Friday Confessional #6

First of all, I would like to thank my sister-in-law EmRee for the one comment my last post got, ha ha. Next, on to confessional. I really shouldn't tell this because it really brands me as the super-nerd I am... but oh well.

I do the newspaper crossword puzzle every night after my kids go to sleep.

I love crossword puzzles and I am getting much better at them. My newspaper recently announced that they won't be doing a Monday paper anymore. Apparently it is not cost effective for them to distribute a Monday paper (small town). I will admit, my first thought when I read this was, "Dang, no Monday crossword puzzle." Because, you see, I can usually finish the whole crossword puzzle on Mondays since they get harder as the week progresses. About Wednesday is when my skill level is passed up. But guess what? The Monday crossword puzzle gets sent ahead of time on Sunday now. You know what that tells me? Hooray, I must not be the only geek in Cache Valley!

Christmas 2011

Every so often I have to do a post that is more of a journal entry and very detailed and not that exciting to anyone but family. This is one of those.

We had a wonderful Christmas at home this year. My parents came up the day before Christmas Eve and stayed for 5 days. It was so nice actually being home for Christmas! I love being with family, but it was nice to have them come to us. We've never actually spent a Christmas in Logan in the 8 years we've been married.

My sister Avree, my sister-in-law Callie, and I made a ton of candy the week before Christmas. We made caramels, Oreo truffles, dark chocolate truffles covered in toasted almonds, toffee, and white chocolate peppermint brickle (I will share this recipe because it was AMAZING!)-- all while our lovely husbands took the kids to the Aggie basketball game. We are definitely going to make this a tradition!

We spent Christmas Eve over at my brother Jaren's house. Yes, he is the one who looks kind of like a creeper with the gross mustache. Bear with him... it is his last big hurrah before he goes to Law School (he's already been accepted to several schools so he's not one of those people who say they're pre-law or pre-med and never actually become lawyers or doctors ha ha). He and his wife Callie made the best dinner. I'm amazed my sister-in-law Callie just pulls dinners off for all of us without stressing. I would have died having to make Christmas Eve dinner for all of my in-laws when I was first married!



My parents had Christmas PJ's for the kids to open-- Kate wouldn't wear hers because they were the kind that cover your feet so that is why she is not pictured wearing the darling Gymboree PJ's my mom bought her in subsequent photos. Then we drove around to look at Christmas lights (family tradition) and while we were gone, Mrs. Santa Claus left us a Christmas book with a little note (my favorite family tradition). It was a Fancy Nancy Christmas book and was loved by the girls.

Then the kids went to sleep and the adults, ahem, wrapped a few last-minute presents (until 1 a.m.) and then Santa did indeed visit! I had to work at the hospital NICU for a few hours so I left at 5 a.m. (yes, that's just 4 hrs after I went to bed) so I would be back in time to open presents. Luckily the kids slept until about 7:45. The train set was a gigantic hit-- gigantic literally! There are 4 remote control trains and a room full of tracks and accessories and it still gets played with for hours each day. Marin also got a Wii (yes, I know we're several years behind on that one, but she is still thrilled with it).




There are a million more pictures but for some reason Blogger won't let me add any more. ("oh darn," you're thinking I know). We had a lovely Christmas dinner at my sister Avree's house complete with funeral potatoes. Her husband Matt put together a little musical program and Callie played the guitar and my dad made me play a piano solo. Some of Matt's family were there, including his dad who used to be in the Tabernacle Choir so they contributed some lovely musical numbers as well.

The rest of the holiday we spent relaxing, skiing, eating out, going to movies, and just enjoying having Grandma and Grandpa St. George (as my children call them) here.

We also had some cool experiences trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas with our kids, but that is not the kind of thing I like to post in detail on my blog. But just so you know, we didn't forget :)

Hope your holidays were wonderful and have a very happy New Year!

