Portion Control

When you start trying to lose weight one of those things people always tell you to look at is your portion control.  It is fine and good to want to deal with portion control, but doing it is something totally different. Generally speaking I have made pretty sorry attempts at portion control, but times they are a changing in our house.

Trying to figure out if you had good portion control, especially with homemade meals can be difficult, and was a total mess for us.  I could never figure out if had the correct portions when we had spaghetti and measuring things with cups, when people are talking ounces is madness.  The other issue we faced a lot was when a casserole said it was x serving somehow we struggled to get even sized servings.  We did try the whole your palm is this big roughly and for this food, your fist is this; but it is really subjective and we just got frustrated.

We have done two things to help with portion control and both are giving us a lot better idea of how much we are eating and what a serving of some food really is.  The first thing we did was buy a good scale, it is a pretty basic one and was about thirty dollars. What I like about the food scale is that I can put on a plate and then turn the scale on and it will start at 0, this means I don't have to weigh the plate or Tupperware and then the food.  I like having a solid number of x ounces and usually I am surprised at how much or little a particular food weighs.  The other thing we have done is use muffin tins for cooking casseroles.  This picture above has a family favorite, Hot Diggity Gog, it's from the 'No Whine with your Dinner' cookbook, I do sneak in extra vegetables and don't use corn.  Hot Diggity serves 10, so I filled 20 cupcake tins and two a piece is a serving. By using the tins there is more consistency in size than just scooping it out and the muffin tin shape makes it easy to store for later.  The other advantage to the tins, things tend to cook quicker.  These are our beginning steps into portion control and so far no one is starving and the kids are getting pretty independent with grabbing a Hot Diggety muffin for a snack.

Valentine crafting: Mailboxes

For some kooky reason Valentine comes along and I want to decorate with all sorts of things.  I especially enjoy making mailboxes for the kids to put their valentines into.  This year Chicken's teacher asked that the students bring in their mailboxes completed. WHEEEE....I actually get to help make a mailbox!!!!!!!!!!!!

After much discussion, amounting too Chicken stating he didn't want anything to girly we got started. Instead of a shoe box we I grabbed the box that has our protein shakes from Costco.  I cut the box in half, I used a sharp knife.  The edges ended up rough, but we fixed it with our next steps. We Duct taped the bottom of the box and the edges, this smoothed out the top and closed the hole in the bottom. Next came Chicken's hunt through the craft supplies. I like to keep a lot of loose things around and encouraged the kids to think outside the box.  Chicken found the left over fabric scraps from his super hero bulletin board and insisted it was plenty Valentine themed to work.  Between the two of us we wrapped the box inside and out with the fabric.  I used hot glue and glued the fabric to the bottom of the box, then hot glue gunned the inside edge wall, wrapped the fabric around the outside and glued it on the bottom. I did the same with another piece of fabric going the opposite direction, this means there was double fabric on the bottom, but with a duct tape hole on the bottom I thought the extra fabric would help.  As I wrapped the second piece of fabric around the box, both in and out I hot glued both pieces of fabric together at their loose ends.  We now had a box wrapped in fabric, but it was still totally open on top, not very mailbox like.  Chicken came up with taking the last bit of fabric cutting a hole in it and putting it over the open top of the box. The top fabric piece is being kept in place with a rubber band. The great thing about this idea is at the end of the day, Chicken takes the rubber band off and he has easy access to all his valentines.  The last thing that Chicken needed to do was put his name on the box and make it a little more Valentine like.  He opted for cutting out construction paper hearts with sayings and his name on them and putting one of his Valentines on the front of the box.  I was pretty proud, Chicken loves it and he did most of it himself (didn't let him near the glue gun) and thought up a lot of great ideas to make it all his.

This time of year is really busy and none of us really remember to let each other know how much we appreciate each other, so I invented another reason to make a mailbox.  I told both kids that they needed to make a some type of mailbox to hang outside their bedroom doors in case cupid came by to drop off treats and letters and such.  We again used a box from Costco, this was an over sized Cheerios box.  I cut off the tabs at both ends, I didn't need to cut the ends and it would have been useful to have them later on, but it worked out fine this way too. After cutting the ends, I cut between the front cover and side of the box, and the back and opposite side.  This made a folder, the top part is longer than the bottom, see the pictures below.  After making the cuts, I turned them over to the kids and told them they needed a way to hang it at the top and close it at the sides.  We pulled out all the craft supplies and both kids went to town.  Bean defiantly went more Valentine like, she opted to tie two pieces of yard through some hole punches to close the side and used ribbon and tape on the top.  I am not sure if it was because Bean had a specific idea or what, but she was very organized with how she put her box together and she hardly asked me for any help. Chicken of course used me all he could for manual labor and I hole punched so much I think I have a hand cramp from it.  Chicken opted to weave the sides of his envelope shut and then just used a long string to bring it up through the punched holes at the top and tied it off.  Chicken of course choose something much less Valentine like, he went for black paper, with international flag and agile tape.  

