MPM - Week of 2/23 - 3/1/14

Sunday: Sandwiches for dinner. Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts today so we are eating our "big meal" of the day there at lunchtime

Monday: Breakfast (bacon/sausage, eggs, and toast)

Tuesday: Whole Chicken in crockpot (making two to have plenty left over for freezer AND tacos), mashed red potatoes, corn

Wednesday: Chicken tacos - using yesterday's leftover chicken, refried beans in slow cooker

Thursday: Meat and veggie foil packets *new to us recipe*

Friday: Tuna noodle casserole - finally going to make it as we've had the ingredients in the house for weeks

Saturday: Cheeseburgers, macaroni and cheese, carrots and applesauce

There are so, so many recipes I want to try from 100 Days of Real Food, and 3 of the four above we've made many times before with great success. I have tried others that we didn't like, as well as many we have liked and want to make again. I hope to eventually make it all the way through all of their recipes, and I can NOT wait till August when her cookbook is set to come out. I already informed Jason that I want it badly!! I would also love Pioneer Woman's cookbooks. All of them. I've made several of her recipes over the last couple of years with rave reviews. Birthday's coming up in 6 1/2 weeks. Maybe I will get lucky and get a new cookbook ;)

Linking up at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Family Fun Day - a Winter fun list update

This Saturday, we had a family fun day, and knocked several items off of our winter fun list!

First we decided to head out for lunch, and since eat at a new restaurant was on our list, we chose Achatz Burgers. Jason was feeling a bit under the weather and decided against eating anything at the time. I chose a double cheeseburger with lettuce, ketchup and mayo and shared shared cheese fries with Jackson, who also ate a mini burger. Ethan had a single cheeseburger with lettuce and ketchup as well as a small order of cheese fries, and Alex chose a Koegel hot dog and chili cheese fries. We considered dessert - they had shakes, malts, footbeer or Vernor's floats, their "famous" pie and brownies, both of which had an option to be a la mode! - but were all very full from lunch.

Waiting for their food :)

After lunch, we headed off to the bowling alley for a quick game. Jackson fell asleep on the way there, and slept for the entire time we were there, almost an hour! Next time, I'm hoping he'll be awake and get a chance to try a hand at it. Jason won with 110, E came in second with 88, Alex was in third with 84, and I had a score of 83. The best part? We all had a good game, with some laughs, and no yelling or arguing!

We have been wanting to check out SkyZone for a while now, and decided to go ahead and mark it off the list too. The boys had a ton of fun jumping, even Jackson. Jason didn't want to jump, so he stayed off to the side and snapped some pictures on his phone - still waiting for him to send them to me ;) One of us had to go in with Jackson, and they split the main court areas in to two, one for bigger kids, and one for smaller kids (if I had to guess, it was 5 and under). The girl at the counter told me that we would "split up" with the older boys on one side, and Jack and I on the other. I paid for the 4 of us and bought our skysocks. She made it seem like - by saying I would be with Jackson on the side with the smaller children and parents - that I would be able to jump with him... Yeah, not so much. Actually NOT AT ALL! I was trying to show him how to jump (in a separate square from me) and having fun, when one of teenage girls that work there employees came over to our side, and told me to stay off the trampolines, and stay on the borders. I proceeded to tell her that I had paid to jump and I also had to stay with my TWO YEAR OLD and the other teenage girl her fellow employee at the desk had told me I was to go on that side with him and did not tell me when I paid $10 for 30 minutes that I couldn't actually jump with him. I was seriously ticked off. If I couldn't jump on that side with him, why had I paid good money? That was bad enough. I wasn't the only parent told that by her/others, and the two other parents I spoke with briefly also felt the same way about it, why pay if not allowed to jump with them? What was the big deal? I understand the whole safety aspect of it, but seriously, we were all adults and the parents of these toddlers and preschoolers. We know how to be careful and safe. It wasn't as if it was a older sibling just playing all willy-nilly. It just seems ridiculous. Also a dad was sitting on the border by the wall in the court watching his young daughter bounce on the square in front of him, and essentially got reprimanded for that. If these are the rules, why not just post them somewhere? Oh well. Not worth $40+ to Jason and I for 30 minutes. If we go back, it will be just Jason or I taking Ethan and Alex, as they did have fun. When Jackson gets a bit older, he may go back, but for now, not happening. He would have just as much fun jumping on a mattress at home for free. With his brothers. Or mom ;) My review: Great fun for older kids, still fun for little ones, but not worth the cost, in my opinion. Also the cost is somewhat high in comparison to the amount of time. If you pay for a longer time, the value is better ($10 for 30 mins, $14 for 60, etc). I'm not saying the concept is bad, but post the rules somewhere at least.

Since it was time to go home and feed our children some dinner, and Jason was finally feeling 100%, we opted for a movie night and pizza. The older boys each picked out a movie to watch and we made it into a double feature. We have Amazon Prime, as well as Redbox Instant right now, so we searched on each for something good to watch.

Alex picked out Free Birds. We all really enjoyed it, and laughing filled the living room. Ethan picked Ender's Game. Alex wasn't sure he wanted to watch it, but decided to sit through it anyway, and ended up enjoying it. I liked it but the end caught me off guard a bit with its twist. I had never heard of the book series that it was based on, but it perked my interest, and I think E might enjoy reading them, as well as Alex. We filled up on pizza so opted out of popcorn.

Other items we crossed off our bucket list this week:
Play Twister - this one didn't go quite as planned, but we made into our own version with Jackson playing along too, and turned it into a learning experience, while still having fun.

We decided to remove the following from our list: Make homemade Valentines; Make cupcakes for Valentine's Day; Melty Bead Ornaments; and finally Watch Frosty the Snowman - we are all just sick of seeing snow right now, so poor Frosty loses out ;)

At the suggestion of a friend and coworker of Jason's, we added Detroit Historical Museum. Ethan and I have been there, for a field trip, way back in 4th grade. It was pretty neat then, and I have heard they added some new exhibits. Also adding in a movie that we ALL want to see, and since it's been a while since we've gone to the theater - other than the movie "festival" that the theater did back several months ago with free, newer movies for the kids and $1 for adults, and then it was just the boys and I - I thought it would be a neat one to go check out: The Lego Movie!

