Photo Shoot

Lauren decided to practice her photography skills on Andrew last week.


She started while he was still asleep.

Then he woke up.

And thought it was fun.

But it got old fast.

Real old.

He is such a trooper.

And he also has awesome hair.

Real Life

• Over the past 10 days, Andrew has experienced vomiting, a double ear infection, a baaaaad diaper rash, and three teeth coming in at once. This kid is in rough shape.

 

 
 

• Lauren ate two and a half bananas yesterday. She had some sliced banana with her french toast for breakfast; then, shortly after breakfast, I noticed another banana was missing and so was Lauren.  The toes sticking out of the coat closet gave her away. The stinker was eating a banana in the closet. Then, after dinner, Lauren walked into the living room chewing something. I asked her what she was eating and she said broccoli. The broccoli smelled a lot like banana and she had left the evidence right on the counter.  Are we the only parents who have to discipline their child for eating too much fruit?

• Andrew has taken to rising at 5 am. If he is not already in bed with us, I bring him into bed hoping against hope that he'll want to snuggle back down for some more sleep. After 20 minutes of him climbing all over me and pinching my neck, I give up and get up.
• Lauren had her own episode of throwing up on Saturday night, which led to her coming into our bedroom at midnight saying she needed to sleep with us. Andrew joined her at 3. It was crowded. And unpleasant. And anything but restful. I feel more tired now than I did after Andrew was born.
• Last Thursday I took the kids to Target. As we were pulling out, something about the car seemed weird, and after we got onto the road, I knew something was wrong. I pulled into the closest place I could, which happened to be an Ace Hardware, and sure enough, a flat tire. I had managed to leave home without my cell phone, so I did the only thing I could: went inside and asked someone to "help" me change the tire. I helped by sitting inside the store with the kids while a nice young man changed the tire for me. That was fun.

• Yesterday I asked Lauren if she wanted a mini-pizza for lunch (on an English muffin). She said yes, "and Andrew can have a Mickey pizza."

That's real life around here lately. What's going on with you?

January Recap and February Challenge

Did January seem like a really long month to anyone else? ;)

We declared No-Sugar January officially over on January 28th when we were out of everything (including grocery money) and had to make an emergency run to the store for the cheapest jar of peanut butter and jelly. That also happened to be the same day a box arrived with heart-shaped cookies and other sugary sweets. It's tradition for me to eat my whole cookie as soon as it arrives, and well, tradition is tradition.

I am glad we did this. I didn't notice any drastic improvements in our health, but we weren't completely sugar free either - I continued making our regular bread recipe which has some sugar and we had birthday cake with Uncle Bud and dessert when a family invited us over for dinner. Ideally, that's how it should be - desserts as a rare thing on special occasions and few sweets otherwise, but it's rather alarming how quickly we've fallen back into old habits.  If nothing else, it was good for me to have to say no to Lauren every time she asked for cupcakes, chocolate, chocolate milk, muffins, etc.   Going completely sugar free forever would be really hard -  I don't plan on ever doing that but we really do need to be careful, so we will continue trying to practice moderation, probably failing, and then trying again.  That's life, right?

Our goal for February is to track all of our expenses and account for every penny. We have done this on and off through the years, but really fell off the bandwagon last year - it was a rough year financially. But now that Preston has steady work and we are looking to eventually buy a home and pay off debt, it is more important than ever. We got a head start last month, so it should be easy! 

Below is a recipe for a cookie-like treat that tasted really good when we were not eating sugar.


Banana Date Cookies

• 3 bananas
• 1 cup chopped dates
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups rolled oats

Instructions

Mash bananas, leaving some pieces. Add chopped dates and oil. Beat with a fork.  Add remaining ingredients, mix lightly. Let stand a few minutes for oatmeal to absorb moisture. Drop from spoon on ungreased cookie sheet. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake 25 minutes or until nicely browned. Loosen with spatula and let cool on cookie sheet.

Read more at http://www.favehealthyrecipes.com/Cookies/Banana-Date-Oatmeal-Cookies#7iWcqq1Yq6hBLT5b.99

Thankfully, we are not homeless...

...but it's good to know that if we ever end up on the streets, Lauren will be comfortable.

Challenge 2013: January

The challenge: January's challenge is to go all month without eating sugar. That includes any form of sugar, including "natural" sugars like honey and maple syrup, and definitely includes artificial sweeteners, which we really never eat anyway.  We're doing this challenge family style, within reason (ie, I'm not policing what Preston eats at work or telling Lauren she has to say no if someone offers her fruit snacks at a playdate).

Why am I doing this?   We eat a lot of sugar. Too much. We're not very good at just eating one cookie or keeping ice cream in the freezer for more than 48 hours, plus if you start reading labels it's amazing much sugar is in even "healthy" foods. I'm hoping that this challenge helps calm our sweet tooths and resets our palates. Mostly, I just want to prove that I can do it. I'm also interested to see what, if any, effect it has on our health. I haven't really been feeling well for a while and I wonder if eating better will help with that. In addition, I'm interested (hoping) to see if it will have an effect on Lauren's behavior (you can laugh here if you want).

What will we eat?  I have a list of of meal and snack ideas that don't involve sugar. I actually don't think it will be that hard, for me anyway.  By noon today Lauren had already asked for Old McDonald's, a donut, chocolate chips, and chocolate milk, which only served to confirm that this challenge is very needed. I think it will be more about changing habits, like walking through the kitchen and grabbing a handful of chocolate chips just because they are there, and staying occupied in other pursuits.

I'll report back at the end of the month. What are you resolving to do this year?

Challenge 2013

2012 was a good year for us, but also challenging in many ways.  The year brought a LOT  of changes to us accompanied by a great deal of uncertainty.  We are much more settled now, but I don't expect that we will have fewer challenges in 2013 - maybe just different ones.

 

One of the things that was so difficult about last year was that there were so many things that were completely out of my control. We all like to feel like we have control over our lives, but that just isn't the case, nor should it be. There are, however, plenty of things that we do have control of, and I think mastering those things makes us better equipped to handle the things that we cannot control.

In that vein, I have decided to create for myself a set of challenges in 2013 that I believe will make me a better, healthier, wiser person. So I present to you Challenge 2013. A challenge for every month in areas ranging from health, finances, domesticity to motherhood and general well being.  Blogging about the challenges will (hopefully) make me more responsible for following through. Maybe you will even want to join in one or two! 

The Challenge

January: Go sugar free
February: Account for every penny
March: Use the internet for email only
April: No white flour
May: Be a fun mom
June: Be a happy traveler
July: Break a bad habit
August: Turn off the TV
September: Feed the family on $40 a week
October: Sew something
November: Potty train Andrew
December: Lose two pounds


I will check in at the beginning of every month to explain each challenge more fully and at the end of the month to report. This has the added advantage of forcing me to blog at least twice a month!  Wish me luck!

My Boy

Andrew hasn't gotten much attention on this blog. Life got kind of crazy after he was born and has yet to really settle down, but I don't want him to have second-child syndrome (and some people have been asking for more photos) so I finally organized some pictures from the last few months and now Andrew gets a blog post of his very own.

 Andrew is getting his first tooth, so it's nice to see some pictures of him smiling and remember that he is usually happy.

 He likes to sleep with one eye open a crack. I think he must be constantly watching out for big sister.

This is possibly my favorite picture of Andrew, just chillin on the floor being his happy little self.