This is a job she walked into. She always wants to help put away silverware so awhile ago I made it "her job". I make her wash her hands and then she pull up a stool and gets to work. She seriously loves it. It seems to satisfy her obsession with sorting lots of little things.
This job is perfect for her. She always wants to spray the bottle when I clean windows or wash floors so this is perfect for her. I diluted down a cleaning solution so I don't care that she's wasting a lot. She sprays like there's no tomorrow then wipes them with a sponge. I make sure to give her a ton of positive feedback to keep her motivated because I don't want to clean the sinks! By the way, that's a sucker in her mouth. When I was cleaning some drawers out I found some zinc suckers. She thought they were great. I think they were 3 years old.
Okay, this job I'm not thrilled about and don't encourage her to do. She sprays a ton of solution on the floor and then uses her meager amount of strength to mop. It turns an already un-fun job into a really long un-fun job. So after she has her fun then I do the whole thing again. It's alright. She likes to "help".
Laci and Brigham both had valentines folders at school. Brigham was "kind" enough to give Laci all the candy he didn't like and any girly looking valentines which she promptly taped on her wall.
This was Laci's first experience with collecting valentines. There is 17 in her class so she came home with a lot of stuff. I noticed that every valentine came with candy. I remember when I was a kid it was o.k. to give one without candy. Now it's considered lame. Times have changed. Laci gave out card with suckers. Brigham gave out card with taffy.I think I'm finally getting better. I've been sick to some degree for a month now and today was like a ray of sunshine. I coughed less than I have in awhile and my back was amazingly calm today. When I did cough I didn't feel the sharp pain in my back. Halaleujah.
So what was different? Well, I did quite a combination of things. I slept with a heating pad on my back. Took pain killers and anti-inflammatories. And what I really want to point out is that for my cough I tried the Vapo-rub trick. Remember when I mentioned that a couple months ago? The night before I had a horrible night coughing-woke up exhausted. So last night I rubbed vapo rub on my decollette (not exactly my chest ha ha) and on the soles of my feet and then put socks on. I slept great and coughed very little. For the second time I have proven that the vapo rub method works. At the very least; it seems to help. So anyhow, remember that tip when you've got serious nighttime coughing at home. I've tried it on my sleeping kids (the vapo rub on their feet freaks them out) and it has helped them too.
Since I felt so much better today I spent a lot of time outdoors. Doing the usual. Throwing the piles of snow into the street so it will melt in one day instead of a week. That kind of hurt my back but I'm getting skilled at doing all kinds of things without those exact muscles. It's fun to think about spring around the corner. I'm ready for plants, green leaves, eating outside, Lagoon, screen doors open, sounds of nature, shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, family visits........ can't wait.
Well, Brigham and Laci decided today they wanted to go for a walk and collect things to bring home. Brigham wore his backpack and as we walked through the neigborhoods they would find things to collect. It was actually junk. Like broken pieces of plastic. But they loved it all and Laci was constantly unzipping Brigham's backpack to shove some useless garbage in it. However, they actually did find one "treasure". They found a fairly recent dvd in a nice case just lying in the street. It was not a title I recognized but it wasn't exactly a B movie. They were thrilled with that and took it home as a present for dad.
Today the airforce was busy doing practice runs so we watched as many jets flew directly over us. We'd count how many missles were strapped on. They all had six each. It was fun to explain to him how the different sized missles served different purposes. I really didn't know what I was talking about since my knowledge is based on what I've seen in movies and t.v., but I'm always trying to convince my kids to be awed by the jets. I think my brother John is the only other person I know who gives a darn about them. Two or three of the huge carrier planes flew over us today. You always know when they're taking off because the roaring is so loud. I'm completely mesmerized by them. Yup, I'm the only one who gives a darn.
