Crabby Mama

Leah presented her second semester gifted project on Wednesday. She chose to study Guatemala because her Aunt Lauren was traveling in Guatemala when we were discussing which country would be fun to learn about. Ultimately she decided to demonstrate how to make corn tortillas while wearing a traditional Mayan outfit. She talked through how Guatemalan women dry the corn and soak it in lime. She explained how to take the hulls off the kernels. Then she used masa flour mixed with water and actually formed a tortilla in front of the class. She walked them through how to cook it. Then she passed around some tortillas we had made the night before so that everyone could taste them. At the end, she explained her outfit and the significance of the pattern.

I watched her practice her presentation twice the night before and I was stunned at how by the second time she was able to use the note cards for notes only and not read from them. She got better at seeming to speak off the cuff and add a little humor too. When I spoke to her the next day at pickup, she said everything had gone well. Her teacher even kept the Mayan outfit to display in the library! I am one proud mama right now.

I feel like I have posted about this a million times, but I have come up with a new method of keeping track of my cleaning chores. I have a calendar from this site that I transfer to my own monthly chore chart on Google Docs. Then on Thursdays when I plan my weekly menu, I also plan out my next week’s chores. I have a spiral notebook and each page is a week. I write each day and leave about 1/3 of a page under it. Then I write what is for dinner that day and that day’s chores under it. I do a Monday to Sunday chore list and a Saturday to Friday menu plan. On, say, a Monday, I would look in my notebook and write all my chores on the small white board on the fridge. Then I erase them as I do them that day. If they don’t get done, they get moved to the bottom of the white board and I get to them when I can. I don’t allow essentials to go undone, only bigger things. So far it is going on week 4 and working very well. I am doing things I rarely do on a pretty regular basis now.

As for the girls, they are taking on more and more responsibility. We differentiate between family chores and extra chores for them. When I ask them to do something, I tell them which it is. Family chores are required because you live in this house and it’s your job as a family member (putting away your clean clothes, helping clean up after dinner, helping straighten the house, etc). Extra chores are things that are generally my job and I am asking for help with (bathrooms, cleaning the fridge, cleaning the windows, dusting, etc). Doing an extra chore can earn you money (usually $1). We keep index cards on the fridge with a running total of each girls’ “money” and they can spend it like real money at the store if they choose. OR they can spend it on privileges at home like reading an extra chapter at night, spending alone time with a parent, etc. They can save or spend as they choose. I am getting lots of help out of the deal and they are liking the method so far. We just instituted the privilege trade part but the cash part has been working for a few weeks now. My sliding doors are cleaned on a regular basis now and once Leah cleaned out the whole pantry almost entirely on her own. It’s good stuff…

For all the holidays lately (Valentine’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter) I have been Pinteresting like crazy. I have gotten so many good ideas from it and have been hosting playdates and making things for the kids all the time. Here are some of the highlights of Sat Patty’s day:

I sewed these headband covers and made the slip-on little shamrock. We can reuse the shamrock elsewhere and the headbands can have the covers changed to match outfits.

I was going to dye the batter and do actual rainbow colors inside but decided to go simple. White cake cupcakes with whipped white frosting that I dyed light blue. I saved some white to pipe on for the clouds and used the sour rainbow strips for the rainbows. I loved that the frosting took on a lemony quality because our the sour “sugar”. We had these at a St Patty’s day treasure hunt playdate that I hosted for our playgroup.

I painted these Glad snack bowls green and added the details to make them into leprechaun hats. The kids at the playdate used them to put their gold and green coins in after hunting them. Between the cupcakes and the hunting, the kids had a BLAST!

On St Patty’s Day, the kids woke to, sadly, no leprechauns in their traps. But they did find a little mischief he had caused.
They absolutely loved all the shenanigans AND the Lucky Charms they had for breakfast.

I headed to a friend’s baby shower and Mike hung with the kids most for the afternoon. But we did manage to have shepherd’s pie and mint brownies with friends for dinner. All in all, a fun and green holiday weekend!

Today I ran the Oldsmar Armadillo 10K. I did the same race last year so I actually had something to compare it to. Last year’s time was 67:55 and this year’s time was 67:13. So I can safely say I improved. But it wasn’t nearly the improvement I thought a year’s worth of running would give me.

