Too many cooks

If you've seen my kitchen you can imagine what it's like when a family of 6 all crowd in at the same time. Literally standing room only. My kitchen is the worse thing about our house. It is essentially a hallway from the living room to the family room. Sometimes it seems like a closet. When the dishes are stacked up and the counter tops are cluttered I start to feel claustrophobic. However, I don't mind having one person in the kitchen to help make dinner, and we are used to the tiny space.

We have been learning a new form of "too many cooks" lately. Tom and I are on a diet. The kids get one meal, and we get another. Or Tom is eating when I'm not and vise versa. This morning I'd had it. Tomato juice still on the counter top from Tom's lunch, two spices still sitting there (not having been returned to the drawer), and no salt to be found. Argh! It's bad enough that the dishes play musical chairs according to which person did them last, but do I have to search for the spices I need every time I'm making a meal...which right now is about 5 billion times a day?

I'd had it. I told Tom that if he is going to cook he MUST put things back where they go at the very least. Salt belongs in the kitchen, not on the dining room table (at least until I find another salt shaker!) I mean, it's one thing to clean up after him once a month when he decides to cook dinner for the family. It's another thing right now to clean up after 4 people who are cooking at various times of the day.

Can't wait until the diet is over and I can cook one meal at a time again.

Here's a couple of my new favorite recipes:

Lemonade

1 cup water

2 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed

10 drops lemon drop stevia

10 drops vanilla stevia

ice

Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

1 cup frozen strawberries (mostly thawed)

2 - 4 tbsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed if possible

1 cup ice

10 drops lemon drop stevia

10 drops vanilla stevia

Yummy!

The good news is...

I had Tom take a photo when I reached my second 10% goal. That means I have lost 10% of my body weight twice. I wanted a photo of me sitting so I could compare it to when I weighed a similar amount on the way up the scale. I've had several people tell me I'm smaller now than I was then. What do you think?

Then at 185 pounds ----- Now at 181.2 pounds

If you think my tummy is smaller now you'd be right. It is actually smaller than when I weighed 160 pounds 20 years ago. WooHoo! I'm on my way now. Total lost so far: 45.8

For my actual progress photos, look to the right! There's quite a change!