...stinky...

Fact of life:  boys are stinky.

I had misinformation.  I had thought my little guys wouldn't get stinky until middle school.  I was prepared for that.  I worked with Middle Schoolers for 10 years and I know stinky Middle School foot smell.   Ick.

But NO ONE mentioned that this phenomenon kicks in between 4 and 5 years old.  Ick! 

Granted, its not as bad as it will be in a few years... but LONG GONE are the days when I want to kiss and snuggle my kiddos feets.  Especially if they wear shoes with no socks.  Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!!

(good thing they are so cute and funny so I love them despite the stink!!)

...kindle...

I gotta say... I love my kindle!

Now, has having so many books at my finger tips interrupted my housework?  Kept me up too late, too often?  Sucked away time I could have been doing something else? 

Heck yes! 

But am I able to relax??  Is my brain able to rest or get challenged (depending on the book)??  Does it make me happy??

Heck yes!

Love the Kindle.  And good news - my sis has a kindle too and just figured out we can "loan" each other books for 2 weeks at a time.  YES!  My reading library just multiplied by two!!

Yay for Kindle.  If you love to read,  check it out!

...high five for friday...

HIGH FIVE!!! 

Up high, down low, too slow Joe!!

Yay for Fridays, yay for another week closer to summer!!

Here are my High 5s for this week...

1.  My quesidilla maker...  amazing amounts of ways you can

make quick and easy "triangles" that my boys love!!

 2.  Turkey burgers!  Or anything with ground turkey. 

Tastes great, good for ya, cheaper than cow.  We like it!

3.  I am thankful for SUPER HEROES!!!  And the HOURS of entertainment and imagination stimulation the provide my family.  Drawing, dressing up like, acting out, and watching.  Yay for heroes!!

4.  Washable markers... again, hours and hours of entertainment.  So good to take digital pics of their masterpieces, so I don't have to save every single one.  And yay that it washes out - who ever invented that is a HERO!

5.  WATER.  I am working on being thankful for water... 

I need to drink more!  As you may have read, I am cutting back caffeine. 

Now I gotta add the H2O.  Gonna be working on that this week!

All right - hope you're week was great too and you get a chance to count your blessings!!  Enjoy the holiday, and THANKS to all the people who fight to protect our right to this beautiful and free life we get to live!!!

Thanks going out once again to From My Grey Desk for letting us link up to High Five for Fridays!!  Check out her blog to see 100s of others!!

...art of saying NO...

Is there an art to saying no?  Or is it just a mind set?

My family does not say NO well.  We either hem and ha and make excuses, leaving people thinking we probably meant no but not sure.  Or we say YES when we really don't want to and then either do it without really wanting to or come up with excuses to get out of it last second.

Growing up in this environment had another side effect too.  When people who can say NO say no to me, I realize I feel overly rejected.  I think we learned that when you love/care you don't say no.

Gosh.  Uck. 

The cool thing about life is that we are always learning.  Learning how to be healthy, how to have boundaries, how to choose peace and joy in our lives. 

So next step on my journey - the Art of Saying No. 

...pure joy...

What makes me happy??? 

I found out they are building a STARBUCKS within walking distance! 

Ok, it'll still be kind of a long walk.  But its do-able. 

I have been requesting this for YEARS.

Well, I've been saying to myself and others anyway.

It is SUCH a good idea!!

I am glad they agree with me!!

Thanks StarBucks!!



...High Five for SATURDAY?!?!...

HIGH FIVE FOR.....errrrrr..... uhhhh.....  SATURDAY!!

Ok, I am a day late!  But what the heck - lets high 5 anyways!!

Here we go - the  5 things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  my favorite gum!

2.  the fact that EVERYTHING LOOKS BETTER TAN!!!

No, I don't lay out on tinfoil with baby oil.  But ya gotta admit, getting some color is a good thing. 

Vitamin D and all too right?!?!

3.  COFFEE!  If you read my earlier post, I am cutting back on caffeine as of tomorrow.  YIKES.  But I will still get my cup in the morning!

4.  Twisted bangs!!  Since I cut mine, I'm loving them.  But I found this tutorial online and boy is it a lifesaver.  Especially for FRIZZY hair like mine!!

(this girl has TONS of great hair tutorials at The Small Things Blog)

5.  My SISTER!  We got to hang severl times, including sitting in her hot tub talking for HOURS.  How blessed am I to have a sister who is my best friend??!!  Love her!

Thats my week!  A day late, but who's keeping track??!!

Also happy to say this is my 40th post!!  If you read my first post, you will know I was going to try this blogging thing for 40 days.  Well, that kind of changed to 40 posts as I missed a day here and there.  The adventure has been fun.  I may just continue!! 

(My favorite part has been being part of High Five for Friday with Laren at From My Grey Desk.  So fun!)

Happy Weekend!!!

...such a thing as too much coffee??...

Too much coffee... is there such a thing??