With less than a month left of it being officially the Winter season, we are doing pretty good on our list, having done 19 already, and started 2 (swim lessons and winter reading club). We still have 19 items left, not including our Saint studies and books to read. While we finished our Ohio book, the Michigan book we picked out has been less fun and more of a textbook style book. Not the ideal read-aloud book for a family setting. Our series book #1, Anne of Green Gables, didn't really seem to catch the boys' interest too much, and we haven't picked it back up since day 1 of reading it, only making it to chapter 3. While I am considering changing the series, I'd like to at least finish the first book before giving up on it entirely.

Sorry for such a late update. However, as you may know from my most recent Facebook update, I managed to break my laptop's screen. When I went to get up to help Jackson with something, I sat it on the small stack of towels next to the recliner - which had was reclined at the time - thinking it was safer there than on the stack of library books on the end table. Unbeknownst to me, it slid as I closed the recliner, and while I felt the recliner bump it, I didn't think anything of it because it barely touched it and didn't smash it as it closes slowly with a handle. Honestly, I though a toy was stuck under there. I took care of my very unhappy 2 year old (who, by the way, is dealing with a bit of a cold and it had just started that day with a low-grade fever) and then proceeded to pick up the laptop, realizing at then that it was in fact the computer and NOT a toy that I'd bumped. I noticed a small nick/dent on the outside top, but figured it couldn't be that bad. Um, yeah, I'd share a pic but it's just depressing me. It's got a visible smashed/cracked area under the screen, with it splintered out and the whole screen is distorted. The actual glass isn't broken, thank goodness, but whatever is inside the screen is destroyed :( Since it is almost the same price to repair it as it is to just replace it, we are opting to replace it. However, I feel the need to hold off on replacing it for the time being. It can still be used, and is hooked up to our desktop dinosaur's monitor and works just fine. The desktop PC is rarely, if ever used, so we just shut it off and unplugged it and now the laptop truly replaced it. It's not ideal, as I like to write in the living room, but workable.

Change can be hard

even if and when it is needed. Sometimes, the desired change is better in theory than in action.

And, sometimes, maybe, just maybe, that change is much easier than anticipated.

Thankfully, this has been one of those times.

Let me set the stage. Explain how it all started. Way back in January (ha!), I made up a list of goals for each of the boys. Including Jackson. Knowing full well that all of his personal goals for the year would be implemented by mom and dad. Knowing at least a few were huge life changes for such a little guy.

Fast forward to Friday, sometime before 4am, the bazillionth time of Jack waking up, and me just moving him to our bed so I *selfishly* - my words - could get a little more sleep. The kicking, and squirming, and hands in the face started. Not really an ideal situation for any of the three of us to get more sleep. Jason spouted off to me - as nicely as he could for 4am while tired - that I really need to just put him back in his bed, etc. I lost it, telling him, yes that would be nice but he is wide awake now, hates the crib, etc. A *ahem* disagreement ensued, until about 10 mins or so later, Jackson and I headed to the living room to read 9 books (yes I counted!) and then watched Sprout for a bit.

6am rolls around, and Jason is ready to walk out the door and another small discussion occurs. I'm at my wit's end. I just want ALL of us to be happy, comfortable and sleeping well. Jackson doesn't really have a "schedule" when it comes to sleep. I'm tired of sleeping on the couch with him several partial nights a week and Jason doesn't want him in our bed because then he can't sleep for work and school.

After taking the boys to school, Jackson and I got to work. I sorted through the closet and all the garage sale/donation items still in the guest bedroom to make a list for next year's taxes, and placed all the bags and boxes for donation on the front porch temporarily. Then I moved the queen mattress, and box spring to the family room, as it was too heavy to move anywhere else alone. After taking apart the bed frame (just a simple metal frame), and moving that also, Jackson's clean clothes were moved from his dresser to the identical dresser already inside of his closet that was being used for storage. He doesn't have a lot of clothes to hang up, so it's perfect. With how heavy the dresser is, I like it out of his reach. He can't yet open the folding closet doors, so that's a blessing. Since the first dresser was now empty, it was also sat in the family room. Next was Ethan's desk, which got completely cleaned out and sorted through, before finding it's new home - also in the family room, but the only thing moved that will stay there. 3 trash bags and lots of heavy furniture later, the room was almost completely empty. We have a small wooden bedside table that we left, but removed the door and latch from so now it's a good cubby or possibly bookshelf for Jack.

In need of a new bed for Jack, as I know how much he dislikes the crib, he and I searched online and came across a Disney Pixar's Cars bed for less than $70! We are still going to use the crib mattress, and he loved the bed. It turns out Toys R Us carries the bed, as well as the right size bedding also in the Cars theme, so I ordered them to be picked up in store that day. We had to wait until after school to go get them, and when we did we also got another baby gate and a light-up Cars wall art.

When Jason got home, boy, was he surprised to see me putting together a new bed in an almost empty room, as he had no clue what I had planned. He had to help me finish, as it was a bit more difficult than I anticipated, but was a breeze with his help. Thankfully he also made some fish sticks and fries for the boys for a quick dinner.

After the boys had eaten, and we had our own dinner of Zen Salmon and a side salad, it was time to have Jackson check out his room. We moved some toys in there and made his bed all up for him. He climbed right in and laid down for a second. Since he wasn't sure what to think, and said "not bedtime, mommy" I figured, oh boy, this isn't going to be very easy, but we shall see...

Much to my surprise, come 9pm, he willingly went to his room, climbed in bed (coolest part for him I think!) and laid down. "Blanket, pweese, mommy?" All snuggled up, with his monkey by his side, we read a few books, and his eyes got heavy with sleep. After several slow blinks, his eyes opened no more, so I stood to leave after a few more minutes and finishing the book we had started, to ensure he was asleep. I shut off the light, and up popped his little head, with a frantic little voice saying "no mommy! turn on light!" I instead turned on his wall art, and went back to his bedside and sang several nursery rhymes, before running out and resorting to amazing grace and jingle bells :) This time he was surely asleep. I just had to quietly "sneak" out the door, and over the newly placed baby gate (he can open the door, and we don't want him to wander to the basement stairs or something in the dark, his door stays open, we can clearly hear him, and any of us, including his brothers, if need be, can easily lift him out in an emergency.) So now it's 9:30, and he's fast asleep in his own bed, in his own room, and the other two boys are ready for bed too. After "good night's" all around, even mama is tired and heads to bed. I figured I'd be up in a couple of hours with an unhappy toddler.

