January 10

New sneaks for the New Year. I love these. They're for low - impact workouts, mostly mesh (for ventilation), super comfy and they're pink and green!

Finally bought a handle to fit my 24 oz. Tervis cups. Super convenient!

Bama 21, LSU Zereaux. Although my blood will forever be orange and blue (War Eagle!) I'm proud of the level of athletics in my home state. Happy to see Bama bring home the BCS trophy again. Third straight year for the National Champions to be a team from Alabama! (The screen shot is from AL.com)

My new best friend. I bought myself an inexpensive pink iPod Nano (see it hanging from the screen of the elliptical?) It makes rocking the exercise so much easier.

Lillian licking the bowl after dinner tonight. She and I finished off the last of the Chocolate Delight (made with sugar free pudding, cream cheese, sugar free Cool Whip and sugar free Murray's chocolate cookie crumbs.)

I tried to get a picture of Lillian's face when she pulled the bowl away, but she tried to hide. Stan scooped her up and held her upside-down so I could get a good shot.

Camryn indulges in some good old macaroni & cheese for dinner. She's lost 6 pounds in the last 10 days. She gave up Coca-Cola, exchanged fries and pizza for salads and Lean Cuisines, and started exercising. I'm super proud of my girl! This mac & cheese was a reward she allowed herself tonight.

January 9

My new Tervis mug. I had my name put on the back. Love Tervis.











I love these things. They're about $2, which seems a little pricey for a few spices, but when you consider that you'd probably spend $15 to $20 buying all the things you need for one recipe, this seems cheap. Plus, if you like it, you can keep the recipe card on the back. They're made by McCormick. This made the best fajitas, which I served on whole wheat tortillas. I also conjured up some black bean and corn salsa to go with it. Everyone ate... and enjoyed! That's rare in our house.

January 8

Every quarter I have to put together samples of the kids' homeschool work and send it to their K12 supporting teacher. It's not too hard, but it does take me the better part of a day. I am always happy to put those envelopes in the mail.






I'm almost finished reading Stephen King's 11/22/63. It's been a long journey (853 pages) but I have loved it. I'm sad that it's coming to an end.

I signed up for a free 7-day trial so I could watch the entire season (thus far) of New Girl. I love Zooey Deschanel. Love this show.

January 7

Shades?

Check.

Cool glove?

Check.

Old cell phone for pretending to talk & text?

Check.

Seven going on fifteen?

Lord help me.

Kitties love their soft food treats. We have to split it into 3 plates so all five (yes, five) kitties will share and not growl.

Mmmm.... strawberry Chobani. This, plus a bowl of Rice Krispies with banana and Splenda, were my breakfast.

January 6

Science lesson with Lillian. We started studying the digestive system, so we had to simulate how saliva, chewing and the stomach break down food. Some saltines, orange slices and a little water plus mashing the bag = a concoction that made me want to gag. She loved it.

BiLo trip with Camryn. We stocked the fridge (left) with Chobani, hummus, healthy breads, sugar free frozen pops and fresh veggies. The freezer is now full of Lean Cuisines and Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen meals for our lunches. We're committed. That's a lot of frozen meals!

January 5

This is my first priority in the morning. A year ago I could not have cared less about coffee. Those Keurig people are GEE-NEE-US-EZ.

Thanks to Grammy & Poppy, the boys now have a GameFly subscription. We had one before my husband lost his job last year, but we gave it up to save money. Portal 2 for Xbox is now in the house. Notice the laptop open next to Aiden. He's using cheats, of course.

Ellie peeking out from behind my desk in the school room. She sits in the window sill and looks out over the neighborhood.

January 4

First up for me on the 4th was a trip to the dentist for a cleaning. I got a nice goody bag (new toothbrush! Woot! And it's PINK!) After the dentist I stopped at Chick Fil A for a large (FREE, thanks to my calendar coupon) unsweetened tea (4 Splendas, please!) and biscuits for the kiddos.

Back to school for Aiden, Quinn & Lillo.

Accidental up the nose, under the boob self portrait. Niiiiiice.

Camryn's lunch box. She and her best friends have made a pact to eat healthier and exercise more, so she is making her own lunch instead of eating in the cafeteria. She's taking it very seriously. I'm very proud of her!

