The Beginning to An End

I bought a Gold Gym Circuit Trainer Mini Trampoline Thursday afternoon, and have worked out each day since, except for yesterday. Yesterday was our big Breakfast/B'day Party/Grad Party Bash that my family was throwing before my brother,sil, and their two kids leave for Africa. I won't see them for at least five more years, and I'm going to miss them tremendously. In fact so bad, that I'm about to cry, just typing this.

Anyhoo, I bought this trampoline, because I have 100 pounds exact to lose, and walking 4 miles a day, with a five year old in tow, is not possible. His poor legs get sore quickly, and it's been in the 90s around here lately. So, I chose to get something that I could do inside that not only make working out a little more fun, but  also allowed me to include my kiddos. Just got off the thing and plan to get back on in a few :)

I've tried and tried so many times before, to lose this weight. This is the beginning to a new start, and an end of the unhealthiness.

I'm going to include my fave verse with this post: I can do anything through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13

THIS IS THE BEGINNING TO AN END!

A New Little Friend

Three weeks ago, when my hubby sent me shopping for myself (something I've not done in a long time), I bought a new outfit for myself. I love the new outfit, the problem is, I didn't enjoy the shopping one bit, and I most definitely didn't like what I saw in the mirror either. I detest myself for allowing myself to gain as much weight as I have in the past 12 years.

Anyhoo....I decided then and there, I had to work harder to lose the weight, especially for my health. It's been raining alot here lately, so I've been busting my fanny, using the Wii and working out with weights. I had to stop the weights though, because I hurt my arm, so it was just the Wii, until today. Last night I asked hubby to watch the kids do their studies, while I go walking at the track across the street from us (something I haven't done since March), he said no problem. 

I was determined to push myself and walk 4 miles. I asked God for the strength, because I knew I would probably give up at two. I grabbed my smartphone (has MP3 on it), headset, wallet, and keys, and off I went. I did get in the four miles, with only my feet aching. 

This little guy decided to join me the first two miles.....I guess he just couldn't hack the other two, LOL. He belongs to someone who lives around the track, and he's played with my children before. He's sweet as can be :)

Mother's Day 2012

First of all, I'd like to wish a Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!!

Three years ago, I started a tradition for Mother's Day. I take a photo with each of my children (except my stepchildren, because they're with their mother on Mother's Day), this way I will have a photo with each of them for every year. That way, when I'm old, feeble, and absent-minded, I'll have memories of me and my blessings, LOL. This year, I decided to include my new little furbaby, Trixi :).

You can click the photo, to view in bigger size.

Pork Steak and Potatoes in Onion Gravy

Made this for tonight's meal, along with some canned, seasoned mixed greens. I found the recipe here.

The only thing I tweaked on here was, I used two packages of onion soup mix, since I used this big of a pan. Had to do this, because the three pork steaks I used were so big, they literally covered the bottom of the pan. Hubby (a meatcutter at Piggly Wiggly) cut these pork steaks and most all our meat, at work. They turned out delicious!!

This Morning's Breakfast: Quick and Easy Pigs in a Blanket

I had an extra can of crescent rolls left, from my recipe encouraged shopping trip, so I decided to bake them for the kids and I this morning. While rolling them up, I got the idea to unroll them, and add a frozen sausage link (I usually always have these on hand, since their only $1 at Save-a-Lot) to every crescent roll.

I've never had these before, but I must say, they were delicious! The kids loved them, that made them even better :)

Last Night's Dessert: No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

I decided to try this last night, and I'm glad I did! The entire family loved it!

The original recipe can found here, you will need to read these. The directions on that site said to separate into cups or bowls, but I chose to make mine in a pie plate.

The ingredients I swapped are as follows:

1. Instead of Oreo cookies for the crust, I chose to mix graham cracker crumbs (much healthier than Oreo cookies) with the unsalted butter. I didn't really measure the crumbs, just mixed until I was happy with the crust texture.
2. I used fat free cream cheese (not really swapped, but chose the healthier one).
3.  I used fat free frozen whipped topping for the mixture and the garnish (not really swapped, but chose the healthier one).
4. I used chocolate flavored almond bark for the garnish, instead of regular chocolate (I figured that was healthier).
5. I couldn't find hazelnuts in our stores around here, so I swapped them for pecans.

P.S. I don't have a pie server (not yet anyways), so I had to use a stainless steel spoon, but if you use this recipe, I strongly recommend using a pie server. It will be much easier to loosen the graham cracker crust from the bottom.

Hot and Hearty Southwest Beef Pie

I made this for supper one night last week, fudged it up, so didn't end up blogging about it. So, decided to give it another try, and it turned out perfect.

