Busy weeks ahead

The next 3 weeks are busy ones for our household.

First up is Jason's 34th birthday!! Its this Friday and I have a small surprise cooked up for him and a special dinner in the plans, too. He doesn't want anything but who am I to resist a little fun? ;)

Then, of course, next Wednesday is Christmas Day. The boys decided they would like to sing at the children's Mass on Christmas Eve so we are going to 4pm Mass and they will sing some songs with the "children's choir" - its really just a group of kids from the k-6 catechism classes that are going to rehearse for a half hour before and then give their all, not truly a children's choir. Since we are going to an earlier Mass, we can get a good night's rest and spend Christmas morning opening our gifts here at home.

On Saturday, we will be spending the day at my parents with one of my sisters and brothers-in-law, 4 of my nephews, 2 of my nieces and my soon-to-be niece-in-law (is that even a word? Lol).y mom has to work all week so it worked out well for everybody.

Either Friday or Sunday will be spent at Jason's parents for our Christmas celebration with his brother and niece, his sister and her boyfriend. His other sister and brother-in-law won't be able to make it as they are traveling to his parents this year. I think its great that they are able to share their holidays, trading off each year. We all get an opportunity to see them each year, just at different times.

Saturday is also a big day foe our little family. Its mine and Jason's 13th wedding anniversary! My mom has requested to keep the boys for an hour or two while we go to dinner or something.

After that its the New Year and everybody is celebrating. My newest favorite day for January isn't until the 3rd though. Our little baby J will officially be TWO! he's grown so much over the last two years and he's so sweet. I can't believe how big he is and how smart he's becoming. He's a little too much like his brothers ;) I swear they scare me sometimes.

I'm looking forward to everything settling down after the beginning of the year before it gets super crazy around here with Jason's 3 classes 4 days a week starting up on the 13th or 14th! This means I will be in charge of getting Alex to cub scouts while dragging the other two with us on 3 Tuesdays a month and 1 Wednesday a month. I think we will be doing either a lot of crackpot meals or super simple meals for the next few months.

What I'm looking forward to...

With Thanksgiving just two days away, we have been making plans on how to spend the days
surrounding the holiday as the boys have a 5 day weekend. We originally planned to spend Thursday with Jason's family, Friday and Saturday at home and then Sunday at my parents. It's a bit of a drive (almost 2 hours each way) with both families living in the same city and truthfully, I wasn't looking forward to 4 long car rides with 3 most likely cranky boys in a matter of just a couple of days. After a suggestion, we decided to rent a hotel room for Thursday through Sunday.

I'm truly looking forward to this weekend and holiday. Here's just some of the reasons why: 

6. The pool. I'm only half joking. When we are done with all the festivities, or in between, we can head to the hotel and let the boys swim for a bit. It will get their energy out, let them unwind and have fun, as well as make it feel like a mini-vacation! Holidays can be stressful, even with all the fun of visiting, and swimming is a great way to relax :)

5. The food. Turkey, ham, kielbasa - REAL Polish kielbasa, not "polish sausage" - mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, more turkey, pumpkin pie, did I mention turkey? We rarely have turkey or pie or sweet potatoes. Comfort food, in moderation, can be so, well, comforting!

4. Smiling kids. Spending time with their grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins always seems to make them happy. They get to play outside riding the 4-wheeler or mini-bike or inside playing a board game or with blocks or Mr. Potato Head (more the toddler, though his brothers play with him). They get to share what's new and important to them with the people they don't see often enough.

3. Shopping. Not that I will be doing a lot of this, but I'm considering going on Friday morning for a bit with my mom. We've gone a couple times together, and it's nice to just spend some time one-on-one with her, talking and giggling at 5am.

2. Not driving. Well, not as much. Since we are spending a few days visiting, we won't be doing as much driving as we thought. Also many of the times we've been down recently, we've been there either just for a day trip or barely overnight. It's always exhausting and makes it less fun. Being able to truly enjoy a few days visiting, while also having our own space and giving our families their space "back" without being far away, will be very nice.

