I know a big part of it is lack of money.  Sadly, it's cheaper for my family to get fast food than it is to make a good meal at home.  Six double cheeseburgers is only $6.  A nice meal at home can cost up to $40.  These past few weeks, financially, have been terrible, which means my family is eating a lot of pasta, canned stuff, etc.  We're basically eating whatever we already had in the cupboards, then supplementing with fast food.  SUPPLEMENTING WITH FAST FOOD?!!?!?!  What a terrible thought, and yet I'm doing it.  That has GOT to stop! 

I'm honestly in a bit of a funk.  I'm not sure if it's the stress of money issues, trying to get back into the swing of the school year, which means TONS of running around and seemingly no time to do anything but drop kids off, pick kids up (my four kids in school get dropped off at two different times and picked up at four different times, all between 8 am and 4 pm), deal with homework and stuff like that.  By the time I'm even thinking about dinner, it's already past time for dinner and the kids are hungry and needing to get to bed in an hour!  Add to that, a husband who works between 12-16 hours a day, but never the same hours each day, and it's chaotic.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...excuses, excuses.  Meg, thank you for calling me out on not updating recently.  I really needed it.  It's far too easy to just disappear and not be acountable, then never reappear and just undo everything you have been working so hard to do.

Oh, and horror of all horrors, I even started ATKINS again!  I was feeling desperate.  I wanted to see that rapid drop of weight.  I thought it would be the boost I needed to get going again.  When I was at the grocery store, my DH asked me if I needed to get some fruits and veggies.  I told him no.  He thought that was strange.  Then, he saw me frying some eggs, put two and two together and put a stop to that right quick. LOL  He made me go back to the store and pick up fruits and veggies. LOL  I love him for it.  I needed him to snap me out of it!  Low carb is fine.  Atkins induction is not.  No slight to those doing it, it's just not for me.  I'm actually doing low carb...kind of.  I'm mainly sticking to veggies and fruit that is low on the glycemic index.  I'm going to cut out the meat and dairy again.  That stuff just isn't good for me.  Again, no slight to those that consume it...it's just not for me.

Speaking of which...I was buying some food for my kid's lunches for next week.  I watched the Rachel Ray show (I LOVE her!) last week and it was about fun things to pack for your kids school lunches.  She showed something she called "Fundue," which was just veggies, meat and cheeses, that the kid could dip in a sauce of ranch dressing and salsa, then fruits and angel food cake they could dip in pureed strawberries.  As I was buying the meat to cut up into chunks for the fundue, it nearly made me gag.  The thought of the meat was just gross.  It was then that I realized that I just don't want meat.  Don't get me wrong.  I LIKE meat.  I'm a HUGE fan of an extremely rare filet mignon.  OH MY GAWD...heavenly.  (If it's cooked well....I'm a total filet snob lol)  But, the thought of meat really just grosses me out.  I come to this realization every once in a while and you'd think it would stick with me, but it really doesn't.   I need to just make the switch to vegetarianism and stick to it.  I think I would be MUCH happier if I did.

Did I mention that my girls LOVE salad?  They're so cute.  They take a salad to school for lunch every day.  Their friends think I'm torturing them. LOL  Their friends try to shove microwaved burritos, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and goldfish crackers at them during lunch, thinking that my kids must be deprived, but my girls LOVE their salads!  I'm so thrilled with that!  Ooh, speaking of salads, let me give you some product recommendations!!!

This is the container my girls use for their salads: http://www.fit-fresh.com/products/transportation/saladshaker.php  I pack their salad on the bottom, then put their dressing in the little spot for it.  Plenty of room for a very large salad!  Plus, it has a utensil area, which is VERY convenient!  The ice pack keeps everything cool and the seperate dressing area keeps things from getting soggy because you don't add the dressing until you're going to eat.  The dressing goes into the salad, you shake everything up, and you're good to go!

