One Amazing Blog

Mimme

2010-01-20T09:54:00.003-06:00

A Tiffany rose, like the ones in my Mimme's old garden

I got a phone call on Sunday, January 10 while I was getting ready for church. I expected it to be one of the volunteers I work with who was calling in sick. But no...it was my mom, and she sounded upset.

"Mimme passed away this morning," she said.

Mimme was my mom's mother, and her health had been declining over the past year. She had come to live closer to my parents about 14 months ago and had been living in a lovely nursing home in Rockwall when she passed away.

She wanted to be buried in her hometown in Arkansas, where she had lived out the vast majority of her 89 years. So on Wednesday I headed out in a car with my sister, brother, niece, and nephew to the small town of Carlisle, Arkansas, not far from Little Rock. The funeral service was on Thursday morning.

During the trip, I got to hear some good stories about Mimme in her younger days. My mom's old friend, Debbye, said she had always compared Mimme to June Cleaver. Mimme always kept her house in tip-top shape. It seems like she balanced my grandfather well. I have heard crazy stories about my grandfather (who died when I was just 5 months old). He would regularly bring home all sorts of animals for his two girls--everything from bunnies, turtles, and chickens to foxes, skunks, and alligators! He ran a service station and had long hours on his feet. Mimme was always there to take care of him at the end of the day and keep her household running smoothly.

Of course, those aren't my memories of her. I was the youngest grandchild, so I came along much later in her life. I remember that she had a beautiful garden full of Tiffany roses (she named some of them Angela and Suzanne so that my sister and cousin wouldn't feel left out). She lived in a big (or at least it seemed huge to me then!) white house with some fun things that were there just for us kids--like a little organ where I first learned to make "music."

I actually lived with her for five weeks when I was six years old. My parents had learned a loophole in our education system; my birthday is on September 7, but the cut-off to get into school is September 1 for Texas schools. My parents felt I was ready for school and didn't want me to stay at home for another year. So, I was packed up and sent off to live with Mimme in Arkansas for the first few weeks of first grade, since Arkansas' cut-off is October 1. Once I was officially established as a student there, I was able to transfer to the Texas school system. Voila! Genius.

Mimme took good care of me during those weeks. I remember her keeping her freezer well-stocked with ice cream sandwiches, my favorite treat. She took me with her each week to her beauty salon, where I sat and drank a Coke from a glass bottle while she sat next to her friends, each with a hair-drying dome over her head. We would go to the general store, where she would let me spend all my change on nickel candy. She even took me to get my ears pierced for my 6th birthday, which I celebrated there. (I remember when we called to tell my dad--he was not too pleased!)

That was all a long time ago, of course. Unfortunately, my Mimme didn't really have much of a life there at the end--she would sit in her room most of the day, without a desire to read, do puzzles, or even watch TV. She would only venture outside her door for meals, and she had no inclination to talk to other residents or take part in the many social activities offered. She was mentally sharp until close to the end, but she just didn't have the drive to do very much. It is sad that this is the Mimme I remember more than the one who took care of me all those years ago.

Even though her death was somewhat expected, it was still hard. For me, it doesn't really bother me much that she is gone--she didn't seem very happy here at the end anyway. But I just hope above all hope that she was a believer. Those who knew her in her earlier days seem to think she was, so that's good. But I wish that I didn't have to have that doubt. There is nothing sadder than going to a funeral for someone and not knowing whether they ended up on the right side of eternity.

I do hope Mimme was a Christian. I hope she knew that Jesus is the only way to heaven. I hope she understood that we are all sinners, and Jesus humbled himself and came to earth as a man so that he could live a perfect life and then die for our sins, the final sacrifice. Because the only way to get to heaven is to believe that.

And I hope that if you, dear reader, aren't in a place where you know for certain where you are going when you die, that you will settle that right now! You can find more information here. It is the most important decision you'll make in your life.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

Menu Plan for January

2010-01-07T09:33:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year!

I am joining with bloggers everywhere (inspired by Life as Mom and Money Saving Mom) and resolving to Eat from the Pantry/Freezer for most of my meals in January. I have been able to stock quite a bit in my freezer in particular over the past few months, and it's time to clean it out. So my inspiration for my meals this month comes from what I already have on hand, supplemented of course with fresh dairy and produce each week.

Following is my menu plan for the month. I've linked to recipes when I can, but I almost always alter recipes I find to make them healthier (using whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, applesauce instead of oil, etc.).

1: Homemade pizza (Friday night staple)

2: Ravioli, salad, bread

3: Pancakes (freeze leftovers)

4: Pasta with red sauce, Caesar salad, homemade bread

5: Broccoli & cheese soup for Scott (dinner with friends for me)

6: Chicken tenders, sweet potato casserole, and homemade rolls

7: Mashed potatoes and meatballs (make a double batch to freeze), salad

8: Homemade pizza (Friday night staple)

9: Breakfast for dinner (crustless quiche?)

10: Baked potatoes, salad, carrots

11: Lasagna roll-ups

12: Salmon and black bean frozen dinner

13: Eat out (Awana night)

14: Chicken teriyaki stir fry

15: Homemade pizza (Friday night staple)

16: Breakfast for dinner (frittata?)

17: Leftover stew, dinner rolls

18: Lasagna roll-ups from freezer

19: Chicken tacos, beans, and rice

20: Eat out or have leftovers (Awana night)

21: Macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli

22: Homemade pizza (Friday night staple)

23: Breakfast for dinner (eggs and rosemary potatoes?)

24: Fend for yourself night!

25: Broccoli and cheddar soup, homemade rolls

26: Leftovers

27: Eat out or fend for yourself (Awana night)

28: Bean and cheese enchiladas, Mexican rice, salad

29: (Isaac’s birthday!!) Homemade pizza (Friday night staple)

30: Breakfast for dinner (waffles and eggs?)

31: Leftover meatballs—on subs or spaghetti, salad

I printed out this menu plan and put one on my fridge in a plastic page protector so that I can refer to it whenever I need to. I also bring a copy of it with me whenever I go grocery shopping so that I know exactly what I need to buy--and what I don't. Just having a plan in place helps me feel more organized and has already saved me time and money. I avoid last-minute trips for groceries I forgot (or having to resort to fast food) when I have it all mapped out ahead of time!

When I plan my menu, I try hard to be realistic. I know that Wednesdays, for example, are really crazy for our family. I'm at church from 5:00-8:00 (at least) and don't have the energy to worry about a proper dinner. Typically we drive through Jimmy John's for a sandwich on those nights as a treat. And on Sunday nights we don't get home until after 7:00, so dinner has to be something I can put on the table very quickly.

If you are interested in meal planning and don't know where to begin, I'd suggest these two articles by Simple Mom and Life as Mom. They are both fabulous blogs full of lots of tips for home management and organization.

And now...Preschool Musical!

2009-12-14T14:05:00.005-06:00

The last couple of posts here have been pretty depressing, so here is the ultimate pick-me-up: pics and videos of Caleb's preschool Christmas musical! It was so incredibly precious. I cried happy tears through the whole thing!

The kids all had little "costumes"--and Caleb got to be a donkey. Ha! Here he is "sleeping" in the back row next to the angel.

Here is his class lined up for a photo op after the performance. Caleb is in the bottom row, second from the left.

I got 3 short video clips on my camera. Let's see if they work! This one is a segment of their song "Starry Night." I PROMISE these videos will make you smile, especially if you know Caleb!

"And when the angel came to Mary, he said..."

In case you didn't catch that, they were singing, "Fear not! Fear not! Don't be scared!" Caleb is the extremely fidgety one in the back. :)

At the end the kids sang "Go Tell it on the Mountain" in English and Spanish. Here you can see a bit of that. The kids just kind of mumbled through "Ve y grita a las montanas..."

Scott, Isaac and I sat proudly in the audience. Isaac needed a little entertaining while we were waiting for the show to start, and I put my hat on him. Is this not an adorable picture?

I love my boys.

Grieving

2009-12-13T20:54:00.003-06:00

I miss my baby.

I miss being pregnant. I miss that feeling of knowing something amazing is coming.

I wonder if it would have been a boy or a girl. I wonder if the baby would have had my dimples or Scott's eyes.

We watched Up last night with Caleb. Scott and I both teared up at the part when Ellie loses her baby.

When we first found out I was pregnant, we told Caleb that a baby would be growing inside my tummy. He hadn't mentioned anything to us about the baby since the miscarriage, and we hadn't brought it up. Then yesterday I was wearing a baggy sweatshirt and Caleb pointed to my stomach and asked me, "Mommy, is the baby starting to grow in there?"

For the most part, I've been doing very well lately. The day I went to the doctor and found out for sure I had miscarried, I left the doctor's office and went straight to the dollar store to pick up things for Awana that night. I made it through Awana...and that's how it's kind of been since then. Every day, I make it through. There are so many things to keep me busy at this time of year. It's only when I am alone in the quiet moments that the grief and the pain hit me. I've lost a baby. I have a baby in heaven.

Don't get me wrong--I completely trust God in this situation. I know that He is in control and that He has a plan. I know that my baby is with Him now, and there is no better place to be. But I am still human, and my human selfishness wants my baby back here sometimes. I think it will take quite awhile to stop feeling that way.

I do rejoice in the two healthy children that I have, and the incredibly supportive husband who stands by my side. I thank God for the family and friends who surround me, especially those who have comforted me with the words, "I've been there." I am so blessed.

I am just grieving.

Glory Baby

2009-12-04T14:44:00.003-06:00

On Thanksgiving morning, I woke up and took one of these:

Yup! That's a positive pregnancy test! I was so excited--Scott and I have been wanting to add to our family and have been praying for a baby. I woke Scott up at 7:00 to show him the results. (Yes, I thrust a pee stick in his face first thing in the morning. Isn't that a wonderful way to wake up?)

We went to Thanksgiving at my parents' house and told our immediate family members. Of course they were all very happy for us.

On Monday, I made an appointment with my Ob/Gyn for mid-December.

On Tuesday, I started spotting a little. I called and talked to a nurse at my doctor's office, and she said that what I described was probably normal and to just call back if the bleeding got heavy or if I started to have pain. That night I went out to dinner with some great girlfriends of mine, and during the evening I started to bleed more. By the time I crawled into bed that night, I knew something had gone horribly wrong. I cried myself to sleep while Scott held me tight.

On Wednesday, I woke up in pain. I called the doctor's office, and they asked me to come in that afternoon. I made an appointment for 2:20--by then I was bleeding heavily. At the appointment, the doctor gently confirmed what I already knew--I had lost the baby. I was only about 5 weeks pregnant.

Although this experience is hard and painful, I trust God. I know that He has my little baby in heaven right now. I imagine there is a special place there for babies who never even got a chance to make it out of the womb.

There is a song from Watermark (now just Christy Nockels) called Glory Baby that keeps going through my head. I wanted to share some of the lyrics here with you:

Glory baby, you slipped away
As fast as we could say baby....baby
You were growing
What happened dear
You disappeared on us baby....baby

Heaven will hold you
Before we do
Heaven will keep you safe
Until we're home with you....

Miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there's a day
When we will hold you, we will hold you...

But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
Til Mom and Dad will hold you
You'll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little babies
It's hard to understand it 'cause we're hurting
We are hurting
But there's healing
And we know we're stronger people
Through the growing and knowing
That all things work together
For our good
And God works His purposes
Just like He said He would...

I can't imagine heaven's lullabies
And what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing
Heaven is your home
And it's all you'll ever know

My friend Vickey sent me a card yesterday that reminded me that God's hands were big enough to create the world, and they are also strong enough to heal me and gentle enough to hold me. Amen to that.

Caleb's 4th Birthday

2009-12-01T12:06:00.007-06:00

Caleb turned four on Sunday. Happy birthday, big boy! It was just a short four years ago when he subjected me to a 24-hour back labor...Aw, sweet memories! :)

We had a family party for him on Saturday, which was lots of fun. I tried to keep it low-key (since I tend to stress out when I entertain), and I just made a bunch of appetizers for us to nibble on. After all, no one really wants a whole bunch of food 2 days after Thanksgiving!

I didn't get a great picture of our spread, but here's one:

We had lots of fresh fruit and veggies, sandwiches, hummus, crackers, cheese, trail mix, spinach and artichoke dip, and some chicken nuggets for the birthday boy. :)

To Caleb, birthdays are all about having cake. (He actually told me on Sunday that people don't grow up until they have a cake. How funny!) He wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine cake. I intended to make a 2-layer round cake with Thomas on top, but one of my cake layers stuck in the pan. So, I made another 2 cakes and turned the cake into a huge 3-layer monstrosity. I put a "track" on the top made out of chocolate Twizzlers, and then we put a new Thomas birthday engine and train car on the top. Here's how it looked:

Very easy, and not-so-Martha-Stewart in appearance, but Caleb loved it. And it was all homemade with love. :)

You know, I really learned my lesson 2 years ago when I had these elaborate plans for a 3D Tow Mater cake (from the movie Cars). I worked for so many hours on that cake, and it just fell apart the morning of the party. I fell apart, too. Scott went to Kroger at the last minute and told them what happened. He was hoping to just come home with a plain birthday cake. The lady at the bakery counter said, "Oh, he wants a Cars cake? Okay! That will take me about 10 minutes!" Scott came home with a beautifully and elaborately decorated cake, and I tried not to be bitter that it only took them 10 minutes and my slaved-over flop of a cake was in the trash!

Caleb's cousins helped him open his presents.

It was good to spend time with my wonderful family. Here's my brother, sister, and my sister's fabulous boyfriend.

My in-laws even came in from Oklahoma to celebrate with us.

They were so sweet to bring a couple of presents for Isaac so he wouldn't feel left out. And, surprise, surprise, Caleb wanted to play with those presents more than the ones that he got! (For a little while, anyway. Then he became fascinated with all of the cars and running them on the race tracks he got!)

It was such a wonderful day, and I think everyone had a good time. Next year I need to take more pictures!

Rudolph

2009-11-30T22:29:00.005-06:00

I had a meeting at church last Monday, and Caleb went with me. He was playing fairly nicely while I was discussing all things Awana nearby. We were meeting in a big room that we use for lots of children's functions, and it afforded plenty of room for Caleb to run around and play.

There is a small stage at the front of the room with a ramp coming down either side of the stage. I told Caleb he was not allowed on the stage, but I guess it proved too tempting for him. He went up on the stage while pushing a toy grocery cart. He came down the ramp from the stage...and tripped, toppling over the cart and smashing his face into the carpet. I saw it happen, and I ran over to help him. He was crying hard, and his biggest injury seemed to be a bloody, busted lip. But over the next few hours, I saw the big, red carpet burn start to appear on his nose.

It actually looks better in the picture than it did in person. It was horrible looking! Everywhere he went, people would stare at him and ask him what happened. Scott kept calling him "Rudolph." Now, a week later, it is still red but much smaller. Poor thing. Could have been worse, though! He just looked a little funny for his birthday pictures.

Caleb's Preschool Thanksgiving Party

2009-11-30T21:07:00.009-06:00

We went up to Caleb's school last week for his class Thanksgiving party. His teachers are SO creative and craftsy, it is unbelievable. Caleb comes home every week with some incredibly imaginative art project. For this party, the teachers had things set up for the kids to make turkeys...out of apples, marshmallows, and raisins. Who'd a thunk it?

Here is Scott helping Caleb with his "turkey."

Here's the finished product. I thought we had a better picture of it, but evidently the only one we got was one that Caleb took while Scott was teaching him how to use the camera. :)

That poor turkey lost his left eye shortly after this picture was taken. Little brother got hungry for that raisin, I suppose!

Here is Caleb eating...very little. Most of the food on his plate went untouched.

Isaac ended up sitting up at the table with the "big" kids and joining right in at the meal!

When we left the church (that's where Caleb's school is), Isaac started running in the little courtyard out front and was having such a good time that I decided to snap a few pictures.

Caleb's Pony Ride

2009-11-20T20:52:00.006-06:00

Caleb went to his friend Wyatt's birthday party last week. Wyatt is a cute little cowboy in the making, so it was appropriate for his party to be at a local horse park. Caleb and Isaac had so much fun! There were pony rides, 2 bounce houses, a campfire for s'mores, a barn tour, and lots of goats, sheep, dogs, and cats running around.

Here is Caleb's pony ride:

And I had to get a picture of this goat. I mean...wow! She was slowly lumbering around the park.

Poor mama goat!

Isaac's Tower

2009-11-20T20:45:00.003-06:00

Isaac started building a tower of blocks the other day. Here's what it looked like after a minute or two:

He kept going. Before it fell down, it looked like this:

Yea, Isaac! It was almost as tall as he is!

Bedtime with the Boys

2009-11-20T16:28:00.003-06:00

Okay, someday I'll get back to blogging about my vacation. Maybe. But time has been so limited lately--I am realizing I have too much on my plate--that I don't have time to sit down to think about what we did over a month ago now!

So, here's something non-vacation-y. ;) A couple of weeks ago, Isaac climbed right in bed with Caleb. Caleb tucked Isaac in beside him, and I read them their bedtime Bible stories together. Aren't they adorable?

Seattle/Victoria Trip: Day Three

2009-11-09T09:22:00.013-06:00

We woke up in Victoria, BC in our lovely hotel room overlooking the Inner Harbour (you have to spell it that way when you're writing about Canada, you know). :)

We wanted to walk around Victoria a little more, but it was raining steadily that morning. So we decided to go to the Royal BC Museum for a little indoor entertainment and education. They have a fabulous "First Peoples" exhibit that has artifacts and stories about the "Indians" who lived in the lands before the Europeans settled there. (This first pic is from the BC Museum website. You can't use flash photography in the museum, so our pics are a little dark.)

This was an example of a pit house that the first people lived in. They would climb in and out through the smoke hole at the top. (I guess they had to wait until someone put out the fire, huh?)

The museum also had a neat modern history exhibit, with replicas of what buildings looked like in the early 1900's. Here are pics of the "town" courtesy of the BC Museum website:

I enjoyed the exhibit of the turn-of-the-century home, and the kitchen in particular. It was fun to imagine myself cooking in that kitchen, but it would have been a lot of work!

After a long morning in the museum, we headed for The Sticky Wicket for lunch. The food was incredibly good, especially for a pub! Scott had fish and chips, and I had hot crab and artichoke dip served with warm flatbread. Yummmmmmmmmm.... The service was lousy, but the pub itself was really inviting and the perfect escape from the wet weather outside.

The rain had let up by the time we finished lunch, so we walked around and shopped for awhile. We went into a cozy local bookstore, and then we stopped in at LUSH. Have you ever been there? I'd been wanting to try their solid shampoo (pictured here), so I convinced Scott to go in the store with me. Oh, what an experience! I guess I am just a good little Southern girl at heart, but I am not used to salespeople using foul language while trying to get me to buy products. There was a sales guy there who repeatedly dropped the f-bomb like it was absolutely normal to cuss at customers. Wha?!? I guess that's what we get for going to the "left" coast. ;)

We walked back to our hotel and had about an hour to kill before we had to go catch our clipper back to Seattle. So we each decided to settle in one of the plush armchairs in the hotel's comfy lobby and read our books in front of the fire. I always like to choose a book based on the place I'm traveling, and for this trip I chose Timothy Egan's novel The Winemaker's Daughter. I'll talk more about the book in a later post, but for now I'll just say I was happy to curl up and read for a little while after all the walking we'd done that day.

After about 30 minutes, we heard bagpipes coming from the patio outside overlooking the water. Soon, we saw a beautiful Scottish wedding party enter the lobby, complete with a kilted groom. Awww....

We left for the clipper and had an uneventful ride back to Seattle. The boat wasn't nearly as crowded this time, so we shared a set of 6 seats with just one other couple. Scott got a few pics from the back of the boat as we were heading toward Seattle.

Gorgeous, eh?

Seattle/Victoria Trip: Day Two (Butchart and Swans)

2009-11-06T16:09:00.018-06:00

When we booked our clipper ride to get to Victoria, we found out that the cheapest way to get to the Butchart Gardens (which is the most popular tourist attraction in the Victoria area) was to take a bus tour offered by the Victoria clipper people. We are not usually "bus tour" type of people, but this worked out well. The bus driver was appropriately funny and informative. I learned a few fun facts about Canada:

Lots of people have hobby farms. Canadians get a big tax break if they make a certain amount of money each year by selling their own produce. So Canadians will put out little tables at the ends of their drives with their produce laid out. They put up a sign showing how much the food costs, and buyers simply put the requested amount in a jar. No one mans the booths. Do you think that would work here in the US? Seems like Canadians are more trusting than we are!
When I saw my first gas station in Canada, I was shocked. The price was just $.97! That was a fabulous price! Why would the price be lower in Canada than in Texas, I wondered? But then the bus driver cleared it up for us. Of course, those prices are per liter. Duh. So, that wonderful price ended up being about $4 per gallon.
In 2004, Canadians voted Tommy Douglas as the "Greatest Canadian" in a nationwide contest. Douglas was a socialist and founder of the country's universal Medicare program. (Alexander Graham Bell and Wayne Gretzsky were in the top 10.)
Canadian elementary children go to school for 10 months out of the year. High school and college kids have an 8-month school year (mid-September to April).

Okay, enough useless Canada facts. On to The Butchart Gardens! We went to the gardens because....well, as tourists, I suppose we were expected to go. Flowers aren't really our thing (I tend to kill them, unless you count all the beautiful little white flowers that cover our lawn) but we wanted to go anyway. In the end, I'm glad we went. It really was beautiful, in spite of the light rain while we were there.

There was no shortage of photo opportunities.

For those of you who don't know my husband, yes, he is always this goofy.

I want this tree in my backyard. LOVE it. Of course, it's probably bigger than my backyard, but whatever.

I hear the gardens are really special at Christmas. They put lights everywhere and they have a twelve days of Christmas theme. You can round a corner and find "nine ladies dancing" or "ten lords of leaping."

We had about 2 hours at the gardens, which was plenty of time for us. Afterward, the bus drove us back into Victoria proper and even dropped us off right at our hotel. We stayed at the Delta Ocean Pointe right on the Inner Harbour. I would recommend it highly. Here is a view of our room:

The room had windows that opened and offered great views of the Inner Harbour. In the harbour, you saw everything from cargo ships to sea planes. It's impressive how all that was orchestrated.

That night we headed out on foot to walk around Victoria. Most of the shops were closed, but it was a nice night (the rain had stopped for awhile, and it was just nice and cool) and we enjoyed our walk. We settled on a pub called Swans for dinner.

