life is a roller coaster

I don't have time to full elaborate, but yesterday was perhaps my worst shopping experience ever. The worst part is that I should have known better, but I was determined to go find something for Buddy to wear on Easter. (As if the clothes are what it's about anyway?!? He's 9 months old. I have had a dress for Bear for a while.)

Last night was mostly sleepless, because Bear is sick with a tummy bug that won't let go, to the point that my husband took a sick day today because she is so needy. If he is also concerned about my mental well being, he hasn't indicated, but I am thankful to have him home, it has been a sanity saver... and he is taking Bear back to the doc for the 2nd time in as many days, thankfully I won't have to hold my screaming daughter for another blood draw.


We're supposed to go away for the weekend, and it all hinges on one thing... will our little Bear get better?

Whoever initially said that having a child is like having your heart walk around outside your body was pretty accurate.

I haven't exercised in 2 days... my body misses it. But there are still hills of laundry to wash and fold...

:)

Have you ever scheduled a home show or party for a home-based business and wondered if it would be worth it? I have. As a former consultant in direct sales, I have had hostesses with shows ranging from $0-$1000+ in retail value. My Mom NEVER has home shows, but she did for me and hers was one of my best.

The purpose of home shows is two-fold:
1) obviously- to show/sell a product
2) fellowship- the most important!

So often, we rush from here to there, and we don't get a chance to get together with the girls. When they go well, home shows allow the opportunity to hang out and shop from your feet in a relaxed environment, but if they don't go well, sometimes the hostess is left feeling, "what did I do that for?"

I had a few neighbors and a few friends from church and one long-time friend come tonight, and had a nice time. I always get a bit nervous when I have people over; overwhelmed. I manage to hide it fairly well, thanks to my teaching experience, but sometimes the uncertain girl from middle school and high school comes out and I want to crawl back into my shell. I often do better in one-on-one settings, where I feel like I can really focus on another person and not divide my time/attention. And sometimes part of me feels bad for asking my friends to buy something to help me get my hostess benefits, no matter how much I like the product.

In tonight's case, thanks to my friends showing up and knowing my consultant really well after living a block away for 6 years, hubby mopping the kitchen/dining room floor, and me actually cleaning the living room so it is temporarily not a tornado zone, and products that literally sold themself, it was a success. (Sorry, grammar-geeks.)

Thanks to Gina, my fabulous Thirty-One consultant, and all my friends who came and missed their favorite TV show (or DVR'd it for later). :)

a wii/fitness update

I hit the 20 hour mark on my Wii fit yesterday. That means I'm not using it to procrastinate TOO much, but I am using it. And my last few Wii Age Test Results have been under 40, today I actually hit my real age. I am .7 lb away from my first major weight goal. WOO HOO!!!

All this in spite of an allergy attack and bronchitis which have limited my activity level. I have not run outside in a while... allergies don't like it, but I plan to resume my Couch to 5K variation soon.

I'm cutting back on sodas, because they make the eczema patches on my hands worse when I drink them. I have replaced sodas with VitaRain flavored water, from Costco. It's half the cost of vitamin water at wal-mart and other grocery stores, and significantly less than the VitaminWater brand at Costco... and we like all the flavors in the multipack. I can only drink so much plain water at a time.

*******
I'm having a purse/tote/bag/accessory party tonight... One of my friends just became a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts <---(CLICK), and I love the tote I bought at the party she hosted last month, so I figured I'd host a show and help her get her business started. They offer embroidery personalization at the most affordable price I've seen anywhere... $6! And this months special is only $1 on the new kids' line.

So if you live in the Nashville area, have not already been invited and happen to be free, come join us around 7:00!!!

Check her out!

Allow me to tell you little bit about our friend, Southern Barbie. We met in college, then she went away. She is partially responsible for me and my husband getting together. I think I still have the slip of paper she handed me with his phone # on it the night we met. Somewhere. I vowed not to use it unless he called me first, and the rest is history. I'm pretty sure she got to be there when he picked out my engagement ring, too. Who knows, maybe she picked it out. Her smile is contagious, and next time she is in this part of the country, we will have to meet up. She's fun-loving, her smile is contagious, and I think the Northwest is starting to rub off on her in some ways. ;-)

We lost touch over the years, but have recently reconnected. As with many other long-lost-but-rediscovered friends, online. She's blogging now, so check out her blogs...

Go introduce yourself and welcome her to the blogosphere!

Southern Barbie
Fabulosew!

tag...

Sara tagged me a week or so ago, and I just realized it! Unless she was tagging another Lauren...

