What I Learned This Week #11

1) My three-year-old son likes to clean house more than I do. On Friday, he asked me if we could clean. (Oh, the shame!) So we cleaned. Thanks, Mr. Blue, for keeping us from living in squalor!

Now he has to be restrained from spraying Windex on everything, including the carpet. He's like the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

I plan to remind Mr. Blue of these times when he's a teenage boy who leaves smelly socks around the house. And maybe squirt some Windex on him.

2) I had a very nice Mother's Day weekend, so I guess what I learned from that is that I am a lucky woman. On Saturday morning I lounged in bed while Justin made cinnamon toast, and then we did our usual Saturday things. Justin and the kids did most of the cleaning while I got groceries, but I did some cleaning and made chicken and sausage gumbo for some friends we hadn't seen in a while, and we had fun with them.

Then on Sunday morning I received what I'd asked for: a necklace made of brown stones, and something I didn't expect: a bracelet made of pewter-colored hearts, which Miss Pink had chosen. She also picked out a musical card with a sweet song for me. Later, we got to enjoy our church's children lead the worship service (Miss Pink knew all the words and the motions, while Mr. Blue turned around and stared at the video on the screens the whole time). My dad had to catch a plane right after church, so we picked up Pei Wei and treated my mom to lunch. I had a nap and Mother's Day was complete.

3) My favorite scrapbooking magazine, Simple Scrapbooks, is being shut down because of the economy. I am getting Creating Keepsakes instead, which, although nice, is not my style like Simple was. And since I am not visually creative AT ALL, I need simple designs to inspire me. What a bummer.

4) My friend (the one who came over Saturday night) is on Weight Watchers; she gave me a point tracker so I can lose a few pounds. I don't need to lose much--no more than five pounds, because I can't afford to get too large OR too small for my clothes. But I know that although I eat healthfully on a daily basis, it's the weekends and extra treats that gradually add up to extra pounds for me. And lately there has been a cake, or cookies, or Chick-Fil-A, or a husband who wants ice cream, in my life every couple of days. It had to stop somewhere.

So I decided to lose those few pounds and then go to the maintenance stage. And I'll tell you what I've discovered. (You veteran dieters are allowed to make fun of me.) I now know why I've never lost any weight when I was just going to do what all the articles say and just write down what you eat, rather than actually following a diet. I was simply eating too much to lose weight. I was really hungry yesterday, y'all.

21 points is not that much food, it turns out.

Actually, it's not that bad. I wasn't hungry when I went to bed last night, after I ate fruit and some rice cake snacks (3 points altogether, which was all I was allowed, and you'd better believe I was going to eat those three points' worth). And I went to a birthday party and passed up pizza and cake and soda, so there you go.

Plus I am motivated more to work out, so I can have those 1 or 2 activity points.

Stay tuned to see how this experiment turns out.

(And go to Musings of a Housewife for more learning experiences.)