Day 1 - Get Enough Sleep

I am going to start the new year off with an easy change. Get enough sleep. I am a big believer in the importance of 8 hours of sleep a night. Personally, if I don't get enough, I am crabbier than a toddler who hasn't gotten enough. I aim for it every night, last night was no different, I did get 8 hours.

Some think of sleep as a chore or just a simple luxury. It is neither, it is a necessity. Without enough sleep your memory is not sharp, you are less likely to make rational decisions, you can gain weight and you can lessen the strength of your immune system. Of course this list is not all inclusive, the risks go on, far more than I am aware of.

Historically, I have had bouts of insomnia, a problem I have passed on to my own daughter. A few years ago, I talked to my doctor about using OTC sleep aids in an effort to end this ongoing problem. With my doctors advice, I was told that the use of OTC sleep aids is safe and that the benefits of the sleep I am getting outweigh any possible risks. So, when I can't sleep or I know that I am going to have trouble I take one and an hour later I am sound asleep. I sleep for 8 hours straight. I will continue doing this, I will NEVER go back to not sleeping again.

I started the year off with a good nights sleep and expect that the next 364 nights in 2011 will bring me 8 hours a night.

Welcome the New Year

I can't believe that 2010 is already coming to a conclusion! The year flew by, and proved to be much better than 2009. I am hopeful that 2011 will bring the same joy and happiness that we saw in 2010.

2011 is going to be the year in which I turn 40 (ugh!!). I am approaching this milestone with a little trepidation and a little excitement. A new decade with a lot of new adventures. I think my 40's will present opportunities that I didn't have during my 30's. I have decided that in order to enjoy the adventures that the second half of my life will present, I need to get myself healthier, happier and at peace. So, I have decided that 2011 will be the year that I focus on ME. That's right, this mother of 3 is going to do a little self care this year. I have a spare tire around my gut, sciatica that will not go away, life long eczema and a newly discovered intolerance to lactose. It is time for me to take care of me.

I purposely put off blogging for the last several weeks because I wanted January 1, 2011 to be the beginning of my year long journey to a healthier and happier ME. Everyday my blog will focus on something that I am going to incorporate into my life to accomplish my goal. I have a list already of things that I will be doing, but I need ideas. What do you do to make yourself feel and look better? Is it a certain workout? An exotic food? A game that you play as a family that exercises your mind? I need help and ideas. So please, feel free to let me know.

Look for my blogs starting on January 1st. Let me state right now, I will not be blogging with a hangover, those days have been over for years:)

Yes, it has been awhile. I have been busy, but I also had another problem, I forgot my password to get into my account. Now before everything thinks I am an airhead, there is an explanation. I had it set to remember my account, somehow that did not work one day and I was unable to get back in. I let it go for awhile, but now with the new year approaching, I knew I would want to blog. So, I welcome myself back to the world of blogging.

Well, I guess it is safe to say that I have been a terrible blogger for about the last 6 months. Which is a shame because I really enjoy blogging. I like the outlet it provides me for writing about my daily life. No matter how boring and mundane it may seem.

But, even with the best of intentions, my daily responsibilities seems to make it impossible for me to find a few quiet moments to write. So, I have decided to stop feeling guilty or feeling like I have to write something daily. I will write when the mood strikes and the time is available. After all, the whole reason I do this is to de stress, not to add stress.

My Weekend in Pictures

So, I am really tired tonight. I have had an ongoing bout of insomnia for the last few nights. No doubt caused by the book I was reading for book club, "Sophie's Choice". An excellent read, but really depressing and graphic. It was hard not to lay in bed after reading and not have images of unspeakable atrocities in my brain. Tonight I am just going to post a few pictures of the kids at their weekend sporting events. My next book is a Chelsea Handler book, deserved in my opinion.

The Difficulty of Eating All Local Food and Other Rants

First of all, I have not written in a few days because I was not feeling good. I had a little bit of a virus that had me pretty run down Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was my 16th wedding anniversary and yesterday was all soccer, all day! So now, I find a few minutes to blog on a quiet Sunday morning before my family wakes up and we can have another soccer/volleyball day.

My husband and I went to the grocery store on Friday, fulling intending to stay on course with our local challenge. We went to our co-op to shop. What we found was that it is almost impossible to stay completely local while having a balanced and healthy diet. We just couldn't find everything that we needed available locally. So, we made a decision, if a product we need is local, we buy it. But, if we need something that does not have a local choice, we have no choice. I guess trade started centuries ago for a reason. A great example of why this was an issue, fruit. We found that the only local choice we had was apples. Don't get me wrong, they are great, but can I really give my 3 children several servings of apples everyday?

Yesterday 2 of my kids had soccer games, they were scheduled in such a way that our whole day was consumed by soccer. Today we have 1 soccer game to attend and 2 volleyball games. Again, scheduled so that the games will take up our whole day. I love watching the kids play their games, but sometimes it can be a bit much.

I am going to go a bit off course this morning. I almost never talk about politics or religion on my blog. I have strong opinions about both, but keep them to myself or rant with friends who agree with me. But, I have to say that I am really troubled by the direction this country is going in regards to absolute intolerance of Islam. Yesterday was a day of remembrance, sadness and what should have been a day of solidarity as Americans, regardless of political affiliation and religion. Instead, the news has been saturated with talk of Quran burnings and demonstrations in New York about a Islam center that is not even being built on the WTC site. What happen to living in a country that was built because people were escaping religious persecution? Are we really becoming what our ancestors were escaping? I really hope that is not the case.

Now, please no mean comments or invitations for debate about what I wrote. This is my blog, my thoughts and opinions and my right to say what I feel about a topic that I think is becoming dangerous.

Happy Sunday and to those who will be relaxing at home and not at games, have a beer for me:)

September 7th, 2010

I forgot to take pictures of tonight's "local" dinner. So you will have to imagine what it looked like.

Vegetable Soup - all the vegetables came from OUR garden! I added a can of kidney beans, some elbow macaroni and Parmesan cheese. Obviously, the pasta and beans were purchased before we started our challenge.

Challah Bread - homemade, by my husband. Refer to last night's picture

Fruit Crisp - fruit purchased before the challenge started, but I believe the fruit came from local orchards. The butter was local. The oatmeal, sugar and flour were not local, but purchased before challenge began.

As of tonight, we are out of sugar (except for about 1/4 cup). I ran out of brown sugar last week, and know that the flour will run out before the end of the month. I am also out of canola oil. I am going to need to find substitutions for these ingredients that I can find locally. PLEASE, if anyone has recommendations, I need them ASAP!!

The refrigerator is looking kind of empty, I plan on going to our local Co-op before the end of the week. Coincidentally, our co-op is sponsoring this challenge in the month of September, I had no idea that they were going to be starting this the same day we decided to start. The upside to this is that they will have the food labeled as local! Score!