Sensory Seeking Girl

Life has been very busy this summer of 2013 and I am finally getting a moment of quiet to put up a new blog entry.  Today's topic is one of sensation.  Sensation is getting input through your senses. As a special educator, I have watched many students struggle with appropriate sensory input.    As a mother, I have watched my own daughter deal with a high level of sensory need.  She is what occupational therapists call a "sensory seeker."   She is constantly seeking out ways to get more input into her senses.  Even before she was born, my girl was a very active child.  I thought it would be fun to share some of the activities that make my daughter her happiest. 

Head in the mud while doing a back bend - good times.

No sensory blog would be right if it didn't start with a sensory basic: mud.  My daughter loves mud in a major way.  A lot of kids today don't get the opportunity to play in the mud and I think this is just wrong.  There is something about getting your hands or feet (or any other body part for that matter) all ooey gooey in the mud.  I can't think of anything that can recreate the texture of 100% mud. 

People pay big bucks for mud baths.

People sometimes looks at me like I am crazy when it comes to how much mud I allow my girl to get into (literally, "into").  When you see how happy it makes my sensory seeker, you may just want to let your kids loose with a hose and a bare patch of ground.  No shovel necessary.

Happiness is being buried in mud - according to my daughter.

A second activity that she just adores is swimming.  We were at a friends house for a BBQ and we decided to time how long she would stay in the water without a break.  Three hours was the tally.  She just loves the resistance the water provides and the feeling of weightlessness.  On a weekly basis, my daughter swims for at least 6 hours.  She would do a lot more if I could get her to a pool more often. 

Smiley girl!!

Anything to do with water is a happy activity.  She loves finding creatures and slimy bits in any body of water.  The beach is one of her favorite places since she gets both water and sand (another great sensory input tool). 

Cold tide pools - great fun since it hits so many sensory areas: balance, temperature, water, and huge variety of textures.

I call this picture "Bliss."

In August we started her in gymnastics.  My girl does 6 hours of gymnastics each week.  Being upside down, jumping, spinning around a bar, standing on hands, etc are all great sensory input activities.  I was worried when she started attending three hour practices that it would be too much since she is pretty young. But with the high level of sensory seeking she does, it is no problem.  She does hand stands and cartwheels all day, every day anyway so why not be in the gym? 

Bars are her favorite gymnastics activity, think of all the input her arms and shoulders are getting.

I guess the purpose of me sharing of this is to encourage my fellow parents to identify if they have a sensory seeking child. If so, try to harness that need into acceptable activities.  I know that when we try to stop her from moving, bad things happen.  She can get angry, defiant, and down right not pleasant to be around.  So we make a call. We find ways to give her as much physical input as we can to try to meet her sensory need.  This allows our family to have a more smooth existence.  Our home is by no means peaceful since she is moving or jumping all the time but at least it keeps her happy!!

Around this house we seem to be obsessed with ways to create work for ourselves.  My husband is uber-project boy and is always engaged is some sort of hobby/craft/construction/etc.  Several such projects are under way at this moment and I will be sharing one of them in a few weeks (Hint: large talons).

The most recently completed project is one that actually really excites me.  We have often talked about developing an orchard and we finally made it happen.  Okay, I should say that my husband made it happen, I just sort of took pictures of the process.  The one major input I had was what sort of fruit to purchase.

Next to our driveway was an empty, weed filled space that led downhill to the barn.  It is bordered by the drive, horse corral, and road to the barn.  Using the trusty tractor my husband filled in some holes and made a nice sloping orchard space. 

We laid out the spacing and started planting.  We bought bare root trees and plants so they all had to soak.

We think it is very important to provide moral support to the one person in our family who volunteers to do the digging.

Most of the trees are dwarf fruit trees so they are a good size for the kids.  They were able to do a lot of the hole-filling and straightening while we planted.  Actually, my daughter did a lot of the planting, my son decided it was more fun to play in the tractor scoop.

