Vlog

Recently, I've been watching a lot of youtube videos, and one youtuber caught my eye.  Her name is Jennifer, and she was a Disney Princess years ago.  She started, back in October, a Fitness Weekly Vlog.  I have been having so much trouble keeping motivated to exercise, and while I'm not sure about a vlog, I do think that I might be more motivated if I was to go more public with my goals.

First, I have the diastasis recti, which means I cannot do certain exercises.  However, I haven't even been doing the light exercises that are supposed to help fix the problem (time is my biggest problem here... I'd rather do so many other things).  Also, I've been so focused on finishing the year end for the farm, the GST, doing our personal bookwork, trying to get other things done that exercise has taken a back seat.  Sad, I know.  Also, since I'm nursing, I just want to eat everything.  Still.  It's really bad.  And I haven't measured myself or weighed myself in a while, but last I checked I was still 15lbs heavier than when I got pregnant.  Usually by the time the baby is three months old, I'm within a pound or two of my pre pregnancy weight.  I have been feeling really down about this (because I haven't really had to work at it before, and I was expecting the weight to drop more than it has).  So, I really want to do something more about this.  Like eating healthier, and exercising.  But with any goal, I need to actually define it a little better so I can actually meet it.

I've been thinking of writing down all the foods I'm eating as it has been difficult for me to remember to eat healthy things, and if I write them down it may help.  Also, water.  I need to up my usual 6 cups back to 8.  As for exercise, I want to walk daily.  I'll start with 10 minutes, but I'd love to go up to 20 as I can find more time.  Also would like to do my workout videos again.  20 minutes a day.  Or my dance game for 20 minutes.  That would bring my total time to 30 minutes.  Since I cannot do certain exercises, I'll have to watch out for that.  My core is still really bad... my upper abdominal area is extremely loose and floppy.  I tried on a pair of my old jeans, and while I can button them up (yay!), there is so much loose stuff on top that I get a horrible muffin top (so I refuse to wear them right now until I can loose that muffin top. 

So, I'm wondering.  Should I attempt to do a vlog?  It would better show my physical progress (as long as I remember to wear similar clothing each time).  And I should really start to track my measurements and food.  Any suggestions?  Perhaps a notebook near the table?  Or does anyone have chart ideas that are easily printable?  I'm not sure how to do this.  I've done a chart before (can't track food easily on that as it is not large enough).  What do you do to keep and track your fitness goals?

Cake

This last week was a baby shower for a very special lady, and I was asked to make cake...

 

So I did.

 

 

I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and I hope to do an instructional on what I did later this month (perhaps... if my program will cooperate with me).  And it tasted yummy!  I really would like to find more cake recipes that blend other flavors that I can attempt for making nice cakes, but it needs to be a solid cake (I've tried other recipes that are just not solid enough for decorating... they want to fall apart and crumble too easily).

I was actually thinking that I'd love to do a facebook page with pictures of all the cakes/cookies I've decorated over the years, showing a progression of the decorating over time.  Is that a good idea, or a bad one?  I am NOT looking to do this as a job or anything... I get super stressed each time I need to make a cake for anyone else but my kids (because my kids love it even if it doesn't turn out exactly like I was aiming for).  I really want to start making cakes just for fun... something where I attempt new things for no reason whatsoever... however it is just so busy lately that if I have any time to do anything, I am not wanting to spend it working on cake (because interruptions during anything where one is working with food is not an easy thing to deal with, and when you have a 2 month old, a 2 year old, a 4 year old and a 6 year old, interruptions happen in abundance when you happen to find yourself in the kitchen).

I do really want to do more fun cakes, though.  Especially the flowers.  I love the flowers!  They turned out so well, and I've never done fondant flowers like these!  And the baby was a last minute thought that I put together the morning of the shower.  Made it while working on breakfast.  I was unhappy to see that it squished the head a little when we were driving (the ear squished... sniff), but it still turned out fairly well.  I need to learn more on sculpting babies to make them more realistic... or cute.  I didn't like the lips on this one, but I tried.  :)  It isn't as cartoony as my first fondant baby was... and I ADORE the little feet/bum.  ;)

What do you think?  I see myself making many more cakes in the future (hey, I have 4 kids now that I'll be doing cakes for now!), and I've noticed a lot of progression in my decorating style.

Now if only I could make the fondant smooth on the sides of the cake.  Perhaps I need to take a fondant course like I did with buttercream.

Blessed

I am so very blessed!  On Wednesday, my mom and my sister came over and cleaned my house for me!  I am so thankful!  I have not been able to properly dust my house in months it seems, and it is so nice to have everything clean and dust free!  While they cleaned my house, I cleaned my oven.  And then later on, mom stayed and held Baby B for me so I could nap.  Lately I'll get her down for a nap, and as soon as I lay down, she starts crying.  It makes sleep rather difficult.

The other day I came down the stairs to see all four of my kids playing/sitting/coloring, and I just thought to myself 'look at how blessed we are!  Look at those wonderful little people!  God has blessed us so much!'.  I just cannot get over it... we are a family of 6 here on earth (plus one in heaven, as my oldest two like to say).  I have given birth to these little ones... each with their own personality.  Each with their own likes and dislikes.  Each one different from anyone else in existence, and yet each of them similar to each other in one way or another.  I am a mom!

