Double whoops!

I've mentioned before in a couple of posts that I have difficulties backing up in my vehicle. You can read one of those posts here. In that post I cracked my side mirror and nearly broke my double stroller. A couple months ago I finished the job on my double stroller, backing into it again. Sad. I still have it though. I keep it in it's same spot on the side of my garage to use as a buffer...I'd much rather hit that broken stroller again than the wall of my garage.

First whoops: Last week I was out with the kids and my mother-in-law running some errands. I went into Cafe Rio to grab some lunch. Cafe Rio is always busy during lunch and dinner. I think I was a little nervous with all the other drivers out and my mother-in-law sitting next to me (I get nervous when I have any adult driving with me in the car unfortunately...probably because of my driving skills or lack thereof). Anyway, I backed up and into a pole, or post, I'm not exactly sure, I just caught it in my peripheral view. Maybe you're thinking what Scott said, "Didn't you get out and look?" The answer to that question is yes, but not until our next stop which was only a couple minutes away. Either way, I looked, and didn't see anything.

The next day I was shopping at Winco. On my way back to the van, the light was shining on the back, bottom corner just right and I saw what I hadn't seen before. Apparently I hit that bottom corner and it made a little mark and took some paint off the bumper. Previously, I hadn't told Scott about backing into the post, because it wasn't a big deal and so I forgot(honestly). But now I told him. He asked the question above and perhaps another. I told him how bad I felt for doing that to my car. He just chuckled and said, "Honey, it's just paint." I think he chuckled because he knows I really do try. I just have vision/depth issues or something. I sure love Scott.

This past weekend I took my van to an auto parts place. I got one of the workers to come out and look at it. I told him I didn't care about it looking perfect, but I didn't want the paint to continue to peel and get worse. He told me to sand it down, rub it with alcohol and then paint it. I asked him to show me which paint and sand paper to use. I spent about $10. I came home and did as I was told and so far it's holding up just fine and it looks better than it did before too, which I'm thankful for. Here is an after-my-touch-up picture.

And for the second whoops. The story is a little wary. I was in the kitchen cleaning up after my pink smoothie I had for lunch. When I came out into the living room, Charlie gave me a funny look. The kind of look that says, "I'm sorry. I'm guilty."
"What's up?" I asked him.
"There's a hole in the screen," Charlie said as he pointed to the window. Sure enough there was hole in the screen about the size of a silver dollar or a ping pong ball. "How did that happen?" I asked.
"I don't know." This was said with his head down and his body moving side to side. I knew he knew.
"Charlie, in order for me to fix that hole, I need to know how it happened." He looked at me for a few seconds and then said very quietly. "I don't know." I took a deep breath.
"Charlie. I need to know how it happened. Please tell me. I promise I won't get mad." He looked up to me then. "I promise," I repeated. Apparently this phrase gave him courage.
"I was playing with that horse and I was swinging my arms like this(he swung his arms out to the side) and it accidentally hit the screen."
"Okay. Well thank you for telling me Char." Then I walked over to the screen so I could have a better look. Lo and behold I found, on the other side of the screen, a dinosaur, lying on it's side on our outside mantle. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "A horse, Charlie?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Charlie, you shoved that Dinosaur through the screen?" He shrugged his shoulders again. So, like I said, I'm not really positive what or how it happened, but I do know it involved Charlie and a dinosaur. And I did keep my promise and I didn't get mad.

Garden update: boxes are done and garlic is up

Editor's(Scott's) note: This is a guest post from our resident wanna-be expert gardener, Scott S.

Spring is sneaking up on me, as it usually does, but this year I feel I am staying somewhat ahead of it in my garden preparation. I placed the remaining two garden boxes and filled them with a mixture of topsoil (with the help of our neighbour) and compost (from the dump). I had already placed the first box (the one on the left) in the fall, filled it with compost, and planted garlic. I was very surprised to see the garlic already peaking through. The box also seemed to stand up well to its first winter. I went with rough cut douglas fir with no other treatment, with the expectation of getting 5-7 years of use. The boxes are actually very simple to build and can be assembled in an hour or so. The one in the middle will have a removable greenhouse top made with a PVC frame and 3.5 mil plastic to cover it. The plan is to leave it on until the night temperatures are warm and put it back on in the fall as temperatures drop. Our hope is that we get at least harvest lettuce and other greens through the majority of winter. When the greenhouse top is off in the summer, I will place my tomato stakes in the brackets and use those to support the tomato plants.

Garden boxes

Garlic



Different bangs

I think we all get bored with our hair on occasion and want to change things up. Since I won't color it anymore (it's expensive, damaging and hard to keep up...but I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune when I start growing grays), and I don't love it short, there's not a lot I can do. I had Becca(my cute lil' sister) cut side bangs awhile back, which I really liked. This past week I decided to hack them even shorter and wear them in front. I like them alright, but it feels different having hair all over my forehead and I keep wanting to brush them aside. I think I won't keep trimming them but instead let them grow out.

By the way, I found these jeans last week at Walmart for $9. They have a couple of those patched up holes which aren't my favorite, but they were cheap, they fit well and I needed a new pair so I went for it. And I'm glad I did because I really like them and wear them nearly every day :).

