Happy Inauguration Day!!!

I wish I were there!!!!!  I am happy today.

Losing Battles

I feel like on a daily or near daily basis the bulk of my time is spent fighting unwinnable battles. For example:

*Trying to get the laundry cleaned, folded, and put away before a mountain of new laundry appears.  That mountain takes one lousy day to reassert itself.

*Trying to keep the house clean.  Impossible.  And there are two levels of clean;  picked up and technically clean (vacuumed, scrubbed, dusted, wiped, etc.).  Picked up is hard enough, you think I have time for clean?

*Cleaning the toilet seat clear of dried pee.  Ick. Impossible.  I am thinking of imposing a fine.  $1 for the seat, $2 for the floor, $5 for the shower curtain or wall.  

*Cleaning the kitchen floor only to have Clara toss her meal on it (a tri-daily ritual).

*Trying to feed my kids healthy food, only to have at least one kid per meal refuse to eat what was prepared.  If only they knew how lucky they were that I make such an effort for them.  (Pearls before swine?).

*Fighting piles.  No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, stacks appear on all vertical surfaces.  I have to be crazy vigilant to keep the mail and school work from stacking up.  A true losing battle.

*Trying to get back to my post-Anders, pre-Clara weight, which isn't going to happen even though I faithfully work out 5-6 days a week.

*Trying to find places to put all our crap in our storage-less house.  Why don't I just purge?  I do.  A lot.  It is still is bursting at the seams.

*Trying to keep a steady stock of milk in the fridge.

*Getting all the homework done before dinner, so we can have a relaxing evening with time to play a game, read, or do a puzzle (yeah right).  Homework and piano and extra-curricular anything can be so dang exasperating!!!

I could go on and on.  But here is the thing.  I may be losing the battles, but I think in the end I will win the war (it does often feel like I am fighting a war).  My kids will know that I tried, strived, for cleanliness.  My kids will know that healthy food is important and maybe even someday they will like beans and whole wheat and almonds and all vegetables and scorn refined overly-processed foods.  Hopefully when they see their first box of hamburger helper they will look at it with puzzlement and pity the people that eat that stuff.  They will know that exercise is valuable and important.  They will know that I tried.  All these seemingly futile battles, that feel a lot like banging our heads against a wall, aren't futile.  Our kids will see that even though we usually don't meet the high standards we set, we still have them, and they are important.  And that is why we do it, right?

Terrible Two?

Anyone seen The Bad Seed?  About the sweet little murdering girl, who is pictured above getting a spanking?

It seems that Clara is turning into a bit of a rotten stinker.  Of course with three older siblings mauling her constantly with love and affection, I can see how she has needed to learn to be aggressive.  Yesterday at the gym she had to get written up (an incident report) for hitting and pushing the younger babies!  Emabarrassing.  And when I say "are you going to be nice?" she grins diabolicaly and said, "no."  I don't really think she knows what I meant, but still.  Today I said, "We don't push.  We don't hit.  No. No. No."  And she said, "Yes.  Push babies."  Seriously?  The bad seed!  How do you discipline a nearly two year old without it becoming some kind of game?  Help!

First Ski Day This Winter

But definitely not the last....hopefully next time Anders and his parents will remember to take a coat for him.

Food Matters

(This is how the meat we eat spends it's life, knee deep

in e coli infested crap, crowded, and sick.  It isn't ethical 

and it is an environmental disaster on so many fronts that

it is shocking.  With meat consumption rising in the world

as more countries industrialize, something has got to give.  

Factory farming and heavy meat consumption simply are

unstainable practices.)

Many of you know that about nine or so months ago Rob and I decided to eat meat a little more sparingly.  We did so for health/environmental/ethical reasons.  No, we are not full fledged vegtetarians and we do eat meat on occasion.  I don't intend to ever become a vegan or full vegetarian. But we do eat much less meat. I have found that it hasn't been hard at all to only use meat in a meal about once a week, sometimes less.  Plus when eating less meat it is easy to feel like I can splurge on the organic chicken or grass fed beef once in a while.  No one feels deprived. The whole process is sort of baby steps and involves learning how to make new things, try new things, and requires actually planning ahead and making menus (not one of my strengths).  One of my new years resolutions is to step it up a notch and incorporate more whole grains and expand my meatless repetoire.  It has been nice because some good friends have been on this journey long before me or with me and we have set up this blog, Eat Food, which has been a great resource for recipes and ideas. Anyway, basically, it hasn't been hard is the bottom line.  

Anyway I picked up the book  Food Matters A Guide to Conscious Eating by Mark Bittman yesterday whilst at Costco.  It only reaffirms my commitment to carry on this lifestyle, plus it has a bunch of great recipes and meal plans.  

Just a few interesting tidbits from the book (Will, my cousin, I especially think this should be your year to look into this issue.  You can't avoid it forever!):

"...Or try to imagine each cow on the planet consuming almost seven barrels of crude oil.  Another way to put it is that eating a typical family-of-four steak dinner is the rough equivalent, energy wise, of driving around in an SUV for three hours while leaving all the lights on at home.  In all the average American meat eater is responsible for one and a half tons more CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas--enough to fill a large house--than someone who eats no meat.  If we all ate the equivalent of three frewer cheeseburgers a week, we'd cancel out the the effects of all the SUVs in the country.  Not bad." (pg. 17)

Or, "To make the case for changing your changing your diet even more compelling, consider this:  For a family that usualy drives a car 12,000 miles a year, switching from eating red meat and dairy to chicken, fish, and eggs just one day a week--in terms of greenhouse gas emissions--is the equivalent of driving 760 miles less a yar.  And if you switch to a vegetable-based diet for that one day a week, you reduce emissions even more, to the equivalent of driving 1,160 miles less." (pg. 12)

And the word of wisdom suggests we eat meat sparingly and eat more whole grains, fruits and vegetables.  Come on, give it a try.  It is easy.  What are you waiting for?

Mullets and Tinkerbells

Poor baby Gochi is finally growing some hair. She is currently sporting a wispy mullet, that is extremely susceptible to static (and in a Utah winter things are VERY dry and staticky.  I am so sick of getting shocked!).


I've been thinking I should cut the mullet off, but when hair has been so scarce it is hard to do. Today, before going to the gym, I pulled my hair back in a ponytail and Gochi begged for one too. So we gave it a try. She was so pleased. "Tinkerbells" she called them.

Overcoming my Upbringing

"If God wanted you to have holes in your ears he would have sent you with them."

Oh, how my Dad hates piercing.  I was 18 when I rebelled (this is desirable rebellion, no?) and my Aunt Debbie took me to pierce my ears when my parents were in L.A.  

From what I gather, when my Dad grew up only a certain type of girl pierced  her ears: whores.  Well anyway, Lu wanted her ears pierced and logically I couldn't think of a reason why not, but it was hard fighting the virgin complex that is an inherited trait running strong in my veins.  Whilst in Hawaii, we let her do it.  It wasn't so bad, I guess.  But please don't tread on my freshly fallen snow!