Quotes of the Day

Quote #1:

After reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", Cole thought for a minute and then said, "Eating lots and lots and lots of food makes you into a butterfly. I want to do that!"

Quote #2:

Yesterday Brian informed Cole of some heavy truths about life. One of these was the fact that we eat animals. Today when I was cutting up some grilled chicken, Cole provided the following commentary:

"First we pull out their feathers. No, first we pull off their ears. Then you take out their legs. Then you cook it on the grill, and put it on the grill, and eat it! No, first you take out their arms. Oh. They don't have arms. Then you put it on the grill and eat it! That's how it goes."

When Brian first told Cole that we eat animals, he was very upset and said, "No! No, we DON'T eat animals!" But he has apparently come to terms with it.

It's Beginning!

For those of you who contacted me about my project, I just wanted to let you know that I sent out the e-mail with the plan details this morning. Please check your e-mail, and let me know if you didn't receive my message--I may have mistyped your e-mail address or something.

If anyone else is interested, I can accept additional volunteers throughout the day today, but the doors close tonight at midnight. :) How's that for sounding like a sales job? Anyway, after today if anyone comes across this and is interested, you can still send me an e-mail at karenesproject [at] gmail [dot] com. It's possible there will be a round two, depending on how round one goes.

Thanks all!

Holy COW!

Forgive me for indulging in what will seem like shameless bragging about my child. But you've got to hear what just happened.

The TV was on, and tuned in to World News Report with Charles Gibson. They're doing a story about salary caps on executives of institutions who have received federal bailout money. Anyway, there was a piece of footage of President Obama talking in a press conference or something. Here's the conversation that ensued:

Cole: "Who's that?"

Me: "That's the president."

Cole: "What's a president?"

Me: "He's the man that is in charge of our country."

Cole: "Oh! That's Barack Obama."

Me: "What??"

Cole: "That's Barack Obama!"

Me: "WHAT?"

Cole: (looking shy) "That's Barack Obama."

For those of you who don't know, Cole is 3 years old.

Please note that I didn't say, "That's President Obama." I just said, "That's the president." Now, I'm sure that Cole didn't come up with the name of Barack Obama by listening carefully to a newscast. He's not quite that advanced. Brian is really good about telling Cole things that I never think to tell him, so I'm guessing Brian has mentioned Barack Obama to Cole before. But I never in a million years would have guessed that he would be able to recall it like that! Wow.

While I'm bragging, I should mention that for Christmas, Santa gave Cole a wooden puzzle of the United States of America. Personally, I thought that it was a little early for such a present. I didn't know if he'd be interested, and I was sure it would be a couple of years before he'd possibly be able to put it together by himself. I sent Santa a letter arguing my point, but apparently he knows my child better than I do. Cole has been obsessed with that puzzle ever since he got it. Lately, a common thing I hear from him is "Momma, where's Arkansas?" or "Momma? Have you seen Louisiana?" As of about one week ago, he can put the puzzle together with absolutely no help from me or Brian. He does this several times per day. And speaking of listening carefully to newscasts, yesterday I was listening to NPR in the car and they said something about India. Cole piped up, "Hey! I have India on my state map!" I explained the difference between India and Indiana, and then he was quiet for awhile. Then they said something about China and Cole said, "Momma? Is China on my state map?" I said, "No, China is another country." Cole said, "I need a map of China."

Well, for what it's worth, I don't take any credit for how smart Cole is. In part, Brian is a really great teacher. And, in part, he was born that way. But I am a little concerned that Cole's going to be significantly smarter than me by the time he's 5 years old.

Quick Update on the Project

Wow, I'm so happy to see that there are people interested in my project! Hooray!

I just wanted to make a quick post to answer questions I've had from some of you.

I'm going to give this a few more days to give people a chance to check the blog and see what I'm doing. I'm thinking that this weekend, I will send out an e-mail to everyone who has contacted me. This e-mail will explain all the details of the plan. Then you can decide, based on that, whether or not you're going to commit. I'll probably ask you to let me know for sure whether or not you're participating by midweek next week.

The official start date will be Sunday, February 15th and we'll go through Saturday, March 14th. That way you can party hard for Valentine's Day, if you so choose, and then we'll dig in and get started.

So, if you've told me you're interested, expect to get an e-mail this weekend. And make sure I've got your e-mail address!

