LIFT!

I'm going to tell you a story. This story is about a woman who took care of herself, ate right and exercised on occasion. She was still healthy but decided to do a little more and hired a personal trainer. (me) If you think you are busy, you haven't met this woman! Making it a priority to take care of herself, we meet several times a week. She works hard. Really hard, every session. For the last 10 weeks, the scales have slightly crept up. It's really hard to see this even if you KNOW that  the scale is just a number. I know! I have dealt with this myself. Even though, I am quite fit, I have a hard time seeing that number in the mornings. So I get this struggle. I kept telling her not to give up and she agreed. Finally, she took 'after' pictures to track her progress. AMAZING, in 10 weeks the scales have gone up about seven pounds. 7! That is a lot when your goal is to lose weight right? Well, look at these for yourself. You tell me, does that look like a 7 pound weight gain?!

 

Yes, the second picture is her 'after' picture. This is why lifting, and taking pictures are SOOO important! I'm proud of you for not giving up and working as hard as you do even when you don't wnat to!!

2 months!!!

All pictures from this 2 month hiatus is in reverse order... And from my phone so not the greatest pictures but hey it works!


Our kitchen is very close to being done, we need a back splash, and the tile celling and finish drawers and we will be done.

I went to my first It Works! event! We had a lot of fun and a lot of contacts!! I'm telling you this is a great biz!!

We now have baby calves. They are more for Uncle Kyle but I dont' know what they have planned, for all Will knows, they are his... He and Lillian really enjoy helping Dad feed them.

It had been FOREVER since I had baked and I missed it so much! I found the new best sugar cookie recipe! Once the kitchen is done then get ready... I'll be baking much more! :)





We went to the Renaissance Festival in KC with Tara and the kids and Grandma. They enjoyed it but it was a long day. It wore them out!





Proof!





School pictures were the cutest EVER!!!! Just look at that face!





Will's first day month of school. We are finally able to drop him off with no tears. So I don't have that precious first day of school picture... It was a disaster!





This was moments before!!





Lillian was quite sick for the month of August. She had gotten two parasites and couldn't get rid of them or so it seemed. Turns out, she became lactose intolerant because of one of the parasites or the meds that she was on to cure it. Either way, she didn't argue with switching to Almond milk for a while. It was the lack of cheese that she had a problem with. After a month of no dairy, we re-introduced it back and she hasn't had a problem since. It was a rough three weeks before though... She came with me to a training session I had. I couldn't find daycare and she did pretty good until I had to change her diaper... :/







So there's our last two months! Short, fast and I'm ready for snow! Who would have guessed that? Carpet is being laid today in the new house! Fair warning, it may be until we are in the new house before I have a chance to update again. I don't want quit this, I am quite proud that I have been doing this blog for over 5 years!!! I'm excited to see it when the kids are in high school.

The Fruits of Our Labors.

To say that I have gotten addicted to canning is an understatement. It has been so much fun and it is was even more fun getting all of it on these shelves and seeing what we have actually done! The shelf on the right starting at the top...
Only 2 jams left over from last year, pineapple habenaro jam, margarita jam.
Second self, canned blackberries, canned blueberries, blackberry pie filling, cherry limeade jam, peach pie filling.
Third shelf: Apple cinnamon rings, cinnamon pickles, pickle relish (2 from last year), lime pickles (3 from last year), apple pie filling
forth shelf: Watermelon jelly, pink Merlot jelly, lemon poppy seed jelly, Carmel apple jam, Mango lime jam, peach amaretto jam, pina coloda jam, Spaghetti sauce (all from last year), beets from Mom,
Left shelving: BEANS! As many as we had go bad, it's still good to see we have that many left still.
Second shelf: Habenaro gold sauce and salsa (3 from last year).



And for supper last night, we had meatballs (I made a ton and froze quite a few of them for future easy meals). Cole slaw that I also canned. Plums that Mom had canned, the Pineapple habenaro jelly that I made, on cream cheese and crackers. Now I'd say that's a meal home made!