We ate on a covered patio area, which was cozy and full of locals. There was a couple behind us who played cards while they drank some in-house brew, and a couple of elderly ladies at another table who split a pitcher of ale. I had shepherd's pie (with lamb braised in oatmeal stout). It was so good, I don't even remember what Scott had. Anything smothered in mashed potatoes is my kind of meal. Ha!

Here's a goofy pic of me before we ate.

Next post (hopefully it won't take me 2 more weeks to write): wrapping up Victoria and heading back to Seattle!

Seattle/Victoria Trip, Day Two (The Clipper)

2009-10-23T15:41:00.007-05:00

Okay, so day one was not exactly riveting, I know. We spent most of the time in a plane, so of course there wasn't much to report. But don't worry, day two got better.

We had decided that we wanted to take advantage of being so close to Canada and hop over the border for a day. Victoria B.C. is less than 3 hours away by clipper ship, so we thought that would be a logical destination.

We had to get up earrrrrrrrrrly. For some reason, the clipper only leaves at 8:00 in the morning in the off-season. We were supposed to be there to check in by about 7:00. So, we woke up around 5:30, got ready, left the majority of our luggage with the concierge at the Seattle Doubletree, and took a taxi to the clipper. It was a cool, drizzly morning. Typical Seattle in October.

***Before I start posting pics, let me share this: our camera is horrible. Yup, horrible. It's a Canon PowerShot--you know, just a point and click kind of deal. It's only about 6 years old (I think we got it right before we got married), but it's obviously at the end of its life. The automatic lens cover doesn't close anymore, and sometimes it actually gets stuck half-way open and blocks half the shot. It's kinda funny that it's so quirky. People give us odd looks when we're banging on it, trying to get the lens cover to open. Anyway, I'm just sayin'. Our shots will not be award-winning ones, but hopefully they'll give you an idea of what we saw. ***

So, here's a little shot from Pier 69 in Seattle, where the Victoria clipper leaves from:

Here's hubby (holding both of our coffees!) and the clipper we took:

The clipper ride to Victoria was probably one of the highlights of the trip for me. It started out kinda crappy, because the boat was packed. I was hoping that we'd get to spread out and snooze or read or just be left alone, but it didn't work out that way. And I'm so glad it didn't, as I'll share later.

The clipper is a double-decker. All of the seats are inside (and out of the rain). The top deck has fewer seats, and that's were we went. The seats are arranged in clumps of six--three on one side, three on the other, and a table in between. We ended up sitting with an older couple who live in the Victoria area and a middle-aged couple from Seattle. My ears instantly perked up when the lady from Seattle said, "My husband is a travel writer. He's writing about traveling to Victoria in the off-season."

A writer! A travel writer! Man, how do you get that gig?? And do you have some travel advice for us???

We started up a conversation that lasted the entire three hours of the trip. I relished every minute of it. Both couples gave us lots of advice about Seattle and Victoria, and they were all just joys to be around. The older lady sitting next to me started talking about a commercial currently on TV in Victoria for a local insurance company. She and her husband shared how much the commerical drove them crazy. Evidently it shows a lady who is a very bad driver, and a voice-over says, "You don't drive like her. You shouldn't pay like her." The point is, of course, that if you are a "good" driver, your rates shouldn't be the same as those of a "bad" driver. But the way the point was made drove the couple batty.

"First of all, it's just demeaning. But more than that, it uses improper English. You don't drive like her, you drive like she."

Oh, man! Did I mention that I really liked these people?? They all started discussing grammar and syntax, and oh, I was in hog heaven! Ha!

I found out that the writer has actually just published a book. How exciting! He said it is his third book, and it's called Literary Feast--The Famous Authors Cookbook. What a cool premise--he went to various local and national authors and found out what their favorite recipes are and then compiled them in this book. Food and literature always go hand-in-hand. The author is Terry LaBrue, and the book is a bestseller at thriftbooks.com right now! He said that he just got a contract with Costco to sell it in their stores. That's hitting the big time!

*****
I'm going to have to split this post into two sections so it won't get outrageously long (and the boys should be waking up fro their naps soon). Next post: Butchart Gardens and a cool pub!

Seattle Trip, Day One

2009-10-22T15:26:00.009-05:00

Last Thursday, we sent the boys off to Meme and Papa's, and Scott and I packed up and left on our first vacation without the kids! Our plan was to fly into Seattle and spend one night, then taking a clipper to Victoria B.C. and stay for a night, and then travel back to Seattle for three more nights. There is so much I want to remember about our trip, I'm going to try to break this narrative down into segments.

So, this post will be focused on the first leg of our trip--our first night in Seattle.

We had an afternoon flight out of Dallas, so we arrived in Seattle at about 4:30pm. Seattle's public transportation is pretty comprehensive--you can get a free bus ride from the airport to the light rail station, then ride the rail from there to downtown Seattle. Easy.

Well, theoretically easy. This is the part of the post which I will entitle "We Would Suck at The Amazing Race."

Here's Scott going up the escalator at the light rail station...

...and here I am going back down the escalator after we figured out that the light rail actually leaves from the other side of the station.

Hmph. Anyway, we finally got on the train and headed to Seattle. As we took in the scenery on the ride into town, the first thing I noticed was how different the houses looked. None of them were made of brick like the ones here in Dallas--they all had siding and large rectangular windows. I asked someone later about this, and he said that brick doesn't last in an earthquake. Ah...earthquakes. I am definitely not in Texas anymore! I asked the man who told me about the houses: "You get in a doorway if there's an earthquake, right?" "Yes," he said, "and if it's in the middle of the night, roll off the side of your bed. That way if the ceiling collapses, it will fall on your bed and not on your head." Useful advice....

We got out of the train at our stop in Pioneer Square, then realized that we didn't know exactly how to get from the station to our hotel. We consulted our map and got a vague idea of where the hotel was. We went up an escalator and left the station...and our hotel was literally right across the street. Bonus! :)

We stayed at the Doubletree Arctic Hotel. I highly recommend it! Nice bathrobes, amenities, fluffy duvet, flat screen high-res TV, and as everyone who has stayed in a Doubletree knows.....

...cookies. Straight-out-of-a-warmer chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies given to you upon your arrival. Mmmmm. I almost went back and asked for more.

By the time we got checked in, it was about dinner time. We were pretty tired (we had stayed up really late the last couple of nights cleaning and packing), so we decided to just eat in the hotel restaurant for dinner. (Yes, I had just eaten a big fat cookie. Don't judge me!)

The restaurant is called Juno, and it was pretty yummy. Scott and I both had a seafood pasta and some local wine. After a relaxing dinner, it was off to our room. We had to get up earrrrrrrrrly in the morning to catch the clipper to Victoria.

We had a huge wall-length window in our first-floor room, so we slept to the sound of the city. It was not like the sound of New York--full of sirens, loud voices, and car horns, but what we soon learned to be the distinctive sound of Seattle--the buses. Seattle has such great public transportation, and their buses run all night long. So our sleep was punctuated (not unpleasantly) by the buses making their rounds in the otherwise silent city.

Next post: Victoria, B.C.!

From Jesus to Pogo Sticks

2009-10-04T14:37:00.005-05:00

As I've posted before, Isaac loves to listen to Bible songs. He particularly loves the "Wee Sing Bible Songs" CD we got him for Christmas. He is always running up to the CD player and shouting "Jesus songs!"

A few days ago, I got tired of listening to the same CD over and over, so I changed it to Derek Webb or Watermark or some other Christian band. Isaac started whimpering and said, "I want Jesus songs!" I told him that these were still songs about Jesus. "They are just different Jesus songs, Isaac."

Well, ever since then he keeps pointing to the CD player and saying, "A different Jesus! A different Jesus!"

*****************

Yesterday, I showed Caleb a few minutes of a clip posted on Intentionally Katie's blog. She had a video of a man named Nick Vujicic who was born with no arms and no legs. What an inspiring tale! He has really used his disabilities in a way that honors God.

Caleb watched as the man walked with no legs and turned the pages of his Bible with a little foot. He asked me, "Why does he have no legs and arms?"

"That's the way God made him, honey. He's very special. God made everyone different." I started to tell him all about different types of people. "You know, some people use wheelchairs to get around, and some..."

Caleb cut me off and said, "Yeah! Some people use pogo sticks!"

Well, yes. I guess they do. :)

It Always Starts out Small

2009-09-30T16:28:00.003-05:00

Today has been a bad day for me and my kids. They've been misbehaving, and I've yelled at them a lot.

Yes, sweet little me yells at my children. Often.

I know, I know. It's absolutely wrong. If you had somehow shown me a video a few years ago of present-day me yelling at my children, I would have been shocked. I couldn't have imagined being angry or annoyed enough to raise my voice to my children! My dear, innocent, precious children!

Ah, but it starts out so slowly. First you barely raise your voice. "I said to get down, Caleb." Then a few months later, it's "I said get down, Caleb." Before you know it, it's "GET DOWN! NOW!"

It's just like any other sin. It starts out small enough. No one will notice if I don't go to church today.... It was just one little lie.... Who cares if I watch that raunchy TV show?

Before you know it, you never go to church, or lies have become your truth, or your mind if full of so much junk you are desensitized from it all.

It always starts out small. Let's pray that we can stop these sins before they grow. Because as we all know, it's much harder to stop something once it's big and hairy.

How Did He Fall Down Again?

2009-09-28T15:43:00.005-05:00

Hello, friends. I've missed you. I know I haven't posted much. It's not for lack of material, just lack of time. Here's a little Isaac story to keep you going until I can post more. ;)

Today before nap time, Isaac sat on the potty. He went--yea! Then I helped him flush, and I put him up on the stool by the sink so he could wash his hands. I looked down while I was drying his hands and saw a puddle on the stool.

"Is that water or pee, Isaac?"

"Water!" he replied. Little stinker.

While I stooped to clean up the mess, Isaac darted away from me, still naked from the waist down, giggling all the way. I called after him, holding his diaper. By the time I'd caught up with him, I saw him staring at a big puddle of pee on the kitchen floor. (More? You still have more??) He looked back at me, saw me approaching, and decided to run away from me again, laughing all the way.

Well, I saw what was going to happen, and you probably do too. I yelled, "ISAAC!" but to no avail. He slipped in his big puddle of pee and fell, face-planting on the tile floor. Isaac wailed, and I scooped him up in my arms. (Yes, he was covered in pee. But that's just what moms do.) Scott ran down the stairs, asking "What happened??"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, honey."

Klean Kanteen: A Review and a Discount!

2009-09-02T09:36:00.005-05:00

Several months ago, I bought some Klean Kanteens for my boys. In my last post, I talked about how I prefer to use metal over plastic due to the side effects of BPA and who knows what else in plastic. Klean Kanteens are made of stainless steel, but they do use a plastic (polypropylene) sippy spout.

Price: About $15 to $20 including shipping

Availability: Amazon.com, The Soft Landing, etc.

Description: Klean Kanteen sells all sizes of bottles, and we have a variety of them in our house. Scott loves the big 40 oz, I use the 27 oz, and both of the kids use the 12 oz sippies. This review will focus mainly on the sippy cups.

All of the Klean Kanteen bottles are made of food-grade stainless steel, inside and out, so there is no need for a protective lining between it and your drink (like when you use an aluminum bottle). The sippy cup option has 5 parts: the stainless steel bottle, a plastic adaptor that fits on the bottle, a plastic sippy spout, a plastic ring that holds the sippy spout to the adaptor, and a plastic insert that makes the sippy leak-proof. It sounds complicated, but it's not. :) It's much easier to put together than the majority of the other sippies we've used!

The sippy spouts are made by Avent for Klean Kanteen. All the plastic parts are BPA-free polypropylene (#5) and are probably the "safest" plastic out there. There's a picture of the spouts to the left here.

Pros:

They are completely dishwasher safe. Scott usually handwashes our big bottles, which we just use for water, but we always put the kids' sippy cups in the dishwasher since we use them for milk and juice.
They keep your drinks cold for quite awhile.
Your drink tastes clean and great.
They are BPA-free!
The sippies hold 12 ounces, which I've found is a good size for the kids.

Cons:

Your hands get really cold holding this! Because it's just stainless steel with no insulating on the outside, putting cold liquid inside makes the outside of the bottle very cold, too. According to this blog post from The Soft Landing, the Momo glass bottle covers work really well with the Klean Kanteen sippies and would solve that problem. I was going to order some today, but it looks like they are out of stock. The Soft Landing also recommend the Green Sprouts Neoprene cover, which has built-in handles! That sounds perfect for those little guys learning to use a sippy cup.
Without a cover, the sippy is succeptible to dents and scratches in the paint when dropped. If you get the plain silver one (with no paint), it will look prettier longer! (Again, if you have a cover, this won't be an issue.)
If you fill it all the way, it can get heavy.
As it is, it doesn't come with a lid. You can buy one separately, or if you have old Avent bottles or sippies, the lids might fit. If you have an older kid, you can opt for the sports cap, shown below.

Bottom line: These are my favorite cups for the kids. They are easy for my kids to drink out of, easy to clean, and easy to transport. The biggest drawback is that they don't come with lids. If you get the kind with the sports cap, like in the picture to the left, that's not as big of an issue.

Discount: Because of the whole Sigg Scandal, The Soft Landing is offering The Bigg Bottle Swap. If you have a Sigg, you can send it in and get a 30% discount on a new stainless steel bottle. Or, if you don't have a Sigg, you can fill out a little form and get a 20% discount. Wahoo! This offer is only good for a short time, so check it out soon!

Seriously, Sigg? Shame on You!

2009-09-01T15:32:00.002-05:00

Have you guys seen this?

I have been using a Sigg bottle for over a year. I love the design, the clean taste of the water when it comes out, and the fact that I'm not throwing away toxic one-use plastic bottles anymore. And, of course, I loved that it was BPA-free. Or so I thought.

In case you don't know, BPA is short for Bisphenol-A. It's a chemical mainly found in polycarbonate plastic--the hard, clear kind of plastic with the number 7 on the bottom--and in epoxy resin linings in food cans. Scientists have discovered that BPA can mimic sex hormones like estrogen and cause a whole slew of immune problems and perhaps even cancer. Almost every human tested has some traces of BPA in their systems since it has become so prevalent in the food industry. The chemical can leach out of cans or plastics and into your food or water.

Unfortunately, Caleb had BPA-laden bottles when he was a baby. I am so glad that I primarily breast fed and his exposure was limited, but even his first sippy cups were not BPA-free. Now almost every bottle and sippy out there is labeled "BPA Free." Yea! I still prefer metal bottles to drink out of. Hence the Sigg. Siggs are made of aluminum, though, which has to have a lining inside it. I knew that Sigg bottles had been around for years, and I saw them as a good alternative to plastic. That brings me to today. I just read the ZRecs article on how the Sigg CEO now states that the lining inside the Sigg bottles produced prior to about August 2008 DOES CONTAIN BPA, although he insists that it won't leach into the liquid you put in it. I am outraged! Shame on you, Sigg! Shame, shame, shame!

If you have a Sigg bottle, I highly encourage you to read the article I mentioned above. You can also read the CEO's answers to ZRec's questions here. It will probably leave you angry and frustrated and ready to file a class action lawsuit against Sigg! I actually emailed Sigg today and told them that I am outraged. I am SO glad I didn't get Sigg bottles for my kids (I chose Klean Kanteen--more on that in a future post). This was their answer:

Hi Tiffany,

All of the information regarding our former liner and new Eco-Care liner, as well as instructions on how to get replacements for your bottles, can now be found at http://mysigg.com/bulletin/exchange_program.html. Thank you.

If you follow that link, you will find that you can return your bottle (YOU pay the shipping!) for a replacement bottle with a new BPA-free liner. Um, thanks but no thanks, Sigg. You've lost my business!

Mr. Independent

2009-08-24T22:19:00.005-05:00

Isaac loves to feed himself. Can you tell?

He has refused to let Scott or me even touch his spoon for the past few months. And in case you're curious, that's a typical breakfast for him--steel cut oats mixed with applesauce and 2 thawed cubes of frozen pureed spinach. Sounds disgusting, but he loves it and it's full of nutrition!

Of course, after a breakfast like this, he has to be hosed off in the shower. He obviously hates being in the water.

I just figured I hadn't posted the traditional "baby with food all over himself" and "naked baby in the bathtub" pictures in awhile. So, here you go! You're welcome. ;)

Li'l Swimmer

2009-08-24T15:46:00.009-05:00

Caleb had about 2 weeks of swimming lessons in late July/early August. It started out like this:

(Sorry, Ms. Laura, I know that's not the most flattering picture for you!) He learned how to blow bubbles in the water and had to conquer his fear of going underwater.

He never cried, but he did whine "I want Mommy!" a few times during the first lesson. But I think even the first lesson he ultimately enjoyed.

By the second week of lessons (this time with Ms. Tabby), he was really having a good time. He's not a natural swimmer by any means, but he made good progress. He still tries to "swim vertically," as you can see in the picture below, and he doesn't want to put his face down in the water.

But he'll do it when coerced. Here he is getting a toy from the bottom of the pool.

And here he is on his last day of lessons. I'm not sure who was prouder--Caleb or me!

I wish we had time for more lessons, but scheduling things in August is just too hard for me. Next year I'll be sure to get him in lessons in June!

"More Jesus!"

2009-08-08T12:15:00.003-05:00

This morning Isaac was walking around saying, "More Jesus! More Jesus!"

I finally figured out that the Bible song CD he'd been listening to had ended, and he wanted it started over. Ha!

*************

Things have been very busy for me lately, but I hope to resume blogging in earnest!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-08-03T20:59:00.005-05:00

On Sunday night, Scott filled the grill with turkey burgers and enough chicken to last us a few days! Yea! This is an easy week full of favorites!

Monday: Chicken quesadillas
Tuesday: Chicken caesar salad
Wednesday: Spaghetti and mozarella meatballs (using ground turkey)
Thursday: Meatball subs
Friday: Homemade pizza with mushrooms and peppers

I'm also baking this week: chocolate chip banana bread, Rice Krispie treats, homemade bread

I have no idea what the weekend holds, so I'm not even planning that right now! :)

Retail Therapy: My Walgreens Run, 7/23

2009-07-23T14:55:00.005-05:00

Things have been very depressing around here. I might post more about it later, I might not, but let's just say that in the past 2 months we've had some major turnover in the staff in our children's ministry. I know that God is sovereign and that He is holding us all in His big ol' hands, but it is still hard.

So..........

Today I decided I needed some retail therapy. I know that most husbands would get scared to hear that expression from their wives, but Scott doesn't worry. My version of retail therapy is going couponing to see what kind of deals I can get!

I was going to go to Staples, but after a Facebook post from Mandy, I decided that Walgreens was the place to go this week. With two young boys, I can't justify going from store to store in the summertime in Texas--it's just too hot. So I have to choose just one store to hit.

Here's what I got at Walgreens today. I spent $2.03 and got $9 back in register rewards.

Bic highlighters: FREE ($.49 for a 5 pack, plus used a $1 off 2 Bic items coupon)

Excedrin: $4.99 OOP*, or FREE after RR (B1G1 at $6.99, used 2 $1/1 coupons, got $5RR)

Tylenol: $3.99 OOP, or $.99 after RR (on sale for $4.99, used $1/1 coupon and got $3 RR back)

Pilot G2 pens: $1 OOP, or FREE after RR (buy a 2-pack at $1, get $1 RR)

Kleenex: $.73 each (on sale for $.89, buy 3 and use the $.50 off 3 coupon)

Scotch tape: $.39 each

Pencils: $.29 for a 10-pack

Papermate pens: $.19 for a 10-pack

As I've explained before, the beauty of Walgreens is the RRs. You end up getting so many RRs that you rarely end up spending "real" money. For this trip, I used $3 in RRs that I already had, plus a $3 off coupon they sent me in the mail (I got lucky--a new Walgreens opened up right down the street, so they sent out some coupons), and a giftcard I had $6.22 left on from some rebates. So, I ended up only $2.03 OOP. If I didn't have the RR, Walgreens coupon, and giftcard, my total would have been about $11.53. I got $9 in RRs back, so I was happy with that.

Don't forget that RRs don't really expire, so don't freak out at the expiration date when you get them. I have had no problems using "expired" RRs.

*OOP = out-of-pocket

Recipe: Frittata

2009-07-20T14:59:00.013-05:00

For Monday night's dinner, I made a frittata. I know, I am always making breakfast foods for dinner, but I love them! I have made frittatas a few times before based on this recipe from Tyler's Ultimate on Food Network. I feel like I've finally tweaked it and "healthified" it enough now, so here's a copy of Tyler's recipe with my changes. It really turned out well! I wish I'd thought to take pictures...

Ingredients

6 egg whites, 4 whole eggs
2 tablespoons milk (I used 1%)
1 cup grated cheese (I usually use 2% cheddar, but any cheese is fine)
Kosher salt and ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
4 small potatoes, peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
1 cup mushrooms, sliced (I love the baby bella mushrooms)
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cheese, salt, and pepper until foamy. Set aside.

3. Heat olive oil in a cast iron or other oven-safe pan over medium heat. Add the onion, potatoes, and mushrooms and cook thoroughly.

4. Pour the egg mixture over the top. Pull the edges away from the sides of the pan with a spatula so the eggs flow to the bottom of the pan.

5. After the frittata is about halfway set, transfer the pan to the heated oven. Bake for 10 minutes until puffed and golden.

6. Cut it up like a pizza, and shower slices with with grated Parmesan. Serve with some low-fat sour cream or plain yogurt if you'd like.

Menu Plan: Week of July 20

2009-07-20T14:51:00.005-05:00

Breakfasts
Steel-cut oatmeal with flax meal, honey, and banana
Cereal
Oatmeal squares
Pancakes

Lunches
Leftovers
Burritos

Snacks
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
Grapes
Apples
Carrots
Graham crackers
Yogurt
Cheese and crackers

Dinners
Monday: Frittata, toast (from homemade bread), OJ, coffee
Tuesday: Grilled turkey cheeseburgers with sauteed onion and mushrooms
Wednesday: Pasta salad, fruit
Thursday: Leftovers/fend for yourself
Friday-Sunday: Traveling to Oklahoma to see in-laws, so no meal planning!!

Sunday: A Good Time Was Had by All

2009-07-20T09:33:00.002-05:00

Sunday morning
We managed to all get to church without too much bickering. I have a personal belief that Satan attacks Christians with extra vigor on Sunday mornings. It seems like he tries to do everything he can to stop folks from making it to church. He makes the bed extra comfy so you want to snooze longer, makes the kids want to sleep in just on that day of the week and no other day of the week, makes your coffee taste extra good so you forget what time it is, then gets you all in a rush so that you are on edge and start snipping at your family.

