t really have to cook & bake again until Christmas Eve day. I need to make pumpkin pie, apple crisp, and an egg souffle on Christmas Eve for Christmas day. Then start the ham we are having for Christmas Eve dinner. Thankfully our friends are bringing side dishes, so I mainly just have to put the ham in the oven in the afternoon. I’ll be making a ham & cheesy potato dish in the crock pot for Christmas day, using the ham from Christmas eve. We’re going to have an egg casserole for breakfast on Christmas morning. Actually we’ll probably just munch on things most of the day, we enjoy our holidays that way.

Last night we went out and looked at Christmas lights. There is one house that has synchronized music & lights. They have parking across the street and it runs from 5:30pm to 10:00pm. It’s actually about 25 minutes long and runs in a loop all night. We actually got a parking spot right in front, which is not always that easy. We had such a blast watching the show. Then we drove around some and looked at some other houses. It was such a fun time.

Well I really should start working on the baby blanket I’m making. Yes, I will put a picture out when I am done, or at least half way. Right now I only have a few rows done, so you really can’t see much of it. But I’m hoping to get farther today and tomorrow.

Be Sociable, Share!

A Sunday Wrap Up

Posted on December 20, 2010 by JoAnn

I’m feeling much better today than I was on Thursday. I still have times of my stomach feeling blah, but I have a lot more energy, so that’s a plus. The dentist appointment went great on Friday. I only need one more appointment to finish my cleaning. She said my gums are looking great, and really they feel so much better after the cleanings. Right now my last cleaning is scheduled for the 30th, but again they might call me if they get a cancellation.

We went grocery shopping on Friday, and it really wasn’t too bad. I thought the crowds would be bad, but we got out kind of early, so I think we missed the rush. Sarah drove that day, and she really did a good job. She’s becoming such a good driver. I think the biggest issue is I tend to help her too much. I’m constantly telling her what to do, how the traffic is, etc…. And at times it makes her not always think for herself. She starts getting dependent on me and what I’m telling her and forgets to check things herself. So I’m going to try very hard to not say a word next time we go out. Which will be very hard for me, I tend to be a bit controlling at times. Have I ever mentioned that before? lol

Oh, how sweet. As I was writing this our neighbors son just dropped off some cupcakes for us that his mom made for Christmas. I’m so bummed, I never got my food gift together for her yet. And I always hate that, because I’m always worried they will think that the only reason I gave them a gift is because they gave me one. Oh well, I know my heart, I planned on sending some cookies and candies over to them. I’ll probably get to it next week. I think I’ll have Sarah make cookies on Tuesday and I’ll make more peanut butter cups and those will be our gifts to our neighbors. Ok, I feel better knowing what we are making and when. lol

I went to a mom’s luncheon on Saturday afternoon and only one other mom showed up. But it was fun and I always like to get to know friends better. Then we went to our church’s Christmas play Saturday night and it was such an awesome play. We laughed, we cried, and God’s Word went out. There were five performances all together, today’s two being the last two. We have such talented people in our church and I’m so glad we got to see it. It was also fun seeing so many friends last night.

Now this week is a week of somewhat busyness, but nothing bad. Monday’s are always busy for me because its when the kids and I give the house a good cleaning. Then on Tuesday it will be our baking & delivery day. We’ll bake the cookies & I’ll make peanut butter cups & the kids will bring them over to our neighbor’s house’s. Wednesday & Thursday the kids will probably make plans to get together with their friends, which means a bit of running around for me, but nothing bad. All their friends live close, so it’s never long to drive. Then of course Friday & Saturday we’ll be celebrating Christmas. Plus, during all of this I really need to start doing my Spanish lessons. For those who don’t know I had always planned on doing the same Rosetta Stone Spanish lessons that Sarah does so we can talk to each other in Spanish. Mainly I wanted a way for Sarah to be able to practice her Spanish. Plus I really want to learn some Spanish too. I took 2 years in High School but I really don’t remember much of it. Though I have realized that the words are coming back to me as I study them. But Sarah is about 2 weeks ahead of me now in her lessons. I really want to use this time to try and catch up to where she is. But I need to be realistic and know that I might not get caught up. And if I don’t, I need to be ok with that. Can you tell I’m trying to encourage myself? lol

We’ve really been enjoying this Christmas season, though at times it doesn’t even feel like it’s Christmast time. We’ve all had so much fun getting presents for each other, and making presents too. All the parties, get together’s, musicals, music and lights. We all really enjoy the lights. It’s funny, we’ve never really decorated the outside of the house, but we really decorate (with lights) the inside of the house. We all have Christmas lights in our bedrooms, and in the living room & kitchen, besides the tree. And today we’ve had the lights on all day. It’s hubby’s one day off this week and it’s been a snowy, cloudy day. So we’ve been curled up on the couch, watching some football, enjoying all the Christmas lights and just having fun as a family. We are trying to soak up as much time together as we can since hubby will be working for the rest of the week. He’ll get off at 3:30 on Christmas Eve, our friends will come over around 4:30. And then he’s off for Christmas. Hopefully after that, things will slow down for them at work. It’s just been crazy there. But it will be nice in the paycheck next week. lol We also plan on going for a drive this week to look at Christmas lights. There’s one house where the owners set their lights up to be timed with music and you can sit in your car, watch the lights & listen to the music. It’s a blast. Plus there’s a neighborhood called Candy Cane Lane where most of the houses are decorated. We really enjoy driving around and looking at the lights.

