"Stinky Shoes"

There is a dog in our neighbor-hood that likes to get into our trash (usually comes around at night). We try not to leave any out but sometimes I will put a bag on the back deck during the day if it is really full and put it in the can later, which was the case today. Anyway, I went jogging with Meadow in the jogging stroller when the sun was starting to get lower in the sky and as we were coming back toward the house I saw the dog come down the street and turn into our yard. I remembered the trash on the deck so I ran faster. I opened the front door and said "Greg! That dog is going to get into the trash!" Parker rounded the corner to see what the commotion was as Greg grabbed the first thing he could find, his shoe, to throw at the dog to scare it away. In the moment, Greg thought he didn't want to teach Parker to throw things at animals, so he held the door so that Parker wouldn't see him throw his shoe at the dog. Well, Parker doesn't miss much and he said "Why did you throw your shoe out the back door?" Greg thinking fast: "It was REALLY stinky so I threw it out the back door" Parker in deep thought: "It was THAT stinky!? Can I smell!?" Greg: "It is not so stinky now." So we didn't teach him to throw shoes at dogs but we taught him that throwing your stinky shoes out the back door cures them! Hehehe

Sharing the motivation

Many of you may already know these things, but I find myself prone to eating things I shouldn't so this was motivating for me. Today Greg was on a film shoot at Duke Integrative Medicine. Integrative Nutritionist Beth Reardon, MS, RD, LDN gave a seminar entitled "An integrative approach to chronic illness." The simplified idea behind it was that everything you put in your mouth either leads you toward or away from chronic illness. Here are some staggering motivating statistics from her hand out:

Percent of Chronic Diseases that are preventable:

Colon Cancer 71%
Stroke 70%
Heart Disease 82%
Diabetes 91%
Other Cancers 40%

She stressed that 40% of all cancers may be prevented by consuming a diet high in fruits and vegetables, getting regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight.

If you... You can expect an extra...

Eat your veggies 1.5 years
Exercise 2.4 years
Eat nuts 5x a week 2.5 years
Normal BP 3.7 years
No diabetes 6.6 years
Healthy weight 11 years

Carbs 50-60% total calories
Fewer refined, more whole foods
Choose beverages wisely
Hefty whole grains
Cook Pasta al dente
Eat more beans and legumes
Basmati rice/brown rice

Protein 20% calories
Increase vegetable protein
Reduce red meat
Remove poultry skin, buy organic
Omega Eggs
Minimize cured meats
Eat more fish
Incorporate more soy, beans, nuts

Fats 25-30%
Watch PUFAS (Soy, Saff, sun, sesame, corn oils)
Avoid margarines, shortening and hydrogenated anything
Use EVOO (not sure what that is) and Canola
Consider nut oils for dressings
Eat nuts daily
Mayo with canola, olive oils
Omega 3's (ALA, flaxseed, hemp, pumpkin, walnuts, canola, green leafy vegetables, fatty fish, seaweed)

Omega 3's -complicated diagram but basically...
Decrease pain
anti-inflammatory
Vasodilates as opposed to vasoconstricts
decreases clotting
decreases platelet stickiness
decreases bp (blood pressure)


Whew. Greg also brought home what they cooked for lunch there for me to try. It was barbecue tofu and spaghetti carbonara sp? with pine nuts and red onions (I think that was pine nuts) It was actually a little bitter but I managed to eat some of it and I am motivated to try harder. Here's to good health....

Our Sweeties

A beautiful day at Kids Together park in Cary warranted some new photos of the kids. They are growing up before our eyes.

Projects and Pretties

The painting, at last, is finding it's way up the stairs. When we moved into this house almost 5 years ago it was all one color, builder paint. With the downstairs paint finished, I decided to tackle the hall upstairs and then made a photo wall project. That has been a LONG time coming so I am pretty proud that it is done! I am the designated painter in the house ever since Greg and I painted a bathroom together in our old house. It was a very small bathroom and Greg got tired of me pointing out all of the drips and suggesting he might need to get his vision re-checked ;) So I guess I am a little OCD with paint.






