After the mother-of-all-shopping trips that quickly turned into the shopping-trip-from-hell via Gracie, I made some cheesecake bites.
I mostly used this recipe. I say mostly because I didn't really. I added vanilla protein powder. My Greek yogurt was my homemade stuff that didn't turn out too well. For flavoring, I halved the cheesecake and used sf lemon pudding mix and sf key lime jello.
I like them just fine. I made them into bite-like things with cupcake liners. (Just ignore the hearts). Some went into the freezer for later, some in the fridge for now. I don't know that I would feed them to anyone, but they're good for me as a protein snack. I'll probably tweak them to make them better next time.
I've been crocheting a baby blanket for a friend. A baby boy - how exciting. The last baby blanket I did didn't turn out very well, I don't think. I had just made a bunch of girly colored granny squares and crocheted them together. It was good enough, but I wanted to do better this time. I started a pattern, but it wasn't turning out right, so I unraveled it and started just a big granny square. I like how it's turning out. I think there would have been more interest with different blues, but still. Now, I'm just not sure how to stop.
Gracie and her friend posing with the Easter lilies at church
Gracie and Brady ready to hunt eggs.
My Easter weekend started out well. I had a girl’s night with my friend. We went to see another friend in an Easter play/walk-through that was really nice. Then we went out to dinner and out again. We met up with some people. I spent the night at her apartment because we had plans the next day. She was so sweet. I slept on the couch and she tucked me in with a quilt. It was still tucked in the next morning. I was touched. She’s younger and normally I would/should be the older, wiser, mentor-type person, but she generally takes care of me when we go places. That was especially true the next day. It was Earth Day – we went to Starbux – I got the free coffee with refillable mug – then we went to give blood and get free crawfish. Now it’s been about 10 years since I’ve given blood. And for good reasons, it turns out. I always want to do it. It seems like such a good thing to do – relatively painless and it does so much good for other people. Win-win. Except for me. I guess I had forgotten or thought that I had grown out of it or something. Anyway I get really ill. Like pass-out disoriented, nauseated, etc. It was the lure of the crawfish, I tell you. Lovely, yummy boiled crawfish. Anyway, my friend once again had to take care of me. Rather, she brought me to my parents, which was good enough. I was useless the rest of that day and some of the next. I did manage to get up and get us dressed the next day to go get my car, then shop around a bit, then take Gracie to an Easter egg hunt, but that was about it for me. Never, never again. I did get signed up on the bone marrow registry, which was nice, as did my friend and her friend who was with us. And they are both O blood types and will probably start giving more now, so not a total loss, but man. What a day! My parents too Gracie to Shangri-la for a butterfly release. They said there was about 1000 people there. Earth day!
Praying for: the people who will get our blood and for the ones waiting for a match on the bone marrow registry.
I teach high school. Year in and year out there are about 130 different teenagers in my life. Sometimes teenagers do stupid things, get hurt or die. Other times they are like the rest of the population - they get into accidents and die. It's always a tragedy and it hits a high school hard. And when another student is the cause of it - it adds to the collective pain. The students in their classes; the teachers who teach or taught them; friends of friends, etc. It's a small community, so it bleeds there too. So we're moving through TAKS week in mourning and upset. This very special TAKS week with results that will be with us for 2 years. But we are who we are and we'll take care of our students and get through this week.
This week I'm praying for healing of body for ME; comfort for the family of JS and compassion for TR.
Easter at my parents house was pretty typical. Again, what a dumb idea it was to try to give blood was reiterated – I guess it can never be said enough. Apparently, and I didn’t realize this, though my sister said she’s been telling me all along – I’m pitiful and weak. Since my surgery my blood work has been good; my B12 is really high, but my energy levels are down. I got blood work done a few weeks ago and haven’t gotten the results back, so maybe that’s changed but generally I feel in good health. Are most skinny people energetic dynamos? I felt attacked and picked on – as per usual with those 2- but it is (and generally does) giving me some things to look at and reevaluate. I’m lazy. I know I’m lazy. Scott’s lazy too. But am I lazier than usual? Scott says no (he would) but I’m not so sure. Usually in the spring – fat, skinny, any kind of worm – I get the nesting bug and weed my flower beds, prune my roses and at least have the desire to plant things. And clean out my house, etc. But nothing this year. All I want to do is crochet and read blogs. I get bursts of activity where I’ll do the dishes and cook lots, but those aren’t the sustained bursts of nesting that will result in a clean kitchen or playroom. Part of it is frustration. Gracie is almost 5. I can clean the living room – have it company ready and she will destroy it in an hour. The play room can be organized and clean enough to walk through and she can destroy that in a few hours. And she’s sneaky about it. You don’t realize what she’s doing until it’s too late to turn the tide. I don’t want to be a slave to it and I won’t be a slave to it. I need to find a compromise. And maybe find more energetic foods? Anyway – things to think about. For a scientist, I’m really bad at picking out patterns in my own life.
Praying for: my single friends - that they find happiness and joy in being alone for now.
I ate crap over Easter weekend. I’m usually really good about my diet. Of course, I’ve been more lax as time passes on, but still, I’ve been good.
SO I’m back on the wagon again this week. Scott has strict orders to eat all the cupcakes and cookies before I get home today. Gracie and I went through her Easter candy and I brought what she didn’t want to eat to school for my kiddos. They’ll clean me out, because they’re teenagers and act like they’ve never had candy in their lives – and that will be that.
So eats for today, which is pretty typical. I do well during the school year, but not so well during the summer. I should make up my lunches like I would eat at school and just eat that everyday instead of having no plan for meals. Maybe I’ll try that this summer. But there’s the laziness to factor in there again. We’ll see.
Breakfast – 1 half of a Nature’s Own wheat thin with homemade chicken salad (chicken, onions, horseradish sauce, chipoltle mayonnaise and spicy mustard) with cheese. Sometimes I do organic peanut butter with good stats and sf jelly, or other times I do laughing cow cheese.
Snack – yummy protein coffee – 26 grams of chocolate, pb, coffee goodness. I put a scoop of protein powder and a few tsp of decaf sf coffee powder. I splash cold water in it and mix until smooth, then add the hot water. Probably not quite 26 g because some of it always sticks to the bottom, but a good amount for a snack.
Snack 2 - wasabi-flavored soy beans
Lunch – my chicken veggie concoction PICTURES – and homemade yogurt. I’ll post something about that later on. I mixed it with sf pudding to try to thicken it up. Kind of wangy, but lots of things I eat have a wang to them, so I ignore it.
My after school snack is where the wheels fall off the wagon for me generally. Budgetwise, protein-friendly snacks have been hard to come by, but I need to plan harder and smarter. I need to put some protein bars in my drawer to eat before I leave school. Or make some – I have a good recipe, but I need some more protein powder. Hopefully at the store today.
ETA: Dinner was casa ole. Then the grocery store. Gracie was horrible.
I made some protein cheesecake bites and protein bars that aren't coming together too much.
Praying for: a co-worker who is beginning cancer treatment.
I made an apron from this tutorial and send her a picture. She posted it here. So I guess maybe I should start blogging again just in case anyone comes to visit. Fun stuff!
Praying for : my principal, who has walking pneumonia during TAKS week.
I mostly used this recipe. I say mostly because I didn't really. I added vanilla protein powder. My Greek yogurt was my homemade stuff that didn't turn out too well. For flavoring, I halved the cheesecake and used sf lemon pudding mix and sf key lime jello. 
