Easter

We spent Easter Sunday quite differently this year!! I think this is my first year ever that I wasn't at church on Easter. I woke up (very early) Easter Sunday a.m. when we docked in Tampa after our Western Caribbean cruise - which I am going to blog about - soon!! We finally got home and had the car unloaded by 11:00ish, rested for just a few minutes before we got back in the car and headed down to my parents to have Easter dinner and pick up the kids.

We had a great lunch (kudos to my mom and thank goodness I didn't have to make anything) and then the kids got to open their gift from GGma and GGpa from up in PA.





Grandma made them each "Lollipops" and sent money and candy as well. Caylee liked the blue "stuffing" the best of all.

Conner showing off the goods from GGma.


Then we headed into the living room and the kids got to open their Easter baskets from Sam and I and Aunt Jessica.

The squish!!


My niece Lina.


Caylee


So happy to get a new book!!


Reading it already!


Conner liked his new fun sidewalk chalk.


Next we headed outside for the Easter Egg hunt. Conner and my mom had dyed and decorated Easter eggs and Conner got to go first and look for the dyed ones.



Look closely - this actually was one of "his" with his name written on it.




All found!!


Helping put them back in the carton.


Girls turn!!






Last one!!


Somehow we ended up on the back lanai and let the girls play with their baskets and eggs for a while.

Tough work - that egg hunting!!






Headed home shortly afterwards as Sam and I were exhausted!! It was a different kind of Easter this year, but still an enjoyable day spent with family.

Silence...

Things have been SO crazy busy lately. I miss blogging and have so many pics at home and on my camera that I need to work on uploading and talking about. Spent 2 great days at Disney with friends from PA and FL, had a MOPS Spa Night, co-hosted a baby shower and then had a fun day with my sister and different PA friends down at my parents.

I promise I'll get on the ball and get back to regular blog postings soon... My house feels like it's grown weeds and I need to do some serious pruning - or cleaning and purging of stuff!! Once that's done, I can play on the computer!

FREE Starbucks!!!

Oh those two words together make me SO happy!!! First because I really am a Starbucks snob - that's the only place I stop for coffee and then of course because who doesn't love getting something free....



Stopped there this morning armed with my oh so cute travel mug:



I had thought about getting the Pumpkin Loaf which is one of my favorite things there, but last minute decided to go for lower calories and get the Perfect Oatmeal. Only had a couple bucks left, but enough for that. Turns out I had enough $ left on my Starbucks card to get my Oatmeal for free - with just $.07 cents left :). Now I've got enough money left for BOGO meal day at Boston Market - YUM - their green beans already have my mouth watering for lunch....

But my oatmeal should be enough to keep me warm and satisfied for a while - tastes great!!

Chocolate...

Mmmm…. Just one little word is all it takes!!! Women just love chocolate – dark, milk, white (which really isn’t chocolate) – it all tastes wonderful! Not only is the taste of good quality chocolate so appealing, it also is good for you!!

Dark chocolate has antioxidants in it that have been shown to make a difference in your cardiovascular health. Chocolate also contains phenyl ethylamine, which is the same chemical that is released in your brain when we “fall in love”.

Gets my mouth watering just thinking about chocolate….

So this past Sunday on Ultimate Recipe Showdown - http://www.foodnetwork.com/ultimate-recipe-showdown/index.html, Kerstin Sinkevicius did an amazing job and I can’t wait to try her Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies – oh they looked wonderful - http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/peanut-butter-cookie-dough-brownies-recipe/index.html.

Anyways, Kerstin has a blog – http://cakebatterandbowl.com, which in addition to being fun to read, is also having a contest for (yup you guessed it) chocolate – Derry Church Artesian Chocolates to be exact!! Here’s the exact blog posting so that you can sign up to try and win a sample pack of these amazing chocolates - http://cakebatterandbowl.com/derry-church-artisan-chocolates-giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CakeBatterAndBowl+%28Cake%2C+Batter%2C+and+Bowl%29

Hydroponics

So anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE Disney and the Epcot is my favorite park to visit!! One of my favorite rides to go on there is Living with the Land. I love when we get to the Greenhouse part and get to see all the fruits and veggies that they grow for consumption on Disney property.



