Monday Blues

Since it's Monday, and I'm extremely unproductive on Mondays anyhow, I may as well update a blog post. This one will be on New Years resolutions. I often try not to set them, as I then feel so let down when I can't hold up to my standards. But, I made some rough ones anyhow, and have been doing okay so far (I know, it is still January!)

1) Eat more veggies. Although I try to get us to eat a goodly amount, it seems like supper is the only time we do (unless we're eating leftovers from supper that already have them in it) So, my goal was to have at least 1 veggie at lunch and double up so we eat 2 at supper. That has been working well, although is more work overall. My mom has been on a weight loss program (and has lost 25+ lbs and counting) and they really promote upping your veggies.

2) The other weight loss thing they promote is your 8 glasses of water a day. I've been really working on that too, since I tend to drink coffee in the morning and then forget to drink much the rest of the day. I got out my measured water bottle and have been drinking, drinking, drinking. I have to add lemon juice to it to get that amount down in a day, but I've been pretty successful (most days!)

3) Reduce clutter. I subscribe to a few magazines which give all kinds of organization tips in January. I comprised a list of the things that looked most relevant to my situation and posted it (in huge letters) on my fridge. It has really helped me sort out what to keep and what to get rid of. Since I have no attic, no basement and no garage, storage space is at a premium. And since my storage places were all full, that left a huge problem. I've gotten rid of 5 boxes so far, and plan on many more. And I got some more shelving for books put up, finally!

1) Is caring for it WORTHY of my time and energy?

2) Does it have a home? (most important before you buy something, otherwise it’ll just get shuffled around the house, causing disarray)

3) What does this item contribute to our family? (does it contribute to the better good of your family’s goals and well-being?)

4) When did I last use it? (put your hangers backwards on the closet rail, and turn forward when you wear something, then evaluate in 3/6/12 months and get rid of unworn clothes)

5) Can it be easily replaced? Do I have a specific use for it? (not a 'someday' use)

6) Only touch it once! (don’t set it down, when by taking a few more seconds you could put it in its home)

4) Clean my carpets. Our whole house (except kitchen and bathrooms) is carpet, so this is a necessary evil. Got that done this past Saturday. Yipee! Good for another while!

5) Get annual family pictures taken. I usually do this in the fall, but our fall was pretty busy and emotionally exhausting. We were finally able to book a date and get them done.

6) Husband to get a new job. Check!! Greg's been pretty burnt out at his present job, and has been offered a different one which he has accepted. Less hours, less money, less stress, more family time (every Friday off!), less commute=less gas money, more projects done around the house although less money to do it with! We're looking forward to the changes and challenges that it will bring.

7) Exercise more. Well, this has been the hardest due to a) bad weather b) coughing kids c) logging trucks on our road for the past month starting at 0330 and going until dusk. But, I haven't given up. My mom suggested many months ago that I look for a rebounder (mini trampoline) for the kids to jump on when they can't get outside. I started thinking that if I found one, then I could get some exercise too. I did end up purchasing one, and love it. Exercising is actually fun. I look forward to getting up each morning to jump on it. It gets my heart rate up, and is great for so many things. I have hated all forms of exercise that I've tried(except swimming which doesn't really fit my life right now) so was really surprised that I love this. I do workout videos for floor exercise on it, as well as the rebounder videos that came with it and ones on youtube. If you want more info, check out http://www.busywomensfitness.com/rebounding.html or just google 'rebounder benefits'. It's great for people who only have a few minutes and for those who have health limitations. You still get benefits even for minimal effort. It's especially great for the elderly, with proper instruction. And the double benefit is that the kids love it. They can be found jumping many times a day (usually fighting over whose gets to jump!)

8) Get more plants. I love plants, but hate paying money for them. So, I finally caved and bought 3. They cheer me up, filter the air and just brighten any ambiance.