The Green Smoothie

Okay, I am going to go a little "dietitian" on you all right now. I know many of you forgot I am one, what with all of my dessert and candy-loving talk. But I did spend a significant portion of my life studying the lovely topic of nutrition and healthy eating, so I feel that I must share my latest health idea with you. Mind you, I tend to shy away from things like this. So when 2 of my sisters-in-law told me about the Green Smoothie I admit I scoffed at first. But now I am a whole-hearted Green Smoothie drinker. I have provided this lovely picture of what I put into my green smoothies. I feel it is a delicate balance between healthy and disgusting-- I have only dared to stray from my original recipe once with horrifyingly disgusting results. So now I just stick with this:

1/2 banana (frozen)
1/4 cup blueberries (frozen)
5 whole strawberries (frozen)
1 3/4 cup very cold water
2.5 cups spinach

It looks disgusting, but I promise it is not. I got my sister (also a dietitian) on board. This is important now-- I AM NOT drinking this exclusively. No way. I drink this in the morning with my breakfast and later around 3:00 when I am craving a snack. All it is, is a healthy way to get a quick 5-ish servings of fruits and veggies in for busy people. This is the nutrition breakdown:

110 kcals
3.5 g protein
5.3 g fiber
90 mg calcium
2.5 mg iron
And a ton of vitamins and phytochemicals I didn't feel like listing.

If I haven't sold you I have one more pro-green smoothie thing to add. Since I have been drinking these my skin is softer and my hands don't crack and bleed in the cold. I'm serious! So there you have it. Take it or leave it :)

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas....

A little vintage




Some live poinsettias


Some homemade (eat your heart out Anthropologie, I saved $48 by making these myself!)


A fake tree decorated by Yours Truly


A real live tree with ornaments brought to you by expert sewer Marin Moncur (oh, the smell is yummy!)




Some live White Pine and Boxwood


And don't forget the wreath (I made the bow out of burlap-- copied straight from my Pottery Barn magazine)!


Candy Cane Cocoa (Courtney, you'll appreciate the alliteration) for the neighbors


And, of course, stockings (because, Merry Christmas to me, Pottery Barn had free monogramming and shipping!)


SO BRING ON SANTA! THE MONCURS ARE READY!

Friday Confessional #5

I am getting ornery in my old age. This is an e-mail I just sent to Gap:

I received this in an e-mail this evening:

"Recently, we notified you that we processed a return for Order #154YRTS. Please note that the return policy for merchandise purchased online is 45 days from the date of purchase. You’re a valued customer and we want you to be happy with the service we provide, so we have processed this return as a courtesy."

I just wanted to note that the reason for the return is that I was sent an item I did not order. I ordered some jeans for my daughter and was sent a "slim" size by mistake, so I exchanged them. I expect this situation to be an exception to the regular return policy in place. The order may have been made over 45 days ago, but I would not have had to return the item if I had not been sent the wrong one in the first place. Thank you for processing the return.

Sincerely,

Cara Moncur

I feel that I must explain. First I waited for Gap to ship me the right pants. It took forever. Then Gap sent me the wrong pants, and in order for me to exchange them I had to buy new ones and send the old ones back. By the time I got the new ones, it was right around Thanksgiving, so I sent them back when I got home from Wyoming. Apparently this process took more than 45 days. So I got this snotty little e-mail and I had to retaliate. Oh I'm so assertive* am I not?

*I think about 75% of the time "assertive" is code for grouchy :)

Pumpkin Walk 2011

We went to the Pumpkin Walk this year. This is one of my absolute favorite things to do in the Fall. The highlight of the night for the kids was riding the shuttle bus from the hospital parking lot. I'm serious, we could have just hopped on the LTD and rode around for the night and stayed out of the cold. Here are some pictures. The Angry Birds display was my favorite. Some people are so dang creative!

An Epiphany!

