Instead of Walking Today, I ended up doing...

Laundry...I do not know which one was worse on my body.  The constant cadence of the walking on the hard surface of the track, or the standing, walking while holding items, and the sitting in a hard chair while folding.  I seem to hurt eqally as bad from both tasks.  Well, at least it is all done, for today anyway.

There is so much to get done this week.  Our teenager is going to Prom on Saturday night, so Sunday afternoon we went to a friends house and did a dry run with her hair style, trying different things, and finally settled on her favorite, and while there, they helped me to steam her dress, and petticoat thingy, of which the name currently escapes me.  Tonight I will be working in the church library, and then my plan is that on Thursday, I will be making the slight altertions to her dress to help it stay in place better while at the Prom.  Friday we can hopefully get a breather, other than cleaning the house and most likely more laundry, then Saturday the madness begins.  By lunchtime, we should be in full swing, my friends will be here putting together hair and make up, and helping put the dress on.  All the while, I will be making dinner for my teen and her date.  There will of course be pictures taken when her date arrives.  They will be eating family style with everyone, and we will be having chicken alfredo, and garlic toast.  Yes, I know, but in my opinion.  The garlic will not matter, they are just friends.  At about 7:30 p.m. they will leave for the dance, in my vehicle.  And since they have my vehicle, I will miss the Grand March at 8, which is when all of the kids line up and enter the gym so that the parents and their families can see everyone all dressed up.  The dance goes from 8 - 11 p.m., so that put's her getting home at aout 11:30-midnight, as her date literally lives a half a mile from our house. 

Just thinking about that makes me worn out.  Luckily I will have a few years to recouperate, our five year old has a few years to go before we will need to do this again!

Day One of Walking...

My intention has always been that on warm, or even semi-warm days, I would get the little kids ready and we would go to the track at the high school and walk, then afterwards, as a reward for putting up with Mommy, we would stop at the park so the kids could slide on the big slides there.  Today was day one.  I know it is the end of April...so why is it taking me so long, either the weather has been cruddy or there have been doctor appointments, or we were having to run errands or some other excuse...But, no more!  I will be making time to walk and/or exercise in some form every day. 

As for this morning, my 6 week body makeover begins AGAIN! I have tried the meal plan at other times, with some success, but it had been hard in the past for me to keep up with the exercise, and it will this time around too, but the weather is warmer, and we can get some fresh air, so I will try my best.  There may be times of frustration and pain and exhaustion, but I am determined to give it my best shot!

Banana Bread and the Crock Pot...

Banana Bread is a BIG hit in our home, we do not just eat it in the Fall during Thanksgiving and at Christmas time, we eat it year round. Also, along with its cousins, Pumpkin and Sweet Potato. Do not know exactly why but my family goes absolutely Ga Ga over this bread. I guess that the recipe I use for these three yummy breads will become the thing that all three girls will fight over when I finally leave this Earth. But until then I will continue to use these breads to my full advantage. In our house, the coveted loaves are used as a reward. "If you are good then, we can have banana bread..." or "We can have banana bread for dessert if you be nice to your sister..." and other such bribes. Hey, whatever works! The reason I bring this up, is that earlier in the week, I made some new loaves, and my house smelled absolutely Divine for the rest of the day!
Do you have a crock pot in your home? I do, well two actually. One that I received before I had children, and one that I bought after our second daughter was born. So, depending on the size of the meal, I will use one or the other. I am preparing a roast in the larger one right now, with seasonings and homemade tomato sauce from last year's tomatoes, and that also smells Divine right now. I had wanted to get my daughter one for her college dorm room, but was surprised to learn that they are not allowed. So, the cookbook that I am assembling for her to take away to college with quick, easy, and cheap meals to fix will be a lot smaller than expected. Do you have a favorite crock pot "go-to" meal? Mine is usually chili with beans added, and our second "go-to" is the roast, so the family will be pleasantly surprised that we will be having it, and the best part, I did not have to slave over a hot stove and a steam filled oven all day!

Big Weekend Ahead!

This past week has been busy, with a college visit for our daughter. She will be attending Idaho State University in the Fall, and so we visited the campus, and walked the route over and over and over again. She was truly excited and energized about it. Then, for the rest of the week, we need to clean and do laundry and clean some more in preparation for the arrival of her boyfriend, who will be spending the weekend with us. Plus, I got news that her step-brother might be arriving also from Seattle, which could throw a wrench in some of the weekend plans, as my vehicle is not big enough to transport everyone. But, anyway, the boyfriend for sure arrives on Saturday at lunch time.
Sunday we are all making the trek to Boise so that the little girls can join in for Easter festivities, and an egg hunt at my brother's house, he is making food there for us, so my contribution will be two fruit pies, one cherry and one mixed berry, that are so yummy! Then for dinner, my parents will join us, and we will be getting about 5 dozen, I hope, organic, semi free range chicken eggs to bring home. Then we will head home. Our daughter's boyfriend will then head back to the base where he is stationed in Texas on Monday afternoon. Busy weekend but should be fun.
Oh, what about dear sweet hubby you ask, he will be enjoying the weekend also, he has to work Saturday, but as for Sunday, I know that he will be spending at least a good chunk of the day napping in a peaceful and quiet house! Must be nice!