Favorite Things

This is what Ainsley had in her crib last night. She insisted on each and every one of these "ahmals." She also insists that they come back down stairs each morning. She doesn't sleep with them, they just need to be in there. She rarely plays with them, they just need to be on the couch, just in case. She will put one in the stroller and push it around for a few minutes, but their main function is to available just in case.

This is a familiar concept to me. I also have certain stuff that I just need to own, just in case. Fondue pots, a smores maker, various vases, margarita glasses, a box of VHS tapes, lots of curling irons, a flat iron, hot rollers... The list goes on and on. I have acquired a lot of stuff in the last 30 years. I am sure that I could walk in any kitchen store and find something I "need" within a few minutes, just as Ainsley is likely to bond with another stuffed animal today or tomorrow and make it another "must have" for bedtime.

I want my kids joy and happiness to come from relationships with other, acts of service, and knowing the Lord, not from accumulating stuff. But does my life reflect that? Am I asking them to do as I say and not as I do? I don't know. Just another random something playing with my brain as I look around at our "plenty" knowing we always seem to want more.

Time Flies

This picture was taken about a year ago. Interestingly enough, that's how they were sitting this morning while they were watching Little Einstein's. Some things don't change.

A Note on Cell Phones

I am baffled by cell phones. I hate the idea that I can be reached by anyone, anytime. I really don't want to talk on the phone while I am grocery shopping, taking a walk with my kids, or perusing the aisles at the library. I do have a cell phone (I'm actually getting a new one today which is what made me think about this) but I just don't like the presumption that I should answer the phone and have a conversation because someone is trying to reach me. Obviously, if that someone is my husband, I do need to answer the phone, especially if he is with the kids, but that's where my loyalty ends. I know I sound crazy and outdated, but it's just the way I feel. Since I am a SAHM, and I do stay at home for a lot of my time, my cell phone is truly an emergency tool or a convenience when time is short, there are probably only ten people who have the number (which is changing today too, sorry). So there you have it, my unwanted opinion on cell phone use and multi-tasking.

Things just aren't made like they used to be

We have been having some annoying malfunctions around here lately.

1. On the third use of our new, fairly expensive vacuum, it broke. Yup, it just won't turn on anymore. There is obviously an issue with the power source and button. Needless to say, I need to return it pronto before they give me any crap and I find myself on the phone with India.

2. Sometimes when I turn on my 3 year old dishwasher it sounds like it is starting, but then doesn't. I usually fiddle around with the controls and can get it to start. I know one day that it won't and I that will be a big bummer.

3. Our TV (2 years old, thanks to the last issue that resulted in a new one from the manufacturer) is randomly turning off on its own every so often. It looks like the lamp light is already going out, a $300 part.

4. Our 2 year old computer, which I like to call my push gift, informs us that our battery is reaching the end of its usable life, a $75 part.

5. Our kitchen chairs shed screws all the time. This has actually been happening forever. Whenever I find one I put it in a little bowl, and eventually the entire seat comes off and Mike replaces all the screw. It's awesome.

6. Yesterday our clothes washer decided that it was done after the cycle was through agitating. Yup, it just quit while it was full of water. Luckily for me, I married a determined man, he was very late to work as a result of him taking the thing apart and somehow using a zip tie to fix it. Who knew I was married to Magiver?. I asked if I should stop doing laundry after that load finished up and he assured me it was in perfect working condition.

7. Right before Christmas Mike's XBOX stopped working, again it's just a few years old, cost way too much, and he rarely has time to even play video games anyway, so it didn't break from over use. I'm fairly confident that there are plenty of Nintendo's working just fine after 15 years, but the new systems just don't last.

Why does everything have such a short life span nowadays? It's beyond ridiculous and so annoying.

Family Movie Time!!!

We have been taking advantage of the winter weather and introducing the girls to a few new movies. They LOVED Toy Story and tolerated Bee Movie. It didn't really hold their attention. I currently have Shrek 2 on hold at the Library. Ainsley loves the original, and although it isn't exactly appropriate for young children, it is entertaining for Mike and I. Hopefully I can make it to the library in the next few days to get it. It's all of 8 degrees out today, I'm not really in the mood for an outing. Brrr!

