Hot fun in the summer time

This week we had a HUGE spike in temperature!  Of course it was THIS week.  This is the week we signed both our big girl and mini me up for soccer camp...every morning for 5 straight days!  Luckily, we are always prepared.  Water bottles abound in our house, but this got me thinking...how much do we really know about dehydration?  Obviously we get tired and lethargic if we don't get enough water...but what else can go wrong?  What are some other signs?

According to the mayo clinic, symptoms of dehydration include:

• dry, sticky mouth
• sleepiness or tiredness
• children are less likely to be active than usual
• thirst
• decreased urine output
• no wet diapers for three hours for infants
• few or no tears when crying
• dry skin
• headache
• constipation
• dizziness
• lightheadedness

Symptoms of SEVERE dehydration include:

• extreme thirst
• extreme fussiness or sleepiness in infants and children; irritability and confusion in adults
• very dry mouth, skin and mucous membranes
• little or no urination-any urine that is produced will be darker than normal
• sunken eyes
• shriveled and dry skin that lacks elasticity and doesn't "bounce back" when pinched into a fold
• in infants, sunken fontanels-the soft spots on the top of the baby's head
• low blood pressure
• rapid heartbeat
• rapid breathing
• no tears when crying
• fever
• in the most serious cases, delirium or unconsciousness

As we packed the girls up each morning we made sure they had a good breakfast, and LOTS of water to take along with them.  The hubs stayed to watch too and make sure the girls got breaks when needed and drank water on their breaks (sometimes mini me is too busy being social to realize she needs to have a drink).  Mini me was only there for 2 hours and the big girl for 3 each day, but WOW what a scorcher yesterday was...97 degrees.

Happily I can say it rained last night, like RAINED, and the temps dropped. Today is a beautiful 75 so they are MUCH more excited about running around outside.  These are some action shots of mini me...her sister doesn't really let us get pics of her anymore #preteenangst

 

Something else I learned while investigating dehydration, is a quick way to check if you are in the "danger zone" is by the color of your urine. 

Have you had enough water today??

Warmth Abounds

I love getting ready for the holidays!  I love getting out all of our decorations and making the house look festive!  I love getting gifts ready that I think people will really like.  I love all the excitement of Santa coming and the sheer joy of Christmas  morning.

Even with so much joy on the horizon though there is still that lurking thought in the back of my mind.  The question no one actually asks out loud but it is there like a giant elephant on the room.  How much damage are these few weeks going to do?  It's a time when we feel we can loosen the ropes some and just indulge.  

I am quite happy to say that this year the hubs and I did a pretty good job of staying on target.  We had a cookie here or there, and a few items that were far from gluten free, but in all honesty we stayed pretty close to the line with our meals.  We even had a healthy good challenge for our annual Christmakkah party.  There was garden vegetable soup, dill matzo ball soup, GF pasta and marinara, veggie tray, so many good healthy choices!  It was awesome!  

Where we have been "less then successful" (as failure is NOT an option) is in our workouts.  We have been running on empty and just enjoying time with the kids and family and friends!  But today, we are turning it around!  When I was a kid, Christmas break was all snow forts and sledding.  The weather lately though is so crazy that instead of donning snow pants we were outside in our jackets and the girls were roller blading/skating and riding bikes yesterday.  The unseasonal warmth was a great reminder to the hubs and I though of the importance of getting out there and moving!  It felt great having the sun in my face and watching the girls being so active (and silly).  

How have you been doing with all the holiday craziness??? 

Revamping those Resolutions!

I admit, that every year I do try and make a set of resolutions.  I do try and stuck with them as best as I can too.  But like so many others, they seem to fall to the wayside.  That is why this year I am excited that the hubs and I decided to start making some serious changes for our health and well-being BEFORE the craziness (and let's be honest-pressure) of New Years is upon us.  As I have mentioned, the hubs and I have decided to try going gluten free. So far, its been amazing!  I am seeing an actual difference in my body.  I know some of it is getting my lazy butt back into an actual work out regimen, but the bloated look (and feel) I have been carrying in my mid-section is all but gone.  It's allowing me to see the sad out of shape ab muscles that have been crying for attention and love. 

