House is Sold!

Another crazy week here for us.  Spent the beginning of the week making phone calls and payments to various places to ensure we were ready to close on Wednesday.  Had to get the closing check on the way to closing.  The actual meeting only took about 45 minutes and went smoothly.  I have the new owners' phone number and we will arrange to transfer keys just before Thanksgiving.  Three weeks from tomorrow we will begin moving into the new house!  We are all very excited.

My 94yo grandfather had surgery this past week.  It was hoped to be minor, routine surgery to remove his gallbladder.  Unfortunately, the infection was much progressed.  He is stable now, but we are not sure how things will proceed.  As siblings we are keeping each other informed and I hope to hear good reports from my oldest brothers as the week progresses.  Our prayers are of course with my grandfather and all those caring for him at this time.

Stepping on the scale this morning, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I haven't been feeling well the last few days, but I have stuck with my workouts as planned.  I was quite pleasantly surprised to find a 2.5lb loss from last week.  This has pushed me over the 20lb mark and I am now down 21.6lbs from where I started!  While I still have some more weight to lose, this is a fantastic mark for me as I've always struggled to lose more than 5lbs in any one try.  So while this has taken longer than I would have hoped, it makes me very happy.  I put on sweatpants from last winter today and they are very baggy.  I have to roll the waist so they don't drag on the floor or sag in the butt.  The knees even fit a little strangely.  Definitely weird to see, but when I stop to think that I've lost over 20lbs and many inches, it makes sense.  I'm glad I kept all my old clothes as now I should start fitting into some of them.  I think part of the recent weight loss is that I am officially done nursing.  So my body is now accepting of losing the weight because it doesn't need to store it to feed any child.  It is possible that I will get into the 160's by Christmas, would be awesome.  If I can get down to 155 by next summer, I'll be ecstatic.  That's where I was at my lightest in college.  For now, I'll just keep focusing on filling my body with good protein, plenty of fat, and medium carbs.  Increasing the fat defiintely helps me stay full longer and, I think, is what encourages my body to shed the extra weight.

Phonics, Weight Loss, Potty Training

The end of this has gone pretty well.  We've been relaxing a bit and both kids have had some breakthroughs in various things.  I've even had a breakthrough with my weight loss as well.  Seeing 175.0 on the scale this morning means that I have lost 10% of my starting weight!  If you had asked me at the beginning of this calendar year if I imagined weighing this amount, I would have said no.  But it's great and I can't wait to see even more weight come off.  I've recommited to getting fit by 30 and got in all 3 workouts this week.  I definitely lost strength in the month I took off, but after a week I feel I'm right back to where I was.  So nice to start to feel physically strong again!

On Thursday Carolyn chose to work on her phonics worksheets.  She really sails through them and can easily identify the sounds of all letters.  The one sheet she struggled with involved a lowercase q.  She had no idea what it should look like, but recognized when I wrote it down for her.  She enjoyed working through the sheets and finding the different sounds.  Yesterday was a tough day as James wasn't feeling well, so no preschool work happened.  We discussed Carolyn's desire to read this morning though as she asked Jon to read her an article from his magazine.  And I told her that the place we're going will give her a prize and take her picture with the first book she learns how to read.  She proceeded to pull out a book and "read" it.  She does an awesome job of using the pictures to tell a story.  But we had to tell her that the library wants her to actually read the words.  I'm thinking I may pull out the sight words a little more often with her and maybe make sentences together.

After breakfast this morning, as Jon went to shower James walked to the bathroom and anounced he needed to go potty.  He's being doing this from time to time now, but I try not to pay much attention because it usually just leads to him playing in the bathroom.  But today he went into the bathroom, took off his feetie pjs and diaper, and went pee in his potty!  He sat there for a while and seemed to be working out what it feels like to actually pee.  I could see him working with the muscles to sort it out.  Of course we made a big deal and gave him high fives.  Carolyn even gave him a "prize".  I'm wondering if this will be his way of potty training, which is fine by me.  We will see what ends up happening, but it's very exciting since he's not yet 2.5.

This morning I deposited my savings bonds into our checking account.  It was a bittersweet moment, as this was one of our safety nets.  However, we're using the money for the downpayment on our forever home.  So how exciting is that!  I still have 1 left since I haven't gotten around to getting the death certificate for my great grandmother.  She'd be about 120 if she was alive today!  But with all of this house stuff, we have had that doing things the right way does have its rewards.  Jon has 1 of his credit scores over 800, the other two very high 700.  All 3 of my credit scores are over 800!  Because of this, we qualify for some breaks with our mortgage including a super low rate and a lower down payment.  We will continue to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with and I pray that we will be able to hand down our financial knowledge as well as a good start to our children.  Because of the fantastic start we have, we will have no mortgage by the time we're 60 and we should be able to save amply for our retirement and the kids' college.  God is definitely a great provider.

