Friday, November 18, 2011

Mixed up!

This morning I woke up and though, "wow, it's only Friday?  Wait!  Yesterday was Friday.  That's why I posted my Friday blog."  Ha ha ha!  Oops, I guess yesterday was actually Thursday!  Today is, in fact, Friday.  I guess I'll post about the condition of my home today :)

Where shall I start?  I guess I'll start by saying that my mom and grandma called this morning asking if they could take T out.  As fast as I could, I got all three of us ready and out the door to meet them before they had the chance to come inside.  That pretty much gives you an idea of how well I've been doing :-/  In my defense, J has been working late every. single. night. this week and my grandma notices every small thing out of place.  It's a bad combination and one I wasn't interested in seeing mix.  Not today at least.  I have stayed on top of laundry and dishes, though.  Those are two areas that I usually leave for J.  I absolutely hate dishes!  But he's been so busy with work lately that I feel like the best thing I can do for him is to help him out a little more than usual.  The last thing he needs right now is a sink full of dishes to attack before bed.  I have also recently put pictures into all of my picture frames (including the one we had to replace when T stepped on the original frame.  Little stinker!)  It's nice to see pictures of our family instead of the random people who came in the frames, lol.  J told me this week that he noticed how hard I've been working to keep things straightened up (even though I said I didn't want my grandma coming over when the house looks like this, it actually looks better than it did a year ago).  Oh, and I've had 6 kids in my house two days this week on top of J being gone and not able to help out.  Basically, all that to say the house is a mess, but not terrible.  I am proud of the progress I've made.  Now, time to force myself off the computer so I can go get some more cleaning done.  Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Car Seat Safety!

It's Friday, but honestly, I've done very little for my fitness goals this week.  However, I would like to post something that's sort of related... Car seat safety tips.  Being safe is a part of staying healthy, right?  This is also one of my top pet peeves.  I absolutely cannot stand to see a baby not strapped into a car seat correctly!  So many people do tons of research to find the best car seat with the top safety, but then do not use it properly.  Guess what, all that money you just spent on the top car seat out there won't do you any good if you're not using it the way it correctly!!!  So, a few tips:
1. This should go without saying, but I have a seen people totally skip this... buckle your child in.  Those straps DO need to go over your baby's shoulders. 
2. The top buckle should be at baby's arm pits, not his belly button.  A baby can fly right through those two straps if the buckle is too low.  Keep it chest level!
3. You should only be able to fit two fingers between your child and the strap.  If you can fit more, it's too loose.
4. A child should NOT wear a coat in the car seat.  Wearing a coat requires you to loosen the seat belt.  If you were in an accident, the fluffy part of the coat would squish, making enough room for the child to fly out.  This is important.  Many, many people don't do this and it has been fatal.
5. As much of a pain as it is, it is safer for your child to remain rear facing for as long as possible.  His legs are long and you're worried about him breaking his legs in an accident?  Better his legs than his neck.  Rear facing is safest!
6. The base of your car seat should not wiggle more than an inch.
7. Get your car seat inspected.  Here, the firemen do it.  I've read several statistics that say 80% of car seats are installed incorrectly.  The fireman who inspected mine said he thought that statistic was off...he thought MORE than 80% were installed incorrectly. 

Again, this is your child's life you're protecting.  You must use the car seat correctly if you want it to work the way it's designed.  YOU must be the one to protect your precious children.  Even if you are the best driver in the world, there are crazy, stupid people out there.  Your child relies on you 100%. 

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Feeling Good!

It's been a while since I've updated on our sicknesses.  I'm still waiting to see if Mono strikes (should know in about two more weeks...), but the boys did not get the chickenpox!  Hooray!!!  I'm so excited to write that :)  Little L got a fever around the time he would have with the pox, but it ended up being roseola.  Poor guy has been mr cranky pants since then.  I think he's working on some molars on top of that, because the rash has cleared up and he's still cranky. 

It's nice to not worry about anything major right now.  I know things could change in two weeks, but for now, I'm enjoying our health :)  My grandma is in town for three weeks so we took a family trip.  It wasn't the whole family.  J and my sister had to stay behind to work.  But my parents, kids, grandma and I all went to Luray caverns and then to a hotel with an indoor pool.  We didn't realize how much walking was involved at Luray so now my grandma is a little sore and exhausted.  Oops!   Sweet T's favorite part was the pool.  It was FREEZING though, and this mommy did not enjoy it as much as he did!!!  Thankfully, his grammy and pop pop were better sports and went in with him twice.  L loved it too!  Those kids are little fish.  The next day, we went apple picking.  It was fun!  My poor grandma had to wait in the car, though.  It was fun.  My boys love picking apples.  These apples were withing reach.   I'll try to post some pictures when I get the chance :)

That's all for now.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well. 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Tasty Tuesday: GF Apple Crisps

If you're gluten free, have you visited the Gluten Free Goddess?  Her recipes are amazing.  I haven't tried anything I don't like, and that says a lot because I'm picky :)  This week's recipe comes from her cite, kind of.   Part of it comes from my friend's house. 