I am blessed!

Sure, it makes things difficult at times.  It's hard to get enough sleep, I get tired of doing laundry and cooking what feels like all the time, and I cannot seem to keep the house clean and clutter free for longer than one or two minutes (don't get me started on mopping the floor.  I've determined that it's just a fools' errand already, even though it does feel so nice to have clean floors even if it is only for 5 minutes tops).  But in the grand scheme of things... it doesn't matter.  These things are prime teaching tools... and not just for the kids!  I like to call my two year old a character builder.  She can sure frustrate the crazies out of me (sometimes I really feel like I'm going insane), but I have to exercise patience, love, kindness, and gentleness regardless of how I feel in that moment.  I still have a lot to learn, but I'm sure more will come as time moves on.

Life moves along.  Most often I just move along with it... but it is in those moments where I suddenly take a step back out of myself and just look at this family, these people, these blessings, when I feel full.  A small 'pause' in the fast paced world that is the life of a mom.  A moment that hits you, and then is gone, lingering in the back of the mind, making one wish they could get it back again in case you missed something. 

Here's to more moments like those.

Mom-E-xhaustion

Sometimes, I dream about being in a fairy tale.  You know, something like Sleeping Beauty... only I wish to fall asleep and have my Prince actually wait for a few days before waking me up.

 

Actually, eternal sleep doesn't sound too bad right now.

 

Speaking of 'sleep'...

 

How you know you've had an exhausting day... not even enough energy to take off your jacket and lay down somewhere besides the floor you were placed on.

 



 

Sunday was a very exhausting day for more than just me, it seems.  Baby A fell asleep in the van on the way home, and since I had to make 3 trips back and forth to get everything in the house, I put her on the floor (she woke up while I was carrying her), only to come in after carting in Baby B, the diaper bag, and various other things to find her fast asleep.  Poor peanut!

 

This has been one massively tiring week!  Baby A had her birthday, and I can still hardly believe she's 2 years old now!  I guess I should start thinking of her as a toddler now, even though she is still my lil peanut.  I baked cupcakes and cake for her, and since she just adores Olaf, we had an Olaf themed birthday.

 

 

For the first time, I 'cheated' with the cookies.  My husband found the Valentine's frozen 'bake them yourself' Pillsbury cookies with hearts in the centers of them for $1 per 24 pack, and bought 3.  I could hardly believe it!  I didn't have to do much to make cookies!  I printed a bunch of Olafs and put them on toothpicks onto the large cupcakes, then using parchment paper on top of another image of Olaf, I used white and dark chocolate to draw out a chocolate Olaf for the top of the cake.  Made a number of snowflakes similarly, and attached them to the sides of the cake afterwards.  Since I got a  bunch of Valentine's day stuff on sale, I used pink sweetheart candies to decorate the mini cupcakes and the table.  And doilies make lovely decorations, too.  I made pop cans into 3D snowflake decorations using my Snowflake cutter with my BigShot machine, and for relatively little work, we had a pretty dessert table (I was so happy).

 

I didn't want to do a big birthday party as I cannot handle a lot of people in my house all at once anymore.  Instead, we had my husband's parents over on Wednesday, his sister came down on Thursday (and we sang Happy Birthday with candles on a cupcake for her), then friends came down on Friday for supper (they have three kids all the same age as our oldest three!  The kids had a great time!).  Saturday was a baby shower for a friend of mine, and then Sunday we were going to have lunch with my family at our house, but I was so tired that my mom said we'd do it there, and I'd bring the cake (hence all the cupcakes and a cake, too.  Instead of one big party, we had 4 mini parties.  I'm so DONE).  It was hard since lately, all I want to do is hide in my house.  I absolutely love doing special cakes and themes and planning parties though... so what's a hermit wannabe to do? 

 

I still cannot believe my lil girl is 2 already!  Where did the time go?  I just love how much she is talking, dancing (she just loves to dance to the Frozen soundtrack), and she loves to give hugs to her baby sister (and crawl all over me whenever I wish to sleep or need to nurse the baby).  Her vocabulary is quite large already, and although we haven't started potty training yet, I really want to (having two in cloth diapers is quite the task).

 

Happy Birthday, Lil A!  You are a joy to watch grow, and will forever be my squishy (even when you don't want to, haha).



Happy Birthday, Baby A!

Baby A isn't a baby anymore!  She's a toddler!  A two year old peanut of a cutie patootie (that knows how to get under her brother's skin).  Lately, we have an obsession with Olaf, dancing to music (even music nobody else hears), climbing on mommy whenever she needs to nurse the baby or take a nap, and calling everything we want turned on, 'off'. 

And the words!  When did you learn to say so many words?!?  And how on earth did I come to understand your two-year-old speech around your soother?

A favorite in this house is 'cookie'.  And it astonishes me how some of A's words come out so clearly, that I'm looking for M thinking she was the one who said them.

Here are a few fun pics over the last couple of months.

Happy Birthday, sweet little peanut!  I love you, and look forward to seeing how much more you will grow in the years to come!