It must be all that walking to nowhere I've been doing. Today I decided to walk somewhere--toward a cure for MS. If you know my family, you know my mom has lived with MS since 1996 and is a huge inspiration to all around her. My mom is more important to me than I could ever put into words. If I could cure MS, I would have a long time ago. But there is something I can do--something we can all do. We can walk, roll, or stroll toward a cure!
My sister Amanda and I have formed Many Steps to Fight MS and we are looking for more walkers to join our team. My goal is to have the BIGGEST team there! (The biggest team signed up right now has 55 members.)
The Aberdeen MS Walk starts at 10am (Registration at 9am) on Saturday, May 9. From what I saw on the website, the walk is approximately 3 miles.
We welcome all team members and, of course, all donations.
You may go to www.mymswalk.org (click on Aberdeen) for more information or to donate. You can even be a VIRTUAL member and join us in spirit.
Please join us on May 9!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Planning my Garden
I am taking the plunge and ordering my garden supplies tonight. Between the warm sunny day and the Gurney's Catalog that is still calling my name, I cannot resist the temptation anymore.
I am playing it pretty safe. No cheddar hybrid cauliflower or purple carrots. I'm going to plant my standards--no tomatoes, many green beans, and some other odds & ends. People are always surprised to hear I don't plant tomatoes. Since I am the only one who eats tomatoes in our family, it is much more practical for me to buy the few I need or enjoy others' bountiful crops if they choose to share them with me. I do have to say tomato plants are fun, though. We garden-sat for our neighbors late last summer and received all the tomatoes, peppers, and green beans we could gather as our payment. The boys thought it was really neat to see how many more red or yellow tomatoes they could find each day. Of course, they didn't want to actually eat them!
I also refuse to plant or pay any money whatsoever for a zucchini. It is not because I dislike zucchini. (I don't know how anyone could dislike zucchini since it doesn't taste like anything!) My reason stems from my childhood. My dad was a pretty good gardener, but he always made sure that he planted 5 or so zucchini plants. I don't remember a year that all 5 or more didn't produce zucchinis like baby bunnies. We had zucchini like Bubba Gump had shrimp. You know what they say about locking your car door in small towns so you don't get a zucchini? Well, if I get a hankering for zucchini in the summertime, I just leave my car unlocked wherever I go. One way or another at least one zucchini always finds its way into my kitchen.
The only exception to my standard garden is a potted blueberry bush. It caught my eye last year and again this year. I like blueberries, but they are so expensive. Gurney's says this particular variety is easy to grow and I am going to buy some blueberry food to try to keep it happy. Potted plants generally like me, so hopefully we will hit it off.
As I said in my previous gardening post, the odds are stacked against me. I have my grandparents' farming/gardening genes when it comes to planting and harvesting, but it usually gets pretty weedy in between. I have a plan, however, to try to prevent another weed infestation like last year . . . ok, like every previous year.
A few years back, I listened to a talk on square-foot gardening. The idea is to separate your garden into square feet and plant each vegetable, flower, etc. in a seperate square. Since the plants provide more ground cover than they do in a row, it really helps to prevent weeds. I am also going to invest in a weed barrier or a bottle of Preen to keep the weeds at bay in between the squares.
I've explained my idea to my husband and surprisingly he thinks this will work well. He usually isn't so optimistic about my gardening aspirations. Hopefully that is a good omen.
I am playing it pretty safe. No cheddar hybrid cauliflower or purple carrots. I'm going to plant my standards--no tomatoes, many green beans, and some other odds & ends. People are always surprised to hear I don't plant tomatoes. Since I am the only one who eats tomatoes in our family, it is much more practical for me to buy the few I need or enjoy others' bountiful crops if they choose to share them with me. I do have to say tomato plants are fun, though. We garden-sat for our neighbors late last summer and received all the tomatoes, peppers, and green beans we could gather as our payment. The boys thought it was really neat to see how many more red or yellow tomatoes they could find each day. Of course, they didn't want to actually eat them!
I also refuse to plant or pay any money whatsoever for a zucchini. It is not because I dislike zucchini. (I don't know how anyone could dislike zucchini since it doesn't taste like anything!) My reason stems from my childhood. My dad was a pretty good gardener, but he always made sure that he planted 5 or so zucchini plants. I don't remember a year that all 5 or more didn't produce zucchinis like baby bunnies. We had zucchini like Bubba Gump had shrimp. You know what they say about locking your car door in small towns so you don't get a zucchini? Well, if I get a hankering for zucchini in the summertime, I just leave my car unlocked wherever I go. One way or another at least one zucchini always finds its way into my kitchen.
The only exception to my standard garden is a potted blueberry bush. It caught my eye last year and again this year. I like blueberries, but they are so expensive. Gurney's says this particular variety is easy to grow and I am going to buy some blueberry food to try to keep it happy. Potted plants generally like me, so hopefully we will hit it off.
As I said in my previous gardening post, the odds are stacked against me. I have my grandparents' farming/gardening genes when it comes to planting and harvesting, but it usually gets pretty weedy in between. I have a plan, however, to try to prevent another weed infestation like last year . . . ok, like every previous year.
