Ode to water and bananas

Here's a good random for you. 

I wish I could get away with feeding my kids only bananas and water. Some days I feel like I do (Brady ate at least four bananas today), but most days I'm just wishing I could.  Here's what I love about water and bananas. 

Water is virtually free. It is almost always accessible. It is not sticky and does not stain. If water spills on the floor, I can pretty much just ignore it for a few hors and it goes away. Or, I can get a paper towel to wipe it up and my floor is cleaner than it was before!  If I bring a sippy of water somewhere, it doesn't matter if it is warm or cold and isn't time sensitive. It also doesn't matter if that sippy rolls under a seat in the car and isn't found for a few days. Nothing will have fermented without my permission. Also, if we're at the playground and we have a sippy of water, I can use it to rinse hands/wipe mouths when a wet wipe alone just isn't cutting it. Also, it's really good for your body and [from what I hear] is satisfying and delicious without any added star or artificial flavorings. It's pretty much a perfect substance. The only downside is that I think it tastes disgusting. It would be awesome to enjoy these conveniences and share a water bottle or sippy with the kids when we're out and about. 

Wanna hear my thoughts about bananas?  I know you do.  In many ways they're similar to water... Just the food version. ; )  Anyways, bananas are super cheap. Especially compared to other fruits and veggies and their price is consistent throughout the year. I've found avocados for as low as $.33 each and as high as $2.50 each. Bananas? They're always just hovering around $.50/lb. Which is an amazing deal. There aren't many other fruits or veggies available [consistently] for under $1/lb. if I was homeless, I'd probably live off of bananas. Moving on though... Bananas have a long shelf life. When I buy them green, I can wait up to ten days before using them. And it takes no skill set at all to determine when one is good to eat, unlike other fruits that can be trickier (like pineapple or melons, or even peaches). Other fruits can be learned, but I never have to tell Abigail that the banana she picked isn't ready to eat yet... She can determine bananas for herself. Also, bananas are fine to eat green, yellow, or spotted. You probably have a preference on what you enjoy most, but it's doable at any of those stages. That can't be said for every fruit and veggie out there. Bananas aren't time sensitive. I can toss a few in my purse and it doesn't matter if we eat them in five minutes or five hours. Not the case for grapes or watermelon or avocado. Also, they travel well. I would never put a ripe pear in my purse because it would get messy all over if anything cut the skin. I wouldn't want to eat raspberries that had been washed an hour or two before because they would be soggy. And same for an avocado that would have turned brown. Apples are easy but they need to be washed which can be done at home, but then you have I keep it clean in your purse. I can't just toss them on the seat or floor of my car. Also, kids can't really eat them unless they've been sliced and then you have that some sensitive issue coming up. And storing it in a baggie or Tupperware. Bananas are perfectly stored and protected until you're hungry for one.  Also, if you only want to eat half, just wrap the peel back on the remainder and it can sit and wait for you to finish it later. The same can't be said for an orange... which is also messy to peel and leaves your hands smelling like citrus for the remainder of the day. Bananas are mess free for an adult to eat and mostly mess free for most kids to eat. No crumbs, and the peel is like a wrapper to keep hand clean. But maybe my favorite part is that they're insanely quick to eat and are very dense and filling. My kids can be very slow eaters, but I can give them bananas to eat in the car, and they're full in about five minutes... With staying power to last til the next meal. Kids slept in and we need to leave the house in ten minutes?  Just wake them up and get them dressed. Bananas in the car! It's already bedtime and you don't feel like cooking dinner, watching the kids munch on it for a half hour, and then cleaning up the dishes and table and floor? Bananas!  And, have I already mentioned... They don't stain. And they're quiet to eat which is important sometimes when you're at church or on an airplane or in any confined space with people that don't want to hear you eat. They also don't wreak havoc on your breath. Or get stuck in your teeth. They're even an easy food for small babies with no teeth. Teeth or no teeth, it's a good food for you. And aside from everything else, bananas are also amazingly nutritious. Really, the only downside I've ever come across is that they leave you with a peel. But even that isn't a huge deal because the mess is on the inside. The peel can sit somewhere in your car until you find a trash can. Or you can chuck it somewhere as compost. And it's easy to just throw away and be done because you don't have to wash your hands afterwards. Really, they're amazing.

So there you go. Those are my go to's for my kids. The only cons are that bananas have peels and that I hate the taste of water. Anyone else have favorites I should know about? 

