Did your alarm go off?

Photo by louhamilton23

Today was a pretty special morning in our household.  Allow me to back up to last night when I stood in the hallway between the teen's bedroom doors and said 

"You set your alarm to 5:15 am and you set it to 5:30 am.  I suggest you get up because if I have to come up here to wake you up I will come with cold water."

The first few days of school they wake up before the alarm and are ready to go too early.  After a few weeks they press the snooze button 5 or 6 times so they have to rush out the door still soak and wet from the shower and showing off their pillow marks across the face; now they set the alarm to the wrong time, AM vs PM, and when asked to double check they choose not to.  Lately they get up because they hear me coming and it's getting old.  

This morning was pretty special, however.  Mr. Dad woke them up and apparently he must have slept well because under other circumstances he would have been the one with cold water in his hands.  Amazingly the kids got ready and even had time for a quick shower.  J (17) came downstairs, packed his bag and drank orange juice, ate a granola bar and a banana, followed by his vitamins.  Not bad, he's ready and has 5 minutes to spare.  The girl, Em (14) comes down acting like we should be ready for her highness.  She can't find her shoes, she doesn't want to eat, her hair is dripping water everywhere and it's everybody's fault.  

For a moment we just watch this little creation we love so much and as she leaves the room we can't help but laugh at her behavior because otherwise I might hurt her.  She comes back in the room, "HAS ANYONE SEEN MY SHOES?"  I say, "well, who wore them last?"  Mr. Dad and J of course have to laugh, loudly, sending her ven further into a trantrum as we are all to blame for her missing shoes.

Finally on the way out the door I give her a pair a shoes, the old ones that were sitting by the door and she responds with "I can't wear those, they're old and ripped up and dirty! Boo hoo!!"  I added the boo hoo but I know it's what she was thinking.  

I say "if you put your stuff in place, like I ask you to do every day you wouldn't have a problem finding your shoes now."  I just love being right every once in a while...what a great feeling.  No one could argue my point.  We have a shoe rack by the door and coat rack, a place for book bags and books, a palce for dirty clothes and a place for clean clothes.  Follow that map and you'll find your stuff.  Oh we even have a place for keys which Mr. Dad seems to always miss then he spends 10 minutes in the morning blaming the world for his missing keys but that's not my problem. 

I would like to find the perfect Teen alarm clock.  One that will pinch their hand if they try to snooze, one that will spray water when it goes off for longer than 5 minutes or maybe one that turns on all the lights, sprays water and screams "GET UP!"

So glad they'll be in school all day.  I will take it upon myself to reset the alarm clocks, maybe add a few extra minutes just for fun and see how things go tomorrow.

Name that plant

This morning I was out back taking a look at what was growing in my garden besides mounds of weeds.  I will not show those here-too embarrassing (cleaning the garden will be part of workout soon).  Anyway, the toddler was wondering amongst the weeds and other creatures where I found several things growing.  Some I know the name, others I know what they produce, but some of these left me wondering- what the ...what is that?  

So how about the gardeners in the blogosphere help me out here.  I thought I'd turn this into a little game to see how many out there really know their plants.  Feel free to share the name, origin or any other little tid-bit of information you may have.

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Can you name them all? Can you name a few? Let's see how well you do!

This work by Terie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Moment of weakness

It happened again. I had a moment of weakness and feel absolutely guilty about it. Well, maybe just for a fleeting moment anyway. What I really feel is the stomach ache I'm about to experience due to my huge indiscretion with Pecan Pralines. I wrote about my weaknesses with Oreo Cookies and Milk a while back as well as the day I decided to overeat all the wrong foods because I was stressed. You think I learned my lesson? Of course I did and every time we eat stuff we know we shouldn't we know the consequences, but even that doesn't stop the urge. It's like an addiction.

Since I last lived in South Carolina, about 8 years ago, this is the first time I indulge in Pecan Pralines for one simple reason.... I love them too much to have just a few. Last night, while at Trader Joe's, I let my guard down, again. I bought a container of Pecan Pralines which serves 8 at 200 calories per serving, 12g of fat, 23g of sugar and a miniscule amount of protein, 1 gram. My plan was to eat only the recommended portion. So I did, last night I ate only 1/4 cup which is bad enough but I was following the rules of portion control.

My initial plans for today were to get some laundry done, paint an entire room, study-- a lot, workout with my new Core Fitness video and as always, eat healthy foods all day long. Playing with the baby usually falls in place throughout the day, regardless of what I'm doing.

Instead the day turned into a disaster--yeah all by itself too! No seriously,I chose not to do anything constructive with my day, at least not as much as I had planned. I did some homework, sent some emails, dug up a few weeds (3 or 4 to be exact), and then played with the baby for a little while. We both ate healthy breakfast, snacks and lunch. He took a nap and I went to the pantry for one serving of Pecans. Well, let me just say that the whole container is empty now. I ate it all, one portion at a time. In the mean time I painted the trim around the family room (because I felt guilty), watched Army Wives, and studied--a little. Now I feel just as tired as I did before the treat, I am extra thirsty, and could easily throw in the towel and call it a day.

However, I am an optimist, therefore, I will find the positive in this day. For one, I will not be buying Pecan Pralines unless I plan to have a party and everyone will be eating them; I will get myself ready for the day early so I can stick to the plan; and I will get my workout done first thing so I have no reason to skip it later. I'm headed to the gym tonight where I promise to get an excellent workout on the elliptical trainer and in the weight room. Somehow I don't think I can burn off all 1400 calories in that one hour, but I can attempt to burn at least half. I can't change the past, I can only learn from it and make changes that will affect my future. So I will get back on the saddle, as we say in spinning, and ride on the path of good choices!