The Active Family

While reading one of my fellow ChattyWomen’s posts, I was intrigued by her mention of progesterone, and decided to look into the topic more.

I was quite surprised that progesterone effects far more than just reproductive issues. The site also details how it helps with stress levels and weightloss.  While I generally don’t recommend using “artificial” weightloss aids, this one seems to have some promise.

First off the progesterone is a topical cream, so you have a lot more control over the amount you use versus a pill. You can also adjust how much you use, and when, depending on how you are feeling. One thing that caught my eye was that women who have higher estrogen levels tend to eat right and exercise, yet still don’t lose the weight. That is me in a nutshell! It really got me wondering if this could help with some of my issues.

And the topper? It also supposedly helps the female “libido”….wooohooo!

I received an email from one of my subscriptions today that was too great to keep to myself. It detailed a bunch of truly great lunch ideas for elementary school age kids.

The lunches made great use of the “laptop lunchbox“, which I happen to already have. While pricey, it gives you the ability to portion food appropriately, as well as keep foods separated from each other (which for younger kids seems to be a “thing”). What was really great about the lunches was the recipes could easily be mixed and matched depending on individual tastes.

I won’t copy/paste, obviously, but here are some of the better ideas:

• mini whole wheat bagels with pbj
• mini whole grain waffles and hard boiled egg slices
• ham and cheese roll ups speared through with pretzel sticks
• mini muffin and veggie strips
• string cheese and whole grain crackers

While there are a ton more, this should give you an idea about what the article included. I was really pleased with the kid-friendly, and pretty darn healthy lunches!

Healthy School Lunches

I know a few of my fellow Chatty Women focus on finances and various ways to save money. I’ve learned some incredible tips from them already! I thought I’d share my most recent form of savings, since I got some great deals.

Those who have read previous posts probably know that I work for Starbucks, which is a great company to work for! They really have wonderful programs that help save their employees money. I recently received information about new companies involved in our savings program. It just so happened to be the same insurance company that I have our renter’s insurance through. I called my agent and was able to save a decent amount AND was able to upgrade my life insurance at no extra cost!! Talk about a savings.

The next thing I did was to do an auto insurance comparison. Since Massachusetts recently allowed car insurance to be competitive, great deals have been popping up all over the place. Turns out I already HAD a really low premium, so I didn’t have to switch. I count this as a pseudo-savings as I didn’t have to come up with a down payment for a new insurance!

I highly recommend looking into your company for deals they may have with other companies. You never know what you might be able to save on!

Oy.

I don’t know how much more I can take! I have my three kids, plus another I’ve been watching for the summer. They are just at each other’s throats all the time. Today alone they were up at 6:30, and started fighting from the get go. By the time 8 am rolled around my two oldest had already been sent to their rooms twice!

We’ve been doing activities all summer long, going to the aquarium, the zoo, the science museum, the pools. I’ve done crafts with them and we’ve gone to the park I don’t know how many times.

It’s not that I’ve run out of ideas, more that I’m running out of money and patience. We’ve taken advantage of just about all the free and low cost ideas I have, and the kids are getting bored. Plus it’s been a very rainy august, and I’m sick to death of having them mope around my house!

They constantly fight, and nothing I do seems to make them get along better. I know a lot of the problem is the age difference, but for the love of PETE!!!

Please tell me I’m not the only one desperately waiting for September 3rd to roll around. I just may have to throw a party!!!

This weekend my husband and I took the kids to my parents’ house to help my mom with her annual canning. Not many people I know still do their own canning!

My mom really wanted to show me how to make my grandparent’s recipe for bread and butter pickles. I’ve helped before, so I knew the basics, but this time she showed me a few tips and tricks that her mom told her.

It was sweet watching my mom show my daughter how to make the recipe. Mom would measure out the ingrediants and my daughter would dump them into the giant bowl. We all had a great laugh when the onions were being sliced. They were so strong we were all tearing up like mad. Livvy stated that she likes making pickles, but doesn’t like the onions!

I have to say, we only made a small batch due to time constraints, but I definately feel the canning bug. I caught myself wondering what else I could can! We are going peach picking next weekend, I could can those! Ooooh I could make cinnamon apples and can those too! Methinks I need to go shopping and start my own canning supply stock.

