more snow

Yesterday marked the 3rd time we have had snow so far this winter. Believe me, snow is typically a rare thing around here. But, this winter seems to have a mind of it's own.

according to martha...

I was lucky enough to get this giant book as a Christmas gift. I love it! It is over 700 pages full of all sorts of useful information about taking care of your home. I have only just begun to flip thru and read, but I have already learned quite a few new things! Anyway, Martha isn't for everybody but I thought I'd share a bit from her book just for fun.

Six Things To Do Everyday

Get into the habit of completing these basic tasks daily. With just a few minutes' work, you'll easily be able to keep chaos at bay.

1. Make the bed
Tidiness begets tidiness. A crisply made bed makes the whole room seem more orderly, which makes it less likely that you'll let other things-such as clothes and papers-pile up around it.

2. Manage Clutter
Whenever you leave a room, take a quick look around for anything that isn't where it should be. Pick it up and put it where it belongs. Insist that everyone in the household do the same.

3. Sort The Mail
Take a few minutes to open, read, and sort the mail as soon as you bring it inside. Keep a trash bin near your sorting area for junk mail. Drop other mail into one of four in-boxes: personal correspondence, bills, catalogs, and filing.

4. Clean As You Cook
Instead of filling the sink with pots and dishes, wash them or put them in the dishwasher as you prepare a meal.

5. Wipe Up Spills While They're Fresh
Whether it's tomato sauce on the cooktop or makeup on the bathroom counter, almost anything is faster and easier to remove if you attend to it immediately.

6. Sweep The Kitchen Floor
Every evening once you've finished washing up after dinner, sweep the floor. This will keep tough-to-clean dirt and grime from building up, which will make the weekly mopping much quicker.

christmas memories

This year, our Christmas was one to remember. Unfortunately, I don't mean that in a good way. Our Christmas Eve was the worst ever. Seriously.

Our plans for the day consisted of hanging out, waiting for the snow and doing some cooking. My parents were supposed to be over at 4:30 pm to exchange gifts, eat dinner and then go to church. The "fun" all started about 9 am on Christmas Eve when our electricity went out. After several frustrating attempts to call the electric company to report the outage and get some information regarding when we could expect our lights to come back on, I learned that we could expect our power to be restored around 11:30 am. So, we tried to make the best of the situation. The snow started around lunchtime and was so pretty (and exciting)! I read somewhere that the last time we had a white Christmas in Dallas was in 1926!

The snow continued to fall and fall and the winds picked up so that we really and truly had near-blizzard conditions. When our power still wasn't back on by 2:30 pm. Jeff ventured out into the blizzard to talk to the Oncor repairman working up the street. He came back to report that there were 2 bad power lines and a blown transformer in our neighborhood and that Oncor hoped to have power restored by 5 or 6 that evening. Panic started to set in for me at this point. I had no way to cook our Christmas dinner, and I even started to fear that the power wouldn't come back on at all that night. What about Santa??? Where would we sleep?

We decided to ditch the plans for church and take the food to my parents' house (half an hour away) to cook, eat and open presents. So, we loaded the car and braved the blizzard. The drive over was a pretty one with all the snow and the lights.

At my parents' house we were warm, we cooked and enjoyed opening presents and spending time together. All was good. When we were ready to head for home, it was dark, it had stopped snowing and the roads were frozen. We made it to the first overpass on the highway before we hit a patch of ice and slid into another car which then slid into another car. Sigh.

Thankfully, there were no injuries, just some busted up bumpers, broken lights and bent up panels. After the accident, one of the other drivers insisted on calling the police rather than just exchanging insurance information. So we had to wait for the officer and then wait for everything to play out. We finally got home about 2 hours after we had left my parents' house and tucked the kids into bed just after 10 pm. Santas elves got busy right away getting things ready for Christmas morning. Jeff and I finally got to bed around 1 am.

Christmas day was much better! The kids loved all of their gifts and Jeff and I were able to put the previous day's woes behind us and enjoy the day. But we sure hope to never have another Christmas Eve like that one!

gingerbread houses

This morning we had our neighbors, Zoe and Jake, over to eat candy. I mean, decorate gingerbread houses. :-) The kids did pretty well. Zoe had a pretty good idea of how she wanted her house to look and Avery was very detailed and spent lots of time on hers. Jake and Hannah didn't last too long with the actual decorating but the moms had fun taking over. Merry Christmas!

just the facts ma'am

Most who know me, know that I am pretty laid back. I am even pretty laid back as far as the kids' health goes. Don't get me wrong, we have had our share of trips to the emergency room and even a 911 call...but it takes more than the likes of an ear infection to freak me out.

Over the past few years, I have been hearing lots of talk about childhood vaccines and whether or not they are safe. For the most part I just listen. I listen because I am really pretty ignorant of the whole topic. I know that there are people who claim that vaccines are linked to autism and other disorders, but I really can't tell you why they think that or if they are wrong. I know that my pediatrician has a big poster in his exam rooms that claims that vaccines do not cause autism. But again, I can't tell you why the poster creators think that.

A couple of weeks ago, I took Ethan in for his 18 month check-up. While we were there I inquired of the nurse about his seasonal flu booster (the office had been out of the injection for awhile). After some searching, the nurse came back in and said that she had a shot that would work for him. But, she explained, this shot would not be exactly the same as the first he had received. This shot had thimerosal. She went on to quickly rattle off that they were completely comfortable giving him a shot with thimerosal. I nodded, not really understanding much of what she had said. Ethan got his shot and we went home.

