Highs and Lows in the grocery store

I took both kids to the grocery store tonight, after karate, before dinner. I mentally prepared myself for the experience. We were ok until the kids discovered that bagels have added sugar. Although I had warned them ahead of time, they refused to believe me until they saw the ingredients list for themselves. Lex was angry! He hit the cart, then, upon realizing that punching things hurts, he started kicking things as we walked past them. Not in any damaging way, more like a public protest. I ignored him for awhile, but once he started slamming doors to the cooler cases I told him to cut it out. I’m sure slamming those doors isn’t satisfactory anyway because they just gently close. :) Eve kept it together and actively started reading labels, looking for something, ANYTHING, she could eat! LOL. They are both so dramatic. Lex hid in the beer cases for awhile, but eventually got it together. By the time we made it to the snack food aisle they were both doing a little better. Lex discovered that dry roasted peanuts have added sugar, which set him off again, until Eve pointed out that Cheez-Its do not! Who knew?!? We talked about all the other stuff in Cheez-Its, but since our focus this month is sugar I let them buy the crackers. They needed a consolation prize by this point. LOL! In the checkout lane we discovered that Tostitos also have no sugar. In fact, Tostitos have just three ingredients: corn, vegetable oil, and salt. Not a health food, of course, but acceptable for this experiment! By the time we made it out to the car Lex was feeling good, but Eve was falling apart. Tons of tears and desperation, insisting that sugar is what keeps her going and there’s no way she can be happy without it. Basically proving my point over and over again!

Actually, even though we don’t “officially” start until February (the kids remind me of this fact regularly), we have drastically cut back this week and today was our second “no sugar” shopping trip. At family meeting on Saturday Alan and I both commented on how calm and happy Eve has been all week. She was really with it and positive and went to bed in a good mood each night. This weekend, however, brought with it birthday cookies for Alan, and a birthday party with cookies for Eve’s friend. Sugar everywhere! She crashed hard Sunday afternoon.

In other news… Believe it or not there are other things going on besides our dietary saga. Eve auditioned for the school drama club this afternoon. They are going to perform Honk, Jr. a musical version of The Ugly Duckling. She is super excited, as are 40+ other kids so we’ll see how it goes! I think everyone gets to be in the musical but only 17 get speaking parts. She is excited and eager and nervous and feeling anxious about waiting until Friday for the announcement!

Lex will also be starting drama club at the middle school this year. They are doing na production of Shrek Jr. and he will, of course, be stage crew. He is looking forward to working with a real stage and auditorium (they use the high school facilities) and he’s hoping that maybe he can do some sound and lighting as well. I think that’s typically for the older kids, but we’ll see.

Hmmm… probably more, but I’m tired so I’m going to bed now. Thank you all for the support, advice, and encouragement! I think this will be a good thing. No, I KNOW this will be a good thing and it’s actually been easier than I was expecting so far. I hope we can install some habits that last longer than the month of February. :)

A quick sugar update

Thanks for all the support from my loyal blog readers! All three of you! :)

A few things I’ve noticed:

1. I don’t crave sugar so much as the dessert habit. After each meal I find myself feeling the need for a dessert of some sort. I’ve started having a small handful of almonds, which satisfies the need, but I’d like to actually break the habit altogether. Obviously I’m not actually hungry immediately after a meal.

2. Although we don’t “officially” start until Feburary, we are all noticeably cutting back already.

3. Eve and I read a lot of labels at the grocery store this week! We found very few crackers with no added sugar and only one type of cereal. Grape Nuts. Grandpa knew what he was doing! :)

4. After looking at a pack of peanut butter sandwich crackers (unhealthy for many reasons), Eve said, “Oh, why does everything that tastes good have to have sugar in it?!?” She’s starting to understand.

5. Alan said that he had some yogurt yesterday, the kind he normally eats but hasn’t since this sugar conversation, and he said it tasted way too sweet.

6. When we talk about sugar, are we looking for added sugars in the ingredients list or any sugar on the nutrition panel? I’m not sure what we are supposed to be doing, but for now we are just looking at added sugars. Almost everything has some sugar in it.

That is all. Off to work. Have a healthy day. <3

Boots

Funny story…

Silly me…

I was looking for my boots this morning to take Arlo to the dog park. I couldn’t find them anywhere, but I noticed Lex’s boots still in the mudroom. Usually he wears his boots to school, so I assumed he had mistakenly put mine on this morning on his way out the door. I laughed at him and slid my feet into his boots. Guess what?! They are too big! My toes wiggled all around and had room to spare. Crazy!