One of my dreams (besides a house that has a library with built in bookshelves, two overstuffed chairs with ottomans and a fireplace) is to have a small greenhouse. I so want to be able to grow my own fruits / veggies and have an idea now for a small garden, but an actual enclosed greenhouse would be amazing...

But I digress......

Anyways, one of the biggest highlights is the Hydroponic system that they have. They grow tomatos, lettuce, eggplant, etc. all using Hydroponics. Hydroponics is is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.



A local grocery store in Pittsburgh - Giant Eagle Market District (yes, I know, shocking that anything good comes from Pittsburgh) now has a Hydroponic section where customers can pick from rows and rows of Bibb Lettuce. This has become so popular that they are adding more varieties soon. How cool is this???



Now to search to see if I can find a store close to me in Florida.

Jamie's Food Revolution

I love cooking shows. Cooking shows of every kind!! Right now on my DVR there are mainly shows from the Food Network with my favorites right now being... What Would Brian Boitano Make?, Semi-Homemade, Iron Chef America, Ultimate Recipe Showdown, Dinner Impossible, Barefoot Contessa, Ten Dollar Dinners, Chopped and Money Saving Meals - in fact I think there's at least one if not more of all of those shows that I need to watch.

I really do watch them with the best of intentions. I get excited about what they're making, it sounds amazing and then the printout of the recipe gets shoved aside or used by Conner as scratch paper for his latest drawing or made into one of his creations using the last bit of tape we have in the house.

I love to cook, really I do.... it's just that after working at least a 9 hour day and coming home pretty drained, the last think I want to do is cook anything. I LOVE the nights when I get home and I open the front door and the house smells amazing - YES!!!! Sam has cooked yet again and I really don't care what it is, I'm just glad that I don't have to make a thing!!

We've been trying for a while now to eat healthier, organically when we can, to have fresh, healthy snacks at home and be cooking things from scratch and not frozen / boxed / full of preservative meals... Not that we eat horribly, but there are nights when cereal or a Totoni's pizza that's ready in just 12 minutes and requires no prep is it for dinner. But uugghh..... have you looked at the ingredient list on that??? We have been doing better for a while now!! There's healthy organic snacks for me and the kids and I've even found some that Sam will eat. It's just a process that takes time and PLANNING AHEAD!!! Planning lunches ahead and separating my veggies / fruits into individual baggies saves so much time in the a.m. when I'm rushing Conner out the door to get to school on time. Then I've got something to eat / snack on at work and don't spend all my money on lunches.....

Anyways all this rambling on and on has led up to Jamie Oliver's new show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, on Friday nights. I've watched each one since the season started and it's been amazing and very eye opening. With going to a very small private school, we didn't even have a cafeteria that sold meals til I think I was in 10th grade?? Everyone just brought their own lunches. And even when we had the option to purchase meals, most of us still brought our lunches in. It was just habit by then, but mainly my parents weren't going to fork out the money for me to eat lunch at school on a daily basis. Even now we don't have the money for Conner to have school lunches, so I make it every day for him. Except for most Friday's - which is pizza day and you know what - it's alright to have pizza every now and then...

Fastforward 15 (eek....) years and now the whole school lunch system is so much more evolved. There's programs providing kids with meals - not only lunch, but sometimes breakfast as well. But even with the progression, the whole of the school lunch is still the same - frozen, loaded with sodium and ingredients you can't even pronounce, brown, brown, all brown lunches. I mean really - what elementary school kid when given the option of fries vs. fresh steamed broccoli, which are they going to chose most of the time?? Jamie's purpose is to change not only the families views on food living in this town - Huntington - which is called the unhealthiest city in America, to the school lunch system making the change from preparing processed food to cooking fresh healthy meals for the kids.