With the "success" of the gluten cut back, we have been discussing more things we can change in our diets.  With all of THAT talk, and after a great post by Ashley over at Coffee Cake and Cardio about thinking ahead for 2014 I thought, why not start to draft up some resolutions that we KNOW we want to do. 

1. Continue on the gluten free lifestyle.  It seems to be helping both of us and I am feeling better then I have in a long time.
2. Continue working out and making it a priority!  This is where I have ups and downs a LOT.  The kids and their schedules always get pushed to the top of my priority list and I need to remember that I am a priority too. 
3. Slowly try to change the girls diets over to less gluten (especially my big girl).  The more research I do, the more I think we could help a lot of the issues she has with an eliminating diet. 
4. Start to kick high fructose corn syrup out of our home.  This is one the hubs and I feel VERY strongly about.  There are just so many downfalls and ill effects that are caused by this sneaky little filler, and we want nothing more to do with it.  Sorry HFCS, the road stops here.
5. Run that 5K. No more excuses.

I know there will be more things to add on, but I think this is a pretty good start, right?!?! 

Have you started thinking about your resolutions?  What will they be?

Feeling Alive!!

Over the past several weeks I have felt sluggish!  Actually more like a sleep deprived lump!  I now my sleep patterns are erratic (thank you fitbit), but even with that, with 7+ hours of "not so great" sleep, I was feeling just blah.  Cutting back on the gluten has helped some...but it wasn't quite the surge I had hoped for.  So, as we sat enjoying Thanksgiving dinner I announced that we would begin exercising again the following day.  No more excuses! 

Everyone at the table agreed.  So we enjoyed out delish dinner (my husband does an ah-may-zing job with the turkey), and this year it was a more "shared responsibility" turkey day which I loved!  usually the hubs takes on the brunt of the cooking, but we spent the better part of the early day enjoying the kids laughter as we worked side by side in the kitchen!  My fav turkey day to date!

While others were battling the crowds to shop deals on Black Friday, we went to the library and got some workout DVD's to try, some more gluten free books and a juicing book (our next possible morning adventure).  I have to say, I am excited about these videos.  We opted for a few of The Biggest Loser workouts.  There is something inspiring about seeing others who are fighting the same good fight as you as opposed to a group of trainers working out.  We have done three days in a row, and I feel GREAT!  My energy is back up where it used to be, I don't feel like I am going to nod off at 6 or 7pm anymore.  It's great!  And because you can customize the workouts we can go anywhere from 25 minutes-an hour!  Loving them so far.

We have done:

LOVE them all so far...the boot camp kicked my butt some, but its great!  My hubs put it the very best way I could think of the other night when he said, "I'm sore, but my muscles feel alive!"

So true!  Alive!!

And the winner is...

I have been working on this post for the past few days and am so excited to share it with you all right before the weekend!! 

W&M was nominated for a Liebster Award! 

HOLY SMOKES!!!!!  The fabulous Mariana from over at Project Unfluff nominated little old me and my blog for a Liebster Award!  MAJOR shout out to her for all the blog love she has been showing!!  My first award nod!  I’d like to thank all the people who got me to this point, you the readers, my family…wait, where are the cameras and red carpet?!?!  J  I am SO excited about this, and what this award is for.

From what I’m told, after some research, it was learned that “the word Liebster is a German word for sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.  (Stolen from Mariana who stole it from her nominator…all out of love of course!!)

The award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.  The idea of the reward is to help new bloggers build a community and to connect with other bloggers!”

Once a blogger is nominated, the blogger must complete the following:

1) Acknowledge the nominating blogger

2) Share 11 random facts about yourself

3) Answer 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you

4)  List 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers from what you can tell!  They should be bloggers you believe deserve a little recognition and some blogging love!

5) Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominated.

6) Tell the 11 bloggers you nominated (no nominating the blogger who nominated you)!

