weekend ramble

After what turned out to be a draining week, this weekend has been a much needed reprieve.  On my way home on Friday evening, I called my sister and, upon hearing her voice, almost immediately started crying. There wasn't really anything particularly wrong at that point, but it was like all my stress had finally pushed open the flood gates and I had a listening ear on the other end of the line.  I'm sure you know what I mean.

I'm not sure what's in the air (or, really, what isn't), but Emma's breathing has been labored since Thursday evening.  We've been doing a lot of breathing treatments and keeping her off dairy.  Her demeanor has been a little off, an although she's not 100%, she's better today, by far.

So as you can imagine, our weekend has been spent relaxing at home.  I got my usual weekend cleaning done, of course, but other than that, we've enjoyed not having any place to be or anything we have to do (except swim).

In case you are interested, neither Steve nor I have cheated yet on our meatless month.  It's really amazing how many options are out there if you just look.  We did get sucked into "Food Paradise: BBQ" on the Travel Channel the other night, and quickly decided that watching such shows would not be helpful to us on this journey.  Still, we didn't turn it off.  Will power, people.

This week is the last week of school for the kids.  It's crazy how quickly this year has flown by, but then, I say that every year.  I experienced my first field day a couple weeks ago ... it was a blast!  I think I made a name for myself on the inflatable obstacle course.  A year ago I had no idea what I had gotten myself into by asking to move to elementary, and while I do miss my former life in middle school, I think I'm pretty happy where I'm at now.  My contract goes through June, though I'm taking off the last week for Melissa's wedding, so the countdown to our summer is definitely on.  For the moment, though, I'm thinking roughly a week at a time ... and hoping this will be a good one.

veg out

The other day, Steve read a blog post by a writer for The Dallas Observer who said she was going vegetarian for a month.  I think it was part of a bet for her; she is a huge meat lover, but is committed to going without.  Steve forwarded me the post and asked, "Should we do this, too?"  My immediate answer was, "Yes; let's do this."

Let me give you a little background: a couple of years ago, when Steve was training for his first marathon, he really scaled back on eating meat.  Most weeks, he didn't eat any.  I was pregnant ... so don't bother asking what I was eating.  Since that time, he and I have both gone through meatless spurts, and it feels good.  This has nothing to do with morals or how we feel about animals, it just has to do with what we want in our bodies.  I know that plenty of meat can be prepared in a way that's healthy, but there are also so many foods out there that provide the same benefits without the meat.  That's what we're going for.  My cholesterol, while under control now, remains a concern and a motivating factor for sticking to a low fat, high fiber diet.  We want to pay attention to not replacing meat with an unhealthy, non-meat ... that would defeat the purpose.

We don't consume a whole lot of dairy anyway, but we will keep eggs in our diet.  Other staples will include beans, brown grains, tofu, and hearty vegetables such as eggplant and squash.  We've already identified many recipes we want to try, and there are quality vegetarian options available at many of our favorite restaurants.  Right now, I'd consider this whole thing more of an experiment that anything else ... we'll see how long we last and how we feel in the end.  We are definitely food lovers, and I'm hoping what we'll find is that we can enjoy delicious, flavorful, fulfilling meals without meat.  

We were going to wait until June 1st to begin our meatless month, but decided to let the fun officially start tomorrow. We'll see how this goes! 

Book Talk

Need a book for the long weekend?  Look no further.

My sister loaned me her copy of Labor Day.  Maybe you've seen the movie; I don't plan to, but I did enjoy the book.  It's the story of a reclusive single mother and her teenage son who find themselves welcoming a prison escapee into their home.  It's fairly predictable, but certainly a perfect beach or poolside read.

 In What Alice Forgot, Alice falls and hits her head at the gym, and although she's about to turn 40, she can't remember anything that has happened in the last ten years.  She believes she's still 29 and pregnant with her first child.  As the truths of her current reality are revealed to her, she struggles with wanting to remember and wanting to continue to forget.  I couldn't put this one down.

I found How Evan Broke His Head for $2.99 on Amazon and bought it because I was already a fan of the author.  Evan is a 31-year-old rock star wannabe who meets his teenage son for the first time at his ex-girlfriend's funeral.  The frustrating, heartbreaking, and enduring story of how they get to know each other - and themselves - unfolds.  I highly recommend.

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life."

Mortimer J. Adler

Wordless Wednesday

 

playing catch-up

The last couple of days have been spent playing catch-up, and here's why ... last Saturday evening, after the girls went to bed, this is what Steve and I were up to:

 Fast-forward 24 hours, and we were in the throes of taking turns being sick all.night.long.  By Monday morning, we'd had no sleep, we'd lost a few extra pounds, and we felt like we'd been hit by a truck.  We took the girls to school, then came home to sleep and work on keeping down ice chips.