Coconut

Many people think coconuts aren't good for you because they are a saturated fat. But I have learned that not all saturated fats are created equal. Coconuts are made from medium chain fatty acids, whereas meats or other 'not-so-good' saturated fats are made from long chain fatty acids. Our bodies use them very differently. In fact, coconut, when consumed, doesn't go right into fat stores like other saturated fats do, but instead goes to the liver and is converted into energy, similar to a carbohydrate. Many people believe it actually promotes weight loss. Also, did you know that it's been used for decades in hospital IV solutions for critically ill patients? It's very sustaining and mineral rich. Coconuts are also antimicrobial, antifungal, and antibacterial. It's make-up is very similar to that of breast milk(which is also a medium chain fatty acid).

I started buying and using coconut oil several months ago. I use it to make our popcorn instead of using hydrogenated oils. We make this for family movie night, weekly. I use coconut oil as a substitute for vegetable or other hydrogentated oils in various recipes, like pancakes.

I keep a jar of coconut oil in my bathroom as well. This jar is for topical use. When we had colds a while back, a couple of our family members were getting red, irritated spots under the nose from being wiped so often. I put coconut oil on that area and it helped with the healing. I also use it on the kids after they get out of baths/showers so they won't get dry skin which in turn will cause them to scratch giving themselves eczema(both Charlie and Annabelle struggled with Eczema in past years). I use it on my hands once or twice a day and this is the first winter in Utah I haven't had bloody knuckles from the dry, cold climate combined with all my dish washing etc. We're not using vaseline much anymore since it's made from petroleum, and coconut oil has been a wonderful replacement.

These are just a couple of different brands.

There are so many different brands of coconut oil. You can find it at health food stores. I buy cold pressed coconut oil and whatever is the best price because they're pricey. When it's on sale for a really good deal, I get a couple. And I mostly stay away from recipes that call for large amounts of coconut oil, or I'll use butter instead(like in cookies). My popcorn recipe uses 2 Tbsp coconut oil and 2/3 c popcorn which makes a quart or two. I'll post that recipe at the bottom. I put coconut oil in little canning jars and keep them in my bathroom for topical use. I recently finished reading the book, "The Coconut Miracle" by Bruce Fife. It listed many benefits of coconut oil. Did you know that in some parts of the world the coconut tree is known as the "Tree of Life"? It has so many medicinal qualities to it, I could see why that title is given to this tree.

One of the reasons I love the 'Hot Pink Breakfast Smoothie' is because of the coconut water that I normally would never drink otherwise. We make this smoothie a few times a week. Once I've used the liquid in the smoothie, I save the shell and once I have several shells, I'll take them outside, smash them open, scoop out the coconut meat and use them in other recipes like non-dairy ice cream or in other smoothies. Elisabeth grabbed my camera the other day and took a couple of pictures of me feeding Jane her pink smoothie. She sure loves her pink smoothie. Elisabeth thought Jane's messy, pink face was pretty cute. Excuse my unruly bangs. It must have been a ponytail day and I'm sure I didn't care to fix them after exercising that morning :). Hey, it happens.

Popcorn- by Elisa Smith

This is a great treat for family movie night. This recipe makes enough for us to have a little extra after the movie, which I save in a ziploc and we eat later for a snack.

2 Tbsp coconut oil(if your popcorn maker requires oil, like mine does)

2/3 c popcorn kernels

2 Tbsp butter

sea salt to taste

Put coconut oil and kernels in popcorn maker and make according to product directions. Once popped, add melted butter and sea salt to taste.

Letters by Elisabeth & PB cookies

During church last week, Elisabeth wrote and passed a couple of letters to her siblings. I thought they were pretty cute.

Elisabeth takes lunch to school most days of the week and a couple of times a week I will add a short note, many times with a little picture or icon, on a napkin and put it in her lunch box. I'll draw a picture of a light bulb or grapes etc and write things like, 'you light up my life' or 'you are the best of the bunch.' So I thought it was cute that Elisabeth started both of her notes with, "you light up my life."
Speaking of lunch, I have a couple of different healthy peanut butter cookie recipes I make, and one of them is a favorite of everybody in the family. It uses Sucanat as the sweetener. When we have some in the cookie jar, I let Elisabeth take one in her lunch if she can finish off her green smoothie before school. Otherwise she gets it after school as a snack with her smoothie and something else. I bake a treat(healthier treat) about once a week or every other week. They like to have one for after our Family Home Evening lessons on Monday nights. Here is the recipe we use for these peanut butter cookies that are sweetened with Sucanat(I have another PB cookie recipe that uses Agave, in my recipe collection on this site already...the agave cookies are softer which Jane loves, but they are supposed to sit for 2 hours in the fridge before baking. And Charlie doesn't love the Agave ones)

Sucanat Peanut Butter Cookies-by Robyn Openshaw

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c natural peanut butter

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 c Sucanat or Coconut sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 egg (organic, free-range)

1/2 c butter or coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. In another bowl, beat the butter or coconut oil, add the peanut butter and Sucanat and beat again. Then add the egg and vanilla and beat once more. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Shape into 1'' balls, place 2'' apart and flatten with fork. Bake for 10 minutes.

