New Thing: Oil Pulling

I saw this post on a friend's FB wall.  She was interested but a little freaked about this thing called "oil pulling."  I had never heard of it, but I clicked the link, read, and then posted on my friend Chelsea's wall, asking what she thought about it.  A loooooong conversation ensued, and by the end, I was convinced - I was going to try it.

I know it sounds TOTALLY disgusting, but the lure of a natural cure to headaches is honestly what interested me most.  I am sick of popping pills that don't work or drinking a caffeinated-sugar-loaded beverage.  I could also do with whiter teeth.

I hopped on Amazon and found I could get a giant thing of it for $13.  I ordered.  It arrived over the weekend and Monday morning, I took the plunge.  Below I describe my own experience with this new thing, but if you want to be highly entertained, you need to read Laura's experience.  It's hilarious.

At first, it was kind of disgusting.  Its consistency is the same as Crisco.  Eww.  And it tastes like coconut.  Double eww.  But, once it melts (a minute or two in), it's not bad.  I swished it around in my mouth while I showered, toweled off, blow-dried my hair, and got dressed.  By then, 20 minutes had passed.  I repeated the process every day this week.  I have noticed the following:

1 - I have not had a single headache
2 - I have not needed chapstick in the morning
3 - I think my teeth might actually be half a shade whiter!

I have used coconut oil to remove eye make up and it works like a charm.  I have also used it in place of oil in two recipes and it has worked great.

I'm going to keep it up!

Kindle Book: Island of Thieves

Island of Thieves

by Josh Lacey

Length: 240 pages

Format: Kindle
Price: $4.61

Author Website: http://www.joshlacey.com/

Basic Premise: Tom Trelawny doesn't know anything about his uncle except that he's British, a bachelor, and doesn't seem to get along with his dad. When Tom's parents leave him with his uncle unexpectedly, the stay turns into a trip to Lima, Peru, complete with kidnapping, hijacking, treasure hunting, and escape-attempting.

My Take: 4 out of 10 (scale here)
Eh.

There wasn't really anything wrong with this book.  It was interesting, adventurous, and somewhat entertaining.  I felt from the writing style that it was geared toward younger children - you know, 4th graders or so.  Uncle Harvey was terribly irresponsible, and kind of a sleazebag.  There were a few times where I thought the plot was thickening a bit, but alas, no.  I was not extremely excited about finishing it, but I needed to cross it off my list.

I will not be reading the sequel.

The Surprise...OMG

For weeks now, my husband has been telling me to save the weekend at the end of Spring Break for something.  He refused any and all details, except for the fact that we would be going sans kids.  Since it was only a few days, I was fairly certain we were heading to KC.

And I was right.  Friday afternoon, we had lunch with the kids and headed out.  We stopped at:

We are so cheap - even with money to spend (Rick saved all his birthday money) we left empty-handed.  Well, actually, I spent $13 on two shirts at LOFT, so I guess we weren't completely empty-handed.

Then we headed to the Intercontinental Hotel in KC.  You had to use your key card to get the elevator to go up to our floor where we had access to an exclusive "lounge" complete with all the food and drinks we wanted and a great view of the plaza.  And, a HUGE TV perfect for watching basketball!

I really thought this was the extent of the surprise - a nice, fancy hotel, just the two of us...but no.  It turns out, there was more.

Saturday evening Rick said we needed to eat early.  On the advice of the concierge and a conversation we overheard in the lounge, we chose:

I had never heard of this restaurant, but the description said "southern food," so Rick was sold already.  It was a nice little place with a casual atmosphere.  When got the menus, Rick was like, "I want to eat everything on this menu."  We ordered Asian Pig Wings:

I ate two bites of one.  He ate the rest.  Enough for a meal.

He ordered Mac & Cheese with burnt ends.  I ordered Chicken & Waffles, mainly because I was curious.  I wish I had gotten pics.  I ate a plain waffle and called it good.  Rick ate one of my enormous pieces of chicken wings and all of his burnt end mac & cheese.  When they brought the check, they brought it out in a book, and inside the book where the check was, people had written comments about their meals.  Here is what my husband wrote:

I told him I hoped he still felt that way in a few hours.

