Calories Can Be Good!

I am breathing for the first time this week.  Yes, my week has been that busy.  If that is the case, you may be wondering, why would I be taking the time to update a blog that hasn't seen an update in months worth of sunrises?  Simply because I need some great suggestions and this is too long to put on Facebook.

In this world where we are all so focused on healthy eating and keeping the pounds off, we are having the opposite problem at our house.  My oldest child is just basically not interested in eating.  Not because he's picky (he's not significantly pickier than other kids) but just because his mind is always going 100 mph and he is too preoccupied to think about food.  I don't let him starve and I always push him to eat.  However, despite my best efforts,as I found out at the Dr. today, he has gained less than a pound in the last 15 months and has dropped thirty PERCENTILES (to less than 10) on the BMI index. He is eight pounds below his target weight for his height.  Not good when you're only 60 pounds to begin with (that's nearly 15 percent of his body weight he should gain). 

Anyway, my point to this is I could really use some suggestions for some very high calorie foods that will pack a big punch with a little amount, as he is not interested in eating much. (And he doesn't like chocolate milk/milk so the whole instant breakfast thing doesn't work with him).  There is an overload of info on cutting calories, but not as much out there on adding them in a kid-friendly way for a kid who also doesn't love peanut butter.  His protruding ribs and cheekbones are starting to worry me. . . especially now that I have backup from Dr. Mindy that there really is a low-weight  problem going on. 

I have a special note from the Dr. to take to school tomorrow instructing them to please allow him to eat a snack at recess and also to please have someone monitor that he actually ate his lunch during lunch period, instead of using his time to just socialize.  We're hoping to add most of his calories in at snack-times so that we don't have to make him a separate higher-calorie meal each time, as the rest of us in the family don't want to be packing on the pounds.  So give me your best high-calorie, kid friendly snacks (that are easy to transport to school).  Ready, set, go . . .

Tag - You're It

My sister Kathie tagged me for a Liebster Award.   I think that the last award I ever won was in 9th grade when I won the district science fair (nerd alert!), so I'll take it!

Remember when tagging other blogs use to be a common occurrence?  This is taking me back to the good ol' days of 5 years ago.  Should be fun. . . or at least a way to disguise leisure as productivity, which happens to be a favorite hobby of mine.

Here goes . . .

NOMINATE 3 OF YOUR FAVORITE SMALL BLOGS:
OK, I have to say that everyone I know who used to keep a blog has either gone the private route or they have stopped updating  at all.   Except Kathie, but I can't re-nominate her, can I?  I do read several LARGE blogs, but I'm a little too insecure to nominate someone who has never heard of me before.  They would be like, "who is this strange girl who is nominating me for some award I've never even heard of."  So, I am going to skip this question.  Or, instead I will change it to  a list of the 3 websites that I check the most:
1 - Gmail
2 - Goodreads
3 - Salt Lake County Library System (I even have my long library account number memorized I have entered it so often)
I nominate all of them!  (Kidding)
I am sorry blogging world that I am not playing by the rules by tagging someone else!

TELL 5 OF YOUR LIKES AND 5 OF YOUR DISLIKES:
Likes:
1 - Walking through the mountains after a rainstorm (the smell of heaven, I am convinced)
2 - Rocking a newborn baby while breathing in the scent of their head (the other smell of heaven)
3 - Watching The Voice with my husband while snuggled under a large quilt - well until Ryan Innes was eliminated this week, that is
4 - Watching the waves of the beach at sunset while my children run though the surf
5 - Pineapple, especially fresh pineapple straight from the tree in Hawaii (the food of heaven, I am convinced)

Dislikes:
1 - That feeling I get when I have disguised too much laziness as productivity.  I just feel blah at the end of a day when I haven't accomplished much.
2 - Being woken up right after falling asleep, or really any time at all.  I much prefer to wake up on my own. I am not one of those "lovely riser" types.  You probably want to stay away from me for the first 10 minutes or so after I wake up and let the brain fog clear away first.
3 - Grocery shopping!
4 - Cold, slimy shrimp. Eating one feels like I'm crunching through their bones (shudder!).
5 - Being tailed while driving, especially when I am already going over the speed limit.  Pet peeve!