This is not my original recipe, but this is my tweaked version of the original recipe (hubby brought it home from work several months ago, and I'm just now trying it.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground sirloin
1 can (15 to 16 oz.) chili beans in chili sauce or chili beans mixed with chili sauce (I had to do the latter, because I couldn't find the first)
1 can (14.5 to 15 oz.) chili ready tomatoes, undrained
11 oz. can of Mexican-style corn, drained
1 and 1/2 cans of crescent rolls (actually 11 triangles, as you pull them apart).
Shredded Cheddar-Jack cheese with jalepeńo peppers or shredded mexican style cheese ( again, I used the latter, because I couldn't find the first)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Brown ground sirloin in large nonstick skillet or stainless steel skillet, sprayed with olive oil non-stick cooking spray, over medium heat until done. Drain. Add beans, tomatoes, and corn; bring to boil. Cook and stir for 10 minutes or until almost dry. Separate crescent roll into 11 triangles; place in 9 inch pie pan with narrow tips toward center. Press edges to seal. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Spoon beef mixture onto crust; top with cheese. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Kute Kittens

I've had Tosha since she was at least 6 weeks old, picked her up from the side of the road, where someone put her out, back in 2009. She used to be my baby, until she had babies of her own at 6 or 7 months. Once pregnant, she became distant, but still likes to be babied some, especially after she's had a litter. She just had her 4th litter almost 5 weeks ago.

 Meet Trixie, Roly-Poly and the Un-named. Trixi is my baby, I'm giving Roly-Poly to my younger brother, because the one I gave him last year was killed. Roly-Poly was named by my kids, because he loves to roll, alot! My brother was visiting us last week, and said the kitten could keep that name :). Un-named is literally unnamed, because I'm giving him to my mother for her birthday. I also gave her a kitten last year, and a snake killed him last week. She's never loved a cat like she has that one, and she's so upset about losing him. Anyhoo, on with the pics :)

 Tosha's been keeping the kittens in our shed, feeding them several times a day. We've been going in their, petting them and getting them used to human contact, since early last week. We even tried to have them stay inside, but hubby and 10 year old have asthma. The kittens started getting to both of them, so I moved them back to the shed the day before yesterday.

Today, we took them to the back yard, and let them run around, and play. Roly-Poly and Un-Named are both a little jumpy, but Trixi isn't afraid of anything.

 We're gonna try and move Trixi back inside once she's 6 weeks old, because we think the other two may be what's bothering hubby and 10 year old. Since the kittens  are so differently colored, we're thinking Tosha may have concived back to back, from two different males. This is her first litter with a tabby, all the other litters were from a black and white stray, that stirs up the entire family's allergies. The male tabby is the neighbor's cat and has never bothered our allergies and asthma.

Anyhoo, just thought I'd share what we were up to today, besides the norm (schooling and such).

~Until next time, God Bless!

Today's Homeschool Craft Project: Recycled Crayons

Today, we decided to have a craft class session. We recycled crayons for this session, using these  instructions from My Magic Mom.

We've always thrown away the broken crayons, then I found this blog on Pinterest this morning, and we decided to give a whirl. We really enjoyed it, and now we know what to do with broken crayons :).

This Week's Homeschool Home Economics Project - Homemade Play Doh

Ingredients include: 1 cup flour, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, 1 tbsp. cooking oil, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup water, and food coloring (optional). 

Directions: Mix the flour, salt, ad cream of tartar together. Mix the cooking oil and food coloring in the water, and add to dry ingredients. Stir and pour mixture in an electric skillet or non-stick pan on medium heat ( I don't have either, so I sprayed my stainless steel pan with cooking spray). Stir constantly until dough pulls away from sides of skillet or pan. (This process usually takes 3 minutes - according to recipe, it didn't for us, probably 1 minute and a half). Empty dough onto wax paper (again, I don't have any, so I used aluminum foil). Knead until smooth and cool. Store in zip-lock bag (or a bowl, like I did).

Kids and I just made this, it was a ton of fun!!

P.S. We used red and blue food coloring, to make a lavender color :)

Practically Guilt Free - No Bake Pizza

Kids and I just made this for our supper, twas delicious!!!

Ingredients include 8oz. low fat or fat free flavored cream cheese, 1 cup low fat or fat free sour cream, 1 whole wheat Italian pizza shell, 1 (12 to 12.5 oz) can drained grilled chicken, chopped yellow, green, red, and orange bell pepper, chopped baby carrots (optional), chopped red onion (optional), and quartered cherry tomatoes. (I didn't measure the veggies, just filled the pizza up to our liking), and 1 cup bacon toppings.

Directions: Mix cream cheese and sour cream together, well. Spread mixture evenly over pizza shell. Top pizza with chicken and veggies, then sprinkle the bacon over the pizza.