From there, we took a cab we walked back to the hotel because Rick forgot his wallet.  Then we took a cab to the Midland Theater where THEY WERE HOSTING THE SING OFF: LIVE!

O.
M.
G.

I didn't even know this was a thing.  I knew I loved the show, but I never imagined there would be a touring show.  I was so. stinking. excited.

Us outside the theater, before the show

I'm going to try to outline the show without getting too nerdy.  There were four groups: The Cat's Pajamas, the Filharmonic, Voice Play and Home Free.  They were all awesome.  My personal favorite was Voice Play, which was the only group with a chick (and a chick with pipes, y'all).  The show opened with everyone onstage singing together, and then they took turns on stage.  I think my least favorite group was the one everyone seemed to be most excited about, and that was Home Free.  Not being a fan of country music myself, it follows that I wasn't a huge fan of their country style.  But they were entertaining, and obviously ridiculously talented.

But the best part of the show, hands down, was the encore.  They came back out, all of them, without mics.  That was a first for the show, but if you really want to get technical, THAT is true a capella - nothing but naked voices.

And they sang "Hallelujah."

Which happens to be one of my most favorite goose-bump songs.

I tried in vain to find a Youtube version worthy of mentioning in the same breath.  It doesn't exist.  So I will try to describe it with words: first, the audience had to shut up to hear.  Instead of whoo-hooing at every stinking solo (SO irritating), they kept quiet in order to hear what was happening on stage.  And oh, what was happening on stage.  They started singing, and it was like musical butter.  Ice cream.  Red velvet cake.  It was so smooth and rich you just wanted to drop right inside of it.  I wanted it to last forever.  For. Ev. Ver.  Goose bumps, tears, the works.

Props, props, props to my husband, who knows me better than I know myself.  I never would have imagined this, but it was so fun and so, so perfect.  And it was clear that he put so much thought and careful planning into this trip.  What a gift.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine's Day/Turning 30/Our 10 Year Anniversary.

Get Fit: A New Approach

 I turn 30 next month.  And if someone had told me way back when that I would be entering my 30s weighing in the 140s, my 170+ pound self would have laughed and said, "Wouldn't that be nice."

But it's happening.

I was awesome last summer and fall.  Awesome.  I was super active, working out at least once every day, sometimes twice, and I was so great about eating plant-based foods, keeping processed yuck out of my diet, and eating raw fruits and veggies daily.  When school hit, it was clear that this was one area on which the tolls of a full-time job and primary care-giver for two young children would truly be taken.  I didn't have time to work out.  I didn't have time to meal plan and get to the grocery store to buy fresh ingredients constantly.  I have gone back and forth about this, and ultimately, I decided to cut myself a break.  This was my first time.  I am rounding out the winter season at only 144.8, and though it's not the 140 I was hoping for back in January, I'm calling it good.  Next year when fall hits, I will be better prepared for the battle.

So...what's next?

This summer, I want to focus on the following things:

1) Get down to 140, or maybe a better way to say it would be a size 6 in everything, not just shirts, dresses, or pants from LOFT or GAP, which run big (I've got a little junk in my trunk, hips, and thighs)
2) Learn how to lift/tone
3) Keep up activity with yoga and walking (and possibly by learning to run...ugh)
4) Return to a plant-based diet

Also, I have a large number of friends who have lost drastic amounts of weight in the last few years.  I am going to be inviting these friends to write posts for me in which they outline why they decided it was time for a change, what worked for them, and what advice they could give to anyone who is getting ready to try.  It was these types of people who motivated me in the first place, so I thought it would be nice to get some outside perspective.

So, those are things to look forward to in the near future!

Getting Married Young

I probably have at least a dozen half-written blog posts in my Blogger.  I start off great and then, I don't know, get busy or bored with the topic.  This is one of the ones I started long ago and decided to finish up this morning.

Junior Year? Ish?

