How about a little DIY to change things up around here?

I don't know about you, but I randomly scour Craig's List for stuff. Nothing in particular a lot of times. Other times, specific things. This time it was specific. I wanted a new front door. Have you priced exterior doors at Home Depot or Lowe's lately? Yeah - the door I wanted was #1 Special Order and #2 $1200! Sorry, but no.

In reality I need THREE new front doors. My mission has been for Robin's Nest because it still has the door from when it was a rental cabin - the kind for a key card! Once we tried to take that clunky thing out - only to find that there was a giant rectangular hole in the door. So I ordered an Oil Rubbed Bronze wrap around plate to cover the hole and put in a regular door knob.  Would you believe it wouldn't cover the whole hole? Naturally the clunky card reader was reinstalled. Yay.

I wanted a door with glass at the top to let in some extra light because the living area is rather dark. Funny how that happens when the floor, ceiling and walls are all wood. I would have loved a full glass door, but since we aren't there all the time, I fear it would be broken into more easily. I'm a huge fan of Craftsman style - mid-century modern in pretty much any aspect. 

Here's the door I wanted. It's a 6 lite Craftsman solid wood door slab. I didn't want pre-hung. I didn't want steel. I didn't want fiberglass. I just wanted a wood door.

So I happened to be in Craig's List on my lunch break at work a few days before we were leaving for vacation and HOLY CRAP! What do I run across? THIS!

 

So I get home, check my door sizes and immediately e-mail this person. Yes, the doors are still available. I'm interested, what is your schedule tomorrow and where are you located? No response. The next day I respond again - I'm really interested in both of these doors, can I come see them? Call me . Half hour later, he calls. Set up a time to meet him the next day - with cash. Mr. Paisley has to meet the termite inspector at the Cottage so I set it up for after that - either way, I'll be at work until after dark. Go figure, the termite guy is late. He finally turns up "yep, that's termites" (no kidding...I know it's termites - you've been treating them for like 3 years now - it's clearly not working - when do we do something that WILL work? To which he says "technicians cannot schedule treatment, I'll put in a work order and a supervisor will come out to verify and then schedule the treatment" SERIOUSLY? TWO more appointments? WTH Massey....WTH. Stay tuned supervisor will be here tomorrow...). Mr. P comes home with the doors. I am beyond giddy. You really have no idea. First - minus the dental molding, they're the doors I wanted. Second, these doors - I can't even tell you what they cost, but I would bet more than ordering them from Home Depot. They were custom ordered from this site Buffelen Door out of Tacoma, WA (according to the bright orange stickers on the glass). This is a "design your door online and we'll send you a quote" place. They have some amazing options! Third...$200. $200 for TWO DOORS! Score much? Yeah...I know!

So the next day we load up the larger one to go to the cabin and voila! It's installed with a smart lock. It was too cold to stain it on this trip, but we will do it next time. It's under a covered deck anyway so it's out of the weather. It's seriously amazing.

I made a quick no-sew curtain for it as well, but that will be another post. I don't want the windows covered, but at the same time, when we aren't there on a daily basis I don't want everyone looking in either...

Update!

Just a quick Whole30 update - I can say with 100% certainty that we have NOT been strict with eating Whole30 since mid-February. We just got home from a 10 day vacation and trust me when I say we were way off track.

I guess I should clarify. I had toast with breakfast. Sometimes breakfast was eggs and cheese on toast. Basically, there was bread every day. Though I will say it wasn't all day, every day. We ate canned chili. And Fritos (which are actually more or less OK - "fried" being the only downside). We had dessert one night - it was actually the 2nd day when we met some friends at our favorite steakhouse. It wasn't worth it in my opinion. Not as good as I remember. I wouldn't order my "usual" again for sure.

