August? Really?

Wow, had not realized how long I have been away.  As I posted earlier, so much is going on lately.

First of all, update on my grandson.  He is just doing amazingly well.

He is now a month old. Today he had a follow up appointment with the pediatrician who is totally amazed with how well he is doing.  Realize, he may be a month old (well a little over, was a month on the 10th) but he was not due until the 24th.

He has doubled his birth weight and grown 1.5 inches in length.  I know I am biased, but like my other two grandsons I think he is a keeper.

I had to add the other grandsons as well.  Mr. W just turned one and Mr. T is 8 and his mom Mrs. C my oldest daughter.

Other news, it is official, I have type 2 diabetes.  I have been sent to classes to manage this, have finally been given the glucose meter and have begun testing my blood three times a day.  I had thought that changing the diet would be the hardest part of this.  SO WRONG.  The hardest part is making my finger bleed for the testing, making sure to get the strip in the machine with out touching it on anything, and getting the blood in the strip before the time is up.  I am getting better though.  The first time I tested, I used up three lancets (the needle) and five strips.  At least now I am down to one lancet each time and for the most part one strip, getting the timing down as well.  Now, to learn how to eat correctly while cooking for the family.  I am allowed 45 g. of carbs per meal and can have a couple of snacks as well.  According to the class, it is all about counting carbs.  Once I figure the carb part out, then I will also concentrate on limiting my calories to 1500 per day.  It is a bit confusing, the 45 carbs the class has taught us is a bit different than what is recommended by some of the diabetic cooking plans but will figure it out.  Also, I have really started looking at the nutrition labels on the foods I like.  What an education that is.  Like I said, it is a little confusing when they tell you that you need three servings of diary, but each serving is 12 carbs, you need three servings of grains, that is 15 carbs each.  I am trying to be very mindful of what I am eating, tomorrow will start the food log of what I eat, but my family is not really too willing to give up their eating habits.  My hubby told me that he wasn't the diabetic one, I just told him "guess what, your cook is."  He eats out for lunch each day, he can have what he wants for that meal.  Supper time at home has just turned in to their healthy meal of the day. I say "deal with it", I have to all day every day.  I also hope to start back at the gym, not full force this week due to hectic days ahead, but daughter J starts back to school on Monday so I am heading to the gym after she goes to school.  My goal is three times a week, 15 minutes each time.  Long term goal is five times a week, 30 minutes each time.  We shall see. I think I may even end up loosing some weight in all this.  I hope so, I would like to loose 90 pounds all together and will find out in the morning if I have lost any over the last two weeks with the new changes.  Of course, it is all still new so may not be any loss yet.  At any rate, will find out in the morning how close my home scale and the scale at the gym are to the scale at the doctors.

As I mentioned, this week is hectic.  We took one last long week end camping trip this past week end before school starts.  It was just wonderful.  High up in the mountains, was nice and cool, relaxing, and the best get away.  I only rode my quad one time, taking the helmet on an off is just a little to painful still. It pulls on the cuts from the surgery. But I had so much fun on the ride while we went through the trails.  At any rate, we got back today.  Tomorrow morning I have a doctor appointment with my primary physician, Wednesday I have an appointment with the surgeon, a follow up for the eyes.  They are doing well, will try to get an after photo soon.  Thursday morning I have to take my mom for a blood test at her doctor to check her medication levels.  We are doing this every week for the time being.  Thursday night we are invited to come over to the kids house and spend some time with baby M once again.  My daughter-in-law has been so wonderful at allowing us to have time with him.  With the other two grand sons in Texas, it is such a joy to have one so close to us.

I have been following several shows, not that I normally have to see them, but I have really been stuck on these.  The first is Next Food Network Star.  Jeff the sandwich king won.  He is very funny.  I must say that I was really glad to see the Food Network pick a show dedicated to something so diverse as the sandwich and a topic that is not currently being done.  Last year they picked Arti, her show was titled Arti Party and is about Indian flavors (which was already being done on a show called Spice Goddess) which was disappointing to me, also that she had very few episodes actually air.  I plan to watch the debut of Jeff's show.  While I wish it wasn't on Sunday morning, I will be watching it if at all possible.  His motto is "every sandwich can be a meal and every meal a sandwich" which I think is a pretty neat idea.

