easter happened

And I have pictures.



Click on that picture to see a bunch more.

Kit's shrug didn't make it in time. It did get done, but not for Easter. She was very sad. And cold.

Not really. Here she is modeling her shrug later.



Aren't you impressed that I got an American Girl doll to stand in the grass by herself? I was. Calvin was watching and laughed hysterically every time she fell over.

I also didn't get any hair things done for the girls, and both of the men's ties didn't get made either. Oh well. Who cares about things like that when this is your pack of kids?!?

163.5

There, I said it.

Okay, for any of you who are here for cute children, here you go.



Now go ahead and skip this post. Not about cute children. Sort of maybe caused by some of the cute children, but not about them.

I weigh one hundred, sixty-three and a half pounds and it's time to do something about it.

Okay, this is where I typed a bunch of disclaimers. And then I deleted them. And then typed them again. Including this picture of my husband who still registers in some "overweight" categories based on his height.


by Lukas VanDyke

Not exactly overweight.

Then I deleted them again. I'm leaving them deleted. Just go with that's how much I weigh and for me to be in good physical shape to give myself to my family effectively, I need to lose some weight.

I'm not sure how much I need to lose. I'm thinking somewhere between 20 and 30 pounds. And for those wondering, no, I am not basing this on my pre-baby athletic self. I am, however, basing this on my pre-two-rounds-of-hyperemesis self, so it still may not be realistic. I guess we'll see.


Step One.

Two weeks of relatively intense (for me) focus on getting rolling down the weight loss hill. I'm bodybugging, staying active and (again, for me) on a tight food plan. A smoothie for breakfast, a Lean Cuisine for lunch and dinner and approved snacks up to 1500 calories. I'm hoping to lose four pounds in these two weeks, putting me under 160. Then I will blog the results, reevaluate with my very wise husband and go from there. Oh, and I do get one freebie meal per week. Sadly, I started this yesterday and used my weekly freebie yesterday on my date night with skh. But today I was very good. And my freebie was yummy. Olive Garden.

Alright, there it is. My extremely silly post about how much I weigh. Thanks for reading! Feel free to encourage or kick me if I need it.

easter sweatshop

Femina (love it over there) is hosting a little Easter blog party, and check it out...I'm participating! This will make four entire posts for this year. Maybe this will develop into a pattern! Maybe not.

Speaking of patterns, oddly enough I have actually blogged two other Easter related posts in previous years. Any sort of pattern on a blog that gets updated twice a year is strange, really. Remember tiny(ish) Calvin who hated his tie? And last year's skirts?

Anyway, my original Easter blogging plan was to post pictures of the creations once they were finished, but this blog party sounded like fun, so here I am, taking a break from endless knitting to give a few shots of the WIPs ("works in progress" for you non-Ravelry-ers).

First up, THE DRESSES.



You may wonder how, exactly, it is that all the dresses are actually completed sewing-wise. It is not 2am on Easter morning, you know. Well, for some reason I thought Easter was at the end of March...no idea why, but I'm glad I did, cause this is the first sewing project I've ever had done really early. I likey. But that had it's own drawbacks...it allowed time for me to decide they needed embroidery. And then decide that the Target sweaters I bought weren't nearly as cute as hand knit shrugs. And of course we need a matching tie for Cal. And matching hair things. And so it goes.

(Quick question about the dresses...please weigh in on this vastly important matter. Have I crossed the cute matching line into embarrassing territory? It's cute to me, but is this weird mommy behavior? Hey, I should figure out how to add a poll or something. Back to the post now.)


Here is Cal's tie. And the girls' hair things.



Just a little left to do there.


And the shrugs? Here's Keelah modeling hers.



And yes, that's probably dangerous.

For any interested parties, the pattern for the dresses can be found and purchased here (proceeds go to the designer's family's adoption!), the shrug pattern is here (or on Ravelry - Something Beautiful Shrug) and the tie pattern is over here. And big thanks to Ginger and Sage for teaching Maggie and I how to embroider. Every single time I start embroidering I can hear Mr. Bingley saying "You all paint tables, and play the piano, and embroider cushions! I never heard of lady but people say she is accomplished." It makes me laugh. If I turned these dresses into cushions, I'd be accomplished now.

One last thing. Just so you know that I do have the ability to say no, when I stumbled upon these last night, I decided to save them for next year instead of staying up all hours of the night to make fifty gazillion of them for Easter baskets.



Besides, they totally would have ended up in Hallie's mouth.


Alright, thanks for stopping by! See you after Easter!

chicken feet

Yep, chicken feet.