15 Words

I zealously edit student essays

Blogger edits the list of blogs I follow

Paybacks stink

What's This Going to Cost Me In Gas $$?

When is Friday?

It was the kind of week-end that left us exhausted and longing for the next week-end. A sample of what was what:

Hockey:




Boy Scout camping:





Karate:

9th grade homecoming. Our district has separate buildings for the ninth graders. (I love that concept!) Our school discouraged dates and limos. In other words, it was a really pressure-free, fun dance. And even better? Our tired girl got up Sunday morning to read the scripture lesson at church. She's a great public reader!





And church:

Checkered getting ready to race our pastor. We (meaning Checkered and the kids) won!
I'm not sure if they were frogs or Israelites trying to get out of Egypt. Checkered might or might not have thrown in a few elbows on the turn.





Our prizes for winning? A frog. Yep. We now have a frog.




The rest of the prize: a plague survival kit (Calamine lotion, insect repellent, a flashlight, et cetera.)

After church: Lunch with our favorite youth pastors!

And then there was the activity of Sunday afternoon and evening: setting up a frog tank, watching the Lions get their first win in 20 games (!!!!), choir practice, yard work, and school bags packed.

I need it to be Friday already.

FF: The Eating Edition

I'm making progress on this diet. Nearly three weeks into counting my WeightWatchers points, and after riding the water-weight roller coaster, my poundage is down between 7-10 pounds. I could be more accurate, but that would require more than my cheapo scale. Checkered has taken to weighing in on an industrial scale at work and has invited me to join him there, but using an industrial scale does something to my self-esteem.

The painful research by others: As we get more responsible around here regarding food, here are a few things to consider courtesy of the wonderful newsletter, Nutrition Action Health Letter

Olive Garden's Tour Of Italy is a trip no one should take.
This entree has 1,450 calories, 33 grams of saturated fat, and 3,830
milligrams of sodium. If you add a single breadstick and some salad and
dressing and you will have eaten an entire day's worth of calories (2,000)
in one meal.

The Cheesecake Factory: Chris' Outrageous Chocolate Cake. It looks wonderful. It sounds wonderful. But each "five-inch slice weighs three-quarters of a pound and has 1,550 calories and 32 teaspoons of sugar. By the time you hit the exit, your
arteries have 43 grams of saturated fat circulating in them that they didn't
have when you walked in. It's as though you had ordered three McDonald's
Quarter Pounders for dessert."

Now what about those food frauds (as NAH calls them)?
"Smucker's Simply Fruit . All varieties of Smucker’s
Simply Fruit contain more fruit syrup than actual fruit. And the syrup doesn’t
even come from the fruit in the products’ names, but from
(cheaper) apple, pineapple, or pear juice concentrate.

DanActive 'immunity' dairy drink. This Dannon product claims to help “strengthen your body's defenses.” But the only study Dannon did to see if drinking DanActive kept people from getting sick found that it didn’t!"

Research I've eaten:

*We love chili. Last week we ate Gina's Bean Turkey Chili. Oh my. It was so good that we are having it again tonight. Near disaster was averted though today when I checked the crock pot before I left for work. The chili had been cooking for two hours but didn't smell good yet. Yes, the crock pot was unplugged.

*And then there's dessert! Gina, through Weight Watchers has taught me that one may use any box of cake mix, 10 ounces of any diet pop, and two egg whites to make a cake or cupcakes. The diet pop replaces the oil and fat!! Mix and bake according to the directions on the box. The cupcakes are 1.75 points each. Top one with fat free Cool Whip to make yourself smile! (Hint: the Red Velvet cake mix I used with Diet Pepsi maybe wasn't the best combo. )

*One teaspoon of Splenda's brown sugar is actually higher in points than plain old Domino light brown sugar. ????

My own painful research:
My high school daughter refuses to wear a flashing light on her head, so rather than have her walk the 1/2 mile dark stretch to the bus stop at 6.30 every morning, I drive her and then I return home to get a boy to middle school. Then I return home and get two more boys to elementary school. To perk up and save some calories, I've taken to drinking a cup of hot tea before my first little commute every morning. A little Splenda, a little beneficial green tea and I'm set. It was unfortunate last week that I used Sleepy Time tea by mistake.

P.S. Pushing a shopping cart slowly but steadily around the grocery store does, in fact, count as exercise. I'm sure the really smart people already knew that.

What I Might Have Missed

"The dawning of a new day is always ripe with promise."

15 Words

Welcome to this class Wednesday's newest meme: 15 Words.

The rules?

Describe your life, your day, your mood, your minute ... anything ... using

no full sentences

no coherence

no pix

all in 15 words!!

That's it. Good luck.

.

.

.

Seriously?

You expect me to play?

I HAVE to participate?

Fine.

Here I go with my first 15 Words.

Frustrated

Mourning Iced Capps

Missing banana splits

blasted diet

my thighs

are still rubbing together

Now go over to Wendy's and tell her how smart she is for creating this meme.

Consternating the World Post by Post

You all did it. In my search for Wednesdays, you treated me to enough good suggestions so that I don't have any excuse NOT to post on Wednesdays now. And rest assured, I've been looking through the dresser drawers, under the beds, in the back of the pantry - everywhere - just trying to find an excuse. I've written myself several epistles all arguing for Wednesday-free blogging, and I must say, I like the lawyerly tone I've adopted. But I've been overruled by my favorite judge: me. I will remain a Wednesday blogger.

The first new idea I'd like to try came from my neighbor and friend, Wendy. Miss Wendy thinks we should have a "Just Words Wednesday."

• no full sentences
• no paragraphs
• no pix

I'm loving Wendy's idea. Here's an example she wrote:

Boring
Relaxing
Dreading the week
Having a nap
What to make for dinner?
Dog sitting
Summer ending
Unmotivated

For those of you shaking your heads, squinting your eyes, and being just plain, old consternated (English teachers have a built-in license to transform any noun into any other word form they wish. It comes with the highly marketable and high paying degree they worked years to earn. Thank-you for asking.)wondering how this differs for my typical stream of consciousness blogging, here's the answer:

I want to try to do this in exactly 15 words.

So, what's the state of your week or emotions or day or blog or dinner planning or dieting or dresser drawers?

Post it tomorrow in 15 words.