My Easter Chickies 

Happy Birthday Bunny Girl!  

Marthas Back!

Haven't had time much lately to be my usual Martha self. However, over break, I have had some time to tackle projects Martha style. First there was the family party for Miranda and the fabulous Bunny cake I made. Then, I harvested bulbs, chives, a bleeding heart bush, and flocks from my mom's house ( ok , she dug most of them up) and replanted them here. Martha would say the best way to garden! I "tagged saled" at Salvation Army and got a ton of really nice clothes for the girls, cleaned their closets and get them ready for warm weather. I also organized Peeps room. No easy task, as she is a pack rat!

Breath in. Do you sense the return of order and neatness?

I had a moment

As I was frantically trying to keep up with my " I work full time, am taking a class, have three kids" life, I had a moment today. I took the baby for her shots today ( oops, I was a couple months late. Bad mom), I went to get into the car and thought I had the wrong car. There were three car seats accross the back. Surely this was not my car. Three kids? Are you freaking kidding me? I have three kids??? WHAT AM I THINKING?

Had to stop on the way home and go shoe shopping to bring myself back.

Can I go to jail for this??

I stole this from Traci's blog. Wasn't that nice of me??

The Rules:1. I can only say YES or NO!2. I am NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone comments/messages me and asks!
Taken a picture naked? : yes ( ok, put the camera down my shirt and clicked it.)
Made out with a member of the same sex? : no
Danced in front of your mirror? : yes
Told a lie? : yes
Gotten in a car with people you just met?: no
Been in a fist fight? : no
Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back? : yes
Been arrested? : no
Slept in a bed with a member of the same sex? : yes
Seen someone die? : no
Kissed a picture? : yes
Slept in until 3? : yes
Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by? : yes
Played dress up? : yes
Fallen asleep at work? : yes
Had sex at work? : no
Felt an earthquake? : yes
Touched a snake? : no
Ran a red light? : yes
Been in a car accident? : yes
Pole danced? : yes
Been lost? : yes
Sang karaoke? : yes
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? : yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? : yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? : yes
Kissed in the rain? : yes
Sang in the shower? : yes
Got your tongue stuck to a pole? : Yes, well the freezer
Sat on a roof top? : yes
Played chicken? : no
Raised chickens? : yes
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? : yes
Been told you're hot by a complete stranger? : yes
Broken a bone? : no
Mooned/flashed someone? : yes
Forgotten someone's name? : yes
Slept naked? : yes
Blacked out from drinking? : yes
Played a prank on someone? : yes
Felt like killing someone? : yes
Made a parent cry? : yes
Cried over someone? : yes
Had sex more than 5 times in one day? : no
Had/Have a dog? : yes
Been in a band? : yes
Drank 25 sodas in a day? : no
Shot a gun? :yes

Life is a Cabaret

I went to my school last night to see our students in their yearly Cabaret. Let me first say that it was really good. I was impressed with the many numbers stage band did, as they accompanied the enitre thing. Costuming was good, and the dance moves were surprisingly alright. As I sat there and watched, however, I was transported back to my days in high school performing arts. I sat there realizing how much I miss music and theatre being a part of my life.
I came very close to being the play director this spring, as my school didn't have one. I have kicked around the idea of doing it next year and the idea both excites me, and scares me just a little. It's been a loooong time since I built a set, and outside of lighting for television ( college), I have not lit a stage for a play. I really think I could do it, and I know I would love to do it. Who knows, maybe next year will be my return to drama. The play is the thing!

Experiment

I purchased the new Jergins Natural Glow lotion. I have been intrigued that for 6 bucks you can moisturize your skin and look tan at the same time. As the original "whiter than white" girl, this seemed like a dream come true. I want to look tan, and I have gone tanning before to do so, but the whole cooking your skin part scares me. Not to leave out the fact that the more sun I get, the more freckles I get.
I am on my third day of this lotion and as the package says, I am starting to get that "sun kissed" look. I would actually say that I look a smidge darker. I look like I have been at the pool all day. The lotion has a nice, kind of tropical smell. If you have ever gone tanning and used the creams there, it smells like that, so I am tricking myself into believing that I have gone tanning. I am wearing a white jacket tomorrow and I just put it on to see how it looks. I do really look a little tan and the white off sets it nice.
So I will continue with my experiment. I am supposed to reach optimal color after using the product for 7 days. If it keeps going as planned, this is the last lotion I ever use. It was inexpensive, and as a bonus, it has a little shimmer in it. I like shimmer. Shimmer is fun, and very girly. Girly is good.

