Happiness is Something We Create!

There are always people in the world who question happiness. People who, for instance, read this blog and say that there is no way my life is this perfect. People, in fact, in my own family who say these things in front of my very bright children. So here is what I say to that for the last time. Bob and I are right where we want to be, living in our tiny but warm home with our five beautiful children, surrounded by a loving extended family with jobs that are fullfilling and that we work hard at. We certainly have our share of obstacles and issues but Bob and I made a decision a long time ago that we would try as hard as we could to raise our children as my parents raised me. Life is never perfect but my parents certainly made the best of every situation. If the lights went out on the night of our favorite show than we suddenly had a family camp out in the living room, if a vacation didn't go as planned than we changed our idea of what the perfect vacation was and made the best of it. Do I wake up every morning, bounce out of bed and live my perfect life? Of course not but I do wake up, thank God for the blessings in my life and the day before me and remember to make the best of every single situation. I kiss my kids goodbye even when I go up the street to Walmart, I make a point of make Bob my number one priority no matter how busy we get and I learn to love whatever life throws at us! I hope that as Peter, Molly, Annie, Lizzie and Ellie grow up they remember their childhood with love and happiness. I hope they realize that although life can be hard you can create happiness out of pretty much any situation.

Onto more important things - like summer pictures! Nancy and Bob invited us over to go swimming on one of the hottest nights of the year. They made us dinner, swam with the kids and pampered Bob and I. It was a great night and I LOVE catching up with Nancy!

Daddy and the girls!

Lizzie loves to swim!

My boy loved all of Guy's water toys!

Annie Bananie was such a big girl!

Striking out on their own!

Nancy got the kids these cool towels - Ellie loved her bumble bee one!

Our happy girl!

Peter swimming with Lizzie!

Molly is our little fish!

Love those big brown eyes!

Lizzie wanted nothing to do with us - she swam all over the place and had a blast!

Molly in her towel!

Annie loved her towel - a princess!

Buggy would not let me get a good picture!

Donut Face!

Molly and Lila hanging in the backyear ready for a swim!

Sisters chatting in the pool - so sweet!

My sweet girl!

Uncle Bob is in heaven! The twins don't look too unhappy either!

Molly and my next creation - mixed veggie  and Quinoa soup. It was a little bland but great with a little salt!

The summer is starting off great. Annie and I went to the doctor this morning and Annie has an ear infection and I have pneumonia but we hope to be on the mend really quickly and ready for Newport. I was out in the yard yesterday with all of my kids and Lila and Breandan and Annie saw an airplane going across the sky and started screaming that Auntie Beth was here! I had to explain that we still had a few weeks until we would see Auntie Beth but Annie was having none of it - she wants her auntie now! I'm also wondering how we are gonig to celebrate Auntie Beth's big birthday - the kids had some ideas about special things we could do but we'll have to wait and let Auntie Kake get dibs first - she did give birth to her and all! Either way between Newport and Auntie Beth's visit we have lots of things to look forward to! We can't wait!

GNM - ILY!

Inspired by Molly

Most of you who hang around us often enough know that Molly has spent the last two years battling a puzzling stomach issue that is painful, inconvenient and heatbreaking for this mom to watch. Molly is such a dynamic kiddo with a heart of gold but no matter what we have done with her diet, medications or minimal behavior changes Molly still tends to have severe stomach reactions that cause her to miss out on fun and very often vomit in unsavory places. This weekend we had another "episode" at a family party where Molly and I spent hours in the bathroom while everyone else was out dancing and having fun. Molly and I also had what Oprah calls an "Ah - ha Moment". We realized that when Molly follows my diet that includes lots of raw and cooked veggies, rice, beans, whole grains and limited sugars she tends to have less stomach issues. (And by my diet I mean the one that I try hard to stay on but fail all too often at!) On the way to the party we had stopped at McDonalds and gotten each of the kids an ice water and a small fry to help them not get hungry on the way from church to the restaurant a half hour a way. An hour later Molly was vomitting in the bathroom. I am a biologist so I am well aware that technically Fast Food is not a general food category that you can be allergic to but I think Molly suffers from her Mom's sensitive stomach and simply can't tolerate foods well - especially greasy, fat filled ones!So................................................................................

We came up with a challenge for our family - mostly Mom who is the cook. In preparation for the BIG challenge that will be October 1 - October 30th we are changing our lifestyle and our diet. Molly and I are working together to introduce new foods to our family at dinner each night. The kids are selecting their lunches from some really different categories and kind of enjoying it. Instead of junk food Molly is helping me to choose tasty but healthful snacks that allow the kids to graze a bit without consuming too much "yucky" stuff. Instead of talking the talk - Bob and I are walking the walk. Bob ate a plateful of salad with, brace yourself, beans and fruit in it last night. A few nights ago Molly prepared a rice and veggie dish that was a huge hit! We are taking it slow - mostly because the adults in the house need some time to adjust to increased cooking time and increased grocery bills. Overall the little girls have taken to it seamlessly. Annie, in particular, loves all the new salads and variations on pasta and rice dishes. Molly promised to stay with me on our new quest for healthy family eating as long as I did not do away with taco night. I have honored her request but did substitute ground beef with ground turkey for the taco meat!

Thanks to her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Nelson, and Grammy, Molly is very big into saving the planet and recycling.We have always recycled in our home, we buy lots of our clothes at a consignment shop, and we try to remember the planet in our daily life but these things  are small and we need to think more big picture. And this brings us to our next challenge beginning in October - The 30 Day Eat Local Challenge. Every single thing consumed in this period must be grown or raised within 30 miles of our home.  I have no desire to turn my kids into vegetarians (this is not a ploy to do that)  but I read somewhere that if each family ate locally one meal per month we would save 1.1 billion dollars in fuel for the US and it would improve the immune system of every family member. I also love to have a family project that we can work on together and this is one that I thought might be fun but could also teach the kids about farming, local resources and community support. Molly and I are in the research phases for October but we started the challenge already by growing a garden. We failed miserably on some things but had great success with our tomato, squash, zucchini, peppers, beans and red onion plants. I smell some homemade sauce being frozen in preparation for October. Molly and I also visited a local market that has meat from animals raised in CT, in fact 10-20 miles from our house.

So why the heck am I writing this on my blog? To hold us accountable, remind the kids of the fun we had attempting to get healthy and to ask for support from our family and friends. If you have resources that you use for eating locally - let me know. We didn't choose the easiest month in CT (June or July would have made it alot less challenging) but we are hoping with a little creativity we can exceed our own expectations and have fun doing it. And as usual, I am awed by my children - specifically Molly who has made this a process that I don't dread because it gives me time with her. She is bright, ambitious, charming and incredibly intuitive about our family and what works best for us. Molly, at 8 years old, is more adventurous than I am at almost 40! She is amazing! Wish us Luck!

GNM - ILY!