Crazy Week!

This was certainly one heck of a week around here!  Wednesday we went to the library and spent time outside.  Thursday we had a morning showing and played outside.  I tutored in the afternoon and worked 3 hours after the kids were in bed.  Friday we had a surprise showing (as in, our realtor goofed and didn't tell us), got an offer on the house (now negotiating), and had another showing scheduled (appears they didn't come).  Carolyn learned how to ride a two wheeler with no training wheels!  And by "learned" I mean got on the bike and rode it down our front yard onto the sidewalk and kept going.  She didn't want my help.  By the end of the day she figured out how to start on flat ground!  Just an amazing week.

Preschool stuff was somewhat all over the board this week.  But she's still really enjoying her "work".  Wednesday was a virtually no nap day and I had lots of work to do.  So we actually watched a movie in the afternoon and then went outside.  Thursday was a little better, but James was still up early, so we read some science books about sound, touch, and smell.  Carolyn really enjoys even the non-fiction books, I suspect because it's about her body.  Friday was an awesome day though.  I still had quite a bit of work to do, so I gave her some choices.  She was going to work on E and making an engine.  But then saw some math sheets I printed out a long time ago.  They were a mixture - counting objects, making tallies, writing numbers, and subtraction.  She sat and did the first half, then was surprised to find a coloring page mixed in (I put it half way).  Then she did nearly all of the second half, which was the subtraction.  The worksheet had summer objects printed to represent the numbers that were written.  So she learned to cross out the second number listed and then count how many remained.  She got every one right!  And this helped her work on how to write the letters as well.  What's more important, she enjoyed doing it.  Looking forward to what today might have in store.

I've fallen in love with a house in Deerfield, although admitedly I haven't seen it yet.  It's a ranch with a basement that back up to a park.  It is on Deerfield Rd and doesn't have a garage (car port and shed though), so some concessions there.  But it looks like it has the space we want and is in a great location, the kids could easily bike to the pool when older.  We could walk to downtown Deerfield and the library as well.  But, alas, it's just out of our price range.  I'm going to talk to our realtor and see if she thinks we could get Fannie Mae to accept a lower number.  Because I think this could be the house for us.  Of course, we have to go see it first.  Will it be like the other places Jon has seen?  I hope not.  Excited but also freaking out at the thought of moving.

And for anyone following my weight loss journey as well, I am now 1lb away from having lost 10% of my initial weight!  I honestly can't remember when I saw this number on the scale last.  Sometime between getting married and pregnant, so at least 5 years ago.  My toned shoulders are starting to reappear again as well!

Success!

Just wanted to share that I have officially broken the 180lb mark.  Two weeks in a row I've now weighed in under, today at 179.  I haven't seen 17- since before I was pregnant with Carolyn, 5 years ago!  This feels like a major accomplishment to me because it's taken so long.  But honestly, since I started eating Primal (no grains, fairly low carb, limited sugar, no yucky oils) it's been fairly easy.  Slower than I would like (of course would like to be 160 by now), by steady progress.  And I keep telling myself that losing slowly by making lifestyle changes that I have no problem keeping up with forever, means I'm more likely to keep the weight off.  I don't have to count anything and I'm not constantly hungry like I used to be.  There are no special supplements or anything crazy like that.  The exercises are fairly short, and I'll forever have the option of adding in more exercise if I feel up to it and have the time.  But my life looks likely to only get crazier for the next few years as the kids get older.  So working out 3-4x/week for 20-25 minutes fits perfectly.  The workouts leave my muscles feeling taxed as well, a feeling that I LOVE.  I never imagined feeling this way with a non-impact, body weight program.  It's really rather amazing.  I feel like I'm writing a commercial, but after having lost 15lbs fairly effortlessly, I think I should share.

Didn't get to any preschool lessons yesterday because Carolyn until 3!  I guess she was pretty tired from her crankiness on Thursday.  So perhaps today we will get to try one of the activities I prepared yesterday.  She's been really into counting lately, so I'm think we'll do math with the ginger bread men.

