Weight Loss Wednesday....#1

On Friday 28th March 2014 something wonderful happened. Something that has been burnt into my memory. Something I refer my mind back to when things get a little, erm, testing.

The day before, on the Thursday I had a nasty tummy bug and had been sick as a dog. Ugh, as a dog. This was not the wonderful thing. I'm not that peculiar! No, the wonderful thing was that on the Friday morning, in my fuzzy sick person's stupor I stood on my bathroom scales. I can remember it clearly, the light wasn't on when I looked down and initially I thought I'd gone batty. That maybe my poorly-ness was confusing my senses, but no, I turned on the light, checked again and the scales definitely and categorically said 9st 13 lbs. Those treacherous wonderful scales, that I love and loathe in almost equal measure. 

Just to give you some background I'd started my "big diet" back in August 2013 after those scale-y bastards had pronounced that I'd eaten my way up to a whopping 12 stone 3 lbs. the heaviest I've ever been. 

I'd worked hard, used My Fitness Pal and Map My Walk to track my diet and exercise and eventually I'd managed to get myself down to a weight that I considered to be much more acceptable.

9 stone 13 lbs. There's a 9 in that. Only *just* a single figure, but nevertheless the smallest I'd been since my twenties. Even though I was ill I was pretty flippin smug about that!! 

Now my rational mind knew that I'd achieved this dizzying height by throwing up solidly for a number of hours. Bummer. Still, once I'd stopped being ill I managed to hover around 10 st 1lb for a little while. Then we had Easter and take away. And quite a lot of birthday cake. And the tiniest smidge of booze....

I knew I'd put on weight. I could tell. Weight always goes to my tummy first and I could *feel* it. Wobbling around me. Today I decided that I had to do something about it, so I took my little piggy butt down to Boots and got myself weighed. On the big scales. On the "Tell No Lies" scales. 

The news wasn't good. Since my best ever weigh in I've gained 9 pounds. Ugh. So not good. 

The readout also gives me my BMI and my bodyfat percentage. Not terribly useful in the grand scheme of things, but important to monitor I think. 

So today in back on it. And to enforce my commitment I'm joining in with #WeightLossWednesday over at Twice The Mum. 

Today I've had a good strict day food-wise and I've accrued an extra 199 calories in exercise. Hopefully, despite being away this weekend, I'll be able to keep in top of things and report a loss next week. 

Wish me luck!!!

The Week That Was - You've got a little something on your face...

For the first time this week I'm linking this post up with The Week That Was Captured over at Make Do and Push.  I've done so many of these weekly posts now and I can't work out how I only just discovered this link up!  I thought they would fit perfectly so I'm happily joining in the fun!

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - Bank Holiday Monday!  Yay!  This meant Mr Husband was at home so we were lucky enough to be able to spend another day with him.  He is good. We pottered about, ate roast beef. Bought the children new clothes and enjoyed ourselves doing very little. 

Tuesday -  Back to the old routine! Biscuit to school, Wiggles and I to baby group. We took my new neighbour Jill along who was ace and not at all phased by new Mummies. I got to have a cuppa and a catch up with my Mum chums, yay! Wiggles had a monumental nap afterwards, but not before scoffing scrambled eggs with gusto! Our lovely hairdresser came over and cut my hair & Mr Husband's. I decided to start gradually raising the angle if my cut to go up at the back and down at the front. Here are my before and after pictures: 

Now I know these aren't the best pictures, a phone shot is never easy, particularly when you're trying to get the back of your head! But it does illustrate the shape change. It's a gradual process though, a few more months, a couple more cuts and it should be closer to the overall look I'm after. It IS quite short though!!  

What do you think? I also coloured it just before taking the later pictures (L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss No. 323 Dark Chocolate if you're interested). I've used this colour before and I really like it, lovely and dark, but with no coppery or reddy tones which I hate on me. Mr Husband made excellent use of his time whilst I faffed about doing all this and watched The Hobbit again.

Wednesday - Work. I forgot my phone and felt like I'd lost my right arm for most of the day! I went out at lunchtime and succumbed to buying two Frozen t-shirts for Biscuit, a new little outfit for Wiggles and a pretty little necklace for me from H&M. Here's her favourite of the t-shirts, she LOVES it! 