If you were a color, what would you be and why?
Hmmmmmm.   Definitely not white, I'm not pure enough.  Or yellow, not sunny enough.  Or red, not ambitious enough.  I'm going to go with blue, because it is a color with so much variety (think turquoise sea vs. stormy sky) and I really think that I am that way.  There are so many sides of me. One person might know me and think that I am completely opposite from what another person who knows me thinks.  Truly, I have several dimensions to my personality and most people don't know them all.. . . Or maybe I just like to think I am more interesting than I really am.  In any case, blue is my color.  It was even my color on the Personality Color Test that used to be popular.  Plus, I like blue.  (OK, Kathie, I promise I was not copying you with my answer.  It has been so long that I hadn't even remembered what you put.  After writing my answer I went back and read yours to see what you had put.  We must be sisters!)

What's your dream vacation?
Definitely a very detailed tour of ALL of Europe.  The question did say dream vacation.   I would want to have a historian with me on this dream vacation.  Someone who could give me all of the nitty gritty details of everything I was seeing and make it all come alive.  Let's throw in an artist for a travel companion too.  Someone who can explain all of the great works of art to me and help me understand why they are considered masterpieces.  The stops I would be most excited for would be all of France again (I have been there once and have been dying to go back and explore more), all of England (I have only been to London and would love to explore the countryside),  Switzerland (because I like mountains), and Italy (because I like pasta).

What do you do to relax?
My very favorite way to relax is to read a book, of course.  But I am also not opposed to snuggling with my husband on the couch and flipping on the TV or the DVD player.  Going for a walk in the sunshine or warm evening air is nice too.

Do you have a coping mechanism for stress?  What is it?
When I am stressed I do either one of two things.  I either attack the problem head on and try to plan and organize and figure out the solution.  When the cause of my stress is not something that can be easily planned or organized away or taken care of in some manner, then I do the opposite. I tend to ignore the problem and put off thinking about it.  I avoid it.  Yes, it's true.  I will admit that I am an avoider.  I also tend to get grumpy  and less patient when I am stressed. . . . Not a good coping mechanism for sure.

If you had a free day to yourself, what would you do?
I would like to say that I would be productive and get a nagging project done that's hard to do when the kids are around.  Something like organize the photo albums, or clean out my closet, or file all the papers on my computer desk.  But the absolute truth is that if I really had no obligations for the day I would probably lie in bed reading until noon (not sleeping because my internal body clock rarely lets me sleep past 7:00).  I would then take my time getting ready (and I WOULD get ready because I just feel icky if I don't), go and buy a smoothie for lunch and stop at the library to just browse.  Then I would come home and make popcorn and pop on a chick flick.  I would probably end up watching the entire A&E version of Pride and Prejudice or something.  Then I would be sick of being alone and I would get my husband to take me out to dinner. Maybe we would even invite some friends along.   I would miss my kids by then and feel like a refreshed and recharged mom!    Are you reading this Josh??  Mother's Day, my birthday, and our anniversary are all coming up . . . Now you know what a great day for me would be!

What the Atonement Means To Me

The Atonement means that even when I feel like giving up on myself, Christ doesn't give up on me.  He sees me as my most perfect self.

The Atonement means that when I go through dark or difficult times, I am not going through them alone.  Looking back, I can see that Christ has always been right next to me.  If I had spiritual eyes rather than my limited mortal eyes I would see Him constantly there.  Even at times when I didn't think that I wanted or needed Him.  Especially then.

The Atonement means that I will once again see those that I love who have left this life early.  I know it!

The Atonement means that those I love who struggle with mental or physical disabilities or imperfections will one day be made whole.  At this point in my life, this means more than anything to me.  My son will one day no longer struggle;  my Dad will be restored to his former self. There are not words to describe how glorious this is!

The Atonement means that no matter how often I am not patient enough, or kind enough, or selfless enough, or loving enough, or obedient enough, Christ's arms are continuously open to me, inviting me to try again.  Continuously.

The Atonement means that I am always loved, even at my most unlovable.  Yet, the Atonement makes me want to make myself more worthy of love.

The Atonement means that there is  always hope.

Beauty

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.
Charles Kingsley

I have done my fair share of wishing the winter weather away this year . . . too frigid . . . too gloomy. Yet, at times breathtakingly beautiful. . .

Tonight as I passed by my front window with a glance outside, a rare sight compelled me to stop. The foot of snow in our yard has a thin covering of crystalline ice, courtesy of the recent freezing rainstorm.  The ice-encased snow is truly breathtaking glistening in the evening glow of streetlights.  Having lived in a mountainous area my entire life, I have seen snow so frequently that I am not often taken in by the beauty of it. But just because I do not typically stop to notice its beauty doesn't mean it isn't there. The icy covering on the snow gave it a uniquely captivating look, making me take notice.  Truthfully, however, snow is always beautiful.  It is just easy to overlook this when focusing on the cold, the dark skies, and for me the fear of driving on slick roads.

