Sew Cool Mama

Ikea Hack- Trofast Lego Interlocking Brick Sorter

2019-01-06T16:03:00.001-05:00

So my little lego-holic has a VAST collection of pieces and they tend to be kind of... everywhere. Every time he has a build session he dumps his Legos onto the floor and then is to overwhelmed to clean them up by himself. I figured if he had a lego sorter he could just use the big pieces or the medium pieces or whatever, or if he's looking for a hand he doesn't have to look through all the pieces trying to find one hand. HOWEVER those sorter things from Lego are SOOOO expensive, and as a slight Ikea addict I figured I could use some of the bins we already had for storage and modify them to be a Lego sorter.

It seems to work and was basically free (since we already had the trofast for lego storage anyways)

We have this Trofast Frame and use various of the containters available on this page.

When drilling these holes use a spiral (regular style) drill bit, not a paddle bit as you will wind up with a TON of sanding to do on the holes to get all the fraying out.

The right column (tallest section) is the Lego section.

For he top bin that catches large pieces I used a 1 inch padle bit and then sanded them bunches with a drill attached barrel sander (and STILL had to pick of small pieces)

Drill holes

What the Top bin Catches

For the middle bin that catches medium pieces and lets the small fall through I used a mix of a 3/8ths bit, a 1/2 inch bit and a 9/16ths paddle bit. I should have used a 5/8ths, because I really have to get in to stir with my hands to get stuff to fall through, but it works. It would just work alot better if there was a TINY bit more wiggle room.

Drill holes

What the middle bin catches

The bottom of the sorting bins is a regular bin with nothing drilled out. Beneath the sorting bins I have a large trofast to hold the very large pieces (duplo pieces and large plates)

Bottom of the sort bins

storage for extra large pieces

So far its seems to be working. If this keeps working I may switch the medium bin to be a double deep bin, that's the size with the most pieces. Otherwise I'm happy. Hopefully this will get little man to keep his room picked up a bit better :-)

Too cold outside

2017-12-15T08:45:00.001-05:00

It is SOO cold outside (pic of my daughter waiting at the bus stop for proof) but I still got a sub 15 min mile in today :-). I walked one min than ran 2 minutes until I started getting bad side cramps so I'd walk until that passed, but I still squeaked in under 15 mins. :-) progress

Running Play List (between 160 and 180 bpm)

2017-12-05T13:38:00.003-05:00

OK, I mentioned I was going to try to post my running playlist. I use Spotify Premium so I don't have ads, and you can download for offline play and I just shuffle this before each run so its always a little different. So some of these songs are slower and some are faster, but either way its a running tempo, if you're SUPER into running, some of these are probably too slow for you, but if you've got short legs (like me), the slow ones are a light jog and the faster ones are at a pretty good clip, just take shorter steps. :-)

Irreplaceable - Beyonce
Umbrella - Rihanna, Jay-Z
Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
The Boys are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
Head Over Feet - Alanis Morissette (2015 remastered version)
Bye Bye Bye - *Nsync
Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benatar
Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen
Helpless - OBC of Hamilton
Farmer Refuted- OBC of Hamilton
Roar - Katy Perry
Firework - Katy Perry
Shake It Off (Radio Edit)- Shara Caldwell and the LA exchange (T Swift doesn't allow her songs on spotify)
Chandelier - Sia
Everlong - Foo Fighters
The Climb - Miley Cyrus
Holiday (Live) - Green Day
Everybody Talks - Neon Trees
Jump- Rihanna
Under my Umbrella - Incubus
Breakin' Up - Gwen Stefani
The Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson
My Life Would Suck Without You - Kelly Clarkson
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic- The Police
Livin' La Vida Loca - Ricky Martin
Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show
Wonderwall (remastered) - Oasis
Story of a Lonley Guy - Blink 182
Give me One Good Reason - Blink 182

Woah its December!

2017-12-05T08:46:00.001-05:00

Holy cow time is going faster and faster... g0t outside to run last week, but today between the kiddos and the weather I'm on the treadmill again, though I managed a 15 min mile, which is good for me! Hopefully I can get on here on my computer at home and post my running playlist, cause music at the right tempo helps SOOO MUCH. My favorites today we're the time warp from Rocky horror, helpless from Hamilton and beautiful people by Marilyn Manson.

173 days for Couch to Half Marathon---Day 1

2017-11-13T17:29:00.001-05:00

So this last year I ran the Indy Mini Marathon for the first time, I didn't post about it because I didn't have time. I had won entrance from a local tv station and would up with 4 weeks to train, I'd been exercising, but not really running, so I went into panic training mode. Running a half had always been on my bucket list, but I never though it would happen. So I survived, I kissed the bricks and then i plopped back on the couch. Though I did pay for the 2018 race, I barely kept exercising, let alone running. So when I wrote an essay to be a part of the Indy Mini Marathon Ambassador program I didn't really think to much about it. I thought it'd be great to get some upgrades and some gear, but they wouldn't take me, I'd only run it once and have never really trained, but I guess that unique perspective is what drew them to me.

So I can officially announce that I am a 2018 Indy Mini Ambassador! Guess i need to get off the couch...

So today is Day one of my journey to (hopefully) a 3:00 mini marathon on May 5th

Notice, less than a mile in 19 minutes... got some work to do

I'm going to start with an aggressive couch to 5k program, with a weights workout afterwards. and meal planning based on the 21 day fix (I've previously posted about my 21 day faux which has alot of the same information) and instead of shakeology (which costs $130 per month) I'm using Slim Fast (which costs about $10 per month) though I do count that as a red container and a yellow container, since its made with milk.

I probably won't be posting everyday, but I'll post at least once a week, hopefully 2 to 3 times a week.

