Oatmeal is the new garbage dump

This has to be said. I've noticed a trend lately. I can remember the days of when you would add in a banana and a handful of walnuts into your oatmeal and call it a day. Or some raisins. Or an apple and some apple spice. Lately, however it seems that it is common and trendy to add in at least 5 different add ins to your oats and eat it that way.

Maybe it's because people don't like the taste of the oats and are trying to find ways to defeat the purpose. I don't know, call me crazy but adding in the caloric equivalent of toppings to your oatmeal seems counterproductive to me. I mean, when I want to eat oatmeal I want the oatmeal. The other things are nice as embellishments but when they become equal to the amount of oatmeal then can you really call it oatmeal. I suppose it can be compared to coffee where is it really coffee anymore if your adding in way more stuff than the coffee itself.

And what the fuck is the deal with chia seeds???????? Who eats that?

In other random yet related news, green monster drinks. I must have missed the CNN newsflash where grinding up your vegetables and mixing them with milk is the way to go now.

I long for the simple days.

Lazy Sunday Morning

Catching up on reading my blogs. The dog, not the kid, woke me this morning. Geez, well I suppose it's better than her having an accident. I totally need to give her a bath today. Folding laundry and doing that are the only chore related items on my agenda today.

I've become torn between the two books I'm reading. I'm about half way through Mansfield Park and the uncle has just returned from a year long, actually plural years, to Antigua. He appears to be the only one in the entire lot, with the exception of Edmund, that treats Fanny as if she is truly family rather than a glorified servant. It's been pissing me off that she is so mild and meek, but I suppose that is what Austen is going for.

Neuromancer I just started last night and it's not been particularly easy to read. Gibson has some made up words that I've never heard so I've been using my 4th grade "context clues" skills to determine what it is he is trying to convey. Of course, he did invent the word "cyberspace" so you would have thought that some of these others would have taken off as well. No, they really didn't. The story is, however, interesting and since I actually have a deadline with an event scheduled, Aug 19th, I suppose that I will go ahead and try to finish this book first. I'll be sure to let you know how I like it since it's my first adult foray into science fiction.

I haven't eaten anything yet today, but I did weigh in as I want to go ahead and start actually following Weight Watchers. Again. I've been maintaining the weight I am now for quite some time and have determined that if my 12 y/o can manage to stay on plan then WTF am I waiting for. Seriously. I am just enjoying coffee right now. Breakfast will be a bowl of cereal. I'm keeping to my budget by not buying items until I'm completely out of them. Which means no breakfast food until I run out of the cereal, oatmeal and eggs that I have. I'm a relatively boring breakfast eater. Pictures to follow.

I won't be doing much today but going to the grocery store and hanging out at home. By choice. Oh, I may take the little one to the pool or the park.

Books, books, and more books

I joined a book club via meetup.com which seems like it isn't your typical book club. In an attempt to get out more I decided that I wanted to do so in a way that was stimulating intellectually and since I love to read why not?

Anyway, the book I'm supposed to be reading is a science fiction book of all things. Not exactly my cup of tea, and I'm not going to lie, I like to read fluff every once and awhile. But, so far this book seems very interesting. It's Neuromancer by William Gibson. It was published in 1984 and is a futuristic look at something, I'm not sure what.

But I love the opening sequence where the main character walks into a bar and the bartender is the ugliest human alive or something to that effect. Hah!! I have been switching back and forth between this and Mansfield Park. Two totally and completely different books. From 19th century England to 22nd century or so Japan. Hmm. It's going to be an interesting Saturday night that's for sure.

I'm also going to find a way to squeeze in an episode or two of Mad Men.

Another weekend

It's another wonderful weekend. Wonderful because I get to spend two days doing exactly what I want. Well, with the exception of chores. But other than those, I'm doing fun things with the kiddos.

Last night was movie night and we watched "Marley & Me." I really enjoyed that movie. I've become a dog person owning my little Sedona so of course I cried at the end. But we really did enjoy it.

Sat is chore day. Well morning anyway because todays chores are just dusting and laundry. I break out the chores day to day so that I never have to spend more than an hour or two doing chores. Laundry doesn't count. I can read/watch tv between loads.

I think we'll go to the pool if the weather holds out and the library of course.

My car was towed to my mechanic yesterday since the AC went out in it. I'm hoping that it isn't too much $$. In the meantime, my wonderful boss has let me borrow one of his cars. The BMW SUV. How fun to drive. The kids particularly like the dvd player in it.

Someone said to me on FB yesterday, how come I've been so quiet and I realized that being quite online means perhaps that you are living life offline. Which in this circumstance is a good thing. I've discovered I have reclusive tendencies and I'm totally ok with that. As I age I'm enjoying time alone more and more.

Off to dust those bunnies.

Two Nights Graze Free

That's what I'm calling it anyway. Since I did have snacks, BUT they were planned snacks and therefore authorized. I'm still working on the *why* I have such a dysfunctional relationship with food, and while I've had a lot of insight lately, this is still ever elusive. It can be any number of things but since it's been going on as far back as I can remember I'm sure it's some kind of Freudian parental thing. I've not always done it, but rather do so in spurts. Or I suppose I should say the times I've not done it have been in spurts, because, if I'm honest about it I've done it more than I haven't. But that's another post.

