Hey Tuesday, you are not playing very nice this morning

I am hoping that if I just call Tuesday out on it's "not niceness" that maybe it will be nicer. By 7:45 this morning I had already had a pretty tough morning. And I have no idea why. I tried to prepare and anticipate all that could happen so I was ready but Tuesday didn't play nice and pulled out all sorts of unexpected punches.

We pulled the kids out of school last Thursday and Friday so we could have a super long and fun Memorial Day camping trip, which I will post about in a day or so. I told the kids' teachers that they would be gone and asked for any and all work that they would need to do and then when I picked them up last Wednesday we worked our booties off getting it all done. I REPEATEDLY asked the girls if they had anything else they needed to do. I was a little crazy about it but I wanted it all finished before we left. They reassured me that there was nothing else.

Then Tuesday came along. Hailey came in this morning crying because she has a test TOMORROW where she needs to know all the states, where they are, their capitols and where all the capitols are located. Are you kidding me? Okay, so I dug out the flash cards that I made last year for Kayla and told her to get studying.

Then as we are walking out the door Kayla mentions that she needs me to look over her essay and print it for her. So I run back inside and print it, we didn't have time for me to read and correct anything. I really hope Siri was a good listener as she spoke it into her iPad.

As I was walking out the door I noticed a note on the board about Kayla having a speech due today. With dread in my voice I asked "Kayla, is your speech done?" I closed my eyes as I waited for her response.

"What speech?" Not the response I was hoping for. So she went to school without a speech. Hopefully today isn't her day to give it.

I was ready to strangle my girls. Seriously? After all my nagging and questioning and pestering last week, you pull 3 things out on Tuesday morning??!! Urgh!

Then when I went to put Trevor in the car I realized that we left his car seat in Kurt's truck and Kurt is a good 30-40 minutes away from us. So I had to put him in Evan's booster with only the seat belt across him. I am a car seat nut so this was totally not ok but what else could I do?

So I got them to school on time. That's worth something, right? Sure, but Tuesday wasn't done with me yet.

Last week I bought Trevor a brand new pair of sneakers. While packing for our trip, I found one in the car but couldn't find the other one anywhere. It was driving me nuts. We had had them for like 2 days and had already lost one. Driving out of town I had the thought that I bet one of the kids knocked it out of the car when I dropped them off at school on Wednesday so I planned on going to the lost and found this morning to see if it was there. We got to school and I had Evan and Hailey stay in the car with Trevor while I ran to check really quick. I got up to Wendy, the crossing guard, and she looked at me and said "Your shoe!" I said, "You have my shoe?" "Yes, I saw it last week and was going to give it to you the next day but I didn't see you." I explained that we had left town for the weekend. She had it sitting on this fire/water pipe thing right next to where she stands so she could easily hand it to me. I was so excited to find the shoe!!! YIPPEE!! I grabbed it off the pipe and stood talking to her for just a few minutes.

Now this is where Tuesday got really mean. A little birdie had done a little doodie on that shoe, which I didn't know. I had had a little itch on my face while I was talking to her. It wasn't until I got back to the car that I realized bird doodie was all over my hand . . .

"No, no, no" I start saying. Sure enough, I looked in the car mirror and there is bird doodie on. my. face.

Eeeewwwww!!!!

Have you ever wanted to totally freak out but you couldn't because you are an adult with kids watching you. So I calmly {on the outside, on the inside I was totally freaking out!} looked for the diaper bag so I could get the wipes. Oh, but wait, the diaper bag got taken out for our trip. No wipes.

Panic was starting to set in. I frantically start digging around in the car because there has to be something. A lost wipe somewhere? A lost tissue maybe? A piece of paper? Anything? Nope, I had cleaned out the car last week and I have to say I did a very thorough job!

But I did find a little first aid kit. Maybe, just maybe, there would be one of those medical wipes in there. YES! Found them.  So I frantically scrubbed my face and my hand with a wipe that basically disintegrated as I used it. I got a second one out and continued to scrub. Those wipes are worthless but I got it to the point where I could drive home without causing an accident, hopefully.

