Disagreeing with My Mother-In-Law

I'm writing this post because of something my mother-in-law said.  Now, first I must tell you that I LOVE my MIL.  Most people roll their eyes after saying, "my mother-in-law" but I don't.  I can honestly tell you that there are only a few people in this world that I'd rather spend my time with.  If you know her, you get it.  But the other day, as we were celebrating by brother-in-laws birthday she said something that I've been thinking about all week.

The Circus Is Coming To Town!

I saw a billboard the other day advertising that the circus is coming to town and two of my most memorable childhood books are about the circus, If I Ran the Circus, but Dr Seuss and Circus Time by Marion Conger.  That's just part of being a kid is going to the circus.  My kids need to do this!  Or do they?

Antibiotics In Meat

I'm repeating myself, but Evan sent me this link the other day to an article about the rising use of antibiotics in meat.  I don't think there's anything in this article that surprised me, I know I've said this before, but I think it's important to reread some of this stuff because

Puppy Mills

I'm tired so you're basically just getting link to an article I feel strongly about today.  Yesterday was National Puppy Day, I know, whatever, but in honor of NPD Evan sent me a link to an article about Puppy Mills.  If you don't know what a puppy mill is it's basically some @!$#@ overbreeding and/or inbreeding "purebred" dogs and keeping them in deplorable conditions to sell at high prices.  The fact that every dog I've ever owned has been a rescue should key you into how I feel about puppy mills, but in case you're still unclear--they enrage and disgust me.  My favorite rescue Save A Mom, told me that they got a few dogs from a puppy mill recently.  One, was kept in such a small cage that literally, all the dog could do was turn in circles, even after it was out of it's cage.  It was all it had ever know.  What is WRONG with these people?!?!  I doubt any of you think, "I don't see anything wrong with that!"  but the fact is, you may be supporting puppy mills, without even knowing it.  The article Evan sent me states that many puppy mills sell their dogs to the fewer and fewer (luckily!) pet stores that still sell dogs.  Even though these store claim that their dogs do NO come from puppy mills the Humane Society did a little research and found that in most cases (and for some chains ALL cases) the dogs did in fact, come from puppy mills.  This article is full of really great stats about puppy mill dogs and how not only are they kept in poor conditions, but also

Chia

So what is this stuff anyway?!?  It's seems to be in everything now. It's in the coconut granola Vince wanted from Aldi, te in drinks that you get in the refrigeration section (I've actually tried these and wasn't a fan. Drinking slimey beads was hard to stomach.). It's touted as a superfood but why?  Green tea is too,  but you need to drink SO much of it to make it worthwhile.  So I decided to look into chia a little and share what I found.

Stretch-N-Grow

I've meant to blog about this for awhile, and today, while I was thinking about what to write for my blog post and also making lunch, Vince gave me an idea.  We were having bok choy and peanut butter and he asked me if there were any "abc vitamins" in the bok choy.  I lied.  I was having grapefruit and I gave him a wedge and he asked about the vitamins in that.  Sorry.  It was 4 hours ago.  I'm getting old and my memory is fading.  Anyway, the "ABC vitamin" comment came from his Stretch-N-Grow class that he takes after school on Thursdays.  He LOVES it!  He's not a huge fan of school, but Thursday's I can always get him out of bed with a "It's Stretch-N-Grow day!".  He's always very vague about what he does in class, but I do know that there's always a theme.  They do a great job of keeping them very up-to-date.  He did How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, Shrek,   and other pop culture topics as well as traditional preschooler favorites like dinosaurs and firefighters.    I should probably back up and tell you that Stretch-N-Grow is a fitness program for kids.

Reach Out and Read

It's spring cleaning time!  If you're like me (and I doubt you are) you're always trying to reduce the number of "things" in your house.  I'm a little fanatical about it actually.  My poor kids "lose" toys all the time to the trash can in my constant effort to eliminate clutter.  The other day I was looking at Olivia's little bookshelf with despair because it's a wreck.  She's the only one reading board books anymore so they're ALL in her room--4 kids worth of board books.  She can't access them because they're all piled on top of each other and in front of each other and there are books spilling over the top and library books stacked in front.  The kid LOVE to be read to and

Chipotle's Sofritas and KIDS MEALS!!

