February 04, 2012

Real Foods Challenge: Day 4

I took Noah to swim class this morning, and when I came home, I discovered something I hoped I'd never see. You would think with four cats, I would never have to. I was putting away dishes when I discovered that a mouse has taken up residence underneath my dishwasher and cupboards near the sink.

I first noticed that the plastic on the silverware tray was scraped off in a spot--and the little shavings were next to it. I KNOW it was not there yesterday. I thought it was weird, and asked the kids if they were sawing it with a knife or something. They said no, and I looked more closely at the drawer, and I saw mouse droppings.

I pulled all the drawers out, and got out a flashlight to look in the space underneath the drawers and sink. More mouse droppings. Not a LOT--just enough that I think it's just one mouse. I pulled everything out of the drawers, and took ALL the silverware and ran it through the dishwasher. I used Pinesol to clean out the drawers really well (the drawers contained my silverware tray, my Ziploc bags and plastic wrap, and then a "junk drawer" full of pens and papers and other stuff.

I found a few droppings in the drawer with the bags and plastic wrap, so I ended up throwing it all away. I cleaned out the junk drawer really well, but didn't find any droppings in there. Eli was SO excited about the whole thing--such a boy! He even said, "This is the most exciting day of my life!!" and he kept shining the flashlight in there. We let Estelle go in and check it out, but she came out with an empty mouth, unfortunately (slacker!).


I went to the store and bought a couple of mousetraps. They had all kinds of different ones, but I just chose the basic one that you think of when you picture a mousetrap. I thought it was a little more humane than the sticky paper--I read the instructions on it, thinking maybe I could save the mouse, but it says once the mouse is stuck to the paper, you just throw it away. That's so cruel!

I put peanut butter on for the bait (might as well give him a really yummy last meal). I set the first one with no problem, and as I was setting the second one, I thought, "Who in the hell could accidentally--" SNAP! The trap snapped on my thumb. I yelled, what may or may not have been profane words, and gave it to Jerry to do. Yup, the thumb is a little sore.

I don't want to put the drawers back in, because I don't want to have to go through this all over again tomorrow, so I just put plastic wrap over the opening and taped it shut (I don't want the cats to go in there and get snapped with the mousetrap).

The good news is that our food is nowhere near those cupboards. I have a pretty big kitchen, and we keep all of our food in a huge pantry on the opposite corner of where these cupboards are. So the mouse would have to cross the kitchen and climb up the wall to get to our food--not likely. I really hope that he finds the trap tonight though!


Another "real foods" day down the hatch! I'm kind of surprised how well I'm doing at this. Having the blog and making my intentions very public certainly helps--I would be too embarrassed to screw up, so I just keep that in mind when I'm tempted to quit the challenge.

Oh, speaking of which... I meant to write about this sooner, I really did, but I kept forgetting to talk about it. My super-long binge-free streak ended sometime around my birthday :(  I don't even remember when it happened the first time, but I had to start over. And today is only Day 4. Ah well, live and learn. I learned that I can't have more than ONE treat in my house at any given time. No batches of cookies, no cupcakes + cookies + chocolate, etc.

I do fine with portions when I just have one temptation in the house. But having more than that makes it very hard for me. But I'm determined to see this month through with real food, so hopefully I will stay binge-free as well.

I tried to vary my food a little today, so it's not such a boring food log ;)  I made "banana bread" oatmeal, and it was really good--topped with peanut butter, of course! I combined 1/2 cup old fashioned oats + 3/4 cup milk + 1/2 banana, sliced + 4 walnut halves, chopped + cinnamon + tiny dash of nutmeg in a bowl and microwaved on high for 3 minutes. It honestly tasted just like banana bread. And since I always eat banana bread with peanut butter spread on top, I had to do the same with the oatmeal.

Breakfast--banana bread oatmeal (above)
Lunch--salad with chicken, balsamic vinaigrette, raisins, almonds
Dinner--chicken and roasted veggies (I adore roasted veggies!!)
Snacks--1/2 banana with peanut butter, tea, peanut butter, popcorn with oil and salt


It was absolutely gorgeous outside today, and that actually made me do something I almost never do--go for an unscheduled run. I just wanted to be outside, so I decided to do a three miler. As always, once I started running, I thought, "Why the fuck am I running when I don't have to?!" ;)  But also as always, I was happy that I did once I was done.

13 comments:

  1. Your food looks so delicious! Real food can be so satisfying and wonderful. Makes you wonder why we do binge on those other foods, doesn't it?

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  2. AnniekadannieFebruary 04, 2012

    We used to get mice all the time under our kitchen sink - really gross.

