Basketball season comes to an end

I love sports, but a basketball fan I am not.  My two older girls (Wendy and Megan) wanted to play basketball for their school this year.  It's put on by the Belleville Parks and Rec. department.  So daddy and I agreed to let them play.  I knew Megan would enjoy it but I wasn't so sure about Wendy because she doesn't like to run.  One of our house rules is that if you start a sport you must play it out until the season is over even if you don't like it.  

I was pleasantly surprised to see that both of my girls really liked the sport.  It started out a little rough because none of the girls on the team had ever played basketball before, but by the end of the year you could tell they really improved.  

Wendy was not afraid to shoot the ball.  Trouble was the ball had a hard time finding the basket.  :)

She did get some points.  During one of the games she made up half of the final points.  I could tell she proud of herself.  Another thing I noticed about Wendy is that she didn't like her sister to beat her at anything.  I saw Wendy running faster to try to beat her sister, and I saw her taking more chances to try to one up her sister.  I never brought attention to it and I don't think Megan noticed but this mommy did.

Megan had a couple of baskets too!  Megan was really good at stealing the ball.  She had  couple of good steals.  That girl is not afraid to get in your face.  Megan's trouble was traveling.  That girl would take the ball and run with it like it was football.  By the end of the season she was doing much better.  

The girls really enjoyed the game.  The girls played 8 games and they did manage to win 2 of them.  Megan is already pumped to play again next year.  Wendy will have to try out for the team since she moves on to Junior high.  I told her it was going to be tough since they are like 5 schools converging on one junior high.  She said she was wanting to really work on things over the summer.  I hope I can help keep her interested enough to work on it.  This mom hates to see her girls disappointed and I would love to see her make the team.  We'll just have to see how it plays out.

Daddy got the girls some tickets to see both the Men and Women's College Basketball Teams over in St. Louis for one of the conference playoffs.  My girls really enjoyed it and they saw how the big girls play the game and what they need to do to up their game.  

I enjoyed watching the girls play this year.  Still not a fan of the game but I could get used to watching my girls play.

                                           Wendy was the Jump Ball Girl

Both of the girls getting ready to play

Both girls on the court again.

Megan passing the ball.

                                               Wendy with the free throw.

My bball girls!

Loving Laundry

A few days ago, Wendy asked my what my favorite job around the house was.  I told her it was probably doing the laundry.  She asked why and I told her I always loved doing the laundry, even when I was a kid still living at home.

Doing laundry at my granny's house was always a real treat.  She had the old fashioned wringer washing machines.  I LOVED standing on the button and making the wash go flat as it went through the wringer.  They also didn't have lids so it was neat to wash the laundry swish around.  Sad though, it finally went kaput and for awhile my Gramps had to take Granny to the laundromat.  I loved going to that laundry mat too.  It had a T.V. and always had the soap operas on!  Eventually my Granny did get a regular old washing machine, but I will forever remember and love that wringer washer.  I also remember a few times when I was camping with Granny and Gramps we had to wash a few things out on the wash board at the camp grounds and we would then hang them out to dry.  I especially liked scrubbing the socks.  (I don't know why).  I remember thinking I can't believe people used to wash all of their clothes this way. I have a wash board hanging in my laundry room, just in case it ever needs to be used.  When I would go camping with Granny and Gramps at Rend Lake, every once in awhile we would drive into Sesser to do the laundry at the laundromat.  This was one of the only times I didn't want to help with the laundry.  Sesser's library was right next door to the laundromat and I would go over there and sit and read books while Granny did the laundry.  Priorities.

When I was still living at home, there was a time we didn't have a washer and a dryer that worked and we didn't have the money to fix them or buy new ones.  We went to the laundromat in town almost every weekend.  I loved it!  Usually dad and I would load up the station wagon with baskets and baskets of laundry (there were six of us in the family).  Mom would already have them sorted out into loads so all we had to do was throw them in the washers and the dryers.  I loved wheeling the cart around taking the clothes from the washer to the dryer.  Then from the dryer to the table to fold the clothes.  I always got a treat out of the vending machines they had there too.  It was the same thing every time...an orange soda and a bag of crunchy cheese curls.

