Part Deux - Year End Review in Pictures
This blog post was interrupted by a) a sinus headache b) severely interrupted sleep resulting in severely irritable momma and c) the words of Confucius.
Confucius say... "When one makes a goal to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day and one chooses to cram all those fruits and vegetables into one's body one hour before bedtime, one can except to spend one's time with gastrointestinal distress."
Word, Confucius. Word.
On the first day of my goal to better health and wealth in 2012, I realized something. You can't eat fruits and vegetables if you haven't been grocery shopping since the week before Christmas. One can only survive on leftover ham shank for so long.
So, at 6.30pm, I had consumed the following towards my goal of eating 5 servings of fruit and veg a day ...
1. A piece of watermelon chewing gum
2. A lemon with salt on it
3. A bowl of salsa
and... in order to get my orange veg in...
4. Half a bag of sweet potato chips
When Sim vetoed the above and also put the kibosh on key lime pie pudding as a serving of fruit, and the kids were so hungry that they were actually willing to eat vegetables, I knew that a trip to the store was in order.
Anyway, to make a short story long, I crammed in a banana, a bowl of frozen mango, a bowl of frozen cherries, and three servings of broccoli into my gullet by 9.00pm. And my body went into shock. Which is why I had to chase it down with treacle pudding.
But it was treacle pudding! I know gluten is on my banned list, but ya'll, Sim cooked treacle pudding. With lemon zest.
I'm married to a man who knows how to zest a lemon.
He cooks! He zests! He's a keeper!
Anyway, enough of that. I've only had one cup of coffee per day for the last 2 days (oh my aching stars) and I might actually cry if anyone chastises me. So, here's Part 2 of our Year in Review for 2011...
MAY 2011
May proved to be another busy month...
Nandi got her cast off and graduated to a leg brace. She decided that she wanted to be the Indian Laura Ingalls Wilder when she grows up and started wearing her hair in braids.
This phase lasted approximately 6 hours...
Eli found a couple of sweet potatoes that had started to sprout and asked if he could make potato people out of them.
This occupied him for approximately 6 minutes...
We learned about the rain forest and copied a model from a homeschooling blog.
Their interest in this lasted approximately 6 weeks. Score!
We discovered that Dollar Tree sells spinning tops, 2 for a dollar, and Noah became the happiest boy in the world.
We've spent approximately $6,000 replacing the cheap little buggers.
Nandi competed in the relay race at her school.
She came in last, but she had approximately 60 people cheering for her. Go Nandi!
I thought it'd be a fun idea to go on an archaeological dig in a pile of dirt at my parent's house. I hid a bunch of everyday items and the kids got to figure out who used to live on the land way back in the stone ages of 2011.
I included my library card in the dig and it took approximately 6 months to find it.
See above.
Nandi went on her first trip to England and Wales to meet the family.
Sim said she peed approximately 16 times on the 8 hour flight.
JUNE 2011
Nandi continued her stay in England and Wales and visited the seaside for the first time with Granny Helen (Sim's mom).
She hung out with Grandad (Sim's dad) in Wales with Flat T-Rex (an Eli variation on Flat Stanley).
She spent a couple of days with cousin Ffion in Somerset.
She hung out with Aunt Isabel and cousin Hannah (and endured tangle after tangle because Sim didn't brush her hair for 2 weeks).
And then she came home and I realized it was going to take a chainshaw and a blowtorch to detangle her matted hair, so we cut it off and donated it to Locks of Love.*
*disclaimer - okay, so that's what I wanted everyone on Facebook to think - because isn't that what Facebook is for? Bragging about how awesome you are? But the truth, shhh, is that I forgot to mail it off and it's been sitting in our desk drawer since the middle of June.
January resolution #11 - mail off Nandi's ponytail...
All the grand kids (except for Noah because he was having a meltdown) gathered for a picture at my parents' house and celebrated Father's Day with my Pa Lester and MawMaw Ruby. It's the first time we've all been together in one place in ages, so it was great.
JULY 2011
Apparently, Fourth of July happened and a friend gave us a 2 1/2 foot blow-up pool that Noah declared love with immediately, but I have no pictures to prove it. But I do have a picture of me and my high school BFF Kirsten at the San Fransisco Bay! Another friend donated her air miles to us and I was able to fly to San Fran and spend some quality time with KK. There's a backstory to my visit that I can't explain on my blog, but it was much needed by both of us and we had a wonderful time.
AUGUST 2011
Nandi met her future hubby, Jonathan, and spent an entire week daydreaming about her future red-headed children. Jonathan is my high school friend, Janna's, little boy and we all met up in August for a mini-reunion with Christoph, who was our German exchange student back in the day. I hadn't seen him since I was 20 and he was in the States for a visit, so we headed to Chili's and gorged ourselves on fried food and gossip.
I do have a picture of the three of us together, but Christoph would probably make me remove it, but he looks a bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger, back before he became Smarmy Arnie, if you know what I mean.
I spent an exorbitant amount of money on Ebay to find an exact replica of Eli's beloved "Peluche" that we sent to him in Guatemala when he was only 3 months old. It's so loved and worn that The Velveteen Rabbit took one look at it and ran into the woods in shame.
The very next day I found another one for 80% of the price. 80%.
And where is that overpriced teddy bear who wiped out our savings now?
In the closet.
I'm just hoping that Peluche "The Original" graduates to a closet shelf before Eli starts dating, because momma boys and dudes who sleep with stuffed animals generally go on the "Not Even If You Gave Me A Hundred Bucks" list.
First Day of School! And Noah and Mom rejoiced! Cowboy and Ginger came out from hiding. The breakables were put back on the shelf. And my babies grew up overnight. A 1st grader, a 2nd grader, and a homeschool 4th grader. Cutest kids in the world!