Poetry in Motion

Miranda wrote this Cinquin for her poetry unit. It's beautiful and graceful, just like her:

Snowflakes
falling beautiful
crystals
6 sided
none are the same
falling on your tongue


I can just see her sticking out her tongue to catch them.

Exercise Opportunist

In the book that I am reading Super Foods there is a section about exercise. It was an interesting read because it gave me the idea to be an exercise opportunist! In addition to trying to work exercise into your life, look for daily opportunities that arise naturally and exercise then. For instance, when we get home from school, my girls always want to go out to play, to take a walk, to go to the playground. I have been dropping everything to go outside and play with them. They like to get on their bikes, and I put the baby in the stroller and we all head out. When we do go to the playground, I like to zip around on the equipment as well.
My dog ligitimately also needs exercise. I have been getting into the habit of popping on my iPod, grabbing the dog and walking the bike path up to my school and walking around the school a few times. Daisy gets out, I get exercise.
I live pretty close to the school where I work. I would also like to make walking to and from work part of my day on nice days. Warm weather is about here, the walk is a brisk 10 min uphill, it would benefit me and the environment.
I even got my bike out, filled the tires with air and got it ready for Spring. When Miranda wants to go on a ride, I go to. We usually only take a short spin around the block, but I have been teaching her bike safety as we go. This again kind of fills double duty. I get exercise, she gets time with Mom. And she thinks it's so cool that I like to bike. We haven't seen any other mom's on bikes here.
In the end, I have decided instead of trying to get on my treadmill at 8pm everynight ( some nights I make it, some I am just too tired by 8) to find opportunities that arise each day that can be turned into exercise. It really makes sense. I can't possible say "I don't have time to play with my kids" I am looking forward to a Spring and Summer filled with opportunities to get out and get healthy. Ride on little girls, and wait for me!

Hooked on a Feeling

My quest for health has taken on a life of it's own. I had no idea it would be so easy. I am hooked on this feeling that I have right now. I feel satisfied. I have this feeling everyday and I think it's because I restructured my entire eating plan and now only eat food that has nutritional value. I have not had a slice of bread in a month, or potatoes, or pasta. I have also not had carb cravings in a month. I knew I had willpower, but even following weight watchers I was eating carbs and not learning how to deal with the cravings. I have replaced my old white starches with grains. I have Thomas Whole Grain English Muffins. 8 grams of fiber. I eat one at 6:30am, and an not hungry until my 11:30 salad. I have also added wheat germ to my life, in smoothies and on my whole grain cereal in the am. I even perfer soy milk now on my cereal.
I am mostly excited because I know I can keep going with this way of eating because it just makes sense to me and my body feels satisfied, healthy, and strong. Additionaly, the scale reads 10 pounds less now in a month. And did I mention that my hair, skin, and nails have never looked better? I wasn't planning on that.

You are my Sunshine 

Adventures in Biology

Friday we had an extreme sub shortage at my school. So extreme the principal came in and told the counselors we were the biology teacher for the day. We looked at each other and burst out laughing. I think there are reasons we are all counselors. We love working with kids, but had no intent of ever teaching a class, but what can you do? We were short staff, so time to rally!
I only wound up with 8th period, and didn't realize when I walked down to the room that it was AP Biology. Keep in mind the actual last time I set foot in a bio classroom was 10 grade. I was 15. I am 30something. That was actually 19 years ago. All I really remember was fiddling with Mr. Sos's computer and having network people have to come and fix it ( sorry) and the fetal pigs. Ours was fondly named stubby the pig and thank GOD for Steph. She had the cohonies to do the cut work. No way was I cutting into that pig.
Thankfully, the teacher left a quiz and lab work for the students to finish up on and the students I had were really good kids. Seniors taking the class because they wanted to. They were working with specimine jars identifying class, genomes, and genesis classifications. When one kid asked about a Genesis, I sais " Hey, I know this! It's a rock group and their front man was Phil Collins." Now it was their turn to laugh. I was amazed at the content they were studying and I had a lot of respect for them. I am a smart girl, I read a lot, and I know a lot about a lot of things, but the complexities that is Biology is foreign to me. And to the kid that opened the specimine jar with the frog in it to see how it smelled, well, whatever works for you. Keep that thing away from me.

Superlative!

