Good morning. I hope those of you that celebrate such had a wonderful holiday. We certainly did. The food was fantastic. On the down side, I really hurt my back lifting two 23 pound turkeys in and out of the oven. I’m unable to do most anything. Fortunately, I am now able to walk. By the end of Thursday, I couldn’t.

I’m going out of my mind with annoyance, because with Thanksgiving preparations over and done, I’m SO ready to start using my elliptical in earnest, and am anxious to begin my sister’s ab workouts. Core strength would have prevented my back from going out in the first place, so I feel like someone dying for pie that is standing outside of a locked bakery with mouth watering window displays, 5 minutes after they close.

SO close. Can’t have it.

However, I am most decidedly NOT dying for lack of pie.

Mmmm, leftovers.

Please, please let my back heal soon.

I went grocery shopping today for Thanksgiving. Lots of food. We’re going to have somewhere between 30-40 people. Today I hope to get the floor mopped, laundry done, the kids rooms cleaned (they’re doing that. Nate said that whatever isn’t clean by 7pm is getting pitched), and I told them that if their rooms are clean by 3, we’ll make gingerbread turkeys. Tomorrow I make 10 or so dozen crescent rolls.

You know what drives me nuts? When I’m talking to one young person in the house, and another hears just enough of the conversation to get it completely wrong and want clarification, even though the conversation is neither important, nor relates to them in any way. They ignore my declarations that it’s not worth me repeating again, and I have to explain it, at which point the 3rd child walks by and wants to know what’s being said because she heard it wrong, too. And the topper is that at some point during all of this the first child gets confused and wants to know what I’m talking about with #3 because what was overheard of this mutated conversation by child #1 sounds either more interesting than the original conversation, or is thought to contradict what I said the first time.

Yes, I frequently find myself having to repeat extremely trivial things 4 and 5 times because my daughters seem to be the unfortunate combination of both nosy and deaf.

I’m posting right now because I just ate a handful of Jordan Almonds and I needed to get away from them by distracting myself with something else. Other than that, I’ve been doing really well with the sugar thing. I haven’t had as much time to exercise this week as I’d hoped, but considering my housecleaning crisis, I’m ok with that too.

Less than a week to go ’til Thanksgiving. I’m going to try to continue curbing the sugar after Thanksgiving, but really, one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is having pumpkin pie for breakfast the several days following.

I’m glad to have the elliptical. I’ll have some pie to work off by this time next week.

My sister, who is an angel, recorded 7 little computer videos of herself doing various core/upper body/ab exercises that gave her a 4 pack a few months ago. They look really good and a whole lot more pleasant that hundreds of crunches. So I’m excited about those. Keeping my core strong is absolutely essential in keeping my back functional, and I could use the help.

I had to promise her that I wouldn’t post them on the internet before she’d send them over. Sorry.

And that’s it for me, so I’m going back to resisting the Jordan Almonds.

Resist.

I just haven’t felt very chatty. The house is clean enough to keep me sane (and out of Texas), and I’m spinning up the rest of the green tweed batts today.

I want to finish up Clark’s sweater, but I’m going to have to alter the pattern a bit on the sleeve caps, and sleeve caps are a mystery to me. I don’t get how they work, so I don’t really know how to alter them. It’s going to be an exercise of trial and error, but I haven’t been in the mood.

Here’s a bit of retail therapy I did yesterday.

It’s a centerpiece for the Thanksgiving table and I love it. I’m hosting between 30 and 40 people for dinner and I’m excited. You’ll probably see the turkey again when my table is set and looking better, but I needed a picture today, so you get the turkey.

I’m a little stressed. I’m trying to get my house cleaned up, and I’m making no visible progress. It’s been days of concentrated effort. I’m about to lose it. So, I’m spending the entire day on it today, and if it’s a disaster tomorrow morning, I’ll be on a plane to Texas by dinner.

Well, here we are a couple weeks into our sugar purge. How are you doing? It’s been pretty good for me. I’d say I feel better. More energy. Cravings aren’t too bad, and I’ve lost a couple pounds. I exercised a few times.

Yesterday, I squeezed myself into a cute pair of jeans that were a smidge too small when I bought them a few weeks ago. It’s interesting to see how many things I HAVEN’T eaten that I would’ve. That’s a lot of calories when you add them up.

