Update: Apparently daylight savings is "ending"... I'm still upset.
Oh the things you can find at AMVETS! A $110 dog house for just $15, like new (… besides the spiders). We had to disassemble it to fit it in the Prius (thank you mom), but we were able to get it home alright. Today, George helped me assemble it back together after a little figuring out (I hope we don’t need that extra screw…)! Lucky didn’t take to it right away, but George and Emilie had a blast and crawled into it right away! After George and Emilie got their fill (I can’t believe Emilie got in it all by herself!), Lucky wandered in for a look. I think it will make a great winter dog house. :) Speaking of winter, the changing daylight of fall has taken a toll on me. Living in the mountains with a mountain rise where the sun sets, gives us an hour or two less sunlight. In the Summer, the sun sets between peeks with it’s trajectory. In the winter though, it’s trajectory hits the tallest part of the mountain, cutting us off from the sun drastically (we live in a bowl, so the sun rises later too). As I was fighting depressed feelings this evening, it hit me that the cause was the earlier setting sun (for most people, the change is so slow with a flat horizon, but with a steep mountain, the change is more drastic), and on the phone expressing my feelings, my mom was telling me I was suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Oh, yeay. Well, at least I know what I’m dealing with. Anyway, it’s going to get worse. Hubby told me that daylight “savings” will be this Sunday. Instead of a 5pm setting, it will now be 4pm… Oh, and now instead of waking up in the dark before the Sun rises at around 7am, my kids will now be getting up at 6am thanks to this governments day light “savings”. Are my negative feelings seeping through the computer screen?
Update: Apparently daylight savings is "ending"... I'm still upset.
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It's official, it's fall. A sudden drop in temperature, hiding in our master room with our electric heated fireplace, and bundling up before going downstairs or outside. Just a few days ago, I decided to let go and... let George play in the rain... and the mud. Oh, his poor leather shoes are ruined, but alas he was able to be a kid and experience life! I think it's really important, more than ever for kids to be connecting with nature considering computer tablets, smart phones, internet and games, including TV that just suck you in. It's too easy to lock the door and not let your kid play in the dirt. My sister told me that kids are just not getting enough bacteria and thus not building immunities to various strains that are normally around. Bad, huh? Well, I gave George some vitamin C and a dose of echinacea, wrapped him up in a coat and sent him out to play. When it's cold I like to build up our immunities, because when it's cold you always catch a cold (especially if you're a little guy)! George really had a blast though and so far no ones been sick... but his shoes are completely ruined ;)
I am so happy Emilie woke me up this morning from rolling out of bed because I witnessed the most incredible site. My mouth dropped in wonder as I looked out my window. What on earth, I saw the most magnificent bright star, well to be exact two, and if you look even more closer three! How on earth were these stars shining as the run was rising?! Well, I'll tell you why, they weren't stars, they were planets!!! Starting from the right (brightest) and going left, Venus, Jupiter and Mars (so-so faint I could barely see it in real life, but camera did pick it up; you'll need to zoom in). I was shocked (and so thankful for my new star app I downloaded, "SkyView Free"), normally these planets were on the other side of our house when we first noticed them. Venus is normally viewed in the evening two! Are these three planets normally huddled together? Can you see these planets every morning? I have no clue. All I know is that I was able to sight a miraculous and mavoulous sight! Isn't it amazing we can see a planet who-really-knows how far away?! Anyway, I felt so blessed and like sharing.
