Freedom....

Today we remember those who have given their lives years ago and now so that we may live in freedom. Lest we forget.

I don't ever complain about anything now. Not the weather - I'm just glad we've got some. Not traffic, or too many people in line at the post office. Every morning when I wake up, I count my blessings that I'm healthy and that I was born and lived in this great country where we can make our dreams come true.

-Alan Bean, Astronaut on Apollo 12

My youngest son was excited today. For the first time in a long time our school had a full Remembrance Day Service. Normally they do something small, but today they were all asked to dress up and take part in this service. I asked him this morning why this was so special to him. His answer floored me and made realize how much children REALLY do listen to you. He said because when Papa and I (mom) talk about Great Grandpa we always talk about how he was in the war and because I've(mom) talked about my friends that are currently serving overseas in the war. Now I don't talk about this a lot, so you know it is something that he took hold of and listened too. He said he was proud to dress up to think about Great Grandpa Rhodes. Floored me. Just floored me. I had never met my Grandpa Rhodes and this out of a mouth of a 7 year old.

So today if you haven't already and even if you have. Pause, reflect and remember that there are those who gave their lives so we can have freedom. There are those who are still giving their lives, time and sacrifice so we can be free.

Thank you just does not seem like enough, but from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you.

Menu Planning...

Why is this process always so daunting ?? Maybe because I have picky eaters? Maybe some days I'm just too lazy to plan?? Ohhh its the shop that goes with it! ??? I do actually LOVE grocery stores.

Weird, yes I know, but I do. When ever we travel its one of the first things I do, is go to a grocery store to check out whats different from fresh food to processed food! Its my thing. Ask my dh. He laughs a lot but he just knows I gotta go check it out!!!!

Back to menu planning. I normally will plan on sunday for the week. Guess tomorrow is the day for me. I need to sit down and look at who is at what rink when and who is eating supper that night at home, on the road. I also factor in my client schedule. I tend to work a few nights a week as well. The slow cooker is my friend. As is McDonalds or Pizza some nights, but I really try hard to not eat out for suppers.

I'm back on track this week with more planning. This was in my list of goals to achieve some sense of balance. ;)

Good sites to check out:

Menu Planning 4 moms (but you have to subscribe)
The Pioneer Woman (has lots of great ideas here)
Eat Right Ontario (its free)
Menu planning for two weeks (has printable charts too)
Hillbilly House Wife (sounds crazy, but great ideas and easy...really good site, free)
Organized Home (easy and free too, printable shopping list too)


There is a good start if you never menu planned before with out over whelming you. The bottom line is to just start. I've listed some pointers below to help you.

Involve All Family Members in Menu Planning. Give each person the chance to talk about their food likes and dislikes, favourite recipes, and what they’d like to see on the family menu. Give family members tasks such as helping out with shopping for food, unpacking groceries, setting the table, or cooking.

Set Aside Some Time. Spend half an hour each week in menu planning. Pick a quiet time so that you can focus.

Get It In Writing. Brainstorm a list of meal ideas. Write down your ideas to help you remember them. Putting your menus in writing means that you can use them again in the future.

Start with the Main Attraction. First, decide on the main course for each meal over the coming week. Think about food your family enjoys, your budget, the time you have to prepare the food, and nutrition.

Mix It up. Try to introduce one new main course each week, so that your family gets to experience new tastes. Adding new main courses also makes it more likely that your family members will get all the nutrients they need.

Use Leftovers. Look for chances to use the leftovers from one meal at another meal later in the week.

Super Sides. Once you’ve come up with a main course for each meal, add on side dishes (e.g., vegetables, fruit and whole-grain side dishes such as brown rice or whole wheat pasta).

Mix It up. As with the main courses, look for chances to sneak in new healthy food choices.

Please share any tips you have on menu planning :)
Happy planning....
j

Paints, the flu and Chaos

We/Me are still out of balance. Well we have IT. I don't know if it is actually H1N1 (swine flu) but it is something let me tell you. The girl started with it on Friday and me and the boy followed on Saturday. We experienced 2-3 days of fevers and now we are in the 2-3 days of coughing and stuffy or runny noses.