Well, okay. Maybe all of that only happens to me. :)

But anyway, we all got to church relatively well on Sunday morning. I was running late and my coffee did taste extra good, but we didn't bicker, and the kids even behaved pretty well while we were getting ready. I got to church and soon welcomed in a little over 20 third grade girls to my classroom. It was "Story Sunday," which we do once per month in the summer. Someone from the church comes to talk to the kids and shares his or her testimony. This week, a wonderful lady named Francie came and spoke. She made a couple of points that I thought were just fabulous.

She talked about how when she grew up, she was in a church that didn't really encourage personal Bible study. She knew a lot about God, but she didn't really know God. To give an analogy, she asked the kids, "How many of you know who George Washington is?" They all raised their hands. "Okay, but how many of you know George Washington?" Of course the point is that we can study a person and learn a lot about him, but still not really have a personal relationship with him. God doesn't want that! He invites us to know Him personally.

Sunday afternoon
We came home, ate lunch, and got the kids ready for a nap. I put Caleb in bed, and while Scott sat down to rock Isaac to sleep, I grabbed my coupons and reusable bags and headed to Kroger. Oh, the joy of bargain shopping without kids! :)

Kroger has their Mega Deal event going on here in North Texas through Tuesday. If you buy 10 participating items, you get $5 back. So basically you get an extra $.50 off per item. Combine that with coupons, and you have some good deals! Even without coupons, there were some good deals. I got 70 items yesterday and spent $75.21. I saved $106.32. I could have saved a larger percentage, but I did get some splurge items: $4.99 for a big bag of organic raisins, $7.99 for Huggies, $2.99 for organic yogurt, etc. But here are some highlights:

Smart Balance butter (tubs or sticks) $.94
(on sale for $1.99, buy 10 and get it for $1.49, use a coupon for $.55 off that is actually IN the store right next to the butter)

Simply Potatoes $.99
(combine a bag of the potato and onion Simply Potatoes with some eggs and cheese, and you have an easy, quick weeknight meal!)

Chex Mix $.49
(on sale for $1.99, buy 10 and get it for $1.49, use a coupon for $.50 off one which Kroger doubles to $1 off)

Irish Spring soap 3-pack $.99

Quaker Snack Cakes $.49

Listerine Mouthwash $.49
(on sale for $2.99, buy 10 and get it for $2.49, use a coupon for $2 off--no longer available online)

Kleenex $.83
(on sale for $1.49, buy 10 and get it for $.99, use a coupon for $.50 off 3)

Kraft cheese $1.49
(not the best price ever for cheese, but good for the cubes and snack packs that are also included in the sale)

I also splurged on some VitaminWater. I really like this stuff! They are regularly about $1.25 or more, but you can get them for $.50 each during this sale.

One note on these mega-deals: make sure you count your items! You have to get them in exact multiples of 10 to make the most of the deals. I got 60 participating items, and I triple-counted them all before I got to the checkout. I'm sure I looked pretty funny, standing in the toothpaste aisle shuffling all the stuff around in my cart and muttering "1...2...3...." to myself. ;)

I see from some bloggers that Kroger is running another very similar mega-deal next week, so many of these deals may continue through next Tuesday.

********
When I got home from Kroger, I expected Caleb to be up (he rarely naps) and I was going to pick him up and take him with me on a run to Market Street for a few more grocery deals. But when I got home, it was a picture out of The Napping House--everyone was asleep. Caleb had actually fallen asleep, and Scott had dozed off while rocking Isaac in his chair.

So I let them sleep for awhile as I put away the groceries. At 5:00, I woke everyone up. They all decided to go to Market Street with me, so we made a family evening of it. We haven't been to Market Street in several months, but this week they had a few good deals in their ad, and they sent me a $5 off a $25 purchase coupon.

They have a little eatery area there, so we decided to eat there as a treat and then shop. It was good stuff! Scott had a yummy panini with fruit, I had a chicken Caesar salad (with fat-free dressing), and Caleb had a piece of pizza (part of a $1.99 kids' meal). I had brought along an avocado and some snacks for Isaac, so we were all set.

After we ate, we set out shopping. Market Street is not a place I'd shop every day--their prices are just too high, in general--but it's fun to visit now and then. It's cheap, air-conditioned entertainment for the kids as they point out all the different items. They have "little carts" for the kids, which Caleb adores. They sell flax seed and steel-cut oats in bulk at a good price, too.

We spent $24 and got a good bit of stuff. Then we came home, I bathed the boys, and it was bedtime. All in all, a good day!

100 Things That Make Me Happy

2009-07-15T20:01:00.011-05:00

I was inspired by Intentionally Katie, who wrote a list of 100 things that make her happy. It appears to be a meme that's been around the blogosphere for awhile. I thought it might be therapeutic to write a list of my own! These are in no particular order.

God--the source of all things good
Scott
My boys
Getting great grocery deals
Writing lists
Crossing things off of to-do lists
Clean cotton sheets and blankets
Hot showers
Teaching kids about Jesus
A clean and organized house
The smell of pencils
October
Rain--the sound, feel, and smell of it
Coffee--I drink it all day long
Time alone (what's that? ;) )
Sprouts
Dark chocolate (or nuts and fruits covered in dark chocolate!)
Being outside on summer nights
Hoodie zip-up sweatshirts
Board games
Dates with my husband
The feel of Isaac's soft, dimpled cheek
The Word of God
Cloth diapering
Bubble baths
Swimming
Reading
The 10 people who read my blog
Making plans, setting goals, and having vision
My church
Food, in general
Baking
Using natural, non-toxic, non-disposable stuff
Traveling
Packages
New York City
London
Paris
My family
Christmas
Enjoying meals with family or friends
The Food Network
Caleb singing songs about God
Serving the Lord
Getting dressed up and going out somewhere fancy
My KitchenAid mixer
The ocean
Dancing
A really good song that makes me want to dance, cry, laugh, or praise God
Cool breezes on a hot summer day
Orange Cup
Jane Austen
Seeing school supplies at the store
My Simple shoes
Getting things organized
Writing
Nap time--when both of the boys actually fall asleep
Snow--how silently it falls from the sky, and how loudly it crunches under my feet
Trivia
Learning new things (and remembering them later!)
Hotels
A job well done
My husband's hugs
My father's smile
My mother's laugh
Seeing old couples still together
Road trips
Libraries (particularly the New York Public Library)
Heroes
Kings--the TV show, although I also love reading about British history
Sitting in a bookstore, drinking coffee, and reading a book that I don't have to pay for
Campfires
Awana
Long-sleeve t-shirts
Watching my kids sleep--particularly when they smile or laugh while sleeping
Fireplaces
Babies
Burt's Bees cologne
Old-school jazz
Sunrises and sunsets
Comments on my blog posts
Sleep
Used bookstores--I like to think about who owned those books
To let go and let myself truly act childish with the kids
Finding clothes that fit perfectly and look great
Breakfast and brunch foods
Fluffy white towels
Gentlemen--men who treat women like ladies
Making someone smile
Being "green"
Activities that keep my kids busy for more than 10 minutes at a time
Bakeries
Winning something or getting something for free
Red wine
Watching the choreography on old movies
Being a mom
Hiking
People who use correct grammar
Hearing my husband's voice on the phone
Packing for a trip

It took me a few days to compile this list. For inspiration, I asked Caleb what made him happy. He said, "Play doh and crayons." I asked him what he thought made me happy, and he said, "Folding laundry." Ha!

Wednesday

2009-07-15T09:29:00.003-05:00

Wednesday. I have made it to Wednesday. Or, shall I say, the kids have made it to Wednesday. On Monday, their fate did not look too clear. ;)

The problem on Monday was really my fault. I was going to take them to Bounce U, but I just didn't feel up to getting them out the door. So, we stuck around the house most of the day, venturing out only for a trip to Sprouts before dinner. When the boys don't have some structure in their day, they get a little wild. I don't blame them.

Tuesday was a ton of fun. We went over to Meme and Papa's house, which is always a big treat for the kids (and me). For the past week, Caleb had actually been counting down the days until he got to see his grandparents. So we went over there to play, eat, nap, swim, eat, swim, bathe, play, eat, and play. :) It was nice to take a break from our (messy!) house and be around some other adults.

Today we are breaking up the day by meeting my friend Karen and two of her boys for lunch. The kids (minus Isaac) will have fun in the germ-infested play area while Karen and I get to hang out. Then, it will be back home to put the boys down for naps and try to clean up the house a bit. Right now there are clothes piled up on the couch, waiting to be folded, dishes to put away and dishes to clean, beds to make, floors to vacuum and mop, counters to wipe... you know, the usual.

Sometimes I think back to how things were when Scott and I first got married. We lived in a cozy but roomy 2-bedroom/2-bath apartment, about 1200 square feet, which took about 30 minutes to clean top to bottom. We just didn't let it get that dirty, since there were only two of us. But now there are four of us, and two of us create much more mess than we clean up. :)

Well, here's hoping you have a happy Wednesday!

Random Thoughts

2009-07-11T16:08:00.003-05:00

I am going to be a single mom next week. Scott is going for his third year to be a counselor at a kids' camp through our church. He'll have a group of 9 boys who just finished the 3rd grade. I'll be praying for him! I know that at least one of those boys is not a Christian, so I'll be praying especially that he makes that important decision next week.

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Do you ever enter blog giveaways? There are a ton of them! I usually check out the ones at Natural Mommie, Sage and Savvy, and sometimes Ecobunga or Prizey. I have entered a whole bunch over the past several months, but I had never won one until this week! I entered a giveaway at Intentionally Katie, and I won a YoBaby prize pack. Cool, huh? Free stuff is always good. :) And if you've never been to Intentionally Katie's site, it is worth checking out. It's one of my new favorite blogs.

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Sigh. At a certain time of the day, I grow weary of cleaning up. I get tired of wiping the counters, sweeping the floors, folding laundry....and yet the kids keep wanting snacks that mess up the counters, or spilling food on the floor, or dirtying more clothes. It really is a never-ending job.

Today I feel tired. Just worn out, in general. I know that's normal after caring for a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, but I am just craving some time away.

I am very excited that Scott and I are planning our first-ever "just the two of us" vacation since our kids were born. We're going to go in October to coincide with our anniversary and his birthday. Right now we're leaning toward going to Seattle. I don't know exactly why, but Seattle seems like a place I could happily live. Maybe because it's pretty granola, and it rains a lot there (to me there is not much better than a cool, rainy day).

Have any of you ever been to Seattle? Any tips for traveling there?

Donating, Potty Training, and...Tortilla, Anyone?

2009-07-07T20:02:00.006-05:00

This morning we went to story time at the library. That's always tons of fun for the kids. Today they had a visit from Mother Goose--a fabulous old lady who dresses up, sings great preschool songs, recites nursery rhymes--the whole bit.

On the way to the library, we stopped at our local food bank to drop off some of the free-or-almost-free groceries I've collected over the past couple of months. I didn't expect what I found there: the place was packed. There are 12 parking spots surrounding the building, and they were all taken. We had to park across the street along with 3 other cars.

I took Caleb and Isaac in with me, and everyone inside was sitting knee to knee, waiting for donations. It was just so humbling to be there and see all the people in need. I walked up with my two little sacks of groceries, and I handed them to the lady at the counter. I am not one to like to donate in public, and I hesitate to even tell you this story because of it, but I wanted to pass on the great need that our own community has--and we live in a very wealthy city. I'm sure that they are in need wherever you live, too. A lady in the center told me as I was leaving, "God bless you." I was caught off guard, and I didn't even know what to say. I just felt like crying, honestly.

So, all that said, please consider donating to your local food banks. If you are a couponer, look for chances to get free or cheap stuff, and donate whatever you can.

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And now for a lighter topic...

WARNING: Discussion about poop!

We always have nap time right after lunch at our house. (Well, the boys do, anyway. I wish I did!) So, after lunch today, I took the kids to the bathroom to wash up and get ready to go to sleep. Isaac kept pointing at the toilet and saying, "Potty!" Now, he does this sometimes. He sees his brother sitting on the potty, I suppose, and wants to do it, too. So a few times a week, I let him sit there. He never really does anything. I think one time he may have peed a little, but I'm not sure.

Today, on the other hand, I sat him on the potty and he said, "Pee pee. Poo poo." Then he just pooped in the potty! Just like that! I remember how much I had to coax Caleb to poop in the potty--and he was over 3 years old! Caleb was in the bathroom with me, and he and I both kind of looked at each other, like "Did he really just poop?" Then we both cheered wildly for Isaac and told him, "Good job!" Isaac looked very pleased with himself, then he leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the cheek. What a kid.

But wait--that's not all! I asked him if he was done, but he kept saying, "Pee pee!" So I let him sit there for a couple more minutes, and he peed! Woo hoo! I couldn't be prouder. Who knows if he'll do it again anytime soon, but it's a great start!

(Yes, as in everything, Caleb was the complete opposite. He was pretty difficult to potty train. I wrote about it here. But I've been wanting to post that we have now completely outgrown the Pull-ups at night phase, since for the past month he has been staying dry at naps and night time! Yea, Caleb! We bought him some real underwear instead of the training underwear we'd been using, and he loves them. They have Thomas and Friends on them.)

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I took the kids on a quick run to Kroger tonight around 5:30. We were out of Caleb's milk, so I just needed to get that and a couple of other things. We should have been in and out in 10 minutes. However....

It started in the parking lot. "Mom, can I have a tortilla? I want a tortilla!" Kroger has a tortilleria where they make their own tortillas. They are super yummy, but they contain trans fat so I don't want Caleb to eat them.

"No, honey. We will eat dinner as soon as we get home. Daddy's grilling burgers right now, and I can give you a tortilla at home."

"I don't want to eat when we get home! I want a tortilla at the store!"

"No. We will eat when we get home."

We continued in this vain as we went into the store. Then things started going in slow motion: I saw Caleb walking next to my cart as we entered the bakery section, but he wasn't watching where he was going. And a lady pushing a cart was heading straight toward Caleb and was not slowing down. Why didn't I say anything? Why didn't I call out to Caleb to watch out? Why didn't I say something to the lady? I watched as the lady ran right into Caleb, running the edge of her cart right into Caleb's left cheek.

Caleb looked up at me, wide-eyed, mouth open but no sound coming out, face turning red. I scooped him up, and he buried his face in my shoulder. His arms were wrapped tightly around my neck, he was crying, and he would not hold his head back so I could see his injury. For all I knew, he had blood running down his face.

The lady with the cart started apologizing profusely. "It's okay," I said, more to myself and Caleb than to her. Out of nowhere, Kroger managers started appearing. A nice lady manager came over and appeared quite outraged at the woman driving the other cart, who by that time had excused herself and gone on with her shopping. I managed to pry Caleb off of my shoulder long enough to see his face, which was red but not bleeding. He would be okay.

The manager asked if she could get Caleb some ice, and I said yes. While she was gone, Caleb stopped crying and started to settle down. I asked him if his cheek still hurt, and he said "No, I just okay now."

When the manager returned we took the ice, and I held it to Caleb's cheek. Then another manager came over and asked kindly if there was anything else he could do. "Do you want some juice? Some cookies? We can't let you have a bad experience at Kroger!" Oh, you should have seen Caleb's face light up. "Cookies?" he said. The manager sent a bakery person to go fetch some cookies. He asked me if I wanted him to write up a report, and I declined. Caleb appeared just fine.

The bakery guy came back with THREE BIG cookies for Caleb. He handed them to Caleb, who tried to eat all three at one time. Then the bakery guy saw Isaac, and said, "Oh, little brother will want some, too! I'll be right back!" He came back with TWO more cookies for Isaac. Oh, boy. Isaac immediately started shoving them in his face. By the time we left, he was covered in gooey, melted chocolate chips.

Sigh. Next time I'll just let him have a tortilla!

Another Jesus?

2009-07-07T08:29:00.003-05:00

This morning we were listening to Veggie Tales music--Bob and Larry's Sunday Morning Songs. One of the songs on there is "Down in My Heart," and it goes like this:

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart
Down in my heart to stay!
And I'm so happy, so very happy
I have the love of Jesus in my heart

Caleb looked at me and said, "Why does he have two Jesuses?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He said that he has another Jesus in his heart! How can there be two?"

I thought for a second, then I started laughing. "He said that he has the love of Jesus in his heart, not another Jesus! There's only one Jesus, honey."

"Oh. That's good!" he replied.

Free Redbox DVD Rental through 7/7

2009-07-03T15:14:00.002-05:00

Have you ever tried Redbox? It's a little vending machine for DVDs that is outside stores like Walgreens, Walmart, and other stores. They offer new releases for just $1. You only get to keep the movie for one night, but that's still a great deal.

Want an even greater deal? Every month (sometimes more often), they give out discount codes for free rentals. We tried one in June, and it worked with no problems. It made a great, cheap, stay-at-home date night!

I found this on www.couponing101.com today:

Redbox has released a free movie code that is good all weekend! The free code is 7HE79B. Use it at any Redbox location to get a free 1 night movie rental. Code expires at midnight on Tuesday (7/7/09). Thanks Frugal is Fab! Not familiar with Redbox? Check out Redbox 101 for more information!

Find out where your closest Redbox location is here, and go enjoy a free movie over the long weekend!

Homemade Pizza

2009-07-01T16:38:00.005-05:00

If you've never made pizza before, I urge you to try! It's really not too hard, and the results are MUCH healthier and cheaper!

Pizza Crust
(recipe adapted from my Oster bread machine recipe book)

This recipe makes a 2-pound loaf. I use half the dough the day I make it, and freeze the rest to use later. It thaws really well!

1. In a bread machine, combine the following ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 3/8 cups of room temperature water (I know, it's a weird measurement. I just eyeball a little less than 1 1/2)
2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 cups of whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

2. Set your bread machine on the dough setting and walk away for 90 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4. Divide dough in half. Put one half in a freezer bag and stash for later use.

5. On a pizza pan or cookie sheet, press out the remaining half of the dough into about a 10" pizza crust.

6. Bake the crust alone for about 8 minutes.

7. Add pizza sauce and toppings of your choice.

8. Bake for another 12-14 minutes.

Try your own balance of white/wheat flour. We love whole wheat around here, but Scott and I weren't thrilled with an all whole wheat crust. These days I usually use about 2 1/2 cups whole wheat and 1 1/2 cups white.

I would post how I make my own pizza sauce, but I'm not really sure. :) I open up a small can of tomato sauce and a small can of tomato paste, and dump all of the sauce and about half the paste in a bowl. I mix it up well, then I add some spices that came with my spice rack labeled "pizza seasonings". I am pretty sure it has oregano and basil in it, but who knows what else is in there. It tastes good, though! Oh, I also add about a teaspoon of evaporated cane juice or half a packet of Truvia (you can just use sugar).

My favorite pizza toppings, you ask? Red & green bell peppers, baby bella mushrooms, or pineapple. :)

A New Freezer, and What's in Your Fridge?

2009-06-27T21:49:00.021-05:00

We bought a freezer on Thursday night. Yup, major purchase. I've been wanting one for a few months now, particularly since I've gotten more into couponing and cooking. Oftentimes I have to pass up deals at the store because I just don't have the freezer room at home (Dreyer's ice cream was on sale for $2.37 at Kroger!) or I have to forgo cooking a big batch of something because I don't have the space to store it.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Spending a bunch of money on a freezer in order to save a few dollars at the store doesn't make sense. Yes, you're right. It will take me quite awhile to recoup the money we spent on the freezer. But we will recoup it. I'll be able to buy fresh berries in bulk when they are in season and freeze them instead of spending an arm and a leg on them in the winter. I'll be able to buy chicken when it's on sale at $1.99 or less per pound and not have to give in and buy it at $2.99 or more. I can make more pizza dough, pasta sauce, and casseroles, and ultimately have to cook less. That's appealing.

And I must admit that one of the reasons that I wanted a freezer is organization. I really like things to be organized, and my freezer right now is anything but. Yes, I try to keep veggies on one shelf and fruits on another, but in the end stuff just gets shoved in wherever it will fit. And more times than not, something falls on your foot when you open the door.

The new freezer is a Kenmore Elite-- 20.6 cubic feet, upright, Energy Star, self-defrosting, with multi-port air baffles, a door lock, an electronic display and temperature sensors. It holds up to 711 pounds of food. Whoa. (Yes, we got it on a good 20% off sale.) It will be delivered Monday, and I can't wait to fill it up. :)

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I think it's very insightful to look inside someone's fridge. And since I've been writing about refrigeration, I thought I'd give you a peek at some of the things that you can always find inside our fridge. (Bear with me on the photos, as they are not MckMama quality! I took them a bit too hastily.)

On the top shelf, we always have at least 3 gallons of milk. Isaac drinks whole milk (as all kiddos should until they are 2), Caleb drinks 1%, and Scott and I drink skim.

We always have at least two large containers of yogurt in our fridge. I buy the organic whole milk kind for Isaac (he eats some every day), and the organic low-fat or non-fat vanilla kind for Caleb and me. I keep some little containers of flavored yogurt for Scott.

I would not like to live life without coffee. And we buy Yuban when it's on a good sale. It's bold and flavorful, and it's certified by the Rainforest Alliance. It would be much better for the environment and those who work in coffee fields to buy organic, fair-trade coffee, but I just can't afford it. If you know of an affordable one, let me know!

Ezekiel 4:9 are our favorite tortillas. In case you don't know the Biblical reference, here's the verse: "Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself." Well, the people at Food for Life who make these tortillas (and the other Ezekiel products) took these words seriously. They are made from sprouted grains, which are more nutrient-dense than flour. The tortillas are actually a complete protein. Interesting stuff, and scrumptious, too!

Hummus. Yummus. Scott actually won't eat it, which is a shame. And technically I'm not supposed to let Isaac have it, either, since it's made from sesame seeds. But...he has it now and then, with no signs of allergies. ;) I like hummus on carrots, celery, red pepper, and bread.

Now this is a really bad picture, but here is the applesauce section of our fridge. We always have some plain organic applesauce, which I use for baking (any time a recipe calls for oil, I nix it and use applesauce instead). I keep some sort of flavored organic applesauce as well (this one is blackberry applesauce), and I add it to Isaac's cereal (typically either rice, oatmeal, quinoa, or barley) in the mornings.