So I have been adding so called "super foods" to my diet and I have to report back on this. I do actually feel super, although the intent was to be healthy not to achieve a feeling. I have been eating things like walnuts ( move over almonds, walnuts are now worthy), olives, oatmeal, cinnamon, and tomato juice daily. I have been taking a super B vitamin and Omega pill as part of my regimine, and drinking an ocean of water a day. I am moving into the 3 week zone, and there is no way I want to go back to the way I was eating. I no longer eat white bread, white potatoes, or pasta, and I have to say I thought I would be miserable, but it's not the case. My cravings for sugary, chocolately foods are gone. I find my appetite has pretty much gone south for the first time in my life. That's powerful stuff!
I have been out to dinner ( Zebbs of all places) and not tempted to deviate ( baked chicken, coleslaw, and onion soup), weathered a birthday and only had 1/2 of a small piece of cake as a 3 week reward for myself, and even had cookie dough in the house and didn't want to nosh on it. Amazing. I will continue onward with my quest for health. I know I have lost weight because pants that didn't fit after I had the baby now fit, but more importantly, I really do feel super.

Ch-Ch-ch-Changes

Visualization is a powerful tool. It's a technique I use when working with kids. If you want to make changes, if you want to things to be different, you need to be able to see it, to visualize it, if you are going to make it happen. If you can't see yourself changed, how can you even begin to think change is possible?
I myself want to make some changes this year. Last year, just about everything in my life changed and something I frequently did was to close my eyes, breath deep, palms up and visualize the change. I allowed myself to see the change in my head and to pretend I could feel the changes in my being. Deep, I know, but it worked. It was something that kept me focused on my goals and as I was interviewing for jobs, I imagined myself in those roles. So this year, I am using the same technique.
The changes I am visualizing this year are health and well being. I have struggled with my weight since I was in 8th grade. I have never been huge by any means, but the times I have been at my ideal weight I have not been able to stay there and it's not because I didn't follow a maintenance plan, it's because I never made PERMANENT changes to my eating. Lifestyle changes. I never visualized myself long term sticking to my plan and eating healthy long term.
In order to achieve my goal this year, and weightloss speaking it's only about 20-25 pounds that stands between me and my favorite weight. Nothing major, but this time, I would like to stay there, to eat healthfully long term not only for the number on the scale, but for the way I feel, for low blood pressure and low cholesterol. I have both of those things now, low blood pressure and cholesterol, but not really by anything I have done, so I would like to make changes that support this through my adult life.
Some thigs I have done to help me achieve this so far are again visualization. I can see long term health in my head, I can see myself at my favorite weight. A second thing I have done is more reading and research. I am a thinker. I like facts and I like reasons. I know I should eat fruits and veggies because they are healthy, but I needed more facts. I got a book called Super Foods that goes into detail about foods that really pack a healthy punch. I haven't gotten too far into the book, but now on a daily basis I eat a handful of walnuts, a cup of olives, and I found this greay blueberry tea at the health food store. Blueberries really pack an antioxident rich punch. Who knew? The tea I found, although not quite as good as the real deal, is almost as rich. Besides that it is delicious. I am eating salads once a day, and whole foods like chicken and tuna.
It's only been 2 weeks since I got really serious about this, and I can't say that it was too hard, because I have always been on the healthier side of life, kind of on the verge. In my two week quest, I have already dropped 6 pounds. Not the most important reason, but man does it feel good. And did I mention that I feel amazing???
So I am visualizing myself at the local beach this summer. I am not covered up with a beach cover up. I am running around with my girls, drinking water and eating fresh fruits as our beach snacks. I look good, I feel good. At the next site over is the family munching on chips and soda at the beach. They are overweight, the look tired, and sadly the children are large as well. I can visualize this because when we went to Glimmerglass last summer, quite a few families at the beach looked like this. I was appalled at the number of obese kids sitting on their beach towels eating chips. I vowed this would not be us. There were 2 French Canadian women at the beach. They looked awesome, in the mid 40's. I couldn't help but notice they were munching on grapes and had plenty of water to drink. Pass the water and pass the strawberries please. We want health, vitality, and strength. I can see it now!!!

That Was Awesome!

