Major Mom’s Back to Basics Campaign: Crazy Easy Applesauce

05. January 2013 · Comments Off on Major Mom’s Back to Basics Campaign: Crazy Easy Applesauce · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,
When life gives you apples, make APPLESAUCE!

When life gives you apples, make APPLESAUCE!

In this next installment of “Back to Basics”, I’m going to share how crazy easy it is to make applesauce for your family.

Before I found “Natural” applesauce for my family, I tended to avoid buying applesauce because of the added sugars. Mott’s and White House both now make “natural” applesauce that comes in nice containers for lunchboxes. I feel a little better about it.

Nonetheless, I came into a huge bag of red delicious apples when some of us spouses were setting up Christmas stockings for Dave’s squadron’s Christmas party. I had this bowl with a pile of apples throughout the holidays, and only Timmy was eating them. The rest of us hate red delicious apples, other types taste so much better.

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To Those Who Use the Multi-Use Trail on East Bay Blvd.

04. January 2013 · Comments Off on To Those Who Use the Multi-Use Trail on East Bay Blvd. · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Highway399Sign

When I take long training runs, I think about a LOT of stuff. Here are some of the wacky things that crossed my mind on today’s 8 mile training run, which took me on to County Route 399 near the airfield. Take it or leave it.

  1. If you let your dogs poop on the sidewalk and don’t clean up — YOU ARE WRONG. It’s bad enough when they’re aren’t cleaned up from the grass on the sides, but the SIDEWALK? On the 2 mile stretch of trail between Hidden Creek Golf Course and the Holley NOLF airstrip, I saw at least 4 piles from assorted sized pets, one of which had been stepped in…not by me, thankfully! Do the right thing and clean up after your pet.
  2. Just east of the PGA Blvd. intersection with East Bay Blvd. is a bridge that crosses over a creek. What died near that bridge? It smells AWFUL!
  3. Girl running this morning with the red gloves, do I really look that terrible? That face you gave me…in both directions…was pretty telling. Other people smile and say hello, even when drenched in sweat.
  4. Is it apropos that the last song that played on my Pandora at the very end of my run was “Misery” by Maroon 5?
  5. Is it in poor form to run down the very center of the street if the traffic is light enough? By the time you’ve run 4-5 miles, the slope on the roads starts to fatigue my ankles. I long for sidewalks in Holley by the Sea…
  6. Why did I run so slowly this morning? I average 9:15-9:20 miles but today they were 9:35-9:45 miles. Maybe I need to look into that jog.fm app that gives you music that matches your desired pace.

Okay…time for lunch!

 

 

Major Mom’s Back to Basics Campaign: Getting Control Back!

02. January 2013 · Comments Off on Major Mom’s Back to Basics Campaign: Getting Control Back! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
This isn't my house. But this is how I feel like my life becomes at times. Messy, chaotic, out of control. I resolve to do better this year.

This isn’t my house. But this is how I feel like my life becomes at times. Messy, chaotic, out of control. I resolve to do better this year.

It’s 2013 and resolve to get my life back under control.

Since when do I actually abide by those resolutions? “Lose 20 pounds.” “Save more money.” “Eat out less”. “Bake my own bread.” “Run a half marathon every season.”

Have you ever had “training” on how to set goals? I remember getting some training on it in AFROTC many years ago, back when we had an ENTIRE SEMESTER on Quality Air Force, which was the Air Force’s adaptation of Total Quality Management in the mid-1990s. Part of the training was about how to set meaningful, reasonable goals.

Feel free to Google “Goal setting” or “how to set reasonable goals” and you’ll see all sorts of tips. What I remember is  the following:

  • Goals should be realistic.
  • Goals should be achievable in a timely manner.
  • Goals should be achievable with resources available.
  • Goals’ successes should be measurable.

As you can see from the title, simply declaring “Getting control back!” is not really measurable, is it? After all, how do I know whether my life is in control or not? To a fly on the wall, it might seem like my life is in control: my kids are clothed, fed, they’re taken to piano, Scouts, sports and school at the proper times. Bills are paid, I meet my AF Reserve obligations, and I remembered everyones’ birthdays in 2012 (I think).

