around the round

It's so quiet here without two more children to look after. I only have to wash dishes once a day and make one meal at each meal time.

Tomorrow i am going to make three soups and portion them out for easy-grab meals. One is a navy-bean and ham; the second is a fire-roasted tomato, sausage and potato; and the last is a ham and potato chowder.

I have now lost 45 lbs and have not done a good job with my working out for a few weeks. It was impossible the week I had the kids and the previous weeks were hard because I injured my knee and needed to let it heal before getting back at it. My goal for the rest of this week is to do my 60 minutes a day. I have the time and need to just do it. I don't dislike working out, I even like it somewhat, but i'm letting my lazy nature get the best of me.

I am proud that during the Thanksgiving-New Years food orgy season, I lost weight every week. A lot of that was eating before I went to parties or after and not at parties, or taking food for myself that I could eat and forcing myself to keep away from the stuff I knew I had no business eating. Also, I planed all home-cooked meals to a "T" and had the "if they don't like it, they don't have to eat it" mantra going about cooking healthy foods. I don't know if these are long-term strategies though. I do know that in a few weeks my pants size will be a single digit and that's worth more than cake.

Okay, I'm off to crochet a tea pot & lid, sugar bowl & lid, 2 tea cups, 2 saucers, 2 spoons, a serving plate, and 4 cookies for my daughter. It should take a few hours, so I can at least start tonight. Making toys is a great way to use all the little odd bits of yarn.

I made my own pattern the other day and it came out pretty good. I made a flower hat for my daughter. I started crocheting around the round in dark green and increasing and switched to hot pink at row tenish and kept going until i had a good sized hat. I placed a ruffle around the bottom to make the petals. At the top of the green, i used the tail from the start chain to weave inside the hat and pulled it taught to make a "stem." then I made two dark green leaves and attached them next to the stem. The hat looks like an upside down flower on her head. I used the same green and pink to make a matching scarf. Mandolin has a hot pink pea coat, so the hat and scarf match perfectly. I'm going to make a second hat to test the pattern and then submit it. If i ever get a new camera battery, i'll share pics of all the stuff i've been making recently.

that's it, i'm still boring