If people are interested I can share my recipes and meal planning information about how I lose weight and still feed a family of 4 without cooking 2 meals at the same time or making them miserable.

If you are interested in running (or walking) the Mini Please let me know I'd be happy to talk to you about it, my experiences, and discuss if its the right race for you!

A Mother's Christmas Worries

2016-12-10T20:14:00.001-05:00

Thinking through the presents we have yet to wrap and worrying that this is a small Christmas, will my children notice we don't have much? Should I have worked harder to find what they wanted used so they could have more? will the shiny boxes and un-scratched toys make up for the lack of volume? Will they notice that we only give home made to each other and the rest of our family or will they be so caught up in the joy that the magic fills in the gaps?

The light in their eyes is what i live for. Seeing them really GET Santa this year was so magical for me. Seeing them dance with the angels at our church pageant brought me such joy. Singing Christmas carols with them on a sleigh ride at my moms house almost made me weep. I don't need things, I don't need new, I shop at rummage sales but I long to make their fleeting childhood everything it could be. I know our situation is only temporary, once I graduate I can get a decent job and we won't be so tight. We have a house, we have 2 cars, we have heat, we have food, I have a gym membership so that I can get 2 solid hours of homework time a day. I know we are blessed, I know many people have less. That doesn't make it any easier when my children ask for more and I have to say no. I KNOW its good for them. However, when my son literally is dreaming something, but we've already purchased what he asked for last month it breaks my heart a little. When he asks to go to walmart to visit the toys since I told him they were decorations it breaks my heart a little. I hold the little pieces together because I know they don't know they miss out on anything, but I know.

Instead of a store bought advent calendar ours is homemade and has activities we can do for free (like make paper snowflakes, and a clearance gingerbread from last years post Christmas sale). They don't realize that not everyone does that, and hopefully it makes memories they'll cherish

Instead of new Christmas stories we re wrapped the ones they opened they same ones they read last year. They don't remember, but I do.

They joy on their faces gives me such hope

We don't have much but we have love. we have hope. we have each other.

The difrences between the Praxis II 5161 and the Indiana Core 035

2016-10-14T20:33:00.001-04:00

OK, I know that title looks almost like gibberish, but it should make this post easier to find for those who need it.

I've been doing online school with WGU to get my secondary math Teaching certificate and, since the school is based in Utah, I had to take the Praxis to get my degree, but since I live in Indiana I had to take the Indiana Core 035 to get my Indiana license and thought, since I have experienced both tests it might be helpful to share my experiences.

My Preparations:

The great thing about WGU is that they provided me with 3 practice Praxis tests plus the one free one that comes from ETS and a lot of practice worksheets (though i didn't find out about the worksheets until the night before the test for me, but that's more my fault than anything). I also picked up a college Math workbook from Half Price books that let me go through and practice all the dusty old math from algebra and pre-calc. I also watched alot of videos on you tube (especially kahn academy and mathbff) I used those for things like matrices which i never learned and Math/logic which I couldn't remember the specifics of since I took the class for that about a decade ago.

The Praxis

...had me more panicked. There are so many articles and posts about how the 5161 is so intense, plus the median score is below passing and there's rumors about a 33% pass rate per taking... for those of us with math brains, that's a horror story right there... especially when you're a perfectionist like me. The great thing is the graphing calculator for the Praxis, it will even calculate zeros, intersections, max, min, or anything you could need really. They also provide a great reference sheet that includes all the info for polar/Cartesian conversion, volumes of solids and more (all available on the ETS site for perusal before the test) The Praxis was a lovely 60 (or 66, can't remember right now) questions long and it felt like plenty of time. I do recommend that If you can't think of how to solve the problem within the first 30 seconds or so of looking at it, guess, flag it and come back to it at the end. You don't want to run out of time, and you don't get penalized for guessing. I used all but 5 mins of my time, and didn't feel rushed, but i may have been if I was 10 mins from the end and hadn't touched all the problems.

Core 035

... I wasn't really worried about this one because I'd just come off of the Praxis win and figured I should get this one out of the way when all the info was still fresh and holy cow did it kick my butt. As of right now I've got a preliminary Pass, but I'll update that when I receive my official scores. If you haven't taken 3rd calc (or at least thats what wgu calls it) or at least know things like vector graphing, polar graphing, logic tables, and beginning teaching concepts I'd hold off. There were things I'd never learned. Plus the reference sheet is not as detailed and the digital calculator is a scientific not a graphing. There was alot more matrix problems up to 3x4 that I saw. Plus its 100 questions, which was a snug fit, I wish I'd had a half hour more. I did get back to all my flagged questions, but I didn't have time to work them as thoroughly as I wished I could, and a few were blind guesses.

All in all I think the Praxis II 5161 is easier than the Core 035, though few people need to take both. Preparation material for one will work for the other with the added information of vectors and higher level calculus, all done without access to a graphing calculator for the IN035.

Introducing a New Section of my Blog : Camping!

2016-06-08T14:33:00.003-04:00

So the hubs and I had bee talking about taking the kiddos camping this year, but I wasn't sure that I was ready to take them tent camping. So, I've been stalking the craigslist camper pages and... I found it. I found the one. :-) I knew walking up to it that I was in love. It was missing a couple things that I thought I "had" to have (like air conditioning and a toilet) but feeling how cool it was inside when set up (it was a toasty day and it was at least 10 degrees cooler inside the camper) and we can always get a little potty for the kids. but its HUGE for the price we paid, is in incredible condition and did I mention huge?

So... coming soon... all our renovations and modifications we make, plus campsite reviews and hopefully wonderful memories that we make with this "little"beauty.

