Water

Water. We all need it, we've all heard the eight cups a day rule. Some days this is easier to "swallow" than others.

My sister religiously carries a water bottle with her everywhere, she gets her minimum requirement and then some each and every day. My parents, especially my dad, get their water intake through just about anything else besides water! We have been after him for years to drink more water.

A great way to start your morning is with a nice glass as soon as you wake up. It hydrates you and helps you face the day, even before your coffee or breakfast drink of choice. Why not start off with a cup and be ahead of the game?

I recently discovered the magic of a water pitcher with a diffuser through the middle. It allows you to flavor your water with anything you like and change the flavor as often as you want. Brilliant! Today's flavor happens to be blueberry and basil, fresh picked from my pots in the backyard! It's refreshing and keeps tempting me to drink more! I've experimented with many flavor combinations, some we have enjoyed better than others. Cucumber, watermelon, pineapple, peach, lemon, lime, mint, orange, all have been sampled throughout the summer. I'm thinking about trying lavender next. Really there is no right or wrong, just change your ingredients every few days and enjoy!

Sounds silly, but water is so important to keeping us healthy and if you can swap out a glass or two of water in place of a sugary drink or soda, it's a win win! Now I have to get to work to convince my dad of this practice. Maybe I haven't hit upon the right flavor, just gives me motivation to keep trying. Water, who knew it could be so fun?

ME. In a nutshell.

I wake up, it's 6:15 am, I am in this moment, a wife. We say our good mornings a quick smooch, he jumps in the shower. It's 6:32, I am me, alone for a few quiet moments of solitude.

It is 6:34, my youngest child, accompanied by her ever faithful, furry, four-legged brother, climbs/jumps into bed. I am a mother, listening to the tales of my 3-year-old's dreams, snuggling up to her warm, pj-clad body.

Out to the kitchen, rousing the other two children, on full force mommy duty.

Husband emerges, we grab sips of coffee in between rushing kids out the door to school, he to work. Roles merge, I am chaos director, wife, mom, short-order cook, dog walker.

Kids arrive at school, all but one still home with me.

Time is 8:12, off to the gym. Drop remaining child in child watch.

8:18: Alone, I am gym-rat extraordinaire. Work up sweat, chat with a few fellow friends, enjoy a bit of me time. I am me. Alone for awhile.

10:20: Pick up child, resume mommy duty.

Head to grocery store - grab necessities, plan dinner in my head, buy food.

11:10: Pickup child number two, head home. Prepare lunch for kids two and three. Mommy in full force. Play with girls, dog, clean up lunch, laundry.

1:12: Nap number three, bit of TV for number two.

1:32: Jump in shower - ahhh- me time for a few blissful minutes.

3:02: Rouse youngest from nap, load up car with girls and dog, pickup child number one. Listen to son tell about his day, return home, make snack. Check email, referee kids, homework, laundry.

4:46: Prepare dinner, chef hat officially on!

5:36: Set table, gather kids.

5:42: Greet husband- roles merge again. I am wife/mother/cook.

6:45: Prepare for bedtime routine- full mommy mode--baths given, books red, bed.

7:22: First tucked in. Only two trips back to get her settled.

7:34: Second child in bed. First trip a success.

7:46: Sit down with husband and kid number one, I am mommy/wife.

8:08: Last child down for the night.

8:12: Ahhh--wife mode--chat with husband, make tea and watch a bit of television.

9:36: Let fur-baby out (mommy mode still on!).

9:48 Head to bedroom--grab book of the moment--ahh a bit of me time!

10:27: Husband snuggles in--out for the night.

10:34: Kick dog off the bed, NOW, out for the night, ALL ME TIME!

The wild adventures of public bathrooms

Ok, I have to confess that as a mom there are few things I dread. Most bodily functions don't bother or upset my stomach too much. I don't like sassy talk or rude actions that my kids may sometimes try to get away with. But one thing that I really detest are public bathrooms.

My children, specifically my youngest, is newly potty trained and stands two plus feet tall (or short) depending on your perspective. She does not know not to touch everything she sees in every bathroom we enter. She is the perfect height to be a bit over eye level of the toilet, and the handle, and anything that may come flying out when flushed! Hugs in a toilet stall are not my favorite, but somehow hugging mommy and gasp, touching mommy's face after just going potty, have happened! Can you say Purel?