… and Lex’s boots.

Then I got in the car and saw my boots on the seat, all packed up for skiing yesterday. D’oh! Lex must have worn his sneakers today. Silly me.

Fed Up

I have been getting more and more frustrated with the way we eat around here.  Over the past few weeks, months, years even, we have gone from a very healthy family to one where you can usually find chips and cookies in the snack cabinets.  Ice cream, once a special treat reserved for birthdays and special outings, is now a near weekly purchase and eaten once or twice a day by some people around here.  The healthyish “cracker snacks” I used to make with Cheerios (or small crackers), dried fruit, and nuts has morphed into a big bowl of crackers with a few nuts thrown on top if mom is watching.

Not coincidentally, my weight has crept up as well.  The kids are still on their “growth curves” and the doctors aren’t concerned, but I am concerned with their very limited, and even shrinking, diets and their up and down mood swings.  I often feel logy myself and find myself turning to crackers, sweets, Facebook, and/or wine to pass the time.  I was successful with WW many years ago, but in the past five years I’ve gained it all back and much more.  I’ve rejoined WW a few times, but can’t do it.  I’ve tried to track on my own and I’m unable to stick with it.  My friend is doing Whole30 and encouraged me to try, but just looking at all the food you have to eliminate exhausted me!  However, something has to change.  I weigh more now then I did at full-term with Eve!  I was looking through old blog posts the other day and came across a picture of me on my due date with Lex, and my first thought was, “wow, I was skinny!”  Not my belly, of course, but my arms, legs, and face looked so much thinner than today.  Ugh!

Sugar is something that is getting more and more attention these days.  I often find myself reminding the kids about the sugar high/crash cycle, and it occurred to me that maybe removing sugar from our diets would benefit all of us!  It’s a scary proposition, so I did what I usually do and thought about it for a month or two.  Then I cautiously broached the subject with Alan and, of course, he loved it!  Yesterday we told the kids.  They were less enthused!  :)

The plan is to use up what we have in the house, but stop buying obviously sugary things (cookies, ice cream, sugar cereals, granola bars, etc.).  From there we will move to looking more closely at the non-sweet things and looking for alternatives with no sugar.  Not “sugar-free” products, because they are just full of fake sugar, but the goal is to look for items with fewer ingredients, less processed, and more real food.  The idea is terrifying, but the idea of not making the change is even more terrifying!

The kids both cried.  Lex said it’s a good thing Feburary is the shortest month of the year (yes, that was part of my plan), and Eve, through tears, asked if she could still have a cake on her birthday.  She also worried about what to do with all the Valentine’s Day candy she will receive.  Big problems to overcome!

After family meeting, we gathered in the living room and I put on Fed Up on Netflix.  The kids insisted they did not want to watch, and I didn’t push the issue, so they sat with their laptops in the living room “not” watching the movie.  I paused it at various times and they had lots of comments about it and by the end they were both actively engaged!  Eve is all on board, because Eve is always either all in or all out of every activity!  Lex reluctantly agreed that it might be a good idea.  While we were making dinner Eve gave me a big hug and said, “Thank you for doing this now, mommy, before I get obese.  I don’t want to be obese.”  (The movie focuses a lot on obesity.)  She had a smoothie and oatmeal for breakfast and I noticed Lex chose Cheerios over his usual Mini-wheats when he had cereal today.  Maybe a coincidence, maybe not, I didn’t ask.

I was just looking through the Fed Up website and it says that you should quit cold turkey, because if you wean off it slowly the sugar will continue calling to sugar and make it harder for you to quit.  They say if you quit all at once you’ll start feeling better in 1-2 days and cravings will be completely gone within three weeks.  Maybe we should wean off a little faster than originally planned… but after Alan’s birthday this week!  Birthday Cookies are already under way!  :)

Now… what do with all those Girl Scout arriving mid-February…

Middle school concert

Lex had his first middle school concert tonight. It was just 6th graders, which was great! Not too long, not too crowded, just right. Lex ROCKED!

The dress code was nice clothes, black on bottom, white on top. Lex managed the correct colors, but it’s debatable whether black sweats and Alan’s white t-shirt count as “nice” clothes. But hey, he’s up there and he’s rockin’, so all is well!

The band was snapping their fingers making the rain sound and Lex did the rumble of thunder.

I love, love, love watching him play in the band. His confidence is outstanding and he smiles and jokes with the other percussionists between sets. It does my mommy heart proud!

Dad, I’m going to find out when his next concert is and you totally should come.  You’d love it!!