Meet our beautiful new '01 Coleman Mesa

It came with an aftermarket roof bike rack that will fit bikes for all of us. The roof needs a little bit of repair, but its a pretty easy fix (looking online we're going to use grizzly grip truck bed liner to paint over the ABS roof to repair the hairline cracking) We're also going to need to replace the rubber gasket at some point. We're storing it in the garage, so its not as big of a deal, since it won't be exposed to the elements.

It has a sitting area... ugly, but that's EASY to fix

Dining area and KING size beds :-)

REALLY out of date fire extinguisher, (inspection form had dates from the 90s, so it will be replaced) but its bones are in good shape, and LOTs of storage

Galley's in good shape and the stove looks like its never been used

I'm so excited to put my own touch on this little baby and make some memories with my minions.

Stay tuned for details from our first trip and how I keep this puppy stocked and organized

Memory Pillow Tutorial

2016-05-14T12:56:00.000-04:00

Ok, Friends, its time for Part 2 of my latest project. A very dear family friend recently lost her husband in a motorcycle accident, so I have been making memory pillows for her and her family (her husband had a very unique sense of style) and wanted to post a tutorial for how to make them. I posted earlier in this post how to make them, but this post is about making the covers.

But first I want to take a chance to say ALWAYS watch out for motorcycles when you're driving, you have a Ton of metal protecting you, they have leather and a helmet protecting them. You're Bigger and Stronger, WATCH OUT FOR THEM. Its just like we teach our kids. Watch out for the little kids, help them, keep them safe. Do the same for the riders, they're smaller and lighter. and if you bump them its minor for you, but a big deal for them.

OK, anyways, back on topic.

The first step is to pick your shirt and inspect all the button holes

Like I said, he was unique :-)

A button hole this warn is one to avoid, it won't hold very well on a pillow, so go around it for your pieces

Measure your shirt and try to figure out your placement. Watch out for the arm seams, this tends to be right around the shirt pocket and is often the narrowest part, If you get the shirt seems on to the front of the pillow it looks a little weird, but not unuseable, its ok to have the seams for the sleeves in your seams, so don't be afraid to have the seams in your first cut, just don't let them be more than an inch or two from the edge.

I like to center my measurements over the buttons, Like this pillow below is going to be 19" on the cut (since its an 18" pillow) so I have the measuring tape centered at 9.5" over the button hole

Cut your pieces to be an Inch bigger than your pillow form (like for an 18" pillow you would cut a 19" square.

The first time you make one of these pillows, especially if it was a friend or family member, it will be very difficult to cut into the shirt, that's OK. Grab a glass of wine, or cut it WAY bigger than you need. Remember you can always take it in and make it smaller. Now that I've done quite a few of these, it doesn't bother me to cut into the shirts, but the first couple took some psyching up (or liquid courage ;-) ).

Put your pieces right sides together and sew all 4 sides, don't worry about leaving a turning space because you can unbutton the buttons and use them to turn it right side out.

I like to use my serger, but I know not everyone has one. I would recommend doubling up on your stitching, like doing two rows of straight, stitch, or zigzag if your fabric has some stretch too it. there won't be a ton of force on the stitching, because if its too tight the buttons will gape, but there will be some force on it if anyone leans on the pillow or sits on it, and you don't want the stitching to pop.

Try it on the pillow to see how it fits, you don't need to turn it right side out for the first fitting, this is just to make sure its close. The more you do, the less you'll have to fix each time. Feel free to sew it looser the first few you make, its easier to take in the pillow case than the pillow.

I didn't take a good picture of the next step, but I'm going to tell you anyways. Its totally optional, but I like to dock the corners of my pillow cases. It keeps you from getting floppy corners. That always bugged me about the throw pillows at the stores. When you sew a straight square you can't get the pointed corners stuffed in a way I like. So I notch off about an Inch off each corner. I also use this opportunity to sew the care tag from the shirt onto the corner, especially if its not a standard wash and dry fabric. For example, my friend had ALOT of Silk shirts with very unique embroidery, and I'd sew the care tag and the description of he embroidery into the corners.

Turn it right side out and stuff your pillow form in. Button up the pillow and you're good to go!

Isn't that Sew Cool!

Make your own pillow form - for $3

2016-05-14T09:28:00.001-04:00

Hello friends! Ive been working on a project lately that I wanted to share with you (because there simply aren't any tutorials out there that I thought did it well enough) but its got alot of steps (judging by the 66 pictures I just uploaded) so I'm going to divide it up into 3 seperate parts. This is Part 1, on how to make a pillow form, for details on why I'm doing this project, see part 2, it will have the whole story.

OK, moving on, I hate having to pay 10-20 bucks for a pillow form that I then have to create a cover for, thats just rediculous to me, especially since when I'm making pillows for friends/clients, I try to keep the costs as low as possible. So instead of 10-20 bucks a pop, how about 4 for $9... Now we're talking! I go to Big Lots and get 3 of the pillows shown below, but you can check around at walmart or any other big box retailer near you. The Big Lots near me had the best price for pilows. Don't spend a fortune... You're going to cut it up.

I usually buy these about 9 at a time, but then it gets a little hard to move in my sewing room :-)

This pattern makes about an 18x18 pillow, (well actually i think most of these wound up at 17x18, so if you're looking for a perfect square add an inch to my dimensions below)

I measures and cut across the fabric on one side of the pillow 18 inches from one of the short sides

just the fabric

Cut the fluff down he same line, it takes me about three passes to get all the way through, just stab the bottom scissor through the fluff to go partway down. Oh and don't use your best scissors, the fluff will dull them pretty quick. I grabbed my paper scissors and they work just fine through the fluff.

take your time and make many passes, its easier than trying to muscle through it in one blow

when you get through all the fluff push your two fluff-lets apart and cut the fabric apart, save the little piece, we'll use that in part 3, but for now we're just going to use the big piece.

