Yucky summer feet

I have had calloused feet for as long as I can remember.  I remember as a kid my feet would sometimes be black from walking around without shoes during the summer, and no matter how hard I scrubbed it never all went away.

I still have that problem with my feet.  I also have a problem wearing anything but sandals to work in the garden, so that lovely black dirt works its way into the crack of my feet where it just doesn't want to come out.  Talk about being grounded!!!

Anyways, last winter I actually had my feet to a point where they were dry and hard in spots, but not cracked.  They looked like feet.  Fast forward to now and they are cracked, dry and sometimes painful.

I needed something moisturizing to put on these footsies.  So off to my books I went, this time using Natural Beauty for All Seasons by Janice Cox.

She has a recipe for Summer foot creme that is AWESOME!

I used apricot oil instead of almond, and used a little extra instead of evening primrose oil.  Instead of oil of geranium I used Tangerine oil.  All that with the glycerin and coconut oil make it smell DIVINE!  It also keeps my feet moisturized throughout the day.  I may even use it as an all over lotion I love it so much.

Exercise with little ones

I am soliciting advice.  Little l is not really willing to stay out of trouble while I exercise.  For a couple weeks I was able to get up before her to exercise, but as summer takes over she is waking up at 5 instead of 6:30.  Taking away my precious exercise time.  I try to tell her to let me exercise, to get her involved, but she prefers Yoga Kids, and that does nothing for my heart rate!

My loving husband likes to leave for work early, or sleep in while I exercise, so he is no help.  Every once in awhile I can convince him to let me shower before he leaves.  I can't afford a gym, and I am not really comfortable with gym day cares.  Which leaves me early morning (before 5), in the evening after he gets home, we eat and I clean up, or during nap time.  Yesterday nap time worked, but I am not sure Big L is going to be open to doing that every day.  Personally I have a hard time working out late in the evening, because then I can't get to sleep.

Because of where we live and how quickly my toddler can get too hot going to the park and running around with them is out for the summer.  I am sure I will come up with something, but if anyone has a suggestion or something fun they do inside please share!

Weight Loss-Becoming Me Again-Before and After Pics

I freely admit that when I was younger I did not eat in the most healthy manner.  I have a sweet tooth and an iron stomach, oh and a great pancreas that allowed INSANE amounts of sugar consumption.  Don't get me wrong, I also loved carbohydrates, breads, pastries, cereal, etc.  Get the picture?  I would eat lots of fruit, but not as many vegetables, and certainly not enough protein.

When I was 18 and out of my parents house I made the full switch to being a vegetarian, but I did not do it right.  All this despite knowing how to do it right.  I was more interested in buying things than food.  Quite the opposite of now, where I spend a lot to feed my family in a healthy way.  However, I was contradictory, I would also have moments when I was obsessed with eating healthy, and making those right choices.  It would never last, the freedom to buy and eat all of the junk food/junk cereal I wanted was too much.  I do not have an off button, remember, iron stomach.  I could eat a whole box of Lucky Charms; you know, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Bodies change as we get older though, and that, along with the birth control pill are what changed my body for the worst, or was it for the better?  I gained weight quickly, it was compounded when I had children.  My body does not like pregnancy, in fact, I think that my auto-immune disorders cause my body to freak out.  Gain 70-80 pounds, hormones out of control.  It takes about two years for everything to level out and weight loss, serious weight loss to be possible.  I know that is considered normal, but I am around women who seem to recover a lot faster!

I lost 75.6 pounds and almost 10 inches off my waist.  I should still be trying to lose 15-20 more, but I just can't be on that diet anymore.  I needed more than a three week break.  My doctor says that even with a reduced calorie diet it is unlikely I will lose weight without being on her diet.  I am sure she knows what she is talking about, but I hope to prove her wrong, at least a little bit!  The big problem for me on that diet was all the meat.  I just couldn't eat meat every day anymore.  It was grossing me out.  Plus it is EXPENSIVE!

 These are my before diet pictures.  To be honest I did not really see myself as this fat.  I was pretty good at not analyzing myself in the mirror and just kind of ignoring how I felt.  I learned to ignore how hard it was to do things I used to do easily; you know, like washing my back, painting my toe nails, etc. 

And these are my after pictures.

I am not a fan of having my picture taken

Before I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia I used to work out a lot.  I love that feeling after working out.  The surge of energy coupled with the sheer muscle exhaustion.  I like to exercise, it is just really hard to find the time!!  However, to lose weight or maintain what I am at, I will have to keep up with some sort of exercise regimen.  I also used to love to hike or ride my bike.  Over time I lost the ability to do this.  It was so much work to get my body to move in that way.  I don't know if diet was making it worse, but I am hoping that the medication I am on, and my healthier diet will make it easier for me to keep up with the activities I want to do.  More on that in another post though, this one is getting long.

The point of this post is I finally look like I felt inside.  Make sense?  I always pictured and felt like I should be that fit person who is not skinny, but thin enough and able to workout.  It wasn't true for many years, and for many reasons, but I am hoping that I will be able to keep my body the way my mind sees me.  The exciting thing is that (once it is not hot enough to melt me) I am looking forward to riding bikes with my family, getting Big L to let go of training wheels, and sticking little l on my bike so we can ride together.  There are so many things I can do now that were just too painful to do before.  There are also emotional aspects to my weight gain, and loss that I will talk about in another post.  For now though I am content to be improving myself.  Life is good. 