My downfall was sweet tea. Because we took one of the iguanas with us, we were pretty limited for meals along the way. Fast food...have you ever tried to get them to give you the BIG cup of water? Good luck with that. I really wanted to stay away from soda and artificial sweeteners so I went with sweet tea. Then I bought 2 gallons of it instead of sticking to water and juice all week.

I've had nothing but water since we got home. I missed it. Really!

This morning I was thrilled to hop on the scale and find the same 3 pounds that had come back BEFORE we left. That's 2 points for not gaining any more weight back. I'm going to work really hard at getting those 3 pounds off this week. I'm pretty sure I can do it.

I also have to get my blood work done this week as my first follow up appointment with my "new" doctor is at the end of the month. Looking forward to the results!

That's a first...

Whole 30 update

Well, it took 4 days, but I lost the 3+ pounds I gained from ONE DAY of carb loading.  It's funny (not really) how losing weight while eating Whole 30 compliant was a fraction of a pound per day, yet I load up on carbs on reintro gluten day and BAM 3 pounds overnight. Retaining water? Probably. Bloated? Definitely. 

I've kind of decided that when I choose to have gluten grains, I will most definitely limit them to one meal a day. 

My mom stopped by yesterday - she brought me an orchid for Valentine's Day. She's pretty thin. The weight she does have, she carries in her middle. She said that her doctor (who is Vietnamese) told her if she wanted to lose it to cut the carbs. My mom pretty much lives on bread and pasta. Not big on meat.

Carbs...what are you gonna do?
 

Reintro - Day 11

Day 11 - DAY 11! Do you know what that means? We're done. Officially done with our first Whole30.

We followed the 10 day reintroduction schedule and today is our last "2nd Whole30 day" after the last reintroduction.

We ended up going out for dinner. Sharon's again - because it's easy.

I got up late so I didn't have enough time to make breakfast and lunch (food prep people, I'm telling you it's the key to success with eating this way) so I made lunch and at 2/3 of it for breakfast when I got to the office. Then went to Outback with a couple of co-workers. I had the usual...only I changed it up and had them GRILL the steak - still plain though.

Breakfast was chicken salad. I added a Fuji apple, dried, unsweetened cranberries, and slivered almonds. 

At some point I also ate 2 unsweetened applesauce cups and a Larabar...oh and a fruit snack thing. 

One thing to note - I have gained back 3 pounds since gluten grain reintroduction day. With all the carbs I ate in one day - I'm not even a little surprised.

Mr. P. did sort of surprise me last night on the way home from dinner saying he wasn't opposed to continuing to eat this way for the most part - but "I will not be giving up beer" LOL. Fine. I'll take it!

I suppose I'm going to just try to slip back into Whole30 here and get those 3 pounds back off and do my best to food prep on Sundays. I admit - I would have had time for breakfast yesterday if I had actually shredded my chicken and made the chicken salad in advance - oh and portioned it out into grab and go containers. Mr. P. has been taking his pretty regularly. 

I have a 3 day weekend coming up. I think I will do a full clean out of the fridge - add the new shelf liner that I bought a while back and get rid of things we won't be using anymore. Set yourself up for success and you can do it...right?

This will probably be my last daily update. I will continue to share new Whole30 recipes that we try, any new observations, challenges, and successes as well.

 

Reintro Day 10

Well...it looks like I will be limiting my grain intake from here on out. Lord have mercy...

• Bloating
• Gas
• Diarrhea
• Stomach (intestines I assume) ache

 I have a feeling I did not eat enough legumes to find out of I have any issue with them. Specifically beans. I will probably do another reintro day with them for myself.

Remember this gem? Pretty much me this morning!


 

Pass the Pepto...I have to go to work.

On the plus side - I'm pretty sure "the sickness" is just about done hanging around. I'm not coughing much at all now - mostly when I let my throat get dry. I know I haven't been drinking enough water the last few days. My eyes are much better although as a whole they don't look so good. From rubbing and wiping and 'crying' my flesh is red, raw and I actually have a couple of small zits. Too much touching, not enough cleaning I guess. I'm sure it will clear up over the LONG WEEKEND. WOO HOO - I am so excited about having a 3 days weekend.

