"Mama, I love you."
"I love you, too Corey."
"And there’s never going to be a time in which I never love you."
Hmmm. Can I take that to the bank?
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Biggest Loser
I have a friend in bloggy world whose blog is titled similarly to mine “The Hodge Podge Lodge”. Beth is a great writer and a great mom…..of 8 kiddos. I was reading there that she worked out to drop 15 pounds after the birth of baby #8.
Well, I was inspired by reading that. Now I want to be the Biggest Loser. I hate to admit this, but maybe making it public will inspire some accountability in me. I have 15 pounds to lose also. Fortunately for me, I lost the baby weight after baby #5 in much the same fashion as I usually do, most of it within 8-12 weeks after having the baby.
Unfortunately however, after losing the baby weight, I started a slow, gradual increase of weight again. So slight it wasn’t noticeable at first. At first I chalked it up to breastfeeding. Okay, I’m nursing the baby, so I need to eat more. Okay, I’m retaining a little extra “fat” so my body can produce milk for the baby. Ha! I know all the reasons, excuses, facts, you name it.
Now almost a year after I stopped breastfeeding, I am pushing a 15 pound weight gain.
So now you know my story. And ugh! I feel….uh, not myself. So if any of you out there in bloggy world want to hold me accountable, or better yet, take the challenge to lose a few pounds with me, I would love to hear how you’re doing it. I am open to reading any and all suggestions.
Thus far I have walked 3 days in a row. I have tried to drink more water. And I need to watch my calorie intake. I’m not a big “diet” person. I think a few tweaks to my eating habits will be the best thing for me. Lifestyle changes.
I’ll be honest: I have a sweet tooth. So that is my weakness. Easter takes its toll on me, what with the jelly beans and all. But I’ll get through it. Right now my biggest goal is to walk everyday. Okay, I know I might have to miss a day here and there, but since it is easy to find excuses not to exercise, I’m not wanting to let myself off the hook that easily.
Any words of encouragement? Any ideas? Anyone interested in joining me?
Well, I was inspired by reading that. Now I want to be the Biggest Loser. I hate to admit this, but maybe making it public will inspire some accountability in me. I have 15 pounds to lose also. Fortunately for me, I lost the baby weight after baby #5 in much the same fashion as I usually do, most of it within 8-12 weeks after having the baby.
Unfortunately however, after losing the baby weight, I started a slow, gradual increase of weight again. So slight it wasn’t noticeable at first. At first I chalked it up to breastfeeding. Okay, I’m nursing the baby, so I need to eat more. Okay, I’m retaining a little extra “fat” so my body can produce milk for the baby. Ha! I know all the reasons, excuses, facts, you name it.
Now almost a year after I stopped breastfeeding, I am pushing a 15 pound weight gain.
So now you know my story. And ugh! I feel….uh, not myself. So if any of you out there in bloggy world want to hold me accountable, or better yet, take the challenge to lose a few pounds with me, I would love to hear how you’re doing it. I am open to reading any and all suggestions.
Thus far I have walked 3 days in a row. I have tried to drink more water. And I need to watch my calorie intake. I’m not a big “diet” person. I think a few tweaks to my eating habits will be the best thing for me. Lifestyle changes.
I’ll be honest: I have a sweet tooth. So that is my weakness. Easter takes its toll on me, what with the jelly beans and all. But I’ll get through it. Right now my biggest goal is to walk everyday. Okay, I know I might have to miss a day here and there, but since it is easy to find excuses not to exercise, I’m not wanting to let myself off the hook that easily.
Any words of encouragement? Any ideas? Anyone interested in joining me?
Monday, March 22, 2010
Productive Weekend, Lazy Monday
After being outside a bit on Saturday and Sunday, I began to sneeze ferociously yesterday. My family knows, look out, Mom’s going to sneeze. Not just one sneeze, but a series of loud sneezes, usually in three’s or four’s. My nose is itchy, my eyes are watery, I sniff constantly, and I am on the verge of sneezing at any moment. I am not allergic to spring. I think I’m allergic to the molds. I’ve never taken the time to find out. Well, today after feeling groggy and stuffed up, I decided to take some Claritin. Kid’s Claritin….it’s fruit flavored. Jeremy(11) informs me that it will take awhile to kick in. Rats, I was wishing for instant relief!
Meanwhile, I set Jeremy (and Kaylee(2)…yikes!) to painting. It’s nice to see what creations a kid can come up with when given plenty of time to experiment. Jeremy is quite a free-spirited artist.
This weekend felt productive. Notice, I am not saying it was. Just that it felt like it. Maybe I’m learning not to have such big expectations for the weekends. It’s only taken me 12 years to learn this.
