Moms. We just DO.

Working moms do it all: work all day, housework at home, homework with the kids, grocery shop on weekends, and on and on.  After the birth of my 3rd child, I had a female boss of mine say to me, "I don't know how you do it -- 3 kids!"  This lady had no kids of her own.  Most of the time working moms don't know how they do it, either.  They just get up everyday and do what they have to do.  It's not like most of us have a choice.

Kate Winslet with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Last week I saw Kate Winslet on the Today Show talking about shooting the movie Divergent.   She told the Today Show that when they called her up to do re-shoots for Divergent she thought, “How am I going to do this?  I would feed and shoot and nurse and the milk would go back to the hotel and my equipment would come back, and we’d do the stunt and I’d act,” she said. And then Kate Winslet just totally summed it up. She said, “There’s something really empowering about going, ‘Hell, I can do this! I can do all this!’ That’s the wonderful thing about mothers, you can because you must, and you just DO.” 

I have seen some moms (me included) that thrive on the stress.  The more there is to do, the faster we work to get it done.  Big project at work? Nailed it.  Birthday party for 2 year old? Bouncy house and cotton candy machine, check. Coach a soccer team? Why not?  Bake cupcakes for school party? Who needs to sleep?  Run a half marathon and raise money for charity? Sure! I look back at all the things I've juggled over the past 10 years and it makes my head spin.  I look at other moms I know and I am amazed.  I know one who has 2 kids, teaches school and runs triathlons.  I know another who has 4 kids, works full time, and decided to become a foster parent.  Another mom of 3 homeschools, blogs, and just wrote her first book.  Whether we are working moms or stay at home moms, we get stuff done, because all of us moms just DO.

My food obsession and the lunchbox

I have always been obsessed with food.  What's for lunch? When's dinner? What are we having? Is it time to eat yet? How many calories have I eaten today?  When I was a working mom I would usually pack my own somewhat healthy lunch of salad or soup or yogurt or whatever.  For my girls the lunch debate was much harder, as they wanted chips, juice boxes, and junk.  Being pressed for time in the mornings I would throw together a lunch of 100 calorie packs, peanut butter crackers, and granola bars.  Or we would consult the school lunch menu and possibly go with a bought lunch of pizza, hamburgers or nachos (yes this is actually passed off as a school lunch).

When we got back to NC, I was shocked to learn that here my kids could purchase "extras" with their school lunch.  Cookies, cake, juice,  and ice cream are all available every day for children in Kindergarten through 5th grade.  They don't even need cash, as they just punch in their pin number.    I know when I was a kid, I would have gotten ice cream every day if it was available!  When I was a kid, we just got a tray, and that was your lunch, no choices, no questions asked.

So now that I have more time, I have been on an overall quest to eat healthier and make better meals for my kids.  I follow a great blog called 100 days of real food -- http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
This lady posts pictures of her kids' school lunches and it has inspired me.  I bought these great Ziplock divided containers and have been trying to sneak in more fruits and veggies into the lunchbox.  Here's what they took today:

 

Sarah's lunch - she loves peppers and cucumbers

Olivia's lunch. Tomatoes are one of the only vegetables that she will eat.  I know the lunch meat is not great, but baby steps, right?

 

I made these banana whole wheat muffins this morning from a receipe on 100 days of real food - really! I know that these lunches have a long way to go, but at least I got them to eat some vegetables instead of another processed food. The crackers are wheat thins.  Also not great, but at least there's whole grain in there.   I also packed water bottles, and an ice pack.  Hurray for the #tinywin !

Do you hate what you do?

When I was a working mom, I really had to make time for exercise or else I didn't do it at all.  Mostly it was a drag and I'd find myself on the treadmill counting the minutes or in a class trying to avoid the instructor's gaze.  Over the years I have done Jazzercise, Yoga, running, weight lifting classes, and random machines at the gym.  Now that I am a stay at home mom, I have more time to try and get in shape.  I needed something different, mostly just to motivate me to do it.