New kids sayings:
James: (to himself as he's going to bed, walking very slowly) "Oh...I feel like an old man. Except I'm not an old man. Actually, I'm a young man. Actually, I'm 3." Keeps walking and gets into bed. (He does love the word 'actually' and uses it many times a day)

James: Mom, can you call that babysitter and say, "hey, can you come back, my kids like you" And then when she was coming, he tells me, "you know why I like N, because she doesn't make us cry. Not even ever." I'm not sure if he was comparing her to me or what, as I have to admit I do make them cry occasionally, due to their misbehavior or displeasure of course!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Here's a recipe that I just love. It's quick, easy and full of flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese/Neufchatel, softened
• 1 can (10 ounces) chunk white chicken, drained
• 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce
• 1/2 cup ranch salad dressing (optional, in my opinion)
  
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese
• Tortilla chips

Directions

• Spread cream cheese into an ungreased shallow 1-qt. baking dish. Layer with chicken, buffalo wing sauce and ranch dressing. Sprinkle with cheese.
• Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve warm with tortilla chips. Yield: about 2 cups. (from Taste of Home)
  

Christmas 2010

Since this happened to only be our second Christmas at home in our 7 years of marriage, we weren't sure what to do. Most people have their traditions, which don't include asking people over who aren't on their "traditional" list. I've tried to start some traditions, but due to our track record, they haven't become traditions, only because we've been not home.

So, I had really hoped to start some, to begin those memories for the kids that they can look forward to each year, as we did when we were kids. I've tried to incorporate things that both Greg and I did as kids, but also come up with some of our own new ones. This is what we did.

Christmas Eve: (when I was a kid we always opened our gifts on Christmas Eve as my mom said we all slept better (and later on Christmas morning) if our gifts were already opened. And even if we woke up, we had our new toys to play with so we let my parents sleep in.) First Greg and the boys brought some care packages to our neighbors, which I've always wanted to do, but haven't since we're never home. Then we started with dinner, which is homemade sushi. We did invite our neighbors D, P and A over to eat with us since they weren't doing much anyhow for supper. This was fun but challenging. We concluded why sushi eaters are so skinny and also why we have to pay so much for it. Lots of work for not much results. But, it was a fun dinner, and I hope to make it an annual thing. I enjoyed it, so maybe I'll just make them in advance and we can just eat them at dinner time. Then we eat rice pudding with fruit soup for dessert. (also my family tradition as well as a Finnish tradition) I added cardamom and coconut for an Indian flair and made it with coconut/almond milk (one of our friends just married a man from India and at their wedding reception they had some and it was fabulous!) We also drink sparkling cider and buy some specialty cheeses and crackers as appetizers. I grew up having pickled herring too, but could only find a 1 qt. jar of them, and decided I didn't want them that bad!

Then our neighbors went home to open their own gifts, and we proceeded with our evening. We first listened to the tape of Greg when he was 5 reciting Luke chapter 2, and then had the boys sing us a song. James chose Away in the Manger and Luke chose Silent Night. Elise hummed along to both while sitting on the piano bench in the background. (we videoed it on the camcorder, so I can't post it on here for you) Then we opened our gifts, starting with the youngest kid first, one at a time (so the procedure lasts longer). It was a late night when we finally had them settled down to bed. The kids gifts had nametags who they were from, and as also is the tradition in my family, they were from characters in books. Peter Rabbit, Tigger, Piglet, Minnie Mouse, and there always has been a gift from Buddy Squirrel too, whoever he is. (my Grandma K started with him, so perhaps he's out of an old book she used to read to her kids)

Christmas morning: We slept in (and missed church because of it) and the kids opened their stockings. (I try to put only useful but still fun stuff in them, such as a new fun toothbrush, etc) James was shocked (and even hesitant) to even open his for fear of either nothing or coal, I'm not sure which. Maybe even disbelief that Santa even came. We then proceeded with waffles with peaches and whipped cream on them. Greg's family always had waffles (with strawberries) on Christmas morning, so that's his family's tradition. We then gathered our stuff and headed down to my aunt B's in Portland for the day. My uncle M and aunt RA and their son I were there also, and we had a fine dinner of fish chowder with homemade bread with lots of treats to munch on besides. We just relaxed and visited all day and then stayed the night there. The next morning we went to church with B, but then had to leave shortly after as Luke was feeling under the weather.

