Sunday, December 30, 2007

Stealthy Healthy Part three

Total success is not yet mine, but baby steps are happening. Only one brownie per kiddo yesterday, which was only polite because Cindy’s new neighbor made them.
Today, all of the sweets went out of the house, save for the organic honey and gluten free peanut free dairy free everything free chocolate chips that I paid a small fortune for- those get thrown out over my stone cold dead body! Everything else was fair game- if it ain’t here, they cannot eat it, right?
 Grammy and Gramps were up for the challenge, and the kids got no sweets over there either. Puffy Ritz crackers are another matter, but baby steps here… N ate an apple the size of his noggin from Harry and David, G ate five carrots and eight cherries (yep, she counted!), and no sweets. Thank you, Grammy and Gramps!!!!!!
Dinner, we had charro beans (didn’t know I had it in me, but they were pretty good!), healthier than at any Mexican food restaurant, and corn cakes like I used to inhale at Magnolia Cafe in Austin. YUMMY- G even approved. N left the table, but the kid is a long way from starving so one meal lost won’t hurt.
Tomorrow is pumpkin pancakes, organic nitrite free bacon, free range eggs, and fruit salad. Maybe they won’t notice that I may have actually even thrown out the syrup… Lunch is bean quesadillas with fresh fruit and some sort of veggie snuck in somehow. These kids are getting healthy if it kills me!
Posted by everydayjill at 03:19:12 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Anything is possible

My name is ROBYN and I am an addict… An IPOD addict. Wow, this is the coolest thing ever- maybe I am not as low tech as I say I profess to be!

ITUNES- there must be eight million songs on there to choose from. My account is all set up, and I am totally hooked. Uploading my CDs (soooooo yesterday, aren’t they?) to my library, and downloading a few songs for working out. Few is a very subjective word, by the way. I am sorting them into playlists, workout, fast workout, hard workout, running workout if the ice and snow ever melt, girl power, inspirational, rockout music, love songs, fun stuff, hiphop that will never be heard by my kids, but has a great beat, and the (play)list goes on…

My favorite song lately is by a kid named Jonny Lang. Skinny white kid who has this booming throaty voice more akin to Buddy Guy or Robert Cray.

                                  “Anything’s Possible”
Let me tell you
I remember in the days of old, doesn’t seem that long ago
It was “Jonny you won’t be nothin’ unless you do what you’re told”
“Study medicine or study law, please put away the guitar, the best you’ll ever be is a local star at the local bar…”
But I went and did it anyway, family helpin’ all the way
Now I’m here today five records later

So you can hear me say
Don’t let em tell you can’t be anything you wanna be
Don’t be deceived

Anything is possible

If You will just believe then you can succeed
it might not be easy but anything is possible

What if Old Ben Franklin would’ve had been frightened by lightning
if he woulda stayed inside then
we’d still be in the dark

Martin Luther King did some beautiful things
all because he had a dream just like you and me

Don’t let em tell you can’t be anything
you want to be
Don’t be deceived
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
if you will just believe
then you can succeed
might not be easy
doncha know there’s gonna be sweat and some tears and some hard years
best believe there is gonna be hurt and some pain
expect some rain
but you are gonna make it if you keep your eye on the prize
You can take it
might have to work it but it’s gonna be worth it

don’t let em tell you don’t deserve it…

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

Sisters and Brothers, anything is possible
I know you can

How powerful is that? Okay, my writing it down is nowhere near hearing him sing it, but that is my new not-new favorite song. Dream big- anything is possible. If that is not food for thought, I am at a loss for what is. I have to take a little time to wrap my brain around that- DREAM BIG- ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.  

Posted by everydayjill at 03:00:51 | Permalink | No Comments »

Saturday, December 29, 2007

paper trails

N loves to write. He writes numbers and his name all day all over everything. Seriously everything. Always a pretty well-behaved kid, but I did have to explain that we don’t write our names on our bedroom doors in red ink. I honestly do not think that he was being naughty, he just had the urge to use his newfound talent on EVERYTHING. I have entire reams of paper with his name and numbers on them- I feel like saying “I am the Lorax and I speak for the TREES…” and then remind myself that this is a short-lived phase, and we buy recycled paper sometimes.

Not only does N love to write, he also loves to dictate. I have another pile of papers that he has dictated to me what to write. Word for word, how big my print should be, whether I should write normally or if I should switch it up and go right to left, like Arabic but English. These papers are priceless, and someday he will probably kill me for keeping them.

One is to God. Along the lines of “Dear God, I am sorry for being mean to G. I love her and like her and shouldn’t hit her. Telling you is like telling everyone. Thanks-N.”