I would like to think not.  I love the taste.  I love the warmth, the cups, the shops, the drive-thrus, the baristas, the smell, the flavor, the steam, the look of foam, the sound of grinding beans...  shall I go on?????  Coffee is my friend.  It doesn't keep me up.  It doesn't make my tummy hurt.  It is the best breakfast, good with lunch, goes with anything I have for dinner, fun to hang out with late at night.

But sadly, I am reading so much lately that is saying CUT BACK.  Not even stop, but stick to one cup in the morning.

From eating green, to learning about how to get my hormones/thyroid back in line, to finding out I am a low-oxidizer... Every single thing I pursue to learn about and apply, says to cut back caffeine. 

How does that make me feel??  WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

But I need to get on board.  Sigh.

So I will go for it!

(I wonder if I'll get headaches??  I've never NOT had coffee enough to know if I will or not!!)

And from now until Monday, me and coffee gonna have some good times!!!

...bless a mama...

HAPPY MOM'S DAY!!

Fun to be celebrated, and fun to get to celebrate all the amazing Mom's I know.

Wow, each season of mom-hood is totally different.

That's been my thought for the day.

Pregnant to babies to toddlers on up to adult.

Makes me want to really remember each one, and what my needs were in each season...

Then some day when I have 2 extra seconds, I can turn around and help somebody else!!

(If you are someone with extra moments and you like kiddos, think of someone with little ones and just call and offer to take them an hour.  Or two!!  Even offer to have them drop their kids off with you - so they don't have to get their house up to speed first!  And don't worry, toddlers are destructive but its worth it!)

Anyways, Happy Mom Day to you if you're a mom, and hope everyone had a super weekend!!

my lovely sis, my mom, and me!!

...extra shot of BUG please...

Thoughts on organic.

I kinda just wish I could go all organic, all the time.  For me, challenges are money and time to find organic options.  But I am finding I am motivated to find a way and make it happen as of late.

I didn't always feel like this.  I'd settled on "organic when I can, whatever the rest of the time."  But man, when you start reading and learning you think... WOWZA. 

Now, I am not too big of a sucker.  I know every argument has 2 sides and people spin like crazy, and even pro-organic stuff can be hyped.  But there is puh-lenty of info out there from sources I do trust that sway me the organic way. 

For example, this is one thing that made me think:  "I want to KNOW what I am eating and what my family is eating."  And yes, even though this really doesn't count because I guess its an organic thing, it still sicked me out and motivated me to find out what I'm putting in my mouth.

STARBUCKS BUG JUICE

Did you read about this?  Do a google search or here's an article here. Title of article:  Starbucks ditches dye made from crushed bugs.

EWWWWEEEEE!!!!  Can I get an extra shot of BUG in mine please???  BLAHHHH!!

Seriously, that is gross.  But my pro-organic stance is really based on learning more about the toxins and artificial junk in our food.  And thinking about the havoc they wreak on our bodies and our hormones - and the "unknown" impact they are going to have on us and our kids that we can't even imagine. 

A quote I read the other day: 

"If doesn't come from the ground or have a  mother, don't eat it!!"  -Jillian

There are some really good resources online.  A published list of fruits and veggies to ALWAYS buy organic because they hold the most pesticides versus ones that are fairly safe.  How to read the labels on fruit to know if they are modified, regular, or organic.  And some other good sources of info.  I'll pull them together and post them on here so they are all in one place!

Let me end with with my confession of the day.  I don't know which Starbucks products use the BUG DYE.  But I still get my coffee there...  and I still would even if they didn't stop using bug dye.  (Does that mean I'm an addict???)

HAPPY SATURDAY!!

...High Five for Friday...

Ummmm... this week flew by!

Reading a bunch of other High Five for Friday posts from Lauren's blog, I see that many agree with me!

Have you looked at all the people linked in, sharing their Friday High 5s?  SO FUN!

So here we go...  the top 5 things I'm thankful for this week!!

1.  Morning Snuggles!  Who wouldn't look forward to this??

...cozy cozy...

2.  Sunny weather to take out our canoe!  Here we are on the lake.  Lovely lovely!!

Cottage Grove Lake - beeeeeautiful!

3.  You never know how thankful you are for something until its gone...  That's how I feel about my garbage disposal.  My poor hubby worked on it 3 hours last night, flooded the kitchen, cut his finger, and decided we probably need a new one.  I will never take you fore granted again, disposal!!!

...I miss this...



4.  My tabata class.  And my instructor, Jon.  We were chuckling at his quotes that keep us going: 

"Its only 4 minutes!"  "You didn't come here to lolly gag along!"  "Ride those squats!"

Here's a video - check it if you haven't experienced tabata yet: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HId0NySRIGg&feature=player_embedded

http://www.fmwtraining.com/

5.  I ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING OFF OF PINTEREST!  For Mother's Day we made all the awesome moms, grandmas, aunts, and friends photo cards using signs!  Pretty fun, though I took over 70 pictures to get 7 finals!!  Thank God for Digital Cameras!!



What a week!!  Ready for a long SUNNY weekend!!

Enjoy yours!!



...diet - errrr I mean, way of life...

