My buns are burning!!!

Today I met my friend Valerie at the gym to do a class that she had picked out. I read the info. about the class and pointed out that it said you should master the previous class before diving into this one but she insisted that we would be fine. Well, she must have a lot of faith in me because that class was super-D-duper intense. WoW! By the end I had burned almost 700 calories and do you know what I thought about as soon as I was done? That's right, you guessed it! Cookies! I was wondering how many cookies I could eat that day and still not gain weight! I think I missed the point. I am in the beginning days of summer where I have to figure out the routine. The kids just want to lay around all day watching t.v. or playing on the computer (video games) while I wonder around cleaning! This system is not going to work. So, I need to sit down with the kids and work out what the expectations are for these next fun filled months. It seems like I'm always having to mix things up around these parts. BJ is out of town this week and so I stayed up last night until 1:30 am knitting. I am making 2 baby girl hats for a set of twins due next month. They are going to be so cute!
This past week I have been thinking a lot about the "good things my parent taught me" and how we often dismiss them. I talked at church in testimony meeting on Sunday about how my parents had taught me to serve and what a blessing it has been for me in my life to realize the joy in service and how I really want my kids to find the joy in service as well. In thinking about that I decided that I didn't want to lose what the past has taught me. I want it to live on in my own children. So, I bought a steam canner and all the goodies that go with it so that this fall I can put up some peaches, pears and applesauce. Most people don't do this anymore. It's much easier to buy them in cans at the store. However, if you've never tried a canned bottle of pears or peaches in the winter--you just have missed out. My mom has always done this and loads of other things that we just don't do any more. It's becomming a "lost art". I would like to bring some of those "lost arts" back. As I come up with things, I will share all that I'm bringing back to our family. It should be interesting. I think one of the first things I'm going to do it make salt water taffy. My mom used to make it with us as kids and we loved pulling it and pulling it to make it soft. Then she would wind them together and cut them in pieces and we'd suck on them all day because they were never pulled long enough to make them soft and chewy. I'm also going to have an "old fashioned" night games evening. I'm going to invite all the neighbor kids over and I'm going to teach them to play "kick the can", and "red-rover", and "steal the flag" and then have homeade icecream. It's time to re-live the past! I invite you all to do the same and share your ideas!

1) Friends that make you go to intense exercise classes, that you would never, ever go to.
2) Lazy summer days
3) BJ's chocolate chippers--there are a few left but not for long! Ha!Ha!

The Lazy Day's of Summer

Well, the kids officially got out of school last Wednesday but this is our official 1st full week of summer. The kids were so excited to get out of school. My friend Valerie set off the end of school in a grand patriotic olympic party. She had one of those huge blow up slides with water coming down from it and the kids ate hotdogs and chips and participated in 3 olympic events. We had an opening ceremony of handing off the flags and then a closing ceremony where each child got a gold medal. It was so much fun and the kids loved spraying each other with their squirt guns and playing on the water slide. This morning I got up and took the kids on a bike ride. I had such happy, positive, summer fun intentions but Brinly cried through most of it. Ugh! Anyway, she's going to have to adapt because these bike rides aren't going away. At the end of our bike ride it started raining and so I put the kids in the car and went to the gym. I did this cool pilates class where you use machines. Wow! I'm going to be sore tomorrow. I keep promising myself everyday that I'm going to eat good and be healthy. So, I got home from the gym and ate 4 (count them) 4 of BJ's famous chocolate chip cookies!!!! I have zero self control. Anyways, there's always tomorrow!!! Ha!Ha! So, we have already been to our neighborhood pool and eaten 2 full packages of popcycles--summer is in full swing. All we need is lightening bugs and all will be well. Happy Summer everyone! I am going to follow suit and copy my sister -in- laws blog with 3 things I'm grateful for today.
1) 4 healthy kids that could cry through a morning bike ride
2) A gym where I can go and spend some time on this body of mine
3) BJ's chocolate chippers!!!!! They never get old!!!