Smiling Mom

Today was a miserable day.  My kids have that horrible cough that is going around accompanied by a fever at night and loose stools.

Ya, not fun.

eClaire got it bad yesterday with a temperature reaching 103 degrees.  BC’s had the temperature the day before eClaire’s.  So he’s better except for a nasty snotty nose and one hell of a cough.

Today started better than yesterday proved to be.  eClaire was a bit more herself.  She actually had a bit of food at breakfast!!  Yeay for food.  Apparently it does a body good… if only I could reason with a two year old… sigh.

But the day got progressively worse.  Both Hubby and I have been struggling with upset stomaches and mine came to a head this afternoon. And poor Hubby began his new work week tonight.  Did you catch that?

Tonight.

That’s right folks, my husband job has turned him nocturnal four out of every seven days.

Good times.

So when he woke up from his late afternoon nap, he was met with a hysterical wife, laying on the couch, a messy house, two kids who wanted attention, and mere hours until he was expected at work.

I went to bed, eClaire had horrible, horrible loose stools and required baths.  And through all of this, BC was extremely helpful.  Thank God for small gifts!

It’s now the middle of the night and between Hubby and me, we’ve cleaned up no less than 6 disgusting diapers, one throw up, and a messy house.

My kids were fed breakfast at 7:00, snack around 10:00, a sandwich at 4:00 (oops, momma forgot lunch!) and no dinner.  Ya, forgot that one too.

BC got a, “Sorry honey I forgot to feed you,” yogurt at 8:45 tonight.

Parenting at it’s best.

So now I’m off to sleep in eClaire and BC’s room, BC is sleeping in my room because he has no sign of flu symptoms yet… and Hubby will crawl into our bed as the sun rises, to sleep the day away and attempt to recover himself.

Parenting….sigh.

Just over a year ago right after my daughter turned one, I made a decision to begin feeding my family healthier.  I’ve always forced low fat foods on my dear Hubby and children, but decided to step it up.

Regular sour cream??  They’ve never heard of such a thing! Whole fat Mayonnaise?  Naa, we go with fat free! If it’s made nonfat, I buy it.  (Except for cream cheese.  Fat free cream cheese is just disgusting. So I get the 1/3 fat.  A girl’s gotta have her limits!)

Anyways, Last year I’d become pretty tired of staring at the fridge and trying to figure out what I could make for dinner, sighing, and pulling out a packet of Mac & Cheese or those cute frozen dinosaur chicken nuggets from CostCo.  I was so. over. it.

Since I was just exiting my ugly years….you know which ones I’m talking about, pregnancy, birth, nursing OMG did I even brush my teeth today??!! years, saying Bye Bye Boobie and gaining my sanity and self back.  I decided that I need to take control of my family’s dinnertime chaos.

So I began meal planning.  Insert choir music and angelic voices here. Oh how life has changed.  Once a week I sit down, browse allrecipes.com figure out what meals I’ll be making for the week and write my grocery list accordingly.  I don’t buy pre-packeged dinners ever anymore.  And I rarely fret about what’s for dinner.

You know the greatest thing?  I save bucket of money.  BUCKETS I tell you!!  I don’t buy bags of chips, crackers, or any other snacky foods anymore–with one exception, NutriGrain Bars (Which I keep in the van for those hunger emergencies!)

For snacks my kids often get fruit, string cheese, or low fat yogurt.  I don’t buy high sugar snacks or anything that claims it’s fruit flavored.  They get two snacks, one at 10 a.m. and one after nap.

That’s it.

In addition this Christmas my brother handed over his amazing juicer which I use almost every morning.  I make a full mixture of some or all the following ingredients:

apple, carrot, cucumber, celery, orange, broccoli

And my family drinks it.  eClaire, BC and Hubby ALL drink it.  Hehe, I’m totally getting my kids to DRINK their veggies. More impressive, I’ve somehow managed to hoodwink Hubby into drinking his!!  he he.

Lately Hubby and I’ve been taking it up a level.  Buying organic.  Not everything, but lots of stuff.  We got to our local farmer’s market most Sundays to stock up on our weekly veggies, jam, and honey.  We always choose organic when offered a choice.  And recently I’ve all but changed my household cleaners over to all natural products.

And I feel good.

Sure we still go on an occasional fast food run.  But I try to keep it to In & Out, and NOT McD’s.

And best of all I feel like by teaching my kids healthy eating habits now, I’m hopefully combating a whole slew of health problems down the road, most importantly, childhood obesity.

And that my friends, is recently what I’m most proud of doing right for my family.

****I just looked over to my right and realized that I have a CostCo sized bag of peanut M&M’s open and partly eaten…  I’m SOOO not perfect.  Excuse me while go do some emotional eating as I ponder this…

I am a public school teacher and I work in one of strongest academic districts in the Bay Area. The school I teach at routinely ranks in the top five in California. It’s that good!

My school is also a ‘choice’ school, meaning that it is students come from all over the school district. You have to choose to send your kids there. Therefore school admission is based on a lottery. When a child’s number is called a parent almost always pulls their child out of their current private or public school to enter ours.

I know what great teaching is all about. I’ve seen both sides, the good school environment and the bad.

This is the best.

So why am I fretting about school?

Simple. I don’t live in the school district in which I teach.

Teachers can’t afford to buy a house there.

I have two children. My oldest will enter kindergarten a year from September and he cannot go to the my school.

Kinda stinks, doesn’t it?

Often one of the benefits that many school districts offer their teachers is automatic admission for their children. On top of it being very convenient for us, it also ensures the district that we teachers stay put for the duration of our children’s schooling careers. Teacher retention is quite a problem in Silicon Valley. It’s a win win.

But since my school is a choice school, my own children don’t even have an option of attending.

So I fret.

I’ve seen great. I teach at great. I want great for my kids.

The school district in which I live is alright. It’s neither great nor bad. My kids will probably do fine while attending school in this district. But then I think, Is alright good enough for my children?

No.

My husband and I have discussed private education, moving, public schools, private schools again…. But truth be told, two public servants living in Silicon Valley simply cannot afford a mortgage and one private school tuition, let alone two tuitions as my daughter enters school.

So we’re stuck. Private school costs too much, while public school just might not be great enough.

When it comes down to it, I’m just as confused as the next mom trying to do her best by her kids.

Any suggestions?

Originally posted at Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Hey! We had eClaire’s birthday party on Saturday!! It was really, really fun! (Photos)

Sooo… let’s talk about me!!

Check out what I did!!

No seriously, I did that!!

Dora! That’s right! Me!

I’m no Casey, who is A.MAZ.ING, but hot damn. I’m pretty proud of my first attempt at being Baker Extraordinaire!

Shh, don’t tell anyone, but it was actually quite easy. I Google searched for a Dora the Explorer cake template and found that NickJr. actually has step by step directions. Oh, I was quite excited.

Martha Stewart here I come!