Little bits of life...

So just as a reminder, the things I post here are from the sidebar on the right and so the date you see on this post is not the day these things actually happened. I'm looking at what I'm putting in here and it looks like most likely these are comments from about March or so. Pretty outdated. Just FYI!

Erica has been off track for most of the month. She's been having friends over to play and helping me with projects. She's getting to be quite a good helper and I'm thankful she has an interest in helping me. She also had her hair cut a week ago and looks so much more grown up now. It's amazing to me what a difference a new hairstyle can make in how old she looks! A few weeks ago she got a catalog in the mail for the American Girl dolls and accessories. She has been looking through that catalog with her doll Dmelle (a doll that she got from her Grandma) and making lists of the things she wants to buy for Dmelle. She told me a few days ago: "I can't let Dmelle look at the catalog with me because she is always saying how she wants all the stuff in there and it's too expensive for me to get it all for her!" She is trying to save her money to buy a bed and blankets for her doll (the set costs $98 which is, of course, ridiculous) and is always trying to think of new ways to get money - lemonade stands, bake sales, and saving money from Christmas and her birthday. However, she's not interested in doing jobs around the house to earn money and she has been quite irritated with Isaac who has managed, over the last week or so, to find (on the ground at the store or on the sidewalk) about seven cents. :)

We were driving home from church today and Isaac was counting to see how high he could count before we got home. He started at 1 and counted correctly all the way to 39, which he promptly followed with 90 through 99, followed again by 30. :) A few days ago, we were getting ready for lunch and the kids were talking about wedding colors (don't ask me why - I can't for the life of me remember what got us onto that topic), and Isaac told me his wedding colors will be red, orange, yellow, purple, and blue. :) Isaac loves to show me on a daily basis the new things he has learned to do. These consist mainly of standing on one foot, hopping on one foot (both while holding on to something with one or both hands), and doing summersaults. At least once each day he will come to me and say "Well, Mom, wanna see what I can do?" followed by a demonstration of one or all of his newly acquired talents. He's quite proud of his accomplishments. I have also noticed in the last week or so that he has started to pronounce the letter "r" sound which has made quite an improvement in his speech.

Cambria has begun climbing into her crib by herself when I'm not in the room. She goes up to her room to play from time to time, and the other day I was making dinner and realized it had been an awfully long time since I had seen her. When I got to a good stopping point I went up to find her and she had climbed into her crib. I've found here there on numerous occasions, and it will only be a matter of time until she learns to climb out. So this week (hopefully) we're planning to move her into a toddler bed. She is very excited about it. She is growing up so fast! The other day we were outside playing and she climbed up the playset by herself and went down the slide! She loves to go outside and play, especially if one of her siblings will go out and play with her. A few days ago I was in the kitchen and Cambria came in and looked at me and sang "I have a little bottom, I need to get bigger!" Not growing up quite as fast as she wants to, I guess. :)

I'll be the first to admit it - I'm hooked on crocheting. I love it. I have a dresser upstairs in my guest room with two drawers stuffed full of balls of yarn of varying sizes and colors, the remains of the many projects I've crocheted over the years. And, until we moved about 2 years ago, I had a little white tube (crocheted of course!) full of crochet hooks of almost every size. Never was I wanting for yarn or crochet hooks. Unfortunately, I managed to somehow lose my crochet hooks in the move. I've looked for them several times (in all the same places, but I keep hoping...) but they haven't turned up. I really should just bite the bullet and go buy new ones, but I'm such a scrooge that I can't bear to part with money to buy something I KNOW I already have, somewhere.

So, because I can't find my crochet hooks, I haven't done much crocheting over the last two years. I do still have two different hooks (of differing sizes - thank goodness for that!) that were stuck in half-completed projects tucked away in the yarn-stuffed drawers. But without the hooks my patterns called for, I just couldn't bring myself to do any serious crocheting. Few things were appealing (or called for the hooks I still have). However, my daughter's doll Dmelle is apparently in desperate need of clothing, and in an effort to make a point about frugality, I've tried my hand at crocheting doll clothes. I'm happy to say I've managed to modify one set of instructions for doll pajamas such that I could use the hooks I have and they (mostly) look and fit the way the original plans intended. But I think I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm just going to have to buy a whole new set of hooks.

If I happen to have lent you my crochet hooks (which I can't imagine I've done but honestly, I'm desperate here), please speak up!

I'm getting old. It's true. Little by little, I'm no longer young. It's slightly depressing. Sure - I'm not really old yet (by no means am I approaching the century mark), but I've begun to realize I'm not as young as I used to be. There are too many signs: lines on my face, my body is starting to fail me, I realized I'll be 40 when my oldest graduates from high school, and I'm watching as technology passes me by.

I'm still mistaken for a teenager at church youth functions which helps me feel the aging a little less. On Sunday, we had a combined youth meeting and since I'm a leader in the youth program at church, that meant I attended. They were numbering off the youth for discussion groups and tried to count me. It's embarrassing (and my face turned bright red), but I recognize it as a compliment as well and I'm thankful for that.

I still get funny looks from people in stores when they realize I'm a mom to a 2-year-old. I've been told more than once that I look too young to have a child that old, and people are always stunned when I follow that up by telling them I also have an almost 4-year-old and a 6-year-old.

But, complimentary mistakes aside, I'm definitely getting older and feeling it. Last week is when it really hit me, and I'm doing my best to come to terms with my increasing age.

I was washing my face one night before going to bed when I noticed that there are lines under my eyes. Smile lines, thankfully, which I hope means I do a fair amount of smiling and laughing these days. But lines nonetheless.

The next morning I got to thinking and realized that when my oldest graduates from high school, I'm going to be 40 years old. Then my middle child will graduate when I'm 42, and my youngest will graduate when I'm 44. This scares me because I can't believe my oldest is already headed for first grade in the fall, and my youngest will be starting preschool next year. It's insane how fast they get bigger. At this rate, I'm going to blink and it'll be their graduations.

In addition to that, I've started to notice my body isn't holding up as well as it used to. I've been seeing a podiatrist because for the last about 1 1/2 years, my left foot has been bothering me. Turns out I have a bunion on my big toe which is causing me to have mild (but increasing) arthritis in my foot, as well as numbness in my toe. So I get to have surgery to remove the bunion. Lovely. To me, surgery isn't something you have when you're young. I know that young people have surgery too, but it's the stereotype that's getting me here - you get old, your body falls apart, and you have surgery to fix it. I was at a youth function a month ago and an elderly lady was speaking to the youth. She was preparing to have surgery the next day and commented that "as long as they keep making new parts and I keep making money, I'll keep buying them." I'm not scheduled for a hip replacement yet, but give me a few more years and I'll see what I can do. ;)

As if all that wasn't enough, I'm watching as new technology comes, gains popularity, and dies down only to be replaced by something new, all before I managed to get a handle on it. Take texting, for instance. Yes, I do have a cell phone. But I've never bothered to figure out how to text. Heck - I'm lucky if I can find my own cell phone number in the millions of menus in my phone! There was no way I was going to learn to text. My little brother got engaged on Valentine's Day, and he texted me to let me know she said yes. We were sitting at dinner and all of a sudden, my phone (which typically has a dead battery or is on silent mode, but magically happened not to be either that night) made a noise I don't believe I've ever heard before. I pulled it out and lo and behold I had a text message from him! So, wanting to reply and say congratulations, I muddled my way through finding the letters to type a short message. But try as I might, I couldn't find the punctuation. I found the smileys, so I sent him a bunch of those, but no periods, exclamation marks, or apostrophes. As it happened, the water boy came past to fill my cup and he was kind enough to show me where the punctuation was. Boy was that embarrassing.

The other technology that I'm watching pass me by is the online contact management types of things, like Facebook. I've been invited to join Facebook and reunion.com (or something like that) and a few others in the last 4 or 5 months, and I've basically ignored the invitations, because I don't know what they are, I don't have a desire to learn, and I don't feel like having another thing on the computer taking me away from real life. (As though I'm not busy enough as it is!) But, I was talking with my dad on the phone one night and mentioning this to him, and he pointed out to me that if you don't follow technology, it passes you by. Before I know it, I'll turn into my teenage memory of the old ladies at church who couldn't figure out how to get a CD player to play a song. I always said to myself that I'd never get that far out of touch with technology.

Hah.