    Then, about 5 or 7 years ago, we discovered these sonic devices that you plug into a wall to repel mice. They send out a really high pitched sound that you can't hear, but mice don't like. We've used them with 100 percent success! No poison, no mousetraps, no mice droppings or mice anymore! The only thing is that sometimes we've gotten a lemon - you can hear a low buzz while it's on which is unacceptable to me. But the ones that work really do the trick. We've had them in our kitchen and basement for a long time - they last forever. Just FYI....

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  3. Eek, a mouse! Once I left a protein bar in the cup holder of my car, and 2 days later it had a bite taken out of it- bar and wrapper. I was puzzled and threw it away. Then I left my headphones in the car and when I went to pick them up the next day, I only had headphones in my hand- the cord was still in the cupholder! Haha! There was a mouse living in my car! There were also some droppings on the floor. I was horrified. Anyways, I feel like a birthday binge isn't the greatest, but it's ok. I feel like it's slightly justified, when people are bombarding you with yummy celebration foods!

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    Replies
    1. Oh, that reminds me! When I was about 18, I was driving my Neon and every time I came to a stop, I saw what looked like a ball of some sort rolling out from under the passenger seat to the front of the car, and then it would roll back under the seat. Until at one stop, it didn't--and I saw that it was a MOUSE running back and fourth. I screamed and kind of overreacted, of course--I put my cat in the car for a little while to see if he could catch it ;) Never saw the mouse again!

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  4. My run was scheduled for today, but I just posted in my blog about wanting to go yesterday when I wasn't supposed to. I like how you say it was an easy run at that fast of a pace :) Of course I am still at a 20 minute mile :) As for the bingeing, I think you should be very proud of the streak that you had. And yeah it's a new month! yah!

    Thanks for being real

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  5. Ahhh, field mice. They love our houses in the winter. We have had several (as in many). They can get into the house through a hole the size of a nickel and all they want is food and a warm bed. I got the traps that you stick pb at the end and they go in and the door closes on them, sort of a mouse motel. Then I drive them across town and release them. You would think with my big dog I wouldn't have the problem, but I do.

    Mine I think came in through the siding into the basement and crawled up the hole for the pipe under the sink. One mouse we had could crawl up the back of the stove Katie, so don't underestimate them! How do I know you ask? I had left out a Little Debbie cupcake (in the wrapper) and I was in the living room. I heard crinkling of plastic. Hmmmm...let's go investigate. Would you believe I found the little bugger attempting to drag the LD cake (which was about 4x the size of him) through the space between the stove and the electronics panel????

    Anyway, I bought the sonic repellers (from QVC) and they seem to be working. I haven't found any dropping under the toaster oven in a very long time. The permanent solution would be to call an exterminator for him to seal up the house. Good luck!

    P.S. I had some "oats in a jar" last night for dinner and Molly was PISSED that I was stealing her treat!

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  6. Ugh, Mice. I hate when we get them. The house we live in now, we just moved in Aug, has a huge field attached and for the first month I was catching mice. I get a random one once in a while but am good at catching them. The best bait is a small bread crumb then cover it in honey. Works every time.
    That oatmeal looks yummy, I might have some for breakfast today.

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  7. When I was reading Fricking Fabulous @40's comment, about the mouse trying to drag the Little Debbie cake, it made me think of that movie, "Honey I Shrunk the Kids!" Remember when the kids found an oatmeal cream pie in the back yard? It was HUGE compared to their miniscule size and they were gorging on it, before they got completely sickened by the sweetness. I always try to think about that if I am tempted by something sweet! Usually doesn't work, but I TRY!

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  8. My grandfather had a "major" mouse problem...I say major because all totaled we caught 6 mice. We used both the 'traditional' traps and the sticky trays...we never caught any with the traditional traps. My grandfather lives out in the country so after catching them we took them across the street to the woods and poured some oil on the sticky pads. Most of the mice were able to free themselves within just a couple minutes...the ones that couldn't I used a LONG stick and helped nudge them free.

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  9. I have always heard that if you have one mouse, you probably have two because they are nearly always in pairs. I hope you catch them soon. We had two cats and a bunch of mice in the basements a couple years ago...I don't think the cats even knew!!

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  10. I agree that the sticky pads are cruel. However, after having failed numerous times over the course of a week to catch any, and then having one run across the bed WHILE I WAS IN IT.... I threw humanity out the window! I just wanted the critters out of my house and especially out of MY BED!! Once you interefere with my sleep cycle.... it's on!!

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  11. Last winter we had a mouse (or mice!) in my hall closet where I had the empty box/styrofoam case to my husband's glass chess set. One day I opened the closet door and it was like SNOW all over the floor in there! Sneaky bugger had burrowed INTO the box and all the way through the styrofoam! It took FOREVER to vacuum up all those little floaty pieces of white. We bought D-Con and put in the closet and never saw him (or any signs of burrowing) after that!

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