Lesser Evil

Last year I really tried to clean up my cosmetics and health and beauty products and change to more environmentally friendly and healthier products. I gave up my Cover Girl Rose Blush (a 7 hazard rating)for Kiss My Face 3Way Color, Ruby Red (a 3 hazard rating). I looked up all the products I and Grace use on the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ and started trying to pair down those chemical hazards to a much lower level, usually at least by half.

Still not replaced is my Cover Girl face powder (a 7 hazard), my Maybelline waterproof mascara (a 5 hazard), and my Nexxus Versastyler (a 6 hazard). Otherwise, we are doing pretty good. I'm still using up Suave Kids 2 in One shampoo and conditioner (a 5 hazard) for Grace but when that is gone, we are going to find something else. I thought about just combining the shampoo and conditioner I use into the same bottle, but combined they add up to a 5 hazard anyway. So am I accomplishing anything? I'm not sure.

She likes the smell, but I figured out if I add some drops of essential oil to some healthier fragrance free stuff (even just water for detangling and combing her morning hair down) she's happy. Strawberry and orange is what I have.

So here I thought I was doing good by replacing my Oil of Olay Sensitive Skin Day Lotion with SPF 15 to Jason Red Elements Daily Lotion with SPF 15 (half the amount for the same price) and finally looked it up today. The Oil of Olay is full of ingredients I can't pronounce and chemicals but comes in overall at a 4 hazard and the Jason's half full of "natural" plants and elements comes in at a 6 hazard.

Geez, sometimes you just can't win for losing.

Artistic License

Monday I worked from home and picked up Grace when school was out. She watched some Sponge Bob upstairs on the big screen while I worked for a couple more hours in my office. Finally she got bored and came in to do some artwork.

The picture above is what she presented to me from her easel. It's our family. I'm the big one on the left, Daddy is in the middle and Grace is on the right.

Now, I think you can see why I was a little more than curious about the DADDY picture. I pointed to the long hangy down thing in the middle and said, "What's that Grace?"

She said, "It's a tie. Boys wear ties. And girls wear dresses"

Well, yes they do. Mystery solved.

She went back into the living room for another round of Sponge Bob and then a few minutes later she came back in and said "Mama, did you think that tie was Daddy's potty box?".

Well, yes, yes I did.

Then we had the talk about how we wouldn't WANT to draw people's potty boxes on our artwork, right? Right.

Grace said, "Well I didn't really know HOW to draw a tie."

It looks fine, I said.



I let Bryon approve this post just in case he had a problem with it. He said, hey whatever it is, it's long, so why not.

Indeed.

Shower of Shame

I love my shower. What I don't love is cleaning it.

I had a party of Sunday School ladies coming over last Sunday so as every good hostess should, I cleaned the house, and finally my shower. Cleaning the shower is difficult, and awkward and messy so I generally avoid it until I can actually SEE the gunk building up with my extremely nearsighted eyes.

Mercifully, most of the time I can't really see that well at all since wearing glasses in the shower is obviously problematic.

So Saturday, I spent a good part of the day cleaning, straightening and organizing pre party guests. Now, was one of those very nice Sunday School ladies going to be LOOKING in my shower? Not likely. And, if they did, well they would have gotten what they deserved right? But of course they wouldn't look.

Still, it was more than a little disturbing to go in there WITH my glasses and my full 20-20ish vision and take a good hands and knees look at things.

It was not a pretty sight.

I finally scraped off the last fins and tails and heads of the rubberized tropical no skid fish that had molded and mildewed onto the floor and by the time I was finished I had that sucker sparkling.

Of course, having a clean shower floor and NO rubberized tropical no skid fish glued to the floor creates it's own hazard. At least when it's dirty there is a little more traction.

I've seen some disgusting showers and mine is nowhere CLOSE to what is possible. I haven't actually seen her shower, but one of my friends has a death pact with her girlfriend that if she is to die suddenly and unexpectedly, the friend is to go IMMEDIATELY to her house and CLEAN HER SHOWER, so no one will ever discover her secret.