I came home and scrubbed again. I still feel dirty and gross and completely contaminated by that doodie.

So Tuesday, could you please be nice to me now?

And if not? Well, that's ok. I'm tough. I can handle it. A little doodie on the face never stopped me before and it won't stop me today.

My new toy {that I got a totally killer deal on} FINALLY arrived!

I have always thought having a KitchenAid Stand Mixer would be a nice thing to have but there was no way I would fork out three-four-five or six HUNDRED dollars for one. I am just way to cheap so it was a luxury that I admired from afar.

But with all my "new" recipes being made from scratch, it was sounding like a better and better idea to have one. So one day a few weeks ago I got on the Kohl's website to see what they had available and how much they were. Well, wouldn't you know it was one of the featured items on their home page and it was on SALE!!!! Plus it had a rebate!!!! Plus I had a coupon!!!! Plus I had Kohl's cash!!!! Here is how it broke down:

$300 regular price

$230 sale price
<$10>  Kohl's cash
<$66>  30percent coupon
+ $15   shipping and tax
$169.00
<$30>  rebate
$139.00 final price!!!

How could I resist? So I ordered it right then. They only had white available but I wasn't picky. Delivery was about 1 week out. So I waited and kept tracking it on the UPS website except I could tell something wasn't right because that UPS website never changed. Hmmmm . . . so I waited until the day after it was supposed to be delivered by and sent an email to Kohl's customer service. They researched it and got back to me saying that something had gone wrong at UPS (whether it was a Kohl's label problem or a UPS problem, I don't know) but it had been returned to Kohl's and my account would have the return credited to it!

WHAT?! NO, NO, NO!

This happened on a Friday and I didn't have time to call them that day so on the next Monday (which was last week) I called them. They looked into and apologized for the error and would be happy to reorder it for me and honor all the discounts I had used. Phew! Except they were now out of stock.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

So I would have to check the website and watch for it to become available again and then call and reorder. The guy was very nice and made a big note on my account that they had to honor all the pricing. It was quite funny because he added it up several times and finally said "Uh, ma'am. You know you are getting a really good deal on this, right?" "Yes" I responded. "Like, you are getting it below cost, ma'am." I knew it was a good deal but I didn't know it was that good! But it was only a good deal if I could actually get it. He said to check back weekly. Oh boy, this could be a process.

But the very next day I felt like I should check online and guess what? It was available!!!! But only in silver this time, but like I said before, I didn't care about the color so I quickly called them back up and reordered it. This guy too kept questioning the amount but realized that he had to honor it so he reordered it for me. Now I just had to wait again and see if it showed up.

So I waited and waited and you know what? All this week I never received that email letting me know that it had shipped and what my tracking number was. Great. Now what happened? So I planned on calling them on Monday (tomorrow) to see what was going on.

But to my surprise, it showed up yesterday! WOO HOO HOO! Kurt said "did you see what is on the porch?" "No" I said because I wasn't expecting anything until next week because the estimated delivery dates were the 20th-23rd. I went out front and there it was!

I couldn't contain my excitement. And last night when I checked my email, I had received the email stating that it had been shipped and gave me a tracking number. Not too sure what to think about that but whatever - I got my new toy!

Now I'm off to do some bakin!

My New Set of Wheels!

My bike is old. I mean really old. I bought it back in high school or shortly after graduating. I knew nothing in the way of bikes. So I just bought a bike from someone, I can't even remember who. But nonetheless, I had a bike! Woo Hoo! I was stoked!

Oh, to be young and naive again. =-)  I had no clue that I bought a bike that had a frame that was way to big for me and made of {solid} metal, I swear. I am tempted to cut it open and see if it is solid because all I know is the thing is heavy!

But that bike holds memories. 

Like the time it almost cost me my relationship with Kurt . . .

