The power of the pea!

August 7, 2011 by ·

Our not-quite-so-baby girl is pretty much a clone of me… (yes, even inherited the drama-queen gene, much to the chagrin of hubby whenever that one comes to full force!), down to the super duper sweet tooth.

In fact I think ‘coookeee’ was one of her first words.

… which brings us to this week as I was eating some peas fresh from the pods (yummy!) in the kitchen. (which happened to be by some cookies we had made a day before).

As she walks in, she comes up to me and reaches out her hand (sure that I am eating some of her favorite treat.)

When I gave her the fist pea, this is how it ended up…

yes, she put it on the floor, then stepped on top of it. Kind of a sign that she wasn’t terribly interested… then she walked to the cookies and repeated “cooookeeee”

calling on all of my dietetic lessons, I thought about the studies that have shown that children need to be exposed to a new food up to 11 times before they will actually eat it… (a fact that was much easier to tell people before I had kids – once I entered parental realm, 11 times seemed like a much higher number of times to offer a rejected food!)

So I offered it again…

And much to my surprise…

She went for it!

Again…

and again…

Who knew the power of the pea could cut the 11 tries down to 2??!

One small step for the vegetable…
One giant leap for mommy sanity.

Filed Under: Motherhood, Random

Ta DA!!!!

July 30, 2011 by ·
If any of you have had any type of conversation with me in the past couple of years, you know I have a huge thing about giving people “Ta Da’s” (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, give me a call, it’s obviously been too long since we have last talked!… of just tell me to explain myself and I’ll write a whole post about it… yes, I feel that strongly about the Ta Da Factor!)
… anyway, when Ben came home from his 3rd day of school with his first art project and had me walk around with him to find the ‘perfect spot’ to hang it up, I thought, “He needs his Ta Da moment!”

… and as we were walking around, I suddenly noticed how barren this wall looked:

 … and how much it was just screaming for a little spice in life.

… and then I thought,

“hey how about a Ta Da WALL??!  (with 5 kids, we’ve got to think global here, folks… no piddly pin up board is going to hold all of the masterpieces that grace the threshold of our household!)

… So after a bit of research, and a great big deep breath, I dove in and started…

and quickly got a little scared to see the BLACK magnetic paint all over our once beautifully neutral walls, and suddenly panicked, thinking this may be one of my (many*ahem*) hair brained schemes that looks a lot better in my brain than it does in real life…

… but we forged ahead…

through all the layers, spills, and smells…
to give birth to the “Official Ta Da” dwelling in our home.

… so if any of you are needing a little recognition, pat on the back, or any other form of Ta Da… send it here… we’ll put it up in your honor 🙂

Filed Under: Motherhood, Random

Give and Take…

July 26, 2011 by ·

In different seminars, I have talked a lot about saving.

But not in the sense that you may expect.
We have resources beyond the dollars and sense kind:
specifically:
1) seconds
2) cents
3) sanity (and spirit)

Although saving money is very important, especially in these economic times, there are times when saving sanity may be just as important.

Case in point…
This summer has been INSANE (no pun intended!) to say the least. We started it out with a 2 1/2 week road trip right after school got out. In the middle of all of that is right when my books got released, so I came back and jumped into launching the book, all the while preparing to give NINE seminars at an upcoming education week. and oh, yea, mothering 5 children on summer vacation brings on a whole slew of ‘fun times.’

… Fast forward to last week. We are to the one week until education week point (read, stress WAY up). Not only had I agreed to a press conference for one of the books, but I had agreed to provide samples from the recipes in the back for all of the people at the press conference, as well as go on the radio to announce the press conference.
… So I am at the store getting some things for the samples, knowing I have a few long nights of cooking ahead of me.

… as I pass the produce section, I find that peaches are on sale for .88 a pound. I stood in front of that sign forever, fighting with myself. .. “Jen, don’t do it. Jennnn, I know what you are thinking. DON’T do it – you have a press conference in two days and education week talks due next week. Walk away. Walk away quickly.” But I kept looking at that sale sign, and before I knew it I was loading up TWENTY pounds of peaches into the cart.

… but it didn’t stop there.
I walked by the meat isle
And saw fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast on sale for $1.59. I have not seen it that price for at least 4 years.
… I stop
… the fight continues.
Do I walk away and save my sanity??

NOOOOO

I scooped up 20 pounds of raw chicken.

… so I got home and not only had to prepare 4 variations of muffins, bean chip dip, and smoothies, but I now had on my shoulders cooking and cutting/slicing/shredding 20 pounds of chicken to be frozen for later meals, and canning/freezing/otherwise preserving 20 pounds of peaches.

Did I save money? Yup.
Did I pay for it with my sanity? Yup.

Did I become “just like the mean mom on Annie!”? … as embarrassing as it is to admit… yup.

