Anyone who has known me for ANY length of time knows that I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY! Even as the numbers have gotten higher, I have still loved my day.
The other night we were talking about the two, yes two, parties I had growing up. They were lovely parties and my mother went to a lot of work on them, but in full-character of ungrateful child, I wished I had more. Chris was surprised that I only ever had two parties, so I said to him "Do you understand me and my birthdays a little better?" He just laughed.
I learned a LONG time ago that if I want something from Chris, I better tell him, or I have no business complaining. He is a very talented man, but mind-reading isn't on the list. My first birthday spent with Chris, I turned 19. He took me to dinner at the Roof, a restaurant overlooking the Salt Lake Temple, that was really nice. Then he gave me a gift certificate--to the MALL, less nice. I was hoping for something a little more sentimental or romantic. The poor man has spent many years trying to make up for that gift--it was exactly what he would have wanted and he really did think and think about what to give me. Our relationship wasn't really well-defined at that time so he wasn't sure if he should go sentimental, which was exactly why I wanted him to. I've explained all this to him now. (I also wanted to go on a carriage ride right after our wedding, but I didn't ever mention that to HIM. We went for our 5th anniversary.)
My birthday came and I woke up to lots of snow and a message from the schools that school was delayed two hours. What a gift--I got to sleep in a little. Unfortunately we got another call saying that they had cancelled it altogether--that was less of a gift. Plans change when the kids are involved.
Chris made me a breakfast that I had, of course, requested.
Creamy Breakfast Scramble
3 egg whites
1 whole egg
sliced green onions
cream cheese (2-3 tsp)
cilantro
diced fresh tomatoes
Scramble the egg, whites and the green onions. When they are almost done, add the cream cheese in several chunks, the cilantro, and the tomatoes. Stir until the eggs finish and the cream cheese softens.
mm mm so delicious but definitely not his thing.--he HATES cilantro and his hands probably smelled like it all day. I happen to love when that happens, but I like cilantro. He brought it to me in bed with a grapefruit and a glass of water--he has been listening when I have said that I don't like milk and that I'd rather not drink my calories in juice. He did, however, buy the canned crescent rolls, so he's not a perfect listener, I can only think of a few things that are more processed than those, but we'll give him a break since he did so well with everything else. He also brought me a rotary cutter, with a great ruler and a mat. He even used the 40% off coupons at Hobby Lobby. 18 years later, I don't need a romantic present. I need something that will help me with all the great projects I see on Pinterest!
To top it all off, he ended up late to work because he took time to post on my Facebook wall. He was a little disappointed not to be the first one to send me birthday wishes, but it was 8:00 am by then. I don't think I'll bring up the mall giftcard ever again . . .
I also decided that it might be fun to have a party. He is not so much a partier (in the Mormon, non-drinking sense of the word) as I am, but he loves me and thought it would be OK. Unfortunately for Chris, he had started a drywalling project complete with walls of plastic everywhere to contain the mess. Not really a party atmosphere. He had a busy week, and a REALLY late night on Thursday but he finished it all! He also cleaned the house sparkling for the party. I had to make the food, but remember the crescent rolls? I'm really better suited for that anyway. It was fun but a little tricky since the kids were home all day. My friend Kolbe came early and helped me finish everything in time and it turned out to be a nice party. We haven't had parties much so we were a little rusty on how things should go.
Facebook might the best thing that ever happened to my birthday! Someone reminding over 300 people to wish me Happy Birthday--AWESOME! I had over 80 Facebook wishes, four phone calls, three texts, two people randomly stopping by, plus the people Chris invited to my party. The only thing missing was Em--she was in Santa Fe for a debate tournament.
What a birthday--too bad I have to wait a whole year for another day like that!
.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Update on the "Nightmare"
So we have been trying our little experiment for almost four weeks. I thought I'd update you on how we've been doing.
Em asked me the first week "how long are we doing this?" expecting that it would a month, or 100 days (like another blogger did). She was astonished and a little dismayed when I said forever. So we made some alterations, concessions, to make this a livable lifestyle with four children
In the spirit of full-disclosure . . .
I would love to be able to be 100% processed-free but I happen to live in the real world so there are some things that are still a part of our lives.
We also took a trip a few weeks ago. Despite my best efforts to pack good snacks, traveling process-free is REALLY HARD! So we did the best we could to make good choices. (except when I was feeling really tired and driving over a mountain pass in the snow with muddy wipers and no wiper fluid, I bought a Vitamin Water--it was NASTY, but helped--and a Big Hunk for the sugar and the chewing--it gave a terrible stomach ache!) My friend also felt badly for my poor punished children and bought all kinds of delicious cereal for them, but she is an excellent cook with very healthy tastes so all in all we didn't fall off the wagon too far. We also ate many things that were gluten free because her daughter is celiac. I found that my stomach didn't hurt at all while we were there, even though I had forgotten my Cambuche at home. Definitely a bit of information worth experimenting on.
Em took a school trip this weekend and ate mostly fast food. She was able to find a few apples on a concession cart, but that was the extent of her options for good food choices. She said she really felt sick most of the trip.