11 things about me:

• I was on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.  Yes THAT Unsolved Mysteries.  No I did NOT get to meet Robert Stack.
• My eyes change color with my clothes and sometimes with my mood…yet I have no magical powers that I am aware of.
• The day I met my husband I knew I would marry him even though we didn’t even start to date until almost 2 years later.  If you need proof of this claim, ask my dad.  After eeting the hubs for the first time I actually told my dad.
• As I have gotten older I am starting to find that I have a need for faith, but not religion.
• I love to be a goofball and sometimes use my children as an excuse to be extra goofy.
• I feel like my sweet little administrative job I the world of higher education is the best fit in the world for me (even though I had dreams of being a famous actress once upon a time).  It allows me to focus on my REAL job which is being a mom.
• It freaks me out that Whoopie Goldberg doesn’t have eyebrows.
• I look for moments where I can insert overly dramatic lines from movies I love into real life situations.  Steel Magnolias is great for this!!
• Being pregnant was one of my favorite things.  Despite 24/7 morning sickness for weeks and weeks, despite swollen feet and ankles, I loved every second of being preggers!
• I am hoping my blog really takes off.  I have had this renewed NEED to post things of late and really want to share it and get people thoughts.
• Taking after my mother, my driver’s license still has the weight I was when I received it at age 16.  As my mom says, I still have that weight within my current weightJ.  Love my mom!!

Questions from Mariana:

1.         If you were a vending machine, what would you sell and why? (Could be anything)
Hmmm, this is a head scratcher.  I think I would maybe sell fortune cookies because everyone is always excited to open a fortune cookie, and no matter what the actual fortune is you can find solace, humor or affirmation in them.  Fortune cookies have a way of brightening any day…at least at my house they do.

2.         What is your fondest childhood memory?  I remember being snuggled in my bed at age 4, it was story time with my Dad and my lil bro was in the crib and I asked my dad if I could read to him.  He asked if I meant him read to me and I said no and proceeded to read him Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I was very proud and have had a lifelong love of books since, probably because how proud he was of me…(yes, I re-read it for my mom once dad called her in too).

3.         What is your favorite book from your childhood?  My mom used to buy me these illustrated classic books from Toys R Us and I remember loving and re-reading over and over Great Expectations.  Ooohhh I also loved Bridge to Terabithia though too.

4.         What is your favorite book now as an adult?  There are honestly too many to name.  I love all things Karin Slaughter, the whole Enders Game series, the His Dark Materials series, anything Jane Green or Jen Lancaster…this one is too hard to answer honestly.

5.         What is your favorite unhealthy to healthy recipe (example: skinny mac and cheese)?  Chicken Strips.  My whole family likes chicken strips and I found a great recipe that involves panko and oven baking them instead of batter and deep fry.

6.         Do you have a favorite method for losing weight/working out? What is it?  Not yet…when I find what works best I will let you all know though!

7.         Star Trek or Star Wars?  I have to be honest here…neither.

8.         If you were a vegetable, which one would you be and why?  Good one, I don’t’ know maybe a zucchini or a sweet potato.  I have grown to love them both as an adult…but I really like all my veggies. 

9.         What is the best vacation you ever went on?  Our last family trip to Disney with both the girls.  It was amazing to see how they react (at their different ages and it was the oldest’s 3rd trip).  I actually cried when my then 1 year old mini me ran up and hugged Minnie Mouse for the first time, I was so happy she wasn’t scared. J

10.       If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would your first purchase be?  Our house.  I would pay off our mortgage.

11.       Why do you blog?  It started as a way to be more accountable, but now it’s out of a need and want to blog.

11 bloggers that I nominate!
1. The Well Balanced Family

2. Red Delicious Life

3. Stay Fit. Stay Classy. Stay True.

4. Smaller in Time

5. Now is Finally the Time

6. Fit Dawn

7. Finding Goddess

8. Ivy Grows in the Kitchen

9. The Life of Lisa

10.Back to MILF Status

11. Manning’s Musings

Questions for bloggers nominated:

If you could meet one famous person in history, who would it be and why?

Would you ever be on a Reality TV show?

If you had to cut out one food forever, what would it be and why?

What is your go to favorite snack?

What is your fav workout jam?

Book or eReader?

What is your “must see TV” show?

Must have workout item?