Another pound makes 12

I'm down 12lbs since I started this in January.  Not rapid weight loss, but slow and fairly steady hopefully means it'll stay off.  I don't feel deprived either, which I think is key.  This past week I've been indulging in dark chocolate a lot more frequently.  What's awesome is that just 1 square hits the spot whereas I ued to want 1/2-1 whole bar of milk chocolate - how crazy is that?  I think Jon is coming around a little more as well, enjoying eating more meat in place of the pasta.  Looking forward to this week's meals too as I thought about them: whole baked chicken (fries and fresh brocolli), meatloaf (mashed potato and frozen veg), steak (watermelon and veg), and sausage and peppers.  I've found that by eating a fairly high carb dinner I feel better overall, so I'll keep doing that.  I'm enjoying exercising more now as well since it's not so forced.  Looking forward to my body weight workout in an hour or so.  Can't wait until I can actually do a pull-up!  Losing weight will obviously make this easier too.

Lots of changes going on around here lately.  This biggest is that we've decided to officially try our house on the market.  I spent last week getting started on the house and have 2 more weeks to finish up.  So my goal is to have the house completely decluttered by Memorial Day so I can spend that week really cleaning everything.  The first floor is almost done, so I don't think it should be too hard.

Jon also has an interview on Tuesday.  It's a middle school, but would mean ~$5k raise, cheaper insurance, and if we can sell, cheaper rent closer to there.  It could be a pretty awesome set-up.  Looking like we have a few choices that could lighten financial stress if he can get out of Zion and we can sell.  We'll have to see what God has in store for us.  Surely something will work out!

Busy Busy

It's been a while since I wrote because life seems to have gotten very busy.  We had Carolyn's birthday, then last weekend functions to attend, and this weekend Carolyn has been battling an ear infection.  If she gets some good sleep tonight I think she'll have it beat in the morning.  But she wakes up and thinks she's better, then is sapped for energy until she gets to sleep again.  So tomorrow will be another day of snuggles, reading books, doing puzzles, and maybe even an art project.  Anything really to help get her to sit still.  She was running around in the basement this afternoon, but too tired to even sit on the couch by herself an hour later.  So hard to figure out a 4 year old.  Jon isn't feeling well either now, so not sure what's up.

My promotion has been going well and I am definitely much busier and billing many more hours.  I think I will average about 11 hours a week for April once the day ends tomorrow.  It's nice to earn a bunch for a cushion right now to put towards the car to pay it off early.  But I don't feel too overburdened with the work, so it's good so far.

Haven't done any new recipes lately.  With nicer weather we've been grilling some, which is a nice change and easy to cook up a few nights at once.  Tonight we did pizza.  The crust came out so much better using freshly shredded cheese it was really amazing.  Definitely plan to do it again with freshly shredded cheese.  Tomorrow I'll do meatloaf again, making a full 2lbs of meat so we'll have plenty for leftovers for lunch or another dinner.  Then we'll grill Tuesday and do sausage and peppers on Wednesday.  Then Thursday and Friday we'll have leftovers.  We went to Sam's club yesterday and stocked up on some grilling foods, got some big blocks of cheese, a box of eggs, and a big bag of almonds.  So now our weekly trips should be a bit cheaper for a few weeks.  We might go back for the next free preview, but it's not worth the membership at this point.

In other exciting news, I've hit my first 10lb milestone.  Weighing myself yesterday I am down a full 11lbs since starting all of this in January.  I can fit into my old pair of jeans, which is extremely exciting.  For the first time in my life I'm losing weight without being hungry all the time!  It did take me 3 months to lose the 11lbs, but slower weight loss is what generally tends to stay.  So I'll take it.  I have definitely discovered that I do better with a slightly higher intake of carbs.  I am in a better mood and I lose weight more effectively.  I'm probably up around 75g carbs/day, going most of the day very low because breakfast and lunch and each under 10g most days and then for dinner I'll have some sort of starchy vegetable.  Seems to be working!  I love that I don't have to give up all the foods I like and can have treats on special occassions without completely derailing my weight loss efforts.  I only wish I had come upon this earlier.  It will be interesting to see what weight my body settles into after a year or so.  If I can get down below 178lbs by the time I go in for my next doctor's appointment, I'll be thrilled.  That's where I was when I got pregnant with Carolyn nearly 5 years ago.  5lbs in 2.5lbs I think will be very doable as well.

Well, off to get some rest so that I don't catch what seems to be going through the house!

Promotion!

