I tried homemade enchilada sauce for the first time this week. MMMM~ It is so good. It’s also quick and easy.

15 oz can tomato sauce
1 small can green chilies
1 Tb chili powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 fresh garlic cloves

Put it all in a blender and add water until it looks how you want it to look. I added about 3/4 c. of water because it looked thick.

Use as you would the canned stuff–but with more joy because it tastes better!

Today is James’ first day of 4th grade! What an awesome blessing that God has enabled me to do this alone for so long.

I remember in the beginning thinking I was crazy to attempt doing this as a single mom. God has opened doors and made a way all along and it just confirms to me that homeschooling is his will for us at this time.

I meant to write out all the great resources we’re using this year but I haven’t finished it yet. I”ll share them soon.

Today, we’ll go outside and take his photo by the tree like we do every year. The school plans are simply to do some reviewing and get back into the habit of the schedule.

Then we’ll make a treat for our first day of school. I did this in kindergarten as a project to show him the importance of following directions. He’s made it into our first day of school tradition and I’m ok with that!

Please pray for us to have a wonderful school year. Sometimes believe it or not, my sweet child and I butt heads (yikes!). I’m praying for peace and calm and joy in each of our school days this year.

Is anyone else going back to school today?

On Sunday, I moved into the slightly less strict phase of my plan. I get to eat lots more–just absolutely no sugar or starch.

I had cheese again! Yeah–that makes me happy! I had avacado too….mmmm!

I’m supposed to maintain the loss for 3 weeks and then I’ll move back into the strict phase again.

I’m going to try some recipes with coconut and almond flour to make bread substitutes. I’m hoping they turn out ok.

Going to bed on time is still 1/2 and 1/2. I have a goal to be in bed by 11:30 as school starts so that I can be nice and fresh each morning!

I bought a cheap indoor trampoline last week. I’ve been using it everyday for a few minutes. It’s pretty fun!

James uses it tons. I think this will be a good thing to have around in winter when my high energy child needs to burn off some steam. He’s been trying to jump 1600 jumps everyday and trying to beat his time.

He has a sheet on the fridge to record his stats everyday–pretty cute!

What about you? Any health goals or progress?

I have a few dear friends that I consider to be Titus 2 women in my life. They’re older than I am–farther along their journey. They have many years of walking with the Lord and always have such wisdom.

One of these friends took me out to eat this summer so we could catch up. We went to a place that was new to me.

We had fun chatting and catching up. We talked about little things.

I knew that she wanted to talk with me about her recent loss. Her little granddaughter passed away after a long battle with cancer this spring.

I didn’t want to bring it up and thought perhaps she just wanted a break from talking about it.

When we left the restaurant, she said, “Can I show you her pictures?” I said of course.

We sat down at the outside eating area and she showed me the photos. Some were of the little girl when she was healthier. Some were taken when she was very ill.

She told me about their Make A Wish trip. She shared the things they did to make her more comfortable at the end and how she responded to the call on the day her granddaughter died.

She started to cry and said, “I’m sorry I’m burdening you with this.”

I told her she wasn’t burdening me at all and I was honored that she shared this with me.

It made me sad that we feel that sharing our grief is a burden to others. I know I’ve felt that way before.

I’ve never dealt with her type of loss, but I surely know what grief  and loss feels like. I know how difficult it is to share and how it’s not easy to know who can be trusted when you are finally ready to open up.

I wrote her a note later thanking her for dinner and thanking her for sharing the photos with me.

I wonder though why it’s so difficult for us to admit we’re grieving? Is it an American thing? Is it pride? Is it past hurts? I just don’t know, but I think that we as a society need to collectively work on this!

People suffering tremendous grief shouldn’t feel guilty about sharing it.

How did God bless you this week?

I’m thankful we’re still having nice summer weather.

I’m thankful we’re starting school this week. Our 5th year! It’s a wonderful blessing that God has made a way for me to do this without having a husband at home. It’s been a lot of work, but a wonderful joy as well.

I’m thankful for my sisters and brother! It’s nice to have people there for me all the time.

I’m thankful for Lee’s job.

I’m thankful that I’ve lost enough weight that I can really feel it. It’s made a huge difference in my life and I’m very thankful!

What about you?

We sang this song in youth group and AWANA when I was a kid. This little girl is “cutesy” but think about the words. They apply to us old people too!

I found some good links this week!

Here goes–

Lots of great zucchini recipes on Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen blog. When I was reading a Miss Read book, she kept talking about everyone bringing her marrows. Everyone had a bumper crop of marrow and she couldn’t figure out what to do with all of the marrows.

I had to stop and look up marrow and discovered that meant zucchini!  Then I had a good chuckle. Most of us have been either the gardener trying to pawn the stuff off or the friend hiding behind the curtains hoping you and your zucchinis will just go away!

A recipe for homemade pizza rolls.

A cute decoration–ice cream balloons

Isn’t this the coolest playroom?

Guess what? Your mom wasn’t lying to you–there really are more nutrients in the crust!

