Gallbladder Surgery

I’m still alive. I promise.

I’m sorry for the two weeks of silence. It was recently decided by my doctors that my gallbladder needed to be removed. I had quite a few gallstones due to my weight loss and I was having mild attacks multiple times a week. Technically, the surgery was elective as I wasn’t having the extremely painful attacks that are signs of gallbladder malfunction or blocked ducts. That was something I wished to avoid. I’m a stay at home mom of three kids. My husband works two hours away. If my gallbladder attacked while I was home alone with the kids, I would have to call an ambulance, and they couldn’t take all three kids with us. It was a recurring nightmare and major source of anxiety. Not that surgery wasn’t a major source of anxiety. I had never had major surgery before, and let me tell you, I was scared.  

87 days

That’s right. There are 87 days until Christmas. You would not believe how much that fact fills my heart with dread.

WARNING: Don’t read this post with your kids who can read nearby.

How I’ve lost 40 lbs in 79 days

I mentioned in my writing yesterday that I am on a new journey to health and wellness. The first step of that journey was to realize that I am grotesquely overweight. The second step was to seek help.

How long it has been?

*blows off dust* Cough Cough

Well, let’s try this again, shall we?

I’ve been rather active on my social media in the last few months, and I thought maybe, just maybe, I might give this blog thing another try.

I am currently undergoing a severe weight loss program and have lost 40 pounds! I thought about creating a new blog and page specifically for that weight loss and the health journey my family on, but then that’s not really all I am. I am losing weight. That’s great. My family will soon* be joining me on the health and diet change.  (* I’m not eating real food yet, I’ll post another blog about what I am eating currently on my weight loss journey, and they are still eating the same old junk as before. October 23rd will begin my transition to food again, and so my family will all be getting a diet overhaul as well.) But that’s not all there is. I craft. I still enjoy cooking and baking. I am “Mom” to THREE kids (last I posted I only had two haha)! I am homeschooling the Goddess. I have started homeschooling Shakespeare. And, well, My Smallest is a handful at 19 months of age. So, why create a new blog when I still have this one that still works well for my lifestyle and family?

Now, time to catch up.

Baby Clothes

What? Two posts in a day? Inconceivable!

Million Dollar Macaroni and Cheese Casserole

Let me just start off by saying, this is NOT a solo cooking job. This is for you and your significant other or a child who can read and measure. (Emphasis on knowing how to read and measure a recipe. JimBob mistook tsp for tbsp and we ended up over seasoning and over salting this casserole.) Maybe I left my Kali (Hindu’s Divine Mother) arms in the car, but I could not have possibly done this one without a little help from my friends.

Tonight’s dinner comes from Carlsbad Cravings, you can find the recipe here. I am a HUGE fan of cheese. Couldn’t live my life without it. And this recipe really looked like an interesting twist on one of my favorite meals, baked macaroni and cheese casserole. This author’s post may be a bit deceiving. She makes it sound so easy, and claims a quick 20 min of meal prep. Perhaps it’s because I’m 33 weeks pregnant and moving at half speed, but, even with the help of JimBob, we didn’t get the casserole into the oven until the 80 min mark.

Momspiration #1

I’ve had a thought of writing a book for a few years. I haven’t really felt the motivation to actually sit down, so instead I thought I would jot it down here. The idea is to make a motivational guide for moms. Some will be for women, or even just people, in general, but many will apply to women with families. One quote per day with a little bit of pep talk. I’m not sure if this will work, but here goes. 

“Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created.”

– Esther 4:14

Every day you wake up is a new day with new chances to create new memories and new experiences. Every breath you take is a new opportunity to do good. Every second allows you to change the outcome of the day.

Simply because one thing may not have gone as expected, does not mean your day needs to be ruined.

Sit back.

Take a second.

Breathe.

And start again.

Every single day can be lived to your fullest potential. If you don’t like the way things are going, if you don’t want to be angry, sad, frustrated, irritated, etc, then you can change it. Take the moment to become the you that you want to be.

This moment, this very one, is for you. It is your moment.

Seize  it and show the world why you are here.

Fingerless Mitts for my Goddess

I thought I would try something new and do a review of a knitting pattern tonight. I knit these lovelies for the Goddess in about a day, on and off while playing with the kids, eating, and doing other daily bits. I’m a moderately skilled knitter, and I was able to push these out “quickly”.

I originally hunted down the pattern on my go to collection site, www.ravelry.com. The pattern I ended up choosing is from a blog called Notes from the Something. Over all, despite her claims to over explain and over complicate things, I found the pattern easy to follow. The few abbreviations she did not explain were easy enough to find in a quick google search. Unfortunately, the author did not include the heart cable pattern in hopes that you will buy it from a vendor on Ravelry for a donation towards Haiti (the pattern was written back in Jan of 2010). I’m not one to spend money on patterns when I get them online, so I just sort of fudged it and made the heart. I think it turned out okay. The Goddess certainly loves them.

I haven’t really thought out how I want this post to go, which is probably something I should have done BEFORE I started typing. So yeah, if you want the pattern, click on the link. PATTERN.

Difficulty of pattern: 2 needle clicks

You need to have some experience cabling and unless you want to buy the heart cable pattern, you need to have some imagination or do some rooting online to try to find a chart.

Finished product: 4 needle clicks

There’s no real sizing on this, it’s just a “this fits my 8 year old”. In the end, they’re a little big for the 6 year old Goddess, but she’s a kid. She’ll grow. They are rather pretty, and she loves how warm they are.