Oh yeah and the best part! We are all REALLY crabby and irritable. And my house is in total CHAOS! I have been doing atleast two loads of laundry but they are still producing more. We have gone through pretty much 1-2 boxes of kleenex a day. My hubby is freaking. There are toys strewn about because the kids are too weak to clean them up and I am too weak to make them. We have been running the dishwasher ever day As I have been trying to use new cups and utensils for each meal and sterilizing everything each day. (vs just had washing them)

I have washed all the extra blankets that we have in the tv room. I have disinfected the doors, railings, surfaces, plastic toys, my house reaks like vinegar.

There have only been two days so far where the kids even feel like doing anything and we did a couple of crafts.



Paints: my kids LOVE to paint! finger paint, sponge paint, paint with brushes - they just LOVE it. I knew that our paint supply was getting low and had started storing the container upside down to get the last bits of paints out of the bottles. This week of illness has drawn us dangerously close to (shhhh) running out! ahhh! there I said it. I believe I have some water color kits kicking around but I have to go looking for them. This could get serious.



I'm hoping that my heathly supply of glitter glue and fluffy pom poms will be enough to keep them entertained. I may have to crack out some of my stamping supplies nothing like a new idea to keep them busy for a few hours.



Yesterday was the first day I did not enforce mandatory nap time in the afternoon and that my friends was NOT a good idea! By 6pm the girl was in full meltdown mode and could not take two steps with our throwing, yelling kicking or crying. So up to bed she went and was fast asleep before 7pm. Poor sweetpea.



So we followed with the boy shortly after at 7:30 cause he usually need the extra sleep when he's sick anyway. Because of the cerebral palsy he has to work so hard to walk and balance and when he's sick it wears him out even faster.



Worse part is I followed and was asleep before 9pm. So tired.



Everyone had a good night sleep except for me because I was up in the middle of the night with a totally stuffed up nose and checking on everyone.



The kids started coughing about 5AM and we started our day shortly after. Needless to say today there WILL BE Mandatory Nap time after an early lunch.



The plan for today is:

• lots of fluids
• a few extra pieces of fruit
• changing pillow cases again
• another box of kleenex
• Mandatory Nap
• Probably a full on bath and washing of the hair for the kids
• more disinfecting of toys, surfaces, etc.

I am very thankful that we have escaped anything worse, yes we have been uncomfortable and tired and VERY irritable but other then the incessant coughing the kids and I have not experienced very much pain. So I am very grateful for that.


Be well my friends, take care to wash your hands and not touch your face. And for pete's sake if you have a fever of cough. STAY HOME.


CAUSE I AM TOTALLY TICKED WITH THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT THEIR SICK LITTLE GIRL TO MY SON"S BEAVER MEETING LAST WEEK THAT MY DAUGHTER PLAYED WITH!

to your health -- shann

back on track....

Today I feel like I'm finally getting back on track to living a balanced life again! I'm organized, I'm taking time for myself (had a massage today... was wonderful!!!) and I'm eating well, relaxed, just in a good spot. How did I do this??? Well just some minor changes in my life and the fact that my dh is away on business, so it forces me to get my act together!!!

• menu planned
• groceries are in the house!
  
• eating healthier
  
• cleaned up the house
• organized school papers
• had my mom come over and help (yep sometimes we all need help)
• made sure I got 20mins on the treadmill this morning
  
• taken time for myself (massage)
• getting up a few mins earlier tomorrow to start my day
• off to read for 20mins

Even when we make small changes it enables us to get our life back on track. My list isn't anything fabulous or out of the ordinary, but its all things that allow me to feel that sense of balance back into my life. That is what matters.

The little things really do add up, so I encourage you to change a few little things this week if your feeling out of balanced and see what happens. Does it make it difference? I'm betting it does!!!

light and love!
j

De-railed....

Well I must admit that Shannon was not the only one derailed recently. My life has been out of balanced for the past few weeks as well. What happened? In my case it was my children getting the flu. I work from home and when they are sick, it puts a HUGE stress on my work and routine, on top of being worried about them!! Since I work for myself I must cancel the clients or work around things. This puts everything out of sorts, including me. Its funny how Shannon and I lead two very different lives yet the same things can happen. We all tend to get out of balanced.