When Kurt and I started dating he was a hard core mountain biker. Like crazy mountain biker. So about a week or 2 after we started dating he invited me to go on a bike ride with him and a friend and his friend's girlfriend. They were just going to ride from his friends house in Folsom to Folsom Lake - all neighborhoods or paved bike trails. "Oh, I can totally do that," I naively thought. Ha!

So the first problem was that we ate breakfast before we went. At that time in my life I never ate breakfast. I was a breakfast skipper but this morning I pounded down french toast, bacon, orange juice and whatever else they prepared. Bad idea.

The next problem is that that darn bike is heavy and I wasn't in shape / riding it very often so after the first couple of hills I was dying! I finally had to admit that I couldn't go any further. I got off my bike and collapsed on the side yard of some house in a neighborhood. I really thought I was going to loose all my breakfast. It was horrible. The 3 of them just stood there straddling their bikes watching me as I tried to not throw up. Classy, very classy!

There was no way I could get back on that bike so his friend and the girlfriend rode their bikes back to his house and got his truck to come pick me up. So embarrassing! Kurt was so sweet though. He stayed with me and talked to me. He wasn't mad at all but I was totally thinking "oh, well. That was a fun relationship. No way is this hard core biker going to stay with someone who can't even make it a short distance." So I pretty much wrote us off. When his friend came back with his truck, he picked up my bike to put it in the truck and said "Holy Cow! This bike is stinkin' HEAVY." Yes, I know. I just smiled. And as you can tell, that wasn't the end of our relationship. He was willing to overlook the lack of my bike riding skills. Although, I don't think he asked me to go on any more bike rides for awhile after that . . . 

Or the memory of my rock solid legs in college . . .

There was a time in college that I would come home from work or school and hop on that bike and ride it all through the neighborhood where I lived. I started off gradually but I eventually got to the point that I would put the bike in the hardest to pedal gear possible and I would ride hard the whole time. It was brutal but I'll tell you that my legs rocked. They were rock solid. It was awesome. I really loved those rides. They were very stress-relieving. 

Or the memory of wanting to chuck that bike in the ocean and buy a new one . . .

When we went on our last camping trip (where we took the bike ride along the coast), I was ready to throw that bike in the ocean. I was dying. I was pedaling twice as much as everyone else and I was falling behind. Plus, with a frame that is way to big for me, I have serious issues with reaching the handle bars and with the seat being comfortable so I was pretty much miserable. Kurt has wanted to buy me a new bike for years but I was always to cheap to fork out the money so I would just keep riding that bike but this trip made me realize that this was a really bad idea. I even told him he could buy me a bike when we reached the town we were going to so I could ride the new bike back. Ha ha! Just for the record - If we had passed a bike shop, I would have totally done it! And when our friend was helping Kurt load the bikes back up, guess what he said when he lifted mine? "Holy Cow! This bike is stinkin' HEAVY." Yes, yes, I know.

But guess what? Guess what I got for my belated birthday / early Mother's Day? 

I GOT A NEW BIKE!!!!!

I am so excited! Isn't she pretty?

She has these fun little swirly decorations on her.

I love going for rides now. Ok, I have had it for like 2 days (since Tuesday) but I am loving it! And guess what? The frame is my size! And I am pretty sure she isn't made of solid metal! And I can reach the handle bars! Woo Hoo!

I have even braved putting Trevor's wagon behind it and going for rides. We live at the top of a serious hill. It doesn't seem so bad when your driving but trust me, you go for a walk or get on a bike and it's a serious hill. Then add a 40 pound baby wagon behind you and you are in for a workout! But I have gone out every day or twice a day or whenever my kids say "hey, let's go for a ride!" I even rode it over to a house that I had a meeting at last night. Totally love'n it!

So here's my new set of wheels. And here's to lots of fun riding.

And some rock solid legs again wouldn't be too bad either!

Other Resources

I wanted to share a few more resources that I have been using to prepare healthy meals.

I started off on the 100 Days of Real Food website and then somehow got on The Nourishing Home website which then links to The Better Mom website. Both of these websites have great information on them.