For this week, I've NOT done it two nights in a row. Which feels absolutely fantastic. I embraced my hunger yesterday as well thinking to myself that hunger is a good thing as it's telling me I'm eating properly. It isn't an emergency and I'll get to eat when I get home.

My recluse lifestyle continues. Which suits me perfectly at this time in my life. I finally feel like I'm getting it together.

As August approaches I have some things to look forward to. My mom is coming to visit, my dad will also be here. I'll probably make a trip to Orlando for the weekend to see my sister and my friend from DC is coming down. All in all a lot to look forward to.

Today's docket isn't especially interesting considering that I kept thinking yesterday was Wednesday. Ugh, this just means that this week is one week longer than I realized. Whatever, it's no big deal other than the fact that I'm at work one more day. Before vaca. Or rather, staycation. I'll imagine we'll do some shopping but I also plan on getting in some fun "tourist" stuff for the kids.

I've got some thought provoking topics that I want to write some posts about but I'm not sure that the name of my blog is correct if I'm going to start doing that, you know?

Just Another Manic Monday

Yesterday morning after getting back from Wal-Mart with Jonathon's laptop we spent a very lazy Sunday morning doing nothing. Jonathon played with his new laptop and was very excited about it.

Shyanne, as you can see, isn't happy not being the center of attention. She also isn't the, "let's laze around and do nothing" type, but I was able to appease her with reading a book or two to her. I think we read an Eric Carle book. He is one of her favorite authors. I love it that my six year old has several favorite authors, that she can name. I love books and reading so much and it seems that the boys only love to read from the computer. Although they will pick up a book a time or two it seems that they just always find other things to do. Shyanne however, wants to be mini me, so there are many times that we are both sitting around with books in our laps.

I made a quick lunch before we headed out. This was some leftover chili that I had, a mix of spring greens and some cucumber. I topped it off with the shredded monteray jack and a couple of spoonfuls of this wonderfully fresh salsa I had left from my farmer's market treck last week.

Even the cat was super lazy this Sunday. I made a stop at Goodwill to drop off some stuff and wanted to go into the Goodwill store only to find that it wasn't there anymore. What the heck happened?? Well, there went one errand, so off I went to the library to drop off some books and pick some more up. Shyanne wound up with a lot more books than I and we rented Marley & Me. Jonathon had read that book and I thought for sure he would want to see the movie but he doesn't. He explained it this way, "when you read a book, you feel what you are reading. And yes it's sad, but it's in your mind. When you watch a movie, you actually see what is happening and so you feel it and see it and that makes it much sadder." Wise words from a 12 year old.

Dinner was easy. Bubble Up Pizza Casserole with some broccoli thrown in. The kids loved it. I used TVP in lieu of the ground beef. And reduced fat biscuits. You can find the recipe on Heather's site.

I ended my Sunday in typical fashion, watching Entourage. It's my Sunday night ritual. That and the Next Food Network Star show. After all day reading Jane Austen, my mind needed a little rest.

Mondays aren't that bad for me, as I have discussed previously. Right now I'm drinking coffee and then I've got to get ready for work. The kids and I have eye Dr. appointments this afternoon and then I get to come home rather than going back to work. I've marked out a pilates routine to do and a stability ball routine to do as my exercise for the day. Let's see if I get it done. I think there's some kind of self-deprecating joke in the offing here, but I'm only one cup of coffee in so I can't quite come up with it. Anything I say will sound lame.

In other completely related news. Weigh in is tomorrow. Just another reason to thoroughly hate Tuesdays.

Early Sunday

The dog doesn't realize it's Sunday and her barking was my alarm clock this morning. She wanted to go out and since she didn't do all of her business last night, I knew that she had to go. So I stumbled out of bed and took her. She rewarded me by promptly doing her thing. I'm up early this morning as I'm headed to Wal-Mart at 8am. They have a Compaq laptap on sale for $300 and I definitely want to see if I can snatch one up for the younger two kiddos. It'll mainly be my middle son's but I know that my daughter will want to use it as well.

I know that the name of this is "It's the Way I Eat Now" but to be truthful there hasn't been anything to report there. I haven't been eating the way I should. I am still snacking way too much at night. It's a binge to me, but it isn't an all out crazy kind of binge. Hah, even when I am out of control I try to have control. I've been thinking of changing the name to accurately reflect what it is that I'm talking about here.

I do need coffee, desperately. I stayed up watching the last two episodes of Nurse Jackie on Showtime and the last Weeds episode. Nurse Jackie is such a funny show. I love it. Edie Falco does an amazing job and really shows her acting skills as this character is so different than Carmela Soprano. Which I also watched the end of Season 4 this weekend. Today, after Walmart I plan on watching some Mad Med, Season 2. I'm also going to make some headway in Mansfield Park and decide on another book to read after that one. It'll be a light hearted chick lit one I'm sure.