So basically, two thumbs up to Chipotle!  First thumb is for the kids meals and second is for their tofu.  Let me back up.  Last night Ellie's school had a fundraiser in which the Chipotle in North Canton donated 50% of their profits to her school when a customer mentioned that they were there to support Clearmount.  Win-Win for me.  I don't have to cook and I'm helping Ellie's school. Evan and I love Chipotle, but the kids struggle with it.  We used to try to get an order of 3 tacos and then try to split it between two or three kids, but no one likes the same things so we'd try to have them put everything in a different container, which never really worked because we always ordered online and something was missing or they assembled the tacos.  It was always an expensive mess because we had to order for so many people and then threw so much of it away.  Yesterday we had an excuse to give it a whirl again so I did.  And low and behold!  KIDS MEALS!!!!!  SOOO excited to see that!  And they're great!  No crap with them-just healthy food.  They have their choice of tacos (hard, soft or corn tortillas) or quesadillas with a side of fruit (clementine) or chips and a drink (Horizon's milk as our pick).  Each kid had an individual tray with 4 sections, one for taco shell, one for filling and two for toppings.  GENIUS!  Everyone was able to get what they wanted, prices were comparable to a crap-food kids meal and they actually ATE IT!  It was so much easier than trying to order like we used to.  We did discover that the steak was a little too spicy for Vince (which is odd since he likes hot sauce on his eggs) so next time we'll have to try something else for him...which leads me to Chipotle's newest filling--Sofritas! This is a fancy way to say tofu. (Yes, we read Fancy Nancy in our house.) I was a little nervous to give it a try since

Perfectly Posh

I'm muli-tasking with this post.  I was invited to yet another in home selling party.  I think you're one of two ways with these, you love them or you hate them.  I love them.  I always go and if I can't go I usually buy something.  I think it's because I've sold things that way and I sympathize with the consultants, plus, I like to get out and go to the parties.  Anyway, this one was something new that I've never heard of before.  It's called Perfectly Posh and it's a line of skin care products.  At first I was a little disappointed, the home selling cosmetic lines I can think of are generally not something I'd like to buy because they're really not very

Spring Preview

I know it's not going to last but I'm loving these few days of real spring we're having.  Yesterday I ran---OUTSIDE!  It was still icy and I had to run/wade through ankle deep water, but it was still so great to be outside, back on my trail.  Vince asked Evan to help him ride his bike. (We took his training wheels off last fall when one fell off and he never really got the hang of two wheels before the weather was too cold and snowy to ride.) That held his interest for about 10 minutes and when he ran off, Evan started raking some leaves along the driveway.  Soon I was out there with him and even though we didn't get a TON of yard work done,  it felt like we really made a dent. Last year when we went out it was all such a mess and so overwhelming.  This year - I have a plan.  Just knowing what I'm going to do is making it more fun to be out there.  I know that in a year or two I'll be where I was at the old house and actually enjoy working outside.  I'll be able to think about gardening and planting rather than just maintaining and cleaning.  I used to think people were crazy when they said they liked to do yard work and gardening, but now I understand.  It's not fun to weed just to weed, but when it's part of a bigger step to make my yard look like somewhere I'd like to be, it's suddenly

I'm Sugar Free!

I probably should have mentioned this in yesterday's post about non-candy items for Easter baskets, but I'm not eating sugar for the month of March.  It's not a Lent thing, it's purely a health thing.  I've been exercising a lot lately and I'm still not really seeing any real results.  I *thought* I ate pretty well, but I know I have a weakness for sugar and sugary foods.  Soo, I decided to see what happened if I went without sugar.  I had to make it long enough to be able to see if I there was any change and I didn't think I'd be able to stick to it if I made it indefinite so the arbitrary selection of the month of March it was.  I still plan to eat my coffee-and-donuts donut on Sundays with the family.  That's a family tradition and I know that by allowing myself one "bad" thing a week I'll be able to fend off the urges to eat bad things throughout the week.  I'm also

Non-Candy Items for Easter Baskets!!!

I saw this on Facebook the other day and even though I just posted St Paddy's Day food I thought I'd share this as well.  I'm always looking for small non-candy things that don't break the bank for the kids

Green Food For St Paddy's!

