I have this week off from work to spend with my kids and to mentally prepare for New Year's. No, I am not planning on partying so hard that I have to get myself psyched up for it. I am getting ready for my resolutions which I will start on day one of the new year and not a moment later (or earlier). So this week I am resolving to resolve.
Inevitably, one of my resolutions will be to address this weight problem I have. So, guess what I am doing to prepare for the diet on 1/1/11? Eating of course!! Yesterday I made whoopie pies - wonderful chocolate cake-cookies with a slab of white sugary icing between them. Now normally even when I am cheating, I would have only the smallest one, and only one. But yesterday I had TWO. I ate one right after I finished frosting the little chocolate sandwiches and one right before bed with a glass of ice cold skim milk. Along with the whoopie pies I have also munched on lots of things I wouldn't regularly eat - brie, spanikopita, gelato, egg salad and on and on.
I've also been contemplating rearranging my fridge and my cabinets to assist in my healthy eating resolution. (This too will help with another resolution on my list - to get organized). I have been trying to think up a way that I can reorganize my kitchen cabinets to make it easier for me to munch healthier. Should I only store the low-cal stuff up front? Put the bad junk in the back? Should I place "my food" on one side and the boys' foods on the other?
Since being more organized will be on my list, I've been making a mental checklist of all of the things in my home and at work that need to be fixed, rearranged, filed or trashed. It is mind-boggling so I will have to resolved to try not to think of this until the first day of 2011.
Working on my spiritual self will be there too - so I've been searching online for a good Bible Study book to use. Plus I've been trying think of my time - what is the best time of the day to spend praying and reading and the like as opposed to spending it with my kids or exercising or blogging?
Then there is this blog - if you could even call it that. I've only posted a handful of thoughts which have been sporadic at best. I've been trying to decide if I should "theme" by blog and only write about certain topics instead of the first thing that comes to mind or should I just keep it as is with a more faithful schedule of posts? I'd like to decide what I will do with it and then on 1/1 start doing it with more fervor.
My list of things to change in the New Year will be much longer, but these are what I've been mulling over in my brain. I am looking forward to a clean slate, solutions, more time with my family, new discoveries and lots of positivity.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Uncle Patrick
Growing up, I thought you were the coolest person I knew. You would drive up and visit us in Maine with your ripped jeans and motorcycle jacket, always chewing on a toothpick. You were "Danny Zucco" cool. I had to have a jacket just like yours, I wanted to be just like you. I would always roll my eyes when you called me "SchmErin" - it was a baby name and I hated it. What I would give to hear it now.
I remember laughing and laughing when you took Shannon and I out for McDonalds. You joked that you would tie me to the bumper for the ride home. I'm not sure what prompted this empty threat, but we all thought it was funny, until I cried.
I heard my mother's hushed phonecalls with your sisters about your struggle with addiction. It had such a strong hold on you. None of us fully understood it nor could ever comprehend how binding it was.
For a time, you were sober, and accomplished so much. After you graduated from culinary school, when we visited New York or when you visited us in Maine, you would cook for us. My adolescent sense of taste was no match for your mako shark or falafel, but how I loved your cream puffs stuffed with strawberries and pastry cream. We visited you in Manhattan where you had the tiniest of apartments and worked in the hippest, dive restaurants in the Bowery. You took us around the city, showing us all the sites - you were NEVER cooler.
I know that the demon never quite let go, and that hard life weakened your heart, already marred by genetics. You battled with heart disease, suffering heart attacks and undergoing surgeries. Later, everytime I saw you, you were paler, weaker, and older than you should have been.
Last week, God called you to Heaven. Now I know, people always say this when someone they love, passes from this world as a way of comforting themselves. But really, I don't think that phrase could be any truer than now. For all of your adult life, He watched you fight that demon, as it and the heart disease took its toll on your body and spirit. God knew it was time. Time for your family to stop worrying despite the initial despair we feel right now. It was time for you to be in a place where there would be no more fight with an unsatisfied yearning and nothing to hold you but His love. In short, it is time for you to be whole.
