Work.

Sunny!

Today we shipped Spring Drop bonnets, shaped more doll baskets, inventoried spring animal bonnets, and had a funny conversation with R about the time she accidentally outed me as a coffee drinker to Hubby. Oops!

She also said she loves my nose ring. I love it too. It makes me happy every time I look at it.

Today I Made: Cheat Day Baking: Brownies. I made half with Baileys Irish Cream chocolate chips and half with mint chocolate chips, and they're all duking it out in the oven right now.

Update: Happiness

Now I need to pack for the weekend and then I'll be ready for bed. Woot!

Seven Days In...

I'm loving the Slow Carb Diet. Hating the restrictions, but loving the effects. 

My mental health is so much improved that I'm almost afraid of what will happen after Cheat Day. 

Insomnia is gone. At night, I sleep like it's my job - at least eight hours. If I do wake up, I go back to sleep almost immediately. 

I'm rarely hungry - the food is filling, I can eat as much as I want (side bonus: no calorie counting), and I stay full longer. 

The big one: I'm finally a few pounds below a milestone weight that I've been hovering at and fighting forever. 

As trepidatious as I feel about the first Cheat Day coming up in two days (I skipped it last week since it was only Day 2), I'm looking forward to it - finding it to be a lifesaver, actually. 

It's really pretty amazing - and a good exercise in delaying gratification - to be able to tell myself, you can have anything you want. On Saturday. It works like a psychological miracle. 

"Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!" I love buying this stuff! I love having it under my bed and NOT TOUCHING IT. I am woman, watch me stash! This will be fun to plow through (not by myself, of course) on our trip this weekend.

In other news: C & R seem to have what hubby had last month, virus wise. They are down for the count and on day 3 of staying home from school. B & L, Baby R and Bella are all sick too. It's a bad one. Wash your hands!

Sick R: Maybe if I smoke crack, I'll feel better.

Me: Do you think it'd help?

Sick R: I think it'd make me forget.

Little Lamb ❤

Mr. C, beating his fool self up

This Baby Girl

It's All Fun and Games

...until the cops show up wearing tactical gear.

Goober whined like a nut job at the Cop Dog

H arrives home from work, sees eight police cars parked on our street

Turned out to be nothing (that we know of - and it was not for a lack of snooping)

Earlier, on our way home from school:

The AWESOMEST DOG DAD IN THE COUVE

THE DOG IS WEARING DOGGLES.

The blue thing the dog is wearing, we saw after we turned the corner, was a four-legged flight suit.

YES

Big, fluffy snowflakes are falling

...as of 7:15 am.

As of 5:00 pm:

(from the top floor deck of the library)

Really nice day at work today. We shipped all the Buttercup we could, then did prep work. 

Being So Laaaaaaazy.

Reorganizing and Other Stuff

Today I did some consolidating of kitchen drawer stuff, along with dishes and folding a stankload of laundry.

It's kind of amazing - and a bit frightening - how good this makes me feel. Even my cookie cutters are organized. Now if I can just keep everything that way (ahem, KIDS).

Also: I haven't eaten much sugar for the last few days, and yesterday I had none. I'm so focused and calm and happy right now, which is also wigging me out a little. I feel really great, and am motivated to take things on that normally overwhelm me. Just thinking back on what I've accomplished over the last two days, I am, again, amazed. 

Sugar is turning out to be quite the villainous substance.

None of this may seem like a very big deal, but for me and my brain, it's huge.

Speaking of being motivated, I decorated for Valentine's Day:

And, this showed up today. Can't wait to get started:

We went back to A Beer At A Time tonight. Hubby and R had pizza, I heroically ate a salad, and we played Yahtzee and Apples to Apples. 

The band was great, but we couldn't get anywhere near them! Fortunately they were loud.

Chill

So much chill. 

I'm catching up on housework and hoping to craft a bit as well. Of course the cats insist on helping. 

(Look, it's on TV again)

Then this one and her mom showed up:

....with her latest bonnet (Casablanca):

THOSE SUNGLASSES

 

Later: Hubby and I are having snacks and hanging out at A Beer At A Time in Camas, waiting to hear a local band. 

so excited :)

"I use antlers in all of my decorating"

So this was funny, I meant to listen to two guys from Vancouver Community Concert Band play with their band, and the whole time we've been trying to figure out which two are in the band. 

THEN, as we were sitting there, I reread the email, and the band we planned on seeing is playing here tomorrow. Oops. Guess we'll be coming back soon! 

This Amazing Winter Sunrise

We sat in the car for about five minutes, then Hubby noticed things had changed...

And we're off. 

Today was a short day at work, and I'm off tomorrow. It'll give me some time to practice for the high school solo and ensemble event I'll be attending next month. I'm accompanying one of R's classmates (possibly two) and as of now, I have a month to learn a six-page Mozart sonatina. I tried it out, though, and it wasn't too bad. A month will be more than enough to learn it.

R and I went to WinCo and I saw this car:

I want a canoe!! This guy is living my dream.

Then I snuggled this yummy snuggly girl, who was in rare snuggle mode. Usually she holds herself upright.

She started laughing in the last three weeks. It's so fun.

Later:

🍒