February/March Report

 Betsy & Kyle had 80s day at school.

I had another birthday.  With keto cake this year :)

 We made a trip to California to see Isaac.

I love this picture of Betsy and Judson.  I wish we could have been at her choir concert too.

 And spring is here again. 

 

More from Ike's Costa Rica Adventure

Feb 28th

Isaac on Adventure in Cost Rica

He said his first day there was the best day of his life.  

I love facebook and the ability to get messages and pictures from our loved ones.

February Update

 It's that time of year to take some cuttings from your forsythia shrubs and bring them inside to get a head start on spring.  February usually seems long and drab but we've had really warm temps lately.  Next week is forecasted for more of the same--50's, 60's, even 70!

But as my friend Doug said last night, "it's all a tease".  He's right, we're bound to have cold and snow and ice again before spring is here for sure.  In the meantime, the bulbs and the weeds in the garden are starting to show their green sprouts.

V had a birthday this month.  She's 79 very young years old.  She and Mark are watching videos from when Betsy and Kyle were little.  Those always make us smile :)

And here's our Skye girl.  She's still really into shoes.  She looks like she's saying, "I'm not doing anything bad.  Really, I'm not!"  But believe me, she can't be trusted with a shoe. . .

Madisonville Visit

We got to see Kyle play basketball during our visit.  He made 4 baskets! 

Here he's opening Grandma Peggy's card and reading it to us.  Thank you for the $20!

We went to the Oasis for his birthday dinner.  I had the best steak salad!  And of course the company made it taste even better :)

We had lunch with Betsy at school and that was fun even though our selfies didn't turn out to be share-worthy.

 And Betsy showed us the book her class wrote at Christmas, all about applying for a job as an elf with Santa. 

Something always going on at the Joneses' house!  I can't wait to go back again :)

Me & my little grand doggie Gumbo

A little before & after

My mama is just the cutest ever!  She's 80 years young and this is proof it's never too late to go low carb.  On the left, taken two years ago when we visited The Farm.  Picture on the right taken yesterday.  Thank you to PJ for sending this one--I love the apron and she looks so happy.  Wish I could have been there to hang out with you all too.  Love love to my Michigan peeps :) 

PS:  Mama--will you make me an apron too??

A New Website!

I've been working on a new website called Keto With Kynda and it's live today! I wanted a space where I could share what's happened to us with this low carb/high fat keto way of eating over the last year.  I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think. 

Canada Garden will still be here too but maybe a bit less keto-ing  and  more flowers  :)

Merry Christmas 2016

Christmas Menu

Here at the end of my first year of keto, Christmas has been so good.  I hope yours was beautiful too.

This was dinner for us.  Ham, green beans, cauli-fried rice this time with Mark's favorite rotel & taco seasoning seasoning, and salad.  But of course, Christmas eating is mostly about the deserts, right?

Meringues, which are supposed to be white, but I left them in too long and they browned.  Still, they're light as a feather and melt in your mouth. They're made of egg whites and Swerve with a squirt of lemon juice so they're extremely low carb.  For next time, I've made a little note to myself to check on them every 15 minutes and pull them out before they brown.

Cheesecake, which is our go-to keto desert for any special occasion.    And then a little scoop of death-by-chocolate ice cream.  I still don't have quite the technique for ice cream down, but this one came out pretty good.  I did use the vodka to make it less icy.  It needs to stand at room temperature a few minutes before scooping.  

Whew!  We were full to the brim.  Christmas is continuing at our house this week.  Betsy & Kyle will be here tomorrow with their parents and we're so looking forward to seeing them.

All the merriest to you and yours this Christmas season!

Mark & V

Christmas Road Trip

 Lisa was so happy to get her Macie dog!  She found her at the same shelter where Biscuit was rescued. 

And Macie's rescue was the perfect excuse for a road trip to Madisonville to see JD and Rach & the kids. 

My mom looks so beautiful!
I wish  PJ could have been there--when is the next road trip?

Merry Merry Christmas to all :)

Coconut Almond Crisps

Are you iced in today?  Mark has chipped out the driveway and we'll try to get out in a little bit, but it looks like we're in for really cold weather and more freezing rain :/

So while Mark was working outside, I made up a batch of these coconut almond crisps from over on alldayidreamaboutfood.  I did sub some sugar-free pancake syrup for the molasses.   She's right when she says they will burn quickly if you don't have them in the top third of the oven.  Mine didn't turn out as thin as hers and they may be a tad chewier than crispy but they are really good!  My recipe made thirteen cookies.

"Only" thirteen would have been my comment back in my sugar days, but now it's not that big of an issue.  Now thirteen is plenty.  Yes.  Life is different when you've been living low carb/high fat for almost a year and it's really really different when your size 12 pants are starting to get too big!

I hope you have good weather where you live today.  And I hope you're having a merry-getting-ready-for-Christmas time too.  And if you've been unhappy about your weight or your health, think about giving yourself the gift of keto for 2017.  You'll be so glad you did.

December Update

I've been busy working on a new website called KetowithKynda.com.  It's taking a while but I'm learning lots.  Also getting another tutorial in that life lesson called patience!

A while back, Mark and I had our pictures taken.  Tabitha took great shots even though I get really nervous in front of a camera.  Mark makes me laugh, so the ones of me with him turned out the best.

  Every single one of Mark was good.  He's a natural ham in front of the camera:)

Thanksgiving

We never take enough pictures of all of us together!  We had a wonderful time and wonderful food.

This was my plate--ham & turkey, cauliflower fajita stir fry, green beans, squash & mushrooms in butter, deviled eggs, and cranberry sauce.  More carbs than I've eaten all together in a while, but they're all from vegetables & the cranberry fruit so it was a perfect plate.  Judson cooked the traditional dishes too, but he was so careful to make sure we had options that would work for all of us.  He even looked up carb counts and kept track for us.  I felt loved :)

The pecan pie recipe needs tweaking.  It was a little overbaked and maybe that was the issue, but I think I'll try again for Christmas and make some changes.  Less crust.  More filling!  The cheesecake was good--it's one I've shared before.  The trivet was mammy's.  She said to always keep it by the stove.  She would have liked this Thanksgiving dinner.  She would have marveled at the dishwasher but would not have understood why I wasn't having cornbread dressing. 

Rachel had their tree up.  She and Mark placed the new lazer lights on the front of the house.  We played apples to apples and went bowling.  It was a great Thanksgiving together. 

So now it's time to get ready for Christmas!