I think that is a great idea.

Who would like to be my death pact, shower cleaning friend? Perhaps we should just get a call list in place in the event of ALL of our deaths so someone could immediately take over and destroy the evidence of our showers of shame.

I have to say that once it IS clean. It's heavenly.

Grace sometimes gets to take showers back there but usually takes baths in her bathroom. Bryon has tried to get me to let her take showers with me, the whole kill two birds with one stone argument. But seriously, the only places I am ever ALONE anymore since becoming a parent are in my CAR when I'm WORKING or in my SHOWER and I'm not giving either one of them up.

For that 10 minutes, I have a little piece of heavenly peace and quiet. I don't think that is too much to ask.

Now, if only someone would clean it for me. The car too.

Life would be perfect.

Banana Pudding Surprise

As I was cleaning out the fridge I came across three boxes of Banana Creme Sugar Free, Fat Free Instant pudding mix. First of all, if it has that many adjectives in the name, it's probably not good for you and in full disclosure, I later realized it had expired in Oct. 2008.

The good news is, it tasted wonderful :) I had Grandpa stop and get some bananas to top it with and we put some almond nut granola on top of it instead of vanilla wafers for some crunch and it was a wonderful Sunday night dessert.

The practical side of me was proud for using up some stuff I had on hand that was actually not that many WW points, but the "trying to eat healthier" side of me started wondering exactly what is IN Banana Creme Sugar Free, Fat Free Instant pudding mix?

When I told Bryon it was sugar free he asked what made it sweet... aspartame? Dang! Didn't even look at it. Of COURSE it was aspartame, along with virtually every other artificial or man made ingredient available. The only ACTUAL food that was in it was the fat free milk and bananas I put into it along with nonfat milk and salt. Seriously, here are the ingredients on the back of the box as they are listed:

modified food starch, maltodextrin, tetrasodium pyrphospate and disodium phospate (for thickening), contains less than 2% of nonfat milk, natural and artificial flavor, salt, calcium sulfate, xanthan gum, mono and diglycerides (prevent foaming), aspartame and acesufame potassium (sweeteners), tetrapotassium pyrophosphate, dipotassium phosophate, yellow 5, yellow 6, artificial color, phenyletonurics: containes phenylaline.

Nice.

So then I Googled banana pudding recipes, which obviously I should have done FIRST and found this WW one:

Banana Pudding


POINTS® Value: 4
Servings: 12
Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 15 min
Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Vanilla wafers make a quick and crunchy crust for this creamy, layered treat.


Ingredients
1/3 cup(s) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup(s) sugar
1/4 tsp table salt
2 large egg yolk(s), lightly beaten
2 1/2 cup(s) 1% low-fat milk
3 Tbsp butter, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract
36 item(s) reduced-fat vanilla wafer(s)
3 large banana(s), sliced
2 cup(s) fat-free whipped topping, thawed
Instructions

* Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife.

* Combine flour, sugar and salt in a 3-quart saucepan. Combine egg yolks and milk; stir with a whisk. Gradually add egg mixture to dry ingredients, stirring well. Add 2 tablespoons butter. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add remaining 1 tablespoon butter and vanilla, stirring until butter melts.

* Place 12 vanilla wafers in bottom of an 8-inch square baking dish. Arrange one-third of banana over cookies. Spoon one-third of pudding mixture over banana; repeat procedure with remaining cookies, banana and pudding, ending with pudding. Spoon whipped topping over pudding and spread evenly. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Yield: 12 servings (serving size: about 3⁄4 cup).

I had every ingredient already at hand except for the wafers and whipped cream which I didn't want anyway.

Another day, another lesson in eating.

Sometimes you just need to do it Old School my friend.

Play Guitar

"Forget all about that macho shit and learn how to play guitar."
John Cougar Mellencamp


Grace and I have had two guitar lessons now. The first one was last week and we had homework to practice. We sat down at the couch and tried to practice the three notes we just learned. E, F, and G. All three on the first string. We learned whole notes, half notes and quarter notes and had a whole page of music to practice.