I also add a little of this to Isaac's cereal and to my own oatmeal in the mornings. It's ground flax meal. I buy flax seeds in bulk, and about every 3 weeks I'll grind up a few cups. Ground flax meal is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, especially for those of us who don't eat enough fish. It also has tons of fiber and other great nutrients. I have about 2 tablespoons each day, and Isaac has about 1 teaspoon.

Wheat germ goes in Isaac's oatmeal and mine, too. It, like flax meal, is actually very good tasting, even though it sounds strange.

I am not a big fan of juice (nutritionally speaking), but Caleb doesn't like plain water. So we mix about 2 ounces of juice with 8 ounces of water to dilute it. Caleb doesn't know the difference. He will only drink white grape or apple, though I'm trying to get him to branch out.

And last but not least, I keep my whole wheat flour in the fridge. Wheat flour goes rancid faster than normal flour, so it's best to keep it in the fridge. I use whole wheat flour in cookies, breads, pizza dough, cobblers--pretty much anything I bake. Using it in place of all-purpose "enriched" white flour is an easy substitute that greatly boosts the nutritional value of your foods.

Now it's your turn. Leave me a comment or make your own blog post about what's in YOUR fridge!

Making Walgreens Work for You

2009-06-25T16:18:00.009-05:00

I got a comment from my friend Kristen on a previous post asking about Walgreens' Register Rewards. I started to answer her in an email, but I thought my answer might benefit others, too, so I'm posting it here. Here's the original comment:

Hey, so I got my first set of Register Rewards at Walgreens, and I'm confused about something. If I apply the RR to my current purchase (for example, a St. Ives body wash for 2.99, get a 2.99 RR = FREE), then I can't also then apply that FREE-ness to the item I bought later with my RR (toilet paper, for example).

Most of the websites consider the item producing the RR for free, but then they also talk about how they got free stuff *with* their RRs.

They can't *both* be considered free. Does that make sense?

What she's referring to is the blogs like Money Saving Mom and Southern Savers that put together a list each week of all the "free" stuff and deals you can get at Walgreens and other stores. Walgreens often has specials where you buy an item at x price and get x dollars in Register Rewards, which means that the item is basically free. But my friend is exactly right--you can’t really get the item for free unless you already have a RR in your hand.

What ends up happening is that the first time you go to Walgreens, you spend real money. I spent something like $50 the first time I went to Walgreens and got lots of stuff, but I messed up on some purchases. (Read that post to see what I did wrong--hopefully it will keep you from making the same mistakes!) I did end up getting about $25 back, which I was able to use on subsequent visits.

The way to “work” Walgreens is to use those RRs to buy stuff that produces more RRs. That way you rarely pay any real money. For example, here's an ideal situation:

Today you go to Walgreens and get item A for $3 with a $3 reward and item B for $5 with a $5 reward. You spend $8 in real money (plus tax!), but you get $8 in RRs back. Total spent: $8 out-of-pocket (OOP).

Next week you go to Walgreens and get items C and D that are $4 each and produce two $4 RRs. You use your $8 in RRs from the previous week, and get an additional $8 in RRs. Woo hoo! Now you're in business! Total spent: $0 (or just the tax on the items, if applicable), plus $8 in RR to use on your next purchase!

Of course, that's an ideal world. Usually what ends up happening to me is that I have a $3 RR and a $5 RR, and the only thing I want to buy in the store is a $4 item that produces a RR. In that situation, I can either use the $3 RR and pay $1 out of pocket, or I can find a "filler" item for a dollar or more, and use the $5 RR. I can't use a $5 RR to pay for a $4 item.

There are a few things you have to keep in mind when "working Walgreens":

You can stretch those RRs even farther by using store and manufacturer coupons. For instance, if I want to buy some M&Ms for $2 that produce a $2 RR, I can also use a coupon forM&Ms and turn it into a money-maker.
You can't have more coupons than you have items. If you have a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon for one item, you have to find another "filler" item to purchase so that you have 2 coupons and 2 items. RRs are considered coupons.
Try to only buy things that produce RRs, and stockpile them! When there is a really good deal on something, I hit one or more Walgreens throughout the week and stock up.
You can't use a RR to produce the same RR. For example, if you buy those M&Ms and get the RR for it, you can't use that RR to buy another package of M&Ms. It won't print out a RR.
I've used expired RRs at two Walgreens and had no problems. So don't panic if your RRs are expiring! Wait for a good deal, or use them to buy a newspaper.

I have shopped at CVS a couple of times now, and I have to say that I like Walgreens better. Here's why:

At Walgreens, you don't have to use a shopper card that tracks your purchases. When there is a CVS deal on toothpaste that costs $2 and gives you a $2 reward, you can only get the deal once per shopper card. I like that with Walgreens, I can do as many transactions at as many sotres as I want and keep getting the same deal.
At least in my area, if I don't hit CVS on Sunday night, the deals are all gone. I have yet to get any good deals at any CVS around here because the shelves are scraped clean when I get there. At Walgreens, the good deals are usually still there on Tuesdays or even later in the week.

Anyway, back to Kristen's question, the first trip to Walgreens is really the most confusing. Once you get some RRs in your hand, you really CAN get stuff for free and shell out very little money. On my last trip I spent only $.26 and got some high priced items, plus more RRs back. But you don't really get anything for FREE until you use the RRs you have. If you get the RRs and then don't go back to Walgreens, you didn't get a good deal at all. Walgreens has these RR programs to keep you coming back in the store.

Whenever I tally up how much I spent at a store, I calculate how much was actually out of pocket, and I note how much I got back in rewards or gift cards that I can use next time.

I hope that helps a little. It definitely is a confusing thing to write about!

Vacation Bible School

2009-06-22T14:37:00.005-05:00

Hello, dear blog readers! I have missed you!

Last week was Vacation Bible School, so I had little time or energy to post. We recently lost our wonderful preschool coordinator, so I ended up filling that spot for VBS week. It was super fun! I got to work with some fabulous people and meet about 300 three-, four-, and five-year-olds. :)

The theme for the week was the armor of God, so each day the kids learned about a new piece of armor. The kids had an assembly time each day where they sang songs and watched puppet shows. I got to attend a couple of times during the week, and I sat with Caleb and his class. I am so glad that Caleb is at the age where he doesn't get upset when he sees me and then I have to leave. I had to hide all week from Isaac, covering my face with my notebook each time I passed his room, because he'll wail if he sees me and I don't come get him. Caleb was fine with seeing me come and go all morning. He absolutely loves it at church and feels at home there.

I got a whopping one picture during the entire week. I took this at Friday's preschool assembly. I intended to take several pictures, but my camera batteries died after this one! So I have one goofy pic to remember the week by. :)

We had an amazing turnout at VBS, with somewhere around 1300 kids attending. From what we know, at least 23 kids accepted Christ during the week. Yippee!

Menu Plan, Week of June 22

2009-06-22T13:45:00.004-05:00

Monday: Banana Pancakes

Tuesday: Spaghetti and meatballs with red sauce

Wednesday: Meatball subs

Thursday: Grilled chicken, zucchini, and squash

Friday: Chicken tenders and mashed sweet potatoes

Saturday: Pizza (Caleb's been asking for it--I'll try to post my recipes later)

Sunday: Eat out?

I made a big pot of red sauce tonight which should last us for a few months, and I made a big batch of meatballs so I was able to freeze enough for an extra couple of meals. I also made some "breakfast cookies" for Caleb following this recipe (more or less) from Ellie Krieger. On Wednesday I plan on making some more bread and maybe even try a recipe I found (but cannot for the life of me find right now!) for bagels.

"Gah isso goo!"

2009-06-12T08:45:00.004-05:00

First of all, here is my view as I write this:

I keep my laptop on a counter that overlooks the living room. When I'm checking my email in the morning, Isaac loves to climb up on the couch and watch me from there. Today, he brought his police car up on the counter. I don't particularly like him climbing, but to tell him no is like telling a fish not to swim. He just loves to climb, which is all new for me because Caleb never did. Caleb is much more cautious (he's careful, like me); Isaac is the risk-taker (I honestly have no idea where he got that from).

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On a typical night, I bathe the boys while Scott cleans the dishes. Then Scott takes Isaac and puts him to bed while I do the same with Caleb. Last night, for some reason I just wanted to switch and so I took Isaac. Isaac's routine is simple, but it takes a long time. We read him Goodnight Moon a couple of times (he adores that book), then rock him until he falls asleep. Last night he was a little antsy, so I started to sing to him. When he was younger, I'd sing "God is so Good" to him a lot. I haven't sung it in a few months, and for some reason it came to me last night. So I rocked him and started singing. After a few minutes, I had just sung "He's so good to..." and Isaac picked his head up off my shoulder, looked me in the eyes, and sang out, "Meeee!" I just laughed at him, he was so cute and earnest. Then he surprised me more. I kept singing, and within a few minutes he was singing most of the song with me. His version is this: "Gah isso goo a me!" I was just humbled and amazed, hearing a toddler version of a simple Biblical truth. When I heard Scott leave Caleb's room, I called to him to come and hear. Beautiful.

Going...going...gone

2009-06-10T17:25:00.005-05:00

Going....

Going....

Gone.

Yummy Turkey Burgers

2009-06-09T20:39:00.004-05:00

We had a neighborhood party on Saturday. It was held at our community pool (which we have never used--I'm a little frightened of how well it's taken care of--or not taken care of), and the HOA board had arranged for the folks from Mooyah to cater it for us. I'd never had a Mooyah burger before, and I'm not really a big burger fan to begin with (I probably have a real beef hamburger about 3 times a year), but boy howdy it was good. We filled out a slip of paper indicating what kind of toppings we wanted on it (Scott and I both chose a burger with cheese, sauteed mushrooms, lettuce, and A1 sauce), and they made it to order with the mondo grills they brought to the poolside. I don't think I've ever put sauteed mushrooms on a burger before, but I loved it!

So today when I was at Kroger, I decided to pick up the "fixins" for turkey burgers. (Any time I find a recipe I like, I try to "healthify" it as much as possible, which means lean turkey and not beef.) I stayed inside and sauteed some onions and mushrooms while Scott went outside to grill the burgers (just ground turkey mixed with a bit of onion powder, garlic, and pepper). I also sliced up some zucchini and squash for him to throw on the grill, and that made a great side dish. We plopped the meat on whole-grain buns, put slices of cheese on them, piled the onions and mushrooms on top, and dug in. Mmmmmmmmmm. We'll be doing that again. Soon.

I also felt like baking today, and I made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and some chocolate chip banana bread. These are two of my absolute favorite recipes! (Note: the bread calls for oil, which I replace with applesauce, and I use all whole wheat flour instead of half wheat/half white. Turns out great every time! I've made muffins from it, too, but I think I like the bread better.)

Snippets and Ceiling Fans

2009-06-02T20:07:00.004-05:00

Tonight Scott went out to the back porch to grill. (Yup, that wasn't on my menu plan when I posted it last night because I thought he might get bored with grilled chicken. But it's so yummy--that's what we both wanted again! I know you guys don't care about our menus, but posting them really helps me!) Scott let Caleb go out there and play while he was cooking, but he told Caleb that he needed to stay away from the grill. Caleb came in later saying, "I was good. I stayed away from the gorilla." :)

During dinner, Caleb told us about the boys and girls he played with at church that morning. I was working up there today to prepare for our summer programming, and so Caleb and Isaac had gone to child care for a few hours. Well, Caleb said that one of the boys was being too loud today, and the teacher told him to be quieter so he wouldn't wake a sleeping baby. "His volume button was turned up real loud. Not mine. I turned it down."

Whenever Scott or I are leaving the house (or even just the room sometimes), Isaac will wave and say "Bye bye. I wuv oo (I love you)." Oh, that just melts a mama's heart. We also love the way he says "Otay" whenever we ask him to do something. His vocabulary is pretty massive these days. I have no idea how many words and phrases he's up to now. He will repeat pretty much anything you say, but I don't count that because I'm not certain he understands it until he uses the word without being prompted.

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Today I realized that half of our fans were going clockwise and the other half were going counter-clockwise. I had to look it up to see which way they are really supposed to go in the summer. Counter-clockwise it is! I switched all of the ones that weren't going that way--that should help keep the house cooler! Proper use of ceiling fans can save you up to 40% on your cooling costs, which is a big deal here in the south especially. (Man, I don't like the heat of Texas summers! The countdown to fall is here...) One word to the wise, which I didn't learn until a couple of months ago by watching Stuff Happens--ceiling fans don't cool a room, they cool a person by making the sweat evaporate quickly on their skin. The fan can make you feel like it's about 8 degrees cooler in the room, even though it's not. Running the ceiling fan when no one is in the room is just a waste of electricity.

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I just put Caleb to bed, and now I am listening to him on the monitor singing "Jesus Loves Me." It's so sweet to hear that simple truth sung (unprompted) by a child!

Menu Plan, Week of June 1

2009-06-01T15:39:00.003-05:00

Here is our plan for the week (I think):

Monday: Chicken fajitas (using leftover grilled chicken) with peppers, cheese, onion, and lettuce

Tuesday: Popcorn chicken and mashed potatoes

Wednesday: Girls' Night Out! Leftovers for Scott :)

Thursday: Egg scramble and toast (using some Morningstar stuff from the freezer so I can free up space, and also something quick because I have a haircut that night--first one in 6 months!)

Friday: Ravioli (from the freezer), homemade bread, and salad

Saturday: Fend for yourself--we'll have burgers for lunch (free!) from our HOA party, so we probably won't be too hungry for dinner

Sunday: Eat out?

Just Another Manic Sunday

2009-05-31T19:51:00.004-05:00

Ahh. The end of another crazy day. On Sundays, I work at our church during the first worship service. Typically I'm able to actually go to worship at the second (and last) service time, but today I volunteered to help out in Isaac's classroom because they needed an extra teacher. I was happy to do so! Isaac's going through an I-want-Mommy-with-me-every-second-of-the-day phase. Realizing that someday he'll be a teenager and want nothing at all to do with me, I'll take the attention while I can get it. :)

After church, Scott had a meeting from 1-4. He's going to be a camp counselor again this year (I think this is his third time to go), and they had some CPR training and other stuff. So while he stayed at church, I took the kids home for a quick lunch and nap time. I settled the kids into their chairs and put some food in front of them, and I had to leave the room for a minute. As soon as I left, Isaac started crying. I heard Caleb say in (his attempt at) a deep voice, "Attention, Isaac. Please stop crying. Attention, Isaac." Where does he get stuff like this? Oh, it was hysterical.

I hurried the kids through lunch, but it was still after 2 by the time they finished. I put Caleb in his bed, and then it took me about 15 minutes or so to get Isaac asleep and in his crib. Caleb didn't actually fall asleep--he just stayed in his room and talked to himself (as usual). At one point I heard a crash, and I went in to investigate. I opened the door and looked in Caleb's bed, but he wasn't there. I looked all around the room (it's not that big, folks), but I didn't see him. "Caleb?" I said. Then I saw a pair of feet start to inch out from under the bed. Caleb worked his way out and looked at me sheepishly. "My Mack fell down, Mommy." (He had been playing with his Mack truck toy in bed, and I guess it had fallen.)

Isaac woke up crying around 3:15, which was good and bad. Bad because he didn't get a very long nap, but good because we needed to get going anyway. I was due to be back at church again from 4-6 to help at a party honoring all of our youth workers. So I packed the kids up and headed back to church.

The party went great, and I think everyone had a lot of fun. Those youth help us so much by volunteering in children's ministries! I think it is so important for kids to learn how to serve at a young age. It's too easy for teenagers especially to think that the world revolves around them and their problems. Serving helps them realize that's just not true!

Scott stayed at the party with me until 6, then he took the kids home while I helped clean up a little bit. Caleb fell sound asleep on the way home! Scott carried him in and put him on the bottom of the stairs to take off his shoes, and Caleb just fell over sideways and went back to sleep. He stayed there the whole time Isaac ate dinner and didn't wake up at all when I got home--not even when I took pictures of him. :)

Does that look comfortable to you? (And yes, I think he's been wearing this shirt in almost every picture I've taken recently. No, it's not the only shirt he owns--it's probably just the one that's always at the top of his clean laundry pile!)

He stayed there until about 7, when I scooped him up, changed him, and put him in bed. He's dirty and sweaty and smells like a boy from playing outside at church 3 times today, but he was just too worn out to take a bath tonight. No dinner, either!

Last Day of Preschool

2009-05-29T14:19:00.007-05:00

Caleb had his (sniff! sniff!) last day of school yesterday. We parents were invited to come up to join them in an end-of-year party.

Here is Caleb with his good friend and partner in crime, Wyatt. Don't they just look like they are ready to make some trouble?

The kids ate pizza for lunch. Even Caleb ate some! I am just thrilled that he is trying different foods these days. He can finally eat the same thing everyone else is eating! Even if he eats it upside down.

After lunch, the kids went out to the church's fenced-in courtyard for splashing fun. The teachers put out a few buckets of water, sponges, bubbles, squirt bottles, and other fun stuff. I put Caleb's ear plugs in and sent him out to play with the others.

At first, he was not so sure about the whole water thing. He didn't like it at all when his shorts got wet. He wanted to change clothes...now! I think Caleb, in general, is just a rule follower. He's my little Pharisee. He doesn't like it when rules aren't obeyed (even if he himself doesn't obey). Often I see him trying to "help" his friends obey the rules. If his teacher tells everyone to line up, for example, Caleb doesn't line up. He starts trying to usher everyone else into a line. He only gets in line once he sees that all the others are properly lined up. Maybe he'll be a teacher. Or a dictator. ;)

So since he's been told all year to stay out of the water and don't get your clothes dirty, he had a hard time adjusting at first. But soon, he was in there getting wet with the rest of them.

He even found a ladybug and let it sit on his hand! That's another big deal for my big boy. He is usually more the "admire from afar" kind of kid when it comes to bugs. (This is in direct contrast to Isaac, who just today tried to squish a poor rolly-polly with his fingers!)

Here is a picture of Caleb with his fabulous teachers and another friend from class.

He really had a great year. It's hard to believe that just a few months ago I was a nervous wreck dropping him off at his first day of preschool, wondering if I'd done the right thing in enrolling him. For him (and me), it was a good choice.

A Wonderful Wednesday

2009-05-27T14:38:00.005-05:00

Today was a pretty great day at the Taylor house. In the morning, Scott decided to work at home. That meant that at 6:00 when Isaac woke up, Scott was there (usually he has already left for work by then). Scott got up with Isaac and let me sleep in until 7:30. Bliss!

I decided that it was a great day to get outside. Meme and Papa (my parents) recently gave us a picnic table that they'd previously kept at their house for the kids. We put it outside on our porch, and today was the first time we used it. I'd picked up some little paint brushes at IKEA a few days ago, and we put them to use today.

Usually I am very hesitant about doing messy crafts, but that picnic table allows us the beauty of doing them outside--where messes belong!

When the kids got bored of painting, we moved over a few feet to our sand and water table. We bought it for Caleb last year, and it's fabulous. (And heck no, we didn't pay the price listed at the link above! It was WAY cheaper when we got it.) You are supposed to put sand in one half and water in the other half, but we didn't have any water in it. I just hadn't thought ahead enough at 8:30 in the morning to bring out some water to put in it. (One of the not-so-great things about our house is that there is no water facet in the backyard--you have to go out the gate to the side of the house to get to it. )

This was Isaac's first real play time in sand. He enjoyed it, but I was not enjoying it when I saw him pick up a handful of sand and shove it in his mouth. Yup, this is the same kid who eats the wood chips at the playground and loves to eat toilet paper. Sigh. I think he'll grow up to be able to eat all sorts of weird foods. Maybe he'll be like Anthony Bourdain.

He also liked to dump the sand out of the sand table, and he ended up with a nice pile of sand on the ground:

I captured a couple of funny Calebisms this morning. He was playing with the little blue boat, and I was playing with the red boat. At one point, my boat was chasing his around the sand. He said, "The red boat is coming! The red boat is coming!" I just about fell out of my chair laughing. :)

Later, he started calling the little shovel "Scoopy Do." And no, he's never seen Scooby Do, so I'm not sure where he picked that up!

After our outside time, I scooped the kids up and put them in the bathtub. After I'd given them baths and gotten a shower myself, we headed up to the library. Our library is so fabulous. You can check out as many books as you want at a time, and there are NO LATE FEES. I can't tell you how much money I would owe them if they charged late fees! The library also has wonderful story times for the kids, but there aren't any story times in May. Starting in June, we'll be at the library every week again.

Anyway, we had a great time at the library. We checked out as many books as my reusable bag could hold--about 20 or so, at least. I picked up a copy of Bringing up Boys by James Dobson. I've been meaning to read that for awhile. I finished The Shack by William P. Young a couple of days ago. It was interesting, even if the theology is a little skewed and the writing leaves something to be desired. In the book, the main character meets God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit face-to-face. It's fun to think about what it would be like to just sit and have dinner with God. What would YOU ask Him? I've been thinking about that for awhile, and honestly I can't think of anything really important that He left unanswered in His word. He gave us everything that we need to know for salvation, and while it would be fun to know how the earth was created, when exactly the dinosaurs lived, and how old the earth really is, it's not that important.

Okay, enough ramblings for now! :)

Deals on Simple Shoes

2009-05-26T08:08:00.002-05:00

I know, I know. You guys see me post about Simple Shoes all the time. I love them! Well, they currently have a great sale on some of their winter shoes! Buy now and keep 'em in your closet until fall. I just bought these for Scott:

Last fall they sold for $120 or more. Now they are $19.90! You can't beat that price, folks, especially for shoes that use recycled materials and are made in an environmentally responsible way. Hurry, because the sale was only supposed to be through Memorial Day. I had no trouble buying them this morning, but who knows how long it will last! They also have several cute women's shoes on sale, too!

Caleb's First Baseball Game

2009-05-25T09:42:00.006-05:00

Scott took Caleb to his first baseball game yesterday!

We had purchased tickets for Scott and Caleb to go to see our local Frisco RoughRiders play...who were they playing? Hmmm. Doesn't matter. Anyway, they went to watch the Riders. Scott was really worried that it would turn out similar to their awful trip to the movies, but Caleb was well-behaved and had a great time. Yea!

I made sure Scott took plenty of pictures for me. Here is Caleb holding his program outside of the ballpark. The Riders have a wonderful stadium.

At Kroger, you can get a $7 ticket for the grass seats which includes a free hat and a hot dog. Here's Caleb in his free hat. I'll let you guess whether Caleb actually ate his hot dog. :)

A view of the park from the grass seats:

The boys stayed at the park for a couple of hours, then Caleb got kind of restless. There is a playground at the ballpark (how cool is that!), but it was PACKED. There was a line to go up the slide! That's what they get for going on Memorial Day weekend, though.