When we got home, Luke was pretty sick. Fever and just no appetite and lying around. He then started coughing in the night, to the point of throwing up he would cough so hard. Then Elise started in with it too. By Monday, Luke was pretty well except the occasional cough, but Elise was a sick baby. She was feverish and just wanted me to rock her all day, with occasional coughing to the point of throwing up too. Both their ear canals were reddened, so I wondered how they could all be infected, but was treating them as such, especially since Luke had been complaining that his ears hurt. She was still sick on Tuesday and Wednesday, and didn't eat anything, and I could barely get any fluids in her. At night she would cough and gag many times a night. On Wednesday I took her to Urgent Care, since she didn't appear to be getting any better (as kids usually do by waiting a couple days) and it was diagnosed as RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), and we were told to go home, use Ibuprofen for the fever and wait it out, since it's a virus and there's nothing you can do (for 7-10 days). By this time, James had it too.

They did prescribe a steroid to help open her airways, (another option is a nebulizer to open the airways), but were told not to use it until the next morning, as it would likely make her dizzy and spinny/hyper (just what we'd need at bedtime!) At bedtime she started coughing, and was either coughing or crying for almost 5 hours. The coughing fits would scare her so bad that when she could finally breathe again, she'd start crying...which would make her start coughing again...and round and round we'd go. Nothing seemed to work to make either of them stop, and she was exhausted from not eating or drinking for 3 days too. Poor little thing. I did finally get her breathing helped by making a tent with her blanket over her and I so that the air she was breathing was warm and moist (with fresh air coming in too), and that finally was what settled her down, as long as she couldn't tell the blanket was over her! We both fell into a fitful sleep and then all of the sudden I heard James get up coughing and gagging and so I jumped up to help him. He had jumped out of bed in a panic, and couldn't find Greg or I (I was in the spare room with Elise, and Greg had our bedroom door shut so he could get some sleep from all the coughing). I found James in a corner behind the Christmas tree, in the dark gagging with a panicked look on his face because he just didn't know what to do. The poor little sleepy boy needed help, and couldn't find either of the people who could help him. With my guidance, he was able to cough up his phlegm and then calm down. At that point I just started crying. He looked so scared standing there, and I'm so thankful that I was awake enough to hear him (even though he was only a short distance away) Greg heard all the commotion and came out, and we said some more prayers and hugged James (who was now relaxed and back asleep with more cough syrup) and then we all went back to bed.

That was the worst night. The next couple nights each got better, but we were still up numerous times helping the kids with their coughs. The coughs are finally almost gone, but I'm told that the RSV virus stays in a person for 6 months and can recur, so I'm going to be doing some immune boosting now that they're better. I don't care to go through that again, although I am thankful it wasn't pneumonia or whooping cough which would have been the next diagnoses on the list.

Our Christmas was nice, but the thing I loved the most was the kids. Luke was the most fun, because he actually remembered past Christmases and knew what was going on. He seemed the most excited too. He wanted to see pictures of Greg and I when we had Christmas when we were kids and wanted more and more stories about childhood Christmases. James was fun, but more confused "when is Santa coming?" "so how does he get the gifts into our stockings?" "can't we open our presents yet?" and Elise was just enjoying the lights and the sparkle of the ornaments (and taking them on and off the tree). And putting Mary and baby Jesus from the Nativity set into the Little Einsteins rocket and zooming them around.

Here's a few of the boys latest cute sayings, so I don't forget them:

My boys logic:
Luke: They wouldn't let Pluto be a planet anymore.
James: So he went to live at Disneyland instead....
Luke: How can they not let him be a planet anyhow? Who's in charge of that?
James: I don't know, I just don't know.

James asked for "rectangles" for breakfast. When I asked him to explain better what that might be, he said, "you know, the kind we put snow on". I finally figured out he meant pannukakku with icing sugar on it!

He also asked me to shut off their cd player because it's "playing cool music and we don't like cool music" (Elise had turned the radio on instead of their usual Christmas cd)

ps. I'll try to post some pics as soon as I find my camera!