A few years back, I listened to a talk on square-foot gardening. The idea is to separate your garden into square feet and plant each vegetable, flower, etc. in a seperate square. Since the plants provide more ground cover than they do in a row, it really helps to prevent weeds. I am also going to invest in a weed barrier or a bottle of Preen to keep the weeds at bay in between the squares.
I've explained my idea to my husband and surprisingly he thinks this will work well. He usually isn't so optimistic about my gardening aspirations. Hopefully that is a good omen.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Walking to Nowhere
I finally bought a treadmill this past January and I love it. I do NOT like to walk outside in the cold, so it was a perfect solution until we are able to get outside. I have a feeling I will use it in the summertime, too, since I do NOT like to be hot, either.
I feel great when I get a mile or so in a day and most days I can do that. The problem comes in when I take a weekend off. Even though I know it makes me feel better, it is really difficult to get the motivation to start walking again. I took most of last week off when I was dealing with my kids' random fevers. It was a lame excuse, I know, but it worked for me.
However, this week I am back walking again. I feel better as long as I put in the work. Funny how that works! I am determined not to let my treadmill become a very expensive clothes hanger!
I feel great when I get a mile or so in a day and most days I can do that. The problem comes in when I take a weekend off. Even though I know it makes me feel better, it is really difficult to get the motivation to start walking again. I took most of last week off when I was dealing with my kids' random fevers. It was a lame excuse, I know, but it worked for me.
However, this week I am back walking again. I feel better as long as I put in the work. Funny how that works! I am determined not to let my treadmill become a very expensive clothes hanger!
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Great Escape
First, a little background information . . .
Even though my children have always been good sleepers, we had a problem with Landen staying in his room for timeouts or bedtime when he was about 2. We finally turned the doorknob around, so we could lock it from the outside. (Don't judge me--it was grandma's idea.) Anyway, it worked great, the boys have since moved out, Teresa has moved in, and we've never bothered to turn the lock back around to the inside. Our doors get locked all the time around the house and the boys know we need a straight "key" to pop the lock when that happens.
That brings me up to this morning. I had just finished dressing Teresa and Nathan was down to his Pull-Up ready to get his underwear and clothes on. Well, his little 3 year old brain thought it would be hilarious to lock the door and come into Teresa's room. I immediately knew we were locked in. He just said, "Get the key." It turned out there was a key on Teresa's dresser, but it was one for the downstairs doorknobs and wasn't long enough to pop the lock. I tried a safety pin with no luck either. The kids, if anything, thought it was great to be locked in a room with mom, so it was nice that they weren't scared at all. Neither was I, but I wasn't so sure that was how I wanted to spend a good part of my day either.
It was about 7:45am. There was an outside chance that David's dad would stop by on his way home from coffee, but that would take at least a half hour if he did stop at all. David was going to be outside for much longer than that--maybe even until close to lunch time.
What to do? What to do? Ahh . . . the window! Of course, it wasn't as simple as just opening the window. The latch is broken on that window, but we usually use a butter knife to get it to come up whenever we open it. Not surprisingly, we don't store butter knives in Teresa's room either! I went through her dresser basket. The baby nail scissors might work--nope too wide on the end. How about the baby nail file? Nope not quite. How about I go back and forth with each of them and keep trying? Finally I got the latch to move up so I could open the window.
Even though the room is just a few steps above ground level, it is still a good size jump to the ground. I put Teresa in her crib and told Nathan to close the window once I was out. There was no way he could climb out, so I wasn't worried about him following me. I just didn't want his near-naked body standing by the open window with the cold breeze blowing in.
I stepped into my slippers--thank heavens I was at least wearing something on my feet--and slid out. I hit the ground, rolled a bit, reminded Nathan to quickly close the window, ran around the house to free my children from our jail.
The entire escape didn't take very long--maybe 15 minutes. If my escape plan hadn't worked, we would have been waiting until 10am until David came in for a cup of hot chocolate.
This just goes to show that being a mom is never a boring occupation!
Even though my children have always been good sleepers, we had a problem with Landen staying in his room for timeouts or bedtime when he was about 2. We finally turned the doorknob around, so we could lock it from the outside. (Don't judge me--it was grandma's idea.) Anyway, it worked great, the boys have since moved out, Teresa has moved in, and we've never bothered to turn the lock back around to the inside. Our doors get locked all the time around the house and the boys know we need a straight "key" to pop the lock when that happens.
That brings me up to this morning. I had just finished dressing Teresa and Nathan was down to his Pull-Up ready to get his underwear and clothes on. Well, his little 3 year old brain thought it would be hilarious to lock the door and come into Teresa's room. I immediately knew we were locked in. He just said, "Get the key." It turned out there was a key on Teresa's dresser, but it was one for the downstairs doorknobs and wasn't long enough to pop the lock. I tried a safety pin with no luck either. The kids, if anything, thought it was great to be locked in a room with mom, so it was nice that they weren't scared at all. Neither was I, but I wasn't so sure that was how I wanted to spend a good part of my day either.
It was about 7:45am. There was an outside chance that David's dad would stop by on his way home from coffee, but that would take at least a half hour if he did stop at all. David was going to be outside for much longer than that--maybe even until close to lunch time.
