Athletics Update

Remember this?

Time for another physical fitness goal. Not because I'm terribly out of shape, but because over the past year I've slipped slightly from my desired health and accompanying appearance. Like I said, nothing dramatic here, but I don't want to let all that hard work slip any further! It helps me to focus on a goal. and it just so happens that the first week of June my BIL is getting hitched (to a really fabulous gal, btw) and I'd like to look (and feel) AWESOME for their special day! To be clear, this is NOT my before picture. :)

Being accountable helps me a ton. I can earn 4 points every day, which I record alongside weight. So here are my objectives (I'm not sharing my ultimate weight loss goal because I don't want anyone to judge me):

• sugar only 1 bite a day: I opted for the 'one bite' rule rather than 'zero' or 'only once a week' options. I found that the sugar once a week thing became a binge day (I found myself saying, "hey, today's my sugar day, I can have that and that and that"). I think it is better for me to discipline to 1 bite, well-chosen, to savor each day. "Sugar" includes sugary kids cereal, regular sugary yogurt, jam, and obviously dessert. 
• carbohydrates 2 1/2 servings a day: I have often indulged in way too many slices of fresh homemade bread. Yes, it is complex and healthy, but calories are calories. 2 servings means I can have a good cereal for breakfast and a carb for lunch or dinner (salad, protein smoothie, etc are options for the other meal). The extra 1/2 means I can have pita with hummus or something else as a snack, but can't overdo it. No extras for second helpings at meal time. If I'm still hungry, have second helpings of veggies. :)
• water 4 large glasses a day: I found the 64 oz rule was way too much water for me. maybe tmi, but I spent way too much time running to the restroom. 4 glasses is realistic for me: 1 in the am, 1 with lunch, 1 in the pm, 1 with dinner. I don't count the water I drink during exercise towards my 4 glasses.
• exercise 5x's a week: This is intentional, 45 minute exercise. Walking doesn't count unless it is looong, like 2 hours pushing a stroller at the zoo. I actually plan to exercise 6x's a week, excluding Sunday, but the 5x goal is what I'll hold myself accountable for. 

There is no individual reward for the points, those are just tools to get me to my weight loss goal. When I reach that, the reward is a new item of clothing. 

Eric and I have also been talking at length for some time about how little I've been able to utilize my gym membership this winter bc Caroline has had a cold pretty much since October. I think I've averaged about 3x's a week all winter, because I can't bring snotty noses along and keeping the kiddos healthy has proven a challenge. Also, this is NOT an announcement, but sometime this year we would like to begin expanding our family. That means a few months of ZERO gym-use because I usually get too sick to do much of anything. Then there are the last few months of pregnancy that also get less use from a gym and the first 3 months when a baby can't go to the gym. Finally, Eric does not have time to go to the gym unless he goes late at night after the kids are in bed, which doesn't appeal to either one of us. He'd like to work out at home. So. We were looking at quite a bit of money to pour into a membership that wouldn't really go to any good use. With all those things in mind, we've decided to cancel the membership at the end of the month and instead invest in a few basic exercise equipment purchases that we can use at home. during nap time. workout date night. that kind of thing. It just makes sense for our family at this time.

Thus, in addition to my revamped healthy goals, I have been working on designing an exercise plan. The cardio and yoga are easy, actually, thanks to youtube. But I also wanted to have a circuit-training "MIX" class, like the one that kicks my butt every Saturday at the gym. I'm still getting it figured. I understand how to design circuits, have all my possible exercises written out and categorized... what I'm lacking--and please don't laugh if you don't think this isn't an integral part of exercise-- is a way to get my MUSIC to coordinate with the high intensity-low intensity switches. What I mean is, I like to do high intensity when the music is most intense, generally the chorus. Verses are great for build up or low intensity. But the circuit thing is typically "30 seconds high intensity 30 seconds rest" between 6-8 exercises then repeated for 5 sets with a 3 minute recovery between each set. You see my challenge? How do I get my music to coordinate with 30 seconds on 30 seconds off for basically an hour? Or, alternatively, do I just follow the music and switch to high intensity when the music does? Which would give me some exercises lasting WAY more than 30 seconds and some rests lasting way more than 30 seconds. Also, if the music doesn't coordinate, then I am forced to watch the second hand on the clock, which I don't like. I'd rather just pour all my energy into the exercise and push through to the end of the time without craning my head to watch each second drag by. Know what I mean? It would really help if the music could cue me. Any suggestions? If you've got experience with this, please share!

Well, there you have my fitness update and goals! Keep me accountable. I'll be reporting back after the first month. I'd love to play along with you! If you decide to design your own healthy goals, I'd love to hear about it!

Our Spunky Caroline is 2 Years Old!

Happy Birthday to my dear, affectionate, vivacious, passionate Caroline!

2 years ago you joined our family. 

