a new car!

Mirielle did her research ahead of time, and found a place that had the vehicle she thought she wanted. She chose a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, 2013. A few miles on it, and a few thousand dollars cheaper than the 2014 model, and we got them to take an extra thousand off it. It gets decent gas mileage, and is all-wheel drive, which is great for driving in the snow.

Jon really likes shopping for cars.....

He was asking the salesman about the traction system, comparing it to Nissan, which the salesman took to mean we had been looking at Nissans too and perhaps knew a thing or two, although that was wrong, Jon had looked at the Nissans with Abigail....Jon also mentioned Suburu, and asked if they were similar....but Mirielle wasn't looking at Suburus, Aaron bought one a few months ago with Jonathan in tow. I think having Jon along worked in her favor when we asked for the absolutely lowest price they were willing to sell it at, as they assumed we were shopping around.

Homeschool kid, gets to read, "Calvin And Hobbes", while eating his snack.

I have decided I need to have a better game plan as far as weight loss is concerned. I need to be on the offensive...instead of saying NO to all sorts of temptations, I need to have lots of good things planned that I can and will eat, thus making the NO easier to say, uh-hem, in theory. I don't eat bread or cookies or cereal anymore, as a rule, although I do have my occasional cookie binges. I am more likely to stray by eating just little tastes of things though. I like my dark chocolate, but I have to be careful, as one piece tastes so good, five pieces must be just glorious, or so my mind seems to go. Yesterday I let way too much time elapse between breakfast and lunch, and took a nice long walk in between, so I got too hungry and ate some cheese popcorn....like 400 calories worth. Not good. Tasted good, but dang it. So I have lots to work on, I am not giving up.

There are blueberry muffins in the kitchen. Not for me. Mirielle made those peanutbutter crispy bars with chocolate on top the other night while she was nocturnal, I woke up in the morning and all I saw was a whole day of enduring and saying NO, which I successfully did. There are English Muffins too, which I adore with butter and strawberry jam, although it's been so long, I don't quite remember, but I'm pretty sure they're delectable.

I bought some coconut flour last night, and have to get more almond flour, as I am perfecting my grain-free pumpkin waffles....they are pretty darned good. My current recipe:

1 cup almond flour
a pinch of baking powder
some pumpkin pie spice
a few scoops of pumpkin, probably a half cup or so
a bit of fake sugar, I use Splenda
three egg yolks
a splash of vanilla
a few tablespoons of melted butter

I beat the egg whites separately until stiff, then fold them into the above mixture, the put them on the waffle iron (sprayed with cooking spray), 1/3 cup at a time. They are pretty yum, need no topping, but I want to substitute some of the almond flour for coconut, and see it they are a little less mealy.

Jonathan is having a muffin now, then he will settle in to do some math, and I will get some things done around here. It is a dark and overcast day, rainy and chilly, the nice kind of day, a good day to stay in and drink coffee. I almost hate when the sun comes out and ruins these gloomy cozy days. I'm sort of glad I don't have a good library book today:)