What to do? What to do? Ahh . . . the window! Of course, it wasn't as simple as just opening the window. The latch is broken on that window, but we usually use a butter knife to get it to come up whenever we open it. Not surprisingly, we don't store butter knives in Teresa's room either! I went through her dresser basket. The baby nail scissors might work--nope too wide on the end. How about the baby nail file? Nope not quite. How about I go back and forth with each of them and keep trying? Finally I got the latch to move up so I could open the window.
Even though the room is just a few steps above ground level, it is still a good size jump to the ground. I put Teresa in her crib and told Nathan to close the window once I was out. There was no way he could climb out, so I wasn't worried about him following me. I just didn't want his near-naked body standing by the open window with the cold breeze blowing in.
I stepped into my slippers--thank heavens I was at least wearing something on my feet--and slid out. I hit the ground, rolled a bit, reminded Nathan to quickly close the window, ran around the house to free my children from our jail.
The entire escape didn't take very long--maybe 15 minutes. If my escape plan hadn't worked, we would have been waiting until 10am until David came in for a cup of hot chocolate.
This just goes to show that being a mom is never a boring occupation!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Good Sleepers
Someone asked David and I awhile back, "With your kids ages 5, 3, and 1, when do you sleep?" We answered, "For almost 12 hours every night if we want to." The man couldn't believe it.
Even though my kids can spend some days running through the house like rabid squirrels, fighting like starving tigers, and destroying everything in their path like wild monkeys, they are ALWAYS in bed by 8pm. This is David and my salvation as parents.
Teresa likes to sleep the most. At 16 months, she still takes a morning and afternoon nap and is ready to go to sleep by 7pm. They all get up somewhere around 6:30am the next morning.
Some of their great sleeping ability is God given, but it took some work on our part early on, too. Before we had Landen, I read the book "On Becoming Babywise," which was recommended by David's cousin who had 2 young children at the time. The idea is simple--keep your baby on a schedule as much as possible. Many family and friends have read this book and it has worked for everyone that I know of. David's cousin now has 5 children, and as far as I know, they are all still good sleepers. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Jan!)
Another hint we followed was to not rock our babies to sleep. None of our children have had a problem with this and it works great at home. At nap & bedtime, we put them in their beds and they go to sleep. The only time it is inconvenient is when we are away and there isn't a place for them to lie down.
The book also recommends letting them comfort themselves to some extent. They will wake up as they go through the different sleep cycles. At first they will cry, but if they are old enough and don't need to eat, it suggested to wait awhile and let them go back to sleep. This was the hardest for me at first, but it didn't take long and they were sleeping through the night. I believe the boys were between 12-13 weeks. Teresa was starting to sleep all night around that time, but then got really sick with RSV/Pneumonia. So, she got a free pass for about another month until I decided she really could do it. Still now she will start crying at about 10pm every night. I have picked her up some nights, but she doesn't want that either. So, we just know it is 10pm when she starts crying. It never lasts long before she settles down for the rest of the night.
If you are having trouble with your kids not sleeping, I really recommend this book. As my mom always says, "They're so much cuter in the morning when they sleep all night!"
If the screaming starts shortly after that, at least I know that bedtime is only 13 hours away.
Even though my kids can spend some days running through the house like rabid squirrels, fighting like starving tigers, and destroying everything in their path like wild monkeys, they are ALWAYS in bed by 8pm. This is David and my salvation as parents.
Teresa likes to sleep the most. At 16 months, she still takes a morning and afternoon nap and is ready to go to sleep by 7pm. They all get up somewhere around 6:30am the next morning.
Some of their great sleeping ability is God given, but it took some work on our part early on, too. Before we had Landen, I read the book "On Becoming Babywise," which was recommended by David's cousin who had 2 young children at the time. The idea is simple--keep your baby on a schedule as much as possible. Many family and friends have read this book and it has worked for everyone that I know of. David's cousin now has 5 children, and as far as I know, they are all still good sleepers. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Jan!)
Another hint we followed was to not rock our babies to sleep. None of our children have had a problem with this and it works great at home. At nap & bedtime, we put them in their beds and they go to sleep. The only time it is inconvenient is when we are away and there isn't a place for them to lie down.
The book also recommends letting them comfort themselves to some extent. They will wake up as they go through the different sleep cycles. At first they will cry, but if they are old enough and don't need to eat, it suggested to wait awhile and let them go back to sleep. This was the hardest for me at first, but it didn't take long and they were sleeping through the night. I believe the boys were between 12-13 weeks. Teresa was starting to sleep all night around that time, but then got really sick with RSV/Pneumonia. So, she got a free pass for about another month until I decided she really could do it. Still now she will start crying at about 10pm every night. I have picked her up some nights, but she doesn't want that either. So, we just know it is 10pm when she starts crying. It never lasts long before she settles down for the rest of the night.
If you are having trouble with your kids not sleeping, I really recommend this book. As my mom always says, "They're so much cuter in the morning when they sleep all night!"
If the screaming starts shortly after that, at least I know that bedtime is only 13 hours away.
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