Jessica - I was considering Noom, I think I'll skip it. Congrats on the new cars!

Allison - that is a very solid rate of loss.

Birchie - being solo sometimes is nice.

Dagmar - great job this weekend!

I'm not sure what is up with me and the smilies today.

I have had a pretty good last couple of weeks, which rolled into a good weekend. Mowed the lawn and did some yard work, healthy meals every meal, no extra snacking. I made my lunches for the week yesterday afternoon. Exercise, yoga, headspace going fine. Trying to cut down on extra snacking the last few weeks, and make better food choices.

Shannon! Looks like your slump has ended.

Dagmar

We have some big news: we've been trying to adopt through various channels for a few years, and finally got licensed to be foster/adoption parents through the state a few months ago. We just found out that we've been selected to be the new adoptive family for a little girl! She's 10 years old. We meet her later this week, and then have another longer visit over the weekend. That's the good news.

The scary news is that this all is going to happen very quickly, and there's no concrete plan - we're at the mercy of the schedules of a bunch of other people. Today I had to cancel student meetings and beg for work coverage for this week's visit. Meanwhile our puppy is having her second surgery the SAME DAY that we meet our new daughter. We can't put it off, this is the only available time. And as life would have it, the same day we were notified that we were selected, my husband found out that his mother fell and broke her arm. So he's been getting ready to drive down and stay with her for a bit, but hasn't been able to because of this snowstorm of events unfolding. She lives alone and is getting by on the grace of friends right now, and refuses to move up to stay with us or near us.

I haven't slept for 3 days, it's a low grade nervous breakdown with this turn of events. We're suddenly going to be parents to a child with a lot of emotional trauma, and our lives are already a bit of a mess. Help.

That's just wonderful news, Jay. Over the top, stupendous, scary, gigantic, life-changing news.

Sending joyous thoughts and supporting thoughts. And, for this "When it rains, it pours" period, I wish for you to find a path through it all.

JayZeeJay, I'm so delighted for you. What wonderful news! Sending you all good wishes and lots of luck.

JayZee Adding my congrats to what Bill already said so well.

Dagmar

JZJ, congrats to you and good thoughts as you deal with so many things at once! A friend of mine adopted and it was much the same way -- years getting qualified and evaluated and paying $$ to the adoption agency, and then getting a call one day about "we have a baby, come and get him."

Shannon, I found Noom to be useful for the first couple of months, but the quality of their content went down after that and it's kind of like, at a certain point you know how to lose weight and you know what healthy means, you just need to get yourself to do it, you don't need more education. I did lose ten pounds using it, so it's not like it was for nothing.

I'm trying to remember what I did last time I was about where I am now weight-wise before I had the kids. I remember it took me a while to find a plan that worked for me, and I think it was something like 2 weeks of eating <1400/day followed by 1 week of eating more like 1600/day, with one unmeasured meal per week. My metabolism has changed since then so I'd probably need to reduce those to 1200 and 1400 instead of 1400 and 1600 but maybe I should try that.

Congrats, Jay! That is amazing. Hope all goes well--you will weather this storm.

Congrats, JZJ! You guys will get through all of the chaos and be great.

Dagmar - I'm dragging back out of it kicking and screaming.

Jessica - yeah, I'm trying to figure out what works for me this time around, too.

I have been trying to get small things done every day, along with some cleaning tasks in the mornings until I get caught up and can just maintain it. Today I dug out several years worth of Kohl's gift cards and bought a dyson cordless vac for our downstairs, and got my library card unblocked and renewed so I can check out Kindle books. Little things.

Shannon I find if I break things down into small steps it's a lot easier than looking at one great big job. that's why I now garden in 10 -15 minute increments. And I try to do one errand after work each day, rather than leaving everything to Saturday, which then becomes a huge screaming mess.

Dagmar :

Exactly, Dagmar! I put some scrubbing bubbles cleaner in the tub and shower in our bathroom this morning while I exercised, and scrubbed it out when I was done. Since it hadn't been months since I cleaned last, it only took 10 minutes. Woo!

