No topic.

[Trinity]

Today between 8 am and 3 pm was quite pleasant while outside of that was not. It was my 4-year-old’s picture day at school and she was all excited and more underfoot than usual and my son tripped over her and hurt his elbow (crying) before school. 4-year-old was then upset about her shoes. After school my older daughter won her basketball game but we barely got to see it as the preschooler was dead asleep in the car. Then she (older daughter) went to a new gymnastics class (she leveled up) where she didn’t like her teacher and was in tears (emotional) but later hyperextended her elbow so then pain tears. Meanwhile my husband said he’d come home early to watch my younger daughter but forgot. He’s never been dependable unfortunately so this dredged up a lot of old, familiar, bad feelings. Tomorrow is another Solemnity (Annunciation—exactly 9 months before Christmas) so it’s sort of the vigil so I sort of could have a drink and did but at least I didn’t eat anything junky. He was home when we got home and hadn’t called which would have been nice because I could have asked him to heat up the Split Pea Soup and make himself a salad so we could have eaten dinner sooner. My son fooled around too long and just finished his homework and it is almost 10.

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, fruit, the rest of the failed oatmeal bars, brown rice, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, potatoes, son’s fruit leather (only 1 kid likes these) (45 calories per 14 grams for 1,459 calories per pound), white rice, Thai Green Curry Sauce, 1.5 oz. gin, Split Pea Soup, nutritional yeast. Exercised.

[Trinity]

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, brown rice, fruit, vegetables, Thai Green Curry sauce, white rice, 1 Dum-dum, 20 oz. Cherry Coke Zero, Sour Patch Kids, 2 slices of marinara pizza (just crust and sauce, contained oil), balsamic vinegar, 3 oz. gin. Exercised.

Special day—all planned—no regrets.

[Trinity]

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, potatoes, fruit, tiny cup of Diet Mountain Dew at kid birthday party, Int’l Stew. Exercised.

[Trinity]

Today’s good part: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, potatoes, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, fruit, brown rice. Exercised.

Forgot that I drank a can of Diet Coke yesterday. We keep it around for my mom and it is terrible. Tastes terrible and terrible for me. But a faster way to get caffeine than making a cup of tea…and I needed it after that birthday party. I also forgot that I put some mustard on my dinner potatoes.

My 4-year-old locked herself in the bathroom in the cabin and it didn’t have a regular lock—it had a sliding one where you first have to push it up before sliding it over to unlock it which was beyond her. It was so high up on the door I don’t even know how she reached it. I ended up having to drive my car up to the bathroom window which amazingly fit between 2 trees and then also amazingly the bathroom window was unlocked and the screen just lifted out so I could stand on the hood of the car and climb in through the window. WHEW. Thank you God!

So after that I ate a handful of marshmallows (not that bad), then a couple handfuls of M&M’s from the bag on the counter (4-year-old doesn’t go for s’mores) THEN had a few s’mores. I wasn’t even hungry and wasn’t even like necessarily craving them! I had done so well all day! Oh well. I also had 2 light beers (ugh! Really, what is the point?) because my husband would have sulked otherwise. Last thing was my older daughter made some no-bake balls which consisted of rolled oats, honey, M&M’s, and peanut butter BUT I managed to only have 1 bite so as not to hurt her feelings. Definitely got hit with McDougall’s revenge after all of that (a little surprising but I guess it makes sense).

Mother-in-law is coming this Saturday and staying the whole week until the following Saturday (spring break for the kids). I’m going to try to eat extra well this week because next week we will be going out to eat A LOT.

[Trinity]

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, brown rice, fruit, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, potatoes. Exercised. Yay.

Busy day—preschooler’s “parent-teacher conference,” son’s 3rd-to-last baseball game, some other stuff, preschooler had gymnastics and cleaning the house. Basketball is over for older daughter. Played phone tag with but finally talked to Spanish teacher who had taken a picture of older daughter’s lunch last week and weirded her out. I guess we’re ok. She is also a health coach and said she was taking pictures of each kid’s lunch and it was just for them but she sure wasn’t clear on why, kept going into the history of the food pyramid etc. which as an adult I clearly know something about. She deleted the picture. That’s all I really cared about. And honestly “My Plate” is not that bad, is it? 1/2 fruits & vegetables and “protein” is nice and vague and could be beans, while the “glass” of “dairy” could easily be plant-based milk, so many people are lactose-intolerant. Happy that saga is over.

