Valentine Recap

Valentine's Day in Blogland has inspired me to do some fun projects with the Pnut.  I saw this blog with the "Love Blossom Tree" and I thought... I can do that!  You can see the blog here.  So, at the first free moment, the Pnut and I headed for the craft room.  She was clearly thrilled to get to play with paint and hang out with her mom!

 Look at the joy on this kids face!

 Brown paint on the hand and arm.

 Pink and red thumbprints for the leaves.  So cute!  We made one that I framed for my mantel, gave one to Nana Jo and sent one to Aunt Connie.  Why not share the joy, right?!?

I also saw several different versions of personalized Valentine's for the kids to exchange at school.  So, we pulled out the camera and had a little photo shoot.

 Cheese!!

 My personal fave...

 And since this kid has never met a camera that she didn't like... she started coming up with her own poses and jumps.  Please disregard the basket of laundry between her legs!

 The final products.

 So cute!

And this is my personal favorite.  It definitely shows her personality!

We did her cards at the end of January, on a day that I had some extra free time (trust me, that doesn't happen often!)  She was so excited about taking them to school, it just about killed her to wait two weeks till Valentine's Day.

Now, you might ask the question... isn't there another child in this household??  Why, yes there is, but she is 13.  For those of you with teenagers, that explains everything.  She is far too cool to be involved in crafting or cooking with her mom.  That would mean that she would have to leave her bedroom, put down her phone or take her earbuds out of her ears.  She did, however, have a Valentine's dance last Thursday.  Mom was cool enough to be in charge of curling hair and driving to the dance.

Isn't she beautiful??

Of course, her best friend came over to get ready with her.

Let me tell you about the deal I got on this dress!!  I'll forgo the details, but tell you that I bought it at Macy's and it cost $8.25 including tax!!  Yep, I am a bargain shopper!

Well, Valentine's day is over.  The stuff is put away and I am working on some cute decorations for St. Pat's!  This is fun!

Until next time,

Frances

Our Valentine's Day Treat

I have been having such a good time in blogland.  I follow so many blogs and am getting so many great ideas.  I'll show you some of the projects soon.  The Pnut and I are having a good time doing things together. 

I found this blog about a Guilt Free Valentine's Cupcake.  You can see it here.  Very simply, you take a strawberry cake mix and mix it with 12 oz. of diet lemon/lime soda.  Sounds good and easy, right?  Well, off to the grocery store that I go, ready to get my cake on.  When I got there, I realized that I would much rather make it with a sugar free cake mix, because hubby is diabetic.  So I grabbed a sugar free Devils Food cake mix.  Now, somehow mixing that with a lemon/lime soda didn't sound too appealing....


So what do do??  Being from the South, I've heard about Coca Cola cake all my life, so the logical choice was....


It was as easy as that.  Mix the cake mix with 12 oz. of diet coke!  Yum!!

We mixed it up and but the batter on a cookie sheet... I had a plan, you see!  Once the cake cooled, The Pnut and her sleepover buddy used heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out the cake.

  We cut out two different sizes of hearts. 

 Yum!!  The crumbs were the reward for cutting out the hearts!

 On Valentine's Day, we added a little red food coloring to some Fat Free Cool whip.

 Then we assembled our chocolatey goodness!

 The Pnut looks delirious with Valentine's delight!

The final product... with pink Cool Whip, some red sugar sprinkles and a Conversation Heart. 

It was delicious, sugar free, and low calorie.  By my best estimation, each helping was about 100 yummy calories.  Definitely something we will do again.

I'm looking for more low calorie, sugar free, tasty treats... do you know of any??  Please share if you do.

Valentine's recap coming soon...

