catheroominations

My Google Reader has become populated with posts called Grace in Small Things. Each time I read someone’s list, I think, “I should sign up to do that.” But I never do. Until now.

Lately my blogging has gotten incredibly lazy, so I have decided to join in the Grace. I’m hoping that I can stick with it for an entire year so every day, for the next 364, I am going to post a list of five things that have graced my life, either on the day I write the list, or in my life in general. To read more about why Schmutzie began this endeavor to make us all appreciate the good stuff in our lives , go here. If you’d like to sign up and join me, go here.

1. Being married to someone who says sweet things that no one has ever said to me before
2. Getting on the scale and seeing realizing I am back on the weight loss track.
3. Being able to use our grill year-round, despite the season.
4. Rainy Sundays with hours of shows on the DVR
5. My Photoshop class. It’s renewing my passion for photography and I’m learning some nifty new tricks.

I’ll bet you can guess how many pennies are in the photo.

I’m confused. But with math, I frequently am. You see, Matte and I were recently in Costco looking for healthy alternatives, and we came upon these frozen Kirkland ground sirloin burgers that are only 15% fat. Awesome!

Of course we grabbed a bag, and I immediately turned it over to check the nutritional info. And am I glad I did!

(Insert cartoonized version of me shaking my head violently, with aoiy-aoiy-aoiy soundtrack) WHAT?!? I almost always got Ds in math, maybe a C here and there, but even I know that a 330-calorie item with twenty-three grams of fat does NOT equal 15% fat. It is 60% fat. And with 25% of its calories coming from saturated fat alone, that’s nearly half a person’s daily allowance!

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So when you see a food product boasting low-fattedness, double-check the nutritional info.

And WTF, Costco?

Sometimes when people notice that I’ve lost weight, I tell them it’s not that hard to lose weight. That’s a huge lie. It’s like when someone says, “Oh, I like that sweater,” and you reply with, “this old thing?” rather than just accept the compliment. I do this. Routinely. I diminish my successes. When alone, trying on clothes that were one too small, I think I rock and I’m proud of my hard work. But when someone wants to know how I’m doing it, what I eat, and how I look thinner, I tell them, “it’s not that hard. I don’t really miss any foods I used to eat. If I can do it, you can too. It’s easy!” Liar, liar, pants on fire!

keep reading Hand over the chocolate and no one gets hurt

This is for Matte.

You can make your own here.

I can’t believe it’s already almost Christmas. This year flew by. Why do they always do that?

This week I am participating in the 7 Days pool on Flickr once again. I love this pool because, unlike the 365 groups, where you have to shoot a self-portrait every single day, with 7 Days, I only have to do it for one week. As someone with self-diagnosed ADD, this is the perfect group for me. Plus, the entries are so creative, and each time around, new people join. I highly recommend you join to and shoot yourself for 7 days straight the next time the group starts. My previous entries are here, here, and here. During the Spring 2008 edition of 7 Days (the most recent one I participated in) we had just gotten Desmond and I was shooting photos of him constantly. I put him in one of my self-portraits because he was just too cute not to. So this round, I decided to include him again, so everyone could see how much he’s changed in just nine short months. He just had his first birthday on December 7, and has grown into a full-sized cat. Still a cutie, but much more uncooperative for photos. Quite unwieldy, that one.

For the 7 Days pool on Flickr. There should not be a question mark on the shirt. It should be a period, or even better, be sans punctuation. Maybe that’s why it was only 7 bucks?