The Secret In the Sauce

Decided on a whim a couple weekends ago to drag the family to Vernal to check out all the dino bones. I used to travel with my family growing-up and it is something I would like to do more with my own family. The memories and laughs that came from those trips are what stand out in my mind. The only struggle with my own family is that I have two volatile kids and a toddler. Yikes! Nevertheless, dino land was still a boat load of fun. En route to and from our destination, I picked up  Slim for Life by Jillian Michaels which kicked off my next upward swing in, shall we say, extreme pantry habits. I totally admit that I go in spurts when it comes to my 'extremeness' regardless of the fact that I no longer buy any foods, ever, that have ingredients from the naughty list on them. However, it took until a couple weeks ago to kick my remaining holiday sugar addiction. I also dove back into Dr. Bob's Guide to Stop ADHD in 18 Days; both books re-freaked me out on the scary stuff

What a week. And it's not over! I sat down three different times this week to write and my mind was a fuzzy mess. One day I had nothing in me to do anything (I think my mind was on overload) and there was no wind in my sails. I felt hopeless and frustrated - why do I try so hard? Does it matter? It doesn't seem to. Another day I felt downright angry; sometimes I feel like I am the only force for good in this house! The kids are always bickering, baiting fights, and I got a call from the school psychologist (the principal wasn't available). And to cap it off no one listens to a word I say! Grrr. Then I sat down and thumbed through a catalog and noticed the title of a book: The Mother's Mite, Why Even Our Smallest Efforts Matter. Just that simple phrase really broke through to me. The tough thing about this parenting business is that most of the time, the results of what we do are not measurable - at least not in the short term. Who knows, we may not really see the fr

At the moment, I've been metaphorically placed on the rack and am being effectively pulled in different directions. The issue: Preston is doing pretty great at home, not-so-great at school. His teacher (bless that woman) works with him everyday to get his classwork done so it doesn't come home (yay for me! One less battle I have to fight). He is doing decently with the 1, 2, 3's in the morning and I'm even getting him to come to the table for dinner to possibly pick at his food. I pull out the chat pack at dinner time to spur some light-hearted conversation as well. If my husband leaves the parenting up to me, then Preston is pretty happy. I'm even getting him to complete his daily chores which is something in and of itself. So, on the home front, I think we have made some great progress (and I also attribute some of this to the addition of B Vitamins and some Greens powder in his daily shake which he amazingly enough doesn't know I started slipping in there). T

Okay, I'm going to be totally honest and I'm sure many a parent is going to think I'm the Evil Queen - the Easter Bunny did not visit our house this year. Gasp! Preston's old nuance to rummage through the whole of my house starting in the kitchen and eventually making his way to my room and closet has re-surfaced and it is causing a problem. Did I ever mention the time that he left a half-eaten cookie in the corner of his room and within 24 hours we had an ant colony in his bedroom? No joke - his room was teaming with them and we had to spray everywhere; it was pretty bad. So, ever since we've had the hard and fast rule that there is to be no food outside the kitchen. At any rate, I'm really at my wits end trying to curb this kid's sugar addiction - because quite honestly, that is what it mostly comes down to. So, I just decided that I did not want any treats in this house to further tempt his snatching and squirreling (I would definitely not be setting hi