My kids are all fascinated by what color and what smell the soap maybe at the sink. At least they like washing their hands! It's also extremely common for them to describe or ask questions in an always loud "toddler" voice, many things you would rather not have all the other stall occupants hear! And inevitably, no matter how much prep and planning we do, most outings result in having to use a public restroom usually requiring  some measure of urgency.

So while I know that this is just a fact of life, and one I manage to try to grin and bear, I don't have to love it.  I don't even have to like it, especially the lovely face grabs by cute, unsanitary hands!

Rooting for Miss Wisconsin

This coming weekend is a big one in a lot of Wisconsin households. After all, our beloved Packers are playing a huge playoff game, lose and they go home, win and they move on!

Our household, and many others also have a duel reason to watch TV on Saturday night. It is the Miss America pageant. I know there are several groans when reading this, and some may also be delighted, all depends on what you enjoy. But our local area has a real reason to be excited, as Kate Gorman, a local Onalaska native, is representing the state of Wisconsin as Miss Wisconsin. She also happens to be a dear family friend and former babysitter to my kids.

How many of you can say that you had Miss Wisconsin as a babysitter? Pretty cool right? She also happens to be an extremely poised, talented, beautiful and genuinely nice woman. We know personally how very hard she has worked to make it to be crowned Miss Wisconsin, how hard she has worked this past year as Miss Wisconsin, and what an effort she is making to be Miss America.

She has a wonderful platform of combating childhood hunger with healthy foods, a very useful and meaningful thing that she has worked hard to promote in the Coulee Region. We have seen her out and about in town, my girls think she is walking, talking princess. She always takes the time to chat and hug the kids. So while your focus maybe more green and gold this weekend, don't forget to think ball gowns and crowns either!

Give Kate Gorman a shout out and may she bring home the Miss America title to our neck of the woods.  She is a person we can be proud is representing our state!

Learning to ski

I learned one thing over the past few days, you are never to old to learn! I set out to try cross country skiing, specifically skate skiing for the very first time.

It was a very humbling experience, but one I really found myself enjoying after the first ten or fifteen minutes!  Although it does require a bit of ability, it is mainly technique driven, the better the technique, the better the skier.

I am fortunate enough to know someone about to set out to do his twenty fifth Birkebeiner. He agreed to meet me and give me my first lesson at the lovely Hixon Forest.

What a beautiful place, and such a fantastic asset to this city. There were a handful of other skiers out that day, all of varying ability, all much better than me!

While I skied, my husband had the kids on sleds trying out a few of the sledding hills. It was a perfect way to spend some time outdoors and try to enjoy all the beauty that winter has to offer. It sure is a great mood booster to be outside and breathing the crisp air, and one huge plus to keep in mind NO BUGS! Better yet, it's much easier to justify the hot chocolate with extra marshmallows when you are done!

The winter blues

Well the winter season is in full swing.

My kids have embraced it, me, not as much. I need to be a bit more excited about the white stuff and the plummeting temperatures. I don't feel like I get the winter "blues" but let's just say it isn't my favorite season.

I've gone sledding with the kids a few times, and yes, we had a great time. We have made it to the ski hill once, and I've looked at my snowshoes, but I'm not sure that quite counts! I've made several kinds of soups and even baked cookies. But I think it's the hassles of dressing, and weather preparations. It's the constant cleaning of a wet kitchen floor from puppy feet, all four of them!

I do love it when we are all snuggled inside with a fire going and it's cold outside. So cozy! I love the clothes of winter, an old pair of jeans and a nice sweater. I've even taken to wearing long underwear on occasion! Don't tell anyone.

My dog loves winter, he sits on the snow and looks as happy as a dog can. I guess being a native of the area, I knew what living here was like all year round, so I only have myself to blame. I do love the four seasons, and not so sure I'd want to give that up. But if I had my choice, winter would last a month or two and then jump straight to spring. I would not complain, unless the mosquitoes came too. I guess that's another thing to be thankful for this time of year.

For more information on battling winter blues check out balanceyour7.com.

Acupuncture!

Early last winter I found myself in a world of pain and discovered that I had ruptured one of the discs in my lower back.

It was agony to go from sitting to standing and ibuprofen and ice became my new best friends.

I sought medical help, and after this was discovered on an MRI, I received two cortisone injections and three months of physical therapy. I slowly recovered and today I am living pain free and am taking every precaution I can to try to prevent another injury like this from occurring.

I refrain from certain exercises at the gym and try to do extra core work to strengthen my back. I try to get massages once in awhile, go to hot yoga, and overall just tend to be more aware of ways to stay out of the physical therapist's office.