Well I was right about being up, but very wrong about the reason. He stayed fast asleep. I, however, woke up almost every two hours, worried, and had to peak in on him! He did wake once at 4, needing a diaper change, but it was sort of funny how it happened. I had woken for what felt like the umpteenth time, but just to use the bathroom myself, and on my way there, I walk right by his door. I heard a faint voice talking inaudibly, and then the unmistakable "mommy, diaper? MOMMY, diaper change, pweese?" I quietly entered his room, changed his diaper without taking him out of his bed and therefore barely disturbing him. I don't even think he opened his eyes, and he went right back to sleep until just before six.

Talk about change! I thought, oh it MUST be a fluke. Surely, this barely 25 month old little boy who has needed to cuddle almost every night of his life, couldn't possibly be growing up so much so fast! I mean, he stop nursing less than 2 months ago, had his second birthday just over 6 weeks ago, had thumb surgery on Monday and freaked out a bit after waking from the anesthesia, crying uncontrollably for me until they came and got me - thankfully only a couple of minutes - and now he was willingly going to bed in his own bed. AND sleeping through the night?! Impossible!!

Wow. I've been a fool. I honestly didn't think he was ready. Apparently, having his own "real" bed - as well as room - was what he needed. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to buy him a bed a couple of months ago at a mom-to-mom sale, but Jason had said nah, we didn't need it because he didn't have his own room, he just needed to sleep in the crib. Well we were BOTH wrong. Me for not thinking he was ready, and Jas for thinking the crib was just as good or better than a big boy bed.

Last night went smoothly as well. After watching Free Birds, and having pizza for dinner, Jackson got a quick bath before we sat and watched Ender's Game, during which he bounced back and forth between mom and dad, and even went to lay down for a few minutes. He wasn't ready to fall asleep though and wanted some cuddle time with Jason, during which he fell asleep. After the movie was over, Jason was able to lay him down without waking him - let me tell you what, it's much easier in a small bed than into a crib! - and he slept until about 4am again! After a diaper change, I sang him back to sleep until just after 6 when he woke up yelling "mommy, daddy, move gate?? PWEESE??" Instead, E decided to go in there and play cars and trains and go-go's with him and Alex joined him a few minutes later.

Two days in, and while I still woke a couple times to check on him, I did sleep a bit better myself last night, and he is gaining some confidence and sleeping longer stretches for sure! Plus, it's nice not getting kicked in the head or stomach or back ;)

So we can officially mark off "move to his own room" and "transition to toddler bed" off of Jackson's 2014 goals!! Now just to start potty training...

Oh and an update on his thumb! (This was also on our Health goals for 2014 - "Jackson's thumb surgery") I never shared a post about it, even though I meant to. Monday, we had to drive down to the D to be at the children's hospital there at 6:45, and hit a couple small snags. The first was just a bit of heavy traffic, and then the parking garage cost $3, up front, cash only. Oops, I didn't know that, having never been to this particular hospital, so I had to drive around until I found an ATM, and pull out some cash. That stunk as it cost me an extra $3 ATM fee! After finally parking, we were able to enter, only 30 minutes late now, at this point. My cell phone rings loudly, as I'm trying to contain Jackson's excitement for a new place, and figure out where we are supposed to go. Oh great the hospital calling. I answer, explain what happens and am told to go to admitting/reception to check in and then proceed to the surgical reception area after that. I checked Jack in and read him a couple of books while we wait. Finally, we get called back to fill out the paperwork, and I'm told we have an estimated patient responsibility of blah, blah, blah, will I be paying anything on it today? No, not today - we are STILL dealing with the other hospital mishap in billing for his other surgery, and I'm not interested in making a payment until I know the exact, correct amount from our insurance company and receive an actual bill, besides the fact that it's almost 2k for this... - she says something, half under her breath, about how they really like you to pay something the day of service. Oh, well sorry, don't have it today, I think to myself. She goes back to get something from the printer for me to sign, stating I understand the estimated bill, and here's where to send it, etc, and I hear her talking to another admissions lady. One says "oh, you have one too?" Other "yeah, ugh." something else that sounded like "I hate when they do that." but I couldn't be sure. Oh really? Great customer service so far...

Time to head to the surgical reception area, where we sat for just a few minutes, until called back to the "check-in" pre-op area. He was weighed and measured - almost 30 lbs and just shy of 36 inches - and checked over. The orthopedic surgeon, nurses, anesthesiologist all came over to talk to me and go over what would happen. His thumb was marked and we waited for what felt like just 2 minutes! They had me change him into hospital pants, socks and a gown, but Jackson was angry at me for taking off his car/truck jammies! No gown for him, just pants and socks. Then it was time for mom to put on a gown, cap, and mask - I got to go back with him, while they put him to sleep! YAY! much better, as he did not want me to leave or to leave me. We laid him down, and they put the mask on. He was not happy at all :( He cried and yelled, but was so brave too. After just a few seconds he started to drift off to sleep. I gave him a kiss and was escorted back to the pre-op area. Within 15 minutes, the surgeon came out to tell me the surgery was done, and went well. In just a few minutes, he'd be waking up and they should be able to bring him to me. After what seemed like forever, a nurse came to get me and take me the post-op wake-up recovery room, as he was upset and unable to calm himself. Jackson was very happy to see me, as I was him. He cuddled right up, and stopped crying within moments, drank some juice and fell back asleep. We moved back to the pre-op/recovery area, and waited for a bit. He woke up, had some more juice, and we sat for a few minutes. The nurse came in and checked him over. The anesthesiologist came in and said he was ready to go home :) IV was removed, we got him dressed and went over at-home instructions. He went back at 8:25 and I was signing check-out papers at 9:25!! How's that for awesome!? The morning didn't start out great, but the nurses, doctors and staff (besides admitting) were so kind, helpful and patient! We will definitely be using this hospital for any future needs for any of the boys - which hopefully won't be anytime soon of course.