THE RULES:
1. Take a picture of yourself right now. No primping or preparing. Just snap a picture.
2. Load it onto your blog.
3. Tag three people to play.

this is me, unedited. 8:41 am, in all my morning glory,
you can almost smell my breath through the screen.
and would somebody please straighten my glasses?
or wax my face and then give me lasik? at least my hair is shiny....

and here are my kids, undedited, just because. (This wasn't part of the original meme.)

buddy, 8:42 a.m.
whispering sweet nothings to his paci

bear, 8:42 a.m.... note the baggie of cereal and milk for breakfast.
my mother tried to teach me better, but i am NOT a morning person.

*****
TGIF!!!!!

Ok, I tag the following:
1. steph- all of you, since there are a few, ha!
2. crt
3. Heather- all of you, since there are a few, too!

my "vision"

I'm not talking about some kind of mystical, philosophical goal. OR my eyesight. This is, or should be, much simpler and attainable than that. After almost 6 years in this house, 3 since we finally got the wall up, give or take a year (I've lost track), I think I know what I want to do with the cliff. I want a butterfly garden. Now, the plants I put in today are not really butterfly friendly. But we have all this slope, it's a pain and an eyesore because we can't get the grass to grow nicely on it. And while I am pleased with what I did today, in my mind it says, "just the beginning."

If I were to admit that aloud to hubby, it would translate something like "be afraid, be very afraid." (I could go crazy buying plants.) Although I think it SHOULD mean, "less to mow."

See how the grass STILL hasn't filled in very well along the retaining wall? Hubby has worked very hard to make the grass grow every year. It already looks better this weekend than it has since last July or so. But I can't help but want to try to grow something else there. I planted what I bought yesterday in the worst patch; lots of slumping going on there. My hope is that the roots from the plants will help reduce the slumping. Eventually, the phlox should grow closer together, ast the instructions said to plant them 15-18 inches apart. The forsythia should grow to be 6-8 ft. Eventually.

My vision is still a bit cloudy, but it includes a big butterfly bush placed down the hill from the patio. And butterfly-attracting flowers, grasses, and/or ground cover of some type in between. Perhaps some cascading petunias or ivy hanging over the wall.

I haven't told hubby about my vision yet. I think I'll just suggest that he read the blog.

Spring shopping

Last week, Bear and I visited a nursery down the road. Fortunately for our bank account, they only take cash and checks, and I only had my cards on me. I loved some of their flowers, but decided it's a bit early to plant annuals. We could still have a frost.

I had some time to kill while waiting for our prescription to be filled at the grocery store's pharmacy. They had some pretty spring plants out front. I bought a forsythia bush and 3 lavender carpet phlox, much to hubby's chagrin. The forsythia was at least 30% less expensive than at the nursery. The phlox were reasonable, too... 3 for $10. I tried planting seeds last year, they never took. Hopefully we won't kill these.

in case you wondered...

the 5k training is not going so well... it seems the only time i have to run is before dark. i may have to start getting up and running before hubby goes to work...

one day the wii said i was 28, the next it said 40... i think my score depends on which balance tests they randomly select for me. i have lost about 25 pounds in the last 7 months (since buddy was born), and seem to be holding steady where i'm at.

my new year's "resolution" of trying a new recipe per week has not gone so well overall. however, last week I did make a new soup, and today i roasted a whole chicken in the oven for the first time. it was on sale for 79 cents per pound at publix last week, and i could not resist. i was not a big fan of fishing the bag of innerds out of the cavity. both my cook book and the bird specifically reminded me to do so, so i figured it must be somewhat important. i did not make gravy, just poured the juices back over the meat after it was cut. here's how i seasoned it... it was really good, IMNSHO (in my not-so-humble-opinion).

1/2 stick butter, melted
1/2 c finely chopped red onion
3 small garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp Penzey's tuscan sunset italian style seasoning
1 tbsp kosher salt
several grinds of pepper

mix all seasonings in bowl. after basting/rubbing melted butter into the bird's skin, rub the seasonings all over the bird outside and inside. bake uncovered. after dinner, i boiled the carcass in water to make soup stock, which i will freeze for future use.

Training has begun!

I've been doing my Wii Fit somewhat consistently since I got it, but my weight loss has plateaued. With the arrival of Spring-like weather, I have decided to get out as much as possible. So far, that means I've gone for 2 strolls with the kiddos, 1-2 miles each, in the past 3 days. Tonight, I jogged/walked about a mile in 15 minutes. Not impressive, but progress. Two neighbors asked where the kids were as we passed eachother. :)

During college, I would take breaks from studying by jogging on the fitness trail or the Quad. Sometimes, it was simply a means of procrastination. When I came home for the summer, I sometimes ran down my parents driveway and winding street, or went over to the local fitness trail. I've never been a distance runner, but I have always found jogging and walking to bring a sense of accomplishment to my weak body. And I used my inhaler before I left as a preventative measure. I think it helped. A lot.

