Man, it's been a difficult week. I'm trying my best to get the sugar out of my diet. After a fasting glucose level came in at 99 (which is only 1 pt below the 100 that marks someone as having insulin problems), I have gone back on my glucophage to help regulate my sugar levels again. I am feeling better and even lost 2 lbs. this week. I am still waiting for my thyroid blood test results and am still very tired day in and day out.

I crave sugar like some people crave cigarettes. However, I am using low-sugar yogurt and 1% chocolate to meet those cravings. This is helping me get in my 3 servings of dairy each day, too! I've done this before and know it'll take 3-4 weeks to get rid of the sugar cravings. But I will feel better in the long run and I hope to lose some more weight as well. The less sugar I eat, the less food I eat in general.

I know that I have issues with my hormones and am finding lots of great information in Jillian Michael's new book, Master Your Metabolism. Her book is the first one I have read in a very long time that actually says many of the things that I have been saying for a long time about how the environment is making us so very sick. Her motto is "If it doesn't have a mother or grow out of the ground, DON'T EAT IT!"  So, lots of new changes coming our way here in my home over the next few months.

Well, my hubby and I are going out on a date tonight . . . dinner and a trip to the used book store to trade books for some audio books - my husband listens to them during his commute and sometimes during his long days at work. I'm looking forward to spending some time with him as we've been crazy busy for several weeks now!

I hope you have a very happy Easter!

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Well, I get all excited to start blogging again and then I don't have a chance to blog for a week . . . sigh . . . my job has gone nearly full-time and that limits my free time a bit. And I've had some things I've wanted to share, so here goes:

- My son ran in his first track meet last week and did a good job. My husband left work early to come watch him run and we both had tears in our eyes as we watched him tear around the track as part of the 4 x 800 meter relay. He ran his personal best time of 3 minutes flat. And then each time he practices his mile run, he gets faster and faster. He isn't the fastest runner on the team, but he is still working hard at it. For a child that has grown up with ADHD and Asperger's, this is a H-U-G-E step for him. I can't wait to watch what else happens this month.

- I'm still waiting for my thyroid test results, even after calling the doctor twice . . . ugh! Then I got a bladder infection on Friday - man, that really hurt! So, more antibiotics to fight that off. I really think I have immune system issues.

- My dad went into the hospital today (Sunday) because he passed out at a church luncheon this morning. When I got to his room at the ER, he didn't look good at all. He looked better when we went back after dinner. He'll have a heart cath tomorrow to check things out. Hopefully, they can find the source of his low pulse rate. Meanwhile, I am just praying that he will be ok.

- We haven't started working on our garden yet and it's a good thing. We are expecting overnight freezing weather Monday and Tuesday nights and possibly even snow! Crazy, crazy weather we are having. We do intend to plant some veggies where my husband thinks we have some good soil and see what happens!

There are some other things that I wanted to blog about, but I can't remember what they are - LOL! That's what happens when I can't blog stuff right away. I am looking forward to the Holy Week church services that we will have this week. We have services on Thurs, Fri, Sat and then Easter Sunday. Easter is my favorite religious holiday and always brings me closer to Christ each year. Our church is having a women's Bible study beginning the Weds. after Easter and I am looking forward to spending some time with my friends each week.

Well, time for bed - hope you have a great week!

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For dinner tonight, we had our favorite roasted chicken and veggies. The roasting chicken cost $5.72 and I'm going to make four meals out of it and each of these meals will leave leftovers. Here is what I have planned for this week

Sunday - roasted chicken and veggies

Monday - ham slices, macaroni and cheese, green beans

Tuesday - chicken stirfry over brown rice

Wednesday - meatloaf, baked beans, peas

Thursday - chicken potpie made w/mixed veggies and a gluten-free topping, fried apples http://glutenfreemommy.com/easy-chicken-pot-pie/

Friday - leftovers

Saturday - chicken-rice soup (using up last of chicken and leftover rice from Tuesday’s meal plus I also need to use up some carrots and celery that I have in abundance.)

It is great for me to have leftover meals that are gluten-free because then I can just grab something, reheat and go. My husband reminded me just how much he likes my roasted chicken and said that he'd love to have it every weekend. If I can make a $6 chicken stretch for 4 meals plus leftovers, then I'm all for it!

I like to do the same thing with a large roast.

Meal 1 - roast, potatoes, carrots

Meal 2 - BBQ beef sandwiches

Meal 3 - Shepherd's Pie (use leftover veggies from roast as part of it)

Meal 4 - Beef Stew

Hams will be going on sale before Easter and I'll buy one (or maybe two!). I always buy the biggest one I can find make lots of yummy meals from the leftover ham.

