Things have been mad crazy around here. Big E and D’s bio-dad is visiting from out-of-state, which has caused mondo stress. Our close friends are moving away, so we have been spending a lot of time with them. Little E had a friend from Texas visiting, who is the grandson of our friends that are moving, so there was lots more visiting. Summer Kids Week (aka Vacation Bible School) was last week, so the kids were busy and tired. Bob has been working on the weekend, as his job occasionally requires, leaving me without my usual backup. And we are planning on moving, so there’s the planning and so forth involved in that.

Oh, and I just single-handedly rearranged our living/dining room (or great room, as they are sometimes called).

Lots going on.

Still, I am sorry to just disappear like that.

I need to recommit (again!) to blogging regularly. I have so many cool things I want to share, like recipes, crafts, and decorating ideas. And I want to do some posts about ADHD.

I took a July blogging break from my political blog and now I think I should have done that here, too - formally, I mean.

Anyway, I look forward to getting back in touch with my blog world friends. I hope you are all having a great summer!

As you may have guessed from those two facts, I am not doing so well with Weight Watchers.

Let me explain.

My problem, and why I am overweight, is that I am obsessed with food. It is my drug. It is my peace, my sanctuary, my release from the stresses of life. I think about it too much. I have an unhealthy relationship with food.

I feel like - for me - WW only increases my food obsession. I obsess about points and what I can afford to eat, and what I can’t. I find myself thinking about food even more, and that’s not helping.

In a lot of ways, this is a spiritual issue for me. I am not experiencing my full freedom in Christ if I still need to find refuge in food.

Anyway, I have started a new program. It is faith-based and I think it will better get to the heart of my real problem. The program is 30 days long, so I will report back then how it worked for me. (Obviously, the lifestyle change is ongoing after that.)

In the meantime, I still want to blog weekly with a post focused on body wellness, so I will continue (or start again) to do that.

And of course, I will still post yummy, healthy recipes, too.

I don’t want to just look good. I know I can get there with WW because I did it before. I want to feel good. I want to be free from this obsession with food and the roller coaster of emotional highs and lows that comes with it.

I have to note here, on the plus side, I have not gained anything since the last time I weighed myself even though I stopped tracking points.

Now, here is a recipe from Dr. Andrew Weil. (When my husband and I went on our honeymoon, Dr. Weil had just been at the B&B we stayed at the day before.) It uses real food and has 10 g of protein.

Chocolate Ricotta

Ingredients:
1/2 cup lowfat ricotta cheese
2 tbsp mild honey
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions:
1. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.
2. Scoop into small dessert dishes and serve.

Nutritional Information:
Makes 2 servings (~ 1/4 cup)
Per serving:
145 calories
3 g total fat (2 g sat)
11 mg cholesterol
24 g carbohydrate
10 g protein
2 g fiber
100 mg sodium

One of my favorite recipes is Chicken Pot Pie. It can be as simple or complex as you like.

Simple Chicken Pot Pie

Refrigerated pie crust
Frozen mixed veggies, thawed
Diced (leftover) cooked chicken
Jar of chicken gravy

Press pie crust into pie plate. Fill with chicken and thawed veggies. Top with gravy. Bake according to crust directions until crust is browned and filling is bubbly.

I did not give amounts for filling ingredients because I have found that people’s preferences vary. I use more veggies. Some people like more gravy or more chicken. Just don’t over-fill the crust.

If you like less crust, do not line the pie plate with the bottom crust, only use the top crust. You can also use biscuits as a topping instead of pie crust.

For a more complex recipe, you can make your own crust, make your own gravy, or even make the whole thing from scratch beginning with raw chicken.

Another easy recipe I enjoy is baked ziti.

Easy Baked Ziti

1 box ziti
1 package Italian sausage
1 jar spaghetti sauce
Shredded mozzarella

Cook ziti according to package directions. Meanwhile, cut sausage into bite-sized pieces and cook until done. Drain ziti and combine with sausage and sauce in a casserole dish. Top with mozzarella, to taste, and bake at 350-degrees until cheese is melted and begins to brown.

Be sure to head on over to Rocks in My Dryer and check out all the great 5-ingredient-or-less recipes.

You will need:

• a rectangular bar mold (or other desired shape)
• white melt and pour base
• red and blue colorants (be sure to use non-bleeding)
• a small star-shaped cookie cutter (make sure it fits in your mold)
• summery fragrance of your choice
• alcohol in a spray bottle

You will also need equipment to melt and mix your soap. Most people use a Pyrex measuring cup and microwave. I use a small slow cooker to melt my soap and mix the colors in small dishes. You can also use a double-boiler or a bowl set atop a pan of simmering water.

Each layer should be fragranced. I melt my entire base together and add the fragrance.

Color enough melted and scented base for the first layer blue.

Pour it into your mold and spritz with alcohol to remove any air bubbles.

When it is firm, use your cookie cutter to cut a star out.

I had a little trouble getting the star out because the layer was still very soft.

Spritz the blue layer with alcohol and immediately pour the melted and scented white base over the blue layer to desired height. Remember, you need to leave space for the remaining layers.