Thursday - After dropping Biscuit off I came home and tidied up a little befits going to Tilly's house for a cuppa. Just before leaving Wiggles did this:

Yep, permanent marker. Ugh! It came off after rubbing at her vigorously with a baby wipe! Tilly and I had a good catch up before we headed home for lunch and a nap. Biscuit started watching Frozen AGAIN after school and I made Toad in the Hole, YUMMERS!

Friday - Work for me. I had to make three separate trips to the cinema to get tickets for Biscuit and I to see Muppet's Most Wanted on Saturday. Grrrr! Got there in the end though. It was an otherwise dull day. I stopped off at the supermarket on the way home to pick up The Lord of The Rings Lego set Mr Husband had ordered. I love that man. 

Saturday - I took Biscuit to the cinema armed with popcorn and copious amounts of sweets! We watched Muppet's Most Wanted it was marvellous! I bought a fabulous dressing gown from the chazza, £2.50, woooo! I can't resist a bit of quilting!! In the evening Mr Husband and I enjoyed a Chinese takeaway and a completely delicious pear cider, sneakily housed in a Babycham glass.  Any excuse! 

It was a proper lovely evening to end a proper lovely day! 

Sunday - I got to have a lovely long sleep in the morning.  I cleaned downstairs ready for friends to visit the following night then I took Biscuit out to a birthday party.  She wore a dress given to her for her birthday by Tallulah and she looked adorable!  After collecting her we came home, had tea and the girls had baths.  A very quiet Sunday really, but I feel like I got plenty done, so that's good.

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

17/52

 A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

17/52

Easter this year, in their Easter Bonnets, looking distracted by the chocolate.  After I'd taken this I realised it reminded me of something.  I later realised how much it reminded me of last year's portrait, taken at Easter time (13/52 then, Easter was earlier in the year).  It made me chuckle to see how little had changed, Biscuit looks distracted and away from the camera, Wiggles tucks in regardless.  And yet so much has changed, they looked so small, both of them! Wiggles was still very much a baby and even my big girl just looks like a dot.  How lovely this project is for capturing them as they grow.

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

Currently....#39

Hello Lovelies!

It's Currently time!!  Pop and see my two lovelies Lindsey from Ot and Et and Randalin from Harvesting Kale to see what it's all about.  

This week's themes are:  Making, Eating, Enjoying, Hiding, Noticing...

I've been making a little more space in the drawers in Wiggles' bedroom. I'm trying to get ready to decorate in there soon. I've bagged up three BIG bags of clothes to pass onto Dinky. Some were quite hard to part with, but I've been brutal. If it's not aged 18 - 24 months then it's got to go. Can't have my kiddo looking squished into her clothes!

Easter has meant we've been eating all the traditional things for the time of year. Easter Eggs (obvs) Hot Cross Buns and Simnel Cake. I really have to stop eating soon. I have it in my mind that as soon as the weather heats up I'll lose the desire to fill my face and be content just to nibble on a chive or two every now and then,

I may be a little bit tragic, but I've been really enjoying getting back to our usual routine. It feels like it's been the Easter holidays for a long time and I've sort of missed the to and fro of an ordinary day. I like the structure of taking Biscuit to school, picking her up and then enjoying spending the weekend all together.

Hmmm....hiding. What, if anything, have I been hiding? Erm....my wild desire to be a go go dancer? My incurable hatred of Disney films? One of these two things might actually be true. The other, not so much. I'll leave it to you to work out which is which!!

Sometimes I think I walk around blindly without noticing anything very much at all. I suppose I've been trying to put more effort into noticing how the people around me are feeling. Lucky's Mum has been poorly, Impressive E has been struggling with a wilful baby Beetle who refuses to sleep, plus a house move on top. I've been trying to pay attention to what they might need from me as a friend. Asking how things are? If I can help? Or just sympathising. It's all too easy (for me) to be switched off to others feelings. I could easily not notice how things are going in other's lives. I can get kinda wrapped up in me and us sometimes. I have to kick myself into remembering we're not the only peeps who exist.

So come on, if you haven't before, why not give it a go!  Join in? 

The Week That Was - Two Birthdays & A Bunny...

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - Wiggles, Biscuit and I had a lazy morning pottering around. At lunchtime I took Biscuit to the doctor's to get her some medicine for what turned out to be a nasty chest infection. I came home and made both girls have a nap. Ha! I forgot to mention that I finished Baby Schubert's ripple blanket yesterday didn't I? Here's a belated unrelated picture:

Where was I? Oh yes! In the afternoon we went to visit my office and the met Tallulah for a cup of coffee. After coming home I rushed straight back out to help with a WI meeting in the local village hall. It was dull and tiring and I escaped as soon as humanly possible! Mr Husband and I watched Game of Thrones and scoffed an Easter Egg together. Lovely job. 

