Boring-ness and meal planning

I have to confess that we have fallen into the trap of boring-ness.  Or we have when it comes to meals and the food we eat.  I have my favorite stand by meals, but lately even i am not happy eating the same old food.

Eating a high protein, low carb meal plan makes for a lot of chicken and eventually it gets harder to find ways to cook it and not wish it was a huge plate of pasta . . . or garlic bread . . or some of my other favorite carbs.

So I bought 2 new cookbooks for specifically for after weight loss surgery.  I haven't looked thru them yet, they just got here a few days ago.  I brought them with me tonight so I can look thru them and pick out 2 or 3 new recipes to try.

Do you suffer from boring food problems?  What are you favorite recipes?  I would love to hear about your favorite foods to eat and how you prepare them.  Let me know in the comments section.

I did make a super yummy stir fry a few weeks ago.  It wasn't as yummy as the one Edward, my brother, made for us in DC but for a first try it was pretty darn yummy.

What is your favorite dessert?  We had watermelon and it was amazing!!  We are working on eating more natural foods and using fruits as desserts.  So far the watermelon is a hit.

Oh dear, I've talked about food so long that I am hungry now.  Wonder if reading thru cookbooks will help or make it worse?!?

Remember until next time:

  Love the Seher Gals

Prepping Cards for Honor Flights

I am pretty sure I mentioned before that we are part of a group called Soldiers Angels.  It is a non-profit group that connects civilians to deployed services members.  We adopt up to 3 deployed service members and we are an Angel to our service member while they are deployed.  Sending a minimum of 1 letter a week and 1 package a month to our service member.  It's lots of FUN!! 

In addition to adopting and supporting deployed service members we also support their family thru a variety of different programs such as Baby Brigade (where we do baby showers for service member's who have a baby or their wives while they are deployed), we also do birthday cards for the family members of deployed service members.  I especially like sending out the birthday cards to the kiddos.  Last but not least we support our veterans thru a variety of different options.  The one that I participate in is sending cards for Honor Flights.

Honor Flights, if you are not familiar, are free flights for veterans that are given the red carpet treatment at the airport and all the way to thru to Washington DC to see the various Veteran's Memorials.  They get a police escort, do not wait at red lights, no such thing as traffic jams.  Red carpet treatment all the way.  It was a sight that brought tears to my eyes and made my heart swell with pride when we saw several Honor Flights in Washington DC.

Part of Honor Flights is mail call.  This is where Soldier's Angels and Angles like myself come in.  We want to ensure that every veteran on an Honor flight has a full packet of cards and letters at mail call.  So we send letters or cards of support when the All Call comes for an Honor Flight.  Some Honor Flights are small with 20-25 veterans, and it ranges all the way up to 90+ veterans.  So it takes a lots of work to keep a stock of Thank you cards made up ahead of time to be able to get them out quickly.  Since we add an extra little twist in our cards by adding an extra thank you insert from myself, and Bobbie plus our business card letting the veterans know we are with Soldiers Angels it makes prepping the cards a labor of love. 

This weekend we had some extra help because my niece Harley got in on the action and made about 200 Thank you insets to go in the next few batches of cards.

Chikita took her supervising job very serious and wouldn't move off the girls feet for anything.  Guess she wanted in on the action too.

We mailed out 50 cards for 2 different Honor Flights today.  We have about 30 more all ready prepped and ready to go.  Tonight at work I will write more Thank you messages.  Tomorrow we will stuff more cards.  Gotta keep ahead of the Honor Flights.  After all our veterans have done for us a little hard work on my part isn't too much to ask.

Until next time remember:

Love The Seher Gals

Lessons in Self Care

At church lately we have had several lessons in Self Care.  I know is sounds like an odd thing to talk about at church but when we are talking about stewardship you can't avoid talking about taking better care of your self.  After all how do you care for others when you yourself are in desperate need of some care??

So what do you do for self care?  Need some ideas??  Well, I have a few ideas, and I would love to hear your ideas if you want to share them in the comments.

Here are some things I do for self-care:
*I write letters of love and support for my family and friends, and deployed service members.  It recharges my emotional batteries imagining the joy my letters will bring to ,y loved ones.

*I watch my guilty TV/Netflix shows while snuggling with Bruce the Shark and my fuzzy blanket.  Sometimes it helps to unwind and not have to think about anything serious.

*I eat a yummy treat.  I know that using food as a comfort item can be a slippery slope for a lot of people myself included.  However sometimes you really do need a yummy childhood treat to boost your spirits.

*I hang out with my family and friends and share a good laugh.  Studies show that laughing releases positive endorphins.  Who doesn't love a good endorphin rush?!?  Plus it is exercising your abdominal muscles too.  Win-Win!!

*I take a short nap.  Enough said!!

*I do something creative like drawing, or mixing stuff in the kitchen.  Sometimes it helps to add a little of this and a little of that and hope it comes out to be something greater than what you started with.

