Right Wing Mom

We had a busy and yet relaxing spring break. Sorry I haven’t been blogging much in the past week. But, with the stuff we had gong on and fussy baby for a few days, it was just hard to find the time. 

So - let’s get to up dating!

St Patrick Day dinner was fine. The cake didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted, but it was still yummy. You can’t go wrong with lemon curd Here are a few pictures from dinner. Although I neglected to take any pictures of the stew (which was delish!) or the cake… bad me!

A little starter for Marc and I. Wine (not Irish, but good) and Dubliner cheese, one of my fav’s!

Soda Bread and Cabbage with Bacon (oh so yummy!)

This week Marc and I started our makeover of Kaitie and Mandy’s room - what do you think of this color? Honeydew… yep - the room is a giant square honeydew now It’s going to be a garden room. I am still trying to figure out some stuff for the walls, I keep changing my mind. But - so far it looks good! Can’t wait to show it off when we are finished!

Awhile ago, Marc and I designated Saturday as family day, but gymnastics got in the way with Saturday practices. Thankfully, we are on a new schedule now and Saturdays are back to Family Day! This past Saturday we went geocaching. I think we may have started off with some hunts that were a little too hard. We found one… but had a really hard time finding another! But, it was in some tall grass near the edge of the woods and the park it was in has cottenmouths in it… so we were a little timid about tromping through the grass as Marc and I both had shorts and tennis shoes on. Anyway, it was still fun! But, I do feel the need to slightly tease my wonderful Hubby! Just to let you know though, if he reads this… I am in for it :)Quotes by Marc: “There is too much nature” “I hate nature” “There is no internet in nature” Now - in his defense - he was totally joking! But, it was funny!!!!

Kaitie, Mandy and Jake have spent Monday afternoon and all morning Tuesday “playing” Knight. We are studying the middle ages and Monday we read about Knights and Samurai. So - the girls opened up a knight school and Jake was their first student! It was great! They taught him all about horse care, chivalry, jousting, punching (lol), and daggers. He had a report card and everything! All A’s of course. He started off as a page, graduated to squire, then in his knighting ceremony, Daddy knighted him Sir Jacob the Hawk. You know, it’s times like this that make me want to stand from my roof and yell about how much i love homeschooling. The kids just had a great time playing, perhaps not realizing that they were reinforcing what they had learned and teaching Jake too Love it!

Getting Knighted by Daddy (with a lightsaber of course!)

“Arise Sir Jacob!”

Sir Jacob the Hawk
One thing I loved about this was the attention to detail. You see we learned about what the knights wore in their knighting ceremony. Red for the blood they would shed. White for purity and brown for the earth they would be buried in. Do you see what Jake is wearing? Cool huh?

As we all know today is St Patrick’s Day and being the red-headed lassie that I am, I have to make some kind of Irish meal.   

Most years, I just whip up some yummy corned beef and cabbage, which has never let me down, but this year I am up for trying something a little different. Partly because I don’t think Jake can have Corned Beef, but also because I am feeling a little adventurous!

So here is what’s on the menu for tonight:

Guinness Beef Stew with Carrots and Potatoes
Braised Cabbage with Bacon
Irish Soda Bread with Double Devon Cream Butter
Queen Victoria Sponge Cake with Lemon Curd

Wow, that looks good just typing it

I fully expect my weight to be up tomorrow… I am fine with that

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Actually - no! It’s Sunday night, but this is Monday morning’s post. I wanted to write now, before bed, so I can get some thoughts out and try to plan out my week a little better. 

Last week I was going through some really funky mental stuff and I had a lot to work through. Thankfully I have the world’s best husband by my side and he is super awesome at putting up with my weirdness. I was having some food issues and starting getting a little panicky then I started binging. So, for those of you who didn’t know, I have some food issues and addictions. I have been doing really well for the last year or so - I guess being pregnant helped, but last week -again, I don’t know what set me off.

So, I know I need to really get consistent with food and exercise and health in general. I have some goals for this week - ready???

1qt of Green Smoothies a day. Thats 2 a day. One for breakfast and one for an afternoon snack.

At least 3 qts of water a day

Portioned out meals. No blind eating or grazing.

