Day 22 of 28 - Monday, You Have Returned AGAIN!

Why does it feel like Monday's come faster and faster each weekend? It was just Friday! *sigh* At least it was a productive weekend. I had my two girls all weekend. We deep cleaned their bedrooms and much of the rest of the house. I did mega loads of laundry.

By the way... why do kids feel that they need to change their clothes 3x a day and throw each outfit into the dirty laundry basket? Or wears a pair of pj's ONCE, just once and then throw it in the bin. Is it really dirty? I know, I know... be thankful that they actually throw it in the laundry bin, but still! Or why must they throw everything in the bin INSIDE OUT?!? Okay, I'm done.

Moving on... we cleaned like mad women, I finally did some much needed editing, did I mention we did lots of laundry? The Hubby and I took the girls to open skate again yesterday. I helped the girls hang up their laundry while they put the rest away. Emmy Lou and I discussed "First Few Days Sugar Free" ideas. Oh, we went grocery shopping.... twice! I should own stock in Wal-Mart! The girls made their lunches while I prepped breakfast burritos for the week. Oh, and Emmy Lou made some Last Hurrah cookies that we had in the fridge and we all may have indulged a bit.

So, I guess, maybe it's a good thing that it is finally Monday. Weekends are exhausting! Ooooh, we also ordered our first big planned order of Girl Scout Cookies!! Our troop had an awesome first week of selling, especially since this is their first year selling cookies too! Emmy Lou is having a lot of fun with it. She's my social bug for sure.

Speaking of Emmy Lou... I'm now having second thoughts about letting her cut out sugar from her daily routine. The kid was a hot mess this weekend. Hyper sensitive, super emotional, raring for a fight... I think I separated her and Abbycakes about 15 times on Saturday alone. And she isn't even going through sugar withdrawals yet! Oy!! She's 8 1/2 years old and I've decided two things... One, I'm going to keep track of these majorly moody periods on my calendar and two, I'm going to direct her back to her American Girl books, All About Me and The Feelings Book, that she asked for last summer. It's never too early to be prepared right?? I'm so not prepared!

This too shall pass!!

So, we started planning for the first few days of her "Sugar Free Lent" as she calls it. It's going to be a challenge, but as long as we make a plan and she helps make her lunch (which she does usually anyway), we should be just fine! Her dad said he would help her by having non-sugary snacks around and trying to keep her goals in mind with meals. I'm really curious to see how this goes, but very proud of her for deciding to do this on her own. We've never pushed it on the kids. We've never mentioned anything about weight loss or body image in relation to THM. We have just made it clear to the kids that we have changed up a lot of meals and habits to try to live healthier. So, this is nothing about self-image for her. She really likes a lot of the THM things we make, so I think she believes this will be easy. We shall see!

So, here's how this week is looking:

Monday - Bunless Burgers & Green Beans (quick and easy meal to make between work and karate)
Tuesday - Mardi Gras - Kids will eat there and I'll bring an early dinner to eat after work and a protein shake later in the evening
Wednesday - Bacon Wrapped Chicken w/Salads

The rest of the week is in the works, but I'll have it hammered out by tomorrow.

For now... I just need to get through Wednesday without losing my mind. It's been insanely busy between Girl Scouts, Mardi Gras and all of our wonderful Valentine's prep work. See???

The girls successfully completed their Valentine's and Emmy Lou and I found a simple Valentine craft to present for her class party on Friday (we signed up at the beginning of the year for this, I had completely forgotten). Don't you just love our little Valentine Monsters? Here's the link to the directions if you want one of your own!