In total, we planted eight trees.  Here is what we are growing:
2 Apples (we put one apple in last year so we added a second for variety)
2 Pears
2 Cherries
2 Nectarines

We also planted a few grape vines.  Over the last five years, we have tried three times to grow grapes and have failed each time.  I find it ironic that we live in the heart of wine country and the one thing we can't grow is grapes.  Maybe we will get lucky this time.

It exciting to already see buds on the trees, can't wait to eat some home grown fruit.  I should mention that even though the hubby really wanted an orchard, he hates fruit.  Odd, huh?

Farm to Table

I have been hearing about farm to table dinners for the past year or so and love the idea.  The premise is that you go to a farm and have dinner where the food comes directly from the farm. These dinners can cost over $100 to attend so I have never participated.

Since I have been trying my hand at gardening for a year or so, I am also very excited to eat food my family has cultivated.  Each Friday I have coffee with a friend who also is into gardening.  We were chatting and decided it would be fun to do a pot luck farm to table dinner where most dishes had at least one ingredient from our respective gardens or other harvesting methods (I'll explain that later). We invited one other couple who also gardens and cooks.  The result was fun, delicious, and definitely worth repeating.

The first decision made was I would host since I live out in the country.  I picked a location out in one of our fields that had wonderful views and opportunities to see the wildlife.  We moved our outdoor table and chairs out to the field and set a casual table.  The center piece was a simple glass jar with a few stones and a tea light inside.  A sprig of tree moss from our tree was tied around the top with string. The color scheme was beige, white, and glass so the focus stayed on the natural surroundings (and, of course, the food). 

The center piece doesn't show, its hidden behind the salt and pepper

 We also brought out our large bar-b-que to give some heat and a cooking surface.

Here is the food heating and chicken cooking. 

Last week we had pretty cool days so we were a little worried we would be chilly but nature was on our side.  We started around 3:30pm with a temperature of 68degrees.  It did cool down considerably by the end but that's why we had the fire.

Here was the menu:
Course 1 - Homemade Pickles; cheese and crackers
Course 2 - Garden Salad with vinaigrette;  Tomato Soup with whole wheat Challah Bread 
Course 3 - Barbequed Chicken; Roasted Vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, radishes, and onions); Chard Polenta
Course 4 -  Blueberry Cobbler with vanilla ice cream

I made three of these dishes.  The first was the tomato soup.  I had frozen tomatoes from the spring and that was enough for half of what the recipe called for so I had to supplement with canned crushed tomatoes.  I will absolutely make that soup again, it was delicious. 

Isn't that a fabulous color?!

The second dish I made was the roasted vegetables.  I have been super stressed about my cauliflower because our overnight freezes have turned the heads a bit brown.  Roasting them seemed like a good way to "mask" the discoloration.  I also had to soak them in salt water to help rid us of the additional aphid proteins.  I didn't think my carrots would be ready but I was pleasently surprised.

I planted a variety including multicolored carrots and Parisian carrots - those are the round ones.

I also stole some radishes from my mother's container garden and pulled one of my onions.  Look at this gorgeous skillet read to go into the oven!

Pretty colors make everything taste better :  )

The last thing I made actually broke all of the rules.  I made the blueberry cobbler and none of the ingrediants came from my garden.  I justified it by telling myself we had tried to grow blueberries and failed.  Also, I just love desert and who doesn't love cobbler?

I said other harvesting methods and here is what I meant.  The same person who brought the pickled veggies (she canned those last summer) also brought the chicken. The chicken had been slaughtered and plucked by her daughter, fresh and hormone free.  It was wonderful chicken.

My other friend brought the salad - all garden ingredients.  She has started eating a lot of dandelion greens and dill, this made a very yummy salad.  She also brought the polenta and bread.  Both of these used eggs from her chickens as well as some garden items. 

So combine the good food, nice views and a few bottles of wine (some of it form our local wineries), our farm to table dinner was a relaxing and yummy event.  We will most likely be doing another one when our spring gardens are producing. Looking forward to it!!

