Rediscovering my favorite activities

Finally I am feeling back to normal.  Yesterday I went to a Zumba Toning class and it was the first time I didn't feel like I wanted to lie down and go to sleep in the middle of class.  I actually had energy to do the workout.  Good thing too because that was a hard class!  Much harder than I thought it would be.  My arms were shot afterwards, surprisingly thought it's my legs that are sore today. 

Lily has been testing my patience lately, she has been stool holding again.  There is nothing that stresses me out quite like when she refuses to poop.  After a 20 minute tantrum, which is relatively short when it comes to this topic, I decided to bribe her and I said that if she would poop we could make cookies together.  30 seconds later, she complied and we were off baking cookies.  I am definitely not above bribing my kids, and it seems to work the best with Lily anyway.  It turned out to be an unexpected bonus because I didn't let her eat any of the cookies we made (she was able to eat some cookie dough) until after she ate her dinner, and she had to eat all of her vegetables before she could eat her cookies.  She is such a picky eater and it all depends on her mood, she likes peas and corn and green beans and carrots and broccoli but a lot of the time she just refuses to eat them.  It is infuriating.  Lately I have been making sure she eats at least one fruit and one vegetable a day, and I am determined to keep that up because her diet has become pretty poor over the past year with how picky she has been with eating.   Last year I was pulling teeth just to get her to eat something that I didn't care so much what that something was.  That has led to other problems such as hard stools and constipation from not enough fiber in her diet.  I also decided that it was time to start educating my kids on food groups and what is in the foods they eat and why we need to eat certain foods.  So when we were making cookies I was talking to Lily about solids and liquids (wet and dry) ingredients, and when we were playing we were naming all the fruits that she could think of.  Then we played a game where I said a food and asked if it was a fruit or veggie and she had a really great time with that.  I've also been checking out food books from the library and Lily and Chloe both love to look through those books and tell me which foods they have eaten and which ones they have not.  I decided that if I want to instill a love of eating healthy and get them to establish good eating habits I need to start now.  And you know what they say "there is no time like the present" or something along those lines. 

After the kids went to bed I was reading on Ronisweigh.com and she talks about how she is busy with her activities and she loves being busy.  That got me thinking.  I don't think I have enough things to do during the day, I get lethargic in the afternoon and in the evenings I peruse the internet.  Not very productive, or fulfilling.  So I decided to start working on something that is recommended in the book I've talked about recently "Food Triggers".  She says to go and discover things about yourself.  You know what kind of food you like, you know what your favorite dessert is and your favorite candy, but what kinds of music do you like?  What genre of books are your favorite?  Do you enjoy making things with your hands, or would you prefer to dance.  Learn how to do something new, take your mind off of food and discover yourself.  In this case I chose to rediscover a hobby I haven't had time or felt like doing for two years: Cross Stitch!  My mom made all of the kids cross stitch stockings and I wanted to carry on the tradition to my family, so about 5 years ago I made Matt his stocking (I will post a picture of it once we get the stockings out ha!) and I bought stuff for Lily's stocking before she was born but never got very far on it.  Two years ago Matt bought me a stitching station for Christmas (I picked it out in the catalog and he sneakily bought it for me) and I hadn't even set it up yet.  So Last night after the kids were in bed, out it came!

It is soooo coool!  much better than the little hoop I was using.  An unexpected consequence is that I now have to learn to cross stitch with my left hand as well as my right because one hand stays on top and one stays on bottom.  So even though this is an older hobby that I am rediscovering, I am also learning something new!  I'm training my left hand how to cross stitch! Now I know you are wondering what the heck that is that I'm making (isn't it obvious?).  I told you I didn't get very far on it before I put it away.  Babies have a tendency to make crafts go into the closet and never come out.  This is Lily's stocking and here is what the finished project will look like:

Except the name will say Lily instead of Alexander of course.  I think I did a good job picking out the pattern, I bought it before Lily was born but Lily loves animals so I think this is a good one.  Since Christmas is coming up soon now is a good time to buy Chloe's stocking pattern too.  I suppose I could wait until next year since I doubt I will be finishing this project any time soon but I've never been very good at waiting.