Diabetes Family Camp 2016

Still unable to find anything similar here in Michigan, we packed up and headed to the Indianapolis area this past weekend for the Diabetes Youth Foundation of Indiana's overnight family camp.

We arrived and checked in around 1 pm on Saturday. We made our beds in our cabin, then headed to the campfire for an icebreaker! There were about 8 families in attendance with T1 kids of varying ages. As usual, Jameson was the youngest, and no one else his age was there. The next youngest T1 camper was a 7 year old girl. Still a good time though!

Saturday afternoon, after the icebreaker, we made stamped leather bracelets. The arts and crafts director purchased a bunch of belts from goodwill, cut them to the desired lengths, put snaps on the ends, and then we used stamping kits and hammers to imprint them as we wished. It was such a cool craft!

For Saturday night dinner, we had chicken parmesan, along with salad, broccoli, and angelfood cake and strawberries for dessert. They provided gluten free pasta and chicken for Jameson, with GF oreo cookies for his dessert.

After dinner, we played "Minute to Win It" games in the dining hall. It was several small challenges, done in Parents Vs. Kids style. The adults won!

Saturday night, we made S'mores at the campfire, complete with gluten free graham crackers for Jameson. We all crashed before 10 pm!

Sunday morning, we had sausage, eggs, and French toast bake with grapes. (GF French toast for Jamers). Then, we headed out to the open field for field games. Parents vs. Kids again. The kids were given a ton of advantages over the parents, and they annihilated us, but it's ok. We all had a ton of fun!

We had a picnic/cookout for lunch at the campfire - burgers, dogs, watermelon, pasta salad, GF mac n cheese, and cookies. It was very tasty! As soon as we had eaten our fill, we headed out, as we had the longest drive home out of all the campers.

We got home around 4, gathered the dirty laundry, started a load of laundry, then relaxed. We were (are) pretty pooped. 

We did find this turtle nesting in the yard Sunday evening. Super cool!

This week, we are going to get the pool up, get my plants in the garden (my zucchini plants started to BLOOM this week - in their starter cups - oops), get started extending the garden fence height, and cleaning the house - a little bit each night.

Our May has been quite busy. Matt travelled the first weekend, we had company the second weekend, we all travelled this past weekend. Our plans this coming long Memorial Day weekend are to do as little "going" as possible! Matt and his brother increased the size of our fire pit last weekend, so we need to break that in. It should be a busy week, but lead up to a very relaxing weekend.

Hope you all have a great week!

Workin' It Out: 5/8 - 5/14

I want to document my fitness again, as I'm in battle with my ridiculously slow metabolism to drop 10-15 pounds. I consider myself a very average person who adores delicious food and red wine, but who also understands that a balance exists between enjoying those things and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. 

So with that said, here's this past week's fitness accomplishments!

Sunday: Rest Day

Monday: 3.13 Mile Run
(10:45 average pace - an improvement, again!)

Tuesday: Gym - lifted Back and Biceps
30 minutes HIIT on the elliptical

Wednesday: Rest!

Thursday: Lifted shoulders and triceps

30 mins treadmill - 26 straight running minutes! 

Friday: Rest!

Saturday: lifted chest and back + 

30 mins HIIT on the treadmill

The breakfast I was loving this past week was a homemade concoction: Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal!

The baked oatmeal recipe is pretty basic, you just flavor it however you want.

For my basic recipe, I use 2 cups of oats, 1 large egg + 1 large egg white, and 1.5 cups of milk.

For this particular recipe, I added 1 chopped banana and about 5 large frozen strawberries, cut into small pieces. I sweetened the oatmeal with 1/2 scoop of vanilla protein powder and 2 Tbsp light brown sugar. It turned out pretty good!

(Although the picture was pretty worthless.)

I cut the 8x8 square pan of oatmeal into 9 servings, and each one works out to be

141 calories

2 grams fat

25 grams carbs

8.5 grams protein



Workin' It Out - 5/1 - 5/7

Sunday: 2.4 mile run

(2 minutes running, 1 minute walking, x10)

Monday: Lifted Legs + 30 minutes HIIT on the elliptical

Tuesday: Lifted back and biceps
20 minutes HIIT treadmill
(2 mins running, 1 minute walking)

Wednesday:
Lifted Shoulders and Triceps
30 minutes elliptical

Thursday: 2.75 mile run

Friday: REST

Saturday:REST
(Matt was out of town, so I didn't have anyone to watch the kids so I could work out. Boo.)


I set a goal of 2 runs for the week, and I accomplished that goal!

The breakfast I was loving this week was a Brownberry Sandwich Thin with 1 large egg white, 1 slice of Kirkland (Costco) Low Sodium Bacon, and 1/2 a slice of American cheese. It works out to

175 calories

7 grams of fat

22 grams of carbs

5.5 grams of protein.

 

What's New with the Metz Family

I haven't posted in a while, and I feel like it's time for an update post!

In a nutshell, life just isn't too bad, my friends. :)

Last December, when it was time to look ahead to the upcoming year, I made the decision that I didn't want to continue being an angry, bitter person. The years 2012-2015 weren't exactly easy for us, and some bitterness and resentment had been slowly building up inside of me. 2015 was the hardest of those years, and I became someone that I wouldn't ever want to be around, honestly. Sarcastic, rarely smiling, always mad about something. I knew that's the person I had become, but I felt like I had every right to be that way.

But at the end of 2015, we had been in Michigan for nine months, we were settled, and I decided I didn't want to be bitter and hateful any longer. I wanted to genuinely enjoy life again.

I've spent the last four months working on myself. I've done a whole heck of a lot of personal growth, learned a lot about myself, and accepted some hard life truths. I'm not perfect (because, do we ever really stop growing or improving?), but I'm in a whole lot of a better place than I was six months ago. And it feels great!

Hendrix is almost a first grader now. He's in soccer (through AYSO), and has two really good friends from school. He often comes up to me out of nowhere and just wraps his arms around my waist and it's one of the best little parts of my life!

Jameson is still Mr. Popular in pre-school. He's a complete goofball, so I'm pretty sure everyone just loves him. I'm telling you, God gave him his quirky personality for a reason! He'll start kindergarten in the fall, and he's definitely ready.

We've been attending a church right down the road from our house for about six months now and we just love it. It's a perfect mix of traditional and contemporary. The pastor delivers some awesome sermons, and he's hilarious, so he definitely keeps you engaged.

We've got 4 camping trips on the books for this summer, and I'm so excited! (I just wish the weather would warm up and stay that way!) I'm working on wrapping all the cushions in the camper to update the 90's look a bit, and also sewing some new bunk end curtains, so I'll make sure to share that project when it's complete.

We are headed to Diabetes Camp this month. I haven't found a family camp near us so far, so we'll be heading down to the Indianapolis area. It's ok though. It was a lot of fun last year when Jameson and I went. Hendrix and Matt are joining us this year. I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm working on getting my physical health back in check, now that my emotions are in a good place again. I've gone on a couple jogs, and it's my goal in May to run at least 2x per week, and keep up with lifting weights as well. I would like to lose 15 pounds, so we'll see how that goes!

Other than that, we've just been doing our thing in our little corner of West Michigan. This summer is going to be awesome, and life is good.

I hope you're all doing well!

We finally made it to the beach for the first time on Easter Sunday, and once again after that. It's breathtaking.

Hendrix had his piece of art submitted in a Caledonia Art Day show at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. He was so proud.

Mohawks are cool these days.

Our pooch has a favorite stuffed animal (in the background). Also, we re-mulched the front beds and they look great! More work to come on the next dry weekend.

Make this week a fantastic one!