A wonderful Sunday

Today was an excellent day. When I snoozed my alarm too many times, honey got out his phone and I woke up to some church music on pandora. I was tempted to be in a bad mood because I had a headache and was mad at myself for staying up too late on the Internet, but how can you be in a bad mood when you wake up to "come thou fount"?!  (Ps- my phone just autocorrected fount to doubt. Glad I caught that one. Anyways, it seemed like every song was my favorite and I loved it. I made breakfast (eggs... are you shocked?) and we all got ready and left by 8:35. We got to church early for a meeting with the first counselor. I got released from my calling as a welcoming committee member and was given a new calling. 

Let's back up a bit. Last Sunday, bishop told Chris he needed to meet with us but honey was out of town Wednesday so they scheduled for Sunday afternoon. So we assumed I was getting a new calling because we know Chris is currently cemented in his. Then Friday night, the first counselor told Chris he needed to meet with us, in addition to bishop meeting with us. So then I was extra worried. A calling from bishop would likely be RS. A calling from the first counselor would be something bad like gospel doctrine teacher or YW (I did love yw but I'm not ready for that again quite yet) or teaching a kid Sunday school class. So this was terrifying to me but I reminded myself that I'd survived previous terrifying callings (namely, ward chorister and yw pres) and come what may, it would be okay. 

Well, we went in and two seconds later, I was getting released (I am really sad about this because I really liked my calling) and bracing myself for something scary. Well, scary didn't come. I'm thrilled to still have a calling under the relief society. And even though it's a more high maintenance calling (let's be honest, I've enjoyed "coasting" lately), I'm super excited. Who wants to coach me on how to be the best visiting teaching coordinator ever?  Or at least on how to not suck?  I'm super excited to have a calling I can fulfill during the week so my Sundays can be spent enjoying relief society lessons (or acclimating Brady to nursery as has been the case these last two months) and hanging out with my awesome friends at church. 

So, that was super exciting and I was sustained within the hour. But it left me a little confused as to why I would also be meeting with bishop. We waited after church for an hour (honey thought this would be better than taking the kids home and packing them back in the car to return to church... I just went along with it) and I was just wondering. Then we sit down with bishop and he says something scary and ominous like "I know you don't know why you're here" or "something has come up" or "this is unexpected" or something that I was thinking something horrible happened and that our lives were over. Turns out, an opportunity came up to help fund a missionary in our ward. What a wonderful surprise!  We are both extremely grateful and excited for this opportunity. It made my great day even better. 

As a side note, Brady is so cute. I'm kind of obsessed with him lately. 

We ate Friday night's Chinese leftovers for lunch, and I napped on Brady's floor for a bit (while he fell asleep and napped) until it was time for our home teacher to come over and we had a good visit with him. Abigail was excited to tell him that she can ride a bike with no training wheels and asked if he wanted to see it. We semi blew that part off but then when he  was leaving, Abigail raced out of the garage and started riding her bike down the sidewalk to show our home teacher as he was walking to his car.  My heart melted that it was so on her mind and that she sprung into action. She is so adorably sweet and innocent right now.)

After he left, we hung out for a bit and then went on a long walk around the neighborhood and then let Abigail ride her bike around the block a few times and on the street a bit. We took the kids up for bed before 7, and even though they didn't each fall asleep until after 8, it was nice to not rush the bedtime routine and to linger a bit longer after we read books and things. 

This was Brady's third night of crying it out. I've procrastinated a long time (and it deserves a post of its own) letting Brady cry it out so he can get back to falling asleep on his own instead of needing me to hold his hand. It's one of those things where it's great and it just works until it just doesn't anymore. So after almost two months... We're attempting to break the habit. Night one, I think he cried for an hour and a half. The second night was 1h10. And tonight was about 30 minutes. Writing it out, those lengths seem super long, but, thankfully, his crying hasn't been bad. It's like a semi-cry of "daddy" over and over. Hopefully it won't take long for him to be confident again in his ability to fall asleep without my assistance. 

All in all, the day was great. I loved church and all the interactions I had with people there. I love being surrounded by so many good and friendly and happy people. There are people I know I'm good friends with but then other interactions that help build friendships that weren't there before. Today, my favorite two took place the two times I went to the bathroom. 

The first was before church when I went to finish doing my makeup and sister freund was already in there doing hers. So we hung out and happily chatted as we did out makeup side by side. We talked about missing kids when they're away and Abigail starting preschool. She said something about how Abigail was definitely a strong willed child. It was interesting for me to hear someone say that about her. 