Saturday consisted of me gathering laundry, taking Brianna(12) to dance, take Carl’s truck to Sears to get worked on, back home to direct traffic while the kids and I did some chores, back to pick up Brianna, take the boys to get haircuts, help Carl with the pool cover that fell in over the winter (ho hum!), then take a walk with Brianna to the track (whoa..I’m outta shape!), back home to change out of sweaty shirt, go to grocery store, come home and make birthday dinner, while starting the kids on Saturday night showers. Bake and frost promised homemade chocolate cake for hubby’s birthday. Then at last to sit down and enjoy the dinner, which was devoured in 1/8 the time it took to make it.
That was supposed to be my last sweet, but I blew it last night by having another piece of cake. It was too good. Carl said it was the best cake he ever had. Wow.
Anyways, you can see that my Saturday wasn’t all that productive for me. But we got some chores done so that the house looks respectable. I got to take a walk. I got mostly caught up on the laundry. Even to the extent of putting it away. I was able to bless my hubby with his birthday dinner. My kids went to bed happy and clean. And my kitchen was clean when I went to bed. Ahh. I feel peaceful.
It doesn’t take much to make me happy.
Meanwhile, I set Jeremy (and Kaylee(2)…yikes!) to painting. It’s nice to see what creations a kid can come up with when given plenty of time to experiment. Jeremy is quite a free-spirited artist.
This weekend felt productive. Notice, I am not saying it was. Just that it felt like it. Maybe I’m learning not to have such big expectations for the weekends. It’s only taken me 12 years to learn this.
Saturday consisted of me gathering laundry, taking Brianna(12) to dance, take Carl’s truck to Sears to get worked on, back home to direct traffic while the kids and I did some chores, back to pick up Brianna, take the boys to get haircuts, help Carl with the pool cover that fell in over the winter (ho hum!), then take a walk with Brianna to the track (whoa..I’m outta shape!), back home to change out of sweaty shirt, go to grocery store, come home and make birthday dinner, while starting the kids on Saturday night showers. Bake and frost promised homemade chocolate cake for hubby’s birthday. Then at last to sit down and enjoy the dinner, which was devoured in 1/8 the time it took to make it.
That was supposed to be my last sweet, but I blew it last night by having another piece of cake. It was too good. Carl said it was the best cake he ever had. Wow.
Anyways, you can see that my Saturday wasn’t all that productive for me. But we got some chores done so that the house looks respectable. I got to take a walk. I got mostly caught up on the laundry. Even to the extent of putting it away. I was able to bless my hubby with his birthday dinner. My kids went to bed happy and clean. And my kitchen was clean when I went to bed. Ahh. I feel peaceful.
It doesn’t take much to make me happy.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Bo the White House Dog.....and Humans
I saw somewhere a link to a cute little blog written by "Bo, the White House dog". So I checked it out. http://www.goodboybo.com/2010/03/little-golden-human-statues.html.
I think the Obama's dog is really a cutie as far as dogs go. This particular blogsite also had rotating pictures of the Obama family, their girls, and President Obama with the dog. As I sat there and looked at the pictures, it made me think how although I do not agree with everything he has done as President, Barack Obama is a just a man. He's a guy with a very classy lady for a wife and 2 beautiful daughters: a loving family.
The pictures were actually very touching to me. To see them interacting with each other and the dog in these photos just reminded me that he's human, too. A person who loves his family, a doting dad who kisses his girls goodbye everyday to go to meetings and travel around our country and many foreign countries.
His ideas and my ideas may be worlds apart. His values and my values may differ. His beliefs and my beliefs may not coincide. It seems easy to find points of disagreement and so forget that he may be just like me in more ways than one.
Perhaps I should pray for him more and criticize a little less. He is after all....human.
I think the Obama's dog is really a cutie as far as dogs go. This particular blogsite also had rotating pictures of the Obama family, their girls, and President Obama with the dog. As I sat there and looked at the pictures, it made me think how although I do not agree with everything he has done as President, Barack Obama is a just a man. He's a guy with a very classy lady for a wife and 2 beautiful daughters: a loving family.
The pictures were actually very touching to me. To see them interacting with each other and the dog in these photos just reminded me that he's human, too. A person who loves his family, a doting dad who kisses his girls goodbye everyday to go to meetings and travel around our country and many foreign countries.
His ideas and my ideas may be worlds apart. His values and my values may differ. His beliefs and my beliefs may not coincide. It seems easy to find points of disagreement and so forget that he may be just like me in more ways than one.
Perhaps I should pray for him more and criticize a little less. He is after all....human.