Art Again

I had to share one more picture of our skies.  I meant to include this image with the first post but forgot.  That happens when you are trying to write and entertain your two children at the same time : )

I took this picture on my way home the other night.  I stopped at the gate to our property and captured another fabulous sunset.  During the fall and up until Christmas, my kids and I always look up at skies like this and say to each other, "Mrs. Claus is baking cookies!"  My kids love sunsets.

I was thinking this morning how we need to use these moments to teach our children in a meaningful way.  How many colors do you see in this picture? As parents we need to recognize what we educators call "teachable moments."  When we want our kids to learn something, there is no stronger way to imprint something on their little brains then to make it have personal meaning.  Seeing a sky that looks like this first hand (not just in a picture) is very powerful and memorable.  To connect learning to these times is the best way to help our kids become eager learners. 

Natural Art Show

I have always been captivated by beautiful skies.  I love sunsets and sunrises because no two are ever the same, kind of like snow flakes.  Watching and observing these natural occurrences is like a free trip to an art gallery so I try very hard to point out these moments to my kids.  Hopefully they will always appreciate natural beauty. 

It is very typical for us on the Central Coast to have clear blue skies.  We get very little rain fall so we have very few stormy, cloudy days.  There are many overcast foggy mornings and wispy clouds in the afternoon but real storm skies are rare.  Over the last few weeks we have alternated between rain, sun, and freezing overnight temperatures.  It seems like we are on a two to three day rotation of these weather patterns and this makes for some fabulous skies.

This was Christmas day looking out over the barn.  We had rainy weather and the sun kept peeking through the clouds.

People always talk about Hawaiian sunsets.  I have been to Hawaii several times and I have to argue that our sunsets rival any island.  This is what we get to see on a regular basis.  This was taken a few days after Christmas.

I said that we have had many freezing temperatures overnight.  This was what the hills looked like under a blanket of frost last weekend.  The intense sunlight in the morning is a regular thing around here.  When it reflects off the frost, it makes the new grass look brown and its intensity almost obliterates any blue in the sky.

The rain came back overnight and the sky had a real heaviness to it.  With the sun shining through in the east, this heaviness was accentuated.  This orientation of this picture is actually the same as the previous one but the camera was tilted up a bit. The two pictures were taken at almost the same hour one day apart.  What a difference twenty four hours makes, huh? 

I have always taken pictures of the skies and it is really hard to edit myself.  Who doesn't want to trap the beauty they're witnessing?  I have to keep reminding myself that another beautiful sky is only a day way. 

Hometown Beauty

Yesterday I spent some time just meandering around my town.  I got a new camera for Christmas and had a few free minutes in the afternoon so I hit the streets.  I wanted to practice some of my camera's settings and my town offers great photo ops.  What I wound up accomplishing was a simple photo essay of my hometown's beautiful downtown area (please forgive the beginner photography - I'm working on it).

By California standards, I live in a small town.  My hometown is Paso Robles which sits on the georgeous Central Coast of California.  I wasn't actually born here but I moved here one week prior to my 10th birthday so I consider it my hometown. 

One of the many oak trees on our property

Paso Robles (or its complete name El Paso de Robles) translates to pass of the oaks.  So when I think of Paso, I automatically think of oak trees.  We have thousands of oak trees.  Years ago people cleared large parcels of land to plant crops and build houses but oaks are still everywhere you look. There are now restrictions on cutting down these iconic trees.

The other thing that pops into mind when I think of my town is the beautiful downtown center.  We have a very active Mainstreet Association that has won awards for what they have accomplished with our downtown. I will take you through a few of my favorite stops on my walk.

I started out by grabbing tea at my favorite coffee house in Paso.  Amsterdam Coffee is on 13th Street between Spring Street and Park Street.  I come here every week to sit and chat with some other locals.  Visitors to our town are always hanging out on the comfy couches.  I love chatting with them about what we locals recommend about our town (wine tasting isn't the only pastime).

I left Amsterdam and headed south on Park Street. This street has many restored buildings housing restaurants, clothing stores, and wine tasting rooms. 

This building houses a restored ballroom and can be rented out for events.  On the street level is western-themed McLintocks Restaurant which offers my favorite happy hour in town.  For under $15 my husband and I can do a date night that includes dinner and beer.

