My how time flies

So I guess I should change the name of this blog, since I'm no longer a homeschooler.  That's right my final child is finishing his first year of "real" school.  I'm proud to report he is doing wonderfully and completely happy.  In this time I have also had my eldest graduate from college and begin his new life as a working person at Microsoft.  I am sooooo proud of him.  My second has graduated from high school and is now officially a Junior in college and my precious daughter is graduating from high school and will begin her college life..  whoosh, major changes.

Yet no matter how much things change,  things stay the same also.  DS is home for the summer from college.  He has taken over the basement, and well much of the rest of the house.  From the time he was little he was like the tasmanian devil.  You could tell when he had left a room, by the disaster that followed....  Well he is still that way, there is disaster in every room he goes in.  He literally leaves a trail.  Which brings me to my one complaint.  I love my kids, but why when they clean up their mess do they say I cleaned up for you (meaning me).  Let's think about this.  By saying I cleaned up for you, the implication is that I made the mess.   Trust me, I have not been in our basement, except for the old school/new sewing room in months.  I try to avoid it because it freaks me out.  I do not like messes.  As a matter of fact when said son is home you may find me hiding in the one place he can't destroy, my bedroom.  But I digress.  So I have made none of the messes they clean up.  They should be saying I cleaned up for my sister, or I cleaned up for my brother, or God forbid, I cleaned up my own mess.  But no, it is always, for all of them... I cleaned up for you...drives me crazy!!  I do clean up for them.  All the time, I always have, it is the job of any mom,  oh wait we don't actually work, but thats another matter.  Yes I do clean up for them, for everyone, and that's okay it is a choice I made, but please, it is not my sole purpose in life to pick up after you for your entire life.  So no, you did not clean up for me.  You cleaned up for yourself and after yourself, because theoretically, you do not like to live in filth.

Another stall, and all about writing

Jacob hates to write, we have tried literally every writing program known to mankind, he hates them all, because he hates to write. He hates the physical act of writing, he hates thinking up ideas, he hates putting the words on paper. He hates it. I battle this everyday and it drives me crazy because Will hated writing and he is awful at it and I am paying for it now. I wonder sometimes how Will can cope when he gets to college. Do you know someone who hates to write?? I think most times it is boys, they just hate having to sit still long enough to write, I mean really, they are boys, action is their middle name. Which when you think about it is odd, because some of the best writers and most published authors are men, so when did they change?? Anyway, I got a new program for Jacob. The child will use any excuse to get out of writing. Yesterday he was supposed to write the outline for a paragraph, but he found a spot where it said he would have to use another sheet of paper for the next day. Well in his little pea brain that meant he had to do no writing until today. I tried to reason with him, apparently even 11 year olds can't be reasoned with. Thinking about it their 17 year old counterparts can't be reasoned with, so why would I expect different from an 11 year old. So he didn't do any of the pre-writing for yesterday. I warned him that this would mean twice as much writing today, but he wouldn't do it, so I gave in. So we start writing today, did I mention that one of the beauties of this program is the guy writes directly to the student, unless the student is a reluctant 11 year old, who tried to write the opening sentence yesterday of his paragraph without having the subject of said paragraph!!! Umm how's that work, needless to say we erased the sentence!!! Anyway, we are just getting started, after I reread everything to him that he should have read yesterday, because he didn't understand what he was supposed to do.....the dog could have understood it!!! We start on the exercise. Two minutes into it, he announces he has to go to the bathroom. He didn't have to go to the bathroom while he was playing on the stupid video game while I was working out, but you let us start writing and well I swear it could be a cure for constipation!!! I finally put my foot down and said you can wait to go to the bathroom, I mean he held it for an hour during video time, he can hold it for another 15 minutes to write the stupid outline!!!! Seriously, writing time is worse than a root canal. One of us will probably die from this, and it may be me!!! My personal belief is the dislike of writing stems directly from the dislike of reading. I can't understand this because I love to read and be transported across time and place....but two of my kids don't like to read, and they both hate to write also. The physical act of writing is another matter, they are just lazy. I have tried reward, cajoling and finally have resorted to humiliation. I keep telling Jacob his handwriting looks like he is in the 1st grade not the 5th. It isn't that he isn't capable of writing nicely, as proven by his handwriting book, he just uses it all up there and then during his normal schoolwork it becomes chicken scrawl!!! I'm like look Jake I'm old and I have a hard time reading, can you help me out here???? Apparently the answer is no!!! Dear God help me, I'm not sure I can last another 4 years!!!

