Praemonitus praemunitus

Translation: FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED.

''BUYER BEWARE'' is another good one.

Why am I thinking of quotes this morning? Well, because yesterday I thought I had a stellar day on my diet. Healthy, low calorie, low fat , high vitamin breakfast, church then out to lunch. I thought we were going to Macaroni Grill so I knew I would order the Pollo Magro which is one of their least calorically offensive offerings. They were not open though so we went to Chili's. I ordered the Quesadilla Explosion Salad. It was good. Rather tasty. Sure it came with a smallish quesadilla but the chicken was grilled and it wasn't drowning in dressing. After lunch we went to the park then hit the gym for 25 minutes on the treadmill, yoga class then swimming with my daughter which isn't actually swimming but just splashing around. Healthy dinner and a good nights sleep. All good stuff for the perpetual dieter.

Back to the quotes, I am meeting a friend at Panera this morning so I looked up the nutritional information so I can order wisely. Panera is the devil's den when it comes to calories! After figuring out what I should order there I decided for the heck of it to look at Chili's website.

Ouch.

1260 calories and 76 grams of fat! For a salad! Of Chili's salads the Quesadilla Explosion is actually the worst one a person could order if they are trying to cut calories.

Next time it is Runza for the Southwest Chicken Salad. That one is tasty and under 600 calories.

I learned a very valuable lesson though. When it comes to going out to eat I am definitely going to look before I leap!

PARTING IS SUCH (ARTIFICIALLY) SWEET SORROW

I gave up pop. For those of you not from Nebraska or the Midwest usually refer to it (incorrectly, I might add) as soda or soda pop and for those who know me know I was rarely seen without a diet pop in my hand. For years it was Diet Pepsi then in an effort to curb this habit of mine I switched to Coke Zero. That didn't help, I loved that stuff even more! The more I read about soft drinks I knew the cans I was chugging down each day were not good for me. One look at the back of the can at the ingredients told me that.

So I did it.

Cold turkey even!

The first few days I was a bit on edge after that it wasn't affecting me physically but habits are hard to break. I had to make an effort to order tea. It has been nearly a month now and I haven't fallen off the pop wagon once. I still miss its bubbly sweetness and pathetically enough I even had a dream that I was drinking a can of cold carbonated bliss. If I was still in high school I probably would be drawing hearts on my notebook with doodles of Coke Zero.

I wish I had this much willpower when it came to dieting but going completely without diet pop is somehow easier than rationing it to a reasonable amount. It wasn't easy and I wish I was drinking one right now but I have to say that I do look and feel better now that I have finally gotten myself off the sauce.

The Things We Do For Love (and out of guilt)

I am afflicted with COULROPHOBIA. For those of you who know me don't panic. It is not fatal (most likely).

Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns. Don't laugh, I can't help it. Those red nosed freaks give me the willies!

Because of this I never took my son to the circus. Yeah, I know, take away my Mother of the Year trophy. My sister took him so at least he got to see it and we discovered that coulrophobia is not hereditary. He is sixteen now and I think he would have ended up to be the same kind of kid whether he went to the circus or not. Now his sister is six and my husband is guilting me into taking her. Ugh! He insists he can't take her alone in case she has to go to the bathroom. Not the best reason to make me face my fears but he does have a point. Last summer we actually got into an argument over this because I would not cave and refused to go.

GUILT GUILT GUILT

Fine, lets get this over with. I bought the tickets online tonight. Here is her one shot of going to the circus. I hope she enjoys it. I hope the cotton candy is ten bucks too because my husband is going to pay for this!!

Quiche Me You Fool

Racking our brains for something nice but different to serve my mother this Mother's Day we finally decided on quiche. A good decision for a chilly Spring day. I printed out a recipe. Well, the ingredients part printed but not the rest of the recipe. I didn't tell my husband that I just sent him to the store for the ingredients. My husband does not bunt well. A very linear (and sometimes annoying) thinker he is. Now he is frazzled. I try to reassure him that it is quiche not nuclear fission and surely it will come out ok. Then we disagree on what to add to the quiche. Now we are making two quiches. His and hers. His has kielbasa, red peppers and cheddar cheese. Mine had onions, spinach and mozzarella cheese. They both turned out good. Well, I assume they did. He wouldn't taste mine and I wouldn't taste his. It is Mother's Day after all so in my opinion he should have conceded. At least he did the dishes though!

Here is MY recipe:

5 whole eggs

1 cup milk

1.5 cups shredded cheese(I used mozzarella)

3/4 package thawed spinach

handful chopped onion

Stir it up. Dump it into a frozen pre-made pie crust in aluminum pan.

Cook at 350 for almost an hour.

Stab it with a butter knife. If it is gooey it needs more time.

Yummola!!!!

Outside the box(es)

Switch day is coming soon!

This is how my six year old views moving. We switch to another house. Playing with boxes and the excitement of a new home to explore is great for a kid. Not so great for a mom who keeps misplacing homeschool supplies in an effort not to pack them, tries to fix a meal realizing she packed some now essential kitchen utensil.

Moving also brings the not so startling revelation that we have too much stuff. Way too much. So far I have sneakily taken five boxes of still usable but unnecessary things to Goodwill.

No one has noticed.

If my family realized what I was doing they would go into ''rescue'' mode. ''NO! Not that! I need that!" came their anguished cries last time we moved. I wasn't smart enough then to get rid of stuff undetected. This time around I am much wiser. While my husband is at work I take my daughter to Grandma's then I go home and get to work. If it is buried in the back of a closet or bottom of the toy box I have no mercy. If it is still in the box since the last move my decision making is even easier.

The stuff left over after packing is either essentials or expendables. Yesterday I found one legged Barbie, three stuffed animals, socks that didn't match and two umbrellas. If no one is here to plead their case for their belongings then its fate rests in my hands. Here in Nebraska I have about as much need for two umbrellas as I do a one legged Barbie.

Goodwill here I come. Again.

LOST AND FOUND

*POOF*

That is apparently what happened to my writer mojo last month. Not just writer's block mind you but full fledged missing in the middle of the night disappearance. Sigh. I spent days staring at my laptop to no avail. Then I moved on to books about writing hoping that would help. It didn't. I decided to read something to distract me so I read the first three of the four Twilight books. Teenage vampires and angst was certainly a distraction and made me very glad that my highschool years are far behind me.

I was going to start looking on the back of milk cartons or Craigslist for my mojo then last night I got a ransom note from my subconscious. "Write" it said. Anything. One word. One crappy sentence. So this post is paying the ransom.

I hope it is enough.

I miss my mojo.