What do you do for self care?  To recharge your batteries?  To add some zip in your step?  Whatever it is I hope you stop and do it today, because you are important!!

Until next time:

Love the Seher Gals

New Foods with Edward in DC

Not only did we get to go see some many fun new places in DC with Edward, we tried several new foods.

Sadly I only took pictures of 2 of the 5, but that is better than nothing.

Salvadorian Fajitas are SUPER Yummy!!!  Edward had fried plantains and it was also very yummy.  Bobbie's nachos were good.

Bakers Breakfast at a little Organic French Restaurant.  Totally have to admit that I tried to kale, but I didn't eat much of it.  Everything else was eaten by myself, Edward and Bobbie.  Thanks to my smaller stomach after weight loss surgery sometimes I need a little help with restaurant portion sizes. 

Bobbie's Belgium Waffle at the same Organic French place.  It was super yummy looking!!  She chowed down on it and sure seemed to love it.

Sadly I don't have pictures of the Ethiopian food we ate.  Or the summer salad we constructed from a sweet little farmers market.  I don't even have pictures of the chicken stir-fry Edward made for us with asparagus.  I learned that I like asparagus.  Who knew?!?

Clearly I am fired from being a food blogger.  I keep eating the food before I remember to take picture of it.  I am super excited to introduce my friends to some new foods, and even find more new foods to try.

Until next time remember:

Love the Seher Gals

Fun in Washington DC with Edward

Oh my goodness this last week was a week of 1st's.  We took a trip to see Uncle Edward in Washington DC for 5 days.  Our first official vacation in years.  Yikes!!  We need to go on a legit vacation more often.  Our version of vacation is usually a weekend trip to Grandma's or Aunt Julie's. 

Bobbie's 1st airplane ride.  So excited!!!

Bobbie's 1st Wake Up Call with Uncle Edward.  Too bad you can't hear to beautiful piano music he played for us before he came over to help 'snuggle' Bobbie awake. 

 Bobbie's #2 choice for activities to do in DC.  The National Gallery of Art . . . .west building.  Quickly followed by the tunnel and then the East building, and the sculpture garden.  So Much AMAZING Art!!!

 Getting ready to watch a movie at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.  I love spending time with these 2 goofballs!!!

1st Uber ride for Bobbie.  2nd for me.  So much fun, and such a sweet Uber driver. 

We took a hop on/hop off bus tour of Washington DC.  1st hop off??  Jefferson Memorial with Bobbie.  Bobbie bought a stuffed squirrel at the gift shop.  

2nd Hop off stop??  Lincoln Memorial.  There were so many people sitting in the shade on the top steps of the memorial.  Someone standing loudly reciting scriptures at the crowd.  So hot and muggy!!  Gotta love DC.

 Donna, the kid's paternal grandmother, asked that we please stop at the Vietnam War Memorial.  It had not be built and dedicated the last time she was in DC.  We looked at the books but didn't see anyone with her last name or the kid's paternal grandfather's last name either.  SO MANY NAMES on the wall.  We were both in tears by the end of the wall walk.  Seeing so many of the veterans on the Honor flight mourning at the wall was heart rending!!

 Aquatic Gardens are not something you see in Utah, but here in DC they are so gorgeous.  We even arrived just in time for the tour.  Woo Hoo!!  Took tons of pictures of all the amazing sights at the aquatic garden.

Playing cards while on the boat ride back from MT. Vernon.  Bobbie bought a spotted stuffed pig at the gift shop.  Seeing a theme yet?  Wait for it, it gets better!!

Bobbie's #1 item on her list of things to do in DC was Arlington National Cemetery.  Such a solemn and hauntingly beautiful place.  Bobbie bought a panda at the gift shop at a Metro station on our way to Arlington.  Bobbie's #3 item was to ride the metro at some point in her trip to DC.

We found the Nurses Monument at Arlington Cemetery.  It was off the beaten path, but worth the hike to find it.  Imagine our surprise when as we were taking pictures up comes another nurse, wanting to see the memorial as well.  Does a nurses heart good to know that we all want to honor those in our profession that sacrificed so much to care for their patients thru the ages. 

Oh to be young, and flexible, and grouchy.  2nd flight wasn't as much fun as the 1st flight.  Then again someone is getting tired of Mom taking her picture.  So the flight might not have been as bad as the picture makes it look.  Bobbie bought a stuffed giraffe, and a stuffed moose at the airport.  So it was a stuffed zoo collecting trip for Miss Bobbie.

Work was a bear to come back to and it reminded me why it was so much fun to go on vacation.  However it was a great trip and so much fun to see things that we had never seen before.  I had seen a few of the things in DC when I was there for a few hours at age 17, but nothing like this trip.  Can't wait for our next vacation!!

Until next time remember (sometimes sarcasm is the answer):

Love the Seher Gals