When you walk around downtown, the center is dominated by two "icons" if you will.  The first is the clock tower on the corner of Park Street and 12th Street.  This clock tower was actually destroyed in the 2003 earthquake but was quickly reconstructed. 

Across 12th Street from the clock tower is the downtown city park.  This is the social hub of Paso life.

So many things happen in the park.  We have year round farmers markets, free concerts every Friday evening in the summer, Christmas tree lighting ceremony, numerous festivals, car shows, etc.  Its actually hard to find two weekends back to back where nothing is happening in the park.

At the center of the park is the second "icon" of downtown Paso, the Carnegie Library.  This no longer serves as the city library but it did up until fairly recently. 

Fooling around with black and white - still needs work.

I remember walking down the outside stairs to the basement to attend story time in the children's section.  Now it houses the local historical society.  From here I headed northeast along the path in the park and crossed 12th Street.

I turned west along 12th Street and walked down one of my favorite blocks in town.  This block has been largely restored and is one of the older commercial sections in town.  It used to house the town's mercantile and still did when I moved here in 1989.  Now it is home to many yummy restaurants and boutiques.  I walked up this block and turned north on Park Street.  I walked two blocks up to one of my absolute favorite restaurants in town. 

Panolivo is on the corner of Park Street and 14th Street.  It offers french cuisine and what I consider to be some of the best coffee and deserts in town.  For date nights, my husband and I love to come for a decaf and a pastry.  Try their Cafe Au Lait and pair it with their Pear Belle Helene.  Heaven!!  Unfortunately the restaurant is undergoing renovations but should be open again very soon.

Great sign on this clothing store.

 I crossed the street to walk south on Park Street.  I love the little boutiques that line this street: clothing, olive oil, crafts, jewlry, etc.  In November the downtown holds an event called Elegant Evening.  All of the stores offer up finger foods and drinks for free.  Its sort of a town-wide open house.  My family and I always attend and its fun to see the stores lit up for the holidays.

I made my way back to my car on 13th Street and it was time to go pick up the kids.  If you haven't been to my town, please consider paying us a visit.  It is a great place to walk around, have a cup of coffee, and get a good meal.  There is so much I didn't put in this blog but maybe I will do a part two because I could go on and on about Paso.  Hope to see soon!! 

Set the Children Free!!

Set the Children Free!!

As a mom and an educator I spend a lot of my time thinking about what is "appropriate" or "safe" for kids to do.  So-called "experts" are constantly bombarding parents and teachers with information on how to raise children in a safe and healthy world.  We hear advice about how to protect our children from harm or illness.  I, like most other parents, want my kids to grow up healthy and safe - that is not a debatable point.  However, the way in which we are encouraged to keep kids safe pretty much amounts to the retardation of natural child development.

When I look around school campuses today, I see things that horrify me.  Swings sets have been taken out of most school play grounds.  Running is not allowed if the kids are on asphalt.  Kids are placed in time out for play wrestling.  Dirt is not for digging in but rather it is for looking at.  Trees are not for climbing, they are for shade only.  I could go on about the many things that are "against the rules" at schools and, unfortunately, I think are also against the rules in many homes. 

I said these rules are in place under the guise of keeping kids "safe."  This is a blatant lie.  The reason for these rules is fear.  Fear that if a kid gets hurt at school a parent will sue.  And by the away, parents do sue schools daily for these types of things.  We as parents have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into believing that there is fault in childhood hurts and someone (mainly schools) must pay.  I have news for all parents out there:  Kids are supposed to fall down!!!  Kids are supposed to get hurt occasionally!!!  Do you want to know why?  Kids need to learn how to operate and control their bodies.  They do this by trial and error.  Yes, trial and ERROR.  When we deny kids the opportunity to use their bodies for climbing, running, and falling, they are not allowed to develop the skills necessary to manage themselves. 

Battle scars from tree climbing - yes they hurt but the kids were so proud of conquering that tree!!