After the race, I saw a booth for a group called RunVie. They are a husband/wife couple who do run training. Starting this week they were offering a “Spring into Speed” workshop for 8 weeks. They meet at the local middle school track twice a week and teach you speed drills and work on your form. So I signed up. I will keep you informed on what kinds of stuff they have us do. At the end of the training, I wanna run a 5K and see how much I have improved. Of course, it will be 90 degrees outside in 2 months, so that will affect my speed too.

Back in January, I saw this idea on Pinterest:

A year of date nights, pre-planned, and at the beginning of each month you would schedule that month’s date. One guaranteed date night to look forward to a month. We are not good about planning our dates in advance, usually more of a “Wanna go see a movie this weekend? Sure.” kinda thing. So I thought this might be cool.

I chatted with Mike about it and we decided we didn’t have to plan it to a T, but have a general idea of what we wanted to do at least the month before. And we would take turns being in charge. Before we knew it, 4 months worth of dates were taking shape.

January’s date was an overnight trip for just us to Melbourne for Jason’s birthday bonfire. The funniest part was that we hardly saw each other at the actual bonfire. But it was nice to have 24 hours for just us, no kids.

The past weekend we went on our February date (squeezed it in just under the wire). Mike decided I was going to try flowriding, because he had a few Groupons to use up. We decided flowriding and lunch on the beach was our date.

I was nervous to try it. I thought it would be super hard. Turns out it wasn’t, it was lots of fun! I started out just boogie boarding on my stomach. Once I was confident with that, I jumped in from the top instead of easing in on the bottom. After that, I tried kneeling on the board and that’s when I experienced my first wipeout! I had not wanted to wear a 2 piece suit, but I did not own a 1 piece so I gave it a shot. Bad idea… The first wipeout almost took my top off (halter tank top). The second wipeout pulled the boy shorts down in back to show off my butt. After that, I darted upstairs and bought a 1 piece suit, threw it on in the dressing room, and was back flowriding in 5 minutes. I was able to take a hit after that and keep my clothes on. PS the hits really don’t hurt, they just look like they do.

The last run I did I attempted to stand on the real board. I was terrified the whole time and made the attendant lead me off carefully. I did not want to wipe out from that high up. Lunch at Crabby Bill’s on the water finished off the date.

On the way home, we saw a sign for an open house right down the street from us, so we decided to stop and look it over. It was a decent house, but there was another sign on the corner, so we followed it to another house. Wowza! We were both blown away by the second house. It was gorgeous and almost exactly perfect for us. It was only 3 bedrooms, which had us sighing. But we still keep thinking about it. And it forced us into really thinking about finding our own place. That’s a whole ‘nother post.

So 2 dates down, 10 to go. March will be to see Hunger Games and dessert. April is our anniversary so we are doing something special with our favorite fellow April wedding couple, Mandi & Barry. After that, well, we will have to see, I guess.

This past week was ROUGH. After my race, Mike immediately left for a weeklong trip. I was completely wiped the rest of that day and my mom did lots of helping with dinner and bedtime. The next day I got up feeling sore, but capable. We got through Day 1 of being on our own again. That evening while I was working on all of the Valentines for the next day, I started feeling a little off in the stomach. I laid down and did not get up again for like 15 hours. I had to call my mom in the morning to come bring the girls to school. I was moaning from the couch things like brush your teeth and put your shoes on. I made them cinnamon rolls for breakfast by doing each step and laying down in between. It was awful. I was lucky enough that my step-dad was able to come pick up Adam for a couple of hours in the morning so I could lay back down and take a nap. By the time Adam got home for his nap, I was feeling a tad better. I was able to pick the girls up from school and order pizza for dinner. Made it through baths and bedtime.

By Wednesday I was back to normal. I guess with whatever stomach bug was going around plus the half I was just completely wiped and needed to regain my strength. I had to forgo a few Valentines surprises but the kids seemed to have a great day with what they had. They each got a card, stickers (Leah got fridge magnet poetry and she LOVED it), a book or two, a mini box of chocolates and a little stuffed guy from Daddy (Erin slept with hers the rest of the week).

Table on Valentine's morning

Anyway, we are so grateful to have Daddy back and we are ready to go back to our regularly scheduled programming. Well, I guess after we go to Legoland on Monday and have Mimi and PawPaw visit for a week.

PS Here are my beautiful Valentine flowers from my love.

So I did it. I finished a 13.1 mile race. I am oh so proud but a bit disappointed too. Because the last 2 miles, well they about killed me. Let me tell the tale from the beginning.