We were able to remove the gauze in two days, but I did change it once after the first day, as it got quite dirty while he ate. Then the steri-strips fell off on their own by Friday, and the incision is almost completely healed already! They also used that glue stuff to seal it. His thumb and palm were quite swollen and bruised the first couple of days, and the bruising has slowly gone away as well as the swelling. It's still slightly swollen and sore, though no longer purple, and he doesn't like it getting cleaned after meals. We have to be super gentle but I don't want anything getting in there, or it getting infected. Bath time is the easiest time to get it clean of course, so we just do the best we can right after eating, and then clean it well at during his bath and let it kind of soak in the bubbles :) Bubble baths have become our best friend this week! Actually, we had to add more baby bath soap to our grocery list, as we ran out yesterday!

On top of all that, Alex managed to injure his foot on Wednesday during gym class while jumping rope. Instead of stopping, he continued to jump, went through the day limping and walked over to the HS for play rehearsal when it started hurting even worse. He went back to his classroom and then finally to the office to call me to pick him up early from rehearsal (he didn't even last 15 minutes!). I picked him and Ethan up rather than drive back a 3rd time that day to get E at 6:30, and we went home. Making sure his foot was ok, I made him stay off of it for the rest of the day, and sit out of gym class on Thursday. He just pulled or twisted something in the top of his foot when he landed funny on his toes. I let him know that he really should have stopped jumping right away, and kept off of it for a bit until the pain was gone, and that he got very lucky he didn't cause himself serious harm! He promised if anything like that happens again, he'll stop, take a break, and call one of us if necessary, so we can see the dr to make sure it's just a strain. Alex is fine now, and although it did hurt a little yesterday after we left Skyzone, he said it wasn't too bad at all. I reminded him that if he needs to stop jumping rope in gym this week because it hurts again, that's fine! Luckily they have tomorrow off, so he can take it somewhat easy and stay off of it a bit more.

It's been a pretty crazy week! After all that, we spent a whole day ticking things off of our winter fun list! Look for a nice, long post tomorrow for that. We had such a fun family day yesterday, and even though mom and dad are a little under the weather, we made the most of it, that's for sure. Jason is at City Airport for little while today, and plans to go tomorrow for a while too - he's off of work for the holiday at his regular job - so we are just having a lazy morning around here. Grocery shopping in a bit, maybe after Jason gets home, by myself. I don't know that we could all survive a busy Sunday morning grocery store visit. Although, they could help pick out things they want for snacks...
 

Party time! (Winter fun list update)

I'm just a *ahem* little late in writing this up, but this is the first chance I've had to actually sit when I had a good internet connection at the same time this week. Looking back at the blog, I realize now that I never posted last week for the bucket list, and haven't shared at ALL since the 3rd!! Oops! Guess we've been pretty busy around here. I'll have to share more later :)

Saturday, our friends from Learning Life with 3 Sons (who is also hosting the link-up for the winter bucket lists!) for a small "party" and helped us knock that off our list. I think we had a good time, I know my boys definitely enjoyed having some other boys to play with - Jason included ;) We had pizza bagels, and pb&j snowmen sandwiches for lunch, with lots of fun foods too. Buckeyes, chocolate chip cookies, popcorn (in snowmen cups), Olympic torches (cheese curls in ice cream cones), cheese/grape snowmen, powdered donut "snowballs", fresh whip cream, homemade marshmallows, organic candy canes, mini chocolate chips, pirouette wafers, and hot chocolate. The marshmallows were, um, different, as Julie so kindly described. I would say they were not so good in the finished product. At least 2 of the boys liked them - E and Julie's oldest son did - and they melted great and tasted fine in the hot chocolate, but plain, they were not really great.

We all went outside and played for an hour or so - less than that for Jackson and I, but he refused to nap. He wanted to go play in the snow. In fact, at one point while trying to settle him down, he laid on the floor pouting, and I asked if he was ok. "No, I not ok. I go outside and play with snow now, mommy?" Too sweet to say no to him. The others were alternating between roughhousing, a snowball fight and football, from what I could tell.

At some point during the afternoon, the boys played in the basement, and also played some "snowman slam".

We didn't play the one other game I thought they might like, but the video games got turned on for a bit with Julie's oldest and Jason playing a vs. game on the PS2 and the others watching them.

So we managed to mark the following off our list this week:

• Have a party with friends
• Make homemade marshmallows and drink hot cocoa
• Make buckeyes
• Bake cookies and take some to neighbors - this one was half done, we didn't take any to neighbors. However, Jason did take cookies and buckeyes to work today, so I'm counting that as the other half.

We've made some progress on the following:

• Find and read a new book series to read - We've read the first two chapters and part of the 3rd in Anne of Green Gables.
• Library Event - changing this slightly to a library activity, as in the winter reading club. It's a bingo board for the younger two and for the teen/middle school group, they keep track of each book they read. Both groups have an opportunity to win prizes. Since we are already upping our reading around here, this coincides with our personal goals for the year.

This weekend is open with no swim lesson or catechism, and the boys and Jason don't have school Monday, so I have great hopes to knock some "big" stuff off of our list!

Menu Plan Monday

We always have a menu planned out around here, and follow it pretty good for the most part. I always forget to link up though over at I'm an Organizing Junkie for MPM, which I used to do on my "old" blog over the years. Maybe sharing it on here will keep me accountable to following the plan even better as well as continuing to find and try 2-3 new recipes a month as per our health-related goals for 2014. After choosing this week's menu, we may be able to adjust that goal to one new recipe weekly!

I'm including Sunday's meal plan too, as I generally plan from Sunday-Saturday. Lots of crockpot meals this week - actually 5 of 7!

Sunday: *Cheeseburger soup (c)
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: *Honey sesame chicken with rice (maybe serve on rolls for the boys) (c)
Wednesday: Roast, red potatoes, baby carrots (c)
Thursday: *Taco chili with multi-grain tortilla chips (c)
Friday: Tuna noodle casserole - my mom's recipe, slightly modified: 1 box of rotini, cooked; 3-4 cans chunk light tuna in water, drained; 2 boxes organic cream of mushroom soup; 1 can sweet peas, drained. Mix together in casserole dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, I think? I'm just going to kind of wing it, as it's been a long time since I made this and I can't find my recipe card :(
Saturday: *White chicken chili (c)

*these recipes are found at graciously saved
(c) means it's a crockpot meal

this...

