Spring and labels

It has been such a fun month.  Spring is in full swing.  We put up our spring trees with pin wheels and raffi and bugs of every kind.  It just makes me happy to look at it! 

With Spring time comes lot's of soccer games and baseball games.  Derek is quite the soccer player this year. He feels so grown up to be in a big game of his very own.   I find it so hilarious to watch 5-6 year old soccer.  Its like a swarm of bees fighting over the same flower.  The kids have to be reminded to NOT sit down and pick the grass and throw it at each other.  What a great opportunity this is for our little Derek to learn some good sportsmanship and how to work as a team player. 

Joseph has been playing hard at baseball, with a few bumps in the road. He sprained his ankle and had to sit out a game and then a few days later he fell off his bike and needed stitches on his elbow. But, our star pitcher is back in full swing in the game and having the time of his life! He is so much fun to watch and such a natural.  The funniest thing happened the other day though.  The assistant couch was voicing his concern about our little Joseph.  Worried that he was TOO POLITE.  Too funny!  I just wish he was TOO POLITE all the time!!!

I've had a little spring fever in me and have felt inclined to spring clean............or rather, organize!
I realize this is a terrible picture, but believe me when I say, its a definite improvement from what all my crafty supplies used to look like.  We had an unused armour in our basement that used to hold a tube TV.  We got rid of the TV so I could use the space to make a little crafting-hutch! Yeah!!!

 

And don't get me started on the laminator because I can not be contained.  I found some fun tags online that you can print....making it possible to label EVERYTHING you own. 

I had so much fun with labeling all my craft stuff that I decided I should do it for the medicine closet.  What can I say.....its an illness!

 Here is the link to these very fun and free printable labels. 

With so many projects going on, I decided I really needed to finish my wreath that I have been working on for a few months. It literally took me 30 hours to make.....(or at least it seemed).  I just rolled a few flowers during baseball games, or in the evening while hanging with Hubster.     It turned out so great and I am grateful for my little Lexi for helping me too!

It is made of a couple of old books which have been violently destroyed and cut..... then rolled into flowers and hot glued onto a wreath.  HERE is the tutorial if you have an extra 30 hours on your hands.  I added the beads for a little extra zing. 

I just love the spring!

Harvard and Food

I was asked a few weeks ago to prepare an enrichment lesson about how to plan and prepare healthy meals for your family.  So I got to thinking......  Perhaps I ought to start doing just that!

I have to admit that sometimes dinner time is NOT my favorite time of day. I feel a little discouraged after preparing a delicious, time consuming feast that one or more person disapproves of.   And since I am the grocery shopper in the family, I have always assumed the role of menu maker. UNTIL NOW! 

I guess I just assumed that if I gave the kids the option to plan the meals we would end up eating macaroni and cheese and pizza 3-4 days a week.  Not so! Cause I made the rules!!! 

 I came across this Harvard Meal Wheel that is such a jewel.  It is the most recent research on the food pyramid put into a plate-ish type thing.  Basically, every time you prepare a meal for yourself or your people, you make an imaginary line (or a real one if you prefer) and divide your plate into four quarters.  One quarter should include your protein, another a whole grain and the other two should be your fruit and vegetable.  Notice however, that you are to consume more vegetables than fruit. 

I love this little imagery, except I am still convinced they accidentally left out the chocolate section.  I need to e-mail them about that.   
Following this totally makes things simple.  No calorie counting.  No weighing or measuring your food.

Did I mention I got a laminator?  Holy smokes. This little gadget is just so much fun and it makes me feel so powerful.  So I laminated this little puppy, (as I have nearly everything else in the house) and taped it on a screwier to stick in our table center piece.  Its great for easy access and to help the kids prepare their breakfast in the morning, should I be in the shower (:

It's silly, I know....

I also got ambitious and finally made a menu board.  Its a frame I found on clearance for $3.99 with a small piece of fabric under the glass.  I used pre-cut letters to spell MENU and wooden ones painted black for the days of the week from Joannes.  The embellishments are just scrapbook paper rolled into flowers and ribbon.    I really wanted to find some cute wooden food groups for the top, but couldn't find what I wanted, so I resorted to clip art. 

Each member of our family gets a day of the week to plan a well balanced nutritious meal.  You'll notice at the top of the board I have printed four food group categories:  Meat/ protein, Vegetables, Grains, and fruit.  Rule #1 for the planner is you must have a food from each food group  The kids get very excited about choosing any kind of fruit or vegi for their meal....even raspberries or corn on the cob. They love it.    I have also given myself the right to veto anything that sounds disgusting....cause, you know.....I am the Mom! 

