Something I am Thankful For

No one in our family has food allergies or restrictions!

Made My Day

I have to admit that I have been a little edgy today. All four of the kids were up by 6:20 this morning! What is up with that?! Cole generally wakes up around 6:40 and crawls into bed with me for the last 10 minutes that I spend there. Then I shower and get ready. The big kids have a radio alarm that starts playing at 7, but don't usually wake up until I go in around 7:15 with my wake-up call. Rachel sometimes gets up with Cole, while I am getting ready, or waits until the big kids get up. Cole was interested in going back to sleep, but everyone else was up, and he didn't want to miss out. I was very interested in going back to sleep myself!
Everyone has shown their tiredness throughout the day, including me. To make matters more interesting, Robbie is a bit under the weather (cold-cough stuff) and school let out at half day today due to icy weather. No one was able to rest quietly this afternoon seemingly due to change in our routine. I am tired. I barely had time to eat lunch while Cole was screaming in his room while he was supposed to be napping. Fights have broken out randomly. Clinginess is at an all time high. Crying is rampant throughout the house.
While trying to get dinner started I sent the kids out of the main living area of our house to go play in the bedroom(s) together. Things sounded like they were going well, and then Robbie came out to announce they were going to do a music parade for me.



What a way to make me smile! Unfortunately after taking the video and starting this post, this have gone south again. Arguments have started again- over instruments this time. Instruments have been used to bonk each other over the head. Instruments have been thrown. I have someone hanging on my leg. Three children have cried. At least there were some smiles for a while. If we are lucky, we will all be stuck at home tomorrow because of continued icy weather . . . maybe people will sleep in!

Enjoy and Stretch your Mind

(I didn't create this. I pulled it from an email forward. Answers are in the comment section. I got five of them right; it helped, of course, to have a few tossed in there covering language concepts!)

This is a quiz for people who know everything! These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.
2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?
3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?
4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?
5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?
6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters 'dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them.
7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?
8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.
9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter 'S.'

Kids and Veggies

There are various ideas about getting kids to eat their vegetables. One of the sneaky ways is to hide them in other foods after pureeing (sp?) them. In fact there is a whole book published on different mixtures of veggies based on colors, textures, and tastes and what foods to hide them in including red sauces, casseroles, and even desserts. The name of the book is The Sneaky Chef and there is, of course, mucho info on line where you can learn more and even get some recipes. It is an interesting concept and certainly has good points if it is helping get/keep kids healthy, but it doesn't teach them to be healthy.

I just read an on-line article about kids eating vegetables and, even though it doesn't appear to be super scientific or ground-breaking, I felt like it had some good points. So . . . you can read more about it here for other ideas. I know one thing that I have to remind myself is to serve things to my kids that I don't particularly like (which then I eat too) so they can be exposed to more than just my tastes.

Girls vs. Boys, Part 2

Whoever said that a boy can't (or wouldn't want to) play with a princess castle? Anyone, anyone? As you can see below, a princess castle works great for princesses as well as for a parking garage!

Games

Our older kids received some games for Christmas. I generally enjoy games, so it is always fun for me to see them get gifts like that (also books, coloring/craft items, play-doh - rather than toys which don't seem to get much play time around here). Anyway, they got a few classics that I remember playing at their age like Twister and Sorry. I learned, however, that one of the adults in our house is not a fan of the game Sorry. Sorry!

My favorite of the games they received is a new game called Pictureka! which is kind of a like an "I Spy" book set up like a game with various twists. (I say it is new but as far as I know it may have been around quite a while.) It is advertised for ages 6 and up. Our six year old loves it and is good at it. Our four year old is a bit slower with it, but enjoys the game and has gotten better at it with each time we play. The other grown up in our house and I both enjoy it as well. I would recommend it to others and will probably use it as a gift item for others as well.

The "Secret"

Not that I am the only person to have four children, twins, or even kids fairly close together, but seeing that these characteristics do all apply to me, I am often asked "How do you do it?" I am not exactly sure what the "it" is people are referring to. Maybe they are impressed by how well they all are behaved and just didn't know it was possible to have four such amazing children. Maybe they see that I have showered, dressed in clean clothes, and applied some make-up as well as done something with my hair most mornings. Maybe they ask because my kids are driving them crazy and assume they must be driving me crazy as well. The third hypothesis is the most likely (as anyone who has spent much time with us would second), but anyway, on to the real point of this post and that is the secret to how I do "it".

The answer: Coca-cola and chocolate!

The fact of the matter is I am craving both right now. I have both available in my home but they don't really go along with the fact that I am officially trying to lose the rest of my "baby weight". I figure 33 years is long enough to carry it around. Just kidding . . . Rachel and Cole with be two in less a month (CRAZY!) and I have decided it is time. With cutting down on my soda intake at the beginning of December and trying to actually eat three meals a day instead of snacking during the day and eating dinner at night, I have lost between 7-8 lbs. I feel really good about this, but it doesn't take away my daily -okay, HOURLY- cravings for soda and chocolate.

I was hoping by writing this post, I might be able to take my mind off the cravings and avoid the kitchen for a while. It seems to have helped for now. We'll see how long it lasts!