Sometimes, you just have to walk away from things that are causing more problems than they are helping. By doing so, you can commit more fully to the people and things that mean the most to you and have been there the longest - for me, that's my husband and my boys.

It sounds like an excuse, but it's so much more than that.
When I decided to start being a Beachbody Coach, I didn't discuss it with Jason. I just jumped right in, with both feet. Now, while it may be a great fit for some people, I've struggled with it. I want to help people, help them get healthy and fit, learn to eat right, all the while doing the same for myself. But I feel like a.) nobody is interested or b.) nobody can afford to buy the workouts and/or shakes. Now I know what other coaches will say: It's not about selling. I get that, but to an extent it is. They need to find a workout that is their soul-mate workout, and there are so many good choices and the shakes are super healthy, but most people I know though just can't do it. I'm not good at reaching out to new people, either.  Not only has it been stressing me out, because I don't know what/how/who, even with my awesome team's help (it's truly not about them, it's all about what I can and can't do, handle and control), but we have been spending money on our own shakes as well as our business fees. This has caused some budgetary concerns - minor, but very real.

After the first of the year, our insurance went up, as did the 401k  deductions, and we are trying to save some money for some home improvements we want to do as well as other things. One more reason to cut expenses.

I am trying not to think of this as quitting or giving up on something, so much as re-prioritizing. Things need to change and this is where they can. We needed to take a long hard look at things, and really step back. I choose them, over ANYTHING else.

My commitment has been and always will be, first and foremost, to the love of my life, Jason, and our 3 sons, Ethan, Alex, and Jack. When I sat down and spoke with Jason about quitting being a coach, and my why's, we discussed openly and came to the conclusion that it's what's right for our whole family, because I'm struggling with it.

 Chains do not hold a marriage together.  It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.  ~Simone Signoret

I love this quote, because for me those threads are our conversations, our fights, our compromises, our willingness to fight for one another and for our family unit.

I love being married.  It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.  ~Rita Rudner
 

I hope I don't annoy him too much, and even when he annoys me, I love him more than life.

What needs changing in YOUR life today? For me, it's hunkering down into our family more, and shutting out the world just a bit, while still sharing, growing, loving, and moving on from things that just don't fit. I'm thankful for the opportunity I had, and am not sorry I attempted. I did learn things, and will always be grateful for that. I feel like I've made some new friends along the way and reconnected with old acquaintances, too.

On to bigger and better things. Like my eldest son's school spelling bee in an hour. Yes, that's right, E won the class bee again this year, and goes to the next level. If he wins, it will be the charter school bee and possibly the Scripps regional bee again. Even if he doesn't make it, I'm proud of him and Alex for all their hard work in school. (Alex was disappointed because he didn't win his class bee, but he was happy for his good friend that did :) ) Oh, and of course, my writing, online and offline. I have had some book ideas floating around in my head for months now, and while they might not be any good at all, I need to get them on paper and share with someone...

Update on our winter fun list

I thought we wouldn't have a lot crossed off this week but it turns out we did quite a few things on our Winter fun list!

We caught up on our Saint studies yesterday (finally!) and learned about St. Andre Bessette, St. Hilary, St. Marianne Cope, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Some interesting take-aways for each of us? *I'm copying word for word what the boys wrote in their notes*

St. Andre Bessette
E: St. Andre Bessette died at 92, despite being sick very often.
A: He died at age 92 even though sick a lot.
Mom: He was highly devoted to St. Joseph, and built a chapel with very little money. Also he was an orphan at a young age, the 8th of 12 children, and sick very often, making it near impossible to work.

St. Hilary
E: St. Hilary was banished from France.
A: He was banished from France.
Mom: Even though he was exiled, he never stopped believing and professing his belief in God. Others tried to get him to renounce God as well as condemn Athanasius, who was a staunch defender of God from the East and he refused!

St. Marianne Cope
E: St. Marianne Cope's generosity did many good things, including taking care of people with leprosy, and opening a school for girls.
A: She opened a house for "unprotected" woman and girls.
Mom: Mother Marianne of Molokai willingly and lovingly took care of many people with leprosy in Hawaii, in a time when it was considered dangerous or awful. Sick people were basically quarantined and left alone and no one would go near them. She went with several others and nursed them, as well as opening a school for girls, a hospital and a home for "unprotected women and girls"! A true example of servitude, if you ask me!

St. Thomas Aquinas
E: St. Thomas Aquinas' feast day is on January 28th. Patron saint of students and universities. He wrote and teached. Lived from 1225-1274. Died at 48 years
A: Patron of students and schools. Born in end of 1225. Died at age 48. very intelligent.
Mom: He renounced the things of this world and decided to join the Dominicans. Even when his family didn't agree and even tried to tempt him, he stayed steadfast! He is a doctor of the Church, and has many great writings.

Mary, Mother of God
E: St. Mary (I know, she's not known as St. Mary, lol) was chosen by God to give birth to Jesus
A: Virgin Mary. Mother of Jesus.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
E: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first American born Saint, and started the first Catholic school in the USA. Died at 46, and had tuberculosis.
A: Made first Catholic school. Husband died when she was very young. Patron saint of Catholic schools. Had tuberculosis.
Mom: She converted to Catholicism.

On Sunday, the boys and I ventured out to the library to get a few books! We found many books on Ohio and Michigan, so each of the boys got to choose one.

Ethan chose the Michigan book and we haven't actually started reading it yet.

Alex chose the Ohio book and we finished it yesterday after dinner.





Since we are also hoping to start a new series together, and finish it throughout the year (it will count towards our 50 books each, also), we chose Anne of Green Gables. I'm hoping to start on it this afternoon, since we are all stuck in the house again today :)

Learning the Rosary is going ok, although we haven't been praying it daily as I planned. Ethan and Alex both know the Our Father prayer, and about half of the Hail Mary by heart. We will continue to practice the Hail Mary, Glory Be, and The Apostle's Creed - Alex knew that it's part of the Rosary, but is worried it's "too hard" to memorize. I told him that it's ok, because I don't even have that memorized, so we can learn it together!