Grace was excited to practice for all of about three minutes. Then she declared it "boring" and asked if she could be done.

"NO, you can not be done. We are going to practice the guitar together." I said in my most authoritarian MOM voice. Well, it pretty much only went downhill from there. She was slumping and wiggling around barely even trying.

I told on her to Daddy when he came out and of course she straightened up for a little while. We had the talk with her that she was going to do this because we wanted her to. (Which of course only ever backfires).

The whole time I just kept having flashbacks of my Dad trying to teach me to balance my checkbook at the kitchen table when I was 16. That pretty much ended in tears for me and don't tell him but I never balanced it once from that day forward.

I just assume the bank is right unless I see a glaring error. I don't care about pennies. Sorry Dad, I was an English Major remember.

I also remember having a throw down, blubbery crying FIT to play the trumpet at school. Remember when the Band Representatives used to come to school and get us all whipped up into a frenzy to play an instrument? Well I, being the geek I was, chose the trumpet. No one ever get's popular or cool playing the trumpet my friend.

I wanted a NEW trumpet. A nice shiny one. Which of course was about $500 or $600.

After much drama they agreed to let me play the trumpet, but I had to start on a used trumpet. A friend of theirs had a used trumpet from their child's formative years that was gathering dust in the attic, so I became a trumpet player.

The first blow on that thing smelled like musty moldy dust. It never got any better. It was disgusting. You also had to clean and drain your own spit out of the thing on a regular basis.

I was never going to get a date playing the trumpet.

I quit after a few weeks.

Smart parents.

Fortunately, we only have $67 invested in this musical adventure. So all I really have to lose is my sanity.

Blog Book

I got my blog book last week and it turned out AWESOME! It was $100 but I would have spent more than that making it into a scrapbook and I wouldn't have had any of the stories to go with it because I HATE journaling in a scrapbook. Go figure.

I'm pretty excited about it. It's 238 pages long with photos and everything and is hardbound with really good high quality pages.

Definitely money well spent!

Here is the link if you'd like to make one of your own

http://blog2print.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html

Toothless Wonder

It's out! I came home from work Friday and Grace met me at the back door sporting a new smile. Bryon had gotten home before me and Grace insisted the tooth come OUT! It was practically horizontal anyway and barely hanging on so he tried to get some dental floss around it for the extraction but it kept slipping off. Then he tried just grabbing it but it was too slippery so finally he grabbed it with a cloth napkin for traction and plucked it out. Grace didn't even realize it was out and was all grumpy because of another failed attempt then Bryon showed her the tooth and she was excited!

She talked all night about the Tooth Fairy and that she was coming tonight!

We got home late from a night out at the Old Barn Dance in Fordland and she had her little tooth in a special box we got at her baby shower. She really wanted to keep her tooth and I told her the Tooth Fairy would probably let her if she really wanted too. Especially since Mama wanted to keep it too.

After she was asleep I went upstairs and found a card I'd made with some glitter on it and wrote a little note inside that said, "Grace, you are growing up fast, this little tooth is your first but it won't be your last. Love Tooth Fairy". I sprinkled some fairy dust (glitter) around and left her a 50 cent piece and a bunch of quarters tied up in a pink ribbon.

She woke up this morning about 7:30 and came in and said her tooth was still there and that the Tooth Fairy had NOT come! I asked her if she was sure and she said yes, and that the Tooth Fairy must have gotten "distracted" and not come.

I went in there with her and pointed out the card and quarters and she was much more excited. As messy as her bookcase is it's no wonder she didn't notice the gift.

Now she's working on the second tooth. She already can't keep her tongue and finger out of the hole.

It's the best toy she has right now.

The Wobbly Tooth

Grace and I were at guitar lessons tonight and suddenly she stops everything to tell me she has a wobbly tooth. Sure enough, her bottom TWO teeth are loose. One is much, much looser than the other but she is so excited she can hardly stand it.

She's been a chatty Cathy ever since and plotting ways to get it out sooner.