Until next time,

Frances

25 Things

1.  I love sweet tea, but I am trying to give it up!  I haven't had one since Thursday!
2.  I am more committed than I have ever been to losing this weight.  I WILL do it this time!
3.  I have the greatest friends in the world.  They love me for who I am.
4.  I have a sad addiction to reality TV.  Dance Moms, Real Housewives, The Voice, you name it, I love it.  NO Survivor though, that is where I draw the line!
5.  Swamp People makes me laugh out loud.  "Shoot em Lizabeth!"
6.  I have a great job that I really enjoy.
7.  I have been to all but 13 states. 
8.  I was in an airplane in the air on 9/11/01 when the planes were crashing into buildings.  I refer to it as my "near death experience."
9.  I live in my dream house but can't keep it clean!
10.  I miss my mom and dad more than I can put into words.  Every day. 
11.  My biggest fear is losing one of my children.
12.  Everyone thinks that "Pnut" acts just like me, but the reality is that "the Big One" is far more like I was at her age.
13.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing things through the Pnut's eyes.  She finds joy in the little things.
14.  I am adopted.  I wonder about my birth parents, but I am too afraid to look for them.
15.  I love to spend time in my craft room... even if it is just a few minutes.
16.  My husband is my best friend.  I hope that never changes.
17.  I want to learn how to quilt.
18.  I love living in the South.  I love the culture, the people, the food (in moderation :-))  I can't imagine living anywhere else.
19.  The best thing that I have ever done was to become a mom.  I love my girls more than anything.  I would love to have another, but I guess that is not in the cards for me.
20.  I love my church.
21.  I really don't like to work out, but I try to do it several times a week anyway.
22.  My aunt has become one of my closest friends.  I don't think I could have gotten through my mom's death without her.
23.  I love to read.  I especially love books that are set in the South.
24.  I have done two mission trips to Mexico.  They changed my life.
25.  Most important, me and Jesus are tight.  I am blessed beyond belief and feel so fortunate to know the Grace of God!

I have seen several of these on other blogs and thought it was a great way to share some blurbs about myself.  Plus, my hubs isn't feeling well and went to bed early.  My camera cord is in the bedroom and I don't want to wake him to get it!

Until next time,

Frances

My Weight Loss Wonderland

Welcome to my Weight Loss Wonderland!  LOL, if I am trying to convince myself that if I call it something fun, it will be fun!!  Anyway, I mentioned in my last posting that my husband and I have been losing weight since last July.  He is at his goal.  I'm not even close.  My goal is to lose 75 pounds this year.  What that really means is that I would like to lose 75 pounds next week and that it will drop off quickly and be fun to do!


This is my before....



This is after the first 50 pounds. 

I took new "before pictures" on Sunday... but I am not emotionally ready to share them yet!!

Now, being a girl who has struggled with her weight all her life, I know that it is going to take time and it probably isn't going to be as much fun as eating pizza and watching movies, but I also know that I have to do it.  So, what's my plan?? 

Well there are several parts of my plan.  First, I have a fantastic app... My Fitness Pal.  It looks like this...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/#mfpeasy_video

It has made it very easy to keep up with the number of calories that I take in each day. Because I travel so much, I am forced to eat out a lot.  This is the best tool that I have found for making good choices when I eat out.

Next, I am using products from the Cinch system with Shaklee. 


I have one of these shakes, mixed with Chocolate Almond Milk in the morning, most days.  This system is proven to help you lose weight while maintaining your muscle mass.  And... it tastes yummy!!  I also have the vanilla shake mixed with fruit.   If you want more information about the Cinch shakes, click here.

They also have great meal bars and energy teas.  I attribute a good deal of my success to the supplements that I take every day!  Shaklee is good stuff!

And my last, and newest part of my Wonderland.  For my birthday, hubby bought me 12 sessions with a personal trainer at our local gym.  I liked it, but for the last 4 or 5 months, life has gotten so busy that unless I go to the gym at 5am, I just don't have time to go.  And, let's be clear, I am NOT going at 5am.

A few days ago, hubby tells me that he watched an informercial about Tony Horton's 10 Minute Trainer.


He thought that it might be something that I would like, since each workout is only 10 minutes and I can do it from home.  He bought it for me and I got it last Friday.  I started the workouts on Sunday.  I try to do 3 of the 10  minute workouts every day.  Some days I can only get 2 of them done.  Now... here is the good news... after 4 workouts, I have already lost 1/2 inch in my waist!  DID YOU HEAR ME??? 4 workout!!!  1/2 inch!!!  Very motivating.

I try not to let the scale get me down.  It seems like when the scale doesn't move, my clothes seem to get bigger, and when my clothes don't change, the scales move. Still, being the person that I am, I step on it every day.... multiple times.

So.... that's what I am doing.  I will share some Cinch recipes from time to time and give you updates.

To my other friends, who are trying to lose weight... good luck!  If I can help or offer support, I would be happy to. 

Until next time,

Frances

French Breakfast Muffin Recipe Re-do

In July, darling husband found out that he is diabetic.  That has made us change our eating habits as a family.  As a result, he has lost about 60 lbs and I have lost about 55.  It hasn't been easy!  The girls still like to have treats, so I am on a mission to find recipes that I can alter to make healthier and a little more desirable.

My first try was a French Breakfast Muffin.  Here is the recipe.  French Breakfast Muffins

My re-do was easy peasy!  Here is what I used:

1 1/2 cups spelt flour
1/4 cup Splenda Blend
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 Vanilla Almond Milk
1/2 Kroger Carbmaster Vanilla Yogurt
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

Topping:
2 tablespoons Splenda Blend
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Of course, the Peanut was anxious to help!  Moms, how do you keep little fingers out of the bowl when your kids are helping you??  I need advice!

