When You Cannot Possibly Eat Another TV Dinner

Sometimes my life gets crazy. I have a work deadline, and Jake's school semester just started... and I have another life saving product which no one is compensating me to promote. Kraft Fresh Takes. 

Could I buy and mix my own breadcrumbs,  spices and cheese for a fraction of the cost? Probably. But let's face it. Sometimes even that is too much work. So for days like that, I chop some chicken, dip it in egg and then throw it into a fresh take bag and shake it and bake it.

And that's how divas survive sometimes.

33:17

33:17. That was my time at my 3rd ever 5k yesterday. I was aiming for under 33 minutes but it was still almost 2 minutes off my last time so I was extremely happy!!

Jake grabbed a shot of me finishing (and looking for him, hehe) and a friend snagged a shot of a sweaty and tired me and my supportive scholar.  It was a great day!

Another kitchen tip

Whenever I make cupcakes they come out uneven. Some are tiny, some are huge, and no matter how many cupcakes the recipe claims to make, I end up with a different number.

Then I read about measuring with the ice cream scoop. Perfect measure, easy to get into the cupcake pan and MAGIC! I ended up with 12 cupcakes!!

How do people think of these things?  Ice cream scoops: making you look like you know how to make cupcakes.

Cleaning my house. In sprints. With Cookies.

This week, I stumbled upon a tumblr account that really appealed to my "Not Martha" style blog... only with an exorbitant amount of cursing.  :( It's called "Unfilth Your Habitat".  I'll boil it down for you:

1. You have a job, a family, roommates, homework, pets, and/or some other reason why traditional "Housekeeping" information seems outdated/ impractical/ stupid.
2. Your house/apartment/room is getting embarrassingly bad.
3. Stop whining, and spend 20 minutes intensely cleaning something, and then give yourself a 10 minute break. (To watch tv, or read, or surf the internet. I make cookies to reward myself for all my hard work!)
4. Vinegar and Mr. Clean's Magic Erasers are the most amazing cleaners on the planet.

So, taking this advice to heart... Here's what has happened in my house in the last 2 days! This 20 minute intense cleaning... with a 10 minute reward... I have to say - it's becoming addictive. Domestic Diva is cleaning this place!  Taking the before and after pictures are AMAZING motivation too!

The Bathroom Scale

I did something crazy.  I hid my bathroom scale under the bed.  Its been about a month and I think it was the best decision I could have made.  Lemme 'splain.

This year I decided to get healthy. After fad diets, diet pills, low carb, cheating on low carb, and then poorly following pretty much every diet on the planet, I started running.  And then doing some free weights. (I can do a pushup! A real one!)  And although my calories have been reasonable and I lost a percent of body fat, the scale did not move for 6 months.  Well actually, it did. It went up.

I know I know. "Muscle weighs more than fat." "Calorie deficit is how you lose weight" "Make better snack choices" "Don't eat after 5pm" "Eat breakfast". I. KNOW.

But it was still so discouraging. I couldn't be happy for the progress I had made. And then my friend somewhat offhandedly said, "You know I didn't even grow up with a bathroom scale. Not that I never had body image issues, but they were with the mirror, not that number."

Can I just tell you what a relief that has been for me? I still catch myself doing the mirror evaluation and I'm still keeping an eye on calories ... but that magical scale number has been out of my life for 4 weeks now!

I'm not dumb. I know when my workout hasn't happened in a week or that I ate a chocolate chip cookie (or 3... with ice cream...) today.  But I'm so sick of that number on the scale being an all consuming force in my life.  I have plenty of other things to worry about.

And I want to be healthy diva in body and mind.

How to Throw a Birthday Party for your Dog

So here you are, looking for information on how to throw a party for your four-legged child, aka your dog.

First, Acknowledge.
It is important to recognize that you are crazy.  Awesome, creative, and loving... but crazy.  Don't worry, no judgement here.  Just acknowledge where you are. In crazy town.

Second, cake.  
I found a lot of recipes online for cake that could be consumed by dogs and humans (usually something like "peanut butter carrot cake".)  That sounded disgusting to me.  Instead I went the route of "making my guests uncomfortable because my cake just *looks* like something dogs eat." aka, dog food cake.  It's Reese's cereal and it looks pretty gross! It was chocolate cake underneath, which you should definitely not share with your birthday children.

"Dog food Cake" for people!

And then of course, you need cake for the guests of honor.  It's important to remember that your guests of honor might need a couple extra bathroom breaks after the party, since you gave them filet mignon dog food which they are not quite used to eating, but thought was delicious.

"Cake" for dogs!

"Nom nom we love cake"

Third, presents.
Dogs may not know how to open presents, but if you loosely tape them and put food inside, they will figure it out pretty quickly.

"Oh, we get it!"

Finally: hats!
And then the most important element of doggy birthdays. Dogs in hats!  AAahhhh!!

"Why do you do this to us, mom?"

 Make sure you take several pictures as quickly as you can, because dogs don't seem to like hats nearly as much as you do.

Happy 1st birthday to Jazz and 5th birthday to Tolpel! :) And thanks to my family (husband, parents, sister, and brother in law) for attending my ridiculous party.

Staycation Day 1

Jake and I had a fantastic time at the Durham Bulls tonight! This was my first Bulls game since... I learned the rules of baseball.  We had first row seats behind right field, and Jake got a great deal... $4.50 a ticket! Add in a delicious dinner at a Cuban restaurant, and it was a really delightful evening!

I also decided I wanted to learn how to score a game, so Jake taught me. I loved that. Also, my very favorite part of baseball is a pickle, so I excitedly added my own notation when one occurred tonight. (If you can't tell, I drew a pickle which I'm told is not official notation. Hehe.)

Such fun times.