 Humans develop our large muscle groups first and then our small muscle groups kick in (think top to bottom and inside out).  Babies first learn to sit, then crawl, then walk -these are large muscle activities.  While they are trying to walk, they fall.  This teaches them the limitations and abilities in their bodies.  The quickly learn that if they try to move fast, they will probably fall.  So, they slow down and master walking before they can run.  Young kiddos are no different - its just at a different speed.  If they run too fast, they fall (and yes, horror of horrors, might get scraped).  So they slow their run until they are coordinated enough to go faster. 

My daughter has mastered fast - you need fast when you're trying to fly a kite with no wind.

Climbing is the same process.  They need to master small obstacles and then NEED to master larger climbing structures.  Climbing develops their core strength, their upper body strength, and it forces them to push the limits of their balance and reflexes.  If they slip, they need to be able to catch themselves.  There is a whole lecture I am not getting into about sensory development that fits in here - I will leave that up to my occupational therapy friends.

You don't need special climbing equipment - a simple fence or tree will do

All of this should happen daily for kids.  When our schools or homes punish kids for doing these activities, we are denying them natural development.  This can have drastic consequences.  If kids don't know how to manage their bodies and haven't had opportunities to develop those large muscle groups, how can we expect them to sit properly in a chair for hours which requires developed core strength?  Or use their fingers (small muscles) to write when their upper body strength has not been develope?  As a teacher,  I can attest to the fact that kids today are so "protected" (aka denied) they are having many behavioral and academic problems that lead to a whole host of other issues.  So please, if you care about child development, let our children be free to develop.  Let them run, let them climb, let them fall.  It it amazing to watch what happens when a kiddo is allowed to do what their body tells them they should.

Lastly, if you feel the need to sue because your child got hurt doing these things, you are denying other children their development and I hold you personally responsible for the retardation of our youth.

Saying Yes to Water

My children - they are a constant bundle of energy, discovery, and amazement.  Today I had one of those reflective moments where I was thinking about how wonderful it is to be a kid who gets to play every day.  A friend of mine wrote a beautiful blog about saying yes to children's impulses or desires.  These moments are times when for no reason other than a tug at your heart strings you say yes to something that may not be clear in the moment but you soon realize how that simple word provided great and simple joy to kids.  We spend so much time telling kids what not to do because of fears/safety/time/etc that saying yes can become a novelty. Yesterday I was able to have one of these "yes" moments.  To explain this "yes" moment, I need to backtrack about twenty three years. 

My boy

My family lives in an area that is considered very hot during the summer months.  We regularly see temperatures in the high 90's and many times it gets well over 100degreesF.  Because of this, and since my sister happened to be born in June, my mother instituted a tradition at our house.  Each year at my sister's birthday, Mom would prepare for the party by filling buckets of water balloons.  On the day of the party, we would engage in water balloon warfare.  Our fights weren't limited to water balloons.  All sorts of water throwing implements were utilized during these battles.  These included slingshots, hoses, pans, pots, water guns, and even the occasional horse trough.  Pretty much the rule was to soak as many people as possible.  Oh, and if the hose was on, it couldn't come in the house - that one was harder to remember.

Very quickly this tradition didn't stop at my sister's birthday parties.  Water fights soon became a common occurrence around our house.  Usually the situation was my mom would ambush us with the hose as we came walking up to the door or similar.  It would then escalate into a full blown battle where someone usually laughed so hard they peed their pants. To be fair, my mother learned this behavior from her mother.  I have a vivid memory of my grandma flooding her own bathroom with the garden hose because she was trying to shoot cold water on my cousin who was taking a hot shower.  I guess you could say its in our blood.

Yesterday, my kids were playing up at Grandma's house.  All of a sudden, the door flies open and my three year old son comes in yelling that he needs his water gun.  He was soon followed by his five year old sister.  I could have said no since I knew one of them would end up bleeding or crying, the wind was blowing really hard and they both are struggling with allergies, etc.  But I remembered all of those water fights growing up and knew my mother was waiting outside.  I turned to my husband and asked if he knew where the water guns were.  I took the kids to the drawer, handed them each a gun and my daughter was nice enough to take an extra for Grandma.  I  gave only one direction.  Shoot Grandma before she shoots you!

