Should be done cooking by the end of May.  I’m honestly suprised I waited this long to say anything (I’m 11 weeks), I’m so bad with my own secrets.  I hope you’ll forgive me for breaking with custom and “announcing” it a week early.  Consider yourself lucky.  The facebookers all have to wait 2 more weeks til I hear the heartbeat (seen 5 weeks ago, but, well, you never know).

Most of the day I feel like poo.  But I’m happy poo.

I started writing a whiny post about how exhausted I am and then kept thinking about all the people I know who totally have it worse than me.  I know a lot.  I wouldn’t trade with them for anything.

So instead I’m writing a meditation on small things I am grateful for right now.

pumpernickle bread.  I wish my whole house could smell like pumpernickle bread right now.  I’ve been inhaling small pieces all morning.

my daughter twirling around in circles and wearing a feather boa.  I can get lost in watching her.

My husband bought me tulips in my favorite colors: orange and yellow.  He saw them on sale and knew they were perfect.  He was right.

an nice overcast afternoon.  Fall really is my favorite season.  Nothing like cool air to perk one right up!

So we found out today that the boy has swine flu.  It’s not confirmed, but all the kids in his preschool have the same illness and one of them had it tested and confirmed.   I actually don’t have a ton to say about it except it’s like he has the flu only slightly better because there’s no sore throat.  The cough really sucks though and the 105 + fever the first day wasn’t something I care to see again.  But today it’s a nice 102.5.  The problem is baby girl broke the portable dvd player and he has to stay in his room so as not to infect others so he’s bored out of his mind.  Nevermind he got a bunch of cool legos and stuff for his birthday last week…. *sigh*    What did moms do before tv??

So this afternoon my son got a birthday invitation for a party tomorrow.  Normally I don’t care about last minute stuff because my life gets crazy too, I get it.  I have some problems with this particular invite though.  This kid isn’t one of my son’s friends.  Maybe he thinks of my kid as one of his, but he’s not one of my son’s.  In fact, he’s the kid who tossed my son’s favorite shoes over the fence of some neighbors to the hunting dogs on the other side.  The shoes didn’t stand a chance.  Now, he was only 3 and there were attempts at reconciliation, but generally, I try to have my kid avoid this family.  His older sister has been known to tease my son to tears.  They aren’t in the same primary class even.  Needless to say, he will not be attending (I do have other plans already).  But I’m bothered by why my son was invited?  Does he genuinely like my son?  They haven’t played in months.  Are they inviting everyone they can think of?  or the whole neighborhood?  I feel a little bad because it was a nice invite, though awkwardly delivered.  I’m not even throwing my son a party this year because I have the trunk or treat 2 days later and can’t handle 2 parties, and feel weird about him going when we wont be reciprocating.  These are all the thoughts going through my head.  I think I’m ultimately still trying to figure out how the neighborhood kids feel about my son and until I know, I’m cautious.  They act like he’s cool, but I can’t tell if they’re secretly mocking him.  Anyone else had to deal with this?

I lost 30lbs this year by embracing my pride and vanity.  2 of the 7 deadly sins.  I finally got tired enough of feeling badly about myself to do something about it and find my motivation.

I think the hardest thing for me was always the motivation.  I always talked about losing weight and somethings would work for a few weeks, but then I’d give up.  My heart wasn’t in it.  I had to be honest with myself about what really motivates me.  It isn’t my health, it isn’t even the number on the scale (though it helps motivate a little).  Peer pressure didn’t even do it.  For me it was showing up my neighbor who drives me crazy.  I knew I was better than her and this was a great way to prove it.  I gave into my pride and made it work for me.  I know, it makes me a mean and horrible person, but it worked!!  If greed, selfishness, vanity, or pride motivates you, then I say channel that negative attribute and make something positive out of it.  Lose weight, get healthy.  Funny enough, my neighbor doesn’t bug me so much anymore…..

I didn’t lose a thing when my son was born (10lbs, which came right back on) and then I only lost 15 lbs with my daughter, which put me 10lbs above my post-son weight.  When they tell you breastfeeding helps you lose weight, don’t count on it, they’re not referring to everyone.  So how did I lose it?  You’re not going to like this.  I cut out sugar and most fats and execised my butt off.  It was miserable, but worth it.