On another subject, this is the first year that I got a homemade corsage for Mother's Day. Parker made it at school and I think it is the sweetest. This is also the first year that we have a child old enough to go up on the stage and sing with the Primary for Mother's Day. Not only did Parker not sing, but we saw the back of his head for almost an entire song and toward the end of that song, watched him arguing with the child standing behind him. "Happy Mother's Day" said Greg with humor as I wondered if I would make things worse if I went on stage and grabbed him. Luckily, before I could decide it was over and Parker came back to the bench and told me he had "stage fright." I think I had stage fright as well. ;) We'll try again next year!

Father Son Camp Out

It's a tradition for Greg and Parker to go to the Father Son Campout in Hickory with Grandpa Glenn. They had a blast as usual.








Grandpa Hugs









Friends and Cousins


















Calling Mamma to say goodnight








Dirty Urchin

























The coolest bus ever









Old-school fun

Parkgeek.com

For those of you who enjoyed the list of earth day activities, I thought I'd pass along the website I got them from. Parkgeek.com sends out a weekly newsletter (free, just have to sign up to recieve it) of all of the indoor and outdoor events going on in your area - by zipcode. We love getting it. They also write reviews on different parks.

Enjoy!

Amazing Photoshop Class

Just when we thought that it was impossible for busy moms to broaden their horizons...I heard about an online photoshop and digital scrapbooking class. It is taught by the amazing, super nice Jessica Sprague in the Apex Ward and after seeing some finished projects that others had made and learning that you can do the class at your own pace, that the links don't expire I was hooked. I have been having so much fun with it, I decided everyone should take it. ;) It is also oh so useful for making cool, creative greeting cards, invitations, and of course spiffying up your digital photos. Not to mention the thrill of making something creative and beautiful! Here is my first finished project. Check out www.jessicasprague.com

Thought provoking quote

I am just full of things to say this week, sorry for the billion posts but I saw a quote painted on a wooden sign in a store recently that said "How your live your days is how you live your life." And it really made me think about what the sum of my life would be if I added up what I saw in individual days and about what each day may or may not contain. I think I am going to concentrate more on making individual days more meaningful and what that might include.

Hmmmm....

Well, 20 minutes after the graham cracker I saw tiny hives pop up on Meadow's fingers and around her mouth (with her other allergies it is an immediate and bigger reaction) so it was a delayed and mild reaction but maybe we are not quite in the clear yet. We'll hold off on the wheat a bit longer. I guess I got excited a little too soon. :)

Celebrate Good Times Come On

Meadow can now eat wheat! Her skin and blood test have come up 0 twice in a row now so we gave her a food challenge (her first graham cracker - which she loved, OF COURSE!) and no hives or crazy business. My spirit is doing full twisting double back flips and shouting from the mountain tops. So Meadow can have wheat, Parker can have dairy. It's sort of a trade off. I will still feed them the same snacks so no one feels bad, but I can slip her some graham crackers while he is at preschool and I know the ladies in the nursury will be thrilled ;) 2 down, 7 to go between the two of them! I'll take it.

Garden Continued

Well we got the plants in the dirt today! I let Parker play with the hose a bit and he accidentally sprayed himself in the face so he went in the garage and dug out his goggles so that he wouldn't get water in his eyes in case that happened again. Then he had to test out the goggles :) We love our inquisitive, hilarious Parker!

A little garden

This was my little project while Greg was in Maine. We had an old tarp on the side of the house with plants on it that we had taken out last year with the good intentions of replanting in another location but never did. I decided it was time to drag it down to the road and when I moved it, it left a perfect little rectangle of dirt where we had killed the grass and I thought what a perfect spot for a garden! So there was a happy accident. At least from the old plants' misfortune springs new life! So I measured the area (6' x 4'), packed up the kids, went and bought some Cedar board, made a box, filled it with garden soil, and let the kids get really dirty. Meadow was not sure about getting dirty. She kept saying "Shoes!" "Messy!" "Shoes!" She does love her shoes. Then it was nap time so we are not finished yet, but there are yellow squash, tomatoes and green peppers going in the dirt today and I am excited! I will post progress photos!

Greenville, Maine

Here is the latest place Greg has to take me back to. Greenville, Maine is up near the Canadian Border. Looks like a great vacation or retirement spot. Enjoy! Or should I say eat your hearts out along with me! ;)