I felt like such a bad mom! What was thimerosal anyway? And what had I just agreed to inject my baby with? I didn't doubt that everything would be okay, I just felt uneasy with my ignorance. And, I felt helpless. I didn't know where to turn to find trustworthy information on vaccines, their side effects and all of the rumors swirling about. I knew enough to know that there is a lot of really passionate misinformation out there and I didn't want to get tangled up where I shouldn't be.

My moment of opportunity came when I took Ethan in to see the nurse practitioner about his head bump and I asked her about where I could look up unbiased information about vaccines. Thank goodness she wasn't at all defensive, but understanding of my need to be informed for the sake of my sanity and my childrens' health. She recommened that I check the Centers for Disease Control website. She said that the CDC is who they report any vaccine side effects to. Whew! Good to know!

Anyway, I checked out the website and it has a ton of great information! Now at least I feel more confident about my decision to have the kids vaccinated (including seasonal flu and H1N1) and I can know what the other moms on the playground are talking about...

Check it out for yourself: www.cdc.gov

shepherds, sheep and a baby

Yesterday, was the Christmas program at Hannah's pre-school. The program was titled "Shepherds, Sheep and a Baby" and featured the vocal stylings of 3, 4 and 5 year olds. Listening to a bunch of little kids belt out "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is a really fun way to start your day!

o holy night

This song is one of my all-time favorite hymns, easily in the top 3. One of the reasons I love this time of year is because I get to hear this song a lot. But, I never get tired of hearing it. To me, the song encompasses all of the awe and majesty of Christmas Eve and when I hear it, my thoughts cannot help but wander to a shabby manger in Bethlehem. Not only is the music beautiful but the lyrics really speak to my heart. Take a moment to really read the lyrics and perhaps experience a bit of the "thrill of hope" as our "weary world rejoices" the birth of our Savior.

And, if you are like me and just have to hear the song, I have posted a video for you. :-)

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining.
It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh hear the angel voices!
Oh night divine! Oh night when Christ was born!
Oh night divine! Oh night! Oh night divine!

Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother,
and in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise his holy name.
Christ is the lord, that ever, ever praise we.
Noel! Noel! Oh night;oh night divine!
Noel! Noel! Oh night; oh night divine!
Noel! Noel! Oh night; oh night divine!

mr. 18 months old

Last week marked a pretty big milestone at our house, Ethan turned 18 months old. 18 months is kind of a big deal to me. It means that he is no longer a baby but a full-fledged toddler. Our house is virtually empty of baby items save for the highchair (I'm still using that one to save my new kitchen table from destruction) and the nursery furniture. Today I threw out all of the teething toys (he's pretty much got all of his teeth now) and the old baby rattles. I have to say that I am a little sad that time is passing so quickly and that there will be no more babies at our house but at the same time I am happy to be moving on.

Ethan is really developing quite a personality. He is kind of a ham and loves to draw attention to himself by way of doing something silly. He also has a lot to say, we just don't understand any of it yet. Almost every night when Jeff gets home, Ethan follows him around babbling for a good five minutes. He is no doubt filling Jeff in on the happenings of his day. Our house may be empty of baby toys, but he is full steam ahead into the world of big boy toys. Ethan particularly loves blocks, cars and playing with Hannah. One of his new favorite past times is rolling over his sisters when they are playing on the floor. At 18 months, he is equally cuddly and wiggly. His favorite place is still on my hip and I'm happy to have him there.

The story behind the picture is that last night he was playing with Hannah and fell face first into the corner of the coffee table. We have a square coffee table and the corners are pretty sharp. I have always known that sooner or later one of the kids would fall into a corner and get hurt. To tell the truth, I always thought it would be worse than it was (think stitches). I heard the thud from the kitchen and managed not to panic when Jeff brought him into the kitchen with blood pouring out of his nose. This was at least his 5th bloody nose, I think that the girls have maybe had 1 each. Maybe. I guess that's one of the differences between boys and girls.

starting fresh, part 2

So my plan to feed my family more fresh foods and fewer prepackaged, preservative-filled foods has been going pretty well. I have managed to stay on budget and not lose my mind for all of the extra time and effort my new plan requires.

Some of the positive things about our new style of eating are that:
1) The food tastes better, much better.
2) We are all trying new things (just the other day the girls gobbled up hummus and pita bread for an after school snack).
3) Our digestive systems have adjusted accordingly and we can no longer tolerate fast-food, which means we avoid it big-time.
4) Our menus are more spontaneous and that is fun.

Some of the drawbacks are:
1) It takes a lot of time, lots of time cooking and lots of time running to the store.
2) It takes a lot of creativity to come up with our meals, as opposed to opening a box of Hamburger Helper and calling it good.
3) Our digestive systems have adjusted accordingly and we can no longer tolerate fast-food, which means that I pretty much always have to cook.
4) It takes a lot of work to learn about nutrition, cooking and meal-planning.

We are far from perfect. Just today we drove thru McDonald's to get ice cream and milkshakes as an after-school snack. But, my kids absolutely eat way more good than bad. Budget-wise I have learned that pre-packaged, all-natural, organic snacks are more expensive than their unhealthy counterparts. But, fresh produce is pretty darn cheap. With regard to cooking, I have learned to stockpile a few things that I know I use in recipes so that I don't have to worry about having the basics on hand (flour, chicken stock, olive oil, etc). I am still learning. I read things that tell me I should roast a chicken every week and then use the chicken in various recipes and the juices to make my own chicken stock. I don't know why, but that idea intimidates me. Maybe I'll come around but for now my chicken comes frozen, from Sam's. I have yet to pinpoint the criteria that makes one olive oil better than another and I'm really unsure of the pros and cons of bleached vs. unbleached flour.

Overall, all is well but I'm still doing a bit of fine-tuning...