The quick moment I took to absorb the beautiful scene outside reminded me that I could apply the beauty of the snow to life as well.  Even though at times life may feel overwhelming, or dark, or scary -  there is always beauty to be found.  It is up to us to take notice.   Beauty is always there.

Winter Fun

Yesterday we had a freak freezing rain storm here in my hometown.  Everything was covered in a layer of ice and the roads and sidewalks were treacherous.  I decided that it would be a great day to wear high-heeled boots. 

Yesterday also happened to be a day that I needed to stop by my parents house to retrieve something.  My parents house sits at the top of a fairly steeply sloped driveway. . . Do you see where I am going with this?

So I park on their driveway, no problem.  Once I got out of the car, that's when the problem started.  Because they are out of town and not home to care for their property, their driveway was an ice skating rink.  Seriously.  And high-heeled boots and steeply sloped ice skating rinks are a recipe for disaster.  I could not even stand up on their driveway.  The moment my feet left the car I was holding on to the side view mirror for dear life as my feet shot out in different directions.  There was no way I was going to make it up that driveway in one piece.

UNTIL.  I had the brilliant idea to get down on my hands and knees and CRAWL up their driveway.  It worked, but it wasn't pretty.  And  it was cold.  And about 10 cars happened to pass by to witness the scene (and I think I saw the neighbors peaking through the curtains too).  That's when I decided it was time to move to Arizona.  Or Texas.  Even if the summers are unbearable and they have scorpions. 

Yes it was a pretty embarrassing part of my day.  (Almost as embarrassing as when I sent my sister-in-law an email that was clearly intended for my husband earlier this month.)   But at least I was wearing cute boots during my moment of humiliation!

On another note, today it warmed up enough to turn the thick layer of snow and ice that's been covering our driveway all month into slushy snow and ice.  So guess what I did.  Got the shovel out and had fun hacking up the icy snow and throwing it in a pile.  Seriously, I discovered that I kind of enjoy shoveling icy snow. As long as it's close to 40 degrees outside and not 10 below. It's a good tension reliever.   I liked it so much that I did it twice.  Once for the first layer and later for the second layer (yes it was really that packed).  So what I'm thinking is that because I also worked out first thing this morning (yay me!) I can count myself as getting in all three workouts for my resolutions done in one day. . . or maybe not.

Resolutions



I have always been a great New Years resolutions maker, but not necessarily the best New Years resolutions keeper.  Not the worst. . . but certainly not the best!  So this year I came up with a new plan (after reading The Happiness Project, I should add).  Instead of making yearly goals, I would make monthly goals.   I then made an Excel spreadsheet to review and check off each night before bed.  The idea was that by reviewing my goals every day and holding myself accountable with the chart that I would keep the goals better.  I was even accommodating enough to coerce my husband into making some goals and setting up a chart for him (he was thrilled).  Sounds like a great plan, right? 

Well it was a great PLAN, but that plan was derailed the first week of the month when I was deathly ill with influenza.  And when I say deathly ill I mean that I was giving my husband directions that if I were not to make it he should definitely remarry (but that he needed to make sure that his new wife was thoroughly approved of by our first grade daughter because I didn't want her to have a life like Cinderella before Prince Charming. Yes, I have always been a bit on the dramatic side.  Why do you ask?)   Anyhow, as I was saying, me and my plan kind of got off on the wrong foot. 

(By the way, I am using the words resolutions / goals interchangeably, but I also learned in  The Happiness Project that they are actually different.  Goals have an achievable end while resolutions are something that can be worked on indefinitely.   For instance, running a marathon would be a goal, while exercising every day would be a resolution.  I just thought that was  an interesting tidbit to throw out there.)

Part of the problem with my resolutions is that I think I made too many of them.  I made seven when it would probably be easier to focus on them if I had only made 3 or 4.  Also, not to use the weather as an excuse, but I am going to use the weather as an excuse.  This January has been the most BLAH month I can even remember.   Three words:  freezing cold  and inversion.  These three words mean that it is really hard for me to be motivated.  Who feels like getting up early enough to exercise when the air is as thick as soup and the tears in your eyes freeze over?  Even when you're inside.  OK.  So I am admitting that I have been just plain lazy this month (after getting over being sick).   But in an effort to finish the last week of the month off on a stronger note, I am going to be brave and list my resolutions for all to see.  Then I'll let you know how I do and set some new ones for February.