My girl

 

Road Trip!

The family road trip.  This is truly an American institution that is held in high esteem by most people I know.  The road trip is a chance to get out of our little spheres of influence and get connected to new environments.  Each year thousands of parents say to each other, "Lets plan a trip.  I know we can take a drive to ________(fill in the blank)."  And so, each year, thousands of well intentioned parents carefully plan, pack, save, and get excited to take the American road trip.  Road trips do not have to be far excursions, the only requirement is that the whole family will spend a generous number of hours sitting in car seats, moving down one highway or another. 

This past weekend was our families version of a mini rad trip.  We live in central California and my in-laws were flying in from Maui (yes, my in-laws live in Maui - lets not get gushy).  We decided that we would take a road trip to southern California to meet up with my husband's family.  Here was our plan: 

1) Leave Friday afternoon after the pre-school Mother's Day luncheon my kids' school was having and drive to Riverside County to visit my sister for the night (if you know anything about southern California, you already sense problems - we'll get back to that).

2) Spend the night with her then drive to Long Beach Saturday morning for a family reunion in the park.

3) Saturday afternoon drive to Escondido to a hotel

4) Spend the night and on Sunday, go to the wild animal park (Safari Park) with the in-laws.

5) Stay one more night and drive home on Monday - approximately 6 hours north of Escondido.

We'll go step by step.

Step 1

We left our town around 12:15 after having the luncheon.  We headed south via Interstate 5 and were tootling along quite nicely.  We merged onto the 210 East around 3:15pm.  This had taken us bout 3 hours and we estimated we had about one more hour to go.  Uh-huh.  As we traveled along the 210 we all of a sudden encountered the Friday afternoon southern California traffic.  We literally came to a screeching halt.  For the next 2 hours, we  traveled about 17 miles.  On the return trip on Monday, this same stretch of road took us 12 minutes.  As we were in this stop and go traffic, our children decided they had had enough of this car business.  At once, both of my dear sweet kiddos decide they have to poop and absolutely can not wait.  Our car was stuck somewhere near Rosemeade/Altadena/No Idea and we were in the lane next to the car-pool. Being the nice understanding parents we are, we told our kids, "Too bad, we can't stop so either you have accidents or you'll just have to hold it."  This lasted for about another half hour and they started to sound desperate.  So we eased our way off the freeway and found a potty.  Just to keep things interesting, neither kid pooped - just peed.  Thanks.   

The other thing that was happening during the stop and go was a phone conversation with my sister informing her of our progress.  Somewhere my sister had come across a website which gives the status of traffic via a color code system.  If a road is green you are good to go, yellow means so=so, and red means good luck.  So as my husband drives along, I am on the phone with her getting updates on what the website says our traffic situation is - red, yellow, or green.  I don't know this site but I can say that it is full of s@*!   My sister also kept yelling out alternate routes to try to reroute us around the traffic.  But, as she would come up with a plan, our road would turn green on her screen and we were apparently moving much more quickly.  Sure.  We finally made it to my sister's house (another potty break later) around 6:15.  Seriously, we could have been in Vegas with that pace.

That night my daughter wrapped up this easy going day with a major protest about going to bed.  Basically she decided that everyone in my sister's house should stay awake since she wasn't interested in going to bed.  Bed time for everyone wound up being 11:30ish thanks to her efforts.  Good news was that her uncle taught her a new video game the next morning.

Playing Whack a Mole

Step 2

We went to Long Beach for the  reunion and it was uneventful.  