As we gather our family together on Sunday evening to plan out the menu, I make a little grocery list. Then I head to the store Monday morning for all of our missing ingredients.  I love this.  It allows us to restock the fruits and vegetable that we go through so quickly. 

This has truly helped me as a Mother to be better about planning a well-balanced meal and it is helping my children to understand what constitutes a nutritious meal and a normal portion. 

OK, so that's it!  Like whatever, I am probably the only Mom out there that needs this! 

It Stinks!

I am not normally very creative.  BUT.........today, I sortof was.  One of my pregnant friends is moving,  so some ladies put together a farewell/baby shower for her.  I was looking online trying to figure out what to do for her and just couldn't find what I was looking for.  So I got to brainstorming and decided that I would make her something very special.  Something with meaning.  Something useful.  Something that every pregnant woman in the world would want....

A Poopy Bouquet....

because THAT is what a true friend does!

It is a bouquet of diapers and poopies (tootsie rolls).  There is also some baby powder and butt paste mixed in there.  I also got a brown vace because brown just seemed so fitting for some reason. 

Its just so beautiful that it brings tears to my eyes, as I am sure it does yours!

Don't be jealous! 

If you are ever pregnant and also happen to be moving, you will get one too!

Easter

For Easter this year, the kids woke up bright and early to find their Easter baskets and their new Sunday outfit to wear to church next to their bed. After they woke Hubster and I up, they hunted around and found some more eggs.

In the past, Easter morning has been a little stressful.  The kids wake up and check out everything and then its a race to see who can find the most candy.  The older ones are of course more skilled and can reach up higher so the younger ones feel very frustrated.  There are usually a few....

 "Hey, I saw that first....Mommmmmmm that's not fair............!!!!!!!!"

.....And sometimes there's crying. 

So this year, Easter Bunny was smarter.  He divided up most of the goodies evenly into each basket.  Then he only hid 6 eggs for each child.    The eggs were hid according to their age and ability.  Each child had a color and they were not allowed to show the others if they found one that was not their own.  This worked out much much better.  My in-laws would do this every year for the grandkids and now I know why!  They are brilliant! 

Here's our first try for Easter photo's:

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Doesn't everyone look soooooooooooooooooooo  happy? 

 So we hopped in the car and tried it again in front of the church.  But, this time I bribed them with bubble gum for smiles.

I should have given them a half stick cause those are NOT happy smiles.  Those are forced smiles.  They are "smile or you will DIE" kind of smiles. 

Anyhow...........church was wonderful as it always is.  I came home feeling refreshed, renewed, strengthened and ready to take on another week.  I am so thankful for Easter and the reminder that our earth life is "just a moment" in eternity.

 

 

Williamsburg

For spring break this year we decided to take a little trip to Williamsburg Virginia to stay at a Colonial Resort. What a relaxing place to spend a week together.  The resort was amazing.  Everything was designed Colonial style, down to the furniture in our rooms.  It was so neat!   All the trees are blossoming and my very favorite season of all is well on its way.  Hubster and Pollen are not getting along very well.  I feel so bad for him with allergies.   He has been snarfing a lot!  Poor Hubster!

We checked in on Friday and were able to watch General Conference on Saturday and Sunday.  The kids had fun playing Conference Bingo and doing their conference packets with their brand new crayons and markers!  Life just doesn't get more exciting than THAT!  What a wonderful spirit we felt as we listening to the four sessions together.  So many of my prayers and concerns were answered and I could truly feel the love of my Savior as he has sent these wonderful men to lead and guide our church.  I am so thankful for modern day revelation that helps me in so many of my rolls---Wife, Mother, Daughter, friend, etc. 

Funny thing happened on Saturday evening.  Derek got a hold of my phone and called 911! I'm glad that the dispatcher called me back to check if everything was ok and was able to cancel the officers trip to see us.  Derek is so lucky that he is so stink'in cute!  Jeremy snuck in their room during the night and grabbed the funniest picture of our little prankster....asleep: 

That can't really be comfortable....can it? 

How bout a close up of this ridiculousness! 

Monday we went to the Williamsburg Botanical Gardens. It was so peaceful and historically awesome!  I would LOVE to have an herb garden like we saw here someday.

