My Ice Cream Diary

All About Pablo

2011-09-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

At my kids' middle school, every year I am asked to write a paper about my child for the teachers to better know them. This is the one I wrote for Pablo this year. (Mind you these are always written last minute because my homework skills are the same as they were when I was in school.)

Pablo is a quiet kid, was quiet even in the womb before he was born. I used to worry about him, but it soon became apparent that he is quiet because he is thinking of amazing things. His brain doesn’t work like most kids. His brain functions much like a computer. If he hasn’t been programmed for the information beforehand it won’t stick, but if you can figure out a way to make it make sense to him, he will never forget it and will understand it in ways most adults never will. Pablo is also a very visual learner/thinker. When I wouldn’t let him play video games he wouldn’t get upset, he just drew his own “video” games on paper. I can’t really explain Pablo to you because I’m still trying to figure him out myself. I know that he tries to do his best. He constantly sets goals for himself and works hard to achieve them. He practices when he feels he can’t do something good enough, and he keeps practicing till he gets it right. Pablo has a special knack for cheering up little children and being friends with mentally handicapped children, because he loves nothing better than to be able to make someone else smile. He sometimes gets teased because he has a hard time understanding senseless cruelty and he doesn’t want to fight back. He tends to see things in black and white and has to have subtleties explained to him in any unfamiliar situation. One could see this as a handicap, but I see it as the trait of a marvelous mind that has the ability to see things others can’t, and I think it could help take him farther in life than most people will be able to, if it is nurtured in the right way.

Pablo has a gift for art, and enjoys drawing anytime he can. He is trying his best to only draw when he isn’t working, and has gotten better at that. He has written several comic books and the depth of his thought process in creating them never ceases to amaze me.

My hope for Pablo is that he will continue to gain confidence in his own decision making skills and for others to see his true potential and appreciate it. I know that he will contribute many new and wonderful ideas to the world in his lifetime, and I hope he will always see himself the way I see him.

Cookie in a Nutshell

2011-08-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

At my kids' middle school, every year I am asked to write a paper about my child for the teachers to better know them. This is the one I wrote for Cookie this year. (Mind you these are always written last minute because my homework skills are the same as they were when I was in school.)

Cookie is a very special person. I’m sure all parents feel that way about their child (as they should), but if you get to know Cookie I think you will see what I mean. She is the oldest of 5 kids, she is my first baby, she is a miniature me (only better than I could ever hope to be). Cookie was born older and more mature than some adults I know. She was smart from the very beginning, speaking early, reading early, and she has a memory that never fails to surprise me. But the extra something special about Cookie is her innate desire to do what she thinks is right. Whether it is being kind to someone who needs a friend, standing up for others, obeying her elders, getting her homework done, or just having fun, she always tries her best to do it “right.” When she was very little I was constantly having to tell her, “Mistakes are good,” because she would get very upset if she couldn’t make her letters just right, or if she colored out of the lines. She’s a lot more relaxed now, but still does her best to do what is important to her.

Cookie has set very high standards for herself and refuses to just “go with the flow” if the “flow” goes against those standards. This year she has chosen not to read one of the summer books assigned because it has a lot of bad language in it, but she is willing to read any other book in order to make up for it. Even getting good grades isn’t as important to her as sticking to what she feels is right. I hope, as you get to know her, you can see this side of her.

As for her personality, it depends on what side of the coin you see. On one hand, Cookie can be very shy, introverted and quiet. If she doesn’t feel a connection to kids around her she will tend to keep to herself. But if you see her with friends she feels comfortable with you will see the exact opposite. Cookie loves anything that is extremely silly. She loves to laugh and be goofy, she loves to tease and can dish it out as well as take it (if it isn’t mean teasing).

After 2 major moves Cookie was having a hard time feeling like she fit in at school last year. This year she has some friends and I think she is coming out of her shell again and showing a lot more of her true self.

(Tomorrow I will share the one I wrote for Pablo)

Who Needs Flowers?

2011-08-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

Some husbands bring their wives flowers, but mine brings me something even better. When Mr, Hot wants to cheer me up he brings me bags, yes bags, of Subway White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies. Sometimes I think he is trying to make me fat, but sometimes I don't care because I love these cookies. I've tried others out there, I've tried many times to make them myself, but there is nothing quite like the ones you get at Subway.

Ah, sweet cookiness, I love you so.

Well, last night Mr. Hot came home with this little beauty: Blue Bunny White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie ice cream. Mmmmmmmm.

It can't take the place of a Subway cookie, but it still tastes super yummy. Thank you Mr. Hotness, I love you! But, just know, if I don't get the laundry done (yet again), it's your fault because you gave me this and I plan to eat it while watching some cheesy chick-flick today. Any suggestions?

Keeping Up With The Cardassians

2011-08-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

While flipping channels yesterday I stumbled upon this old friend. Star Trek, The Next Generation was the Star Trek of MY generation. My kids swarmed around me and started asking all sorts of questions.

"How can that guy see with that thing on his eyes?"

"Why is that guy all white and shiney?"

"Hey, that ship looks like U.S.S. Apple-pies from Veggie Tales!"

"Isn't this that show with the Speck guy?"

Needless to say I was made painfully aware of a lack of Treky education in my home. Somewhere in heaven my father was shaking his head in disbelief. After all, dad was the one who got me hooked. He took me to see Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in the theater. When he was sick with cancer I would sit next to him on his bed to watch Star Trek The Next Generation. I own all the original Star Trek movies on VHS (recorded off TV, of course) including a recording of TV episode 23: Space Seed where Kahn is first introduced. And I had a major crush on Warf in highschool.

I had some serious catching up to do with my kids. I quickly set my DVR to record future episodes of ST The Next Generation. Tonight I sat down with Sweet Terror and Monster Man to watch one. Cookie came in half way through it and said, "Ew, who is that? Is she a Romu-thingy like on the last one?"

"No, these are different aliens called Cardassians. You know, kind of like the Kardashians."

And now I want this T-shirt:

Does that make me a nerd?

2011-08-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

I Want to Blog Again... Maybe

2011-08-26T16:02:00.001-07:00

For the past couple years I've only had enough mental capacity to compose a facebook status (and sometimes not even for that) let alone blogging. But every now and then someone has a facebook status that reminds me of one of my old blog posts. So I search through them, read through them, find the one I'm thinking of, and I share it on facebook. Every time I do this I think, "I really need to start blogging again," and every time I laugh at myself and think, "Yeah right."

Today I did this again, but then I fought back with, "Why not, nobody would even read it, so, why not?" So, I'm sitting here in my messy office, waiting for a lasagna to finish baking, frustrated that more people aren't contributing to facebook so I can have something to do on here and, well, there you have it. I'm back... maybe... we'll see.

I'm Here

2010-08-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

Here I am in Charlotte, NC. Well, technically I am in South Carolina, just across the border from Charlotte. We are absolutely loving it here! It is sunny all the time, we get amazing rain downpours and lightening storms. The kids go frog hunting almost every night before bed and we've seen deer in our backyard 5 times now. Mr. Hotness has a fabulously short commute (compared to his 4 hour round trip commute in Connecticut). We are living in a very big, very beautiful home for free right now (long story), just hoping and praying that we will eventually be able to buy it. The kids start school next week and we are all nervous and hoping that they will like it.

I will try to post more, and share photos later. Until then you can read a guest post over at my friend's blog: Suburban Housewife Uprising

Skeletons in the Boxes

2010-07-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

How many boxes would it take to package up your life? Mine took 204. That doesn't include the things that didn't fit in boxes (like furniture, plastic totes, etc). That is a lot of boxes. A lot of "stuff." A lot! Have you seen the show Hoarders? There was an episode where a lady was freaking out because they brought 3 garbage trucks and she was worried thinking all of her stuff could fit in those trucks and she wouldn't have anything left. They filled those 3 trucks with nothing but garbage and they hadn't even got through 1/3 of her home. That is how I felt as I walked through my home full of boxes. How on earth could I possibly have THAT much stuff?
. Even Sweet Terror got sick of it and laid down while saying, "Why do we have to have so many boxes? I don't like all these boxes, they are driving me crazy, Mom."
.

Now we are in our new home, and half of the boxes have been unpacked. In the basement, though, are 3 walls of boxes. These are the "skeletons in my closet" boxes. You know, the ones filled with things. My things. Things that I will one day do marvelous things with. Things that I have yet to do very much at all with. Things that I keep boxing up and taking with me every time I move. Things that Mr. Hotness and the kids couldn't care less about. My things.

*sigh*

I liked it better when all these things were hiding in closets and drawers and cupboards.

Shocked

2010-05-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Have you just been begging for a reason to boycott Dora the Explorer, to rid your home of all things Spongey, or to reduce the time your kids spend online or watching TV? Well here is a really good reason and one you can explain to your kids. I am hereby boycotting Nickelodeon.

Click here to see why.

It isn't often I boycott things or get too riled up about issues, but this one has me steamed and willing to boycott to the hilt. I checked it out by going to nickjr.com and sure enough, down at the bottom, listed under "nickelodeon kids and family websites" you will find 5 links to addictinggames.com which is host to some very very disturbing games gear towards kids. For Nickelodeon to do this just boggles my mind. I know lots of parents who consider NickJr to be a safe site for their kids to play online. But if your kid gets curious and starts clicking on things, or hears about this cool site from a friend and goes to check it out, your child might end up playing a game where they get to imagine their teacher naked or mutilate their classmates. Not so sweet, not so educational, not so NickJr, is it?

I sent a personalized letter to Steve Youngwood, Executive Vice President, Digital, Nickelodeon kids and family group. Tomorrow I'm going to tell my kids what I told Mr. Youngwood: that until they stop supporting such a heinous site and issue a grand scale apology to all the families and children who's trust they have betrayed, that we will not be renewing our cable once we move, that from this day on my children will not be allowed to watch Nickelodeon, that all Nickelodeon sites will be blocked on our computers, and that not a single cent of ours will be spent on any Nickelodeon licensed merchandise.

I won't ask you to do the same, I just wanted to let you know this was out there because I was glad someone let me know.

Moving

2010-05-14T04:06:00.000-07:00

We went from this: To this:

And by July 1st we will end up here:

It's all part of the adventure I call life. And so far it's been an amazing ride. I can't wait to see what Charlotte, NC has in store for us. Personally I'm looking forward to finally being able to own a home again, to a shorter commute for Mr. Hotness than I've seen in 8 years, living closer to family than I have in 13 years (a member of my family, that is, and 6 years for any family at all), and for maybe possibly living in a place with central AC. So it's all good.

And who knows, maybe in Charlotte I will finally find the time to blog about all my NYC adventures. I know you are dying to hear about the day I tried eating a chicken foot, or about the rainbow haired, kilt wearing, pirate with a poodle I met. Ah, NYC, I will miss living near your awesomeness.

The Spirit of Christmas

2010-05-13T04:02:00.001-07:00

I'm one of those that truly believes that Christmas should be a year long feeling of peace, joy, goodwill, and love for our fellow man. I also believe that Christmas goodies should be enjoyed year round as well. I want to thank the ice cream makers of Ben and Jerry's for helping a small part of my dream come true by way of their heavenly Peanut Brittle ice cream. I've had really good peanut brittle (my mom's) and really nasty peanut brittle (the kind you buy from kids selling door to door for a school fund raiser). This is the really good kind, mixed in vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl. It's like waking up to snow flakes drifting past your window and sneaking into your stocking before your parents wake up on Christmas morning. Oh yeah, it's all kinds of good.

Ben, Jerry, I want to thank you for making this wonderful flavor. It totally makes up for your disastrous Boston Cream Pie flavor (GAG!). What went wrong with that anyway? How can you screw up cake, chocolate, and pastry creme? Why does it taste like 5 different chemicals I might use to clean my sink or paint my wall?

The only thing they could have done to improve this yummy Peanut Brittle ice cream would be to give it a fun name. Even a simple "Granny's Homemade Peanut Brittle" would have been something. Or "Brittle Spears" ('cause we all know Britney is nuts), or "Brittle White" (Betty just did SNL so she's totally hip, and probably has brittle hips). Do you guys need help naming your flavors? If so, just give me call. I'm also available for taste testing and flavor consulting. Seriously, guys, what are you waiting for?

What would you name this awesome ice cream?

To Whom...

2010-05-12T05:57:00.001-07:00

Dear Messy House,
Would you please SHUT UP!!!! I know you are messy, I know you need to be cleaned. There is no reason to spread jelly on my foot or hide dirty diapers under my bed. Enough already! I know the laundry needs to be rotated but your mildewy smell won't give me an extra hour every day to get to it. Yes, the counters need to be wiped, but getting butter on my son's homework isn't the polite way to get my attention. And is it too much for me to ask that you not tip over my piles of paper? I will eventually go through them, and you are just making it worse with your temper tantrums. If you really want me to clean you then I suggest you break my TV, disconnect my internet, drain all my phone batteries, lock my toddler in a closet, and burn all my books.
Sincerly,
Liz

What You Didn't See

2010-04-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

What you saw: A young, skinny cub scout crying his heart out as a heartless mother walks ahead of him coldly ignoring his sobs and hiccups.

What you didn't see: A boy who spent the past three days getting angry with his mother over every little single thing she did for him. It was her fault he left his shoes out in the rain, and her fault he didn't do his homework before bedtime, and her fault that there was only green beans and no carrots for the vegetable at dinner. It was obviously her fault that the first two shirts he put on for school were stained or had holes in them, and she was cruel enough to find him a clean pair of socks 1 minute later than he wanted them. So, after days of abuse topped by an extremely bad day of little boy yelling at his mom for everything, the mom goes to pick her son up from cub scouts and (after mom has sat for 15 minutes in the parking lot with 3 kids and a crying baby so that he can have extra time to play with friends) interrupts his game of dodgeball (which had him crying because someone dared to hit him with a soft Nerf ball) to tell him it is time to go home... well, I'm sure you can guess his reaction. Apparently it is her fault that cub scouts ends at 8:15pm on a school night with a 20 minute drive home. So this mom had a very calm but serious talking-to with this young boy and the boy didn't like it. Mom basically says, "You keep apologizing to me for the things you say and do to me. From now on I don't want your apologies, I just want to see you change!" And then the sobbing started.

What you also didn't see the next day (and following 3 days): A son who has been very respectful, loving, and helpful. I've seen him tense up in anger, catch himself, take a breath, and choose a better way to deal. Sometimes parenting means making your child cry and looking bad in front of others, but sometimes it's what a child needs to realize that they can be a better person.

So, to the person who saw my boy crying and gave me a look that said, "Why aren't you comforting your little guy? What kind of mother are you?" I just want to say that you didn't see everything.

Blogging?

2010-04-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Is anyone still blogging (who doesn't make money doing it)? I wouldn't know because I've been out of the blogging world for quite some time now. Sometimes, like today, I miss it and think I should get back into it, but I'm not sure how. What I miss the most is the writing, and having my kids excited to read my posts everyday, and finding new and amazing people to read about, and gawking at amazing crafts that get me all obsessed and cause me to spend way too much money at craft and fabric stores. Well I know my husband doesn't miss that part. What do I not miss about it? Not much really except for the time it takes to keep it all going. And the fact that I feel a good blog post needs a picture or two and I can't for the life of me find my camera. I think it's in my office. Have you ever seen the inside of my office? Not many people have. It's where I hide all my filthy little secrets of sloth and pack rattiness. My husband has a desk in there somewhere that he has been able to sit at maybe 5 times... which is the exact number of times I've been able to vacuum its floor.

Why don't I just clean the office so I can find my camera? I'll tell you why. It's because the black hole of my life is in that room. The swirling vortex of addiction that robs me of all will power, caused me to gain much weight, and daily makes me ashamed of myself, is in that very room. The internet, curse it's conveniently entertaining soul, is in that room. If I turn it off and lock the door from the inside and send the key to work with my husband then I'm ok, but then I can't blog or clean in that room. If I leave it open so I can clean and blog... well, I end up watching much dumbness online.

Curse that evil Hulu and Netflix!!!!!

.
Do any of you know of a good internet timer. Something that will limit the amount of time I can spend online? Seriously.

The World Needs More Trophies

2010-03-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

I've read many posts and articles debating the practice of giving every kid a trophy, even when they lose. I've always seen the valid points of both sides but leaned more towards the tough love side. If you win, you win, if you lose, you lose. Suck it up and deal with it, right? Well, in this case I think I've changed my mind.

See this smile? This is just minutes before the start of Pablo's Pinewood Derby race. See the excitement, the hope, the confidence?

And we were all excited for him. And we all had our fingers crossed, hoping he would have better luck than last year. Alas, he once again came in dead last for every race. Poor guy. But he held it together (even though I could see him clenching his fists and mentally willing himself to not cry or run away). Last year when this happened his consolation prize was a paper certificate and a mini candy bar. It wasn't very consoling, but it was better than nothing, right?

Well, this year they gave each kid on of these amazing little trophies on stone bases, and they are even going to get an engraved name plate to put on it.

Pablo, who moments before had a face filled with pain, ran up to me with a big smile and showed me his trophy. I commented on how great it looked and he said,

"Yeah, the winners got bigger trophies. This trophy might be tiny, but I think it's a good, strong trophy." And then he gave me a big long hug and said, "Now I need to build a trophy case!"

And I think he totally deserved that little-but-strong trophy because I don't know if I could have come in dead last 6 races in a row without running away to cry in a closet somewhere. Pablo, you are one tough kid. I'm so proud of you.

And of course we went out for ice cream to celebrate the big evening. =)

Now, do any of you have some good tips on how to improve a pinewood derby car (that doesn't involve a premade kit or the parents doing all the work)?

Going Green

2010-03-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh, St. Patrick's Day. The day when anyone with a smidgen of Irish blood in them goes all out to show that they are green through and through. And moms who aren't even a bit Irish go all out showing how crafty they can be with green.

Some moms out there woke up early to make a fun Green Eggs and Ham breakfast. Or maybe made green pancakes with green pineapple syrup and green milk.

Me? I let my kids eat Captain Crunch Berries so their poop would turn green.

Some moms made sure to get to Old Navy's the day after Valentine's day to be sure that they got a cute, sparkly, and very fashionable, "Kiss Me I'm Irish," shirt for their kids.

Me? I gave Sweet Terror (the only kid who owns nothing with green on it) one of her white shirts and a bowl of green food coloring. Have at it, kid.

Some moms started baking last week so that they could send yummy green cupcakes to their child's classroom party.

