dieting for dummies {1.23}

this past week, i hit my first milestone of 5 pounds lost! my first 5lb reward was a short sleeve sweater, coordinating sparkly shirt and some matching bracelets for an upcoming trip (total cost = $30).

healthy mexican

one of my weaknesses is mexican food. it's one of the things that i knew i'd miss most. often times, when matt was working, i'd make a mexican concoction for supper. some combination of tortillas/chips, cheese, refried beans, cheese, ground beef, cheese, jalapenos, cheese...

well, it turns out i can have my cake mexican and eat it too. on a whim, i picked up an avocado at the grocery store. it's pretty bland so i added some cajun flavored powder stuff i found in my pantry. a wheat tortilla with the avocado and some black beans...pretty darned tasty!!!  and the next night, i ate the same thing but added a bit of spinach to my "wrap". point value? only SIX. and yes, it was actually quite filling.

italian wrap

after falling in love with the above-mentioned mexican wrap, i decided to try an italian version. i began with the same wheat tortilla and then layered pepperoni and mozzarella cheese (part-skim). i warmed it in the microwave enough to melt the cheese and then added raw spinach. the spinach just helps give it a bit more substance (in my opinion) and keeps it from getting too dry. i didn't have any, but a nice addition would have been to drizzle on some reduced fat italian dressing as well.

beer/wine

i've always felt like you had to drop alcohol completely to lose weight, but that's really not true. my drinks of choice are usually a glass of white wine or miller lite - both of which are 3 points. i found out that miller 64 is only 2 points and i enjoy that so i have made a point to purchase that for myself. as long as i have a decently controlled day, it's perfectly fine for me to add 3 or 6 points to some evenings. weight watchers note: i did learn that you can not use the WW point calculator with alcoholic beverages. the points will not be accurately counted due to the sugars in the alcohol.

food favorites: edamame, hot water with lemon, soup

yucky things that didn't work: plain greek yogurt with stuff added to it. not a fan.

web wednesday {1.19}

it's been a while since i've done a *web wednesday* and i have a lot of good stuff hanging out in my google reader. i hope you enjoy...

***crafting + home decor***

this fabric wreath was posted as a fall tutorial, but you could make it work for any season, holiday, event, etc. just but changing the fabrics you choose. i hope to try this one day. i love it!

***parenting + writing***

The Write Start

i'm intriqued by this book. as someone who loves to write, i hope to foster a similar love in coleman. i highly recommend reading this Q&A post as well. i love her comments about beginning a journal for your child early on. i would've never considered doing that for coleman (yet). i'm inspired :)

 

***digital scrapbooking + photo editing***

free download: mom overlays

 

***parenting***

behavior charts - love that these are practical for young kids

 

***parenting + faith***

two good reads at the mob society:

-- one sentence that invites good behavior

-- teaching sons the power of forgiveness

celebrate monday {winter's magic}

yesterday's celebrate monday prompt over at simple scrapper was *winter's magic*...a pretty appropriate choice after the entire country (except florida) got snow last week!

i already shared the details of our snow day with you, but what i didn't cover were the more hidden stories behind our day of winter magic.

this photo represents so many things. i love that it captures spencer still being able to have foolish fun, despite that he's a texting, girl-crazy tweener. i love that it shows our inadequate winter wardrobes and our tiny little underused sled. i love that the grass is still popping up through the snow on the ground, illustrating that it doesn't take many inches to get southerners excited about a snowfall. i love that the snow is still falling. but none of those tell the most important story of all...

the best story is the story of two brothers. a reckless toddler that idolizes his older sibling, yelling "bubba" everytime he hears someone walking downstairs - even if his bubba isn't at home. an almost teenager who is often too absorbed in video games or texting to give anyone the time of day...anyone except his little brother - his "cinnamon", which is his term of endearment for coleman. that day, on the snowy hill, my toes were frozen, but my heart was warm as i watched a 12 year old boy take such good care of his 22 month old baby brother. i swelled with pride first when he wanted us to trust him enough to let little man go down the hill with him. then again, when he'd use his body to protect him if the ride didn't go quite as planned. i loved when coleman & i were about to go inside, that spencer insisted coleman needed just one last ride down the hill. and when that ride ended roughly, i was proud of spencer for feeling badly that coleman cried, and couldn't help but chuckle that coleman cried much harder when we walked away, taking him home and making him leave his big bubba. the snow was wonderful, but the real magic was in the time spent together.