Lindsey sent me a link to this post about the benefits of getting married young, wanting my thoughts.  Since my husband and I were both 20 when we married, I qualify as someone who got married young. And I love that fact. I love that we grew up together. I love that he was my first date, my first kiss, my first and only boyfriend.  I love that we went through high school and college together.  I love that he proposed to me when we were 19, and we married the next summer.  I love that I have watched him go from a tall, shy, and sometimes awkward teenager to a confident, intelligent, caring man, husband, and father.  There is something magical about that transformation, and I am glad to have been a part of it. 

Prom

However, I take a bit of issue with this article.  I don't think it's particularly well-written (SNOB ALERT), and, on behalf of all people who have a wonderful romantic love story, I kind of resent the fact that she implied with the last "perk" that those who don't get married young do not have a great love story.  I know lots of great ones that happened later in life.  One of them was my choir teacher in high school, who went to a costume party dressed as Sylvester and met his future wife, a woman in her 30s, who was dressed as Tweety Bird.  Romance has nothing to do with your age.  I also think it would behoove this author to take a look at the other side - all the things that suck about getting married early:

Wedding - June 19, 2004

1. Money. Um...you have none.  And (generally speaking) you have less working knowledge of money.  You have not had enough time to manage money-making on your own, and when you combine forces with someone who has the same problem, it just makes things that more difficult.  Oh, if I could only have another shot at this one...
2. School. You aren't done with it.  And you have to work (in my case, three jobs) to support yourselves.  Enough said.
3. Stuff. You have no stuff, so you register, and because you have no experience because you've always lived with your parents or in the dorms, you have no stinking clue what to register for.  I registered for cheap crap because I didn't want to offend anyone.  I walked around the store like, "Oh, that's cool," and used the gun with nearly no discrimination.  If I had been older and wiser, I would have gone for less quantity and more quality.
4. People. People think and say you are too young to be married (though I must say, in true teenager fashion, that only made me want to do it more).
5. Identity. You need to learn how to be you on your own before you can be you with someone else.

I love my story and wouldn't change it even given the opportunity, but my goodness, it was hard.  That said,

*Soap Box*
I certainly do not advocate this approach with others, and definitely won't with my own children.  I truly believe we are the exception to the rule, and we have been so so blessed.  We have been able to work through these issues and more by the grace of God only.  But really, the bottom line is that, no matter when you got married, no matter how much you love each other, no matter how "right" for each other you are, marriage is work.

I remember hearing this when I was young and thinking, "How unromantic.  I hope that's never us."  Oh, the naivete.  I simply couldn't imagine a time when I wasn't utterly head-over-heels, roses and rainbows, the-sun-shines-out-of-his-every-orifice in-love with the boy.  But I learned pretty quickly that those moments are not only possible, they are guaranteed.

But you know what the secret to a happy marriage is?  Loving the other person more than you love yourself.  In short, loving like Jesus, which is really the secret to a happy life, too, right?

*End Soap Box*

Randomness

1. It's been nice outside.  In 3 days I logged 11 miles.  Or I would have logged it if my Nike app hadn't totally drained my phone of battery.  I managed to snap this pic before it died completely.  Yes, those are my children reading books on our walk.  We were out for almost three hours.  I brought reinforcements. 

2. This part of the school year is always hard.  Kids quit caring, co-workers get impatient, and you can see the finish line, yet it's still so far away.  Last week I caught some kids cheating - good kids, too - and I was devastated.  My head knows they are in 7th grade and they are still learning, but my heart really wanted to keep believing that they were good, solid kids who would never do such a thing. #bummed

3. I'm starting to get REALLY stoked about summer.  Lucy can walk now, and I've got Charlie signed up for T-ball (a first!), swim lessons, VBS, and possibly gymnastics.  We've also got a family vaycay to the Ozarks on the books, and possibly another with just us.  Still working that one out.

4. Jennifer and I are going to lead a connect group at church on motherhood.  It started out as me thinking, "I really wish they would do a support group for moms" and then, as those things often do, I ended up realizing that I could and should do it.  Jennifer is going to help me and we are kicking it off the first Saturday in May and finishing at the end of July.  The group's aim will be basic - to provide moms with scriptural and corporate encouragement as they seek to be the best moms they can be.  More to come on that score.