Today, it was impossible to bring myself to not get George this costume! His face lit up and his smile melted my heart. Though Scott and I decided that we won't celebrate Halloween anymore, we're still having a little party at home with marshmallow s'mores... and I've decided dressing up with costumes too! I just don't feel safe anymore trick or treating and to be honest, I hate the scariness of it all. Recently I've seen too many sharp teethed clowns, and Chucky the horror doll jumped out at me during a commercial. What the heck, people are worried about offending "undocumented immigrants" by calling them illegal aliens; well people, I'm offended by the scariness!!!! The history behind Halloween is pretty scary too. Anyway, George the Dragon, Emilie the Ewok, and Scott and I the Jedi masters will stay safe and sound at home and buy our own $10 bag of candy, watch movies, and roast some marshmallows. Well, George will be putting this costume into good use with dress up, our home Autumn party, and keeping warm when it gets too cold since it's totally padded up and cosy! George was so excited waring it and literally started crying after he waved goodbye to it as we were leaving it behind and realized what was happening! (...so I got it after debating how much I was damaging him by spoiling him). Oh my, he's so sweet. Last week, you will be floored to know that Emilie climbed her first stairs!!! It was hard work, but she was so excited to do it and really loved the experience. After she got through the first handful at the bottom and turned to see the 20-some of the following up, she hasn't done it since, but at least we know she's able to do so now! It was really all quite of a sudden... everyone spotted her grabbing onto it and pulling herself up, and we all gasped and I grabbed the camera and took a video with a few pics! Emilie Sweetheart, we're so proud of you, you did awesome! <3 George was such a good big brother and tried to help out as Scott and I prevented him from doing more harm than good. It was a totally exciting experience and Nana was so happy to be there for it too. :) Will next step be walking??? Ever want your little guy to eat raw broccoli and carrots? Get veggie dip! The trip we had to Ridgecrest nautally left our nutrition lacking with fast food places lining the road and the grocery stone a ways away. This time however, we made the point to do some shopping this time on our trip, and boy am I happy about it. Instead of a burger or chicken nuggets at every meal, we can relax in our hotel room and help ourselves to a veggie platter with ranch veggie dip, ready soup, fresh fruit and some granola with milk! When we went up to Ridgecrest and stopped at burger king, our mouths dropped at the price of $26 for the three of us (Emilie can’t eat that stuff yet). Not only that, the food was terrible!!! Apparently they are not even a rival to McDonalds (and I don’t even like McDonalds that much)! I was very happy with their super cute Burger King kids meal bucket and crown though, and grinned at seeing how excited George was! …If only the food tasted good, talk about the worst quality meat ever. Apparently I’m an In-N-Out and Wendy’s type of girl (and In-N-Outs WAY cheaper!). A few nights ago, Scott and I went to an authentic French Country restaurant called Mon Reve, and oh my goodness, it was the most delicious and totally non healthy food in existence! I had scallops and scrimp in the richest, creamiest sauce with crusted cheese melt in your mouth topping. Scott and I shared a cream brûlée for desert, and oh my, that was the best cream brûlée I’ve had in my life. Emilie and George really didn’t do too well at first. In our great surprise though, George fell asleep face first on the table, and next was Emilie. Emilie! To our surprise, Emilie had the hardest time at the restaurant. In desperation I gave her a hard french roll. The moment I gave it to her, I recalled her intolerance to oats and worried about the effects it might have on her and tried to take it away… She held onto that thing for dear life and would not let it go! I knew if I forced it out of her hard core suck and little grasping fingers that they would kick us out for sure! … So, I let her at it! I can say with confidence that she was the most happy baby alive! After five minutes some ladies at the table beside us started cooing at Emilie. I looked as my face turned red from silently cracking up! Emilie was using the roll in place of a breast and silently gnawing on it as she drifted to sleep. Now, what was so darn cute and classic, was that it kept falling out of her hands, and, with her her eyes closed, she would search for it and put it back in her mouth with her tiny little hands. Other times, completely exhausted, her hands with the little roll would sink down to her lap, then she would jerk and put it back up to her mouth with her eyes closed. Because of her close association with breastfeeding, towards the end of falling fully asleep, she would just open her mouth, expecting it to just pop back in like with breast feeding (see picture above!). Oh my goodness, it was so cute. The women said she could be a youtube icon, but just as we pulled the phone out for a video, boom, she was fully asleep! Oh well, at least I have the story recorded down! Scott and I had a lovely semi-date :)
Ok... I just wrote a whole blog, and then put the picture on... and all my writings were erased. Weebly.com, I can trust you no longer, I'm writing on textedit!!! To put it bluntly, I hated most of them (the candidates). I could vote for Jim Webb though if it came down to it, but I don't think the democrats would nominate a moderate candidate like him though. Ah, the trials of life. Well, I'm glad it's over, it was totally depressing. Bernie won, Hilary did good, I dislike their positions both though. Kiss, Hugs, Goodnight. -_-
Yep, it's official. I have the cutest kids alive! Today we went down to see Nana, and boy, was George excited. All week he's been asking to see her, and now finally, the day arrived that we could! Nana will be coming to visit us soon too and staying for awhile since her eye surgery is coming up. It will be nice having her up again and we're happy she can come, though not as excited for her to have to go through the process of getting her eye, um, cut. However, it will be so nice to be able to see the beautiful see clearer than ever, so that part is really exciting to look forward too. :) Besides playing at Nana's, we took a drive to Whole Foods to see how really unaffordable it actually was (quite), and then went to a children's boutique where we found Emilie the cutest flower headband in the world! Yes, it was expensive, but it was the first one I've found that wouldn't cause Emilie's poor head to have a painful indent, and it's so darn cute, isn't she?!