Push the fluff-lets apart

And cut your fabric

Smush the fluff down, you're looking to get as much slack in the fabric to be able to stitch it shut, so really smush it down. I know it bounces back, its fluff and all, but squish it as much as possible

Pinch your fabric closed to make sure its got enough room to run through your sewing machine.

I like to serge mine closed, it makes a great finished edge, but if you don't have a serger don't worry, just stitch it across a couple times, you could do a zigzag if you want, but the fabric doesn't stretch, that just would give you a wider seam. I would recomend doing 2 rows of straight stitching (about 1/4 inch apart) with an optional zigzag between them, then cutting off the excess fabric. But Like i said, if you have a serger its super duper easy.

The trickiest part is getting around all the fluff and keeping the fabric taught. I often have to hold the fabric coming out the back taught to keep the tension good, otherwise the bulk of the fluff has enough force to pull one of the pieces of fabric out of the needles

Sometimes it takes a bit of finagling to get it all to go through, but this is way cheaper, so you gotta put alittle thought into saving money :-)

Woo Hoo, thats all it takes. Check over your seam of course, I often have to go back over a space or two because I've only caught one side into the stitching.

Whoops, lets fix that gap

Tada! Pillow form for $3 and about 15 minutes once you get used to doing them. Way cheaper than the $10-20 that Joanns wants to charge you!

Isn't that Sew Cool!

October Fix Day 1

2015-10-01T20:41:00.002-04:00

I'm back in it! Last month didn't work well (see my previous post) but I'm still down 40 pounds overall!!!! Woo Hoo!!! Today I'm not working out (I have a dentist appointment and i don't want my kiddos in childcare that long

Breakfast was a fried egg and 2 strips of turkey bacon (cut in half thats why it looks like 4) and a grilled tomato.

I have a dental school appointment today so I've put dinner in the crock pot. Its one onion, one carrot, 4 radishes, 5 garlic cloves, and some split peas with 2 bone in thighs (they're cheaper than breasts) I put it in the crock pot for about 8 hours on low.

In the mean time lunch was a diced up tomato, a diced up pickle and greens tossed with a can of Tuna (and some pickle juice for dressing)

Here's dinner all cooked . The chicken was a little dry (and the peas completely dissipated) but for not having to cook with a couple of clingy babys after a dental appointment it was pretty darn good. For measuring i just measured out one green container of the cooked veggies and all the drippings I wanted (i only added about half a cup of water to the crock pot), so all the liquid is from the chicken an veggies, so i count is as included in the calorie count :-)

Dessert/post dinner snack was an apple with some peanut butter... i know its way more than I'm supposed to have on the plan, but I didn't use any blue containers and its natural, so i'm counting it as a "fat". I was raised seeing it as a protein and am having a hard time switching it in my mind.

I'm still kindof hungry so I may have a banana half or something later, but we'll see :-)

Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable

September Failure

2015-10-01T10:16:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I'm finally getting around to updating this, I started doing the 21 Day fix last month, but I was tired of doing daily posts, so I tried doing just a weekly post... well you can see how well that worked.... About 10 days in i realized i hadn't posted at all and my motivation totally just plopped out. I didn't start eating like i used to, but i wasn't trying very hard. I would sneak fruit roll ups and i ate ALOT of peanut butter, with apples, but still way more than the teaspoon i'm supposed to have on the plan. I was still working out, but my diet wasn't great. I'm still making progress. As of yesterday I'm officially down 40 Pounds! Woo Hoo. I'm back to it for real today. but I'm going to put that in a separate post

21 Day Faux - Instructions

2015-09-06T17:11:00.001-04:00

So I've had a few people ask how I did my 21 Day faux. Its very simple. The first round I did, i just did the diet, then in the second round I added the exercise. It made it easier for the transition for me. Going from totally sedentary and eating whatever i wanted to a healthy diet and daily exercise.

This chart is how you figure out which meal plan you should be on. If you're not going to start working out skip the calorie burn additional calories and go from there.

For example I started this at 190 so multiplied times 11 is 2090. 2090 minus 750 is 1340. So, looking at the next chart I'm in the lowest diet group.

Thats all it takes!

After that its just filling up those containers through the day. If you choose not to get the containers below is the list of the measurements for each color. You simply have to find your way of keeping track. Some people write notes, some people use magnets. I use glass stones that i keep in a jar on my shelf, an switch them from one jar to the other as i use them for the day.

I have one of these printed out and on my fridge as a quick reference guide. Its mostly correct. The banana listed in fruit is not to be measured in the container, its 1/2 a banana as a serving, but otherwise i haven't really run into anything that breaks these rules. I mean don't deep fry everything and expect to lose weigh, you've got to work for it, but you can do it!

I believe in you!

15 Delicious 21 Day Fix Recipes!

2015-09-01T16:05:00.003-04:00

OK, I wanted to put together a list of my favorite 21 day fix recipes. ALL are approved on the diet and are delicious. I use all of these repeatedly for my family. Please re pin and share this with anyone who needs it. These are all delicious even if you're not on a diet.