So here I stand (sit typing) today, watching as the world passes me by. I wonder where all the years have gone, and then I look around me and realize that I've given some of the best years of my life to my husband and my children. And that's just fine with me. If I had to choose a place to spend my years, this is it - surrounded by people I love, who love me, and doing the little things just because I know it will make them feel happy or special. And if technology passes me by and I become one of the old ladies who can't figure out the new stuff, then I hope my kids will be willing to teach me. If not, there's always the restaurant water boy.

Erica brought home her very first report card yesterday. She earned wonderful grades in all areas, and her teacher mentioned that she makes friends easily and always gives her best effort to her work. And, as proof that Erica is growing up, she got her first loose tooth earlier this week. She has been wiggling it ever since, but it hasn't come out yet and isn't much looser than the day she noticed it was wiggling. She's getting ready for her dance recital next month. I was able to record her dance yesterday at dance class and it is amazing how much she has learned since she and I were in a Mom and Me dance class! She's becoming quite the dancer!

Isaac is about to join the Sunbeam class in Primary! He's finishing up his last few weeks of nursery, and then he'll be big enough to head in to Primary with Erica. I'm a little nervous to send him, but he's thrilled and I'm sure it'll be great. He has started reading recently as well, and can recognize a few sight words and also sounds out several two and three letter words. We've been working on his reading a little at a time and he is VERY interested in it. He is quite proud of himself when he sounds out a word. I checked out a "Dick and Jane" book from the library and we are slowly working our way through it. He also takes his turn reading scriptures at night and slowly but surely is improving with his reading. He also loves playing card games with me whenever we have a chance, and is quite good at Go Fish!

Cambria just celebrated her second birthday. All day long, she walked around the house singing "Happy Birthday to Cambria" (though in reality it sounds more like "happy bu-day do da-ya") and saying "On my birthday, I will be two!" We asked her several times during the day how old she was and each time her answer was "On my birthday, I will be two!" Ever since, at least once a day she tells me "But today is not my birthday. My birthday is over." She is getting big fast - she has learned to open doors, which thrills her, and she has stopped sleeping at nap time (which depresses me).

Christmas has come - the snow has fallen, gifts are piling up, the decorations are (finally) hung, and the kids have had their annual trip to see Santa. We even managed to get the Christmas cards out and most of the gifts wrapped. No doubt about it - the holidays are upon us.

Last week, I made a quick trip to the grocery store, coupons in tow, hoping to get a great deal on some cereal. I clip coupons and occasionally find some amazing savings, and this week was no exception. I was intending to buy 4 boxes of General Mills cereal for 25 cents each. I grabbed the cereal and a few cans of soup and boxes of muffin mix (also on a great sale) and went to the checkout line. As I waited in line, the lady behind me commented on my coat, so we chatted for a bit. She seemed like quite a nice lady, and reminded me a lot of my grandmother. Well, it came time for me to check out and as I handed the checker my coupons, she informed me that they would not accept one of the coupons (a coupon from one of their competitors that normally they honor). A little disappointed (but not surprised as it was just an AWESOME deal), I told the checker I'd skip buying the cereal. She put it off to the side and returned my coupons. The lady behind me in line leaned over and said "Did you just put that cereal back?" I told her I had. She turned to the checker and said, "I'll pay for it." Though she offered several times, I didn't let her pay for the cereal. (Turns out I'm just a cheapskate and don't like to buy stuff unless it's a really great deal.) But this experience left me with such a wonderful feeling of the spirit of giving and caring. It is amazing to me that in this world where so many people are only interested in themselves, this one sweet lady cared enough about me - someone she didn't know and would probably never see again - to offer to buy the cereal she thought I couldn't afford. I left the store that night with a lightened heart and a feeling of appreciation for the kindness of this stranger.

A few days ago, our home teachers made their monthly visit. They talked with us for a while, asking about work, family, the holidays, and those sorts of things. Then they shared a message with us of the meaning of Christmas, and the power of service. And as they were leaving, one brother grabbed the shovel he had brought over and began shoveling our walks and driveway. It had snowed that morning, and as we'd been at church, in meetings, and caring for a nephew who was staying with us for the weekend, we hadn't yet found time to get out and shovel. It was a small act of service, but struck me with great force that these men would take the time to come visit with my family and then take the time to go out in the cold and dark to shovel our walk.

There truly are wonderful people in this world. Sometimes it's easy to forget that, especially if you pay attention to the media, which seems intent on telling only the bad things that happen. But the good people are out there, and I think there are more good people with kind hearts than it seems at first glance. I like to believe that, given the chance, most of us would lend a helping hand if we saw a need we could meet. And isn't that the true spirit of Christmas?

There is no greater gift than the Atonement of Jesus Christ. There is no greater love than our Heavenly Father offering us a way back to His presence. And there is no better way to show our appreciation for these Heavenly gifts than to share that love with those around us.

I hope this holiday season serves as a reminder of the wonderful gift we have all been given. Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but the best thing about it isn't the presents or the snow. It is the love of the Savior that spreads across the globe, in these small and simple acts of service.

Merry Christmas.

Nearly two years ago, I took a cake decorating class with my mom and one of my younger sisters. I've always wanted to learn to decorate cakes and especially how to make a rose out of frosting, so when I saw a Wilton Cake Decorating class offered at my local craft store, I signed up (and convinced my mom and sister to join me). It was great fun and I learned a lot about frosting and baking cakes that I had never known. I even learned how to make a decent looking rose out of frosting (though my sister was MUCH better at it than me). 4 weeks, 4 cakes, and many dollars later, the class was finished and I contemplated taking the next course, Wilton Cake Decorating Course 2. My mom and sister didn't want to take the next course at the time, and I ended up not taking it right away. Then we moved, and life was crazy for a while.

Over the summer, the sister who took the class with me went to visit another of my sisters and they took the second course in the cake series together. On her way back home, my sister stopped at my house and happened to bring her final cake with her. It was amazing to see! Beautiful flowers, birds, and basket weave, all made of frosting and totally edible! I was hugely impressed and reminded that I did want to take that class at some point in the future.

A few months ago I was at my local craft store again (for who knows what reason - I'm really not a crafty person and for the life of me I can't remember what on earth I was doing there) and stopped by the class schedule list to see if they happened to be offering a class on making chocolates (another thing I'm very interested in learning to do). No such luck, but I did notice course 2 of the Wilton method was being offered, and that the class fee was half price if I signed up for September. So, on a whim, I signed up for the class without even checking with my husband (something I typically don't do). I purchased my class kit and went home to dig out my cake decorating box from under the pile of lightbulbs in the laundry room.

I thoroughly enjoyed the class. One of the best parts was that I only had to make a cake for the final week instead of making a cake each week as we had done in course 1. I learned to make 2 new kinds of frosting: royal icing for the flowers (they dry stiff) and color-flow icing for the birds (they also dry stiff but are shiny). I learned to make mums, victorian roses, daisies, violets, daffodils, apple blossoms, and a few more kinds of flowers that I can't remember the names of. I made edible birds, and learned to make beautiful basketweave on my cake sides. I was thrilled with my final project, in spite of the flaws. Because honestly, if you don't know what the mistakes are (and I'm not going to tell you!), the cake looks awesome! It tasted great and I would have been thrilled to eat the whole thing myself, but I decided after 4 weeks of eating all the leftover frosting (I figure I probably downed about 4-6 pounds of powdered sugar all by myself) I'd had more than my fair share of that, so I ended up giving away better than half the cake. Probably a good choice, especially since the only reason I tolerate cake is because I love frosting. :)

Kimball went a little nuts taking pictures so there are a gazillion. :)

I've been working on perfecting homemade tortilla shells, for 2 main reasons: 1) I love cooking and I love tortilla shells, so I figured I should try cooking tortilla shells; and 2) I can't believe how much they cost at the store! So I've made flour tortilla shells on many occasions, with varying results. Haven't made a batch yet that I've been absolutely thrilled with, though my last batch was decent. I love to make my own because I can make them whatever size I like. I make 11" for the Family Sized Baked Burrito recipe in one of my Pampered Chef cookbooks, 8" for regular tacos or quesadillas or fajitas or homemade burritos, and 6" to use as breakfast or snack burritos with eggs or veggies or whatever I happen to want at the time. So I'll mix up the dough and then take out my rolling pin and begin the exercise that is making tortillas. To make one batch of shells takes me roughly 2 hours, most of that time spent rolling out the tortillas and trying not to burn them. And by the time I'm done, I'm burning up from the heat of cooking them just as much as from the workout it has been to roll out the dough.