Does anyone have traditional canning recipes passed down from their grandparents or beyond? I’d love to hear them! What a money saver and a great way to spend time with your children! (With caution, obviously, many aspects of canning are hot and and dangerous for little hands!)

My email has been flooded daily with new ads for every kind of weight loss “secret” you can imagine. I’ve seen everything from Hoodia to the latest and greatest Acai berry. Along with all the ads come the promise of the greatest and fastest weight loss ever!

My completely not-a-professional-talk-to-your-doctor-before-taking-any-pills advice would be to exercise (pun!) caution in any decision you make before taking any kind of fat burner or weight loss pills. I have taken many different types of these pills in the past, and have learned a very expensive lesson. The pills themselves don’t work altogether that well. The “secret” lies in the low calorie, low fat diet and exercise regimen you are supposed to follow while taking the pills!

There are some supplements I do take, however. I do a cleanse every quarter or so, though I haven’t found one that tastes good enough to make me do it more often. A colon-type cleanse is great for those trying to lose weight. It helps clean out the pipes, so to speak, and allows your body to get back on track. If anyone has a recipe or knows a good brand, please pass it on!

I also take a daily fiber chew. There are some great ones that also specifically aid in weight control. As my personal doctor told me, decrease your calories and get at least 24 grams of fiber a day and the pounds will drop off. While they didn’t exactly drop off, I haven’t been the most consistent with the grams either. I do notice that on the weeks I get more fiber, I eat a lot less and I do better on the scale.

Not all weight loss supplements are evil. Just be careful, and don’t expect a miracle. You are much better off changing your lifestyle. My motto and personal mantra:

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

So the next time you are having trouble finishing (or starting) your workout, or the next time you consider stopping by McD’s, say it outloud, or in your head. Find a saying that is meaningful to you, and say it to yourself everytime you are hitting a rough spot. It will help, that much I can promise!

This is part two for my 3 readers following along. Before I wrote about how I was going to start cleaning the windows and outdoor furniture, and now I have moved on to the clothes.

I have 3 kids, all at different stages of growth. For the past few years my oldest hasn’t grown much, so he’s stayed basically in the same size. It made it easy to sort through what to keep and what to put away for next year. This year he is shooting up! I’ll have to go through his current clothes as well as what I have put away to see what I need to buy.

My daughter is tall and slim as all get out. All of her pants have to have those adjustable waists, because I need to get them longer and the waist ends up being too big. Luckily Kohls is having a great sale so I was able to grab some end of summer clothes for cheap that will fit her well.

The baby is another story altogether. Somehow I still have all sizes of baby clothes laying around! I’ve gotten rid of bags and bags of infant clothes, but bits and pieces still pop up. Again I got a bunch of end of summer clothes from Kohls, as well as a few fall pieces. After I sort through all the clothes, I usually wash them all, give what I can to friends, and donate the rest. I never buy expensive clothes to begin with, so nothing we have would be good enough to go on Ebay.

After that, I’ll go through my husbands and my own clothes, replaces oodles of socks and undies, and have a clean closet! (well, at least for a little while!)

Okay, so I’m going to be a tad un-PC here, but the story is worth it. For the record I feel terrible about the current conflict, and I have already made a donation to Mercy Corp to help with the victims.

On with it!

We begin with my butt firmly planted on my couch, watching the Olympics. I think I was watching the women’s swimming events, but I can’t be sure. Anyway, I get a text from my sister:

“What’s going on with the Russians?”

I’m thinking…well, they aren’t doing so hot with medal wins but why is she so concerned?

my reply was a “huh?”

“We’ve been invaded by the russians!”

WHHHHAAAAAATTTT??????

Now, at this point I am beyond confused. I’ve been watching tv all day and would figure that if the US was attacked we would be notified immediately. I quickly popped online to see what I’ve been missing. It then hit me what the heck she was talking about.

Duh. I started laughing so hard I couldn’t text her back, I had to call her.

My poor dear sister saw on tv the bombing of Georgia by the Russians. She immediately thought that Georgia “the state” was being attacked. I suppose it is an honest mistake, Georgia “the country” isn’t one we hear much about.