5 days left until everyone is around all the time plus my mother-in-law for 8 days. Oh boy!

[Trinity]

I’m not going to make any more new recipes unless I specifically want to for myself only (unlikely) with the exception of the actual baked oatmeal recipe from the recent e-mail. I really want my kids to like that—we’ll see. My family will deign to eat these things:

- Pasta. Kids will eat oil-free sauce.
- Split Pea Soup
- Pretty much anything that is potatoes: baked, mashed with McD gravy (husband won’t eat gravy), roasted
- Speedy International Stew
- Vampire Soup (blend with water: canned diced tomatoes, jarred roasted red peppers, garlic & onion & broth that are all powdered) (older daughter found this recipe in a Geronimo Stilton book) (this is my lazy version of the real recipe)
- husband will eat Gallo Pinto while kids eat white rice with soy sauce
- might eat Chili Mac once, which I don’t really like, takes me a long time to eat leftovers
- sometimes will eat Vegetable Curry, but really only my son likes it (and me)
- husband will eat Sloppy Lentil Joes once. Quinoa Enchiladas & Red Lentil Chili are also in this category. Son won’t eat lentils anymore since they give him gas.
- husband and son used to like Tofu Loaf, not sure what happened there, I still think it is delicious and will totally overeat it. Also husband would only eat it with mashed or roasted potatoes so that’s like 2 recipes in 1 meal which is simply asking too much

Husband will typically grill one weekend night and we’ll usually get pizza the other weekend night unless husband is dieting and also if he’s not dieting he’ll sometimes initiate and cook himself some sort of meat on Sundays for himself and the kids like steak or ribs or go buy a rotisserie chicken himself. With all these things and the inevitable leftovers there is absolutely no reason to be wasting time on new recipes, Self!

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, potatoes, Golden Sunrise Soup (this is yellow split peas and a bag of frozen sweet potato “dollops” I found, & garlic/onion/broth powder) (rarely do I make a recipe as written—too much work), fruit, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, the rest of a kid’s pasta from their lunch, Moroccan Chickpea & Cauliflower Stew (this was yummy but I guess I’ll never make it again), brown rice. Exercised.

Edit: had to fix the formatting of my list there.

[Trinity]

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, oatmeal bars (meh), fruit, some white rice with soy sauce when making kids’ lunches, Golden Sunrise Soup, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, Split Pea Soup, pickles, Firehouse Subs veggie sub (bread contained oil), a Cherry Coke Zero. Exercised.

[Trinity]

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, the rest of the Split Pea Soup, the rest of the oatmeal bars, Moroccan Chickpea & Cauliflower Stew, a 20 oz. Diet Coke (desperately tired today, busy/exciting/late day/night yesterday) (but bleah, got it for my Mom yesterday because I wasn’t thinking as she drank water instead), leftover white rice with soy sauce from a kid’s lunch, fruit, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, Gallo Pinto. Exercised.

I miss the potato days but someone’s gotta eat the leftovers especially since we’ll be out of town Sun.—Tues.

My older daughter’s gymnastics class got changed, so, sadly, she doesn’t go on the same day and at the same time as my younger daughter. Last week (the first week of this) I asked my husband to come home early to watch younger daughter and he forgot. This week I didn’t ask and he remembered. He, my son, and my younger daughter ate dinner while we were gone, which I was happy with, but when I came home found out he’d grilled veggie burgers and a (regular) hot dog and everyone ate approximately a teaspoon each of the Gallo Pinto I left for them, so that’s on my docket for tomorrow & Saturday before my MIL gets here Saturday afternoon, after the Moroccan stew is gone. My younger daughter had a hot dog (she doesn’t eat buns), cheese, croutons, and potato chips for dinner. Serenity now.

I am really dreading my MIL’s visit and it’s making me grumpy which I hate.

[squealcat]

Reading your journal reminds me of the hectic days when my kids were all home and in school and I was working ! Makes me tired just thinking about it ! Also the stress of having your MIL over .....never actually had that happen to me but just the change in routine STILL throws me off balance !

You will get through this one day at a time ! If you need to vent ??? here we all are !