I have recently been reading about all the health benefits that acupuncture can offer. At Gundersen Lutheran there are two providers who provide this type of therapy. People from all walks of life and every age have enjoyed many of the benefits that go along with acupuncture. I picked up the phone and scheduled my first appointment. This is a big step for a person who is terrified of needles!

I have several friends and relatives who have sought this treatment for various ailments, including my 89-year-old grandmother. Everyone told me of the positive results they experienced. One such friend said it helped remarkably calm her mood swings and helped her feel more energized. They all claimed that the needles did not hurt, although you may experience a tingling sensation when touched on certain areas. I am nervous and excited, but feel that taking an extra preventative step to staying healthy is worth it.

For more information on acupuncture offered in this area check out the links...
Acupuncture
Integrative Medicine at Gundersen Lutheran

Finding balance

If you have a few minutes of free time during the day, do you find yourself using some type of social media?

Maybe you twit or tweet or find yourself checking Facebook. I find myself doing this far too often during the day when I have a few seconds of down time. It does keep me informed of social news on a very timely basis. I have found that I stayed in touch with people or found people I have lost touch with and reconnected. It has allowed me to track events and stay on top of things in our community.

But I have found that although it has become a fixture in my life, with a computer parked on my kitchen counter, it has also become a huge waste of my precious free time. I have become somewhat addicted to checking what others are doing on Facebook, or keeping up to the minute on daily social ongoings.

I need to find a time to dedicate to doing this once, maybe twice a day. I haven't found my happy medium, but it needs to happen if I want to get my laundry done! There are more than a handful of my friends who don't follow any type of social networking, I say, all the more power to them!

As a stay-at-home mom, this type of communication helps me feel connected in a way I don't get from going to work outside the home. I do tire of reading the same posts from people. I really don't care if you just vacuumed your hallway, and I have to admit I feel like people lead far more exciting lives than I do.

There is a constant barrage of vacation photos and shots of gourmet meals and social functions. But when taken in context, it is fun to see how friends lives are being led and places and things they are doing. I have found some great resources along the way, like the Balance Your 7 website, and all the ways it shows to try to lead a more balanced life. While two of the components of balance your 7 are relationships and community, the underlying theme is still balance, and this is something that I hope to achieve with my "facebooking" especially before we run out of clean clothes!



balanceyour7com

Political overload!

I have officially hit political overload!

I was tired of all the commercials by August, but now we are truly in the thick of things. The debate was predictable, but I did watch a fair amount.

I have friends who eat, sleep and breathe politics. I wish it interested me more but I always feel like they say whatever we want to hear, twist things to sound favorable to their beliefs, and do whatever they want to anyway!

Several of our friends are from foreign countries. They raptly follow all of the state and federal hoopla, and would absolutely love to have the ability to vote. It has been wonderful to get an outside perspective on some of the pertinent topics.

Overall, I continue to tune out the commercials and try to glean my knowledge of the various candidates from many different sources. I happen to celebrate a birthday at the beginning of November, and this year I will be just as excited to celebrate turning one year older as having the elections over with!

Balancing my mind...

One of the seven areas of the Balance Your Seven is mind.

Stimulating your mind by challenging yourself to try something new, stay up to date on current events, take a class or listen to new music.

I find this very challenging to fit in during the week. I was the kind of person who loved school, I enjoyed learning and being with friends. I do read and I enjoy music, even if it sometimes involves animated voices! I would enjoy trying to fit in a new class, but how does one try to squeeze this in between two different soccer practices, dance, piano lessons? Just sitting down and finding the time to blog with kids and schedules becomes a major challenge.

However, I have truly enjoyed blogging, engaging the "adult" part of my brain. I think about various things to write about, and do a bit of research before sitting down, or in this case, standing, to type it. I have followed up on my desire to learn French by purchasing a set of cds to listen to in the car. Even our kids have joined in!

Overall I know that my children and their schedules do dominate our day to day, but I keep hoping to find a way to keep squeezing in ways to keep my mind healthy and add to my overall sense of balance.

Our spiritual journey leads to a church home

I know I have blogged about our family and it's spiritual quest to find a church that fit. Well we have joined a local church and have enrolled the kids into its Sunday school program.

So far, so good.

While I have stayed home with our youngest, our two older kids really loved going to school with some of their fellow school mates. Our 5-year-old's biggest complaint was that it wasn't long enough! I think we can take this as a good sign.

