It's only Tuesday

I know, I said I would update on Monday. Hey, it's only Tuesday.

I got some free fabric from a wonderful lady. Two boxes worth! There were a lot of pieces that were perfect for scrap quilting. Actually, it was all good for scrap quilting. Some of the pieces were quite large. I knew I would get tired of some of them after putting them into several quilts. There had to be something else I could do. I found Little Dresses for Africa. So I started making these little dresses. They also ask for shorts for the boys. I have some denim and khaki material stowed away. I will have to get it out and use some cute "boy" material and make some shorts too. I want to do this before I mail the clothes off. Some other things I want to do is make grocery bags. Become a little more green in our day to day life.

Why is it so hard to do this protocol? I feel so much better when I follow the guidelines. It is a lifestyle change. I so enjoy potato chips and Fritos and potatoes, and bread and so many other high glycemic foods. I am doing a little better this week. I know part of my problem is Thanksgiving. Why follow the protocol when I'm gonna blow it next week? I know I'm gonna blow it, I plan on it. There is a remedy for that in the book. So I should be good and then fix it later. Diane Kress says she goes on vacation, doesn't worry about what she eats, and then does this remedy (my words) to get back into the routine. That is what I should do. I am impatiently waiting for her cookbook to come out. It will be available in January, 2011. I am sure it will be another excellent resource.

We are getting ready for turkey day and all the guests. I am supposed to be cleaning the living room. I have been sewing and posting instead. I am a bad schnitzengruben! I am so glad DH did not marry me for my domestic skills! The LR should take me a couple of minutes. We want to shampoo the carpets on Thursday (this week). That means Punkers will be locked in the bathroom. She is getting to be an old kitty, 15 in February and we are having issues. She doesn't always go in the kitty box and that gets old really quick. We now shut her in the bathroom overnite. We don't like finding "surprises" in the morning, they are usually found with bare feet, ugh! She also gets put back in the bathroom if we catch her being naughty. You would think she would hate the bathroom, but she goes in there on her own and has a shelf she sleeps on. She does a lot of sleeping. She is still very bright and lively, loves her food and attention, so her time is not up yet. We just have to make accommodations.
It does get frustrating. The potty box is in the room with her. She seldom uses it for poo. She gets in to pee. I don't really understand. She is the only one who uses that one. We want to keep the carpets relatively clean until after Thanksgiving.

We are going to go visit family in southeastern Washington during the first part of Thanksgiving week. Then home to start work on dinner for 10! this is gonna be fun! Later!

Time flies, ufda!

Oh my gosh! It has been such a long time since I posted. Life somehow gets in the way of the things we intend to do, doesn't it? I am doing this for me, so I will try to do better with my posts.

I did indeed finish the spiderweb quilt. Inspiration came from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.
I have gotten a lot of inspiration from her website. I also got DH quilt done. I need to take a picture of DH's quilt, so I will publish in a different post. I have stayed busy. I found the Snuggles Project. You can only make so many quilts for the ones you love, well not really. When they start rolling their eyes, you know you have almost reached that limit. LOL This allows me to make smaller sized quilts to experiment with design and quilting techniques. If they're not perfect, the animals don't care, they have a soft hug for their stay at the shelter. I am fortunate that our local shelter is a participant and I asked that the quilts go with them when they find their forever home. I have made several quilts for them (as you can see, I had a lot of purple) and am working on more even now. I got two boxes of fabric from a wonderful lady in Beaverton. There were a lot of black and white squares cut and sewed in twos and fours. I put them together for the black and white quilt. I really like how that one turned out. I have several projects going at the same time. I have to be disciplined to make sure I finish them. I have a bad habit of getting to the very last piece of a project and then leaving it for something else. At the moment I am working on a quilt for me (again) and in between I work on the shelter quilts. Then there are the projects that I am collecting fabric for and are still just in my head. We will see how that works out.

I moved my sewing machine out of my bedroom. I do not have a dedicated sewing room. I moved my machine to the family room. I was tired of being sequestered in my bedroom. I still do the ironing and cutting and such in my room. Since this is my hobby and I don't have to worry about time lines and being efficient, it works for me. It is about 28 steps from my cutting/ironing spot to my machine. So I am getting more steps into my life (good). My ironing/cutting spot is on the floor. so I have to get down there. That helps with flexibility (better). All of it helps to keep me out of the fridge (best)! I am working on a rag, string quilt at the moment. I am working on it one square at a time. For every string I put on the square, I have to sit on the floor to cut it in my room, get up and walk to my machine (28 steps), sit down to sew, stand up and walk back to the ironing board (another 28 steps), lower myself to the floor to iron and then repeat. When I worked on son J's quilt, I was just moving around my room and lost 10 lbs. I hope this and the Metabolism Miracle, will be even better at the weight loss.

I tend to start sewing after I have taken son N to school. With the up and down and walking, by the time he gets home, I am tired. It's a good tired! I do try to get some house work done in there too. I am writing this in dribs and drabs in between strings.

I really believe in the Metabolism Miracle. I feel so much better when I follow the protocol. Yet, the high carb processed foods are so easy to grab and eat. Then the relentless cycle begins. Eating a lot of carbs make you want and crave even more. It is the time of year for so many of those high carb comfort foods, I am determined to find alternatives and do this! I need to get as healthy as I can for me, my family, and my future.

Breakfast, today, was not to specs ( the first phase of the Metabolism Miracle). I had cheerios and milk. At least I did use Splenda. Lunch is to specs. I had sauteed vegetables (onions, garlic, mushrooms, Mexican squash, and tomatoes over tofu Shirtake noodles with fresh marinated mozzarella balls. Tomatoes can be an iffy factor with carbs so you can use only so much. One tomato per meal. I stayed within the parameters of "free" veggies, so no carbs I need to worry about! During the first phase of MM, you are trying to give your body a rest from overreacting to carbs and releasing insulin. I know when I did this the first time months ago, I could really feel the difference. You would think that would be enough of an incentive to keep going, not to mention the weight loss, better sleep, and such. It is difficult to keep to the MM when the rest of the household can eat almost whatever they want *sigh*.

DH just got done with a two month mandatory overtime and very intense, temporary project at his work. Twelve hour days are tough. The overtime was nice, but I'm not sure it was completely worth it. Then while he was working on the lawn tractor he somehow cracked his rib. It is amazing how that can effect your entire body. He refuses to slow down. He is such a hard-working selfless person. I am very lucky that he chose me and continues to do so despite my many flaws.

Thomas is in a mood today. He is ripping around the house, in and out. He'll come running thru then u-turn to go back the way he came. I will hear one of the cat doors go ka-thunk (front of the house) then mere moments later I hear the click-clack of the back cat door and around he goes again. He is such a funny cat. He just ran up and bumped my leg. He likes to head butt your leg while you sit, anywhere. If you ignore him he just might bite to get your attention. i almost always put my hand down to pet him so I won't get those "love" bites! XD

I'm gonna try to post at least once a week, so I need to get busy and see you next week!