Its time for me to wrap up this entry, go get some dinner and then play a board game with the family, while watching football of course. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Be Sociable, Share!

Has it really been 4 days

Posted on December 12, 2010 by JoAnn

Wow, I thought I had written a post just a day ago, but I just looked and it’s been 4 days since my last post. Well, with hubby having last Wednesday & Thursday off, I didn’t get any posts written. So here I am on Saturday night, after a great night at church, watching a movie with hubby while writing a post on my laptop. And, we are starting another weekend for us. Hubby worked 2 days, now he’s off again for 2 days. Yep, I’m learning to like the retail schedule.

When we had a great couple of days off before, hubby and I went Christmas shopping for the kids and he took me out to lunch too. We went to the Olive Garden, and it was so yummy. It was just such a nice day being with just hubby, and spending time together like that. Thursday we didn’t do much of anything. Just relaxed and hung out together as a family.

Friday hubby went back to work and the kids started their lessons. I baked cookies most of the late morning & early afternoon for a cookie exchange I went to today. During the morning the weather was horrible, so I planned on staying home all day. But then it cleared up, and the kids and I decided to go Christmas shopping for Paul. The kids finished up their lessons and we were getting ready to head out the door when my nephew stopped by un-announced. He always does that, and we just love it. I haven’t seen him since his wedding, and we were glad he stopped by. So we didn’t run out just then. The kids snagged him to play some video games & I threw dinner in the oven.

And I do have to say that my nephew is truly the only person who sees our house in the unkept state. Newspapers on the floor, papers all over the coffee table, boots not put away. It’s little things that I usually have picked up before someone shows up. He loves that he is the only one who usually sees us in our ‘true’ state. lol Oh, and we did get to go shopping for Paul after Dan left & dinner was done.

Then today I went to a woman’s cookie exchange. There was only about 10 of us there, but it was so much fun. My friend lives out in the mountains, and has a beautiful house. It’s always so inviting and fun. We also have a gift exchange. I always have a blast going.

Paul bought these from a lady at work who makes earrings. They are so cute. Of course I took a picture and then put them on right away.

We went to church tonight and had such a great time. Besides the service it self being great, it was so nice talking with friends. Plus Paul ran into an old friend that he hasn’t seen in over a year. It was nice seeing him.

Since Paul has tomorrow and Monday off he’s taking the kids shopping for my Christmas presents. They love it when dad takes them out. I’m not sure when they are going, but they plan to some time tomorrow. On Monday we have our homeschool groups Christmas party. Then next weekend our church is putting on a Christmas musical that a friend of mine wrote. We’re looking forward to going.

Well it’s getting late, and I want to finish watching the movie with Paul. Hope you all have a blessed Sunday.

Be Sociable, Share!

Presents, cookies and other things

Posted on December 4, 2010 by JoAnn

I’m so excited, I have finished all the Christmas presents I’ve been working on. They are finished, wrapped and ready to be mailed. I really should have started on these presents earlier than I did, but I’m glad I finished them. For a while there I wasn’t sure if they would get done or not.

Now that they are done I have more time to do some other things. Hubby and I are going to go Christmas shopping for the kids this Wednesday. We always have so much fun going out together every year and shop for the kids. We have lunch, shop and just spend time together. I am really looking forward to it.

This was the kids first week back to lessons after over a week off for Thanksgiving, and they are doing well. This week has flowed pretty good, to which I’m thankful. They are finishing up their lessons today, and then we have a funeral to go to for a friend’s father. Paul is at work, then we go to church tonight. It’s a good day and we actually have some sunshine today, that’s a definite plus.

I’m now looking for a baby blanket crochet pattern to start. I want to get find a simple one that I can get finished by February. I pulled out some of my crochet books last night that I will look through. Plus I’ll look online. If anyone has a pattern they would like to share, please do. I’m also hoping to work some more on my templates, my website and some other things. I’ve realized some things I have to let go of in my life, things that though they are fun to do and I do them, I just don’t think I’m suppose to anymore. Mainly it’s some work I’ve been doing for a group I’m involved in. I thought I could do the work, which I can, but I’m realizing it’s not really what I want to do. And can be very time consuming. So I think after the first of the year I’ll be stepping down from some of it. I have in my mind what I’ll be stepping down from, but I want to work on a detailed list, so there’s no confusion on what I will continue to do and what I won’t be doing. I’m also praying about starting to do something new (well new for me), but it’s still in the praying stages, so I’m not going to say what it is right now. But maybe someday I’ll share.

