Chubby Cheeks

"Hi, my name is Chubby. My mommy's name is Chubby..my daddy's name is Chubby...even my dog is chubby." 

Grace when she had her big ole chubby cheeks. <3 Why can babies pull of cute chubby cheeks?

I do the "chubby cheeks" with Grace all the time. She loves it. Gets a good crack out of it. As a kid, my sister did the best ever "chubby cheeks". Her "smile" was priceless. :)

Okay, anyway my point is not to reminisce on the silly stuff my sister did as a kid. My whole point is that I'm feeling like I can do the "chubby cheeks" game with Grace...and I don't need any hands. :/ My face is getting chubby enough that I do not need to press my cheeks! UGH!!

So...starting tomorrow, for my sake, but also for my entire families sake...I'm going to start eating and cooking better. I HAVE to. I don't loose weight like I used to, which is just some evil trickery of getting old I guess. So, now I'm really gonna have to dig my heals in it looks like. I'm also not going to be able to make pans full of delicious Million Calorie Bars. :( Okay, every once in a while MAYBE, but not on a regular basis.

I feel kind of sad because I've got this lovely, new, big kitchen that allows me the room to bake. Yeah, I know I can still bake, but I don't get that same satisfaction baking little bran muffins as I do millionaire bars. I've got to change my outlook on food. I've got to make food healthy and delicious. Not just healthy. That is what I've done in the past. Whenever I "diet" I don't put any kind of thought or planning into it. I just go to the old trusty lean cuisines or my basic diet staples. This time...I've got to enjoy it. And I think I will.

I just started e-mealz and I'm pretty hopeful that it will help me get organized and healthy. So anyway, starting tomorrow, ;) I'm going start this new food journey. I'm going to enjoy cooking healthy for my family. It's my DUTY.

Also, maybe I will dust off the treadmill and give that a try. Praying my knees don't kill me and stop me dead in my tracks. :( What I need to do is get on the ball and contact our little rec center here in town. They have a indoor swimming pool, which would be really easy on the knees and I love swimming. Great exercise. Okay...I will do that soon.

Tomorrow...healthy eating and treadmill.

Today..finish brownies off. I love the "day before diet starts"...Finishing off the bad foods. ;)

A Fresh Start

While you might think since it's January 1st, that the title of this entry is referring to some kind of resolution. Nope. I don't do resolutions. Only because I don't follow through with them. ;)  I'm certainly not going to make known to the world what I'm resolving to do or not do this year, only to forget about it 3 days later. But, the new year does bring that "fresh start" feeling. The feeling that you can somehow start over, or do better. It does for me anyway. 


It feels pretty similar to baking bread. I'm quickly falling in love with baking bread. <3 You get the "fresh start" feeling, every time you go to bake a loaf. I'm not new to baking, I love to bake. But baking bread has always been intimidating. Well, yeast intimidates me. It's 'alive' you say? Okay, that's scary enough right there. But, thankfully I have a friend that was willing to come over and show me that it's not that scary after all. The BEST part about it, is if you mess up, or it doesn't turn out just right....you get to try again. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Plus, nothing, and I really mean nothing, beats the smell of a hot, fresh loaf of bread straight out of the oven. Even if it tasted horrible and turned out like a brick...it would likely still smell wonderful. But that is beside the point. The point is...each loaf of bread you make is a fresh start. You get to fix what you think you did wrong last time. Or tweak something this time. It's just a great feeling. There is something about baking bread for your family that is truly satisfying. It's like....we can make it through anything as a family, and we will have bread. :) It is a very simply way to use what God provides for our family, and it feels good. 

Is there anything better than warm bread from the oven frosted with butter and drizzled with honey? I think not.

So, one thing I will say I am resolving to do it blog more. Not because it's the new year, but because I want to. ;) Even though I've hardly blogged at all, and not once in over 6 months, it doesn't change that I still enjoy looking back and reading them. I'm not a writer, and will never pretend to be. In fact, maybe I will share my hideous diary entries from my younger years someday. I promise, you will be terrified. And you might wonder, if you don't already, how I can even form a basic sentence. It's bad..but still, I'm glad I have it to look back on. Same with this blog. I also would like to keep a diary of sorts of my baking adventures. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Most likely, a lot of ugly. But, that is okay...it makes for good pictures. :)


So Happy New Year!!...I'm off to find a something a little more difficult than the basic white bread recipe I've attempted so far. Maybe I'll get a little crazy and make some rolls. Stay tuned...