Unrelated, but funny, earlier today Arlo was begging for cheese.  See his nose?  :)

Cheese please!

More skiing

Looking good!

Here’s how Eve’s five week learn-to-ski program has gone so far.
Week 1: She walked around on skiis as everyone else fell over, but the first time she fell over she fell apart. Tears, pain, the world coming to an end. Eventually she angrily made her way to the lodge where she was cranky and mean to the parents and teachers there who tried to help her. (embarrassed)

Week 1.5: Alan and I took her and Lex on a Sunday and we all skied together. She loved it!

Week 2: She made it up and down the bunny slope a few times, but then fell at the the top and gave up. Several coaches and even the school principal tried to teacher her how to stand up, and I tried to teach her how to just take her skis off, but she insisted she could not and eventually (with help) got them off and just hung out at the bottom of the slopes for the remainder of the time. (tired and embarrassed)

Week 3: Today! She was up and down that bunny slope a bunch of times and loving it! She had different skis this time and insisted they worked better and came off easier. She worked on her snowplow and was having fun. Half way through I escorted a group of kids from the bunny slope to the next level up, called the “tow lift,” because, you know, you actually get to use a lift! :) The coach sent four kids with me, including Eve. I didn’t feel confident that Eve was ready for the bigger hill yet and I should have trusted my instinct, but I know she wanted to go be with her friends and with me and the coach thought she was ready, so off we went. Eve figured out the tow lift pretty quickly and made it up. A friend gave her some advice on going down, and she made it down, but definitely out of control.

She went back again, got more advice from a coach, and made it down again, equally out of control. She went back up again, but decided no was was she going down again! :/ I tried to help, coaches tried, friends tried, but no, she would not ski down again. She sat at the top with a very friendly coach for the remainder of the time and then took her skis off and walked down the hill at the end, in angry tears. It doesn’t help that she is getting bruises from these falls so all week she has bruises to remind her how awful skiing is. :/ (scared)

Next week is the 4th week and I’m going to insist she stay on the bunny slope until she gets that snowplow down with confidence. She won’t be happy, but hey, she hasn’t been happy for an entire lesson yet. There’s a chance I also bribed her with Dunkin Donuts (located right next to the ski place) if she made it through an entire lesson. We’ll see how that goes next week. Stay tuned!

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Skiing – take 2

On my mother’s brilliant advice, I offered Eve the chance to go skiing today and get caught up on the lesson she missed on Thursday. She thought for a moment then decided it was a great idea. She also told me she was really embarrassed that she fell and didn’t noticed that everyone else was falling too! We decided to invite the boys and after a little convincing for the younger one, we all headed off to the slopes on this sunny 18° day.

Smiles all around! (Alan was still getting his gear on)

Eve was eager to “teach” Lex all about skiing. That made me laugh.

Lex lasted for a little while, but didn’t love it. He wasn’t thrilled with the out of control feeling, and one time Alan caught him at the bottom of the hill, but they both fell down together since Alan was also on skis. Lex said he hurt his head in that tumble. He did a few trips down, but then decided he was done with skiing and went to sit on the bench and watch the lift go around. Eve, on the other hand, LOVED it! She was up and down and up and down and at the moment is better than anyone else in her lesson group! Assuming none of them went skiing this weekend!:)

Alan in the black and Eve right behind him.

I hope we can get Lex back on skis again someday, but for now I’m just thrilled that I won’t have to fight with Eve about ski lessons for the next four weeks! Hallelujah and thank you mom!

Girl Scouts in politics

We had the best field trip today!! Eve’s Girl Scout troop (finally) got started again with their first meeting last Wednesday to hand out cookie sale sheets. (buy cookies, you want cookies, cookies, cookies, cookies) They also talked about the badges and which ones they might like to pursue. One of the badges is called “Inside Government” and it involves interviewing an elected official and attending a town meeting. We joked about how that would be an easy one! When we got home we told Alan about it and he loved the idea and readily volunteered to help out. He told the Select Board about it at their meeting the next night and one of the women on the board told him about a “women in politics” (EmergeVermont) meeting happening on Saturday. One rapid thing led to another and by Saturday morning the troop was gathered at the leader’s house and preparing to attend this event. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we knew the agenda said “Lunch with a local Girl Scout troop.” We were expecting to walk around and ask a few questions (“take a poll” is what the badge requirement says) of various women, then leave. Instead we got so much more!!

