Seven Quick Ones!

Seven Quick Takes is all I've got time for this morning as I'm on my way to a hair appointment.

1. So the homework situation might be improving!  On Wednesday, I had a PTO meeting right after school.  My parents picked the kids up and brought them home so they could get right to work on their homework.  When I got in at 5:30, Sarah was just finishing up with hers and Peter said he was almost done with his.  And yesterday, the homework level was the same - they were both done before dinner.  Hopefully things have evened out now that the beginning of school is behind us!  Peter even opened his backpack this morning and pulled out some work that's due Tuesday and worked ahead!  Who is this child????

2.  Now that the kids are back in school, I've started a new exercise routine.  I ordered a DVD from Prevention with 8 ten minute workouts on it.  The first month you cycle through the first 4 and then the second month you cycle through the last four.  Y'all!  I didn't think 10 minutes would make a difference but I can totally feel all sorts of muscles that I haven't felt in ages - arms, legs, abs!  And the best part?  This woman is not at all like Jillian Michals!  And did I mention that it's only 10 minutes a day.  I've been doing it while the kids are getting ready for school in them mornings.

3.  And then when they leave for school I've been going for a brisk 1 and 1/2 mile walk.  No, it's not running but I still feel like I'm burning calories and my knees and ankles don't ache afterwards.

4.  I've also been working on changing my diet.  I'm not doing no carb or low carb but I am trying to do lower carb if that make sense.  I'm trying to eat more protein and less carbs but I'm not counting carbs.  I'm just not eating bread, rice, potatoes, or sugar.  I am eating lots of  nuts, meats, cheeses, green vegetables, etc.  I'm only a week in to this new plan but I've lost a lot of bloat already and feeling much less hungry.

5.  With that said, I have quite a few carb heavy eating opportunities ahead of me this week and I plan on enjoying them all.  So, I'm sure I'll be bloaty again on Tuesday but I'll just do my best and hop back onto the plan again and go from there.  I'm beginning to realize that life's too short to be on a diet all the time and if there' birthday cake, I'm going to eat some!

6. This week I made some pepper relish which is different than the pepper jelly I made a couple of weeks ago.  We've got so many peppers this year!  I also made so more spaghetti sauce with some of our remaining tomatoes (it's not all picture here). Our tomatoes didn't do as well as we had hoped this year.  Some years they produce well into October but they are almost done this year.  (insert sad face emojii)

 
7.  And because I'm out of time, here's a picture of our old cat Gray Gray.  (And yes, we realize he's not gray but Sarah named him when she was 4 so we went with it....)

Have a great LONG weekend y'all and don't forget to head over to Christy's (not Kelly's this week) to check out the other quick takers!