When we finally got a new washer and dryer at home, I still enjoyed doing the laundry.  Especially during the summer when I could hang the clothes outside on the line to dry.  We had really long, multiple clothes lines on the side of our house that my mom and brother built. I used to be too short to reach the lines so I had to jump up and grab the line and pull it down so I could pin the clothes to it.  That clothes line is still there on the side of the house.

When I first got married we lived in an apartment building that had only one washer and one dryer in basement.  It was always a fight to use it.  Sometimes it worked out where I did the laundry there but most of the time my hubby and I would spend a weekend night at the laundromat.  We had two we really liked.  If one was too crowded we would go the other.  I had the same feelings then as I did when I was little, I loved going to the laundromat.  Except this time instead of getting a snack out of the vending machine, we usually stopped at a fast food place and grabbed dinner to eat there.  Only bad thing during this season of laundry, was having to walk up three flights of stairs from the parking lot to our Apartment E with loads of laundry.

I'm pretty sure I bought my house, not for the amount of bedrooms, nor the 3 newly remodeled bathrooms, nor for the wonderful front porch, but for the fact that it had a laundry room!  With a sink, and a closet, and cabinets!! About a month ago, our dryer went out and I needed some clothes dried.  I told my hubby to take the girls with him to the laundromat so they could see what one was.  They all thought is was neat, but not as neat as I used to think they were.  Oh, well!  Kids these days!

 To this day, I still love to do the laundry. I love the smell of the laundry detergent and fabric softener sheets.  I love the sound of the dryer being on. Weird, I know. Don't judge me.  Our family has grown from 2 to 5 so the laundry pile has also grown.  And I'm sure it will get much bigger once these girls hit their teenage years. When I do the laundry, I am thankful that I have a family to do laundry for.  I am thankful that I have money to buy that laundry for my family.  And now I am thankful that the girls are all old enough to help me put it away. (Which is my least favorite part of the laundry).

Who would of thought something as simple as laundry would be such a big thing to me.  Crazy.  Now if I could just get one of those tables in my laundry room to fold things on....

Winter

I love the winter time!  Of course, it comes with some really good holidays, but I like it because of the weather the most.  

We finally got some snow this winter.  It really wasn't enough to do anything in.  No snowman and no sledding but it was enough the girls got to bundle up and go out and play for awhile.  I think snow is so pretty when the sun shines on it.  Although my favorite time to look at snow is at night.  It started snowing a little bit last night right before I went to bed.  I stepped out on the front porch and just watched and listened.  I love the glow the sky gets where it's like an orangeish/yellowish color.  It is so quiet that you can actually hear the snowflakes hit the ground.  

This year we have had some really windy nights.  I love to lay in bed and listen to the wind blow.  It makes me feel all cozy and snug. Although today we have really high winds during the day.  I was running some errands and the wind is so strong, when I came out of the building, I couldn't catch my breath until I got into the car.   

I love the clean, crisp, cold air that winter brings. I also like it that when I'm cold I can always get warm with a cozy blanket or a comfy sweatshirt.  In the summer time, it is so much harder to cool off, especially with high humidity.

I also like that in the winter it gets darker earlier.  (Of course, we are on the upswing and it's staying lighter longer these days).  A couple of months ago we were riding in the van and just out of the blue my 10 year old says how much she likes it when it gets darker earlier because it seems so cozy.  I have never mentioned to her that I thought the same thing.  Guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree. :)

There are a few things that I don't like about winter:  the stupid static electricity that is everywhere, the dry skin, ice, and no baseball.  

Spring is only 30 days away and spring training for the Cardinals starts tomorrow.  I will continue to enjoy winter until it comes around again in December.  If I could just have one good snow to make a snowman and to go sledding and maybe throw a snow day or two in there, that would be cool!

Feeling Appreciated

As a stay at home mom, it is easy to feel unappreciated.  Sometimes I feel more like a maid than I do a mom or a wife.  I pick up their trash, do their dishes, wash their clothes.  Not to mention all the running I do for them away from the house-sports practices, piano practices, can you mail the bills, can you pick up a book at the library for me.  Sometimes I feel like it's just expected of me but not appreciated.