Ok, so I knew I liked Jillian for a reason.  I mean, I have always loved her workout intensity.  I mentioned before that her workout dvds are about the only ones I can stand to do.  She is not annoying, is not condescending, and is motivating and pushes me.  I know - probably a lot of others think this too as she is major famous for it!!

But I didn't realize... we are also soul sisters!!  Well, kinda....  based on this book:

I had gotten another of her books before.  It was good, but not earth shattering for me.  I kinda thumbed through it and put it on the shelf.  But this one, I LOVE.  Read cover to cover in 2 days. 

First, her story.  It explains me to me!!  How not eating, trying to diet, eating fat-free/sugar-free crapola, working like crazy, not eating, and did I mention not eating have lead to a total gland mess!  My poor body!

In one part she says something like: so I wondered why my friend could eat whatever she wanted whenever (though she chooses to eat clean and healthy) but if I ate anything I gained weight.  Yep.  That's me.  The whole exercise/cut calories/try anything and nothing works but nothing does.  The whole workout more than anyone I know, to stay the same or even still gain.  Talk about unmotivating!!

But here's what I like best about her book.  TONS of charts and info on food.  Way too much info to incorporate all at once, but she recommends a plan and its an easy reference.  And TONS of hope on resetting the ol' body and getting it working like God designed it!!!!

So - I am a believer!  God made us to feel good, look good (as He made us, not what anyone else thinks), have energy...  and going to clean food, eating every 4 hrs, and some other things seem to be the key.

We shall see.  But kudos to Jillian regardless.  For being so famous, so fit - and still likable and down to Earth!  Go girl!

(For the record, already blew it today - too much coffee and skipped meals.  Doh! 

But tomorrow is a new day!)

...stovetop coffee...

Nothing like a grande Americano with steamed breve from Starbucks!!

But if I'm making coffee at home, this is my favorite:  stovetop coffee!!

LOVE the taste. 

Love the process. (just fill bottom with hot water, put coffee in filter section, screw top on and put on the burner.  Takes 3-4 minutes.) 

I also love the portions.  Just enough for one big cup.  That way, if I want more I make more.  It tastes fresh and great every time, and I don't just drink a whole pot without thinking about it.

Mmmmmm....  if you haven't tried it, you should!!

(I got mine at Ross - I'd suggest any kind of discount store or else they are kinda expensive!)

O - mine it perking!!  Gotta go!!

...night time munchies...

Ever feel like you're starving late at night??  That you can't sleep??  That you NEED carbs??

I sure do!  Or should I say.... did.

I realized using myfitnesspal.com calorie tracker that I get that starving-can't-sleep-late-at-night usually happens when I don't have enough calories during the day. 

So...  another good reason to break my habit of being a meal skipper! 

Bye bye late night munchies!!

...blah...

Ever feel blah?!?!  What is that???????????????

What to do to shake it?

I choose joy, but sometimes its hard to live that out ey?????????

I think mine is tied to communication.  Ever have trouble saying what you're feeling?  I'm still learning!

I'll report in how it goes...!!

...HIGH FIVE FOR FRIDAY...

.F.R.I.D.A.Y.

High Five!

1.  Ok, this is blatant reverse psychology!!  Can I say I am thankful for laundry, and then I will be????

Well, its worth a try!!

2.  I truly am thankful for this DVD.  My boys love it.  Good stuff!  Go Hillsong!!

3.  I am thankful in advance for this... well, this is just a pic I got on internet.  But I am thankful that I AM GOING TO create a path in our backyard in the next week or so.  Probably won't look like this, but it will be made of rocks.  And again, experimenting here.  If I'm thankful in advance, will it happen???!!!

 4.  I am TRULY and REALLY thankful for going into the summer injury free!!!!! Ready to Run in the Sun!!
Now I just need to find a race or relay to sign up for.  I do better with a goal...

5.  I am thankful for these...  Flatout Foldits.  They are pretty processed, so for clean eating they probably don't count.  But I love them - for sammies or paninis or whatever - and they are just 90 calories each!  And they meet the need when I am NEEDING carbs!! 

Lastly, I am thankful for From My Grey Desk, and her awesome High Five for Fridays idea!!  Thx Lauren!

(Click here to see over 100 other High Fives from people everywhere!)

...o to be a barista....

Ok, my dream job is to be a barista.

I'll modify that.  My dream is to own a coffee shop.  I was going to name it... you guessed it... Thank God For Coffee!  Either a drive through or a little shop...  less pressure with a drive thru. 

Alas, I think my dream was 10 years too late.  When they first came out, coffee stands were the craze!  And hot and happening!  But now, at least in Oregon, its a pretty saturated market.  And a lot of people (sigh, including myself) would rather have Starbucks.

I probably have a crazy view on being a barista.  Seeing people, getting to join in their cheer or cheer them up with coffee.  Who doesn't get a little happiness, no matter their day or life, when they get that cup of what they love?  And knowing customers names, making them feel known by remembering their drinks, getting to be a little spot of joy in their day....  I'm sure there's other, less glamorous parts of this job.  But I think:  people + coffee?  How can it be wrong?????

So to all you baristas out there - thanks for what you do, and know I am little jealous!!

Enjoy!