Bryon went in with string and pliers while she was taking her bath and asked her which hand she wanted to pick then pretended he was going to pull it out. When I finally told her he was teasing, she wanted the real deal asap. She opened up wide and asked for the string and door knob.

I'll bet that tooth is out by tomorrow night for sure!

Hula Hoop Girl

Weight Watchers Redux

So yeah, back on Weight Watchers again. Really, if I were just smart, which obviously I am sometimes NOT, I would just stay on it. My problem is I like completing a project too much, marking off the list and moving on to the next thing. When your project is your health or your weight, really that is an ongoing project that should never end until your LIFE ends. This is what I know in my brain. My sweet tooth, my salty tooth and my savory tooth often think otherwise.

As soon as I lose weight and reach my "goal". Things are good for a while, maybe even for a year. Then slowly or sometimes not so slowly the weight comes back and maybe this next time, just a little more for good measure. It's a slippery slope.

I always justify in my mind the excuses or as I like to think of them, reasons, that it's okay for this to happen. I DESERVE to eat what I want. Life is short. I have stress and chocolate, dessert, whatever makes that feel better.

What I KNOW but often fail to remember is that I DESERVE to feel fit and strong and healthy, not full and fat and out of shape. Yes, round is a shape, but it's not pretty.

When I was 30 I was in the best shape of my life. Still not stellar but I did 2 duathalons (I was last on both but got a first place trophy in my age category anyway in the other even though I was dead last AND had a flat tire), walked several 5k's, RAN a 10k (it was painful), competed with three friends in an Adventure Race (we were second to the last), walked the roads and hills around our Highlandville house and hiked and backpacked the area trails A LOT.

Then we bought the farm, built a house, had a baby and things got busy and complicated and I sort of just gave up.

I'll be 42 in May. I need to be strong for this second half plus of my life. I DESERVE it.

So, back to WW and once again trying to make it all work and stick this time. I started at 170 last Monday. I'd like to be and stay at 140-145. Really when that first five pounds starts to go back on, we should be screaming and fighting like mad to beat it back into submission. Now if my cocky brain can just remember that this time and for every day after when I reach my goal.

This first week was hard because I ate out three times BUT I ate salads all three times. I used to say if I only liked salad I would be really skinny. Well, that may or may not be true now that I see all the OPTIONS you can ADD to your salad, ha! But at least it's filling, and now for the first time in my life, actually tasty and edible to me. I just ate a salad for lunch. And an apple. Really that was it. Getting used to not feeling like a stuffed toad is new, but I haven't been too famished yet, except for yesterday. I think the MORE I eat, the hungrier I am sometimes. I don't know but I guess I'll see if that logic pans out.

All and all, I did so so this week. I was pretty good until YESTERDAY. Dawn and I went to lunch an what I thought was a pretty healthy and low point choice from Panera was 17 points when I got home and added it up. Holy moly! Guess I should have paid more attention to the "creamy" part of the tomato soup! I was stressing out because Bryon made up a big pot of deer stew last night which is WONDERFUL and I made homemade cornbread and I entered both meals into the recipe builder on the WW website to determine the points and turns out the soup is about 6 points per serving and the cornbread was 3. BUT, when I entered in the cornbread something went wrong and it added all 36 points to my day's tally which I didn't figure out until a few minutes ago. I was stroking. I thought I'd eaten 72 points yesterday. Seriously. Eeek. Not that I'm incapable of accomplishing that.

I went upstairs to exercise (which I hadn't done all week) so I could count my activity points and repair some of the damage from yesterday's eating fiasco. Then when I came downstairs to enter it in I realized the cornbread error. Boy was I relieved! Turns out I'm now actually .5 points ahead! If I exercise tomorrow too, I'm golden for the week. Of course I have already used ALL my "free points" this week, but that's okay because being even is MUCH better than being 35+ points behind!

I weigh in on Monday, but today's sneak peek was 167.6. So I'm at least heading back in the right direction.




My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four.
Unless there are three other people.
Orson Welles (1915 - 1985)