So here goes.
1 - Exercise at least 3 times per week.  So a year ago when I was working out consistently nearly every day this one would not have been a problem and would have even been a wimpy goal. But then I had a crazy, messed up year last year and my exercising got off track. In fact, I had some health issues where I wasn't even allowed to work out for a few months. Then when I was allowed to again it was the holidays.  Which brings us to January and it's yuckiness.  So 3 times a week seemed like a good place to start.  And I am happy to say that now that I am feeling better I actually have been doing this.  Not more than the minimum, but at least something. Once I get in the habit it becomes second nature.  Still waiting for that to hit!

2 - Go to bed by 10 PM.  I think that I have done this maybe twice.   The point was that when I am more rested I am less grumpy, more motivated, and life just seems to go better. (Also, I would be able to get up and exercise before the kids were up.)  But it is just so hard to get to bed that early.  I am recommitting right now (as I type this post at 10:15).

3 - Control my temper.   I found myself nagging my family too often and maybe getting upset more than was warranted at times.  I hated the fact that in the morning I felt like I was spending my time getting after people to hurry up because they were going to be late instead of giving them a calm, warm and motherly send-off.  So, I decided to work on keeping calm and biting my tongue when I feel like nagging or ordering or complaining (or yelling).  Actually, I have done pretty well with this one overall (considering the fact that it is hard to feel as happy when the sky is filled with poison), but not so much today. . . Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.  That's the beauty of a resolution. . . you can keep working on it as long as its needed.

4 - Hug each member of my family daily.  This one seems like it would occur naturally, but when I thought about how I could show more love to my family, I realized that there were plenty of days where hugs weren't being given.  My three year old is in a really affectionate stage with me (my brother-in-law referenced the Oedipus complex, in fact) so he gets about 50 hugs a day from me, and my daughter always gets a hug goodbye in the morning and a hug goodnight. However, D-man, the nine year old, is not very affectionate and so I realized that there were days where he was getting skipped on the hugging.  AND, sad to say, there were actually days when we were in a particular rush where my husband himself was getting skipped on the hugs goodbye (and some nights he gets home after I've gone to bed which means he wasn't getting any hugs from me on those days).   I feel that a good hug can show love in ways that words just can't so I wanted to make doubly sure that I was hugging everyone in my family every day.  I better go and hug the husband right now and then I think I'll be good for today!

5 - Study/ prepare each day for my Sunday school Lesson.  I have the great privilege of teaching Sunday school to the teenagers at my church.  It is a daunting task so I decided that I could help myself be more prepared by studying each day instead of procrastinating to the night before as I often did last year.  So, I have been doing a bit better at this (especially at the first of the month), but it is not happening every single day.  The whole January thing again . . .

6 - Complete a daily household organizational task 5 times a week.   I did clean out my fridge one day and a kitchen cabinet the next . . . And I managed to take the Christmas decorations down and return them to their storage in the garage.  But somehow I don't think that averages out to 5 tasks per week.  The whole lazy thing  caused by the January thing. . .

7 - Limit personal computer time to 1 hour per day max.  You know, so I can get some household organizational tasks accomplished.   OK.   This one has been a challenge. I seriously did not realize how much time I was spending each day checking my email, emailing my husband back and forth, working on the blogs, and reading the news (and YES, checking Facebook).  I have kept this resolution a whopping 2 times so far this month.  In fact, I violated it today just by typing this post. 

Which means, I had better get off the computer and get to bed (now that I have already missed the 10 o'clock goal!)

Anyone have any great goals / resolutions tips?  It appears I need some help!

Words

Write while the heat is in you. … The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.
—Henry David Thoreau

 

 

Sometimes I skip writing because I simply have nothing to say.  My brain is like Death Valley in July and incinerates all of the words. . . also the desire. 

 

Other times I do not write because the words are flooding my mind until my head is bursting and I am simply too overwhelmed to know where to begin to alleviate the pressure. 

 

This second excuse is the reason for my current absence from the blog. After my week of influenza I had so much to say that I didn't know what say.  It's a troubling dilemma for sure. 

 

But then I read the above quote from Mr. Thoreau and I realized that I just needed to write something and the rest would fall into place.  With this realization came a bit of lamentation over the lost words.  Words that were thought but never set down.  Words that have since been turned to irretrievable dust. . . .or have floated away into the vast ocean of my brain and are now indistinguishable from the other lost words.  I have an entire lifetime of lost words. . .  also of lost opportunities.  For I believe Thoreau's quote can be applied to life in general.  Especially to inspiration we receive that we push aside and either never act on, or act on half-heartedly or too late. 

 

I don't want to spend my life losing words and opportunities.  I want to resolve to strike while the iron is hot.  Before it's too hot that my words are swept away in the dry wind of life and I have nothing left to say.