30 minutes of exercise a day. Looking at the weather, I will be walking tomorrow, some kind of video Tue-Thur and walking on Fri and Sat.

Those are my goals and I’m stickin’ to ‘em!

Other than that stuff - Had a great weekend! We will be making over Katie and Mandy’s room this week. Went to Ikea as a family (gasp! Marc came too!) to pick out the girls new beds. Got the rest of the house cleaned and had a visit with Marc’s Mom and Dad who finally came to see Emma!I know there is more - but it’s getting late and this girl has a date with a pillow

Nighty night!

Ok, the funk is over… thank goodness! I really hate when I get that way, it bring the whole family down, not just me.

I got the entire house cleaned, which is so nice! Well, all but our bedroom and bathroom. That will be tackled today and tomorrow. I am happy that everything is picked up! Even the laundry is caught up I think next week I will try and get some deep cleaning/ spring cleaning type stuff done.

It is a beautiful day here today! It is supposed to get up to 89 degrees! Wow! Break out the swimsuits - not! I think after we get school done, we will have a little lunch then take a walk over to the park.

I think the kids and I (hopefully we can get Marc out into the sun too) will do a little geocaching tomorrow. Have you ever done this? Its like hiking, treasuring hunting, and exploring all rolled into one. You need a GPS and then directions to a hidden cache off the internet (www.geocaching.com). The you get to track it down - it’s alot of fun!

I will post more, non-depressing posts later and some pictures too

Too bad sarcasm doesn’t come across all that well in just a few words. But, that is how I feel today. Blah.

I’ve been in a funk the last few days and I am finding it hard to get back into the right frame of mind. I was determined to have a really good day today, but of course it’s raining. I really love the rain, but only if I have zero plans to do anything but sit and read a book or watch some tv. Not very productive.

Hopefully I can force myself to get my butt in gear and stop moping around.

No need to pity - just needed to get it off my chest.

I’m sure many of you have seen the news story regarding a homeschool family in California that was recently taken to court. Here is a brief synopsis from The HomeSchool Legal Defense Association.

A California Court of Appeal recently decided that homeschooling is illegal in California unless a parent is a certified teacher. The case arose in a confidential juvenile court proceeding. The family was represented by court-appointed attorneys and HSLDA did not become aware of the case until the Court of Appeal case was published on February 28, 2008. The Court could have restricted its decision to the facts before it, but instead, it issued a broad ruling that effectively outlaws home education in California. The Court also certified its decision for publication, which means that the decision can now be cited as legal authority by all other courts in California. The family and their California counsel are planning to appeal to the Supreme Court of California, which could result in reversal. Another option to keep homeschooling free in California is to petition the Supreme Court of California to “depublish” the opinion. If the opinion is “depublished” then it cannot be used by other California courts and this threat to homeschool freedom will be neutralized for other California homeschoolers. HSLDA will be formally petitioning the California Supreme Court to depublish the opinion. We would like to show that many other people, both in California and across the country, care deeply about homeschool freedom in California.

Please take a moment to sign this petition

This goes beyond weather you homeschool or not, or even if you think homeschooling is a good thing or not. This goes to the heart of the matter that parents should be able to make decisions regarding their children’s education. The judge stated that parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children. This statement comes from the same bozo’s judges that stated that parents have no right to control what their children are taught at school or what questions they are asked. This latter remark comes from the case where parents were a little upset over a sex survey given to 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders. The survey had questions like “How often do you think about sex?’ FIRST GRADERS! The court said that parents have no “fundamental right” to be the exclusive provider of sexual information to their children.

Here is a great article about the situation.

I know this is California, and you may not think it affects you, but it just may in the future if we do not take a stand and let our voices be heard now.

Thanks!

Because I have nothing better to do (LOL!!!) I was surfing for a few minutes and I came across this: What Punctuation Mark Are You?

So, like the silly little girl that I am, I took the quiz and I came up with this:

You Are An Exclamation Point

You are a bundle of… well, something.You’re often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama. You’re loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it.Definitely not the quiet type, you really don’t keep a lot to yourself.You’re lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy.(But they do secretly worry that you’ll spill their secrets without even realizing it.)You excel in: Public speakingYou get along best with: the Dash

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Hmm, What do you think? Am I really an Exclamation Mark?