Breakfast

Berry Oatmeal (1 Yellow, 1 Purple)

1/4 cup quick oats and 1 cup of mixed berries cooked at the same time in the microwave, it makes the oatmeal taste very berry like

Fried eggs and grilled veggies (1 Red, 1 Green)

2 fried eggs and 1 cup of hard veggies on the griddle (like carrots, onions, kale, tomatoes etc)

Entrees

Spaghetti (1 Yellow, 1 Green, 1 Purple, Optional 1 Red)

1 yellow container of whole wheat pasta, 1/2 cup diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup onions sauteed, 1/2 cup tomato sauce simmered together, with one portion of beef optional topped with basil and parsley. Served with a 1/2 cup small salad to bring up to 1 full green)

Quesadilla (1 Blue, 1 Red, 1 Yellow)

1 red container of cooked chicken breast tossed with taco seasoning, 1 blue container of cheese, and cilantro in a whole wheat tortilla, Grille on a griddle or skillet until toasted on the outside. let sit for a couple minutes then cut in quarters, serve with salsa and diced greens (not included in count)

Turkey wrap (1 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 Red)

1 Whole wheat tortilla, 4 slices of turkey, 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1 cup assorted veggies (spinach, onion, tomato, shredded carrot) Optional additions - avocado, cheese, hummus, mustard

Mexi rice (2 Yellow, 1 Green, 1 Blue)

1 Yellow container of cooked rice, with 1 green container of tomatoes, green chillis, onions. 1 Yellow container of mixed corn and beans, 1 Blue container of cheese. Taco Seasoning and cilantro. Good with beef or chicken added

Fritatta (1 Red, 1 Green, 1 Yellow)

4 cups diced veggies (onion, carrot, kale, peas, etc) 2 cups diced potato, sautee in cast iron skillet then add 8 eggs cook until just starting to set, then put in the oven at 350 for about 20 mins. makes 4 servings (kids really like it with ketchup)

Snack or Side dish

Kale Chips (1 green, 1 spoon)

Cut or rip Kale into slightly larger than bite size pieces (they shrink allot during cooking). Use one tightly packed green container per serving. Toss in 1 tsp of oil and add LOTS of onion and garlic powder, you should be able to see it very clearly on each piece. and Bake on a parcment lined baking pan at 350 for about 10 mins (watch very carefully, it goes very quickly from toasted dark to black/burnt)

Roasted carrots (1 green)

In a hot skillet with protein (chicken, steak etc) place thinly sliced carrot circles and a few tablespoons of butter, Place in the oven for about 20 mins until protein is properly cooked. Carrots become soft and sweet.

Apple an peanut butter

Cut 1 apple into slices an drizzle with peanut butter (if you get all natural peanut butter it should drizzle, but if you have jif or equivalent, mix with about half a tsp of coconut oil and microwave to make it drizzle-able)

Turkey cottage cheese rolls

Using 3 turkey rolls and about 1/3 cup of cottage cheese divided evenly, add a little pepper and roll

Cheesy chips

Divide 1 blue container of shredded cheese into small piles on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 10-15 mins, watch carefully. Cooking time really depends on the fat content of your cheese. They should be almost all the way brown throughout, very little of the actual cheese color left in the middle (these are colby jack)

Dessert

Shakeology Mug Cake (1.5 Red, 1 Spoon)

I used THIS recipe and its pretty good, next time I'd put the peanut butter on top instead of pushing it down in, but it was pretty darn tasty.

Fruit Sorbet (1 Purple)

Assorted fruits (2 cups plus a banana) into the blended and make it smooth, then divide into 4 portions and freeze. When you're ready to eat it set it on the counter for 15-20 minutes to soften a little.

Magic shell (1 Yellow swap, 1 Spoon)

I love magic shell. I used to sneak shots of it before I changed my life on this program. Take 1 tsp of chocolate chips microwaved with 1 tsp of coconut oil drizzle over sorbet or ice cream and its very good, tastes like chocolate dipped fruit

Thanks for reading. I'll keep adding more compilations as I come up with more recipes. I plan on trying making my own whole wheat english muffins and breakfast sandwiches, so stay tuned for that.

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 21

2015-08-21T22:46:00.003-04:00

Woo Hoo! Round 2 is Done. This round I'm down 2 inches and 10 pounds. Which puts me at a total 21 day fix loss of 20 pounds and 8 inches I think. (Also total weight lost from my heaviest-non pregnant weight is 37 pounds!) I feel so much stronger and healthier. Apparently I've been living dehydrated. I've never been a sweat-er before. Even when I was doing marching band and drum line in high school. But this past week especially I've been just dripping when I'm done working out.

Today I went to the gym again. I'm going to use it while I've got it. I did a STRIKE class again. Its really fun. I tried using the weighted gloves today, and that was a bad idea. Had to take them off as soon as we started using the bar. It was just too much too soon. I've got to start working on my cardio more. I got accepted for an audition at a theater that I never thought I'd have a shot at, but they're rehearsal schedule is CRAZY, so I've GOT to get my cardio working better, just in case. I doubt I'll get it, but you never know

I just realized I never changed the settings on the camera back after taking my head shots yesterday, so today's pictures are kind of blurry.

Breakfast was berry oatmeal

1 Yellow, 1 Purple

Lunch was an awesome chicken wrap, with Hummus, basil, spinnach and tomato with Kale Chips on the side.

1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Blue

1 Green, 1 Spoon

Tonight was nacho night, but I don't get chips so I did a Taco salad-y thing. with greens, sauteed onions and peppers, lean beef, tomatoes and cheesy chips (literally just cheese baked into a chip they're AWESOME.

1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Blue

1 Blue container makes 5 Cheesey chips

Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable durring this journey. I know its not always fascinating, but accountability is part of the process. Over the next few days I plan on putting together some compilations of my favorite recipes. As well as a more detailed list of how I did the 21 Day Faux without having all the information.

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 20

2015-08-20T23:33:00.000-04:00

I was a bad girl today, food wise at least. We went back to the fair today (we had free tickets) so I got a lot more walking in, but I also ate some junk food. I also did the Full Body Cardio Fix workout video tonight.