Monday, March 1, 2010
A Recipe for a Cold Winter Day
(originally written on 2/11/10)
With all the cold and the snow, we've had plenty of time to cook (and eat) lots of yummy comfort foods. We've had beef vegetable barley soup, homemade bread, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and chicken stew. Not just any chicken stew. I've been on a quest for sometime trying to replicate the recipe that my Gram always made for us. This is one of my very favorite meals that she made. I remember her saying that making it was an all-day affair. Well, I don't make anything that takes all day. I have been dubbed "the Queen of Quick" in the kitchen. So here goes, my easy version of the secret family recipe.
Chicken Stew with Austrian Dumplings
chicken parts (I use thighs) - about 10-12 carrots
1 - 26 oz. can cream of chicken soup celery
chicken broth from cooking the chicken onion
flour potatoes
salt
pepper
Boil chicken parts in water until chicken is well cooked. Set aside chicken to cool. Save broth. In another large pot, mix can of cream of chicken soup with approx 3 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Add in chopped celery, onion, carrots, potatoes, salt and pepper. Simmer until tender.
Pull cooled chicken off the bone, cut into small pieces. Set aside.
Add approx 1/4 cup flour to about 1 cup of chicken broth. Mix well. Add to stew mixture, bring to boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Fold in chicken and dumplings.
Austrian Dumplings
1/2 c Butter
1 Egg; separated
1 Egg yolk
3/4 c Flour
1/4 ts Salt
1 ds Pepper
1 ds Nutmeg
Cream butter until soft and beat in egg yolks; gradually stir in flour, seasoning and stiffly beaten egg whites. Shape in small balls 1 inch in diameter, drop into boiling salted water and simmer, covered, about 5 minutes; do not let dumplings boil. Gently scoop out of water w/ slotted spoon. Makes 1 1/2 doz.
Enjoy! This recipe will feed our family of 7 with very little in the way of leftovers!
With all the cold and the snow, we've had plenty of time to cook (and eat) lots of yummy comfort foods. We've had beef vegetable barley soup, homemade bread, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and chicken stew. Not just any chicken stew. I've been on a quest for sometime trying to replicate the recipe that my Gram always made for us. This is one of my very favorite meals that she made. I remember her saying that making it was an all-day affair. Well, I don't make anything that takes all day. I have been dubbed "the Queen of Quick" in the kitchen. So here goes, my easy version of the secret family recipe.
Chicken Stew with Austrian Dumplings
chicken parts (I use thighs) - about 10-12 carrots
1 - 26 oz. can cream of chicken soup celery
chicken broth from cooking the chicken onion
flour potatoes
salt
pepper
Boil chicken parts in water until chicken is well cooked. Set aside chicken to cool. Save broth. In another large pot, mix can of cream of chicken soup with approx 3 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Add in chopped celery, onion, carrots, potatoes, salt and pepper. Simmer until tender.
Pull cooled chicken off the bone, cut into small pieces. Set aside.
Add approx 1/4 cup flour to about 1 cup of chicken broth. Mix well. Add to stew mixture, bring to boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Fold in chicken and dumplings.
Austrian Dumplings
1/2 c Butter
1 Egg; separated
1 Egg yolk
3/4 c Flour
1/4 ts Salt
1 ds Pepper
1 ds Nutmeg
Cream butter until soft and beat in egg yolks; gradually stir in flour, seasoning and stiffly beaten egg whites. Shape in small balls 1 inch in diameter, drop into boiling salted water and simmer, covered, about 5 minutes; do not let dumplings boil. Gently scoop out of water w/ slotted spoon. Makes 1 1/2 doz.
Enjoy! This recipe will feed our family of 7 with very little in the way of leftovers!
The Feel of Fall
(originally written on 10/30/09)
Fall has a special feel all its own. A special smell, a special taste, a special emotion. Fall is a time of new beginnings. When I was a kid, fall meant a new school year, new clothes to go to school in, probably a new lunch box, new teacher, and maybe even new friends. Always the nostalgic one, for me summer's end always brought a tinge of sadness with it. As I listened to the droning of the locusts, it felt like such a sad song. A time to put away what was a whole year of being a certain person, now moving on with new expectations. Moving ahead meant change, which I often resisted like the plague.
Fall has the smell of leaves. The fallen, dry, colorful antithesis to the full-of-life greens we see in the summer. Leaves to rake, jump in, roll in, and throw around. Carl rakes them onto a tarp, ties it to the tractor, then pulls the kids around the yard in the pile of leaves, laughing like crazy as they try to stand and fall into the pile while the tractor is moving. I have resigned myself to watching this every fall as I chew my fingernails hoping no one gets hurt. It wouldn't be the same with green leaves. Somehow fall is the perfect time for this.