By Tuesday morning, we were both feeling infinitely better - certainly not 100%, but at least ahead of where we'd been.  We all headed to work and school.  A couple hours in, I got a call from daycare.  Seemed Emma had come down with whatever bug we had (that's been going around in a mean way), and was having endless diarrhea.  I picked her up from school and brought her home.  When she wasn't sleeping, clinging to my neck, or drinking Pedialite, she spent her time like this:

 Even after a second day of rest for me, I endured another little round of "the bug" Tuesday evening, but felt better again Wednesday morning.  We all made it through the day on Wednesday - it never got Sara, knock on wood - but by that evening, we were completely exhausted and we all collapsed early.  I did manage to do a much-needed a load of laundry.

Last night was my district's annual Teacher of the Year Gala.  This is always my favorite event of the year because it's just so inspiring to celebrate excellent teachers.  I've been attending since 2008, when I was honored by my school, but this year was the best yet ... the teacher from my school was named Elementary Teacher of the Year.  There are 44 elementary schools in my district, each with an honoree, so winning isn't an easy thing to do.  It was all very exciting, as you can imagine.

But the late night and lack of progress on my to-do list earlier this week has left me with a lot to do tonight before I head to Des Moines in the morning for Isaac and Kari's wedding.  Steve left this morning because he needed to be at the rehearsal festivities today.  Tonight I've been doing laundry and trying to get our house back into some semblance of order.  I still need to pack, but I decided to blog first because my sister texted to ask if I was ever going to update again.  Here I am!

I'm super excited to be heading to Des Moines in the morning.  I'll drop the girls off in Flower Mound on my way to the airport, and then enjoy a flight that doesn't involve ten thousand snacks and cartoons and every other form of airplane-appropriate entertainment imaginable.  It'll just be my carry-on, my Kindle, and me.  But I am sad about the fact that, of all weekends, Sara's pre-K graduation is happening tomorrow.  Her class has been practicing the program for months, and I won't be there to see it.  When I told Sara that Steve and I would be out of town for the event, she didn't care at all, she just wanted to be sure that she'd be able to attend.  My feelings were hurt for a second, but then my pride in my Miss Independent smacked me in the face and told me to get over it.

Since I won't be there tomorrow, this morning I received a DVD slide show and Sara's yearbook, which Ms. Cornelia put so much time into helping her create.  I'm so glad to have these special treasures.  Although it's sad to say goodbye to Sara's preschool chapter, I know that adventure awaits ... in so many ways, we're just at the beginning.  Tomorrow at noon, while I'm in physically in Des Moines, my heart will be at graduation with this girl.

Well, I don't know if I'm all caught up, but I'm as close as I'm going to get tonight.  Time for me to pack and hit the hay.

Wordless Wednesday

One for the Parents

When I was buying Teacher Appreciation gifts, I picked up a couple extra bundlets for us to enjoy at the house.  The girls wanted to have a piece of cake after dinner tonight, and had to finish their dinners to partake.  Emma saw me take the cake out of the fridge and wanted it immediately.  I told her, "dinner first, then cake."  And.She.Screamed.  We asked if she wanted cake, and she nodded.  So then we told her to eat her dinner and she shook her head and pushed the plate away.  This went on for a number of minutes.  As the major meltdown approached, Steve took Emma to her room.  She proceeded to scream at the top of her lungs, stomp her feet, and throw herself on the ground.  We left her in her room having her fit-heard-round-the-neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Sara was in the kitchen enjoying her cake.

After a few minutes, Steve went to Emma's room and asked if she was ready to finish her dinner.  She screamed louder.  Definitely not ready.

Meanwhile, Sara had seconds.

A little while later, Steve and I both went back in and brought her - not crying, but doing the after-cry pant/hiccup thing - back into the kitchen.  I put her in her seat and showed her her dinner plate.  When she didn't see cake on it, she started crying again and crawled up into my arms, where she sobbed and sobbed.  It's so sad to not get your way.

I held her while I did some other things in the kitchen for a few minutes, and eventually she pointed to her seat.  I put her back in it.  She didn't go for her food right away, but we left her alone and before we knew it, she had polished off her dinner.  Then Emma got her cake.  She was thrilled.

And so were we.  We waited out the tantrum, and she caved; in the end, we all got what we wanted.  The midst of the fit is so hard, made harder by the fact that we only get a few hours with her each evening.  But we are committed to making sure she knows who's boss ... not because we're mean, but because we love her (and maybe a little mean, if you ask Sara's opinion lately).  Fighting her doesn't work every time, but it worked this time.  I'm hoping our tough love pays off down the road.

Tonight, one for the parents.  Go Team.