2 Weeks in

I just completed my second week on Weight Watchers and I have lost 5.5 pounds. Now, that's pretty awesome, except that I lost those same 5.5 pounds last January. I guess the first part of the goal is to lose the weight and the second part is to maintain the weight loss. Weight Watchers is an interesting program. Foods are assigned different point values based on calories, fat, and fiber. I currently get 19 points a day. That is the equivalent of a cup of cashews and an ounce of regular cheese. I used that example because that could have easily been my daily snack before Weight Watchers, a whole days worth of points in 2 items. For me 19 points consists of coffee creamer for 2 cups of coffee, a hot cereal with brown sugar, a small apple for snack, a bean and cheese burrito on a whole wheat tortilla with low fat cheese and beans, some raw veggies, a hearty dinner, but about half as much as I would like with a leafy green salad, and some sort of chocolate dessert that is diet approved. That is much more satisfying than 1 cup of cashews and a thick slice of cheese for the day. I do think it is a good program because it causes you to think about food in a different way and helps you pick high fiber foods that will sustain you longer. I am having trouble getting in enough dairy each day. Dairy is fairly high in points and just not worth it. I have basically had to cut way down on dairy and carbs, my two favorite food groups! I pre-paid for 3 months of access to their software, that should be more than enough time to reach my goal and figure out how to use the same philosophy for maintenance. I've never used a "pay to do it" diet before. It's a little weird, but I think the structure is good for me.

Aubrey's First Photo Shoot

Her beloved corner. She holds it while she is falling asleep.es, it has to be this exact corner, and yes it is always the fourth corner I check looking for it.
Current library book. Oh shock of all shocks, it's a princess book.
Her favorite Mommy and Sister! We are still in jammies and very tired.
And band aid monkey, named Whoha. She did pretty well taking pictures. Hopefully this will help me build the inventory of pictures of Mike and I this year. Aubrey also felt empowered to be given such a big task. Now the hard part, keeping the camera high enough that I don't find mystery pictures on the camera every time I turn it on.

Cats and Dogs

Aubrey and Ainsley have been fighting like cats and dogs this morning. It is driving me crazy. I should have been proactive and taken them to the park to run off their energy, but it felt like rewarding negative behavior so I have just been joining in on the estrogen wars. After one of Aubrey's time outs, yes, there have been several, she told me that I needed to apologize to God for yelling at her. Yup. I did! Pretty convicting to get called out by a three year old. Two weeks ago her pre-school class was learning about baptism and asking for forgiveness. Apparently she has an acute sense of when Mommy needs forgiveness. Maybe I should start teaching her about taking the plank out of her own eye before worrying about the speck of dust in mine. I kid, I kid, I know I have a whole construction site in my eye today. Normally. I would self-medicate with chocolate or some other delicious calorie filled stress reliever, but darn weight watchers assigns too many points to those kinds of treats. Oh well, a diet coke will have to do the trick. I don't even like diet coke.

January Zoo Fun!

This not so little monkey (Mandril) was up close and personal with the Heldt Families for like 10 minutes!!! It was so cool, and such a highlight of the day. Each kiddo got an up close and personal viewing and once we all got our share of him, he walked away. It was almost like we were the ones in the cage and he came over to view us!
In Aubrey's words "Biniam has the BEST FACE EVER!" And here it is enjoying the "extras" that the zoo has to offer. Fortunately kids under 42 inches are free with a paying adult, so we were able to get all 8 of us on for $3. What a steal of a deal!
Aubrey was so excited that she got the zebra. She had a smile from ear to ear the whole time. I caught Ainsley trying to let go of her pole from time to time to add to the thrill of the ride, my kids are always ready for an adventure and moments away from the emergency room.
Here's the group watching the Hippo eat his lunch. Anna looks like she wants to join him. What's with kids wanting to get in the exhibits? I think we need to watch more of animal planet to instill some good old fashion fear in these little ones.
And a peacock in a tree! That's just weird. Oh, and the best moment of the day happened a few minutes after the zoo opened. The male lion climbed the tallest rock and roared for two minutes. It was amazing. When he got it out of his system he sat down to clean his paws. He definitely let us know he is the King of the Denver Zoo! We had a great day and are loving having Mike's brother's family local!

Baked Mac and Cheese

I try to make at least one meal a week that is meat free. It saves about $5 a week at the grocery store ($260 a year) and I'm sure it's good for our bodies to get a break from digesting animal proteins. So anyway, I was asked to post this recipe, and I have to apologize up front because I don't really use a recipe, I kinda eye ball it, so here it goes.

Cook 1/2 package of Large Elbow Macaroni
While I am waiting for the water to boil I grate 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese and cut half of the large block of Velveeta into 1 inch cubes. (I actually buy generic, but whatever). Once I have added the pasta to the water I preheat my oven to 350 degrees. Then I make a base for a cream sauce.
Melt .5 stick margarine in a sauce pan
Add about 3 Tablespoons of flour and stir until bubbly, remove from heat
Add milk to thin sauce, maybe 1.5 to 2 cups, return to heat and stir, when the sauce is almost boiling I add the Velveeta and most of the cheddar reserving about a half cup to sprinkle on top. Stir to melt cheese and add a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce and a squirt of mustard. If it seems to thick I add a little more milk at this stage, but it is a thick sauce. Drain pasta and return to pan. Pour about half the cheese sauce onto the pasta and stir. Transfer to a casserole dish and top with remaining shredded cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes to melt the cheese on top. It would be really easy to add some frozen chopped spinach to the sauce if you didn't want to make a separate vegetable. I would also like to add some cayenne pepper to give it a little pop, but I am pretty sure Aubrey would hate me forever if I ruined her favorite meal with spicy things.