A chill forms in the air that is hard to shake, so out comes the sweatshirts and flannels that we packed away last spring. I must admit that putting them on gives a warm cozy feeling that's hard to resist! We throw a few logs in our woodburning stove and breathe deeply that wonderful woodburning smell. The kids always say, "It smells like camping." Ummm! Add that to the list of cozy feelings and good smells. My boys come in the house smelling like the wild wind and the outdoors. "You smell like a boy," I always say.
Now that we're cold, and noses are dripping, we have to get warm, of course. So out comes the hot chocolate with marshmallows, and perhaps we'll have chili for dinner tonight. Ahh, the comfort of food in a warm house with people we love. It's not all Norman Rockwell, sometimes it's downright messy. But we have begun the fall rituals together. We prepare for colder weather and being in the house more together. Little by little we work out our relationships as fall forces us to rub shoulders a little closer.
Halloween is a very looked-forward-to event in our family. Our little neighborhood of approximately 25 families comes together one last time to traipse around with our little munchkins whooping it up with their costumes and candy before cold weather sets in . It is a temporary farewell of sorts. And a celebration of another year in the journey of parenting together. In a world of garage door communities, our cul-de-sac is refreshingly there for one another in a way reminiscient of childhood days.
Then there's Thanksgiving, days off school, Christmas shopping, baking cookies, scheduled activities too numerous to mention like dance class, music lessons, and church activities. The benefits of which are sometimes lost in the mad dash to get from here to there and back again without losing my religion or getting a speeding ticket. And yet the structured madness is probably what keeps me sane!
The seasons roll on, the kids grow, we establish traditions without even realizing it. Will I ever cherish the season I'm in, or will I always long for the one past? For now, for yet one more day, I try to hold on to the feel of fall. I know this season will come again, but when it does, my family will be a different family, and I will be a different person.
Fall has a special feel all its own. A special smell, a special taste, a special emotion. Fall is a time of new beginnings. When I was a kid, fall meant a new school year, new clothes to go to school in, probably a new lunch box, new teacher, and maybe even new friends. Always the nostalgic one, for me summer's end always brought a tinge of sadness with it. As I listened to the droning of the locusts, it felt like such a sad song. A time to put away what was a whole year of being a certain person, now moving on with new expectations. Moving ahead meant change, which I often resisted like the plague.
Fall has the smell of leaves. The fallen, dry, colorful antithesis to the full-of-life greens we see in the summer. Leaves to rake, jump in, roll in, and throw around. Carl rakes them onto a tarp, ties it to the tractor, then pulls the kids around the yard in the pile of leaves, laughing like crazy as they try to stand and fall into the pile while the tractor is moving. I have resigned myself to watching this every fall as I chew my fingernails hoping no one gets hurt. It wouldn't be the same with green leaves. Somehow fall is the perfect time for this.
A chill forms in the air that is hard to shake, so out comes the sweatshirts and flannels that we packed away last spring. I must admit that putting them on gives a warm cozy feeling that's hard to resist! We throw a few logs in our woodburning stove and breathe deeply that wonderful woodburning smell. The kids always say, "It smells like camping." Ummm! Add that to the list of cozy feelings and good smells. My boys come in the house smelling like the wild wind and the outdoors. "You smell like a boy," I always say.
Now that we're cold, and noses are dripping, we have to get warm, of course. So out comes the hot chocolate with marshmallows, and perhaps we'll have chili for dinner tonight. Ahh, the comfort of food in a warm house with people we love. It's not all Norman Rockwell, sometimes it's downright messy. But we have begun the fall rituals together. We prepare for colder weather and being in the house more together. Little by little we work out our relationships as fall forces us to rub shoulders a little closer.
Halloween is a very looked-forward-to event in our family. Our little neighborhood of approximately 25 families comes together one last time to traipse around with our little munchkins whooping it up with their costumes and candy before cold weather sets in . It is a temporary farewell of sorts. And a celebration of another year in the journey of parenting together. In a world of garage door communities, our cul-de-sac is refreshingly there for one another in a way reminiscient of childhood days.
Then there's Thanksgiving, days off school, Christmas shopping, baking cookies, scheduled activities too numerous to mention like dance class, music lessons, and church activities. The benefits of which are sometimes lost in the mad dash to get from here to there and back again without losing my religion or getting a speeding ticket. And yet the structured madness is probably what keeps me sane!
The seasons roll on, the kids grow, we establish traditions without even realizing it. Will I ever cherish the season I'm in, or will I always long for the one past? For now, for yet one more day, I try to hold on to the feel of fall. I know this season will come again, but when it does, my family will be a different family, and I will be a different person.
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