Also, on the Food Network, another new cook with a new show is Ree Drummond otherwise known as the Pioneer Woman.  She started a blog long ago, all about how a girl from Los Angles on a trip home to Oklahoma met a cowboy and married him.  She calls him the Marlboro Man.  The blog is great, wonderful photos, humorous stories about life on their working ranch, awesome home cooking recipes.  She has written cookbooks and a children's book.  She even beat Bobby Flay in a Thanksgiving throw down.  Her show debuts on Sat. 27 at 11:30 am.

Come on Food Network, can you please put the new shows on air at time they can be watched?

Along the lines of cooking shows, I watched the recent episode of Master Chef.  I was sure that Christian was going to be eliminated, but no such luck.  He is just a cocky, rude jerk. Okay, I have another name for him, but this is a family blog.  I really hope he doesn't win, but he is the type of personality that Gordon Ramsey would go for.

On a bright note, it is almost time for the new season of Bones.  I am eagerly awaiting this new season.

I don't know when football officially starts, but I don't have to anticipate it, that will happen in this house on it's own.

Guess that is about all I have for the moment.  My meal planning is off track for the time being as I gather new information, new recipes, and will then start back.  Before I have only planned the supper meal since it was only me.  Now however, I will be menu planning all three meals.  I think too, I will switch over to posting the meals for the past week instead of the week to come.  I had mentioned this before in previous postings, but it just seems like the logical way to approach life now.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and please come back to see how things are going.

WOW, Things have been crazy.

So many things have been going on in life, I am so totally behind on all the little details.

Okay, so first of all.

Grand son #3, born 3 weeks early has made amazing progress and has come home from NICU a full month earlier than anticipated.  He now weighs 4 lbs. 11.5 oz and is 18.5 inches.  I just measured, he is a little longer than a cabbage patch doll, but much smaller around. LOL

I just love this photo, my favorite way to hold a baby.  All snuggled up next to my neck.  He just doesn't look real in this photo, but he is a keeper.

The last few weeks have just been crazy around here.  Between the baby coming home, my mom in and out of hospital and in and out of doctors to try and regulate her medications, add to that my own trips to doctors and lab work for the surgery I had this past Friday, there has just been a fair amount of chaos.

This is post surgery, before the bruising has all set in.  We are having to give our dogs some medicine and I was helping hubby, picked up one of them and now I am bleeding again. Oh well, not much and after all that is part of life I suppose.

I am hoping that this will wind down the chaos now.  Starting in August I hope to get back on track with household chores, menu planning, and able to do some sewing.  I need to make daughter J some clothes for school.  Wow, school starts back in three weeks, where did the summer go.  I also plan to do some sewing for little grand baby M since it is just impossible to find much in the preemie size.  I cooked breakfast this morning.  My newest thing is poached eggs.  I just love them.  I did cook them in the hot water, but I am determined to find a poaching pan like my mom had.  I like the whites a little more set than I am able to do with hot water method.  In my trial and error attempts this morning, I have learned to do the egg drop soup type and that is the technique used to make this really awesome chicken soup that I searched out a recipe on after having it at the restaurant my son works at.  Of course, there a few more changes that may be taking place as well, my last blood work showed that I may now be diabetic and my doctor may have me make so harsh changes around here.  Oh I can make them, if I have to, but I just won't like it much.  I also know that after a month out of the gym, getting back in to some type of work out routine will go a long ways to helping with that problem.  However, if I change my diet, the whole family is changing theirs too.  At one time, I swore I wouldn't change things for them, but there is not one person in this house that would not benefit from a change in diet.  Also, it is not fair to me to have to look at all the junk they like, cook the foods they like, and know that I cannot eat it. I feel it only fair that I only have to prepare one meal.  Hubby can have his treats at lunch, he eats out every day that he works.  Miss J doesn't make the best of choices during her lunches at school either so in a way it is my job as mom to make sure that have at least one healthy meal a day at home.

Okay, that is about all I can handle for now.  The swelling is causing my eyes to be a little blurry and it is just too hard to concentrate long enough on the written words. LOL