Where I've been, Josh turns 35, and take your wife to work day.

OK, I'm going to try and explain a little about why my blogging has been so scarce, but that's a little difficult right now. Keep reading and you will find out why.

So, the short (ish) version of why I haven't done much blogging is because I am just plain exhausted. After a six month break from exercise I joined the rest of the country this January in hitting the gym again. This time though I decided that I really wanted to get in shape. Something I have never done before. I was spending a couple hours in the gym 5-6 times a week and doing some workouts at home. Plus, I decided to take a serious look at what we were eating as a family and was honestly pretty disgusted and disappointed in myself as a mom. I had never really read any of the labels on the stuff my kids were eating and I discovered that I was stuffing my kids with sugar and mystery chemicals. Getting rid of processed foods though means more time in the kitchen making snacks I'm happy to serve my kids.

After so much hard work, here is what I was not prepared for. 1) like I mentioned before, straight up exhaustion. My body just could not keep up and I was literally falling asleep in church, which if you know me well you know I have trouble sleeping and that would never happen normally. 2) My kids rejected 90% of what I was making. It was so frustrating to spend hours planing and making food that no one would eat. 3) The amount of crap they were being given outside of our house. I don't expect them to never have candy again, but it seems like they are getting it every day from somewhere.

While I am super excited to report that for the first time in my life I have muscle definition (maybe someday I will be brave enough to post a picture), it's just not worth the sacrifices I've had to make for myself and my family (my house has not been really clean in weeks). So I'm cutting back on the crazy workouts (not giving them up completely) and buying some foods that come in packages (only short lists of ingredients with names I recognize) and hoping to find some balance.

And, speaking of balance Josh and I decided that even though we are eating healthy at home we still want to splurge for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. Last week Josh turned 35 and what he really wanted to eat more than anything was a Bloomin Onion. So, to Outback we went.

 

I caught her licking ranch off her plate with a huge smile on her face.

Free birthday desert that dad was nice enough to share.

I always forget a bib when we go out to eat. Fortunately this time most of it ended up on her face and not her shirt. 

And finally, today was a snow day from school. The kids were thrilled of course. Me, not so much, but I was going to make the best of it by doing some fun things in the kitchen with the kids. I was hoping that if they helped make the food, they might be more willing to eat it. Then I changed my mind though and decided I would rather spend my afternoon at the hospital with Josh. I'm not going to tell you what happened because I was told I need to come up with a better story. I will tell you though that I did NOT slice my finger because I used a very sharp knife to try and make the hole in the top of a very tiny essential oil bottle bigger. That would just be silly. 

 Josh was in surgery when I got there so I wasn't expecting him to come down, but I was very happy when he did. It's amazing how much more at ease I was having him making the call on my finger instead of an unknown ER resident.

 

In the end I just got a few stitches to close up the skin, but there was a lot of in-between stuff including an IV, tetanus shot, and having Josh shove needles into my hand to completely numb my finger so he could cut it open more to get a better look and make sure I didn't damage something important. He explained it to me several times and showed me diagrams but I could never explain it to all of you. I will tell you though that having my finger numbed hurt like hell! For women who have given birth, imagine multiple epidurals in your hand. I would not recommend it to anyone. They did give me quite the bandage for all my trouble and a pass from dishes for a whole week!

 .
If your squeamish like I am, keep scrolling really fast. For anyone who is interested though this is the nice little cut I gave myself. I sent Josh this picture after it happened. Actually I sent him a different picture first and he said "no I need you to open the cut and take a picture so I can see how deep it is." I am very proud of myself for not passing out while doing it, because I promise you I was feeling very light headed.

So here I sit with a very numb bandaged finger attempting to type. It's not so easy.