Getting Antsy

Patience is something I must pray for every day. I love the blessings that come from this continual goal. But I am getting impatient in one area particularly right now. Losing the baby weight....again...ugh! The more kids I have, the harder it is to get it off. I am ready though. A few weeks ago I "joined" Weight Watchers again. I am too cheap to really be a member, but I wanted to get all the updated materials so, since there was no enrollment fee, I just went one time and got everything I needed and a new food journal for about $18.

I had a rough start to it. After being pregnant and nursing, my appetite is just so huge, so it took quite a while just to get used to eating less again. I am finally there though, for now at least. Eating for me is nothing that I can ever say I have permanantly conquered, but for now I am good. Lots of practice eating slowly, not getting too full, only snacking on fruits, veggies, and nuts between meals, not eating after dinner, allowing for occasional indulgence so that I don't feel deprived. All things I have been trying to change one thing at a time.

Weight Watchers has a new (to me) part of the program called "filling foods" As you count your points if you choose to eat these filling foods, you are less hungry and more healthy. These foods are the ones high in fiber and protein mainly(all fruits, veggies, lean meat, low fat milk, beans, etc.). I love it. I have really been sticking with those and I feel so good. Not even hungry believe it or not. No longer craving junk. Love that.

Food Journaling is difficult for me, but is so vital in understanding portion control and being concious of my choices. It should be a lifelong personal requirement for anyone who wants to eat healthy. We must be aware of what we put in our bodies. The older I get the more I feel driven to not just eat to lose weight, but to truly be healthy and have vitality. I want my children to understand how important this is too. I sincerely hope to one step at a time get to a point where we only eat whole foods and meals from scratch.

I am struggling the most to get going with my exercise. It has been hard to figure out a schedule for it since we moved here. I am really striving for that and praying to find something that I can really enjoy and be consistent at that will work for me and for my family.

Getting healthy doesn't happen over night though, so I am frustrated with the slow process. I am getting there, but I just wish I could snap my fingers and be there. Of course, I will learn so much from the journey, so I know that is what the Lord intends for anything we must work for. I am starting to see some results now so that gives me hope and energy to keep going with it. I am dying to wear all 4 of my new adorable swimsuits that I got on sale half off at this site   I found out about from my friend.  I also found such a cute sun dress last weekend, that will look a lot cuter when I am less curvy, not to mention most of the jeans in my closet from before that I can't fit in yet.  Thinking about it gets me all excited. 

I am writing about this because it is a big part of my life at the moment.  I will probably write about it a lot on here as I strive to ENJOY the journey to health.  I want to like this and make it a way of life.  It is how we are supposed to be in our goals and challenges right?

Video Series 6 - Run Away!

This was WAYYY back in July. I remember loving this video because it was the first time I had seen the kids play with Carter in a big kid kind of way. He was 14 months here. This makes me miss Tanner's long hair. I can't wait for it to grow out.

Cook Once, Eat Twice

OR ten times!!!
I was at Costo a couple of months ago and decided to invest in a HUGE tube of lean ground beef because it was only 1.99 a pound.  I hate dividing raw meat for freezing, but wanted the savings.  When I got home I thought, why not just cook it all and freeze it?  I didn't know how hard it would be to cook 10lbs of hamburger at once, but it was so easy, I wanted to share.  I used my biggest pot, I think it is 8 quarts and just dumped it all in and squished it all in there with a potato masher.  It fit, that was the first concern but it was just fine.  I turned the burner to Medium so that nothing would burn with that large amount of meat. 

Stiring with a big wooden spoon was hard and almost broke the thing, so I switched to a long knife instead.
This worked great.  I stired every 3 or 4 minutes.


Once it was cooked and loose, I switched back to the wooden spoon.

20 or 30 minutes later I had this! I divided into 10 freezer bags, let it cool and threw it all in the freezer.  Over the last several weeks, it has made for some super fast meals, like 5 minutes! I will definitely do this from now on. (What I will do next time: season the meat and add a bunch of sauteed onions and veggies.)  Afterward, I referenced my Make a Mix book which has a recipe for this, but it is for 5 lbs of meat.  Ten is totally doable though.   Another thing I want to try is making this double by making a big batch textured vegetable protein TVP(made from soy) which you can buy in bulk at Winco, and using half of each in each bag.  That would make 20 meals of healthy meat mixtures.