So Scott and Caleb left, and Scott decided to take Caleb out for ice cream. I love that they got to go out and have a great daddy-son day.

And while they were gone, I was anticipating some quiet time of my own while Isaac took a nap. Isaac had other plans. His molars are coming in, and he had a particularly rough time yesterday. He ended up just screaming for about half an hour. So, it certainly wasn't quiet around here!

Night Time, Walgreens, and a Disgruntled Potato

2009-05-22T20:28:00.005-05:00

On most days, all I want to do after I put the kids to bed is slip into my jammies, put my glasses on, pour myself a cup of coffee (the tenth one of the day or so--but at least it's 1/2 caff), and curl up on my bed with a blanket and my laptop. I want to write and share the adventures of my day.

A lot of times this plan comes crashing down. Isaac has been a real booger lately when it comes to sleeping in his own room at night. Either we can't get him down to sleep at all in his room (thankfully this doesn't happen too often), or he'll wake up after an hour or two screaming, and we're both too tired to deal with trying to get him back to sleep in his room (this happens a lot). So every night he spends at least a portion of his night in our bed.

But right now it's 8:35, and Isaac went to sleep successfully in his own room at 8:00, and I have high hopes that he'll stay there at least long enough for me to write a little and maybe finish a book. We'll see. ;)

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There are two things I definitely wanted to share today. Neither is earth-shattering, folks, but it's news in my world.

The first is that Walgreens is finally really working for me. Two weeks ago, I went in and spent $5 out-of-pocket and got $9 in Register Rewards back. Today, I went in with those RRs and got a few things.

My plan was to just get stuff that gives RRs back. I knew it was a long shot, though--I had gone to the Walgreens by our church on Tuesday, and all the RR items were already gone. The sales start on Sunday, and I guess there are several couponers like me who read up and shop Walgreens strategically and had cleared the shelves of the freebie items. But I had these RRs burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided on a whim to stop by a different Walgreens on my way to Whole Foods today. Here's what I ended up getting:

If I'd gone in there with no coupons, my total would have been about $16. I spent $.26! And I got $6 in RR back!

I knew I wanted to get these items:

Dry Idea Clinical Strength deodorant ($5.99, get $5 RR back)
Skintimate shave gel ($1.99, get $1 RR back)

I had a $2 coupon for Dry Idea, and I had 2 RRs for $4.50 each. You can't get more items than you have coupons (RRs are counted as coupons), so I had to get at least 3 things. Then I saw in the ad that they have Mitchum deodorant on sale for $1.99 if you use the in-ad coupon, so I decided to get that (that's the kind of deodorant I usually use, for those who just need to know). But I still had more coupons than items--4 coupons and 3 items. So I went in search of a filler. I found that stainless steel ice cream scoop marked down on clearance for $.50. I figured I could use it for scooping cookie dough, so I got it. I went up to the register with those 4 items and my 4 coupons. The lady at the register (I always say "the lady who was checking me out" but Scott says I shouldn't say that) scanned my items, then she looked up at me and said some beautiful words: "Your coupons exceed your total. You have to get something else!" She reached for some kind of designer tea sitting next to her at a display. "You like tea?" I hastily looked around at the stuff at the front counter (there were 3 people behind me in line) and found that little bottle of Listerine for $.75. That would have to do! My new total was $.26, plus the $6 in RR back. Woo hoo!

Then I went to Whole Foods and spent $50. Hmph.

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I was cooking dinner tonight (one of my favorite comfort foods--a scramble of potatoes, onions, eggs, and cheese cooked in the skillet), listening to the sounds of the kids playing with Scott in the living room and my radio talk show (the Scott Wilder Show) on in the kitchen. I reached over to grab a potato, and I noticed that it looked funny. I mean, it was an organic potato, and often organic produce looks a little different than conventional stuff. But this? You be the judge.

Mr. Potato Head didn't look very happy tonight.

Trip to the Park

2009-05-18T16:17:00.007-05:00

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the park last week.

Caleb loves the park, but watching Isaac there is a chore. All he wants to do is eat the wood chips that are on the ground! I can't wait until he outgrows that!

My Target Purchase, May 18

2009-05-18T15:47:00.004-05:00

Raisin Bran--$.99 per box
(on sale at $1.99, plus $1 off from coupons.com, no longer available)

Special K--$1.50 per box
(on sale at $2.50, plus $1 off from coupons.com, no longer available)

Kix--$1.75 per box
(on sale at $2.50, plus $.75 off from coupons.com, no longer available)

Huggies Wipes--$1.24 and $1.49 each
(on sale for $1.99, plus coupons from Huggies mailer)

Always 32 & 28 count--$4.99 each PLUS got a $5 gift card back!
(on sale at $8.99 each, plus $4 off coupon from paper, plus special Target promotion when you buy 2)

Kraft salad dressing--$.49 each
($1 off 2 printable, $1 off 1 printable)

Kashi TLC bars--$2.13 each
(on sale for $2.88, plus $1.50 off 2 printable--not sure if it's still available)

Quaker Fiber granola bars--$1.92 each
(on sale for $2.42, plus $1 off 2 printable--not sure if it's still available)

Hershey's Bliss candy bar--FREE
($.99, plus $1 off printable)
(not pictured...um...I ate it already...)

And, okay, I bought a bunch of other stuff, too, but these are the best deals I got! For more on Target deals, go to Stretching a Buck's site. To print out a bunch of Target coupons, go to A Full Cup.

Surgery Day

2009-05-17T17:07:00.009-05:00

Caleb had his surgery on Thursday (double myringotomy and adenoidectomy), and I think things went very well. Here's how our day went.

I got up around 5am, showered and dressed, then woke up Scott and Isaac around 5:30. Meme and Papa (my parents) got to our house at 6:00, right after we'd woken up Caleb. We headed out the door about 6:20. Isaac was happy and didn't cry a bit when we left. Thank you, Jesus!

We went to Baylor Medical Center Frisco for this procedure, and we'd never been there before. We were impressed--the lobby was huge, with lots of big comfy chairs, tasteful artwork, and a super-high ceiling. It didn't have a hospital feel at all, which was good. They even had free pastries and gourmet coffee, which we appreciated.

We checked in and they gave us one of those little buzzer things to page us with throughout the morning--you know, like the things you get in restaurants to let you know when your table is ready? Now that makes sense! Caleb sat in a chair and colored on the cool new toy that his friend Jackson had stopped by and given him the day before.

We'd also surprised him that morning with a gift of our own: little Thomas and Percy trains. He attached to them right away and has taken them with him everywhere since.

Caleb was in a great mood and laughed and giggled and played a lot in the waiting room. By 7:30, they called us back to a tiny room of our own to prep Caleb for surgery. We changed him into a little hospital gown (I must say, there is nothing like seeing your baby in a hospital gown to make it all very real) while he got to watch Handy Manny on a little TV in the corner of the room.

The nurses were all fabulous, but I was particularly happy to see that one of our friends from church, Lori, was on duty that day and stopped by to chat with us. It was reassuring to see a friendly face. :)

The anesthesiologist came and talked to us, and then the ENT, Dr. T, came and talked to us. Everyone was pleased with how calm and happy Caleb was. It sounds like many kids have to have a sedative called Versed before they go to surgery to calm them down, but Caleb did just fine without it. I just kept telling him what was going to happen in as much kid-friendly detail as I could. (Caleb is one of those kids who needs to know what will happen and when, and once he does, he's good to go.) He knew that soon he'd go with the doctor, and the doctor would put a mask on his face like a breathing treatment (which he has seen Isaac have a hundred times), and the medicine in it would make him sleepy and want to take a nap.

At 8:10, the nurse said it was time, and she asked Caleb if he wanted to take a ride in the bed or if he wanted to walk. He chose to walk. What a brave boy he was! I don't think I will ever forget the image of Caleb walking away from me down that hospital corridor, his gown half-open in the back and revealing the Pull-up we'd put him in that morning (just in case), hand-in-hand with the nurse he'd never seen before, trusting her and trusting us, clutching his Pooh bear and his trains, and turning his head back to look at me and give a half-smile as he rounded a corner. As I went back to the little room with Scott to gather our stuff and head for the lobby, my eyes were full of tears.

I decided that the best thing we could do was eat, since we missed breakfast that morning. We went to the little cafe in the hospital and grabbed a quick bite, then went back to the lobby with our pager to wait. It didn't take long. Around 8:50, our pager went off and we quickly went up to the front desk. We were led to a little consult room to wait for the ENT.

Even though I knew in my head that this was a minor procedure and the chances of something going wrong were very slim, I was still nervous. The wait for the doctor was only a few minutes, but it felt soooo long. Finally, Dr. T came in and said the words we wanted to hear most: "Everything went fine." He said that there was still fluid in the ears when he put the tubes in (and Caleb had just finished another antibiotic for his last ear infection a few days ago), and the adenoid pad was what he called "mushy" for lack of a better term. He said that when the adenoid is repeatedly infected, it loses its firmer texture, and that's what happened in Caleb.

Then he said that Caleb was already awake, and so we should follow him quickly so we could be with him. I was on my feet in a flash. GET ME TO MY CHILD!! Sure enough, we went through some double doors and I could hear Caleb yelling hoarsly, "Mommy! Mommy!" I high-tailed it over to his recovery area, scooped him up, and held him in the rocking chair they'd put right by the bed. He whimpered and cried, but he quieted some as I rocked him.

If you've never had anesthesia or seen someone else waking up from it, it can be brutal. You feel disoriented and nauseated. You feel so sick and confused at the same time, it's just miserable. It doesn't usually last long, but it's a hard few minutes. We had been told that a lot of kids come out of anesthesia kicking and fighting, but Caleb didn't do that. He just whined. :)

The nurse told us that Caleb could be discharged as soon as he would drink something and hold it down, so we tried to encourage him to drink. He wouldn't have anything to do with that apple juice we offered him, though. After about 15 minutes, the nurse decided to transfer us to another area so they could have the space in the recovery room back, so I carried him as she led us to another room. I was so pleased to see that our friend Lori was the nurse for the area we arrived in! She took great care of Caleb (and us), and let me just sit and rock with Caleb for awhile.

Lori gave Caleb some Tylenol, and after I told him that he'd get to see Meme and Papa if he drank something, he had some juice. :)

By the time we got home, Caleb was still groggy but not whining anymore. He just wanted me to hold him and rock him for an hour or so. When it was time for lunch, he had a big enough appetite to eat and was feeling well enough to sit at the table. As soon as he was done eating, though, he said that he was tired and was ready for a nap.

I was so pleased and surprised at how quickly he rebounded from the surgery. I thought that with his adenoid removed, he'd complain more of a sore throat or be in pain. Nope! We gave him one more dose of Tylenol later in the day, but he really did just fine. He was sleepier than usual for a couple of days, but otherwise was back in the full swing of things. Kids really are resilient!

Menu Plan: Week of 5/11

2009-05-12T08:10:00.004-05:00

Monday: Leftover chicken spaghetti (that we took from Mom's house--thanks, Mom!) and salad (with Anne's salad dressing recipe!)

Tuesday: Banana pecan waffles

Wednesday: Chicken/black bean tacos (using extra stuff I have in the freezer--Scott has a meeting that night so I'll be short on time)

Thursday: Quiche with chicken sausage from Sprouts

Friday: Homemade pizza (I know, we end up eating pizza most Friday nights!)

$50 in Kraft Coupons

2009-05-11T09:32:00.003-05:00

If you haven't signed up for the Kraft Community, go here to learn more. As of today, they are giving away $50 in coupons to those signed up. I just printed mine--coupons for stuff like cheese, mayo, mustard, salad dressing, Ritz, Wheat Thins, etc. Combine these coupons with sales, and you'll be able to get a bunch of free stuff!

Do this quickly before the coupons are all claimed!

Bunnies; Isaac at 15 Months; Surgery Update

2009-05-09T13:49:00.010-05:00

You can tell it's spring time in Frisco when you see the bunnies in your yard. We've had a great time with the bunnies that come to visit us! I know they are pests to those with gardens and flowers, but we actually welcome them since they help (ahem!) eat our weeds. ;)

The boys and I will put out carrots and lettuce for the bunnies, too (organic, of course!). Caleb in particular loves to see the bunnies eating "our" food. (Now if only Caleb would eat carrots and lettuce...)

The first thing Isaac does in the morning is run to our back window to see if the
re are bunnies outside. He'll yell, "Bunny!" and turn to me and grin.

They are the closest thing we'll get to pets around here!

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Isaac had his 15-month well-visit appointment the other day. As usual, he was not really all well for his visit, but he wasn't too bad. He's been wheezing again, which his doc and I attribute to the rain and humidity. I think mold and mildew may be a trigger for him. His pediatrician listened to his lungs and said that he sounds like a squeaky toy. He'll stay on breathing treatments for the time being (pulmicort 1-2 times per day, albuterol as needed).

As I am prone to do, I took pictures of us with my camera to entertain him while we were waiting for the doctor to come in. (Yes, those are his Bobux shoes next to him.)

Isaac weighed in at 25 pounds, 10 ounces and measured at 32" long. Pretty average--about 50th to 75th percentile. Which is kind of funny, since Caleb is always at the top of the charts or off the charts. He's just a really tall kid for his age. (The pedi estimated that Caleb will be 6'2" when he reaches his full height--did you know they can project that when a kid is 2 year old?)

The pedi was very impressed when I told her that Isaac knows how to say at least 50 words. He even puts words together, which evidently kids don't normally do until about age 2. He says phrases like "Here you go" and "I did it." Sometimes he'll even say things like "Bye-bye, Daddy." I think he's a genius. ;) But I did have some thunder taken from me when Scott said that a 12 month old in the church nursery can say all her ABC's and count from 1 to 15. What?!? (See, parents, this is why you never compare children. :) )

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In other news, I've decided to move Caleb's surgery up to this Thursday, May 14. I'm trying to gently prepare him, but it's hard to prepare a 3-year-old. He actually got to visit a friend of his, Jackson, when he went to the hospital a few weeks ago. Caleb got to see Jackson having a good time at the hospital, so he isn't scared of it now. So far I've just told him that he's going to go to the hospital to see the doctor, that he'll take a nap there, and while he's sleeping the doctor will fix his ears. I've explained that he won't feel anything. Caleb is taking it all in stride.

Recipes: Chicken Tenders, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Cookies

2009-05-08T08:01:00.005-05:00

Last night was a go-to dinner for me. We had chicken tenders, mashed sweet potatoes, and salad. In case you're interested, here's what I do:

Baked Chicken Tenders

Heat oven to 350.
Place chicken tenders in a bowl or Ziploc bag.
Cover the chicken with about 1/2 cup of ranch dressing (I use fat free). Make sure the chicken gets evenly coated with the dressing. (The chicken will absorb more flavor if you let it marinate for an hour or so, but I never do.)
Dip the chicken in panko bread crumbs (or whatever you have on hand--last night I was out of panko and used crushed up wheat Ritz crackers--YUM!).
Line a baking sheet with foil and spray it with a little Pam.
Place chicken on the baking sheet, then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes
1. Cook sweet potatoes either in the oven or the microwave:

For cooking in the oven, poke the sweet potatoes with a fork a few times, lightly rub them with olive oil, and place them in a baking dish. Bake at 375 for about an hour or until you can stick a fork all the way through.

For cooking in the microwave, poke the sweet potatoes with a fork a few times, then place them on a plate in the microwave. For 3 sweet potatoes, cook for about 10-12 minutes, then let them stand for about 5 minutes.

2. After the sweet potatoes have cooled a bit, scoop the flesh into a medium bowl and mash
3. Add a splash of orange juice, some chopped pecans, a spoonful of brown sugar, and/or a pat of butter to taste. Enjoy!

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Ok, and here is my absolute favorite cookie recipe. I made some of these yesterday, too, for an after-dinner treat. The original recipe is here and is called Iowa City Oatmeal Cookies. I've made just a couple of changes to cut down on the fat and boost nutrition.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter (I use Smart Balance 50/50 blend)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 semisweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup Grape Nuts cereal (I've used granola, too, but the Grape Nuts do give a great crunch!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream together the butter and sugars.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Sift together the flour and baking soda; stir into the creamed mixture.
Stir in the oatmeal, chocolate, nuts and cereal.
Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

National Day of Prayer

2009-05-07T13:18:00.002-05:00

Today is the National Day of Prayer. To me, and you'll have to pardon the comparison, this is a lot like Earth Day. I mean, I don't need a special Earth Day to remind me to recycle or consume less. It's important to me, so I do that stuff every day of the year.

And I certainly don't need a National Day of Prayer to remember to pray. It's like breathing to me. It's part of who I am. I can't imagine going a day without praying. I personally couldn't get through the day without talking to God, and I have no idea how people who are not believers can find any real satisfaction in their lives without Him. He brings me a joy and inner peace that is simply not found anywhere else.

So, here's to making every day a day of prayer!

Thank You Luncheon

2009-05-06T16:03:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was a fun day. My fellow Awana commanders and I hosted a luncheon to thank our children's ministry staff. Each year we try to get them some sort of thank you present, but this year we decided to do something for them instead of buy something for them.

We asked our children's pastor, Gary, to set up a "meeting" at lunch time yesterday. When they got there, we had this table set up and waiting for them. Surprise!

We Vickey and Anne had lovingly prepared a meal of salad, bread, chicken parmesan, cavatini, cheesecake, and chocolate-covered strawberries--all made from scratch. Vickey had even monogrammed napkins with their initials on them.

I think everyone had a good time. It was nice to serve them for a change. Vickey, Anne, and I all dressed up in black and waited on them, trying to give them a fine dining experience (hoping they'd forget that they were really just in a Sunday School classroom).

Here is a picture of the three of us:

This is Karen threatening Melissa with a fork. Typical Karen. :)

The rest of the shots I got tended to have people with their mouths full or otherwise in silly positions, so I'll save the guests some embarrassment and not post them here. :)

While we were serving the VIPs, Anne's daughter Hannah helped with Isaac. She even brought a little dog stuffed animal for him, which he attached to right away.

Isaac even learned to say "Hannah" yesterday, although he calls her "Manna", which I think it adorable. Very biblical, you know.

Here are Hannah and Isaac in front of the second floor window, overlooking the construction of the new preschool building at our church.

We had a wonderful time yesterday. I feel so blessed to be able to work with such wonderful people. I truly love my church and these fabulous people! Thank you, Gary, Kristi, Karen, Vickie, Melissa, Connie, and all of those who have helped "behind the scenes" at Awana this year!

My Little Boy will have Surgery

2009-05-02T07:32:00.004-05:00

Well, folks, as many of you have seen from my Facebook posts, we went to the ENT on Friday morning and he did recommend placing tubes in both of Caleb's ears (myringotomy) and also removing his adenoid pad (adenoidectomy). Dr. T. (not to be confused with Mr. T.) actually said, "Oooh, wow" when he looked in Caleb's right ear. I'm thinking that wasn't a good sign.

Caleb had fluid in both of his ears, and Dr. T. said that he was unable to tell at this point if it was a viral or bacterial infection. He asked me about Caleb's ear history (which I shared here in my post Thursday), and from there we started talking about possibly getting the tubes in and the adenoids removed. He wanted Caleb to take a hearing test and a tympanometry. He led Caleb down the hall to a sound-proof room (which I believe every mother should have in their house! Bliss!). In the room, I held him in my lap while a lady put some headphones on his ears and explained that we'd play some hearing games. She was outside the booth, and she said words into a microphone, which Caleb could hear in his headphones. He had to repeat each word she said. He did great, but he did miss a couple. Then she came in the room and did the tympanometry--a test where they put a device in his ear for a few seconds and basically see how his ear drum responds to different amounts of air pressure. (Sounds weird, but it's painless. He's had it done before at the doctor's office.) He failed this test pretty miserably. From what I understand, Caleb is hearing things right now kind of like he was underwater--noises sound a bit garbled.

So we talked to Dr. T. for another minute, during which he confirmed that Caleb should have the tubes in and the adenoid removed. We went to check out and schedule his surgery. Here, we dealt with a lady on the office staff who was rude and treated me like I was stupid, but I won't even get into that here.

We scheduled his surgery for Thursday, 5/21 at one of our hospitals here in town. It's an outpatient procedure, so if things go normally he'll be home that afternoon.

*********************************
We got home from the doctor and Caleb mostly just laid around and watched TV. I put him on my bed with his pillow and his nap mat from school.

I thought he'd take a nap in the morning, but he ended up staying awake until his normal rest time after lunch. I let him sleep from 2:00 until 4:30, then I went in to see if I could wake him up. He was absolutely burning up. I scooped him up and took him to the living room and rocked with him for a few minutes. I got out 2 different thermometers and took his temperature. 104.2!!! And keep in mind that this is underarm temperature, which is about half to one degree lower than an oral temperature. AND Caleb's normal temperature is a degree below the average normal temperature (just like me--our norm is 97.6 instead of 98.6). So this was like having about 106 in the average person. I got a bit worried.

Dr. T. hadn't given us any prescriptions for Caleb's ear infections. I assumed that it was because he thought it might be viral, and he didn't want to prescribe an antibiotic for a viral infection. But I called our normal pediatrician (at 5:00 on a Friday!) and she was worried like I was about his high fever. She immediately prescribed some Augmentin for Caleb.

*********************
That brings us to today, Saturday. I sit here typing at 8:08 in the morning and Caleb is still asleep. He slept all through the night for the first time since Tuesday. Hopefully he's on the mend and will be back to his normal self soon.

Isaac, on the other hand, kept me up during the night, tossing and turning, coughing and sniffling...

Sick, Sick, and Sick Again

2009-04-30T20:54:00.003-05:00

Caleb is sick. Again. I didn't even post about the last couple of times he was sick (he had some sort of stomach bug 3 weeks ago, then bronchitis 2 weeks ago) because it seems like all I do is write about how he's sick! I hope that this increase in illness is due to his first year in preschool, and that he'll get it all over with now and be healthier in the future.

One can hope.

He woke up in the middle of the night last night (of course--I have never known a child who got really sick during the day--it's always at night). Scott went in and checked on him, then came back to report a few minutes later that Caleb was "burning up." That's Mommy's signal to step in. I am the designated drug administer. I gave him some children's Tylenol and tried to get him to go back to bed, but he was coughing and couldn't sleep. So I ended up taking him to the living room and rocking him to sleep (something I haven't done in a long time!), then laying him on the couch and sleeping beside him on the floor.