Me? I went a step above that and picked out all the green fishies from a bag of rainbow Goldfish crackers. Now that is faaaaaancy.

Some mom's make sure to read several educational books to their kids all about the history behind this important day.

Me? I made sure to throw some orange into my kids' lunches and told them to make sure the Greens won. I kind of stacked the odds in the green's favor. Only one orange fish against a whole army? That poor little thing doesn't stand a chance.

And my fancy dessert for dinner tonight? Green Peeps. Awwww yeah!

Happy St. Patty's day, everyone. I hope your cabbage is extra delish tonight. ;)

I Love Mayonnaise

2010-03-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

I love mayonnaise. I know it's bad for me, and I try not to eat it often, but when I do I really go to town. Take any condiment in your fridge and add a little mayo to it and it suddenly becomes a heavenly dip for all sorts of potato thingies. Mix it with chopped pickles and onions, lots of dill, some lemon juice, and salt and pepper and you have a tartar sauce so yummy you won't need a fish stick to want to eat it all in one sitting. Need a quick white sauce for pizza? Lightly spread your pizza dough with mayo and sprinkle it with Ranch powder mix and garlic powder, then top with cheese and veggies (or just cheddar cheese for awesome cheesy sticks). But only do these kind of things once a year, or you'll end up having to do a Jillian Michael's exercise DVD every morning and you will hate it. Uh... that's what I hear anyway...

This week has been an interesting mayonnaise week. I ordered some pizzas from Dominos (you know, because they are supposed to be all new and improved), and one of them was supposed to have a white sauce on it. White sauce on pizza is usually like an Alfredo sauce, yummy. They must have run out of Alfredo because what I got was a bacon, tomato, and mushroom pizza with a thick, slimy layer of plain ol' mayo oozing out from under the cheese. I kept trying bites trying to be sure, but it was so nasty I couldn't get through a whole slice. Good news is Domino's gave me store credit for a new pizza anytime I want it. Bad news is it would still be a Domino's pizza.

The other funny thing is that Cookie went to make a batch of Cookies and was unable to see the 2 big 18 count egg crates in the fridge. Being the smart girl that she is she searched through my cookbooks to find a proper egg substitute and came up with 3 tablespoons of mayo = 1 egg. 12 tablespoons of mayo later she had a big ol' bowl of yummy cookie dough. The dough's consistency was drier than usual so I was kind of worried, but they turned out light, buttery, and melt in your mouth yummy. Mr. Hotness told her she needs to use the mayo substitute more often.

So now I can add free pizza and yummy cookies to the list of reasons why I loooooove mayo. Why do you love it? Or do you hate it? You probably don't have to wake up at 6 to sweat with Jillian, do you? Lucky.

Torture

2010-03-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

I take my role as family pain inflictor very seriously.

For this reason I try to have the best torture devices out there in my home.

I'll do anything to elicit screams, wails, moans, groans, and outright begging for mercy.

The louder they complain, the better mother I am... right?

What is your favorite way to torture children?

The Sunday Nap

2010-02-14T07:34:00.000-08:00

A typical day at church for the Ice Cream family:

(Pablo takes advantage of the quiet to draw without disturbances)

I've had several people ask me for advice on how to keep kids quiet at church. I've tried many things through the years, cheerios, hand puppets, coloring books, magnet sets, etc. I think I've finally stumbled on the perfect reverence solution. Let your kids stay up till Midnight watching cartoons and then wake them up at 6am Sunday morning. The only downfall to this is if you have a loud snorer. Cheeks snores louder than a rumbling volcano. And he drools.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

My Valentine

2010-02-13T07:20:00.000-08:00

Why I love my special Valentine:

He is hot stuff.

He tells me I'm beautiful even when I have bedhead.

He doesn't mind that I don't shave my legs... almost ever.

When I apologize for letting the house get so messy he says it looks fine to him.

He loves me.

When I come running out of the bathroom screaming that I have a beard and I force him to look closely at the hairy spots on my jawline he says he doesn't know what I'm talking about and that he can't see anything.

Sometimes he surprises me and cleans the whole kitchen, including the 2 day old stack of pots and pans.

He doesn't get mad when I sit up in bed and start hitting him and myself because I had a bad spider dream and I'm certain that a real spider caused it.

He makes me laugh.

He brings me ice cream. Lots of ice cream. Even the expensive kind.

When I was pregnant and having a really hard time feeling pretty he gave me the best birthday EVER in the whole wide world.

He spends too much money on me.

He helped me make these lovely things:

He's still my best friend... with benefits. ;)

He has a very sexy, perfectly hairy, awesomely buff, man chest. Raaawr!

But the reason I love my man most is that he made an eternal promise to me and the Lord that he would be worthy of me and our marriage, and everyday he works hard to keep that promise.

I love you, Mr. Hotness! Will you be my Valentine?

A Special Breed

2010-02-12T08:22:00.000-08:00

Apparently in Connecticut the animals can walk through trees.

Freeeeeeeaky.

(Either that or one of the neighborhood boys is playing a prank on me. Don't mess with me boys, I'm halfway to crazy as it is.)

Top of the Rock in NYC

2010-02-11T07:50:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago my sister came to visit and I totally took advantage of her niceness. She watched all 5 of my kids, and all 5 of her kids, and let Mr. Hotness and I run away to NYC for a whole night. We went with a long list of things we were going to do because we didn't have kids with us. My ideal date was to go to dinner in Chinatown and then ice skating in Wollman Park.

Sadly, it was so freaking cold I could barely breath and was getting back aches from shivering so badly. My cute little Pacific Northwest black jacket and scarf ensemble just wasn't made for the frigid, icy, dry winters of NYC. And I was even wearing thermal underwear and two jackets. Instead we went to a cute little Italian restaurant and then blissfully enjoyed a peaceful sleep (in a very chic but very small NYC hotel room) without Cheeks hogging up the bed. Kidless sleeping is sooooo nice. After sleeping in as long as we could we decided to try and see at least one thing before catching the train back home.

We went to Rockefeller Plaza and went to the Top of the Rock. At first Mr. H. and I were sceptic. We'd been to the top of the Space Needle several times and always felt it was really expensive with little payback. Honestly, if you ever go to Seattle just go to the Russell Investment Center and go to the 17th floor Roof Garden. It is lovely, a fantastic view, has a little cafe inside, and is FREE.

But I digress. Top of the Rock ended up being well worth the money and was a fantastic experience. The creation of Rockefeller Plaza is actually a great piece of American history and there is a lovely little museum experience that you walk through before going all the way up. The short version of the story is that John D Rockefeller Jr. was all set with a group of heavy investors to build Rockefeller Plaza when the Great Depression hit. All the investors backed out and he was left with a decision to give up or go it alone. His view on life was to always move forward so he decided to take a huge gamble and go ahead and build the enormous plaza on his own. Because of this he was able to keep and create over 75,ooo jobs across the country during the Depression, and that included a large group of, what would have otherwise been starving, artists. Isn't that cool?

Here is the Empire State building. Mr. Hotness had fun looking through his binoculars at the people standing on it's rooftop. He even tried waving at them to see if anyone would wave back.

Here is Mr. Hotness trying to bring home a souvenir. Sorry, babe, you're going to have to buy one in the gift shop, just like everyone else.

Here is an aerial view of St Patrick's Cathedral. Some day soon I'm going to go for a full tour of this place. I wonder if they take you up to the roof. Maybe I can "accidentally" go through a wrong door and get there myself?

Here is a view of the lovely Fred French Building on 5th Avenue. I think this building perfectly illustrates the class and beauty of the early 1900's. I want a replica of that top frieze to hang in my living room.

At the Top of the Rock there is this fun interactive music and light room that could sense your movements and had lights follow you around the room. Every time a new person came in the room the whole place would light up like this.

Mr. Hot and I had fun tricking the computer by hugging close enough to make it think we were one person. Then as soon as we let go of each other it thought a new person had entered and would go all crazy.

There is so much to see in NYC and I just don't even know where to begin. Do any of you have any suggestions? (besides Chinatown and the Statue of Liberty, because they are definitely on my list)

Why I Don't Blog

2010-02-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

I love blogging, I really do. So what keeps me from posting on a regular basis? This does:

This is, for me, a raw and honest self portrait that I drew yesterday. I wish it were a sketch of me playing with my kids, reading a good book, working on one of my bazillion craft projects, decorating my home, laughing, walking outside, out on a date with my husband, or anything besides ignoring the world around me (including myself) as I stare blankly into my computer monitor. Oh, sure, I do most of these things every now and then, but statistically you are more likely to come over and see me doing this than anything else at any given moment. And this is why I don't blog most days. I have nothing to blog about.

I want to change. I want to change my self portrait. So I'm going to try and do a self portrait every week. They will be honest, and hopefully I can get them to start showing the me I want to be.

What would your self portrait look like?

Freaky Doppelganger

2010-02-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

Do you ever miss the exuberant, confident, clumsy, and clueless Mary Katherine Gallagher from SNL?

Well no worries, people. She is alive and well and continues to pursue her dream of becoming a famous singer.

Did You Know?

2010-02-03T04:58:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Mr. Clean Magic Eraser doesn't work on dried boogers?

Did you know that you don't need to buy special chalkboard paint to turn your walls into a giant chalkboard? Apparently regular old flat paint works just as good. Ask my toddler.

Did you know that baby wipes are great for cleaning peanut butter and chalk off a nice new plasma TV?

Did you know that putting feminine hygiene items in a cute little zipper pouch in your diaper bag is only a good idea if everyone in the family knows not to give said little zipper pouch to the baby to play with in church? It's also a good idea not to tell the Tire Man to look in your glove compartment for the hub cap key unless you remember to remove your emergency pad stash. Or so I've heard.

Did you know that inviting people to your home for dinner is the best motivator for cleaning your home? Try it, it works.

Did you know that baking soda placed in a pretty jar next to your sink is a nice way to keep a cheap cleaning abrasive handy for cleaning cast iron enamel sinks?

Did you know that keeping a pretty kitchen scrub brush in your shower will make you 10 times more likely to keep your shower clean on a regular basis?

Did you know that you should always always always ask a plumber, heating guy, repairman, pizza guy how much their services cost BEFORE you have them to your home? I learned the hard way that not all plumbers are created equal.

Did you know that megaphones are awesome... AWESOME!!! Mr. Hotness, I want a megaphone for Valentine's Day. Thanks.

Did you know that you can sometimes literally lock your problems behind closed doors? Seriously. I still struggle with watching too much internet TV so I installed a key lock doorknob on the office and I make Mr. Hotness lock it before he leaves for work and he takes the key with him so I can't have access to the laptop until he comes home. The difference it has made in my life is amazing!

Did you know that Smart Ones freezer Florentine style lasagna entrees are nasty? Oh so nasty.

Did you know that if you get yourself a sassy new short haircut that it will look like a bad wig in 4 weeks unless you maintain it with regular haircutting appointments?

Did you know that dirty laundry breeds at night? Like rabbits. Like Mormon rabbits.

Did you know that you can't refreeze ice cream? It doesn't matter if it was expensive and you just bought it and you really really need it.

Beadhead

2010-01-23T05:25:00.000-08:00

Bedhead...It's what sleeping in on a Saturday is all about.

Unfortunately for me, my toddler literally kicked me out of bed. So, I'm down here in the basement, eating cold pizza, blogging with a bad hairdo, and avoiding the laundry pile on my couch.

How did you spend your Saturday morning?

Haiti

2010-01-21T04:23:00.000-08:00

I usually try to avoid serious topics on this blog because I don't quite trust my brain after having 5 kids and I would hate to do injustice to anything of importance. That said, I was struck by something I read while keeping tabs on the Haiti situation. So many of the articles talk about the never ending need for aid, while others give reports on the massive outpouring of aid, money, volunteers, militia, and machinery. Some articles highlight individual stories of rescue and hope or despair and confusion. Still others take a long term view of the situation and debate the best way to restore Haiti's economy or discuss the political repercussions of foreign military aid in their country. Amid all of this, though, was a simple quote taken from a, now homeless, 29 year old-mother of two, Sophia Eltime,

"We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon."

I read this and instantly thought, "It isn't any one's responsibility." Nobody has to lift a finger for Haiti, really. The beauty of it all is that everybody wants to help. So many people, private organizations, online networks, foreign governments, professional volunteers, and religious groups are pooling their resources and doing everything they can to "put Humpty Dumpty together again." So it saddens me to read all the reports of those who are angry that aid isn't arriving fast enough, when part of the problem is that so much aid is arriving the airports can't handle the influx (especially because, technically, no one has to send any aid at all). I wonder, no, I sincerely hope that as Haiti heals it will be able to look back and be overwhelmed at the international outpouring of care and kindness it is currently receiving. It would break my heart if they were to look back and accuse, blame, or find fault in the giving.

Now, I understand that the people "complaining" are suffering and in distress and speaking in desperation. I also understand that some of these people are in areas that have yet to get the aid they so badly need. I don't fault them for their pleas. I just cringe at the form the pleas have taken. It is one thing to plea and ask for help, it is another thing to expect, even to demand, it.

I guess I could see a bright side of this by thinking that mankind has grown so much and come so far that kindness and charity are expected rather than hoped for.

What do you think?

Timed Thinking

2010-01-20T04:55:00.000-08:00

Currently I keep all my clothes in a set of plastic drawers and a plastic tote in my room. Mr. Hotness and I found some money in our budget to get some much needed bedroom furniture, but I went and spent it all. I used it to buy a couple of in-home exercise machines in a desperate attempt to get back in shape (remember my New Year's goal of getting my wedding ring off?). My idea is that for every 1/2 hour I spend on these machines I will "earn" $5 of my bedroom money back. At 4 hours a week I figure it will take me 2 months. So, I've been busting my butt (ha!) trying to get in a 1/2 hour on each machine (a rower and an elliptical) and I've discovered that my thoughts are pretty consistent at various times in the work out. Here is how it usually goes:

1 minute: This is almost too easy, I better increase the resistance by a lot.

3 minutes: Whoa, Nelly, I don't think I need so much resistance.

5 minutes: *Gasp* *Pant* Who am I kidding? I wasn't made for this. My body was created for the purpose of eating ice cream and watching TV. I have no right to be on one of these things, no right at all.

10 minutes: I think I'm dead or having an out of body experience. I no longer feel the burn and have gone completely numb.

13 minutes: I'm starting to really sweat, gross! I find that acid rock music helps keep my mind off the clock.

20 minutes: I look at the clock and see that I'm almost done. HEY, this isn't so bad after all. Just don't watch the clock, don't watch the clock.

25 minutes: Oh, I could SO totally do this all day. I have hit my groove.

29 minutes: And 5... 4... 3... 2... 2 1/2... Come on, come on... 1... Oh, Sweet Cuppin' Cakes, I don't ever want to do that again!!!

And it starts all over again on the next machine.

Hey, do any of you have some good acid rock bands to recommend?

To Whom it May Concern,

2010-01-19T04:54:00.001-08:00

Dear Children,
I love you so, but I just mopped the kitchen, which entailed me crawling on the floor with a butter knife, scraping petrified cheerios off the floor, and if you step one foot on that bright, shiny floor I will go insane and have your father commit me to a loony bin.
All my love,
Your adoring Mother.
.
.
Dear Baby,
I understand that I am covered in cloth and therefore might logically be considered a giant walking wash rag. But I'm not. Please do your best to refrain from drooling, spitting, wiping, regurgitating, snotting, or pooping on me. If you don't like what you are eating, please go spit it in the garbage can, don't bring it to me and wipe it on my leg.
Thanks ever so much.
Your adoring Mother.
.
.
Dear Boys,
I know you think wiping is not a manly act. Fine. Just don't make such an effort to display your manliness on the bedroom and bathroom floors. There are hampers all over the house. If you'd like I can draw you a map to each one. When I say I love everything about you this isn't included.
Unconditionally yours,
Mom
.
.
Dear Teenage Daughter,
I know too well the look of disdain in your eyes, I once used the same death rays on my mother when I was your age. Life will never be fair, and I will continue to be useless in your eyes until the day you have a daughter of your own. Just do me a favor until then and wear sunglasses.
Understandingly yours,
Your Mommy
.
.
Dear Husband,
I'm so very sorry about the late fees at the library, for loosing yet another GPS, and for spending too much at Amazon.com. But really, it's still cheaper than the therapy I should be getting or the medications I should probably be on.
Guiltily yours,
Your Wife (who you are contractually required to love)
.
.
Dear Teachers,
If my child tells you that the baby ate their homework, please do not call them irresponsible liars and write their names on the board because, in fact, the baby did eat their homework. While he was at it, the baby also drew on my walls and flushed a dirty diaper down the toilet. Homework was a little low on my list this morning as I was trying to find a clean shirt. You see, the baby ate my shirt.
Respectfully yours,
"That Mom"
.
.
Dear Grocery Stores of Connecticut,
I highly recommend that at least one of you start stocking Ben and Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. It is just a suggestion, but it might reduce the number of complaints you've been getting about a deranged woman, crying, in the fetal position, in your freezer sections.
Pleadingly yours,
A Mother of Five

It Is Time

2010-01-15T05:44:00.000-08:00

Two days ago I finally broke down and bought some in home exercise equipment.

It is time.

Comic Education

2010-01-14T04:43:00.000-08:00

The other day Pablo came to me and said, "Hey mom, I have a really funny thing to tell you that I learned from Calvin and Hobbes. Wanna hear it?" I said, sure, and he proceeded to recite, in a funny voice, from memory, this little diddy.

"To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; to sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause..."

My jaw was lying on the floor and tears of grateful pride were rolling off my cheeks, and my husband's eyes were as big as saucers. If Calvin and Hobbes can get my Lego loving son to quote Shakespeare then it will always have a place of honor in our home.

Old Photos From Mother's Day 2008

2010-01-08T11:36:00.001-08:00

Never assume that just because your husband is lying right there that it is safe to leave a baby alone with a jar of Nutella for a measly 5 minutes.

Because you know how you spell assume, right?

It's ok, baby, if it were me I'd have done the same thing.

Not All That Glitters is Gold

2010-01-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

While hitting the Christmas clearance sales the other day, Sweet Terror came up to me holding this ginormous lollipop. Her eyes were big and shiny as she guardedly asked, "Mommy, can I have this?" I could tell she was too experienced to hope much, and I almost said no right away, but then I looked at the price, calculated the clearance discount, and thought, "Why not?" I said yes, and the joy that flooded that little girl's face was well worth the 25 cents and any inevitable cavities.