Part Three of our Year End Review is up next!
Confucius say... "When one makes a goal to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day and one chooses to cram all those fruits and vegetables into one's body one hour before bedtime, one can except to spend one's time with gastrointestinal distress."
Word, Confucius. Word.
On the first day of my goal to better health and wealth in 2012, I realized something. You can't eat fruits and vegetables if you haven't been grocery shopping since the week before Christmas. One can only survive on leftover ham shank for so long.
So, at 6.30pm, I had consumed the following towards my goal of eating 5 servings of fruit and veg a day ...
1. A piece of watermelon chewing gum
2. A lemon with salt on it
3. A bowl of salsa
and... in order to get my orange veg in...
4. Half a bag of sweet potato chips
When Sim vetoed the above and also put the kibosh on key lime pie pudding as a serving of fruit, and the kids were so hungry that they were actually willing to eat vegetables, I knew that a trip to the store was in order.
Anyway, to make a short story long, I crammed in a banana, a bowl of frozen mango, a bowl of frozen cherries, and three servings of broccoli into my gullet by 9.00pm. And my body went into shock. Which is why I had to chase it down with treacle pudding.
But it was treacle pudding! I know gluten is on my banned list, but ya'll, Sim cooked treacle pudding. With lemon zest.
I'm married to a man who knows how to zest a lemon.
He cooks! He zests! He's a keeper!
Anyway, enough of that. I've only had one cup of coffee per day for the last 2 days (oh my aching stars) and I might actually cry if anyone chastises me. So, here's Part 2 of our Year in Review for 2011...
MAY 2011
May proved to be another busy month...
Nandi got her cast off and graduated to a leg brace. She decided that she wanted to be the Indian Laura Ingalls Wilder when she grows up and started wearing her hair in braids.
This phase lasted approximately 6 hours...
Eli found a couple of sweet potatoes that had started to sprout and asked if he could make potato people out of them.
This occupied him for approximately 6 minutes...
We learned about the rain forest and copied a model from a homeschooling blog.
Their interest in this lasted approximately 6 weeks. Score!
We discovered that Dollar Tree sells spinning tops, 2 for a dollar, and Noah became the happiest boy in the world.
We've spent approximately $6,000 replacing the cheap little buggers.
Nandi competed in the relay race at her school.
She came in last, but she had approximately 60 people cheering for her. Go Nandi!
I thought it'd be a fun idea to go on an archaeological dig in a pile of dirt at my parent's house. I hid a bunch of everyday items and the kids got to figure out who used to live on the land way back in the stone ages of 2011.
I included my library card in the dig and it took approximately 6 months to find it.
See above.
Nandi went on her first trip to England and Wales to meet the family.
Sim said she peed approximately 16 times on the 8 hour flight.
JUNE 2011
Nandi continued her stay in England and Wales and visited the seaside for the first time with Granny Helen (Sim's mom).
She hung out with Grandad (Sim's dad) in Wales with Flat T-Rex (an Eli variation on Flat Stanley).
She spent a couple of days with cousin Ffion in Somerset.
She hung out with Aunt Isabel and cousin Hannah (and endured tangle after tangle because Sim didn't brush her hair for 2 weeks).
And then she came home and I realized it was going to take a chainshaw and a blowtorch to detangle her matted hair, so we cut it off and donated it to Locks of Love.*
*disclaimer - okay, so that's what I wanted everyone on Facebook to think - because isn't that what Facebook is for? Bragging about how awesome you are? But the truth, shhh, is that I forgot to mail it off and it's been sitting in our desk drawer since the middle of June.
January resolution #11 - mail off Nandi's ponytail...
All the grand kids (except for Noah because he was having a meltdown) gathered for a picture at my parents' house and celebrated Father's Day with my Pa Lester and MawMaw Ruby. It's the first time we've all been together in one place in ages, so it was great.
JULY 2011
Apparently, Fourth of July happened and a friend gave us a 2 1/2 foot blow-up pool that Noah declared love with immediately, but I have no pictures to prove it. But I do have a picture of me and my high school BFF Kirsten at the San Fransisco Bay! Another friend donated her air miles to us and I was able to fly to San Fran and spend some quality time with KK. There's a backstory to my visit that I can't explain on my blog, but it was much needed by both of us and we had a wonderful time.
AUGUST 2011
Nandi met her future hubby, Jonathan, and spent an entire week daydreaming about her future red-headed children. Jonathan is my high school friend, Janna's, little boy and we all met up in August for a mini-reunion with Christoph, who was our German exchange student back in the day. I hadn't seen him since I was 20 and he was in the States for a visit, so we headed to Chili's and gorged ourselves on fried food and gossip.
I do have a picture of the three of us together, but Christoph would probably make me remove it, but he looks a bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger, back before he became Smarmy Arnie, if you know what I mean.
I spent an exorbitant amount of money on Ebay to find an exact replica of Eli's beloved "Peluche" that we sent to him in Guatemala when he was only 3 months old. It's so loved and worn that The Velveteen Rabbit took one look at it and ran into the woods in shame.
The very next day I found another one for 80% of the price. 80%.
And where is that overpriced teddy bear who wiped out our savings now?
In the closet.
I'm just hoping that Peluche "The Original" graduates to a closet shelf before Eli starts dating, because momma boys and dudes who sleep with stuffed animals generally go on the "Not Even If You Gave Me A Hundred Bucks" list.
First Day of School! And Noah and Mom rejoiced! Cowboy and Ginger came out from hiding. The breakables were put back on the shelf. And my babies grew up overnight. A 1st grader, a 2nd grader, and a homeschool 4th grader. Cutest kids in the world!
Part Three of our Year End Review is up next!
Comments
Thank you!
Transparance is what it's all about 8-)
Hugs!
xx