Grandma and house stuff

Scott's mom was able to came to stay with us for the past week. We loved having her here. The kids enjoyed having her attention. I enjoyed visiting with her and sharing different health food ideas with each other. She and the kids read books together, had sword fights(mainly with Charles), played card games and more.
Scott had a friend from work move out of state recently and he had a bunch of household items he was giving to Charity. He told Scott that if there was anything we'd like, we could come and get it. So while Angela was here, Scott took the truck over and came back with a queen mattress and box spring, a couple of end tables, towels, lamps and new pots and pans. I felt like it was Christmas, but better because we didn't have to pay for any of it. I bought a metal bed frame at Costco for $35 and then we were able to set up the bed down in our library/guest bed room and get rid of the futon. I'm sure our family and other visitors will be happy about that switch :). Futons are not very comfortable, but that too, was free so we took it thinking it'd be better than the floor for our guests :).

Bed, end table and lamp for library/guest room:
End table and lamp for Jane's room:
I was so happy to have a few new pots. I got rid of a few that had been badly scratched during our first year of marriage- I later told Angela that I don't think newly married couples should use new pots and pans because they're just learning and coming out of a stage of life(singlehood) that is very care-free. I wish I had some old, beat-up ones to practice on during that first year. I should have saved my new ones to use when I got a better feel for cooking and learned more about caring for kitchen items. Unless you have a lot of money, when you have a family to care for, and you have to make breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for several people, you're a lot more careful with your things because you know you need them to last and you don't want rust and other junk getting in your food.
On Angela's last day here, Elisabeth had a 'mom's and muffins' morning at her school. Angela and I both got to go with Elisabeth which she thought was pretty special.
We're always so happy when we get to have family or friends come and stay with us for awhile. We're so looking forward to the month of April when we get to have visits from Becca, Fred and Kelley and their families(during different times in the month). Yay for family!

Cashew Stir-fry

This is a recipe I got from a good friend and I later modified it to better fit our needs. Originally it was called Cashew Chicken, but since we don't always use chicken, and we add a lot more vegetables, I thought I should change the recipe title. Last time I made this recipe we used 1 can of cooked chicken. It was yummy. The kids pick out and eat a lot of what they like(chicken, carrots, cashews and rice usually) and leave the rest. We also served this with vegetable spring rolls we cooked in the oven(thanks Costco...I'll do them from scratch another day)Also, beware: the chipotle gives it a little kick. Scott and I love it, but if you're sensitive to spicy foods, you might want to halve the chipotle. By the way, you can buy chipotles in a can, use what you need and then freeze the rest and carve off a Tbsp or so when you need it for a recipe in the future. The chipotles we used for this stir-fry have been in the freezer for well over a year.

Cashew Stir-fry

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 large onion

4 garlic cloves

2-3c Frozen stir-fry veg mix(I get mine at Costco)

1-2 Tbsp chipotles

1 Tbsp cumin

1/4 c maple syrup

2 Tbsp honey

1 c cashews

optional: 1 c cooked or canned chicken or Tofu

In a frying pan saute garlic, onion and veggies in oil. Cook for several minutes then add chipotles and cumin and optional chicken/tofu. Toss to coat. Glaze the mixture with honey and maple syrup and turn off the heat. Serve over brown rice or quinoa and add cashews.

"She always listens..."

Scott went to Seattle for a couple of days this week for a work conference. I was happy he got to stop in and have dinner with my family a couple of times.

While he was gone, the kids asked if we could eat out one night. We don't eat out regularly, maybe once a month, sometimes less, sometimes more; but usually it's for some sort of special occasion.

I felt like we needed something to break up our evening since Scott wouldn't be coming home from work, so I agreed. They decided on Arctic Circle which is a fast food place close by that has an indoor play area. I didn't want to eat that so I picked up an avocado veggie sandwich from Kneaders instead. Prior to us leaving the house, the kids were really bugging each other which was irritating me. I warned them that if they kept it up we might not go inside Arctic Circle and play, but just take our food home and eat it. There was some improvement, but they weren't perfect. So while we drove to Kneaders and then to Arctic Circle, the three oldest asked, "Can we go inside Mom? Please!" "I don't know yet," was my response.

Annabelle proceeded to ask this question over and over again. As soon as I would respond she'd ask again. It got a little annoying. It got to the point where I stopped responding. This bothered her but she continued to ask, even without a response. Finally she stopped and said, "Mom! Why aren't you listening to me?!" From the way back of the van, Charlie answered, "Annabelle, Mom is listening to you. Don't you know she always listens. Just because you can't hear her doesn't mean she's not listening. She will answer in awhile."

For some reason Charlie's words seemed profound to me. It made me think of our Heavenly Father. He always listens. He always hears our prayers. Sometimes he'll give us an answer we're not satisfied with so we just keep on asking, like Annabelle did.

This reminds me of the story of Joseph Smith. His good friend and scribe, Martin Harris, wanted permission to show the manuscript(they were translating the Book of Mormon from the golden plates) to his wife so she would believe what kind of work they were about(translating). Joseph Smith prayed and the answer was, 'no'. Martin Harris was such a good friend and Joseph really wanted to help him and I'm sure felt some pressure from his friend. He asked three times, and finally the last time, he received a different response...but I think it was because the Lord wanted to teach Joseph a lesson on obedience. Joseph did lend the 116 pages of the manuscript to Martin Harris, who showed them to his wife, and this particular section of the manuscript was then stolen. Joseph wasn't to translate them again. Joseph learned his lesson and was very sorrowful.