I need help with meal planning and keeping up with housework. Every once in a while I’ll fuss about these two things on Facebook or Twitter…or here on this blog. These are the two items that will fall by the wayside FIRST when our lives get busy. I’ll get into scenarios where I don’t have time to cook, the laundry and dishes will pile up, and my poor floors get filthy, and the dust tumbleweed starts to roll.

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Florida Discoveries 35.5: LEGOLAND Florida

01. January 2013 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 35.5: LEGOLAND Florida · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,
Timmy's trying to be a Minifigure here. We love our funny guy!

Timmy’s trying to be a Minifigure here. We love our funny guy!

I can’t believe I forgot to post about Legoland! <Facepalm!>

We surprised the boys with a brief trip the day after Christmas, on our drive home from spending the holiday with Dave’s family in Tampa. Instead of writing a bunch of dialogue about it here, I will drop the Google+ photo album here and you can enjoy the captions. Enjoy!

Happy Holidays from Major Mom!

31. December 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,
Happy Holidays from Major Mom and Family!

Happy Holidays from Major Mom and Family!

Okay, okay, so I’m a bit behind here.

“But at least you’re kept your head above water with all the holiday obligations, right? You seemed to have had a billion Christmas parties for Dave’s unit, scouts, the spouses’ club, and the boys’ piano lessons.”

I guess so — the house was decorated, trees trimmed, gifts were purchased and wrapped, cards made and sent out, and we made it to everywhere we were expected to be this season — with White Elephant gift exchange gifts as needed.

I was pretty tired by the time the kids started their holiday break on the 18th. It was non-stop from the week after Thanksgiving.

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Alabama Discoveries 4: Bellingrath Gardens Magic Christmas in Lights (Includes Visit Tips)

29. December 2012 · Comments Off on Alabama Discoveries 4: Bellingrath Gardens Magic Christmas in Lights (Includes Visit Tips) · Categories: Uncategorized
DSC_1405

The Magic of Christmas light show at Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile, Alabama draws hundreds of thousands of visitors every holiday season. Our family really enjoyed it.

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while, but before I knew it, Christmas got a bit overwhelming.  Since there are still several days to enjoy the light show, I will try to get this post out there before their last weekend so people can try to fit it into their New Year’s plans.

Bellingrath Gardens and Home is a 65-acre property just southwest of Mobile, Alabama. The holiday light show, called Magic Christmas in Lights, which started in 1995, has become very popular and draws visitors from throughout the Gulf Coast.

Dave asks me around Thanksgiving every year, “What do you want for Christmas?” And I usually come up with something unusual, such as “I would like you to arrange a family trip to Bellingrath Gardens in December.”

Of course, he had to go do all the research: What is it? Why does Patricia want to go to a botanical garden in December? How much do the tickets cost? Do I need to get the tickets ahead of time?

I’m usually the one who does the travel planning in the family: I make the airfare, hotel, rental car arrangements, I am the one who does the route planning ahead of time. I don’t mind, really. But for Dave to take the reigns on travel planning is a real treat.

Dave got us internet tickets for December 8th, a Saturday night. The hours for the event are 5-9pm, and I will explain in a minute why it’s important to arrive at 5pm. We took our time getting to the gardens, stopping at Lambert’s Cafe in Foley, as well as a brief trip to the Wales West Tourist Railroad to see the holiday decorations there also.

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Why It Pays to Have a Personal Computer Rider

27. December 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , ,
Can you see the cracks in the screen?

Can you see the cracks in the screen? It’s extra creepy when I’m looking at this picture of screen cracks through the real cracked screen.

Allow me to give a little public service announcement.

Last weekend I dropped a filled duffel bag while attempting to load it into our car-top carrier for our holiday trip to Tampa. It fell from the top of our SUV, and in the bag were my Macbook and iPad.  The iPad was well-protected, but the Macbook was not; the screen shattered and one corner of the aluminum body crushed.

