Field Trip!

Today Ingrid and I decided to go visit a good friend and her children.  Emily and I have been friends since the third grade, and since then we've experienced graduating from high school, post secondary education, marriage, pregnancies, and children.  I love that I have a friend who can remember things from our childhood- and now we can discuss our own children!  We caught up, went out to eat, and took a nice long walk around the lake (which resulted in sun burns for both of us)  Here are a few pictures from the day!

Logan loved Ingrid.  He would say "Hi Ingrid" and give her kisses, it was TOO cute!!

(L to R: Ingrid 7 1/2 mo, Logan 2 1/2 yr, Brayton 9mo) 

How cute is this???  They are such sweeties!

7 days, 7 goals

Lately, when Sunday night arrives & I'm thinking about the week ahead-I find myself mentally making a list of goals for the upcoming week.  I always have the best of intentions, yet inevitably seem to fail by 10am Monday morning.  Perhaps making myself a list will somehow help.  Nothing too existential.  Nothing earth shattering.  Simple, practical, and completely attainable. 

1. Speak only positive words about other people.

2. Use proper language dammit. (Editors Note: I am not supporting verbal censorship...I believe expressing "improper" language is often completely necessary. I am just striving to use more propriety after stubbing my toe, forgetting something on the grocery list, ruining something in the laundry etc...)

3.  Exercise daily.

4. Only speak uplifting, encouraging words to my partner.

5. Be prepared enough to make dinner every night (How very June Cleaver of me)

6. Effortlessly use the word "ubiquitous"

7.  Take some time every day to read. (3 words: Seven. Month. Old.)

Like Mother, Like Daughter

The other day I was looking through an old photo album and stumbled across this picture of  myself when I was a baby (5 hours old to be exact).  I was flabbergasted by how familiar it looked......(I have a hard time believing this isn't the same baby!)

Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins

I love to bake.  In fact, it's a shared love between Michael & myself.  We are food network junkies; if we aren't watching Ina Garten, Paula Deen, or Guy Fieri, we are probably talking about what we saw on Triple D, and how to make it at home.  Alas, in these finals days of my husband's undergraduate education, I find myself going solo on this pastime we both love.  So yesterday, as he was slaving away on homework, I made whole wheat carrot muffins.  I thought I would share the recipe.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 C flour (I used ww)
1t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
cinnamon, cloves, allspice, freshly ground nutmeg
1 C of quick cooking oats
1/3 C skim milk
3/4 C applesauce, unsweetened
1/4 C packed brown sugar
1/4 molasses (light or dark)
1 T canola oil
1 large egg
3 medium carrots, shredded (1.5 cups)
1/2 C raisins

(Editors note:  If you're anything like me, you like a lot of flavor-and frankly these muffins were slightly lacking-so add a generous amount of all the "apple pie" spices!)

Bake at 400 degrees in a greased muffin pan for 23 minutes.

7 months

Yesterday, my little girl hit the 7 month mark. I find it exhilarating, and heartbreaking how quickly time flies when watching your little one grow. The past 7 months I have learned a lot about this little life that I co-created. Ingrid Nightingale entered the world August 16th, 2009, and we knew nothing about her. We were strangers, head over heels in love, but still strangers. Now, I can say many things about this little girl who is no longer a stranger. I have grown to learn that she is incredibly talkative, willing to wear her heart on her sleeve. She loves water, loves pea's, needs to be snuggled when she wakes up from a nap, thinks that hat's are for suckers, and loves to laugh.

This past 7 months I have not just learned a lot about my daughter, I've also learned a lot about myself. I don't tolerate sleepless nights nearly as well as I thought I would. I am able to wake up just at the sound of stirring in the other room. I really don't mind smelling like spit up. The vacuuming really doesn't need to be done everyday. I've learned that trusting God to take care of my child is a good lesson to learn early. I've learned that nothing smells better then a freshly bathed baby. I've learned that footsie pajamas are the cutest thing ever (if you know where to find some in an adult size Small, let me know). I've learned that seeing your child in pain is just about the most difficult thing to tolerate, and that the word "poopy" is used way too often in our household. I've also learned that the sound of my sweet girl talking away in the back seat while I'm driving is way more fun to listen to then music (although that's good too) Most of all I have learned that I have the most intense love for my child, and that I hope to offer her the same grace, tolerance, and acceptance that my heavenly Father offers me.