Another to my Mema and Pepa’s doggie Lucky. Lucky is the coolest dog ever, total mutt and smarter than some people I know. N and Lucky truly hit it off, two peas in a pod, so we have to write to Lucky now. This one that I need to mail says “LuckyyouareluckyoneluckydogyouareLucky.Love,N”.

Yet another to my dead cat Sammy. Anyone who knows me knows that I had Sammy from eighteen on, so he was with me my entire adult life. That cat drove me NUTS but I loved him more than I ever let on. N loved him too, which was funny since he was allergic to him. We had to put him down this summer at the age of fifteen-ish, and it was traumatic for both of the kids and me. Not so much to Drew, as I am sure he would admit that he is so not a cat person. Anyway, N has been stuck on the whole Sammy in heaven thing, so we had to write a letter to Sammy. “To Sammy From N
                                                   I like you Sammy and I love you
                                                   very much and I am sorry that I 
                                                   kind of freaked you out sometimes
                                                   and you didn’t like it. love, N 

I like to think that Sammy is in heaven and that he gets that message somehow. 

N’s newest thing is a clipboard of mine. He cut yet more paper, put it on, and proceeded to need lots of information written down. All of our names, addresses, phone numbers, ages, wish lists, first born… Once my interview was complete and I had filled a page, he went on to Drew. N asked him to write “I was adopted by Grammy and Gramps.”

What?!? First of all, how does the kid know the word ’adopted’? Second, Drew wasn’t adopted, so what is that about? He finally got by with “I was a kid with Grammy and Gramps.”  Easier not to ask sometimes, I think!

Grammy and Gramps didn’t get off scot-free. They had to write all of their pertinent data, probably including credit card numbers and maiden names, and put it on scrolls that went into a large empty wine bottle. So now my five-year-old has a big old wine bottle in his room, red loopy letters on his bedroom door, and a stack of paper so high. What a trip this child is, this child of mine!

Posted by everydayjill at 21:00:38 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Friday, December 28, 2007

stealthy healthy part two

Let the games begin!
Drew did beat me to the punch and made white-flour, nutritionally void biscuits, but I managed to sneak in homemade chunky applesauce, orange juice and organic soymilk. One meal down, two snacks and two meals to go…
Posted by everydayjill at 15:47:00 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

stealth health

Okay, the wheels are turning!!!! I am going to be the picture of healthy cooking starting tomorrow. Stealthy healthy, that is. These kiddos are not going to know what hit them. Pumpkin flaxseed pancakes, homemade unsweetened applesauce, eggplant spaghetti sauce,  berry yogurt pops, butternut squash mac and cheese, quesadillas with chopped veggies, carrots in their burgers,  tomato sauce with spinach snuck in. By Golly, if they aren’t going to choose to be healthy, stealthy will work just fine for me. I will keep you posted.
Posted by everydayjill at 03:15:45 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Taming the sugar beast

How much sugar does it take? How much does it take to make kids freak out, then crash and burn? How much sugar does it take to make one mother absolutely lose it?

Let me tell you how much. It takes exactly how much my children have ingested in the last two or three days. Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, fudge, pumpkin roll, peppermint bark, chocolate santas, chocolate reindeer droppings, peppermint junior mints, birthday cake, brownies, hot cocoa, sprite, chocolate car shaped cakes with assorted (very cool) retro candies for decoration, cool whip. I wish that I was making this up, but these are all foods that my children have ingested at one place or another in the last few days. Oy vay, how do my children not weigh three hundred pounds each after this holiday?

There is literally sugar around every corner, and I am as guilty of pushing it as the next joe. Looking at that list makes my stomach churn, and I did not even eat ninety-five percent of that. Peppermint bark- guilty. The rest- I can pass. I love to bake and make goodies, but that list is a LOT out of control. I know that we, myself included, equate food with love, but this is getting ridiculous. G and N are going to start looking at holidays in terms of sweets and goodies, not their true or Hallmark meanings.

New Years’ Resolution- quit smoking. Nope, I don’t smoke, so that one is good. Quit drinking. Drink a bottle of wine or so a year, so I am good there. Lose a million pounds- how overdone is THAT one?!? Wean my kids off of the High Fructose Corn Syrup dragon… Now there is a resolution I can try out. As I am writing this, G came in whining for chocolate. She was whining for chocolate after a day of birthday party food, including but not limited to Sprite, brownies, pizza, pudding, chocolate santas, and birthday cake. And N informed me that he was only eating brown foods. Brown foods like pizza crust, chocolate pudding, raisins and cake. Dream on , buddy, dream on. I am cleaning my pantry and fridge out tomorrow morning. 

