Bridge of Dreams

Yesterday, Bill and I set out on an adventure after dropping the kids off at school. We have been walking many of the trails and hiking paths around our area in the last couple weeks. Well, Thursday morning we headed out to the Mohican Valley Trail about half an hour from our house to walk the trail and to see if we could find the "Bridge of Dreams." 

Well, we did find Mohican Valley Trail and we walked to the Bridge of Dreams. It was a very pretty walk (if you ignored the horse poop  on the trail! LOL). We parked a little over 2 miles away from the bridge and headed towards it.

 

The Bridge of Dreams was beautiful. It is a 370 foot long covered bridge and is apparently the 2nd longest covered bridge in Ohio. According to Wikipedia: "The Bridge of Dreams spans the Mohican River in Knox County, Ohio. It is a pedestrian and bicycling bridge and part of the Mohican Valley Trail, a nature trail built on an abandoned railroad bed belonging to the old Pennsylvania Railroad. The bridge is closed to motorized traffic but is often used by Amish buggies."

While we were on the bridge, Bill and I had fun looking at some of the graffiti that was written. I am traditionally not a fan of graffiti in public places but there were 2 that really spoke to me today.

We also found a painted rock on the bridge. I brought it home to rehide in a walk/hike next week. :) (If you are unfamiliar with the painted rock hobby, take a moment to go visit Lorraine over at "We are: Clamco as she is an AWESOME rock artist and really has a passion for painted rocks!)

Overall, it was a gorgeous day for a hike and the Bridge of Dreams was a great destination! 

Buckeye Bars (New Recipe # 11 of 2017)

So I know that I am supposed to be dieting. I know that I should be eating healthier and I have been trying. But, then I saw this recipe for "Buckeye Bars" and I HAD to make them. I was craving something sweet and these sounded SO good. 

Let me tell you...THEY ARE DELICIOUS!!!! If you like the buckeye candy, you will love these. They taste just like buckeyes but are in bar form which means they were much easier to make.

I will say this...I followed the recipe here. However, I made one change. The original recipe called for 4- 4oz Ghirardelli Semisweet Chocolate bars. Well, I had all the ingredients at home, except the chocolate bars. So, I thought I would substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips. Well, the first batch of chocolate that I tried to melt scorched. So I had to run to the store to get some more (as I had already made the peanut butter layer). I first looked at the Ghirardelli bars. They were $4.19 a bar at Kroger! If I followed the recipe, I would spend over $16 on the chocolate. Um, no thanks. I bought 2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips for $1.99 a bag and came back home. This time the chocolate melted just fine. :) 

My hubby and kids LOVED these bars and they will definitely be added to our dessert rotation. So yummy! 

OTHER NEW RECIPES TRIED IN 2017:
Pork Chop and Scalloped Potato Bake
Tex-Mex Tilapia
Baked Chicken Parmesan
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins 
Pizza Grilled Cheese
Southwestern Style Egg Scramble
Tuna Avocado Salad
Monkey Salad
Mini Mozzarella Stuffed Italian Meatloaves
Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Ranch Tater Tot Casserole

Weigh In Wednesday: Lots of walking does not equal lots of weight loss :(

Let's get on with this week's Weigh In Wednesday: 

    My official starting weight (on 1/1/2017) was: 242.0 pounds!

My weight last week was 235.8.

My weight today is: 

So a loss of 0.4 pounds. 

Total loss from 1/1/17: 6.6 pounds

Seriously?!!??? Only 0.4 pounds? I have been exercising and walking like crazy. I will admit that I have been stressed a lot this past week. I thought I was eating well, but maybe I am not. I don't know. I feel smaller. Bill tells me that I look smaller. Maybe I am gaining muscle. I don't know. I am frustrated with it all. I think that I am going to go back to carb-cycling my meals. Will have to plan on that....

Exercise wise this is what happened since last Wednesday:

Thursday: After the chaos and depression that was last Wednesday, Thursday I felt the need to push it. So Bill and I walked 5.45 miles. It felt refreshing to get out of the house and push it.

Friday: We were both pretty tired on Friday, but we still got in a 3.12 mile walk on the path. 

Saturday: It was cold and rainy so we didn't do anything outside! 

Sunday: We needed to get the kids OUTSIDE! We took them over to Ariel Foundation to see if we could find any frogs and turtles. The kids love the park and we ended up walking 2.3 miles.

Monday: Long story short our cookout plans got nixed so we found ourselves with a free afternoon. We headed out to Honey Run Waterfall to hike around. We ended up following several trails, including one that led us to the top of the waterfall. We only hiked about a mile but there was lots of climbing to it! 
I also discovered an arm workout app on my kindle fire, so I also did that for 5 minutes. 

Tuesday: Bill and I did go for a walk, even though this was a Tuesday that was really a Monday schedule wise. It was weird. I really needed to walk though as the stress of life was really getting to me. We did a little over 3 miles on the Kokosing Gap Trail.

Wednesday (Today):   We went to a new to us place. We explored the Ramser Arboretum in Jelloway Ohio. We hiked 2.09 miles. It was really peaceful among the trees and hearing the birds. 

So I think going into next week, I am going to keep walking and also I am going to get back to a carb-cycling plan as that has helped me in the past. I am trying not to get discouraged but it is hard. I will say this, I am really enjoying all the walking and being outside. It does wonders for my spirits.     