Meal 1 - baked ham and side dishes

Meal 2 - pinto beans (cooked with ham bone) and cornbread

Meal 3 -  ham, broccoli and rice casserole

Meal 4 - ham slices with veggies

Meals 5+  - lots of casseroles!

Now, of course, we don't have to eat ALL of the chicken (or roast or ham) dishes on one week. I could freeze the rest of the meat and use it in various dishes over the next few weeks. So, sometimes, I'll cook the whole chicken, roast and ham - one each day - from Friday through Sunday. This gives me lots of meat to choose from during the following month. Add in some ground beef, fish and vegetarian dishes, and I have an entire month's worth of homemade meals all ready to go.

If you have some more advice on stretching your meat, I'd love to hear them!

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I can't believe it's been six weeks since I've blogged. So much has happened since then. I am now the parent of a child with her learner's permit. We took her for her first drive behind the wheel today and she did pretty well. I don't have whiplash or any seatbelt burns on my neck - LOL! I can't believe that she'll have her license in 9 months. I remember how fast those 9 months seem to go!

Both kids are doing well at school. My son made the track team and will have his first meets this week. They started really late, so he hasn't had much practice, but the coach says he's doing well so far. This will be a very new thing for him as he's never been on a sports team before. My daughter was chosen to take this special math test which could earn her a $1000 scholarship at a local private college. She's excited just to be chosen. She won an honorable mention for a piece of artwork that her art teacher submitted into a local show. She was competing mostly against juniors and seniors and her teacher said freshman don't usually pace in this show, so she was very proud of herself! Her art was a sample of cubism.

Lots of changes at my husband's work and we are just sitting back waiting to see what happens. He feels his job is secure, but he is being given a lot more work in new areas. This is a good thing!

As for me, . . . well, I'm a bit of a mess. I'm still eating gluten-free about 95% of the time. Sometimes, I just have to have a piece of bread or something with gluten in it. However, my hands are not itching right now and so I do believe that the closer I stick with GF eating, the better. I'm still waiting for the results of some blood tests on my thyroid. The initial test was abnormal. I almost hope the results come back saying I am hypothyroid b/c I have a TON of the symptoms and I've been unable to lose any weight since the beginning of the year. I'm only up about a pound, but I'd rather be heading the other direction.

I honestly just don't have the energy for exercise . . . it just totally drains me. However, I am trying to get in a 20-30 minute walk each day - it's a start - and then I hope to eventually walk for an hour daily. My husband has been so wonderful through all of my illnesses over the last five years. He's my pillar of strength.

I'm still trying to keep to my frugal ways. I'm blogging a lot as part of a team at www.Econobusters.com and it is encouraging to be immersed in that project. My goal at the moment is to pay off our 2 car loans in the next 12 months. We're pretty sure we can do it. We have over $20K in car loans and are looking to put an extra $14K against them to get them paid off in the next year. It sounds like a lot, but we are determined to do it. After we get done paying off the cars, we figured out that we could roll that monthly payment over to our mortgage and pay it off about 4-1/2 years later. We would save about $70K in interest and be totally debt-free the summer before our 2nd child goes to college. WOW! It's amazing what our possibilities are and we are going to work hard to try and pull it off.

Of course, I'm always looking to lower the grocery bill. Boy, it seems like food prices rise weekly. My goal is $100/week on food and $100/month on other household items. I am going to start shopping at Save-A-Lot when I can. I will not trade in healthy eating for a lower bill and many of the items at Save-A-Lot are not as healthy. However, I'll try and save money where I can. Today, my husband picked up five bags of pancake mix for $1.29 each. I spend $5.99/week buying the GF pancake mix to feed my children and myself breakfast for a week (I am working on switching my ADHD child to mostly GF eating). However, I couldn't pass these sale items up as that is a HUGE savings and will make the same # of pancakes that I get in the GF mix! So, I'll make up both GF and regular pancakes and give my children one of each to lessen the gluten they are eating. My husband also picked up a gallon of milk for $.79. I've never bought nearly out of date milk, so wasn't sure if I should have him pick up more. I freeze milk when it goes on sale, but wasn't sure if that milk would freeze and still last long after thawing.

I've been reading a lot lately. I read the Twilight series and really enjoyed them - the movie was good, too. I read a book called The Zookeeper's Wife (a story of the Jews during WWII) and am hoping to finish Desperate Passage tomorrow. It is the story of the Donner party and their trip westward. I have a HUGE stack of books to tackle this spring and think I'll read one of the novels from my Jane Austen anthology next. I'm really enjoying reading again. Now I just need to find time to pick my knitting back up in the evenings.