I started in January by fixing my diet.  No cookies.  No soda.  Lots of veggies, lean meats and only wheat breads.  At least 80 oz of water/day and no eating after 7pm.  In February I added running.  I hate running so much.  But it was all I knew to do in the winter.  I also joined an indoor soccer league so I could have some nights off from running around my block (boring!).  I lost 20 lbs in 3 months doing this.  Then I got an injury and fell off the wagon.  The best part?  I didn’t gain a pound.  Because I lost the weight the right way, my metabolism was stable.  I may have gained a pound one week, but then I’d just cut something out the next week and it was gone.  I took a few months off then spent July and August losing the last 10.  I know it’s tempting to try something to take the weight off quickly, but this way is so much better!  I like being able to take time off and just maintain.  Maintaining also involves walking 2 miles 4 days a week so I can eat ice cream

I was finally able to fit into my favorite pants I haven’t worn since before I became a mom!  You guys, it felt awesome zipping those up, I can’t even tell you!  I’m going to take another break, but plan to lose 15 more next year.  I know I’ll never be a size 6 again, like in highschool, but I’m gonna shoot for an 8.  I really think I can do that.  I just need to find someone else who bugs me that I want to show up

I vaguely do.  Since I no longer have facebook to occupy my time, perhaps I’ll get back into the blogosphere.  Of course, I feel there’s little to write about.  It’s weird because m,y stats are still a little up.  Who is reading this thing I haven’t touched in 6 months?

We’ve done a ton to the yard.  We chopped down the diseased plum tree, built half a rock wall, leveled an extra 10 feet for lawn, and built some raised beds in the back yard for next year’s veggies.  I’ve been trying to design our landscape around watering.  I have the lawn just big enough that the sprinkler can water it.  The rest will be veggies, trees and water-wise plants.  Or whatever I can get to grow on the hill.

Hubby’s gotten on a self sufficiency kick and has begun stock piling firewood.  He’s even suggested we get … chickens.  We’ll have to see about that. 

I am seriously considering taking some language courses  just for funsies.  So I’m looking into latin or greek.  I’ve always wanted to learn latin and greek.  I figure even if  the time isn’t right for grad school, I can still learn something!  I should probably try some religion classes as well.  Or horticulture.  Can you tell I miss college?

I finished painting baby girl’s room, but I have no pictures to show you because that would involve cleaning it.  I did the bottom grass green hills with flowers and bugs on top (white background).  The boy’s room is…in progress still.  His is an ocean mural.  I got the volcano island done, but the fish are so detailed I never want to paint them.  I think I may leave the mural to one wall and paint the rest a solid color. 

That’s what I’m up to, I guess.  I’ll try to write more often.  I know, famous last words…

Okay, so now that winter appears to be over, it’s time for a project awesome yard update.

My lawn was looking pretty good (thank you fall fertilizer!) until I started getting some yellow spots.  Yellow spots?  Now, this is different from dormant grass which kinda looks dead (it’s not, it’s sleeping shhhh).  So I rechecked out all my lawn care books from the library I read last year and decided I had iron chlorosis, or my lawn was anemic.  I went with Ironite and spread it at the recommended rate and didn’t notice much of anything.  So I decided to boost it a little with a shot of household ammonia.  Still nothing, but the lawn looked a little perkier.  Finally, after 2 weeks, the lawn is looking green again.  Next time, because I’m impatient, I’m going to try a liquid iron.

In other learning experiences, the 2 year old pea seeds never sprouted, so today I planted some 2009 ones.  I noticed some carrot seedlings and spinach seedlings, but my dirt had crusted over so they were having a hard time peaking out.  I raked a little and added some peat moss and I’m hoping that will help.  Oh, and I had to reseed my lettuce too.

A word about peat moss.  It’s a non renewable resource so it should be used in very small amounts, if at all.  Unfortunately, my dirt clay is so bad that adding compost isn’t enough.  So I decided to limit myself to one bag of PM for my whole yard.  I’ll let you know if that works out.  So far so good.

