Curves

Honestly this year has thrown more than a few curve balls my families way. It's enough to make a person stay in bed with the covers pulled over their head. Staying positive has been a difficult feeling to maintain. And I've had more than a few pity parties.

The hardest hit was when I was diagnosed with breast cancer July 16/14. I'll never forget that day as long as I live. It drastically changed my life. I went from an active, healthy woman with nary a care in the world to a person being poked and prodded and told that the medicine that would make me better would make me sick. It was a lot to take in and I was terrified. I have now finished my 4th chemo treatment and I have 4 left. Then surgery and radiation. The chemo does indeed make me sick, for a week after I generally have heart burn and nausea. My head wants to do things but my body says "Uh Uh".

 My little girls have been great and they give me a reason to keep getting up in the morning. It does feel like a punch to the heart, though, when they ask if I'm going to die. My oldest is not sleeping and suffers from tummy aches at night and I feel so bad for her, knowing I'm the cause of her anxiety.

I know I don't have it nearly as hard as some do. I have an amazing group of people that support me. Neighbors that bring meals by. Family that can take my girls at a moment's notice. Texts, emails and phone calls. They all mean so much. If I take anything away from this it's the fact that people facing illness maybe don't want you to even mention the illness. They just want you to treat them like you always did. Something I always had trouble with was knowing what to say to people going through hard times. I would simply avoid them. Now I know. Don't avoid them just be there. Even just a simple text saying "thinking about you" is all it takes to lift my spirits.

The Non-Sewers DIY Dog Bed

Does your dog do this?

It is so frustrating when you buy your little buddies a bed to keep them comfy and they destroy it.
We got a puppy back in March and bought our old girl a bed too since she really liked the new puppy's bed.  She wouldn't let the poor little guy use it.  Just like kids lol.
My hubby has been lamenting about the mess, and I'm sick of picking this stuffing up every single day and putting it back in.

I'm a non-sewer.  I even went to 4H sewing and disliked it strongly.  I just don't have any urge to sew.  It was hell when I took pants over to my parents house and they made me hem them myself.  Hell, I tell you.

So...my dogs needed new beds and I don't sew and I'm certainly not spending more money (I'm hoping that I can just recover these as needed) on cushy beds for my brats.  So...

I went to Walmart and bought a couple of cushions for patio chairs (if I'd had more time I would have went looking at yard sales for the best deal).

my patio cushion

I'm also a great believer in duct tape.  So I folded my cushion in half and strategically taped it.

folded in half and taped in four spots

I bought a couple cheap fake-wool dog bed to make it more comfortable.  You could probably use an old sweater or comforter, whatever you had handy.

dog bed on top of my folded cushion

I was going to buy some fleece fabric, but it seemed like such a waste of time to go looking for a fabric store that I just bought super cheap fleece blankets at Walmart ($5.00 each).

put the folded cushion and bed on top of blanket and fold blanket over 

I cut into the blanket further than the current fringe and just tied top and bottom strips together, working my way around the entire bed.

And tada...

a bed he was on within 5 minutes.  

So it was well worth the effort.  And so far (knock on wood) they haven't been chewing on this one.  There isn't really anything for them to pull out anyway but still.

Now to get bed #2 done for the Ol' Girl.

Making Jam

Today's endeavor was making jam.  We are lucky enough to have a truck come once a week to our small town loaded down with fresh fruit and veggies from B.C.  This week I bought a big bunch of sweet cherries and some apricots. Strawberries and cases of mangoes were on sale at the grocery store so I got some of those as well.

The recipes that come in the boxes of Certo contain so much sugar that I thought I would try to lessen it and see how it affects the overall quality of the jam.  I suspect it might not set up as thick, but I would sacrifice a little thickness for less sugar.

No-Cook Cherry Jam

4 cups chopped, pitted sweet cherries (I munched them up in the food processor)
2  Tbsp lemon juice
2 cups sugar (it was 3 cups)
1 box Certo light Pectin crystals

Put the prepared cherries into a bowl.  Add lemon juice.

Measure sugar and set aside.

Combine fruit pectin crystals with 1/4 cup of the measured sugar.

Add pectin mixture to fruit, mixing well.  Let stand for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in remaining sugar and continue stirring for 3 minutes until the sugar has dissolved.

Pour into clean jars or plastic freezer containers.  Cover with tight lids and let stand at room temperature until set (may take up to 24 hours).  With no-cook jams your jars do not need to be sterilized.

Store in freezer.  If used within 3 weeks, jam may be stored in refrigerator.
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No-Cook Strawberry Mango Jam

1 1/2 cups crushed mango (about 3 fully ripe mangos)
3/4 cup crushed strawberries
2 cups sugar (recipe called for 5)
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 pouch Certo liquid pectin

Measure prepared fruit into a large bowl.