1. Family. As corny as that sounds, it's true. Jason's sister and new brother-in-law are going to be in town also, and it's been far too long since we've spent time with them. His parents, his other sister, his brother and niece will all be there. On Sunday, at my parents, one of my sisters will be in town with my newest brother-in-law and their kids. Funny stories will be told, many hugs and kisses given, and new memories made. This is one of my favorite times of year. Going home and spending the holidays with the people we love is wonderful.

Our attempt at a dye-free Halloween

Halloween can be quite challenging when it comes to one thing that we try to do. We aren't perfect about it, but we avoid artificial, petroleum-based food dyes when possible. With all the candy and treats that we have no control over, it seems it would prove very difficult, right?

Today's celebrations start with a small party in Alex's class - E's class doesn't have one as they are middle schoolers - and that entails cookies with frosting and sprinkles, juice boxes, and candy.

I signed up to bring juice boxes and sprinkles because Alex requested it. We chose Capri Sun 100% juice boxes, and that made it easy to avoid dyes as well as HFCS, though I'm sure there are healthier options. Sprinkles were a little more difficult. Of course, I don't want him to feel bad about not having colored sprinkles like the other kids, but he understands our reasons. We did find plain chocolate sprinkles that don't have artificial dyes. (It was odd though, one well-known brand had small containers of chocolate sprinkles with no dyes but their large containers of chocolate sprinkles had red 40, yellow and blue - can't remember the exact #'s - dyes!) I remembered seeing organic sprinkles somewhere, and we found them at Kroger. They aren't as vibrant - more pastel in color - and were $3.99 for a 1oz package. Well worth it though to make the boy happy :) Here's the brand we bought Let's Do Organic Sprinkelz Organic Confetti *note the link is for bulk 12 pk on Amazon.com*

He understands those are JUST for him, and I explained to the teacher the deal. She was very understanding and actually asked if he was supposed to have cupcakes and things on days other students brought birthday treats. I told her that we feel he is old enough and understands and that he can make an informed decision. I know sometimes he will choose to eat the bright blue and green and pink frosted cupcakes, and other times he will decline. He knows how he feels later and the next day or two and whether it's worth it. Also, I am only concerned with what is in my control. If I can send an alternative for a party, then I will. If I don't know what/when a birthday treat is, it's truly ok.

Back to the topic at hand. Trick or treating today may actually be cancelled or delayed due to bad thunderstorms predicted including high winds. If it was just a little rain, we'd still go out, but we'll see. All the candy that the boys will receive will undoubtedly include brightly colored candy, gum, jawbreakers, licorice, and who knows what. We are going to sort the candy and the boys can keep anything that is dye-free. Then they have a couple of choices. We can go buy dye-free lollipops and gummy bears to trade them for things they can't have; they can combine all their "no thank-yous" and leave it for the switch witch to trade an item; we can keep some things for a gingerbread house at Christmas time; or a combination of the 3. I think if they choose the switch witch, she will bring them a gift card to buy something they want. I'm considering not even doing the "switch witch" and just telling them they can trade mom and dad candy for a toy/gift card. I guess I should probably decide pretty quick, since today is Halloween ;)

I know some may think I'm ruining their fun, and a few years ago I may have felt the same way. But I know what's right for my family and my boys. They still get to dress up in costumes, go trick-or-treating and eat some candy but they don't get an overload nor will they eat tons of petroleum-based dyes. 

After E's 4th grade science experiment, and the results, I will never doubt our decision and the position we have on those dyes. Don't know what I'm talking about? Long story short: E had 2 mice and a maze. Both were given regular water and food and ran the maze for a week. Times got progressively better. One of the mice was given red food coloring in his water for a week. The other was not - he was the "control". During the second week of maze trials, the mouse given red dye got slower and couldn't figure out the maze. His times went from around 60 seconds to an ending time the last day of over FIVE minutes. He also became aggressive, erratic and confused. We used food coloring that you buy at the store and just put a few drops in his water bottle. No more than what people eat DAILY! After stopping the experiment, his behavior seemed to return to his pre-dye state. The "control" mouse kept similar times during the entire two weeks and his behavior never changed. The maze was never changed so logically after a week of running it, they knew the route pretty well. It was very interesting and E worked very hard on it. Again, I will never doubt our decision after seeing the difference.