Swimming lessons are still going on, and they are LOVING it. Since they are in two different levels but at the same time, I sit in between where they are so I can observe them. During this time, I've noticed a few things. First, Alex listens pretty well and tries harder when E is not there next to him. For example, when told to lie on his back and use his arms and legs to move but with differing motions/times, even though he had a hard time doing it, he did not get upset and give up! He just laughed a bit and said "wow, that's hard", and kept trying. Second, E's eye contact isn't the only thing he's struggling with right now. His attention and focus are hindering his ability some. I actually intervened on Saturday, because I kept seeing him duck under the water when the instructor was talking and explaining what they should do next. I just walked over, excused myself, and said to him "If you aren't going to listen, and you are going to play in the water, we can leave. If I see you go under the water again, while he's talking, rather than listening to him, you are done for today. What he's saying is important, and it will help you learn." He stopped playing and focused much better, and I didn't yell at him! Proud of both of us. Also I noticed that he did remember how to hold his hands while doing the one forward stroke, and did good with it. He still twists his whole body a lot though, and they are working on that.

A new recipe was attempted yesterday and turned out delicious, if not pretty.

Cinnamon roll pancakes!

I just replaced the 1 cup of white flour with 1 cup of King Arthur's white whole wheat flour, and the canola oil with an equal amount of (MELTED) coconut oil. Next time I won't make as much of the cinnamon roll "filling" or the icing, as we had a ton of each leftover. I also plan to try and find a "real food" or whole food substitute for the brown sugar and the powdered sugar but for our first time with a new recipe, we were all very pleased with the taste. Jackson ate a good amount for breakfast for the first time in a couple of weeks!

Last but not least, on Saturday afternoon (after swimming and Catechism for the boys and grocery shopping for mom!), since Jason wasn't working, we decided to drive down to the Michigan Science Center for a few hours. While it technically wasn't new to all of us, we are counting it as our "find a new museum" on our list. E and I went there for a field trip when he was in fourth grade and had a blast, and Jason had been there when he was a little kid.

First, we went through the area where they have hands-on factory equipment, and the boys were able to try out a few things, like moving a ball with a vacuum hose, place gears on an assembly line and see Koka, the robot.

They crossed the Mackinac Bridge and walked on some roads with traffic lights while learning a bit about construction in the engineering area.

Musical instruments were played, as well as learning about magnets and electricity with the many hands-on activities.

We also went through the health and fitness area and the boys had fun trying out some of the exercise equipment!

Of course, their kidstruction zone was tons of fun, with toys ranging from lincoln logs to trains to giant foam building blocks to tents and tunnels to crawl through.

Join in the fun over here at Learning Life with 3 Sons!

2014 Goals update

Here's our current progress:

Savings:
We are currently on week 4 of the 52 week savings challenge for OUR savings account. We did weeks one and two for each of the boys.

Debt:
Since the hospital where Jason had care for a kidney stone several years ago paid off the rest of his bill, we are using that little extra to pay down our highest interest credit card each month. Basically snowballing, adding an extra $50 to the minimum payment (unless something crazy comes up). Also getting rid of some "unnecessary" monthly items to give us some extra spending OR debt-busting money.

Home Management:
#1 The chore/point system is in full gear and working well. They have been doing great keeping track of things. The school point is going good with them bringing everything home, unpacking, doing their homework in a reasonable time, and math and reading each for 20 minutes a night. Mornings are even smoother and they have been remembering to make their beds. Behavior for E is good and though he has been whining, we aren't including that in his school behavior point. As long as he doesn't get questions/RTC, he earns his point. (He also wasn't on his meds for a bit there and now we got a refill on it and a follow-up appointment finally.) Alex is doing better with not getting warnings as often, less than 1/2 the time now, but had only been back to school for 7 days so far at that point... Chore points and round-up is going pretty well. Minimal complaining.

#2 The motivated moms app is awesome. Not only am I able to track what I'm getting done, I'm being reminded of chores I usually forget! And it's super easy to assign things to the boys, too.

#3 We've only had one Saturday since this one was started and we didn't really have a lot to do plus Alex had a friend spend the night.

Get Fit:
#1 To be honest I'm struggling with my eating right now and my motivation to exercise. I need to start fresh and get moving, though I am up off my butt more, due to getting more done around the house.

#2-6 I went a little backwards on the weight but again, by getting back on track with exercising and better food choices, I should make good progress again. I haven't stepped on the scale since last week and will do a check-in on that on Monday...

Food-related:
#1 Since our Costco membership needs renewed in March, we've been discussing this. We both like the organic ground beef better and it's a great price there: $16.99 or $17.99 for 4 lbs ($4.25 or $4.50/lb) vs $7.99/lb at Meijer and compared to regular ground beef at $3.99-5.99/lb. Also they have other things we like. I need to sit and rework the grocery budget to shop every 2 weeks again instead of every week and we are still considering a deep freezer. It may be in the basement by month's end. I've been adding things back in here and there that are organic but not much yet. I think milk and eggs are next in line, though I'd love some farm fresh, cage-free, pastured eggs. Yummm.

#2 After waking up with Jack at 3:30am and having, ahem, some digestive issues myself at the same time on Sunday, I tried to determine the cause. I had a glass of milk on Saturday and lots of cheese over the past few days, as well as greasy pepperoni and a homemade Italian sub the night before for dinner. Maybe it's not just dairy but greasy food too. I'm thinking a food diary over the next few weeks might be a good idea.

#3 See #14 under my personal goals for January's progress and plans for 2 new recipes before the end of the month!

Doctor/Dentist:

#2 E and Alex both have appointments for their yearly physicals scheduled for around their birthdays. E also has a neurologist appointment scheduled for next week for a follow-up.

#7 I have been in contact with the orthopedic surgeon's office about Jackson's thumb and should know something more next week. He may need to be seen again before they can schedule the surgery, and whether or not that's necessary, it will be sometime in the next couple of months for his surgery.

#4-6 I'm in search of a good dentist that accepts our insurance and am hoping to find an office that has a general dentist and pediatric dentist.