Add sugar to fruit and mix will.  Let stand 10 minutes.

Stir in liquid fruit pectin and lemon juice.

Continue to stir for 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar.

Pour into clean jars or plastic freezer containers and cover with tight lids and let stand at room temperature until set (may take up to 24 hours).

Store in freezer.  If used within 3 weeks, jams may be stored in refrigerator.
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My cherry jam appears to be setting up nicely but the Strawberry Mango jam needs work.  It tastes good but I may have cut the sugar back too far because it is still runny.  Oh well, it'll make a nice syrup for pancakes.  I may attempt an apricot jam or apricot cherry jam tomorrow.

Going Natural

I am so tired of using a product for years and then all of a sudden there being a problem with an ingredient. This year it seems the item to look out for is Oxybenzone in your sunscreen.  


 "Nearly half of all sunscreens (and many cosmetics) contain oxybenzone. EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database rates oxybenzone as an “8″ or “high hazard.” According to EWG, this chemical penetrates the skin, gets into the bloodstream and acts like estrogen in the body. It can trigger allergic reactions and health harms including endometriosis in women and low sperm counts in men."
( Read more at livestrong.com: 7 surprises about sunscreen and tanning ).  

So my mom and I are going to take the plunge and try and make our own and see how it measures up.  

Here are a couple blogs to get us started:3 Natural Homemade Sunscreen recipes and how to make your own non-toxic sunscreen.  

I will keep you posted on how this goes.  

Feeling Happier

About a month ago I signed up for a 60-day shred challenge with Tommy Europe (the trainer for shows like Bulging Brides and The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp). http://www.4weekstoanewyou.com/ 

It has been just what I needed.  

I was suffering from lack of motivation and couldn't seem to get my butt back on the wagon for more than a couple days at a time.  The feeling of helplessness and the fear that I'd never get myself back to a good place was not helping my eating issues.  

Now I'm happily down 7 lbs and some inches.  Plus,  my endurance is improving and I'm starting to see some muscle under the softness.  Hopefully soon my daughter won't be pinching my batwings anymore.

I've allowed myself a few treats here and there but have gotten back to it immediately.  If I make a mistake I don't toss it in and say, "well that's that I messed up I might as well do it good!"  

A saying comes to mind:
'If you drop your phone you don't say well that's it I might as well stomp on it and smash it to pieces."

There are some very obese people in my family and I know it's in my genes to get quite large.  And while I don't want to necessarily want to be on a diet my whole life I do realize some self control is a must. 

I've started saying to myself, "Would I let my kids have as much of this as they could eat or would I set a limit?" 

 If it's not something I would let my children eat a whole bunch of then why the heck am I eating it like I'm never going to see it again?

I feel like I'm rambling so I probably am.  The whole point I wanted to make is:  
I've put in some work this month.  
I've been sore as heck from my workouts but I don't regret one minute.  
I'm feeling so much more upbeat and more like my old self than I have in a very long time.
I don't want to be the fifty year old woman who needs a cane because she has gained too much weight and her joints are crying.
I don't want to be the fifty year old who needs to have hip replacement surgery, when I could have done some preventative self care to avoid such things.  (yes, I have an aunt who has had both hips replaced quite young).

Almost there

My daughter is seven and is almost done grade two.  I home school her and she "officially" has 8 days of school left as we are working our way through 9 modules of 18 days each.  I thought with the end being so near she'd be chomping on the bit to be finished and would want to do more so she was finished for the summer.
This, however, has not been the case.  I have been hearing more "I can't do it" or simply "I'm not doing it" complete with the mutinous expression than I have since the beginning of the school year.
I'm with her BUT I know that if she simply buckled down she could be done this week.  Then she could have her beloved summer holidays complete with swimming lessons, dance camp, and branding at Nana and Papas.
Why oh why do children have to be so difficult?? LOL right??  'Cause if I don't laugh I will surely cry.

Go to bed already!!

How is it that I am so tired and yet here I sit, yet again, contemplating what I should do?

I want to finish that episode of Hart to Hart (yes I'm addicted to 70-80s TV shows, Rockford Files, Remington Steele, Magnum PI).  I really should try and read a couple chapters of the library book I've had out for a week.  Oh crap, I haven't written in my journal yet.  The dogs need to go out.  On and on, I do this almost every night and then wonder why the heck I'm dragging my butt when my girls get up in the morning.

Do other moms do this?  Try to cram as much into their couple hours of me-time at night as they possibly can??