Boiling Chilli

My husband called me on the phone a few minutes ago to ask if I wanted something from Arby's. I was almost awake when he called, so I said no but get the kids something. So after I woke up, I put on a pot of chilli to have for supper and for left overs.

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, having leftovers will save you a little in terms of budgeting and if your husband likes to grab sandwiches from Arby's on an impulse purchase then you have saved a little bit by making up for the $10.00 he spent at Arby's.

Gotta go check on the chilli it's probably boiling over right now. I hope you have your shopping done for Christmas. :)

Black Friday and left over Turkey

Ok........ we stayed at home and did not go shopping. In fact, we started our shoping early this year just to stay out of the crowds way. When you've got 3 kids and a husband that does not like to shop a lot, you really start to rethink the whole shoping strategy.

Anyway, for those of you who shoped 'til you droped, congratulations on a safe and fun day!
I hope! :)

Now, take those leftovers and make something of them. I found this link to a site that has suggestions for 10 Lowfat ways to use left over turkey.

http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/thanksgivin1/a/leftoverturkey.htm

Another thing you can do is have friends over for a game night or movie night and get rid of those leftovers.

Remember, "Moderation" is the key!

What did you do with your leftovers?

Thanksgiving and Moderation

Ok everyone. We all know that it is Thanksgiving tomorrow and a lot of us have a lot of traveling to do. Some of us are planning on staying home and just having a small dinner with our family.

Whatever your plans are just remember it is very tempting to over eat. As I indicated in one of my earlier posts about trying foods is to get small portions. If you don't remember that post just scroll on down and take a read.

Also, don't forget I've started another blog about Grocery stores. I will be posting a lot more content to that one.

http://grocerystoremoms.blogspot.com/

So, Have a great holiday and give thanks for all of your blessings.

God Bless.

Sick Children and Family

Well it's that time of year when you have kids that are in school and getting sick with the latest virus that is going around.

Plus, my father and brother are in Nebraska hunting and my brother just come down with strep, the virus, and a temperature. In other words they are not hunting.

Of course the best thing to do if you suspect strep throat is see your doctor, get plenty of rest and liquids.

I hope all is well and I'll talk to you soon.

Florida and a great supper

Friday night we went to my papaw's house for their Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthday party dinner. One of my cousins is getting ready to move to Australia and her son was celebrating a birthday. He was six years old. My grandparents are going to Florida for the winter. So, we had a great big supper Friday night.

The healthy things on the table were flounder bake, fish chowder, home grown green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, lobster, ham, rolls, vegetable salad, and homemade ice cream for desert.

The kids got to open gifts and we watched trading spouses because they filmed this weekend's episode in Olympia Kentucky. We didn't get to watch all of it, but it was interesting to say the least.

Back to the healthy issue when it comes to having a large amount of food in front of you or different foods to choose from. Here it is.............take a tablespoon of the foods you are interested in trying and find out which ones you like. After you have chosen the two or three that you like the most go back and get a serving of those. This will work for deserts as well.

I would like to hear if anyone out there has family that does the same thing that my grandparents do. Having Thanksgiving and Christmas in October before they to go to Florida.

Some things you have no control

Once again, life has been very hectic and it has been a long time since I last wrote.

First of all I hope that you have found the links and the suggested books as good resources for your children and for yourself.

As always, let me know if you have any resources that you know of that you've found helpful for you and your children.

Today I don't want to talk about nutrition and eating healthy, but about the struggle of working full time, part time, or just staying at home with your children until they are in school or even while they are in school. I have done all of the above so far and let me tell you it's a balancing act. On top of that the things you have no control over like unexpected health issues with yourself or family members, an incident that just happened here in Kentucky at the Bluegrass Airport. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers. http://www.kentucky.com Or even divorce. It not only has it's affect on the husband and wife, but the whole family and relatives. I guess it's part of those things we sometimes don't have any control over personally.

Stay close to your family........... We take to many things for granted and we definitely should treat each other as we want to be treated. It is true that the days go faster as you get older............... I think that has a lot to do with we don't slow down enough to enjoy them.

I hope you slow down when you can and enjoy the blessings you have!

A great book for your kids

Hi everyone,

It's been a little while since I posted anything. Everything has been really hectic in my life and I just have not had a lot of time to write, but I will do my best to do so from here on out.
It's hard to explain right now, but there are somethings you don't have control over and for those of you who know from experience, you know what I am talking about.

