My Healthy Eating Baking Mishap

So I have been doing pretty well with my dieting and eating healthy. I have found some great recipes, and have overloaded on the fruits and veggies. I'm down 5 lbs so far! woohoo!

So the other day a friend posted a pic of some very yummy looking Paleo Brownies. She has lost over 100 lbs (don't quote me on the exact number, but it was a lot and she looks fantastic) You can check her Facebook page out here: This Mom Is Losing It. Anyway, back to the story. I was dying for some chocolate and decided to pick up the ingredients that I needed and give it a try.

I merrily mixed the ingredients, filled my brand new Pampered Chef brownie pan, and then stuck them in the oven. About 10 mins later I start to smell something burning. It smelled like burnt marshmallows, so I hurried to the oven only to find that my batter exploded everywhere! My square brownie pan looked like 1 giant pan covered in tar. It was all over the pan, my oven racks, and the bottom of my oven. So I pulled it out, wiped out the oven, scrapped the mess off so you could see the squares and stuck it back in. I figured it was worth a second try, right? Well needless to say every time I checked on it, it looked like bubbling tar. I asked my sister in law, who was here at the time, if brownie batter was suppose to bubble and she informed me that in fact it is not. So much to my dismay, my brownies turned out to be nothing but sticky chocolate tar (which you can see at the top. The Left pic is my friends delicious looking brownies, and my tar is on the right.) Moral of the story....brownies are not suppose to be healthy. I will stick with the box kind from now on and have a cheat day once in a while.

Side note: She did make me some and is sending them via mail. I can't wait to try them.

Standing Up For What You Believe In

I met these people when I was 12 at The Sky is The Limit Theatre.  We became family, we grew up together, and as you can see they are still here through weddings and kids and everything in between. Without this theatre I would not have had so many wonderful memories, had my children , or even indirectly met my husband. Love you guys!

In the beginning of December it was announced that our community center was to be sold. This was all done backhandedly by our local councilman Kevin Kamenetz and put in the paper for all of us to find out. There was no community input and they didn't even contact any of the programs that are housed there. We have at least 10 programs that work out of the building, including an indoor soccer arena and a 650 person fully handicapped accessible theatre.

 I was raised in that theatre, I started when I was 12 and continued until I got pregnant with Alanna. Now Madison performs there. Out of it I have learned tolerance, acceptance and ultimately they are family...in more ways then 1. haha. Madison and Caden were both practically born there and I was even performing when I was 4 mths pregnant with Alanna. Not only that Caden plays soccer there as well.

So once the word got out I hit the ground running. I refuse to allow the politicians to just come in and tear down our community....our home. I started a Facebook page Save The North Point Government Center to let our voices be heard. I've also sent a ton of emails which very few were responded to. As of now we are at over 800 Likes and we have a community meeting set up for tomorrow and a picket next week. We are not going down without a fight.

What I don't understand is how people can be so ignorant to everything going on. People are commenting about tearing it down. "There's nothing over there" "We are wasting our time" People are so blind to anything that does not directly effect their own little bubbles, their own little world. It's pathetic  People are willing to just roll over and allow the government officials to come in to our community and do whatever it is they want to do. How can people just accept it? This is our community, our families, our lives, and I am not about to allow some well paid money hungry politician to come into our community which they consider the "dumping ground" of Baltimore County and just tear apart our community. We have so many vacant stores in this area and this is just going to end up another vacant building to add to it, but the problem is now our children will be the ones left without all of the activities.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! Leo and I rang in the new year with our lovely group of friends, which ended with an engagement! So that was exciting.

 As I sit here reflecting on 2012 I realize that it was a pretty great year. My best friend got married and I was her matron of honor, I was also a bridesmaid in another wedding for a close friend. I helped plan our 10 year high school reunion. I celebrated my 3rd wedding anniversary and went to my first Raven's game. I also survived 12/21/12.  Overall I'd say it was a pretty good year for me.

This year we have family resolutions on top of my own personal ones.

• Eating clean. 

 I went through the house and tossed all of the junk and processed foods and went shopping for lots of veggies. I have to lose this weight, I am at my heaviest right now and that needs to change. So Leo and I have decided to get serious about our health. I know this is everyone's resolution but it's not my resolution as much as a life style change. It's also so much easier when my husband is involved as well. Our biggest problem is eating out and that will go hand in hand with our budgeting .

• Get organized. 

I am going to organize my life. I live in constant chaos, and it starts as soon as the kids get out of school. Homework, trying to prepare dinner, dance, soccer, theatre. Not to mention trying to keep up on laundry and housework. Starting yesterday I am in the process of meal planning for the weeks and setting up a better routine. 

• Set and stick to a budget

 The biggest problem we have is saving money. I'll admit , I'm a spender. I love to shop, and not just for me but for anything. Kids stuff, house stuff, it doesn't matter I love it. We also love to eat out. But I found this great easy to use free app for my phone called Budgets . My goal is to set my monthly budget and put money in my savings each week and stick to it!

A few of my personal resolutions are:

• Read 25 books
• Have a closer walk with God
• Enjoy every moment especially with my kids

I hope everyone has a fantastic year , I am looking forward to all of the awesome things to come!