We sold our trampoline two days ago. It won't fit in our terraced yard. That was kind of sad to see it go. It was the nicest trampoline I'd ever seen. I think Nephi was a little relieved he won't have to reassemble it. A young mom drove up from Orem to buy it. She was really nice. Man, I hope all the parts are there. It's a little scary since we moved it disasembeled and then sold it to her that way. It's impossible to know every part is there even though we feel pretty confident about it. I hope I never hear from her. We've also decided it's time to sell our Burley bike trailer. It is NICE, but Laci is getting bigger and the hills around here are crazy. I can't imagine we'd use it much now. Our family's plan is to sell those two items and then we'll have the money to buy a small swingset. There's a store in town that sells commercial quality swingsets/playground equipment and they have a compact little set that I think will actually fit in our yard. It has two swings, a slide with a small platform, and a fireman's pole. It's the only set up I've seen that appears to be configured right for our yard. So the kids agreed that if we sold those two items then we'd use the money for that. This plan took away the sting of losing the tramp. (However, I know my kids, they'll be mourning it's loss come summertime.)
parent teacher conferences tomorrow....
Happy Ash Wednesday ( just kidding! I saw that on the calendar. What is that?)
Just got back from seeing Slumdog Millionaire. It was pretty good. Let's just say I'm so glad I never lived in India. Boy, that is a rough place. The movie had a good ending just as expected. It wasn't the happy euphoric ending that Oprah got me believing it had. Life had been so rough for them that the happy ending was bittersweet. But definately a good movie. I expect it will win plenty of awards and it deserves them. I went to the big Larry H. Miller(by the way, he died today) theater downtown. It's a pretty exciting place. We need to take the kids down there on a nice summer evening to soak up a little excitement. It's basically a block that has some fun things like the theater, Costa Vida (yummm), the I-Fly experience (have heard mixed reviews on that), rock climbing (I'm scared of heights), children's museum, and I really don't know what else. But there's a lively feel to the place. I think it's probably a fun place in the summer months. I went to the movie by myself and I had to park in the parking garage so that was a little intimidating. But I'm here. So I guess I survived. The trees are all lit up downtown like it's Christmas. I would've thought that with March approaching tree lighting might be over. I'm not complaining though. It adds atmosphere.
Mom, I finally saw the old Egyptian theater tonight. It looks cute. I guess you park in the back since the front doors are on Washington Blvd. Typical of downtowns. Brigham just brought home a flyer for a kids movie series they are doing. They list the movies (kids free) and then say, "PLUS: Classic Cartoons and Old-Time Silent Comedies featuring the Egyptian's MIGHTY WULITZER Theater Pipe Organ!"
I want to go just to see the silent movies with the organ! How cool is that! As long as they're short of course. Can't imagine sitting through that for very long. But what a neat experience.
The first movie is next Saturday so I'll take the kids I think.
I decided this year for my b-day I wanted to have a pie instead of cake. I decided to go to Costco since I usually drool over all their desserts but have no reason to buy a gigantic $10+ pie. So I loaded Laci up tonight and we went to pick something out. She was funny because she knew Brigham would be upset if we picked out apple so she practically begged me not to buy it even though she loves apple pie too. We ended up picking out a HUGE bananna chocolate cream pie. It is way too big but they only make things in jumbo size. It was only $10 too. I already sneaked tastes of the pie and invited Nephi to do the same (so I wouldn't feel like a pig). Hey, it's my birthday pie. I can do what I want! It's not like there's going to be a shortage. It is SOOO good. I'm pretty sure by Monday morning I'll never want to see a chocolate pie again.
At Costco they had ROC facial spf moisturizer. Just what I'd been looking for! And check out this perk. Because it's a retinol formula it says that in 12 weeks my skin will look 10 years younger! So I'm turning 32 but in just 3 months I'm going to look 22? Sign me up! ha ha! No really. Sign me up. It came in a two pack of course so I gave the other to Nephi. Now he really does have fine lines so I'm going to be watching to see if he turns back the clock of time! I'll keep you posted so you'll know if you should run out and buy this stuff.
Okay, bed time. I've got to get to the gym in the morning and work my you know what off because I'm going to be eating a whole lot of cr_p in the next two days. Oh yeah, and I've got to enjoy my last day of ever being 31. Those were the good old days..........