Since then, we've never had a dull moment. :)

We've enjoyed every single one of your delightfully frequent hugs (except Gwen, who bemoans the fact that your hugs for her always become wrestling matches)

and we've delighted in your silly faces, noises, and antics. 

We can't believe how much you love to hurt yourself-- when will you figure out tantrums don't serve your cause?

We are amazed at your dare-devil nature-- don't think for a moment that this shorty is mild-mannered, bc she will barrel right over you, jump, run, kick, climb, wrestle...and, yes, bite. 

You are such an active gal, scarcely sitting through an entire book. You love learning, but are definitely a hands-on kind of explorer. Coloring, painting, and sorting of small objects like buttons are the only activities that you will "slow down" for, instead preferring to run around like a crazy woman. Everything you do, you express physically. If you are happy, you wrestle; frustrated, you throw a monster tantrum; tired, you bite. Lucky for us, when you are feeling affectionate, you also freely demonstrate your love with hugs, cuddles, and kisses. 

We sure love you, little stinker, and are so grateful to have you in our family!

Caroline has a few favorite games:

• "push" (which means, she wants to sit on the floor and push you over, laugh about it, sit on you, then get up and do it again)
• "chase" (the classic doing laps around the kitchen-livingroom loop)
• "climb" or "up high" (she wants to climb up to STAND on your shoulders, be thrown, etc)
• "gotchu" (being tickled/wrestled all over the floor). 

She has a few favorite toys/activities as well:

• bouncing on balloons (a balloon with helium is probably her favorite toy ever) 
• bubbles
• swings, slides, and climbing-- and jumping off things!
• coloring with markers (30% of the time they end up ON her skin, but she throws a fit if you even suggest crayons instead!)
• mini-hand-held princesses (she calls them "schwin-cess")
• rocks (throwing them--we're working on that)
• and anything that Gwen happens to be interested in at any given time. 

And a few favorite foods (don't be fooled--when I say 'favorite', I mean these are the ONLY things she will condescend to put in her mouth):

• fruit (besides bananas) --sometimes this is the only things she will eat... all day. We NEVER offer her fruit first bc if she sees it, she will spit out whatever is in her mouth to make room.
• veggies: green beans, peas, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower (sometimes)
• hot dogs, bacon, pork loin, eggs, and salami (sometimes)
• cereal (though she is picky about the kind), goldfish crackers, homemade bread (sometimes), rice (sometimes), potatoes (sometimes), and spaghetti (sometimes)
• candy (all the time), ice cream (all the time) and surprisingly, not so much a fan of cake or cobbler

Easter--the 'just for fun' traditions!

now I know Easter is NOT about eggs and edible goodies. We celebrate the great sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, with our thoughts and hearts reverently turning to Him in remembrance of His everlasting Atonement. Eggs have nothing to do with that.

But I enjoy the feast of colors that Easter-- with all its clearly secular rather than religious traditions-- ushers in. Since I am confident my children are NOT worshiping a pagan god or fertility goddess, I see only fun in the secular traditions. Fun and family. So we have our fair share of egg dyeing, cookie making, peep eating, egg hunting, and candy consuming in our family!

Egg Dyeing

This year we just did regular dyed eggs. Next year perhaps we'll venture out for a new method, I have seen a ton of ideas I'd like to try!

 Gwen enjoyed using the "magic" crayon

 Caroline wanted to participate too-- knowing her love of making messes, I only gave her two colors and 3 eggs...and she went to town!

 "Cheese!"

 Gwen wanted to add stickers to hers

 Caroline starts to notice her hands look funny...

 the dripping eggs quickly digressed into "dropped" eggs to see how big a splash she could create!

Caroline's egg started to look pretty grodey (and yes, that is the word I'm going with here), because the green and pink mixed makes brown (opposites on the color wheel and all, what can you expect). But that poop brown layer started to peel like a sunburn, revealing patches of pale pink underneath. Absolutely fascinating. I have no idea why it did that. 

and she thought her hands were interesting before...yeah, by the end of the activity, she looked ridiculous! 

 Gwen's finished eggs

 Caroline's 'poopy' egg

 and another of Caroline's that actually turned out quite pretty

 Caroline's egg lineup

 Of course she had to try some-- and wasn't offended by the vinegar, apparently, because she kept drinking it until I took it all away!

 The eggs

Peeps homes 

(gave us a chance to talk a teeny bit about nature too, particularly bird nests)

Caroline's Peeps didn't make it into their house unscathed...she took bites out of both of them before they got to go "home". 

Cookie baking and decorating:

 (we were blessed to have a completely unexpected visit from my folks for about 5 daytime hours-- we packed in a week's worth of memories, including these cookies!)

 Caroline had to be right there amidst the action

 Caroline hardly let Grandpa get any work done--she wouldn't let anyone else pick her up but just pestered him with "up up up up" until he succumbed!

