Quick Catch-Up

I know it has be AWHILE since my last update. I have good excuse though! My hobby side of my home business is booming, and I'm spending any spare moment filling orders. It's so incredibly exciting, especially to know that something that I concocted is in high demand. :) It's so consuming that I even dreamed I was making Collegiate-Inspired Pillowcase Dresses in my sleep last night! I'm so very blessed to be able to have my creative outlet, the means to do so, family that supports me and in the process make a few extra dollars. One lucky girl, I am.

However, I'm taking a pause in my day as hubs is of to hunt for the third time of the weekend, and Knox is amazingly still asleep for almost three hours! Just taking in some Bama football (which is re-diculous at this point--53 to 7? Come on, give poor North Texas a break! Haha!), noshing on some fresh homemade guacamole and washing it down with a ice cold adult beverage. Gosh, I love football Saturdays--especially when it rains and I'm in my cozy house. :)

Hope you have as fabulous of a weekend, as I am!

The Bama Collegiate-Inspired Pillowcase Dress, if you haven't seen it.

For more check out my creative blog by clicking on the button at the top that read, Great Day Graphics & Design

Bama Inspired Monogram--Just got a more girly circular font that I'll add to my other blog soon!

A for Effort in Health & Fitness

At the beginning of this year, I was "gazelle intense" with a workout regime, though Knox made it a wee bit difficult most days with crying a decent amount in Kidz Klub. So as I always do, health and fitness got pushed to a back burner--sadly. Now that we are wanting to expand our family someday in the near future, I think it's important I get back in gear.

I'd like to report that I have started to get it in gear again as of Monday. The pups and I have walked each morning for about 35 minutes. Lately, Knox has become infatuated with the Wii which is a blessing and a curse. Blessing because it entertains him and we are up getting some exercise, and curse because he throws a horrid fit when we turn it off no matter how long we've been playing. Yesterday I unlocked a new item on the Wii Fit called Free Run. I'm basically running in place and my little Wii character is just running on the screen with other little Wii people, but I know I'm trying to beat my previous score. That competitiveness in me gets me going. I throw on my iPod for some musical encouragement for a few extra 10 minute segments, and before I know it have had an hour of cardio for the day broken into two sessions. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I got a side stitch yesterday while doing my Free Run! Ha! Guess that's how out of shape I am!

Food's a little more difficult when eating on a budget, but definitely do-able. I'm also logging my food intake by using this great website tool. Perfect for me since I'm at my computer a lot during the day. My current favorite breakfast has been a Kashi Go-Lean 7 Grain Waffle (on sale with coupons) with reduced-fat PB (on sale) and half a banana (Aldi for 49¢/lb.) smeared on top of the waffle. Like a PB and 'nana sandwich, just with waffle instead of bread. YUMMMMM-O! AND I guess the added protein of the PB and whole grains of the waffle have me filling much more full through out the AM. Plus I've been downing some H2O, so I know that helps.

Last night's dinner was a complete success in terms of yumminess, healthfulness and family satisfaction. I was in the mood for some southern cooking, but obviously wanted it healthy. Yeah, right? Well, this is what I did. I had dried pinto beans (SO CHEAP!) and did the quick soak method on the package (I had Publix brand, but any brand works). To finish cooking the beans (according to the directions) I used the chicken stock I made last week--and nothing else besides salt! And they were DELISH! I only made a half bag thinking we'd have leftovers, but they were completely gone by the end of the night! Knox devoured a cup or more, I had a cup (I actually measured for once!) and Keith had the rest in two sittings! The only fat was from the chicken stock, and beans are so great for you--tons of protein and fiber!

In my world, if you have beans you have to have cornbread. It's a must. An unwritten law. I had some self-rising cornmeal and randomly looked up recipes. I found one on cooks.com and altered it a bit. This is all it read, but my alterations are in parenthesis:

Corn Bread

1 c. self rising cornmeal (cheap to begin with!)

1/2 c. vegetable oil (I used 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup No Sugar Added Applesauce)

2 eggs (I did use real eggs--79¢ at Aldi, but it could easily be subbed with Eggbeaters)

1 c. cream style corn (I didn't have creamed corn, but did have TONS of cans of regular corn--on sale with coupons.)