Apricot Vanilla Bean Jam

After my strawberry jam success I though I would try apricot, which is one of my favorite jams for English Muffins.  Sometimes, I am not the best cook though, as you will see by a later picture, so this is going to be a bit more like a fruit spread than a jam. 

 I only made a third of a batch because the apricots were not on sale, and I could only find so many that were fresh.  It smelled lovely though!  This was my first time working with vanilla bean pods.  The smell was grand.  I am going to have to see if I can grow vanilla beans though because they are expensive in the store!  At this point in the recipe we were doing great, we had to use lemon juice instead of white wine because our house is just not really a great place to find wine. 

 It was when I removed the fruit to boil down the syrup that things went a little crazy!  I got distracted and didn't make it back into the kitchen fast enough......it did NOT smell good.  So I ditched that pan and let it start soaking, put the apricots and the little bit of syrup I had left back in the pan and cooked it a bit more.  Then spooned it into the jars, and water bathed them.  I was expecting twice as much but these two little jars are a good start.  I will have to keep an eye out for fresh apricots and try again! 

Recipe was from Canning for a New Generation again.

I used my Weck jars again as well, and was quite happy with how easy it is!  I also love that the lids are glass as well!

More charm pack skirts

I found a few cute charm packs in clearance and on sale about six months ago.  They have been sitting in my stash looking cute since then.  I have finally been finding time for a little sewing, and since I ran out of thread for the quilt I have been finishing up other projects and finding new things to do with the thread I have.  The girls have both grown quite a bit and big L's other charm skirt seems shorter each time she wears it. 

 It took about an hour and half to make the big one, and an hour for the little one, so these are quick and easy projects that make you feel like you accomplished something.  Big L loves hers despite my boo boos (we were measuring challenged for some reason).

 Little l likes hers as well.  Especially since the pack I found has little owls on a few of the fabrics.  Hoo, hoo.

All in all, I just like these because they are fast, inexpensive, and you can hide certain mistakes.  Big L wanted hers longer this time, so next time I need to remember to get an extra charm pack. 

Laundry Detergent Recipe 2

I have previously commented on how I should have just tried what my friend over at Green's Going Green has posted instead of what someone else posted. But I googled when I made my first laundry soap, and forgot she had posted until I was having issues with the soap I had made.   So I tracked down the post she did from February 2011, and went to work.  You can find her original post here:  So Fresh and So Clean, Clean.  I did not use the same brand of soap as she did.  I used Kiss My Face Olive Oil Soap.  One 8 oz bar gave me enough to make 2.5 batches of the recipe. 

 Remember when I said I love my new kitchen aid mixer?  Well.....I REALLY LOVE IT.  I finally pulled out the grater yesterday and I had this soap grated into small pieces in no time.  It was grate!  :-)  It did take a little while though, it was a lot of soap!

I mixed in my Borax, Washing Soda and Baking soda, put it in a pickle jar of course and I was ready for use!  Instead of Lavender oil which Big L and I are both a bit bothered by, we decided on sage.  My towels smell and feel very clean after using this.  For fabric softener I have just been adding vinegar to the softener dispenser.  It works wonderfully, and we aren't allergic to it! 

Strawberry Jam! YUM!

 It is strawberry season, which is a happy time in our household.  We all love fresh strawberries.  They are a staple to our evening meals.  This year I decided to try my hand at making strawberry jam, which is a favorite among the sandwich eaters among us.  While cleaning out my cupboard the other day I found this book, Canning for a New Generation.  I had completely forgotten about it.  When I first tried canning a few years ago I purchased it.  Unfortunately, I was pregnant at the time and NOTHING in it sounded good.  CRAZY!!!!!  Fortunately, I have recovered from whatever madness that was and I am now trying out some recipes.  Also, while researching safe BPA free jars, I discovered WECK.  These jars are beautiful, and I was anxious to try them out and see how they worked. 

 I bought 6 pounds of strawberries and tripled the Strawberry Jam recipe in the book.  Did I mention we LOVE strawberries?  I only bought so many because the price was right and they were organic.  Dicing them was a bit tiring, but I finally got it done.  I cooked my berries with sugar and lemon juice.  I left out the zest.  I have yet to really truly like zest in anything I make. 

 These are my cooked berries with the syrup drained off. 

 This is the syrup as I cook it down a bit.  Can I just say that the smell from my kitchen this day was glorious?  I was in a good mood, despite being tired of standing in the kitchen just because of the smell. 

 Everything was added back together and cooked a bit more.  I then put the jam in my new jars, added the seal, lid and clamp and put them in the water bath.  These jars sealed so easily and so well, and I didn't have to keep checking on the center.  After one hour, you try to lift off the lid.  It didn't budge, so I knew I had a seal. 

 I let them sit overnight and then labeled.  My only problem that day was depth perception.  I did not fill my jars as much as I should have.  I also had the jars the recipe said I needed, or at least thought I did and had to add another big one in the end.  That big one will be the first opened, because Big L, who has never been a fan of the store bought strawberry jam really loved this stuff, she wants to just eat it out of the jar.  Maybe I will finally get her to eat a sun butter and jam sandwich!