Oh gosh, JayZee, your plate is very full! It's wonderful that you are adopting the little girl! My stepdaughter adopted three sisters from the San Diego foster care system, ages 9, 11 and 12 when they first came. All three are doing great considering their background. However my SD said it was very hard to become the parent of teenagers after only a couple of years! Now they are 14,16 and 17. You'll have that issue too. Their counselor said sometimes with an older child the parents try too hard to be friends instead of parents, and that doesn't work well. My SD also just adopted a 9 month old boy that was produced by the same bio mom of the girls. (She's back in jail with drug charges.) My SD had to get their labs an "official temperament test" before the little boy could be there.

Dagmar, I like your technique of breaking tasks into short increments. I will try that.

Allison, slow and steady, you will get there!!

Seems like everyone is in a fairly upbeat mood, and that's good! We are still in the heat wave - Day 27 of temps over 100. I've been to the mountains twice, in fact this last weekend I hauled an old wooden chair up with me that I want to refinish. It's too hot to work on it at home, so I did most of the stripping up high in the cooler temps It's my first experience with stripping furniture. A lot of work but I had fun.

I had an MRI which shows my cervical spine is in really bad shape. "Disc osteophytes" everywhere and "severe bilateral foraminal narrowing" from C4 to C7. This probably explains the continued loss of strength in my right arm. Next is physical therapy, then possibly surgery. I remember my mother sitting in traction for her neck when she wasn't even 40, and she wore a neck brace contraption often, so I guess I'm lucky I've made it to 63 before having issues.

Alice That sounds really painful. I hope whatever you have to do for your spine gives you the best possible outcome!

Dagmar

I am two days away from a much needed "vacation". We are going to a wedding and then taking 2 days in Ottawa (Canada's capital) to see the National Art Gallery and the Parliament buildings. The wedding is very close to Ottawa and I've never been there so we thought we'd go. Hoping to see a lot of other stuff there and eat a few nice dinners too. I'm not overplanning as I usually do because I'd like for this to be a relaxed 5 days, rather than a sprint to get through a schedule of activities.

DH can't take a lot of time off (he's in the middle of a tax audit and a major software install) so I'm doing all the vacation prep. I have the upcoming long weekend (civic holiday) to get through it all and I'm going to do it at a relaxed pace.

The rest of my vacation time will be spent like last year. One day doing tasks I haven't managed to do during regular life (car maintenance, filing, shrub pruning, etc.). The next day doing things I like (visiting Toronto Island, High park, reading, going to the primo mall, walking the boardwalk without dogs, etc.). I have 8 days of this and I'm going to enjoy it!

Dagmar

I've been doing better with food this week. My mom's going to be in town this weekend though and next week I'm having catered lunches at work all week, then a family reunion the next weekend, but I'll do my best. I've been swamped at work with managerial stuff and it's kind of burning me out. Hopefully this week-long meeting will clear some of that up. Weight is still at 148 right now and I don't expect I'll be able to knock it down at all for a couple weeks.

My kids have their last day of day camp tomorrow, then one week off, then they start kindergarten the following week! Hard to believe they're old enough to go to kindergarten. I hope it goes well -- they are good with letters and numbers but not as mature when it comes to things like crying every time they fall down or throwing tantrums when they don't get what they want, and they're pretty shy in a formal setting. They also still have speech issues and I'm concerned their teachers and peers won't understand what they're saying, but they'll be going to speech therapy at school and hopefully being in separate classes will help them progress faster. They haven't been sleeping too well lately either but despite sometimes being crazy troublemakers they are also sometimes very sweet and helpful. This morning DD2 helped fetch me a new bottle of face wash while I was in the shower and throw the old one away and then asked what other jobs I had for her to do. <3

My BIL is getting married in a few weeks too, and the kids will for the first time be spending the night with a babysitter other than their grandparents (my friend/coworker). I need to find something to wear to this wedding too because all I have right now is the same dress I wore to my SIL's wedding.