It is that time of year, after May sweeps, when the selection of good, new (non-re-run) TV shows is nil. Thankfully for us, media hungry family that we are, we have Netflix. I don’t remember exactly how long we’ve had the service, but it has to be at least five years. Their selection is fabulous, everything from mainstream new releases to instructional videos to indie to popular television series. We love that there are no additional fees over our monthly $19.95 for three DVDs at a time. We love that the red envelope goes right back in the mail and a few days later a new red envelope shows up. We love that if there’s ever a problem with a damaged or missing disk there are no questions asked. What has become a bit of a conundrum is that we currently have 399 titles in our queue. Yup, after a few releases this summer we’ll be up over 400. Read More »
This could also be titled, “My Heart Grew Four Sizes That Day”.
The little girl and I recently returned from a trip out west. Due to a savvy case worker and a six hour road trip we were able to reconnect with the children over lunch and a playdate at the park. Let me say this, there are alot of things wrong with CPS and the foster care system, but any social worker willing to drive six hours (each way) with three small children in one day so that we could all see each other gets some kudos in my book. We drove from WA, they drove from CA and we met in OR. As soon as the kiddos saw each other they were instantly “best cousins” all over again. At lunch they were making potty jokes, giggling and telling stories. The youngest babe sat on my lap and ate fries. It was delightful. After we filled our bellies we headed to the park.
We lucked out and it was a fabulous sunny day. We had packed snacks, sand toys, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles. They ran, swung on the swings, spun around, shot basketballs, blew bubbles, slid down the slide(s), traced each other in chalk, hopped hopscotch, and smiled for the camera. We were able to savor this family bliss for about 2.5 hours. It was not long enough. I had to make a conscious effort not to cry when it was time to say good-bye. I knew if I started they would follow and that would just be bad all the way around. We gave them gifts to play with on the car ride back to CA, we blew kisses and the social worker made promises of trying to get a visit to NC this summer. And instead of my heart breaking while saying good-bye, it grew. It grew as only a parent’s (guardian, care-giver) heart can. It grew the size of four small children (including our own dear sweet little girl) ranging in age from seven to one. It was great to see them all smiling, happy and healthy.
It was good to reconnect. Aug. 10th is the next court date.
The sweet darling little girl that is. She has recently discovered Wheel of Fortune and I dare say it’s her new favorite show. At first I tried to get her to not watch it. While we are the parents and we make the rules, TiVo does make it difficult to justify to a child that the show is on after bedtime and therefore she can’t watch it. Wheel of Fortune is on at 7:30 EST in our viewing area. The little girl’s bedtime has been 7:00 pm for quite some time now.
A few things made the shift to letting her watch a little easier. 1) JD gets home later than he used to. So their time together was taking a hit. 2) The little girl was starting to do the bedtime procrastination thing. All parents and caregivers are familiar with it. The dawdling, the requests for water, time in the bathroom, did I mention dawdling? It was pushing bedtime further and further (closer to my prime-time viewing actually). And by allowing her to watch Wheel of Fortune both of these things were solved. JD watches with her and it has become one of their special things. Be careful if you watch with them, you can’t just blurt out the puzzle if you think you know. Our rule has become that she has to be ready for bed (jammied up and teeth brushed) before she can watch. Done. Easy Peasy.
It’s hilarious to watch with her. She’ll usually comment on Vanna’s lovely dress (the color, how sparkly, how long it is). Then she does what we all did. It’ll be a five word puzzle and they’ve called T,H and E. “I know, it’s something, something, THE, something, something, something”. I’m not even kidding. That’s exactly what she says. And I laugh EVERY time. She was shocked to learn that when mommy watched the show as a little girl Vanna had to actually turn the letters. It took some explaining, but she was impressed.
Another generation of Wheel. Merv would be proud.
:: Insert head-smack here ::
I know how to do this, really, I’ve done it before. How could I forget the drinking water part?
To be perfectly honest I’m not much of a beverage girl. We have coffee in the morning, but if Jeremy didn’t want it I wouldn’t make it. As a kid I had milk or water with meals, but now I don’t. I don’t crave milk, juice or soda. I drink diet soda instead of grabbing a handful of cookies. And I often forget about water altogether. One of the things I often forgot in the first weeks of working out at the gym was my water bottle. After paying over $1 a bottle for water whenever that happened I quickly caught on to remembering my Sigg bottle. At home I rarely have a glass of water. At the nanny family’s house I’m more apt to keep a cup of ice water around (not sure why it’s easier there).
I do know however that in order to get the pounds off the scale (and my thighs) I’ve got to drink a decent to significant amount of water. For me the important time is after dinner. I usually want to munch something while hanging out in front of the TV. If I drink 2-3 glasses of water between 8-11pm I see a difference on the scale. No lie. This of course is in addition to working out and tracking my calories.
