It is very warm in New Hampshire today which is such a blessing after a cold long winter.
I dragged Rowan's pink princess bike out of the shed, and went for a lovely spring mud filled walk.
Spring hasn't arrived unless you have new rain boots!
Nothing makes a child more happy than a mud puddle
The top of an old inn at the end our road.
Riding!
Streamers and tiny hands
Behind every child on a bike, is a Mother watching, protecting and photographing!
Friday, March 5, 2010
More New England Spring
Posted by Anabelle at 3:22 PM 2 comments
Labels: Adventures, Rowan, spring
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Abacus!! Abacus!!!!
(say abacus like the guy in Monty Python says Albatross, it makes me giggle hehe).
I made this! With my bare hands and power tools and stuff! I'm so stinking proud of myself I can't even put it to words!
Total cost 8 dollars in wood supplies from a craft store... way cheaper than the ones you can buy online!
Supplies gathered
Unfortunately they didn't have beads with holes as large as the dowels I was using, so I had to drill them all out to a larger size... all 50 of them!
Measured, pre-drilled, and ready for painting/assembly
I just couldn't stomach the thought of pain stakingly painting every single bead, so instead my daughter and I threw them into sandwich bags, added a few drops of food coloring an rolled them around. They got the coolest looking tie dye effect!
TA DA!!!!
Posted by Anabelle at 4:53 PM 3 comments
Labels: Crafts, homeschooling
Getting my dollar store craft on
Who doesn't love the dollar store! And when I saw this cute little box, the educator in me had to turn it into a fun number game!
A little paint, a magic marker and some dollar store foam squares.. Voila!
Rowan an I are sure to get hours of enjoyment out of learning math and counting practice!
PS head on over to Sevin Family and check out what my friend Katrina did with the same box! We went shopping together and its amazing how two crafters can come up with such totally different things to do with the same object. (hers sort of puts mine to shame lol)... 
Posted by Anabelle at 11:48 AM 5 comments
Labels: Crafts, homeschooling
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Weigh in Wednesday
I had a much better week this week!
I've stepped up my game quite a bit as far as work outs go. I've only been able to do the elliptical as we've gotten tons of snow here in New England, but instead of just going with the two 1/2 programs I use, I've been bumping up the resistance on them as often as possible and ending the workout with ten minutes on the hardest level.. which is insanely difficult and it nearly kills me.
Lastly, because of I have to take breaks from the elliptical to let my feet un-numb (common elliptical problem) I have added some crunches and stomach toning Pilate's moves to my breaks. I can feel my abs getting tighter already (under the baby flab of course).
Today I am down to 209. Only a 1 lb loss but considering the amount of strength training I'm doing, I'm not surprised... its also that time of the month again! gotta love it lol
Posted by Anabelle at 7:05 AM 0 comments
Labels: Blog the Weight Away, weight loss
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Thinking spring...
Tapped one of our little maple trees today, look!! The sugar is flowing!!! 
Rowan even gave it a taste..
Or two....
Maybe 3
Gramps is working on a brush fire... to clear some trees.
We even explored some moss..
and of course, Rowan had to conquer the mountain.
Oh Spring, Please come faster!
Posted by Anabelle at 12:01 PM 4 comments
Labels: country living, Rowan
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Felt like I had a newborn
The fabulous little Miss Rowan came down with a severe stomach bug last night at bed time. She told me she had a belly ache, which isn't unusual as she comes down with painful stomach cramps every time tooth brushing time is mentioned... convenient eh?
Needless to say I didn't believe her....
So I read her a book, sang Twinkle Twinkle and with a kiss and a mummy hug I left her to nod off while the hubs and I played an amusing game of scrabble.
(amusing because the boy can't spell, and he gets all excited when he makes a cool word like Kiddie which is supposed to spell kitty??? He went to college, I swear)
About 20 mins later I heard her screeching... I ran into her room expecting to see her pulling off another stalling bed time stunt, but instead found her standing in the middle of her new beige carpeted bedroom floor with a stream of red Crystal light and popcorn chunks spewing forth from her mouth.
(TMI???? sorry)
She was horrified.
She hasn't been sick since she started staying home with me after my lay off over a year ago, so throwing up to her wasn't even something I think she remembers.... she was only 2 or so the last time it happened, now she's almost four.
She cried, she told me she was scared.. and with wet eyes filled with giant crocodile tears, she said "Mama, when my no be sick anymore?"
BROKE MY HEART!!!
We attempted some ginger ale to settle her tummy, but 10 mins later she started crying again and I got into her room in time to hold her hair back as she threw up into a mixing bowl by her bed..... and since she'd climbed into my lap for comfort while she threw up, I was also blessed with pajamas covered in diarrhea when her rear end backfired all over me with the force of her vomiting.
It was super duper.
(but hey, that's what makes a Mom a Mom right?? We're troopers).
I spent the night waking up every 45 mins to an hour with her getting sick again. I haven't had a night of broken sleep like that since she was an infant and man alive have I been spoiled! How did I ever survive a year of that while trying to sustain a corporate career? They must have all thought I was stoned... Huh, maybe that's why I got laid off???
The kicker? Hubs, sound asleep in our bed, snoring away.
Don't get me wrong, he's a great dad, and if he had woken up he would have helped me in a second, but he just zonks out.
It amazes me how well a man can tune out a child or a baby. He never woke up with her as an infant either. Woman must have hawk ears. She made one tiny peep last night and I was awake, alert, and by her side before she had the chance to sit up in bed.
Barney?? ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I just don't get it!
Either way, she had a low grade fever for the rest of the day and by morning was able to stomach a tad bit of juice and some dry toast. By dinner she kept down a small piece of pizza.
She's on the mend, thank goodness.
And tonight, oh how I'll relish 8 full hours of uninterrupted sleep....... and how I'll rest assured that our decision not to have any more babies, is most definitely the right choice.
(don't worry, after 20 minutes of scrubbing, Hubs got the red vomit stain out of the carpet. See I didn't have to do all the work.)
Posted by Anabelle at 7:56 PM 1 comments
Labels: Rowan
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Weigh in Wednesday
This week was a bust weight wise, I didn't gain nor lose.
I have been running a lot and generally when I start running I put on quite a bit of muscle so I'm going to chalk it up to that as well as the fact that I came down with a cold Monday have not worked out for the past few days.
Overall however I'm happy that I didn't gain anything and even happier that the weather has been so warm that I was able to get outside for some runs. I even did a nice long 4 mile run on Sunday which was incredibly awesome.
Of course, today, I woke up to this.... Ugh... queue New England Nor'easter to dash my running dreams against the rocks.
Ahh well, it'll melt soon hopefully. I plan to start throwing in some strength training days with my cardio days. I want to focus on my abs for sure to get rid of the baby jiggle I've had going on there for the past 4 years, and definitely some leg stuff to help with my running.
Anyone have any great programs you use that you'd like to pass on?
Posted by Anabelle at 8:00 AM 5 comments
Labels: Blog the Weight Away, weight loss