Even though Charlie says I always listen, I don't think that's true. Sometimes I get so distracted, I'm not really paying attention to what they're saying. But that statement is true when referring to Heavenly Father. I'm grateful we have Him for a perfect example. I know the Lord always listens and answers our prayers. Sometimes we have to wait for an answer and sometimes it's not the answer we'd hoped for, but an answer will come. Waiting, listening and following isn't just a hard concept for kids, but for adults also. I know I've got a lot of room for improvement in my life.

The China Study and other thoughts on nutrition

I finished a book called, The China Study, this past week. It was very interesting. It's the most comprehensive study that's ever been done on diet and health. Reading and learning about the results was enlightening. The author has listed over 750 references in his book, many of which are primary sources from scientific publications.

For those of you who don't want to read the 300 page book, I'll give you a brief summary. First I want to give you a short background on the author. Dr. Colin Campbell,who has also authored over 300 research papers, grew up on a dairy farm and did his graduate studies in animal nutrition, wanting to learn how to make cows and chickens get bigger faster. During that time, he conducted lots of research, read lots of research and began to realize the error in his ways and what nutrition and diet really meant to our health. He significantly changed his views on food.

Dr Campbell says we need to be eating a more plant-based, whole foods diet. After conducting studies on rats over a long period of time and then going into areas all over China and doing lots of human blood and urine samples, watching diets etc, he found that if you eat about a 5% animal protein diet, you will be healthier and more disease free. If you eat closer to a 20% animal protein diet (which most American's do), you'll most likely end up having all sorts of health problems when you get into your middle and late years. Things like diabetes, cancer(breast, prostate and all the others), obesity, kidney stones, heart disease and many, many others can be prevented and fixed by a diet that is low in animal protein. They in fact injected Aflatoxin, a carcinogen, into a group of rats and then divided the rats into 2 groups. Group 1 they fed a diet with 5% animal protein. They were healthy and strong. Group 2 they fed a diet with 20% animal protein. They got fat, stopped running on their wheels and developed tumors and cancer. Then they went in and switched their diets. The rats who were dying with tumors, once they switched to the 5% animal protein diet, got rid of the tumors. They got slim and started running on their wheels again. And the opposite happened with the healthy ones. Once they changed their diet to 20% animal protein, they all got fat and developed tumors and cancer.

When they say 'animal protein' they mean not only meat but also cheese, ice cream, milk etc. In the study they conducted on the rats, they experimented with Casein, which is cows milk protein. I'm going to quote a little piece that sums up the main point:

“These findings demonstrate that a good diet is the most powerful weapon we have against disease and sickness....

“By any number of measures, America's health is failing. We spend far more, per capita, on health care than any other society in the world, and yet two thirds of Americans are overweight, and over 15 million Americans have diabetes, a number that has been rising rapidly. We fall prey to heart disease as often as we did thirty years ago, and the War on Cancer, launched in the 1970's, has been a miserable failure. Half of Americans have a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week, and over 100 million Americans have high cholesterol.

“To make matters worse, we are leading our youth down a path of disease earlier and earlier in their lives. One third of the young people in this country are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. Increasingly, they are falling prey to a form of diabetes that used to be seen only in adults, and these young people now take more prescription drugs than ever before.

“These issues all come down to three things: breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Good book. After reading it I decided I'd cook meat in one meal a week (which wasn't much different than before anyway), and that we'll cut back on dairy. We'd already switched to Almond milk so that's not a big deal, but cheese is going to be hard for us because we typically eat it every day. Eventually I'd like to get to doing 2 meals a week with dairy...but we're not quite there yet. Soon hopefully. I just need to test out some more recipes. I'm not going to include yogurt in with the typical dairy for several reasons which I won't take the time to list now. The book had some really good information. Though I'm sure it's also a book that would make people mad; you'll have to read it yourself if you want to know what I'm talking about. You should be able to find this book at your local library.

A couple of other random thoughts on nutrition:
1. I went to a whole foods class this past weekend at our local health food store. Robyn Openshaw, the Green Smoothie Girl, taught the class. I loved it. She pointed out that just because someone isn't overweight, doesn't mean they're healthy. It's important for even the naturally skinny ones to eat healthy so they can prevent developing different health problems in the future.

2. I like Billy Blanks. He's the Tae Bo guy. In one of his exercise dvd's called Insane Abs, he lists three things you need to do if you want to see your abs: the first two had to do with strengthening and toning muscles, but the third caught my attention. He says you have to eat to see your abs. Several times during that dvd he mentions how important it is to eat good foods if you want to see results. I was glad he said this because there are many people out there who say, "I ____(fill in the blank with run, play sports, swim etc), so I can eat whatever I want." I used to say that myself, but now it bugs me. I get what they're saying, but I also think there's more to health than just your size. I don't know about you, but I would still like to be healthy in my 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and so forth. Slowing down, yes. But still healthy.

