16 Weeks of No Treats Recap and April's Cookie of the Month

Easter Sunday marked 16 weeks of no chocolate. Or marshmallows. Or ice cream (still haven't). Or caramel, cake, frosting, sprinkles, doughnuts, or anything of the like. 16 weeks!  Sometimes it felt like a really long time but the last month flew by.

I had mixed feelings about eating treats again. I wasn't craving them and I felt great and feared not feeling great if I ate Easter candy or dessert. I abstained all day long but then I decided I was over-thinking it all and ate a Cadbury egg and chocolate covered marshmallow late that evening.

Ending this treats fast, I felt like an alcoholic leaving rehab. Can I resume my normal life without going crazy. Can I eat in moderation? I sure hope so or I might have to do this again and it was no way to live.

Here are my goals and how I did.

1. No treats from New Years to Easter.  I did great.
2. Drink tons more water. Eh, kind of failed that one. I'm just not a thirsty person.
3. Exercise 5 days a week. Awesome. I missed one day due to crazy early-morning doctor's appointment for Henry and my elbow really hurt that day too.

The main purpose of this was to lose baby weight without dieting and I lost 14 pounds which I think is pretty good. Here are some other health benefits I observed: My teeth feel so clean at the end of the day. My face looks clearer and less dry. My mood feels more controllable (this is probably mostly due to post-pregnancy levels slowly balancing out). My energy level stays more constant throughout the day.  I don't think I had even a mild stomach ache that entire time and or digestive discomfort. And I never went to bed thinking "I shouldn't have eaten that" or "why did I eat a second one?" Nope, none of that. No more food guilt or regrets. At first everything I ate was a mental exercise of "Can I eat this? What can I eat?" but after a few weeks I thought about food less than I ever had before.

Big shout out to Justin who did this right along with me. He didn't want to but because he loves me and knew I wouldn't be baking anything good anyway. Plus my sisters and brother that participated as well and put up with my sporadic check-in emails. I don't think I could have done it without their accountability and commiseration.

The rest of 2017 will be the Year of the Cookie. Each month I will be trying out a new cookie recipe and I will let you know how they turn out.

This month: Peanut Butter Cadbury Thumbprint Cookies.

On Sunday,I took this recipe and instead of squishing in kisses, I put in a Cadbury egg. It made 57 of them so if you are lucky enough to be visit or home taught by Justin or I, you got a plate full of them.
I thought they turned out great. They aren't as soft as my regular peanut butter cookies but that's the point. These held up to being squished with candy while my regular recipe falls flat every time.

The Art of Homemaking: I Plan

Man, it's only April and I'm having a tough time coming up with a 4th post in this series. This month I tell you all about how much I plan.

I plan out just about everything. Yesterday I made a list of things I like about summer so that I can look forward to it instead of dread it. (I've been pregnant and/or sick the last two summers so I'm hoping I realize it's not as bad as I remember.) #1 on that list: Costco grapes. Pretty sure I spent $100 on grapes last summer.

See this notebook right here? I've had it for years and write down all my birthday and holiday and ward activity planning inside. My kids reading this notebook would pretty much ruin their belief in Santa.

I love making bucket lists for summer and Christmas activities. Christmas is a planning entity all of it's own. Gift lists, neighbor gift lists, cookie and treat lists, etc. Planning a trip is almost as fun as taking one.

I make timelines, preliminary budgets, and to do lists. There's a list in here of repairs and cosmetic fixes we need to make if we ever put our house on the market.













Up on my magnet board are the to do lists and hopping lists. I even have a "desserts to make" list.
I even make lists of lists I need to make. Plus I write down just about everything that's going to happen on my calendar. I don't think I'm a forgetful person but with a family of 6, I have a hard time keeping it all straight sometimes.

I've always been a planner but I think it's getting worse (or am I getting better?) Here is a list (I couldn't resist) of why planning every.little.thing works for me.

1.  If I don't plan it, I most likely won't do it. If I write "clean bathroom" on a post-it and stick it to my cabinet, I'm waaay more likely to do that most hated of all chores just because I love crossing off items as done.

2. But it may be more to do with the fact that it takes me a good day and a half to gear up and wrap my mind and commit to actually doing it.  I don't do well on the fly. I am not spontaneous or impulsive. Thus I plan.

3. It's a coping mechanism. I don't know if you know but having 4 kids is caaraaazzzyyyy. There are so many things I can't control but making lists and checking them twice gives me a sense of control---albeit sometimes a false sense.

Still not sure if this counts as "doing something right" but it works for me and keeps me sane.

We All Have Something

"Erica is the cute one.

I'm the cool one.

James is the cuter one--cuter than Erica.

Sarah is the fast one.

Well I'm the cool one and the fast one.

Sarah is the pretty one.

We all have something."

-Henry

Easter 2017

Here is the only picture I took during all of spring break. Justin was too busy at work to take much time off so we stuck around doing things like the park and playing with neighbors, going to the library, more table tunnel and I don't remember much else because it wasn't all that memorable. On Friday, Justin took the day off and we went to the reservoir in Springville. Since it was kind of a blustery day, only a few other people were there. The kids had a great time digging in the sand.