The night before the race, I was looking at the forecast and it was saying very low 40s for temp for the entire race. Yikes, I never run outside when it is that cold. I had no idea what to wear. After some very frantic searching, I settled on my new full-length running pants (with sweatpants over that I would stuff in my gear check bag just before the race), long-sleeved running shirt with a throwaway sweatshirt, a throwaway wool hat under my visor, and sock gloves. Yes, I said sock gloves. They were very handy as a handkerchief.

The next day I got up at 5am. Ate some oatmeal and waited for my ride. My friends Julie and Leia were running with me and I was all ready to lament the weather with them. Then Julie told me that Leia’s husband had the stomach flu! She had to miss the race! That was a bummer. When we got close to the race site, the traffic started to back up. At one point, we were afraid we were going to miss the window to park in our pre-paid parking spot! But Julie did some fast rerouting and we made it just in time.

The wait for the race to begin was the worst. We were freezing! I ended up NOT checking my sweatpants, but wearing them over race pants the WHOLE time. I was never too warm with them on. It was actually warmer in the corrals because so many people were blocking the wind. Oh the wind!! We were close to the bay and the wind was just frigid. I intended to pace with the 2 hour 30 min pace team (people who will run the race in a predetermined amount of time so you can “pace” with them) so Julie and I started when they started.

A finishing time of 2h30 puts you at an 11:27 pace. Well, for the first 2 miles, it looked like we were pacing at 11:15 and I was slightly out of breath so I dropped back. Thought to myself, this is going to be a very long race. But the miles kept flying by and before I knew it, I was at the 10K marker, time of 1h08! That is an 10:58 pace!!! Just over my fastest 10K time. So I was super happy. At mile 8 my knees started to ache a bit. I caught up with Julie and tried to pace with her, but she was a bit faster than me, so I had to let her go on ahead. I hit mile 10 at 1h55 which is an 11:30 pace. Still SUPER happy with that pace.

Just after mile 10, I thought I saw my mom’s green jacket. I shouted to her and it was the whole family!! I took a walk break and hugged everyone. I only had a 5K to go!! I was still going strong.

That’s when it happened. Just before mile 11, I developed cramps from my lower back to my feet in both legs. It hurt just as much to walk as to run. For the last 2.1 miles, I wondered how I was going to make it. I walked SO much. AND my running was a snail’s pace. My last 5K of the race took 45:50, which is a pace of 14:47. Pathetic.

Saw the family again just as I crossed the finish line and had an emotional moment. But it was fleeting. Because it was all I could do to limp through the exit area and collapse on the ground outside. After the race, I almost couldn’t move for like a 1/2 hour and I had to practically crawl to the car. It was freaking freezing too because we were on the water and my sweat was drying fast. I could not get warm for 3 hours following the race.

Mike was my hero and went to get the car and bring it as close as possible. We made it home and I immediately passed out on the couch. I fell asleep within minutes and slept all through lunch. Mike had to wake me up to say goodbye (he is leaving for a week for his new job).

All in all, I am very proud of myself for finishing in my goal window of 2h30-2h45. But with the way most of the race went, I know I could have done better if those cramps had not appeared. I will be doing lots of research and try to figure out how to prevent them next time. And there will be a next time. I have something to prove now.

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted. Since I am not sure anyone reads this anymore, I have not been inclined to post. In a Facebook world where people respond within seconds to everything you say, getting no comments prevents me from writing here. BUT… since I started this blog 5.5 years ago, I have always loved going back and rereading posts to see how things were. So I am going to try to post here at least once a week for the rest of the year. I will now summarize January.

Adam – This kid has been a whirlwind. He talks nonstop, climbs and hangs, and loves the rock walls and swings at the playground. He has been going to school on Tues/Thurs and an extra day here and there too. We finally convinced him that he can get up in the morning and play quietly in his room without shouting for me. It works well most of the time. This morning though I woke up to him standing beside my bed in nothing but a diaper (thank goodness for that!). So the door knob guard is not an official deterrent, merely a suggestion, I guess. I may be turning the door know around and locking it if this becomes a problem.