So I got up at 6am, spent some quality time in the bathroom, washed my face and all that morning routine type crap and went to tackle the mountain of dishes. Yes I left BOTH sides of the sink full of dirty dishes. Why? Because I had already unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher once yesterday and I didn't feel like doing it again. Truth be told, I didn't feel like doing it this morning either. Somehow Mr. P. has a 30 minute morning routine and I have a 2 hour morning routine. Mine has nothing to do with girly stuff either. I'm a pro at multi-tasking. I swipe my face and neck with a peel pad and go about getting the critters rotated in and out of the shower, wash my face, pat dry and moisturize while someone is still in the shower, by the time shower duty is done my face is dry and I can put on my make-up which takes 5 minutes tops. IT Cosmetics powder foundation, IT Cosmetics powder blush, brush the eyebrows and lashes to remove any powder residue and a quick swipe of IT Cosmetics black gel eyeliner pencil. I keep my lip gloss in the Jeep and put it on before I get to work. Plenty of red lights to sit at on the way to the office... I'm super efficient at getting dressed too. Typically when it's 'cold' like it has been - it's leggings and a tunic or leggings and a dress - both with boots. Again, pretty much a 5 minute event.  Then it's on to feeding the critters, opening the blinds in their room, packing my lunch, making my breakfast, doing the dishes from someone else making their breakfast, unloading the dishwasher if it's full, putting out the  mail if there is any, getting the paper if it's delivery day, and separating the trash/recycle carts because I have a neighbor who is insistant on putting hers across the street with our but she doesn't follow the rules. We have an automated truck now - it goes down the street and has a grabber claw that picks up the bin and dumps it. There has to be 3 feet of space on all sides of the bin for that to work. Nope - she puts it right up against ours.  I think I will put a stop to that - I'm writing a note to tape on her bin Friday morning! I don't have time to do other people's work in the morning.

My stomach was a mess most of the day at work, but I also had the munchies pretty bad.

I had 3 scrambled eggs, 3 sandwich steaks, a cup of applesauce (not a literal cup, but you know – the individual cups), 3 Simply Balanced raspberry pineapple fruit snack things, a big bowl of chicken salad and a Larabar. Plus several 24 oz cups of water.

I went to the Super Wal-mart that’s next door to my office because I needed some hair color, light bulbs, milk and a new air purifier. I ended up getting a cheap pack of toothbrushes for cleaning, a new battery op toothbrush for my drawer at work, a couple of pairs of leggings for Georgia and new wiper blades for my Jeep. Holy crap – when did wiper blades get so expensive?! I also picked up a 2 pack of filters for my air purifier. I’ve been sleeping with the TV on because my old one died Monday night. I can’t sleep when it’s quiet. Lucky for me Mr. P. has been sleeping in the guest room since I’m sick. He could never sleep with the TV on – not with the light, not with the sound.

So I got home late. Mr. P. had a wonderful dinner ready when I got home. Alas, no picture and it was definitely picture worthy! Seared scallops, sauteed asparagus and green beans with garlic and prosciutto! It was sooooo good. OMG a million times better than pasta and garlic bread.

It's cold here - we actually have a frost advisory. My hands were cold, so I made a Godiva Milk Hot Chocolate with the SO Delicious (compliant) unsweetened almond milk I picked up at Wal-mart today. It did the trick!


    

  

Reintro Day 9

Today is gluten grain day! SO EXCITED!

I decided to stay home from work again today. Since I no longer have a private office, I don't want to be running out the door every 5 minutes to hack my brains out with the coughing. It's COLD today. I put on leggings, socks, sneakers and a 3/4 sleeve sweatshirt today and I've still be curled up under a blanket on the couch most of the day.