Mmmm doesn’t this sound good? Maple walnuts

Have you ever bleached your top accidentally? Here’s a great fix.

Ok that’s all! What did you find this week?

Photo credit: caysha from morguefile.com
I feel like summer flew right by.

We were very busy for most of it and it leaves me feeling tired and sad! We did a lot of fun things and spent time with our family. I’m not sad about that! I’m just sad it’s coming to an end.

I didn’t get to sit out in my backyard and relax enough! (boo hoo huh?)

One day a couple weeks ago, James and I spread a blanket under the tree in the backyard. I took out or bed pillows and some books.

We laid in the grass listening to the breeze through the leaves. The sky was a brilliant blue with big fluffy clouds.

We looked for pictures in the clouds. We read our books. We watched birds in our lilac tree.

A big dragonfly hovered around our yard.

We watched him flying around lazily checking out things in our garden and trees. We watched the wind make him drift off course and watched him fly back to the garden.

He was a huge dragonfly. He didn’t land near enough for us to examine him closely.

We had fun watching him anyway.

It was a perfect summer afternoon and one I want to remember. I’m hoping for a couple more “dragonfly days” in the next few weeks and then we’ll be back to our school year schedule with perfect summer memories.

I don’t always share every little thing that frustrates me about our situation.

If you stop and think for a minute what it would be like to see your husband on Saturdays for a couple hours and sit with him in Sunday School for 1/2 hour each week, you can imagine a lot of my frustrations.

It’s such an odd thing to be married and working on maintaining a relationship and not living together. It’d odd to be parents that can’t parent together.

In so many ways, so many things are so much better right now, but in other ways everything is the same.

I do a lot of “rolling with the punches”. I try to put a positive spin on so many things. I work on being content and counting our blessings (and there are many!).

But sometimes, I get really angry and frustrated.

Here’s an example:

A couple weeks ago, Lee needed to come home in the morning to get ready for an interview. Normally, I would have just found an errand to run so James and I wouldn’t be home and he could come get ready.

This time James was sick. He’d had high fevers and coughing and was generally feeling pretty low.

But we had to leave.

Lee needed to grab nice clothes and some papers he had here. He wanted to shower and trim his hair too.  He couldn’t do all of this at his place.

His interview was very important and I completely understood that he had to come home. I wasn’t angry at him just the situation.

I gathered my sick child into the car and put on a smile.  “Come on! We’ll take a ride and get some fresh air. How about we sit at the park and look at the lake?”

Normally, that would have been fun, but you know how it is when you’re sick. You just want to be home.

James was grouchy and inside I was mad at the situation.

It’s not normal to drag your sick kid to sit in the car at the park so your husband can come home.

I know this will be over someday and we will survive–we’ve been surviving. I just get really frustrated sometimes.

Well, if you’ve noticed I haven’t been faithful about this feature lately!

I’ve not  been off my diet or going crazy. Our summer has been SO busy and I changed the diet that I’m doing.

In my experience, people aren’t supportive unless you’re losing weight in a manner they approve of! If it’s not one of the big name diets there’s a lot of flak to deal with.

So, I’ve been pretty mum about what I’m doing. And since I wasn’t really telling what I was doing, I didn’t feel right about posting on “Tellin’ the Truth”.

Here’s the deal–

In the late spring after several months of research, I switched to the HCG diet. I take homeopathic drops and follow a very strict diet.

I’m eating healthy food and taking the prescribed breaks. The breaks are great because I have to learn how to maintain my weight loss.

I had a lot of reservations and things I was unsure of. However, I decided to give it a try. I’m not one to jump on bandwagons or take pills to lose weight.

But in the past, I’ve taken Arrbonne’s weight loss supplement, green tea supplements, sugar busters (or something like that)  and so I wasn’t opposed to taking something. I just didn’t want it to be like Phen-phen and have horrible side effects.

I’ve used homeopathy for several years, so a homeopathic supplement was right up my alley.

I gave this diet a try and began losing weight. I’m really happy that I’ve finally found something that worked. Weight Watchers wasn’t cutting it for me at all. Unfortunately I had/have  a LOT of weight to lose and I was trying and trying and nothing worked. I was about to give up again before my friend shared this diet with me.

I’m thrilled with the results.Since January of 2010 I’ve lost 71 lbs.

20 on Weight Watchers and the rest on this new plan.

I’m really tickled because I’ve tried for so long with no results. I thought maybe I’d just always be overweight. It’s really frustrating to work so hard and have few if any results.

I’ve had to get smaller clothes. My swim suit hangs off my backside! My wedding ring is going to have to be downsized soon. I pull my skirt off and on without unbuttoning just for the fun of it! I’ve had a lot of realizations about myself and food as well and I’m learning a lot about my body.

I still have  weight to lose but I finally feel like it’s possible!

I’m sure you may have questions, and I’ll be happy to help you if I can. I’m not interested in negative comments about the diet though. I made an informed decision and I’m reaping the rewards of my healthy eating and I’m not about to go back on the “approved diet” treadmill anytime soon!