days until my half marathon: 21
days of school left: 65.5
days until the greatest angry birds party of all time: 27
days until I get to see The Hunger Games: 26
months until my 10 year anniversary trip: 7
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Monday, February 27, 2012
the countdown is on
school days until Spring Break: 27.5
days until my half marathon: 21
days of school left: 65.5
days until the greatest angry birds party of all time: 27
days until I get to see The Hunger Games: 26
months until my 10 year anniversary trip: 7
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days until my half marathon: 21
days of school left: 65.5
days until the greatest angry birds party of all time: 27
days until I get to see The Hunger Games: 26
months until my 10 year anniversary trip: 7
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Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
links I love
Here are some things I've come across recently that I've enjoyed. Maybe you will find something useful in them as well. Happy Friday everyone!
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- My mom sent this to me a while back and I enjoyed reading it. 5 Unusual Ways to Raise Successful Children
- I saw this on Hungry Runner Girl's blog and I especially loved numbers 8, 12, 24, 30 and 27 is my favorite. 30 Things Every Woman Should Know About Running
- I've mentioned my frustration in searching for a To Do list app several times before on Twitter and now I've come across: appSmitten. AppSmitten is a very cool service that helps you find good apps. If you've ever looked and looked for an app to fill a specific need, you know that it can be quite time consuming, after all there are millions of apps these days. AppSmitten helps you find useful ones so check it out if you're tired of downloading apps that turn out to be worthless. (And for the sake of full-disclosure: I am participating in an affiliate program with appSmitten and will receive a small payment for each newsletter subscriber I send them. However, I wouldn't promote it if I didn't think it was a useful service.)
- 7 Ways to Follow ‘The Hunger Games’ Movie on Social Media - I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Follow! Like! Follow! I will get right on this as soon as I get home (because social media sites are blocked from work).
- In a rut? Spice things up! - As Amy says, "While The Rut is fine and good and necessary, spicing up the routine every once in a while may take your marriage from fine to fabulous!"
power grains :: giveaway
A month or so ago the kind people at Van's sent me more goodies. Remember when they sent me coupons for free products before? This time the coupons were for high protein waffles.
First I looked for them in Harris Teeter because I knew they had started carrying Van's products and that was the closet store to me. If you don't have a HT nearby you can always try Whole Foods. My HT hasn't started carrying the protein ones yet, but hopefully they will soon.
Anyway, here's what they had to say about their new waffles:
Van’s has just launched Power Grains, the first high protein waffle nationally available. Each serving, made with cracked red wheat and steel cut oats, offers 10 full grams of protein, more than an egg. As the journal Obesity recently found, eating a breakfast high in protein helps keep people feel full longer, with fewer food cravings, than other breakfasts. And a study published in July by the International Journal of Obesity has found that children who eat breakfast tend to gain less weight over time than children who skip breakfast.
Like all of Van’s products, Power Grains are made with high-quality, natural ingredients and frozen for freshness so they don’t contain nasty preservatives. Van’s is proud of its ingredients, and makes its foods with the recipe list you’d use at home. (And Cooking Light just named our 8 Whole Grain waffle the best one on the market!)
Just like the others, I found these to be delicious. I've been eating them with some homemade plum preserves that a student gave me spread on top and they seem to have more staying power than a typical carby breakfast (hello 10g of protein!) so I am a fan. Thank you Van's!
If any of you would like to try these I've got a few extra coupons. Please leave a comment below and I'll be sure to share the love until the product vouchers run out.
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Thursday, February 23, 2012
The Rules of Inheritance
I had the true joy of reading The Rules of Inheritance, a memoir by Claire Bidwell Smith a couple of weeks ago for BlogHer's Book Club. It was one of the most moving books I've read in a long time and at times I found myself sobbing as I read.
I have lost grandparents, an uncle, and family friends over the years, but I've never lost anyone that I was extremely close to. I can't imagine having lost a parent or a sibling or a child. I dread the day when that time comes.
I thought a lot about being prepared for a death in the family when I read last month’s book club book The Underside of Joy. As I read through The Rules of Inheritance, I thought again about caring for elderly parents, what paperwork needed to be completed in the case of a family emergency, and making sure that my children are protected in the case that my husband or I died suddenly. I thought about preparing them for our death. These things are not fun to think about, but I'm glad that I have been reminded to.
I wasn't sure I was going to like this book. I mean, it's non-fiction and I tend to be a fiction kind of girl, plus the author had a way with jumping from year to year with each chapter so I found myself often confused in the beginning. Nevertheless, I was wrong.