It takes give from one to save from the other.

The bottom line – nothing is truly ‘free’ if you save on the money end, be advised that you will need to give a little on the second’s end (or the sanity end).
It all depends on what resource you value the most in any given day, and that can and will fluctuate for every person, at any given point in time.

Filed Under: Deep Thoughts, Featured Posts, Random, Saving

Hurry Up…

June 6, 2011 by ·

And wait.

And Wait

And Wait.

If there is one thing that I know for sure about me…

I can do.

Ask me to do anything, and I’ll jump at the chance… a bit too much on a few too many occasions (much to the chagrin of my hubby and my sanity… but that’s another story!)

It seems that as times when I am running

and running

and running

God has a way of grabbing me by my hair

and pulling me into the waiting game.

I call it the waiting game, because I am convinced that when He needs a little comic relief, he grabs a few angels over and says, “Hey, wanna see something really funny?  Let’s mess with Jen just a little bit… whatch how crazy we can make her with just a couple of tweaks…”  there is no other way in the world I can explain our blast into parenthood with twins… (that alone provided a whole Heavenly Host of comic relief for a good two years, I’m sure)… but I digress.

The waiting game.

For the past 6 months things have been a wee bit crazy here.  Crazy in both good and bad ways… I have had two books that have been swimming around in my brain for years finally make a launch onto paper and got things really rolling on those.  I got accepted to speak at an upcoming education week… something that has been a dream/goal of mine for years (crazy dream to have, I know!).

And also, making ‘family’ decisions… of whether or not to add to our brood.  (Some days I want another one right now!  Every once in a while, though, I wonder if there is a return policy on the ones we already have…).

So for the past 6 months, I have been going crazy writing, planning, and working like crazy to make everything come together.  (in between cleaning, and cooking, and diaper changing… you get the idea!).

… and finally got my big parts done on the book front – then entered the editing/artisting/graphic designing arena, where I got to hand off my precious manuscript with a kiss and a hug…

and wait.

and wait.

and wait.

And in the mean time, starting down the fertility medication road again… where I get to…

(you guessed it…) wait

and wait

and wait.

And I have learned that I do not like the waiting place.

I do not like it at all!

So as I sit in the final hours, waiting for the final proof from the graphic designer…

Don’t mind me as I pace.

and stress

and wring my hands

and check my email about a bazillion times.

and realize that I am so not a good waiter.

… so, what are you waiting for??

Filed Under: Random

It’s Alive!!!

May 28, 2011 by ·

 

When talents were handed out in Heaven, there were several lines that I skipped.

Gardening was one of those.
As far as green thumbs are considered,
Mine is a varying shade of black.
I’m not kidding.
Take, Hostas, for example…
a few years ago, I had a friend dividing her hostas, and offered to share.
Hostas.
Easy.
I mean, seriously, they are the one plant that you can’t kill, right??
Well… I killed it.
Which, now that I look at it, is a type of talent.  When it’s touted as the one plant that is un-killable… then being able to actually kill it is some sort of (sordid) talent, right??
Fast forward 2 years, one slightly productive, and one miserably failed garden attempt,
and we move into a new house…
which is surrounded by…
Hostas.
Yep.
The unkillable plant that I can’t seem to save.
The owner had said she wanted landscaping that was hardy and low-maintanance.
She didn’t count on ‘ole black thumb buying her beautifully surrounded by hostas-house.
We went through season one, and they actually came up… and lived!
(Thanks only to the fact that we also inherited an automatic sprinkler system from them)
Open season two…
And while the rest of the world’s hostas are starting to come alive and bring forth their green pointy starts,
Mine were still, well…
Dead.
To add insult to injury, at a meeting, one of the women was talking about how she was going to need to divide her hostas the next day.
Good grief!  You mean some are so robust that they need to divide this soon?!  She kindly offered to share some of her off-shoots with me to re-start my crop.
Sure, that’s just what I need, more of a plant to which my black thumb is toxic!
The next day, I went out to admit defeat, and pull my dead hostas from the ground.
As I wrapped around and pulled,
To my complete surprise… underneath all of the dull deadness…
I found:
My very own, fresh crop of Hostas!
I’m not a murderer after all!
(and have since learned that ‘everyone knows’ that you are supposed to clear away the dead stuff every fall…like I said… skipped that talent line in heaven!)
I was going to wait for my kids to have them help and learn a little gardening, but I was just so excited pulling off dead to reveal a fresh green start, that I did them all (except for one) right then.
As I did it, I kept thinking about how much like life that is…
Maybe what we think is a worthless and dead part of us
Is just a piece that is patiently waiting for us to clear away the gunk
and reveal a fresh new start.
I love spring!
… so what inside of you is waiting to sprout??
Filed Under: Random Tagged With:
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