To everyone we encountered in the store she would proudly show her lollipop, declaring that her mom was going to buy it for her. Each time she asked me to buy a toy that she saw in the store all I had to do was remind her that she was getting a lollipop and she would smile and say, "Oh, right. I love my lollipop." She obediently waited till we returned home and ate our lunch, even eating every carrot on her plate, until it was finally time to open the luscious confectionery swirl of joy. Upon sinking her teeth into the top arch, she reeled back, spit a little and said, "Mom, it tastes like play-dough. Yucky play-dough." (Is there a yummy kind?)

Thinking it might just be a bit old I told her to give it a few more licks, you know, to get past that first wrapper scented layer of candy. She tried but could only manage one more lick before declaring that she no longer wanted it. "I'm sorry you don't like it, sweety, go ahead and throw it away."

Later that day I went in the kitchen and found her lollipop sitting on the counter. I picked it up to see why it was so yucky. It smelled more like perfume than candy, and then I noticed the tag:

Sweet Shop Fun Soap

I guess we got suckered. And I will be less likely to tell my kids to retry things they say they don't like in the future.

Super Easy Stockings

2010-01-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

I love the first week in January because all the Christmas stuff is super cheap at 75% off. Now is a great time to buy pretty Christmas placemats for making super easy stockings. I bought each of these placemats for $1.25 or less, which comes out to $2.50 or less for each stocking. Booya!

On the back of one placemat draw out the stocking shape you want, trying to get as much stocking as you can from the material. Then trace around that shape again giving yourself anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 an inch for a seam allowance. (I try to get 1/2 inch because I'm not very good with a sewing machine). I also make the top 2 inches of my stocking a bit wider so as to give enough room for a folded cuff.

Now use that first stocking cutout as a template for the rest of your placemats. Now comes the only tricky part to this. In order to make the top cuff of your stocking (and you don't have to have a cuff if you don't want to, or you could even add your own fancy cuff if you are so talented, but I'm not) you need to:
1: Put two stocking shapes together with the right sides facing (make it look inside out). Then, starting 3 inches, or so, from the top, sew around the edge of your stocking and stop 3 inches, or so, from the top on the other side.
2: Turn stocking right side out. Now, sew up both sides of the stocking top. Does that make sense?

See, here I've sewn most of the stocking, turned it rightside out, and am finishing up the top.

See? On the green one I made the mistake of only sewing the cuff part inside out. With the cream one I was smarter and added an extra inch to that insideout seam.

The reason for adding that extra inch is so that the raw edges on the inside aren't so near the top (which makes them visible and sloppy looking). See?

And here they are, all finished. Now I will use a stencil and some gold craft paint to personalize each one. Another reason I like using placemats is that most of them have some sort of interfacing inside them which makes them rather sturdy. I didn't add any loops to hang them from because we rarely have a fireplace and usually just prop them up on the couch, but I'm sure you could easily add a loop before sewing it together.

Or you could just buy the premade pretty stockings on super clearance. But what fun would that be?

My Goals

2010-01-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

My goals for this year:

1. Loose enough weight to be able to take off my wedding ring. Not that I want to take it of, I just want to be ABLE to take it off.

2. Sell something on Etsy. No, I don't have an Etsy shop, but I fantasize about it so much that I think I ought to give it a try.

3. Start entertaining again. For the first time in 7 years we didn't have our Christmas party and I have yet to have anyone over for dinner since we've moved. I need to get back into the habit of having people over because it really is something I enjoy.

And that is it. Short, sweet, and hopefully doable. I flirted with the idea of going off sugar, being more organized, following a personal chore chart, exercising everyday, writing a novel, etc, etc, etc. Then I laughed till I cried, ate a cracker dipped in ranch with pimento olives (don't ask), and used my sock to wipe up some spilled milk. I think 3 goals is plenty in my current state of mind.

And yes, I know ranch and pimento on crackers isn't going to help me with my wedding ring. I was going through a snack food withdrawal after the big New Year's Eve binge-a-thon. Desperation does ugly things to me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T21:08:00.000-08:00

I hope you are all in your pajamas, overeating and having a grand ol' time today. I hope you are giving out extra hugs, extra forgiveness, and extra laughter as you celebrate life today. Because isn't that what the gift of our Savior is all about? He gave his life so that we would have a chance to live ours into eternity. So make the most of it.

John 15:11

2 Nephi 2:25

Merry Christmas!

2009-11-24T03:55:00.000-08:00

There is an ooooold joke that everyone likes to tell in Rexburg, Idaho that goes like this:

You know how Rexburg was founded, right? Well, the pioneers were trying to get to Oregon when a giant wind storm stopped them in their tracks. They had to stop and set up camp and wait for the wind to stop before moving on. But the wind never did stop...

These are some goofy photos I took of Monster Man trying to stand still in one of Rexburg's wind storms.

Yeah, it can get pretty windy.

It's All In the Pattern

2009-11-23T20:25:00.000-08:00

Blogger is thwarting my good blogging intentions. It knows I have nothing of substance to write and so it mocks me by not allowing me to upload cute photos of my kids.

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! What to do, what to do. I know, I'll look through my old unpublished drafts and find something. Ah, here we go, another post about my endless search for a resolution to my eternal chores-with-kids problem. I never did try it, but maybe I should.

From July 21st, 2008:
Do you ever get stuck in a rut, find you've been going about things the wrong way, or discover that "your way" really isn't the only way? I've never considered myself as a One Way kind of gal until my most recent epiphany. I've really been struggling with the lack of activities that my children and I do these days. I know I have been pregnant and just had a baby but this has been going on far longer than either of those excuses will allow for. The big problem is that we never seem able to get our chores done. We do our chores every day, they just never seem to get DONE. This gets in the way of doing fun things because I'm a stickler for getting our work done before we play. But if the work never gets done the fun never starts, and that is... well, it's just no fun!

So, here is my thought on this: it is all really just a big pattern, ie: work, play, work, play, work, play (with rest intermingled). Well, what if I keep the pattern but remove the first step? That would make it: play, work, play, work, play, work. What if we played first and worked last? What if we woke up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and left the house to have some fun, or stayed home and did something fun or creative? Then we could eat lunch, take a nap/have quiet time, and then clean right before Mr. Hotness came home from work? This way he would always see a clean house, and then it would be time for bed before they could really mess it up again. By George, it just might work, right? RIGHT? Come on, people, give me some hope here.

I wrote this last summer right after having Cheeks but I think it could still work during school hours. If we go out to play right after school and come home to do homework and chores right before dinner the kids wouldn't have as many opportunities to mess up the place. Right? RIGHT?

Maybe I should just give up and hire a maid. I'm sure if we gave up eating we could afford one. And that would solve my weight gain dilema too. Two birds with one stone, eh?u

What good draft posts do you have lying around?

Sometimes

2009-11-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

Sometimes bacon smell isn't from bacon, it's from the roasting chicken breasts that you forgot to take out of the oven 2 hours ago. Chicken jerky, anyone?

Sometimes hamster cage smell isn't from a hamster, it's from a nasty old diaper that was hiding waaaaay under the back seat of your minivan.

Sometimes chocolate on your baby's finger isn't chocolate... so don't ever lick it to find out.

Sometimes a baby spider that is eating your little girl's arm isn't a spider, it's a nasty tick that will freak you and your little girl out as you try desperately to pry it out.

Sometimes a dead mouse in your washroom isn't a dead mouse, it's an apple core that is so fuzzy with mold it looks like a dead mouse. (but just see how long it takes you to calm down enough to figure it out)

Sometimes a "little thing" isn't so little and you will throw a major temper tantrum until everyone around you understands why it isn't so little.

Sometimes a smile isn't just a smile, it's a saving grace.

Sometimes the "big things" in life aren't so big after all.

Sometimes poopy diapers and a messy house aren't poopy diapers and a messy house, they are signs of your wonderful blessings.

Sometimes ice cream isn't fattening, it's life saving therapy.

.

Almost..

2009-11-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

I'm almost ready to start blogging again. I've started bathing again and I consider that a huge HUGE step in the right direction. Don't you?

Stay tuned ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Web Slingers

2009-10-14T23:58:00.000-07:00

The leaves are falling and crunching at my feet. The air is crisp and full of the scents of Fall. Caramel apples and pumpkin pie are always on my mind. And my children are daily talking about what they want to be for Halloween. Ahhhh, the joys of Fall. I love them so.

There is only one thing that I can't stand about this time of year. Only one pet peeve that drives me batty and makes me feel witchy.

Be careful, one tug on that dangling spider and you'll get a stone bird implanted in your cranium. Who knew fake webs could be so dangerous?

I'd ask you to have a seat, but every chair in my living room is draped in the stuff.

On the bright side, though, it's helping me to stay away from that pesky TV addiction I have.

Kids and fake webs, it's a scary combination.

The Loner/Loaner

2009-10-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

Today, Monster Man got off the bus wearing this lovely little number:
.

.
I asked him where the coat came from and he said it was a loaner jacket because he didn't have his own jacket for recess. I could have sworn I gave him his jacket this morning, but I guess I didn't. Isn't he an 8o's stud muffin in this get up? I love it.
.
.
So, Monster Man, will you remember to wear your jacket tomorrow so the whole neighborhood doesn't think we're starting Halloween early this year?
.

Lesson learned!

Climbing

2009-10-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

The baby can climb.
The baby can reach, grab, and pull.
The baby can tantrum like non other.
The baby can drive me absolutely out of my mind till I want to run away and never look back.
.
But...
.
The baby can giggle and laugh.
The baby can wrap his arms around my neck and pat my back.
The baby can run to me with arms outstretched, smiling, and singing, "La la la la."
The baby can drive me absolutely out of my mind with love for his small little body and his amazingly bright mind.

For Just One Week

2009-10-03T20:01:00.001-07:00

Well, it was a messy goal and I did miss two days, but otherwise it was a success. Sweet Terror and I made blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies, no bake cookies (is that cheating?), lemon bars, and meringue cookies. We had a lot of fun together and she was so excited every time we started a new recipe. My floor is sticky, and I think I have a cavity, but it was worth it for all the times she said, "Thanks for letting me help you mom, I love to cook because I'm a great helper. Ooooo, the sugar is so sparkly and pretty, mom."

For this next week I'm going to step waaaaay out of my comfort zone. WAY out. I hate talking on the phone. I hate it so much that I would rather be seen as rude than return a phone call. It is a bad thing. I talk too fast, I interrupt, I laugh too loud, and I never know quite how to end it. So, for my next challenge I'm going to call someone special, besides my sister and my mom, everyday. The people will be (in no particular order):

Tiffany

Grandpa

Jami

Wendy

Laura S. T.

Rachel S. P.

and Rochelle E.

There are many more people who could easily be on this list but I feel that these 7 people are those who have gone out of their way to reach out to me but who I have been too timid to reach back to, and they all mean a lot to me. Hopefully this goal will help me become a bit more comfortable with using modern technology. Just don't expect me to use the video phone on my computer anytime soon. That is whole other ball of insecurities.

What can you make yourself do For Just One Week?

For Just One Week

2009-09-26T04:26:00.000-07:00

Ah, my lovely For Just One Week, where have you been? Stuck in some random, unpacked box you say? Well, I'm glad you're back because I really need to shake things up around here. I have been rather lazy and uninspired without you.

I have a little girl who loves loves loves to bake. I bought her an easy bake oven at a yard sale last month and I've never seen a girl so excited, so elated, so grateful, so verbose, "Oh thank you, mommy, for my pretty little oven. I love it. It is just right for me. I love sparkly cookies and chocolate cake. It's pink and it's for a girl, and I'm a girl, and I love it 'cause it's just like for a little girl, mommy. And daddy will love my little cookies, mommy. I have sprinkles, and hearts, and chocolate, and I just love it. Look at this, mommy, it's a little cake pan. I love my little cake pan. It is just right for me." She is more than willing to spend 1/2 hour mixing, pouring, and mostly waiting (there is a lot of waiting), for 2 extremely little cakes to come out of that little oven. 1/2 an hour for a cake that is gone in 4 bites. And the mess is just as big as if we'd made a full size cake for the family. Egads! But that is beside the point. She loves to bake, whether it is with her tiny oven or with me making cookies and whatnot. The problem is that I haven't found the time to do much baking these days. I know the time is there, I just need to make it happen.

So, For Just One Week I am going to bake something with Sweet Terror every day this week. Sure, I'm aware that I may gain 15 pounds from this endeavor, I know I will have to mop my kitchen more than once this week, and I realize that my kitchen sink will never be empty, but I can guarantee you that it will all be worth the sweet joy that it will give my little girl.

(and I can always exercise everyday For Just One Week next week.... right?)

What can you do For Just One Week?

1st Day of School

2009-09-01T06:29:00.001-07:00

Most mom's are posting cute pics of their kids in spanking fresh new outfits and super cute Gap kids hairdos and writing about the tears shed over children leaving home, or shouting for joy over their new found freedom. This morning I made sure my kids were just as spanking fresh, and I even moussed my boys' hair so that it would hopefully retain its Gap kids spike in the front. I packed their half-day snacks in monogrammed brown bags, and reminded them not to participate in dirty jokes or bad language. I marveled at the maturity of my oldest as she she came out of her room looking so hip and so beautiful. I said a million little prayers as I dropped my boys off at the door because I couldn't find Sweet Terror's shoes so we couldn't walk them in. But the one thing I forgot to do was take a 1st Day of School picture. *sigh*

So all I have to show you today is this:

A picture of the cookies I am stuffing in my face, as I curl into a fetal position on my couch, and mutter calming words to myself. No, I'm not worried about my kids (even though one was lost this morning and no one at the school could find her... but they eventually did and forgot to call me to tell me that they did, and then finally called me back after I called them a million times and was about to start a search party). No, I'm just so glad that it is all over and can now try to recover some of my sanity. I've never been through a more complicated, stressful, and rushed event in my life as I have these past 4 days.

Things I've learned:
1. The East coast LOVES its paper work.
2. The East coast loves its rules.
3. Orange Milano cookies can lower blood pressure like nothing else I know.

Pray... Then Wait

2009-08-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

When my computer breaks I usually just turn it off for 24-36 hours and when I turn it back on it almost always works just fine. This technique doesn't work for everything though... unless you add prayer to it. I've found that prayer and patience is the key to to so many of lifes problems. When someone has done something wrong to me and I totally didn't deserve it, instead of getting really mad back at them I just pray, wait and eventually that person comes and apologizes. When I've lost something and have spent days cleaning and searching and think I'm about to go crazy, I pray, wait, and always find it. Always. When my life seems boring, out of control, busy, or just plain poopy (literally) (seriously) (in 3 years I hope to never ever ever have to wipe another person's bum ever ever again), I just pray, wait it out, and eventually it all works out and joy returns. And don't even get me started on the uses of this technique when it comes to marriage. Yup, I've found this magical fixing technique works for just about anything.

Yesterday I was so mad and frustrated about a problem we were having getting the kids into school that I could barely see straight. I did every thing I could, followed my sister's brilliant advice, even tried begging, had my ear glued to a phone all day, and nothing was working. I was starting to loose my cool. I freaked out a little, then remembered my magical weapon. I said a little prayer, relaxed, went out for ice cream, and went to bed in joyful peace.

Today I got a phone call and, just like that, everything is fine. The kids will start school on time. YIPEE!!!

I'm tellin' ya, pray... then wait. Say it with me, folks, pray... then wait. Try it next time you need a miracle, you will be amazed at the results.

You Can Thank Me Later

2009-08-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

(I stole this gorgeously grumpy face from a talented photographer in Flicker)

Yesterday and today I've been busy composing a nasty, frothing at the mouth, red hued rant about... well never mind what it was about. I wrote it, I felt better after getting it all off my chest, then I hit the Save As Draft button and walked away from my computer. I did some frantic cleaning, had some very heated conversations with the voices in my head, drank some water, and then I decided that the world doesn't need another ranting, controversial, mean spirited post.

You're welcome.

Now, I'm going to go tickle my baby boy so that his lovely baby giggles can find and destroy the negative hate rays I was sending out to the universe earlier. Happy blogging, everyone!

The Family That Slaves Together...

2009-08-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

I have a new love in my life. I feel ashamed to admit this love because it makes me sound so old, so conventional, so "MOM." But when it's love there is no denying it, so I'm here to shout it from the roof tops, "I LOVE YOU, NEW CHORE CHART!!!" I first saw this chore chart on Pioneer Woman's site (and you know that anything she likes is going to be good) and I just knew I had to have it. But doubt kept holding me back. Would this chore chart love me back? Would it stay with me through the tough times? Would it understand me and my weaknesses? And most importantly, would my kids approve of my new love? For months I simply stalked it, dreamed about it every night, until I could take it no longer and simply had to make my feelings known. How would I ever know if this chore chart could love me if I didn't show it how I really felt? So I whipped out my VISA and promptly proposed marriage to it.

My mom says chore charts are like diet books. They always sound great in theory, but rarely do any long term good in reality. And I have to say that, for the most part, she is right. This chore chart started out like any diet. The first day was amazing. We did it all. We sweated and slaved to meet the requirements. And, like I do with every new diet, I called my mom and my sister to rave to them about our new regime, about how good it made me feel, about all my hopes and dreams. And then I woke up the next morning with the usual change-your-life-hangover. My body wanted so badly for me to go back to my lazy ways. But I refused to give in so soon. I quickly called my sister for back up and she talked me through that second day so that I could stay strong. On the third day I called my mom for support. And everyday after that I called one of those amazing women so that they could talk me through my glutinous, lazy urges and see me to another day of chore chart success. Slowly it went from "hard to do" to just a way of life.

And I have to say, I love love love this chore chart. It is flexible, user friendly, visually helpful, and seems to work for us. For a really good look at all it has go read the Pioneer Woman's review. She has like a zillion pics of it so I'm not going to even try.

This is how I made it work.

1. Read all the instructions that come with it, get it all set up. Try to put it in a place where you will see it often, where the kids can access it, but where it is least likely to be pulled down or destroyed. I spent a whole day searching for a spot like this, they are hard to find.

2. Sit the family down and explain it. Let them know that this is about learning, that it is supposed to be hard, and that it is going to actually be more work for you (the mom) because instead of just doing the chores really fast yourself you are going to have to work with each kid as you teach them new skills.