Today, though I was told by each member of this household that I am appreciated.  They didn't come right out and say, "I appreciate all you do", they did it without even knowing they did it.

Ellie was helping put away clothes this afternoon and she jumped on my bed and said, "I just love our house".  It made me feel good because I know she feels comfortable and loved here and that maybe I am doing something right.

Today we had to go grocery shopping.  After we brought all of the groceries inside, two of the girls took off and left me but Megan said, "I'll help you put away the groceries".  She didn't want me to  have to put away all those bags of groceries myself.  Some of the things go downstairs in the freezer or on the pantry shelf, so she helped me put those things away so I didn't have to run up and down the basement stairs.  Even though she said she wanted to help me, I secretly think she likes putting the groceries away whether it's helping me or not.  But I will take what I can get.

Wendy didn't really say anything special today but I have a postcard she made at church awhile back that was addressed to me and I have it hanging on the refrigerator.  The postcard says how much she loves me and that she is thankful for the things I do for her, the things I do with her, and the places I take her.  So since I actually took time to read it again this afternoon, that counts as her telling me today.

This last week has been really hectic.  We have had piano lessons, Girl Scouts, basketball games, basketball practices, taking parent to doctors appointment, taking parent's cat to vet, Valentine's parties, helping parent write out thank you notes, and spending all day Saturday at a Girl Scout event.  We have eaten out every single day this week.  I know it's not healthy but when everything falls during dinner time or you're traveling, it's sometimes the only way to get food.  This is where the husband made me feel appreciated.  He told me he really misses my home cooked meals.  Now, I am no where near a gourmet chef nor do I always make something healthy, but it made me feel good that he really likes my cooking and actually misses it. 

I know that deep down they all appreciate everything I do for them it's just nice to actually hear it from them once in awhile.

  

Charles Dickens...not just for Christmas!

One of my favorite Christmas stories is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  My favorite film adaptation is the one with Patrick Stewart as Scrooge.  I've been to see the play at the Fox theater in St. Louis a long time ago, and when the girls were babies, I would read them this story for bedtime during the Christmas season.

Four years ago, I noticed that the Google logo said Happy Birthday to Charles Dickens on February 7th, 2012.  He would have been 200 years old.  An idea popped into my head to read a different Charles Dickens novel, each year, in the month of February in honor of his birthday.

The first book I decided to read was A Tale of Two Cities. I had started this book before but never even got a fourth of the way into it.  A friend of mine, who is an English Professor, said that I would really like it if I kept reading it.  So, I started over and finished the book.  I LOVED IT!!!  It is now one of my favorite books!  This is a story filled with adventure, romance, and an ending that I didn't see coming.  Definitely would recommend reading this book.

The second book I read was Great Expectations.  I picked this book because it had been sitting on my shelf for years and never been read.  I had heard of the characters from this book, Pip and Miss Havisham, but never ventured to open the book.  In fact, I'm pretty sure this book was Harry's and he never turned it in during high school English.  Inside the cover, is the name of one of our English teachers.  I also liked this book, but not as much as A Tale of Two Cities.  I didn't see the ending of this book coming either.

The third book I read last year and it was Oliver Twist.  I vaguely remember watching the movie in school.  I can't even remember if it was grade school, Jr. high, or high school.  I've never seen it performed as a play, but I've heard many people had liked it.  I, however, did not like the book.  I could not finish this book in the month of February.  It took me a couple months after to actually get through it.  But, get through it I did.  I thought the story long, drawn out, and confusing.  Maybe if I ever see it as a play it will shed a new light on the story.

This year I decided to pick a lesser known Charles Dickens book.  It is called The Bleak House.  Originally this story was published in installments from March 1852 to September 1853.  It is said to be one of, if not, THE best novel he has written.  We shall see how it fares after I read those 700+ pages.

If you are looking for something new to read, try an old classic.  You just might be surprised at the good stuff you have been missing.

