Soda...To Drink or Not to Drink, Making the Right Choice for You

Seriously I don't want to post this and just be a total soda hater, I know a ton of friends and family who love their Diet Coke or their Pepsi and have no desire to quit. I had always been a heavy soda drinker. In fact growing up our drink of choice for breakfast, lunch and dinner was Coke, Squirt or Sprite. A few years back I was drinking like 3 or 4 18 oz. diet sodas per day. I tried to quit but I always kept going back to it for energy, for comfort, and for...I'm not sure why other than I got really bad headaches when I tried to quit so it was just better to go back to it. About 3 years ago I had already heard some of the reports on the news about how bad diet sodas are, etc., etc. I thought well I'll just limit myself to one non-diet soda per day, I did that for a while and gained like 10 pounds. About 1 1/2 yrs. ago I was sitting at church listening to our Bishop speak about addiction and some of the control that we give up to any kind of addiction and I just had one of those “aha!” moments. I knew I was addicted to soda. I had tried to quit and I didn't seem to be able to. So that day I decided to get home and really research soda, find out everything that's in it and why I needed to quit. What I found was that half of the research shows no links to any healthy issues just dental health issues. The other half of the studies show that soda diet and non-diet is super unhealthy and can cause stroke, obesity, etc. I felt like I needed to just make the right decision for me. What did my gut feeling, coupled with all the studies that I read, tell me to do? So since that day I stopped drinking it and I stopped buying it. I mostly drink water at home and when we go out to eat. Listen I totally understand it is a personal choice but if you're on the fence about why you need to quit these articles may be helpful. One thing I will say when I decided to quit I did have a MASSIVE headache for almost a month!!! Stick it out, it will pass. I think I always thought "well there's other crap we eat that worse" or "drinking soda is such a small change in my life". But for me it was like quitting soda put me on the right track to getting healthier and kind of knowing that I can do anything that I just set my mind to. It has been like a small stepping stone to really look at what I eat and what I'm making for my family, and just have more of a conscious effort. There are much healthier things you can drink to replace soda. Maybe my family or I would never have gotten cancer even if we had never stopped drinking soda, or maybe we will get cancer even with having quit soda but you know what? It’s like driving a car. I may be in an accident even when I’m dutifully abiding by all the traffic laws but if I am ever in an accident I can have a clear conscious knowing I was obeying the laws of driving. Sorry for the long post but as you can see I'm pretty passionate on this subject, LOL!

These are some really good articles about the health risks and reasons to avoid drinking sodas.

Coca-Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away From Bad Diets

Sodas and Your Health: Risks Debated

Ten Reasons to Avoid Drinking Soda

I also wanted to post this one article because I have seen quite a bit of articles that support that there are no studies that show that soda is bad for you. Again you need to make your own decision but for me I really felt that the risks outweigh the advantages of soda consumption.

Is diet soda bad for you?

Lego Movie Birthday Party

Ahhhh another year brings another themed party to our household.

So this year was Christian's 12th Birthday.  I wanted to do something a little more grown-up.  So I was crazy enough to think that we would have his friends come over right after school on a Friday afternoon and have parents pick up at 8pm! What was I thinking! This is what I had planned the night to look like:

3pm to 4pm - Play basketball outside and/or play video games inside.

4pm to 5pm - Carpool all the boys to the movie theatre to watch Lego Movie with a quick stop to get some burgers and buy them some soda, popcorn and candy at the movie theatre.

5pm to 6:30pm - LEGO MOVIE!

7pm to 7:30pm - Have cake and ice cream and open presents.

7:30pm to 8pm - Play more video games until parent pick-ups.

Things didn't really go as I had planned. We had a HUGE snow/ice storm and the schools were closed in preparation for the storm arriving at 3pm on Friday, sooo, I picked up all the boys, drove to the movie theatre did the whole burgers, popcorn, soda and candy thing and barely had enough time to drop off all the boys before the snow storm arrived.  We had a cake for Christian on Monday night and while I was bummed that I didn't get to buy or make him Lego cupcakes or decorate the house for his b-day it turned out GREAT!  The boys had a blast and that's all that matters.

So here's the invitations I made:

Scouting

I have been doing cub scouts for about 2 1/2 years now. I finally feel like our den is running smoothly. I've learned a lot and have learned to love the LDS cub scout program instead of just enduring it.

One of the things that really helped me where these tracking sheets and activity planner forms. I originally found the Bear Trail Record sheet on one of my favorite LDS sites www.sugardoodle.com from a post shared by Kristie Udall but I had to  tweak it a little to work better for us.  I love these sheets they truly make record keeping and activity planning so much easier for us and we can now focus on better things, like making sure our boys are having fun and getting their awards.   

One of my pet peeves was that our boys were not getting their religious knots.  I had my two boys get them when my youngest was a wolf and the older a Bear.  As a parent (and prior to my my calling as Bear Den Leader) I just thought that if any church/organization should be pushing for the religious knot it should be the LDS church; don't you agree? Anyway, each of my Bears for the past year has successfully received their religious knot.

The first thing I do when I get a new Bear cub scout is either email, text or call their mom and go through the list of Faith in God achievements. And guess what? Sometimes they haven't done anything and that's ok! I have extra Faith in God booklets handy and I start the Bear in their FiG book. But sometimes I have a scout that has actually done quite a few. Usually not the ones that the boy needs for the religious knot though. So once we setup record sheets for them we start planning according to what they need for their religious knot which is surprisingly not a lot and pretty easy to finish in a year. I don't worry about doing any of the other FinG requirements just the ones that they need to earn their religious knot.  When the Bear scout advances to Webelos I send their mom, and new leader a copy of their records. For the mom so she knows what her son finished in his FinG book and for the Webelos leaders so they know they earned their religious knot.