Spritz again with alcohol to remove air bubbles.

Color enough base for the next layer red.

When the white base is firm, spay with alcohol and pour over with the red colored and scented base.

Spray again with alcohol to remove any air bubbles.

When red layer is firm, spay with alcohol and pour the final white layer to the top of the mold. Spray with a final spritz of alcohol to remove air bubbles.

Wait until all layers have fully hardened. This takes a few hours. Alternately, you can let it harden over night.

Turn over mold and gently press to remove your American flag-inspired soap.

They can frequently be heard complaining that we never empty the dishwasher, despite the fact that my husband empties it at least once a week for them.

Well, this week they have been at camp. The dish washer has been run exactly once and currently only has about three dishes in it, excluding silverware.

So, I guess there is a reason that we make them empty it.

I am lame. Sorry. I just can’t seem to make the time to blog. I would like to, but I just can’t. It’s only a season, though, and I thank you for bearing with me.

Anyway, as for WW, I kind of got away from the plan when things with the D got really bad and when I was working overtime with him after his diagnosis.

The good news is, I did not gain a pound! In fact, I lost a pound.

Even though I put my scale away, I wanted to check in and I was pleasantly surprised.

With this weight loss thing, every day is a new day and a new chance to get it right. Time is going to move forward anyway, so I might as well try to do something right with it. The alternative is to get less healthy and more fat in the coming days, weeks, and months, right?

I think the fact that I did not gain during such a stressful time is a great sign that I am making meaningful changes.

And I will continue to make more now that I am refocusing on taking care of me.

Onward!

I have never understood my boy. Never. But, now I am starting to. And it has made such a difference in our lives.

Things have settled down with him and he is now able to go a couple of days without a temper tantrum.

Still, it is not perfect and there is much work to be done.

The older boys are leaving for summer camp on Sunday for a full week.

Then, on Monday, my mom is taking Little E for a couple of days.

I will have a couple of days alone and then the rest of the week with only my 4-year-old, who loves lots of alone time.

It will be a long-needed break.

And when it is over, I should be rested and we should be able to get into a routine again. Hopefully, one that includes blogging!

I can’t believe that all of this change in our lives happened right when I got my new laptop!

At least it is change for the better. We are on the pathway toward healing the hurt feelings that resulted from a year-and-a-half long downward spiral in the D’s behavior.

Our family was a wreck. His tantrums got so bad that everyone hated being around him. The stress got the better of all of us and we all fell into bad patterns of interaction with one another.

Things are going much better now, though.

Still, I know this will always be work; it will always be a challenge. Any parent with an ADHD or other “attention different” child can tell you that, but at least it will be work toward a productive goal. Fighting all of the time was work, too, only without any positive outcome.

That’s all I have for now. I am seriously fighting to keep my eyes open, so I am going to get off the computer. I just wanted to check in and let my blog friends know how I am doing.

I plan on resuming Weight Watchers Wednesday tomorrow, too.

And here’s what happened to my bars of soap:

The reason was that the soap I used for the yellow and green layers was remelted from another project and the soap I used for the pink and white layers was a freshly opened 1 lb. bar.

Let this be a lesson: Always use the same base for multi-layer pours to ensure better adhesion.

Not the type to give up (or waste three pounds of soap!), I came up with another idea.

First, I melted a pound of clear glycerin soap in my handy crock pot.

Then, I cut my split loaf into cubes.

Next, I scented the clear soap (with the same fragrance oil as the other soap).

I poured a small layer of clear into a silicone loaf pan, sprayed it with alcohol, took a handful of cubes, sprayed them with alcohol, and put them into the loaf pan, adding more clear soap over the top and spraying with more alcohol.

(The alcohol helps the solid soap adhere and it pops the air bubbles on the top of the melted soap.)

After that set, I repeated the process, first spraying the set layer with alcohol.

Here is my final loaf.

I cut it into large 4 oz. body bars and half-sized 2 oz. hand soap bars.

I am feeling much better today. I had a good cry last night, followed by a good talk with Bob.

This morning, I took the kids for a walk to the park, which was around 2.3 miles round trip, according to Google Maps. I was good to get out. Very therapeutic.

I am definitely going to make that a regular thing.

We are going to switch to our summer schedule, since we are close to wrapping up the school work for this year’s portfolios to the state.

The summer schedule will include about an hour of academic stuff, so we can still finish up what we need to do. After that, we will do more project-oriented learning activities.

We will go out in the mornings, but I like to stay in during the sun’s peak burning hours (red hair + light skin + blue eyes + freckles = major sun burns), so I figured we could keep the studies going over the summer.

The older boys are going to camp for a week from the 22 - 28, so I have a nice break coming up. Then, in July, they will have summer kids week at church from 9 - 12 every day. Add in a couple of trips to grandma’s and I should have the mental health breaks I need to avoid meltdowns like last night.

Plus, I plan to go out at least once a week when Bob is home to some place with WiFi, so I can bring my laptop.

In other words, I am doing much better. (Wait, I said that already.)

Sorry for being such a downer! I hope to get some fun stuff posted later today and a soap tutorial tomorrow (hopefully!).