What workout can you just NOT get into and why?

What is your go to cocktail/spirit of choice when watching calories?

Fav sport to watch?

Keep spreading the blog love people!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

     One of the best parts of summer break is that my kids love being outside, well they did.  Mini me still loves it, but my 11 going on 17 year old is just as happy in her room with all her electronic devices.  I try and make sure we get some time outdoors each day when the weather permits, and the hubs is always taking them to museums and such during the day so we are keeping both their minds and bodies active.  Trouble with that is it keeps me away from the pc, which keeps me away from here and I must say, I have missed this little blog of mine.  I MUST try harder to make time for it and all of you.

     With my oldest being all full of pre-teen angst, I am finding it harder and harder to find activities that both kids will enjoy.  Nine times out of ten the big one wants to either not do anything or only do it if a friend comes along.  :(  Take today for instance, for Father's Day we got Dadoo a family membership to the historical society...museum, outdoor old timey town...her question, what time do I have to get up to do this?  Little one is excited to go anywhere (most of the time)...if we have just gotten all of the littlest pet shops set up its a harder sell.

So my question to you...what kind of fun activities do you plan for your family and the kiddos?

Here are a few pics from when mini me and I conquered the zoo a few weeks ago for Mommy-(youngest) Daughter day!

enjoying our picnic lunch

monkeying around

having a roarsome good time

 

Busy hands are happy (but exhausted) hands

enjoying the flowers on the viburnum that FINALLY came this year

It has been a crazy few weeks in our world.  We have had two out of town soccer tournaments, Mothers Day, recital prep and rehearsals, garden beginnings, house/cat sitting and our usual day to day.  I love when the weather gets nice, but it seems like everything explodes all at once when that happens and we need time to re-adjust our time tables and loads.

Where to begin in the wide world of updates.  As you can see from the pic above, we have been enjoying spring.  As a kid my parents had (well the still have) a viburnum tree that I just loved, so when my hubby and I bought our house (8 years ago) my parents bought us one.  This is the first year that we have actually gotten flowers on it which makes he have high hopes for our gardening aspirations this year! 

Along with our beautiful flowers, I think I mentioned before that my hubby was building me a few raised garden beds so we could try our hand at growing our own veggies, and as of this mornings report we have sprouts!  We planted a few starters that were already going, but added some squash, zucchini and peas that we are starting from seeds and the hubs and the mini me texted this morning to report sprout sightings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So here are my fabulous garden beds, along with mini me and the neighbor in the play area and Violet the neighbors dog.  This is pre-planting.  So far we have planted lots of herbs, zucchini, 2 types of squash, peas, spinach, brussel sprouts, 2 types of lettuce, kale, broccoli and a few strawberries.  We have tomatoes and peppers started in pots.  I am hoping the soil is warm enough this weekend to get the tomatoes and peppers in the ground.  The pepper plants look great like they are ready to go!

With veggies on our minds, but not yet in our grasp, we took our first trip to the farmers market as well.  LOVE the farmers market!  We opted for the smaller one closer to our house and got some great finds...spearmint honey amongst them.  What fun would the market be without cute stuff for the kids, seeing this makes me love broccoli just that much more.

 

 To round out the past few weeks we have had soccer tournaments

 

found a nest of baby birds in our honeysuckle

 

had our first ever dance pictures with the mini

had our last day of pre-school (tears), and thanks to pinterest I have a new tradition started to surprise my girl with when she graduates from high school

and we are getting ready for our first recital...more fun pics of that to come next week after the big event.  dress rehearsal was last night and was SO much fun!

So those are the past few weeks in my world and why I have been absent from the page.  I do want to discuss my thoughts on this whole Abercrombie and Fitch craziness and why I will never shop their stores again...but that upsets me and I want this to be a happy post!

What have you been up to the past few weeks?

Short lived Sunshine

Baby Bear adding some curb appeal!

Happy Monday dear ones!  What a wonderful weekend we had here in NE Ohio!  The sun was out, we broke into the 60's.  What a blessing for March, and my little family took full advantage.  We had our regular weekend fun scheduled (soccer tournament, dance class) but luckily for us things were all scheduled early enough in the day that we were able to get LOTS of quality time outside enjoying the unseasonably warm weather! 

