I got it from here...

This morning was a late start morning...school started 2 hours late. Yahoo!!...we all got some desperately needed sleep!! After taking Maddie to preschool, Jack & I decided to walk to school & take Bond along. I've noticed that our goodbye spot is slowly getting closer to home & further from school. This morning after we took our shortcut thru the neighbors backyard & hit the sidewalk..Jack says, "Mom, at the next tree, I got it from here (turning with a grin)" I love that kid...but it's also hard to let them "get it from here:)"

what i like to listen to... two very cute violinst.

art night

self portraits...:)

Walk or Run..

I was reading today that San Fran is the most "walkable city" in the US. What a fun place to walk around!! For the complete list check out http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/most-walkable-cities.php
Columbus was 27 on the list. (citing Weinland Park & Victorian village as the best neighborhoods) Surprisingly, I didn't see Dublin listed in the walkable neighborhood section. I guess it's hard to walk to the grocery store & shops, but you definitely can ride your bike. There are even good restaurants within walking/pedaling distance to our neighborhood. I'm thankful I can walk or pedal Jack & Maddie to school each day thru elementary school & we can hop on our bikes & explore parks too.

One thing I do notice when walking is the number of cars that sit idling in the "drop off" line at school or just in the parking lots. I notice cars running with someone sitting on their cell phone inside. or even the gigantic school buses. This really bugs me. Turn your freaking car off if you are idling for more than 10 secs. It will save you gas money by not wasting fuel & it helps air quality. I read that cutting out 5 minutes of idle time can save you $241 annually & prevent 400lbs of carbon dioxide from floating out of your tailpipe.

Since I'm thinking about walking today...thought I'd share a very cool site www.mapmyrun.com John has been using this to log his running & track his distance. I'm still barely able to run my mile on the treadmill in under 14 minutes. I'm hoping that will change now that the weather is improving. Walking may be a more pleasurable experience for me. Though I am very envious of runners. I see people running all the time & think about how hard it is for me. I wonder if it will ever get easier? My goal is to run a 5K before I turn 40 & finish w/o stopping. We'll see:)

Corn

Do you know where your food comes from? or exactly what's in your food? do you really care? The answers for me were: sometimes, not exactly & YES!

I watched a documentary this weekend "King Corn" www.kingcorn.net Short synopsis, two college friends follow their roots to Iowa, farm an acre of corn, try to learn more about modern farming & where food comes from & goes after it's harvested.

Surprisingly, most of the corn in Iowa is non-edible, genetically modified, grown specifically for feed corn for cattle lots aka "feed lots" & for making HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Surprised??? I was. I felt disgusted at the way our government has turned alot of farmers into people who make a living on something they cant even eat!

Learning about cattle feed lots was the hardest to watch. The cows are basically overfed with only corn feed & antibiotics to prevent them from getting sick in these conditions until they are slaughtered. The documentary explained that these cow's diet would kill them even if they weren't made into food. If you eat beef, try to look for grass fed labels and eat less of it. www.eatwild.com is a good reference

Our consumption of HFS has gone up 1000% in the last 30 years. Look at the ingredients of your food & most likely you will be shocked. WHY?? It's cheap, easy to grow & makes your food taste good. Unfortunately, it's not good for you & has caused a diabetic epidemic across the USA. Who's to blame? I think our government is to blame. $9.4billion was paid to corn farmers in 2005. It's hard to eat healthy w/o spending more & really caring about what you consume.

Now what to do? I'm going to continue reading labels, buy as much locally as I can, read more about the farm bill http://www.farmandfoodproject.org/
Hopefully with more people becoming aware of the effects of hfcs in everything, healthier foods will replace the fast foods & farmers will be will funded for making healthy edible crops before we all become extinct like Maddie's fav t-rex:)


www.kingcorn.net

Walking on campus...

A Night at the Symphony & my little honeybee

We took the kids to the Columbus Symphony to see David play & watch Cirque de la Symphonie. Wow..it was cool!
http://www.cirquedelasymphonie.com/main.php

Also, Maddie got her honeybee costume for the May show. Maybe I can figure out how to rotate a video & you can see it w/o head sideways:)

Music listen..

Earth Day Hooray!!

Do something everyday to help the environment.
reduce - place a full water bottle with cap into your toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used to flush. You may have to put alittle weight in the bottom of the bottle i.e sand.
reuse - check out your local thrift store...you may be shocked (in a good way) at what you find.
recycle- did you know you could recycle your crocs www.solesunited.com
thought these were too good not to mention:
www.bogolight.com
www.laptoplunches.com

Aprils...

My spring babies..

a side note; Jack had a quote in his class newsletter this week about poetry:
he says "the difference between poems and songs is that in songs the music comes from the instruments but in poetry it comes from the words."
:)

Sliding by..

floating down
sliding fast,
faster you go
a giggle I hear
watching you grow
a smile I see
this time between you & me..