Early this morning as I was blog-stalking I came across a link to this blog: Clover Lane. I read back a few posts because this mom is smart, funny, and real. I came to a post that about knocked me over because it was so perfectly how I feel sometimes. I just read the whole thing nodding my head, so I'm quoting some parts for you all:

"One of the things I have had to accept is my need for a quiet, focused family life. I tried for years and years to create balance with work, obligations, and family. I tried for years to keep up with the pace I see many mothers handle. I would hear about "juggling" many things at once, and would wonder, "Why am I such a terribly awful juggler?" I would attempt again and again to keep plates in the air, I would compare myself to others who seemed to do a wonderful job at it, I would be envious at their juggling skills, and time and time again, I would fail. Fail meant exhaustion, fail meant guilt at what I felt was unfocused attention to my family, fail meant a general feeling of malaise at what I felt was a half-way job at everything I was trying to accomplish, fail meant a jumbled brain that never felt peace. After several attempts I decided that all this juggling just wasn't for me. I had some hard moments that were little wake up calls..."

"...Children have little or no say in the way we set up their lives for them, and in the pace we set for them, and in the way these things affect how we react to them. What children really want, I think, is a calm, settled, predictable home life. A mother who is not frazzled, angry, stressed, or impatient. A mother who is in tune to their needs. Parents who aren't arguing because they both are occupied and don't have time to communicate properly. I began to realize that being a Daisy Scout mother was far less important than being a nice mother. I began to realize that joining a travel sports team that had us missing dinner every night and separated on the weekends, was giving far less an advantage to our son than spending time with his parents and siblings. I began to realize that bringing in a little extra income wasn't worth the amount of stress it brought to all of our lives.

I had so many other experiences like this, as I tried something new, and realized that once again, it wasn't working. I knew what I wanted more than anything was less "gasket blowing" days, and more calm, joyful days.

I decided to look at my good days with my children, the days I really felt like I was an attentive happy mother and wife, and analyze the circumstances that created that day. I also decided to look at the bad days, and find a common denominator. I came to realize that many of those days, I had planned just too much. I started noticing the good days had a slower rhythm to them, a day when I wasn't rushed to get in to the car to go here or there or anywhere. Sure, some bad days are just bad days from things we can't control...sick kids, sleepless nights, just a funky day, or a hard stage in family life. But many times the choices we have made determine the pace we set. I started making conscious decisions about the tempo I wanted to establish for my family because I had enabled myself to see what worked for us. FOR US. Not for my friend and her children, not because I had read in magazine I should be doing this and that for my children's social growth, not because I couldn't say no without feeling guilty..."

"...As I began to open my eyes to how I could be the best mother for my children, I could see the bigger picture. I had been comparing myself to other moms who seemed to handle so much smoothly, but I realized that maybe they had the skills or support to handle more, or just had made different decisions that didn't sit right with my conscience. Maybe they were in the same growth stage I had been and that big whammy of a lesson hadn't happened yet..."

"...This journey of self-knowledge is not over I am sure. I have decades of more mistakes ahead of me as my family changes and evolves over time. We have all the signs we need when something is not right...our spirits, when we are still, will tell us. Our children, in their behavior, in their little tender, purely good souls will show us if they are thriving or just surviving the lives we are forcing them to lead. Our marriage, our relationships, will become smooth sailing, or angry resentment. Knowing and accepting myself, and knowing my deep desire to fulfill the dream of how I want these years of motherhood to look for me, allows me to see the big picture, and make brave changes in the little snapshots of everyday life."

Oh, how I love this. She had 67 comments from mostly women and mothers who loved it too. I do like a quiet, structured home life. But it seems that so many moms, especially us Utah moms, thrive on how many things we have on our To Do list for the day. We brag about how busy we are and post our day to day hectic schedules for others to see. This works for some people. Some people are amazing at this (I have several sisters-in-law who manage just great). But this is not for me. Some days just are just hectic, and I can't help it. But with her advice in mind, I'm going to try to do what works for me, for my family, for my sanity. I want to keep a "quiet, focused family life" because I know from past experience that is what works for my family and me. And I don't have to be ashamed of this. I don't have to be ashamed if my calendar has some blank days, because the days that are blank on the calendar often end up being the fullest of what really matters.