3. The idea of the play money incentive is that eventually the child should feel self motivated to earn the money. Yeah, that is not going to happen the first week. I told my kids that the first week I would still nag, and even yell, in order to get them to finish their chores so they could all earn their money. The second week I would give reminders and nag a little but no yelling (I don't know why my boys need me to yell before they actually do stuff). Then the third week I would only give 3 reminders, and after that they are on their own. If they earn the money, fine, if they don't no sweat.

4. Some kids will choose not to earn. It's the way kids are. So, the deal is that money is a reward for a job WELL done and a good attitude. The kids are still required to get their jobs done everyday, but they don't earn any dollars if they don't meet the requirements. If they choose not to do any chores at all they loose any and all privileges (computer, TV, trampoline, picking a movie at the library, etc).

5. There are blank cards that you can customize. Use these to add any jobs that aren't provided. I added things like sweeping the stairs, collecting dirty laundry, and cleaning computer/TV screens. But I also got creative and added fun things like write your brother a love note, make everyone in the family laugh at least once today, write a story to tell the family after dinner, etc. I try to use at least one of these a week to help keep the chore chart fresh and alive, and to remind us that this whole program is about family.

6. I also like to mix up the dollar awards every now and then. If one child is particularly helpful and sweet I will give them an extra dollar, and we give an extra one on birthdays as well. I'm even thinking of letting the kids buy off a chore. So if they don't want to clean toilets maybe they can pay me 2 dollars to do it for them. And we have one big, expensive reward they can all chip-in to buy for a family day at "Fun Factor" (a building full of inflatable slides, boxing rings, ball pits, and adult headaches).

It's a pricey chore chart at $19.00 after shipping, but for me it has been totally worth it. If you have the time and inclination you could probably make one of these yourself. I thought about doing that... then I had a real good laugh and bought it from Christianbook.com because they sold it for the cheapest price.

A Beautiful Ice Cream Moment

2009-08-24T04:28:00.001-07:00

This is what I had for breakfast this morning: It's what I've had for breakfast for the past 4 days now. It's so yummy, so nutritious, so not creamy and caramely and cold,
so....
so....
so not this:

While Mr, Hotness and I were looking for our new home we drove all over North East New Jersey, South East New York, and South West Connecticut. While in Connecticut we happened upon a Friendy's. I think I scared poor Mr. Hot-stuff when I grabbed his arm, squealed in delight, and shouted, "Friendly's, Friendly's, pull in, pull in, we have to eat at Friendly's, I have to have a Reeses Pieces sundae, it's HUGE and I have to have one. Please, please, please!!!"

For some reason I have very intense reactions to childhood memories and poor Mr. Hotness is often caught unawares by them. In this case it was my memory of Friendly's, an ice cream shop and diner that was a special place to go when I lived in Saratoga, NY. They had this sundae that came in a ginormous goblet and try as one might, one could never finish one of those bad boys by themselves. Trust me, I tried many times. It was like an obsession with me. I had this dream that someday I would be able to order, eat, and finish the most yummy sundae of all time: The Friendly's five scoop Reeses Pieces sundae with fudge and peanut butter swirls and little chocolate sprinkles. Yes someday I would be the David who slays the mighty giant.

That day was upon me and it was time to try again...

And I won!

I won!

Never give up on your dreams, people, because eventually you will be ready, and they will come true. And you will be so proud of yourself that you will go back and eat that dream again and again... oh yes, and again!

And then you will have to drink V8 for breakfast everyday for the next 20 years to recover from that dream.
'

But it will be soooooo worth it!

For the Beauty of the Skies

2009-08-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

One of the lovely things that I always miss about my mom's hometown of Rexburg, Idaho is the amazing sky. For the most part Rexburg is completely and absolutely flat, and with very few trees or buildings you are left with mostly sky. Rexburg is also a very windy town, so whatever changes in weather you get tend to happen rather quickly. You can see a rain storm coming from miles away.

It rushes through in a matter of minutes, and then you get to watch it leave.

It is really quiet fantastic.

On the Fourth of July we love to just sit in my mom's yard, slathered in bug spray, and watch all the fireworks being lit from all over town.

But no firework show could ever compare to a Rexburg lightening storm. (Do you have any idea how many completely black photos I had to take before I finally caught one of these beauties on film? Let's just say I hit the delete button so many times I developed a callous. It was so worth it).

And don't even get me started on the sunsets. This is the view from my mom's back porch. Every night is a new masterpiece, a new moment of glory, each one an original never to be copied or reproduced. These are worth each and every single bug bite.

It may seem like I keep my head in the clouds, and you may wonder why I love my mom's sky so much...

But if you were surrounded by hoards of wildebeasts on a constant sunburn-popsicle high, you'd look to the skies for a moment of sweet serenity too.

(pardon the poor quality of this video, it is my very first attempt at video editing)

Home Didn't and Home Did

2009-08-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

Care for a few more home didn'ts before we get to the good stuff? Too bad, I want to share them anyway.

We did not rent the home that called this a "roomy Master Bedroom closet":

And as comfortable as I try to be with my body, we did NOT rent the home with the toilet mirror wall. (Can anyone ever be THAT comfortable with their body?):

Nor did we choose the home that had the "fun recreation room" for entertaining guests in:

Nope. Instead we chose the only normal, safe, big-enough-for-our-huge-family house we could find in our price range. And we love it!!! The only problem is that we are really paying for this place with the commute. Mr. Hotness has a 3 hour round trip commute each day and the kids and I currently have a 1 1/2 hour commute each day taking him back and forth from the train station each day.

But it is worth it!

This is the view from our front door:

Connecticut is such a lovely place to live.

New Home

2009-07-24T05:01:00.001-07:00

Hello little blog. I'm sorry I've neglected you so. The cobwebs and dust are gathering in your corners, and your links are getting a tad rusty. Anybody miss me? Anyone still here? Hello? Sorry I've been so silent, I have a tendency of doing this when I have so much to talk about that I don't know where to start. You should see my diaries. Pages and pages full of mundanities and acne reports, and then when something big/huge/life-changing happens in my life the pages are left tragically blank. But here I am, alive and well, happy and enthusiastic, head still spinning, and not a clue what to make of it all. I'll go more in to all that later, though. For now I thought I'd start with the house, or houses. Let's start with the houses we did not choose:

We did not choose the crazy old "farm house with charm" that had undulating wooden floors, Gothic wood paneling complete with a giant crab carving on the wall, and the yellow metal file cabinets that took the place of more traditional kitchen cabinets. But just take a look at the master bedroom closet: You get a spacious 2 inch deep closet that buts up against another door. No worries, they installed plenty of towel racks for you to hang your clothes on. And who needs air fresheners when you have so many attractive pest control devices smelling it up for you.

We didn't choose the house that had a separate room just for the fridge. I love food, but not so much that the fridge needs its very own room. Plus this house only had one bathroom, and it was in the kitchen, and it's colors were baby blue and antique mustard yellow.

This next house was big, nice, but had a mold problem and giant spiders that had glowing eyes. The mold was my deal breaker, and the spiders were Mr. Hotnesseses's.

Ever since I was 4 my favorite colors have been green and yellow. I really like those colors, but not so much that I would paint the whole outside of my house those colors. Still, we thought we should give it a chance. I should have known better when I saw the freaky demon face glaring at us from above:

Little did I know that the green and yellow nightmare would only get worse. The sad thing is that it was a gorgeous house in a lovely neighborhood. The even sadder thing is that this is fresh paint, painted specifically to help "sell" this place. But sadder still is the gorgeous wood flooring, which they thought needed a fresh coat of poop brown paint. It makes me want to cry:

Why would you update a kitchen so nicely only to ruin it with this paint? WHY????

And that is only the start of a very interesting house hunting trip we went on before we finally found a lovely home (which I will show you tomorrow) in New Fairfield, CT.

We are all very happy here, Mr. Hot loves his job, and I'm going to try my best to get back into blogging so I can stay connected with all my friends and family. WE MISS YOU!!!

geust posting by Cookie

2009-07-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

OK, here I go.Hi , its me again, your favorite blogger's daughter, Cookie. While all of you sit there in antagonizing anticipation, waiting to hear the latest news on our move...the Ice Cream family has been happily procrastinating, vacationing in Idaho with family members.We get to sit here, swimming, bike riding,eating ,sleeping, and hanging out, while the movers pack our load of junk and move it all the way to Connecticut. My dad is already there, all alone, freaked out of his mind. Keep him in your prayer, OK? What do I think about all of this?You really want to know? OK , but don't say I didn't warn you. I THINK THE LOW DOWN, DIRTY ,ROTTEN, FILTHY, SON OF A HOG WHO BOUGHT MY DADS BANK AND FORCED US TO MOVE OUT CROSS COUNTRY, LEAVE OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY, MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SCHOOL, AND ALL THE SIGHTS OF SEATTLE, DESERVES A GOOD WHOPPIN!!!!!!!! But I also feel grateful to him for having us get used to new cultures, sights, and other things I'm not used to. Talk about mixed feelings. Oh well. Aaaaaaand now, just for the sheer joy of it, I'm not going to give you any more info on what is happening, no pictures, no videos, no nothing, I'm gonna have my mom handle all that. And also, my mom was the one who misplaced the camera cord in the first place, and I cant really think of anything else to say, besides bye bye:]

Ah....Ah.....

2009-06-04T22:41:00.000-07:00

WA-CHOOO!!!

My nose itches so bad from all the dust, mold, and cleaners that I've been inhaling for the past 3 days.

I am supposed to be in NY right now. I am supposed to be frantically looking for a new place to move our huge family in 3 weeks. I am supposed to be getting dressed up for dinners in the Big Apple, and be alone with my husband in a hotel room every night, while my mom watches my kids here in Seattle. *sigh*

Instead I'm still here, trying not to freak out, because we are STILL waiting to hear from the relocation manager. So, instead of wearing make-up and clean clothes and testing water pressure and asking about square footage, I've been sneezing my brains out while frantically cleaning, sorting, and majorly de-junking. See this pile of J-unk?

This is all the stuff that has been littering my downstairs for 4 years now. Why-o-why did I not get rid of it sooner? You should see how open and clean it is down there now. Saturday we are going to have a huge yard sale and try to con others into taking it by selling it for dirt cheap.

Anyone need a futon, or 10 packs of flash cards, or maybe you could use 3,789 books. If so, come on over Saturdaaaaaa-ACHOO! Oh, forget it, I'm going to bed. I'd really rather be in NY eating pizza right now.

New Job

2009-05-31T20:52:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been non existent in blog land this week. I've had a lot on my mind lately. Mr. Hotness has been out of work since April 30th so our whole world has revolved around him finding a job. The good news is that as of Friday he has one. YAY! Here are some photos he took while he was gone for his interview.

Last time Mr. Hotness went far away for a job interview he ate at Quizno's. I was so mad at him. So this time I made him promise he would eat somewhere that served authentic regional food. This is what he ate. Oh how I wish he would have brought a slice home to me. But in just a few weeks I can eat this anytime I want:

This was the view from his hotel room:

And here is the view from his future office area (notice the lovely park?):

A look down on the traffic jams he will soon face:

A view from another window:

Here is a lovely little church nearby. Look familiar to anyone?

And on a nice day he might just sit here during lunch breaks:

I'm still trying to fathom me and five kids and all of this:

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go eat the Strawberry Cheesecake Ben and Jerry's that a dear friend brought me last night, read about The Pioneer Woman's latest vacation, and look for a new place to live on Craigslist.

Yes, we are nervous and scared, but mostly excited. No, we aren't sure yet if we will live in or outside of the city. Mr. Hot's first day on the job will be June 29th so we have to be there before then. We are flying out there this week to look for a place to live, please pray for us. This is going to be one interesting time in our lives. Thank you to all of you who kept us in your prayers and offered support while we were unemployed, and to all of you who have given us encouragement and help in this next move.

Letters and Piano

2009-05-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Me,

Why do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee for thy thick skin that shrugs off offenses, and for the easy way you forgive others in the hope that you will likewise be forgiven. I love your willingness to laugh and smile even when life tries to get you down, everything is easier when faced with good humor. I love that you are, slowly but surely, finally learning not to sweat the small stuff. Life is too precious to waste it on silly annoyances. I love that you apologize to your children when you are wrong, no matter how often you mess up. I love the way you treat your husband. He is a good man and deserves to feel completely loved every day. I love that you forgive yourself for being human. I love that you know how to throw yourself a really good pity party and then pick up the pieces and carry on with your duties. I love that you eat ice cream with abandon. I love that you allow others to see your faults so they can hopefully feel better about their own. You are a beautiful woman in your own right and I love that you choose to feel beautiful when in the arms of your husband. I love that you won't take trash from those who try to make you feel bad. I love that you enjoy odd things and find meaning in the bizarre, it makes for interesting ponderings. Thank you for not giving up when things got tough, because they are bound to get tough again and each time you stick with it you emerge stronger and more enlightened. It has been a crazy 31 years and I hope it will only get crazier as we go through it together. I love you, Lizzy, you are my kind of gal.

Love, Me

This was definitely one of my favorite goals. I wrote love letters to everyone in my family and finally to myself. The best part was knowing that my children now know how I feel about them. I love them so very much, but too often my day is spent reprimanding them and being frustrated with them. I need to work on that a little more. It is hard with a baby, but I'm still working on it.

I highly recommend you all try this one, especially the love letter to yourself. I did my best not to simply write things I knew others liked about me but to really dig deep into what it is that I love about myself. I think I need to read this letter at least once a week to remind me not to be so hard on myself.

This next week I need to tackle something that I should have been doing for sometime now. This week I will practice piano with Pablo everyday for 10 minutes. He has a lovely piano teacher (thanks for everything, Sara!) who has been so forgiving to me even though it is so obvious when I haven't had Pablo practice, at all. But it really isn't fair to her or him so I'm going to finally put forth some effort there. I also want to use this week to finally send out some very belated packages that are taking up way too much space in my kitchen.

What are you working on this week?

I Love My Fat

2009-05-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

First, I want to thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes. I had a great birthday, and much cheesecake was eaten, and I did make it till after the candles were blown out. I think that shows that I'm finally maturing a little bit in my old age. =)

Today I want to talk to you about something I hold very near and dear to my heart: fat. No, not the fat on my chin or hips (though I'm sure it has helped all areas of my body grow in bad ways). I'm talking about the kind of fat you ask Santa to give you for Christmas. The kind of fat you'd be just as happy to get as a new diamond ring, maybe. The kind of fat that just makes EVERYthing better. I'm talking BACON fat people. I'm talking smokey, rich, buttery bacon fat.

Do you cook with bacon fat? You should, you really should. Just don't do it everyday, or even every week for that matter. It could kill you if you did that. But every now and then you really ought to try using bacon fat in your homemade bread, put it in your garlic black beans, use it to fry up an egg or two, or to grease the pan for your french toast, and if you want to make a man smile just try cooking his next steak in it. Ho-boy!

Now, you can get bacon grease anytime you cook up some bacon, but I've found that baking your bacon provides the cleanest and most stable bacon grease, not to mention the fact that baking your bacon is fast, less messy, and frees your stove top up for pots and pans of pancakes, eggs, and syrup.

To bake bacon lay bacon out flat (you can overlap the slices a little) on a rimmed baking sheet. Make sure it is rimmed so you can capture all that lovely fat (and so you don't start an oven fire with dripping grease) and bake on the middle shelf in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Be very careful taking pan out of oven, remove bacon to a paper towel lined plate, then pour the fat through a fine mesh strainer into a clean, sterile canning jar. Voila! Store this in your refrigerator or freezer and use it anytime you need that "essence of bacon."

Isn't that a pretty sight? I love it!

The only thing better than bacon fat is BABY FAT!!! Good golly, is there anything cuter than a naked fat baby?

(That mirror that he has his pudgy little hand on is a mirror that has never gone a whole day without smears, fingerprints, and lick marks. So gross.)

Junk and Love Letters

2009-05-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

F or Just One Week

( Sorry I'm posting this so late. I wanted to post a pic of the towering stack of games I'm getting rid of today, but my camera isn't cooperating with me. So, just imagine a stack of games the size of Godzilla.)

If you aren't using it, it is most likely junk. This is something I have a hard time admitting because I'm a junk lover, but it is true. Sure, it might have great potential. Sure, it might "come in handy" one of these days. And, sure, once you get rid of it you are sure to need it and you will have to pay 5 times as much to get another one. But if you only buy it when you need it, instead of just because it is a great deal, at least you know you aren't buying junk, and that right there is worth the extra money.

See, Mr. Hotness? I've been listening to you all these years, really I have, I just have a hard time DOING it.

Last week my goal was to get rid of any board games that we didn't play with this week. I thought for sure that this goal would lead to much family fun as we played lots of games. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm

*blush*

Let's just say that I'm going to have a LOT of extra shelf space after today. And it should be that way because we really don't play board games right now. My kids are too young and it is silly for me to hold on to all these games (that are constantly getting spilled and knocked over) when I can just wait till they are older and buy them when I need them. Sure, I might have to pay $16 a game instead of the $1 I payed for most of the ones I have now, but it won't be money wasted on junk.

But, OUCH! It hurts me to get rid of my precious junk. I'm sorry, junk, I should have made you useful. Ok, I can do this. No, really I can. There! I did it. And look at all that shelf space (or just imagine it till my camera cooperates). Now I can move the junk I had piled on my window sill over there so the sun can actually come through the window... or maybe I can just keep getting rid of stuff I don't use. Hmmmm.
.

I've had so many things that I've wanted to do for this next week's goal. I wanted to exercise everyday, to paint, to start an Etsy store, to practice piano with Pablo everyday, to be perfect, etc. But Mr. Hotness is going to be out of town for most of the week, so I'm sure to be a total mess of a woman this week. Therefore, for just one week I'm going to write a love letter every day. I plan to write most of them to my main squeeze, but I also want to write some to my children, to my Grandpa, and maybe even to myself. I think this is going to be a very fun and rewarding project.

.
What are you going to do For Just One Week?

What Day Is It?

2009-05-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today I...

Shaved my legs.

Checked my facebook messages like a zillion times (love instant gratification).

I bought myself this sexy little number:

. ($10 for the shirt and $1 for the slacks at a thrift store. Woohoo!)

I made myself this really long necklace:

and I almost ate this for breakfast:

.But I'm being a good girl and waiting till later tonight.

Or will I? Because I don't have to, you know. I could totally eat this whole thing right now and just make a cake from a box and no one could say anything about it because...