Treasures...

Little treasures from the weekend...

Planting..

Today Maddie & I spent as much time outside as possible. It was a perfect temp & it felt beautiful. AHHH...finally! Maddie got to ride her bike to playgroup today..we stopped alot, but she did great & she had so much fun at the park with her friends.

We went to the ECOexpo last weekend at the Rec ctr & picked up alot of freebies. One of the cool things I learned while we were there was how to roll your own planting pots with newspaper. All you need is a jar & paper to create a tube that you fold the ends down for a planter. You can start your seeds directly in it & then stick the whole thing in the ground when you are ready to plant them..the newspaper will just slowly break down into the soil. Maddie & I planted some zinnias today. Hope we have better luck keeping them alive than our tadpole!

Finally a sunny day...

After a gray & rainy first half of the week, today finally gave us lots of sun. Hello Mr. Tulip:)

Bottled, Tap or Flitered??

I am very guilty of drinking bottled water ALOT, but after seeing this trailer I think I'm going to stick with the filtered water from my frig & look for a stainless lined travel cup.

April Showers...

Waking us from our sleep
We slowly begin to creep
Outside you splash our little heads
Beginning our day with umbrellas in hand
Splish splash we hear you echo
Saying hello to the day
Everyone hurries to escape your cold handshake
All except the little faces searching for a puddle to splash
or the buds waiting for a smile to flash...

Busy Weekend..

We loved having Nuh here this weekend..time flies, wish she could stay a little longer. We had soccer, bday parties, pictionary, easter dinner with the Demos'.
I'm sad to report that Mr.Taddy didnt make it 2 days in our house:( Not sure if it was the water or food. We're going to try again.

Our New Little Friend...Mr. Tadpole

Last year Jack got a bug habitat from Tommy & Michael for his birthday. The habitat came with a coupon for a free tadpole. We tried to order it, but it wasnt available...finally after the winter, I got around to checking the website www.ribbitsgalore.com to order our little "Northern Leopard Frog" friend. He arrived today!! Stay posted...mI hope we can keep him alive.

Woody/Buzz

Maddie found a bag of old Halloween costumes this week. Her favorites.... Woody & Buzz:)

What I'm listening to...
Postal Service.

MS 72, NC 89

Carolina = National Champs!!! Since moving to Ohio its hard to find many Tarheel fans. Occasionally I will see someone walking with a UNC sweatshirt or hat, but it's rare. On those occasions...I have a strange urge to run over & say hey...are you from NC too? I'm usually not so brave.

I hardly ever see a basketball game anymore esp one with blue & white, but when the kids finally drifted off last night...I headed for the basement to watch the final game. Mad woke up just after halftime, but it was pretty clear Carolina was going to be National Champs.

I usually laugh at the Buckeye mania during football season, but today I can sort of relate to my neighbors buckeye flags waving & wearing team colors. I miss talking to Marie...my teacher asst. & (the biggest Carolina fan I've ever known). I thought about her last night & knew she was loving it!!!

I'm also jealous John's in NC this week...I'm sure hearing the buzz of Carolina fever!! Hope he can bring us back some warmer weather...it's barely 30 & snow flurries out there..but I did get "a shout out" in our driveway!!

April 2005

Silly & sleep deprived....I remember when I took this...Maddie was only a few weeks old. I love looking back & remembering how much they've changed & grown in just a few years.

Sunny Sunday

Today was sunny & warm...warm enough to be outside for most of the afternoon. Jack found a bird nest & Moo found a nice warm place to snooze. :0

First Game & Lunch

Clear blue skies this morning, but it was so windy & cold on the field for our first game. They played great despite the chilly wind and Jack had so much fun. He also loved having lunch with Y,P,& Adeana.

Soccer Ahead...

Soccer season starts tomorrow, but practice started last Thurs. When I saw all the returning kids at practice last night, I thought about how much they have grown just over the winter months. Sometimes I just want to stop time..or just slow it down alittle.

A Trip to Jeni's

Jeni's Ice cream opened in Dublin yesterday. A pretty famous family-run Columbus spot for yummy ice cream. They now have 5 locations!! I'm usually not a lover of ice cream, but its hard not to like Jeni's. It's all homemade right here in Ohio & they have totally unique flavors. Plus the atmosphere is pretty cool too. So after ballet today instead of our usually trip to Wendi's for Maddie's jr. frosty, we went for Jeni's. Mad's choice - Belgium Milk Chocolate & Kelly's- Pistachio Honey. YUM!!
http://jenisicecreams.com/index.html
ps..you can even do mail order:)

A Spoiled Generation...we are

This made me laugh so hard!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus
...a funny reminder of how spoiled we really are in 2009.