Don’t yell at me, I’ve been fussed at enough about this.

The computer is still working decently, although I can occasionally feel the cracking of some small shards of glass inside the keyboard.

We have USAA Property Insurance (being a military family and all), and we immediately called them about our options for getting the computer repaired or replaced.

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A Holiday Post to Let You Know I’m Not Dead….

18. December 2012 · Comments Off on A Holiday Post to Let You Know I’m Not Dead…. · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

This has been an insane holiday season!  But let me just toss up some You Tube videos showing off the kids. These were all taken with our new camera…with the telephoto lens zoomed in as far as it would go.

I promise I have so much more to write about this week, bear with me, thanks!

The first four are from the boys’ piano recital last Friday night.  The first two are Timmy, the second two are of Jacob.

And this is Jacob this morning reciting a poem he wrote himself at the school’s “Peppermint Parade”, in which each student from four of the classes recited a poem about winter, Christmas, or any other theme from this time of year. I apologize for the zoom sounds in the first 15 seconds or so…I had a hard time seeing whether the image was zoomed in or not.  I need to learn to adjust that manually so you can’t hear the motor.

 

 

 

I’m only putting text here because otherwise those colorful “Share This” buttons cover up the controls for the Peppermint Parade video.

My Bespectacled Baby

04. December 2012 · Comments Off on My Bespectacled Baby · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

“Mommy, now I look like a professor” ~ Timothy

Today Timmy got his first pair of glasses.

We knew this was coming for a long time. He’s like his father in so many ways: appearance, his comedic nature, and many other “youngest child” traits. It took three visits to the eye doctor this year to get everything right, Timmy would complain about his vision, and the eye doctor was trying to delay his needing the glasses. Over Thanksgiving break, we noticed him crossing his eyes purposefully. He claimed that his eyes “felt better” when he crossed them.

This last visit was the one where the doctor noticed the slight cross-eyed-ness. The glasses would help his eyes not have to strain so much. The doctor prescribed him glasses to wear for anytime he needed to read: books, blackboards, computer screens, music.

The doctor’s office has a nice optical shop on site, with a great deal for kids’ glasses. I was particularly sold by the one year warranty, which covers everything except complete loss of the glasses and lenses. Timmy wanted a pair that looked like his Dad’s. He told the completely-smitten-by-him ladies about how much he already looks like his Dad, and that with glasses he will look just like Dad!

Reading his Harry Potter: Prizoner of Azkaban.

They helped him choose a pair that offered some room for growth, and they put silicone nose pieces on them so they wouldn’t slip so much. An extra case for school, plenty of microfiber cleaning cloths, and some cleaning spray.

My hats off to any parents with young kids in glasses. How do you keep their glasses from getting lost while at school? Timmy has exhibited responsibility with other high-value items (such as his Nintendo DS), but my concern is with his flippy/floppy/hangy/roll-around-ness that will probably result in the glasses falling off easily. Here’s hoping he doesn’t lose them…

Thanksgiving 2012 in New York

01. December 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

Our family got to spend last week with Dave’s family in New York. Even though Jacob, Timmy and I get to go annually — the boys spend some time up there — I sometimes go up to pick them up from their visits…Dave hadn’t been since 2009.

We flew the family up this year, driving to Panama City Beach so we could take advantage of a low-stress Southwest Airlines route to Islip, New York…on Eastern Long Island. This made pick up/drop off easy for Dave’s parents. The boys were wonderful during the travel both to and from New York.

The enjoyed playing with their stuffed animals on the trip up to New York. They were each allowed to bring two. It sounds strange, but they play pretend with their animals very nicely and don’t fight. I’ll take it!

The family spent most of the week relaxing; Dave and the boys played with LEGOs and Lincoln Logs, and the whole family enjoyed going through box after box of photographs from when Dave was younger.

It’s a tradition — playing with Daddy’s toys.

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