Thursday afternoon my boss' boss sent an email requesting to speak with me on the phone.  I told her what hours I was available on Friday and asked if I should be nervous.  I immediately starting running through the reasons she could want to talk to me.  For whatever reason, my initial thought was "what did I do?"  I couldn't come up with anything, and this company is really good about not blind siding people with bad news.  You get a couple bad reviews, then a warning, and if you're being let go, you have to know it's coming (or are choosing to ignore the signs).  She said not to be nervous (as if that were possible) and we set up a time.  I tried to stay busy Friday morning until the phone rang.  She started by asking if I liked my boss.  I said yeah, things were good.  Then she mentioned that she knows I've shown interest in a promotion and wanted to know if I'd like to start next week.  I was definitely shocked by the immediacy of this, despite hoping for the promotion for a while.  I was figuring my current boss would get a full time job and then I could have her job.  But I'm going to be getting my own team of mentors sometime this coming week.  Starting out small (4), in addition to the 71 tutors I have, but will shift to fewer tutors and more mentors over time.  I'm excited, but at the same time a little scared.  It will all take some getting used to.  But in the long run, hopefully this means fewer hours I need to work and more flexibility.

Still hoping Jon can get a new job for next year though.

Today was another weigh-in day and I'm down another pound.  I have now lost 9lbs since starting all of this.  I tried to run today and struggled again.  The hills certainly don't help, but my body is just not cooperating.  Will be doing crossfit some more this week and hopefully over time running will be more enjoyable.  I did cut over 2 minutes off my time, but everything seems to hurt.  I continue to be totally exhausted lately and we have no idea why.  Saw my doctor this past week and my lung function is improving, will recheck again in a month.  I really hope that we can figure out what in the world is going on with my body.  The exhaustion and dizziness combination is really getting to me!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

So I'm not Irish, but with a last name of Mahoney, my kids certainly are!  The light blue eyes and blonde hair make them look the part too.  So yesterday we made some cupcakes with green frosting.  I was also trying out a recipe to use for Carolyn's party.  It turned out quite well.  The cake was maybe a tad dry, so I might add a little more coconut oil next time.  Will need to increase the recipe, multiply 3-4 times to get enough for her playdate and then her actual party.  But both kids ate their whole cupcake, which is quite rare.  So I think the recipe is a keeper.  I did sweeten to taste, starting with a big squeeze of honey, then two more.  Each of these squeezes I've found to be about 1T.  It still didn't taste quite right to me, so I added regular sugar, 2t at a time, for a total of 6.  I figure 3T of honey and 6t of sugar is likely a lot less than a typical recipe.  But sweet enough to please everyone.  I made a cream cheese frosting to go on top, but I think I will do regular frosting for Carolyn's birthday so I know I can get it the right consistency to decorate with.

Last night I was still craving sugar, as I have been for a while.  So on the advice of someone on the Wheat Belly facebook page, I made some sugar free chocolate.  I was a little skeptical because I've only ever like milk chocolate.  But I gave it a try anyway.  It was awesome!  So rich, in fact, I almost couldn't eat all of it.  I'm thinking about having this once a week.  Sugar free and onley 2-3g net carbs, mostly due to the almonds!

1T coconut oil
1T butter
1T unsweetened cocoa powder
optional - 10-12 almonds
optional - coconut flakes

We are celebrating tonight by joining the in-laws at Hackney's.  The kids are super excited about it.

I have also lost another 0.5lbs, showing me numbers I can't remember the last time it was I saw them on the scale.  Down 8lbs overall.  Hoping that if James ever decides to be done nursing my weight loss will accelerate.

More progress!

Weighed in again and I'm down another 1.5lbs.  This includes eating cake at my grandma's party last weekend and some candy this week.  Finally something that agrees with my body!  I'm not hungry all the time, nor do I have to count calories.  This is definitely something I keep up for the long term because it's SO easy.  I'm down 7lbs in 6 weeks, sitting at 187.4lbs right now.  I can see the 170's coming this summer.  Might just fit back into all of my pants by then.  It would be wonderful.  Won't take measurements for another week, but I'm excited to see where the weight is coming off, definitely somewhat from my stomach.  When I've lost 10% of my original weight, I'm going to go buy at least one new outfit.  If I keep up with this average, I'll be there by mid-May!  That would be a wonderful Mother's Day present.

Had a wonderful breakfast this morning and have found a new go to waffle recipe.  I did use heavy whipping cream in place of the honey.  Doubled the recipe so we could have some leftovers.  Topped them with strawberries, a little syrup, and sausage on the side.  Who ever said giving up wheat would be boring?  Not in this house!

My Rings Fit!