Cut and peel about 6 large apples,  put them in a baking dish, then sprinkle with cinnamon (this is from my friend)

For the top part, (this is taken from the Gluten Free Goddess blog, with minor changes that meet my family's taste)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup gluten-free pancake mix (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3-4 tablespoons butter
 
Mix together, pour on top, then smoosh it down.
Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.
 
That's it!  Easy Peasy and SO good!  It's the perfect fall dessert.  Enjoy!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Update to Our Sicknesses

The last post I wrote was last week when we had a ton of illnesses.  I thought I should give a quick update.  The chaos continues :)  But, we are handling it with grace... for now.  My mom still has the flu.  Yuck!  Can you imagine getting sick for this long?  But, overall, she feels a lot better.  T also caught the flu, but he had the 24 hour version.  Thank God!  It wasn't fun,  though.  Little red spots keep popping up on Little L, but so far, none of them have been chickenpox.  It's very strange.  He gets a red bump, I panic and think "here we go!"  Then they're gone within a few hours. 

Besides sicknesses, we also had a day where the kids were determined to head to the ER.  They tried their hardest to either get themselves there, or to send me there with a heart attack.  Sweet T is 3 and perfectly capable of going up and down the steps correctly.  He's been doing it for a year or more now.  On Friday, however, he decided it was boring to walk down the stairs.  It was way more exicing to go down on a boogie board!!!  True story.  My crazy 3 year old went down the stairs while STANDING on a boogie board.  Don't worry, though.  He informed me that "it's safe because (he) was holding onto the railing."  At least he took safety into consideration, right?  (insert eye roll here)  No injuries there, as crazy as it was.  Then while I was cooking dinner, the kids were playing in the living room.  The rooms are connected by a doorway and I can easily see them.  When you first walk into our house, we have an entry table leaning against the back of the couch and L likes to play with the stuff in the drawer.  I'm still not sure exactly how he did it, but he managed to pull the entry table down ontop of himself!!!  I completely panicked!  Of course the first thing I did was run and pull the heavy table off of him, and then I ran to grab my phone, ready to call 911.   God protected my baby, though.  Before I even got back to the living room with my phone, L had rolled over and stopped screaming.  I decided to call a nurse line instead of 911 because he was up and moving on his own and didn't seem too injured.  It should have been a lot worse than it was!  I don't know how he was able to bounce back like that!  After checking his tummy, running over to my neighbor's house to have her check his tummy, and calling a second opinion from another nurse line, we decided it was fine to stay home instead of rushing him to the ER. 

Now that T is over the flu and no one is hurting themselves, we wait to see if I have mono or if the kids have chickenpox.  J and I are cleaning like crazy to prepare for my grandma coming this weekend, and things are going smoothly.  I'm thankful for nice weather and plan to get out and PLAY with the kids while we still can.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

SICK!

Between my parents' household and mine, we're surrounded by sicknesses.  Since YESTERDAY, we've been diagnosed with possible yeast infection (Little L, but it cleared up soon after on it's own, I'm thinking it was more likely teething related),  the flu (my mom), I'm being treated for a sinus infection while we wait to see if I have, ready for this?  Mono.  And if that's not enough, my dad was diagnosed with shingles.  Thankfully he can't pass shingles on to anyone, but he CAN pass the chicken pox around.  Not cool, especially since my kids, who spend a lot of time with their Pop pop, haven't had the vaccine and I might have mono.  My poor hubby, he will have his hands FULL if he has to take care of a wife down for weeks with mono and two boys sick with chicken pox.  Normally, I'd think, "No big deal.  If they get it, we'll deal with it and then they will be immune for life.  No need for the vaccine then!"  But this is really, really bad timing as I am pretty sure it's mono instead of a sinus infection :(  On top of that, we have one neighbor who also has the flu, one with pneumonia, and a girl at church last night threw up.  She was in Sweet T's room and her sister was in L's room, and she was super cranky too, which makes me think she's also sick.  Oh gosh, what if we end up with the flu (exposed to by my mom, neighbor, and these girls at church), chicken pox and mono all at the same time?  Please pray for my sweet little family!  We need it. If you don't see me blogging for a while, you know why....