Grandpas

My kids sure love their granparents! They love them all to bits and going to see them is a real treat. It makes being home so great. Not to mention all the cousins and friends. The kids get to play with other kids all the time.

So my dad came over a lot after the flood to help get things back together. The kids loved having him here and would thoroughly invade my Dad's space as much as possible. They began to think of him as our fix it man I guess because one night during some bed time craziness, one of the kids threw a ball and broke the light bulb on the stairs. Peter being an electrition was not too worried. People actually pay for him to come and take care of things like this once in a while. So Peter was going to fix it and the kids started freaking out. They yelled, "No Daddy, Grandpa A. will know how to fix it!" Peter got a big kick out of that. Now that I think about it, I may have already written that story, but I can't remember so I'll leave it.


Last week we were having dinner. Well, the kids and I were because Peter was working late. The ENTIRE dinner conversation was all about how Grandpa D is bald! I didn't say anything and they just kept going on and on about how Grandpa has no hair and how his head must be cold. They brainstormed theories as to why he is bald. They also compared him to many Sponge Bob characters that don't have hair.I wish I could remember the whole conversation, it was so funny.

Carter is really attached to Grandpa D. We went to sign some closing papers for our refinance and so the kids and I met Peter and his Dad at the title company. When Carter saw Peter he yelled "Daddy!", but when he saw Peter's dad ye really got excited and wiggly and kept yelling "Bampa!!!"

Video Series 5 - Impersonations

Its no secret that our kids are a little obsessed with Sponge Bob.

Video Series 4 - Surprise Snow Storm

December 29, 2009
Carter's face is pretty nasty from being sick, but I still think he is cute.

Video Series 3 -Water Fun,

and a cute conversation
September 20th, 2009

Video Series 2 - Banana Humor

October 25, 2009

Video Series 1 - couch flipping

I am so behind on videos.  I started looking through our archives and finding totally cute, funny stuff so I am going to start a video of the day project on here among my regular posts to catch up. 

This is not edited, just 5 minutes of couch flipping. I get comments all the time about how rough and tumble Carter is for his age.   This might explain. It was back in August when he was 15 months.  Eden is a darling, and Tanner has a cute boy undies bum.

Outdoor Kid

I love how Dallin is drawn to being outside.  Lately, as soon as he walks into the door after school, he goes straight through the house and out the back door.  It is great for him to really get his energy out and wind down after working so hard at school (which is going so well now).  He really stays busy out there with his "building" projects made out of whatever he can find.  Things like empty plastic sandboxes, scrap wood, toys, lawn chairs, wagon and against my wishes, kitchen stools and dining room chairs.  Yes, it drives me totally bonkers, but its like there is something in him that HAS TO build.  I have found myself crying out to him to "please, just go build with blocks, will you please?" but that just does not hold a candle to real materials for Dallin so I must allow his NEED.   The other day I noticed my mop was in one of his heaps and when I reminded him that it was not an outside thing, he said, "But it is for the electricity!"  Every piece has a purpose.  Then he walked around to the other side of it, and demonstrated the "dishwasher", which was fan rake that would rub on the surrounding plastic sandbox pieces and make "dishwasher" noise when he moved it around. 

He built one of these structures in the basement last week and there were several extra wires from electrical equipment down there because we were getting our surround sound going and such.  He had used the frame of a futon couch with lots of slats to weave wires up, under and around going to the little playhouse he made down there.  I had to smile as I spent several minutes untangling it all because he was obviously running wires, like he has seen his dad and grandpa do at work! 

Dallin and Peter are plotting and planning building a new playhouse outside soon.  Perhaps this is part of the anticipation of it for Dallin.  It is going to be a lot bigger than the one they built in CA.  2 stories, all enclosed with a slide coming out, climbing wall, and swings.  Peter has started saving trash bound things from jobs.  He even brought home a whole bunch of siding that was still in good shape for it.  I think they are planning to make it as real as possible, minus plumbing, much to Dallin's dismay.  If it is anything like what we experienced with the previous playhouse, building will be much more fun for Dallin than the result, so I am sure they will just keep adding touches to it all summer long.