I can't thank my Mom enough to help me going on this. Although, I think the more I'm getting into it, so is she. But, I'm going to get over my fear of pressure canning and she is going to teach me. I can't wait to try soups and next year make spaghetti sauce with meet already in it. Maybe we'd have mashed potatoes if they were already a little cooked in the cans. How easy would that be?! Carrots are .59 a pound right now and if I knew how to pressure can, we could have carrots easy at our hand ready to warm up, and enjoy for inexpensive and no crap added food!! So, shout out to Mom for helping me, you have really created a monster in the best way possible!! Love you!

What we've been up to...

Lillian and baby helping me snap beans. I quit before the bean plants quit producing... I feel like it's a waste but my hands were hurting from snapping so much and we had 53 quarts of beans and 7 gallon sized bags frozen. (I swear I bathe my children!)





22 lemons juiced and one beer drank...



This isn't even all of them!!!
From left to right
Lemon Poppy seed
Peach Amaretto
Cherry Limeade
Pina Colada
Watermelon
Margarita
Pink Merlot

Not pictured is Carmel Apple Jam (may make another batch because it's soooooo good!) and I will make some habenro jam yet once those are ready...

And yes, I am selling them!! Ask me about them if you want some!!! GREAT gifts!!!



Grandma's Lime Pickles (sweet sandwich pickles) 2 gallons worth so- 8 quarts-ish



Grandma's Cinnamon pickles (I skipped the coloring them red process as how much red food die do we really need in our diets anyway. So they may not be as pretty but they will still taste yummy!)- 2 gallons



10 quarts of apple pie filling, Peach pie filling is in the back and I'm not sure how many of those are in there, I think 6-ish but the peaches on trees are not quite ripe yet so may add a few more :)



And here's my pantry (hopefully soon, this will be moved to the new house!!!)



So, unfortunate but we (Mom and I) lost about 25 quarts of green beans due to something called flat sour. Canning is a learning process I think for everyone, new or advanced at the hobby... Apparently it happens if when you let the beans sit too long before processing. Well, I'm terrified of pressure canning. Maybe someday I will get the nerve to start trying it but until then, I snap them and get them ready for my Mom and then she pressure cans them for me. It took a few days to get to her and while time to eat them fresh would have been okay apparently, they started getting this bacteria and caused quite a bit of heartache in terms of canners everywhere. 25 of about the 90 quarts that were canned became either unsealed or were just cloudy and smelled awful when we dumped them. So, education for all others, make sure you get them processed ASAP! After the loss, we have kept around 40 quarts of green beans that are still good.

Tomatoes aren't even ripe yet. I really think that I'm just going to can them for soups or chili or even salsa in the middle of winter... You get to a point of almost burning out in the kitchen and I'm getting close to that. After the pickles I have yet and habenro jelly, and a few jars of tomatoes I think I'll be done in the kitchen.

I have also accepted that we will not be moving into the new house until after chopping (since that starts... today) I am taking the time to clear out each room and boxing up the stuff that we don't need for the next 3 months, throwing away all the stuff we don't need and just hoping when the time comes to move it will be a speedy processes. I didn't get a good picture of the kitchen on my camera before now so here's a picture I put on Facebook with the kindle...



There are doors on all the upper cabinets now and most of the bottom cabinets. The island is almost done (probably done now just needs stained and varnished.) So, next blog post I'll get that picture for you!!!

Finally, the kids enjoying half a jar of watermelon jelly!

Happy 4th!!

Well, she HATED the fireworks (must take after Mom... NOT a fan!)



So after a few, she watched from inside.



It was still too loud for her liking though.

This guy however, was LIGHTING THEM!!!! Scared this Momma to death!




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL67nHIpB8Q

^-- proof of this craziness!

She found some kittens though and was very happy!!



Brownie on her face and all!



She wasn't happy when Will took the cat though.

Summer fun!

And the kitchen floor. It's ALMOST done but he ran out of mortar... Sadly, I really don't think we are going to be out of our POS before chopping season. Okay, maybe it isn't too much of a POS but I'm REALLY bummed that we probably won't be out until after mouse chopping season.

Until then, I guess we will start buying stalk in Pledge to dust the new house and glue traps for the said POS.