Personal goals:
Mom:
#1 One book down and 2nd started with a few picked out to follow. I finished Dark Souls that I actually started sometime back in November but had put it away. I found it about a week ago and read almost 3/4 of it in just a few days! I'm now reading The Remains on my galaxy tab on the kindle app. Next up is a book called Don't Breathe A Word, a kindle book I read a chapter from months ago.

#2 I've made a little progress on my project with a few rows added (10-12?) over the last few days. It's going to be a blanket, but is only about a quarter of the way finished.

#4 I'm still working slowly on the German practice and going back to work on "weaker" areas.

#6 I haven't decided what class I want to take yet but plan to look at the college as well as the rec center's summer catalog and a couple local school districts' "continuing education" summer catalogs.

#8 I am also still looking into where to take a photography class, but feel at a loss right now here.

#10 Technically, I re-purposed an old wooden cutting board into a holder for the Christmas lights but that wasn't really what the plan was, LOL.

#12 Currently doing ok with this one. I wrote 2 blog posts last week, and this is #3 for this week. I do need some "original" content.

#14 Since it's so late in the month I'm planned to find 2 recipes from Pinterest for this month's items, and then we'll kill two birds with one stone, also hitting #3 from the food/diet related goals under health goals for January. I picked out a breakfast meal (cinnamon roll pancakes - I plan to modify this slightly by using white whole wheat flour and coconut oil) and a crockpot meal (Low Fat Mexican Fiesta Chicken).

#7 and #11 Jason laughed about these, mainly due to the fact that these are so vague. He's right, of course. I need to flesh these two goals out a bit. To be honest, I'm thinking these are going to be the hardest for me.

I want to add 16-23 for my list: Visit my friend Jill in Maryland; Visit my friend Cathy in upstate NY; Visit my friend Darla who just moved to Michigan; Visit my friend Sharon in Ohio; "Meet" my friend Kate and family in AZ; "Meet" my friend Jennifer and family in SC. (I say "meet" because they are my virtual friends and we've never met IRL. I hope that we can take a short trip out West and down South this summer but these will prove to be the most difficult. The Ohio and Michigan visits will be much easier as they are closer to home, and we can make a weekend trip, with just the boys and I if Jason isn't able to go, to Maryland and NY if needed.) The last one is my 15 year high school reunion, which is possibly set for the weekend of August 8-9.

A little aside here for the boys' reading goals. I found a really good book list while on Facebook/Pinterest the other day. Mensa for Kids has some great lists according to grades and reading levels, with the possibility to earn a t-shirt as well as certificates for reading the entire list.

Ethan
#1 He's enrolled in level 2 and had his first class last Saturday and 2nd this morning and is working on learning basic strokes. He's also learning on his listening skills ;)

#2 He's finished his first book and second books: The Guiness Book of World Records 2014 and Middle School: How I survived bullies, broccoli and snakehill.

#4 After auditioning for the school musical, E got the part of "Howe". Monday and Wednesday, they had rehearsal, got their waiver, call list, and scripts.

#6 The two current video game classes at our rec center are at the same time as other activities they are in (swimming, play, catechism, cub scouts) so this will end being a summer time or at least later spring time activity.

#10 There was supposed to be a middle school dance yesterday but school was cancelled :(

Alex
#1 He's enrolled in level 1 and also had his first class last Saturday and his 2nd today. He's very close to testing out, they actually tested him because they'd like to move him up, but he needs a little more practice with some of the basics.

#2 As I said, he's technically earned this, as he's finished all the requirements under each of the four sections, but won't be awarded the badge until Blue and Gold. We are going to continue to work on achievements and electives for arrow points.

#3 He wants to earn the archery, astronomy, bb-gun shooting, chess, photography and soccer belt loops for sure. There are many other choices too, several of which he has partially finished the requirements for. The archery and bb-gun ones MUST be earned at scout events due to the safety rules, so he's hoping to earn them at camp this summer :) There are 28 sports belt loops, of which he currently has baseball, basketball, bicycling, bowling, kickball and softball and has done partial requirements for 3 others. There are 25 academics belt loops, of which he has collecting and video games and he has seven others started. He is also half-way done working towards earning the video game pin.

#5 He also auditioned for the musical and got the part of Drake. He is very excited but is also nervous about how busy we will be the next few weeks, with practices (at least) 2 nights a week most week, cub scouts on Tuesdays or Sundays, swimming and catechism on Saturday mornings, etc. plus homework and chores. I reassured him that activity nights, chores would be much lighter especially if there is tons of homework. :)

#6 Alex has finished his first 2 books! Magic Treehouse #1 and Little House on the Prairie: On the Banks of Plum Creek. He is eagerly waiting a trip to the library for the next in the LHP series (this surprised me, as I thought with a girl being the "main" character he may not enjoy it as much, but he is loving them so far, having read one in December for his most recent book report and this one! I know, I know, it's fine, but I was just surprised is all. :) )

#7 He wants to learn French! However, he is still doing Spanish in school, so this may be interesting... LOL

#9 Math practice is continuing and we may be doing some online math programs.

Jackson
#4 Level A swim lessons had already started or were full for this session, so we are looking into the one starting in March.
#9 He is learning the alphabet song and it's very cute!
#8 He loves counting any objects with me, so this has been fun so far. I think it will be an easy task for him.

Jason
As he has only just shared his goals, I don't have any real updates yet, except that he has started his classes (2nd week is almost over for the semester) and I know he won't have any trouble with his GPA. I'm so proud of him. He's taken on so much this semester with 3 classes for a total four nights a week at school (10 hours or so) plus group projects, 40-50 hours of regular work, pinewood derby chairman - meaning he runs the pinewood derby for our pack basically and "hosts" it for other packs in our area on multiple occasions! - AND working a second job as a contract mechanic for some co-workers/employees' business on the police helicopters in the D. Plus making sure he's got time for the boys and I. I'm doing my best to help him out and also make life less stressful around here by having things done. Once we get in a groove with all the new around here, it should be good.

2014 Goals: The "Original" Hamer's list

This post is all about Jason's goals for the year. It took a while (I forgot to ask him for his... but he shared them with us on Sunday night) and now they are all ready to share here.