music monday {bruno mars}

music monday is back and in full effect for 2011 (how you like that throwback lingo?). and actually by "full effect" i really mean "back whenever i feel like posting one". anyway...

today's feature is a current artist that is actually not country and though HE has nothing to do with glee...there is a glee backstory (of course, right?). so, i totally have a music crush on bruno mars right now. spencer likes to take full credit, but really glee started it, and then spencer played a vital role in developing the whole love affair.

several weeks ago, i saw a music video for a song called "grenade". it was new and i said "hmmm, that's pretty good." matt liked it, too. later we'd find out, so does spencer. i commented on the guy's goofy name. i mean, please tell me a mother wouldn't actually name their child bruno mars. after subscribing to rhapsody, spencer was pulling up more bruno mars and guess what??? i actually new two of his other songs and loved them. wanna guess how i knew them? yup, that's right - they'd already been covered by glee. (i told you this guy was good...TWO glee songs already!).

at a later date, spencer and i decided we had to wikipedia this fellow to see if his mama really did name him that. (she didn't). during our research, we learned that he also co-wrote a couple of other great recent (and glee-covered) songs including forget you and billionaire.

so, without further delay, here is the grenade video. below you will find links to all of the other bruno songs that i love (and their glee counterparts). this should give you at least an hour of great music. enjoy!



just the way you are - bruno mars
     this is actually a really cute video
just the way you are - glee cast 
    i could not find a version that actually included the show footage

marry you - bruno mars
     couldn't find the official video for this one (maybe there isn't one???)
marry you - glee cast
love this song. love this scene. totally makes me want to go renew my vows with matt. can you see us dancing down the aisle like that??? uh, NO!
on another note, spencer even agrees that the glee version of this is better than bruno's.

forget you - cee-lo
    for the record, this song is awesome, but this guy can NOT sing. and the *real* version uses another "f" word instead of "forget"...not nice. the link is to a clean version.
forget you - glee cast (gweneth paltrow)
     this is SO much better!!! this is why glee is great. they can un-ruin a song (yes, i just made up a word)

billionaire - travie mccoy
     until i went looking on you tube for this link, i didn't realize there is a non-clean version to this song too. they love the 'f' word :(  as a side note, it's ridiculous that this is actually considered travie mccoy's song when bruno mars is really doing the vocals, but whatever!
billionaire - glee cast

this little fellow, bruno, is obviously a talented songwriter. he's already been busted for cocaine possession (right before his first album debuted in the fall, go figure). i hope he doesn't get caught up in the bad ways of hollywood and waste his talents.

dieting for dummies {1.16}

it's been exactly one week since i joined weight watchers. it's been years since i have made any real attempt to lose weight, eat healthy, exercise...any of that stuff i should be doing everyday. regardless of my complete inexperience in this realm, i want to share my journey here. so, welcome to dieting for dummies. it will be a blog series that will allow me to document this path. i will share things i've learned, things i think...ya know, whatever!

so, after a week ... here's what is going on inside my little brain. keep in mind, at this point...there is nothing helpful here, but more my revelations and reflections. hopefully, as time passes i will be able to provide more useful information!

• it's amazing that i don't weigh a ton. the reality of my bad eating habits has really hit home. eating out a lot. fast food. pizza. snacking on whatever. all the bad stuff and none of the good.
• i need a digital scale.  i have had an 'old school' scale forever. it works fine, but when you are monitoring individual pounds, it's a bit hard to read. i need to invest in a nice, digital scale.
• ranch dressing breaks my heart. i don't crave sweet stuff (often). but homemade ranch dressing is a ridiculous weakness of mine. and it's bad. lots and lots of WW points.
• ww tip: use the points. weight watchers gives you daily points, then you get weekly points as 'extras' and then you can earn activity points from exercising. my type-a personality has me wanting to stay under those daily points and not diving into the others i'm allowed very often. relaxing a little on this will make things easier.
• nights out are OK. i was a little worried about going out for matt's birthday (dinner & drinks). i did exceed my daily allotment by a good bit, but because of the 'extra' points mentioned above, it was totally OK!
• veggies are yummy. the majority of fruits & veggies do not have any WW points. as a result, i stocked up on more than usual. what's interesting is that i don't personally have anything against most fruits & vegetables. many taste pretty good. but i rarely eat them...weird. this week, i've been able to create some tasty meals and snacks at very low point values.
• the first week is the hardest. even though i've only been doing WW for a week, i started watching what i was eating about a week before that. during that period, i felt very hungry and unsatisfied. this has improved greatly. i think it's an adjustment period that your body goes through. or it might be that i started doing a better job of finding healthy foods that are filling.
• exercise doesn't kill you.  in the past 5 days, i've gotten on the elliptical machine three times (30 minutes each). i'm pretty sure this is a record for me. and it really isn't that bad. lack of time is the biggest issue (the unplanned snow days are what helped this past week).
• start your day with breakfast. i get up at 5:00 and don't eat breakfast until after i get to work (3+ hours later). sometimes i never eat it. i've always heard you should eat breakfast early. so, one of the big changes i've made is that i now eat breakfast before i even have a cup of coffee. that is huge for me. it really makes a huge difference in how i feel (and has reduced the amount of coffee i drink).
• stocking my desk.  i made sure i brought in a bunch of healthy lunch and snack options to my office. i needed to make sure i didn't have an excuse to swing by mcdonald's.