But more than the social pluses we are seeing, we have joined a very welcoming community, which, in turn, has helped our spirituality grow. I'll be the first to admit that I won't be attending every Sunday, but I don't feel like I need that. Yet for others this is an essential part of their every day or every week.

However you find yourself spiritually, it took our family quite some time to find a place that suited our needs and gave us a sense of comfort. It was worth it, and I hope we continue to grow together and keep learning from this experience.

From Trash to Treasure

That's my motto for the next few days as myself and a few friends prepare for a garage sale.

I vowed never to have another sale, as I found the amount of work almost not worth it.

First comes organizing what you want to sell vs donate and keep. Next comes the dreaded task of marking and organizing everything to be displayed for sale. And then it's trying to transform your garage into a temporary Bloomingdales for a few days.

Right.

Now do that with three other women and all of their stuff! Luckily I am not hosting this time, that task fell to a much more daring, organized friend! After all of the hard work, and hopefully some spending money earned in the end, it is such a satisfying feeling to purge ourselves of the unwanted and unused items we have in our home. Way too many of these items, I might add.

I found it a bit shameful the sheer amount of stuff we have managed to accumulate. This is something I need to remind myself of the next time I stroll through Target or shop the internet! So if you find yourself in need of some wonderful treasures, tell all of your friends and bring your cash to our incredible Bloomingdales, coming temporarily to a neighborhood near you!


Click here for information on how to hold a profitable garage sale!

I try daily to learn from her...

She's one of the most generous and thoughtful people I know.

She's constantly putting others before herself. A great listener? Yes. A hard worker? Yes. She has a great sense of humor, and she has one of the best laughs around. She's always up for adventure or trying new things, and her spirit is very catchy. I admire how she learns new things and is patient with others who are learning as well. She sets lofty goals for herself, sometimes achieving them, sometimes not, but always they are tackled with a smile. There is so much she can teach me, and much of her personality is enviable.

I try daily to learn from her, I have a long way to go.

SHE happens to be my 4-year-old daughter.

I don't know how we got so lucky, but I know I will forever be in awe of her. I hope she will forever be the person she is today, and I hope one day to grow to be half of the person she is every day.

TRI Like a Mother!

I've done it now.

I've gone and committed myself to competing in a triathlon this weekend.

Ok granted, I am not doing all of the swim, bike and run, I'm competing as part of a relay team. I will be the one running, sweating and cursing, across the finish line.

My husband and I are traveling to our dear friends' town this Labor Day to visit and compete in this race.

My husband will be competing in his second tri, and I have been convinced to compete as well. I love the idea of doing any type of exercise, but I also like the idea of adequately preparing for it too!

Oh well, it will certainly be a character builder and I'm sure we will have a blast during the process. At least this is what I keep telling myself. Doing only the running part, I have the least to complain about anyway.

I was also assigned the task of coming up with our team name. Every cool team needs a name! Several options were presented "The Cold Turkeys," "Momshells," "Tri Ineffectas." But the overall winner is "TRI Like a Mother."

And you can bet I will!

Here is some training advice for busy moms.

It's never too late to learn!

Well I survived the Warrior Dash from this past weekend. I didn't walk away completely unscathed, a slightly sprained ankle and a large cut up the back of my leg were my warrior wounds.

Yet I took home something far more valuable. I learned that even in your mid -thirties you can do things that are unexpected, and it's such a great thing to challenge oneself. The race was a bit intimidating, but what a great feeling when we crossed the finish line! It reminded me that it may not be a race or a grueling physical test that we need, but we should push ourselves to try the unexpected from time to time. Even this stay-at-home mom of three needs some occasional excitement!

It's never too late to learn!

Learning, laughing...and mud!

With the summer marching forward, I am heading up to the Twin Cities this weekend to try out one of the "mud" runs with a few girlfriends!!

Keeping myself active and healthy has always been a priority. I am looking forward to this get together with two great friends, one of whom I have not seen in five years! Not sure what will be more fun, getting muddy or laughing with old friends!

It's so important to not only try new things, but challenge ourselves in the process. My husband has taken up learning guitar. It's fun to see how he's progressed and he's truly enjoying learning a new hobby! I am determined to try to learn French. I'm thinking my three years of high school Spanish should really help! My goal is to try to fit new things into a weekly routine to challenge not only my physical self, but my mental one as well. Wish me luck!