The Nourishing Home blogger publishes meal plans and I have been printing those and using them to help me plan my meals. I don't follow them exactly because some of the meals I know we won't like but they definitely help with ideas and new recipes. We have like pretty much everything I have made so far.

I do have a disclaimer though - food tastes different when it isn't packed full of sugar. Sugar makes things taste good so they (the food manufacturers) add sugar but the problem is that we become "used to" that level of sugar so they have to add more sugar to things to make them taste yummy again and the cycle continues. So when you all of the sudden start eating things that have no sugar in them, they do taste rather . . . bland. I guess that's a good way to describe it. It is just about retraining your taste buds.

For example, Saturday morning I made banana-nut muffins  . . . from scratch. We had to mash the banana and everything. The kids enjoyed that part =-)  Anyways, the muffins did not taste like the banana-nut muffins that I used to make from the box. They were not bad but they were more bland than the other ones. Just different. 

The girls are doing good with it. Kayla especially wants to eat healthy. Hailey is willing to eat the healthy stuff but then immediately asks for dessert in the form of ice cream or brownies or cookies. Evan is battling me a little bit on it but since we are mean parents and tell him he gets nothing else until he eats his dinner, he is eating it.

Did you know there is such a thing as sugar withdrawal? I am not kidding. I think Hailey is suffering from it because she has always been my sweets girl. I have always thought she is addicted to sugar because she is always asking for it and now that she is just about desperate for a sugary treat, I really think she is going through withdrawals. That's okay, little changes at a time and I will get her off of her sweet tooth.

So far so good this week too. I planned and shopped and have been able to prepare yummy healthy meals and lunches. Although, I do have to say, it is a lot of work. I guess it will get better the more I do it and not seem so overwhelming with time. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later!

I'm counting this week as a SUCCESS!

I was going to tell you how this week has tried to beat me up bad. It has not been nice at all. And how, after all that, I have been able to see it as a success. So I logged into blogger and immediately got distracted by reading other blogs that I follow and I quickly realize that I have nothing to complain about. NOTHING. I follow a blog ("Fishes for Marrow Wishes" in the Family and Friends section on the side) and they have 2 very sick children. Life threatening sick and they had a very scary event this week and I thought "I have nothing to complain about." My kids are healthy, my family is great. Yes, I am exhausted. Yes, it was a tough week but nothing, NOTHING, compared to theirs so I am fine. You don't need to hear how this week was rough because it wasn't really. I am sure they would have gladly changed places with me.

So here is how it has been a success:

I have mentioned before how I am trying to alter our diet. Originally I looked into the vegan diet which is absolutely NO animal products. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Seemed a bit hard core to me so we moved on. Then I found a blog that is also on my side bar called "100 days of real food." They eat zero processed foods. I have learned so much on this blog and have altered our diet here and there. I am not super hard core on no processed foods YET but I am being pretty serious about it. They eat no processed sugar - white sugar, brown sugar - and they sweeten with honey and 100 percent maple syrup. Cancer loves sugar and as you know I have a major reason to have a serious beef with cancer so I am trying to cut all sugar out of our diet. It is not easy. Especially when you are married to this guy:

The guy who buys brownie mix by the case. BUT I am slowly but surely winning him over. He wants to eat healthy but it is just so hard with all that yummy stuff out there. So we are making progress.


Now remember, I said I wasn't hard core yet. We still eat sugar - my birthday was 2 weeks ago and I was a total wild child and had soda AND cake! I know - I am a total rebel! Ha ha!  I am just trying to drastically reduce how much sugar we eat. There is sugar in EVERYTHING! It is crazy when you start reading the labels and digging a little deeper. It is kind of gross actually.