She jumped right into Alan’s chair! This girl is going places. :)

When we got there we were welcomed warmly and eagerly. The girls were invited to sit in the Select Board chairs and they held a mock meeting with conference attendees coming up to the podium and asking the girls questions. When there was an extend pause in the questioning I said that really the girls are supposed to be asking the women in politics questions, so they all swapped rolls and the girls asked the questions. We had several Select Board members there (from our town and surrounding towns) and even a woman from our town who is a Vermont State Representative and an amazing person!

Eve is the only one not making a funny face here. LOL!  Becca White, in black, ran the “meeting” and everyone loved it.

Our future town government! Holding a “mock” Select Board meeting. Discussing important issues such as banning cigarettes and rescuing puppies.

Ruth from EmergeVermont even had a presentation prepared to show the girls, all about how to get involved even if you aren’t old enough to run for public office. They gave the girls stickers and coloring sheets too.

How to be and involved citizen, even as a child.

After pointing out the humor in it, Ruth presented the Girl Scouts with some cookies her daughter had made. She said, “When I told my 12 year old daughter that Girl Scouts were coming to the meeting, she said, Oh, Can I make them Cookies??” So she did. Very sweet.

Time for a few fun pictures at the end. Ruth asked if we would be ok if they used them in promotional materials and online forums. That would be fun to see!

Your Candidacy Begins Today. #runlikeagirl

Our Girl Scouts with Becca White, VP of the Select Board, and Gabrielle Lucke, Vermont State Representative. They are hanging with a good crowd!

I am so pleased with how well the day went, how eager the women were to have our girls there, and how happy the girls were to be there! Gabrielle Lucke invited them to tour the State House too, if they wanted to Girl Scout field trip. She offered to personally give them a tour if she was available. I love our state!!

Learn to ski… or not.

Look at that face. She doesn’t entirely look happy, even before the fall.

Our school offers a five-week learn-to-ski program in partnership with a local ski hill. When the paperwork came home a few months ago Eve said “thanks, but no thanks” and threw it in the recycling bin. However, the final day that forms were due she decided to join (several friends are also doing it), filled out the paperwork herself, and delivered it all to the office on her own. The school says it’s available at a discounted rate, but oh boy, it is still expensive! Especially since we had to rent everything.

Last week my boss emails me and says, “Since Eve is skiing… would you have any interest in volunteering on the slopes with them?” I double checked Volunteerspot, where the PTO posts volunteer listings, and saw that no parents had signed up! I asked Eve if she was ok with me being there (I like to check first with her), she said “yes, definitely!”, so I agreed.

Yesterday was the first day. Mass chaos (on our end AND the ski “resorts” end)! Eventually everyone ended up where they were supposed to be, fully equipped, and ready to ski. Two parents and several teachers ended up going, so we had enough adults to get the job done. Finally we were in our groups and off, learning to ski! I was with the beginner group because 1) that’s where they needed help and 2) that’s about my level these days! :) I spent most of the time picking kids up off the ground! Lots of them fell, some of them cried, but they all got back up and tried again… except mine. She was doing ok until she fell, then she fell apart. Tears streaming down her face. I got her back on her feet but she cried so hard, telling me her ankle hurt and her leg hurt. I mostly thought it was drama, but it is possible to hurt yourself in ski boots so I finally relented and let her go inside, hoping she would regroup and come back. I told her to check in with the parents in there, have them take a look at her ankle and leg, then come back. She never did. Later in the lesson I texted a parent inside asking if she could send Eve back out, but nope. Another teacher went in and later told me she had tried to encourage Eve to come back out but was shocked when Eve barked at her (not literally!) She told me she’d never seen Eve so angry before.

By the end of the lesson all of the kids were making it up and down the tiny hill and some of them could even stop themselves at the bottom. When I got everyone situated and made my way back to Eve I found her friends with her, consoling and encouraging her. It was sweet. One friend told me privately, “I feel bad for Eve, but I kind of want to tell her to just do it! Get back out there and try again!” I said “YES, please tell her that!”

At home that night Eve and I had a chat about quitting and why it isn’t an option. We talked (again!) about the importance of trying again, and how everything is hard in the beginning, and how everyone has things that come easily to them and things they have to work at, and how I paid a ton of money for this program and she’s not allowed to quit after ten minutes, and about how I’m volunteering and she’s not allowed to quit at all. Notice how I start off empathetic and compassionate, but by the end it’s down to the cold, hard facts?! :) We’ve been down this road before.

Eve was angry and sad and frustrated. I hope she is willing to put those skis back on next week though and give it a try again. It will be even harder next time because the rest of the group has a whole lesson under their belts and she is still starting from scratch. Sigh. This is why I hate volunteering for things! :)

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