It was great to see both kids get creative and make something they were proud of, I wonder if cupid will bring them something fun?

Academic Concerns are back...What now

In the last few weeks Bean's homework has not been coming home with the grades and clean handwriting we have come to expect from her in second grade.  Flipped letters have started showing up in assignment and tests.  Her handwriting has been messy again, her line spacing is haggard. When we finished tutoring last summer we cut a deal with Bean, as long as she keeps up in class she doesn't have to go back to tutoring.  The thing I am struggling with is if this is officially falling behind and we need to call the tutoring place.

When we finally figured out that Bean was struggling and would probably always struggle there was a lot we were able to do right away to help her.  Somehow those immediate actions made me feel like maybe with extremely dedicated attention we could help her this once and she would be fine, she would be able to keep up with her classmates. In the last year I have watched as her math skills have soared and she seems to get concepts that are a struggle for other kids. Her focus in class has increase, she can sit and do an assignment without prompting and finish it, in the expected time.  Her spelling has consistently been above what we expected and her handwriting has been neat with limited flipped words.  I took a breath of fresh air thinking things were going to work out, she was going to be fine.

The school year has progressed and new friends, new teachers and life has all gone on; and we haven't thought a lot about whether we need to continue tutoring this summer. As new concepts have been introduced in class, and more has been expected she is starting to slip. The reality of this slip has been sinking in and what next steps need to be done and what long term things we need to plan for need to be addressed. The first thing we are planning on is a tutoring educational assessment, where she is at where should she be at will be important to the next activities we decide.

If tutoring is needed again and when it needs to be done will be a huge decision point for us. We are hoping that we won't have to do tutoring until summer, that way we can save up some money and we don't have to run back and forth in evening traffic to tutoring. The other advantage of waiting till summer is that it won't mean school all day and tutoring at night, this just tires Bean out and makes us all cranky.  The downside of summer tutoring is figuring out how to schedule getting her to and from without am impact on our jobs, last year tutoring was an hour and a half three days a week from 9 to 10:30, yet meeting time at work.  There is always the option of changing where we do tutoring, but where she currently goes knows how to teach to her strengths and she can get the tutor she had for eight months so someone who knows her.

There is also getting her to accept that she needs to go back. Bean has a lot of adaptions so people don't notice her learning issues, including attitudinal adjustments to hide her confusion or non-understanding of issues.  Bean is a kid who doesn't like to admit that she isn't right there with her peers academically, but somehow I want her to realize she needs help and not ask for help, but accept it.  In a few short years Bean needs to be able to tell someone that she needs more time, or that she doesn't understand, and how can she learn that skill when she is still trying to hide when she can't figure it out.  Addressing this particular issue is what concerns me the most, and counseling didn't help. The thing is I have no idea what to so or how to help her with this.  I keep thinking I will find an article a book, something that leads me in a direction where we find success, but this has yet to happen.

The longer term impacts of this slip are also starting to get discussed by the Hubs and I. Her learning challenges are not going to go away, they are here and we need to plan on how we are going to address these year to year. We need to start financial planning on summer tutoring at the least and possibly year round down the road. We need to plan for the chauffeuring duties needed to get her too and from, for 504 discussions and teacher education year in and year out.  Financially there may be more technology supposes to support her needs and mentally there will be more years than planned on working closely with her on homework and organization.  Most of these things are to be decided later, but they are now in our consciousnesses.

We knew there was a slim chance that one year and a little medication would fix it all, but hey you could hope right....

Sports Fan..Nature vs Nurture

Hockey is currently on the TV in the living room. I likehockey, I like to watch lots of sports, I just don't want every waking minuteto have a sports game of some type playing in the background, Chicken doesn'tshare that view.