Soft Honey Wheat Rolls/freezer rolls

I love these rolls. I love them because they're soft and yummy, you can easily freeze them either before or after you bake them (like rhodes rolls), and I use honey for the sweetener.

Here are the frozen rolls, set out and beginning to rise:After making some fresh rolls, and freezing some unbaked rolls, I used the extra dough to make a couple of cinnamon loaves using butter, Sucanat and cinnamon. They are so yummy! Here is my recipe:

Soft Honey Wheat Rolls/freezer rolls/Cinnamon Bread-by Elisa Smith

1 c. hot water
1/2 c. honey
1 can evaporated milk
2 beaten eggs
3 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3 1/2 c. white flour
1 c. butter
2 tsp. salt
2 pkgs.(4 ½ tsp) yeast
1 tsp. baking powder

Dissolve yeast in warm water, set aside. Melt butter. Place in large bowl and add honey, milk, baking powder, salt and eggs. Add yeast water and stir. Add whole wheat and white flour alternately. Turn dough onto floured board and knead 10 minutes or more. Place in a large, greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, approximately 1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough, turn onto floured board. Shape into rolls and place rolls well apart on baking sheet(can place on cookie sheet and freeze at this point. Once frozen, about 30 minutes, place in Freezer Gallon Ziploc. When you're ready to use them, take them out of the freezer, place on cookie sheet and let rise a couple of hours before baking). You can also make into bread loaves or cinnamon bread loaves by rolling some of the dough out until ¼ inch thick then spreading with butter, Sucanat and cinnamon. Cover and let rise until double, 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on size. Brush tops with melted butter. Makes 50 dinner rolls or a couple bread loaf pans.

Jane is crawling!

Jane is now 11 months and just started crawling! We're pretty excited about her mobility, but I'm also a little nervous because not everything in our house is baby proofed. I'm most nervous about our set of 12 stairs. Annabelle fell down them twice when she was a baby. I thought she was going to die or at least have a broken arm. She was fine, thankfully. But I do not want that to happen again, ever. The baby gate doesn't fit well at the top of the stairs so I'll most likely push the couch up close to block it until we teach her to go down herself, backward. The biggest challenge will be getting her siblings to remember to push the couch back when they go up and down the stairs. Or maybe I'll just have her wear Annabelle's monkey backpack when she's on the ground crawling and I'll loop it around the foot of the table or a couch. Hmmm, not a bad idea.

Annabelle keeps laying down in front of Jane while she's crawling and Jane just crawls right over and on top of her head. It's pretty hilarious. We can already see some fun things in Jane's (baby number four) personality :). Here are a couple short clips the kids and I took of Jane crawling around.

Coconut Bliss

Awhile back I mentioned how much I like Coconut Bliss, which is a non-dairy, no-refined sugar, type of ice cream. You can find it in health food stores but it's pretty pricey. I've been experimenting with the ingredients listed on the Coconut Bliss container and I've come up with a recipe that tastes very similar! I don't have an ice cream maker so this recipe is done mixing all the ingredients in a blender and then freezing them in ice cube trays. When I'm ready to have some, I pull a tray out of the freezer, let it stand for about 10 minutes and then serve it up in a bowl-I usually will just eat a couple of cubes at a time. It's so yummy and easy! Here's my recipe:

Elisa's Coconut Bliss
1- 13.66 oz can coconut milk (almost 2 c if you're making your own; get the unsweetened, no preservative brand)
1/2 c agave
1/4 c dried shredded coconut(unsweetened, found in health food stores or Winco), or 1/2 c coconut meat (I use more coconut meat than dried shredded just because I always have so much left over meat with how often I make pink smoothies)
1/4 tsp coconut extract
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Mix together in blender until smooth. Pour in two ice cube trays(a little less). Allow to freeze for a couple of hours. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

Bed head, clothes, tredmill

Upon rolling out of bed, Elisabeth's hair was just too awesome this morning for me to ignore. I took a picture of it. She wasn't as amused as I was.

Becca came to visit last week for a few days. Unfortunately, I forgot about my camera while she was here. We had a nice time and made some yummy, healthy foods together (she's getting into whole foods as well). Since about junior high, Becca and I have been very similar in shape and size which has it's advantages, like sharing clothes, and I'm sure my mom would agree, it's disadvantages when fighting over clothes-You know, 'Take it off! That's mine and I didn't say you could borrow it!' Becca left me with a bag of clothes she didn't want anymore(she cleans out her closet about once a year which I love because it means new clothes for me!). Becca has a lot better taste in clothing than I do so this yearly cleaning-out-the-closet tradition of hers, is very helpful to me.
We've recently started something in my ward(local church group) called, 'Gots and Wants'. This idea came from my mother's ward. Each month or week, we list things people have got that they want to give away for free, and things that people are in need of. Last week I saw a tredmill on the 'gots' list. After doing a little compromising with Scott(he was a little worried about not having enough room, so I took all the measurements of where I would want to put it and measurements of the tredmill to see if we'd have enough walking space) we were able to get it and fit it in downstairs next to the elliptical machine. I love it! I love to exercise, I love exercising in my home because of my life situation right now(several young ones at home with me all day means I'm too tired at night and in the early morning to go to the gym, I don't really want to pay for a membership anyway and little kids have and spread lots of germs and you can't bring sick kids to the gym).