I just knew there had to be a better way to do this, but I figured I'd keep it up, for who knows what reason (maybe I like to torture myself). And so I (and my family, because they have to eat my cooking) have suffered through these tortillas for several months now, each time making a little change here or there while hoping for something miraculous to happen.

It finally occurred to me that they would be a lot softer if they were warm (like they serve them at your favorite Mexican restaurant) and so I began trying to figure out how to make my tortillas nice and warm when we were eating them. I knew I wanted a tortilla warmer, but just hadn't gone out and bought one yet. Instead, I was making do with what I had. The best way I found was to wrap the tortillas in a damp towel and stick them in the microwave for a minute or two (if they were frozen - most of mine were - less if they're coming from the fridge). Then toss them in a pan with the lid on (towel and all) and they'll stay warm for a while. Or if you have an oven-safe pan/lid combination you can toss them (wet towel and all) in the oven for about 20 minutes at a lowish temp and accomplish the same thing.

So anyway, all set with my huge arm muscles and my wet towel/pan combination, I made tortillas again. And the experience was much better, but still not what I was looking for. I had to make the tortillas at night, after the kids were in bed, because if I tried during the day everything went south very quickly. I can't seem to manage to simultaneously roll out a tortilla, cook the previous one, wipe tears, noses, and tables, and sing ABC's while reading the latest library book. It just doesn't work - I lose what little of my sanity I have left very quickly that way. So I waited for the kids to be in bed and then put in my 2 hours of tortilla making and cleaning up. They were good (though chewy which I think may be a result of over-working the dough?), but not wonderful.

So yesterday we had Baked Chicken Cheese Enchiladas. I had been planning on making these for a week or so, and had decided to splurge and purchase a few things to make it easier on myself (including some corn flour so we didn't have to eat chewy flour tortilla enchiladas). Last week, in anticipation of this meal, I bought a tortilla press and a tortilla warmer. I had no idea what to buy, and so I bought the cheapest things at the store. Turns out the press I got was smaller than I was hoping (6.5"), and came with no instructions or recipes, but it works great and I found instructions and a recipe online. The warmer also had no instructions, other than saying "microwave safe" on the label sticker.

So, armed with my new tools and my corn flour and a handy online recipe, I embarked on my quest for homemade corn tortillas. I'm pleased to say that in a total of about 45 minutes from start to finish, I managed to make 10 beautiful, even, round, soft corn tortillas while feeding snacks to my children and cleaning up after them and myself. I gave myself 3 hours before dinner, knowing it would take me about 45-50 minutes to assemble and bake the enchiladas and cook the ears of corn, and I had PLENTY of time to spare - I even washed the cooking dishes before dinner.

I was so pleased with this experience that I'm planning to purchase an 8" tortilla press in the near future (if I can figure out where to get one - the store where I bought my 6.5" press only had that one size), and if I can find an 11" press I'll buy that too! The instructions/recipe I found online has a link at the bottom for flour tortillas and when I get a chance (hopefully next week) I'll give those a shot as well. I'm very hopeful, since this recipe turned out so well.

The only sad thing about finding the right way to make tortillas is smaller arm muscles. But those I think I can survive without.

...or maybe it's the way to avoid the torture?

A friend of mine read my latest post about exercise and sent me an email informing me that perhaps I'm going about my weight loss goals in the wrong manner. He sent me a few links(Interval Training, Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week, and The Hacker's Diet), and told me of his experience losing weight, and I've decided that it sure can't hurt to give it a shot. I am so close to meeting my goal at this point but unfortunately I keep losing and then gaining back the same 2 or 3 pounds, over and over. I can't seem to exercise as much as I eat, no matter how hard I try. Part of that is probably due to my tendency to over-do it every few weeks with my food, because I've done so well so far and I surely deserve a break. But part of it is that doing enough exercise to burn off the calories in just one candy bar takes an amazing amount of time, and if I've already eaten my food limit for the day but happen to crave and cave, I don't always have the time (or self-discipline) to invest in working off my extras.

So anyway - I'm going to give this new method a try. I'm changing from tons of cardio to some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) 3 times a week on my stationary bike with alternate days of strength training (the same strength training videos I've been doing, because I love them and they give me great results). And that'll be my exercise routine for a while. And I'm going to quit counting calories, because it just kills me to obsess over that, and because my friend has given me an improved method where I'm still conscious of what I eat, but not so much that I'm obsessing over whether or not I have enough calories left for any specific food.

This will hopefully be a much more relaxed method of eating awareness, and I'm hoping that the HIIT will turn out to be an awesome way of losing weight. I'll keep you posted. Keep reading for more in-depth details of what I'll be doing. If you don't care so much about the details, this is the end of the post for you. :)

My new routine will be as follows:

MWF: Strength training, using two 8 lb hand weights and my own body weight. I use a video called "I Want That Body" which has a total of 6 routines, 1 regular and 1 advanced routine each for: abs, arms, and buns. Each routine is 15 minutes. I do the advanced routine for both arms and abs for a total of 30 minutes. (If you want to tone your muscles this is a great way to do it with only a chair, some hand weights, and a floor mat. Doing these routines twice a week (a total of 1 1/2 hours over the week - twice for abs, twice for arms, twice for buns) has given me spectacular results.)

TThS: Advanced routine for buns of "I Want That Body", followed by stationary bike: warmup (probably not too much since I'll be warm from the buns workout); HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) for 10 reps, intervals of 20 seconds at high intensity and 40 seconds low intensity, working up to 20 seconds at high intensity and 20 seconds low intensity for up to 15 reps (or until I can't do them any more, which might just be 10); 5 minutes of cool-down.

Sundays off

If this works, I think I may decide to put all my exercise on the same 3 days, by doing HIIT and then the strength training immediately following. I'm not sure I could do that, however, and I'm not sure it's a good idea either, but there may be some benefit to doing other exercise during the hour immediately following the HIIT. At any rate, I guess for now I'll give this a shot.

A few other things I'm doing:

1. Eating about 30 minutes before beginning my HIIT.

2. Charting my weight and watching for the trend I'm looking for (this charting method is thanks to Hans). My goal is to go down at the rate of about 1 pound every 5 days or so. So I'll be stepping on the scale every morning and charting the number on a piece of graph paper, where I'll also have a guiding line approximating the loss of 1 pound over 5 days. The most recent 5 days will be examined each day to determine whether or not it's a "dessert" day. If my 5-day trend is approximately the same as my guide line, I'll be in for a regular eating day, including dessert if it happens to come up (which I'm sure it will). Should the trend be upward (heaven forbid) or flat, I'll be drinking an extra glass of water before each meal, going a little leaner on my portions for the day, and skipping dessert.

3. Drinking less water during my workout (previously I was going through 40-72 oz during my 90 minute workout, depending on how thirsty I was), mainly because I don't have enough time for all that water and because I want to drink more water during the day to help with my food cravings. I'm still aiming for over 100 oz/day at a minimum.

4. Managing my eating differently. No longer will I be counting calories, though I am still aware of how much I'm eating. I've spent a while counting calories and I'm aware now of how full my plate is when I've typically hit around 300-400 calories. Also, I spent enough time cooking while counting calories that I know what kinds of things are better choices. Instead I'm going to base the eating off the weight charting above, and hopefully find a happy balance. I hate counting calories and am overjoyed at the prospect of not doing it any more. :) If I can obsess less over how much I'm allowed to eat, I'm hoping to start eating the amount my body is asking for instead of trying to eat exactly every last calorie I'm allowed.

5. I was previously doing my strength training routines twice a week, and I'll be increasing that to three times a week with the new schedule.

All these changes have brought with them a few things I'm not exactly wild about:

1. Getting up 30 minutes before I start exercising, so I can eat first. Apparently this is better than exercising on an empty stomach which I had previously been doing. But I guess the extra time in the mornings will give me a few minutes to work on my blog, so that's one con turned pro.

2. No more TV. My exercise time was my TV time - I'd watch an episode of something during my stationary bike workout (45 minutes roughly), and I'll miss that a little. But, on the flip side, I only started watching TV as a way to kill time while I was exercising, so I guess it won't be hard to get used to no TV again.