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

I hope you are all eating strawberries smothered in Nutella. I hope you are all taking a lovely nap in clean sheets. I hope you have told your mom how grateful you are that she gave you life. I hope that you are healing from the sadness. I hope you look at your children and tell them what a blessing they are in your life. I hope you forgive God for the loss of or inability to have children. I hope you don't blame your husband for not making today perfect. I hope you are smiling. I hope you appreciate the paper flower and bottle of lotion. I hope you do something special for yourself if no one else does. I hope you reach out to the women around you today, because Motherhood is about being a woman, with all its joys and hardships, and we need each other.

Happy Mother's Day, ladies. I think you are all fabulous!

Here is how I learned to love Mother's Day.

For Just One Week

2009-05-09T23:29:00.000-07:00

F or Just One Week

Woo Hoo! I did it. I stuck to a menu! That is a major first for me. The best part was the lunches. Having lunch planned for everyday made for less stress each morning and having lunches packed and ready to go for the younger two who are still home during the day kept my kitchen clean, and allowed me to get more things done during the day. The best was when Mr. Hotness took me out to lunch at an Indian place. I had lunches prepacked for the kids so they were happy and we didn't waste any money buying food they wouldn't eat.
.
Training Cheeks to sleep in a crib did not happen. I tried my best, really I did, but he just wasn't having it. I've never had a child take more than 2 days to crib train but we started on Saturday and went till 1:28pm on Tuesday before I had to give up. He was hoarse and angry and wanted nothing to do with his crib or sleep. I'm going to have to rethink this. Seriously, folks, I've done this with the last 4 kids and they did great, so I know what I'm doing. I think Cheeks is just one of those kids who is going to do it his way. So we will wait and try again later.
.
For this next week I'm tackling this:

See all those games? There are even more on the bottom shelves that you can't see. We have a lot of games. A lot. But we never play them. But they are really great games. But I don't need things we don't use. So, this week we are going to play games. Every game we play we get to keep and by the end of this week which ever games we don't play I will get rid of on next Saturday. This should help me decide which games are worth keeping and which ones are just nice ideas that I don't need.

Want to play along? Tell us what you are working on this week.

Cheap Junk

2009-05-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have a serious problem. I call it a sickness.

For the most part I am really good at being frugal. I buy my clothes used from Garage sales and Thrift stores, I am a master at buying cheap food, and I'm pretty good about making do with what we have on hand. I don't "go shopping" for fun and I pride myself on my ability to save money. But I have one glaringly obvious weakness. Cheap Junk. It is my Kryptonite. For some reason I just can't seem to walk away from something I perceive as a great deal, even if I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is junk.

Take yesterday for example. I needed tissue paper for wrapping up my felt cupcakes. That's all I needed. Now, I know the dollar store is a dangerous place for me because of my sickness so I try my best to avoid it, but it is the best deal in town when it comes to tissue paper. I gave myself a little pep talk before going in, mentally writing a thousand times on the chalkboard, "I will only buy what I need. I will only buy what I need. I will only buy what I NEED." I bought tissue paper, some needed school supplies for the kids, a couple Mother's Day cards, and...

and....

a sombrero

a 3D Hansel and Gretel book

and some cute drinking straws with little drink umbrellas on them

So, here I sit, wearing my sombrero, drinking my morning V-8 through an umbrella straw, trying my best to mentally justify these purchases.

I need help.

A Little Obsession

2009-05-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Some times a little obsession can be a dangerous thing. Back when I was holding my brand new infant in my arms, at 1am in a sleepless stupor I stumbled upon a lovely kid's craft blog called Crafty Crow. Have you been there yet? I love it. While blog hopping around Crafty Crow's amazingly talented blogroll I found myself on Betz White's blog. If you have ever heard of Betz White you must know about her deliciously adorable felt cupcake pincushions. If you haven't heard of Betz White then, please, run for dear life and don't ever look back. Don't look at the cuteness, the craftiness, the recycling chic-ness, and run from the must-make-it spell that she will put you under. I was one of her many casualties and after reading her blog I set out on my quest, to make many adorably delicious felt cupcakes.
.

And just a mere 8 months, 5 sweaters, 2 flooded rooms, 15 buckets of water, 1 busted washing machine, 1 nervous breakdown, and several eye twitches later I have achieved my dream. And if you try to follow this dream then take my advice: DO NOT CUT YOUR SWEATERS BEFORE WASHING THEM!!! No matter what Betz White says on the very useful video at marthstewart.com don't do it. Oh, and make sure you clean out under your washing machine as well because when the lint plugs your machine's water pump, and gallons of water start gushing all over your floor, those lost socks that found their way under your machine and blocked the emergency drain might cause the water to reroute itself under the wall and into the room next door. It just might possibly make you cry. Hysterically. On the phone with your husband. And he just won't understand what "@#%$&#@($& CUPCAKES!!!!" means. .

.
.But it was all worth it. Ok, maybe not, but I have to tell myself that or my eye starts twitching again.
.

I love these little darlings. They are so cute, so colorful, so whimsical, so girly. I don't do girly. I made an exception for these.
.

I loved sorting through my button box with my kids picking out the perfect button "cherries," and spacing each pin in just the right spot to look like I had just throw a few sprinkles on top. I want to just take a big ol' bite of one of these and lick all the frosting from around my lips.

But the thing I love most about these little beauties is that Betz White sells these for 30+ bucks each and I made 12 for a grand total of 10 dollars (I bought the sweaters for a buck each at Value Village, and the ribbon for a buck each at Micheal's. The pins were the most expensive part). That's less than a dollar each. And that is one sweet deal.

Now I just love that I am done with these. I love that I can send these to some of my loved ones for Mother's Day. And I especially love that I finally get to fulfill my long ago promise to send something to three lucky people who participated in my blog reader drawing waaaaaay back in January.

And the winners are....

Sea Star

32 Flavors

and Mia Katia

Please email me you addresses so I can get these in the mail before Sweet Terror sees them and demands they be hers.

If, after reading all my warnings, you still find yourself wanting to make these yourself then get your hands on a copy of Betz White's book, Warm Fuzzies, where she gives you all the instructions for cupcakes and lots of other felt fun crafts. I will warn you (I'm just full of warnings today), it is a popular book and I had to wait 2 months to get it from the library.

Sour Cream Lemon Pie

2009-05-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

Holy Hannah we have been eating good around here this week. I have been sticking to my menu and loving every bite (let's just forget the fact that I posted about calorie counting earlier). I had this lovely vision of posting recipes everyday and have been photographing everything I eat so I could do just that. But to write a post means I have to put my fork down... and that is asking a lot. But the recipe for this pie is so easy I thought I'd post it in between bites.

Lemon Sour Cream Pie

1 fully baked and cooled pie crust

your favorite lemon meringue pie filling (I used a recipe from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook)

16 oz sour cream

3-4 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Whipping cream and extra sugar

Mix sour cream, sugar, and vanilla together and set aside. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Cook your lemon filling. Fill pie crust with lemon filling and top with sour cream mixture (starting at the crust and working your way in) smoothing to completely cover top of pie. Bake for 6 minutes. Remove and let cool then chill in the fridge overnight. Let sit at room temp for 15 minutes before serving. Or just eat it whenever and however you want.

Now, if you didn't forget to buy whipping cream and you aren't too busy changing diapers and yelling at kids you can top your pie with whipped cream and lovely little lemon slices. I just had enough time to slap some slices on plates and call it good. And boy is it good. So very very very good. Mmmmm, that slightly sweet and cool sour cream is the perfect sidekick to the tangy, sugary filling held together by the salty crust. Oh, baby! And if you wake up early enough you can eat the last two slices for breakfast and then tell the kids that daddy must have eaten them while they were sleeping.

Not that I would ever do that.

2009-05-02T22:41:00.000-07:00

F or Just One Week .

Ok, so the ball thing only lasted for two and a half days. It was just as silly and impossible as I expected it to be. Just imagine trying to use a gigantic, blue rubber ball as a tool in a house with 5 kids. It was mayhem. But the kids sure got a kick out of seeing me sit on that thing at dinner. =)

I will say that Dwight was right, it really did improve my posture, and I was using muscles that regular chair sitting never uses. And it was loads of fun bugging my husband Dwight style at dinner those first two nights. Hee hee. The reason I didn't keep up with this goal, and have no remorse or guilt either, is because I'm still rocking my baby to sleep and Cheeks HATES being held while on a "fitness orb." So, I had to stop this goal for the sake of an innocent child (and for my sanity; big rubber ball + kids = mom go nutso). But if you aren't rocking a baby to sleep, and love bugging your husband, I highly recommend it.

For this next week I have 2 goals.

1. Train Cheeks to fall asleep in his crib. I will be strong. I will not give in. I will curl up into a fetal position outside the bedroom door and cry like a baby as I listen to my child cry for his mother. I will wish I had trained him to do this earlier for just a split second and then remember all those lovely moments, cradling his warm body against my breast as he slowly drifted off to sleep. Then I will cry some more until we are both crib trained. Motherhood is rough.

2. I will try my best to stick to a three meal menu for this whole week. My goal is to pack lunches for everyone each morning, that way I can take the younger kids out during the day and just take our packed lunches with us. Note that lunch and breakfast are set for the kids. Mr. Hots and I might choose other things for these meals. I'm also hoping not to have to go to the grocery store for anything but extra milk this week. I tried to be careful when grocery shopping today to get everything I would need.

Sunday

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Canned chicken noodle soup with carrots and celery added in

Dinner: Pork Roast in crockpot, crescent rolls, baked onion rings, mixed steamed vegetables

Dessert: lemon sourcream pie

Monday

Breakfast: Ham, eggs, leftover rolls, and fruit

Lunch: Toothpick lunch of pasta, ham and cheese cubes, veggie chunks

Dinner: Falafel with cucumber sauce on tortillas with lettuce, tomato, and black olives, and steamed green beans

Dessert: Fresh baked bread with butter and jam

Tuesday

Breakfast: Eggs, toast, fruit

Lunch: PB&J w/ veggie sticks

Dinner: 3 different kinds of Tamales, salad w/ radishes, green onion, and cilantro

Wednesday

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Tortilla pizzas and veggie sticks

Dinner: Leftovers and veggies

*** Put oatmeal in crockpot

Thursday

Breakfast: Steel cut oats with butter and brown sugar and bananas

Lunch: Mini pancakes, yogurt, fruit, and veggie sticks

Dinner: Lasagna, salad, steamed mixed veggies

Friday

Breakfast: German pancakes w/ pan cooked apples

Lunch: PB&J, cheese cubes, fruit, and veggie sticks

***Make Pizza dough and loaf of French Bread

Dinner: Cheese and BBQ chicken pizzas (and hopefully a salad if I'm not too tired)

Saturday

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Minestrone soup w/ french bread

*** Don not panic at the lack of ice cream on this menu. I just hate redundancy and it would drive me nuts having to write in all the ice cream I will eat this week. Have you ever heard of reading between the lines? Well just imagine that between each line it says "Snack: Eat ice cream."

Hopefully all this baking and cooking will keep my mind off the sweet baby crying himself to sleep in the next room. I really hope he is like my other kids and figures it out in just a day or two. If not I will be kneading a lot of tears into those bread doughs.

What are you planning to do this week?

I Need A Custom Calorie Counter

2009-04-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been a bit concerned about loosing my baby weight. No, not the weight I gained while pregnant with Cheeks. I lost a good bit of that shortly after he was born. I'm talking about the weight I've gained since then as a result of having a baby in the house. You know, the cookies I eat because I can eat one while changing a diaper instead of toasting a whole grain English muffin with a spritz of zero calorie "butter." And the ice cream I eat because it is faster than washing and coring an apple and spreading it with a tablespoon of protein rich peanut butter. And let's not forget the salad I didn't eat when opting for 3 helpings of last night's lasagna in my bathrobe today simply because I was feeling frumpy and hopeless.

Oops, I think I've said too much. Sorry, lasagna does that to me.

So, I decided to copy my sister who is loosing lots of weight on the SparkPeople program. I signed on, set up my profile, input my personal health stats, and went to plan my day's menu in the calorie counter. This is where I had problems. I couldn't find "left over lasagna with extra cheese and sauce" anywhere on their food lists. And, HELLLOOOOO, where is the ice cream list? And I scoured the snack section and couldn't find any calorie info for the little burnt remnants of cheese that I scraped off the pan and snacked on after making grilled cheeses for the kids today. And do I count Sweet Terror's frosting-less Oreo remains I ate today because I was worried about the starving children in China?

I want this SparkPeople thing to work for me, really I do, but they need to make a realistic menu calorie counter for the everyday women like me. You know, the half crazed, mom of too many, unwilling to face reality, eating ice cream in my closet, kind of woman.

Or maybe I could just learn to eat like a normal person.........

(Dear SparkPeople, if you need help setting up an ice cream calorie counter, give me a call.)

Funny Photo Boards

2009-04-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad I set this goal to paint and get a head start on this project. It was fun, productive, got my kids excited, and made me happy.

. Monster Man is making gorilla noises while Sweet Terror is screaming, "Aaaaa, don't eat me!"
.
This gorilla just needs a second coat of paint on his fur and this one will be finished. I'm painting these with basic craft paint on Elmers display boards that I bought for a buck a piece at Micheal's craft store.

.The next one I'm working on here is the mermaids. Sweet Terror is so excited about this one but she goes ballistic anytime I have one of the boys, or even Mr. Hotness, pose behind it. Apparently boys are NOT allowed to be mermaids.

Once I get the background painted and lighten up the rock I can add all the fun stuff like jewelry and all sorts of fishy friends and whatnot.

I want to paint two more scenes but am having a hard time deciding what to paint. What do you recommend?

Now for this next week's goal. I've been thinking about this a lot. It is going to be very weird. My husband may not speak to me all week if I do this. I'm sure the kids will get in all sorts of trouble and it will be my fault. But if the all-knowing Dwight says it's a good thing then how can I NOT do it? So, for one week, starting tomorrow and ending after I write next Saturday's post, when at home I will only sit on the floor or... ON MY EXERCISE BALL. Yup, I will sit on it at the dinner table, while on the computer, and... oh, wait, I need to change this goal. When at home I will only sit on the floor, MY EXERCISE BALL, or the toilet. This is going to be a veeeeery interesting week. I'm thinking this goal is going to encourage me to get out of the house more often. =)

What craaaaazy things are you going to try doing this week? Remember, no matter how hard it seems, it's For Just One Week so you can do it! If you write a post about your For Just One Week goal share it here.

Annual Detrashing of the Yard

2009-04-18T06:35:00.000-07:00

For Just One Week

This last week I was inspired by Richelle of Richelle's Reflections who has been using
her For Just One Week goals to tackle major projects. So instead of trying to do something on a daily basis I decided to try it Richelle's way and I'm so very glad I did. Spring is here and for me that always means it is time for the annual de-white-trashing of our yard. You might remember the wood stove only heating adventure from two winters ago. Well, I never got around to cleaning up the wood corner and decided to make that my one week goal.

.
.
Here is what it looked like on Monday.

.
.
Here is a close up of all the stray little wood chunks and various junk items that have made there way into it. Isn't it funny how when you ignore a trouble spot for a time all sorts of random junk just finds its way there. It's as if the junk has found a safe haven because it knows you won't go there. (Hmmmm, that sounds like an analogy that could be applied to all sorts of things in my life.)

.
.
This is half way done. I can't tell you the number of insects, arachnids, annelids, and even mollusks I found while unearthing this little corner of dirt. Monster Man and Sariah had a blast pointing them all out to me as they stood at a safe, and clean, distance while the creatures were actually crawling on my gloved hands and across my shoes.

.
.
This is the finished corner all cleaned up and weed whacked. See that area in the orange circled area? When I started that was all covered in lovely green grass, but while I was picking up wood chunks I noticed it was rather hard and lumpy. Turns out it was part of the wood chunk area and the lawn had just grown over it. I was ripping up turf and digging wood chunks out of the ground. Could this be more fodder for an analogy about how when we let our problems sit too long they can become camouflaged to the point where we can't even see them anymore? (if you can't tell I'm a sucker for analogies)

.
.
And check this out. I thought we had used all our wood up and that there were only a few scattered remnants left on the ground. Turns out we had a huge garbage can and two big baskets worth of wood back there.

.
.
And, lest you think I denied my children a character building experience by not having them help me, I want to show you this little side project. While I was picking up wood chunks I had my monkeys picking up all the junk, garbage, random kitchen utensils, and other various debris that just seems to magically appear under my deck every Spring. The underbelly of our deck is much like a big city river where the Mafia likes to dump it's dead bodies and criminals like to toss the evidence of their crimes. This year I didn't even bother asking who broke up my plant pots, or used my nice spatula as a shovel, or my under bed storage container as a winter sled, because I'm learning not to cry over spilt milk. But you can be sure I had those kids cleaning under there. Now it is all clean and ready for another year's worth of mischief and mayhem.

THIS WEEK my goal is to get some painting done. I promised a friend of mine that I would paint her some funny photo set ups (like the ones you see at carnivals or pumpkin farms where you stand behind a board and stick your face in a hole and suddenly your head is on a horses body) and I need to have them done before Mother's Day. Usually I would wait until the night before they were due and pull an all nighter, but I'm curious to see what it might be like to actually get something done ahead of schedule. It would be a major first for me. So my goal is to get the background and two foregrounds finished by next Saturday.
.

What is your major goal this week? If you write a post about it you can share it with us here:

Blankets

2009-04-16T16:45:00.001-07:00

I love the sounds of my children working together.

"LOOK OUT BELOW!"
Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. "That was awesome! Do it again."
"Ok, just wait while I set the blankets up again."

Several minutes go by in quiet, and intense, industry. Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. "Weeeeeeeeeeee... Did you see how fast I went?"

"Lets try it on our pillows this time, then we can go extra fast!" "Ok! I'll go get them." "While you guys get the pillows I'll get it set up again." "Wow, that looks great. This will be the best one ever." "Wait, Monster Man hasn't had his turn yet." "Oh yeah, go ahead."
Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, THUNK!

Apparently they will cooperate with each other for several hours when it comes to achieving maximum speeds while sliding down the stairs into a massive pile of blankets. Now if only I could get them to direct that same group effort into actually cleaning up the downstairs.

*sigh*

Sweet Terror

2009-04-15T08:03:00.001-07:00

I used to be the mom who told my kids that they had to be gushing blood before I'd ever break out the bandaids. Yup, I was tough as nails. Now just look at me. I'm giving bandaids to a kid who bit the inside of her cheek. But have you ever heard Sweet Terror scream? If you have you would have given her the bandaid too. Heck, I'd cover her entire face with bandaids if I had to in order to keep her quiet. Don't judge me, just pity me.