Geoffrey and I at the reunion

Step 3
The four of us piled into our car to head to Escondido and wound up taking a toll road by accident.  Now, most people carry enough change to pay a small toll but we weren't planning on this so we decided to get off before having to pay.  Little did we know that the off ramp had a toll booth too and we had to pay anyway.  They problem was we had almost no money with us.  We searched the entire car and came up with $1.35 in change.  The toll was $1.50 and the fine for not paying was $57.00.  No, they didn't take cards or checks.  So, here we are, on an off ramp that leads to Laguna Beach of all places with no money to get off the freeway.  I would up having to run to the Mercedes behind us and begging for a quarter so that the ten other cars behind us would stop thinking evil thoughts about us.  On the bright side, I had never seen Laguna Beach and it was beautiful.  As a side note, apparently everyone in Laguna Beach drives black Mercedes. The kids slept through most of this so thank heaven for that.  They woke up just in time to see the end of the beach scenery and conveyed their feelings loudly about being denied a chance to go to the beach.

Sleeping through the whole toll road debacle

Step 4

We did go to the wild animal park and it was wonderful.  Nothing major happened that day except somehow Geoffrey and I wound up watching 2 1/2 hours of a Sister Wives marathon before bed time.  Yeah. Moving on.

At the wild animal park - great place!

Step 5

Monday it was time to go home.  So, in an effort to be home for my daughter's ballet class at 3:15, we left the hotel at 8:15 and made the following stops:

-Back to my sister's house because I had forgotten three things and Geoffrey needed to poop

-Stopped in Glendale because the kids needed to poop

-Stopped in Camarillo at In N Out because everyone was starving

-Stopped in Santa Barbara to see my friend J who is wanting baby #2 to get here asap

-Stopped in San Luis Obispo because I had to poop

We got home around 4:30 and yes, we missed ballet.  I blame the bowels.

Let me sum up by saying in my experience with family road trips there are definite truths:

The kids always have to poop when there's no potty, always add on two hours to any schedule because it will take you two hours longer then planned, Benedryl will be needed to get the kids to sleep the first night, and the car DVD player is the best invention ever.  Oh, and you must go on road trips because they are how memories are made - memories you will talk about for years to come.

Growing Growing Growing

I haven't had a chance to write in a while because we have been immersed heavily in the process of growing.  Typically I would just be talking about our garden but tonight I have garden news as well as kid thoughts.  Both of these center around growth.  

To start off, lets chat kids.  This past weekend centered around a milestone for my daughter.  She celebrated her fifth birthday.  Birthday number 5 is a very special one I am rediscovering.  As of this birthday, she enters the school-age population and is fully registered to start kindergarten in the fall.  I set up a kindergarten academic screening for her and took her to get her kindergarten shots.  She bravely accepted that she needed shots and only cried when 1.5" needle number 4 was thrust into her thigh.  Those are Mommy moments I wish I could erase but simply can't.  She passed her vision test with amazing success and hears us perfectly despite choosing to ignore us most of the time.  She was also very instrumental in planning her party.  The only requirements for her party were that it be a princess theme (going on year 3 of that theme) and that my sister/her aunt be present.  My sister is her absolute favorite person so luckily she made the trip.  As we held the party, I watched her play with the other young guests and enjoy being a kid.  She is a baby no longer and it is strange to see her entering a new phase in life.  I know that she will take on this phase with enthusiasm but I now realize that time is on the run way, ready to take flight.

Here she is with our traditional on-the-real-birthday cake.  Her party was two days later.

On another growing front, our garden is doing wonderful and terrible all at the same time.  To start off, the wonderful part is that everything we planted in the higher planters is doing great.  The pumpkins are growing, the lettuce and peas are getting taller, and the watermelons are coming in.

Mesclun Lettuce

The lettuce was a plant I was very worried about.  We have fairly hot summers here with many days reaching over 100 degrees F.  So far, we have  had two days that have reached temperatures over 90 degrees F but I am trying to give them lots of water to help protect them.  Also, they are shaded for a good portion of the hottest part of the day so they are still doing great.  Realistically, lettuce in our area really does better planted in the fall but we're still going to try for a decent summer crop.  Just for reference, we are zone 8 for planting.

Peas are getting taller too!!

A little over two weeks ago I put in watermelon seeds and I am thrilled to say that I have 17 watermelon seedlings in my planter.  I know I will have to thin these but it is so exciting to see something I planted from seed is pushing its way up to the sunshine.  Right next to the watermelons are the pumpkins and  I now have 9 pumpkin seedlings.  I am thinking I will thin those out to 3 plants so I don't wind up with a hundred pumpkins.  Again, grown from seed so I consider this garden to already be a great success.