3. HIIT is HARD WORK. Yes, it is only about 10 minutes of my day, but that is 10 minutes of misery. At least once the 10 minutes are up, I'm done for 2 days. And if it does what I'm hoping (helps me lose those last 2 or 3 pounds and then keep them off) then it'll be worth it, especially since it means I get lots more sleep this way! And it brings my total exercise time down to 3.25 hours a week instead of the 9 hours I have been doing every week - a VAST improvement! If I was to cut the strength training (which I won't because I like having tone muscles) then I'd go down to 1 hour total a week, where only 30 minutes of that is actually exercise (the other 30 minutes is warmup/cool-down). Now how would that be? 30 minutes a week to be the weight I want, and still eat what I like???

All in all, I'm not sure I believe in this but, like I said before, I'm willing to give it a shot. Sometimes the new stuff turns out to be right. If you're a bit skeptical (like me), take a look at a globe and remember that a revolutionary idea isn't always immediately accepted.

So I suppose it is time for an update on my exercise/weight loss project. I set a goal this year to reach a certain weight by the end of the year. It meant I'd need to lose a total of about 35 pounds (since I started in about July of last year) which seemed pretty daunting, but I figured it was less than a pound a week if I gave myself a whole year. That's pretty doable, and very realistic. So I set about it, working my tail end off (quite literally, in fact) to lose the weight and get in shape. I worked out for around 90 minutes a day and cut WAY back on how much I was eating. I was getting up early (5 or so every morning) so I could fit in my exercise and shower before my kids get up (because honestly, I don't get much done when my kids are awake other than maintaining my household and caring for the kids, so if I don't do my workout in the morning then I don't do it at all). And slowly but surely I began to see the pounds drop off. I was doing lots of cardio exercise and a fair amount of strength training exercises (with hand weights and my own body weight). I also increased my water intake quite a bit (anywhere from 64-130 oz per day, depending on which month you want to know about). I found I actually have some muscles I've never noticed before (the strength training brought those out after I lost enough weight that they weren't covered in fat any more) and I went on a shopping spree to replace my wardrobe (you try losing 35 pounds and then see if any of your clothes fit... if you need an excuse to go shopping, this is a fabulous one).

And so, in May of this year (2008) I met my weight goal. I had lost the 35 pounds I set out to lose, and it was even before my birthday (in June) which I had set as my hopeful completion date. I was, to say it mildly, pleased and excited to have reached this goal.

Unfortunately, this glorious accomplishment wasn't to remain for long.

I backed off on my exercise - took it down to about 45 minutes a day. I slowed down on the water intake - down to 64 oz/day. And I started eating more. (Side note: these are all things you can and should do when you reach your weight loss goal - because if you don't mellow out with all the stuff you were doing to lose the weight, you'll keep losing more and pretty soon you won't be more than skin and bones!)

Frustrated, I watched the numbers on the scale climbing again. Within the course of about 1 1/2 months I had added another 10 pounds. Talk about a major bummer! I was upset with myself because I knew EXACTLY what the problem was, and yet I still did nothing to change it.

My problem? I love to eat. I love food. I've mentioned this before. Food is one of my vices. It is a necessary part of being alive - to live, you must eat. But for me, food is emotional, it is social, and it is fulfilling. I eat when I'm stressed, lonely, or bored. I eat when I go on a date with my husband or when we go out with friends. I cook because I love cooking, and then I eat the food I've cooked because otherwise it just goes to waste.

And so, in desperation, I signed up for a boot camp offered by one of my neighbors. I was determined to get the weight back off. I gave myself a stern talking-to and decided that NO MORE would I eat an entire batch of frosting simply because I accidentally made twice as much as I had intended (that's the sort of thing that happens when I talk on the phone while I'm cooking). NO MORE would I eat the entire bag of chocolates, just because I opened it and I love them so much. NO MORE would I eat the whole box of wheat thins just because I love the taste of salt. And NO MORE would I eat the whole jar of peanuts simply because they are open. And so I increased my exercise time again to 90 minutes/day and I vowed to cut back on my food intake again.

Boot camp was interesting. It taught me new exercises that I hadn't ever seen before. It gave me the motivation to keep trying to lose weight, even though my previous attempt had failed to stick with me. I also learned that my 64 oz per day of water intake was good, but not enough. My instructor taught me that in general, I should be aiming for at least 100 oz per day, and even more if I'm trying to lose weight. That for every 15 minutes of exercise I should drink 8 oz of water. So I changed that as well, and started drinking around 110-120 oz per day. But still, I wasn't losing any more weight. Try as I might, the exercise and food modifications weren't making a difference.

So I talked to my boot camp instructor. I told her my dilemma. I told her I was frustrated because I was exercising 90 minutes a day, 6 days a week. I was not eating everything in sight (much to my dismay). And when I worked out, I was getting my heart rate up where it needed to be. I had changed up the exercises I was doing (a good idea every 4-6 weeks). And still the weight hung on.

She said, I'm sorry to say, that most likely it was my nutrition that was plaguing me. *Sigh* My old friend, food, was at it again. So I told her that I had lost the weight I wanted to about 2 months before, but that I had felt hungry a lot of the time and dissatisfied with the food I was eating because I never felt full for long. She told me I needed to be eating foods with a lot of fiber as that would help me to feel more full. And then she said the magic words - the words that clued me in to my mistake and answered the question of why I couldn't seem to keep the weight off. She said, "It all comes down to calories in versus calories out. You have to burn more calories than you take in if you want to lose weight." Simple, but I had never thought of it before in those terms.

And so, as is typical for me, I went home and began to research. I had to find the answer to my problem. I started by looking at some of the foods I typically eat, trying to find out how many calories are in them. And I looked at that in connection with how many calories I need to consume to maintain my weight with my current activity level (meaning minutes per day of exercise). And I looked into roughly how many calories I was burning doing the different kinds of exercises I was doing. And then the realization came that, although I wasn't eating the whole world any more, I was still eating WAY too many calories. I was devastated to find that just the week before I had managed to eat all the calories I needed for a whole day in just one take-out meal! I began to examine the meals I typically eat when I go out and found that I could easily consume nearly a day's worth of calories in one meal when I went out. And so the answer to my problem had come. And I have become something I never dreamed in a million years I would become: a calorie counter.

For nearly 2 weeks now I have been tracking the number of calories I eat each day, and keeping it where it needs to be for me to lose weight. And I'm proud to say that since starting that, I have lost about 4 of the 10 pounds I had previously put back on after my first weight loss attempt. I'm on my way to success, and this time I will be able to keep the weight off because I have taken the time to educate myself about food and exercise and weight loss. And in a few more weeks, when I have met my weight loss goal (again), I'll re-evaluate my exercise time and caloric needs and modify my habits to reflect my new goal: maintaining my weight. At that point it will become a balancing act, where my goal will be calories in equal to calories out. 

Amazingly, though I'm consuming a considerably smaller number of calories than I was when I gained back the 10 pounds, I'm still feeling like I get enough to eat. I'm not starving all the time, and because I know how many calories I get to eat I'm making better choices about what I will eat. I do everything I can to make those calories go as far as possible, because while I want to lose weight, I don't want to feel hungry because of it. And it is possible to do this if you're willing to put some time and effort into it. I have found that my best bet is to plan the night before what I will be eating the next day. That way I can keep my calories in check, be sure I get enough foods from each food group, and make sure I'm eating enough food often enough that my stomach doesn't feel empty. (Hopefully some day soon I will be able to recognize good food choices without having to look them up.) These changes have made a huge difference!

During my research, I found a few things online that have been a WONDERFUL help to me. And so, in the spirit of sharing and wanting everyone else out there to be able to reach their weight loss goals and keep off the weight, I have listed a couple of web sites that have helped me in amazing ways to figure out what I needed to do. Good luck to you in reaching (and maintaining!) your weight loss goals. Learn from my mistakes so you don't have to make them. The information you need to lose weight and keep it off is out there if you only take the time to look at it and educate yourself. Hopefully these will help save you some precious time!

www.mypyramid.gov - a wonderful tool for calculating your caloric needs as well as learning what types of foods you should be eating, what counts as a "serving", and what food category each food fits into

www.calorieking.com - a great place to find out how many calories are in the food you're eating (includes some fast food and restaurant foods as well)

Every now and then I have a parenting moment where I find that something I've been doing to raise my kids has actually paid off. Just the other day, I had one such moment...