Have I ever mentioned that I have the best dad in the world? Well, I do! I wish Lillian and I could have gone too but he took Will fishing and let Will reeled in all 5 fish! They caught more but that's what's for dinner!



One of my favorite things of summer is because of fruit! YUMMO!







And here's a Will funny for you: He has discovered how much he HATES spiders. A long time ago he asked when spiders were out and I made the mistake of telling him summer. Because we  know there around all the time but they are worse in summer.  The other day we were riding home from daycare he tells me "Hey Mom, Dad had a really good idea" okay... whats that??? "We are going to ask God to take away summer so that we won't have spiders anymore" I thought it was funny but I had to explain why summer was important and that we needed to have it, even if it came alone with nasty spiders!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Did you know that next week is our 5 year birthday?! This blog's birthday anyway!! 5 years ago, Dennis and I were trying for a baby and I knew that I would want to document that in some way. I wasn't going to let anyone else know that we were trying but thought I would start a blog about what I wanted to blog about, our life! It turns out that I actually was pregnant when I started this blog and I didn't know it yet. Kinda cool right?!


In five years, this blog has gone from being just a family blog to a baking blog to a fitness blog. I know, I'm all over the place all the time. I can't say that it is what I thought it would end up being but I'm proud to say that I have successfully kept this blog going for 5 full years!


Just a little update on everything for us: Dennis is working like a mad man on the house. I can't wait until the kitchen floor is done for me to show you pictures!!! It's beautiful! The kitchen cabinet's are almost done but still need the sanding/ staining/ varnishing yet. He planted all of the garden. It is actually smaller than it has been in the past. And I'm fine with that. Loads of green beans and that I requested. Otherwise, Dennis is just slaving away at the house and hopefully we will packing our bags in the next few weeks!!


Will went out for Blast Ball for the first time this year. I think he enjoyed it, having several of his daycare buddies on the same team as him. He was ornery a few times and looked like he was playing golf and not soft ball... He had swim lessons too already and while he didn't pass level 2, he got close. Next year will be a walk in the park, I'm sure. Will is his dad's right hand man. When the time allows, he is right next to Dad helping on the house.


Lillian is in speech! I say this with excitement because I feel as if it has really helped her. Maybe it's just a speech growth spurt but I feel since she has been meeting with her speech therapist every other week, you can really understand the gibberish she says now. It's so nice because now when she is whining about something you can ask what the problem is and you can take a very good guess of what it is she needs/ wants. Otherwise, this little two year old of ours is a handful! She's so funny, her attitude is something else.  Lillian is finally working on more teeth too. She was slower in a lot of development areas and that included teeth. She is getting 4 more right now and I think that is going to be it until her two year old molars. (Yes, I know she's older than 2...)


I am also working a bunch. I have some of the greatest personal training clients that I look forward to seeing every session! My gym time not only with my clients but also my brain relaxation time is my time that I enjoy so very much. It actually is going to be even more important to me as time passes as what we have always guessed is now true that I have arthritis. I thought that I had torn something in my knee so I went to the Dr., and they did an x-ray and found not a tare but arthritis. It's the same kind of pain that I get in my fingers from time to time and then with my lower back issues I have sometimes, it does make me wonder how much of this nasty stuff I have. This is gearing me into a little different direction in fitness as well. Arthritis is generally in those who are older and so I'm starting to look into more senior fitness certifications. Don't worry, I'm still trying my hardest to find the best time/ style of bootcamps to start up around the area.


The garden is really starting to take off and my mind is going crazy of what to do with the thirty nine pepper plants that we have. Did I say that right, 39?? Yep. We thought the freeze killed off the plants we had so we re-planted all of them and they all survived!!! Luckily, we only have a few tomato plants. We usually end up with 12 plants or at least it seems like it and I never know what to do with that many tomatoes!! Other than that, onions, corn and cucumbers, and butternut squash are the only things we have planted this year. I'm looking forward to playing around with habanero jellies again.


So, the Deters household is going strong, hopefully moving soon but otherwise, just a normal, typical summer for us. Kids are getting older, doing more activities but other than that, enjoying our crazy, wonderful life.