National Hot Tea Month

January is National Hot Tea Month.  Until a couple of years ago my hot drink of choice was hot chocolate. Then I stumbled on a series of books written by Laura Childs called the Tea Shop Mysteries.  Each book in the series had a title with a different type of tea.  I love this series and have read everyone of the books in the series and can't wait for the new one to come out in March.  Oops got a little off kilter there.  Anyway, after reading these books..I decided to try hot tea.  I have always been an iced tea drinkers but I never cared for it hot.  I'm not a fan of sweetened tea either.  I would rather have it without sugar.

I am now an avid hot tea drinker!  I love it!

After a trip to the Teavana store in the mall, I fell even more in love.  So many teas to choose from not to mention tons of tea gadgets and gizmos.  My favorite teas from Teavana are the White Ayurvedic Chai, the Maharaja Chai, and the White Chocolate Peppermint.  I really didn't know what to do with the loose tea leaves until a lady that worked there introduced me to the Perfectea Maker.  Everyone should have one of these!  It was so easy to make my tea that I started drinking it all the time.  It is my version of a morning cup of coffee.  My wonderful husband also bought me a Cherry Blossom cast iron tea pot and a set of 4 cast iron tea cups with saucers.

I tend to go a little overboard on buying more tea bags before I run out of the ones I already have.  I've noticed that I also lean more toward the spicy tastes rather than the fruity tastes.  Although, my husband bought me a set of 96 tea bags from Hickory Farms for my birthday last year and my new favorite tea is Earl Grey.  There is just a hint of orange that makes it taste so good.

I usually like to drink a caffeinated tea during the morning and afternoon and then a decaffeinated tea (green or herbal tea) in the evening.

I have not experimented with blending teas together.  Maybe someday when my life isn't so crazy.

 If you have never drank hot tea before and would like to start with one, I would either recommend the Earl Grey or a Vanilla Chai.  If you are a tea drinker, tell me what you favorite is, maybe I would like to try it too!

Now if I could just find a little tea shop like Theodosia Browning's Indigo Tea Shop where I can go for lunch and a nice cup of tea that would just be perfect!

My Perfectea Maker

My Japanese Cast Iron Tea Pot

One of my favorite book series

Fresh Thyme

We have a new store here in the Metro-East, it's called Fresh Thyme Farmer's Market.  It has only been open for 2 weeks.  I did go on opening day, but it was crazy and I didn't look around too much.  Today a new ad came out so I ran out there to purchase a few things.  Still busy but not as crazy.

This market is all about being healthy.  It carries organic products, gluten free products, dairy free products, good for the environment products, tons of fresh produce, as well as items you can purchase in bulk.

I love the way the store is laid out.  It looks so pretty and colorful.  Their meat department has the most awesome looking meat.  I haven't purchased anything from the deli yet because it is very crowded around there.  They even have a department where they may their own different varieties of juice.

My family has started eating better for the most part.  I think I am going to be that person that does 80% healthy food and about 20% regular food.  I still like some of the box food for convenience.  I don't see shopping at this store for all my grocery needs but maybe venturing out once a week when the ads come out seems like a good plan.

One cool thing about Fresh Thyme is that their new sales ads come out on Wednesday.  If you shop on Wednesday you get the sales prices for the week before and the current week. It's called "double ads Wednesday".  Yay for me since I scored those 97 cent strawberries again.

Today they had some really good prices for their meat.  This was the whole reason for the trip.  Their grass fed beef, chicken, and pork were all on sale.  I paid $15.00 for 5 lbs of beef and my local grocery store had 3 lbs for $21.00.  I bought some of their chicken breasts too.  They were huge!!!  I had to cut them in half.  I spent $10.00 on chicken and after I cut the breasts in half and put them in the freezer.  I figured I have 4 or 5 meals with chicken alone.  Not too bad!

The store does have some buy one get one deals too.  I took advantage of this deal and bought some organic salad dressing.

Another favorite of mine that this store carries is the Immaculate brand cinnamon rolls.  These are delicious.  They are huge and they don't have the yucky stuff in them. A little treat for the girls who don't have school on Friday.

Only bad thing that happened is I forgot the soy sauce.  :(

If you haven't yet, check out this store. The prices might be scary for some people but you have to have the mind set that it's better quality food for your body.  If nothing else, shop the ads only.  I really like it and hope it will help me stay on track with the healthy eating.