After a normal morning at home, it was time to make lunch. I gave the kids some choices for lunch and asked them what they wanted. Erica, whose morning had been less than wonderful and who was rather moody, loudly and rudely informed me that she wouldn't be eating lunch. The rule at our house is that skipping lunch also means skipping afternoon snack, which is usually enough to entice the kids to eat their lunch. But Erica was determined to stick it out and, as she informed me, she was "not going to eat again for the rest of the week." This was Tuesday. I was amused, but contained myself and settled for my standard answer of "it's your choice." I proceeded to make lunch for the other two kids and myself, and we sat down to have the prayer and eat lunch. Cue Erica. "I'm really hungry." I told her, politely, that I was sorry she was hungry but I had already made lunch and the time had passed for me to make more. Should she want something to eat, she was welcome to find some lunch food and make it herself. After moping around the kitchen and looking in the fridge and pantry, she decided on the rest of the leftover scrambled eggs I had warmed up for Cambria. She got a barstool and managed to find herself a bowl on a low enough shelf that she could reach it and proceeded to pour the 1/4 cup of scrambled eggs into the bowl and eat it. She also found herself a water bottle from the fridge and drank that. Not surprisingly, she wasn't full after eating such a scant meal, and out came the pouting and whining again, saying how difficult her life was because I didn't make her any lunch and she just couldn't make anything herself. I suggested she try making herself a sandwich, thinking she would make a boloney sandwich (which she knows how to make herself and which she asks for almost daily for lunch). Surprisingly, she got herself a piece of bread and the peanut butter and jelly and proceeded to make her own sandwich. The peanut butter was relatively easy to open and she had no problem getting it spread on the bread, but the jelly was another story. Try as she might, Erica just couldn't seem to get the lid off the jar. She asked me very politely to please help her but I, wanting to drive home the point I was trying to make, reminded her that I had already made lunch and that I was sorry she had made a poor choice but that I was sure she would make a better choice next time. So Erica turned to Isaac and asked if he could help take the lid off the jar. I watched in amusement, trying my best to stifle my laughter, as my 5-year-old daughter tried to bribe my 3-year-old son into opening the jar of jelly by telling him that if he could get it open she would give him "something really neat." He gave it a valiant effort, if you can call two fingers and a lot of grunting valiant, but to no avail. On stayed the lid, and Erica was forced to be content with a plain peanut butter sandwich. I was impressed that she had managed to get herself such a decent lunch, and also pleased that my teaching moment had gone as well as it had. As lunch was ending and Erica was putting away her dishes she said, to my satisfaction, that she was sad she had made such a poor choice at lunch time and that she hoped she would make a better choice at snack time so that Mommy could get her food for her.

These are the moments I realize my teaching methods, while often seeming futile, do actually work when done correctly. And I'm grateful to have learned a way to teach my children to think for themselves and make their own choices (within reason of course). And certainly thankful to have such funny stories to write about to remember on the days when the teaching doesn't seem to be going so well. :)

Every year I get spring fever. It typically starts around the middle of February, when I've had about all I can stand of the snow and brown, dead landscapes. And so about mid-February I start feeling the itch to grow a garden. I'm roaring and ready to go with a truck-load of seeds by the time the ground is warm enough to work, and so out to the garden I go. And the planting begins, and it goes great! One afternoon of tilling and planting all my seeds in the ground, and I'm all set to see stuff come up. And then, life hits me, reality sets in, and before I know it the truck-load of seeds has turned into a jungle mess of plants, weeds, and bugs. And I do all I can to avoid looking at the jungle, because then I feel guilty for not taking better care of it. But really, who wants to spend all their free time weeding? Or canning all those extra green beans and tomatoes that grew? (Who knew you could grow enough food for an army if you dump out that whole seed packet in the garden? Or that one tomato plant could produce a whole swimming-pool full of tomatoes?) I have spent more time than I care to admit pulling weeds, in the dark (mainly because I hate the heat, get sunburns in the shade, and get heatstroke in 90 degree weather so I weed after the sun goes down), which may explain what happened to my carrot crop two years ago... (pretty sure I pulled them all up thinking they were weeds). And countless nights washing, cooking, and canning my fresh produce. Little do I remember, each February through May, what I got myself into last year. And so, of course, I get myself into the same predicament year after year. By the time the growing season is over and the weeds stop taking over my garden plot, I'm filled with such tremendous relief that I just KNOW I won't be planting a garden next year.

Hah. Never works out that way. Sort of like having kids - about the time those little guys are 2 1/2, I think to myself "I'm never doing this again!" And then, somehow, I forget. And another one comes along and I think "Oh - so cute and so sweet and so precious!" And of course, I'm in for it again in about 2 1/2 years. So the cycle goes.

But this year, I got wise. I (again - typical Christine fashion here) got a book and read about how to grow a garden without all the horrible work and drain and mess that I've previously gotten myself into, and off we went. The book is called The All New Square Foot Gardening and it is a great book describing how to grow a garden in much less space and with much less upkeep and much less wasted food, time, and energy. (Check out their website here.) The claim is that you can grow as much food in a 4'x4' square foot garden as you could grow in an 8'x10' traditional row garden. Saves space, saves water, saves weeding, saves your energy, and it looks about a zillion times better. I was impressed, to say the least. And enthralled. And it was great because there's a fair amount of setup required (well, if you're going to get into it as much as I planned to there is anyway) and it was the beginning of the year when my spring fever hits and I have ambition enough to tackle a big project. And of course Kimball is always up for my projects if it means he gets to use power tools, so I managed to convince him this was the way to go as well. :)

So after much setup and preparation, we now have a thriving Square Foot Garden. And I'm pleased to say I have so far, in the nearly 4 weeks my garden has been growing, pulled a total of 2 weeds. I've staggered my plantings so everything won't be ready to harvest at the same exact moment which means fresh produce for me continuously instead of trying to find a place to keep it good while we eat only carrots and lettuce and tomatoes three meals a day all summer long. I've also got so much food growing that I'm hopeful to be able to skip produce department at the store pretty much every week (except for fruit, I guess, though I am growing watermelon and cantaloupe). Saves me a fair amount on groceries as well as giving my family something healthy to eat and a wonderful hobby to do together. The kids each have their own gardens that they check on frequently. Even the baby has her own garden, though we didn't plant anything in it for her this year - she just has a square foot of dirt to dig in.

Anyway, if you're looking for a good way to garden, I'd recommend this book. It's really not expensive or hard unless you want to put all the frills and bells and whistles on. You can do a 4'x4' Square Foot Garden for very little money, and it'll be the best garden you've planted - I know mine is. And lest you think it's too late to start this year, never fear. There's always something that can be planted, as long as you're in a growing season. And if you're not, then get your boxes ready, get your dirt rounded up, and you'll be way ahead when the spring comes!

My family has started asking me for a list of what I want for my birthday this year. I guess it's about time I oblige with the following list:

pink purse

black purse

ballroom dance lessons, complete with dance partner and babysitter

dance dance revolution, preferably with program that will allow continuous songs instead of stopping between each one

organ prelude music (Easy Organ Hymn Settings, Three-Stave Hymn Accompaniments)

brown tall shoes, not boots

brown dress shoes, high heels, straps, pointed toes

pull down spice rack for under the cabinet

the set game

family room bookshelves finished

Pampered Chef stuff (that's this whole other list)

There's this thing called intuition. It is defined by Dictionary.com as "direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process." There are a lot of people who may discount intuition as imagination, but I'm not one of them. I have found in my own life, especially when it comes to my kids and their health, that I rely largely on intuition.

However, in spite of this knowledge, I do find myself too often swayed by the opinions and comments of others whom I perceive to me more experienced, more knowledgeable, or better informed. There have been several very specific instances when I have felt very strongly one way or another about my children's health and, upon speaking with others (family members, friends, or doctors) I have convinced myself that I worry too much, which is very much the case, and why it is so hard for me to decide when I should do what I feel instead of what others tell me. So instead I let it go without doing anything about it. But in each instance, I haven't been able to completely let go of the situation until I become persistent enough to overcome the "blow-off" I received from the medical professionals.