I take heart, knowing that I will see you again, restored and your spirit will be finally at peace.
Until then, stay cool.
I remember laughing and laughing when you took Shannon and I out for McDonalds. You joked that you would tie me to the bumper for the ride home. I'm not sure what prompted this empty threat, but we all thought it was funny, until I cried.
I heard my mother's hushed phonecalls with your sisters about your struggle with addiction. It had such a strong hold on you. None of us fully understood it nor could ever comprehend how binding it was.
For a time, you were sober, and accomplished so much. After you graduated from culinary school, when we visited New York or when you visited us in Maine, you would cook for us. My adolescent sense of taste was no match for your mako shark or falafel, but how I loved your cream puffs stuffed with strawberries and pastry cream. We visited you in Manhattan where you had the tiniest of apartments and worked in the hippest, dive restaurants in the Bowery. You took us around the city, showing us all the sites - you were NEVER cooler.
I know that the demon never quite let go, and that hard life weakened your heart, already marred by genetics. You battled with heart disease, suffering heart attacks and undergoing surgeries. Later, everytime I saw you, you were paler, weaker, and older than you should have been.
Last week, God called you to Heaven. Now I know, people always say this when someone they love, passes from this world as a way of comforting themselves. But really, I don't think that phrase could be any truer than now. For all of your adult life, He watched you fight that demon, as it and the heart disease took its toll on your body and spirit. God knew it was time. Time for your family to stop worrying despite the initial despair we feel right now. It was time for you to be in a place where there would be no more fight with an unsatisfied yearning and nothing to hold you but His love. In short, it is time for you to be whole.
I take heart, knowing that I will see you again, restored and your spirit will be finally at peace.
Until then, stay cool.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Meal Planner
Is it just me, or does every working mom hate this time of day? You know, around 4:30 pm when suddenly you realize, "Crap! I forgot to take something out for dinner!" or something along those lines. It would be different, of course, if I were one of those moms who has something I whipped together a week ago, as a "just in case", in the freezer. But I'm not. Nor will I ever be. I'd even venture a guess to say that most working moms aren't either.
So, what's a girl to do? I could make breakfast for dinner. No thawing needed. However, this takes a trip to the store to buy a few supplies. I could thaw some chicken in the microwave, but I hate the way the edges cook during the unthawing process and I inevitably end up with a slab of meat that is tough in some places. We could have a meatless dinner, but again, no matter how I look at it, I have to go to the store. Of course, there is always the takeout option - pizza or Chinese or some other restaurant. For me, that is a last ditch option since most are full of fat and calories.
Week after week, I say to myself that I will plan my meals out which I NEVER do. Actually, that's not true. I tried it once and it lasted for about 2.2 days when I ended up forgetting to cook what I was supposed to cook.
I think I've come to that time in this post when I should have come up with some logical solution that should be helpful, not only to me, but to anyone who would read this. But guess what? I've got NOTHING.
Looks like I'm heading to the grocery store after work.
So, what's a girl to do? I could make breakfast for dinner. No thawing needed. However, this takes a trip to the store to buy a few supplies. I could thaw some chicken in the microwave, but I hate the way the edges cook during the unthawing process and I inevitably end up with a slab of meat that is tough in some places. We could have a meatless dinner, but again, no matter how I look at it, I have to go to the store. Of course, there is always the takeout option - pizza or Chinese or some other restaurant. For me, that is a last ditch option since most are full of fat and calories.
Week after week, I say to myself that I will plan my meals out which I NEVER do. Actually, that's not true. I tried it once and it lasted for about 2.2 days when I ended up forgetting to cook what I was supposed to cook.
I think I've come to that time in this post when I should have come up with some logical solution that should be helpful, not only to me, but to anyone who would read this. But guess what? I've got NOTHING.
Looks like I'm heading to the grocery store after work.
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