My out of balanced life:

Menu planning.... who menu plans when no one but yourself is eating?
Work schedule .... gone
Hockey... one kid going one day, then the next one gets sick, then the other goes back = just messed up
House... one word " MESSED "
Activity level for mom... gone. Unless you want to count running to doctors, drugstore, naturalpath, ect.
School... running to and from one kid while healthy, homework for the next, then switch up
Homework ... haha just realized oldest has a science test tomorrow. Never told me. Never checked his planner because I got out of that habit too. YIKES.
Kids routines ... gone. You know like bathes?? whats that? lol
Social life (as in mine or time with my husband) ... gone
Blogging ... gone too
Communication with friends... gone. For example notice that both Shannon and I blogged the other days with in minutes of each other! LOL Oh yeah!!!
Groceries... no time with sick kids or energy.

As you can see in a matter of a few short weeks, my entire life got out of balanced too.

NOW WHAT?

Now its time to get back into it.

1. I need to organize my work life again. Calling clients, rebooking appointments
2. Menu plan and grocery shop
3. Get the boys back into normal school and sports routines!
   
4. Get moving. Thank goodness for my treadmill!!!!
5. Catch up with the real world. ie my friends, family
6. Find time for myself every day to read/blog and relax.
   

That is my starting list. I'll be back in a day or so to let you know how it is going.

Wishing everyone out there a very happy and balanced week!

jenn

Out of Balance

My life has been slightly out of balance for the last few weeks. It always amazes me how delicate the balance really is. It only takes a tremor in one area of our lives to slowly work its way through the rest of our life and suddenly WHAM you have no food in the house and 2 weeks worth of laundry to tackle.

It think if I were to pinpoint the tremor, it would be when our department had to start working short staffed. Everyone dug in and started working harder, more efficiently cutting breaks short, not out of office lunch trips for errands or just to go out for lunch. We pulled up our socks and tighten our belts.

I started doing the same thing at home striving to get out of the house a little earlier so I could get to work a little earlier hoping I could get one of two more things done to ease the increasing workload.

I started cutting corners at home, not taking the extra time to menu plan and plan my shopping trips. I stopped planning my spending. I started going to bed earlier because I knew I needed my rest to keep up with the demands I would face the next day.

Slowly but surely things started to build up or unravel or just plain implode.

I finally hit the wall when I realized the kids were eating fast food for the 3rd time this week and the baby spinach I had bought 2 weeks ago was rotten in the fridge.

I realized I had spent over double our plan for food and entertainment on snack food and fast food but didn't have any meat in the fridge of freezer to make a decent meal.

I realized I couldn't have made the meal if I did have the ingredients because I was running the edge, leaving work late enough that I hit traffic and wasn;t getting home until 5:30 and it would be 6:30 before we would eat. The night we weren't eating fast food we were eating peanut butter wraps and jelly sandwiches.

I skipped the kids bathes a few nights.

I stopped blogging, twittering, emailing and calling (my friends, my community)

I realized I didn't even care.

I was out of balance and as a result my family, my finances and my life was out of balance.

It all took less than a month.

What is sad is that even though I knew I was out of balance, I still didn't know how I was going to fix it.

I kept my monthly massage and reflexology appointments I even scheduled a facial, because intellectually I knew I need to take some time for me. But was I really getting any benefit from these appointments when I was constently worried about the back up building at home?

It has taken a mild illness of one of my kids for me to have to say NO to a few obligations, including working late, to be tethered to the house with my child for a few things to happen.

1) for me to work on getting caught up (laudry, menu planning, cooking, grocery shopping)
2) to realize that I can't wait until one of the kids gets sick to get caught up (I really don't want them to be sick)
3) start to formulate a plan on how to deal with this out of balance existence

Having to say NO to some obligations was the start and let me tell you that really hurt. These were long standing traditional events that I participate in every year. This HURT so bad that I want to make a plan to ensure I will never have to say NO to these types of events EVER Again.

Stay tuned to find out how I am formulating my plan to get back in balance.

Shannon

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Halloween!!! Life in balance... don't eat too much candy ;) LOL Easier said then done!!! Have a safe and happy evening everyone!!!

jenn and shann