Most recently, my son has been ill with a bit of a cold. I've thought for the better part of a year now that he has asthma as he has a terrible time talking when he gets sick, he coughs like crazy, and it takes him almost twice as long as the other kids to get over a cold. I've mentioned this to his previous family doctor (before we moved), to a clinic doctor on the way out of town the day we moved, and to his current pediatrician, as well as to my husband who happens himself to be a sufferer of asthma. Until we started seeing our current pediatrician, I was always shrugged off by doctors. In fact, I thought I must have been dreaming because until very recently, his dad (remember - he has asthma himself) said to me that he "sounded fine" when I thought he was having an asthma attack. And so here was someone with the disease, telling me that I'm hearing things. And experienced doctors, men who treat children on a daily basis, who were basically ignoring me, because in their office he sounded fine.

Yet I persisted. Not as strongly as I probably should have, but I did persist. And his current pediatrician said to bring him in to the office the next time I thought he was having an attack. And so I've been waiting (with mixed emotions, because who really wants their kid to get sick?) for Isaac to get a cold so his breathing could be labored enough for a doctor to recognize his breathing as asthmatic. And this past week, as he started getting a cold, his breathing quickly became labored. He would cough after every few words, and could only manage to get out two words at a time. He would push as hard as he could to get the two words out and then cough and wheeze afterwards. I checked his chest and could see that it was sinking in very deep every time he would attempt to take a breath. The final straw was when, at 9 am he was sitting on the couch, and after coughing he told me "Mommy, I'm really really tired." So off to the phone I went to call the doctor.

I took him in to their office. Answered a bunch of questions. And, to my satisfaction, my son has been diagnosed with viral-induced asthma. As far as I understand this means that when he gets sick (a cold or something like that) his asthma will kick in. Which also explains why he has such a hard time kicking a cold. So he's on breathing treatments right now, and it has greatly improved.

This is not the only experience I have had with this sort of situation, and I know I'm not alone. A friend of mine told me about her daughter who had no symptoms other than what she called "sick eyes" - a look in the eyes that seemed sick, not anything physically wrong with the eyes - and after much convincing she was able to determine that her daughter had a parasite.

The moral of this story is this: to all you parents out there who have a feeling something is wrong with your kids, but people keep brushing you off or telling you you're making it up, don't give in to them until you are personally satisfied that you were actually wrong. Don't believe for a second that some expert (in my case, medical doctors - experts in medicine, or my husband who I would consider very knowledgeable in asthma) are experts on your children. I am the one who is the expert on my kids. I'm the one they spend almost all their waking hours with. I'm the one who hears how they sound when they're healthy, and the one who can predict a fever even when their temperature doesn't register high on the thermometer. I know my kids better than anyone else does, and just because someone has more experience with children, medicine, or a disease doesn't make them an expert on your children and what is normal for them. So don't be swayed by the opinions of others. Listen to your instincts, follow your intuition, and stick up for your kids. They often don't know how to verbalize what they are feeling, and certainly can't force adults to do what they need. So take action, and make yourself heard!

My next big project, and the one I have been dreading for about the last 6 months or so, is potty training. My son is going to be 3 in May and he is still in diapers. He will be starting preschool in the fall and they, of course, require that he be potty trained completely - no pull-ups allowed. So I have a deadline imposed by the school, on top of my self-imposed deadline of his third birthday. I have always been of the opinion that 3 years old is too old for diapers for my children.

So, in typical Christine-fashion, I have a book. Toilet Training in Less than a Day. Works pretty well. This is how I potty trained my oldest when it was time. She had just turned 2 when I potty trained her. So I'm a year behind and feeling the pressure on this next one. But, I have taken the time to re-read the book, and as soon as I've been to the store to buy training pants I think we'll be set. Then I just need a morning without the rest of the family around (which means it has to be a Saturday so Daddy can babysit) and for him to be feeling well (he's had a nasty cold for the past week or so) and we'll be ready to go.

I say I've been dreading it, and mostly that is because I know myself and I get way too frustrated way too easily when things don't go exactly the way I have planned. But I'm sure it will be fine, as long as I can remember to keep my cool. I've been working on that (see this post) and hopefully I'll be a little better at the whole frustration/anger issue this time around. I think Isaac will take to this fairly well, and really in about a week or two after I finally make myself potty train him it will all be done and over with and I'll be down to one child in diapers (hurray!!!) which will be a welcome change. I'll be sure and post when we're finished.

Erica is becoming quite the little artist these days. She received, as a gift for Christmas, a large set of markers. She has been using them to draw numerous pictures, many of girls in pretty dresses, and several have lately been pictures of pirates on ships and their treasure maps. Honestly I don't know where she came up with the idea to do that, but she and I played pirates tonight with a telescope she made from a toilet paper roll. We took turns hiding a "treasure" for the other to find, and giving a clue by looking through the telescope to where the treasure was hidden. She is growing up so fast I can hardly believe it!

Isaac got a city rug for Christmas with roads and train tracks on it, as well as several cars, trucks, and trains. One of his very favorite things to do is take all his cars and trucks and trains and put them "home" on the rug. He loves to line them up in a row or drive them around on the rug. He even shares with his sisters occasionally, and will let Erica come play cars on the rug with him. It's fun to see him have such an interest in something.

Cambria is walking! Nothing huge yet, but she will take 3 or 4 steps to get from one thing to another. She is very proud of herself for doing it, but still gets surprised by us praising her (rather loudly in our excitement) and sits down instead of continuing her trek across the floor. Won't be long now and she'll be toddling all over the house!

I used to see the kitchen as a place to cook, a place to eat, and a place (occasionally) to clean. Somewhere to store all the hundreds of kitchen gadgets I have accumulated. A place to look for something tasty to snack on.

And then there were kids.

And somehow, in the past 5 years, my kitchen has become much less about cooking or food and infinitely more like a test of my speed, patience, endurance, and ingenuity.

Take breakfast time. I run in circles from one child to the next, as they all want something different to eat for breakfast. The baby has very limited patience for a lack of breakfast food on her tray, and she feels she must "share" her food with me before she can eat it. This entails me holding out my hand while she fills it up with her food, then saying "Thank you" and dumping it back on the tray after which she eats a few bites then wants to "share" again. The 5-year-old has preschool for which we must leave in less than 50 minutes, and she has yet to finish eating, dressing, and grooming. This means every few minutes I issue the standard reminder: "Eat your breakfast before it's time to go." The 2-year-old inhales, rather than eats, and every time I think I've got a second to take a bite of my toast or a drink of my juice, he announces he is now ready for more oatmeal (going on three bowls a day as of late), or another orange, or more bananas, or yet another pancake or waffle. So meals are, to say the least, less than calming.

And then there is cooking. Which is, in my opinion, one of the best parts of kitchens. Or was, I guess I should say. Because now, cooking has become a test of how much I can do with one hand, or how fast I can throw things together while listening to choruses of "What's for dinner?" "I'm so hungry!" and wailing from the baby.

My favorite kitchen "event" however, is by far and away cleaning up the mess. This, of course, includes washing the table, chairs, and counters, sweeping the floor, loading the dishwasher, and putting food in the fridge. Each of these comes with its own set of challenges, mostly due to the baby and her new-found ability to walk, enabling her to move around almost as quickly as me. When the meal is over and she looks up and says "ow" as cutely as she does, I know she's done and is asking to get out. So I roll the highchair over to the sink and begin washing her. Except when she gets over by the sink she suddenly feels the urge to eat again and starts shoving everything in her mouth as fast as she can. Which is fine with me because it gives me a chance to get the dishes cleared from the table. Which I do as fast as I can, because the more I can finish while she's eating, the better.