Tuesday we took the family over to Colonial Williamsburg.  We really should have done this trip BEFORE  Disney World.  For some odd, unknown reason, the kids just didn't find all the old buildings and seashelled roads very entertaining.  Strange little people!   Anyway, after walking around for a half hour, they had seen enough and were ready to go back to the hotel.  We did get a few silly pictures:

Anyways.......Wednesday we took a drive down to Virginia Beach. What a perfect day it was. 84 degrees, sunny.  Not very crowded! We couldn't have asked for more.   The kids had all sorts of fun collecting seashells and running into the waves.

Sebastian was so sweet as he was trying so hard to catch the seagulls. The poor little dear was so nervous about those big scary waves. He didn't want anything to do with THAT! 

It's so fun to see life through the eyes of my children. Sebastian was so sweet enjoying the sand between his little toes. Every airplane or bird that flew by was magical to him.  He even found an old orange lid to a bottle that he fell in love with.   I love having babies around.....they are so  delightful and enjoy so many of the things that we often don't see. 

For our last full day, we spent a lot of time at the pool.  Here is Joe showing off his moves!

 Do we really have to go home?? 

100 YEARS

This year is the 100th Anniversary of the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin in D.C.  I feel so blessed to live nearby so we can visit this remarkable basin. It truly looks like a little Heaven on earth.

Also remarkable is that this year also happens to be the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

On a brighter note..... it's the 100th Birthday of the Oreo, America's favorite cookie! Oh, how I love these things dipped in milk! 

So we thought we should do something to commemorate all these 100's! A healthymomlady does Not miss such shining opportunities!

We decided to go to the Tidal Basin and have a picnic under the cherry blossoms. We brought along 100 Oreo cookies and a gallon of milk for lunch (cause that is healthy).

 

Good thing we brought our fat free milk...right?

Such an event would not be complete without a 100 year old person to share it with. So we asked our old friend Mildred Green to join us on our adventure.

What a good sport Mildred was. She could barely see us or hear us but she just kept on smiling and hanging loose! She also ended up eating the most Oreos of all. We jokingly told her to make sure she ate 100 prunes that night to help those Oreos through.  We love our friend Mildred! 

Pretty sure the rest of us will have to run 100 miles tomorrow to burn off all those Oreo's. 

Anyways, we brought along our portable DVD player to watch the movie Titanic (edited version of course) while we were thus laying among the cherry blossoms.

It was so beautiful! I told hubster we should kiss 100 times while we were laying on the blanket----you know, in celebration and all. But he was too embarrassed since Mildred was there.

I feel absolutely terrible today, because we just found out that Mildred is now in the hospital with severe bowel irritation and really bad allergies. 

 Crapskies!

Besides mildred getting sick, it was such a wonderful day! The weather was perfect.  The kids enjoyed it so much and it will be a fun memory.


Healthymomlady Tip:  Do not eat too many Oreo's, or prunes! 

P.S. If you beleived any of this story, you should kick yourself 100 times............HARD!    Happy April Fools!

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Get some mean friends!

This last month I have been trying to kick my workout up a bit.  More intensity.  Longer distances. More hills. You know, crazy stuff!

I would like to tell you that it feels absolutely fantastic.  But it doesn't feel that way until I am in a few miles and most especially after I am finished and it feels like a foggy distant dream. 

You know what has really really helped me?

Sleep and mean friends!

You see, my baby is finally sleeping through the night and I am nothing short of ecstatic because.....

1. I can sleep..... uninterrupted for a full 8 hours usually.
2. I can wake up at 5:30 am without feeling like death.
3. & I can run 6.4 miles in the morning instead of my previous 4.

I will tell you the difference this makes in my day. It is like night to day. It is like candy to broccoli. It is like for real!

FOR REAL PEOPLE!

But lets be honest.....it takes work to get into a new good habit. Especially one that begins at 5:30am.  In fact, it takes 21 times of doing something to make it an official habit.

Its a fact.  Not just according to your unqualified healthymomlady. 

So I finally gave in and realized that willpower is not enough, I do not have much of that. I need accountability. I need a friend to be waiting outside my door at 5:30am who will hate my guts if I ditch her.

I feel so blessed to have some terrific mean friends like that!  (:

Most mornings I lay in my bed and wish so much I hadn't agreed to such torture. But once I am up and running, I feel fabulous and my day goes so much smoother.

Healthymomlady Tip:  Wake up early and get some mean friends to work out with!