The upsides
Dinner every night is very tasty. I have had to plan better, but the result has been worth it. I have made pitas, flour tortillas, and corn tortillas from scratch--along with the rolls, biscuits and muffins that I already make from scratch. I think that I also have found a good recipe for Quick Butter Croissants that come in the can that are used in a lot of fun apetizer recipes. Don't let the name fool you--they need to refrigerate for at least four hours. I didn't let them raise after shaping like the recipe calls for, but I don't think it's necessary when using it for veggie pizza or artichocke bread or chicken packets or any of those fun recipes that use the canned dough.
I'm actually spending less on groceries. Surprise! That is not something I expected. I am having to go to the store more often--we go through the fruits and veggies pretty fast--but I'm not spending as much as I used to overall. I have just had to adjust my thinking and my schedule on things. I used to to a big shop every two weeks and then do a little trip for milk and produce if I needed it/ I now need to plan a small trip every week and I'm learning how much produce to buy. I didn't want things to spoil but for a few weeks I was at the store every three days.
All in all I think we are enjoying the changes and feeling better for them. Cereal and chips have been the most missed items, but even Chris has learned to find a different bedtime snack. Consequently I'm only using half the milk I was before--contributing to the money saving for sure.
I haven't lost much weight--it really wasn't about that--but interestingly enough one of my adult tap students commented that I was looking really good, whatever I was doing was working. That felt really good to hear.
Em asked me the first week "how long are we doing this?" expecting that it would a month, or 100 days (like another blogger did). She was astonished and a little dismayed when I said forever. So we made some alterations, concessions, to make this a livable lifestyle with four children
In the spirit of full-disclosure . . .
I would love to be able to be 100% processed-free but I happen to live in the real world so there are some things that are still a part of our lives.
- Whole Wheat Hoagie rolls from Sam's club, for lunches. My kids have actually been pretty good sports and since I have been limited on my time for trying new recipes, I haven't switched that part, yet. I did a very exciting comment this week from Tenille with some delicious looking recipes. I plan to try them this week.
- Yogurt. I have bought the Dannon Pure yogurt that only has ingredients that we can pronounce and recognize. Chris doesn't love the texture as it isn't as thick as he is used to. I tried the Greek Yogurt and that was much too thick and tangy for all our liking.
- String cheese was a concession for lunches as well. The kids have really been enjoying the fruits and veggies, but they needed a little more protien for what I call "staying power." I need Em and Jo to make it through sports practice after school. I feel ok about the concession since there are only four ingredients and the only thing sketchy is "enzymes"--I'm not sure what that means, I might be afraid to know what that means.
- Treat Night once a week. That way a treat is a treat, not a regular part of every day, every meal. We usually have movie night on Fridays, so that is our planned night, although the second week of our adventure was Valentine's Day, so we moved treat night to Tuesday that week. The first week I bought three little tubs of Breyers ice cream--we decided last minute that we would do it, so there wasn't time to make something. It was the perfect amount, everyone had a small scoop of each flavor and then it was gone. Since then, I have made a treat from scratch and only made enough to enjoy for the evening, or I have taken the rest to others.
We also took a trip a few weeks ago. Despite my best efforts to pack good snacks, traveling process-free is REALLY HARD! So we did the best we could to make good choices. (except when I was feeling really tired and driving over a mountain pass in the snow with muddy wipers and no wiper fluid, I bought a Vitamin Water--it was NASTY, but helped--and a Big Hunk for the sugar and the chewing--it gave a terrible stomach ache!) My friend also felt badly for my poor punished children and bought all kinds of delicious cereal for them, but she is an excellent cook with very healthy tastes so all in all we didn't fall off the wagon too far. We also ate many things that were gluten free because her daughter is celiac. I found that my stomach didn't hurt at all while we were there, even though I had forgotten my Cambuche at home. Definitely a bit of information worth experimenting on.
Em took a school trip this weekend and ate mostly fast food. She was able to find a few apples on a concession cart, but that was the extent of her options for good food choices. She said she really felt sick most of the trip.
The upsides
Dinner every night is very tasty. I have had to plan better, but the result has been worth it. I have made pitas, flour tortillas, and corn tortillas from scratch--along with the rolls, biscuits and muffins that I already make from scratch. I think that I also have found a good recipe for Quick Butter Croissants that come in the can that are used in a lot of fun apetizer recipes. Don't let the name fool you--they need to refrigerate for at least four hours. I didn't let them raise after shaping like the recipe calls for, but I don't think it's necessary when using it for veggie pizza or artichocke bread or chicken packets or any of those fun recipes that use the canned dough.
I'm actually spending less on groceries. Surprise! That is not something I expected. I am having to go to the store more often--we go through the fruits and veggies pretty fast--but I'm not spending as much as I used to overall. I have just had to adjust my thinking and my schedule on things. I used to to a big shop every two weeks and then do a little trip for milk and produce if I needed it/ I now need to plan a small trip every week and I'm learning how much produce to buy. I didn't want things to spoil but for a few weeks I was at the store every three days.
All in all I think we are enjoying the changes and feeling better for them. Cereal and chips have been the most missed items, but even Chris has learned to find a different bedtime snack. Consequently I'm only using half the milk I was before--contributing to the money saving for sure.
I haven't lost much weight--it really wasn't about that--but interestingly enough one of my adult tap students commented that I was looking really good, whatever I was doing was working. That felt really good to hear.
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