Painting

I've spent all my spare time this week painting our bedroom. We had two walls a deep purple and two walls a sea green. Now we're painting the bottom three feet around the room a dark gray and the top a medium gray. We're going to paint a red stripe, to match the comforter, to separate the two grays. We're hoping it will have a streamlined, clean look.

The plan for the room is definitely evolving as we go along. My mom had the idea to paint the darker color on the bottom with the red stripe. The only question that remains at the point is what art will we use to decorate the room? I have a nice red and black vase from China that I want to incorporate. The art will partly depend on how much money is left in the budget. If we don't have much left we'll just have to buy a few canvasses and splash paint on them!

Tomorrow I need to put the second coat on the darker gray and maybe paint the red stripe. Then the painting will be done. I'll post pictures in a few days when it's all done.

Cankles

Maybe you have heard the term "cankles." It refers to an non-tapering ankle, where the calf goes straight down to the foot. Yesterday I turned on the Today show for ten minutes to see that they had a segment on cankles. Are you kidding me? Do they really have nothing better to talk about? Now women aren't beautiful unless their ankles are the right shape? And besides, do we really need to give women one MORE thing to be self-conscious about by giving cankles national attention? Is this going to be another category on eharmony? What do you like in a woman? Nice hair, eyes, and smile, definitely no cankles? What's next? Olay regenerist cankle reducer? LOL!

Short visit to Mahaffey

We spent Saturday at Mahaffey Camp near Punxsutawney, PA. The boys had a really good time, and it left us wishing we had had more time to spend up there this year. We were able to touch base with some good friends and had a nice time. Although the boys hadn't been there all week, they didn't hesitate to jump up on the stage and help lead the singing for the preschoolers. (Sam is in the green striped shirt)Isaiah saw the A.B. Simpson wood carving and wanted to get his picture taken by it. He had no idea what it was though! The boys on the bridge

Sacked out on the way home, holding his pooh bear

I thought Isaiah looked cute sleeping with his legs sleeping criss cross applesauce.

Outdoor Wedding

On Friday afternoon I attended my first outdoor wedding for a co-worker of Dan's. The bridal party walked down the brick walkway barefoot. So fun! The ceremony was on a pier at Moraine State Park. The weather was just perfect... a little breezy and warm. The reception was in a neighboring pavilion. Most people I've talked to are too afraid of bad weather to attempt an outdoor wedding. But this bride told me about two weeks before the wedding, "We don't have a plan B, so bring an umbrella." Overall it was simple and lovely.

The bride and groom

Post 400 (Subtitle "Will I ever catch up to Dan?")

Everything Changes

After watching the documentary Supersize Me a few weeks ago, I have changed the way I think about food. In Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock performs an experiment by eating nothing but McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for thirty days. There are a few rules. 1) He has to try everything on the menu. 2) If the McDonalds employee asks if he would like to supersize his meal, he has to. 3) He has to eat everything he orders. He underwent a thorough physical exam prior to this experiment and was found to be healthy. By the end of the experiment, he had gained about twenty pounds, started having chest pains, and had frequent feelings of depression. According to his physical exam after the experiment, his liver function had decreased and his cholesterol level was elevated.

The brief discussion on the manufacturing process of McDonald's chicken nuggets has really stuck with me. They puree the chicken and add (this is the worst part!) various additives and stablizers then press it into the fake chicken nugget shape.

Up to this point, I haven't been able to justify the cost of buying organic and non-processed foods. But now I'm thinking, can we really put a price on our health?

I have begun familiarizing myself with the organic and health foods section at Giant Eagle. I have purchased some organic produce, juice, milk, and eggs. The produce seems to go bad more quickly than I'm used to, which means I have to buy less of it at a time.

I still have a lot to learn. Does it matter if the chicken are free-range and we able to lay their eggs on a nest? Or does it matter if they have been fed an organic vegetarian diet? What about foods that say organic on the label, but don't have the USDA organic stamp? My sister told me that the USDA stamp only means that the foods are 80% organic, so how reassuring is that? What about other health foods like Kashi? My kids absolutely LOVE that cereal, of which we have tried two kinds so far. It's not organic, but it has seven whole grains and all sorts of cool stuff like dried broccoli in their cereal.

I've also noticed that the organic section has organic mac n cheese and organic oreos, cookies, etc. which are still not healthy even if they are organic! So just because it's organic, that doesn't mean you should eat it.