I love to go outside and exercise when I can, but that usually only happens on Saturdays during the months of March through September. And that's not enough. I like being able to switch up exercises and with these machines and my Billy Blanks dvds, I think I will be happy forever. Another part of our compromise was that I actually had to use it often (which I know I will because I exercise daily) and that I won't acquire anything more for awhile(probably a really long while) because half of our family room has turned into a gym, which I don't mind, but we don't want it to take over the entire family room either.

Vicky, if you're reading, thanks for the tredmill!

This is why I blog

My 4th blog book has arrived(a few weeks ago)!!! I am so excited to have a hard copy in my hands, to show my kids and our family.

I added scrapbook-type pages to our blog book this year. Not to every page, but about half. It costs the same, but it also takes a little more time to do it this way. I like it.

Health Journey Part 2

Much of this post will sound familiar and that's because I'm redoing it. We should all get a second chance, right?

When I first wrote this post, it was very different. But I know now that I wrote it while I was still sick, and in the middle of the night, and I'm not sure I was thinking completely straight. After re-reading one of my posts, I didn't like the way it sounded, or the feeling that came across. So I'm changing the post up a bit and am going to rename this post: Health Journey Part 2. Since I referred to Doctrine and Covenants in the Health Journey post a couple of times, I thought it a good idea to type some of it in here. (Now this part is going to be a repeat for those of you who already read this)

The Lord is in charge. He gave us this earth and all the things on it. He tells us:
"All wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man-
Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving....
Flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air...for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly.
All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life...
All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine..." D&C 89:10-16

Most people who read and follow the Word of Wisdom, follow the 'do nots' but they don't always follow the 'do's. I truly believe the promise that is written at the end of the Word of Wisdom(which I will include at the end). I believe that we will receive this promise when we are not only following the things in the Word of Wisdom that we're not supposed to do (we're not to drink coffee and habit forming/addictive substances-which is clarified in the church handbook- alcohol, consume tobacco), but also when we are following the words that I have copied above; the things that are good for us, plants and grains etc., that Heavenly Father has provided for us so that we shall, "receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones; And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures. And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint." Doctrine and Covenants 89:18-20 (Bold italics added by myself)

I have experienced these blessings. I have prayed. I have exercised faith and followed the counsel in these scriptures and then seen the blessings in health and wisdom that follow. I know I can do more, and I will continuously try. I am grateful to be blessed with a normally healthy body, and I think when we are struck with an illness, it helps us to more fully recognize that blessing. I am so grateful the Lord has given us this guide and I know that if we follow it, we can receive the blessings he has listed above.

Sinus infection

I have a sinus infection. It was awful earlier this morning and into the afternoon. It's a little better now after taking a hot, steamy shower and eating a garlic clove(I eat about 1/3 of it whenever I'm beginning to feel some intense pressure in my forehead area-your spouse will keep their distance if you do this. Biting into, chewing and swallowing a piece of raw garlic is not an easy thing to do. But it's worth it). I also rinsed with my netti pot, completely cut out sugar and dairy for now, I'm taking extra vitamin C and drinking lots of fluids. I also recently bought an herb called Goldenseal and some diluted Colloidal Silver which I'm taking occasionally, but I'm not really sure how effective they are. The other things I listed provide a lot of instant relief.

Every year we've lived in Utah, I've gotten a sinus infection, which makes sense because the climate is so dang dry. I get them from colds-gone-worse and also from allergies. They feel awful: headache, low grade fever, my head feels really heavy, my ears sound all stuffed up, and I get so, so tired. I slept for a long time today before I figured out I figured out I had a sinus infection. I was then able to do a little research on things I could do to alleviate the pain and discomfort and did that.

I've also just read up on how to prevent sinus infections. I thought this information was really good so I'll share it here. If any of you struggle with sinus infections, read on. If you don't, just skip down to the next part that's not in Italics.

1.stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water. This can help to keep plenty of moisture within your body and to ease the drainage of mucous that's commonly associated with sinus infections.
2.Use an electric humidifier to moisten the air in your home. Breathing dry air can add to the pain and discomfort of sinus infections. Your sinuses will be able to drain more completely when the air is full of moisture.
3.Attach electrostatic filters to your air conditioning vents. These specially designed filters can prevent allergens from being circulated throughout your home.
4.Avoid chemicals or environmental elements that can irritate your sinuses. Stay away from pollen or cigarette smoke. Avoid cleaning chemicals that can aggravate the inner linings of your sinuses.
5.Limit your alcohol intake. Even modest amounts of alcohol can cause swelling within the sinus membranes. Once these tender linings have been inflamed, you'll be much more susceptible to sinus infections.
6.Treat any symptoms of the common cold as soon as possible. One illness can quickly lead to another. Drink plenty of fluids, eat chicken soup and spend plenty of time relaxing in bed to keep a common cold from developing into a sinus infection.
7. Travel by car when possible to limit your time on airplanes. The pressure changes in an airplane's ascent and descent can cause pain within your sinuses and can lead to the clogging of the Eustachian tubes that connect your ears to the pharynx. Use inhalers or decongestant nasal sprays when you must fly.
8.Stay out of the pool. Chlorine and other chemicals found in pools can cause harm to your sinuses and contribute to infections.
9.Limit your dairy intake. While delicious and nutritious, dairy products can thicken mucous within your sinuses and create drainage problems. In turn, this can contribute to headaches and sinus pressure.
10.Give yourself regular steam treatments to help break up sinus congestion. For extra healing power, try infusing some herbal remedies, such as eucalyptus, peppermint or garlic, into your treatment plan.
11.Try to avoid exposing yourself to extreme climates. Exceptionally hot or cold weather can irritate the sinuses, leading to the development of sinus infections. Sudden temperature changes are especially harmful.