It makes sense, it’s just something I tend to forget. So I’m here to remind you, just add water. 
I have a love/hate relationship with my scale. I love when it shows numbers I want to see and I hate it when it doesn’t show me the numbers I want to see. I am addicted to my scale. For two years I have weighed myself at least once a day (in the morning, after I’ve peed, if you must know) and I think that proves I’m a little crazy. I’ve considered not weighing for a month, based on the whole, “it takes 28 days to change/break your habit”. So far I’ve been wildly unsuccessful at not weighing. How else will I know if I’m progressing? How will I know if I’m eating right? And I know all the answers to those questions, “go by how you feel” “go by how your clothes fit”, blah, blah, blah…
Today is a perfect example of why I should take a scale break. I weighed first thing this morning, as per above and the scale produced a lovely number, I was thrilled. Oh happy day the new plan is working. Then I showered, dried off, blew my hair dry and just before I got dressed I wanted to see that beautiful (confirming) number again. The second time around the number was increased by 1.5. *sigh* seriously? Where did my fabulous number go? I had seen the second number several times. There is nothing magical about the second number. Hm… maybe that means there’s nothing magical about the first number either. And why should how I feel be dictated by a number?
Then I saw this quote and it made me think that my days on the scale may be numbered (no pun intended)
“Balance is what you find when you step off the scale”
After a couple days of my new plan I emailed the trainer at the gym and verified the numbers I was using. He promptly replied back that I needed to add calories. Did I hear you correctly!? Are you sure? So, I did. The revised plan:
2100 calories on “rest” days
2400 calories on workout days, workouts ~500 calories, 5 days out of seven
This takes alot of trust on my part. Trust isn’t exactly my strong suit (stop laughing!) and 2400 calories sounds like, feels like and is more calories than it seems like should work. We’ll see.
A new plan, not in any way related to the New Deal.
2000 calories a day, 500 calorie workouts at least five times a week. This for twelve weeks.
Food is fuel.
Work-out #1 is complete, looking forward to workout #2 tomorrow.
Strong, healthy girls! (By the way this what I tell our daughter when she asks why we go to the gym, “Because we need to be strong, healthy girls”)
This is my way of staying accountable, by announcing to the web that I’m going back on the food diary wagon. Tomorrow morning I’m getting up early and heading to Lifetime Fitness to get my metabolic numbers so I’ll know how many calories my body needs. Then I will be able to calculate how much I can eat and how much I need to work out in order to lose weight. This is part of what I did before that worked so well. In my opinion it’s the scientific, non-sexy way to lose weight. It requires math (thank goodness for spreadsheets) and honesty, but like I said it worked last time.
I’m halfway to my original goal, ok, maybe more like three-fifths. Still, I’ve got a ways to go. Even though I’m extremely proud of my results thus far I knew I wasn’t going to be happy with myself if I settled. So here’s to not settling! Here’s to not being afraid of swimsuit season! Here’s to being a strong healthy woman (and an example to our daughter).
Oh! did I mention I’ve committed to a 5K in May. Yikes!
Am I the only person who sometimes feels bad for the husband who is depicted as clumsily taking care of his own children? This week in the comic strip For Better For Worse the mother has been out of town and dad has been home taking care of the children. As per the stereotype of this situation he doesn’t know the routine or where anything is located in the house. If I side with this guy do I have to turn in my neighborhood mommy card? Am I siding with the enemy?
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Where to begin? First, I suppose I should admit that I only saw two movies in the theater last year. They were Sex in the City and Horton Hears a Who. “Sex” was a girls night out event and “Horton” was part of a great Saturday (previously blogged). Each year when Oscar nominations are announced I feel a sudden urge to go out and try to round up as many movie tickets and DVDs as possible to watch in the weeks between the nominations and the awards. This rarely works. This year I almost saw Anne Hathaway’s performance, well, maybe almost is too much. Friends and I discussed seeing it, but ended up missing it’s re-release. I have felt completely and totally out of the loop because I haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire. In one of the post-Oscar articles I read today it said that the film was going to be re-released. So, maybe I’ll catch it there. If I don’t, I already added it to our (ever growing, over 300 titles) Netflix list. In addition I also added these:
- Encounter at the end of the World
- The Garden
- The Betrayal
- Man on Wire
- Trouble the Water
- Pineapple Express
- The Reader
- Tropic Thunder
- Doubt
- Milk
- Seven Minutes
- Frost/Nixon
- Secret Life of Bees (I have to read the book first)
- Revolutionary Road
- Frozen River
- The Visitor
- Australia
- Ironman
- Defiance
- The Class
- Revanche
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Posted by: Jenn | 05-26-2009 | 01:05 PM