Once she decides that she really does want out, I wash her and put her down on the floor. Then the real fun begins. My efforts must be equally split between accomplishing the task at hand and defending my territory. Sweeping is a high priority, as she will eat anything she finds on the floor, including parts of dinner that have been partially chewed by one of the older children, pieces of paper from the 5-year-old's latest craft project, small rocks brought in the house by the 2-year-old, or the magnets off the fridge. (Her latest trick is digging things out of the sliding door track and eating them. I found her with black fingers and small bits of who-knows-what in her mouth just a few days ago.) Next I put the food away in the fridge. (So that when an "emergency" happens and I leave the kitchen to become occupied in another room, the food won't spoil. Because I will inevitably get caught up in another room picking up toys or playing with kids or getting them ready for bed - this is simply a fact of motherhood. No matter where you are, there is something to do. And I find that unless I completely finish a task, I will find so many other tasks on my way back to the first that I completely forget I was doing it in the first place.) The instant the fridge door is opened, over comes the baby and in go the little hands. She loves anything the shape of a bottle, because the top fits in her mouth. This includes the mustard bottle, salad dressing bottle, soy sauce, water bottles, or lemon juice. So I block from the door side where most of these belong, but she does occasionally get around me. Her next favorite thing to do in the fridge is to find the plastic cups of whatever the 2-year-old had for his drink most recently and try to grab it. She wants to be just like her older siblings, and the best way she can think of at the moment is to drink just like they do, out of their cups. So, as quickly as possible, I shove the food in the fridge, praying nothing without a lid falls over, and close the fridge door. Of course the next priority is dishes, including loading the dishwasher, as a kitchen is never clean until the dirty dishes are out of sight. I rinse the dishes and pile them on the counter until they are all as ready as can be to go in the dishwasher. This is because the instant I open the dishwasher, the baby comes running from wherever she was and uses the dishwasher as her jungle gym. If I turn my back for even a second, I find her inside the dishwasher. She finds every scrap of food and in her mouth it goes. Then she "loads" whatever she can find into the dishwasher for me - her magnets, socks, toys, or the dishes she gets from the drawers or cabinets (most frequently my lids, but occasionally other things such as my napkin rings or cake pans). Then she attempts to "unload" for me by removing any dishes she is strong enough to lift out of the dishwasher herself. So I load, as fast as I possibly can, doing my best not to break anything really important, and close the dishwasher, wiping the beads of perspiration from my brow as another meal has been (fairly successfully) completed.

Needless to say, the kitchen has become something of an adventure for me as the years have gone by. But I like to think I'm improving with each child. So bring it on. And when the guys in the Olympics organizing committee add Kitchen Tending as an event, sign me up. I'll bring home the gold.

If you, like me, have a desire to see a little snow (what little we had here completely melted today) then take a look at these fancy looking snowflakes. If you've got some paper, scissors, tape, staples, and time (these are a little time-intensive) then you can have your very own 3D snowflakes. Everyone who has come in my house since we hung ours has commented on them. They're very stunning! And easy enough your young children can make them, if they have the patience and a little coaching. My 4-year-old made several of her own.

Years ago I received, as a gift, a silk scarf from Italy. And it has made a lovely addition to the top shelf of my closet, as I haven't known what to do with it, being the fashion dummy that I am. It dutifully sat folded and unopened, in the original package, until today, when I decided that I would finally take the time to try and figure out how to wear it. And I must say that I was rather pleased with the results of my search. Take a look here to see several different ways to wear a long scarf. I'm inspired, and maybe I'll wear it again someday! In fact, maybe I'll learn to be a little more adventurous in my clothing choices. My [slightly younger and infinitely more fashionable] sisters are going shopping with me over the Thanksgiving holiday to help me update my wardrobe a bit, now that I've lost some weight and it has begun to appear I like wearing tents instead of shirts. It's a little nerve-wracking for me, since I'm still wearing the same styles I wore in high school (which is to say no style at all really), but I'm confident that in their capable hands I will, at least once, wear something that looks a little less like I got dressed in the dark closet of a stranger's house after making my clothing selection from a box under the stairs while blindfolded. And then they'll go home and really, after that, all bets are off. I'm not exactly fond of change. (In fact, it took me an hour of changing my scarf-tying before I found a style I liked, and then another hour of wearing it around the house before I convinced myself I could actually wear it to church. Where I received more compliments than I have ever received in one day on my clothing (three, I think). Quite an accomplishment.) But change has found me (and my waistline) and so, therefore, I feel I need to do my best to embrace it and at least pretend I can deal well with it. After all, it has been almost 10 years since I graduated high school. Guess I can't keep up that act any more.

One of the things I have missed the most since we moved is playing my piano. We sold our old piano a few months before moving, after deciding that it would cost just as much to pay to have it moved as it would to sell it and buy a new one in the color and style I actually wanted in the first place. So we sold it, and spent months looking for a new piano. We had a budget, and really didn't want to go over that budget if at all possible. We're also averse to putting things on credit or making payments unless it is absolutely necessary. So all in all, we knew how much money we could spend and we set out to find a piano that would fit our wants and needs as well as be under budget. This has not been an easy task (though we did manage to find one, but that's another story). There have been several pianos we have looked at that I was happy enough with to buy. But Kimball has a sound he is looking for, and we've had a hard time finding a piano in our price range that makes him happy. He grew up in a house with a grand piano, while I grew up in a house with an upright piano. So the smaller sound doesn't bother me like it bothers him. Sure, I like the grand piano sound, but honestly, I just want a piano to play on. I like the look of a grand, and for that reason I want to have a baby grand (black - I love the leg style on the black ones) but the sound isn't nearly as much of an issue to me as having something - ANYTHING - to play on. You see, the piano is a release to me. It is a hobby - one of the few hobbies I actually have. And while I remember hating lessons as a child and a teenager, I'm glad my parents made me stick with them long enough to be able to actually play something interesting.

In addition to being something I enjoy doing, playing the piano is also something I've been asked to do for church. I have been asked to play the piano for the church choir. And Christmas is coming up, and the choir needs their pianist to actually be able to play the songs they are singing - it makes it so much easier if the accompaniment is in key... You see, since it has been so long since we sold our piano, I've gotten a bit rusty. It is hard to find time to practice when practicing a piano means I've got to find someone with a piano who happens to have time for me to come to their house, and then I either have to take my kids with me and try to babysit them while I practice so they don't destroy that person's house (which Isaac and Cambria excel at) or find someone to take care of them while I go. Which really doesn't happen terribly often. So I'm lucky if I manage to find an hour of practice time during the week, which really isn't enough for me to be able to play the songs for the choir as well as I should.

Now I'm no master pianist - not by a long shot. I can play a song well if I practice a lot, but I'm not terribly great at just sitting down and playing something, especially if it is a little tricky. So it has been very interesting for me to be playing the piano for the choir. The choir director has chosen some very pretty and very interesting songs, which have unfortunately presented me with a bit more of a challenge than I have been able to overcome in an hour a week. An hour a day, maybe, but certainly not an hour a week.

Imagine this: Choir practice, roughly half-way through. The director announces which song we will begin practicing and immediately my palms are sweaty, my freezing cold hands begin to shake (I sometimes get nervous playing the piano and my hands are more like ice cubes than useful piano playing implements. Ever tried playing the piano with ten ice cubes? Not exactly something I'd recommend...), and my stomach starts churning. Of course he had to pick the ONE song I didn't have time to practice. The ONE song I've been dreading because it has FOUR sharps. Ugh. I STINK at 4 sharps. And to top it all off, the song we just finished practicing was flats. 3 flats. Total brain shift, and when it is on a song I haven't got down, well, let's just say that I felt even my house burning to the ground would have been less of a disaster than this experience is going to be. And so the director brings me in. First of all, this song has a little unusual timing, and he is leading a little differently than I expect, so I can't seem to ever come in when he wants me to. Relatively small problem, though, when compared with what proceeds to happen: As the choir sits and waits patiently for me to play their introduction, I hear myself playing about every other measure in the wrong key. Yes, I am playing half this song in the key of the previous song. And the half that I'm managing to play in the correct key (the one with 4 sharps) I'm also managing to miss about half the notes and play them off in never-never land. Yikes. And then the choir comes in. And of course they are all on the wrong notes because they're trying to find their notes from me, and I'm not even looking for their notes while I'm under the piano bench hiding from the director. What started out as a bad instrumental piece quickly turns into a mumbling, bumbling, off-key and badly timed nightmare.

Needless to say, the next week my entire hour of practice was devoted to only one song. And while it isn't ready to play for the Queen of England or anything, I think it'll be good enough for choir practice. And maybe my new piano will come before the performance...  (that's a story all of its own) Hey - stranger things have happened (none come to mind, but I'm a firm believer that anything is possible).

So in an effort not to lose what the kids have been doing lately, I will put their blurbs into my blog on occasion (when there's something new to put over there on the right side of the screen). So here's the latest to be retired:

Erica has recently learned about jokes. Some of the jokes she tells actually make sense. But unfortunately for me, her favorite joke is one whose humor escapes me... "Knock, knock" "Who's there?" "Hamster" "Hamster who?" "Hamster no pants I'm going swimming!" And she cracks up...

After waking up this morning, Isaac asked Daddy where Mommy was. Daddy said, "Mommy is exercising" to which Isaac replied, "That's bad news!" If only he knew...