My friend Diahann asked me if I would be interested in a new workout place she'd found, called 9Round.  I tried it, and liked it, so I signed up for a 6 month membership.  You go through 9 "rounds" or stations with different exercises at each station.  The trainer comes around and tells you what to do at each station. Each round only lasts for 3 minutes.  There's a bell that tells you when to move on to the next round.  In between you do 30 seconds of cardio, which the trainer calls out and tells you what do to.  The whole session takes only 30 minutes and works just about every part of your body. You get to wear boxing gloves for some of the rounds, which is different and fun.  There are no set class times, you just come in whenever you can and go through the rounds.  Here's a link to their website: http://www.9round.com/

I like it because it is over in 30 minutes, and I am working out my arms and abs more (something I didn't get with running).  It's also kind of fun to punch a bag with pink boxing gloves.  There are some motivational posters up in the 9Round gym with Muhammad Ali quotes. I think we all know the "float like a butterfly" one, but this one I found particularly interesting:

 

He hated every minute of training.  Hated every minute? Seriously? Why would you go through all that if you hated it? I guess being a champion was the most important thing to him, no matter what he had to do.  He must've trained for countless hours, weeks, years even in order to get to his goal of being a champion.  He hated it all that time? When I was running I mostly hated it, but loved it when I got to the end of my run. I loved what I was able to accomplish for myself personally with longer and longer runs.   I guess everyone says the trick is to love what you do, find a workout that you love, or a sport that you enjoy playing.  How sad would it be to go through life, hating every minute of what you do?  I like 9Round because for me it's something different.  Even if I hate parts of it, like mountain climbers or planks, it only lasts for 3 minutes, tops!



Where exactly is Nebraska?

Could you name all 50 states on a blank map? Can your kids? I don't think I could.  But I know that I would get more of them right today than I would've have before we moved to Nebraska.  I love this map of how New Yorkers view the rest of the country:

 

 

Nebraska is "somewhere in the middle" for sure.  One of my New York friends (Courtney) was convinced that I was actually living in Wisconsin, not Nebraska, for the entire 2 years I lived there.  My husband kept thinking that we were moving to Kansas, not Nebraska, until we actually got there.  Here's a real map of the USA for our lesson today:

 

 

This is how I described to people where Nebraska is:  Locate Texas (you should be able to do this btw), then go straight up - that's Oklahoma (where the wind comes sweeping down the plain), above that is Kansas (home of Dorothy and Toto), and above that is Nebraska (home of Warren Buffett and lots of cornfields).  It's pretty much right in the middle of the country.  Some states I just can't remember where they are, like Indiana (sorry Tonya). 

 

One of my coworkers in Nebraska asked me if my family used to go to the beach a lot, since we lived in North Carolina.  I told him no, we lived almost 4 hours from the beach, and that it was really too far to drive very often.  He was from Omaha, where the closest beach is over 20 hours away.  I guess the definition of "close" is relative.

 

While we lived in Nebraska, we visited Des Moines, Iowa,  and Kansas City, Missouri.  When we drove home to North Carolina, we passed through Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  My husband keeps telling me that we should get a big RV and drive around for vacations.  See the Grand Canyon! National Parks! Camping! This does not sound like a vacation to me, as I hate driving and really enjoy room service.  Our 3 day drive from Nebraska to North Carolina was enough driving to last me for a loooong time. The next long drive we take better have Disneyworld on the other end!

I'm baaaaaack!

After 2 years in Omaha, Nebraska, we decided to call it quits.  We made this decision for several reasons, including below zero temperatures, being far away from our families, and generally finding ourselves in the Midwest middle of nowhere.  My husband got a great job offer back in Charlotte, so we decided to move back across the country.  Never have I been so glad to hear southern accents and drink sweet tea.  I am back to being an accidental stay at home Mom.  Although this time I suppose it was accidentally on purpose. 

We were able to move back into our same house in NC.  We had rented it out for the past 2 years and we were glad to find it in good shape upon our return.  I think that we were very lucky in that regard and I am very thankful.  We got rid of a lot of furniture when we moved to Omaha, so now the house has some empty spots.  I also am noticing how some of my 10-15  year old furniture is not holding up so good anymore.  Well I guess it will give me something to shop for.