Friday, May 25, 2012

Cereal

I found this on my computer today, I wrote it right after Grant and I got married. The memories made me smile and I decided to post it since I can't seem to write anything today :)

I try to be healthy. I try and exercise on a regular basis. I eat my vegetables, and always ignore my inner child and buy the bread that’s brown with the crunchy stuff in it instead of wonder bread. So when we went shopping yesterday, as Grant picked up his box of chocolate and peanut butter cereal, I dutifully walked over to the “grown-up” cereal section and picked up a granola-y looking concoction of “multigrain clusters”, because it told me it was a "healthy way to start my day".

So this morning, as I crunch on my “healthy” cereal, which, by the way, has a weird aftertaste, I start reading my cereal box. Unlike my husbands chocolate cereal, that had games on the back, mine only had an advertisement for energy bars. So for lack of anything better to do, I turn my box to the nutrition information. First thing I see is that my cereal has 13g of sugar. Not being any kind of dietician, I don’t know what that means, but it must be good, because it’s on healthy cereal, so I’m guessing that’s a low amount. Just for the sake of comparison, I grab my husbands cereal box. Sugar, 13g. Wait a second, that must be some kind of mistake (double check…..), nope, both cereals have the same amount of sugar. I keep reading, thinking somewhere my cereal will come out on top. Calories in mine:190. Calories in his: 130. Okay, it will get better, I’m sure, next on the list is Fat. Mine: 3g, His 3g. Hm. Neither of them have any cholesterol, his cereal has 23g of Carbohydrates, mine has 36g. His has more Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Vitamin D, actually, it has more of every beneficial looking item on the list. The ONLY place my cereal seems to come out on top is Sodium. Mine: 95mg, his: 180mg.

By the time I had finished this comparison, my husband was feeling pretty smug, and I was feeling pretty sheepish. I guess I’m going to have to go back to eating cheerios every morning. Until then, I had something important to do. I walked to the sink, and watched with satisfaction as the disposal ground up those healthy little multi-grain clusters into oblivion, and poured myself a big bowl of chocolate peanut butter cereal. Boy was it good.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Quick quote

"You cannot drive people to do things which are right, but you can love them into doing them, if your example is of such a character that they can see you mean what you say" - George Albert Smith
 


Monday, May 21, 2012

Birthdays

Today Jefferson turned 6 and Duncan turned 3. It's so surreal to me that I've really been a mom for 6 years, and that I've only been a mom for 6 years. I can't imagine life without little people depending on me.

Something I want to remember about Jefferson - He LOVES creating. Whether creating elaborate art projects out of cardboard, tape and velcro or helping me cook in the kitchen he LOVES the process of making something out of something else. The other day we were riding in the car with a little boy in Duncan's preschool, Grayson, and Grayson was talking about one of his toys breaking, and Jefferson said "It's okay if a toy breaks, because you can make anything you want out of paper, so you can just make a new one". Every day he comes home from school with at least one craft project in his backpack, I wish I could figure out what to do with them all!

Something about Duncan - He is finally starting to really talk, but only on his terms. It is so fun to hear him talk more, but he still will just sit silently if he doesn't feel like talking and not respond to questions. Everything he does he does with his own little attitude and flair, he is such a big personality, and a lot of fun to hang out with. He loves Diego and Dora the Explorer, and will play in his room quite a while making up adventures and taking his stuffed animals along as his companions. He will build bridges and stairs out of books, then I'll hear him say "First we have to climb the stairs, then cross the sticky bridge, then we'll get to stone mountain!", just like Dora does.

Both boys are really excellent big brothers to Karl, I've been so happy with how sweet and kind they are with him.

Happy birthday to my 2 big boys!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Little blessings

Today I had several errands to run, nothing major, just small things at lots of different places, but getting the kids buckled and unbuckled multiple times always feels overwhelming to me.

The place I was dreading the most was the post office. We have 2 post offices within 5 min of our house. One has generally apathetic employees, but no parking lot, only street parking with meters. The other has a parking lot, but every time I've gone there with kids I feel like everyone there hates me for over-populating the planet or something, and the workers feel downright hostile.

Anyway, I decided for ease of dealing with Duncan and Karl to go to the one with the parking lot. I knew it was going to be hard carrying in the big box I had and the car seat carrier, and dealing with Duncan, so I said a little prayer that somehow there would be a nice person there that would help me with the doors (I know that seems like a really dumb thing to pray for... I just was imagining all these scenarios of Duncan running away and me holding a big box and a carrier and not able to do anything, and stuck trying to get in the 2 sets of doors... Okay, explaining it doesn't make it sound any less lame, but it felt like a very hard thing at the time...)

When I arrived at the post office I got the box balanced on my hip and had Karl in the other arm, and right then someone walked out of the post office, smiled at me, and held the first door. A smile and holding the door open - miracle! Then in the lobby there was another person who was getting their mail in their PO box who opened the 2nd door for me - Yay, I was in! THEN, there was a lady who took my box, and put it on the counter for me, and smiled at Karl, and a 2nd lady who started talking to Duncan, keeping him occupied.

To top it all off when I got to the counter the post office worker was actually nice, and told me to have a beautiful day when I left. They were all small things, but to me they all felt like little miracles, and it made my day.