Something else interesting, I knew that getting a really good breakfast was imperative to success when beginning this sugar fast, and for the first week + it really was. Now my appetite has severely decreased, so I’m finding I’m not eating breakfast ’til almost lunch time the past few days with no ill effects. I’m not sure that’s a good thing as far as breakfast goes, but it’s been interesting. I’m not snacking at all and my portion sizes are frequently smaller.

And the exciting news? I bought the elliptical, the one I’ve wanted for years, off craigslist yesterday. I’ve seen them on craigslist a lot, but they’re usually not much below retail. This one was amazingly cheap and I did everything I could to get down there and put cash in their hands before someone else bought it.

I’m thrilled. I love this machine. We’re trying to make arrangements to pick it up today. I seriously can’t even express how happy I am.

Well, my wedding ring is still gone, but aside from that, I’m extremely happy today.

At the end of the school year last year, I received an impatient from one of the girls, I think it was Veronica. I didn’t have a place to plant it as I was ripping up my yard at the time, so I set it next to my kitchen sink and waited for it to die. It stayed pretty much unchanged all summer long and then a few weeks ago as we hit autumn, it took off. It grew out a few inches in each direction, the leaves got bigger, and it started to bloom. When I saw the first couple of blooms, I thought it would be the last little bit of expended energy before giving up. The only think I knew about impatients was that they’re annuals. But it kept growing and kept blooming and so I looked on Google for some information and found a page that said that impatients can live several years and get quite large as houseplants. I had no idea.

The houseplants I have are a Thanksgiving cactus, two prayer plants (love them*), and three african violets. I know that the cactus and prayer plants can be fertilized from March to October, and my african violets are fertilized year round with a diluted solution every time I water. That’s how I water the others, but only from March to October, so since fertilizing season is over, I called a nursery to ask what to do with the impatient. She said that I can start fertilizing it now and through the winter similar to the violets, but at about a third of the frequency.

A whole lot of babble, sorry, but the point is that I have this very summery looking plant by my sink that miraculously survived in a tiny nursery pot with no food all summer long and is now delicate and filling with flowers. It’s neat. I moved it to a slightly bigger pot today and fed it.

I’ll probably have to pinch it back since it looks a little spindly in the center. We’ll see what happens.

Speaking of seeing what happens, I dyed the sample wool and alpaca for Nate’s sweater back whenever I said I was going to. I used no vinegar ’til the very end to set the color, and it dyed nice and even. I’m doing the same with silk noil today, but it needed a little vinegar to finish taking the color. I think the lack of vinegar in the beginning helped it to take evenly though. Noil has proved tricky for me.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to make a big batch of a couple colorways soon. I keep getting closer.

*So, the reason I love prayer plants, aside from the beautiful red against the lime and dark green, is that they move every morning and night. It took some getting used to, because the whole plant will spontaneously shake now and then and it can be startling, but the leaves point up to the ceiling at night, and lay flat or point down in the afternoon. They seem more alive than any other plant I’ve had. I love it. They’re always growing, and you can cut off a bit that has gotten long and stick it in the dirt to replenish the top. They make me so happy. I have two now. One is about 5 years old and one is almost 3. I’m quite proud of them.

My husband is brilliant.

Nate’s sister asked him to make shirts for her and her friends to wear to opening night of Twilight. The shirts were so popular, they decided to print extras.

If you would like a shirt, please specify which style and size. We have S, M, and L in junior sizing, so they run small. I can get you exact measurements if you need it. They are professionally silkscreened. $20.

Hey all. It’s a gloriously dark and wet fall day here in the Pacific Northwest. For some reason, I’m feeling chipper though my ring is not found.

I had a pretty good week. I did a few of my core strengthening exercises once, and I am extremely weak. That’s probably why I keep hurting my back, which happened again this week. So I’m going to focus on that.

I’ve done great with the “no sugar” thing this week. It hasn’t even been hard. I call that prayers answered, no question. I’ve been drinking a lot of water like I’m supposed to, and I’ve been making a considerable effort to get a healthy breakfast. Usually, I have two fried eggs on one piece of wheat toast with a smidge of butter. It holds me well ’til lunch. I had a breakfast shake twice this week for breakfast, but that has more sugar in it with the soymilk and yogurt, so I’m trying to minimize those.

The only hard thing has been that with the change in seasons and weather, I’m dying for some apple crisp. But I’m resisting.

How was your week?