Thanks, everyone!

My Project

I have an important announcement to make. (Drum roll, please...)

I have decided to undertake a research project. Yes, you read that right, RESEARCH. No, I haven't gone back to school, nor is this a job on the side (nor have I gone clinically insane, though that might be debatable). For once in my life, I've actually just really developed a sincere interest in something, and am curious enough about it that I want to undertake some research on the subject.

And to all of you, my lucky blog readers, I am offering the chance of a lifetime. The chance to be involved in (what I'm sure will be) groundbreaking research! To be a test subject! A guinea pig! This is your lucky day!

Alright, alright. All kidding aside, I'm just throwing this out there. Some of you may be interested, others may not. But I'm hoping at least some of you will be, because I really do need real live subjects to do my research. Intrigued? Read on...

Over the last several months, I have had significant (and for me, surprising) success in overcoming my long standing struggle to lose weight, get fit, and become more healthy. Several people have asked me what I've been doing and have wanted me to share my "secret". Really, it's not much of a secret. It's very simple and straightforward. Yes, it has taken a very firm resolve and discipline. But it's totally do-able. No pills, starvation, or days on end of eating only bananas. Anyway, when people ask me what I've done, I'm not sure what to tell them, because it seems too simple (not necessarily easy, but simple). I've been wondering, "Is this something that would work for many people in many different situations, or is it just something that worked for me in my specific circumstances?" I truly believe that it could be widely applicable. And I want to test that theory.

My personal testimonial is that I love living life this new way. For the first time in my life, I've been successful at losing weight (a battle I've fought unsuccessfully for a long, long time), and I feel very confident that it's something I can sustain for life. Along the way, I've come to love food even more (if that's possible!) and eat more flexibly than I ever have before. In a world full of fad diets and unsustainable, crazy weight loss plans I just keep thinking, "Really, it doesn't have to be that way! It can be so simple!"

You probably see where I'm going with this. I only have my own experience to go on right now. But I would love to see my experience benefit anyone who would like to feel healthier and maybe lose a few pounds (or a lot of pounds!). And I would love to get feedback from real people who would be willing to try it out and let me know what they think. Of course, I can't make any promises. Also, I'm not a certified researcher, or a fitness expert, or anything like that. But I do think there's a lot of potential here.

So...here's what I would be looking for in my "test subjects":

1. Willing to commit to one month of trying out my ideas. (This doesn't mean perfect implementation of these ideas, just willingness to give them an honest try, every day, for one month.)

2. Willing to give me honest, daily feedback about your experiences, probably in written form--by e-mail, for example. (I would not ask you to tell me your weight. As far as that goes, I would only want to know after the one month is over whether you lost weight or not, and if so, how much.)

Really, that's all I would expect. In return, I plan to provide regular support along the way. I'm thinking of setting up a separate blog dedicated to my project, on which, during the course of the month, I would regularly post tips, ideas, and discussion threads designed to support people and give them additional ideas or motivations which would hopefully help them to be successful. I anticipate that some people will really like this and find it works great for them. I also anticipate that there will be some who find it's really not their style. I am sure that there will be some who like parts of it and find they want to modify other parts. I'm interested in all these types of people. I want to get all kinds of information. I'm just really, really curious about it. And I think it has the potential to benefit people. I have nothing to gain from this except to gather information, I promise. I'm not selling anything. :) So...

If you're interested, will you just shoot me an e-mail at karenesproject [at] gmail [dot] com? By doing so, you're not committing. I first just want to see if there's any interest. If there is, once I have pooled together a group of people who are interested, I'll go from there, letting you know exactly what the plan is and from there you can tell me whether you want to participate or not.

Thanks for humoring me. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment here, or e-mail me questions as well. We'll see if anything comes of this or not. Feel free to post a link to this post on your blog if you think that any of your blog readers might be interested, as well. I'm very curious to see where this could go!

On My Own

I consider myself a strong, independent sort of person. However, when it comes to parenting, I'm a total wimp. I depend on Brian coming home from work to relieve some of my stress and strain. Brian has to travel occasionally for work, and every time that's happened I've used it as an excuse to go visit family. I really don't like doing the single mom thing. But...I can't run away forever. Brian left this morning for a 5 day business trip, and I decided to buck up and be a real woman. I'm braving it on my own.

It kind of sucks. But I'm sure I'll survive.