Tuesday -  My Birthday, hurrah!! Me Husband and my little pickles woke me up with kisses , slobber and presents. Lovely! I stayed in bed, drank tea and fiddled about with my new camera (present). For lunch Mr Husband took me to the most amazing seafood restaurant on an island a short drive away. I knew it was going to be good when we pulled up outside and this was the sign.

Inside it was so lovely! Quiet, rustic and comfortable. A bit like sitting in your Granny's front room! But the staff and chef were great, they knew how to make you feel right at home. Mr Husband had prawns to start whilst I had chilli squid, I can't tell you how delicious it was! I had a lovely glass of local wine. Then we both had lobster. Now this was a BIG thing for us. For years we've been saying that we'd like to try lobster, but we never have. It was lovely, it really was.  And it felt like a real treat.  It made my birthday feel really special.  And there's something lovely about sneaking off for a child free lunch isn't there?  

Wednesday - We didn't do a great deal in the morning, we pottered around a bit and took it quite easy. In the afternoon Biscuit went to a little chum's birthday party at a local Frankie & Benny's. She enjoyed it, but I couldn't help but think she's a little young for meals out like that? She's still into party games and running around "dancing".

Thursday - My darling oldest daughter's 6th birthday! She requested pink milk and cocoa pops in bed, the little love!

 After a lot of present opening Biscuit's little friend E popped over to play whilst her Mummy did my Mum's nails! They had a lovely time. After she'd gone Nana and Grandad came over, literally for ten minutes to give Biscuit her presents. We then headed out to catch a train and meet Lucky, Dinky, Star, Impressive E, Woolly and Beetle at a park a little way away for a picnic. It was lovely.

 We had wine, they had cake, played on the slide and the swings then we went around the nature reserve. After getting the train home Mr Husband and I took Biscuit and Wiggles to MacDonald's (as requested) which they adored! We came home completely pooped! 

Friday - I made the most of Mr Husband being at home and got on with heavy duty cleaning - minus Wiggles! Far easier to concentrate without my little helper! I wrote to Tesco to complain about the deeply pants fruit the delivered the day before. What can I say, I was bored! Want to read my email? Course you do!! Here goes:

Good Afternoon, 

The order number detailed above was delivered to me yesterday evening. Today, I went to eat a banana from the bunch I purchased only to discover that nearly every banana in said bunch had split open lengthways. I cannot eat them and I certainly cannot feed them to my children. If I had pigs I would be dubious about feeding your crappy open bananas to them on the off chance that a tarantula might crawl out of one of the open skins. Or worse that the open skins may have allowed a tarantula to access to my bananas to lay her eggs inside. I would then be feeding bananas filled with tarantula eggs to pigs I don't actually own, doubtlessly infesting them too. I have photographed the problem and given a suitable email address I can forward you my picture to illustrate. Just to clarify the picture will be of the rubbish bananas you sent me, not of mythical spider riddled pigs. 

This is beyond frustrating. I no longer have faith in your fruit. And I'm now hungry. And there is a possibility that my potassium levels have dipped to a dangerously low point, although I admit, this is unlikely. 

Seriously though, sort it out. 

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Kate Grumpy-Pants

Apart from that we did nothing, we were still shattered from the day before! 

Saturday - Because we'd stayed in on Friday we decided to head off National Trust-ing! We went to an ancient burial mound. What possessed us I'll never know, it was dull, dull, dull! So boring I only took one photograph! And that's not worth posting. Plus it was freezing cold and full of loud obnoxious people. We stopped of at the supermarket and bought a car picnic. Wiggles and Biscuit stuffed themselves! Tesco replied to my email. The humour-less bastards refunded me £1. I am SO lucky! We came home, ate pasta and put the Smalls to bed. Mr Husband and I watched Endeavour and ate Galaxy. Very nice! 

Sunday - Easter Sunday!!! It is traditional in our house for my Mum to organise an Easter Egg hunt in her lounge.  The only rule is that you don't have to touch any of her "precious things" to locate eggs.  Biscuit has always loved this little event, but this year Wiggles was old enough to enjoy joining in too!  It was really sweet to watch them joining in with their buckets in hand.

