Thanksgiving Fun

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with my in-laws. We went to their home in Candia, NH. The trip was a little hectic, as traveling with three kids under the age of 4 usually is. But it was nice to spend a few days letting someone else take care of us for a little while! Here are some pics from the weekend.

Esme and Iris

Happy Esme

Happy Iris

Eli goes right for the good stuff!

The Thanksgiving Feast

The Pain of Plateaus

Losing weight is hard.  A LOT harder than gaining it anyway!  Since July, I have been doing the Weight Watchers program and I have lost a total of 20.3 pounds.  I am extremely proud of this loss, but recently it has been really tough.

Over the past six weeks I hit a plateau.  I gained a little, I lost a little, but really I went no where at all.  This has been extremely frustrating.  Logically, I know that weight loss is an endurance activity.  I know that if I think of it in long term goals, that averaging a loss of a pound a week, in one year I will have lost 50 pounds.  To me, 50 pounds seems like a big loss over the course of a year.  In fact, I think 50 pounds would be exactly what I would like to lose in total.  But, I started out strong, and was loosing 1.5-2 pounds a week and then all of a sudden I stopped and went no where at all.  This has made it extremely difficult to stay motivated.

I know what happened.  The initial loss of 10% of my weight felt really good.  For awhile, I felt really thin.  (In reality, I still have a ways to go.)  But my comfort with this initial loss made me less careful, less attentive, and it resulted in, not surprisingly, a gain.  Not a large gain, certainly no where near what I lost.  But, I put on 4 pounds in two weeks.  It has taken me 4 weeks to take them back off!  To add insult to injury, the holiday season is upon us, which, as I am sure you are aware, is a very difficult time to practice moderation.

But finally, I have broken the plateau.  Finally, I have lost that inital gain.  I would love to say that it is because I showed execellent restraint over the holiday weekend, but I can't, because I did not.  Actually, this past week, I contracted an awful stomach virus and I shed about 4 pounds in as many days.  But I will take it!!!!  It is exactly what I needed (the weight loss, not a virus) to become motivated once again.  Also, this week, Weight Watchers has rolled out their new program.  It is similar to the old program, but very different as well.  But it is like being a new member.  The points values of virtually all foods have changed, so I am calculating and tracking everything.  I am determined to keep headed in the right direction.

Ultimately, I am most proud of the fact, that despite giving myself permission to quit several times over the past six weeks, I have stuck with it through this tough period.  I have never been a thin person.  Seriously, I went from a children's size 14 to a woman's size 14 overnight.  I have never been a size 6.  Although, its been really long time since I have thought of myself as a fat person.  And, it has been awhile since I have had my self esteme wrapped up in my weight.  These were both things that took significant time and work to overcome.  Factually, however, I am overweight, and for a number of very healthy reasons, I want to change this.  So, I push on.  I try to remember this is a marathon not a sprint and I hold on to the long term goal.  I am just happy to see the scale start moving in the downward direction once again!  

Baked Stuffed French Toast

I got up a little early this morning, for a Sunday.  Iris was also awake.  So the two of us headed down stairs, made some coffee, and played for a little while.  I was hankering for something yummy for breakfast so I started looking up baked french toast recipes.  Most required that the mixture be made the night before, but I finally found one that I modified a bit to fit the ingredients I had in my home.  It turned out great so I thought I would share it.

Ingredients:
8 slices bread of your choice (I used light wheat - it was what I had on hand)
8 oz of Cream Cheese (I used Neufchatel)
1 cup of fresh or frozen fruit of your choice (We had frozen mixed berries)
6 eggs
1 cup of milk (I used 2 percent)
Ground Cinnamon
Confectionary Sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Cube all slices of bread
Layer 1/2 of the bread cubes in the bottom of a baking dish
Cube cream cheese and layer on top of bread cubes
Layer fruit over the cream cheese
Top with the remaining cubes of bread

In a separate bowl, beat the 6 eggs and 1 cup of milk together, pour evenly over the bread layers.
Top with ground cinamon to taste.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes until the egg mixture is completely baked into the bread and the top has begun to brown.

Sprinkle with confectionary sugar and serve with maple syrup!

This dish is easy to assemble and is delicious!

Happy Halloween

 Eddie, Eli, Sage

Halloween has never really been one of my favorite holidays.  Many of my friends like to get all dressed up and have Halloween parties.  I have participated in a number of these over the years.  Generally, I throw a costume together at the last minute.  Halloween has been more fun since I had children.  It is fun to get the kids dressed up and go trick-or-treating.  But still, as a general rule, I much prefer Christmas and Thanksgiving.