George has just blossomed into an amazing boy and awesome brother. His caring and compassion is a treasure that few mom's have been blessed with in an sweet boy. Not only has George started to comfort me as I get worried about things, but he is so sweet with his sister and loves to hold her. Oh he is such a sweet boy. George and Emilie, I love you guys so much! Scott, I love you too my Sweetheart! Mom, I really have an amazing family, thank you for helping me get straightened out so I could have them and this life be a reality. ;) I love you all. Should I walk the fine line or strictly obey? Example, to maintain my weight and eat healthy, my nutritionist wants me to eat 2-3 oz of nuts... okay, I got them... what if I made dark chocolate energy bites out of them though?! Okay, that would make me laugh, but since you don't have any background I tell you why that's funny. She does not support the use of added sugar... nope, not at all. 100% cocoa chocolate probably, but anything with added sugar is a big no-no in her book. That means sugarless herbal tea (I could get use to it), no ice cream, apple pie sweetened possibly by dates. Well, it seems weird. The only hard thing is that I have to be a role model for my children. I also need to get my weight loss under control and hopefully not feel sick after half my meals. I'm still perplex of why food in general makes me feel sick, but I'm hoping that undertaking a food diary (like she recommends) may help me. In a month I'll post it, and if anyone would like to help me find out what exactly is making me feel sick all the time, oh, I'll love you for it. For cutting sugar, I'm not doing it entirely, at least not yet. I have no doubt that it will make me feel better, but I'll finish the food in the fridge first. I will make the pledge that I won't buy any groceries that contain added sugar though! I was never asked to quit cold turkey though, so I don't plan on doing it, and I still plan to have an occasional ice cream or slice of cake. Oh, the dilemma though. There really does need to be a support group for this kind of diet change. Why am I doing this? Oh yeah, to feel better and set a good healthy pattern for my kids at the same time. On a side note though, Pomegranate seeds are like natures candy! Mmmm. :) I'm pretty sure I can make this diet taste good and not be as depressing as she's presenting it to me as! I've already started a Pintrist Page called Whole Foods, and I'm hoping to find (and even add my own!) recipes on there. If you would like to see my notes that I wrote after visiting the Nutritionist, please, I post them below. <3 __________________________________________________________________ Notes about Nutritionist visit, October 5th, 2015 Eat Primarily the following, on my whole foods diet (underlined helps stabilize/gain weight, star is most of all): *Vegetables, beans, fruit, nuts/seeds, starchy vegetables, whole grains. Scale of food (top most nutritious to bottom, least): -Vegetables (lots, unlimited) -beans (1/2 to 1 cup or more per day) -Fruit (aim for a piece of fruit at every meal. She recommends 4/day) -Nuts/seeds (2-3 oz/day for me, 1 oz for those trying to loose weight) -Starchy vegetables (for those wanting to maintain or gain weight) -whole grains -animal products (she said fish twice a week, and rotating chicken a beef once a week would be okay - I asked) -processed (she recommends very tiny amounts, and would be okay with never!) Food high in calories are the: -nuts/seeds -at least 2-3oz/day for me, avocado -Starchy veg: sweet potato, winter squash, corn, peas (yes, corn and peas are nutritious) -Whole grains. Out of butter, olive oil, and coconut butter, choose olive oil in small amounts if any. But very small amounts only if needed. Coconut butter is actually unnaturally processed and practically only fat. Milk is considered a choice of animal products. Choose animal products wisely, if you choose one, don’t choose another as well. Picking the healthier one is ideal (example Fresh baked salmon vs a cup of milk). Don’t have an animal product at every meal also! I can end up crowding out the good nutritious food by packing in the less nutritious food. My brie and crackers I’ve been splurging on is a ‘treat’. Since I feel sick a lot, keep a food diary