Binkies and Briefcases

Today we went back to the Market. (Yes, I took two books like I promised.) We got some produce, bread, a lemonade, and a ceramic pain-it-yourself train night light cover for me to make with Nicholas later this week. That trip, which only lasted about 15 minutes, went fairly smoothly, so I decided to stop at the thrift store on the way home.

I was looking for glassware to add to my expanding collection of apothecary jars. (I made 4 more last week with jars & dessert glasses I got at our church yard sale for a grand total of $2.50) I struck out with the glassware, but I did score a lamp, drop leaf table, and a sweater that I plan to re-purpose & I managed to stay under my unofficial $20 weekly budget. I’ll tell you more about those later when my projects are finished, but I had to share a cute story…

While we were in Goodwill I was pushing the cart full of my finds, carrying the baby, and Nicholas was walking “like a big boy.”- His words. Naturally, being a three-year-old, he was drawn to the shelf full of toddler toys. I was trying to coax him across the store to see if I could find the kind of white sweater I wanted for my next Pottery Barn knock-off project. (I did find it after 20 minutes of searching, saying “Nick? Come stand with Mommy, please.” and a trip to the bathroom.)

Anyway, his response to my nagging was “Mommy, I have to stay right here. I’m looking for my treasures.” Then we would walk past something like a plaid hat & he would say “Oh, there’s a treasure.” It was quite adorable. The funny thing is that I don’t think he picked this up from me, I don’t remember using that word to refer to my flea market finds. I still didn’t let him buy anything, since we had just gotten the night light at the Market, but it’s nice to have a little guy who can see “treasures” at the Goodwill.

I need to lose 20 pounds. Actually, I really need to lose 45 pounds to get to my “ideal” weight according to the BMI charts, but 120 lbs seems unrealistic for me to maintain with my current high-stress life style, so I’m setting the goal at 20 for now. 145 was my pre-baby weight and I was content in a size 8. Besides, I weighed more than 120 in high school when I was the teeny-tiny captain of the cheerleading squad. (10 lifetimes ago) Sorry, BMI people, but I have boobs. Big ones. They weigh a lot.

I’ve known for a while, like since I was recovering from a c-section this time last year, that I was going to need to get around to losing weight, but I haven’t really been taking it seriously. I have done some things. I’ve sporadically counted Weight Watcher’s points, done a few Pilates & Richard Simons DVD’s at home, gone to the gym w/ my friend Rebecca a few times, and gone to a Zumba class. Plus, I do lug around a 20 pound baby, a 35 pound toddler, and all the diaper bag/stroller equipment that goes with them every day. WARNING: MOM DON’T READ THE NEXT SENTENCE. I’ve also been telling myself that sex counts as exercise and thus getting more “exercise” than I normally would, which makes for a happy husband, but a smaller waistline? Not so much. I still say that the fact that I’ve done these things should count for something, but the scale hasn’t budged at all this year, so I guess I haven’t been trying hard enough. All year at 165. (Although I think I lost 3 pounds doing Weight Watcher for a few weeks, but our scale at the time was broken, so there’s no way to know for sure.) Well, at least I haven’t gained any weight in the past year.

Still, I’m really tired of not being happy with the way I look in pictures and not feeling attractive in anything I wear. Luckily, I have a very supportive husband who truly doesn’t care how much I weigh, but I care. Now that my dad is remarried, I have 6 brothers & sisters. I don’t want to be the fat one! Plus, I have a daughter now. She needs to see a good example of a well-balanced life style and a confident role model, and both my kids need to see an example of a woman who is happy with her body image. I can’t be that role model unless I actually believe that I look good.

Until now, I’ve been trying to give myself a break. After all, it’s been a really high-stress year & a half. In the past 18 months, we’ve adopted a child, moved, I stopped working & transitioned to being a stay-at-home mom (which is probably the most difficult transition, but that’s another blog post), I gave birth, started a business, our son was diagnosed with a bunch of special needs & since I’m the one home with him I organize all of his testing/therapy appointments, I closed my business, served on the steering committee for the Mom-n-Me program, got a new part-time job, not to mention had some health issues….I mean sheesh. So I can’t lose the last of my baby weight. That should be at the bottom of the list, right? No, not really. If I felt better about the way I looked & had more energy, I could be doing all of those things a lot better.

So I’m doing it. For real. I’m losing 20 pounds, and all of my readers (all 4 of you) can hold me accountable. I got a double jogging stroller (surprisingly hard to come by) at the Tomato Tamato [let’s all pause to reflect on how cute that name is] consignment shop yesterday. I also signed up to lose 20 pounds for the Pound For Pound Challenge so they would donate 20 pounds of food to our local food bank. I figured that would hold me accountable too, since I was doing it for someone else.

I’m going to try Weight Watchers again, since that seems to be the easiest for me, being able to eat whatever I want. So here goes…

Ok, as far as I can tell, they didn’t sell fat pigs at the York Central Market, but I did take the kids there this morning. My friend Satoko, who is an artist/mom & shares her amazing creations over on her blog Sunshine Smile, goes to Central Market every week. I’ve been curious since we moved here, but since the market’s in the middle of downtown with only street parking, I’ve been hesitant to drive down there, try to parallel park the mini-van & juggle the kids and the double stroller in the middle of the street.

Well, today the cupboards were bare (how many nursery rhyme references will fit in one blog post?) so I decided to suck it up and lug everything down there since I was going to have to go grocery shopping one way or another. Lucky for me, I found a spot right in front of the market where two meters in a row were open, so the parking wasn’t too big of an issue. Yeah!

It was your general farmer’s market with a few vendors selling other stuff, like antique furniture, candy, & candles. I think next time we need to try a different time, because at 9:30 less than half the booths were open & those that were looked thoroughly picked through. They open at 6am and stay open through early afternoon. I am thinking that the farmers get there early, so if you want produce early is better, but some of the other booths were just starting to open as we were leaving around 10.

The furniture dealer had a really awesome old, long, narrow suitcase-looking thing that I am assuming is a gun case. It would have been the perfect piece for our downstairs mantle. I was envisioning the apothecary jars I made last week grouped on top of it. Plus it was only $17. I waited for about 10 minutes, but the vendor was nowhere to be found & the kids were getting antsy, so I passed it up. Still kicking myself over that one.

The kids & I shared a huge soft pretzel & lemonade and we bought some produce from two very sweet elderly ladies who reminded me of the women who used to collect my Mommom’s newspapers & sell eggs.

There was also a really cool free book exchange shelf where you could drop off a book & take one from the shelf. I didn’t know about the shelf, so I didn’t bring a book to exchange, but guess what was staring at me on that shelf? A book called Play Therapy! How could I pass that up given Nicholas’ issues & the fact that I am paying a play therapist every week? Ok, I confess, I took it. I promise to bring two books with me next time to make up for the transgression.

Overall, it was a cute way to spend a cloudy Tuesday morning and we’ll go back. I do wish it was a little larger, though, or that there were more vendors. It sort of paled in comparison to the farmer’s markets that we had in Tampa or that I’ve gone to with my aunt who lives in rural VA, but I guess that’s what I get for comparing it to markets in the south. Like I said, it was cute and it’s a good way to support local farmers. Plus, I want my kids to have a good understanding of where food comes from, hence the home gardens & last week’s trip to Barefoot Farm to pick our own strawberries. Sheesh, there’s a lot I didn’t realize I was going to have to think about as a parent. As long as my kids don’t wind up like those kids on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution show who couldn’t identify a single vegetable, we’ll be ok.