And look, I actually managed to get her hair all up into piggy tails for a whole 2 minutes!!! I made sure to document the occasion before they could be ripped out in a fit of tears.

Sweet Terror: 2

Mommy: 0

For Just One Week

2009-04-11T23:16:00.001-07:00

For Just One Week

This is the short sweet version of For Just One Week (also known as I'm so busy I feel like a headless chicken week). I didn't win my updated healthy chart game and I blame that on stress and over extending/scheduling myself this week. BUT I added doing something creative for 15 minutes and speaking kindly to my children to the chart and I can honestly say that I'm doing great with those. The best has been removing the bad habit of speaking meanly to my kids. We have actually made it a family goal to speak to each other as kindly as we speak to our friends and I love it. We still slip up but we try to catch each other and fix our mistake as quickly as possible.

For this next week I'm going to set the Healthy Chart aside and set the goal to finish one of my many unfinished projects and actually blog about it upon completion. The hardest part is going to be choosing which project to finish.

What are you working on this week? If you write a post about it feel free to share it here:

Puffed Rice

2009-04-04T06:48:00.001-07:00

If you were born in the 70s, chances are you've experienced Puffed Rice. Ah, yes, those tasteless, rubbery, instantly soggy, somewhat styrofoamy little nodules of nastiness. Anytime I was made to eat Puffed Rice I would try to mentally escape into an alternate reality of marshmallows, sugary coatings, and hidden prizes but, try as I might, I could never fully psyche myself into believing I was eating Lucky Charms. Seriously, if rice is so healthy I would much rather eat a bowl of regular boiled rice for breakfast than have to force that stuff past my gag reflex ever again.
.
Thanks mom, I know you were just trying to be a healthy mom. I love you for that, I respect you for that, but really those things were NAAAAAAAAASTY!
.

See these things? Have you tried Jumbo Crispies yet? I was eating some yesterday and a friend of mine thought I was eating Puffed Rice. Au contraire, mon amie, Jumbo Crispies are Not Puffed Rice, but they aren't just bigger Rice Crispies either. The closest thing I can compare these to are probably Kix cereal. But they are better than Kix, a lot better than Kix. Buy them, try them, and then call your mom and tell her you forgive her for ever feeding you Puffed Rice as a kid. Moms need all the forgiveness they can get, and maybe if we can forgive our mothers our kids will someday be able to forgive us.

HA! Fooled you, didn't I? You thought you weren't going to have to read another For Just One Week post, didn't you? Sorry, but there is no way I was going to miss it this week because I totally rocked the house on this week's goal! Remember, I said I was going to play Pablo's Healthy Game and try to win everyday. I played it and it was awesome. The best way to explain what I love about his little game is to compare it to Weight Watcher's point system. The WW point system is really just a simplified way to count calories. Instead of keeping track of 3-4 digit numbers, you only have to tally 1 digit numbers. Well, this Healthy Game of Pablo's is like journaling but instead of writing words all you do is check things off. And the two progress bars give an instant visual on how you are doing. It was tough at times but I gotta say that I really liked who I was and what I accomplished this week. My house was clean everyday by 10am (I don't remember the last timet hat happened) I ate more fruit and drank more water than I have in a very long time. Really, folks, you ought to try it. I emailed it to a few of you and some of you said it came out kind of wonky. I've converted it to an image so it won't do that, and if anyone wants me to email the fixed one just let me know in the comments.

I loved this so much that I've decided to play the game again this week but with a few changes. I've pretty much made it a consistent habit to drink just water, not talk bad about myself, not eat fried food, and go to bed before 11, so I'm going to change those and add some new unhealthy things and change up the Healthy side as well to encourage some more creative actions in my day. On the Healthy side I've added being creative for 15 minutes. On the Unhealthy side I've changed 1/2 hour sitting to 1 hour straight sitting, and I've added watching TV for 15 minutes, eating alone (like when I pour myself a bowl of Jumbo Crispies and go hide in my room to eat them), and yelling or speaking meanly to my children. If you want a copy of this chart just say you want chart #2 in the comments.
.
And if you want a blank chart where you can fill in your own healthy and unhealthy goals/issues just say you want a blank chart and I will send you one.
.
Now lets see, I've been typing for 1 hour (I'm a slow blogger). This means one check for sitting but 4 checks for being creative (Hey, I "created" a blog post so it counts in my book). So far I'm winning. Now I'm off to sautee spinach, red peppers, onions, and mushrooms with a sunnyside up egg for breakfast. That is another healthy check right there! BOO-YAH!
.

So, what goal or goals are you working on this week? If you've blogged about them share them with us here:

For Just One Week

2009-03-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

To learn more about For Just One Week click here .

Note to self, check calendar before setting FJOW goals. I cannot believe how crazy busy this last week has been. I think we've only been able to sit at our table twice for family dinner because every night at least one of us, if not all of us, had events, classes, meetings, or something that we were rushing to and from each night.

OK, I just deleted the rest of what I was writing because it started to sound like whining about poor-busy-me. BORING! I hate it when I whine. Yes, it was hard to keep to my goals, but once again, if I hadn't set those goals I wouldn't have accomplished anything. I have exercised, posted, commented, and practiced piano with David more than I have at any other time this past month. And that is great! It also taught me a few things that I have been wondering about. For instance, I've realized that there is just no way I can consider myself a serious blogger right now. I will still blog but I will no longer worry about how or when I blog. I've also realized that I am not in a position to depend on getting to the gym in order to exercise, it has to be an "extra," and I have got to find a way to exercise at home during the day (I'm pumping up my exercise ball as I type this).

Now, moving forward (which is always the best direction to go) to this weeks goals. You might have noticed that I've really had diet, exercise, and health on the brain and because of this I am so very excited about this week's goal. That is right, I am only setting one goal, but it's going to be an awesome one, I can just feel it. This week my one and only goal is to WIN. Yup, I want to win Pablo's health game. What is that, you ask? I will tell you.

Last week Pablo started doing various exercises around the house. He'd just break out in push-ups or run laps around the house. He also started asking for things like carrot sticks or broccoli at odd times of the day. Later on he asked if I had noticed and then he showed me the "game" he was playing. Have I mentioned that Pablo is a little geniusy? Anyway, he had made this little game board/chart thing that tracked the healthy and unhealthy choices he was making throughout the day. He had two meters (or bar graphs), one for healthy and one for unhealthy. Anytime his unhealthy line got ahead he would quickly do some healthy things to catch up, and the way to win the game is to get your healthy line/meter filled up before the unhealthy one.

Really the idea is genius. You don't need to deny yourself anything, you just need to make sure you are doing more healthy things than unhealthy. I have recreated his "game board" and personalized it for myself and my goal this week is simply to play the game and try to win. Here is my chart so far:

As you can see I've already been sitting too long at this computer and it is time for me to go get some health points. If you would like a blank copy of this just let me know and I can email it to you (if you don't have your email in your blog profile then please send me your email address as well).
.

What about you? What did you accomplish? What goals will you work on For Just One Week? Write a post about your weekly goal(s) and share it here. Please make sure to link to your individual post and not just your regular blog url. Thanks!

Upsets and Sweet Kids

2009-03-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was Cookie's big Honor Choir concert. I was so excited to see her sing with her group, following in her mommy's footsteps musically (wiping a proud mommy tear from my eye). And I blew it. Royally blew it. One of the other choir moms told me it was at a different school, or I heard her wrong, and so I drove us to a school clear on the other side of town. By the time we figured out the mistake and got ourselves to the right school her choir group was just finishing its last song. Cookie was disappointed but was very sweet and so understanding about it(she's probably just used to my fowl ups by now and knows to expect this kind of thing on a regular basis). So we took her out to dinner to celebrate anyway and to make up for the upset.

Last night was Pinewood Derby night. Our very first Pinewood Derby. Pablo came in last on every single race, poor kid, but I was so proud of him. Proud because he was obviously broken hearted but, after a long daddy-son hug, did his best not to cry and was even able to shrug it off and finish the night in a happy mood. This is huge for Pablo who has always had a hard time with loosing. We have worked so hard to get him to understand good sportsmanship but it took the camaraderie of scouts to finally get him to see that it isn't worth being a sulker if it means you miss out on all the fun. So we took him out to dinner to celebrate and make up for the upset.

Pablo and his friend

Can' t you tell by his face how happy he is? He has taken to posing very seriously in photos lately.

The other thing that really impressed me was the planning he did for his car. He drew these instructions all on his own (tracing his derby block for the car shape). He is so detail oriented, a trait that he certainly did not get from me.

Now, what other upsets can we create so I can get Mr. Hotness to take us out to dinner again tonight?

Fad Diet Ideas

2009-03-25T23:15:00.000-07:00

When I first started blogging I started several blogs but couldn't remember my passwords, usernames, or new "blog only" email addresses. For example, the original My Ice Cream Diary has the word "my" in its web address. But I forgot the username and corresponding email. So there it sits, with only one lonely post, all on its lonesome. But that one lonely post is something I still find kind of funny, so I'm going to repost it here so you all can see it.

I read some where that if one diet doesn't "work" you should keep trying until you find one that you like. I've tried a lot of them but so far with very little success. So, I came up with some fun ones to try that I think are GUARANTEED to make you eat less. Here they are:

1. Terrible Two Diet: You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want but you must do so while holding a 2 1/2 year old child in your lap.

2. Car Seat Diet: You can eat whatever you find in your children's carseats. Don't worry there is enough food in those things to sustain life.

3. Mystery Diet: You can eat whatever is hiding in the back of your fridge in an unmarked tupperware container. A bit risky, but you never know when you might get lucky.

4. Preschool Dessert Diet: You are only allowed to eat sugar when surrounded by a group of preschoolers. Don't forget to set a good example by sharing. You will never be able to save enough for yourself so all desserts are guilt free =)

5. Vegemite Diet: You are allowed to eat anything you want on this diet as long as you spread it with a 1/8 inch layer of vegemite.

6. Daily Milkshake Diet: You can eat what ever you want on this diet. The only requirement is that you take all your meals/snacks/desserts for that day and blend them all together in a big milkshake and consume through a straw. Imagine your appetite after a few sips of Cocoa puffs/cookies/tuna sandwich and a side salad/hamburger with french fries and onion rings/and some mid-night-ice-cream milkshake. Best of all this diet is very portable, just pour into an empty water bottle and take it with you.

I hope this helps anyone out there who is looking for a new diet to try. If you think of any others please share them. =)

Mr. Wrong or Mr. Right?

2009-03-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

"Hey, you. How you doin'? You are lookin' good, baby. Check out the nice fit of those jeans. All that time at the gym is really paying off. Now get over here so I can reward you and help you celebrate your success. Come on, honey, all work and no play is a terrible way to spend the day. Gimme just one little nibble, then. Come on, you know you want me. You deserve me, baby."

I hate it when cheesecake talks to me.

Good, Bad, Ugly

2009-03-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

THE GOOD

A lovely photo of Tiffany's daughter, Sabrina, that I took while sitting next to her in the car. She has the cutest blue green eyes. THE BAD

Caramel Popcorn is no longer on my list of Sabbath Day activities because I almost started cussing after spilling an entire batch of it in my oven last night. It started 2 oven fires, smoked up the house, there was nothing left to munch on, and I STILL had to clean up the usual mess plus that of the oven and the floor. I had to eat 2 bowls of Dreyer's Girls Scout Samoa Cookie ice cream to calm myself down.

THE UGLY

Guess who is crawling everywhere these days? Aaaaannnnnd guess who really needs to mop more often? So so so gross!

Pardon Me Boys....

2009-03-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

is that the Pennsylvania Station?

It was a cold, windy day at Gettysburg Field. We climbed this watch tower to look over the battlefield and spent the rest of the day laughing about how out of shape we are. Nothing like climbing 3 flights of stairs to show your friend the real you. =)

Everyone I see asks me, "So, how was your trip?" And I smile, and I sigh, and I say, "It was absolutely wonderful." It really was. It was also surreal, sad, fulfilling, validating, fun, educational, and beyond expectation. It was not your typical meet and greet, that's for sure.

On the plane I should have been all giddy anticipation, but really I was a tight ball of nerves. I couldn't help but wonder, "Will Tiffany like me after all these years? Will we really have anything in common, will our personalities clash?" Carrying my extremely heavy carry-on through the airport I heard a little squeal before I even saw her. Before she can even reach me I scream, "You are my size!" (After the onslaught of puberty it was obvious that Tiffany and I would no longer be exact twins because she was much teenier than me. But apparently sometime in her 20s she grew an extra 2 inches and suddenly we are close to the same height. What happened to my "Little Tiffany?") Then I pick her up in a tight hug and we jump around like school girls while her husband makes it obvious that he thinks we are crazy. And we are. Crazy in love with each other, even after all these years.

I had to apologize to Tiffany because I was finally willing to admit why we had fallen so far apart from each other. It had nothing to do with her and everything to do with my insane jealousy and insecurities. You see, when I was 15-16 my older, very pretty, sister went to live with Tiffany's family for a year. I had issues with this sister... lots of issues, and I don't think she even knew I had issues with her. It was the typical ugly sister/pretty sister psycho-mess. I felt that she took everything away from me as a kid, but really she didn't. I just never spoke up for myself and she was kind of the squeaky wheel. So I wove this bizarre internal reality in my head where people could either be on my side or her side. Well then my dad got sick with cancer so my sister came back home and then Tiffany came to visit for Thanksgiving (My father's last Thanksgiving) and, can you believe it, she was nice to my sister. NICE I tell you!!! So in my twisted head (which was in terrible shape going through puberty and the slow loss of my father) she had jumped ship and swam over to the dark side. How dare she. How dare she have an inside joke with my sister after living together for a whole year. HOW DARE SHE! I was polite but suspicious of her the rest of that visit. Bless her heart, she had no idea and just assumed I was being quiet out of sadness for my father. And then for years I just assumed she was one of "those" kind of girls. You know... "pretty."

But she wasn't, and she isn't. Oh, don't get me wrong, she is indeed pretty. In fact she is cute, hot, gorgeous, and skinny all rolled into one. I could hate her just for the fact that she's had 4 kids and no stretch marks alone. But I can't. And you couldn't either if you met her. She is just too real, too humble, too loving to ever make you think of her as a "pretty." By the way, I love my sister and am so over the whole my side her side thing... really I am. =)

And so we talked. We talked and talked and talked and filled each other in on all the missing and unknown pieces of our lives. And I was shocked. Shocked because I had always just assumed that we led parallel lives, that we had the same upbringing, that I knew everything about her childhood. But I didn't. We went through many similar things in life but if you take my life's troubles and magnify them by 1000 then you have Tiffany's life. And I never knew. This is another thing I love so much about my "little Tiffany." She was always a small child, she was always kind of quiet, and she had an adorable shy little laugh, more of a giggle really. And she grew into a gorgeous, confident, sassy woman, and a caring mother, who only shows the slightest signs of the trials she has had in life. And she can cook! Her kids thought I was joking when I said I would eat her Gumbo for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well, I proved them wrong. And she is a fantastic artist and photographer. In fact, if you take all my talents and magnify them by 1000 then you have Tiffany. I'm serious.

I fell in love with her kids who are perfect doppelgangers for my kids. She is only missing a Cheeks and I'm missing a cute little dog or we would be perfectly matched. And I even got along with her husband, surprise, surprise. (Adam, you know I love you.)

(On the Gettysburg look out tower: Lillian (a female Pablo), Tori (a tiny version of Cookie), little Sabrina who can almost out perform Sweet Terror, and Dillon who can melt a heart as fast as Monster Man and get in trouble just as fast too. I MISS YOU GUYS!!!)

There was never any awkwardness between us, and we kept saying there should be some, but there wasn't. We were perfectly content to be ourselves around each other and just love each other for who we are. See? I even let her see my MORNING FACE. GAAAAAAAAA!

(Here Tiffany and I are enjoying our very last day together by lazily staying in her super niiiiice bed all day. Ok, so really I stayed in bed and made Tiffany go through all her boxes showing me all her memory keepsakes. But ya gotta love a girl who doesn't mind hanging out in her jammies all day.)

The only down side to the whole trip was saying goodbye. I didn't expect it to be so hard. I clung to her like a little girl saying goodbye to her 6 year old best friend all over again. I sobbed like a little girl, too. Friends like us should never ever have to be apart, it just doesn't seem fair. I love you Tiffany, with all my heart. Please come see me soon.

For Just One Week

2009-03-21T07:05:00.001-07:00

To learn more about For Just One Week click here .

Hi. I'm sorry for not posting at all this week. I have been busy enjoying my blessings and wasting my time. This goal is hard to measure, but I'd say I accomplished 70% of this goal. I cleaned more, yelled less, played with the kids more, exercised more, chatted with my husband more, and was nicer to myself. It was good. It could have been stellar, amazing, life changing, etc. If only I hadn't got sucked into my black pit of selfish gluttony... yup, you guessed it, Internet TV. Stupid thing. On Tuesday I was so mad that I was getting sucked in again that I had Mr. Hotness block all the sites that have it. I'm not tech savvy enough to unblock them myself. I had a wonderful day on Wednesday enjoying my new freedom and suffering minor withdrawal symptoms (pacing in front of my computer and mumbling to myself. It wasn't one of my finer moments in life). But then on Thursday I remembered that he didn't block them on the laptop. I'm a hopeless mess, I know, and ended up watching TV all day Thur and Friday. It makes me so mad that I can't just be like normal people and watch an hour or two and then walk away. But I can't and I don't. I just sit there, with my eyes glazed over, eating anything I can find, and drooling out the corner of my mouth. Ok, so I don't drool but I might as well since I lost my dignity long ago for this addiction.
.
Anyway, now that I'm free of this monstrous beast (Mr. Hot is blocking the laptop for me right now) I should have lots of free time to accomplish some really great goals. So, for this week:
.
1. I will post everyday. I have lots to post about after my big trip (prepare yourself for the post vacation slide show). And I will comment on all my blog reader posts and all the people's blogs who comment on my posts.
.
2. I will help Pablo practice his piano EVERY DAY. My lovely friend, La la la, is his piano teacher and she does such an amazing job with him, but almost every week I have to apologize because I haven't had him practice enough to help him advance much.
.
3. I've been wanting to do this goal for a long time now but I really wanted to be ready to see it through, and now I think I can. For Just One Week I will exercise everyday for at least a 1/2 an hour. This past week I've been working on doing a good 15 minutes of exercise as soon as I wake up so I should be able to keep that going and add another 15 minutes somewhere in my day.
.
It's gonna be a very busy week, but hopefully I can make up for lost time and get back on track with my life.
.
What is holding you back in your life?
.
What about you? What did you accomplish? What goals will you work on For Just One Week? Write a post about your weekly goal(s) and share it here. Please make sure to link to your individual post and not just your regular blog url. Thanks!