BTW - I am just kidding, I know myself well enough to know, that I am totally an Exclamation Mark!

This was going to be a Wordless Wednesday post, but then I realized it’s Thursday! Kaitie and Mandy switched days since they moved up in gymnastics, so all this week I am thinking its another day! Yikes! Maybe I should look at a calendar every once in awhile! So - enjoy - I will keep it wordless.

First let me say thanks to everyone who left an encouraging word - it means a lot and really helps keep me motivated!

Sorry I did not get back to post again Monday, but every time I sat down to write it seemed like Emma wanted to nurse and it’s kind of hard to type while feeding the baby

So, what’s been going in here? I guess one of the biggest pieces of news is that Kaitie and Mandy have been moved up to level 5 in gymnastics - a pretty big deal They have till the end of May to get all their new skills to be able to compete. It will be hard work, but I am sure they will be able to do it! They move up to 12 hours a week now for training. They are supposed to be at 16 hrs, but we are short one coach, which really, really stinks! But - again, I know they can do it! I will see if I can get some video posted of them from the past season. It’s kind of neat to watch!

Jake is doing well. His diet is still working out great. We have started trying to add some foods back in. We tried apples, but he had a really bad reaction to them, but I think we may have added them back to fast. We are trying tomatoes right now, and so far so good We are taking it nice and slow!!! School for him has good days and not so great days too. He just hates to sit down LOL!!! But, like the diet, we are taking it nice and slow. I am still trying to nail down a good routine for him. There has been a lot of tweaking, but I know we will find something that works for all of soon.

As for Emma, well what can I say? She has to be the worlds best baby! She is so mild and pretty much content all the time. She has started falling asleep anytime from 6:30-8. And she will stay sleeping till about 1 am. Sometimes I wake her up early to nurse, but it depends on how I am feeling. She still wakes up a few times after that, but I just pul her into bed and she’s out! SHe sleep till about 7 am or so. GREAT BABY!!! She rolls over, front to back, coos up a storm (when she’s in the mood) she is grabbing things now a bit and pulling them to her mouth and, one of my favs, she brings her hands together and stares at them. LOL, I love this stage of development!

Buster Brown, the puppy, is doing a lot better! I think that puppy finally got the idea that grass is for peeing on, not our tile floor or the carpet. He will still have an accident every now and then, but I think he’s just about got it! Thank goodness!

I will try and get back on later to post some pictures, but no promises!

It’s Monday morning again and time to be accountable for my actions for the past week.

So, how did I do? Sadly, not good. I started the week off awesome! Went for a run/walk Monday morning, food was good. Tuesday did some weights, food was ok. Wednesday did a workout tape (Tae-Bo), food was so-so. Thursday, did not workout, food was a little worse. Friday, Saturday and Sunday - no workouts, and don’t ask about the food.

I can sit around and wallow in my misery, which I am kind of doing, or I can, pick myself up, shake it off and do better. There really are no excuses except my desire to chose food over health. That is so sad.

I can say that I am beginning to make the connection that this needs to be more for health than anything. I mean, heck ya! I want to be skinny (well not “needs a porkchop skinny”) and rock solid, but more importantly I want to be healthy! Seriously, that has now become my desire, over the skinny thing

One thing I think I am having a problem with is that I don’t have a set plan for eating. Sounds weird, but it is very hard for me to “just eat sensibly.” I have always had a plan! Of course, those all worked out so well didn’t they! LOL!!! I am trying to wrap my head around what I need to do. First would be to realize that I can not have processed sugar and stuff. I can not eat the muffins I make the kids, the pancakes are probably not a good idea either. I need to ramp up the veggies big time and lay off the processed carbs.

WATER, WATER, WATER!!! Water is my friend. I do so well with my eating when I am drinking lots of water - so umm, duh! This step should be a no brainer! Drink more water.

I went running this morning, man it felt good! I miss running and can’t wait to recondition my body to not fall apart when I run. SLOWLY!!! I can’t rush into this one, but it felt so good this morning. I need to do something everyday. I have to or else, it’s just so easier to not do it again the next day.

I guess that’s it. I fully expect Marc to get his hour of servitude from me. Bah! This week is mine though, I do not like to lose.

I will try to hop on with an update a little later - lots of stuff to tell you about!