Jason

1. Get tooth fixed. A few years ago, Jason chipped a tooth while helping his dad move some large tree branches. He actually got a nice knot on the side of his head at the same time if I remember correctly. It was a misfortunate accident where one lifted the branch one way, and the other went the other direction and it bounced back. He's just not been concerned about his tooth really but feels he should stop putting it off in case more damage is being done to his tooth.
2. Maintain a 3.5 GPA.
3. Take the summer off from college classes.
4. Lose 40 lbs by December 31st.
5. Put 5000 miles on the motorcycle. 
6. Begin process of getting wrist fixed. He broke his wrist while in the Army about 14 years ago(!) and it didn't heal right. Surgery will be necessary and it's his dominant hand. Since he will have to go through the VA, we say begin process, because we don't know how long it will take to finish the process.
7. Take at least 4 weeks of vacation from work. This doesn't mean 4 weeks of traveling or anything, just time off of work. He currently has about 8 weeks of vacation time saved.
8.  Read ONE book, cover to cover, 200 pages or more. His words, not mine. He's not a big reader...
9. Tattoo on left arm.
10. Say one nice thing per (family) person per day. After writing this, he added the "family" part and joked that it would be strange if he walked around all day and said random nice things ("I like your hair" "nice shoes", etc) to random people... He seriously had me cracking up. I could almost picture him doing this with me around just to embarrass me ;)
11. Add roof over front door. The front door and concrete steps to our enclosed porch is open to the elements and when it is cold and wet, there is almost always ice covering the stairs. In the rain, there is no stopping the downpour from the gutter right on your head. He is planning to put an awning type roof over the stairs.
12. Fix/work on go-kart. It's been sitting in our garage since last summer, and while it runs, it needs some minor repairs.
13. Change oil in tractor/riding lawn mower.
14. Fix the mini-van engine. It's ticking. This will wait until the weather is nicer obviously.
15. Fix the truck ignition. All of a sudden, and randomly, the truck will not start. There's power (lights come on) but it doesn't click or turn over. Usually after a couple of tries and taking the key out and reinserting it, it starts no problem. There is no rhyme or reason, it could be the first start of the day, or after it's been running and he makes a quick stop and then goes to leave. 
16. Move. I jokingly wrote "to wherever Crystal says", LOL. Not sure what his thoughts are here, yet. 
17. Cuss/curse a lot less. This is a great goal, for BOTH of us to try and achieve.

I'm hoping to have a nice update written up tomorrow. I'm actually keeping a hard-copy of the goals and our progress in a journal, too, so I don't forget in between posts here.

If you are interested in reading our other posts: Part 1: Health goals; Part 2: Money Management and Home Management Goals; Part 3: My Personal Goals; and Part 4: The little Hamers.

Outside fun with a splash of warm water thrown in

Last Wednesday, we ended up making breakfast for dinner. Turkey bacon, sausage links and patties, scrambled eggs for the boys and over-medium fried eggs for mom and dad, toast, coffee, juice, milk. Yum! I love how easy and quick breakfast is, especially on a busy school night - not just for the older boys but Jason as well! That's right! It's back to school for Jason! This semester, he's taking not 2 but THREE classes. He's got a Monday/Wednesday class from 6:30-8pm, a Tuesday class from 6-10pm and a Thursday class from 6-9pm. It makes dinner time a little less of a family meal, unless we (I) prepare better. I've been not so good about that lately and it makes for a rushed, late dinner. Now that E and Alex will be having play rehearsals most Mondays and Wednesdays through March 29 and everyday that last week from 3:30-5:30, it's going to be split up even more! Not a huge deal, I suppose but Jason will most likely be eating alone those 2 nights, or with Jack and I before we head over to get the older two. Then they will eat once we get home (dad will leave before we get home). Tuesday's dinner time works out good, because even though it's cub scout night, we all leave around the same time :)

Anyway, the whole point of that tangent was to say we crossed off "breakfast for dinner" from our winter fun list!! We plan to have eggs and toast for dinner tomorrow too, and I'm sure several more times in the next few weeks.

While I didn't get any pictures, we did go out and play in the snow on Saturday afternoon. All of us, plus a friend! Alex had a friend spend the night, whom we picked up just after lunchtime and met his dad around 11 the next morning, so there was lots of fun had. We played in the snow, had a small snowball fight that more or less consisted of the kids trying to catch me unaware, and then me chasing them and trying to get them back. Ethan made some snow angels but nobody else did, so we will do that again. All 4 boys got towed by Jason on the tractor. They had such a blast chasing down the sled and the other boys riding on it. I'd say they were out there for at least 2 hours, and Jack and I spent over an hour out there before I decided to bring him in to warm up. I regret that I didn't snap any pictures of the kids, but I was just having to much fun playing with them! Jackson posed for a couple cute ones though after we came back in:

Swimming lessons started Saturday and E and Alex had so much fun. They were both unsure about going to lessons again, even though they love swimming and have gone there before. Last time, they attended the same level but Alex didn't get moved to the next level. Since E is currently in level 2, and Alex is repeating level 1 to get some extra practice with floating and such, they are in two different areas of the pool. In a way it's kind of nice because they aren't distracting each other, and have an opportunity to work independently of each other. Alex felt bad at first but then realized he's at the "top of his class" and could get moved up before the end to level 2 if he can show competence! That improved his confidence and put a smile on his face. Even thought they only get 30 minutes of class, it's a 10 week session and they learn quite a bit. E is currently learning the backstroke and another simple stroke (not sure which, breaststroke maybe?). I did make his instructors aware of his Asperger's after class, as I know he wasn't making eye contact as often as the other 2 in his class. I wanted them to know he is listening even if he's not looking right at you, at least most of the time ;) We haven't been able to start Jackson, as this sessions classes were full or already started for his level. Planning to start in March. The boys were grateful that the pool and building were warm, not cold as they both expected.

We are currently 2 weeks behind on our Saints and are going to play catch-up tonight before Scouts or tomorrow with St. Andre Bessette, St. Hilary and this week's Saint: St. Marianne Cope. I was planning to read a little something each week during one of our dinners and I either forgot or we were rushed so it didn't get done.