Erin – Erin finished up Karate in January by earning her junior yellow belt. We celebrated by going to Steak-n-Shake with another family. As much as she enjoyed karate and loved being celebrated, she still insisted on switching back to gymnastics. We started last week and it was as expected. She kinda flails around in warm up and acts silly. But once they are doing the rotations, she gets better at following directions. The highlight was that Erin climbed to the top of the rope TWICE! She was the only kid in her class who could do it. Unfortunately she slid back down too fast and rope burned her legs in 3 different places. Drama ensued. But she is healing fast and can’t wait til her next class.

Leah – Leah officially started with competitive team gymnastics. She goes to practice 4:30-6 MWF. I asked her the other day if she was sick of it yet and she said no, she loves going. Actually today she was reluctant to go, but I think it was because she hadn’t had any down time. Her Monday homework always takes the longest and she didn’t have time to do anything else before gymnastics. Oh well, Wednesday will be better.

Leah also truly learned to ride a bike with no training wheels recently. She has been riding around the neighborhood with Daddy and on family outings to the playground. In fact, yesterday she rode the Pinellas Trail with us! She was SO proud. I was the most proud because she ran into a pole and took a little spill. Instead of being traumatized, she wanted to keep going and master riding between the poles. By the end of the ride, she was doing it like a pro! My big girl just keeps getting bigger.

Family – The Konickis came over for the weekend this month and we had “Fry Fest 2012″ which basically means that we fried everything we could get our hands on. Pickles, french fries, chicken, shrimp, fish, and beignets were consumed in mass quantities. The Wests joined in and it was a night to remember.

One weekend, Mike and I took just the girls to the rock gym. They did such a great job! It was so cool to see them muscle through the fear and reach the top. They have already surpassed me in proportional strength and it won’t be long until they will be stronger than we truly.

The last weekend in January was our “date” for the month (we decided to do this from Pinterest). We left the kids with my mom and went to Melbourne for Jason’s birthday bonfire on the beach. We had a great time with great friends and put a check mark down for January.

What a whirlwind this month has been! With being sick, visiting family, the last few weeks of gymnastics and karate, we were on the go nonstop! Here are some of the highlights.

Cooking at Young Chef’s Academy with the girls…

Erin helped make these cookies

Leah made bacon foccacia and French toast cupcakes

Going to Busch Gardens with my sisters, Grammy & Pops for the day…

Having brunch with my mom & sisters…

Going to see “snow” at Safety Harbor’s Snow Fest with PawPaw…

Our attempt at snow angels in dirty snow

Checking out Japanese cuisine at Arigato’s…

We went to a Japanese Steakhouse as research for Leah's Japan project

Celebrating Grammy’s birthday…

We sang to Grammy with a birthday banana!

Finding our Elf on the Shelf, Jingle, every morning and seeing what trouble he got himself into…

Jingle TP'd our tree!

Lighting the menorahs every night and opening just ONE present…

The first night of channukah

Visiting Winter from A Dolphin Tail…

With Winter's tail at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Erin LOVED petting the stingrays!

Watching the magic of Christmas unfold in our house…

Merry Christmas eve in new jammies!

Playing one of our new games Christmas day

It has been AMAZING this year as all three are very much a part of every tradition now. It can’t get any better then this. Merry Christmas all!

Yesterday was a fun day all around. First I took the girls to Young Chef’s Academy for a cooking class. Erin and I made cookies together while Leah made bacon foccacia and French toast cupcakes with bacon in her own big girl class. It was a long drive to get there so we won’t be doing it too often, but I used a Groupon so we got a good deal.

In the afternoon, I stayed home with Adam while he napped and Mike took the girls to Celebration Station to play mini-golf and batting cages and other stuff. They had a blast. Leah was sad she couldn’t hit in the batting cage, but she has never played any kind of ball! Mike said Erin got some natural 3’s on the golf course too.

We took the kids and my mom to Arigato Japanese Steakhouse for dinner (with another Groupon). Leah is doing a project on Japan for her gifted class so we wanted her to experience Japanese food. Well, as we researched it, it is really westernized Japanese but still fun. The kids did pretty well and they told us after that is was lots of fun.

After dinner, we put up our Christmas tree. Adam was just as good at taking off ornaments as putting them on. They all loved the train around the bottom and the lights. Adam said, “Christmas is at our house!” He also told us how cute all the ornaments were. That kid! I love him!

We finished the day off with one last viewing of The Elf on the Shelf, which is the current favorite on our house. We are getting our own elf today so that they can enjoy it even more.

Just wanted to record and remember a fun day in December 2011.