This is now part of our exercise routine. I love the Kinect!

January 3

You thought I forgot, right?

I've been taking pictures every day. I just haven't been posting them.

So, ha! You were wrong.

We did the laundry on Wednesday. The kids get baskets and sort their own, then tote the baskets back to the laundry room. I love having minions.

This is Caramel, Quinn's new puppy. He wants a real dog so very badly, but I hate dogs so very much. My parents gave Quinn a puppy for Christmas. For now, it's just going to have to do. I don't do dogs.

Our back porch fountain froze over during the night. The pigeons loved the small amount of water gurgling out of the top. The kitties (Ellie, left and Sadie, middle) loved the pigeons.

The kiddos thought they had to go back to school on Tuesday. Our program, K12.com, didn't actually start back until Wednesday. I surprised them with that information on Tuesday morning. They were so excited!

I made cinnamon rolls to celebrate. Trying to get rid of all the unhealthy stuff in the freezer (these were from Schwan's home delivery. They were nummy, dadgummit.)

This is my morning perch. It's where I'm sitting right now. I get up, I might do a load of dishes if the sink is full, make sure that the children have breakfast, and then I make myself a glass of water and a cup of coffee. I might have a piece of fruit or a yogurt and take my multivitamin before I forget. I check email, Facebook and K12 to see what's up for the day. Today's Saturday so I'm blogging my pictures. I try not to spend more than an hour at the computer every morning.

Last one for the 3rd. Since we had no school, I took Quinn & Lillian to Target to spend their Christmas bucks. Quinn chose (shock!) Legos and a Nerf gun. Lillian went with a Rosetta (Tinkerbell Fairy) doll, a plush Princess Tiana and a pair of roller skates. Her friend K had gotten skates for Christmas and Lillo just had to have a pair. I supplied a new set of knee and elbow pads.

January 2

This is my youngest child with her overnight guest.

Yes, her face really looks like that. It's scarier in real life.

(Well, not really, but you suspected that. I just don't have permission from her father to post her picture on the Internets.)

The youngest child loves the sleepover. This morning she and her budette came to me to show me that they both own Hello Kitty slippers.

It's like they were meant to be friends.

Happy New Year!

Trying something new in 2012 - I'm going to strive to take a picture a day. At least one - and I *might* get around to posting one a day. Most likely you'll go days or weeks without a picture, and then you'll get about 20 or so posts. But, baby steps. We'll see how it goes.

Today you get two pictures.

This is my stash of Spicy Eggnog K-Cups. I bought the holiday pack with Golden French Toast, Gingerbread and the Eggnog flavors in it. I loved all of them... except Eggnog. It was just too.... Eggnoggy. I do not like Eggnog, Sam I Am. I do not like them with Eggs and Ham. I'd probably starve if I landed on a deserted island full of eggnog trees and nothing else. There would probably be Fruit Cake bushes on that island as well. That would mean complete starvation for me. Eggnog is like drinking cake batter. I can't even think of anything gross enough to compare to eating fruit cake. Well, maybe if you dug all the dried stuff out of your couch cushions and threw them into cake batter and then baked it, that might equal the nastiness that is fruit cake. Maybe.

But back to the K-Cups. I took this picture, appropriately tree-shaped for the holidays, because I'm selling those suckers on eBay. My husband tried one and said he can't taste the eggnog. Go figure. I felt like the eggnog taste was slapping me in the face with each sip, but whatever.

This is your 2nd picture for January 1. Yeah, it's January 2, but I'm already behind. Get used to it.

This is our den. On New Year's Day my husband and older daughter rearranged our sectional sofa. I won't tell you what the carpet looked like underneath, but I will be calling a steam cleaner in the coming days.

Santa brought an Xbox 360 with Kinect for Christmas. We had no dance/play room, so the couch rearrangement was necessary. I like it, but I will have to get used to it. It seems so open. I will be moving a chair from my bedroom into the space to divide the foyer from the den. The much neglected elliptical machine will find its way back into our bedroom so it can mock and taunt us into being used. I remember its last words as it was moved downstairs: "All bee bahk". It was right. Goodbye, comfy reading nook. Hello, pain and torture.