Now, a couple of weeks ago we went into the doctor as a follow-up from his bronchitis, and the doctor was very concerned that his ear infection from March never really cleared up completely. She'd been keeping an eye on it and checking it every couple of weeks, and it still didn't look really good. So she referred us to an ENT (ear/nose/throat doctor). That appointment is scheduled for Friday.

So I really didn't want to take Caleb to his pediatrician today and then to the ENT tomorrow. I called his pedi and told her what was up, and she agreed that he should be okay until tomorrow. We'll see what happens. Caleb hasn't complained too much of ear pain with this illness--it's been more fever (102.2 was the highest I recorded), cough, runny nose, and headache. He laid on the floor today in the living room, mostly watching TV, from 8:00 until 5:30. Seriously. I finally got him to eat some pretzels and Annie's bunnies arond 4:00, and he didn't use the bathroom at all until 5:30. He went to sleep tonight at 7:00--about an hour early for him.

Let me just recap here, for my own sake and for the record, Caleb's illnesses over the last six months or so:

10/25/08--right ear infection
11/24/08--right ear infection
2/18/09--right ear infection
2/19/09--rotavirus
3/4/09--follow-up appointment from ear infection, right ear still doesn't look great
3/14/09--left ear drum burst (and outer ear infection), right ear still looks iffy
3/27/09--follow-up appointment from ear infection, right ear still looks "pulled back"
4/2/09--stomach bug
4/11/09--bronchitis
4/14/09--follow-up from bronchitis, right ear still looks pulled back, referred to ENT
4/30/09--Caleb complains of some left ear pain, headache, fever, chills, cough, runny nose

Phew.

On top of all of this, we had to take Caleb to a special kids' dentist because his normal dentist thought he might have cavities. He's been complaining that his upper molars hurt on both sides. Now I'm thinking that it's just pain from his sinuses, because the dentist gave him the all-clear yesterday. She did, however, say that he has an extreme overbite and will need some orthodontia in a few years. (As she told me this, I just visualized money flying out of my pockets. Better start another SmartyPig account for that!)

Pray with me that the ENT will be able to help my little boy tomorrow. I won't be surprised if Caleb has to have tubes in his ears or his adenoids removed. I hope the doc recommends some sort of allergy testing, too.

A Few of My Favorite (Eco-Friendly) Things

2009-04-28T11:10:00.010-05:00

I've been meaning to do this for awhile, but here is a list of some of my favorite eco-friendly things from around our house.

EcoGear Backpack
I get so many comments about this backpack! When Caleb started preschool, I looked high and low for a backpack that would be the right size for him and didn't have toxic materials in it. Seriously, most backpacks have tons of vinyl, which contains lead. I found this one online at EcoGear and it fit the bill perfectly. It is super cute, and it's made out of organic cotton canvas, non-toxic dyes, recycled plastic, and sustainable wood. How cool is that? And even cooler--they now sell these at Target. They have other designs--a pig, an elephant, and a panda. They are the perfect size for a 2-5 year-old to carry. Well worth the $29!

(You can see a picture of Caleb wearing this backpack on my left sidebar. He was 2.5 at the time.)

Bobux Shoes for Babies and Toddlers
Another thing people comment on a lot are Isaac's shoes. When he was smaller, he wore Bobux soft-soled shoes like the ones on the left here (his were a different style, but these are cute!). Bobux uses what they call "eco-leather", which you can read about here. I like knowing that Bobux shoes are safe for Isaac to put in his mouth (cuz, you know, that's what babies do)!

I must say that it is pretty hard to find eco-friendly shoes for toddlers. There are several options for babies and big kids (including the ones from Si mple Shoes), but not as many for early walkers. I was happy when I found these at Bobux. They are from the i-walk collection.

Check for coupons at retailmenot.com before you buy. Usually you can find a 15% off coupon.

Shoes for Mom and Dad
While I'm reviewing shoes, I should throw my own shoes in the mix. I love my Simple Shoes! I've had them for almost a year now, I think, and they are holding up well. They are super comfy and stylish, too. The bottoms of the shoes are made from recycled car tires, the laces are old plastic bottles, and the inner is made from organic cotton and hemp. I hear Ellen wore them on her show on Earth Day!

You can buy these at simpleshoes.com or at amazon.com for about $55 or less. (Simple also has some incredibly cool boots that are on sale now but are still out of my price range. Maybe Mother's Day...?)

Non-Vinyl Lunchbox
Just like the backpack, I wanted a lunchbox that wasn't made of vinyl, either. After all, the kids at preschool actually eat out of their lunchboxes, and oftentimes food comes in contact with them. I wanted him to have one without lead!

Crocodile Creek was the answer for us. Isn't this firetruck lunchbox adorable? It's a great size for him and fits several reusable containers (because of course we don't use plastic bags!). It is phthalate and PVC-free. It's about $15 at amazon or Whole Foods.

Steamer Mop
We have quite a bit of tile flooring in our house, and I have NOT been happy with the job that my lousy Swiffer Wet Jet does in cleaning it. Not only does it not clean very well, it uses yucky chemicals and leaves them on my floor. I always feel like cleaning up my floor after I clean it up! I am just striving to have a house that is as non-toxic as possible (especially since I have a toddler who likes to eat everything that falls on the floor). To that end, I have had my eye on a steamer mop for several months. I finally broke down and bought one a couple of weeks ago. I LOVE IT!

I got the Eureka Enviro Steamer. It uses hot water to steam the floors. That's it! Just water--no chemicals. It's really quiet and easy to use, and I finally feel like my floors are clean. I bought mine from amazon for about $68. A little pricey, but in the long run it makes sense because I don't have to pay for any replacement pads or refills like I would with the Swiffer. The steamer uses cloth pads that you just stick in the washer and hang to dry. Yea!

That's all for now. Perhaps I'll have a volume 2 of this in the future!

Menu Plan, Week of April 27

2009-04-27T14:50:00.003-05:00

Last week's menu worked out pretty well. The banana pecan waffles were incredible! I think that will become a new special treat around here. The recipe makes 12 waffles, and so I had plenty of leftovers to put in the freezer. They thaw and heat wonderfully by popping them in the toaster! (Note: I only use about half the butter called for, and I use whole wheat flour--they were still great!)

The macaroni and cheese was fabulous, too. What a great recipe! I've used Alton Brown's recipe from Good Eats for about a year now, and it's great, too, but according to Scott (the ultimate judge on all things food in our house), the new one from Pioneer Woman is better. (And she has beautiful step-by-step photos.)

Another big win was the chicken & black bean taco filling. I meant to make it into quesadillas, but I got lazy and just plopped it into some sprouted tortillas for yummy tacos. The recipe made plenty to freeze and reuse as an easy meal in the future.

Let's hope this week's menu goes as well! Most of my items are based on what's on sale at Sprouts this week. They have particularly good deals on chicken, chicken parmesan sausage, and pineapple which I'm going to use.

Monday: Tortellini and salad

Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner--Quiche with spinach, mushrooms, and chicken sausage

Wednesday: Leftovers (last night of Awana!)

Thursday: Teriyaki chicken stir-fry over brown rice (we were supposed to have this last week, but skipped it)

Friday: Homemade pineapple pizza

Saturday: Potluck dinner at the church for the Awana leaders

Sunday: Either eat out or fend for yourself! :)

Cheap Organic Clothes

2009-04-21T11:54:00.004-05:00

Whenever possible, I buy clothes that are 100% cotton. They are soft, cozy, and breathable. Plus, after Caleb was born I found out that he is very sensitive to synthetics like polyester--he'll break out in a bright red rash if his skin rubs against them too much.

But did you know that it takes about 1/3 of a pound of toxic pesticides and fertilizers to produce the cotton for a single t-shirt? (See here, here, and here for just a few stats.) These toxins are getting into our water sources and causing cancer and other awful problems.

The answer, of course, is to buy organic clothing, but it has traditionally been very expensive. Now there's hope! My thoughts on WalMart overall are pretty mixed, but they do a great job at incorporating organic clothing and accessories into their mix.

If you search their store online for "organic cotton", you get 164 results! They carry all sorts of CHEAP organic cotton items. We're talking about $10 for a 2-pack of baby blankets, or $4 for tank tops like the one below.

But wait, there's more! This month at WalMart (in stores and online), they have some cute Earth Day inspired organic cotton t-shirts for all ages from $4-8. Woo hoo! I bought several last week (like the one pictured below).

I think WalMart is about to get more of my business. (Plus, for those looking for an even better deal, walmart.com participates in Bank of America's Add it Up program, so you can get 4% cash back on your purchases.)

Giveaway from LifeWithoutPlastic.com

2009-04-20T08:39:00.006-05:00

There is a fantastic giveaway over at Bellaziza's this week. They are giving away over $200 in products from LifeWithoutPlastic.com, including the following:

A set of 4 stainless steel airtight food storage containers, a children’s 3-piece stainless steel dish set, a children’s 3-piece green frog dish set, a yellow zebra mug, a set of 4 colored children’s bowls, AND a Klean Kanteen 12 oz. sippy bottle with adapter and spouts!!

The website looks pretty cool, and offers stuff like stainless steel water bottles (which I adore and carry everywhere) and wooden and stainless steel tableware. Soon they'll have a stainless steel ice cube tray, which looks fabulous, especially for freezing homemade baby food.

Entries are accepted through midnight tonight.

Menu Plan, Week of 4/20

2009-04-19T22:10:00.004-05:00

I have found that one of the best ways for me to save money is to plan out my meals. If I don't have a plan, it becomes too easy for me to get frustrated and go through a drive thru! So, I'm going to try to start posting my menu plans each week. For more menu planning ideas, go here.

Dinners
Monday: Breakfast for Dinner--Pecan waffles, scrambled eggs, coffee, and juice

Tuesday: Mac and cheese, salad, steamed broccoli

Wednesday: Leftovers (It's Awana night, so I don't have time to cook!)

Thursday: Teriyaki chicken bowl (brown rice, sauteed chicken, steamed veggies, teriyaki sauce)

Friday: Ravioli, salad

Saturday: Chicken Quesadillas

Sunday: Leftovers (Awana again, no time to cook)

I also plan on making breakfast cookies and chunky banana bran muffins.

A Day at the Movies

2009-04-17T20:04:00.008-05:00

When Caleb started potty training, he was a little reluctant. To offer him an incentive, we told him that when he was potty trained, he would get to go see a movie in a big theater. Well, today was the day!

He's actually been potty trained pretty well for a couple of months, but there just weren't any appropriate movies out there to take him to. But AMC solved our problem--they had a Disney Matinee for preschoolers today (runs through Thursday, I think, if you are interested!) and showed the movie Cars. How perfect! That is Caleb's favorite movie.

Scott was so excited when he heard about the matinee. He made plans to take off work and make a day of it. The movie started at 10 at our local mall, and after the movie Scott planned to take him to lunch, have a ride on the carousel, and play with the trains at Barnes and Noble (one of his favorite free activities). Unfortunately, that didn't work out so well.

From what I hear, things started out well. Caleb did fine before and during the movie. He had brought his favorite stuffed animal, Pooh, and hugged him tight while he watched Cars.

After the movie, he kept chewing on Pooh. Here's the order of events, as I gathered them from Scott.

Scott: "Don't chew on Pooh, Caleb."
Caleb chews on Pooh.
Scott: "If you chew on Pooh again, Caleb, I will take him away from you."
Caleb chews on Pooh.
Scott takes Pooh away.
Caleb runs off across the food court in the mall, screaming bloody murder.
Scott runs after Caleb and catches up to him. He explains to a sobbing Caleb that it is not okay to run off in a mall, and tells him how dangerous that is. He tells Caleb he will get a spanking.
Caleb slaps Scott across the face!
Scott scoops Caleb up and takes him out to the car. Plans for the fun daddy-son lunch and carousel ride are abandoned. Scott takes Caleb home, spanks him, and sends him to his room to cool off.

Poor Scott. I feel so bad that he took off work for that. It could have been such a fun day.

Discount on Charlie's Soap

2009-04-17T09:26:00.002-05:00

Charlie's is my favorite all-natural laundry detergent. I have never tried anything better than Charlie's (and I used Crunchy Clean for about a year) that is safe for the environment and for sensitive skin. It really works and gets your clothes very clean. I use it on all our clothes, including cloth diapers. There's no fragrance added, either.

I haven't seen Charlie's run any discounts before, so I was pleased when I got this in my inbox today:

Charlie’s Soap, Inc is providing coupons to be used on our new shopping cart from today until Apr. 22, 2009.

When you get to the checkout page, just put which coupon you’d like in the field and hit the SUBMIT COUPON button. Voila! Instant fun! Won’t remember them by the time you go to www.charliesoap.com? No problem. Just click the AVAILABLE COUPONS button and it will list them. Limit one coupon per order, so choose wisely!

totebag: Enter this coupon to get a non-woven, reusable grocery tote bag for just $2 with any purchase.

freetote: Enter this coupon to get a non-woven, reusable grocery tote FREE with any purchase of $40 or more.

april15: Enter this coupon to get an additional $5 off any purchase of $50 or more.

fairtax: Enter this coupon to get an additional $10 off any purchase of $100 or more.

As always, thank you so very much for your support. Don’t forget to Refer-A-Friend to get your own private coupon! And if you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

C. Taylor Sutherland, III

Pres. Charlie's Soap, Inc.

800-854-3541 (Toll Free)

336-548-6035 (PH)

336-548-3626 (FX)

www.charliesoap.com

Progress!!

2009-04-17T07:37:00.003-05:00

I've posted before about Caleb's horrible food habits. The list of foods that he'll actually eat is pretty short, especially for a 3-year-old. Isaac eats just as many (if not more) foods than Caleb.

But things have taken a turn in the past few weeks. At the end of March, we went out to lunch at Tin Star with some dear friends of ours, Lin and CaLyn. Caleb had a quesadilla--which in an of itself is a pretty new form of food for him. But then he took a french fry and, at CaLyn's encouragement, dipped it into ketchup and ATE it! I know, I know, it's still junk food. But before that point, Caleb never would have dipped any one food into another food. Any time we suggested it, he looked at us like we were crazy.

A week or so after that, I had some chips and queso from Taco Cabana. (We eat healthily around here most of the time, but we do have our vices!) He has always liked chips and asks for them whenever I get them. This time, I told him he could have one if he'd dip it in the cheese first. I expected a flat refusal, but he complied! And he liked it! Ever since then, he has loved chips with queso!

And here comes the real biggie in my book: on Wednesday night, I hosted a pizza party for some of the kids at Awana for meeting a Scripture memory goal. I told Caleb a few days before hand that he could go to the party with me, and that there would be big kids there eating pizza. "I want to eat pizza, too!" he kept saying. He's said stuff like this before, then balked at the actual tasting, so I didn't hold my breath. But sure enough, at the party he loaded a plate with a piece of pizza, went to sit down without me, then called from across the room, "Mommy, I'm eating pizza!" I went over to see him, and I just about cried. My child was eating the same meal I was! There is hope that we can all eat the same food together at the dinner table someday!

After the pizza party, I had to lead Awana, so Caleb went to childcare. I had brought some snacks for him to have during the pizza party if he had refused to eat the pizza, and I gave those to his teacher in case he got hungry later. I had forgotten that there was some blackberry pomegranate yogurt in the bag--a snack I had intended for me. When I picked Caleb up from childcare, his teacher said, "Caleb ate all of his yogurt." I just stood there, with what I'm sure was a very stupid look on my face. "He ate that yogurt? Wow!"

Caleb actually likes yogurt, but until now he's always just wanted plain yogurt with no flavoring. If he'll eat flavored yogurt now, I can make him some with real fresh fruit in there! I can hide all sorts of nutrition in yogurt if he'll let me. He ended up having not one but two more of those flavored yogurt containers the next day. (Which is great because he's currently on an antibiotic.) I hope that he's not stuck on it being in a commercial container, but we'll see.

All in all, I am SO pleased with his progress. We are finally getting somewhere! Please pray that he'll continue to try new foods--and that not all of them will be junk!

Day Out with Thomas

2009-04-07T15:42:00.006-05:00

Ok, I'm super behind on posting. Things have just been busier than normal.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3

Scott called in to our Christian radio station (KLTY) and won tickets to Day Out with Thomas--an event in downtown Grapevine where Thomas the Tank Engine takes you on a 25-minute ride on the old historic railroad. We read about it online and thought Caleb would have fun there, so it was great that Scott was able to win tickets. Evidently there aren't too many people who call in to KLTY at 5:45 in the morning (when Scott is driving in to work)--he was both caller 4 and 9!

Our train ride was scheduled for 9:00, and the website said to get there one hour early. I couldn't imagine why we'd need to get there that early, but we complied. We pulled into downtown Grapevine around 7:45, and I hopped out at the Main Street Bakery to buy us a croissant, a cinnamon scone, and some coffee (all yummy!). We ate in the car, then went over to the railroad station where the event was.

I have to say, the event was a little disappointing. They had a toy train display which was really neat--some rich man's very expensive collection of tiny locomotives--but of course it was covered with big signs that say, "DON'T TOUCH!" Perfect for preschoolers, of course. Then there was the booth for temporary tattoos. Yup, tattoos. For 3- and 4-year-olds??? Wha?!?!? Other than that, there was a gift shop, lots of gross-looking carnie food (corn dogs, funnel cakes, and the like--smelled disgusting at 8:00 in the morning, I must say), and a photo op with Sir Topham Hat (stand in line for 30 minutes, pose for 1 minute, pay $14 dollars for a picture).

The train ride itself was the main event. Here's Caleb heading off toward the train.

We eagerly hopped on board and settled into the upholstered seats.

Windows lined the train car, so we got a good view of...well, the backs of low-income houses. Lots of clothes hanging from clotheslines, abandoned play equipment, broken trampolines...Scott even got to see a man in a wife beater surfing the internet in his kitchen! Oh, yes. What a view it was!

Seriously, though, it was okay. The kids certainly didn't care about the view. Caleb wasn't feeling very well that day, and he was tired from waking up super early that morning. He didn't say much during our ride, but that's just part of his personality. When he experiences new things, he just kind of takes it all in, then he talks about it for the rest of the day.

I'm glad we didn't pay a whopping $18 apiece for the tickets, but it was a good family activity.

My First Real Foray into Walgreens

2009-04-07T11:24:00.006-05:00

I promise this won't turn into a blog all about couponing, and there will be posts soon with pictures of my cute boys and our recent adventures, but this is what's on my mind at the moment and therefore it's what gets posted! :)

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I went to Walgreens once last Tuesday, but I only purchased one thing (and made 50 cents). This time I decided to go for it and use the advice from Southern Savers to get some major deals.

I went through the aisles, trying to carefully match up the items in the ad to the items in store. As you'll see below, this is extremely important! Walgreens has really high prices on some things, so if you don't get the one on sale, you are paying WAY more than you need to!

Here's what I got:

Cottonelle Fresh Wipes, 42 pack
Wal-itin Allergy 10 mg 10-pack
Visine
Physician's Formula Organic Mascara
4 bags of Hershey's candy
Tylenol Sinus
Wal-itin Allergy 10 mg 30-pack
Colgate Total toothpaste

I went to the check out and used my gazillion coupons like a good little shopper. The total came out to be a staggering $50.86. WHOA! I reassured myself, though, that the first time you shop at Walgreens, you have to pay out real money (and I got mostly medicines, after all). After your first big purchase, you end up with so many Register Rewards and rebates that you end up using that on your next trip instead of real money.

So I took Isaac and my bags and went out to the car. Once I was safely in our Explorer, I started looking through my receipt and looking for my Register Rewards. There weren't any! I should have gotten $3.49 in RR from my toothpaste, and $3 from my Visine and Tylenol purchase. Sighing, I unbuckled Isaac from his carseat, grabbed my bags, and headed back inside to talk to a manager.

At the counter, I told the manager I was missing two RR and I was trying to figure out why I didn't get them. I quickly figured out that I got the wrong size on my toothpaste, so I went to exchange that while he looked at the other problem. There was a deal where you buy two qualifying items and you get $3 in Register Rewards. I bought Visine and Tylenol Sinus. He looked at the items, looked at the ad, looked at the items some more, and shrugged.

He returned the Tylenol and the Visine, then rang it up again. Still no RR printed out. Finally he just rang it up as a $3 discount and gave me $3 cash. That was nice. And once I got the right toothpaste, I got my RR for that, too. So I left the store for the second time (with 3 receipts) feeling pretty good.

But now that I am home and looking through my receipts again, I am so frustrated. I made two big boo-boos.

#1: I bought some Cottonelle Fresh Wipes (hey, I have a potty trainer at home!) which, if I had thought to use the in-store coupon, would have been $1.49 after coupling it with the manufacturer's coupon. But no, I forgot I had to tear the coupon out of the ad, so I ended up spending a whopping $3.19 for those suckers. Aaaaaaaaah!! SAVINGS LOST: $1.70.

#2: I tried to buy Visine at $3.49 and Tylenol Sinus at $4.99. Well, evidently I bought the wrong items. My Visine rang up at $6.99 and my Tylenol rang up at $7.49. What?!?? I just checked the ad AGAIN and evidently I got the wrong size Visine and I should have gotten "Rapid Release" Tylenol. Oh, the details. (And that would be why the RR didn't print!!) I did get the $3 back, but I lost out on savings. And my receipts are totally messed up, indicating I returned those items and got discounts on them, so I don't think I could return them without a major hassle. SAVINGS LOST: (deep breath) $6.00.

I used $14 in coupons. These are the rebates and RR I have coming from these purchases:

$10 from PF organic mascara purchase (through Walgreens esavers rebates)
$9.95 from PF organic mascara purchase (through PF) (YUP! Since the mascara was only $9.95, that means I made $10!)
$3.50 RR from the toothpaste
$5 from the candy (esaver rebate)
$6.99 from the Wal-itin (esaver rebate)

That totals $34.14 ($21.99 from ebates, which actually gives me an additional 10% back for putting it on a gift card, so add $2.20; $3.50 RR, $9.95 mail-in rebate) that I'll get back from the purchases. Not bad, but I can do much better--and I will next time!

If you are going to Walgreens, I definitely recommend the PF organic makeup deal--that's a money maker. The toothpaste comes out free (actually you can make a dollar if you use a coupon), and the candy comes out to 87 cents per bag if you use the $1.50 coupon that was in the paper a few weeks ago.

If you have questions about any of these deals, check out the Southern Saver post for Walgreens this week.

Rear Facing Until at Least Age 2

2009-04-02T15:28:00.002-05:00

Go here for the full story, but the AAP has just changed its guidelines on child carseat safety.