What a beautiful day yesterday was. After the snow fell, the sun came out for a while and the whole family went out to play. I keep hearing this song by U2 running through my head:
Beautiful Day The heart is a bloom, shoots up through stony ground
But there's no room, no space to rent in this town
You're out of luck and the reason that you had to care,
The traffic is stuck and you're not moving anywhere.
You thought you’d found a friend to take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand in return for grace
It's a beautiful day, the sky fallsAnd you feel like it's a beautiful day
It’s a beautiful dayDon’t let it get away
You’re on the road but you’ve got no destination
You’re in the mud, in the maze of her imagination
You love this town even if it doesn’t ring true
You’ve been all over and it’s been all over you
It's a beautiful dayDon’t let it get away
It's a beautiful dayDon’t let it get away
Touch me, take me to that other place
Teach me, I know I’m not a hopeless case
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
See the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours came out
It was a beautiful day
A beautiful day
Don’t let it get away
Touch me, take me to that other place
Reach me, I know Iím not a hopeless case
What you don’t have you don’t need it now
What you don’t know you can feel it somehow
What you don’t have you don’t need it now
You don’t need it now, you don’t need it nowBeautiful day

( courtesy of lyrics.com)

Thrill Seeker 

Signs of Spring

Yesterday I had the best day with my girls. It appears we are the only ones in the entire town that didn't go to Florida this year ( or Maui, or Hawaii, or Colorado, destinations of students I work with). The good side of this is that things are pretty quiet around here. LOL.....things are always quiet here......
So, our day started with a promised trip to the Disney Store, or The Mothership, as I like to call it. I owed my girls a treat. Miranda had a fabulous report card, and Anna had worked on her toileting hygiene (sp). We spent a good chunk of time there, and at Limited too, and lunched at Friendly's The mall was surprisingly quiet. I expected to find the rest of my town there. The first sign of Spring in the air were really cute hot pink toe thong sandels at Payless. And little beach bags, and flip flops. A girl could really get excited!
After we played with the new Disney toys for a while, my girls wanted to go out side and play. It was 3pm, but I noticed very warm out and still very light. Hmmmmm.......light out later in the day. Hurray! A Mary Tyler Moore jump in the air moment.
We hit the playground at Miranda's school like a pack of monkeys. From accross the empty field I saw it for the first time. A zip line. Miranda's new playground at school has a zip line. This was information I didn't possess. Before I could think, I hit the ground running. I figured I needed momentum to make the thing zip. Actually, it was lubed up a little too well. My feet left the ground and boy did I zip! Before I could abandon ship the thing came to an abrupt end at the end of the line and I was thrown off. Note to self, skip the running start next time. We played hard and before I noticed it must be after 4pm, but the sun was still pretty high and the air warm. Ava snoozed in the stroller and the girls kept on playing. The shadows in the sun on the playground reminded me that Spring was really around the corner. On the way home, the last beautiful reminder. Water rushing down the road in the ditch. Water rushing means water melting. What a joyous day. Now, if only my back didn't hurt so much from that zip line.

The More Things Change

One of my favorite novels of all time I read while I was in high school, A Seperate Peace, by John Knowles. From this work comes one of my favorite quotes of all time " The more things change, the more things stay the same." I remember in high school, my group of girlfriends and I used to ponder this. We were, how do I say this, a little dramatic and considered ourselves artsy. When some students were disecting fetal pigs ( ewwww...) WE were disecting song lyrics and poetry by Rimbaugh. We were very deep, according to ourselves.
I went with my family last night to dinner at the New Hartford Shopping Center and this quote came to mind to me. Here I am, now 34 years old and that old shopping center has changed so much. The anchor stores I used to know are long since faded away, but there, among new unfamiliar stores, were some of my favorite old haunts. Thankfully it was after hours and closed, but there I stopped dead in my tracks in front of Fannie Farmer. I can remember Christmas shopping long ago with my parents and stopping in to pick one perfect chocolate from behind the glass to enjoy as a treat. There was Karaz shoes, again probally a good thing it was closed, home of the big talking bird and really great shoes ( mental note, GREAT sandals in their front window. They look my size). There was Accents of Ireland, Herb Phillipsons, and even Tracy's Hallmark. I haven't been to that shopping center since about 10 years ago. I was glad that with all that has changed in my life, and in the world, that some things are exactly as I remembered. I am looking forward to Christmas shopping there this year with my girls, and stopping in to Fannie Farmer for a chocolate covered lemon cream. You can keep Godiva and Lindt, I perfer things Fannie's way.

Life in a Northern Town 

Embrace the Day!

What a beautiful day in central NY. It's actually been kind of gloomy with the warm temps and no snow. Call me crazy, but I like the snow. It snowed a little last night, beautiful, fluffy flakes. It was the kind of snow you looked up into and almost got dizzy. So today has dawned sunny, frosty, and bright.
Today brings a trip back to where we used to live to attend Mardi Gras at Miranda's old school. Just her and I will be making the drive, and I am looking forward to this. While I was on maternity leave, the baby and Anna and I spent a lot of time together. Miranda and I need a girls night out, just the two of us.
So embrace the day! Exercise, eat healthy, take care of yourself, and hold your loved ones close.