So I have been making changes, trying new recipes, experimenting a little. I have had some failures but I have also had some successes. One of my biggest problem areas is lunch. Lunch for me at home, lunch for the kids at school. It really is a struggle. Well, on the 100 days of real food blog Facebook page she posts a picture daily what her kids are eating for lunch that day. She also has on her blog what she calls "Lunch Round Ups" (or something like that) where she posts a list of lunches (with pictures). I have been mentally processing her lunches (we don't eat the same things as them) and trying to implement them at home (modified to match our life) but I didn't have the fancy little lunch containers to put it in so I struggled. I am a total copy cat - I can't deviate from the plan or I get lost and since I was deviating it wasn't working so good. So after months of fighting the desire to buy the lunch containers, I did it. The containers are not expensive - they are just the ziploc 3 section tupperware-like containers you can buy at Target/Walmart BUT they do need a larger lunch box to fit in. So I finally splurged and bought the Lands End Lunch boxes that these containers fit in. And guess what - they were on sale! Woo Hoo! The regularly $35 lunch boxes were only $13-$14!

They arrived last Saturday so this was the first week that I was able to use the new set up. And we loved it! The kids loved it! It worked great!

So here is where my success comes in - I planned, purchased food for and cooked HEALTHY meals ALL WEEK and the kids had HEALTHY lunches all week too! I am so proud of myself. I felt like a great mom sending them to school with much healthier (not perfect - but healthier) lunches. And they really like it too! So in 100 Days of Real Food fashion, here are our lunches this week:

Monday Lunches - I didn't have a meal from Sunday night to do left overs for so they got sandwiches, which I am trying to avoid because of the sugar in the bread, sugar in the peanut butter and sugar in the jelly but I have been buying "healthier" peanut butter and "healthier" jelly so I figured it wasn't too bad.

Hailey had: pb&j sandwich, mandarin orange, apple, snap peas and a salad. (She did have Ranch dressing - I am trying to convert her over to my healthy Balsamic Vinegar dressing but it is a slow process)

Evan (the picky little stinker) had: pretzels with peanut butter to dip in, apple, mandarin orange and grapes.

Kayla had - pb&j sandwich, 2 mandarin oranges, apple, raspberries, salad and she snuck in a cookie BUT it was a cookie made with whole wheat flour instead of white so it was "healthier".

Monday Dinner - I made a new recipe that was oven baked chicken legs, roasted potatoes and green beans. 

Tuesday Lunches - there were left overs so for lunch they took:

Girls - chicken legs, apples, chips and salsa, strawberries and salad. Evan had pretzels with pb to dip, apples, and strawberries.

Tuesday Dinner - we had left over spaghetti from Sunday night.

Wednesday Lunch -  looked just like Tuesday's.

Wednesday Dinner - We had Turkey-Veggie Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries and a salad. I made the burgers and fries FROM SCRATCH. Can you believe it? I couldn't. Everyone was a little skeptical on this meal BUT we really enjoyed it! And you know it was a success when the kids, ok - the girls, asked for it in their lunch on Thursday!

Thursday Lunch - Left over turkey-veggie burgers and sweet potato fries.

I heated them up and wrapped them in foil and put them in their lunch container. This day they didn't get any cold packs or anything cold in their lunch because I wanted it to stay hot/warm and it did.

Girls - turkey-veggie burger, sweet potato fries, ketchup and a blond brownie. (See we still eat sugar). I don't remember what Evan had . . . hmmm - probably his usual. He doesn't eat much at school.

Thursday Dinner - Chicken Enchiladas, refried beans (from the can - NOOOOOO - but I forgot to soak my beans ahead of time so I didn't have them cooked - oops!)  and a salad.

And today, Friday, is a mini day so they only took a snack.

It is hard to eat healthy in today's world. Everything is made to be fast and easy but that all comes at a cost. I have thoroughly destroyed my kitchen every night making meals from scratch but I have to believe that it is worth it to feed my family healthier foods. It's slow process. Sometimes I give myself a hard time when we eat sugar but I have to remember to give myself a break because since we are eating healthier at other times we can have a little guilt free sugar every once in awhile.

So here is to meal planning for another week and doing it all over again!

And just for the record - because I have to be totally honest and I am human - I did finish off the blond brownies for breakfast this morning!