My kids all have some congestion right now too, and a couple of them have fevers. This week was not a good one, health wise, in our home. There were a couple different kinds of Valentine sugar cookies, treats from Elisabeth's class(I threw most of it away but some of it was eaten before I intervened), Annabelle's birthday cake, and we had pizza three times this week- 2 were homemade, but still, that's a lot of cheese which means a lot of mucus and if you're starting to get a cold, the mucus gets really bad, which is what happened to us. Normally we never have pizza more than once in a week but here's the reason for all the pizza this week: 1)Annabelle requested pizza for her birthday, 2) we got the papa murphy's heart-shaped pizza on valentine's(tradition) and 3)we had pizza on flat bread one day with my BYU roomies; something we had planned for awhile. Now that the prevention part has completely gone out the window, Scott and I have gotten serious and are doing everything in our power to help the kids get better fast: Warm home-made vegetable soups, no dairy, no sugar, lots of water etc. I'm pretty sure Annabelle has an ear infection because yesterday when she laid down for her nap, after about 15 minutes she woke up crying complaining that her ear was really hurting. She also had a little fever. I found some ear drops in my cupboard and administered that, along with some children's Tylenol. Later we did the drops again, but since then, she hasn't complained, and she has slept a couple of times without any problems. Her fever is gone, thank goodness. I'm going to hold off on going to the doctor unless I can't help with the pain. I really don't want to do antibiotics. Charlie had so many doses of antibiotics as a baby, increasingly stronger doses that didn't much of any good and he almost had to get tubes in his ears. So, if we can possibly avoid that scenario, and avoid antibiotics that kill not only the bad, but the good also, I think we all would feel better. I found this quote on Wikipedia when I looked up 'antibiotics'.

The first rule of antibiotics is try not to use them, and the second rule is try not to use too many of them.

—Paul L. Marino, The ICU Book

Having sick kids is not fun. Especially when all four of them are sick. And when I'm sick. But Scott has been wonderful and Becca helped a lot too when she was here. Jane is the only child who hasn't gotten a fever. Our kids always seem to get sick around Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's and their birthdays, unfortunately...all very sugar/sweet oriented holidays. This was the first year Charlie wasn't really sick on his birthday. Each one of us only had one small piece of cake on Annabelle's birthday and then we gave the rest away. But with Valentine's being a couple days earlier, it was still too much. I need to figure out what to do in the future to prevent this from happening- from having us all get sick from weakened and slowed immune systems(sugar dramatically slows the immune system). If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Lady Bug Cakes

This was the first time I used a spray on food color. I bought red. It worked pretty well and I was grateful I didn't need to buy and use an entire bottle of no-taste red food coloring. Like I mentioned in Annabelle's birthday post, I made the ladybugs using a few different pans I had on hand. The big lady bug was made with one of the halves of the ball cake pan, and the head was a mini bundt pan. The little lady bug used a mini bundt pan for the body and a cupcake for the head. Everything is in buttercream accept for the pipe cleaner antennae.

And a picture of the lady bug cake along with the inspiring lady bug pillow pet. I know the pillow pet has a skin-colored face, but I think it looks a little weird so I stuck with the all black face.

Happy 3rd Birthday Annabelle!

Annabelle's birthday went as follows:
630am- Annabelle woke up me and Scott and climbed into bed with us (we'd asked her the night before to stay in her room until 7am...we figured she'd be excited for her birthday, so we basically set yourselves up for failure)
632am- Annabelle begs to open a gift. We ask her to wait for her siblings.
640am-continues begging. Begging is about to turn into tears. We(scott and I) hate to start her birthday off in tears so we relent and allow her to open one gift to bring back into our bedroom and play with. She is satisfied.
645am- Scott jumps into the shower. Annabelle continues to play with her Cinderella doll.
650am- Elisabeth walks in and says she's looking for Annabelle(Elisabeth is usually in charge of keeping Annabelle in their bedroom until 7am). Elisabeth jumps on the bed and plays dolls with Annabelle.
7am- we go into the kitchen for breakfast. Annabelle has previously requested granola with almond milk. Perfect! We have that every day so it's always on hand and easy. Thank you Annabelle. Once Charlie is up she opens her other gifts. Elisabeth and Dad go to school and work.
8-noon Charlie takes a nap because he has a fever, Jane is still sleeping (she's usually up between 6-7am so this is nice), Annabelle and I go downstairs and she watches Barbie in Swan Lake while I exercise on the elliptical machine. Once Swan Lake is finished I do some laundry and cleaning while Annabelle plays with her new doll. Jane continues to sleep and I'm getting a little worried so I check on her at 10am to make sure she's still breathing. She is. She doesn't wake up until 11:20! I'm hoping she's not coming down with what Charlie has. She feels fine when she wakes up and seems to be well.
12:40-1:50 pick up Becca from the airport
When we got home, Charlie went back to sleep and the rest of us ate lunch. We all ate different things. Annabelle wanted peanut butter with crackers, a banana and salsa and chips. Jane and I shared a hot pink smoothie and Becca had a lentil burrito(leftovers from our dinner the night before). Becca brought a couple of barbies for Annabelle from Grandparents and from herself, so Annabelle was very entertained for the remainder of the day. She requested pizza for dinner so I pulled out a whole wheat dough I had made and froze several weeks before. Thank you again, Annabelle. This is the easiest birthday I've done in a long time.