Well, I guess I better close before this gets too long. I hope you all have been well!

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I'm hoping to get back to blogging a bit in April. It was nice to take a break, but I am hoping to take time to catch up with my online friends again! I'll post more this weekend.

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I can't believe that it's been almost 2 weeks since I've blogged. My husband and I had a nice 'getaway' last weekend, our first mini-vacation by ourselves EVER! It was refreshing to just chill, talk, sleep in late, eat out a couple of times, talk, watch rented movies, talk ... well you get the idea. We really re-connected and that feels great.

I came home with a desire to put together a better schedule for my day and it's been working out ok for the most part. I'm trying to get my work done in the morning so that I have ample time in the afternoon for homemaking and errands. There has still been some overlap of work into the afternoon, but it all won't happen at one time. It takes time to change habits.

I'm spending a lot of my time blogging at www.Econobusters.com so don't have much time to blog here and I'm not sure that I'm as interested in blogging as I used to be. My husband and I talked about building some sort of cabin on a part of the property where he grew up and I am spending some of my free time trying to start the process of looking into this. We want to build it as inexpensively as possible, and I have time to look into all of this. It just means that I don't have my extra time to blog right now.

I'll see you when i see you!

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I haven't had much time to blog and when I have, the winter design was dark and a bit dreary. So, I decided to brighten things up a bit here "at home with Kris." I hope these colors brighten your day a little bit. It has been a crazy week. I can tell that there is bad weather because my hip and knee joints are aching. This is the worst I have ever felt and pain medication is not working at all. I've just about decided that I am going to have an MRI on done on all four joints just to be sure that there is nothing major going on. I'd rather be proactive instead of finding out down the road that I should have sought help earlier.

I'm fighting the urge to redecorate the house. I always get this way in the winter when I'm cooped up inside so much. I did buy the most beautiful lamps at TJ Maxx as they have the colors that I want to use in my bedroom now. I figure that I have 30 days to decide if I wish to proceed with finishing up the redesign. Here are the colors that I want to use in my bedroom the next time I redecorate. The lamps I bought have embroidered light aqua silk shades - they are gorgeous!

My pastor has quit and is leaving our congregation early March. I have blogged before that I have had issues with my pastor for a while and so I am totally at peace with this. I believe it is good for the church that he is leaving. I know that several families have said they'll return once he leaves, so I'll be interested to see if that truly happens. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do or whether I'm going to stay at the church. I've been reading some very interesting books about the history of the church and the Bible and I'm really enjoying taking this time to learn some new things. However, it all reminds me of how much I am questioning organized church. I have a lot of thinking to do.

This week, I made my FINAL purchase of scrapbook supplies. Creative Memories is phasing out their older line of albums and so I needed to buy enough pages and page protectors to finish all of my albums. I already have plenty of other supplies. It's nice to know that all I need to do is to print out all of my pictures and then start working on getting those photos into the albums. Of course, paying to print out all of those pictures won't be cheap so I'll have to do it a bit at a time. I'm hoping to sit down as many days as I can and work on completing a 2-page spread each time. Hopefully, I'll be all caught up by the end of the year.

I'm doing pretty well with my pantry challenge. My daughter said that she didn't want any soup next week - ha! I guess I had too many of them on the menu this week.  We are expecting ice and/or snow early next week, so I'll be working on my grocery list for the month this weekend. I'm limiting myself to a half-budget for this month since I have most of the food I need. I spent more than I had planned this week, so I wonder if I'll be able to stick to the budget I've set. We had to take out almost half of our emergency fund to pay for our new heat pump - this means that I now have to work on getting the money back into it.

Well, I guess that is enough of my boring weekly update! LOL! I hope all of you are warm and safe right now!

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Tomorrow, I become a true "mid-lifer" as I turn the BIG 4-0! I am actually looking towards the next decade because, at the end of it, my kids will be on their own and it'll be just me and my wonderful husband again. Don't get me wrong - I'm not wishing the next 10 years away and I intend to enjoy these years with my children. I just know the time will go very quickly!

No major plans for my birthday tomorrow. My husband is taking me for a weekend getaway in a few weeks. Tomorrow will be spent with family and friends and I am looking forward to it! My sister sent me some Bath & Body Works items today and my MIL sent me cash which I will use to pay for my recent LL Bean purchases. It has been a great birthday so far!

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