Brendan drew a picture of our family today. Yup, fat & happy, LOL.

Then I showed Bren a friend’s little girl’s drawing and pointed out the 5 fingers on each hand and the pretty hair and dress. Each arm came from the shoulder, pretty pink lips, etc. Then I asked him to draw a picture of just me. This is the picture I got. The dangling ovaries? Apparently that’s my butt. And the design on my dress? It’s my belly button. LOL. At least this time I have hair, a neck and ears. 😉

BTW, Brendan weighs 55.5 lbs and Andy weighs 28.0 lbs today. I’ve lost 28 pounds now on this low carb, largely macadamia nut diet (I eat them for breakfast and lunch, 2-3 oz total/400-600 calories). Is it the mac nuts or is it the Atkin’s recommended supplements (L-Carnitine, CoQ10, Chromium) because I have been steadily losing!

The Roundup is a homeschool conference here where I live. It’s been less than a year since I decided to homeschool so yesterday and today were the first days I spent at a homeschooling conference.
Day #1
HS used curriculum sale-
Not quite the number of people/ books I expected but okay. But the attendence was pitiful! I actually only bought 1 book. There were loads of public school workbooks and things like “reproducibles of every kind for teachers!” Ho-hum. Then there were tons of old editions of common curricula… old math-u-see and positively ancient hooked on phonics were both there. Neat to see at least.
Homeschooling 101
Again- only about 6 couples with their kids. The speaker didn’t actually answer the questions…
For example… what curriculum do you recommend for X?
Answer: I don’t! Public library, child led interests… yadda, yadda.
You know, some people aren’t prepared to unschool from the start… how about a list of commonly used programs? Sheesh.
It was a waste of time and I could have done a better job myself. Nuff said.
Day #2-
Today was 5 more sessions and commercial vendors. Definitely much better. Some interesting speakers, some nice people, some people I knew from our HSing group. I bought next year’s MUS (I was really surprised but apparently Primer is cheaper than the other levels.) That cost just under $60. But I really can’t complain because 1/2 of it is reuseable and what else do I spend money on right now? I’ve got enough phonics and reading material to last until this time next year if I wanted and all the books at the library. A few art supplies… So I bought a couple of used books, got a lot of freebies and had a fun day. It was good.
The last session was about unschooling. When I first heard of it (a year ago?) I was shocked and thought those people were plain nuts. Now I kind of admire them and they are definitely more relaxed. I could never unschool completely, but aspects of it I really like.
I kind of feel dumb though. I only just realized today that I had *never* asked Brendan what HE wants to learn about. I pick topics I think will interest him but have never let him choose. I’m going to change that a bit. But I just did and he wanted more Junie B. Jones, Curious George and Dora books. So I guess he hasn’t had any unfulfilled burning desires to learn about anything else at the moment. 😉
Man, there are a lot of people homeschooling and just as many ways of doing it. LOL. And a lot of half wild yet brilliantly smart kids running the halls.

Down 24 pounds now. 20 to go until my goal weight for TTC. DH is ahead of me a bit and doing fantastic too. He’s had a billion people notice and has had to change jean sizes and is about to do it again. Me? I’m flopping around in my shoes. Sigh. Okay… waistbands seem a bit loose now too.
Getting tired of the rigidity but used to the low carb thing. It’s been 6 weeks since we started Atkin’s! My new friends are Joseph’s lavash bread (you know… those cute circle mini rolled-up sandwiches?) at 4 carb per 1/2 sheet (think 6 inch sub size) and Russell Stover’s sugar free candies (carmel drops, mint patties and peanut butter cups!!!! Choc truffles weren’t nearly as good). I really can’t go much above 20 carbs per day but DH can go to at least 30. While I snack on macadamia nuts and meat during the day he has 7-10 carb lunches at work.
I made a WONDERFUL lasagna last night with 10 carbs per 1/8th of a very large pan. Low carb pasta is the closest to the real deal. The lavash is great too but other bread substitutes just don’t cut it for me.
My body isn’t going to know what hit when I get morning sickness and all I can stand to stomach is mashed potatoes. LOL.
Still Wii Fitting… who knew my favorite game would be boxing? ROFL. My arms hurt!! I also like the step aerobics but wish they had another set of them to try. The most advanced one isn’t near long or challenging enough. Brendan loves the games too- he’s rather good at beginning boxing too!
Bren is doing wonderful with Kindergarten. Today is day #125. He is 3/4 complete with his 1st grade phonics and finishing up lesson #21 in Math-U-See. We’ve been studying ants and have the neatest blue gel ant colony. 😀 I’ve been reading various science things and Junie B. Jones books to him.
I have my first homeschool conference this weekend. It includes a used curriculum sale, speakers on various topics and vendors. Hopefully I can get MUS Alpha a little cheaper there plus see some neato things. Nothing else, I’ll get a day with my own company and possibly meet some others.
Brendan is 55 pounds now. He is loving a PS game called Sonic Racers. His cartoon list of faves is the same… but I think he is tiring of them. We recently bought a T-ball set and he really likes hitting balls. He makes Andy fetch them and they both love it. Darrell took him to a Mission’s game too and he got to run the bases.
Andy has chunked out a bit. He is much better of an eater than Bren but less consistent. He may love salad one night but turn his nose up the at it the next night. He is loving little cars and trucks, Wubbzy, and anything that comes as a lot of little things in a bag to dump and sort. LOL. We did his first work pages today- drawing a slightly curved line from along a path from one object to another and coloring in a white circle on a colored picture (like a red spot missing on an apple). He loved it!
Andy’s 2nd birthday is less than a month away. I can’t believe it. I’ve already bought tickets for the Ringling Bros. circus in Ft. Worth. I’ve also bought a neat kit to make a circus train out of cupcakes called “Wilton Puzzles Cakes”. It’s a bunch of different shapes of cupcakes that you connect togather and frost like a cake. Then just pull them apart to serve.

Here is my collection to date of Atkin’s meals and ideas. Some are mine, others I found on the net. Hopefully they help someone else out. Most of my low carb foods were bought from a great webstore call Netrition.

Continue reading →