5. Rick got a promotion!  That's right - he's now a project manager for one set of their stores.  The downside: he has been working late every night this week.  I just got off the phone with him an hour ago and he said "Hopefully I'll be out of here by 10." That's PM.  Poor guy.

6.  I have been having "knock-down-drag-outs" as my mother would say with my son over getting dressed in the morning.  The kid HATES to get himself dressed.  I don't know if it's the early hour or what, but it is a battle nearly every morning.  He does it because I make him, but he whines like a baby, and there is nothing that irks me more than whining.  So most of the time I just tell him he's not allowed to talk.  Then he just cries silently.  Which would be heartbreaking if I weren't so annoyed.

7. I turn 30 one month from today.

Pages Total:

At school, my kids keep track of their pages every quarter.  I thought I would do the same, and I'm feeling REALLY good about this.  I've been in a bit of a reading slump this school year until I went to my YAL conference in December.  Since then, I have been reading like a fiend. I have been able to knowledgeably recommend many recently published titles to kids and it's been so super fun.  Since December 18th, I have read 9 of the books on my list, with one currently in progress, and two extra books that weren't on the list:

• Cinder by Marissa Meyer done, review here
• Vote by Gary Paulsen
• The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
• Just One Day by Gayle Forman done, review here
• Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
• Island of Thieves by Josh Lacey - reading now
• The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau done, review here
• Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner done, review here
• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
• Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
• Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys done, review here
• Imprisoned by Martin W. Sandler
• The President Has Been Shot by James Swanso
• March by John Lewis done, review here
• The Vine Basket by Josanne La Valley done, review here
• The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowel done, review here
• If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
• Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
• This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith I didn't read this one, but I read another by the same author (review here) and didn't like it enough to bother with this one 

And these are just the ones from my list. I also read Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff (review here) and Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau (review here).  That's 11 books in 3 months.  Not bad.

Pages total: 3,029 (+ 9 hours...Eleanor & Park was an audio book)

I would have made the Voyager Top Ten, but I would have been behind about four kids, one of whom has over 7,000.

Not bad for a full-time teacher and fuller time mom!

Lessons from Teaching and Upward Basketball

A few weeks ago I attended the high school boys' basketball game on Friday and enjoyed watching many former students play on your court.  The next morning I headed to church to work Upward Basketball.

When I arrived at the church on Saturday, I noticed a knot of high school aged boys in the bleachers.  As I approached, I saw that several of my former students who are basketball players were in this group.  To be honest, I was a little bewildered.  What was a group of high school boys doing at a church on a Saturday watching a kid's basketball game?

I walked over to say hi, and then I asked the boy nearest me that very question.  He pointed to the boy on the court wearing the number five and said, "That's our ball boy, Preston. We came to cheer for him."

As I looked into the faces of those boys in those bleachers - these boys who are leaving boyhood and rapidly approaching manhood - I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and hope.  Pride because these boys could be doing anything.  They are talented, popular, and in high school.  Their free time is in high demand.  And yet, here they are, investing in a young kid.  Hope, because I have wondered, particularly at this point in the school year, if teaching is worth it.  There are long hours, there are angry parents, there are difficult kids, there are endless meetings, there is little time, the list goes on.  Why teach?

Those boys answered that question for me that morning. We are training up kids to be leaders...and they are learning it.  Because at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter whether they learned the capital of Brazil, or how to spell mitochondria, or what mitochondria is.  What matters is their character.  Who they are going to choose to be? What are they going to do when no one is looking? How will what they do help to impact and shape the lives of those around them?  I don't mind saying that I shed a few tears as I drove away, thinking about that boy on the court, and what he must feel like knowing that he had the high school boys basketball team cheering for him, and thinking about how proud I am of those boys.  I congratulate those boys, not on their performance on the court on Friday, but on their performance off of it, because ultimately, that is where it really counts.

Hats off to that coach and to those fine young men.

Upward - Reflection

This year, I coached Upward basketball, just like I did two years ago.  Only this year, I also added "Commissioner" to my title.

