Standard American Diet

Yes, the Standard American Diet really is SAD.

Tag told me yesterday that he knows that when you mix green and orange, you get pink.

Why? Because his AppleJacks made the milk turn pink.

I havn't bought cold cereal in a few weeks just because 1) it's gross, 2) it's expensive, 3) it uses a ton of (expensive) milk and, 4) they're always hungry an hour after breakfast. The Commissary had a really great deal on it though, and Man often recounts his feelings of gross deprivation as a young person when his mom only very rarely bought cold cereal. I'm starting to understand her reasons more as the budget is stretched and they experience gastrointestinal pyrotechnics (thank you, Emilie) mere hours after eating those food coloring pellets. I can buy a box of cereal for $2 or less or a couple of quarts of dried oatmeal for just over $1. Guess which one lasts longer. Add fresh fruit and maybe some yogurt and you have a meal that sticks around until lunch time.

Speaking of lunch time, Miss Princess is gone to school today! Time to dance like a lemur and get back to that schedule I was whining about.

You awesome homeschooling moms, I don't know how you do it. A friend just called and through the course of conversation talked about homeschooling her kid which brought up that niggling little urge I keep tightly caged, severely beaten, and stashed in a cellar in the back of my mind. K, wanna homeschool my kids, too, if the price is right? I can afford a handful of marbles and a jar of Nutella every week.

Remember those weekends?

Those weekends that we try to keep low-key?

Huh.

Lemme 'splain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up.

I took the three olders out to the mud run over at the university. Apparently a lot of soldiers do the mud run so there were tons of people in their uniforms limping around with grins on their faces and absolutely caked with mud from head to toe in frigid wind. The kids spent a long while going through the inflatable obstacle courses. After a while I got jealous and joined them. Those things sure can be a workout. (the middle items under "new courses" were the ones we got to enjoy.)

Anyway, I got home to find that Man was developing a headache. I fed Frieda real quick and ran off to the store to get him some "headache meds" (Mountain Dew, which a friend of mine swears by for migraines) only to come home to find him twitching on our bedroom floor. He managed to get himself into bed but lay their writhing and clawing at his head. A quick phone call got us a babysitter and I took him to the ER. He asked me what for, I told him he needed a big ol' shot of morphine in his butt. Lo and behold, after the migraine shot didn't help, he got his shot of morphine and has spent the rest of the day in lala land. The dr asked what could have caused this sort of headache... was he experiencing any stress lately? -snort- You could say that.

Without going into details, school has been very taxing. He has attempted to convince them to give up on him and just send him on to a different job but they keep trying to do him a favor by keeping him here. This is the result.

After getting back from the ER I found that the lady who watched the kids cleaned my kitchen and living room!! She even wiped the top of the microwave. A secret, evil part of me wished Man would go to the hospital every day if that's the sort of treat I come home to.

So then I loaded up the kids and took them to Target so we could fill an Rx for Man. While there we found the movie Willow for $5 and lemon creme Hershey's kisses (75% off after Easter) that really don't taste all that great, and a huge ball for the kids to bounce around the backyard. I believe this is known as retail therapy.

Dinner was grilled burgers, tater tots, apple sauce, and a smoothie. It doesn't get much easier than that, folks. So we all watched Willow while I nursed Frieda, the kids got into bed an hour past their bedtime, and then I cleaned up from dinner in a silent house.

Man is finally awake and attempting to eat for the first time today (it's after 10 pm) and declares that he hates narcotic medicine, even if it means that his shoulder doesn't hurt for the first time in over a year.

-sigh- Hopefully tomorrow will be a day of rest.

wha-wha-what??

What am I supposed to do with myself? All four kids are resting at the same time, the house is clean (shocking), I have nothing to read, no new movies to watch...

yet I dare not say I'm bored for fear of the Universe eavesdropping.

Oh, well

I'm too lazy call right now, so I'll just do this:

Pics from the past week

We went to the park yesterday. I need to ask permission before posting pics of the other kids, since they're with a friend's child.

I never get tired of this face:


In an outfit M sent, and shoes Em sent. Yes, that sounds confusing over the phone.

Just a few pics from our walk on Sunday:

A gadget worth putting on the list NOW

Link

And yes, it is now officially on my list of marvelous inventions to acquire once they are available.

Yes, it would save me oodles in cookbooks. I don't buy any nowadays but I want to. Shouldn't such patience be rewarded?

Plate wall

Oh my goodness!

Link.

I'm in love. I LOVE beautiful plates. It's gorgeous!

Gender roles

I'm the sort of person who believes that while men and women are equal, it's important to acknowledge and celebrate our differences. To this end I'm trying to figure out what exactly makes a man more than a boy. Take a moment with me and think about that.

What physical traits sets men apart from boys?
What attitudes change, evolve, or are acquired?
What behaviors are different?
What responsibilities does a man have that a boy can't/shouldn't have?

Ok, now, send me a comment or an email. I really do want to know your thoughts.

Here are a few interesting quotes a friend shared with me yesterday as we discussed this:

Attitude by Charles Swindoll [wikipedia.org]
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.

It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes.

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

And finally, a talk called Let Us Be Men by Elder D. Todd Christofferson (LDS general authority. General Conference Oct 2006, Priesthood session)

Good men sometimes make mistakes. A man of integrity will honestly face and
correct his mistakes, and that is an example we can respect. Sometimes men try
but fail. Not all worthy objectives are realized despite one's honest and best
efforts. True manhood is not always measured by the fruits of one's labors but
by the labors themselves—by one's striving.

More thoughts as they develop.

Spring break

I was a fan of Spring Break when I was a kid. No school, sleep in, play with friends, you know the drill.

Now that I'm a mom, it really messes with my day. I love the extra time with Princess but holy cow my schedule takes a beating. I hadn't realized how dependent I was on some outer force directing my morning to be a productive, aware person.

Today I got up with Frieda at around 6 but by 8 was feeling breathlessly fatigued. So I took a gamble since PB and Pebbles were both still sleeping and Tag was happily munching on Cheerioes and crept back into bed for a catnap. Two hours later Tag came bounding into my room to ask if he could play with the neighbors, followed by two very wet girls still in their pajamas. My mind wouldn't focus on the fact that they were both soaking wet. There was something wrong with that but my Brain just wouldn't do the dirty work for me. I shooed Tag away to go play and stripped the girls out of their clothes since they were so soaked they couldn't do it themselves. Princess said something about a hose. Great. Send PB off in dry clothes to play, put little one in warm bath. Go investigate the damage.

Find that he had used the Kitchen Sink hose by standing on a chair and spraying it out the window. Ha!! Proud of him for remembering and being able to execute a prank I played on him a couple of weeks ago. Sort of upset at the mess he left and the girls tracked all over the stinking kitchen and hallway. But I had to smile and wish I had seen the girls' faces when he did it.

So today needs to be a working day. A solid three hours will put this place to perfection. I guess I just need to get dinner in the crockpot first.

Anyone know what the heck to do with short ribs? Someone moved and gave some to us but I don't know how to prepare them.

pics

By the time we got home, all the kids were tired. Tag slept for about 3 hours. That's nail polish on the pillow.

Princess, showing her mischievous face.



Pebbles. I had taken this stroller apart so I could wash the cloth parts. It was reassembled this morning in the comfort of my living room whereupon Pebbles commandeered it as her personal throne with which to comfortably partake of the day's spoils and watch Mythbusters.



And now off to bed. This Thing has been asleep for a couple of hours.