some of my food favorites this week:

• black beans
• spinach (raw...can't stand it cooked)
• whole wheat tortillas
• avocado
• multi-grain cheerios
• special k cracker chips (sour cream & onion)

in conclusion...i'm pretty sure that my weight loss for the week was around THREE POUNDS (refer to my above comment about my scale as to why i don't have a more precise number).

note: i added a new label called "health/fitness" which is where i will put these sorts of posts.

party {new year's eve}

we had a few friends over on new year's eve to watch the bowl game. since we often have football parties, i decided to gear the decorations to new year's eve instead. i kept it simple and easy. i didn't do a great job of getting photos (of the decor or people). but here are a few shots.

we have never hosted anything for new year's before, so i didn't have any decorations. i was able to pull this together very inexpensively by hitting the holiday clearance section at wal-mart. i chose a silver/white color scheme because i knew it would be easy to put together with things i already owned (i have very little gold).

i bought silver tinsel and ornament balls which i used to fill these clear vases that i already own. the silver ribbon was also purchased on clearance. i used silver chargers throughout the bar and food table. these were purchased at target for 50% off the day after christmas. they are not christmasy at all and i plan to use them with my regular china which is white & silver (pieces of which were also used on new year's eve).

i already owned this cheesy silver "spray" centerpiece. i jazzed it up by placing it on a charger, covering the base with tinsel and then surrounding it with ornaments. on clearance, i bought a roll of silver wrapping paper that was not christmasy. i used it to cover the bar area and also put a strip across the food table (on top of a white table cloth). i tried to use all white, silver or clear serving pieces, etc. two small things i purchased (at full price) were a pack of black confetti and a pack of large silver stars.

the night before party, i had absolutely no plan for what i was going to do. so, given that everything was purchased and pulled together the day of the event, i think it turned out pretty well!

photos {snow day}

it's hard to believe we had two snows within a couple of weeks! this "storm" landed about 4" in our yard before turning over to sleet. we were lucky to have a good day of snow fun on monday. by tuesday, everything was solid ice (and our backyard is still covered). i ended up working from home 3 days and spencer missed 3.5 days of school.

our home

when we realized this snow wasn't good for snowball fights and building snowmen, we pulled out the sled. first we tried it in the road. here spencer is trying to push matt down the hill. it didn't work.

coleman.

colton and tara joined us for our time in the snow. thanks to a heads up from another family, we headed down the street for a better sledding location.

this worked much better.

matt took coleman for a spin. he loved it.

even i took a few spins down the hill.

sledding brothers.

i have no idea what is going on in this picture. but i like it.

my boys

colton & tara

later in the day, we decided to go out again. we tied a rope to the sled and used it to pull coleman down the street.

it was sleeting by now, so we didn't keep coleman out quite as long. here he is taking one last ride with spencer before we headed home (matt, warren & spencer stayed out for a while longer).

color crush {yellow + gray}

for a short while now, i've had a huge color crush on the yellow/gray combination. it came about very accidentally. we painted our bedroom yellow a long time ago (matt's choice), but didn't really do any other design changes. then we painted our master bathroom gray (my choice), and again, didn't make any other design improvements. after many months, it clicked.

we had unintentionally created the most wonderful color combination for our bedroom. but i love the colors in many other facets and have worked it into my wardrobe a few times. as we make small improvements to our bedroom, i find myself constantly searching "gray and yellow" at etsy. so, today...i thought i'd share some of my favorite finds.