Breakfast was half a banana with coffee, I made fruit oatmeal with some leftover fruit salad, and it was weird. I don't know if the salad had some weird fruit in it before i got it as leftovers, but it tasted seedy. Like big chunks of grit. So I had to toss it out and have a banana.

Lunch was good, my Aunt brought me some leftover chicken she wasn't going to eat (she doesn't eat dark meat) so I made a lovely wrap with some hummus, 1 Green container of spinnach and tomatoes, 1 Red of diced chicken and mustard.

1 Yellow, 1 Blue, 1 Green, 1 Red

Dinner was supposed to be soup, but the rice sucked up 4 times the moisture they were supposed to, so it wound up as an immeasurable casserole. Its rice, chicken stock and split peas which wound up entirely unmeasureable on plan because the 1 cup of rice sucked up 4 cups of broth... it should have only used half of that. oh well. I threw cheese on because I knew we were going to the fair and i needed to keep my energy up.

At the Fair I had 3 fried oreos and about 5 spoon fulls of Ice cream. I've done worse, but its still not great.

Tomorrow morning at the gym where i have my trial membership is another one of my favorite classes so far, so I think I'm going to drag my kids there in the morning

Thanks for reading!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 19

2015-08-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

Well I reached one goal today, sort of. I swam my goal distance today, not all in one go, but 500 meters. Now I just gotta stop stopping between laps and lengths. I didn't do a fitness class or tape. I had an opportunity come up where I needed a head-shot really quick, so I used my pre choir time to shoot some head-shots with Hubby. So it was either stay out in the garage to work out after I got home, cause its bedtime for the kids, or go to the gym after choir. So i went to the gym and walked for 5 mins on the treadmill, but i forgot my headphones at home, so that was really really dull. so i went and swam laps for almost half an hour. I kept it varied enough so it worked multiple muscle groups.

Anyways onto food.

Breakfast was coffee and berry oatmeal. when I cooked the oatmeal I put half of the fruit in it while it was cooking which gave the oats good flavor and then put the rest of the fruit on top, was quite delish.

1 Yellow, 1 Purple

Lunch was a salad with turkey dressed with lemon juice.

1.5 Green and 1 Red

Dinner was roasted chicken thighs and carrots. I browned the top of the chicken in a skillet while i cut the carrots into circles. Then i layed the carrots in the pan around the chicken after turning, and put the whole pan in the oven for about 20 mins. They tasted sweet and awesome.

After my work out I had a bowl of cottage cheese. I didn't take a picture, You've seen my cottage cheese before, I put lots of pepper on it, otherwise its just a bowl of cottage cheese.

Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable.

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 18

2015-08-18T21:40:00.001-04:00

I'm starting to get sore from all this exercising, but I TOUGHED it out. I went and did LifeBarre... which I won't do again. I mean it was fine, and my shoulders are super sore tonight, but it wasn't as fun as yesterdays. I'm not sure if i'll be able to go tomorrow. I've got choir tomorrow night and there weren't many classes during the day, but I'll check the schedule again.

I did really well with my food today. Breakfast was half a banana and coffee as usual.

I worked out in the morning, so lunch was my recovery meal. It was a Tuna Salad. 1 Green container of spinach, tomatoes, and carrots. Topped with the leftover tuna steak from last week. Dressing was a little sesame oil, mustard and lemon juice with a small sprinkle of stevia.

1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Orange

I was hungry after lunch for something a little savory, so I had some sunflower seeds

1 Orange

Dinner was a Kick But quesadilla. I used a whole wheat tortilla, One blue container of Cheese and 1 Red container of Chicken breast seasoned with home made taco seasoning. with Cilantro too. Toasted on my griddle.

I also had a chocolate Shakeology with the rest of my banana in it, I forgot to take a picture.

Thank you for Reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 17

2015-08-17T22:55:00.000-04:00

I now understand how people can become addicted to exercise. I'm having so much fun and getting healthier. I went to the gym with a free trial again and did Strike! It was awesome. Battle based. It was punching and kicking and using a weighted quarter staff (well actually a little shorter, but thats the feel). I swam a couple laps and sat in the hot tub for cool down, because there wasn't really much of a cool down in this class. I'm loving the gym, but I'm not sure if I love it enough to pay that much for it. I've got a lead on a cheaper gym with child care, but I'm going to use out this trial membership, because I LOVE free stuff!

I didn't eat super great again today. I ran some errands with my mom and she took me and the minions out for lunch (this was the first restaurant lunch were i didn't have to physically chase them around the restaurant so it was good!) I got a Pick 2 luch with the Tai shrimp salad with the dressing on the side and the chicken tortilla soup. i used the smallest drizzle of dressing and picked all the salsa off the top of the soup (it had jalapenos in it) and Then I had to put some sour cream in the soup because it was just too spicy.

1 Yellow, 1 Green, 1 orange, 1 spoon

Dinner was spaghetti (at Monkey's request) I used 1 green container of diced and crushed tomatoes and 1/2 a green container of sauteed mushrooms, onion, bell peppers and carrots. I also had a 1/2 green container spinach salad with lemon

1.5 Green, 1 Yellow

1/2 Green

After working out I had some yogurt with fruit. I took 1 purple container of blueberries and strawberries and heated them on the stove until they were soft enough to mash. Then added half a banana and mashed it all up. I poured all of that over one red container of low fat yogurt and stirred it in. It was a BIG portion, but tasted yummy :-)


1 Red, 2 Purple

Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 16

2015-08-16T23:10:00.000-04:00

I learned something new today. Apparently I've been doing the "Triangle" pose in Yoga wrong. I've always looked like the picture (even the little wii fit lady) But I went to my first real yoga class today (I have a free membership at Lifetime Fitness until the 1st, and I'm using it for classes, because I can). I highly recommend going to a real yoga class if nothing else, to correct your form on things, I still can't figure out how they do that scoop thing from down dog into up dog, without going all wonky weird, but whatevs. I did a full hour of yoga (in a STUPID hot room, why WHY is it so freaking hot) then I swam a few laps and sat in a hot tub for a bit, so I didn't do the 21 Day fix video today (and probably won't for a while. I'm going to try some different classes, while they're free :-) )

Breakfast this morning was my typical half banana and coffee. I even managed to skip on the doughnuts at church today which is a real victory for me.

