Daily Archives: November 2, 2007

Where are all the lows?

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Our life is usually a little, gently sloping rollercoaster, some highs, some lows. Apparently we are heading for one doozy of a hill because we have been on nothing but a high, all week long.

To start the week off the girls and I were on a “Daddy high” when he safely arrived back home from his week + of travels. It was a serious love-fest around here Monday night and has been the rest of the week, when Daddy is not passed out from sheer exhaustion. It is so nice to have him home and I have returned Emma to her own bed and J’s cricket bat back to his closet. (A few crazy noises one of the nights while he was gone, had given it a premier spot within arms reach of my side of the bed.)

The middle of the week sent the girls into a serious “sugar high” with all of the Halloween festivities and candy. Candy. Oh my word – do we have candy. We got all dressed up. Mommy and Daddy, too. Emma was insistent on me having a costume, so while we were in Target the other day (and their costumes were all on sale!) I told her she could pick one out for me. Her first attempt was a bar wench costume, with the shirt cut down to here, and the skirt cut up to here. She said, “it is like a girl pirate, Mama!”

I told her they didn’t have my size (thankfully they didn’t) and she tried again. The second time around she picked out a queen costume. Nice long skirt, super cheap. Ding, ding, ding. We had a winner.

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It was fun to get dressed up with them and yes, that is glitter that you see on every inch of each of us. Apparently queens, princesses and fairies all are very glittery. I was not aware, as I’m sure you were not. But now we all know. And we also know to put the glitter up, far, far out of the reach of little 2-year olds. Yeah. She still has glitter in her ears, and I still have about an inch of glitter covering my house. At any rate, we had a good time and Em and Ad got a little prize at one of our neighbors’ for being the “best dressed.” Very cute.

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And Daddy was a pirate, of course. We trick-o-treated around the block and the girls came away with quite a load of candy. They have each had maybe 2 pieces of it. I just threw our Easter basket candy away, so I’m guessing that this batch will last us til next Easter, at least.

Addie totally caught on to the whole routine and even had her “Trick Or Treats” “Thank Yous” and “Happy Halloweens” at all the appropriate moments. It was so sweet. But their favorite part of the whole night was when we got back to the house and they got to hand out candy. They loved that part and both wanted to give away handfuls to all the kids. I had to keep telling them “only 2 pieces for each kid.” And then Emma would say, “or three, right Mama?” It is hard to say no to them being so happy to give to others.

So no naps, and a late night led to a little bit of an off-kilter morning yesterday and then the chin-splitting incident. Which all just pushed everyone into a little bit of an “adrenaline high.” We went to the gym, lunch and were on our way to Trader Joe’s for some groceries and Addie had those “sparkly” shoes on from Halloween. She had already tripped two or three times before we even got to the store, I am not sure what the problem with them is. She was sitting on the bottom shelf of the basket while I was picking out some groceries and she tried to get up, tripped over her shoe and face-planted right on her chin.

At first it didn’t even bleed. She cried for a few minutes and then I realized it was bleeding, and then gushing. So I got it to let up, put a band-aid on it (first-aid kit in the car, so handy yet again!), and we finished shopping. She was smiling, all seemed ok. When we got back to the car with the groceries, I peeled the band-aid off just to see how it was doing and it started bleeding again and I realized, it was a bit of a gaping hole. So I decided to take her in just to make sure she didn’t need stitches, or get them if she did.

Luckily Michelle was with us and took our groceries and Em back to the house to stay with Denise, and Ad and I trekked to the ER. Like I said, 3 hours later, they basically super-glued her chin together and she was/is as good as new. She was fantastic at the ER, though. I really can’t believe that kid sometimes. She hung out, got stickers from all the nurses and was completely cooperative. One male nurse came in and was checking her chin (and her puppy’s chin, he got a band-aid and boo-boo, too!) and she just looked at me and said, “I’m gonna be ok, right Mama?” I don’t know if she was trying to convince herself of it or trying to tell the nurse she didn’t really need to be looked at. She was not as fond of the doctor since he was a formidable fellow and a little gruff. But she still did great. I’ll have to try to take a pic of our first trip to the ER for Addie. I had forgotten that it isn’t our first ER trip, Kim reminded me of Emma’s first flesh wound incident when was attacked by a bird at the Playboy Mansion. (Yes, it truly is as bizarre a story as it sounds!) She was only 18 months old and that was our first official trip. Ha!

You know when it seems like the week is going by in slow motion, but then you look back on it and it seems to have gone so fast and you did so much? That is kind of what this week has been like. So I’m really hoping for a low-key weekend. We really need it. A little recuperation, rest and hopefully a good showing from our football team tomorrow. That would be the perfect ending to our week of highs.

Small Change: Month 10 Wrap-up / Month 11 Challenge

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So how did we all do last month? Did we make the Earth a little greener?

This month was, I must admit, an easy month for us. I am a bit obsessed with the whole environment anyhow, so we upped the ante a little bit and I am pleased with our results.

We continued to recycle everything we possibly can. Our center is actually pretty diverse in what it will accept, everything from batteries, any type of plastic to styrofoam, so almost any form of packaging goes in the recycle bin around here. Here is a typical trip each week to the center –

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I love that Emma has really gotten into the whole “recycleables center” too. She loves to help me sort the plastics by numbers, which is a good exercise for her. She also is starting to put it all together – that helping recycle, helps the Earth, helps the animals, etc. We saw the movie Arctic Tale a while ago, but she still mentions it every time we go to the center. “We are helping the polar bears and the walruses, right Mommy?” If nothing else, that alone is a very positive effect from this whole thing.

And our trash bin is nearly empty every week! With no more diapers and all of the recycling, we have usually only one bag of trash. One week we forgot to put the bin out and it was only half-full the next week when I wheeled it out to the curb. That alone made me feel pretty successful.

I also worked on ridding the house of anything that may have toxins and/or phosphates. This I was only moderately successful at. I found a lot of the Method stuff at Target to be good and I like the Orange stuff, too. I really dislike the Seventh Generation All-Purpose Cleaner. If it doesn’t have anything “bad” for us and the environment in it – why does it leave a sticky, icky feeling to everything? This challenge will be one that I’m working on for awhile, I think. And no, still haven’t found a laundry detergent I like better than Tide. Will keep you updated on that one. Let me know what you are using and if you have found it to work.

And finally, I am trying to buy organic food as much as I can. My challenge to myself is to shop the farmer’s market more often to buy in-season fruits and vegetables. It is difficult when you have girls that really love blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries, which all have definite seasons. And I’m not crazy about frozen fruit generally. But not only is the lack of pesticides good for the environment, I think the biggest benefit is that they aren’t going into our bodies. So we all win…well, I guess our bank account doesn’t. It is definitely more expensive. Which brings up the whole milk – growth hormone debate. I guess that really is a discussion for another day. Remind me sometime, and we can talk about that.

So onto the challenge for next month, er….this month! We are already 2 days down, I know, but this month’s is a really good one again. Help someone who is not prepared for Thanksgiving. Whether it is dumping some canned goods into the food bank barrel, donating a turkey dinner to a needy family, sending Thanksgiving love and goodies to the troops, or inviting someone to your dinner that might not have a place to go. Anything goes as long as it is helping someone have a happier holiday.

I have a feeling most of you already do something similar to this anyhow. But let’s just take a moment and remember all of the things we have to be thankful for, and then pass a little on.