Well a friend asked me for my peanut butter cookie recipe so I thought I would share here. I got the recipe from my sister, I haven’t a clue where she got it from. Hope you enjoy.

Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening or butter, softened (I always use butter)
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tbls. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg (I use an egg substitute of 1 tbls water, 1 tbls vinegar & 1 tsp baking powdered mixed together)
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda

In a large bowl combine first 7 ingredients, blend well. Stir in remaining ingredients, blend well. Shape into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in a criss-cross pattern with a fork dipped in sugar. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Approx. 32 dozen.

Peanut Blossoms
Roll balls of dough in sugar then put on a cookie sheet but do not flatten. Bake for 10 min. and immediately top with hershy kiss or peanut butter cup, press hard so edge of cookies crack. Cool on cookie rack.

Be Sociable, Share!

A day of baking

Posted on December 3, 2010 by JoAnn

Today I actually had a chance to do my first bit of cookie baking for Christmas. I know Sarah will be doing a lot of the baking too, but she was busy with lessons, and I really wanted to make some. I had bought some Hersey kisses and small Resses peanut butter cups a couple of weeks ago to make peanut butter blossoms. But last month a friend of mine used peanut butter cups instead of kisses for the blossoms, and I’ve been wanting to try it. And today was the day. I didn’t get started as early as I wanted to with baking, but I finally got around to baking this afternoon. While I was baking I was listening to Christmas music, Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I really enjoy that music and we bought their DVD, The Ghosts of Christmas Eve, the other night. More on that later. First my baking.

Here’s the beginning of the baking process. Peanut butter cookies getting ready to be put in the oven, and more dough waiting to be made.

Do you think I stocked up on enough candy? Actually, I will probably need to get more peanut butter cups eventually.

Getting the chocolates ready.

Yep, I really enjoyed myself today.

Yes, they tasted as yummy as they look.

I made a double batch, do you think it’s enough?

Did you notice the spot in the upper right hand corner, two cookies are already missing? Sarah and I had to taste test them. And look at my window, yep that’s snow. Our pile of shoveled snow is getting pretty high.

Like I said, during my time of baking I was listening to Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and we bought one of their DVD’s that we watched the other night.

This particular music DVD is about a girl who has run away and wants to go home, but doesn’t have the courage to ask. I won’t go into the whole DVD, but during the DVD Sarah asked Paul and I if we had ever run away. We both said no, since we hadn’t, but I did tell her about how my late brother had run away. But I felt immediately that I wasn’t being quite truthful. True, I had never physically ran away from my family or home, but I had run away from my spiritual life and family. When I was in my mid to late teens and early 20′s, I did run away, I ran away from everything I knew to be true about the Lord. I ran away from the Lord. And I felt just like the girl portrayed in the DVD, and truthfully seeing her run home and hearing the song “That Christmas Day”, makes me cry. Because there were so many times I wanted to run ‘home’. I wanted things back to the way they were. I didn’t want to be ‘worldly’, I didn’t want to be doing what I was doing, but somehow going back ‘home’ just didn’t seem possible.

I was never physically alone, and my family loved me through all I went through. But I knew that regardless of all that, I still was a run away, and I was living a life that wasn’t pleasing to the Lord. I felt lost so many times, and yet didn’t really know where to turn. It seems so strange now to think about it now, but truly I didn’t know where to turn at times. I was so deep in so many things, and felt so far away from the Lord I didn’t know how to start my journey back to Him. I’m so blessed to know that I still had family praying for me during this time, and of course I know now that the Lord was always there waiting for me. Obviously I did find my way back home, and I’m so thankful that I did. But when I think of that DVD and song, it just makes me cry. Because I remember the time I was away from ‘home’.

It’s so hard to explain all my feelings and thoughts of my time away from the Lord. But it’s on my heart a lot this season, maybe it’s the DVD, maybe it’s seeing my daughter at the age I was when I ran away. Whatever the reason, as sad as the memories are, there is a blessing in seeing what the Lord has brought me through. I am so thankful for that.

Well, hubby is going to be home soon, and we are watching The Santa Clause 2 tonight (we watched the first one last night). We are spending lots of nights together watching Christmas movies. It’s been a blast. Hope you are all having a great night.

Be Sociable, Share!

JoAnns Journey

This is where I talk about lots of different things

Tag Archives: baking

Fit Mommy Friday and Other Things

I got to see my parents!

A Sunday Wrap Up

Has it really been 4 days

Presents, cookies and other things

A day of baking