       If you are on a weight loss journey, how are you doing? 

Happy Homemaker Monday: Labor Day Edition (9/4/17)

Happy Monday and Happy Labor Day! Once again I am joining in with the lovely Sandra over at "Diary of a Stay at Home Mom" in her Happy Homemaker Monday meme.

I started this early this morning, but blogger wasn't cooperating. It didn't want to save or upload photos. Now it is close to 5pm and I am just finishing this up before I fix dinner....

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I had a lovely one. On Saturday, it was rainy and cold here so we just puttered around the house-- did some straightening up and spent some time watching college football on TV. I also started decluttering our bedroom (trying to get back on track of decluttering). Yesterday, we took the kids out to Ariel Foundation Park for some much needed outside time for them and then we just had a low key day spent at home relaxing. Today, Bill actually has the day off (first time ever I think since I have known him) and we took the kids out to Honey Run Waterfall for a hike. It has been a gorgeous day out for the last "unofficial" day of Summer! 

Let's go ahead and get this started:   

THE WEATHER:::
We had the remnants of Hurricane Harvey come through this weekend. We got some rain Saturday afternoon and evening with some cooler than normal temperatures. It is supposed to be back up to 83 today though. Then back to the low 70s, high 60s for the rest of the week. I guess September is here. 

RIGHT NOW I AM:::
Sitting here typing this up. The kids are playing in the dining room with Legos and we are just relaxing after hiking this afternoon. 

ON MY READING PILE:::
Nothing at the moment :-( I really need to get reading some of my review books.

ON MY TV:::

Cleveland Indians baseball
Bringing Up Bates
Everybody Loves Raymond (I rediscovered this last week and man oh man there are SO many similarities to the show and our life!)
Country Music videos 
College football
The NFL starts this week too! 

ON THE MENU FOR THIS WEEK:::

SUNDAY: chicken enchiladas and green beans 
MONDAY: hamburgers and French fries/ or cookout
TUESDAY: hot dogs and baked beans

WEDNESDAY: smoked sausage and potato bake and fruit

THURSDAY: fish sticks, baked potatoes, and green beans
FRIDAY: pizza and fruit

SATURDAY: ??? (Our Saturday plans are up in the air, so I am not sure what we will be having yet.)

ON MY TO-DO LIST FOR THIS WEEK:::
Monday: Labor Day, finish up laundry, take Rebecca shopping for her service project for AHG (she collected $35 to buy coloring books and crayons for kids in need), read some of my book for review, hike at Honey Run

Tuesday: kids to school, walk, possibly go to Aldi since they finally reopened, tutor, Rebecca AHG meeting

Wednesday: kids to school, walk, tutor in afternoon

Thursday: kids to school, walk, tutor in the afternoon, menu plan for next week and make out grocery list

Friday: kids to school, walk, grocery store, tutor in the afternoon
Saturday: possible fall cookout at friends house

Sunday: family walk 

And each day has the daily housework that needs to be done.

LOOKING AROUND THE HOUSE:::

It doesn't look too bad. Ben has legos all over the coffee table and Jacob has his sports papers all over the dining room table. Other than that it looks pretty good. 

FROM THE CAMERA:::  Took a walk at the park with the family on Sunday. We came across this little snail. Jacob then proceeded to ask us: "Do snails eat ducks?" I don't think so buddy! 

WHAT I'M WEARING TODAY:::

When I started typing this up I still had my pajamas on, then I put on jean shorts and a pink tanktop and tennis shoes as we went on a hike. Now I have on pajama pants and a grey tanktop after my shower following our hike. 

SIMPLE PLEASURE:::

Watching my kids grow up and try new things on their own. Today Jacob and Benjamin both climbed over the waterfall on our hike all on their own. This was the first time for both of them to need no assistance! 

DEVOTIONAL OR QUOTE:::

So there you have it. A little peek into my life on this Labor Day! Hope everyone has had a great day and let's see what the rest of this week will bring! Now I am off to grill some hamburgers for dinner.....  

 

Walk it Off activity for students or your own kids from Education.com

As I am trying to get healthier and incorporate more exercise into my own life, I am also looking for ways to have my kids have more opportunities for exercise. So I was excited to have an opportunity to learn a new activity from Education.com. 

Walk It Off

Improve your fitness with this graphing and data activity for your fourth grader. This activity can help you talk about the benefits of leading an active lifestyle as well.

What You Need:

• Pedometer
• Butcher paper
• Markers

What To Do:

1. Have your student guess how many steps she takes per school day.
2. Give her a pedometer that she can have on her at school.
3. Every day after school, have her graph how many steps she takes.
4. Graph her activity at home as well.
5. Talk about what makes the number of steps different between the days. Does she spend more time walking around and running at school or when she comes home? Make different charts for school and home.
6. Talk about living an “active lifestyle.” Chart your activity as well. Challenge yourselves to be more active.

Enrichment/Variations/Modifications:

• If you can’t find butcher paper, use a dry erase board and some dry erase markers.
• Challenge your student to see who can take the most steps during one 24-hour period.
• Take the opportunity to go on neighborhood walks with your student.

Disclaimer: Education.com provided me with this article. Any opinion expressed is my own.