I KNOW Dallin can be whatever he wants when he grows up, but I will be so shocked if does not have to do with building of some kind.  He was more than thrilled to spend a day or two with daddy at work over spring break.  Among other things, at one point he wanted to be a baby doctor after enjoying the birth of a couple of siblings, but still, I just have this hunch...

Evergreen

As I watched the sun through the trees in our back yard the other day, it made me so happy to be in such a beautiful area. There are so many trees! I don't think I ever knew it growing up, but I sure do appreciate it now.

Early Morning Snuggle

This was the last thing Dallin did before going to school the other day.  He sure loves his baby.

A little wrestling action

When I saw this going on, I had to grab my camera.

The hair is priceless

Body Slam!








Stick in mouth.  Can you feel the love?

Vegetable Art

For preschool the other day, we were learning about the letter V, so we painted with vegetables.  Eden made this little masterpiece. The yellow at the top is a cucumber print, the purple on the left was done with broccoli, The green and red on the right were from sliced carrots with ridges, and the little lines on the bottom were from green bean paint brushes.  She decorated the middle with her fingerprints and her name.  I love how she forgot the second E, but added it above. I am thinking this might make some great kitchen art.

-Eden Josephine, 4 years old

April, 2nd, 2010

Lawn Mower Buddies

We left our lawnmower for our tenants when we moved to California. Then we had to buy one for the house we were renting there too.  So now that we are back, we have 2! 
Dallin and Peter find this quite convenient.





Eden is eager to help too!

Moments I Love

Here is a classic Tanner moment from Sunday dinner:
To Peter's 95 year old grandpa:
Tanner: What is your name?
Grandpa: Art
Tanner: (perplexed) What kind of art?
Grandpa got such a kick out of it, that he told everyone about it.

During our Easter program with the family, Dallin was being so cute.  First he did a show and tell magic trick.  He spoke loud and pulled it off perfectly.  Then during the program a couple of times he decided to add a couple of stories that weren't quite related to the Easter story.  Michelle was nice about it and let him interrupt so he could have his moment. After Michelle told about the Angel that came to the tomb when Jesus was ressurected, Dallin got up and told everyone quite articulately about how Laman and Lemuel were beating up Nephi and an angel appeared and said "Why are you doing this to your younger brother, Don't you know that he is your leader?"  Dallin uses a lot of hand gestures when he talks so it was cute.  Then he started thinking about his other favorite scripture story at the moment and recited a great rendition of Jonah and the whale.  Afterward everyone asked "So did he repent?"  Dallin said "I don't know!"  Apparently Peter told him the exiting parts of the story but forgot to tell him how it ends.  It was funny.  I am so proud of Dallin for his confidence and continually grateful for how far he has come.  He is so cool.

Easters

Here is a glimpse of what Easter morning 2010 was like at our house.  It was a fun morming. 
















































After this we enjoyed a great breakfast at Larry and Michelle's followed by an enriching General Conference session.  That evening we had a fancy Honey Baked Ham dinner at Peter's mom and dad's and a nice Easter program.  A great day to reflect on the Savior's ressurection and be grateful to be near our wonderful family.(BTW, can you guess what movie I am chaneling today?)

The Fern of Hope

A few months back when we moved home, it seemed like nothing could go right.  Sometimes I laughed instead of crying just because I couldn't believe that things just kept happening.  So glad that is all behind us!  Things just couln't be much better now(other than occasional migraines).  I wake up excited to experience another day with my family, and make things happen. Life is good. 

This is  a picture of a fern that is in the landscape right next to our front door.  Isn't it nice?  Actually, it is fake!  Our tenants did some front landscaping last summer and decided that it would look nice there I guess. A few days after we moved back, we noticed it wasn't real and got a kick out of it.

So, many times during those first days here when things just seemed so upside down one of us would try to lighten the mood and say "Hey, at least that fern is looking great!"  or "Man, what could ever seem wrong when we have such a flourishing plant growing there!"  and on and on.  It was our way of finding humor in life.  Our little fake fern helped us through, and there it will stay as a reminder.  Actually, the lighter green fern at the bottom of the photo is real!