We had lunch with my Mum, Dad and Brother and afterwards Mr Husband watched the football.  In the evening we watched crap telly and ate mountains of chocolate, can't complain about that!

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

16/52

 A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

16/52

16/52

Both Biscuit and Wiggles at the swings for Biscuit's Birthday picnic.  Biscuit looks cute with cake and Wiggles steals cake and looks cute in a hat!  A good day had!

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

The Week That Was - Coughs, Colds & Colouring....

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - The first day of the Easter holiday so Biscuit was home from school. The weather was typically terrible so we were all cooped up at home. Wiggles doodled a bit, dressed as a Princess both things she really loves doing: 

We watched endless Disney/Tinkerbell films until I eventually went stir crazy and insisted that we go to the supermarket for a change of scene! 

Tuesday -  We were supposed to be going to Dee's house, but nothing quite went to plan! My new neighbour Jill popped over as she'd heard that there was usually a toddler group nearby, but she couldn't find it! I explained that there was a two week break for Easter and invited her in for a cuppa. She seems lovely! She has a little boy a bit younger than Wiggles. After she'd left we all popped into Tilly's house quickly and had a cuppa with her and Mrs Robinson. That was pretty much all we did, apart from very boring cleaning!! 

Wednesday - Work for me. Nothing of interest happened. The two small people stayed with their Gran which they loved. They got to go to the park so they were happy! Mr Husband watched football in the evening so I had a lovely early night. 

Thursday - Poor little Wiggles had a terrible night cough, cough, cough. She was tired when we got up, poor sausage. Biscuit went with Mum to watch an Easter pantomime at my brother's day centre. I took Wiggles to the Doctor where she diagnosed "crackles" on one of her lungs. She gave her antibiotics, which hopefully will help her. We spent the rest if the day being quiet and taking it easy.  

Friday - Work for me. Biscuit has now started cough, cough, coughing. Wiggles has started to improve. I go to work and *gasp* there was NO curry man!!! No curry!! Thankfully Mr Husband offered to buy a takeaway instead. Phew. I got home in time to cuddle both forks and kiss them goodnight. Sometimes long days can be hard. At least it was my last day off until after Easter. 

Saturday - I had a lovely lay in. Mr Husband was going to Wembley to watch football. After a yummy bacon and egg sarnie he headed off. We went to the  allotment and met Impressive E and Impressive D. I pottered around a little and did a little weeding. Wiggles had a sleep in her buggy and even poor little Biscuit had forty winks snuggled up under picnic blankets. We came home and had sausages and mash for tea followed by allotment rhubarb and custard. Wiggles was really making me laugh asking for an 'ug! She loves a cuddle! I put them to bed, then enjoyed a lovely cold bottle of San Miguel and watched the Crime Channel snuggled on the sofa. 

Sunday - The kiddies and I got up and left Mr Husband to sleep. When he got up Mr Husband popped to the shops and bought us lunch. After we'd eaten we headed out to see Aunty Shubert, Uncle Schubert and their new little baby boy The Littlest Schubert. Lis, Neat and their two gorgeous girls BB and Fee were there too. It was so lovely to see everyone. Sadly our two, who've not been all that well, weren't the best behaved. Tired I think. 

You can see Biscuit had definitely reached her limit by this point!! 

We came home fed them up and gave them an early night! 

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

15/52

 A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

15/52

15/52

Wiggles celebrates the garden and the sunshine with her partner in crime.  Biscuit celebrates the box.  They do so love a box.

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

Currently....#38

Hello Lovelies!

It's Currently again!  Pop and see my two lovelies Lindsey from Ot and Et and Randalin from Harvesting Kale to see what it's all about.  

This week's themes are:  Dropping, Making, Wearing, Kissing, Keeping...

I am forever dropping plates and bowls and anything smashable. However, this week, typically I haven't dropped a single thing! One thing you can always guarantee me to drop is my crochet hook. I drop my hook about forty times a night. Sometimes it's easy to find, sometimes the flippin thing wedges itself down the side of my sofa cushions and I get proper stroppy trying to find it. See this: 

It's the new stitch I've been learning: the ripple. On this little test piece I dropped my hook twice. It only took me twenty minutes! Ugh! 

I didn't think this through....I've been making ripple stitch blankets. Surprise!!! 

I've been wearing thick tights. Still. It's always hard to get me to ditch my tights, even in the height of summer. Right now it's that awkward the if year when it's sunny but chilly, so hard to know what to do with your legs! I've also been wearing snot stained tops. I have two darlings with runny noses. It's impossible to avoid hidden snot trails under such circumstances! 