Hello? Is thing thing on?

2009-03-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

Uhm, hello, uh, fellow blogospherians. I'd like to introduce myself, my name is, well, I guess it's Mr. Hotness, but, well, let's be honest, that's not how I usually introduce myself. I doubt it'd go too well in a business lunch or job interview. I don't think it's even true, it's just one of those super nice things a loving wife says about her husband even though pretty much no one anywhere believes it.

Yeah, it's me, the husband, the oft-mentioned hubby of . . . of . . . . well, what does she call herself here? Oh, I'll just call her a made up name, like Liz. Yeah, so Liz, as you may as well know, has gone on a trip to Pennsylvania to visit a long-lost friend of her for five whole days. I was, uhm, blessed, with the opportunity of taking care of all five of our kids, by myself, for the entire time.

I asked Liz if I could write a post in her blog while she was gone, sort of like a "guest columnist" or one of those expert talking heads on CNN or something. She said I could, but then I started thinking about the audience. I'm assuming that most readers of MICD are a lot like Liz--beautiful, sophisticated, sexy, intelligent, spiritual, engaging, etc. What do I really have to say to such an audience that would be meaningful? The things I like are probably not exactly "top of mind" for such people. Does anyone here really care about stochastic calculus? Mortgage-backed securities? Interest rate risk management? When I threatened that I would write about those things, Liz just said "you do whatever you want!" which is a wife-euphemism for "it's your funeral!"

I'm actually completely new to this whole blogging thing. People have asked me if I have a blog, and I usually say, "would you read it if I did?" After a few stunned, awkward seconds they stumble out something like "uh, well, uhh, of COURSE I would!!!!" Uh-huh, sure, right. They already know the kind of things I'm interested in and would write about.

But, here goes anyway. As we near the end of, what did I call it? Oh yeah, blessed occasion, I thought I'd give you, her devoted supporters and virtual friends a little glimpse into the life of what life looks like when you let the dad take care of things for nearly a whole week by himself:

Day 1

Yes, that pic's for real. That's the view from my front porch the very first day Liz left for PA. She had been gone for nary a day when some guy drove a 1971 Chevy pickup truck in front of my house in flames. He partially blocked my van (unseen on right) so I couldn't even have moved it, assuming I had 1. thought of moving my van out of harm's way and 2. wasn't holding a baby. By the time the fire department showed up the truck was pretty much a fireball. The firemen were great, though, they gave it a blast with a high pressure hose and steam, debris, and shattered glass blew everywhere, all over my van, and all the way up to my front porch. After the smoke cleared and the water drained away, all that was left was a blackened shell of what resembled a pickup truck. Fortunately, the driver, my van, fence, and everyone else were unscathed.

OK, so I won't bother really going on a day-by-day basis, because I believe that day 1 pretty much sums things up so well. I usually am not one to believe in omens or anything, but a flaming truck in your front yard? C'mon! That HAS to mean something!! Mothers, DON'T leave your husband at home alone with all the kids for five days! You've been warned!

For Just One Week

2009-03-14T05:12:00.000-07:00

To learn more about For Just One Week click here .

.
See how good I am? I'm keeping my New Year's resolution even all the way over here in Pennsylvania. I think I just impressed myself. =)

.
I have done a pretty good job talking positively about myself this week. I set that as a goal because I didn't want to waste any of my time with Tiffany being a whiney baby about things I know she doesn't care about. It has been so nice and I highly recommend that every woman try this. I never used to talk bad about myself until my husband started talking bad about HIMself. Then I started as a way of showing him how awful it is to hear someone you love speak badly about themselves. It didn't work. But it became a habitual response for me and now anytime he says something mean about himself I automatically fire back with something mean about me. It isn't a good thing, I know, so I'm trying to stop.

.
Now what should I do this week? Hmmmm. Here I am in PA, with my oldest, bestest friend...

.
For Just One Week I will absolutely love life and be grateful for every blessing I have. Yeah, it's gonna be a very good week.

...
What about you? What did you accomplish? What goals will you work on For Just One Week? Write a post about your weekly goal(s) and share it here. Please make sure to link to your individual post and not just your regular blog url. Thanks!

Tiff and Me

2009-03-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

She has come a long way from those chubby cheeks and little pony tails, hasn't she? This is my friend Tiffany and I love her to bits. We have spent every waking moment reliving old memories and getting caught up on each other's lives. I mentioned earlier that we were raised like twins and have a lot of those uncanny twin parallels in our lives so here is a list I'm making of all the things we've recently found we have in common:
1. We both were "waiting for missionaries" when we met and married our husbands.
2. We both skipped the dating period and had very short engagements to our husbands.
3. Ok, in order to avoid redundancy just pretend that each sentence following begins with, "We both..." have Registered Nurses for Mother-in-laws and husbands who work with computers.
4. Gave birth naturally.
5. Have a ten year old and an 8 year old (and the rest of our kids are very close in age)
6. Had to care for our families when our mothers were depressed (mine after my dad's death, and hers after her mom's divorce) and then chew our moms out for not doing their job.
7. Married at 19
8. Both movie fanatics (In a very big way).
9. We both struggle with changing out of our pajamas before our husbands get home from work.
10. We both have super smart 1st children and then learning disabled 2nd children.
11. We both like to look nice but don't think our lives need to revolve around, or be determined by our looks or fashion (this is unique for Tiffany in her family).
12. When Tiffany saw the lizard tattoo on my foot she started laughing because she has always wanted a lizard tattoo on her foot.

There are many more but I'm off to play so I will try to add to this list later. But the best part of all is that after 16 years apart we feel as comfortable with each other as if we were never apart.

I'm Leaving, On A Jet Plane

2009-03-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

I have a very wonderful husband. My wonderful man is so wonderful that he is going to watch all 5 kids, by himself, for 5 days so that I can fly to Pennsylvania to stay with my oldest, dearest friend, Tiffany. He is so amazing that he let me do this on a mere whim. Tiffany and I haven't seen each other in 16 years and have had little contact in that time. A few weeks ago we were chatting on facebook and she mentioned that she missed me, and I realized how much I missed her, and then I was just daydreaming and looked at airline prices. The tickets were amazingly cheap, AMAZINGLY!!! It is cheaper for me to fly cross country than it is to fly to Idaho. I got excited and Mr. Hotness said yes (I LOVE YOU MR. HOTNESS) and then he said I should maximize my return by going without the baby and for staying as long as I could. Is he not the best??? No, you can't have him! He's mine forever, whether he likes it or not.

This is Tiffany and me when we were 2-3 years old. We were raised like twins, always getting matching haircuts, practically living at each other's houses. Her mom had no problem spanking me, heck, our moms would even nurse us interchangeably when babysitting us. When Tiffany turned 4 I was so distraught that we weren't 4 at the same time I convinced my mother to have my birthday 2 1/2 months early. When I was 6 and Tiffany had to move clear across the country to Pennsylvania I was sure my life would end, but we followed soon after to NY and were reconnected. When my dad died and my family moved back to Idaho I lost touch with Tiffany (I lost touch with a lot of people at that time) but every time we reconnect we are always amazed at how much we live our lives alike. I named one of my girls Lilliana and she named hers Lillian, we both chose to homeschool our children at various times, and we tend to have the same length hair whether really long or really short. I am so excited to see her and see what else we have in common and to strengthen that lifelong bond that we both believe has existed since before birth.

Oops, Mr. Hotness says it is time to go catch my plane. See you all later!

For Just One Week

2009-03-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

To learn more about For Just One Week click here .

HA! I bet you thought I wasn't going to make it. I bet you were thinking I probably crashed and burned on this week's goals and was hiding my head in the sand because I was too embarrassed and mad at myself to show my sorry face. Well, HA! Here I am for yet another weekly installment of For Just One Week. How did your goals go this week? Good. I'm so glad. What about mine you ask? Here let me show you:

Yup. 90% complete failure.
.
Praying every night before bed: Managed to do it 4 times. The other three nights I don't even remember how I got to bed I was so tired.
.
Mailing something everyday: I managed to mail out one Netflix movie... and that was it. I have mounds of mail waiting to be sent but couldn't find any of it because my desk was so messy. I spent all of today deep cleaning my desk as punishment and have found all my mail. Maybe it will find its way to the box this week. I said maybe.
.
No TV until Friday: Oh, Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy, just what am I supposed to do with you? Haven't you learned not to say you can't have something because it only makes you want it more? Not only did I watch TV every. single. day, but I watched 3 times what I would normally watch. It's like when I tell myself I won't eat sugar and suddenly that is ALL I eat. *sigh* So, I am going on public record with this so that next time you guys can warn me. I, Lizzy, solemnly promise that I will no longer set goals that say I WON'T do something. I will only set goals saying I WILL do something. The only exception to this rule is when making combo goals because those do work for me. Oh, and I also did something else to help me with my internet TV problem and will try to blog about it later this week.
.
Well, that was a lame-o week and I'm so glad it's over. I can toss it behind me and start anew (whew). This week's goals have to be portable because I'm going on a big trip this Wednesday, and they have to be fairly quick and easy too. Hmmmm. Ok, I got it.
.
1. For Just One Week I will only say positive things about myself, my weight, my body, my clothes, and my job as a mother.

2. What, don't you think #1 is tough enough all on its own? I do.

This goal starts....... NOW! I really like the shirt I'm wearing. It has a very forgiving cut to it. ;)
.
What about you? What did you accomplish? What goals will you work on For Just One Week? Write a post about your weekly goal(s) and share it here. Please make sure to link to your individual post and not just your regular blog url. Thanks!

I Need More of These

2009-03-04T16:58:00.000-08:00

Next time I'm just going to bring my camera and have a waiter take our photo while we are being silly because I've tried for 3 days to find a google image that would fit this post. Apparently only wrinkly old ladies or skinny, drunk (and sometimes bikini clad) models can be found when you image search "girls night out" or "laughing women." The closest I could come to thirty-something women, fully dressed, with motherly figures, non imbibing, and laughing together was this pic from a weight loss website. (Hmmmmm.) It's a great photo, but it just doesn't capture the level of frivolity and enjoyment we had. But then it is probably hard to capture a good photo of someone laughing so hard she sprays her friends with water after taking a drink. When someone looses their ability to control their fluids, you know you are having one heckuva good time, and I need more moments like that in my life.
.
My friend, Hope, facebooked me to let me know that I had no choice, she was coming to get me. I love her for this because otherwise I would have just said I was too busy, too tired, and didn't have anything nice to wear. We met up with Lucy, The Duchess, 32 Flavors, Alisa and her new friend, Teresa at a nearby Cheesecake Factory. It started as a simple, innocent, moms night out, you know a bunch of moms who really needed to get out of the house and talk to other moms while consuming things that are definitely NOT on their diet plan. But before we were even seated at our table it was looking like something else. Instead of the cursory, "How is your husband's work/thesis/job hunt going?" or, "So, how are the kids?" we delved right into some

fun and funny topics, like the pasties in the new Coraline movie, and husband's opinions on circumcision. After being seated the conversation continued on to even better things such as unexpected lactation experiences, how we were taught the birds and the bees (everything from anatomical pop up books to brochures from the 1950's), and how much men really don't know about women before they get married, and all the things we have learned not to say in front of our kids and why.
.
Oh yeah, this was some amazing girls talk, let me tell you! We were laughing so hard I felt no need to go to the gym next day because my abs were so sore. Towards the end of the night the tables around us started to empty and we all new why. Everyone that came in that place took one look at the loud and obnoxious mom table and promptly asked to be seated elsewhere. I seriously think we were being more annoying than a table full of screaming, food flinging, poopy diaper, toddlers. And the best part was that not a single one of us were drinking or on drugs. Apparently all we needed to loosen up and have so much fun was some good friends, a small taste of freedom, a lot of sleep deprivation, and the right subject matter.
.
I seriously need more nights like this in my life.
.
So, call some women up, they don't have to be best friends, tell them they have no choice, you are coming to get them, go out somewhere fun, talk about silly things, and laugh till your sides hurt, or something comes out your nose, and enjoy an amazing bond between women. Trust me, it is a beautiful thing.

The Pop Tart Solution

2009-03-02T08:34:00.000-08:00

I remember being shocked when Pop Tarts first came out with the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon flavor. I think I was about 9 at the time and my cousin and I bought a box to share. It was like bad pie crust stuffed with a sickeningly thick layer of greasy sugar and cinnamon, topped with petrified icing. We ate the whole box in one night and felt so sick afterword. I remember just laying there, holding my stomach and groaning, thinking there was no way that what I had just eaten could be considered, "Part of this nutritious breakfast." (Don't click that link unless you loved G.I. Joes as a kid in the 80's)

Now I think Brown Sugar and Cinnamon is probably one of their more nutritious flavors, what with new Banana Split, Hot Fudge Sundae, and Smores flavors.

But the lure of a quick, low mess, grab and go meal has made me (regretfully) buy a few boxes of this stuffed cardboard junk for my kids. Each time I quickly realized my mistake as I mentally tallied the cavities, child onset diabetes, and carbon footprint damage each one of those individually wrapped monstrosities was causing and I soon vowed never to be guilty of such waste ever again.

So, what's a busy mom to do when a quick grab and go meal is needed? What can I keep on hand for those mornings when I sleep in (I wish) and am late making the kids' lunches, or I wake up and remember why Grocery Shopping was on yesterday's to-do list, or I actually decide to be spontaneous super mom and quickly throw together a picnic lunch and head to the beach with my kids? I have found the answer in one of my new favorite blogs: The Muffin Mom. My sister has been rockin' the muffin scene for years now and has been inventing meals in a muffin that are perfect for freezing and keeping on hand for quick and convenient, grab-and-go food. and has finally devoted a blog to sharing her genius.

Check out these awesome "flavors":

Loaded Baked Potato

Raspberries and Cream

Sausage Maple Pancake

Breakfast Bites

Tuna Melt

And Yogurt Wheat Blueberry

Bake these up, freeze them, and next time you have a day full of in-the-car activities just grab some to go and leave the Pop Tarts and McDonalds drive-through behind you forever. And yes, she is working on a muffin cookbook.

For Just One Week

2009-02-28T07:43:00.000-08:00

I feel like this For Just One Week thing that I'm doing is a lot like trying to put myself back together puzzle style. There is a complete picture of myself that I'm trying to achieve and each week I try out a few new pieces. Sometimes I get lucky and pick a piece that fits right away. Other times I pick a good piece but it is too soon to be of any use because I need the surrounding pieces in there first to connect it to the rest. Sometimes I connect multiple pieces but have to put them back to the side because I need to finish finding all the edge pieces first. Some pieces are easier to pick than others because they are so obvious, and others drive me crazy because I just can't seem to find that one crazy puzzle piece that will finally let me move on. But I gotta tell ya, I'm starting to get little glimpses of what the finished puzzle might look like and it's getting me excited.

To learn more about For Just One Week click here.

This last week my one goal was to start training Cheeks to sleep in his crib. Let's just say I was so very right about the lack of sleep issue this would cause. I have had a perpetual exhaustion headache for the past 4 days. BUT, Cheeks now sleeps in his crib for every nap and most of the night (I started pulling him in 1/2 way through the night because I still need to function during the day). This is very good and I'm going to continue with this because I have to.

Now, back to that whole puzzle piece thought. I have definitely hit a point where I need to fit some very basic but necessary pieces into my puzzle before anything else is going to connect. So for this week I am going to:

1. Say my prayers every night before getting into bed. I used to do this without even thinking, but having Cheeks has changed everything about my night time routine. Now that he starts out in the crib, though, I am now physically free to kneel at the side of my bed before dragging myself into it. And I really do miss that daily, personal connection with my Heavenly Father.

2. Use my mailbox or the post office everyday. I've kind of duped myself into the very selfish thought of, "My family knows I love them, I'm busy with kids and a baby, if they want to talk to me they can do the reaching out." We have also had several big family drama's happen in the past year and a half and I tend to just hide in my closet and cut off all connections when these things happen and that just isn't right. Oh, and I'm also super lazy and have a year and 1/2 old pile of mail and packages that I just haven't mailed out (2 Christmases worth of Thank You cards). It is definitely time to start licking stamps and reconnecting with those I love. Facebook is fun but it's no substitution for a lovely letter in the mail.

3. And the usual TV goal. I'm telling you, it is a major addiction for me. SO, no internet TV at all except for on Fridays. I really want this one to become a lifetime habit. One day of TV would be a fun guilty pleasure that I could enjoy. I just want to stop the TV gluttony that makes me feel lazy and guilty.

Hopefully these goals will pave the way to adding some of the more interesting puzzle pieces that I'm itching to add here. One piece at a time, Liz, just one piece at a time.

What about you? What were your week's major accomplishments? What goals will you work on For Just One Week? Write a post about your weekly goal(s) and share it here. Please make sure to link to your individual post and not just your regular blog url. Thanks!

For Just One Week

2009-02-21T07:21:00.000-08:00

To learn more about For Just One Week click here.

This last week's goals were great. It was so much fun reading and commenting on so many blogs again. I am also really glad I picked these goals because I now feel a lot better about myself. I posted recently (thanks to my goal of trying to post everyday) about watching too much TV on the internet again. I was beating myself up about this, thinking I was so lazy and weak. Well, now I can honestly blame some of it on Cheeks. Do you know how hard it is to read something to completion and then actually take the time to type a comment each time when you have a pooping, lap jumping, face scratching, hungry, keyboard kicking, hair pulling lump of angelic cuteness in your lap at all times? And if I'm not holding him I'm chasing him around the house pulling plastic bags and marbles out of his mouth or catching him as he falls. You see, Cheeks is now a lightening fast crawler who pulls himself up on things but can't get back down without konking his head on something. I'm tempted to get him a helmet. Anyway, because of this it is very hard to read cohesively and even harder to comment and even harder to actually write or post, or to do anything else constructive. But it doesn't take extra appendages, much brain power, or uninterrupted time to watch TV, does it? So, while I'm glad I'm still fighting against the brain sucking power of TV, I now realize that it is more about survival then just plain laziness.
.
Commenting on every new posting in my blog reader? Done everyday, except one where I had a mini breakdown caused by exhaustion.
.
Catching up on my reading projects. Not so good. I managed to almost finish one but these are long writings that require me to give serious thought and critiques about them, and that is just REALLY hard right now.
.
Posting everyday. I was close, but missed two days. One because I had no internet for 3/4ths of the day, and yesterday when I had my mini breakdown. A breakdown that enabled me to watch Survivor, Lie To Me, old episodes of Bones, and some British TV crime dramas while eating Nutella from a spoon.