G and N are going to loathe me, but their arteries and intestines will thank me later. My New Years’ resolution is to make my kids the exception to the picky junk food eater rule, not the glaring examles of it! Wish me luck- I am feeling some flaxseed-pumpkin pancakes with homemade applesauce coming on for breakfast manana. NO chocolate chips anywhere in sight….
 

Posted by everydayjill at 02:30:20 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Christmas Eve cuties

If I was a bragging girl, I would say that my kiddos are the cutest ever, but… oh, whatever, they are the cutest ever!!! G looks like such a little lady, but she is still KID enough that she had shorts on underneath the Christmas dress in case any cartwheels were called for at the Christmas Eve services. N dressed up himself, from the doggie sweater to the maroon cords to the snow boots. Cardboard swords had to stay home, much to his chagrin.
Posted by everydayjill at 02:19:46 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas!

First off, ya’ll didn’t really think that a holiday would pass without me doing two things. First, waxing rhapsodic about FOOD. Second, giving thanks for all of my many blessings.
Okay, food first! WE have been trying out different things on Christmas Eve- traditional, eating out, seafood, but nothing has really stuck. Tonight, we did mexican food, and by George, I think we’ve got it! To die for tamales from Casa Diegos, chili verde from Larry, clog your arteries queso, and I think a new tradition is born. I realize millions of people eat tamales at Christmas, but it is new to us! Next up, eggnog. This is a drink that I am okay with, but not overly EXCITED about. Except when you stick it with two shots of espresso or when Larry makes it. Kudos to Larry- his eggnog made me a pig like the beignets in NOLA. All sense of propriety went out the window, and I think I scarcely breathed until my eggnog was gone.  It even dawned on me that I could lick my goblet clean, but realized that would cross a gluttonous line I wasn’t ready to cross.
Tomorrow is feast day, even though I can’t even look forward to that part- my mind is still on the eggnog… Breakfast casserole with eggs, potatoes, and bacon, plus a few veggies snuck in ( I hope G doesn’t read this :-)), sourdough toast with blueberry sage jam, orange juice, chocolate cinnamon Java Dave’s coffee. Walk the dogs and take a breath, then it is off to an apricot and clove glazed ham (someone told me that I was trying too hard with the ham, that I should just toss it in a pan of water and cook it for eight hours. Maybe next year…), spinach salad with berries, sugared almonds, and a berry vinaigrette dressing that I never share because I am greedy and want to be the cooking queen. Mashed potatoes, maybe pure and simple, maybe doctored up with feta or something. And a chocolate pecan cheeseball with chocolate cookies and orange wafers for dipping. Like my kids haven’t gotten enough sugar in their systems, but technically the cheeseball has calcium, right?
Blessings tomorrow- I am falling asleep on my keyboard. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Posted by everydayjill at 07:12:53 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Friday, December 21, 2007

Yip Yippee Yippito, the Perrets are coming!!!!!! Dillie is N’s BEST Bestest friend, and Hannah and G are like sisters (lovehatelovehate), and they are finally back in Colorado!!!! Never mind thatI haven’t seen Miss Lisa since May- it is like missing a limb or a piece of me. No rest for Me, simply because I am so excited! And Lisa, if you are nutty enough to be reading this, I have wine, cheese, butternut squash, and all of our other stuff here- just like old times.

Posted by everydayjill at 18:02:48 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Addicted to the LIST

I am SOSOOSOOOOOO addicted to Craigs List!!! This has to keep the classfieds guys up sweating all night. Coolest concept in the world- free classifieds online for almost anything that can be bought and sold. I have just kind of looked at it for furniture and freebies- curiousity more than anything, but decided that I am going to declutter my house a little at a time. Started with stamps last night and had offers within minutes. WOW!!!!! Do you know how many hours I would have to sit at a hot, sweaty garage sale for that? Totally hooked- I am going to put DVDS and videos, Southern Living and Longaberger stuff, jewelry, art supplies, kids clothing, family members…. Oh, I am kidding about the last part, ya’ll!

My friend Cindy told me the personals were a riot- I am scared to venture into that Pandora’s Box. Remember, I am the girl who left Bourbon Street in need of therapy and something for my burning eyes. EEK. The Jobs were pretty interesting- I looked at Restaurant/Bar job listings, and the first thing that popped up was an ad for sexy Baristas for a new drive-through coffee shop called SEXPRESSO. Seriously. Must be able to make a double latte in a fetish outfit with a straight face. Do fetish outfits and men hyped up on caffeine really need to go together? Remind me to drive the other way on that street- no need to explain that to G or N. I also couldn’t get past that on the Jobs Postings, so who knows what other interesting jobs were out there… 

Posted by everydayjill at 04:37:12 | Permalink | Comments (1) »