We've always heard to turn our kids around from rear-facing to forward-facing when they are 20 pounds and at least one year old. Well, here is an excerpt from the AAP's release:

New research indicates that toddlers are more than five timessafer riding rear-facing in a car safety seat up to their secondbirthday....
Toddlers should remain rear-facing in a convertible car seatuntil they have reached the maximum height and weight recommendedfor the model, or at least the age of 2.

There a great post here by El, who is a child passenger safety technician. She has several helpful links off of her post.

We had just turned Isaac around last week (at 14 months) and were thinking we were conservative to wait so long. I will be telling Scott that he's going to have to turn that thing back around now!

Target; Walgreens; Donating Stuff

2009-03-31T15:01:00.004-05:00

Well, after I learned my lesson from my last grocery store trips, I waited to do my major coupon shopping until Caleb was in preschool. Shopping with only one kiddo is infinitely easier.

So today I went to Target and spent $66.26. A big chunk of that was some summer clothes for Isaac and Caleb--I bought 5 pairs of cute shorts at $4 each (good deal!). I also splurged on some new cups for Caleb, since he's chewed on the tops of his other cups (that he's had for a couple of years), and he still needs sippies for his preschool lunches, car trips, etc. But here are the highlights of the other things I got:

Mega pack (184 count) of Huggies wipes--$.49
8 Johnson's Buddies soaps--FREE
Pledge multi-surface spray--$.74
Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner--$1.75
2 Barilla Whole Grain pasta--$.74 each
2 Musselman applesauce 4-packs--$1.00 each
Jello pudding 6-pack--$1.44
Diet Dr. Pepper 2-liter--FREE
2 Steamfresh Veggies--$.65 each

All in all, I saved $20.99 just from coupons. If you shop at Target, go here to print out coupons before you go. These are store coupons, so you can combine them with manufacturer coupons if you have them!

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I also stopped by Walgreens today for my first foray into couponing there. It was actually a bit intimidating! You have to really know what you are looking for. I ended up getting only one item: Skintimate shaving cream. I paid $2.49 and I got $3 in Register Rewards, which I can use as a credit on my next purchase. The plan is to keep using those Register Rewards to buy more stuff, get more Register Rewards, etc. In the end, Walgreens should be paying me to shop there. We'll see. I'm starting small!

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Now, some of the stuff that I get from couponing is stuff that I don't normally use. My plan with couponing is to use it as a tool to not only help my budget, but to help others as well. I took the boys with me a couple of weeks ago to donate some food to our city's Family Services Center. I expected to just drop off some stuff and go, but I actually had a man strike up a conversation with me while I was there. He wanted to thank me for donating items, and he told me his story of how he got there. Just a few months ago, he was employed and making over $80K per year. But then he got laid off--out of the blue--and he didn't have much savings to fall back on. So now he's gone from living comfortably to depending on the generosity of others to make it. He has two children.

This really made an impact on me. All I had donated that day was some baby food jars that we'd had left from Caleb (that stuff has a really long shelf life!!), some disposable diapers that Isaac was too big to wear, and some other miscellaneous stuff like that. Nothing huge. And I thought, "How can I do more?"

So while I research all this couponing stuff, I keep that man in my mind. Every time I see a coupon for something that I don't think I'll use, I think, "Could the food bank use that product?" If the answer is yes, then I go ahead and clip the coupon. If I come across a deal where I can get it for free or dirt cheap, I'll pick it up so I can donate it.

Yes, it takes extra time. Yes, it actually ends up costing me a little money (although I do get tax benefits from the donations). But I feel that it's the right thing for me to do.

All that said, if you see weird stuff on my shopping trip posts and start wondering why I would buy that, more than likely it's because I'm going to donate it.

And yes, this hits on another subject that is dear to me: the environment. I always feel a tinge of guilt when I buy things that are in small packages just to get a deal, or when I buy cleaning supplies at a great price when normally I wouldn't allow them in my home (many of those cleaning supplies are just toxic, and we try to use all natural stuff here). But ultimately I had to decide that people come first, and if I can help people, then I will do that before I help the environment. That's just my conviction right now. Of course, I do try to limit my purchases of those types of things anyway.

I'm just a walking conundrum, I know. But who isn't?

FICO Deal Ending Tuesday

2009-03-30T22:02:00.004-05:00

Knowing your FICO score is important if you are looking to get a new home, apartment, job, car, etc. We are looking to refinance in the near future, so we wanted to check our scores.

I had never heard of a sale on FICO scores before, but sure enough, there's one going on now! The problem is that it ends on March 31. So if you don't know your FICO score and think you might need it, I suggest you take advantage of the deal now!

Just go to www.myfico.com and you'll see instructions at the top of the screen on how to get 30% off any product there. This is the official site for FICO scores, so don't worry about scams.

You can get free credit reports each year from the three major credit bureaus by going to www.annualcreditreport.com. Everyone should take advantage of this yearly so you can make sure there are no mistakes on your credit. Please note that this site does not give you free FICO scores--just the credit reports.

Homemade Bread Recipe

2009-03-30T10:04:00.004-05:00

I have started making this wheat bread about 2 times per week. It's been a few weeks since I've bought any bread from the store! When I started reading the ingredients on the 100% whole wheat bread that I normally buy, I decided that I could do it at home and make it healthier and yummier.

I based my recipe on this one, with only a couple of changes. You can use oil in place of the applesauce if you don't have any, but I always keep unsweetened, natural applesauce on hand for baking. I never use oil in baked goods if I can help it--applesauce is healthier and tastes better! You can also experiment with different additives--in today's loaf I'm adding some wheat germ to help balance out the white flour!

Ingredients

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F.)
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons applesauce
4 tablespoons honey (local, if possible)
1 teaspoon (kosher) salt
2 cups whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons ground flax meal (optional)
1 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Put all the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Before adding the yeast, make a little "well" in the flour to put the yeast in. Yeast shouldn't touch the wet ingredients.

2. Set on dough cycle (takes about 90 minutes).

3. When the dough cycle is finished, take it out and press it into a very lightly greased loaf pan (I use a little Pam olive oil or canola oil spray).

4. Cover the pan and let the dough rise in a warm place for 20-45 minutes (until it has doubled in size).

5. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Crazy Parents

2009-03-28T22:12:00.013-05:00

Last year, our city had a huge Easter egg hunt. It was the biggest hunt in North Texas, actually. We were so excited to take Caleb, who was two and half, and join in the festivities. We got Caleb and Isaac (just a few months old at the time) loaded into the car and headed toward the site. We were about a mile away when we got stopped in traffic. Uh oh. We ended up parking several hundred yards away from the hunt and hiking over to the fields. We were almost there when we heard the horn go off to announce the beginning of the egg hunt. Aaaah!! By the time we hustled to the field, there were no eggs left. Caleb didn't care very much, since he didn't really get what was going on anyway, but Scott and I vowed then and there that next year, we'd be on time!

Well, we kept that determination. This morning was the city's Easter egg hunt. It was now being touted as the largest in all of Texas! We were going to be there--on time--this year. Now, the weather here in Texas has been a little...unpredictable (which is actually predictable). A few days ago is was high 70's, but by this morning it was 37 degrees. But hey, the city hadn't postponed the egg hunt, so we still planned on being there.

We got there early this year, just like we'd planned. But that meant that we stood outside for 30 minutes in the cold. And it wasn't just cold...it was windy. Very windy. I took Isaac to the 2 and under field, and Scott took Caleb to the 3-and4-year-old field.

Here's Caleb before the hunt:

Poor little Isaac. He was so cold. I had him wrapped up in his jacket, inside my jacket, and under a blanket, but he was still miserable. I kept telling him that we were having fun. :) I was looking around at all the other parents who were trying to keep their kids warm, and I know we were all thinking the same thing--"What are we doing here? We are all crazy!"

One thing that keeps Isaac occupied is to take pictures of him and show them to him on the digital camera. So we did a lot of that.

Finally, after waiting for 30 minutes for the hunt to start, the announcement came and we were off. On the 2 and under field, they didn't have eggs--just boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, animal crackers, and Goldfish (none of which I allow Isaac to have, but that's beside the point!).

The wind was actually so strong that Isaac had a hard time walking, and he fell down a lot.

He started getting into it, though, and was sad when I scooped him up after about 3 minutes and led him off the field. It was just too cold to stick around. We found Caleb and Scott, who had also called it quits, and headed to the car. At that point, Isaac just lost it. He was miserable. Here are the thawing children in their car seats:

Isaac fell asleep about 5 minutes later.

Here's hoping for better weather next year!

There was a bunch of junkie stuff (mostly tatoos!) in the eggs that Caleb got, so we took all of that out. But the kids had a wonderful time at home hiding the eggs in the house. We must have hidden those eggs about 20 times! Isaac would walk around and call out, "Ball!" with his palms up, searching for the eggs. So cute.

'ove 'ou!

2009-03-24T21:17:00.003-05:00

Tonight before Scott put Isaac to bed, he brought him into Caleb's room where I was getting Caleb ready for bed.

Scott: Tell Mommy "night-night!"
Isaac: Bye!
Scott: No, say "night-night!"
Isaac (smiling and waving): Bye-bye!
Scott (sighing): Oh, well.
Me: I love you, Isaac!
Isaac: 'Ove 'Ou!
Scott and I exchange glances, dumbfounded. Did he really just say that? We try to get him to say it again, but Isaac is just grinning goofily and being silent. Scott heads on into Isaac's room to put him to bed. A few minutes later....

Scott: He said it again!!

Joy!

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I listed most of the words Isaac can say in a post about a month ago. Here are some more words he's picked up and uses regularly:

Down (when he wants us to put him down, or when he's climbing on something and knows he needs to get down!)
Done (accompanied by the sign for "finished"--also says "all done")
Dog (enunciated very well, with the "g" on the end and everything!)
Bama (for banana--his favorite food)
O's (for Oatios or whatever O-shaped cereal we have)
Puh (still emerging--but he uses this sound consistently to ask for his organic puff snacks)
'elcome (when he gives us some minutiae off the floor and we say "thank you" he replies with this)
'ilk (for milk)
Eat (he's done this one for awhile, but I forgot to list it last month)
There (when he gives you something)
Put-tuh (potty; he'll escort you to the restroom if you tell him you need to go!)

That brings his word count up to over 20. He is almost 14 months old.

It's just striking to me how different Caleb and Isaac are. Caleb could say about 10 words at 18 months, I believe. (But he's turned into quite a talker now, trust me!)

Couponing: Lesson Learned!

2009-03-24T15:17:00.004-05:00

I posted last week about how I'm trying to use coupons to cut back on our grocery expenses. I have learned that there is a whole science behind organizing coupons, saving them to match them up with sales and/or store coupons, finding internet coupons, and knowing the coupon policies of the stores in your area.

I still have a lot to learn.

But I did learn one valuable lesson during the past week: if you really want to maximize your savings, don't shop with a preschooler and a toddler!

I went to WalMart a few days ago to take advantage of a few deals and to get a few things. I had coupons to get all of this for free:

That's two boxes of Artisan Wheat Thins, 2 packs of gum, and 6 bars of Johnson's Buddies soap. For the Wheat Thins, they were actually on sale for $2 each, and I had 2 BOGO coupons from the Sunday paper (so I guess they technically were $1 a box). I got the gum for free because there were coupons in the paper for free gum. And Johnson's has coupons for $1 off these Buddies soaps, and they are priced at $.97 at WalMart! I've copied the links for those coupons below.

Ok, so I should have gotten all of that stuff for free, but somehow, I didn't! I got to the car and looked over my receipt and noticed that I ended up spending $3 for those 6 buddies soaps. My $2 off coupon and $1 off coupon didn't go through! Why didn't I notice this at the register, you ask? Why wasn't I watching the cashier to make sure everything scanned appropriately? Because I had a little 3-year-old who was choosing to be very restless and disruptive, and a toddler who was tired of being the cart but wanted to squirm all over the place when I held him.

I had a similar issue at Kroger yesterday. I have been taking great advantage of their Mega Deals where you buy 10 participating items and get $5 off. I brought my list of items to get, and I had more coupons so I could get the following, among other things:

Irish Spring 3-pack $.09
Soft Soap pump FREE
Stayfree packages $.99 each
Colgate toothbrush $.24

Well, you have to be really careful that you get exactly 10 participating items, or in multiples of 10. I messed up and ended up with only 19, so I missed out on $5!! I was so upset. I figured out what I did wrong, though--something I thought was a participating item ended up not being a participating item. Pbbbbt. If I hadn't been distracted by my squabbling kids sitting side-by-side in the car-shaped cart, this probably wouldn't have happened. So, it is now my resolve to do my coupon shopping while Caleb is at preschool so I can concentrate a little better!!

If you are interested in couponing or want to see more on how to get free stuff, take the time to check out Money Saving Mom.

Another tip: I have gotten lots of coupons by telling companies what I think of their products (both good things and bad). Like my complaints to Palmolive about their terrible Eco+ stuff scored me a slew of coupons for Colgate, Soft Soap, Irish Spring, and other stuff that has come in handy at Kroger lately!

Prayers for Stellan

2009-03-23T19:01:00.003-05:00

I have mentioned MckMama many times on this blog, as she is a source of inspiration for me. She is a mom of four young kids ages four and under, and her youngest is having heart problems and is in the PICU. Please take a moment and join with me and countless others from the blogosphere and lift up baby Stellan in prayer.

Conversations with Mimme

2009-03-23T15:32:00.004-05:00

I went to visit my grandmother (my Mom's mom, whom I call Mimme) on Saturday. She turned 89 years old last week, and she lives in an assisted living home about 45 minutes from me. She lived in another state her entire life until just a few months ago, when my parents brought her here to Texas to be closer to them.

Her health has taken a turn for the worse lately (COPD, pneumonia, congestive heart failure), so I really want to make sure I take time to visit her. It's sad, but I feel like I don't know her very well. I am the youngest grandkid, so I probably didn't spend as much time with her as my siblings and cousins did growing up.

It was hard getting her to talk at first, but once she did, I loved to hear her stories. My mom was there, too, and she was able to fill in details as well. I learned that Mimme got married in 1937, when unemployment was still high from the Great Depression and life in America was just tough. I asked her if she and Granddaddy went on a honeymoon, and she laughed. She said that their "honeymoon" was a trip to Chicago--in a big truck full of furniture for a friend who was moving there. Once they got to Chicago, they stayed with the friend's aunt for a few days. As if that weren't romantic enough, it was also in the freezing cold of December!

My granddaddy took the work he could find and helped out on a rice farm for a year. In 1939, he started working at a gas station (which he would eventually run). Mimme said he worked 84 hours a week. WOW! That really puts things into perspective. He earned $10 a week.

I hope to have her tell me more stories each time I visit. I would love to hear more about how life was for her growing up. I think we have so much to learn from our elders.

Baking Day; The Climber

2009-03-18T21:50:00.006-05:00

Today I was feeling domestic, so I did a bunch of cleaning and baking. I made homemade wheat bread, which made the house smell fantastic. This is the second time I've used this recipe, and it is yummy!! It's really easy if you have a bread machine or a Kitchen Aid mixer.

I also made some banana bread. This is a different recipe than I'm used to using, and I made it with whole wheat flour rather than regular and applesauce in place of the oil. Tasty!

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Isaac is our climber. Can you tell?

Taking Stock; Couponing

2009-03-17T15:20:00.005-05:00

Periodically I like to take stock of how things are going in my life and what I can do to make myself better. It's similar to when I worked full-time and we would have quarterly reviews. Am I on track to achieve the goals I set? What areas can I change? Where am I doing well?

There are many facets of my life, of course, which can easily be broken down into roles: Christian, wife, mother, teacher, home manager, daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend, etc. If I think through each of those roles, I can identify places where I can improve myself.

One of the facets I am currently focusing on is my role as home manager. I know that kinda sounds silly, but as a stay-at-home mom it is my job to manage the home. That means I take care of the bills, the groceries, the meals, the house cleaning, the doctor visits, etc. (Of course, like any good manager, I do delegate tasks to my wonderful husband, who helps SO much! :) )

I am responsible for managing our finances, and this is the specific area I've been working on. In this economy, we have to be extra diligent about not spending more than we need to. You never know when life will throw you a curve ball (my brother, for example, just lost his job), and you need to be prepared. So I am looking through our expenses and seeing where we can trim.

I posted a few weeks ago about a terrific blog I found called Money Saving Mom. I have learned so much from there! She shows you how to make coupons really work for you. I don't think I ever even thought about combining store coupons with manufacturer coupons. But those two things plus a sale mean big, big savings!

I've been educating myself from her blog and others (like Life as Mom), and I was ready to take the next step. Last night after the kids went to bed, I worked on this:

This is my new coupon binder! It's kind of a first start and may morph into something better, but for now it seems to work. It's a floppy 1" binder (I repurposed one that Scott had used at kids' camp last year) with sports card pages in it to hold my coupons. Each sports card page has 9 little pockets, perfect for holding coupons so that you can see what you have! I took the idea from Laura Williams' blog. I just cut up index cards to make the tabs, and I have sections like baby, baking, bread, candy, canned, cereal, etc. In the front of my binder is a zipper pouch with a pen and sticky notes. I plan on putting a little calculator in there, too. (Right now I use the one on my phone, but it's a bit cumbersome.)

I used the binder yesterday at Kroger, and I must say it worked out quite well! Kroger had their Mega Deals going--if you buy 10 participating items, you get $5 off. So here's what I bought yesterday:

I spent $34.63. Here is what I got:

2 Irish Spring 3-packs of soap FREE
1 box of Fiber One bars $.99
2 Buttoni whole wheat tortellinis $1.99 each
7 Lean Cuisine meals $1.49 each
1 Soft Soap hand soap $.19
1 Soft Soap body wash $1.74
3 Classico pasta sauces $1.79 each
2 Colgate toothpastes $.24 each
4 boxes Raisin Bran $1.95 each plus coupon back for $1.50 off next purchase
1 box Nature Valley bars $1.99
1 gallon skim milk $1.99

Not too shabby! I have a lot to learn, but it's a good start! (And hey, to those of you I know in real life, if you have coupons you don't want, send them my way!) :)

Book Review: Super Baby Food; A Day's Worth of Food for Isaac

2009-03-11T16:48:00.010-05:00

I have been trying to educate myself as much as I can on nutrition so I can improve our eating habits and raise Isaac to be a healthy eater. One of my favorite bloggers, MckMama, is an inspiration in the area of childhood nutrition. She feeds her kids all sorts of healthy fare (and they gobble it up gleefully), so I snatched up her suggestion and bought the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.

Overall, the book has helped me a great deal. It has a section on making your own baby cereal (she calls it Super Porridge, which I'll get into later) that I have put to daily use in our house. She tells you how to incorporate stuff into your baby's diet that I wouldn't have known what to do with--lentils, dried beans, flax meal, wheat germ, kale, tofu, etc. On top of that, it's actually pretty easy, too! It's worth the time to read and learn how to make your own homemade "Super Baby Food." It's tons cheaper and healthier than that jarred stuff.

I can't recommend the book without a few caveats:

She recommends giving babies and toddlers nuts and seeds. In most pediatricians' eyes, this is a big no-no! She does encourage you to get your pedi's advice before starting any meal plan, but I wish she'd left out the nuts and seeds. When I asked my pedi about the book and whether I could give those things to Isaac after he turned a year, she looked at me like I was crazy. The only seed she approved was flax seed.
The book is not well-organized and is very wordy. She incoporates lots of "tips" which largely just take up space.
Sometimes she makes things sound overly complicated. She'll go on for a couple of pages about how to do something, when basically it can be summed up with, "Put the whole oats in the blender. Blend for 2 minutes. Voila! You have ground oatmeal! "

She advocates feeding the baby "Super Porridge" in the morning, which is the main meal. It's just cooked oatmeal, rice, or some other grain mixed with fruit, veggies, and/or other nutritional stuff. Here's what mine looks like that I make for Isaac:

He LOVES this. It's ground oatmeal, organic cherry applesauce, flax meal, and wheat germ. I change it up and use different fruits or grains, but this is the crux of it. (If you're interested, the oatmeal part is easy, but it does take a few minutes. Boil 1 cup of water in a small pot. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of ground oatmeal in the water. Stir. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occassionally.) You can't tell in the pic, but that's a big adult-sized cereal bowl. He eats the whole thing!!

Yaron recommends having a second meal based on yogurt, and we typically do that. I buy organic whole milk yogurt (whatever is on sale at Sprouts!) and mix it with whatever fruit I have on hand--some combination of peaches, bananas, strawberries, kiwi, or blueberries. I load it all in my trust mini food processor (this thing is the workhorse of my kitchen and gets used at least once a day!) and blend away.

It winds up looking something like this:

Making this for Isaac's lunch is good for me, too. After I make his, I make some for myself (with nonfat vanilla yogurt, fruit, wheat germ, flax, and sunflower seeds). Yum!!

Once your baby can handle a little bit chunkier food, you can just buy bags of frozen fruit (with no icky preservatives!) and keep them in the freezer. When it's time to make the yogurt smoothie, grab your frozen fruit, add a fresh banana or whatever you have on hand, and blend!

I also make my own veggie and fruit cubes. This is the part that saves me some serious money. For example, I spent about $4 on one big organic butternut squash, and I got this gallon-sized bag of baby food out of it. It's the equivalent of at least a dozen of those level 2 baby food jars.

Yaron covers pretty much every type of veggie and fruit puree in her book, or you can go here to learn how to make several of them. The easiest ones to me (and the ones that are almost always in my freezer) are squash, sweet potatoes, blueberries, peas, and carrots. I use these ice cube trays (I actually verified with the company that they contain no BPA) that have covers on them to freeze my purees, then I just store the cubes in freezer bags.

Isaac normally eats about 6 cubes of veggies at dinner, then finishes the meal off with some Cascadian Farms Purely O's (the best organic O-shaped cereal, with no sugar added). He has some of those or some other finger food at lunch, too. We'll be working in some more beans and tofu soon. He also has a scrambled or hard-boiled egg a couple of times a week.

Well, there you have it! That's what Isaac eats in a day, influenced greatly by Ruth Yaron's book Super Baby Food.

The "S" Word

2009-03-10T15:45:00.003-05:00

I never thought I would say this. In fact, I'm not sure I can say it. I'll just type it. Please don't judge me too harshly.

I am now... a child spanker.

There. It's out. Phew. That feels better.

I never thought I would need to spank my kids. I thought that if I used the time-out method, my kids would cry and repent and never do wrong again. Well, sort of. But I did think that time-out would work for Caleb. But alas, as you can tell from my last post in which my son was screaming at the dinner table, it has not worked.