She has a vivid way of telling a story that just makes it seem so real. It's as if you could feel every single thing she was feeling as you read the words. One of my favorite quotes portrays this exactly: "On the sidewalk grief takes my hand, leading me home so that I can cry myself to sleep, flushed and sweaty, like a little girl."
I say that even though we don't want to we should think about dying and losing close family and what we will do and how we should feel. It can only help. I say you should read this book. It will make you feel deeply.
This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2012
twenty eight months
Dear Joshua,
We moved you into a new bedroom this week. We took your twin bed from your old room and put it together with another to make it a set of bunk beds and your sister is terribly jealous. You sleep on the bottom bunk and in a new room and you haven't protested at all. I am smitten with the spectacular way you call it your new "hunk bed" and I'm pretty certain that I'll pronounce it that way for years to come. It makes me smile every time I hear you say it.
You've had an ear infection this month and were whiney enough to want to leave the circus early. Still, it hasn't been too awful. Really, the only thing that makes you awful is that pesky two year old inside you. You fake cry whenever we turn off the TV. You protest all baths, meals, and putting shoes and socks on to go somewhere. You beg for certain songs on the radio and goodness knows you want Dora or Blue's Clues on TV all the live-long day and when you don't get your way you fling yourself wherever you can with such force that you are covered in little bumps and bruises. It's just your way of trying to control what little you can in the great big world and I don't blame you even one tiny bit. Even so, I can certainly wait for the terrible threes because I know they will only be more challenging.
One day, we were walking into school and there were footprints all over the walls with a name under them for each of the preschool graduates for this year. You saw the footprints and immediately pointed at them and yelled out, "A clue!" I had to think a minute to figure out that you were talking about the paw prints on Blue's Clues. Funny boy.
You are in that mimicking stage where you go around doing all these things you've seen us do. You'll take Daddy's measuring tape and hold it out against something and declare, "8, 9, 10!" over and over again with various objects.
We measured your height the other night and typically we do this in two separate rooms. I really don't know why, but we've always measured your sister against the wall in one place and you against the wall in another place. Recently, we measured you up against the spot where Julianna's height has always been marked and it was quite funny to see that you've just now reached the spot that she was at 23 months.
Speaking of your height, you're finally tall enough to open doors. You open them and close them over and over again. Your father cannot stand this. I don't mind as much; it's the incessant whining and demanding I can't stand. You say "thank you" quite often, but you almost never ask for things politely or use the word "please." I guess you'll figure it out by the time you want to take a girl to prom.
Josh, you're still not a great eater. In fact, the only thing we can count on you to eat regularly is a corn dog. One day your teacher commented with excitement that you ate three corn dogs for lunch that day. She said you peeled off the bread and ate the hot dogs out of them all just like you do at home. The crazy thing is that you won't eat just a plain hot dog as well as you will a corn dog.
Something I don't think I've commented on before is how we'll be riding down the road and you'll start in on the game of A Thousand Questions and you'll inevitably ask about your seat belt and why we have to wear it. You'll ask about sitting in the front and you'll ask about why we don't want to wreck the car. Then you almost always ask me to wreck the car. It is so bizarre and hilarious at the same time (of course, I don't ever let you know that I find the conversation funny) how much the boy in you comes through in these kinds of conversations we have. Julianna would have never asked me to wreck the car. In fact, she never wanted to get hurt (unlike other children who intentionally whack their heads up side the coffee table).
One night this week as I was listening to Jules read a pretty long Dr. Seuss book to you before your nap I was once again struck with the realization that I am so fortunate to have you and your sister spaced so far apart. She is at the perfect age to want to read to you and you are at the perfect age to want to listen to her. While you don't get along all the time, you definitely do some things well together.
The fact is you adore your sister. While she takes your toys a lot and she plays a little too rough with you sometimes you still love her deeply. Sometimes on the way home from school you'll tell me, "I not wanna get Jules." And when I ask if you want me to leave her at school you always reply, "Yes." Then one day this week Daddy had to pick Jules up for me so I could get to running practice quickly and when we pulled in the driveway you loudly announced, "We 'posed to get Jules!" You add so much humor to my life, Joshy.
Some of my favorite things to do with you include snuggling on the couch (since you surprisingly still enjoy sitting in Mama's lap), watch you do puzzles on my phone or iPad, sing and dance to Big Bang Boom songs, and make play doh cookies with you. We enjoy our hour together just the two of us when Julianna is in gymnastics class each week and we take regular trips to the grocery store and gas station. Sometimes that can be so mundane but I realize that time together is special and you are usually so much more cooperative when you're not competing with an older sibling for your mom's attention so it's about as nice as it can be. For now I'll just appreciate the two year old you who still loves to spend time with his Mama more than anything else.
