Oh Happy Day!

I stumbled upon a really great site. If you are currently happy. Have been happy at some point in your life. Or would like to be happy right now - check it out. I LOVE IT! I especially love the one minute videos (I cried while watching The days are long, the years are short)

The Happiness Project.

Let me know what you think.

pizza pizza

I just celebrated two years of gluten free eating! I can say, without a doubt, those two years have flown by. I have had to learn to navigate eating at restaurants and in other people’s homes while staying true to my health. That isn't always so easy. Mostly - we stay home and eat. Which is much better anyway. Especially, when I can get Randy to cook. He made us dinner on Valentines Day and I must say - delish. Yummo. Two thumbs up. He's a keeper for sure.
We ate by candlelight and had Peanutbutter cake with chocolate frosting for desert (my treat to my boys). I can't think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day than with my two favorite guys.

ordinary day

I'm not really into watching a bunch of You Tube videos. But this is really good. So, if you are a mommy with 1 (or 12) kids still at home or an empty nester - watch this. It's true. I promise. Take my word.

Uncle Billy

Abe's 4th grade class has a General Store. The kids have partners and they earn money doing a variety of things. One of the ways is to bring things to sell at the General Store. They can also earn money during class time. Then the General Store opens for business. The partners get to purchase things with all of the money they have earned. Stuff like cookies, folded up pieces of paper, gum wrappers, X Box 360 (just kidding), etc. You know the saying, "One boy's junk is another boy's treasure."

Abe came home from school yesterday frantically searching for something. I was more than willing to help him search because he was visibly upset. He was looking for his wallet. Which is actually Randy's old wallet. The problem is that Randy gets a new wallet every single Christmas (tradition) and Abe is a hoarder. And he has every wallet for the past 8 years - since he became a hoarder at the age of one. Hmmm...we could not find DAD'S OLD BILLFOLD FROM A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO THAT IS BROWN AND REALLY ABOUT READY TO FALL APART. You know the one - the one that is filled with ATLEAST $970 of General Store money. He had it Monday for sure. No wait - it was Friday. Nope. Monday for sure. Maybe Tuesday.

Oh buddy. This is a hard lesson. Tomorrow will come and go and by the way - do you know what you purchased at the last General Store? Where is that little folded up piece of paper with a pencil drawing of a dragon? How 'bout I draw you something and fold it up cool AND I can get you a cookie from downtown. Really - it. is. ok.

Except.....The $970 is the partner’s money, too. One of them had already been calling planning on what they were taking to sell to make MORE money. The "partners" had yet to hear that Georges' Uncle Billy* had lost all their money.

What's a mom to do? Life lesson here before me. Dropped in my lap.

• How would HE react had one of his partners lost the money?
• What could he do to make it better?
• What were his consequences going to be?
• What could he differet next time?
• Money doesn't grow on trees!!!

Then I e-mailed the teacher. I wanted to give him a heads up. Who knew how this would be playing out at 8:05 a.m.? Would he be lynched? Would the boys think this was the next Ponzi scheme? Didn't they just see a brand new Yacht behind our house? Hadn't Abe just wore a brand new Under Armour shirt the day before? Shoud I go to school with him?

Life Lesson #970. General Store is all about dealing with money. Making money. Managing money. School of hard knocks just dealt my favorite little guy a big blow. The money is gone**. They will have to earn it back. He will have to deal with his partners all by himself.

This morning I kissed and hugged him and told him it would be OK. He had an extra big box of Little Debbies*** to sell in the store and hopefully - they could recoup some of the lost dough.

Who knew we had our own little Wall Street right here.

*Uncle Billy is George Bailey's uncle in It's a Wonderful Life. He misplaces their $2000 bank deposit which is what puts George in his despair.

 **Annie's solution was to copy more money. Who would ever know? (Should I worry about this one?)

***The Little Debbie's were government mom's bailout.

****Last night at Dillons Abe was in charge of our canvas grocery bag. At check out he did not have it. We had to back track and finally found it laying with the Bananas. Need I say more????

no pain no gain. Right?

Back in the day we were Y Rats. When Abby was little we spent most mornings at the YMCA. We did parent-tot swim and she did tumble time. The day care was structured like a "preschool" and we knew all the kids and all their mothers. When Annie came along - she went right along with us. I did a race-walking class and all the other women took turns carrying her around the gym. Then we would head downstairs to lift weights and she would watch happily from her carseat. I think I had her in the pool when she as just a couple of months old. We would head back in the afternoon, too. I would stick Abby in childcare and Annie and I would head down the basement to walk on the treadmill. (Me - not her. She slept in her carseat) I was in great shape. Eventually, I took a part time job and I stopped going to the Y. I did have a friend who I walked with every day but my social life at the Y ended.

When Abe was younger we started going to the Y in the mornings. That lasted until I increased my hours at work and was working in the morning. I tried the early (very. very. early) classes but just couldn't keep getting up in the middle of the night to exercise.

Even though my weight has been the same for 23 years and my BMI is well within normal range, I am currently struggling with body image and decided to try the exercise circuit again. If I could just stop jiggling and wiggling I think my self-esteem would increase. So in the last two days I have done a core class. A Zumba dance class and Yoga.

Today I feel like I was in a bar room brawl. And I lost. My stomach muscle hurts. They hurt real bad.

Happy 5th Birthday!

We have been in our house for five years! Time does fly when you are having fun. I remember that moving weekend like it was yesterday. It was a really big move - right across the street.  We were in the middle of a major remodel of the house 2 weeks before and were not even close to finished with projects when we had to move in. Here are some of my fondest memories from five years ago.

• The week of our move our family got the stomach flu.
• My last living grandparent died.
• My parents had too much going on to help me. I'm a big girl. I managed but I still missed them!
• I had awful buyers remorse.
• I thought the best way to get things finished was to work all night.
• And work all day.
• Loading up groceries in Abe's wagon and hauling it across the street.
• Trying to order pizza at 1:00 a.m.
• Painting - lots and lots of paint.
• Days and days with very little sleep makes you see things not so clearly.
• Boxes and boxes stacked on my front porch for days.
• Which couch should I keep? Which couch should I sell?
• I stopped doing laundry completely because I HATED going down into the basement.
• We did not have a microwave.  I realized how much I used a microwave when we didn't have one.
• Some wonderful people from church brought us in homecooked meals. I was so thankful for this.
• My wonderful friends who showed up to help. And put things away. And organize all my junk. And bring me hot coffee. And homemade cookies. (I was not gluten free - Thank Goodness!) and help me keep things in perspective.

Yep - the friends are who got me through that weekend. They were the silver lining in those dark days.

And now five years later I am still thankful for my friends and family and all of the support they gave my family. And I love my home!