Sorry, If It Bothered You...

So, I was just reading another blog and she invited her readers to comment with their blogging tips or suggestions. As I read through the comments, MANY of the readers complained about music that auto starts when you open the page. We are so guilty of that! I'm so sorry, if it bothered you. I love listening to the music other people have selected while reading their blog. I feel like it gives you a better sense of their personality. However, I myself often read blogs at night or during nap time, so I am a little startled when the music comes blaring on in a quiet house and I often have to turn it down or turn it off to keep from waking my little ones.  I love music, love listening to it, and love sharing it, but in an effort to be more considerate to others, I turned off the auto start on our player. If you still want to listen, just scroll down to the player and turn it on. Now, I'm thinking that I should move the player to the sidebar, so you don't have to scroll all the way down. What are your thoughts? Auto start, yes or no? Player at the bottom or the side? Comment and let me know what you think. Thanks!

Healthy School Lunches

I have always tried to feed my kids healthy foods and for the most part they are healthy eaters. Don’t get me wrong, we are in no way perfect. Often the temptation of convenience foods (i.e. chicken nuggets and frozen pizza) and sweet treats are hard to resist, but we do try. So I am always on the look out for healthy meals and snacks that even my kids love. I am lucky that my kids LOVE fruit and that they DO eat vegetables (most of the time). 

Last year our family watched “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.” For anyone who doesn’t know, the show followed  famous British chef Jamie Oliver as he attempted to change school lunches in one U.S. town, while trying to teach the community how to cook and eat better. It was really interesting to see how entrenched processed foods and sugar are in the American culture. One particular episode hit home for our family. (Sorry, I’ve probably shared this story before with most of you.) We learned that chocolate milk has as much sugar as many sodas. I took the opportunity to talk about it with Seth who was eating school lunches and breakfast at the time. We talked about the amount of sugar in chocolate milk and  how he doesn’t have very much energy by the end of school. (He was eating lunch at 10:45 am and getting home from school at 4pm!) Aaron and I were shocked to learn that he was eating chocolate milk on his Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal! Talk about a sugar-filled breakfast! He took my challenge to only drink white milk for one week and see if he felt a difference in energy. Sure enough after just a couple of days, HE noticed the difference and commented on how he felt better.

So this year we are going to build on that and see if we can start packing healthier lunches. I came across a couple of links that you might want to check out (for anyone who packs a lunch):

Kitchen Stewardship –This blog’s post has a lot of great, healthy and packable lunch ideas. I love her lunch rule, “Whatever goes to school, comes back home, unless you’ve eaten it.” I never know how much or what Seth ate from his lunch and then he wants to eat like 5 apples when he gets home from school. Also one of the comments posted a recipe for mini quiches. Great idea and my kids love “egg pies!”

Jennifer@Orangepolkadot.com – check out her blog post about the difference between the lunches of American kids and the lunches at a school in Barcelona, Spain. Very eye-opening as to “what kids will eat” when it’s offered regularly.

Laptop Lunchboxes at Reuseit.com – This online store sells bento boxes (among other reusables), which are basically lunchboxes with containers inside.  A great solution for the pre-packaged and plastic baggy problem. I love how each section is designated for a particular food group. If I can convince Aaron, we’ll get this kid-friendly one or always these.

and of course…

Jamie Oliver and the Food Revolution – Sign the petition and help make the future better for our kids.

Need a Smile

So things aren’t going quite the way I had planned today. The biggest bump in the road being that our water was shut off today, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I was in the middle of scrubbing the shower clean, washing laundry, and our sink is full of dirty dishes. Not to mention, I hear “Mom, Aubrey stuck her hands in the toilet!” I rushed to grab her out of the bathroom to find that not only had she stuck her hands in the toilet but that the toilet was being used at the same time! (We’ll just leave it at that…) So I rush her to the sink to thoroughly wash her hands and there is no water, not even a drop. I blame Josh (of course) because moments earlier he told me he had turned off the toilet water because it was making “rushing sounds”, so possibly he turned off the sink as well. I rush to the other bathroom. No water. The kitchen. No water. The faucet outside. No water. That’s when it dawns on me that all of our water is shut off. AHH! I NEED WATER!!! So, I wipe Aubrey’s hands with a wet wipe, sanitize with hand sanitizer, and wash with drinking water from our food storage. Then, I apologize to Josh for blaming him, explain why I thought he did it, and again apologize for yelling at him about something he didn’t do.

Great day, right?! So, I guess I’ll work on something else while Aaron tries to find out why we have no water (and yes, we’ve paid our bill). Meanwhile, I needed to take a break to share with you some of the things that have made me smile over the last couple of days.

Aubrey’s curly hair and innocent look as she empties the bowl cupboard for the umpteenth time

Marshmallow People that we made (inspired by Color Me Katie, her colorful photos alone make me smile)My favorite three

Polka dot swimsuits…

and polka dot toes on the beach   And last but not least, a story in pictures by Seth…

The Lego Man Chase

“I’m gonna get you alien!”

“Roaarrr!”

“Aahhh!”

“Run away!”

“Keep running…”

“Oops! I slipped.”

“Elevator going up.”

“Top floor…”

“Ahh!”  

“Here, let me help you down.”

“Hug?” “Hug.”

“Friends!”

Cute, huh? Doesn’t that just make you smile? Well, I think I hear the water back on now in the bathroom. So, I’ll get back to work. Have a great day!

P.S. I went to turn off the sink in the bathroom and found that the toilet tank was over flowing and the bathroom floor was flooded. Yeah, I now know what Josh meant by “rushing sounds” coming from the toilet. What a great day, huh?