I love you little Buddy.
Love,
Mama
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We moved you into a new bedroom this week. We took your twin bed from your old room and put it together with another to make it a set of bunk beds and your sister is terribly jealous. You sleep on the bottom bunk and in a new room and you haven't protested at all. I am smitten with the spectacular way you call it your new "hunk bed" and I'm pretty certain that I'll pronounce it that way for years to come. It makes me smile every time I hear you say it.
You've had an ear infection this month and were whiney enough to want to leave the circus early. Still, it hasn't been too awful. Really, the only thing that makes you awful is that pesky two year old inside you. You fake cry whenever we turn off the TV. You protest all baths, meals, and putting shoes and socks on to go somewhere. You beg for certain songs on the radio and goodness knows you want Dora or Blue's Clues on TV all the live-long day and when you don't get your way you fling yourself wherever you can with such force that you are covered in little bumps and bruises. It's just your way of trying to control what little you can in the great big world and I don't blame you even one tiny bit. Even so, I can certainly wait for the terrible threes because I know they will only be more challenging.
One day, we were walking into school and there were footprints all over the walls with a name under them for each of the preschool graduates for this year. You saw the footprints and immediately pointed at them and yelled out, "A clue!" I had to think a minute to figure out that you were talking about the paw prints on Blue's Clues. Funny boy.
You are in that mimicking stage where you go around doing all these things you've seen us do. You'll take Daddy's measuring tape and hold it out against something and declare, "8, 9, 10!" over and over again with various objects.
We measured your height the other night and typically we do this in two separate rooms. I really don't know why, but we've always measured your sister against the wall in one place and you against the wall in another place. Recently, we measured you up against the spot where Julianna's height has always been marked and it was quite funny to see that you've just now reached the spot that she was at 23 months.
Speaking of your height, you're finally tall enough to open doors. You open them and close them over and over again. Your father cannot stand this. I don't mind as much; it's the incessant whining and demanding I can't stand. You say "thank you" quite often, but you almost never ask for things politely or use the word "please." I guess you'll figure it out by the time you want to take a girl to prom.
Josh, you're still not a great eater. In fact, the only thing we can count on you to eat regularly is a corn dog. One day your teacher commented with excitement that you ate three corn dogs for lunch that day. She said you peeled off the bread and ate the hot dogs out of them all just like you do at home. The crazy thing is that you won't eat just a plain hot dog as well as you will a corn dog.
Something I don't think I've commented on before is how we'll be riding down the road and you'll start in on the game of A Thousand Questions and you'll inevitably ask about your seat belt and why we have to wear it. You'll ask about sitting in the front and you'll ask about why we don't want to wreck the car. Then you almost always ask me to wreck the car. It is so bizarre and hilarious at the same time (of course, I don't ever let you know that I find the conversation funny) how much the boy in you comes through in these kinds of conversations we have. Julianna would have never asked me to wreck the car. In fact, she never wanted to get hurt (unlike other children who intentionally whack their heads up side the coffee table).
One night this week as I was listening to Jules read a pretty long Dr. Seuss book to you before your nap I was once again struck with the realization that I am so fortunate to have you and your sister spaced so far apart. She is at the perfect age to want to read to you and you are at the perfect age to want to listen to her. While you don't get along all the time, you definitely do some things well together.
The fact is you adore your sister. While she takes your toys a lot and she plays a little too rough with you sometimes you still love her deeply. Sometimes on the way home from school you'll tell me, "I not wanna get Jules." And when I ask if you want me to leave her at school you always reply, "Yes." Then one day this week Daddy had to pick Jules up for me so I could get to running practice quickly and when we pulled in the driveway you loudly announced, "We 'posed to get Jules!" You add so much humor to my life, Joshy.
Some of my favorite things to do with you include snuggling on the couch (since you surprisingly still enjoy sitting in Mama's lap), watch you do puzzles on my phone or iPad, sing and dance to Big Bang Boom songs, and make play doh cookies with you. We enjoy our hour together just the two of us when Julianna is in gymnastics class each week and we take regular trips to the grocery store and gas station. Sometimes that can be so mundane but I realize that time together is special and you are usually so much more cooperative when you're not competing with an older sibling for your mom's attention so it's about as nice as it can be. For now I'll just appreciate the two year old you who still loves to spend time with his Mama more than anything else.
I love you little Buddy.
Love,
Mama
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Monday, February 20, 2012
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