But this year was different.  This year, I SO looked forward to Halloween.  Last year, I spent Halloween in a hospital.  I did not get to take my son trick-or-treating.  Eli and I were able to participate in the Halloween parade that the staff put on for the kids at the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital and I remain thankful to this day that we were invited to participate, but it just wasn't the same.  Eli had to be brought to me by a friend and I had to be pushed in a wheelchair by a nurse while my friend helped Eli through the parade.

This year, I volunteered to organize the Halloween Party for the Mothers of Multiples Club, I had all of my kids' costumes picked out by the last week in September, and I arranged our trick-or-treating plans weeks in advance of the actual day.  The party was a hit, and gave us an opportunity to get the girls dressed up in costume, as that was a morning event.  Trick-or-treating was fun!  The girls didn't quite make it, so Jesse brought them home, but Eli and I walked around our friends' neighborhood with their kids and another family.  I still threw together a very last minute costume (literally, Amanda gave me some devil ears, a devil tail, and that pitchfork thing that the devil carries just before we walked out the door...thanks Amanda!)  But how fun it was to take Eli door to door.  To see his excitement as he ran up each driveway screaming "Trick or Treat!"  It was a very cold night, but I couldn't have cared less.

So much I am thankful this year.  My experiences last fall make me appreciate every second of my life and my children's lives.  I still think of my time in the hospital almost daily.  The worry, the discomfort, the fear.  It was such a profound experience.  I thank God every day for the way things turned out and I appreciate the smallest things, like trick-or-treating with my son, in a way that I took for granted before.  

 Esme (Flower) & Iris (Butterfly)

 Iris

 Esme

Eli & Sage

 Eli, Eddie, & Sage

 Eddie, Eli, & Sage

Dori

Come On Eli, Its Time to Potty...Update

Just over a week ago, Eli finally gave up Pull-Ups at night.  Night times were our last bastion of potty training.  The first morning he woke up wet and cold, but there has been only one more night accident since then.  Potty training has been hard and a long road, but we finally made it.  That's not to say we don't have an accident here and there, but, Eli is three, its to be expected. 

Way to go Eli!  I am so proud of you!!!  Now only two more kids to go...

Fort Farrar-Stenbak

 

Fort Farrar-Stenbak  

So what can you build with a wheelbarrow, the lid to a sandbox, some firewood, a sheet, and some outdoor toys.  Well if you are Eddie and Eli you can build quite a fort to defend off invaders from my back yard! 

Eddie came for a visit a few weeks ago and he and Eli were playing quietly outside.  Amanda (Eddie's mom) and I were only half paying attention to the boys as they were playing well together and were pretty quiet.  We were instead watching the girls (Esme, Iris, and Amanda's daughter Dori), who were at the time requiring a lot of attention.  When we looked up to check on the boys, we realized that Eddie and Eli had built quite the contraption in the back yard.  I went out to investigate further.  The boys were so proud of their shelter building skills and begged me to let them sleep outside in the fort overnight.  It was a bit rickety, a lot unsafe for sleeping, and mostly open to the elements which makes for a cold night in October in Maine, so unfortunately, I had to say no.  The boys were disappointed, but the fort provided much entertainment for the remainder of the visit.

When Jesse got home later that night, I forgot to tell him about the new structure in the backyard.  I was running late, so I just headed out for work.  When I got up the next morning, Jesse looked at me and asked in a confused and somewhat amused manner, "So Tori, did the Lord of the Flies visit the backyard yesterday."  All I could do was laugh.

 

 

Eddie and Eli

 Cozied Up Inside Fort Farrar-Stenbak

 

Imagination Eli - What a Mind!

This past weekend we stayed at Colin and Nancy's (Jesse's bosses) camp in Falmouth on Highland Lake. It was beautiful. The cottage is cozy and the views were fantastic. Eli, of course, thought it was magnificent. He has been talking about the camp and going back to the camp since we came home on Monday.

So this morning he asked me if after I picked him up from school if we would go back to the camp. I tried to explain to him, in terms that he would understand, that we had just "borrowed" the camp for the weekend, and that we had to give it back to the owners because someone new was going to be "borrowing" it now. Well, this was not satisfactory to my little creative genius. Instead, he told me that he wanted to go to the camp and pick it up and bring it home.

This made me chuckle a little, as I imagined us putting a camp in our pocket and carrying it back to our house.  But this was not at all what Eli had in mind.  I replied to Eli, "Honey a camp is a type of house and that is too big to just pick up and bring home with us."  To which Eli responded, "Mom, lets get a bunch of cars and put it on top of the cars and the cars can drive it to our house.  This is a good idea, Mom?!"

What a genius little mind he has.  And what a funny vision that is, a camp on top of a bunch of cars driving down the road.  It is a good idea, Eli.  Maybe we should give it a try.  It is a nice camp...I wonder if Colin and Nancy would mind if we "borrowed" it just a little bit longer...?