So now there is a goal in place. Do a 5k within the next 6 months. Try to run/walk 2-3 times per week and do Wii fit, a video, etc... at home in between every day for at least 15 minutes.
Running a 5k will be tough, but I don't mind starting slowly and doing a combo of walking/jogging if I must.

In case you missed it on Facebook's heinously confusing "improvements"... here's my attempt at being a "domestic diva" as a very dear friend who sang at our wedding dubbed me on my wall. I wish! ;P

Click HERE to see the play-by-play of my soup experiment.

A while back, I posted that my friend Don Hoesel's first book, Elisha's Bones, was being published in March. Well, it's March, it's been published, and I highly recommend it if you like reading something that could be made into an Indian Jones or National Treasure type movie someday. Excellent characterization, and I'm assuming a lot of research went into it, because the details sound believable. Great job, Don!

Are you looking for tips on cutting your food budget?

Faithful Provisions is a blog dedicated to just that! Kelly spoke at our A Mom's HEART meeting today, and I thought my blogging buddies would like to peruse her site.

Have you run a 5K? Would you?

So, a few weeks ago I told hubby we should try to run a 5K together. This was before he pulled a muscle and also before I had actually gone for a jog without kids this season. I have at least 3 good friends that I know of who have run 5K's... 2 in the past couple of years.

I'm borderline asthmatic, and have used that as an excuse not to run for years. I LOVE walking, but running and I, well... have never seemed like a good fit.

Now that the weather is getting nicer, I want to add some outdoor "me" time.

I went on our church's women's retreat and found out that a woman I barely know but became a little better acquainted with is a runner. She mentioned starting slowly but consistently, but unfortunately that's all I remember from our conversation.

Anyway, I googled 5K for beginners and found this link:

Couch to 5K

Anyone want to join me in the elusive quest to get fit, or offer feedback? Have you attempted to run a 5K? Would you? Why or why not?

I haven't convinced myself that I will do this yet, but it's a possibility...

Wouldn't you like to meet... my neighbor?

http://sarcasmasawayoflife.blogspot.com/

back to life...

so, i made it 12 days on the wii before going away for a retreat this past weekend. i've exercised about 30 minutes since i returned. the jeans are feeling a tad tighter already. :(

i'm anxious for Spring to arrive. Flower catalogs which I ordered have come from Breck's and Spring Hill Nursery, and I am trying to decide what to order so I can get my 50% off or $25 off. I figure if we can't get the grass looking decent, I might as well strive to have pretty flowers all Spring and summer. The hyacinths are peeking up in front of the mailbox, but we are still waiting for something to bloom other than the crocus. Some of the daffodils were frost bitten and never bloomed, and the tulips are a bit behind the daffs (aka "buttercups" here in the South). I'm wondering if I transplanted some of the daffs in my friend's flowerbed along with a calla lily last year, because one area which normally has several daffodils has one lone plant sticking out, and it's very close to my calla lily patch. Or maybe I just killed them.

day 9...

so I have exercised at least 20 minutes or more for the past 9 days.
weight seems to be basically holding steady. that must mean the fat i am losing is turning into muscle. 20 wii minutes is really like 30-40 real time minutes, but as i am opening up more reps and don't have to watch the demos, etc., the time estimate will be closer to reality. i hope.

hubby and i are toying with the idea of trying to run a 5k together. i have no doubt that he could do it... that would take a ton more discipline on my part than i have every had.

still a wii bit unfit, but getting better

We've had our Wii Fit for about a month now, and I am getting the hang of it. Overall, it was a good purchase. Now that I have had more reps open up on many of the exercises, I don't feel like I am wasting as much time clicking between activities. So for those of you who have not yet jumped on the Wii Fit bandwagon, here are some of my thoughts...

Pros:
-Yoga and Strength Training form is taught better than many of the exercise videos I have done, because the balance board enables it to give you feedback on your position.
-Balance games are fun.
-Aerobic exercises start slow for novices like myself who have never had much coordination.
-No need to leave the house.
-No embarassment about lack of coordination while others in a class are stable and I'm wobbling on one limb.
-Tracks your time, suggests excercise sets (strength and yoga)
-When the kids need you, you can stop and resume later.
-Lets you document exercises and household activities for "credits", tracks progress, to a limited extent.
-Lets you figure in your clothes' weight.