Day Light Savings

Sure I expected Day Light Savings Time to alter my 7 month old's sleep schedule. I expected bedtime to be at 6pm & a little cute alarm clock to go off at 5am. None of this happened. Instead, I was the one affected by this horrible, twice a year tradition. I laid in bed for hours last night, tossing and turning, blasting the cold hearted communist who thought day light savings would be a good idea. So this morning I decided I wanted to learn a little more about this awful time of year...

Daylight Saving Time is a change in the standard time of each time zone. Time zones were first used by the railroads in 1883 to standardize their schedules. According to the The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus by McClelland & Stewart Inc., Canada's "[Sir Sandford] Fleming also played a key role in the development of a worldwide system of keeping time. Trains had made obsolete the old system where major cities and regions set clocks according to local astronomical conditions. Fleming advocated the adoption of a standard or mean time and hourly variations from that according to established time zones. He was instrumental in convening an International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884 at which the system of international standard time -- still in use today -- was adopted."

In 1918, the U.S. Congress made the U.S. rail zones official under federal law and gave the responsibility to make any changes to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the only federal transportation regulatory agency at the time. When Congress created the Department of Transportation in 1966, it transferred the responsibility for the time laws to the new department.

The American law by which we turn our clock forward in the spring and back in the fall is known as the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The law does not require that anyone observe Daylight Saving Time; all the law says is that if we are going to observe Daylight Saving Time, it must be done uniformly.

Daylight Saving Time has been around for most of this century and even earlier.

Benjamin Franklin, while a minister to France, first suggested the idea in an essay titled "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light." The essay was first published in the Journal de Paris in April 1784. But it wasn't for more than a century later that an Englishman, William Willett, suggested it again in 1907.

Willett was reportedly passing by homes where the shades were down, even though the sun was up. He wrote a pamphlet called "The Waste of Daylight" because of his observations.

Willett wanted to move the clock ahead by 80 minutes in four moves of 20 minutes each during the spring and summer months. In 1908, the British House of Commons rejected advancing the clock by one hour in the spring and back again in the autumn.

Willett's idea didn't die, and it culminated in the introduction of British Summer Time by an Act of Parliament in 1916. Clocks were put one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) during the summer months.

England recognized that the nation could save energy and changed their clocks during the first World War.

In 1918, in order to conserve resources for the war effort, the U.S. Congress placed the country on Daylight Saving Time for the remainder of WW I. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular that it was later repealed.

When America went to war again, Congress reinstated Daylight Saving Time on February 9, 1942. Time in the U.S. was advanced one hour to save energy. It remained advanced one hour forward year-round until September 30, 1945.

In England, the energy saving aspects of Daylight Saving were recognized again during WWII. Clocks were changed two hours ahead of GMT during the summer, which became known as Double Summer Time. But it didn't stop with the summer. During the war, clocks remained one hour ahead of GMT though the winter.

From 1945 to 1966, there was no U.S. law about Daylight Saving Time. So, states and localities were free to observe Daylight Saving Time or not.

This, however, caused confusion -- especially for the broadcasting industry, and for trains and buses. Because of the different local customs and laws, radio and TV stations and the transportation companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or town began or ended Daylight Saving Time.

By 1966, some 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Saving Time through their own local laws and customs. Congress decided to step in end the confusion and establish one pattern across the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S. Code Section 260a) created Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and to end on the last Sunday of October. Any area that wanted to be exempt from Daylight Saving Time could do so by passing a local ordinance. The law was amended in 1986 to begin Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April.

I think this might be the only time of year I wish I was in Hawaii, Arizona, Indiana before 2005, or that little tiny tip of Texas.

Sharp as a tool? No, knife.

Have you ever heard that the more an elderly person reads, does crossword puzzles,& socializes, the sharper their mind is? There are not a whole lot of differences between that elderly person and a new mom, who lives in a small town, in a small apartment in a land where half the year resembles a trip to Antarctica. I rarely have time to read, I hate crossword puzzles, and most of my friends are busy with their own families, school, work etc... SO, I have decided to join the world of blogging. To keep my mind sharp, sharp as a knife.

I am sure I have a lot to say, I just have to think of it first. As of late, my life has been consumed with my beautiful daughter, who keeps me motivated to grow, mature, observe, and be taught. In addition to motherhood, I am also in my last weeks of being a cheerleader to my wonderful (and quirky) husband who is in his final weeks of undergraduate school, and I have to say, my quads aren't what they used to be, and the short skirts give away the varicose veins, pasty white legs and knobby knee's. We are all looking forward to the end of this stage, and the beginning of the next.

Here we go...