Cambria's favorite new word (and really the only one she knows) is "uh-oh" - and she uses it frequently! In fact, every time she throws her food or dishes on the floor she looks at me and says "uh-oh!" Uh-oh is right! Where's a dog when I need one?

So our church had a party the other night - a Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cook-off. Needless to say we took the kids, who enjoyed the candy immensely (except the baby who has yet to taste candy), and we also took some chili. I don't normally get into competitions, but when it comes to food, well, sometimes I just can't help it. You see, there were three categories of competition: Spiciest, Most Original, and Best Overall. I'm proud to say I'm the winner of the Spiciest chili (which won't surprise those who know me well because they know that Spice and I are rather close). Several people asked what went into my chili. (It was a 27-ingredient chili, after all - thanks to a friend from my past for the recipe.) And to summarize why I won, let me just say that the two key ingredients were a can of jalapenos and a 12 oz bottle of Asian chili sauce (labeled "hot" - and they really mean it when they say that). The rest of the ingredients don't really matter, because you can't really taste them around all the spice. (Of course if you're a little less inclined to lose all your taste buds in a matter of seconds you could tone it down by using green chilies (what the recipe actually called for) and something other than HOT chili sauce. But really, why would you want to do that? I mean, where's the fun in that? Don't you enjoy feeling your eyelids sweat and your ears burn and the back of your throat on fire? Ok - maybe that's just me...)

More than half of the chili was eaten at the party (or thrown away by poor unsuspecting spice-wimps) so I unfortunately ended up with only a little to bring home and eat myself (no other member of my family even wants to smell my chili, let alone be in the same room with it, which is just fine with me). I suppose I could just open up another can of jalapenos and toss a few on every meal... But I settle for some Asian chili sauce on my tacos (as a courtesy to my still-breast-feeding baby). I'm sure by the time I reach 35 all my taste buds will be dead to any real taste, which I think probably wouldn't be all that bad - if I couldn't taste my food maybe I'd eat less, which would solve my exercise and weight problems as well!

Should you feel adventurous enough to try my chili, I'll make it easy on you (since making a chili with 27 ingredients isn't exactly a fast process and since I ate all of mine and I wouldn't have shared anyway even if you had asked me to). Go to the store and buy some chili sauce - the hottest you can find - and take it home. Sit down with a tall glass of milk and the chili sauce. Tip your head back, open your mouth, and dump some of that stuff down. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! (And then put out the fire with a few glasses of milk. Or a few hundred.)

I'm one of those people who LOVES to eat. I mean that. I LOVE eating. There are some foods I just can't get enough of. Have you ever sat down and eaten a whole bag of Doritos? No, I don't mean the snack size - I mean the big, 13 oz bag. Or maybe an entire box of Swiss Cake Rolls? Or 5 helpings of spaghetti? Or... you get the picture, right? Well, let me tell you - I can do that! Not only can I, but I have done it more than once! And to top it all off, I am an emotional eater, so when I'm feeling lonely or sad or bored or maybe even mad, often my first instinct is to run to the kitchen to see what there is to eat. And so, as you can imagine, over the last 8 years or so, I've put on more weight than I'd have liked.

And consequently, over the last 8 years or so, I've been trying to find the "right" way to lose that weight. And by "right" I mean the easy, fast, junk-eating, no-effort way. I've seen a lot of stuff out there, from pills to wraps to diets. I've seen the pictures in magazines and on TV of the "before" and "after" shots of those women (and men) who have lost huge amounts of weight in almost no time at all. How they suddenly have a great figure. How life seems to be SO much better for them now that they have lost the weight. And I wanted that - I wanted to have a figure again. And while having a body like one of the supermodel teenagers isn't realistic for me (come on - I'm over 25 and I've had 3 kids... it just isn't going to happen), the shape of a watermelon isn't exactly the figure I had in mind either (though some days that's the figure I think I have)! But even though I want what those people have gotten by taking pills or staying on some crazy diet or having their entire body wrapped in saran wrap for 2 hours, there's no way I'm about to do that kind of stuff to my body! I know me, and I know that just is NOT going to work. I'm anti-pills, anti-diet (unless it is the cheesecake and pizza diet), and anti-saran wrap. (Ok - maybe not against saran wrap, exactly, but certainly against body wraps...)

So if pills, diets, and wrapping are out for me, then the only other option I could see was exercise. Exercise. Ugh. That just doesn't fit into my vocabulary well. For one thing, I hate to sweat. And for another, well, there have always been really good reasons for me not to exercise: I'm tired. I'm hungry. I'm working. I'm sleeping. I'm changing diapers. I'm breast-feeding. I don't have the right equipment. I don't want to. I don't like it. I don't have anyone to exercise with me. I don't have a membership to the gym, nor do I have the money to spend on a membership I know I won't use. I have to make dinner. I have to take a shower. And the list goes on and on and on. Believe me - if there was ever someone who had all the excuses for why exercise just wasn't going to work, it was me! But I did finally break down about 3 years ago and buy an exercise bike, a Pilates DVD, and a few weights. I was diligent about using them for 30 minutes a day, roughly 4 times a week, for almost 6 months. And then something happened that gave me another excuse not to exercise (I can't remember what it was - see what a great excuse it was?) and it was all over. I had lost a grand total of maybe 5 pounds, and of course I gained it all back right away (remember my lovely dorito and chocolate diet) in less time than it took me to feel guilty for quitting the exercise.

So when it comes to losing weight, my strategy for the past 8 years has been two-fold: 1) Don't step on the scale, under any circumstances, unless there is a LOT of chocolate in the house (remember - emotional eater); and 2) Make a show of having intentions to exercise, but don't, under ANY circumstances, actually make good on those intentions!

And then something happened. I saw my mom one day and realized that she had lost a LOT of weight. She looked great - better than I ever remembered her looking. And suddenly, having a figure and being in shape and not being embarrassed of my body seemed attainable. I mean, if my mom can do this then what is stopping me? She's a regular person like me, and someone I can relate to (as opposed to the movie stars who have personal trainers or those people on the Dr. Phil show who have the motivation of someone like him after them). And so I did what anyone in my position would have done - asked her how she did it. And what I learned was what I had known all along - that the right way was not going to be the fast, easy, junk-food filled way, nor would it be a no-exercise, no-sweat, no-work way. But still - having the motivation of someone close to me who had accomplished what I wanted to accomplish made it suddenly seem realistic for me to lose the weight of 8 years, 3 babies, and too many candy bars to count.

And so it began. I took her advice, followed her example, set some goals, and talked myself into believing I could actually do it. And slowly but surely, I've begun to lose weight. My goal is to lose a total of 35 pounds, by my birthday next year (June 2, 2008). That will put me back in a healthy range for my height and build. I started exercising about July of this year. At first I gained more weight (muscle weighs more than fat, so as I exercised I built muscle (thus gaining weight) faster than I could burn fat). Boy, was that frustrating! But before too much time went by I did start to lose weight. I've been losing weight steadily for about 2 months now, and so far I've lost a total of 9 pounds, almost 10. So I'm well on my way to meeting my goal. If I can average one pound of weight-loss per week from now until my birthday, I'll meet my goal in plenty of time. What better gift could I give myself than a healthy body?

Now don't let me fool you into thinking this is easy. Remember what I've told you - I LOVE to eat and I really just HATE to exercise. But I believe working hard for 1 year to have a body I'm happy with and a healthier life for the next 75 years is worth every drop of sweat and every bite of sweets I choose not to take.

The moral of this story is that, in my opinion, there really is no good, safe, healthy way to lose weight quickly and easily. It takes work and dedication. And once I've met my goal and lost all 35 pounds, it will take work and dedication to keep that weight off. (Though thankfully not nearly as much work as I'm putting in now!) But isn't it worth it to do the work NOW, while you have the ability, than to put it off until later, until a day that may never come? There will always be a myriad of excuses to hold you back. Don't let those excuses stand in the way of reaching your goals!

And so I ask: What's exercise to YOU? Is it something you pretend you don't need to do? Something you dread? Or is it a portal to a better looking, better feeling, better living you? Don't let your fears or laziness stand in your way. Do something about it now. Do something about your eating and exercise habits. Make a change for the better. You owe it to yourself and to the people who love you to take care of your health. Trust me - you'll be glad you did, and so will they.

To see my article on how to lose weight, click here.