Gwen's beautiful cookie!

and because this post is already super long, I'll save the egg hunt for another post. That hasn't even happened yet anyway, so it works out perfectly! :)

Easter--the spiritual traditions

We want our children to know what Easter is REALLY celebrating, so we have spiritual lessons throughout the month so that the entire month is about the Savior, but we only bring out the 'bunny and eggs and candy' stuff about two weeks before Easter. Easter day is reserved for family, food, and faith-- no egg hunt for us on Sunday, if we can avoid it; we try to make that a Saturday event. Some of our spiritual traditions include: 

colorful magnets (I took the coloring pages available for free from LDS.org and colored them by hand, covered in clear contact paper (the poor-woman's version of laminating), then glued to magnet sheets and cut out--carefully!) and and a map of Jerusalem (from the 2012 April Friend magazine) taped together and contact papered:

testimony eggs filled with symbolic items from our Savior's last week. The link isn't our exact set (which was a gift to us), but it gives the idea. There are lots of these on the web, so browse and find one you like. Our set actually has 15 eggs rather than the usual 12 because it includes 3 after the Resurrection up to the Ascension.:

a Passover dinner that allows us an opportunity to talk about the symbolism of the Old Testament meal and how it testifies of Christ as Savior (we don't actually own any Sedar plates, but we have all the foods on a regular plate)

Resurrection (marshmallow) rolls with 4 easy symbols of Christ's burial and resurrection

Easter-eve resurrection meringue cookies with more than 10 slightly-more-complicated symbols of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection. 

There are others I'd like to add to our traditions, but we'll have to add new ones each year as our children grow more mature. Preparing the various things does, after all, take time. The great thing is, once you've got a good thing goin, you can just keep repeating it year after year!

My 4-yr-old, the Author

I couldn't NOT document Gwen's latest intellectual development: story-crafting. The pics are just recent random photos of her, unrelated to the authoring moments.

 Gwen is periodically sent home with assignments from preschool that are really more for me than her, I imagine in the effort to get parents involved with the child's education. One such assignment was to choose a stuffed animal, have her make up a story about it while I wrote it down, and turn in her "story". Here is her creation, with my lack of punctuation intentional to indicate when she didn't slow down to breathe:

 "My pheasant is named Amy. *which she made up on the spot, btw, because she has NEVER called her pheasant Amy and usually says all her animals are named Gwen* One day Amy went to see her Mommy, Gwen. And after that she went to the woods and got lost. And then she went back to find her little baby pheasants. She had three little babies. One was named Sarah...and Percy and Bill. I have another story about when they were on the bus crying because they didn't get a drink. Their mommy got a drink for them and fed them then they went back home and then they went somewhere. Tomorrow we can do another story about my kitty."  

Cute. I love that babies and mommy's dominate the plot. I'm going to assume you are familiar with Owl Babies and caught her plagiarism--or literary allusion, if you are the generous type. :) The part at the end where she didn't pause reminds me of Kid History. :)

So her writing gets better. This next composition is awesome. Quite unexpectedly (it is a long story), my parents were here from midnight last night til 1:30 today. My dad took some time to play with Gwen this morning and she wrote another story. For this one, she included illustrations and page turns, which I've indicated by each new line:

"One day, on a boat, going to America. 
"Then in the morning, a nasty storm was coming by. 
"And the storm got bigger...and BIGGER...
"The rain was coming nearer and nearer.
"And the river got wild and wild.
"People fell from the boat, to mean shark's home.
"Sharks were eating people to their guts.
"Sharks got sick from eating the people.
"Their mommy and daddy gave them medicine."

and that is the end!

When I turned the page and read "eating people to their guts" I just couldn't stop laughing! How does she even KNOW about stuff like that? and I love how there is no tidy plot wrap up, the sharks just get medicine. Nuf said. Kids are so funny!

Cupcakes with Young Women

I'm not in teaching in Young Women anymore, which was a challenging adjustment for me because I loved it soooooo much and I really miss these amazing gals. So when I was asked to teach the YW some cake decorating skills for a Wed night activity, I was more than happy to hang out with these awesome ladies (thank you Eric for being willing to fly solo at bedtime so I could do this)! 

Check out some of the talent--like the above fondant cupcake designed by Sarah V.!

Those aren't my hands, that is Nicole B. mastering flowers and leaves!

 

 Becca S. liked the eggs in the grass the best!

 Hailey B. designed a lovely flower cupcake

 These are either Ashley J or Karianne D's adorable creations... not sure to whom the credit belongs, but they sure are cute!

 Orawan W. was focused and precise. Her first time decorating cupcakes!

 Gina F. wanted her 'lawn' to be the perfect length...if only my grass were this green and luscious!

The whole crowd, showing off our edible creations! So much fun and ya'll did a great job! Beautiful!