Recovery Junkie

I know my husband complained of having withdrawl following the election from what to do with his time watching the polls, newschannels (Oberman and Maddow in particular) and developing stories. Obama and Biden have established a groundbreaking website, Recovery.gov, that will automatically give you fantastic timelines about the recovery process. I have never seen information like this available to the public and I am pretty much captivated by it. Now there is not a ton on there yet in relation to exactly what money has gone out and how it is being spent....but that information is coming. I think I read somewhere that this website is getting something like 3,000 hits per second. I think that is incredible. I am up for the fun!

Friday I'm in Love

This is after a song by The Cure, "It's Friday I'm in Love". I heart this!

Pingg Perfect

A dreamy design from Pingg

I was reminded how much I love invitations in a prior post. I did forgo the paper invite this year and I used a website Pingg to create an track the invites for the recent birthday party. It is a free website and they have some of the best designs I have found. I like this site way more than "evites". I think they have way more options that you could take advantage of as well. You can add pictures and video as well.

Some of the cool things this site does is it tracks who has viewed your invite and it allows you to take a quick guest count. You can also connect to other apps like Facebook. You can also send out a reminder and thank yous using the same website. I think it was convienient and near everyone responded through email. I still insist I love paper invites but this was SOOO easy and did I say FREE??

Check out some of the beautiful designs I chose that you can choose from:

Lars- Two

We are now officially one week from Lars birthday. He is sitting next to me singing the theme song to Max and Ruby and hitting his sister. I am pretty sure he just wet his diaper in his refusal to use the potty for the day.

Above are pictures of his 2nd birthday party where we painted and made playdough. I called it his "Messy Party". The invites were adorable and we had a few neighbors over and it was loads of fun. Now - it really is a relief to have the party over for this year. I think we may do something small with grandparents next week.

I had to put this on on too. It is one of my favorites of all time. He was 2 and woke up with a faux hawk. His face reads why are you doing this to me?

Lars Flashback -One

My baby turns 3 in exactly 2 weeks. I found some pics from his first birthday. I see the glint of trouble in his eyes even here. He is so deliciously proud of himslef and continues to be of his new discoveries every day. I need to remember to focus his energy for good and not evil. This is a good week for Lars' flashbacks. I will see what else I can find!

Create a Story

The princesses were trying to get over the hill to the queens, but they did not know how to get over the hill. The two princesses were getting more and more tired and they fell asleep.

By Ella

Hunchback Lars

Evoking thoughts of quasimoto or the elephant man, my little method actor was up for silly pictures of the week. Enjoy!

Amarylis Rose

In celebration of wanting and wishing for spring, I started adding water to the amarylis bulb from last year. A little green can go a long way in my book. It began growing and growing. So I asked Ella if she would like to keep track of this by having a chart of some sort. I am trying a tracing chart which I will add to every 2 days with Ella and Lars' help of course. Ella suggested tonight we use a measuring tape to add numbers to it. Great idea. I will let you know how this project goes! It is fun so far!

Yoga Salutation

About a week ago I was lucky enough to have been able to meet with James, a yoga instructor from the Yoga Center. He talked with me to help me identify my strengths and weaknesses. This really was very painless. I was not supposed to have any knowledge of yoga (trust me, mine is minimal) but I could not resist sharing what I did not like. I really am not flexible. It is as if someone wrapped my whole middle in saran wrap then cardboard. I can't touch my toes or really bend like I wish I could. He had me lay on my side and do some stretches and well as bending over from a standing pose. He then determined that my upper body - shoulders and arms- are much stronger and more flexible than my lower body areas. I am also more flexible on the right side than the left. I will say I am learning I do not know which muscles I am using when I am moving. I need to increase muscle awareness. (I am still not sure how to do this).



Then he developed a sun salutation just for me! A sun salutation is a short routine or cycle of poses you move through to increase or improve target areas.

While its name might evoke images of some exotic, surfside ritual, the reality is that the sun salutation is simply a down-to-earth, almost mundane-looking sequence of yoga postures that can bestow some rather extraordinary fitness benefits! Think of it as a sort of slow yoga dance, comprised mostly of forward and backward bending movements, often with some twists and side tilts inserted to balance out the routine. The potential benefits of the sun salutation are impressive; they include increased flexibility to the hamstrings, enhanced upper body strength (notably, the muscles in the back of the arms), better strength and mobility of the low back, and improved flexibility in the chest and front shoulder muscles. And since it's performed in the hatha yoga format of uniting breath, posture, and mindfulness, you stand to further gain benefit in the form of stress reduction, enhanced quality of breathing, relaxation, and--believe it or not--increased energy

He emphasized breathing and thinking of the moves and getting deeper as I go. I enjoy doing this after I work out. It is a nice cool down and stretch for my body overall. James used little stick figures to create my personalized routine. I really like it because he adapted several traditional yoga poses for me so I really can do it and experience it for my body. I think this is how yoga really works best for me. I envision adding to this routine after a few more weeks with consultation with my yoga friends, Nora and Stephanie.

As I was looking for something else about yoga, I found the idea of naked yoga. I guess it is real. I am not even remotely interested in this but I wonder who would be?

Fitness Update
I forgot to weigh myself today (usually I do this on Mondays) but I think I am down about 10 pounds-possibly more- even with all the cake and candy from V day.