and try to notice which foods make me feel unwell and how I feel exactly. A book that would be good for me in helping establish healthy eating habits at home: Disease proof your child, by Joel Fuhrman For salads, I don’t need to eat them at every meal! Making a big green smoothie in the morning is totally acceptable. I would still want to eat veggies later, like in stir fry (soy sauce is okay, but low sodium is a must. If I’m use to the high one, my sodium intake is too high), soup, whole wheat tortilla (like Ezekiel brand) burrito with some veggies (example: beans, avocado, salsa, shredded cabbage). The goal is to get food needed within a day, not at every meal! For example, if I’m having oatmeal in the morning with flax or chia seeds and some fruit, I’ll need to make sure I get in some good greens later. A green smoothie is an awesome idea to get healthy greens in. She recommends “bolster nutrition” as much as possible. To bolster nutrition she recommends seeds/nuts (maybe like 1-2 T and to taste. To make it sweet, I should lessen amount of honey and sweetness in it till there is none at all. Any added sugar is bad (even honey in raw form). Switch to unsweetened almond or soy milk. Apparently sugar added is not good, even if it adds calories. It’s not about adding calories at no cost! I want to add "healthy calories". So, skip the ice cream, and sweeten with a banana, possibly nut butter and berries. Between frozen and fresh, there isn’t much difference nutrition wise. Weigh myself once a week, if I’m not gaining back to my weight or loosing weight, add pea or other plant-based protein to my shake. She doesn’t recommend my chocolate soy protein powder, because most soy protein powders are made with protein isolate, which apparently isn’t good, and also not as healthy as the whole soy bean itself. This diet can support growing teenagers, but they will probably need lots of it and more of the higher calorie ones, especially if an athlete. She seemed to be okay with eating fish twice a week, and rotating beef and chicken for once a week. I'm guessing she would be fine if I ate even less meat, but not more than that to be eating healthy. We had trials, and it wasn't easy with two self moving children with abundant energy, but it was an amazing conference. My favorite talks were the first and last talks from Sunday morning session by President Thomas S. Monson and Elder Henry B. Eyring. It was such a blessing the hear prophets and apostles of God and to feel and hear new words of insight and inspiration just for us in this moment of time. And we were able to hear and feel like we were there from our own living room! How incredible is that?
Some things that we've learned that made conference easier is to begin the morning session with breakfast and the afternoon session with lunch! It keeps little mouths and hands busy, fills our bellies and we all have the blessing with sitting at the breakfast table together! We just whip out my laptop, and start it rolling while we sit together and have a blast. Making general conference weekend as special and as anticipated as Christmas has been quite a joy as well. To anticipate conference was a bit foreign to me, but as we made the preparations, made yummy food to fit the occasion and anticipated, it has been quite a delight. :) I am so glad I found out that way of looking at it from a good family story on lds.org. Now, for future conferences, we plan to do the same, with a little more prep and plan ahead. And who doesn't like 3 Christmas' in a year? Well, as long as you KISS (Keep It Simple Silly!). I send my love to all and invite everyone to pray about which session of conference you should watch if you missed it or chose to opt out. You will get many blessings from watching and listening, I promise. I love you George and Emilie, my children, you light up my life as I see you grinning and giggling. I love being your mommy <3 And Scott, you are my dream, and I'm so happy to be sealed and married to you. You are my Prince Charming! I'll shout it from the housetops (and the internet waves ;)). Love to all my family and friends, Mary |
Ms. MaryJust one of those average amazing moms... Cause you know, mommy = amazing. Archives
January 2017
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