Part of my watermelon seedlings - how cute are they?

I did mention a terrible part to my garden's development.  For some reason, my dogs have decided that the most easterly end of my low, large area planter must be constantly molested.  Almost every day I go out to water and discover they have dug out more dirt and destroyed or almost destroyed a plant or two.  So far, they have eliminated my basil plant, a row of lettuce, 3 marigolds, and several of the potatoes I had in the ground.  Just tonight I had to shovel about ten shovel-loads of dirt off my cayenne peppers, dill plant, and pickling cucumbers to save them from being buried alive.  Geoffrey has a plan to lay some extra fencing over the garden to stop them from digging.  We'll see how this works.  Hopefully I can keep writing about the growing plants and not murdered plants.  

Garden death - they even dug out my sun dial.

Weight Loss Explained

Okay, I have had many people come up to me and ask about the weight I have been able to loose this year.  I decided I would explain how this came about and exactly what I did to loose weight.

Lets begin  with a bit of explanation about my genetic history.  I do not come from a family that could be described at "skinny."  We are, as a collective, a "healthy" group of women in my family.  On one side, our ancestors were very hardy farmers who survived the rural Montana countryside farming sugar beats.  The other side were also ranchers and farmers who helped pioneer the Pamona Valley.  The women of our family have always been solidly built and very strong.  We are not obese or necessarily flabby people but no one will break us easily of we're handled in a rough fashion.  Given our physical structure (bubble butts and strong hips), child bearing is not a challenge.  I am, of course, speaking in generalities since we do have the occasional women who is either very thin or very tall (most of us top out below 5'4" and many below 5'2" - myself included in that group).  However, as a whole we tend to the sturdy built variety of female.  

This is me on the far right in October 2009 and 23 pounds heavier then now.  In fairness, I had given birth in May of 2009. Also, really bad dress choice.

Since this is the case, we all do have a tendency to carry some extra weight if we are not careful.  I tend to carry it distributed all over and have never had that lovely flat stomach we see so often in our models and TV stars.  Add on having given birth twice and this tummy is decidedly not firm.  Although I am not about to publish how much I weigh, I will say that I have always waffled between a size 8 and a size 12 in clothes. 

Many years ago I was told by a colleague that people can survive on a lot less food then they think they need.  This has always been in the back of my mind so at the beginning of this school year, I decided to change a few simple eating habits since I knew I could be thinner.

Here I am in July 2011, 10 pounds heavier then I am now. Side note, this is also the Teton National Park.

First let me tell you what I didn't do.  I did not cut out deserts or cheese or carbs or anything at all really.  I still eat exactly what I want.  I do not count calories or weigh food. What I did do was cut down on how much I am eating.  For breakfast (yes, I ALWAYS eat breakfast) I usually have a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and a glass of non fat milk.  I eat a cheese stick or similar for snack and then leftover dinner for lunch.  Between lunch and dinner, I have a small snack of crackers or even a piece of chocolate (or two).  For dinner, I almost always cook from scratch so I know exactly how much of what food is in our meal.  I cook simple meals that can be done in about 20-30 minutes and I do use a few short cuts but I am proud of my ability to put a balanced meal together most nights.  The trick to eating dinner is only have one helping of dinner.  I used to go back for seconds, not anymore.  Notice I do eat 5 times each day but the portions are small.  Also, when I do go out to eat, I try to order al a carte or split a meal with someone.

So, combine this eating method with the fact that I have to chase after 12 special education kindergartners each day at work and then my own two ruffians at home, I exert a fair amount of energy each day.  If I was sitting more, I would eat a little less at each meal.  So, all in all I lost about 10 pounds between August and November.  Since then I have been stable but I am fine with that.  I am a nice size 10 and I think its a manageable size and weight for me.

This is in November 2011 and I had lost the 10 pounds. My husband and I are always upstaged by our cute kids.