it better be cloudy on the 2nd!

i'm done with winter. over it.

the last post i wrote was about the girls both being under the weather. wouldn't you know, almost 2 weeks later? most people in this house are under the weather. still. and again.

turns out after the girls tummy bug, they both started getting colds. or maybe it was all tied together. either way, nola (in true nola fashion) got a double ear infection. we were at the doctor's office on mlk day, after we attempted to go to an mlk breakfast and she was a mess. her ears were really bad.

friday, zane and i were texting in the morning and he said he wasn't feeling great. he went to bed early on friday night, then came home from playing basketball early saturday morning and realized that he had gotten a similar stomach thing that the girls had. so he's been low-key this weekend, eating a little here and there, but not feeling great.

avery woke up last night and i heard her calling my name softly, while crying. i went in and she said her ear hurt. oy. gave her some motrin and hoped for the best. she says it feels better today, but that when she hiccups it hurts.

and, news flash. it's a full moon today. some months it doesn't really affect anything/anyone around here. but this one? last night just before the girls were going to bed, and zane and i were marvelling over nola, and just how out of her mind she had been all day, it hit me. "wait, when's the full moon?" january 27th.

on top of all of this, the dogs ate an entire package of almond bark on friday night and even though i was sure they were both going to die, all that happened was king threw up, and marley was shaky for the day. they must have felt better last night because i was up 3 times either letting them out (just so they could romp in the cold! what fun!) or finally shutting them in their crate.

so! i'm determined to make it out of this stretch without a cold or stomach ache. i have so much work already for my 2nd practicum placement. the good thing is that i'm getting a lot of the big things done before february break  and i'll be able to write up my projects, etc. over that week. my other determination is to finish this practicum by april 11th, which is the thursday before april vacation. i think i can, i think i can.
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onto the fun.

the girls started begging for ABC mouse after seeing commercials. we gave in, and it's awesome. basically there are hundreds of education games at different content levels, and the girls are both learning how to navigate with our laptops. they're so used to using my touch phone, though, that they often forget and try to use the laptop screen like an ipad.

zane made a bunch of photo ledges for various rooms. i love them. 'nuff said. 

this is nola's painting of the "res beach". water, sand, grass and a house with things floating in the sky :)

slow weekend.

 this sums up our weekend nicely. we were running a bunch of errands on saturday and everyone was in good spirits. then we were in bjs and the girls were eating some dried mangos. avery gave me her share back and said she wasn't hungry. that was the first clue. 10 minutes later we were in the car driving home and she said her throat and tummy felt funny. we got home, i took her temp (101.4), got her settled on the couch with a bowl, and then she sent herself to her bed for 2 hours. she didn't eat any dinner that night, slept pretty well, woke up with a fever, and alternated between the couch and the art room table for most of the day. at some point in the afternoon nola said her head hurt, i took her temp, sure enough 101. i got them snuggled in my bed and folded and put away about 6 loads of laundry while the girls (cleo included) rested.

avery woke up bright eyed and excited to go to school. no fever, so it's just me and nola on the couch today. when we took avery to school and i told nola's teacher that she was leaving with me, she said kids have been dropping like flies with a fever and throwing up or colds. i'm thinking (and hoping) we have a mild case around here.

and in an extra effort to boost our immune systems, zane and i tried a new recipe yesterday: kale, spinach, cucumber and fruit (we had a frozen bag of fruit that we're working our way through). there was way too much cucumber in this drink (zane wasn't a big fan, though i didn't mind as much) but at least it was pretty balanced between greens and fruit.  my throat started feeling yucky in the middle of last week but then stalled out. i'd bet that if i hadn't been drinking my veggies and fruits these last few weeks it would have developed into something more.

despite the sickness around here, i feel like this weekend was one of the nicest that we've had in a long time. the balance of productivity and relaxation was just right. zane and i cleaned the kitchen for most of the morning yesterday, but on saturday afternoon we pretty much were all on the couch lounged and snuggled. i start my next practicum tomorrow (if everyone is feeling good) and it was a good entry back into the semester.

almost starving artists

Avery and nola worked on this today. Nola did the basket and her name, while avery spent careful time coloring in the fairies. I love that it wad a collaboration and they did a beautiful job!

worth noting.

over the last year or so, zane and i have been watching various documentaries on netflix. most of them have to do with food or healthy living. since we've started these videos, we've already drastically reduced the amount of meat we consume. the most recent video we watched was "fat, sick and nearly dead." basically it's about an australian that was overweight and went on a juicing diet to improve his health. since we watched it, we've talked about incorporating some veggie/fruit juice into our diet. i mentioned it to my dad one day, and so for christmas we received a ninja blender. it's a high powered blender that can do anything a blender can do, plus blend things together so well it's just about juice-like.

so far we've found a few drinks that we really like, some that are ok, and some that are terrible. today i made a drink with carrots, apple, grapes, kale, spinach and a couple slices of frozen mango. the other day we made a drink with grapes, banana and spinach. i love the idea that we're getting vitamins and nutrients that we might not otherwise get (or at least not in the same quantity).

what i like about what we've done is that nothing was drastic. we didn't cut out any food completely. we didn't turn around our life in a crazy way and then fall back to old ways soon after. we've been making strategic and small cuts and changes and it feels wonderful :)