I pruned my plum tree.  This is time to prune your fruit trees and if they’ve never been pruned (like mine) you have to really cut them back hard.  I forgot to fertilize it though and I need to get on that this week.

I’m trying to get lawn aerated in the next two weeks because I need to fertilize it and that works better after aeration.  Again, the heavy clay soil makes it tough for roots to spread.

In my next post I’ll let you know about my flower bed!  Remember all those bulbs I planted?

Dad

me: hey kiddo, whatcha drawing?

the boy: that’s dad!  See, that’s his ______.

Let it never be said I’ve neglected to teach my children anatomy.

There’s three things I love: earth friendly hippie stuff, saving money, and Jack Bauer.

The first and last are pretty individual, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love saving money.  So after talking with some friends about it, I decided to share some of my secrets with you.  I use two websites to help me save (they’re free) couponmom.com and theobsessiveshopper.net (she’s affiliated with the Fun With Food Storage ladies I’ll talk about another time.  They have national chains like Walmart listed too so just because you aren’t in Utah doesn’t mean you can’t use them.  Check them out.  Do it.  Now.

What did you think?  Pretty cool huh?  I like how obsessive shopper lets you know if something is a good deal or not.  Sale doesn’t always mean good buy.  I also like comparing stores to see who has it cheapest.

I especially like the free stuff at Rite Aid and Walgreens.  Sometimes when I combine a rebate with a coupon, I make money.  That’s coupon mom’s whole premise.  Every time she helps you make $1, she asks you to donate it to charity.  I can live with that!  Sometimes when I have enough shampoo and they’re giving it away, I’ll donate that to the food bank (they take more than food).  And if you hate clipping coupons and storing them or whatever, then just save the entire thing because they tell you the date and coupon magazine they came in.  However, there’s been so many times I’ve come across an unadvertised deal and get a better deal because I bring my organized coupons with me.

So this week I bought $51.20 in drug store stuff.  Those items were on sale so the new total was $31.96.  Pretty good right, anyone can save $20!  But then I added coupons and rebates.  Guess my total?  $5.75.  I’m totally serious.  $5.75 for excedrin, triaminic, theraflu, mouth numbing stuff, girly products, shampoo, mousse, and chex mix.  You can’t save that much buying generic either.

I haven’t calculated my food totals yet, but I usually save 50%-60%.  Not bad.  I cut our monthly groceries from $400-$500 to about $250 for a family of four.  I know I can make it smaller too, which is why I’m starting to track everything.

I have a new hobby   I hope some of you can use it to save a little money too.

If I could pick one word to describe my hobbies, it would be dilettante.  A jack of all trades, a master of none.  A dabbler.  I don’t really have a focus for my life except raising my kids.  I have so many hobbies and interests that I often find myself spread out too thinly and I don’t seem to enjoy much of anything any more.  So it’s time for more focus.  Time to make some goals and pave some roads for my life to follow.  This will also be extremely helpful in decluttering my home   I have a little depression era mentality where it’s hard for me to chuck things I know I could use later.  Like towels.  I still haven’t made anything with those towels.

I’m not a scrapbooker.  I gave it an honest effort, but I do it like once every two years and I pretty much just use the internet to track my family’s goings on.  So I think it’s time to ditch the scrapbooking crap.

I love gardening.  I’ll keep that one.

I like sewing, but I don’t love it.  I think I just need to use up all my fabric and then go one project at a time.  Same with knitting.  And it’s time to give the craft stuff to the kids since I never use it.

The thing I keep thinking is, how much is it costing me to keep this stuff?  Is it worth the money?  Most of the time, it’s not.  The more stuff we have, the more mental energy we expend keeping track of that stuff and thinking about it.  Then we have to buy totes or boxes to store the stuff in.  And if it keeps accumulating, we find ourselves buying a bigger home to store that stuff in.  Is it really worth $30,000 more in interest to store those comic books or that fabric?

I think I just made a ton more space in my little 900sqft home.  Go ahead, tell me I’m awesome!