I'm not sure that we can post documents here on Blogger so if you like them just email me and I can email it in either pdf or word/excel format.

I also attended the University of Scouting a couple of weeks ago and found some really cool stuff and links which I will be putting up to share with you all.

Cub Scouts can really be a lot of fun and once you organize yourself it really isn't that much work. If your ward has not provided a lot of direction start out by putting a Bear, Wolves or Webelos bag that you can pass on once you're released. Handing the next person the records, data, etc. can help with a smooth transition. Instead of having the next person recreate everything you have created. Aren't we always telling our kids to share?! My predecessor gave me the "bag" and I just added to it and made it better and I really hope that once I'm released I can do the same for the next leader. Remember that the boys love scouts.  They love creating, building, and learning.  They are rowdy most of the time but if you can learn how to get them involved your den will start to flourish.

Check back often for more fun and helpful things!

Happy Thanksgiving Banner

This was a quick and easy thanksgiving decoration I just made. I used some of my scrapbooking paper, Cricut cartridge and vinyl paper, jute, hole puncher, and thumbtacks. You can do "Happy Thanksgiving" like I did or use "Many Thanks", "Thankful" or "Give Thanks". Here's some more pictures:

Bay Center/Willapa Bay

Another summer adventure! I have to say I was really nervous to take the kids by myself for the first day and a half. But I have to say it was a lot of fun! While my idea of camping remains a cabin on the coast or in the mountains, fully furnished and stocked; a yurt was not that bad. The boys stayed in the tent site right next to my yurt so they roughed it a little more. Cooking every meal is not that different than being home but I appreciate my sink and gas stove so much more. 

Our accommodations :)

Our first day at camp. Shish kabobs and s'mores two of my favorite camping foods. 

The most fun we had was walking the bay and digging for clams and collecting shells. 

We'll definitely be going back!

Oregon Zoo

 

The Oregon zoo trip was awesome! But tiring. This was the first time we took our lunch and picnicked on the lawn. The kids loved it. Other than it was a tad bit too hot and sunny (wait did I really just say that?!?) I have been in Oregon too long!! lol! Also, it's fun going with a bigger group. We went with our besties the Cox's and then again on $4 Tuesdays with our scout Bear and Webelos dens. If you care here's some invaluable tips about the Oregon Zoo.

First, if you are brave enough to go on $4 Tuesdays (July and August summer specials) get there before 9am.  If you have an SUV and want to get in and out of your vehicle with more than a few inches, park in one of the end parking spots. The parking spots are pretty tight. And $4 Tuesdays are packed.

Some other general things...take comfortable shoes.  You'd think that's a given but I see a ton of ladies with heels and I'm just wondering "what the heck were you thinking?!?".  "Makes my feet ache just looking at you".

Also, bring your own lunch and drinks so you can splurge on snacks like elephant ears, pretzels and cotton candy. Bring old towels to sit down on if you're gonna picnic in the pavilion area that's next to the elephant exhibit. The grass is always damp.

Try to fit everything you'll need in a backpack instead of bringing a wagon. But if you have small kids you'll definitely need a jogger, stroller or wagon. You'll want to park your stroller off to the side, don't park or stop in the middle of the walkways because you'll just start a congestion.

Don't forget your sunscreen. Even on a somewhat cloudy day you'll get burn. Bring a hat for you and your little ones if it's a really sunny day. The nice thing is the zoo will turn on some mist sprinklers that are so refreshing.  

Lastly, hit the Larakeet exhibit first and splurge on the $1 nectar cups. If you are gentle the birds will climb on your hand and feed from your cup. It is by far the kids' favorite exhibit. 

Bread Making 102 - Easy 2,000 Year Old Bread

The other bread that Michelle taught me to make was this amazing bread called 2,000 Year Old Bread.  She got the recipe from Cha Cha Dave's 2,000 Year-Old Bread recipe. The video is a little annoying but he does a good job of illustrating how to make the recipe.

 

 

 

The problem that I have with Cha Cha Dave's recipe is that it's really for one loaf of bread.  Michelle didn't recommend me trying to double the recipe she said just make multiple batches.  I still didn't like this idea very well and that I had to wait 10 to 24 hours to use the dough.  I'm just not that patient.  SOOO, I found this awesome recipe at Lisa's Dinnertime Dish - Artisan Bread you can click on the link to get the recipe as well.

 

It's super easy I can make a batch for 2 big loaves or 4 smaller ones.  And I found that I could leave it on the counter for 45 minutes and then pop it in the fridge for another 45 minutes to an hour and I could use the dough to make my bread without waiting hours and hours before I could use the dough.  You can use the cornmeal to roll your dough in but I still prefer to use the whole wheat flour and oatmeal to roll my dough in.  See how pretty it looks? I do not use a pizza stone.  Save your money and use your cast iron pot.  I have the Martha Stewart enameled cast iron pot.  I only have the 8 qt. but the smaller pots work better because they cradle the bread while it bakes and helps keep it round and pretty.  Turn on the oven to 500 degrees pop in the enameled cast iron pot for 30 minutes to heat up then take it out, throw the bread dough in the middle, and pop it back in the 500 degree oven to bake for 35 minutes.  I like mine extra crispy on the outside.  If you don't, then just bake it for 25 to 30 minutes.

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I have.  Such a pleasure to make your own bread and it's so delicious!!!

Oh I almost forgot!  I don't like to use my Kitchen Aid to mix the dough, I actually just use a fork.  Yes it hurts my arm after a few minutes but I like the consistency much better.