-squealcat

[Trinity]

Thank you, Marilyn! You are the best!!! I was a lurker for so long and hesitated to post much because some of the replies I got were a little off-putting but as I’ve seen so many people say in their own journals: I’m so glad I started this despite putting embarrassing things in a public forum! Ha. But really, I don’t have many friends here where we’ve lived for about 7 months now and I feel like I have friends in this forum. It is such a blessing.

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, the rest of the Gallo Pinto, fruit, 1 12-oz. Diet Coke (I should really get these out of the fridge and keep them in the pantry), the rest of the Moroccan Chickpea & Cauliflower Stew, brown rice, potatoes. Exercised.

I ate 3 meals today but I am really not doing a good job because I end up stuffing myself for the first 2 and then barely being hungry for the 3rd. Next Friday will be different because my MIL will (still) be here so I’m sure I’ll eat 3 more-normal-sized meals in front of her. Also next Saturday I’m attending an event that will be a potluck and at these things I always just treat myself to a bunch of mostly-off-plan sweets (muffins, bread, cookies, stuff like that—mostly bread-y treats and fresh fruit if someone brings a good tray). They used to happen twice a year but now I haven’t been to one since probably spring of 2019, if not December of 2018. Next week as I’ve mentioned we’ll be out of town for 3 days and then even when we’re back we’ll eat out a lot with MIL so I’m just going to do my best those days. Tonight we went to our church’s fish fry for the first time. Family was happy. I drank some iced tea and came home and ate my favorite, a plate of microwaved potatoes.

[Trinity]

Today before dinner: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, potatoes, brown rice, fruit, vegetables. Took MIL to a Mexican restaurant where I ate 1 tortilla chip because she said to me, “You have to try one of these! Do you eat these?” when they brought out a refill of tortilla chips hot out of the deep fryer (or whatever) and it was easier just to eat one. For my meal I got a guacamole salad (it was side-sized, I wish they had a big size) that I put on corn tortillas with salsa. I drank some unsweetened iced tea at the restaurant. It wasn’t quite enough starch so I was still hungry but felt too awkward to eat something else back at home so had a beer and then a glass of white wine…oh well. Exercised.

[Trinity]

Today: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, potatoes, a 6-inch veggie Subway with olives (bread contained oil), Coke Zero, 2 Nutrigrain bars, fruit leather, some fried pickles/hush puppies/French fries, ketchup, a salad with red wine vinegar that had some croutons, a chocolate chip cookie, less than 1 glass of wine (sipped at it and then poured the rest out when it was time for bed).

[Trinity]

Today: black coffee, fruit leather, 1 plain toasted bagel, peanut butter crackers, fruit, a 12-inch veggie Subway with olives (bread contained oil), Coke Zero, pasta with marinara sauce (sauce contained oil), probably between 1-2 glasses of red wine. Walked a lot though I wasn’t timing it but probably at least 30 minutes.

[Trinity]

Today
B: black coffee, a plain toasted bagel, then later some fruit and fruit leather.
L: a Mexican place that had a guacamole salad but no side of corn tortillas. Got refried beans wrapped in 2 flour tortillas off the vegetarian part of the menu but I am not convinced the refried beans were vegetarian. Also a few tortilla chips because the salsa was amazing, and my younger daughter’s fries with ketchup she wouldn’t eat.
D: So happy to be back at home. Pasta with oil-free sauce, salad, balsamic vinegar. 1 glass of wine and I’m probably going to have a beer too because I needed the attitude adjustment. On days with my MIL that I drink alcohol I don’t eat sweets (which I know is a cop-out but it’s only 3 more days now really).
No exercise but we walked around a museum for awhile.

[Trinity]

B: tea, 2 oz. unsweetened Silk, the rest of the pasta with oil-free sauce

L: Panda Express in the food court: white rice, sweet & sour sauce, vegetables (contained oil), a few sips of Diet Pepsi before I tossed it

D: 2 glasses of white wine, microwaved spinach, balsamic vinegar, microwaved potatoes, 1 bite of a cookie my older daughter made with Nana

Exercised (walked around my house for 30 min. while husband and MIL were out).

Today was really hard. I really hate to get into it because there’s so much history and I’ll feel guilty later but I’m just so glad only 2 days left and maybe hopefully my husband will even go to work on Friday so then really 1 day left of everyone around and all the resulting dynamics. I know I drank alcohol but I feel like I didn’t really “eat sweets,” I just had a bite because of who made them and snuck the rest of my cookie onto my younger daughter’s plate and then my husband ate it.