Kissing? Erm. Well Mr Husband, obvs. Small snotty faces. And, erm, Lucky after a few gins: 

Lastly I've been keeping up to date with all the birthdays. This time of year it seems to EVERYONE'S birthday and it's quite hard to keep on top of them all and not forget anyone. I think I'm there. At least I hope! 

So come on, if you haven't before, why not give it a go!  Join in? 

The Week That Was - String Bags, Suspicious Sambucca and Super Geeks...

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - We dropped Biscuit off at school and after a little general tidying we walked the dogs with Mum. Wiggles showed off her slide skills! At lunch time Mr Husband cake home from work feeling poorly, he'd caught the big poor sausage! He went straight to bed. I took Wiggles and Biscuit dancing and used the oven timer to roast a chicken for our return home. I started to make a string bag from a pattern in a book leant to me by Impressive E. I (rather smugly) managed to finish it the same night! Dead pleased ! 

Tuesday -  School for Biscuit, baby group for Wiggles and I. I started another string bag (obsessed) for Impressive E. Mr Husband started to feel a little better. Yay! Finished my bag off in the evening:

Wednesday - Work for me. My favourite chazza has turned into a vintage only shop so I paid my first visit on my lunch break. It was great! I can tell it's going to be a favourite! LB let me park in her space so it felt like I was there and back to work in no time. I rather like that! 

Thursday - Biscuit to school followed by her church assembly where Wiggles and I went to listen. After we came home we spent the morning with my Dad whilst Mum was out and I (rather brilliantly) suggested a way of extending their house to give them a little more space. Dad got very excited, drawing plans to scale and flapping about with take measures! After school there was an Easter Egg hunt in aid of the local nursery. I took both girls and they loved it! 

Friday - Work for me in the morning as usual, but then yay! I had the afternoon off!! I walked into town to get Mr Husband a curry for his lunch and decided to treat myself to a posh steak sandwich. It was delicious! You know those sandwiches that never want to end? I came home and surprised Wiggles, it was lovely she was so excited to see me. She then proceeded to go through my bag whilst I wasn't looking put on my work ID, my glasses (upside down) and march back through to where I was sitting shouting "allo!" It was so funny. She looked like a goggle eyed loon! 

I had to make my Mum promise that I don't look like that in my glasses. I went down to collect Biscuit from school on my own as it was her teacher's last day at work before having a baby. We had cake and Easter Eggs and it was a lovely send off for her. I hope! After putting the children to bed I got ready to go out. Ash came over first, followed by Lucky, followed by Tilly.  We had a great night, but let's just say I a managed to over do it a bit (no tea, fool!) so felt rotten the next day! Yes I was sick.  A fully grown adult, puking like a teenager.  Oh the shame!  The utter shame!  At least I am old enough to know how to be discreetly sick, so that's a plus point.  I think...

Silly girls!

Ash, Lucky, Tilly and ooooh, me!

Ash pointed out the following day that we are all clearly ridiculous.  I think she might be right!

Saturday - I skulked in bed whilst Mr Husband pottered around with the children and made sure I knew that I was firmly in the dog house.  I started to feel better somewhere around lunchtime.  Mr Husband took Wiggles to the supermarket with him and Biscuit and I sat on the sofa and watched Brave with some popcorn.  Considering I was neither use nor ornament I think that was a fairly constructive use of time.  Who doesn't love a bit of recuperative Disney?

In the evening Mr Husband (who had forgiven me by then) and I watched Alpha Papa on DVD and ate onion rings, I'd forgotten how good both things are!

Sunday - Sunday was not an interesting day, but it was constructive.  I cleared out some space in Wiggles room as we're hoping to decorate it soon.  There are so many huge, ugly plastic toys around that need space, but I'm loathe to get rid of them because she loves them so much.  In the ended I decided to move some of her more baby-ish toys out into the loft. It looked a lot better for it in the end. Because the weather was so rubbish we were housebound so I started following a crochet tutorial on ripple stitches. It was really good fun, but not exactly easy! We had a lovely roast dinner and bathed the girls and put them to bed. Because we're geeks and proud we went to bed and got back up again at 2 am to watch the Game of Thrones Season 4 Premiere. It was completely bloomin' brilliant. I've missed it!!! Worth every eye bag! 

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,