At some point in the last year Chicken has become a sportsfan and a lover of sports at a level way above anyone else in this house.  I have no idea where this crazed love hascome from, but I really wish he would grow out of it. This weekend alone wehave watched college basketball, NHL hockey, NFL football, and NCAA football;and he considered tennis for a few minutes. It isn't like he watches for hourson end, we would all go batty with that, but when given a choice of what hewould like to watch, if there is sports on he'll watch it. He doesn't care ifhe knows the rules, he doesn't care if he knows the team, it is sports and thatis good for him.  For sports he knows andis familiar with we get the joy of a verbal play by play, a constant neverending stream of verbal junk coming out of his mouth the entire time he it ison, until one of us snaps and loudly asks him to HUSH. 

My question is how the heck did two people who liked to playsports, but really only watch college football and a little hockey andbasketball end up with a kid that seems to obsess on sports of any type?

Yes Chicken is a boy on an epic scale, but I assumed eventhe most stereotypical boy behavior of sports watching had it's limits.Apparently I was wrong with that assumption. What I am curious about is theresome crazy sports watching gene that Chicken was born with or did he just pickup some crazy sports watching gene from someone who doesn't live in thishouse?  Additionally, how do we managehis sports watching behavior so that we don't buy him a TV, put him in a soundproof closet and just hope for the best?

Teaching good fan behavior is not something that I thoughtwould be part of my parenting required skill set, I was wrong.  What are we doing to help Chicken and Bean begood sports fans? When we watch sports we remind the kids to cheer their teamand disparage the other team. We encourage them to learn the rules of the gamethey are watching so they can know what the penalties mean and not justcomplain about the Ref. Chicken has brought home a sports related library booknon-stop since November. We are also working with him on not giving a play byplay when a game is on, not just for our sanity, but because we don't want tohear the game through his voice. We keep working on all this and eventually things will get better, but we may still put him in a sound proof room with a TV.

Happy Sports Viewing......we'll we over here with ear plugs.

The mean girls and boys

There are always mean kids and they say and do things that no parent can imagine ever being ok with, but what happens when you're kid is the mean kid?

A little over a year ago we were the parents of the mean kid and it was horrifying.  As someone who is trying to raise compassionate, empathetic kids that can stick up for themselves you don't really think you're kid is going to end up the bully.

Like most things bullying seems to travel downhill, and as long as you are not on the bottom of the pile think little about if what you are doing is bullying or not.  Chicken was being bullied by older boys who thought nothing of abusing the little boy who would do anything to be considered part of them and in turn he was bullying other children. As much as I wanted to profusely apologize to the bullied child and ream the behind of the bullies I knew that Chicken was going to have to deal with this and clean it up on his own, because in the end he will still see and deal with those kids day in and day out.  I am not saying I did nothing, we talked with his daycare facility and discussed how to help keep Chicken away from the older boys.  We spent a lot of time talking about what bullying behavior is and how what he was doing and what was happening to him was bullying. I still wonder when another incident will occur and if we will find out about it, but I hope he has more skills to deal with it better this time. I have no illusions that both kids will be mean off and on, it is part of childhood, learning what hurts and what doesn't, learning how to hurt and how to be a good person.  The discussions of these topics are always around in our house and I hope this allows the kids the openness to talk to us when these things come up.

Boys are rough and tumble, but their confidence and hearts can still be hurt.  They can talk smack to each other and it is no big deal, but where is the line between good fun and hurt, and how do you teach them not to go over that line. Part of the process for us has been teaching Chicken to look at how a person is reacting to his words, do they look hurt, what is their face telling you that their mouth isn't.  Slowly the skill of being competitive and having a strong personality and not being a total butt head is sinking in.  The big trick with Chicken is teaching him to tell someone they are being mean, or he is angry and not just saying the first thing on his mind, but isn't that the lesson all of us need to remember on a daily basis.  Learning to use your words positively, reading others to see how they react and slowing down enough to notice and do those things will take time, but my hope is that he will be a better kid and adult for it all.

Girls can be just as mean and catty, and teaching Bean to stand up to someone taking advantage of her or being mean has been another lesson formed over time. Last year someone Bean thought was a friend got hurt and somehow Bean became her personal slave at school.  Along with slave duties this girl gossiped a lot about other girls and encouraged Bean to play along with this. Thankfully, Bean could care less about the gossip and didn't pass anything on that we know of, but it led to some great discussions about what is and isn't bullying.  Eventually Bean told this girl to stop bossing her and what she was saying about the other girls was mean and she shouldn't talk like that, but it took a lot of encouraging to get her to do that. Bean's chief fear in standing up to this girl was that she wouldn't be her friend anymore or that she would gossip about her to the other girls.  We talked a lot about what a friend is and if someone treating you like a slave is really a friend and someone you want to be friends with. The other thing we talked about was that if this girl was talking bad about other girls and those girls knew it, would they believe her if she talked bad about Bean.  Though these things we talked about with Bean are not the overt aspects of bulling that Chicken was involved it, it is still bullying.  Somehow the importance of what a good friend is and how to be a good friend is something that will translate into her having solid supportive friendships all her life and not put up with the bulling of others.