The main thing I learned is that so many of the things we put into our bodies weren't meant to be eaten and aren't doing our bodies any good. So I'm trying to eat healthier and feed my family healthier foods.

Fun times this week

I know my blog has been nothing but a bunch of family pictures lately. But, hey. It's summer. Lots of time for fun!
Out to lunch for my mom's birthdayThe boys and their cousin Abbie playing at the Carnegie LibraryIsaiah and cousin KarisSam at Bounce UIsaiah bouncingAbbie having a blastThe three munchkins in the baby pool Abbie finds the boys' antics hilarious

Kisses for cousins

Lighthouse Picnic

The boys had fun at today's Lighthouse picnic. Here are some pictures of them snacking and playing in the kids' corner.

Sam loves watermelon!

Isaiah wanted a lion, giraffe, and "safari" painted on his face to match the rain boots he was wearing.

Sam playing with play dough

Night away

On Friday night, Dan and I were able to get away to use the dinner theater tickets Vern and Lorrie got us for Christmas. The dinner theater is only about an hour away, just over the border into Ohio. We checked into the adjacent inn, enjoyed some of our complementary chocolates, and headed straight for the pool and hot tub. Then we walked around several Amish/Mennonite-style shops on the property. Dinner was an amazingly wonderful spread followed by a humorous musical written by the main actor. At the dinner theater... we were so close we could count the actor's freckles!

In the inn's lobby

Fun Saturday

Here are some pictures from a visit to my Aunt Janet's house on Saturday. Playing ball in the yardThrowing sticks in the fire ringStill cute, even though it's out of focus! Isaiah and Papa The boys and great-grandma The boys and Papa A rousing game of UNO

Out to eat

Brave

Today in the car, Isaiah was telling me about a small roller coaster he rode with my mom at the Saxonburg carnival a few weeks ago.

Isaiah: It looked like a lot of fun to go on. But when I got on it, it was pretty scary. So I pushed my brave button.

Me: And did that work?

Isaiah: Yes. I just put new batteries in it.

So if you're feeling afraid, maybe your brave button just needs new batteries.

Dedicated Prinicipal (Three Cups of Tea, 4th and final post)

Traveling through Afghanistan post 9/11, Greg Mortenson met Uzra Faizad, the dedicated principal of the Durkhani High School in Kabul. Classes had been suspended because the school's walls had been blown to pieces. The roof had caved in. "Still, she was coming to work every day and putting the place back together because she was passionate about education being the only way to solve Afghanistan's problems."

Would this happen in the U.S.? Hopefully we'll never be in the situation to find out. But I hope that everyone who educates children, whether teachers, principals, or guidance counselors, would strive for her commitment.

Erie Adventures

Last week Dan directed a week at Edinboro Youth Camp. Isaiah was sick over the weekend, but we managed to make it up there by Tuesday, which was also our anniversary. All the junior high kids were so cute! They kept wishing us happy anniversary all night.
We went to Waldameer amusement park. The weather was cool but fairly nice, and Isaiah and Sam had fun on the rides.

I had done some research ahead of time to find some indoor kids' activities, knowing that it was going to be a rainy week at camp. When we got tired of being in our cabin, I took the boys to the Erie Children's Museum. They had a great time.

Gifts for the Widows (Three Cups of Tea post 3)

On September 14, 2001, Greg attended an inauguration for the Kuardu school in Pakistan as the world was reeling from the events of September 11. The local religious leader, Syad Abbas, was the speaker that day. He said, "We share in the sorrow as people weep and suffer in America today as we inagurate this school. Those who have committed this evil act against the innocent, the women and children, to create thousands of widows and orphans do not do so in the name of Islam... May justice be served against them... I request America look into our hearts... and see that the great majority of us are not terrorists, but good and simple people."

Greg Mortensen says, "It was an incredible speech... I wish all Americans who think 'Muslim' is just another way of saying 'terrorist' could have been there that day. The true core tenets of Islam are justice, tolerance, and charity."

Following the ceremony, the widows of the village "pressed eggs into Greg's hands, begging him to take these tokens of grief to the faraway sisters they longed to comfort themselves, the widows of New York village."

These Pakistani women cared so deeply about people they had never met, Americans, yet we dismiss them, lumping them together with the extremists, the enemies of America.

Very eye-opening and humbling.