Catching Up

2011 is cruising along nicely.  It's hard to believe January is more than half over.  I've been doing well on resolutions.  I haven't made one coffee shop stop all year!  I've been making an effort each day to take a healthy snack with me and leaving my debit card at home.  My couponing adventures continue to pay off.  I took six boxes of free cereal out of Rite Aid one day.  And I recently scored some Welch's grape juice and V8 Fusion + Tea for super cheap. 

Matching coupons with sales and taking home super cheap stuff has turned into a great way for us to try new things.  Tonight we had mac and cheese for dinner.  But not just any mac and cheese.  It was Kraft's Homestyle Mac and Cheese.  And it was very good.  Actually, it was great!  I got 6 of them for 62 cents each at Walgreens.  So, Brent and I had dinner tonight for 62 cents.  And we have leftovers!  Now that's living frugally.   

In the Fixing Mr. Allergy department, I've also started reading up on dog food and real food diets.  I currently have The Whole Pet Diet checked out from the library.  On one hand, the book is eye-opening and on the other hand, it's only confirming what I already knew.  Commercial dog food is garbage and the likely cause of many pet problems, like allergies.  There is no entity that checks and approves dog food, and it's because of that, dry kibble is made of the cheapest, inhumane ingredients.  A small fraction of kibble is actually digestible.  And all kinds, even the supposedly higher class dog food is made up of cheap filler products that carry nothing of nutritional value and is only meant to sustain life, not enrich it.  Feeding a dog commercial dog food is the equivalent of feeding a child potato chips from toddler hood to the senior home.  Yes, the person may live, but health problems and quality of life are greatly affected.

I haven't made any changes to Brink's diet just yet.  I still need to read and gather and plan.  It's best to do it and not go back and I want to make sure I've got all my ducks in a row before I make any changes.  It's easy to dump a cup of dry food into a bowl, it's another thing to cook fresh food, separate meals for fridge and freezer, and ensure supplements are balanced.  Some may think I'm crazy, but I'm okay with that.  I want Brink to be as healthy as he can be and live a long healthy, happy life.

My resolution to declutter myself and lose some of those extra milk jugs is moving along slowly.  The week of strep set me back a little.  I've started a food journal so I keep myself accountable for what I'm stuffing in my mouth.  I'd say my food intake has dropped to normal levels over the last few weeks.  I'm looking forward to adding some hard exercising in the coming weeks.  I'm still searching for my photograph of me finishing my Disney World half marathon many years ago.  It's going on my fridge to remind me of where I've been!

What else? I got to spend the weekend with my UW girls!  We finally got around to another scrapbooking weekend.  Two days of scrapbooking and watching romantic comedies was just what my soul needed.  I got three events done and a few Brinkley pages.  I'm not sure how many movies we watched but it sure was fun and I can't wait to do it again.  AND Bryn made the yummiest mac and cheese I've ever tasted.  Macaroni Grill should hire her!

Ok, I think I'm all caught up now.  At least, I think I am.  That was a busy week that just flew by.  It's going to be a crazy year!