Has your kid had a bully situation? Were they the bully or the bullied? How did you deal with it?

Paper vs Digital

Yesterday I bought the kids books, real paper page turning books and I bought myself a few off amazon earlier in the week.  As much as I love and covet real paper books I suspect the time is coming that they won't be used much longer in this house.

I may be assume a leap in politics and education, but honestly by the time the kids hit high school I assume paper text books will be a thing of the past.  For them school won't be about lugging a heavy backpack laden with books and bringing up the passage in a book won't be a scramble through pages, they will carry a light tablet and the passage will be a click away. The thing I struggle with is the idea that they and I will find the same enjoyment from clicking the next page as you do from turning the page a physical page.    When I think back to Pillars of the Earth or Harry Potter or Les Miserables I remember the weight of the books in my hands, the feeling of turning the worn pages and the satisfaction of finishing such a large piece of literature.  Will Harry Potter or Les Miserables still be as satisfying to finish reading even though you don't feel the weight of the accomplishment?

In me there is a tickle that the end of paper books is near in this house, except for my favorite authors I no longer buy books, but hit the library for my reading needs.  The only reason I don't download my books from the library is that the iPad isn't conducive for reading at this point. It is heavy, in an OtterBox case, and I have yet to find that good font to letter ratio that I need for reading. The other issue with digital for me is that the wander through the library or book store disappears. Spending an hour or more wandering a book store looking for that one book, or ten, that take my fancy doesn't really happen for me with ebooks.  Where can you go to wander the isles of the sci fi section to see what you see?  I realize you can go wander Amazon, but for me it isn't the same quite yet, though I am sure eventually it will happen.

The last year I have struggled repeatedly with the idea of just getting the kids kindles and being done with it. A light, single source of reading that is easy to use and they can tote with them anywhere is appealing.  Bean would have the opportunity to ready in a consistent size and font, which I have read can be beneficial.  Then again buying them a hundred dollar piece of technology that I haven't been able to rationalize buying for myself yet seems crazy.

Who knows what will happen, I assume I will eventually cave and buy them used Kindles, but until then we can all keep enjoying the feel of paper when we turn the page.  What is your preference and the preference of your kids, ebook or paper?

Can the Find My iPhone App find everything else?

We recently installed an app called Find My iPhone. We did this because my parents have an iPad and wanted to be able to, find their iPhone, if they lost the iPad. They only have a single Apple device and since you need two iOS devices to Find an iPhone, we installed the app on our iPad.  Being the geeks we are, we then proceeded to install it on ALL the Apple devices in the house.  It turned out to be a really good thing that we did this.

The beginning of the new year seems to bring a lot of chaos into our house. Kids go back to school, work starts to play catch up the holidays, winter sports starts and I am desperately attempting to deep clean the house.  With this as a backdrop my desire to just sit inside with a good book and hibernate doesn't usually play out very well.  Invariably with all this and my hibernation instinct things start getting lost. Keys end up in the freezer, coffee cups get left in random place and my usual spaciness starts to seem excessive. In the last three days keys, shoes, clothes, and an iPad have all been misplaced. Sadly the iPad was the only thing that was able to find itself.

Loosing the iPad could have been fatal, someone may kill someone else without that lovely little device as a distraction, but thankfully it never came to that.  When I came tumbling in the door with three bags and a ton of wet clothes last night I assumed I put the iPad down on the table and started getting the kids organized.  Getting homework started, dinner going, and cleaning up the mess of wet clothes and bags can take awhile. A few hours later as things were settling down it was time for a little Flipboard on the iPad, but the iPad was no where to be found. The house, the bags and the car were turned upside down. Then the Hubs asked, "Did you leave it a Taekwondo?"

"No", I was adamant.

"Lets use the Find my iPhone App."

"Fine, but all it is going to show is that it is here, it won't tell us it is in the washing machine or anything."

Wanna guess where Find My iPhone found the iPad.......Taekwondo......

After locating it, and finding out it started talking at Taekwondo we were relieved to be reunited and headed to pick it up on the way to another activity.  My question is thusly..If Find my iPhone can find the iPad, can it also find the clothes, keys, and shoes that we have lost?  It would be really helpful.