Last week's episode was wonderful and had me in tears - from the stop at the funeral home, to the girl whose adoptive father died because of complications from his gastric bypass surgery, to the mom whose 12 year old son is overweight and finally the high schooler whose liver is so messed up the dr. only gives her 5 years to live because she is so overweight.

I think it's great that Jamie is doing this - it's been an eye opening show and I look forward to watching the rest of the season.

Pollen

So it's that time of year again when the oak trees here decide to rain down pollen upon us, turning our cars a lovely shade of yellow and littering the ground with droppings. Not to mention the lovely green worms that dangle all around my car. It's like playing tag with them... yay missed that one, watch out for the one on the other side of you, good grief, it's crawling up my arm. All it takes is one person asking you to check their hair / back / etc. for those nasty worms and all of the sudden you feel them crawling all over you, despite the fact that you haven't been outside all morning long. Uugghhh... gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

I'd had an alright season so far and actually our season started late this year I think because of how much longer it stayed colder here. However when we got back from our trip on Sunday, things just started to go downhill for me. By Tuesday I was a sneezing, sniffling, watery eyed mess!! And there's no relief yet. It rained a little last night which hopefully knocked more down, but the count is still listed as "very high", which is the highest it goes on the pollen scale.

So out I go armed with tissues and my allergy meds and realize it will only be a matter of a week or two more of dealing with this nonsense - hopefully!!

The Importance of WATER!!

How much water are you drinking daily??

Our bodies are about 65% water. Your body needs water to regulate body temperature and to provide the means for nutrients to travel to all your organs. Water also transports oxygen to your cells, removes waste, and protects your joints and organs.

Signs of Dehydration

You lose water through urination, respiration, and by sweating. If you are very active, you lose more water than if you are sedentary. Diuretics such as caffeine pills and alcohol result in the need to drink more water because they trick your body into thinking you have more water than we need.

Symptoms of mild dehydration include chronic pains in joints and muscles, lower back pain, headaches and constipation. A strong odor to your urine, along with a yellow or amber color indicates that you may not be getting enough water. Note that riboflavin, a B Vitamin, will make your urine bright yellow. Thirst is an obvious sign of dehydration and in fact, you need water long before you feel thirsty.

How Much Water do You Need to Drink?

A good estimate is to take your body weight in pounds and divide that number in half. That gives you the number of ounces of water per day that you need to drink. For example, if you weigh 160 pounds, you should drink at least 80 ounces of water per day. If you exercise you should drink another eight ounce glass of water for every 20 minutes you are active. When you are traveling on an airplane, it is good to drink eight ounces of water for every hour you are on board the plane. If you live in an arid climate, you should add another two 8 oz. servings per day. As you can see, your daily need for water can add up to quite a lot. Also if you are trying to lose weight, drinking more water will help the process!!

Drink Enough Water

It may be difficult to drink enough water on a busy day. Be sure you have water handy at all times by keeping a bottle for water with you when you are working, traveling, or exercising. If you get bored with plain water, add a bit of lemon or lime for a touch of flavor. There are some brands of flavored water available, but I really don’t recommend that because of the extra empty calories!!

The newness of it all.

So after lurking on many of my friends, families and utterly complete strangers blog's for so long now, it's time to get with the times and finally have my own blog. I had signed up a long, long time ago, but got overwhelmed and never started posting. It's way past time to start! I'm a complete novice, have no idea what I'm doing layout wise, but I basically need an outlet. Just somewhere to share what's going on in my family's life, to write down specifics as I'm meandering along my journey to better health and wellness and to sometimes just vent and share my view on the world around us.

I have always liked journaling and still have my own personal ones, but it's so much easier to have one online, especially one where I can post pictures.

So bear with me as I embarque upon this new territory. Should be fun to see how it all plays out!!