Anyway, on to the diet. I have hit another stall, this one is actually worse. It isn't that I'm not losing at all, I'm just losing extremely slowly, can you say 2/10 of a pound a day!!! It is awful, I work out, I don't eat all of the food, just the protein and I'm still only losing 2/10 of a pound a day. At this rate I will not meet my goal and that makes me sad and angry!!! Sad because I had such high hopes, angry because we are going to the Cayman Islands for Christmas and I won't get to wear a bathing suit, because I will be too self conscious!!! Oh well, I will keep plugging away and hopefully I will break into the 130's before we leave!!!

Thanks

Okay so it has been a while and I'm proud to announce my stall ended, but this is still very slow going, a little bit less than I was led to believe. I am very good at keeping on track with my eating, but still can only count on about 3 pounds a week. I was hoping for at least 5 pounds a week, and was told if I was conscientious it would be 7 pounds per week. I have no hunger!! That is good, and I eat well, lots of food with the salads and the meat, but I wish I could lose more. Oh well, it may just be that I have to do another round after this. Anyway, I am down just over 10 pounds but it has been 19 days, that translates to about 1/2 a pound a day....hmmm. I am also walking every day, 2 miles and have added some weights in. Very interesting. I feel strong, my clothes are still fitting looser, but maybe the weights is why I"m not losing as much. Who knows, I just want to get into my size 8 older pants so that they look nice, not tight. That is my goal this week. Still looking at the long term 120 pounds though and I definitely feel it is within reach

Thanks all

I stalled

So, the past few days have been trying to say the least. First off, I had two kids sick with the flu, trying to keep them well, plus keep everyone else sane. Not good. Jacob missed like 3 days of school, so once again I'm playing the catch up game, although his new writing strands is going really well!!! He likes it, because it is written to him, and he likes keeping it a secret, he even did extra days. He read about South American Desserts yesterday in reading and told me something I didn't know. Tapioca is made from the poisonous root of the cassavas plant. I love tapioca!

The diet continues. I had an off day from the HCG and stalled. I didn't lose anymore weight for 4 days. Sat, Sun, Mon, then when I got up this morning I had gone down another pound, so that makes 6 pounds in 9 days really if you don't count the two loading days. That works. But I have paid for it the past few days. I have been extremely hungry. Now mind you I have a cold, which is causing some indigestion and a ton of gas, I think this made it worse, I also started drinking the protein shakes. While they are easy, they just don't last!!! So back to actually eating, and eating smarter, I just had a HUGE lunch. Okay, so let me explain. I had been following to a tee the directions from my doctor, but yesterday I happened on this website, My HCG Family... well they have a link to the original doctor's writings, and I noticed several subtle differences. One the original doctor allowed 2 grassini breadsticks a day with a meal, and 1T of milk every day. Now I have been foregoing anything like that, but I do like a touch of milk in my morning tea, still can't abide the coffee without vanilla syrup, so no go on that! and what up with the breadsticks, which are readily available at Kroger. He also allows veal, I love veal, better than beef and he doesn't like US beef, because it is too fatty throughout....hmm, my doctor allows it, but no more for me. So I went to Kroger and bought some salad greens, veal, lobster, crab and more chicken..... oh and the grassini. For lunch I had the salad greens, (a whole container, seriously because you get 6 ozs.) and 100gms of veal, which i seasoned with salt pepper and emeril seasoning and cooked on the george foreman. Then I sliced the veal poured the juices that collected while it rested on the greens and the tiny pieces of meat, and squirted the whole thing down with balsamic. Oh my goodness. I feel so full. That is a lot of salad, and I had my breadstick, just one, no big deal, and I feel confident that I can last till dinner, which will be orange roughy with cherry tomatoes, basil and lemon. Oh yeah and that breadstick. Wish me luck, only the scale will tell if the breadstick causes my downfall!!!