The second was when I left sacrament to change Brady's diaper and the lady leaving behind me asked where the bathroom was. So we walked together. She's the mother in law of one of my friends and was just in town to care for the kids while my friend and her husband got away for the weekend. This lady was so insanely nice and friendly. She was changing the diaper of a little boy Brady's age (they go to nursery together) and we chatted about where she was from and where I grew up and our her two grandkids she's watching are the same age/gender as my two kids and on and on. I was about to give her my number as i told her I was happy to help her with anything she needed while she was in town since I was close by in the same neighborhood. She said that she actually leaves tomorrow but that next time she's in town then she'll call me so we can get together with our kids and that she's be happy for me to drop my kids off with her whole I ran errands for a bit. Seriously... It was probably 5-7 minutes total and we were BFF. She and her husband sat by Chris and me during our third hour combined meeting and she saved me when she gave me bunny graham crackers for Brady when he was fussy and I couldn't find the granola bar I'd brought for him. I'm sure this lady has no idea how our quick friendship has brightened my day and the week ahead of me. 

I love people and I love Sundays. Today was amazing. 

Sent from my iPhone

Wednesday

Tuesday

Monday

no training wheels

this week, abigail's friend, lucy, learned how to ride a bike without training wheels.  it literally took her two or three days to learn and abigail thought it was pretty cool.  so friday night, i borrowed a pedal-less bike from a friend so abigail could practice her balance.  well, she rode it for 20 or 30 minutes friday night and then maybe another 20 minutes this afternoon before i told christopher to take the training wheels off of abigail's pink bike. 

now we just need to fine tune her starting and stopping skills.

for anyone looking to teach their kid how to ride a bike without training wheels, look into a balance bike like strider or wee ride that doesn't have pedals.  it literally took abigail less than 24 hours to go from zero experience without training wheels to riding all up and down our street.  i've heard people swear by these bikes.  now i'm a believer too.

my kid is turning into a real girl.

Weekend with mom and dad

Mom and dad were here for the weekend and it was perfection. They got here around 4 on Friday (with balloons in tow... princesses for abigail and sports balls for brady) and we hung out and then went to the Hilliers for Nate's birthday dinner. Delicious steak and potatoes for dinner and make your own pies for dessert. Hanging out was so much fun. Especially seeing Steph. And at the end when dad was helping Klaudette with her phone and "hallie" and "bongo."

Saturday was a day of work. My parents earned their keep this weekend... Especially Saturday.  we did have an amazing breakfast.  christopher made us french toast and we topped it with some delectable peaches that mom and dad brought and added cream cheese to the mix.  along with the regulars... butter, syrup, powdered sugar.  it was heavenly.  but after that it was a whole lot of sweat and hard labor.  mom and i worked in the yard pruning and hacking at dead branches and pulling out bushes and tree stumps and just totally going through the backyard.  we made three enormous piles of branches that dad and christopher hauled down to the tall grasses near the water retention area.  it was amazing.  dad also fixed our upstairs toilet that would sometimes run too long and dad and chris [with quite a bit of trouble] managed to reverse the doors of the fridge/freezer in my garage since they opened toward the wall and it was tricky and annoying to get to things.  we started working sometime around 10am i think and we didn't stop working til late afternoon around five or six.  brady was a gem and slept in til 1pm.  so it was super nice to have that uninterrupted time to work in the yard and not worry about having to put him down for a nap.  the kids just kind of floated around the house while everyone was working and it was all great.  we went to texas roadhouse for dinner and then chris took the kids home and got them to bed while mom and dad and i stopped by home depot for a few things (spider spray, caulk and gun, razor blades, and a saw).  after the kids were in bed, we played sequence and ate kettle corn.

sunday was great.  we had ward conference and i didn't even try to put brady in nursery.  i just took him with me to second and third hour and i loved actually hearing lessons in sunday school and relief society!  amazing!  after church, we came home and binged on random food from the fridge and later, honey grilled hamburgers for us.  as mom and dad loved to comment... we ate a whole lot of red meat that weekend.  our adventure of sunday afternoon was that abigail's balloon escaped to our great room ceiling.  dad and abigail had this plan to turn on the fan so it would fly to the side of the room closer to the stairs.  well, it just got tangled in the fan instead.  luckily, my dad can solve anything and devised a plan that involved hockey sticks ("double hockey sticks" as he liked to call them) and masking tape.  it worked like a charm and with mom dashing to the rescue, we were able to secure the princess balloon once again.  fun was had by almost all.  ; )