Well, I've got a number of things I want to share with you!

1. This is a great book that I use when I read to my kids and other children about eating healthy and education you children about good foods. The title of the book is "Good Enough To Eat" by Lizzy rockwell. Below is the link to it on amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060274344/ref=sr_11_1/104-3566686-8876758?ie=UTF8

2. Now for those expecting mothers or those that have just had children, here is a book that I have in my library that is very good. It is fairly thick, around 400 pages, but has a lot of helpful information not only related to just healthy eating but things such as how to cope with bed rest. Here is one thing that really helped me from the book below.

-Make shopping lists andmenus so your family or friends can shop for you.
-Keep snacks next to you: (lot's of good suggestions from this, by the way these are on page 141 of the book)
-Things that can be prepared in six to seven minutes from scratch or with leftovers. (This is a good one wether your pregnant or not)

Ok.......the title of the book is "Eating Expectantly" by Bridget Swinney, M.S., R.D. with Tracey Anderson R.N., B.S., F.A.C.C.E.

Great Book..........oops. sorry, below is the link for that book at Meadowbrook Press.

http://www.meadowbrookpress.com/productinfo.aspx?productid=110&categoryid=0&startpage=3

I promise to keep bringing you more great resources.

If you have any good books related to nutrition for moms or even kids that you have used please share, because I am always looking for other great resources.

I look forward to hearing from you.

I've got to comment on the middle east crisis

There are so many stories and news channels, tv and web, covering what's going on over in the middle east. A lot of people are upset that the united states as well as others, individuals, are helping those in israel with humanitarian efforts. Well, it's like this. If it were you and you were stuck in the middle of a war and no way to get out, or better yet, a hurricane or sunami happens; would you want help?

Even if it's just 20 dollars and your prayers. That's what we did. If you can give just a little that's great. It will help those that are injured get the food and medicine they need to get healthier.

Here's the link to the Red Cross online for the crisis in Israel and the middle east.
http://www.redcross.org/news/in/profiles/middle-east-crisis.html

Say a prayer before you go to bed tonight and hold your children and family just a little tighter. After all, it's not the toys that make the world go around. :)

Eating healthy foods in school

School is about to start. You may be gearing up for open house soon so your son or daughter can meet the new teacher and see the classroom. Then some of us may be in the boat that our child is switching schools, like mine. So, either way you want what's best for them. Everything from learning those important subjects such as reading, math, science, and writing.

What about those social skills that our children need as well? What about healthy foods? Well, if you have not already done so, I would ask for nutrition information from your school. Some schools will provide a weekly or even monthly serving plan. If not, you should know.

Stay up to date on the latest information for eating healthy in schools and school nutrition.

Here is one source that is a national site to gather information from.
http://www.schoolnutrition.org/

I wish you and your children good luck on getting geared up to go back to school. As you're out shopping looking for the shoes, pencils, paper, etc., keep in mind and inquire about the school nutrition during your schools open house.

Grocery Store Moms

Hey Everyone,

I've started my other blog about shopping at the grocery store. Of course there are other issues that can be addressed around that same area, but that is the blog I wanted to dedicate toward ways to shop, shopping experiences, and of course healthy issues about shopping.

Here it is......... I'll soon have it live on grocerystoremoms.com, but for now it will be at
http://grocerystoremoms.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone had a great weekend as well and spent time with your kids. That's the most important thing that I have learned out of this whole deal of being sick for the past 3 weeks. I'm not completely over this yet, but it has made me realize that family is really important. Taking time to watch your children grow. You know turn off the tv and stop watching the news, walk away from the computer. Spend uninterupted time with your children and husband as well.
Don't worry about missing something on the news, because it's usually something negative anyway.

Here's a challenge........go to http://www.cnn.com and see if you can find one thing positive on there or something that doesn't have to do with war, death, illness, sex scandal, etc.

Let me know what you find if you find anything positive.

Going shopping

Hi Everyone,


I'm going to be putting up a new blog that is related to nutrition for moms, it will be centered around what to look for when you are shopping at the grocery store. A few things that will be discussed are the traps of impulse shopping as well as what do those labels really mean on the products you buy.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and I have to tell you that I am feeling a lot better than what I was a week ago this time.

I will talk to you soon

Cleaning up!

I know this is a little off of the subject of nutrition, but it is part of a healthy lifestyle. Here goes.....