Monkey had his first day of big boy Sunday School so he got to have his favorite meal for lunch (the chicken bite box at rallys). The best thing I could find on the menu for me was their 5 Piece classic wings. Its white meat and hot sauce... They might be fried, but they're not super greasy so who knows. I did it the big bucket of ranch dressing (because I can't have that much hot sauce without ranch, and I am all out of avocados) but I only ate 4 French fry pieces (and those Sweet Pea was stuffing into my face going "ahhhhhh" :-) I couldn't say no) So I counted the ranch and both dressing servings and included my daily oil allowance too.

1 Red, 2 Orange, 2 Spoons

Healthy snack before going to work out was cottage cheese. Probably not a great idea to do dairy before exercise, but it worked and it got me through. though I realized now as I'm going through my day, I didn't eat a single veggie today... whoops

1 Red

Anyways. Post workout recovery meal was a Blueberry Muffin Shakeology. No, that's not a flavor. Its 1 scoop of Vanilla Shakeology. 1/2 a Purple of Blueberries and 1/4 of a banana with 1 C almond milk, a few ice cubes and some cinnamon. It REALLY tastes like a blueberry muffin, but it was almost pudding texture, needed more ice probably, and is way better cold than room temperature (the ice was a late addition). Its really good, but a little strange. I was just glad to find a way to eat the vanilla Shakeology, I'm not a huge vanilla person. I like chocolate or fruit or flavor... vanilla always seemed ... bleh.

1 Red, 1 Purple, 1 Yellow (almond milk swap)

Anywho. Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable.

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 15

2015-08-15T23:53:00.001-04:00

I feel like my whole outlook on life has gotten more positive in the past few weeks. I don't know if its the eating better, or the exercise. But all in all I feel a little more hopeful. Even though our finances are in the toilet. I feel like it will all be ok eventually. We'll get it figured out.

Today I did the Pilates Fix and I can tell I'm getting much stronger. Its amazing how much improvement thee has been in just 15 days. My mom has been discussing getting a gym membership for me for my birthday (since my neighborhood pool closes on labor day and I enjoy lap swimming) So I've got a free trial to Lifetime fitness and I'll probably do some of the classes there instead of the workout tapes at home. I mean its Free and its something different :-) always good to change things up.

I've pulled out our good camera so my food pictures will probably be getting better (hopefully at least). But I'm still not going to take a picture when its just fruit. Like for breakfast I had half a banana and a cup of coffee... no need for a picture of that, you know what it looks like

Lunch was a turkey wrap. 1 Tortilla, 3 large slices of turkey, 1 Green container of veggies and some mustard

Isn't it pretty! 1 Yellow, 1 Red, 1 Green

For a snack before I went touring some Gyms I had an apple... I didn't take a picture. Everyone knows what an apple looks like. If your curious it was a Fuji apple.

Fate smiled on me at the grocery store this week when I found a Tuna Steak on Manager special. Tuna steak is one of my most favorite foods in the world (cooked rare or even "black and blue" of course) Since it was a little on the aged side (hence the managers special discount) I did wind up throwing it back in the pan for a couple more mins to take some of the "lake" flavor out of it.

The side dish was 1 Green container of diced mushrooms, beet greens and onion mixed with some leftover brown rice from last week. I seasoned the Tuna with ginger and pepper, and it could have used more ginger, but i didn't want to risk over gingering. It wasn't as good as the Benihanna one (which I'm going to get later this month in celebration of my birthday :-) ) but it was WAY better than Canned tuna

1.5 Red, 1 yellow, 1 Green

Post workout snack was awesome. I made a Shakeology Mug Cake Recipe Here. It has a couple things not on the ingredients list, and it was a little spongey-er than I would normally like (and I'd put the peanut butter on top, not pressed down under the surface) It could have used frosting, but make an excellent dessert, that I almost couldn't finish myself.


1.5 Red 1 Spoon

Anyways. Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix- Round 2 - Day 14

2015-08-14T22:02:00.000-04:00

I'm feeling so much stronger now its really incredible. I don't miss soda, which is kind of a big deal for me. I don't eat crap anymore. I haven't even cheated on a cookie recently. I feel better. I feel stronger. I feel great.

Tonight I did the lower body fix again. Its pretty awesome. Its amazing how Autumn seems to know right when you're drooping on form or getting close to exhaustion and addresses that even though this video was recorded who knows how long ago.

Food today was great

Breakfast was a cappuccino and an apple sliced with peanut butter melted with coconut oil and drizzled over the top, it was pretty good but next time I will use less coconut oil, but it was still good

Lunch was sauteed veggies with rice leftover from last night and 2 eggs that were sunny side up, but popped as I was pulling them out of the pan, but it was still delicious

1 Red, 1.5 Green, 1 Yellow

Dinner was roasted potato wedges and roasted Chicken legs (i know legs aren't on the plan specifically but they're so cheap so I ate it anyway. I used mustard instead of ketchup for my wedges, it was pretty good.