So, after some great advice from my friend Linda (who has 6 young kids and knows a thing or two about parenting!) and some soul-searching, I am now a spanker. And so far it's working! Caleb still has his defiant moments, but now all I need to do is remind him what the punishment is for misbehaving. He doesn't like being spanked, so usually the threat works. Usually.

Linda suggested disciplining right at the moment of misbehavior, and that's working for us. If Caleb acts up at the dinner table, he has to get down and get a spanking, then he can return to the table and eat.

I had reservations about spanking because in my mind I link spanking with violence. Will spanking him now lead him to be more violent in the future? My fears have been somewhat realized: since we started spanking, he has become more physical with his brother. He wants to discipline Isaac, and I saw him trying to spank Isaac the other day. But I think if he grows up knowing that spanking follows bad behavior and that he knows that we spank him out of love (and never in anger), he'll be okay. At least that's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night.

No one said parenting was easy! I'd love to hear comments from you guys about how you handle discipline in your house.

Walkin' on Sunshine

2009-03-04T22:10:00.005-06:00

It's funny the way kids think. Caleb, on the way out of the church tonight after Awana, said, "The sun's gone down! It went down into the ground. Now we're walking on the sun." Immediately I start humming, I'm walkin' on sunshine...

Then we went to "Taco Banana," as Caleb likes to call it. (Man, Cabana has gotten a ton of our money since they opened here in January!) Caleb has this thing lately with drive-thrus. He asks me to roll down his window in the back so that he can "talk to the lady" too. He's so dang cute. He'll sit back there quietly until the person at the window starts talking to me, then he'll yell out, "HI!!" It almost always takes the drive-thru person off-guard, and they almost always start laughing. It is actually a great way to get free stuff! So far he's gotten a free milk and several kids' toys.

When we got home, we ate dinner. (I know, I'm a bad mommy. Here we were eating dinner at 8:45 at night. But that's just what happens on Awana nights.) Caleb has a methodology about eating his meals. He will eat all of the "good" stuff--cheese, bread, crackers, ham--and when he gets down to just the fruit or veggies on his plate, he'll announce that he's either tired and wants to go to sleep or he has to potty. Tonight was no exception. When the only thing left on his plate was his banana, he announced, "I'm so tired. I want to go to bed."

Not this time, mister! He'd already pulled the I-have-to-potty trick at lunch to get out of eating his banana, so I decided that this time I was sticking to my guns. I calmly said, "You're not getting up until you eat a bite of banana."

Well, I might as well have told him I was going to cut his right arm off. "Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!" He yelled, he pushed away his food, he whined, he complained, he appealed to Scott. He had all this energy left to throw a hissy fit, but according to him he had no energy to eat one measly bite of banana. I reiterated. "You will not leave this table until you have a bite of banana."

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!" This time he pushed his chair back from the table so that he was about 2 feet away from it. I just turned my back to him and started doing other things while he pouted. I wasn't going to play that game. A couple of minutes later, I turned around and looked at Caleb. He was asleep, sitting up in his chair.

You win. I carried him to bed.

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Earlier today we went to the pediatrician for Caleb's 2-week follow-up from his ear infection. I told her more about the "flu" that Caleb ended up catching on top of his ear infection, which Scott later got, then I got. She said it sounded more like rotavirus. Seriously? Once when Caleb was about 13 months old, Scott, Caleb, and I all got rotavirus at the same time. That was the most miserable I've ever been! That includes childbirth and gall bladder disease. I remember not being able to walk from one room to the other without stopping to rest. It really was that bad.

But this round of rota was much lighter--evidently after you've had it once, it doesn't get as bad the second time around. Lucky us, huh? Isaac didn't get it because these days there's a vaccine for it, praise God!

One more note from the pedi's visit: Caleb's ear hasn't completely healed. So, he is supposed to take Allegra twice a day for the next 2 weeks to see if that will help clear it up.

Phew. Enough with all this sick stuff! I truly hope this is the last post for a long time that I tag with "illness!"

Byproducts of the Flu

2009-03-02T15:35:00.003-06:00

Having the flu was not fun, but at least a few good things came out of it.

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On Saturday night, Caleb was in another room and started calling for me. Scott knew I wasn't feeling well, so he went in there to help. Caleb told Scott, "But I want Mommy!"

Scott left the room for a few seconds, then came back in and announced in his highest falsetto, "Hi! I'm Mommy! How can I help you, honey?" Well, that launched Caleb into a giggle fit and Scott into a whole 5-minute "Mommy" show. Then Caleb announced, "I want Daddy!" So Scott left the room and came back with his deepest, booming voice, "What's going on in here?" I could hear all of this from the kitchen, and I collapsed in laughter right along with Caleb.

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Isaac is now weaned. I didn't really mean to wean him completely by this point, but it works out. He was down to just one nursing a day anyway. Strangely enough, everyone says that the nighttime feeding is the hardest one to cut out. But for us, that was the first one to go, soon after he turned 12 months. Scott, for the last few months, has had the magic touch as far as getting Isaac to go to sleep in his crib, so I was happy to let him just feed Isaac a cup of milk at night and get him to bed rather than me nursing him.

The next feeding I cut out was the morning one. Isaac wakes up every morning hungry, and the first thing he used to say was, "Bah-puh!" for Boppy, the nursing pillow we use. (Which is FABULOUS, btw, and well worth the money.) I got really tired of nursing him first thing in the morning, so we switched to milk a week or so ago for that feeding.

All that was left was an afternoon feeding. Now that one I wanted to keep for awhile. Honestly, it was the only way I could get him to take a nap during the day! But when I got the flu, I was too sick and had to miss that afternoon feeding, so he went a whole day without me. And so I decided that he didn't really need to nurse anymore.

He didn't like that decision yesterday. He cried and cried and called out "Bah-puh!" when I tried to put him down for a nap, but he eventually went to sleep. Today he still cried quite a bit when it was time for a nap, but I finally got him down. It should get easier from here....

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I've been trying to teach Caleb what "germs" are. Just this week he's hit that infamous 3-year-old stage in which his favorite word is "Why?" So when he asked questions about why I was sick, I tried to explain that you get sick because of germs.

On Saturday I was reading to Caleb, and he says, "Don't get my book sick, Mommy."

On Sunday, Caleb took Isaac's cup and drank out of it. I told him that he can't drink out of anyone else's cup or he might get sick. "I might get worms, Mommy?" Uh, that's germs, dear.

A Call for Help

2009-02-28T19:21:00.006-06:00

Dear readers, I am at my wits' end. I am hoping that some of you out there have been in my shoes and can offer some advice.

Caleb, our 3-year-old, refuses to eat fruits and vegetables. In fact, he refuses to eat most foods, but the fruits and vegetables are the biggest problem. Here are the foods Caleb will eat:

whole wheat bread
crackers--lots of different kinds
tortillas
Corn Chex
Fruity Cheerios
pretzels
pancakes--I make banana pancakes to get a little fruit in there
bacon--we only give him turkey bacon that is nitrite and nitrate-free
deli ham--specific brands only, nitrite and nitrate-free
deli turkey--specific brands only
cubed or sliced cheese--pretty much any hard cheese
grilled cheese sandwiches--only homemade
bananas--if bribed
plain low-fat yogurt
raisins--once a month maybe he'll consent to eating one
fruit leather--he's eaten this 2 or 3 times, but usually leaves it untouched
rice cakes--chocolate
Quaker Oatmeal Squares--banana flavor only
Chick FilA chicken strips--not nuggets, not any other type of chicken
peanut butter crackers--sometimes--and he's had a peanut butter sandwich once
Apple juice, very diluted (2 oz juice, 8 oz water)
1% or 2% milk

That's just about it. He'll eat some junk food if we'd let him--chips, fries, cookies, chocolate--but of course we try to keep that stuff away from him. He won't eat pasta, pizza, fish, beef, eggs, or pretty much anything I serve the rest of the family. Isaac, at 1 year, eats a much wider variety of foods than Caleb ever has.

Caleb didn't like fruits, veggies, and meats much even as a baby. He loved pureed sweet potatoes, and he loved yogurt mixed with apple/blueberry baby food. But gradually he stopped eating those things.

I know that part of his problem is my fault. When he started solids, I didn't push the finger foods. Sure, I gave him things like Cheerios and those Gerber puffs, but I didn't give him diced banana, carrot, pear, grapes, avocado, etc. like Isaac gets on a regular basis. I just didn't educate myself enough then.

By the time I had Isaac, I had decided to really change the way we were eating in our house. Now we eat organic foods whenever possible, we eat a lot of fruits, veggies, and nuts, we use flax seed in our meals, etc. Isaac is growing up with these things as the norm. Caleb got set in his bad habits and we let him. NOW what? We've been trying to alter his diet for at least 1.5 years--half of his life--and it hasn't gotten very far.

I know other moms who are able to sneak veggies in their kids' pasta sauces and things like that. But Caleb doesn't really eat "mixed" foods.

The way he eats is so embarrassing to me. I mean, here's a typical diet for me: on Thursday (before I got the flu and stopped eating), I had

Raisin Bran with skim milk for breakfast
Carrots with hummus and a fruit smoothie (nonfat yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, flaxseed oil, wheat germ) for lunch
Trail mix for a snack (raw almonds, raw cashews, raisins, M&Ms)
Baked salmon, peas, and orange-glazed carrots (I know, I was craving the carrots that day!) for dinner
Air-popped popcorn for a late night snack while hubby and I watched a movie

If Caleb would eat even some of that, I'd be THRILLED!

I was so excited when I saw the Parenting magazine cover for this month. It says, "Got a Picky Eater? Makeovers that Work." I quickly opened it up and read through the article. Man, was I disappointed. Evidently they went to a preschool and had all the moms write down what their kids eat for a whole week. They took the "pickiest" eater and put her week's menu in the magazine, and they had a nutritionist offer suggestions on how to make the kid eat better.

But guess what this kid eats! Waffles, orange juice, pizza, ravioli, chicken breast, chicken nuggets, rice, rice pudding, cranberry juice, apples, mac and cheese, pears, brisket with gravy, matzo-ball soup, corn....

That's the pickiest kid they could find???? I was so disheartened.

So, dear readers, if any of you have ideas on how to get Caleb to eat better, please share them with me. I would be so thankful. Every meal turns into a battle, and I don't want it that way. Should we see a nutritionist? Have any of you done that?

My Turn

2009-02-27T15:14:00.004-06:00

Ugh.

Well, I guess it was inevitable. I now have the flu.

Caleb caught it last Wednesday, Scott got it Monday night, and last night it was my turn. I felt bad when I went to bed, but I was able to keep it at bay until about 3:30am. I won't go into details, but let's just say I'm definitely not well!

So my wonderful husband has been taking care of me and the kids. He took today off from work and has allowed me to stay in bed all day. He even took the boys to the library this morning. I have to say that I married well!

I've been trying to sleep some (though it's hard), and I'm catching up on shows on our DVR. Right now I'm half-watching the American Idol results show (and getting annoyed at Ryan Seacrest, but at least it's a distraction). I REALLY want to watch the finale of Top Chef, but I don't think I can watch a food show right now!

Here's praying that Isaac doesn't get sick next!

An Update; Scenes

2009-02-25T07:20:00.003-06:00

It's been hard to find the time to post lately. Here's what's going down in our world:

Caleb still has the flu. He is acting pretty normal, but he still has some, er, stomach problems. I really thought he'd be able to go back to school yesterday, and I was really looking forward to having some almost-alone time while he was away, but he woke up sick again. (Dear reader, I hope you appreciate these euphemisms! I certainly don't want to gross out those who read this with their morning cup of coffee.)

As of Monday night, Scott seems to have some version of the flu as well. He's been having headaches, feeling achy and nauseous, and has no appetite. He ate 3 crackers yesterday, and that's all he could stomach.

So, today I am very grateful that Isaac and I are relatively well and I am able to take care of the family. We have been through worse.

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Isaac is learning new words every week. Here are the words he says well and often:

Baba (his name for Caleb)
Dada
Mama
Isaac
Bye or Bye-Bye (accompanied by a wave)
This
Bah (for ball--he calls it out repeatedly while wandering the house in search of balls)
Ba (for bath--he says it while walking toward the bath tub)
Chee (for cheese--this is a new one--he adores shredded cheese and says this when he wants more)
Uh oh
Bah-puh (for Boppy, meaning he wants to nurse)
Ba-oo (another new one--for balloon)

He used to say "hi," but he rarely says it anymore so I've nixed it from the list. I heard him putting 3 different consonant sounds together yesterday, and he's learned "Juh," "Guh," and "Cuh" sounds. He also says something that sounds like "Thanks."

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Caleb was leaving with Scott last week to run an errand, and Isaac and I were standing at the door to the garage waving good-bye. Scott called Caleb over to the driveway and pointed up to the sky. "Look! There are two jets up there!"

Caleb said, "Awww, they best friends! They fly together!"

Then he looked at me and said, "Mommy, they best friends just like we best friends." He ran over and gave me a big hug.

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As I was typing this, Isaac found the TV remote on the table. He picked it up, studied it for a few moments, and started pushing buttons. He was standing right in front of the TV when he hit the power button. The TV came to life with a loud noise, and Isaac jumped about 2 feet in the air (not really) and came running to me.

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If Isaac finds something he wants me to have, he will grab my hand, open it so that it's palm-up, and place the item in my hand.

Money Saving Mom

2009-02-24T09:13:00.003-06:00

For those of you who like to use coupons or who want to get back into it, I have the best blog tip for you: www.moneysavingmom.com. Evidently there are people out there who really make places like CVS and Walgreens work for them and end up getting tons of stuff for free or even MAKING money on deals. I always thought those convenient stores were a great way to waste money, but I guess I was wrong! It's worth checking out.

That site also posts deals for Target, WalMart, and other grocery stores (click on Categories at the top and then you can choose a store or topic).

Sickling

2009-02-19T21:34:00.003-06:00

After a really rough night, Caleb mostly lounged around all day. I made him a little "bed" in the living room, and he camped out in front of the TV. I kept trying to get him to eat something (hence the piece of bread in front of him), but he wouldn't touch food.

He ended up falling asleep on the floor there and stayed asleep for over two hours. He sure needed the rest.

He finally ate 1 Ritz cracker and 2 Wheat Thins for dinner. Just enough food for us to be able to give him his first dose of antibiotic. The doctor also called in a prescription for an anti-nausea medicine, and we gave that to him before bed. I'm hoping that will help him sleep through the night.

Sick Boy; Hypocrite

2009-02-19T08:30:00.003-06:00

Well, the pedi said that Caleb has an ear infection (right ear again). No surprise there. But she did hear some wheezing while listening to his lungs, which was a surprise. She told us to give HIM a breathing treatment each day, too--but his should just be 3 ml of saline. So it's more like a humidifier than medicine.

Caleb was really acting a lot better by the time we went to the doctor yesterday. He was playful and picking on his brother again, which was a really good sign. :) He took a good nap when we got home. I usually take him to church with me on Wednesday nights, but I left him home with Scott so he could get to bed early.

Poor Scott. During the 2.5 hours I was gone, he had to deal with a very sick boy. Caleb started throwing up shortly after I left, and he ended up getting sick just about every hour after that until 12:30. After that, he just couldn't sleep. He kept wanting to drink, but I knew from experience if he drank too much, he'd just lose it. So I gave him sips of Gatorade throughout the night, one tablespoon at a time.

Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep last night.

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It's amazing how quickly I become a hypocrite when my kids get sick. Case in point:

Normally I try hard to steer away from artificial flavors and chemicals in food. But when filling Caleb's antibiotic, I'm quick to ask, "Can you add bubblegum flavoring to that?"

Normally I don't like Caleb to watch much TV. We make it through about 3 days a week with no TV at all, and on the days he does watch it, it is usually while I am getting a shower in the morning or when I'm fixing dinner at night. We've really worked hard to cut down on the TV time. But when he's sick, he is plopped in front of the TV almost all day. It keeps him distracted from how bad he feels.

Normally I don't allow Caleb to have sugary drinks. He gets one cup of juice every day, which is actually about 2 ounces of juice mixed with 8 ounces of water and a dropper full of liquid vitamins with iron. But when he's sick, he gets to drink sugary Gatorade (Pedialyte is my first choice for him, but sometimes he can't stomach it).

I guess when our kids get sick, we go into survival mode.

Two Doctor Visits in Two Days for Two Kids

2009-02-18T09:46:00.006-06:00

Yesterday, Isaac had his 2-week follow-up visit from his last respiratory virus. He was also scheduled to get some shots that he wasn't able to get last time. Again, are my kids ever WELL on their well visits?? Isaac had developed a cough and runny nose again on Sunday night (which meant Scott and I didn't sleep very much Sunday or Monday, since Isaac was up coughing during the wee small hours of the morning). He just never seems to get well for long anymore. The doctor listened to his lungs, and thankfully she didn’t hear any significant wheezing. She told me to keep doing one steroid breathing treatment at night until he gets completely better (which might be until summer).

Yesterday afternoon after preschool, Caleb came home, had a snack, and went to bed for a nap. He woke up about an hour later just really upset and crying uncontrollably. He wouldn’t calm down and go back to sleep even though I could tell he was still tired. Finally he came out to the living room and he fell asleep in Scott’s arms! Scott was amazed—it’s been a LONG time since we’ve held Caleb while he’s sleeping!

When he woke up, I could tell he had a little fever. About an hour later, he started crying and said that his ear hurt. He wouldn’t eat anything for dinner. We had some medicated ear drops from a previous ear infection, so Scott put those in. We were also able to get him to take some Children's Tylenol later, which is amazing since normally Caleb either puts up a big fight or he's unable to keep it down.

Scott and I braced ourselves for a long night, but everything ended up going really well, praise God! Isaac slept straight through the night in his own crib until 5:45!! (That's a HUGE deal for us!) And Caleb only woke up once at about 4:30. He must have been having some weird fever dreams, because he kept telling me to "turn it off" but then wasn't sure what "it" was. I got him back in bed and back to sleep until 8:00

We have a doctor appointment for Caleb today at 1:30. Two visits to the doctor in two days.

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On a lighter note, I got a cute picture of Isaac yesterday.

And here he is trying to sit down on the stairs (but he's not quite tall enough!):

(For curious minds, that is the back of a Mr. Potato Head toy that he's holding, and that's "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" on the floor!)

Catching Up

2009-02-17T20:52:00.004-06:00

Last week was a hectic week. We spent many hours (Wed, Thurs, and Fri) working up at the church, getting some new classrooms ready for Sunday morning. I didn't really feel like I had any downtime during the week.

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On Friday night, we decided to go to IKEA. Scott usually ends up going into the office these days by 6:30, so he often gets home by 3:30 (he rarely takes a lunch). That makes it nice, since it gives us more family time in the evening. So when Caleb got up from his nap around 4:30, we took off. I'd been wanting to go to IKEA for awhile and get some new glass jars for food storage. I've bought tons of beans, quinoa, flax seed, and other cool stuff that needs a nice home.

The boys did really well at the store (it's really a fun place for kids), but by the time we got out of there it was already 6:45. We needed food. Caleb still is not a good eater, so we are limited as to what we can get him at a restaurant. One thing that is pretty failsafe is a breakfast place--he loves pancakes and bacon! I knew Scott had wanted to try The Original Pancake House, so I suggested we head over there. Caleb was all excited to have pancakes for dinner. We pull up to the restaurant and....see that it's only open for breakfast and lunch. Pbbbbbbbbbbbbt!

We were all really craving breakfast food at that point, so Scott decided to head for Breadwinner's. That is hands-down one of my favorite places to eat! We go there every couple of months for a special breakfast. They have yummy homemade breads, great scrambles, wonderful coffee....my mouth is watering just thinking about it! We had never been there at night, but we were pretty sure they served breakfast all day.

Um, wrong. We got inside and I immediately did a double-take when I saw the white tablecloths out. We got seated, and the host handed us a special Valentine's weekend menu--dinner for 2 (complete with lobster, steak, and wine) for $100! Uh...not exactly the meal we had planned. I didn't see breakfast food in our future at that point. Sure enough, they don't serve breakfast at night.

We stuck around, though, and I'm glad we did. I had a wonderful (albeit a little pricey) red bell pepper filled with ratatouille, served with artichoke mashed potatoes and spinach. YUM! I wish Scott would eat stuff like that. He had chicken marsala or something like that. Something carnivorous. ;) Caleb had a grilled cheese sandwich with fruit. Or rather, that was what was served to him. I think he ended up taking ONE bite of the grilled cheese and declared that he was done. Sigh.

Caleb surprised me during dinner. He said, "Mommy, I need to go potty." Well, okay! He hadn't used a public restroom before, other than the kid-sized ones at church. I took him into the bathroom and explained that these potties were big, but that I'd hold on to him. He had no problem at all with it!

By the time we got home on Friday night, the kids had both fallen asleep in the car. We tucked them into bed and called it a night.

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On Saturday, we went to the mall. I had several things I needed to get and stuff to return. We ended up eating out AGAIN, but I'm not complaining. This time it was The Cheesecake Factory, another favorite. Scott was less than thrilled when he saw that I'd selected "first available" seating and our hostess led us to a table outside. But it was a beautiful brisk day, and the heaters were warming up the patio. All was well... until it started to rain. Scott just got this "I told you so" look on his face. Hmph.

Caleb surprised me again during lunch (which he actually ate, because TCF serves bacon and bread) when he told me he needed to potty. He went again (on a big potty) with no problems.

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Sunday was soooo busy. I worked both services in the morning at church, which meant I was there from 8:45 until about 1:15. We came home, ate lunch, got the kids to take naps, and then Caleb and I headed back up the the church. It was a big night, since my T&T kids were putting on a skit for their parents that week. All went well, but I must admit I was nervous, and on top of that I hadn't felt well all day due to a lingering headache. I was glad to get home that night and get to bed!

(Sunday was also my mom's birthday. Happy birthday, Mom!)

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On Monday, we had a momentous day. CALEB ATE A PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH! Yes, I know that those of you with *normal* kids are thinking that this is trivial news. But when it comes to eating, Caleb is...special.

We've been reading a Dora book lately at nighttime that references a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and Caleb said on Sunday night that he would be willing to try one. Really?? This from the boy who never wants to try anything new (unless it is some form of chocolate). So on Monday at lunch, I took him up on it. I got him all psyched up, and he actually liked it. He ate the whole thing, and he asked for another one that night!

I took a picture to get proof of the event, just in case it never happened again.