Keeping the house clean! It's a sanitary thing..... You know toys scattered everywhere, crumbs on the floor from snacks and regular meals because the 1 year old is learning how to control the spoon or fork.

I have 3 children and I am exhausted by the time I clean up after all of them. It sometimes feels like that's all there is to do and by the time you accomplish that, there's no time for yourself or time spent with your husband.

Since I've been sick and starting to feel better and eat more, I have also been thinking of ways to manage all of this. I wanted to get other advice and opinions and see how you all are dealing with issues like this or similar.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Are your kids snacking?

Ok.......some people say my children will not eat their regular meals.....you know breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So what are they doing that is throwing that off? Most of the time snacking

Snacks are tricky. So what do you do? It's all about moderation and choices. So when do you snack? Where do I snack? Snacking in front of the TV is usually not a good thing. Why?

You usually over snack when you're not paying attention to how much. To eliminate this you could not snack in front of the TV. Or.......plan ahead and set out a serving size that is right for you.

What I do for my children is set out small healthy snacks in between meals. It allows them to get their snacks, but not so much they don't want to eat their regular meals.

Is everything bad for you?

People are always saying everything is bad for you. To much salt......watch your sugar...... don't eat those fried foods!! What about what your children are watching on television? Is that like eating too many sweets?

Everything from sex, bad language, to women barely wearing anything is exposed everywhere today. So what does this have to do with nutrition? Everything! When you walk into the grocery store or wal-mart and see the pictures on the magazines or the products themselves promoting those very words i mentioned above affects your buying habits and how you eat.

The key is motivation. No one is going to make you eat healthy. You have to want to....... if not do it for yourself then do it for your children. That's my motivation.

I would love to hear some of your stories of why you chose to eat healthier.

What to eat?

It's been a few days since my last post, but I've been trying to eat more and get more rest from my hyper thyroid issue.

I'm going to send my husband out to get some of the nutrition shakes such as slimfast or ensure to see if I can start picking my weight back up. For those of you out there that are having problems with your thyroid, I completely empathize with you.

I found this website that has some information about weight gain with thyroid problems.
http://www.thedietchannel.com/Thyroid-Dysfunction-Is-Your-Thyroid-Working-Properly.htm

However, if you're like me and have the opposite condition and wanting more information from the web.......good luck. So far, I have not found anything

If you do, please let me know.

Healthy Schools

Hi everyone.............this is going to be a short post today, because i don't really feel to well because of trying to get over my thyroid problem.

Have you ever wondered if your son or daughter are getting the proper foods in school? Have you ever visited the school cafeteria or do they send home a weekly lunch plan? It's really important that you keep an eye on that. Why? Because in a lot of schools now they are putting a big emphasis on academics and not enough exercise for our children. They are trying to work in what they call exercise within the classroom and lessons.

Our kids need healthy foods, proper uninterrupted exercise, and also their social time with other kids.

Here is a web site that has some interesting information from a national perspective.
http://www.commercialalert.org/news/featured-in/2005/08/junk-food-nation-whos-to-blame-for-childhood-obesity

What do you think? Let me know.

BTW "Thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers!"

A website for information on thyroiditis

I meant to put a website out there for you to get more information on thyroiditis.

http://www.endocrineweb.com/thyroiditis.html

Talk to you soon.

Thyroiditis

Hello everyone................. i apologize for not posting for so long. I'm dealing with an extreme case of thyroiditis. I hope none of you have to go through this, because as of now the form of treatment is to let it resolve itself . Hopefully within 2 months. It has caused my thyroid to become hyper. I've lost weight and I did not need to do that at this point.

I weighed in about 1 1/2 weeks ago at 127pds; now, i'm at 111.

The problem is I can't eat very well and my thyroid being over active is causing me to loose the weight. This is not a healthy way to loose weight.

If any of you are feeling tired all of the time, sore throat, or notice any swelling of your throat, I would strongly suggest that you see your family physician as soon as possible to have it checked out.

Talk to you all soon.

Reality TV

Well......I indicated that some of my interests are reality tv, and I've been watching the American Idol show. My kids really get into that as well. I try to get them involved with a little exercise while the upbeat songs are playing. As always thinking about keeping the children active and watching what they eat. :)

Anyway, as far as my favorite singer, I think it would have to be Taylor Hicks, he is definitely unique. Good luck to all of them, and I'll talk to you next time.