About mid way through my pregnancy with Carolyn, my rings stopped fitting.  When she was about 6 months old, my wedding ring fit, but my engagement ring never did.  Then I got pregnant with James and the process repeated.  Today I stepped on the scale and saw a number lower than I've seen in a long while.  I am down 5.5lbs since I started weighing in 5 weeks ago.  That's awesome progress for me.  Jon suggested I try on my engagement ring today and it fit.  It was a little hard to get off when we returned home because the room we were in for my grandma's party was so hot.  But by this summer I hope to have lost another 10-15lbs and it should fit wonderfully.  It's going to take a little while to get used to having the diamond sticking up on my finger and the extra sparkliness.

I have an appointment in the morning at Deerpath Primary Care in Libertyville.  They focus more on treating the whole person and some of the doctors advocate Wheat Belly.  We are going to start by trying to find a reason for my dizziness.  And from there we'll get to a physical and just overall good health.  I am hoping that we can discover what's behind this dizziness, because I have been having some really bad episodes lately.

Slow and steady, right?

Slow and steady wins the race, right?  I'm happy to report that I'm down 2lbs this week.  So heading in the right direction now.  I have a lot more energy than I should for James being up with a fever last night too.  Haven't made anything very exciting the last few days, so haven't been posting.  Wednesday night we did ham, potato, carrot, and green bean soup.  Thursday night we did leftover, and last night we did scrambled eggs with cheese and ham in them.  Tonight we're getting take out again like last week.  I'm looking forward to the yummy ribs. 

I made bread today with Pamela's bread mix thanks to my Dad for my birthday.  It was good and the kids really like it.  It will serve as a decent transition as I try to make grain free bread.  It's a good treat though for the kids since they can handle the higher carb load.

Sat down today and made the plan for the week.  I'm looking forward to trying some new recipes, especially a cupcake one for my birthday.  I'll let you know how they all turn out after I make them.  I'm also looking forward to working less this week.  Two weeks in a row of over 20 hours is tough.  But it'll be nice to see the paycheck, along with our tax refund, and Jon's backpay all next month.

Jon is worried about much more expensive this style of eating is going to be.  I'm hoping that he'll see it's not that different, we're just spending our money differently.  And of course I'm hoping to put together a nice, large garden this summer that will offset some of the costs, for at least part of the year.  It's going to be tough to get him completely on board.  I'm just hoping that the benefits he feels after he gives it a try will convince him.

Disappointment...

So after nearly a week (officially tomorrow @ lunch), I honestly expected more.  Today I've been exahusted, really wanted to nap when the kids were down.  Would have been a great day to do so too, since James slept 2.5 hours in his crib!  But I was working.  I worked out pretty diligently this week - Mon, Tues, Wed, and today did a crossfit workout.  Those are tough and heavy weights with a tiny bit of cardio due to the circuits built in.  Wed night I played 2 soccer games, sitting out only about 2 minutes.  Friday I shoveled snow for over an hour, so chose to skip working out.  Scraping the ice off the driveway was actually somewhat therapeutic.

Today I'm not as hungry.  Had a great breakfast of bacon and an omelet with cheese and green pepper.  For lunch I had chicken salad, monterey jack cheese, and carrots.  I'm still full from that almost 4 hours later.  So that's definitely a good thing.

I went to bed at 8, Jon says I was out at 8:15.  But I tossed and turned most of the night and have been up since 6 for the most part.  What gives here?  I thought sleep was supposed to improve.

I'm still having headaches.  They, of course, could be due to the weather and the crazy dryness that we're experiencing.  Luckily it's due to warm up a little and hopefully the snow melting will help with that some.  But headaches are a big reason I was doing this.  I'm still getting dizzy too.

I know, I really shouldn't expect miracles after a week.  But I was expecting to notice something positive.  I had big hopes when I got on the scale this morning.  I have plenty of weight to lose, probably 40lbs to be considered "normal" BMI.  Not that I consider BMI a good measure, especially considering that I know I am pretty strong (muscle) and have a large chest (34FF).  But I also have plenty of inches to lose all over and pounds to go with it.  Yet, I gained 5lbs from the last time I weighed.  I'm going to give this 4 weeks, so until Feb 12.  But I honestly have to say that if I don't start to notice some real benefits here, I don't know I can keep this up.  I took measurements today and recorded them on my computer, but I'm a little embarassed to share them.  So I'll simply report back on the changes I notice starting next week.  Although it was interesting to discover that my left thigh is 1" smaller than my right.  I'm sure there's some margin for error there, but that's a big difference.  Makes sense I suppose since I'm a righty.

Hoping to share better news next week!