My kids got the "dough is delicious" gene from their father. I was making pizza dough this day and every time I stopped the mixer, Erica would ask, "Can I taste it?" Ew no! It's only yeast and water. Once the dough was done, I let her lick the dough hook. (Still makes me gag a little to think about it.)

And then she made quick work of the rubber scraper.

So much to love in this picture. Messy face, big blue eyes, itty bitty freckles.

Sarah wanted a new bike for her birthday but when I told her it would be the only present she'd get, she didn't want to do that. So I made her a deal that if she would save half the money, I'd give her the other half. She picked one out at the store and did chores and saved all winter long. Then we had to order it online since it was no longer at the store. She was so excited to come home from school and see it mostly assembled in the living room (I had to have Justin's help finishing the seat.)

It's pretty incredible since it was like last week that we bought her this trike and she wouldn't even try the pedals.

Easter Saturday we had lunch and a few Easter festivities and Justin's parents' house. First the kids dyed eggs in the basement. (Erica insisted she do her hair herself.)

Check out Henry's new haircut. He thinks he's pretty cool.

Sarah was a serious egg dyer.

And James munched on his bib

After lunch it was time for the Easter egg hunt! Cute kids with cute baskets.

You too, Justin! That's his basket from his childhood. So cute!

James just got to watch this year.

And now the Easter Sunday church clothes porch pictures. I can't decide which is my favorite.

Love love love Erica's smile and James's smirk in this one.

Now we can see Sarah's face better but James isn't looking at the camera.

All good except James is looking away again. Sigh.

It's really hard to get Henry to wear new clothes to school but he was all over new church clothes.

Erica's dress had been in her closet since February so she was "so excited" to finally get to wear it to church.

James wears whatever I put on him, no complaints. But he does drool all over it.

And Sarah picked out this fabric and I made her a skirt and then we bought a shirt to match.

After church we did the yearly Easter egg hunt with my family. Here's the cousin picture.

And then they were off. I mostly tagged behind Erica.

Last year she wanted to stop and eat every candy. This year she wanted to coo over every cute egg.

I got Henry a new basket since last year he complained that his football basket didn't hold enough eggs. This year he complained his basket was getting too heavy.

Last year Sarah was relegated to the big kid section of the yard which she said had less eggs so this year we didn't separate the kids by age. This year she over-filled her basket and used her shirt for the extras.

I told her to go put some back for the toddlers and she did.

Hooray for Easter, the cutest of holidays.

James at 5 Months

Wowsers that last month went by really fast. Time flies when you have this cute face to look at all day long.

It takes a lot of work to keep this baby happy. As long as he's fed and had a good nap and is carried around on my hip, he's good. Sit down or stay in one spot too long and he'll let you know.

He's getting really good at grasping things if I put them really close to his hands. He instantly pulls them into his mouth of course. He's starting to arch his back to roll onto his side but doesn't try to roll off his stomach yet.

Justin has fed him baby oatmeal cereal when I've been gone and I hear it went well. He is really interested in what I'm eating when he's sitting on my lap. I let him suck on a dried mango and he held my hand to his mouth so tight.

He still does great with people he doesn't know well which is a new experience for me. I've always wanted a big chubby lazy easy-going baby but I keep getting these petite babies with nervous dispositions. James isn't easy-going but he may just be more used to chaos and people coming and going from our house.

Sometimes (usually during the middle of the night feedings) I look forward for him to be one and be a better sleeper and eat people food. And then the next day I get all sorts of emotional because he'll never be this age again.

Because man, that's a cute baby.

April Fools!

Well before I get to the pranks, here's James. I pulled out the jumper for James since I remember Sarah practically living in this thing when she was 4 months. James isn't quite a fan yet.

It's probably because he is too short and has the hand eye coordination of a....well a 4 month old.

Here is the next installment of Henry's school journal. His bff Myer is the subject for like 3 journal entries.

Myer is so nice. I like transformers.

They also studied the symbols of America.

She is a girl.

That was the takeaway from the Statue of Liberty lesson, huh?

And Erica got into my 3x5 cards.  I have about a dozen of drawings like these. She says this one is me. The staple on the face is a nice touch.

Sarah really wanted to play an April Fools trick and wanted to google for some ideas but I wouldn't let her. But she and Henry and Erica were so busy and sneaky Friday night right before bed so I knew she had thought of something. Here's what I found when I went to make overnight French toast after they went to bed.

The real brown sugar was taken to the play kitchen in the basement.

Some things I didn't discover until the next morning.

And even more discoveries throughout the day.

They got me good.

It was a funny trick. Mildly inconvenient since they took the real stuff to the basement.

Oh wait, there's more.

It's hard to be annoyed when you open the cupboard and see this little face.

It took me a long while to spot the fake in this set up.

Justin got them good by taping down the spray nozzle on the sink. Henry got soaked and cried but Sarah was just confused. They wore their swimming suits under their pajamas that night "just in case Dad tricks us again tomorrow."

My trick was to switch their car seat spots in the car. They were so confused but actually liked the change. But the joke was really on me because it was so dang hard to move them and nearly impossible to lift James's carrier all the way to the back.