1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Green

My friend Patti (who gave me the 21 Day kit free) stopped by with a Shakeology cup and some Shakeology samples until I get listed as a coach and can get some people buying their Shakeology through me. If you're interested PLEASE let me know I can get you signed up for 21 Day Fix or Any beachbody program. You can also sign up as a "discount member" where you get your shakeology cheaper if you agree to be a coach, you don't have to actually coach anyone to get the discount (which I believe is $30 off your Shakeology)

1 Red

Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix- Round 2 - Day 13

2015-08-13T21:26:00.001-04:00

ROAR!! I officially love this program. Today was a good day I went full beast mode durring work out. I was doing the upper body fix with soup cans as my heavy weight and baby food jars as my light weight (because I'm too broke to buy real weights) and the copy of the DVD that I have is corrupted the last 8 minutes of the upper body fix, so I just rewind to do the seccond time through Round 2 and then instead of doing my own cool down I did the Yoga Fix workout. BOOM I feel like a BOSS. I mean Yesterday I did the hardest video in the series and didn't wind up super sore like I did last time, at least nothing more than my baseline sore that I've gotten used to.

Food wise I did pretty good today too

I Started today with a cup of coffee with Hubby. Sweet pea woke up before Hubbys alarm, so we got to have coffee together before he left for work. I LOVE my new coffee maker. Its a Macchinetta and it makes espresso. Mixed with 1 tsp of stevia and 2 TBS milk makes a fine cappuccino. I'm working my way down there, I throw in 3 chocolate chips to help cut a little of the bitter that IS coffee, but thats down from a full teaspoon, so I'm well on my way to being a full grown up. I didn't take a picture of the coffee, because we don't have cappuccino cups, so it just looks like a half full coffee cup, because it is.

For breakfast I had about 1/2 a banana (or whatever part was left when Monkey decided he was done with it) and tossed in 1 tsp of Peanut butter, 1 Red container of Yogurt, 2 blueberries and about half a strawberry (pulled out of a fruit salad I have, I didn't just choose to use half a strawberry) and Whizzed it up with my immersion blender. It was pretty tasty. I usually have a textural issue with low or non fat yogurt, but whizzed with the banana it was a non issue.

Lunch was going to ba an avocado turkey wrap, but my avocado went bad :-( so I used my last 4 pieces of turkey and 2 spoonfuls of cottage cheese as my protein source and 1 cup of veggies in a tortilla (yes mine are 8 inches not 6, but I can't find the 6 on wic approved wheat tortillas and 6 inchers are hard to make quesadillas out of)

I realized after I set my plate that I was having 3 carbs tonight not 2, but decided Oh well, I've missed carbs lots of other days, so I had a glass of wine with dinner (an a champage flute holds 4 oz of wine, just FYI) Dinner was sauteed chicken with cajun seasoning blend with broccoli and brown rice that was cooked in chicken stock. It gives it some really great flavor, and I make my own stock so I know its low sodium and I skim the fat off before its stored, so its just chicken and water.

After working out I was HUNGRY. So I had another portion of Cottage Cheese.

I'm going to have to take the minions out for a grocery run tomorrow because I'm out of Greens, and Cottage Cheese, and Turkey and fruit and bananas.... All I have left is fruit salad and sunflower seeds....

Thanks for reading and Keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 12

2015-08-12T23:20:00.001-04:00

Today felt good. I didn't have coffee this morning, so I was a little snippy with Monkey today (especially when he found the bin from the shredder and decided to decorate the parlor). I did the Total Body Cardio Fix today (which has no right to be the first video on the disks, it is by far the hardest of the videos) and I think I might be able to walk tomorrow :-) but only time will tell

For breakfast today I had a half a banana and some tea that I made and promptly forgot to drink.

Lunch was a salad with avocado/herb dressing. I smushed up 1/4 of an avocado with about a tsp of oil and some fresh herbs from my garden. It didn't make a really runny dressing, but I could toss the salad through it and got a pretty good flavor from it.

1 Green 1 Blue

Dinner was the last of our very freezer burnt burgers. I'm glad we're done with them. They were getting bad, but I can't throw them out, so we toughed it out. I had one 4 oz burger with 1 Green of veggies and a side of sweet potato chips, I'm still mastering how to make them, but they're pretty good, but not quite as easy as the Kale chips.

1 Green 2 Yellow 1 Red

For dessert I had the last serving of the Fruit Puree Sorbet that I made last week (I think). Its good :-) Tastes like ice cream, but is just fruit.

Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable. If you have any questions please let me know!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 11

2015-08-11T21:43:00.000-04:00

Today was State Fair Day so on top of my normal exercise I probably walked 2 miles, then I did the Dirty 30 video and to compensate/punish myself for my bad eating today I did the first half of the Ab fix. I was going to do the whole thing until she said repeat... Uh uh. I was barely getting there the first time. So I'll try again another time, but I'm definitely getting stronger. I didn't have to modify on half of the warmup and on half the moves and I'm about to have to switch up to using soup cans for weights (I use baby food jars right now, its what I have and its free)

I didn't have a great food day. I started with some coffee before the fair. And on the way to the fair I got accused of being Hangry, so when we stopped for more sunscreen I picked this up. It was the healthiest thing in the CVS that looked even remotely edible.

Lunch at the fair was Chicken Tenders and French Fries. We all shared this, because Monkey would eat the french fries and Sweet Pea will eat the chicken.

These are the reason I go to the fair. Ambrosia of the Gods! Deep Fried Oreos :-) If you've never had them before, TRY THEM. They're awesome.

Dinner had to be at least a little healthy, so it was 2 Green containers of veggies, 1 red container of Chicken and 1 cup of chicken broth

Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable!