We had a great weekend.  I’ll post pictures tomorrow of the kids in their costumes–I’m sleepy tonight.  🙂

Weight loss update:  I’m down another pound this week.  Whoo hoo!  That brings me officially into the 180’s!

Josiah was able to be in a flag football league this Fall.  He absolutely loved it.  They met on Saturday mornings for an hour and a half (30 min practice and then an hour long game against another 3rd grade team).    All season Tim took him to his practices because I had the Littles and sometimes Baker’s piano lessons. It just made more sense for one of us to stay behind.

This past weekend was his final game of the season.  Chloe and I decided it would be fun to watch him play on his final day–so we bundled up (it was COLD) and drove him out.  They cleared off a nearby football stadium for them to practice (since most things were covered in snow here).  It was so much fun watching him work with his teammates and practice and get excited for his friends doing a good job.  It was all very fun.  Well, fun and cold.

He asked me to record him playing a little of the game–so he could show Tim later.  I recorded ONE play of the game.  And wouldn’t you know, it just happened to be the play where he got the ball and ran it for a touchdown!  Boo yah!  Pretty epic.

P.S. Don’t mind my crazy Mom cheering… you’re welcome to watch it on mute.  Hahah!  I especially love his little dance at the end with his friends.

We had our annual Pumpkin Party this weekend.  This was the first time we’ve had snow on the ground for our party… it made it a little more difficult to keep all the kids entertained.  It’s much easier when the kids can go outside to play!  Although we did have some tables and a heater set up in the garage so the kids could carve pumpkins if they wanted to.

I love this picture that we got at the haybales:

Also, one of the gals taught me how to use Publisher to make my next scrapbook.  I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know how to use it already… but I’m super stoked to try it now!   Apparently I’ve been using Word like Publisher and was frustrated at the lack of options I could get (because I should have been using Publisher and not Word).  Huh.  Who knew!?

Weight loss update: Well, due to the party and my social eating (which I knew would happen) I didn’t go down today.  I just held steady.  Which is good.  I’m back on track today, though.  So, I’m hoping for some great progress this week!!!

Well, it continued snowing most of the day yesterday.  It was the most gorgeous fluffy flakes, falling lazily all day.  And boy was it a lot of snow.  In total we got at least 8 inches (more really, because it was melting as it landed…) and while it is slowly sinking into the ground it’s not melting terribly fast.

Maddie was super nervous that the snow would all melt away during the night, but I don’t think she needs to worry about that!  It doesn’t look like the weather is going to jump back up much at all and we might even have more snow coming on Sunday.  It looks like we might have a snowy Halloween after all!

After we dropped Maddie and Josiah off on the bus this morning, Levi really wanted to sit on the snowy bench at the park.  He thought it was sooooooo funny.

He cracks me up!

I assigned some Christmas songs today–in keeping with the spirit of the snow we having falling (with no end in sight!)

I’m really hopeful that it will melt by Halloween, because that would make for a really chilly night of trick-or-treating!

I had another great cleaning weekend.  This time I got through my closet and the kids closets.  That was a doosey.  There was a point where I told Tim I might be in over my head.

But after many hours and a nice LARGE trip to Goodwill I’m feeling excellent.

Master Closet Before

Master Closet After

Boys Closet Before

Boys Closet After

Weight Loss Update:  After my “debbie downer”  few days last weekend things got a lot better.  I buckled down and had really excellent week.  I’m down another 2 pounds (to 190), which brings my total lost to 14 pounds now.  Boo yah!

I made Panko Zucchini this week.  It was soooo much better than I expected it to be.  I wouldn’t make quite as much next time though (I made two whole Zucchini which was FAR too much for me to eat in one sitting… haha!)  The good news was the Chloe and Josiah also thought it was scrumptious.  But it was still too much.  And it’s one of those things that just isn’t as good if you try and save it.

I will say that I don’t enjoy the tedious work of coating each spear, but the flavor and crunchiness makes it worth it in the end.

One more picture before I go!

We had a delightful weekend.  Included was:

• Josiah had flag football on a gorgeous fall morning
• Family pictures with Tara!
• Dinner at a friends house
• Cleaned out under both bathroom cabinets (I even remembered to take a before and after picture this time… see below!)
• I made Pumpkin Bars that were absolutely scrumptious (to bring to our friends house–I know better than to make a whole pan just for us right now! 😉 )
• Chloe and I drove all around Shakopee looking at the stunning fall colors

Weight loss update:  The first part of the week went very well, but I hit my one month slump this weekend.  I’ve been at it long enough that some things are starting to feel too easy, and I’m staring to feel like it’s depriving me of my favorite foods (trust me, it’s not).  I know it’s a mental game.  It was an excellent weekend, but with that came wanting to kick back and relax and eat everything in sight.  I didn’t gain, but I also didn’t lose. Tim reminded me that is not a step backwards.  It’s still progress to hold steady.

Today I made Chicken Rice Soup and it was scrumptious. Pretty easy to pull together with stuff I normally have on hand (except the celery I don’t always have…) and it makes a nice big pot so I can keep eating it for a few days.

I will say, it is a rather ugly soup.  But what it lacks in appearance it makes up for in hearty thickness.

I really love a thick soup in the Fall (like Potato soup and split pea soup) so this is right up that alley.  After cooking the chicken I toss it in the food processor, which makes quick work of dicing it up.  And I like how the brown rice and chicken are kind of the same small size so you never know what you’ll get in each bite.  Yum.

Want the recipe?  Well here you go!  (It’s from the site www.reciperebel.com.)

Sunday morning was rough.  We were all short-tempered and grumpy.  By the time we loaded into the van to head to church everyone was crabby.

I was not my best.

So, I decided to do better.  I told everyone to look outside quietly.  I asked everyone to look for 3 things outside that they liked.  It could be anything. Then we went around the car taking turns saying things we like.

It was amazing.

I could actually feel the mood shift in the car.

Very slowly everyone waited their turns and by the time we all finished saying our 3 things we were laughing and enjoying each other.

It was glorious.

Curious what our 3 things were?

Maddie: Red Leaves, Water, Ducks

Josiah: Electricity, Target, Baseball Fields

Chloe: Purple Leaves, Clear Blue sky, Kids Playing Soccer

Levi: Red Leaves, Orange Leaves, Brown Leaves

Me:  Red leaves, Caribou Coffee, Crisp Autumn Air