1/2 c. sour cream (I used reduced fat--on sale with coupons)

(I added 1 T. Splenda--on sale with coupons--and one large pinch of salt)

Mix and bake at 350 degrees until browned. (I tried that for 25 minutes but wasn't set up in the middle. Package read 375 degrees, so I upped the temp and backed for probably 10-15 more minutes. I would probably start temp at 375 next time.)

It was one of the most yummy and moist piece(s) of cornbread I've ever had! Don't be scared of the applesauce, you don't taste it AT ALL! A great way to cut down oil in most any baked good, but be sure to use some oil. For the corn, I used my hand emersion (sp?) blender right in the can after I drained almost all of the liquid out. Plus you get the added benefit of the regular corn, so you get a few more veggies in without knowing it!

I added a salad to all this yumminess for a complete healthy, vegetarian meal! Plus Hubs and Wild Man were full and satisfied! YAY!

Loves To Share

Knox was so cute during this afternoon's snack, I just had to share what I caught on video. I hope he always remembers to be this giving as he continues to grow.

This is my first video to post, so I hope it works! Make sure your volume is on, so you can hear my country-accented commentary. :)

A fun weekend with Grammy & Grandaddy

We had the pleasure of Keith's parents, Debbie & Tony (aka Grammy & Grandaddy) come stay the weekend with us.  Their visits are always full of fun times, shopping and mucho good food.

Knox was able to perform to his fullest, once he figured out that "these people" that came to see him were people he had seen before.  His separation anxiety was not as bad as it has been, but he still needed a little time to warm up.  Knox showed them how he could push his little walker and how he now plays with his exersaucer--standing on the outside of it.

We "managed" to make it to the Discover Mills Outlet Mall (comparable to Opry Mills, to those of you who have been there) so Keith and Tony could play at Bass Pro Shops and use gift cards Tony acquired for his retirement, and so Debbie and I could do a little shopping for ourselves and a lot of shopping for the wild man.  Debbie LOVES shoes and is letting her love of shoes fall onto Knox, which makes me happy!  As much as Knox loves to be my sweet little redneck in no shoes and no clothes, I know he needs to get used to wearing shoes since he's so close to walking all over the place.  Debbie had brought with her four pairs of shoes from The Clothes Pen in Pulaski to see if any would be a good fit for Knox.  Let me just tell you that wiggle worm would NOT stay still long enough for us to put a shoe on one foot.  If we did get close, he little foot was so balled up we weren't able to tell if it actually fit or not.  We found a Stride Rite in the mall and a perfect pair of new kicks for Knox there.  They open really wide so I can shove his entire foot in before he realizes it.  He wore them out Saturday night and on Sunday while he and I ran a few errands.  Knox looks so much more like a little boy, than a baby, when he's wearing his shoes with a shorts and top outfit (an upclose view of the kicks are the first pic on this post and my little boy shots are at the bottom.)

I prepared a nice meal Friday evening so we could stay at home and just enjoy each others' company.  It was a yummy meal of pork tenderloin, homemade mac n' cheese, roasted veggies and wheat rolls with honey butter, complete with a brown sugar pudding cake (a new recipe courtesy of Southern Living).  That started of my weekend of being stuffed to the gills of good food.  We had Chick-fil-a Buffet for breakfast Saturday and ate at Chili's and Red Lobster for our remaining meals that day.  I made a new breakfast casserole for Sunday's breakfast which was good, but very different.  I'm still trying to decide if I would make it again, but it's an entire breakfast in one.  Hard boiled eggs, bacon, potatoes, cheese sauce and soft, homemade bread crumbs are all the components.  Oh well.

These last few pictures happened after Grammy and Grandaddy had left, but I had to share.  Now this is not the first time that wild man has played with the toilet paper, but it is the first time he has unrolled it to this extent.  He was only out of my sight for at most 2 minutes and I heard him playing so I wasn't too concerned.  He was having a blast!  I'm just glad I got to him before he started trying to eat it, like he normally does.