We got DUMPED ON today. Serious snow. Since I have my lame injury I had to stand back and watch over a foot of snow pile up on our driveway. And it was HEAVY. I finally couldn't take it anymore and I tried to shovel some but it wasn't worth it since it almost reduced me to tears. But I think it's over now. That was almost 12 hours of continuous snow. I think the the temeratures are going to be moderate again. Should be gorgeous this weekend.
I got tickets for a performance at Weber State this weekend so the family's going to that on Saturday. Our first performance was Peter Pan last month. I've always thought Peter Pan was extremely lame but I figured they'd have Peter flying around on wires so the kids would like it. It didn't disappoint. Of course Nephi and I rolled our eyes the whole time. You know Wendy's little brother? He was played by a college age girl. It was creepy. The whole time we just kept thinking about "Pat" from Saturday Night Live. Very androgenous. All in all though, the shows at the college are proving to be an affordable outing that feel like a big deal. It's fun to live by Weber. Brigham went to a college basketball game on a field trip a while back.
Nephi got an MRI on his back today. He's had back issues for years and it's become relentless so he's going to start doing something about it. Hopefully something covered by insurance.
Here's some good recipes that were on KSL yesterday. They're from the kitchen of their "Health guru". I pasted it directly from the website so don't think the comments are mine, they're not. :)
2. Cheesy Rice
1 box Four Cheese Rice-a-roni
1 lb. 93% lean ground beef
Prepare the rice as directed on the box. Then brown the ground beef and toss it in, let simmer 5 more minutes.
Why I love this recipe: (if you can call it that!) Boxed meals are not something I recommend using everyday, but once in a while, we all need an old-reliable, quick-and-easy meal that we can fall back on on super busy nights -- this 400-calorie meal is far better for our health than a 1,500-calorie, more-than-a-day's-supply-of-sodium meal from a restaurant or fast-food outlet.
If you balance boxed foods with with low-sodium, high-fiber side dishes -- like steamed broccoli and a bowl of sliced strawberries -- then you've actually got a decent meal on the table... in minutes!
3. Sugar-free Maple Syrup
2 cups Splenda (or you can do "low-sugar syrup" with 1 cup Splenda and 1 cup real sugar)
1 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp. mapeline flavoring
Boil the water, then add Splenda/sugar and mapeline. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
Why I love this: Because my kids love waffles, pancakes and french toast; and using a sugar-free (or half-the-sugar) homemade syrup keeps these meals in the healthy zone. Kids already eat too much sugar and don't need to top hot breakfast foods with spoonful after spoonful of yet, more sugar! Splenda is safe; but as with everything, should be consumed in moderation. I only use Splenda in one thing: syrup! And it saves my kids from excess sugar every single week.
It's worth it! Check out the calories & sugar per 1-oz serving*:
Regular maple syrup: 80 calories, 5 tsp. sugar Homemade "low sugar": 45 calories, 2.5 tsp sugar Homemade "sugar free": 0 calories, 0 sugar
(*usually enough to cover one pancake; we should aim to consume less than 10 tsp of added sugar each day)
Almond-Craisin Spinach Salad
Toss the following: 2 - 3 cups spinach
1/8 cup sliced almonds
1/8 cup craisins
1/2 cup matchstick carrots
2 Tbsp. light raspberry vinaigrette
Why I Love This: It's made with 4 super-food ingredients (spinach, almonds, carrots, and olive oil dressing) and you can literally throw it together in less than 5 minutes! The nutty and sweet flavors are complimentary and make for a delicious healthy snack -- or meal. With just 220 calories, this salad is one I use when I need to counterbalance a high-calorie meal. It's the perfect way to save up for a soup-to-nuts dinner or to make up for an oversized, "shouldn't have" lunch.
I fell on the ice on Saturday night. Right on my tailbone. It hurts! It messed up my lower back a little too. Hey, as long as I don't have to bend, cough, sneeze, strain,sit up, sit down, etc I feel great! ha ha Nephi has a lot of experience with back problems so he uses his therapy skills to at least try to re-align my back. He can tell that my SI joints (huh?) are out of whack by the fact that one leg is just a little shorter than the other. Then he does a bunch of different things that evens them back out. I have to say, it is comforting living with a therapist.