Charlie continued to sleep in his room until it was time to sing happy birthday. I'm hoping Charlie gets over his fever soon and that it doesn't get passed through the whole family. But it's looking like Elisabeth is starting to show signs of illness(not talkative at dinner, quiet, low energy, nothing seems to taste good...accept for the cake which is to come, of course). I'm sure the cake she had today and all the candy from school yesterday is making things that much worse.

Annabelle has a lady bug pillow pet and requested a lady bug birthday cake. It was really quite simple and the decorating part didn't take very long at all. I used half of the ball cake pan, 2 mini bundt pans and a cupcake to make the shapes of the 2 ladybugs. More pictures to come on a separate post.

Here are a few things about Annabelle at age 3:
*She is very independent.
*She can and will dress and undress herself.
*She can and will go to the bathroom all by herself without any help.
*She enjoys playing make believe games, like house and dolls, by herself.
*She likes to eat a lot of different foods, but she doesn't really like bread- no sandwiches, no rolls.
*She knows many of her letters, sounds and numbers.
*She loves to point out where Mississippi, North Carolina, Utah and Washington are on our table map.
*She is wonderful at singing and dancing.
*She loves to watch any and all barbie movies.
*She loves to go to church, and she LOVES her church teacher. She talks about her throughout the week and loves to be near her.
*She is very feisty. Some of her favorite phrases are, "you are rude!" and "I'm not your best friend anymore!" Usually this is said to Charlie, but both Scott and I have also been the unfortunate recipients of these phrases.
*She loves to look at books and have books read to her.
*She loves when it's her turn to pick the scripture picture for our evening Scripture study time.
*Annabelle is sweet, easy to please, happy, and so fun to listen to. And she's dang cute! Her big blues eyes are beautiful and just looking at them makes you want to smile.
We love you Annabelle!

Valentine's Day

I really like Valentine's Day. We don't do a lot for Valentine's Day, but the few things we do I love.

The thing I love the most about Valentine's Day is that it's the one day a year I get a sweet love letter from Scott. Not just a nice note with a couple of sentences, but an actual love letter. I LOVE it. Scott knows this is very, very important to me (because I tell him a couple of weeks leading up to the special day, every year. He probably doesn't need the reminder, but I just want to be sure) and he is always so good about doing it. I also love our exchange of love letters to the rest of the family. I write one for Scott and the kids, and he writes one for each child, and once the kids are old enough, they write notes to us and to each other. Scott and I try to mention specific things we love about each individual, especially pertaining to that year. For example, with Elisabeth I'd say something like, 'I love listening to you play the piano,' and then I'd give a few more details about that. Once they have read their cards, I collect them and put them in a safe spot. If they want a copy for now, I make copies for them that they can keep.

Here are the kids sitting down before breakfast, their love letters resting on their plates:
I have all of our love letters from over the years in a box under my bed and one day, once they're older(probably during their senior year of high school), I'll put them into a book for each child. On Valentine's evening, once the kids are in bed, Scott and I like to re-read past love letters we've written to each other. Elisabeth's love letter addressed to me this Valentine's made me laugh. Here it is for you to read, you can click to enlarge it(if you ask me, it reads more like a threat than a love note :)):

We also try to do fun things for meals. For breakfast we had pink, heart-shaped pancakes and a special Valentine's smoothie.
Here is the recipe for the smoothie.

Heart Smoothie

1 cup vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 small ripe banana
1/2 cup ice cubes
1 1/4 cups mixed frozen berries (raspberries, marionberries, blueberries)
3-4 frozen strawberries
2 Tbsp agave or maple syrup

strawberries to garnish
Directions: Add to blender in order listed and blend. Add more milk if too thick. Add more ice/fruit if too thin. Can garnish with fresh stawberry.

For dinner we had a heart-shaped pizza with sparkling cranberry juice(100% juice). Scott brought home sugar cookies for everyone. They were leftover from a work lunch. They were so beautifully decorated. No one actually finished their sugar cookie which was fine with me.

One of the things I don't like about Valentine's is all the candy that comes home from school with the Valentine's cards. Elisabeth came home with tons of candy (mostly fun dip...I hate fun dip. Messy and pure sugar!). Her backpack had blue sugar all along the bottom and on her homework. I had each child pick one candy to save for a future date and the rest we threw away.
Happy Love Day!