I then put the remaining cheese sauce in a Tupperware and freeze it. Next time I only have to cook my pasta, reheat my sauce in the microwave adding a few tablespoons of milk to thin it, and throw it in the oven. I usually serve it with steamed broccoli and cauliflower. It's a family favorite and a great comfort food in winter. It is not a great diet food however, so if you are watching your waist line limit your serving to 1 cup and have lots of veggies to satisfy that desire to chew.

Being Intentional, Marriage

So another aspect of my resolution is to be more intentional in my marriage. I would have loved to post a picture of Mike and I with this post, but in the last year, we have exactly 2 pictures of just the two of us, one of which is on our sidebar. So I want to be more intentional about taking pictures with just Mike.

Mike and I were talking about it, and with him being swamped at work, and me being my own kind of busy, we tend to push our marriage to the back burner. It's not that we don't care about our marriage, we just assume that it will always be there, so we can pay attention to it later, you know, when life slows down. Funny, the national divorce rate does not reflect that same kind of optimism regarding the sanctity of marriage. We decided that we need to keep our marriage at the top of the list of things we have to do. Romantic isn't it?

To be more intentional we are going to make sure that the monthly date night that we talk about having, happens. We had one last night, and I already have February's planned and a babysitter secured. We should also be intentional about having a date at home a few times a month too, but we'll see if we follow through with that. We are also going to read through a book together and have our own little book club. I'm not sure if this will be a one time thing, or something we really enjoy, but we are giving it a shot. We are going to read The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman. That actually crosses over to the Being Intentional, Parenting aspect of all this too. So anyway, if you have any great ways to keep your marriage thriving in very busy and very tired times I would love to hear them. Unless of course you are going to say we should cancel cable and get rid of TV, it's not gonna happen, we are willing to turn it off, but not ditch it altogether.

Hooray!!!

It has been very frustrating having a husband who is a mortgage guy, but not being able to refinance our own house because our only income starts at zero each month. In other words, we are a risk since we do not have a salary coming to our house. By an amazing stroke of luck, a Mortgage Broker that Mike has competed against several times... and lost, was able to do what no other company has been able to do, secure a new interest rate for us based on our payment history instead of our non-guaranteed flow of income. Hooray!!! We are so thankful that we are able to take advantage of the amazing rates that have been taunting us for so long! Even better, our first mortgage payment isn't until March!!!

Being Intentional, Meal Planning

This year I have more of a big idea than a resolution. I want to be more intentional. But what does that mean? I don't know, I am still working through it. After all, I don't want to be intentional for only January, or 2009, but with each day that I am given. One way I want to be intentional is with what I put in my mouth, and the mouth of those I have been entrusted with. One part of this is meal planning. I have meal planned from time to time, but more often then not, I start frantically searching my cupboards at 3:30 to figure out what on earth I can call dinner at 5:30.

I have added a sidebar on my blog that lists what I am planning to prepare for the week. It does list days of the week, but it won't always go that way. For instance, my day went differently then I planned yesterday and I didn't make it to the store, so I had to switch a few things around. I'm fine with that. I just want to have a rough plan of 4-5 meals that I intend to prepare each week. When I am not meal planning the kids eat a lot of green beans and peas because I always have them on hand. With a plan in place, I can make sure they are getting an assortment of veggies. I don't know about your kids, but if something is off the menu for a month or so they completely forget they like it and we have to start all over again (a.k.a. broccoli).

I have an assortment of tried and true recipes that we love, but I do like to make new things too. Last night I made a variation of spaghetti with a yummy meat sauce I had never made before. It turns out the kids prefer boring jar sauce, so I poured a few tablespoons on top of their pasta and they ate it well enough. My plan is to try two new recipes a week for the next month and bookmark the ones we love and junk the ones we don't. I find most of my new recipes from the Internet. I also joined weight watchers earlier this week (if I am going to be intentional, I need back-up) and I have been searching their website for variations on foods I already love. I am hoping that planning ahead will keep me from eating empty calories and dishing up hot dogs for dinner on a regular basis.

Sledding Fun

Would you believe our kids have never been on a sled before? Yup. It's taken three years, but we finally spent $6 on one of those sliding disk things. Here's Aubrey giving her sister a little push from the top of our driveway.
She loved it, even though she preferred facing forward. Ainsley was not a fan of taking turns, but after this went so well, I may be willing to purchase a second disk, or even a two person sled.
Eyes closed with a wide smile. She really had a good time. They hated to come in, but they had both lost their hats and my ears were killing me. 20 minutes of getting dressed and 20 minutes of fun. The perfect after lunch activity.

hives update

Thankfully, the miracle that is Benadryl, has worked wonders on Ainsley's hives. As of yesterday afternoon, she had angry red splotches on every part of her body, except her diaper area. After a call to the after hours help line, a nurse set my fears at ease and said that it sounded like I was describing a classic case of hives. Right when she said it I had my own "aha" moment. I have had hives, and that's what they looked like.