I reassured her that we have not in fact been invaded, and advised her to shut off the television. Besides, if we were to be invaded, wouldn’t they choose a state that wasn’t landlocked? If not, they don’t deserve to win anything!

So, again, I had a laugh over something that shouldn’t be laughed at. (did anyone else at least giggle?)

In a prior post, I wrote about our dilemma deciding where to go for a adults only getaway. We already have a short 4 day trip planned to Disney to attend the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot this year, but we wanted to do something special for our anniversary next year.

I think we’ve decided on Vegas for a few reasons. One, we’ve never been there so it will be completely new to us both. Two, my sister lives a quick flight from Vegas, so her and her hubby may be able to join us for a few days. Since he was a card dealer, he promised to teach us the ins and outs of a few games. We aren’t big gamblers by any means, but we can play a bit for the fun of it.

I spent the morning looking at hotels and various activities. There is way more to Vegas vacations than gambling! The Planet Hollywood Resort looks fun, and within our budget. We might also look into a Marriott or Hyatt if there is one, since I can get a family rate there.

I just LOVE planning vacations!

My dad and Cousin Billy were chomping at the bit to go fishing, and they view fishing as an aaaallllll day event, so mom, DH and I decided to take the kids to Acadia National park for the day.

I have some serious memories at that park. Most of the memories of my childhood trips center around playing in the lake and going to Acadia. The park is roughly 30 minutes from the lake, so not a bad drive. There is so much to do there it is impossible to see everything in one day, or even one week! So a 30 minute drive for an activity filled day is easy to justify.

We settled on spending most of the morning/early afternoon at Sand Beach. History has it that since all sand beaches are such a rarity on NorthEast coastlines, the founders of Acadia were so impressed by all the sand. They came up with the aptly title…Sand Beach.

Original things weren’t they!

We packed up a picnic lunch, as well as all our beach gear and headed out. The night before we had been blessed by a random stranger in Walmart’s parking lot. (I know how that sounds) He had just spent his last day in Ellsworth, and offered us his Acadia parking pass that was still good through the end of the week. Normally the passes cost $20 per car, but he offered it to me! I felt bad just taking it, so I gave him $10. So I had my pass for the week, mom had to get one for her car, and we were rocking!

The beach was packed, we had to park all the way up on the main road and walk down. I had purchased a hiking carrier for our 2 year old, so my husband offered to carry him down. We probably should have practiced with him in it, as he completely freaked out and screamed his head off all the way down to the beach. We pulled up a piece of sand, and set up  camp.

The kids, of course, took off immediately for the waves. Knowing how strong those waves are, I was in hot pursuit. The waves were HUGE but the water was FREEZING! Literally, the sign posted stated it was 52 that morning. Livvy didn’t last long in the water, and Chris didn’t stay all that long either. I have to admit, I lost feeling in my feet quickly, and the waves were whipping tons of sand and tiny shells into our skin. It wasn’t the most pleasant sensation.

The kids settled for playing in the tidal pools, and building the requisite sand castles. We ate lunch, and enjoyed the sun. Shortly after 2 we decided to pack up and visit some sights along the Park Loop. We took the kids to see Thunder Hole, which was incredible. Over thousands of years the pounding surf has carved out a hole in the cliff side, and now every time a wave comes in, it pounds inside the hole and sounds just like thunder! The sounds are better when the tide comes in, and we were there at the tide going out. Still, the kids were enthralled, and my husband was impressed.

We were all getting a bit tired, so we decided to call it a day. I wasn’t in the mood to cook for everyone after being out all day, so I made the executive decision to eat out tonight.

We took the scenic route through Bar Harbor (read: mom took the wrong turn). I didn’t mind though,  Bar Harbor is a beautiful town, and one I would not mind staying in. It screams small New England coastal town. After our extended drive home, we waited for the menfolk to return from their excursion, and washed up for dinner.

Am I boring you? Writing this is showing me just how little we did this week…however, I think that is what made it a great vacation! I’m normally a commando vacationer, planning activity after activity and generally getting worn out. This time was different. Boring to read about, maybe. But the time actually relaxing was just wonderful.