We combined all of the dry ingrediants, added a lightly beaten egg, the almond milk and yogurt, then mixed. 

Into the oven at 350 for about 14-16 minutes.  We didn't leave ours in quite long enough because, being the expert that she is, the Peanut convinced me that they were done. 

The orginal recipe called for butter in the topping.  We just mixed the Splenda Blend and Cinnamon and sprinkled a little bit on the warm muffins when they came out of the oven.

Boy, I didn't realize how bad my pan looks until I saw this!  Needless to say, I let the Peanut fill the muffin cups and she missed her target several times.  Anyway, ugly pan aside, they were YUMMY!!  They stuck to the liners a little bit, but I think a minute or two longer in the oven would solve that problem.

I  built the recipe in "My Fitness Pal" and according to that program, they have 125 Calories, 1.3 grams of Fat, 22.1 grams of Carbs, 3.7 grams of Protein, and 7.0 grams of sugar.  Not bad, I think.

The best review of all is that we made them on Saturday evening.  By Sunday afternoon they were long gone!  I think next time I might add some nuts. 

Until next time,

Frances

This post is part of Get Your Craft on Tuesdays at Today's Creative Blog  http://todayscreativeblog.net/

And Tutorials and Tips party at  Home Stories A 2 Z

Totally Tutorial Tuesdays

Let the Organizing Begin

This year I have made some real goals for myself.  One of the biggies is to get my house organized.  The truth is, I am lazy!  I work so many hours and travel so much, that I make excuses about why I don't have time to do things the way that they should be done.  I am going to stop that this year. 

My first project was my laundry room.  I love to read the blogs and look at pictures of how people have their laundry rooms organized and decorated.  Now, I may NEVER decorate my laundry room, but it definitely needed to be purged and re-organized!

This is where I started....

 Stuff everywhere.  The room became one of the places to shove things that didn't have a place to go.

 Sadly, a good part of that laundry was clean!

Shelves loaded with more junk and the cabinets had so much stuff I just had to start over. 

This transformation had to overflow to my big "junk" cabinet in the kitchen.

After...notice the serious lack of crap!

I even have a place to put my vases now.  I moved some of the appliances that we don't use often from the "junk" cabinet to the laundry room.  Since stepgirl has moved out, I was able to hang all of my table linens in her closet, rather than cram them on a laundry room shelf.  Oh... and I actually got around to putting shelf liners down.  I'm so proud.

My kitchen cabinet how has a place for all of our Shaklee supplements (you know I sell Shaklee, right??), a different basket for medicine and a place for paper plates and such.

Its all about baby steps for me and this was my first step.  I feel so good about it and have been able to keep it up.  I plan to work a little each day on a different room until I can feel good about my whole house.

I'll be back soon with my next project.

Until next time, 

Frances 

Grapevine...and more

Well, my trip to Grapevine was great.  Aside from work, I got to spend a little bit of time strolling through Downtown Grapevine.  It is a neat area with lots of great little shops and restuarants. 

 I snapped a few pictures of things that I think I might want to copy!  I love all of the "subway" art.

Sunday was a long day at work, with appointments all day long.  Yes, I really do have to work when I travel, I just don't take pictures of that part!  Traditionally, on Monday, at the major conferences that I go to, the lunch entertainment is sponsored by Broadway.  This year's show was great, featuring numbers from Sister Act, Mary Poppins, Ghost, Priscilla, and as seen below, Spiderman.

 The Peanut got to see the Texas Cousins one afternoon.  We met at LegoLand at Grapevine Mills.  The kids had a good time, but the adults agree that it was too pricey for what they have.  They have a couple of rides, a playland and a very cool room with lego sculptures of famous Dallas buildings. 

Probably the high point.... no DEFINITELY the high point of the trip was the event at Texas Stadium.  Yep, that is me with Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys.  Not sure what he was trying to say with his hand, but it was pretty exciting to meet him.

Of course, being at Texas Stadium was reason enough to take silly pictures.  I won't bore you with many, but this is one of the fun ones with my friends Amanda and Bennjin.

The last day of the conference had a lunch event sponsored by Nashville.  They brought in Phil Vassar who put on a fantastic show and made Nashville proud!

The final night was an Alice and Wonderland themed event.  We all dressed up as different characters.  I was the White Rabbit.  We had a great time at the event, but were ready to get home!

It was a great trip with lots of fun with friends and some time with family, and of course, some hard work.  As great as it is to go, nothing beats coming home!

Until next time,

Frances