monday, we woke up and got to work.  mom and i did some sorting of boxes in the basement to get a bunch of stuff together that we could throw out with recycling.  dad's big project was my master shower.  out with the old and in with the new.  old caulk is a disgusting thing.  i would never have been able to stomach that by myself.  also, the drains for my master shower and sinks... they're perfectly clean now.  i spent most of my last hours with mom and dad convincing them that they needed to come back before and after their conference trip.  they're such lifesavers... it would have taken me absolutely forever (if ever) to accomplish all of this stuff without them.  it makes such a difference for my mood being able to knock out some of these big/long standing projects that i've had on my mind for the longest time.

so yes, it's a little sad we didn't get to go to the pool or go on bike rides or go hiking or see the chihuly exhibit at night or do any of the other fun activities we thought of.  just call me crazy, this was just way more satisfying.  i gave a talk in church recently about what i learned from my parents growing up and i focused a lot on my dad and how he was always working and getting things done and being productive and enjoying it and now i didn't enjoy it as a kid but now i do.  well, this just sealed it.  i'm a convert to the pleasure of a little hard work.

crossing my fingers they come back next month.  ; )

Thursday

Honey was supposed to be out of town tonight but the client rescheduled. As a result, my day was much better than it otherwise would have been. Life is easier if I know I'll see my honey in a few hours. 

This morning, Abigail woke me up by telling me that she'd gotten dressed herself. In her favorite fancy dress. She's obsessed. I just love when she dresses herself  before coming downstairs.

Emma came over to play while her mom went to an appointment. It was nice for Abigail to have someone to play with since Brady slept so late. Til 1pm actually. Crazy kid. 

Emma left and so, naturally, Abigail needed to find another friend ASAP. Lucy. But I had baby girl change into play clothes first (as opposed to the Sunday dress she was wearing) and she picked this skirt... And her Minnie shirt. For the life of me, I can't get her to wear coordinating outfits. She got such cute clothes but her matching is a little different than my own. ; )  also, for the past week, she's decided she only wants to wear skirts. Every day... Skirts. 

Life is good when produce is cheap. And my heart is happy too. 

Did I already mention they're supposed to start building town houses back here sometime?  I've heard those rumors for years but this rumor is that they'll start building in the spring. If that's true, I'm going to really, really miss these cows. 

Since honey was in town, he played in his softball game (and we actually went to watch for the first time in two months!) and the weather was wonderful. Cool and overcast and it even sprinkled on us for at least ten minutes. And then this. One of the most remarkable complete double rainbows I've ever seen. The lower one was so insanely vibrant... Especially at the bottoms. Too bad I only have this iPhone pic to show for it. 

Then we did bath (and bananas in the bath) and bedtime. It was a good day. 

Except that my computer might have died. I was so sad last night when my huge blog post got erased because I have anxiety about memories fading. Like if my kid does something cute and I don't record it immediately, I'll forget and it'll be lost forever. It's getting to be a problem for me and I try to keep myself grounded as best I can but blog posts getting erased doesn't help. Well, my laptop not turning on also doesn't help. Maybe my dad can work some magic this weekend. He's kind of a miracle worker sometimes. 

Yeay for my parents coming in town for the weekend!!!!

I'm winning at life

I just wrote an insanely long post about my successes of today and blogger deleted it. Major fail. You'd think I'd learn but it's either this or never posting. Here's to sparking my memory and hopefully filling in later. 

Brady's messes. Eggs, milk, peanut butter carseat, water, rice and pork on the dishwasher. 

Went visiting teaching and kids watched frozen. Brady napped for two hours. Put this on fridge. 

My cheap $30 outfit didn't even get good or dirt stains today. 

Made chicken and rice, spinach salad, sautéed squash with butter, garlic, and onion. 

Tongue, fire detector in basement, BBQ sauce and soy sauce. 

Honey's favorite. 

Long Walmart trip at night. Amazing deals, tons of food, kid shoes for $5, this for 11. 

Should've checked reviews first. 

It took forever but I did it! 

I'm so sad about my lost post. I get major anxiety over not being able to bottle up my good days. Always worried I'll forget them and the sweet and funny details. Blogger erasing my posts always just makes me want to cry because it's like it's already happening. Right now. 

Sigh. 

But the day was good and I did a good job at life. It okay if this one wasn't recorded. I mean, I only have an infinite number of days left to live. It's okay.