these colors make me happy. if i were getting married right now, i'd totally use this for my colors. and if i were having a baby girl...perfect nursery. but since neither of those is happening, i will stick to bedroom design and my wardrobe.

clutch by frankielloyd ~ save the date announcement by kimscustomgifts ~ wedding invitation set and wedding tree by inviting moments ~ hand blown glass vase by solidified breath ~ 5 little elephants print by amandakindregan ~ alphabet print by appleblossomprint ~ optic blossom pleated bag  ~ polka dot posy ~ rain or shine rosette bib necklace by sweetapple30 ~ lemonade rain cabled scarflette by kerreraskye ~ ruffle diaper cover by raegun ~ coupon organizer by jimmypickles ~ poppy flowers headband by vivatregina ~ wool felted bowl by thelandofg ~ pom pom hat by mocha922

{weight watchers}

as you should know, one of my goals is to lose some weight this year. i decided to go ahead and join weight watchers, which i officially did last night. as you are probably aware, anytime i start a new project, i usually talk about it here. so i am sure that i will be posting about my weight loss adventures. if you don't care, i hope you'll keep coming back anyway and just skip them.

a few things about this upcoming adventure...

• i understand that i'm not obese. (i'm not stupid either). i am technically in my "healthy weight range". the problem is that i'm way at the top of it and i want to be way down at the bottom.
• i was hesitant to commit to the monthly expense of the weight watchers program but i think the organization, tracking and resources will really help me.
• a dear friend of mine is taking the journey with me. yay!!!!
• my schedule is finally clear enough in the evenings that it's not a huge deal to commit to weekly meetings.
• i am also participating in a 14-week "biggest loser" program on a local message board of mommies. more support is always better.
• my husband is not a healthy eater. he has said he will be supportive, but he will not. (want an example? today for lunch he made burgers with fries & tots cooked in the fry daddy. seriously!).
• i hate, hate, hate to exercise. i'm one week into this and haven't done anything "official". this is my biggest hurdle
• my long-term goal (let's say...by summer???) is to be at the bottom of my healthy range which would be 21 pounds lost. my short-term goal is to lose one pound per week for the first 14 weeks.

so...there you have it. the basic beginning to a new commitment. we'll see how it goes!

2010 {blog recap}

in early august, i decided to sign up for google analytics. considering that i'm an analyst, and i'm anal, and i love my blog...i was pretty sure i'd be obsessed with checking my stats. i was quite surprised, maybe even impressed, that i have not done that. on the contrary, i rarely check it. (for those that are not familiar, this is a site that will provide stats on your blog about visitors, traffic, etc).

on a few blogs, i noticed folks were posting their 10 most popular posts from last year. i'm all about some lists so i figured this would be a good time to check out my stats! below you will find the most visited blog posts of 2010 (technically only august through december).

if you're new to the chronicles, this is a quick & easy way to see what other folks have been enjoying.

and since we're talking about this blog and last year, let's get a little mushy (just for a minute, i promise). i don't blog for money. i don't blog to get famous. i blog as a creative release. i love to write. i love photos. i like to share things. that's why i'm here. it is so super cool to know that anyone actually takes a minute of their day and comes by to visit. my blog doesn't get a ton of traffic, but when i look at my stats, i'm blown away by the fact that so many people have been here at some point - and from so many places (russia, france, argentina...those are just a few of the 52 different countries!). so whether you know me in my for-real-life or you are a complete stranger, thank you.

(1)   free downloads {daily & weekly cards}

(2)   organization {wrapping station}

(3)   photos {gamecock fan appreciation}

(4)   wine {middle sister}

 (5)   whatever wednesday {elsie + red velvet art}

(6)   inspired {progress update}

(7)   inspired {report card} 8.9.10 + 8.16.10 + 8.23.10

there were actually three of these in the top 10, so i'm grouping them together.

(8)   music monday {glee christmas}

(9)   album {coleman's first birthday}

(10)   {the picture}

sidebar story:

bear with me.

i was wondering how on earth my #3 post for the second half of 2010 was something i'd written back in august of 2009...and it was just photos of us attending a gamecock fan appreciation day. random. so, i started digging around on google analytics (there is SO much cool stuff there), and i started to figure it out. i got 15 unique visitors just from the keyword search "spencer lanning" (gamecock kicker) and nine of them were on the day we played in the SEC championship game. who knew! (well, google knew). oh, the beloved internet...such a weird little creature it is!