Ainsley also had caught the family cold that we had last week and it is most likely that she was having a reaction to the virus that caused it. I was told that I could keep her at home as long as there wasn't a fever (the ever present concern of ear infection, which she has never had). Well, the hives were so bad yesterday that I had planned on taking her in with the rising of the sun today. We woke up today to peachy skin in most places with faint pink hives under her arms and scattered on her face and trunk, no fever, and a less runny nose. So my on the mend daughter coupled with the 5 inches of snow that we are currently getting will keep us home bound for right now. I was told to keep her on the Benadryl for 12 hours after she is hives free. I love medicine, and I really love intelligent people to answer my mommy questions at 5pm on a Sunday.

Small retraction. I just got Ainsley out of her jammies and she has severe hives surrounding her knees. So it appears that the hives from yesterday are gone, but she has a new batch to keep me busy.

Dad's Rock

Never. Ever. Would I come up with using underwear as dress up clothes. Nor would I teach my kids to say funny sayings while throwing signs of some sort. That is Dad territory to be sure.
Nor would I let my kids scale me like a tree only to JUMP off the back of the couch. Yes, that was Ainsley's favorite part. Mike did have a slight hold on her as she jumped, but it just wouldn't happen with me.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. How Mike and I share the same values and rules as far as parenting goes, but we just play and love differently. Mike's presence in the home brings so much joy and literally fills a void that is there while he is at work. I am so blessed to raise these children with their dad.

still sick

me, not Aubrey. My head is so congested I can barely think a coherent thought. I'm thankful my kids aren't sick, and hopeful that I am getting better since my nose has been running non-stop for 3 hours. All that yuck leaving my body has to be a good sign, right?

paused

Aubrey and I are both a little under the weather today so the potty training has been paused. I think we will wait until Thursday to give it a real try and I will put Ainsley in pull-ups until then. She hasn't shown much interest in being on the potty since Saturday (M&M's may be on the menu), but she has NO interest in wearing diapers either, each one has been a bear to get on her. We'll see...

It all goes so fast

April 20, 2007

Ainsley is just so smart. She asked to sit on the potty this morning and was sitting there singing songs and being silly, not actually going potty. I asked Aubrey to stay in the bathroom with her while I ran upstairs to get her some clothes. Well, Aubrey is not a great babysitter, she took off to watch TV, Ainsley followed and peed on the floor as I was coming down the stairs. Ainsley grabbed that area and said "uh oh!" I got her dressed, Mike cleaned up (super star dad and husband that he is) and we went about our day.

I was out running errands and Ainsley told Mike she had to go potty. She sat on the big potty and peed! Then she told him she was done. Woohoo. I changed her wet diaper, after her nap, around 2:30. At 4:45 she started stomping her feet and yelling "potty, potty, potty!" So we went in the bathroom, took off her DRY diaper, and she sat on the potty and sang "ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle, and Old McDonald" I figured she was bluffing and started organizing the cabinet under the sink. She says, "I go now." and went! Then she got up and ran out of the bathroom. I ran after her "Wait, you didn't wipe." **laughter** What is going on here? She is just a baby? Isn't she?

I am amazed by this child! I really need to get her some pull ups or something quickly. Shoot, maybe we will go straight underwear after all. She obviously gets it. Oh, and she just went pee pee on the potty while I was typing this! What???

The Unofficial Start

Sadly, the age of diapers may be coming to an end for Ainsley. She asks to sit on the potty every morning when she gets up and generally heads that direction whenever I change her diaper. She hasn't made a "deposit" yet, but it seems inevitable. This is happening whether I am on board or not. We will probably buy some big girl underwear this weekend and have an official attempt next week. I will start Monday morning if I have the energy. I don't know is this will be a false start or the real thing, but I hope to have a pretty good indication after the first day.

New Year's Eve

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve spent with Jay and Jenna. We had all the little ones in bed by 8pm and then we headed down to the basement to bring in 2009. We watched Hancock, played Pac Man, pool, darts, and watched a very old Dick Clark bring in the New Year before turning in around 1am. Yes, that's right, we had a slumber party (well, we had our own bedrooms, but still loads of fun). The kids didn't care that the adults had stayed up much too late and were all up just before 7am. Jenna treated us to Egg Nog French Toast in the morning and we all watched the Rose Parade together before their family of three headed home. Yesterday was a very lazy day and we called it a night before 9pm. Hopefully we can all get back into our stride today. Happy New Year!