I think that’s about it. Hope you enjoy this. If you make them, I’m sure your kids will love them!

Om nom on, people!

EDIT FOR CASSIE:

I was asked how I fudged the heart chart. I actually zoomed in on the photo that was provided on the original site. I counted, figuring that the heart would start in the middle of the 14 stitches, and started the cabling at stitch 6. If the stitch slants to the right, hold the cable in the back. If the stitch slants to the left, hold the cable in the front. the pattern I ended up doing is below. I am changing it a little bit because you’ll notice in the pattern on site that there are 12 rows of heart cabling, and I have only 9 rows of cabling. So, I’m suggesting adding 2 rows of purl before starting the actual pattern.

row 1 & 2 p14

row 3 p5, slip 1 to cable in back, k1, p cabled stitch, slip 1 to cable in front, p1, k cabled stitch, p5

row 4 p4, slip 1 to cable in back, k1, p cabled stitch, p2, slip 1 to cable in front, p1, k cabled stitch, p4

row 5 p3, slip 1 to cable in back, k1, p cabled stitch, p4, slip 1 to cable in front, p1, k cabled stitch, p3

row 6 p2, slip 1 to cable in back, k1, p cabled stitch, p6, slip 1 to cable in front, p1, k cabled stitch, p2

row 7 p1, slip 1 to cable in back, k1, p cabled stitch, p8, slip 1 to cable in front, p1, k cabled stitch, p1

rows 8 & 9 p1, k1, p10, k1, p1

row 10 p1, slip 1 to cable in front, p1, k cabled stitch, p2, slip 1 to cable in back, k1, p cabled stitch, slip 1 to cable in front, p1, k cabled stitch, p2, slip 1 to cable in back, k1, p cabled stitch, p1

row 11 p2, slip 1 to cable front, p1, k cabled stitch, slip 1 to cable back, k1, p cabled sitch, p2, slip 1 to cable front, p1, k cabled stitch, slip 1 to cable back, k1, p cabled stitch, p2

row 12 p14

Slow Cooker Steakhouse Stuffed Peppers

It’s a new year, and a new me, and blah blah blah. Seriously though, I figured I’d give this blogging thing a new try. With recipes 1-2 times a week and updates on the family and other interesting things that catch my eye the rest of the time. My goal (note how I don’t say resolution) is to write a post 5 of the 7 days a week. WHAT?!?!? Yeah. We’ll see if that happens. Let’s see if I can turn this into a habit that just happens. And so, without further ado, I give you this week’s recipe. Slow Cooker Steakhouse Stuffed Peppers from www.iwashyoudry.com

 

New Year’s Eve

Time to dust this thing off again. I can’t believe I’ve neglected it for so very long. Life has been… well… life. Ups. Downs. Round and rounds. It keeps going like the great circle of life.

The Goddess has started her first year of kindergarten. We are homeschooling through a local charter school and I’m loving it. They give us money to purchase our chosen curriculum, we have a certified teacher that  assists me any time I need help, and we are free to work at our own pace on the subjects we want. Goddess has also started gymnastics this last summer, and she is having a blast. She’s already becoming so much more flexible and can do cartwheels almost with ease. She’s now 6 years old. I feel like I blink and she’s grown another inch. She’s my little doppelganger in almost every way. She looks just like I did as a  young child, she acts like I did, and has the same *gulp* attitude that I have. I am in for so much trouble.

Shakespeare is also growing in leaps and bounds. Almost literally. He’ll be 3 in February, but he acts like he’s 4. He’s absolutely huge, towering over all of his other 2-3 year old friends, and language wise, he’s at the top of the charts. He uses complex sentences, complicated words, and is understandable (because we all have had that moment where you can’t understand what your child is saying) 99.9% of the time. He is dying to start gymnastics, but our gym’s tots class doesn’t start until he is 3.5 years old. He loves to do somersaults and is CONSTANTLY flipping upside down and standing on his head against the couch. He is such a sweet, loving, charming little man and I can see so much of all of the men in my life in his lovely face. I cannot wait to meet the man he grows up into.

JimBob and I are also well. We celebrated 10 years of marriage back in October. JimBob’s job is still going well. And I’m pregnant with our third child due at the end of Februrary! Another little girl. She will be our last baby, so this pregnancy has been a bit bitter sweet for me. Everything has gone well with this pregnancy so far. Normal blood pressure. No sign of Gestational Diabetes. The only minor red flag is that my doctor is measuring us as 4-5 weeks large, but it could just because I was a very plus sized woman before getting pregnant, so she’s getting a little extra on her tape measure. This just means that sometime in the next weeks I will be having an ultrasound to determine her weight. Then the doctors will calculate how much they think she will weigh, compare it to what my uterus has proven to be capable of (The Goddess was 8lbs 1oz, and Shakespeare was 9lbs and neither of them gave me any trouble) and they will try to figure out if induction will be necessary or if we can go to full term. Either way, I’m just going to be happy if she’s healthy.

All in all, 2016 was a pretty good year for the Om Nom Family, despite how depressing it was for our childhood heroes and celebrities. I got to check off a few of the items on my bucket list, made new friends, had lots of fun experiences, and thoroughly enjoyed my family. Here’s hoping 2017 is just as good if not better. There is so much to look forward to.

Photos by Jodi Stilp Photography LLC www.jodistilpphotography.com