The worst part of this is that I just started Body for Life (strength building, weight loss program) a week ago and I have been working so hard! Now I feel a little crippled. It's going to be a challenge to keep it up while I heal. But I don't want to waste the last week so I'm going to plug along and do what I can.
Not a lot going on here. Weathers on and off. We got dumped on like most everyone. Tonight we expect more snow and then it should be good again. I've been shoveling the driveway for my older neighbors. He just had shoulder surgery. I know they're probably counting on me for this storm coming and I'm worried because I can barely pick up something in my house, let alone shovel my own driveway. What am I going to do??? I don't want to let them down. I'm hoping for a miracle.
My birthday is this weekend. I'll be 32 years old. WHAT?! I hope I don't look that old. That seems old to me. I still want to be 29. That was the perfect age. I was reading something on Yahoo news. It was a dermatology article written by a dermatologist of course. She was listing the 10 biggest mistakes people use. Well, I can't remember most of them. But I do remember that one of them was "Not using sunscreen", and "Not using a retinol". These tips are of course related to maintaining younger looking skin. So the first one's easy. Just get a daytime moisurizer with sunscreen. At Wal Mart I found a moisturizer with spf 30 for $13. That was easy. Now, the retinol. Apparently that not only makes your skin clear but it is super effecitive at avoiding and reducing facial lines. She recommended getting a prescription retinol if possible since it is hightly potent. (Not doing that.) Or getting a brand like ROC or another one that contains the retinol. ROC looks like a fairly affordable brand that I can just buy OTC. So something like that should be the night cream. SPF by day, retinol by night. Seems easy enough.
Next topic.
So I've been making a real effort to improve the quality of the foods that we eat at home. In a perfect world we'd go all organic but that is impossible. The prices on organic food can be so expensive so I'm making changes where I can.
I would love to buy organic meat because there are so many issues with meat that I don't even want to think about. But it's not possible. Organic meat is outrageously expensive. So we could become vegetarians. Not going to happen. Sorry poor cow, I like my beef.
Okay, so one step at a time. I decided to switch to organic milk and organic, cage free eggs. The organic milk is sold in 1/2 gallon cartons. Pretty expensive but there's only four in our family so it's doable. One carton is more than a gallon of reg milk. The eggs are more too but it makes me happy that the chickens that produced our eggs weren't miserable slaves. And they were fed an all vegetarian diet. So those were two changes I could make.
I've also committed to only organic apples. According to experts, apples contain the highest levels of pesticides. Even washing them doesn't fix it. I've found that organic apples are not a lot more money than regular ones. Easy change. Organic carrots are also easy and pretty affordable to find. Organic spinach is another easy and fairly affordable change.
Baby steps. I feel that as many chemicals and negative by-products I can take out of our family's diet over the years is that much less that our bodies will have to contend with. Hopefully it will protect our health to some degree over the long term.
I've wondered how I would feel going back to Idaho Falls after we moved away 3 months ago. I loved it there and a year ago couldn't imagine living anywhere else. We just visited there last weekend to see friends and we had a good time. We went back to the old neighborhood to visit our neighbors so we were right there at our old house. I definately felt a twinge of something because I saw it with fresh eyes. It looked great! The paint job I gave it makes it so nice and bright! Nephi and I both commented on what a cute house it is, knowing that it was our doing that made it so (new windows, new paint, new garage doors). So we felt a little pride too that it looked good. However, there is so much snow in Idaho Falls as usual. The neigborhood is piled high. All of the streets in town have packed down snow (except the main roads of course). It just looks and feels like a typical January. It was also much colder. But that's what made us instantly love Ogden even more. In Ogden we almost NEVER have packed down snow on roads or sidewalks. We get a storm than it starts melting within a few days, the sun is warm when it shines, and it shines a lot. When we left IF it was very overcast and dreary. There were flakes falling we thought there must be snow coming. However, we drove out of it and back home into gorgeous, sunny, decently warm weather.
I feel even better about our decision to move here. This place suits us. Not that I don't still love Idaho Falls. I will always have a place in my heart for IF. But I felt that trip confirmed to us even more that we are and will be happy here in Ogden.