We did yard work, bike riding, chalk drawing, washed cars, went on walks, collected sticks, played soccer in the yard...it was wonderful!  I also got to open the windows and air out the house.  Good bye germs!  I'm hoping it helped, it definitely made us all smile.  It is SO much easier to keep moving and be active when you have good weather to enjoy it all in.

To finish out our fun in the sun weekend, Dadoo made homemade burgers on the grill with sautéed veggies on toasted rye bread.  We went and bought lots of fresh berries yesterday, so we had a delicious fruit salad as well (Baby Bear's fav thing to make in the warm weather.)

We also got a lot done on our little family business, Ardeline Arts & Crafts.  With the warmer weather we were able to paint outside some and do all our finish work outside.  It was so much fun.  It gave me that need for more though, which is sad since today is low 50's and rain, and tomorrow the snow returns.  Ah March, in like a lion right?!?!  I look forward to the lamp portion of that! 

And now, for a little Friend Making Monday!

Friend Makin’ Mondays: Food Questions

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Food Questions

1.What did you eat for dinner last night? Homemade burgers with sautéed onions and peppers topped with provolone on toasted rye bread.

2. If you could make one food calorie-free for the next year, what would you choose? Guacamole.

3. How often do you go to the grocery store?  We usually go once a week or so, in the summer we go a little less as we hit the farmers markets instead.

4. Do you make a list before buying groceries? I do, but the real key is to shop without the kiddos.

5. List three things that can always be found in your kitchen. Milk, coffee and cherry coke zero.

6. How often do you clean out your fridge? Every Thursday for garbage day.

7. Do you ever use a slow cooker? If so, will you share a recipe? I do every once and a while.  I like to slow roast pork for pulled pork sandwiches.  My hubby uses it MUCH more than I do.

8. How often do you try new recipes? I have been in ebb and flow with trying new recipes…I attempt something new at least once a week now I’d say.

9. What is the most delicious meal(s) you make? My hubby LOVES my homemade meatloaf, but I like my pan seared pork chops better.

10. Share at least one thing that is currently in your kitchen even though you don’t like it.  Hmmmm…I’m not a fan of soy milk let alone very vanilla soy milk, but my hubby and oldest daughter are lactose intolerant so we always have it in the house.

 

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions!  Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments.  Happy Monday, friends!

 

Hello Weekend

I am so glad that the weekend is finally here!  It will give me the time (that as you know is much needed) to clean and disinfect all the germies that have been attacking our house.  It is time to give them the old Clorox heave-ho!  I can't remember the last time I was this excited about cleaning!  I have had an overwhelming need to "spring clean."  Even before the sickness hit.

I am all geared up to try some of the fun tips I have found on pinterest to help make cleaning a more streamlined and productive process-follow me on pinterest (smbf925).  I am also VERY excited to announce that I have finally launched something for my crafting, after researching a little more about Etsy, I'm not sure that it is the right fit for me, at least not yet.  So, I started a facebook page where you can "like" (of course) and look at albums for inspiration on a project you would like me to create...or to order some thing you see that you like and want.  Just search for : Ardeline Arts & Crafts.  We are working on some contests.  Right now a special something for the 100th like!

More to come...got some work to do!  Oh and as for a head scratcher for the day: Have a break, have a manatee

Zumba!!

I love Zumba!  It has become one of my favorite workouts over the past few weeks.  I know that a big part of that is because of the awesome instructor I have (Alice the Awesome), but I think even without her I would still love it more and more each time I do it.

As someone who was a dancer a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOng time ago, I find that the more I do it, the more relaxed I become.  I am really starting to just feel the music and the moves, so its not so much a "work" out but a "work it" out.  I also find myself thinking every once and a while that it would be such a fun workout to do with my hubby.  Must be all that hip work.  hee hee

My question of the day is, has anyone ever tried to Wii Zumba?  I am thinking it might be a good way to spend my Target gift card, but was hoping for a little feedback first. 

Thoughts PLEASE!!!