It was a very good breakdown.
.
Now for this week? I'm pretty sure I'm going to need copious amounts of TV to survive this week's goal because I don't plan on getting much sleep. In fact I'm even tempted to take up coffee drinking and smoking for this one. NO, not really.

But I might envy those that do. =)
.
This week my goal is to train Cheeks to sleep in his crib. This will also require me to stop using his crib as a storage device, clean it, and move it. I'm going on a long trip soon without Cheeks, or any kids (yes, I will post about it soon), and Mr. Hotness isn't as genetically programed for co-sleeping as I am. So, you may see me commenting on your blogs at obscene hours of the night and I may eat my weight in Nutella, but I am determined to have Cheeks sleeping in his crib and sleeping on a schedule by the end of this week. Heaven help me!!!

What about you? What were your week's major accomplishments? What goals will you work on For Just One Week? Write a post about your weekly goal(s) and share it here. Please make sure to link to your individual post and not just your regular blog url. Thanks!

Posting

2009-02-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

I almost snuggled into my busted, springy, messy bed when I remembered that I didn't write a blog post for today. Oh, where is an easy meme when you need one? Hmmmm, I know! I'll browse through my photos and see if there is anything blog worthy. Hold on just a sec... Ok, here we go...

Someone has been using my 5lb dumbells to improve his "arm bumps"

Can you say, "Stud Boy in training?"

Here is why I'm so sleep deprived these days:

Sometimes my house looks like this:

And this: (and when it does it is guaranteed that 1 million people will decide to drop in on me and come in to visit.)

Did you know that Sweet Terror used to look like this?

And before that she looked like this:

Which is why we haven't killed her or left her at a McDonalds yet.

Ok, can I go to bed now? Thanks.

Goodnight.

Me Time

2009-02-18T07:58:00.001-08:00

Chocolate On My Cranium has started a great writing prompt called, Wordful Wednesday and this week the theme is Love for Self. Here is how I'm trying to better love myself.

Nap time. Quiet time. ME TIME!!!

I live for "me time," that time of day when everyone is supposed to leave me alone and let me do something that I want to do. Me, selfish me. I don't always get this time, now that my kids are older and I'm juggling every one's schedules, but I still live for it.

About 3 years ago I had quiet time down pat. I had my kids perfectly trained, and for years had been getting a guaranteed 2-3 hours of quiet time every day. I would feed them lunch, clean them up, let them play while I cleaned the table and kitchen, and then off to bed I would send them to sleep or read to their heart's content. Then I would run to the TV, turn it on to my favorite program, which was whatever happened to be bearable to watch, and then I would run to the kitchen to make myself a yummy and rather large lunch. Grabbing my plate, a napkin, a tall glass of water, and usually the ketchup bottle, I would balance my way to the couch and there set up permanent residency until my precious 2-3 hours were over. Ahhhh, sweet Me Time, just letting my brain melt, stuffing my face, and not doing a darn thing.

You'd think with all this free time I would be happy, content, and energized everyday. But I wasn't. I still felt like there was never enough time to do things that I wanted to do. I still often felt trapped by motherhood. I still had a long list of things I would someday like to do but knew I never would. *sigh* If I couldn't get any of this done with my relatively long quiet time how was it that so many other mothers around me were accomplishing so much? Most mothers I talked to were envious of my long quiet/me time and wished they could get the same. But they were the ones going to the gym, playing musical instruments at concerts, starting in home businesses, and making lovely scrapbooks while my photos moldered in a box somewhere.

Then it hit me. It hit me smack dab in the gut. I had been calling quiet time "Me" time. But what was I using that time for? TV and food. Therefore I was defining "me," myself, with TV and food. Judge Judy, America's Test Kitchen, and old Matlock reruns with copious bowls of nachos and Yukon gold potato oven fries were what I was defining myself with. No wonder I never felt satisfied, no wonder I wasn't happy, no wonder that I constantly found myself lacking. But if I didn't want to define myself by TV and food, what would I define myself by? I was going to have to think about this for awhile.

I made a list of things I wanted to define me and these were at the top of my list: service, love, education, creative. Starting there I started using more and more of my "Me" time to redefine "me." I started writing letters to loved ones, making meals for people in need, reading classic literature, practicing my creative writing and art again. Suddenly I was feeling much more like me than "just a mom." It was wonderful. Emphasis on was. Sadly, in this past year I have fallen back into that pit of defining myself with TV and food. Why? Why would I do something that bears no fruit and makes me feel sluggish and fat? Because the devil on my shoulder likes to whisper in my ear, "You deserve it, you need some down time to just relax. You don't have time to do something creative. Cooking for someone else will just make a mess and they probably don't need it anyway. Besides, as soon as you start something the baby will wake up and ruin it. You deserve to just relax and do nothing for a second or two." But what the devil forgets to tell me is, "You will feel lazy and sluggish. You will be discontent and grumpy. You will gain weight, loose brain cells, and soon you will be mine!"

So, once again, I'm working on flicking that little devil off my shoulder. I'm trying to reclaim my right to choose what will define me. I'm trying to put the ME back in "me time." It's a lot more work, but I think I'm worth it. Don't you?

Nutso

2009-02-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

9 Reasons Why I'm Clinically Nutso

1. I whistle Let It Snow all the time. ALL the time, over and over again. I don't even realize I'm whistling it until Mr. Hotness says, "It isn't Christmas!" I've been doing this for years and years. Let it Snow.

2. I have an illogical fear of slopes.

3. My nose is asymmetrical and I obsess about it if left alone with a mirror for too long. I also get freaked out if ears don't match. I have 2 kids with unmatching ears and it freaks me out still.
.

4. Sometimes when I'm looking in a mirror, any mirror, I talk to the people behind it who are watching me. I say, "I know you're there," and then I stick my tongue out at them. This way if the government really does have a spy camera in my medicine cabinet mirror I won't look like a fool.
,

5. I suffer from insomnia. My husband falls asleep as soon as he looks at his pillow. Sometimes I want to kill him in his sleep.
,

6. I don't like chocolate. I've been told this makes me crazy. I just think it tastes like dirt. But apparently I don't mind dirt covered strawberries or dirty pretzels.
,

7. I live for the very rare moments (it's only happened twice so far) when someone angrily says to me, "Are you listening to me?" Because when they do I put my hands on my hips, assume a Southern accent and say, "Well, if sumpin' important were to spurt out of that fat faced, tight-white pair-a' lips of yours, I might listen so hard my ears'd fall off. But, seein' how ain't nothin' comin' out, I guess I'm jus' gonna keep 'em on." It took me 2 days of hard thinking back in '95 to come up with that line and I still wait for the opportunity to use it again.
,

8. If you tell me your name 100 times I still won't remember it. Seriously, I won't. And if we were best friends in school or just a few years ago I've already forgotten your name. But not your face. If you see me and wonder why I don't come over and say hi it isn't because I don't know you, it's because I'm trying to remember your name and can't. Please take pity on me and tell me your name.
,

9. I love Peanut Butter, Mayonnaise, and Pickle sandwiches. I dare you to try one. Ok, fine, I triple dog dare you. Wimp!
,

Why do you belong in the nut house?

Valentine's Day Continues

2009-02-15T22:57:00.001-08:00

I said I would post everyday this week. It is 11:20pm. I made it!

Who says Valentine's day has to be a one day deal? With a baby and all the regular stuff in life I find that I never even come close to doing the things I plan to do every holiday. But I really really wanted to have a nice Valentines day to make up for my wimpy Christmas. We started V-day stuff last week and it is taking me FOREVER to even get half way through my Valentine's Day list. I obviously plan way too much.

Today, after church and in my jammies, I did most of my baking/cooking that I simply couldn't get to earlier. Set a fancy table for dinner. Matching glassware counts as faaaaaaancy in our family.

Love note to the family.

My gift to Mr. Hotness this year. Baby back ribs, broiled asparagus, and creamy thyme mashed potatoes with caramelized red onions. I make killer ribs. Too bad I don't really like meat. Good thing I love asparagus.

Chocolate red velvet cake.

It has a layer of twinkie filling and Heath Magic Shell (Sooooo good) and is covered in milk chocolate Ganache. I was told it was really really good. I thought it was ok, but I don't like cake or chocolate.

Now, maybe tomorrow I can finally deliver some Valentine goodies. At this rate I just might finish Valentine's Day in time to start St. Patrick's Day. Sheesh.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

I hope you are all getting plenty of hugs, kisses, flowers, and ice cream. I will be bragging about my... Um, I mean.... sharing my Valentine day gift tomorrow. It was really cool. But for today I have to stick to my New Years resolution and do my weekly goals.

To learn more about For Just One Week click here.

Last week I set some majorly tough goals and knew they would be hard to keep, and they were. I didn't keep any of them 100%, but you know what? I'm just fine with that because I still got a lot of mileage out of each one. My four year old mending pile is now cut in half (many of the items were sewn back up and then donated because they no longer fit any of the kids), I finally made the Christmas stockings that I bought supplies for 5 years ago, I got the family room good and clean, and Monster Man is feeling so proud about all the good school work we've been doing.

Oh, and guess what? I still haven't let laundry pile up on my couch. See? Some of these quick goals just turn into habits. Sometimes all it takes is proving to yourself that it can be done to make you actually do it. I had convinced myself that part of having 5 kids is having a couch full of laundry. Not so. And it feels so good to be able to snuggle up with my kids on that couch anytime I want now.

Now for this week's goals. I'm sure you have noticed, I HOPE you have noticed, that my goals of reducing computer time have made me pretty scarce in blogland. I really miss that. I've also missed out on reading pieces of writing that my talented families have been sending me (I have two sisters in the process of writing novels. I wish that eating ice cream sounded as cool as writing a novel. They say, "Whew, I just finished writing 3 chapters today!" Then I say, "Oh, yeah? Well I just tried three different cookies and cream ice creams and found a favorite one."*)

*Ben and Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie

So, for this week my goals are:

1. NO internet TV or movies unless I've commented on every new blog posting in my blog reader.

2. Catch up on my reading.

3. This is a biggie.... I don't remember the last time I did this, or even if I ever have... I'm going to post something on my blog every day this week including Sunday. (this one just made my eye twitch a little)

For Just One Week

2009-02-06T19:32:00.000-08:00

To learn more about For Just One Week click here.

Ok, I keep hearing some of you say "I want to try this but I'm just not ready." Or, "I'm going to do this but I need to figure out what goal I want to tackle first." To those of you who are saying this I have a challenge for you.

1. Start small. Even something as little as giving your child a hug everyday, or saying, "I'm beautiful," in the mirror everyday, or snuggling with your husband for 1 minute everyday will make an awesome difference in your week.
2. Don't think too hard about your goal. It is just for one week, not a month, a year, or a lifetime. It can be a silly, simple, or down right crazy goal. If you can't think of a goal ask one of your kids for ideas because it isn't so much about the goal but about the accomplishment.

This leads me to an observation I've been making about this For Just One Week thing. I had a mental list of goals I wanted to do and had the thought of putting them in some kind of order so I would know which ones to work on next. A pretty neat thing has been happening, though. I have found that some (many) of the other goals I wanted to work on are just happening on their own. For example, I have been brushing and flossing my teeth every night before bed, I turned the TV off for this whole last week, one week I exercised everyday, and I have been eating better and have even lost five pounds since starting this. I don't know why this is happening but I love it. It has shown me that all that matters is that I stay in the mind frame of accomplishing small things on a daily basis. After all, it is through small things that great things come to pass.

And on to the weekly report:

I don't think I have written this consistently in my journal since I was 14 years old. And I had a huge wake up call to the sorry state of my handwriting. Not the way it looks, just my ability to do it. I write lists all the time and take occasional notes, but that is pretty much it. I found that to write by hand for such long periods (10 minutes) really hurts! Isn't that sad? And I realized that my writers bump (you know the one where the pencil rests on your finger) is almost non existent. I used to take great pride in my gargantuan bump. But I did it. Every day this week I wrote in my journal and read my scriptures. Yay!

I also got dressed and put on makeup every day this week. Most of you are probably doing this all the time and might think it a silly goal, but for me it was huge. HUGE! I can't tell you how nice it was not to worry that someone might stop by at 2pm and catch my in my jammies without a bra on (so gross!).

The Valentine goal taught me a lesson, much like my old goal of taking the kids somewhere fun everyday. It is not a good idea to try to do the same thing everyday with your kids. They get tired of it, or you get tired of it, or it just can't happen. It was different when I was homeschooling and we had the time to do these things, but now that the kids are in public school we just don't have much time for big things like this everyday. But... BUT, I'm still glad I set this goal because we actually made some Valentines and have some more in the works and that is more than I've ever been able to do for Valentine's Day. EVER. So it was a good thing.
.

And for this next week:

I will use my sewing machine for at least 10 minutes everyday.

I will deep clean one area of my home every day. Monday-family room. Tuesday-backyard. Wednesday-mud room. Thursday-the shed. Friday-living room. And Saturday- the office.

And to help me accomplish these Herculean feats of domesticity I will not turn on my computer except between the hours of 12 and 3, and only if I've done a 3 subject homeschool day with Monster Man.

Now, are you going to take my challenge? Start small, start simple, and if you don't feel better about yourself after one week feel free to stick your tongue out at me.

What will you do? Write a post about your weekly goal(s) and share it here. Please make sure to link to your individual post and not just your regular blog url. Thanks!

Valentine Puzzles

2009-02-02T11:41:00.001-08:00

Here is our first fun Valentine idea: Popsicle Stick Valentine Puzzles

First line up your popsicle sticks on a strip of masking or painter's tape. Try to get them as close and straight as possible. The kids were all surprisingly good at this part.

Next, draw your Valentine message. It is a good idea to make a border around the edge. It makes it easier for the kids to put it back together. And if you are making these for teens you could use more sticks to make it more challenging.

Remove sticks from the tape and mix them up (flip some upside down too)

Gather them together with a pretty elastic band and add a note that says, "It is puzzling how much I like you!"

Monster Man (6) enjoyed lining these up but got a bit frustrated trying to draw on them. Cookie (10) and Pablo (8) were able to do the whole craft without help and we all had a lot of fun making these and putting them back together again.

We adapted this idea from the book Fun To Make Crafts For Everyday

For Just One Week

2009-01-31T06:55:00.000-08:00

To learn more about For Just One Week click here.

Great googly moogily, people, I think I've stumbled upon something brilliant. I'm not talking about this For Just One Week Thing (though I do love it), I'm talking about an amazing new way to set goals. I've tried writing this several times and each time delete it because it gets too wordy and confusing so I'm going to lay it out bullet point style.

There are usually two types of goals. There are the things you want to do more of, and the things you want to do less of. The trick is to combine these goals in such a way that they self motivate each other and give you a little flexibility while still attaining success.

For example: I wanted to do more homeschooling with Monster Man and I want to spend less time on the computer. I combined them by saying, "I will not turn on my computer until after I've done a good homeschooling day with Monster Man."

Monday came and I was still dreading the homeschooling (I was so out of practice I didn't even know where to begin) so I completely avoided it. Normally this would mean I had failed my goal... but not so. I had a loop hole. As long as I didn't turn on my computer I was still meeting my goal.

I didn't get the homeschooling done on Monday, but as a result of not turning on my computer I did many wonderful things like cleaning, cooking, playing with the kids, etc. It was a beautiful day and I felt happy.

Tuesday morning came and I reeeeeeeaaaalllly wanted my computer fix (total addict). I still put off the homeschooling but by 11am I couldn't take it anymore and pulled out the materials and went to work. Monster Man and I had a wonderful time together and even Sweet Terror came away from Dora the Explorer to "Play school" with us. And then I was free to plug myself into my computer and melt my brain for a few hours.

The rest of the week continued like this. Anytime I put off doing what I wanted to do more of I did less of what I was trying to do less of, and vice versa so everyday I accomplished one part of my goal, or a little of both, and always felt successful.

Here are some example goal combos you could make:

I won't eat any sugar until I've exercised for 1/2 hour (I'd be exercising every day for this one)

I won't read any novels until I've read a chapter in my scriptures/school book.

I won't turn on the TV until I've cleaned my room and done one load of laundry.

I won't read any blogs until I've put a handwritten letter in the mailbox.

I won't eat until I've showered and dressed (I'd be either skinny or socially acceptable again)

Get the idea? Good. Now, back to me.

This week I kept up on my laundry every day which resulted in some pretty amazing things. My room was clean everyday because there was no laundry piling up everywhere making me want to shut the door and ignore it. I also did something I haven't done in years. I mended... clothing... with needle and thread. Amazing! And there was not one single argument about clothing or socks with the kids before school and that was absolutely wonderful.

I had a great time schooling MM and love that we are doing this again. And, as I said, being on the computer less led to wonderful things getting done.

Ok, I totally bombed the 10 minute project work in the office/junk room. There is a long, lame excuse for not doing it, but really I just didn't make it work. So I have to rethink this one. But I know I'm going to be spending most of my day today in that room instead of doing more enjoyable things. *sigh*

Now, onto the fun part. The new goals. Don't you just love new goals? They are so shiny and have that lovely "New Goal" smell.

For Just One Week I will make fun Valentines Day crafts with my kids every day. And here come my combo goals... I will not turn on my computer unless I am showered, dressed, wearing makeup, and styled my hair. And I will not watch any internet TV or movies unless I have read my scriptures and written in my journal (yikes, this is a biggy).

Now, I challenge you. I dare you. What brilliant combo goal will you make?

What will you do? Write a post about your weekly goals and share them here. Please make sure to link to your individual post and not just your regular blog url. Thanks!

Saucy Salad

2009-01-30T11:01:00.000-08:00

Instead of this:

I'm eating lots of this:

Because I'm cheating on this:

And having a love affair with this: And if eating salad for dessert is wrong, then I don't want to be right.