Cons:
-Initial time "wasted" clicking between screens etc. may just be more than the time it would take me to drive to the gym.
-The BMI calculator is not accurate. It has no way of figuring in muscle mass. This is important for people like my hubby, who actually have muscles.
-Not only is the BMI innacurate for children, it may call healthy kids who it inaccurately thinks are overweight obese.... the machines sense of humor could hurt some young ones' feelings. Maybe they should just skip the body test and do the fun stuff. (Bear hasn't seemed to notice, but apparently Elizabeth Hasselback has spoken out against it on The View.) Or maybe they'll just talk back to it like I do.
-Some of the tips and hints are repetitive and get annoying.
-The Fit suggests you get together and play with friends, but the Wii is not configured to recognize more than one balance board at a time.

Am I glad we have it? Yes. Am I getting overwhelmingly great results? No, but I am not consistent, so that's not entirely the Wii's fault. I am noticing an increase in endurance, balance, and coordination on certain exercises. But I wish the weather would get warmer so I could supplement my Wii Activity and videos with a low tech-jog with my new running shoes. (First new pair in 7 years.)

Oh, and just to track progress.... my size 12's are getting loose. I weighed about 170 lbs. with Buddy inside me, and I am now around 145, depending on the normal variables.

Tackle It Tuesday

It's been a while since I posted a tackle. Today, I am returning to my old habit of posting my mundane list and changing the colors after they are completed.

Dishes- empty dishwasher, refill, wash pans
Laundry- wash, fold, put away--- it's accumulating on the guest bed, as usual.
Research area "learning" activities at symphony, museums, library, zoo, etc....
Post office trip
play with kids


For more Tackles, go to www.5minutesformom.com.

good morning!

ok, i want sleep. the kids are asleep. why am i awake? i should be productive and fold laundry....
this post is beginning to sound like my facebook profile status update.

a couple of days ago, i asked Bear if she wants to go to school or stay home and have mommy be her teacher. this was after a visit to a mom's day out where a couple of my friends send their kids in which she really seemed to want to stay and play on the playground. anyway, her birthday is a month past the state's kindergarten entry deadline. this means that the state says she can't go to kindergarten until she is almost 6. in my opinion, she will be ready before then. the child is identifying beginning consonant sounds, she is a "mother hen" in her sunday school class, and she loves to learn. she soaks up names of plants and birds. she loves older kids.

one of my reasons in adding education to my major in college was that i thought i might want to homeschool my kids some day. then i taught public high school for 2 years. while most of you might think that would be incentive to keep my kids at home, it actually had the opposite effect on me. i realized the serious responsibility that home-schooling parents face, and questioned whether i am up to that challenge. i had a few "students" (kids who were on my class roll but rarely showed up and when they did were not exactly eager to participate) who withdrew from school in order to "home-school". God help them. if they could not get motivated to work under the instruction of caring teachers like myself, and if their parents did not care enough to return my phone calls, how were they possibly going to truly learn at home? i envisioned them sleeping in and taking only open-book tests.

after my brief stint as a teacher in a public school, i had the opportunity to tutor home schoolers through a private tutorial at a local church. MOST of those kids reminded my why i had initially considered home-schooling. their faith and work-ethics were phenomenal. yes, i had at last one student who was ineligible to return to that tutorial program, and she reminded me of some of the students who had dropped out.

anyway, the core of my internal debate is not so much my daughter's capability or even my past experiences in the field of education. it's the knowledge that i am lazy and unmotivated by nature and can't even get myself into a system to keep up with, well, anything. so how on earth can i teach my child effectively? that whole "socialization" debate that often accompanies objections to home schooling does not apply, in my opinion. there are plenty of social opportunities for home schoolers. there are multiple resources for parents, and many kids thrive because they are not limited by the budget restraints or distractions of conventional classrooms. however, being a product of a combination of christian and public education, and having been a teacher, i don't buy into the fear-based theory that christian kids will definitely be corrupted in public schools any more than i buy into the theory that they will be sheltered in private christian schools. kids are kids, and peer pressure exists everywhere. as parents, it is our responsibility to teach our kids values. my parents weren't perfect, but the foundation God gave us through them was not broken when we went to public schools.

it's 4 a.m. my improper punctuation and grammar may demonstrate to some that i should not home school my kids. i'm tempted to close the comments on this post, but this blog has been dead for a while, and as i have nothing else to discuss at the moment, feel free to post your thoughts. i'm not looking for debate, just thinking out loud here. God knows my mind is enough of a forum for debates. feel free to think along with me, if you like. at the very least, pray that i will not let my indecisive nature hinder my daughter's intellectual development. (i don't see that happening, she seems to be doing just fine. but the decision is what will be "just fine" and what will help her truly thrive? i know, only hubby and i can make that decision.)