The days keep getting longer

So not only is Katie sick with the flu, yes it is my best guess since they aren't even bothering to test people anymore, but now Jacob has come down with it. And people are going back to school way to soon.....they will just get others sick. They said 24 hours without a fever, they meant it, no fever people, even 99.8 is a fever!!!!

So anyway, enough of my rant, sometime when you have more kids you are bit more sensitive to this, it's bad enough trying to keep them from their siblings, but when you are fighting others, whoosh!!!

Day 5 of the diet, I am consistently losing 1 pound a day and I am not hungry so I guess the HCG is doing it's job. Right now I'm grilling my mini hamburgers and some asparagus for dinner. I have started trying to hold off on eating till noon, then I have a protishake, which is really good, along with 6 strawberries. It is very filling, I don't need to eat again until 3. I then have my veggies, then around 5:30 I have dinner. Around 7 - 7:30 I will eat my last fruit for the night. Last night I had an apple with some cinnamon on it, it was like a pie, without the crust!!!

So far all is going well, and I'm not getting sick even though the kids are, plus I walked 2 miles today and did some situps. Can't wait for that belly button ring!!!

Later all

Hunger Pangs

So when I decided to do this diet, they warned that if you did not overeat enough the first 2 days you would be hungry on days 3 and 4. I thought I had done a pretty good job, dinner at Mortons, eggs, bagels, cream cheese, potatoes, etc. And yesterday I felt really good, no real hunger, just wanted to eat!!!! That was until 8pm. I was starving, I had eaten all of my food for the day and I couldn't stand it. It was too early to go to bed, so I tried to ignore the fact that my belly was growling. Not unbearable, I was just hungry. Okay, so Katie has the flu so that was a good diversion, one of our tenants died from the flu, in the apartment, that was a really good diversion, so I was ok. I figured when I woke up all would be right in the world again. Hold on, not so much. I was still hungry, not starving, but my stomach was growling, and all I got for breakfast was tea, really, just tea!!! Oh my goodness, if it is going to be like this for 49 days I want my money back. The only saving grace.....I got on the scale and I had lost 3 pounds. Yup, just like that 3 pounds. So I ate my 1/2 grapefruit, gather my 2 chicken tenders and 1/2 of a cucumber and headed off to my hair appt. I was talking to the hairdresser, who knows about the diet and will start on Friday, and said, look, I'm hungry, not starving but definitely hungry. She put the color in my hair, I noshed on 1/2 of my food, and read my book. Low and behold she came to get me and it suddenly donned on me......I'm not hungry, not at all. Wow that was quick. And 4 hours later still not hungry.

Now I did go to the grocery to get pudding, dinner, etc for the family, and goodness I want some pudding, but not because I'm hungry, just because I want to eat it!!! So I guess the HCG is working, cause trust me if I was still hungry I would admit it!!! Hey maybe I'll lose another 3 pounds today........naw, that would be too much

Day 3 of the Diet and a day at the zoo!!

Today, Jacob and I got to go with Katie's class to the zoo. I was the chaperone. It is actually really fun to go with them. All of the kids are really well behaved and cause no trouble. My group was evenly boys and girls!! The boys crack me up, mostly because they blithely go where the girls lead!! Guess they are being trained as husbands!! Jacob was just excited because he got to ride a school bus, a real treat for a homeschooler, not so much for me. They are loud and bumpy, I could do with out. We had a great time and hopefully Jacob learned something, like polar bears are not primates!!!

So today also marked day 3 of the diet and the real start in my estimation. Days 1 and 2 you are taking the HCG, but you are actually gorging yourself in prep for day 3. The news so far is good, I actually have had NO hunger pains at all. The bigger issue in my estimation is that I want to eat because I can't eat. I had my strawberries (6) for a morning snack, then 2 pieces of grilled chicken tenderloins and a sliced cucumber for lunch. Right now I'm eating my afternoon snack of a sliced apple. I think dinner is going to be lobster and brussel sprouts. I have been a bit lethargic, not tired lethargic, but that could be from staying up late (and dancing at parent prom) getting up early and walking all over the zoo 3 times. I fixed that with a cup of tea. I'm having another one now. I think that might be my treat to myself through all of this, cups of tea!!!

My opinion so far....great, I am definitely not hungry, not overly tired, but we will wait and see what the scale shows for the final verdict.

Good day all, talk to you soon.