I did finish up some laundry as well as do dishes...what's new? When aren't I doing dishes?

I made a couple of sandwich steaks this morning, with 3 organic, cage free eggs (scrambled), and 2 slices of delicious, buttered, sourdough toast. I even took a pretty picture!

For lunch I made gluten free mac n cheese - only I used vanilla coffee creamer because I didn't have milk. I threw it out. There's something very wrong about sweet mac n cheese. So gross. I had 2 more slices of toast and 2 squares of dark coconut chocolate from my Lindt bar from Christmas. It was the last 2 squares. I was a little sad. 

Mr. P. got home early in the afternoon and wanted to know what kind of pasta I wanted for dinner LOL. So I googled and found a garlic butter pasta recipe. We might add shrimp and/or scallops. He happily went off to Publix and like 45 minutes later (he went for pasta, bread, green beans and sandwich steaks - and Publix is literally walking distance from the house) he comes back with a baguette to make garlic bread, sandwich steaks, pasta, 2 packages of crackers, and  frozen green beans. Apparently he was reading labels. 

This morning I was down 17.8 pounds. I'm afraid of tomorrow's check in...carbs have never been good to me and after my first piece of toast this morning, I could have made and eaten the entire loaf. 

I had a handful of 3 ingredient Triscuits. I don't remember the last time I had them, but boy were they good!

Here's the Buttery Garlic Pasta recipe from Uncle Jerry's Kitchen. We added shrimp. It was delicious! Not to mention simple and quick. GREAT meal for those nights you forget to take something out of the freezer. 

 

Reintro Day 8

Nothing exciting today. I'm still not back to 100% so...

Breakfast was a Larabar.

Lunch was chicken salad with homemade mayo, dried cranberries (unsweetened) and a diced Fuji apple. I also had a fruit cup.

Dinner was OUT. We went to Sharon's and we both got a 4oz burger patty, 2 over medium eggs and home fries (no butter, made on the griddle).

Oh - I may have had 2 squares of dark chocolate with coconut from a Lindt bar that my husband put in my Christmas stocking. I still have 2/3 of it, plus a mini Toblerone bar, a 2 pack of peanut butter cup trees and another whole chocolate bar that I can't remember.  Once upon a time I would have wolfed down a whole bar in nothing flat. Two squares of dark chocolate is perfect. 

Tonight was a grilled bologna special night at Sharon's. Man did I want it. It used to be on their menu as a sandwich. It came as a thick slice of grilled bologna with American cheese, mayo and a grilled, buttered bun with sesame seeds. OMG. It's a southern staple y'all! They also had coconut cream french toast! 

Alas - tomorrow is grain day! Pasta and bread oh my! Mr. P. plans on having beer. Personally I don't put that under grain....but whatever. 

The best thing about today - minus not having to do dinner dishes - was a BAT! Mr. P. rescued a tiny little evening bat at work. It didn't appear to have any injuries at all, but it was awful cold and damp yesterday - raining off an one. My guess is that the poor little guy got all wet and cold and just couldn't make it home. He was balled up on the driveway at Mr. P's place of work - which thankfully doesn't have much traffic - and what traffic it does have, is controlled by security badge access. Poor little guy could have been run over! Luckily, the hubs is always keeping an eye out for the critters and rescues one critter or another on a daily basis. Typically it's snakes, frogs, and lizards that get into gear boxes or in the building. So this tiny little guy got to ride around half the day in a nice warm box in the truck. Eventually I got a hold of our local wildlife rescuer and she does take bats so he met up with her and passed off this ridiculously cute little creature. She assessed him and said he's good to go, probably cold and rain. She's going to keep him a few days to let him rest and get him fed on the regular and then we can let him go. 

 

Just hanging around...like a...bat.

 

Look how tiny! It's on the tip of his finger!

 

Getting a little crazy...

 

 

On the move!

 

Terrible video of a video that our rescue lady shot while she was feeding him tonight.