And it was AWESOME.  I still don't know anything about basketball.  I still forgot to send emails, left names off the list of people I DID manage to send emails to, had to send people running in all directions to get stuff I forgot, and have a LONG list of things I will do differently next time.  But, just as in teaching, it's really not about all the details, it's about the kids.

And Lindsey and I had one GREAT group of kids.  But before I start on the kids, I need to brag on Lindsey.  She is such an awesome basketball coach.  She was patient, kind, and able to give the kids actual basketball instruction at the tender ages of 4, 5, and 6.  And, she somehow kept track in her head of how the kids did each game.  I told her I was thinking of carrying a clipboard and writing down every time a kid passed or took a shot, and then she rattled off the names of everyone who passed and took a shot.  Whaaaaaat?  How does she do that?

We had eight boys and one feisty girl.  I mean it when I say feisty - she was all over that ball and by far the most aggressive player on our team.  We had one adorable 4-year-old who was just so stinking cute, even though he couldn't dribble or shoot.  I could tell several stories about these kids, but I'll limit myself to just this one...Joey.  I'll call him that just so I don't break any confidentiality codes.  We had heard ahead of time that Joey was kind of a pain - didn't listen, wouldn't follow directions, etc, and while he never misbehaved, it was clear he wasn't into basketball.  He was glad when he got to sit on the bench, always wanted to head for the water fountain, and never really did much with the ball when he had it.  In short, he reminded me of what I would have been like if I had played basketball at his age.

At devotion time, we learned about three virtues over the course of the season - honesty, patience, and kindness.  Since music is how I best learn, I taught the kids a silly song about the fruits of the spirit based on Galatians 5:22 (the video version is slightly different than what I taught them, but you get the idea).  As the kids were preparing for Awards night on Sunday, our very last meeting of the season, the director, killing time before it was our turn to go down to the gym, asked if anyone wanted to come up and sing a song.  Joey's hand SHOT into the air.  Bryan called him up, and that boy sang the ENTIRE song into the microphone. With gusto.  And that's a lot of words for a little kindergartner.  And when he was done, he literally JUMPED into my arms and squeezed tight.  I wish I could post the video I got of him singing.  It was adorable, and it made me tear up, thinking and hoping that this song might be something he remembers after he has forgotten where the baseline is, or how to bounce pass, or to keep his elbows down when he shoots.  Because Upward isn't just about basketball - it's about loving kids, and showing them that Jesus loves them, too.

Looking forward to next year.

Book: Independent Study

Independent Study

by Joelle Charbonneau

Length: 310 pages

Format: Hardback
Price: checked out from the school library

Author Website: http://joellecharbonneau.com/

Basic Premise: Having passed the testing, Cia finds herself at University in a program she did not choose with a class load she did not want and an internship she did not seek.  She has inadvertently marked herself as an enemy among many of her peers and, it seems, her professors, but none of that would matter if she could discover a way to end The Testing, and she thinks she can.

My Take: 7.5 out of 10 (scale here)
I wish I had reread The Testing or read this one sooner.  I just couldn't remember some of the finer details of the first book, and this is definitely an author who depends on her reader's knowledge of the first book.  This contributed to some confusion for me.  I liked it, but as with so many 2nd books, it's a bridge from book one, where everything starts, to book three, where everything ends, so it's never quite as good.  Bearing that in mind, I still really liked it.  I read it in small pieces - not the way I like to do books - but with my current schedule, it really couldn't be avoided.  Even so, it felt like it moved very fast - like I was barely keeping up.  I could have used a bit more from some of the supporting characters (namely one) and a bit more back story on a few of the new ones.  The ending was a complete shock, but now, looking back, I can see there were little clues littered along the plot line that might have clued me in had I not been reading in such short segments.  Either way, I was on the edge of my seat at the end and immediately got online to see when Graduation Day, the final installment of the trilogy, will be released.  June.  Ugh.

I told Rick he needed to listen to The Testing audiobook on his way to work.  He's halfway through it now and likes it.  I also had a student come find me in EO yesterday to tell how much she loved that book and she just started this one.  She picked it up because I recommended it.  Makes a reading teacher's heart happy. :)