[dottiejon]

Nice to be home and reading posts, and have a big night of laundry planned. No underwear! Flylady would banish me! Not much else going on. My BIL has been put on a low carb diet by his Dr and Endocrinologist-protein shakes plus one meal of huge salad with 8 oz chicken. lean beef or fish, and one cooked veg. He can add 1 fruit to a shake per day. It's really structured, but he is diabetic and has gotten very out of control with his eating. It's cool that he was told absolutely NO bread and pasta, and he'll get more fruit back later. It's good to see them recognize that he can't deal with carbs!

Closer to home, I'm doing pretty well. Eating my snacks is helping me to not be starving, and I am not cheating at all! Wow- pretty amazing!

That's it. Time to put the clothes in the washer, and put on the tv for a bit, see what happened in the world today!

dottie

ps- sorry for any tongue-biting I may have caused. I agree that crash diets aren't the best, but Mayo is hardly the devil's work, it's just a harmless little salad and meat, and I felt that they were being hit over the head by some with another agenda. So, that's the end of this.

[Pooky]

I'm PO'd right now at my OBGYN--finally, after a month of me trying to get a hold of him, we finally get on the phone and he tells me he wants me to continue to take the meds for PCOS even though they are making me sick! I have a lower dosage now, and I know it will help a lot. All I want to do is ovulate!!! I'm also under orders to eat Korean food for 3 months straight. So...my new diet is the Korean food diet, not CALP anymore. Korean food reads like CALP/Atkins blend anyways and it would account for the huge weight loss when I was over there and that's all I could eat. DH is thrilled to pieces with this, he's more than ready to follow my "diet" with me! I have to admit, I really do like Korean food and now that DH is the cook in the family (becasue I can't cook Korean food) we'll all eat some pretty interesting stuff! His parents sent us some Korean cook books a long time ago so now it is time to dust them off and read up on what's in them. Maybe I'll post a few recipes if I find any good ones

As for me today, I'm sick with a cold and all I want to do is sleep and snuggle in my bed. I am seriously thinking about a shower, who knows, I may make my way in there!

[jdoneil1]

Oh, Stacey. I had to smile when I read your post. It was so descriptive of my (former) life that it made me laugh!

We live in a three-story box house with five bedrooms (one used for storage, one for my office), one bath (very poor planning there), a parlor, dinning room, kitchen, and entryway. I used to spend the entire weekend cleaning. Then I'd get ripping mad because by Tuesday DH and the kids had trashed it again. But have heart! I found a solution! LOWER YOUR STANDARDS! OK. It's not very original but it works. Here are a few other tips:

1. Tackle one room per day but do not stop til you are done (then you can move on with a clear conscious).
2. Put toys and other items left where they don't belong by unthinking family members in a "time-out". Short of essentials (such as school books and business papers) this works for all items. Trust me -- after losing his box of Pokemon action figures for a week, my 6-year-old no longer leaves them spread all over the parlor floor.
3. Close the door. Your kids' rooms are disasters and you've got company coming. Close the door. Any mom or dad will understand that you can't keep your kids' rooms spotless. That is why they invented doors in the first place (bet you thought it was for privacy, huh? ).
4. Bargain with the kids (and DH, too). You want me to take you to the park so you can rollerblade. Gee, sorry. I've got too much housework to do. However, if you run this dust cloth around the parlor and bring all the dirty laundry to the laundry room, I might be able to spare an hour so you can skate. (This tip works especially well with my 13-year-old daughter who seems to think that "Mom" and "chaufer" mean the same thing.)

Hope this helps. If not, just remember that all the extra housework counts as exercise.

[goodforme]

My mama calls me Cinderella because I am constantly cleaning something. My daughter says I should be her servant because she's the princess! HUH!! Imagine the little chat we had after that one!

The only time something gets picked up is if I do it, or if I harp on her to do it! Nag, nag, whine!! But, the toy time-out does work! Even the threat of it works!!

I'm going to try the other things you suggested! Thanks a million!

[jdoneil1]

Sherri -- Way to go! Princess, huh? Did her daddy start that thought in her mind? I know DH started it with DD (she's the only girl out of five kids). Recently, she made the major mistake of referring to me as her servant to one of her girlfriends. After spending an hour cooling her heels in her room (minus said girlfriend), I got an apology and a promise never to be so disrespectful again (yeah, right!).

My husand doesn't understand why I'm so insistant that the kids help with the upkeep on the house. He seems to think kids should be allowed to be messy -- that's what kids do. I don't understand where that logic comes from. He is the middle child of a family of five children. All of whom are less than 18-months apart in age (he one of a set of twins) who were raised by a single mom (dad was in the service and "created" the kids on various leaves then decided he didn't want to be married anymore). I know for a fact that my MIL made all of the kids (boys included) help with the housework -- and not just cleaning up their own messes. We're talking pre-dishwasher, pre-dryer, pre-microwave, and pre-cuisinart. My own parents had a firm rule: You live here -- You're part of this family -- You work to keep the house in order -- No exceptions. By the time I was ten I was washing dishes, running the laundry, and vacuuming the downstairs weekly (on top of keeping my room clean and helping with the yardwork). All for no allowance! My DD actually told me that she'd be happy to help with a few chores -- for $15 a week! No thanks! I can do the work faster and better and it won't cost me a cent. Of course, if she doesn't help, I don't drive her to the mall or allow friends to sleep over. (You want Tiffany to sleep over. Sorry. This house is too messy. I'd die of embarrassment! Guess you should have helped me out when I asked you to do so two days ago, huh?)

Sorry. Didn't mean to ramble. Time for bed. Talk to you all tomorrow.