This is what they use when they don't take a salad for lunch: http://www.fit-fresh.com/products/transportation/lunchonthego.php  They usually have a sandwich on the bottom along with some pita chips, some veggies and fruit in one tray and some hummus in the other tray.  These are also the containers I will be using for "Fundue."  The meat, cheese and veggies will go on one side of the bottom, separated by those little green "grass" separators that you find in sushi or bento boxes, with angel food cake chunks and fruit on the other side, then one top container will have a combo of salsa and ranch and the other will have pureed strawberries.

I don't have this, but I really want one: http://www.fit-fresh.com/products/transportation/breakfastchiller.php  A lot of times, my kid's breakfast is yogurt with fruit and granola mixed into it.  How perfect is this container for it?  Granted, they don't usually go anywhere with their breakfast, unless they're eating in the car on the way to school and school is less than four minutes away, but still...very cool.  What can I say..I'm a consumer. lol

I currently have Campbell's Soup thermos' to send to school with soup in it, but I want these: http://www.fit-fresh.com/products/transportation/warmsoupcontainer.php

(Are you getting the idea that I REALLY like this company yet? lol)

My kindergartener doesn't eat lunch at school, but he does have to bring a snack every day.  This is what his will be going in, as soon as I get it. lol http://www.fit-fresh.com/products/transportation/warmsoupcontainer.php  He usually takes celery sticks with peanut butter (we're not a peanut free school) carrot sticks with ranch, apples with caramel, or other fruit with yogurt.  (He's a big dip kinda kid!  Fundue will be perfect for him!)

Last, but certainly NOT least, http://www.fit-fresh.com/products/livpure/  I cannot even begin to tell you how badly I want one of these for each of my kids.  Currently, my kids take three bottles of water each to school with them.  My kids are HUGE water drinkers and I HATE them drinking tap water.  I just don't think it's good for you.  I don't even cook with tap water.  If I could afford to, I'd wash my dishes and shower with bottled water. LOL  We are a 100% bottled water family.  I'm okay with tap water, if it's been filtered, though.  (I dream of someday having water and ice from my fridge door...it's the little things in life that make me happy lol and when I have my own house, we WILL have a whole house filtration system.  Did you know that the majority of the water that enters your body during the day comes from being absorbed through your skin in the shower?!?!?!)  They often finish their three bottles, then resort to drinking out of the drinking fountains.  (We won't even get into how unsanitary those things are with sick kids sucking on them because they don't know how to properly use them...but I have germ issues that I'm trying not to pass onto my kids. LOL)  Anyways, I totally want my kids to have one of these in their backpacks so they can fill them from the fountain (ick) and at least have filtered water if not bottled water.

Okay, there ARE some cons to these products.  The lid doesn't stay on incredibly well.  It's fine for an adult.  It's not like it's going to randomly pop off in your purse or anything.  (What do you mean your purse isn't large enough to carry a lunch box, a baby sling, three diapers, wipes, a bunch of toys, a change of clothes for two different kids, your knitting and a spare child or two?  Isn't everybody's?)  But, for kids, who throw their backpacks around, drop things and generally aren't exactly gentle with their things, you run the risk of the lid coming off.  For example, at my kid's school, all lunches for each class are put in a big bin and carried to the lunch room by a couple of kids.  Caitlin's was on the top of the bin.  Kids aren't very careful.  Her lunch fell out of the bin, onto the ground, it came open and she lost her entire salad.  She was majorly bummed. :(  So, I found insulated lunchboxes that these things fit into.  Unfortunately, I cannot find them online to link you to.  They are by "Zero Degrees" and are called the "Lunch Bucket."  It has two compartments, one on top of the other.  The bottom compartment fits the lunch container and the top compartment fits a bottle of water (maybe even two, although I haven't tried it yet)  I made the mistake of not trying to fit the salad container into the bottom compartment, so I don't know if it will fit.  It's a bit taller than the lunch container, so it might not fit.

Anyways, that's enough of my endorsements for today.  This post is entirely too long. lol