Accountable Kids Review

It has been about a month since we embarked on the Accountable Kids program.  This program is so well thought out!  The starter video is all that is needed to get going and off we went.  basically, it instills the work before play mentality. The kids enjoy earning their tickets when they finish each portion of their schedule.  Even more, they like to earn bonus bucks for doing extra chores.  It has been so helpful for us.  We didn't have the kids do many chores before so it is a new thing for them. And now that they earn bonus bucks, we can teach the children valuable money management skills that are so vital to becoming responsible adults. The other day, one of the kids helped me mop the entire main living areas.  The next day I heard him say, "Wow, this floor is so clean!".  Not something he ever would have noticed before.  He has learned to have pride in his work and enjoy the results.  Priviledge passes have been helpful as we try to phase out bad habits.  Best Behavior cards are probably the biggest novelty for the kids.  When they do a good deed, sometimes they ask for a best behavior ticket.  That's when I say, "Not this time, but great job."  Then when I see them sincerely use kind actions or go the extra mile, I reward them and they just beam about it.   

 This program is helpful for getting the kids into a regular routine each day.  Our oldest who has autism has especially benefited from this since he has done similar scheduling programs before.  Since the schedules can be changed around, sometimes I switch things up just to help him understand that it's okay.  Now that the children are more accountable for everything they need to do in a day, my mind is way more at ease.  It is not an easy feat to manage 5 highly dependant people each day, but now I know nothing will be missed, like taking their vitamins or flossing.  There are so many valuable skills, habits, and characteristics that I want to be teaching my children and now, I only need to make sure it is on the board and follow through, and it is done. As a mom I feel better at the end of each day knowing that I have done my job. I love that they are learning such great habits that they can carry throughout their lives.  What an amazing teaching tool.    This program doesn't just come with a user's manual, it comes with an entire book!  It is stuffed full of great ideas ways to enhance the program to take it to the next level.  As the kids get older and master habits and skills we will continue to add more complexities to this program. I can say for sure that Accountable Kids is here to stay at our house.



Click HERE if you would like to learn more about Accountable Kids.

Milk Face

Easter Morning

As the kids were going through their Easter baskets yesterday, they were getting pretty excited.  Tanner said, "I LIKE the Easter Bunny!".   A few minutes later he was very concerned when he discovered what he thought was cement inside his malt ball easter eggs! Peter had to really convince him it was edible. 

Later that day, Dallin, Eden and Tanner were running around in their little pack and all of the sudden I heard Eden say "Look, He is alive!".  I looked over to realize that they were dramatizing the ressurection and Dallin was the Jesus in the story.

April Fools!

The kids got a big kick out of April Fools jokes today and made up new ones all day.  They called all their grandparents just to share them.  Here are some that I remember.

Eden: The moon turned into cheese! April Fools! The mouse turned into cheese! April Fools!

Tanner: The sky turned into a button! April Fools!  (what the?)

Dallin: Junk food is healthy!  April Fools!

Finally, a Mission Statement!

It only took me 8 1/2 years, but I finally got around to creating a  rules guidelines values document for our home! I could never seem to get it all down in one place before until I saw this idea and was inspired to have some fun.  It took me over a week of brainstorming just the right wording, quilting the pieces together in photoshop and giving each value its own unique piece. Thats what I was going for anyway.  There are probably well over a hundred layers, but it is hard to see the details this small.  I can't wait to make a big poster and frame it!  It was so fun to spend a few minutes here and an hour there on this project.  I just love photoshop, it is like quilting, or whatever else people enjoy for me. This is as close as we will get to a mission statement.  It is a busy poster, but I want this to be something that a child could look at and study when they happen by it and notice something new and unique each time in the years to come.  I pray as a mother to help instill these qualities and actions in my children so that they will become good contributing members to society and make the world a better place.  There were so many more things I wanted to put, but I just couldn't squeeze any more in.  Hopefully I got most of the big values.  I will have to do better in many of these to set the example, so I imagine I will need to refer to it often as well.  I keep going back and making changes, so this isn't quite the final draft but you get the jist(gist? can't find the right spelling on wikipedia).[*update* GIST (that was bugging me).] Just thought I would share the idea, and thought it was so cute.