Do I Need a Haircut??

Whaddya think?

Valentines Party Extravaganza

This was such a great day! Lars just loved his party and all of his friends had such a great time. We had many little ones and there were very few outbursts. Kudos to Nora for such a great idea with the Scanlon gym. It was perfect!

Second to the idea of forgoing gifts and having guests bring donations for the crisis center. I do not yet know the poundage of our donation but it likely outweighed our 3 guests of honor. I think our children really understood the lesson that birthdays are about celebrating with friends and giving back to others. We think this is an important message and we want this to be the one that sticks with our children.

Thanks all who came, it was a blast. It is likely a more detailed blog will follow later this week.

Making Valentines

Valentines Day Breakfast

Sisterly Love

Today at preschool Ella and Lars were excited about the upcoming valentine's day party. Lars told me as I picked him up that he was sad today. I asked if he cried and he told me that he did. He was sad when they watched a movie and he could not have popcorn. I guess you have to be 3 to have popcorn and he about 2 weeks from three years old. So they told him that he could not have any popcorn. I really wonder how badly he handled this news since popcorn night is one of his favorites her in our house. (Bad parents!) So the best part of the story was when Ella revealed that she decided to secretly sneak him some popcorn. Lars was happy about his triumphant ruse on the preschool teachers and most of all happy that his sissy decided to include him in her evil plans. Let's hope they continue to develop this ability to work together in other ways than to get things they aren't supposed to have. But I guess it has to start somewhere, right?

Resolution Updates

So far I am trying to make due on my 3 areas of focus for 2009. Let me remind myself:

1. Exercise
   
2. Financial Reform
3. Fun!

I think so far I have been very successful with #1, exercise, but I am still wondering when I will see an impact on the scale. I am being very impatient- I know. I can actually make it through a cardio class now and breathe. I definitely felt like I was dying 3 weeks ago. I met with e personal yoga trainer, James, adn he set me up with my own Sun Salutation. I will blog about that another time. He determined I was strong, especially in my upper body but I lacked flexibility especially in my lower body. Not a huge surprise! He made my own little routine for me to improve the areas that need it most. I really enjoyed the personalized approach.

Financial reform...argh. I just don't see anyway to do better that we are. This is the most frustrating and yet I seem almost powerless in this realm of my life. I need to think more and talk more in this area. I have been keeping track of spending and I am spending less. The bills just never seem to end. Is it just me?

Finally #3, FUN! The superbowl party was fun- thanks Nora & Jeff! Walking around the block was more fun than I counted on! I think the little fun things I do with the kids like that are waht really matter. Ella had a girl in her preschool who was having a party today which I decided was not something she needed to do. Instead she spent time with daddy cooking and making puzzles while I worked out. She was so excited! So I am really learning that fun does not need to be a party - just an interesting activity for those involved. However, next week we shall have a "Super Duper Valentine Birthday Party" for Lars, Alice & Greta. Fun all around! It has been a pretty stressful week at work with conferences, meetings and paperwork galore. I need more fun! Watch out.

Jumping

We have spent the past 2 days jumping. Hopping like frogs, bunnies and elephants in puddles around the neighborhood. The arrival of the melting of the snow is a welcome sight. Yesterday we embarked on a short walk and neighbors Natalie and Max joined us. I forgot to watch ahead for puddles and their feet were drenched as they has tennies on , not boots. I truly apologize to Ellen for the dampened feet. It was something we tried to prevent but just came to the realization that it would be easier not to fight it. I will say Ella may have the cutest rainboots ever! She loves them and splashed her little heart out today. I will need to get pics for later. They were so cold when we got home they wanted to come in and take off their wet clothes. Their pants were pretty soaked but they did not care. Here is to jumping in puddles!

Listening

I am really wondering if selective hearing is a serious problem? All jokes aside it is frustrating to parents but I am really concerned that Lars could really get hurt because he chooses what to listen to and might ignore the really important dangerous stuff.

That said, he has improved as this week has gone along. Many many time outs later. He went to bed about 1 hour early the other night since he was having trouble at dinner. Today was a great day at school and he was joking with Angie.

Angie also decided to share a funny (HA) story with me. She told me that she was standing by the door the other day and water was sprinkling on her. I was a little worried about where she was going. She then told me that the water was from the water fountain- which I would add is about 7-8 feet away from the door. Lars had learned how to turn it on and stick his little finger in the spigot to make the water shoot a stream across the room. I used this as an example of innovation in my class on Design and Innovative Thinking. Lars took an ordinary object and turned it into something fun. That is my boy.

For all the troubles he makes he can still be as sweet as can be. He snuggled with me for sometime this morning as he was tired. I love the snuggles and will take them when I can get them. Love you little boy!

My Twinn Doll

So I know many people are American Girl fanatics and I really do not understand the obsession. I think they are nice, but way overpriced. I received this catalog in the mail for company called My Twinn Doll. I particularly like the options they offer that American Girl does not. They will make the doll really look like your child ! You send in a photo and choose other options like hair color, style and eye color. The hair options are the best - their curly is really curly! They eye colors have lots of shades. I do think they look much like AG and I am sure the clothing and accessories would work with both. Ella has all ready asked me how many she can get. I think she thinks I just call and it comes to our house!