I know I've said this before, but I always like the idea of making fun, thematic food on holidays.  I like the idea of shaped pancakes or colored milk or whatever for Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day, Halloween, 4th of July--all the holidays that really focus on color.  But sadly, I rarely actually DO something like that for the holidays. I got an email from Weelicious the other day about Creamy Avocado Lime Parfaits and when I clicked on the link it also had a link to other green foods for the upcoming holiday.  The best part is, none of them use food coloring!  That's what's great

Happy 10th Birthday To Caden!

I can't remember each hour any more.  Nine, even eight years ago I could remember the day of my first child's birth so well that when I looked at the clock throughout the day I'd think "Right now they had him up in the nursery giving him his first bath.  This is about the time that my Dad et al arrived from up north to meet him.  This is when I was served dinner. " (I have to say, being served food is my favorite part of each kid's birth.  It's so sad to go home and actually have to WORK and not have food appear.)  I can't remember anymore what was happening at each hour of March 10th, 2005 but I certainly do remember the day overall.  I was so tired since I had been in labor all night and he was born at 5:55 am, 5 minutes before I was supposed to be induced.  (Nice timing Buddy, well done. )

For the next year Caden had to be pried out of my hands.  I wanted to hold him ALL the time.  When we'd go to family functions, Evan would take him from me so other people could hold him.  I never offered him up, just enjoyed my time with him until someone asked, or took him by force. I remember wearing him in a front carrier while I made dinner when he was only a few months old.  I had gone back to work and I missed him so much that I didn't want to be away from him for a second.      His first birthday was a party at our house in Columbus and we invited all the great-grandparents and grandparents and uncles and aunt.  It was the first time I'd thrown a party like that and our fridge broke a few days before.  I couldn't use it until the morning of the party, so I went shopping, tried to make all the food and the cake before everyone arrived.  I didn't make the deadline. The cake stuck in the pan because I didn't grease and flour it and Evan had to run out and get another box of cake mix.  I was cutting and frosting right up until we were ready to serve it.

This year is different.

Only Organic Quizzes: How Green Are YOU?!?

I was looking at another article Evan sent me to blog about, but it didn't look that fantastic.  It's probably stuff you already know.  However, below it was a link to that New McDonald video I blogged a few days ago.  The video is sponsored by Only Organic, which, shockingly is a website which supports and educates about organic foods.  In their own words:

They explain what "organic" means in terms of both produce as well as livestock.  They have search engines to look for organic retailers and farmers markets near you and they have...quizzes!  I'm going to brag here and tell you that I took the Advanced Quiz and

75% of Crops We Ate 100 Years Ago Are GONE!

Phoning it in again, but this time it's really chock full of info.  Evan sent it to me the other day and thought I might find it interesting.  I love it when people send me blog ideas!  Thanks Evan!

New McDonald

I was sick today so you just get this video clip my mom sent me.

Sorry, More Water Infusions

I know I've already blogged about this, but I was checking my email and I got a newsletter from The Honest Company and it included these recipes from Honeysuckle.  Check out their youtube video below!

Wags 4 Warriors

My mind is kind of all over today so instead of subjecting you to my rambling, I thought I'd just point you in the direction of a pretty cool charity I recently discovered.  It's called Wags 4 Warriors and it's a program to match returning war veterans with PTSD and TBI with a service dog at no cost to the veteran.  As I was reading about this it made me start to cry, as all working dogs do.  I can't really explain it, it's not that I find it sad, just moving I guess.  I cried at the state fair when we watched the frisbee dogs too.  Something about dogs working affects me.  Weird, I know, but if you read my blog this should come as no surprise to you.  And I promised no rambling...OK, so Wags 4 Warriors is pretty cool.  Check out their website.  If you're interested in supporting it you can

Target and Organics

I love Target.  I hate Target.  For the same reason.  They have EVERYTHING!  The money I would save by going to Target is usually lost because I end up buying more than I had originally intended.  I meant to just get laundry detergent and I walked out the door almost $80 poorer-expensive detergent! I went there to get more Honest Company detergent since I ran out before my next order arrived.  I love that they carry Honest products and so many other "natural" and organic products.  I will say that I'm disappointed with the FRESH organics at our Target, but I guess that's going to change.  This article was sent to me via my father-in-law, arguably someone who loves Target even more than I do!