Thursday, January 29, 2009

Nuggets with a hint of lavender

I was emptying the dishwasher this evening while also dishing out the kids very nutritious dinner of chicken nuggets, doritoes and grapes (ok so there was some nutrition in the meal) and calling them to the table. Once the kids were all seated and debating whether or not Ri would eat the nuggets, I found something I never thought I'd find in a dishwasher. Apparently, Mary Kate must have wanted a little more flavor washed into our dishes because she put 2 lavender scented fabric softener sheets in the dishwasher. I must say they held up pretty nicely though during the wash, they were still in once piece at the bottom of the dishwasher.

Buon Appetite!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Movie time guessing

Kids are pooped after playing in the snow, so they are settling in for a movie. Instead of the usual battle of picking the movie, I decided I would pick and there would be no arguments. These kids are nuts, typically when I put a movie in they will guess the movie within the first 10 seconds of the first preview on the DVD.

So the guessing begins... "I know" is unanimously screamed. I tell them to come whisper in my ear. Andrew says in my left ear "Journey to the Center of the Earth" while at the same time Nolan was whispering in my right ear "I don't know tell me". Nice try Nolan! However I will give him props because by the time he got back to the couch and they were 15 seconds into the first preview sure enough he yelled out "RV!" Righto!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year

Simon: "ouch"
Me: "did you put them up your nose?"
Simon: "yes"
Me: "Simon you don't put chop-sticks up your nose"
Simon: "OK"
Nolan: (from the other room all matter-of-fact) "hey remember when I did that with french fries?... (mumbling something)..... but we still got ice cream"

Sunday, January 25, 2009

May rethink this college thing

Ri: "hey mom do colleges have recess?"
Me "nope"
Ri: "oh that's boring"

Feeling the love

We were just finishing up dinner tonight when Simon came back to the table to say he was hungry.

Me: "Hmm that's interesting Simon, maybe if you had stayed at the table and eaten with us then you wouldn't be so hungry. Your plate's been cleared and we are done eating, looks like you'll be hungry until breakfast"
Simon: "No, I'm hungry, you go away mommy"
Me: "Sounds good to me, you can finish up the dishes"
Hubs: "OK, I'll go on the internet and look for a new mommy. Maybe from Russia."
Andrew: "hey how about Puerto Rico"

Gee Andrew thanks for the love and support! Oh and he's not going to bed hungry, he decided to have a cheese stick and yes he had already eaten half of the dinner we had given him before he decided he wanted down from the table.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Riley on the weather

After school today with big concern-filled eyes Riley came up to me and said "mom, I'm very sad".
Me: "What's up?"
Ri: "It's warm out and you know it's winter, maybe Mother Nature made a mistake and did this wrong"

And then he was off to play outside in this unusually warm weather. 60+ degrees in January, I'll take it for a quick break from the freeze. I am still holding out for a school closing blizzard though :)

Serving the Customer

This past Wednesday I had lunch with an old friend. I say "old friend" not because of her age, but because I worked for her 17 years ago when I was employed at "The Lodge" in Lake Forest Mall. I was a high school senior and it was my first real job (other than working at pizza hut in Virginia Beach). During lunch we got to talking about customer service and how there just seems to be a total lack of truly serving the customer in this day and age. We reminisced about the days of bending over backwards to help customers and how we had repeat customers that would come back because of the fun and friendly environment we provided. We truly loved our job and it showed. (Side note: we were NOT on commission sales, so it really didn't pay to do all we did. Our paychecks were going to be the same regardless of how we treated the customers.)

In my opinion, that kind of customer service is very hard to come by. Sure you could go to some of the big fru-fru stores at the local malls and get some decent service (realize though that they are receiving a commission which explains the ridiculous prices), but be sure you are dressed in your best. If you want some attention, don't even think of stepping foot in one of those shops without your Coach bag, make-up on and the most expensive designer jeans you can get your hands.

Now on a positive note, I have had two very good experiences recently. First, if I ever have a choice of taking kids to a fast-food establishment during the day there is one place that has top-notch service - Chic-Fil-A off Liberia Ave. in Manassas. If you go through the drive-thru you hear things such as "how may I serve you today" and "I look forward to serving you at the window". WOW! Then when you drive up to the window and they are smiling and appear to be truly happy to be serving you, it takes you by surprise. But it's not just the drive-thru where their customer service shines. Go inside and they are just as pleasant at the counter. Have a seat and within a few minutes, a very nice woman walks by and offers to get refills for you. Double WOW! The only downside I can find with Chic-Fil-A is that they use peanut oil, so that keeps us from being able to take Ri. Not a big deal and certainly not a deal breaker with regards to being a customer of theirs (he wouldn't eat there anyway since waffle fries aren't on his "like list").

My second positive customer service experience happened this morning at Payless in the Chantilly Crossing Shopping Ctr earlier today. I was in the shop with my 2 young escape artists trying to fit Mary Kate with new shoes (apparently she takes after her Godmother and is VERY picky). The first thing the sales associate said to me was "how can I help you, would you like me to measure anybody today". Fabulous, usually I'm wrangling them down to get their feet measured (the kids and sales associates). Off we went to try shoes on and within minutes she was over to provide further assistance all the while helping the 2 other families that were in the store. When it was time to pay, she said "so where are the rest of the kids?". I had to think a minute, did I leave someone? did someone really escape? No, she actually remembered my whole crew plus my 2 nephews coming into the store back before Christmas on a Sunday afternoon. Now THAT is good customer service. Makes me feel special and no I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with the fact that my kids probably terrorized the store that Sunday afternoon and more likely that it was that she remembered what angels they all were. WAKE UP MARGARET YOU ARE DAYDREAMING AGAIN!! I do so enjoy visiting la-la land every so often ;)

I do think that it is important to recognize good customer service and to spread the word when you receive superb service. This can be done by word of mouth to friends/family, by filling out customer care cards, completing surveys that can be found on your receipt or making a call to the store to speak to a manager. I think the positive feedback goes much further than negative comments.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

"Only"

WARNING!!! I'm now putting on my nutrition/fitness hat. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the use of the word "only" and what a negative meaning that 4-letter word can have or imply.
"I only lost 2 pounds." "I was only able to get a 20 minute workout in today."

How depressing and deflating those statements can be. Since I have been providing some help and guidance (hopefully encouragement too) to an online diet group, members have been reporting in their individual weight losses and I must say they've been doing GREAT! But it saddens me when I see the "I only lost x pounds". ONLY? No it should be emphatically "I LOST X POUNDS!" Woman beat themselves up enough as it is and unfairly compare themselves to others that maybe the "only" comes in response to not feeling as successful as the others that may have lost more. One of the members of the group, provided a great visual when she said she likes to look at the weight loss in sticks of butter. 4 sticks of butter = 1 pound of weight. Awesome way to look at it! Next time you "only" lose 5 pounds, go buy a 5# bag of potatoes and carry them around for an hour. How do you feel about the 5 pounds now? There is no belittling the weight loss, rejoice in every ounce that is gone and consider it banished!

Only a 20 minute workout? Well that's a heck of a lot better than zero minutes! Don't diminish the work put into the workout with an "if only" kind of a statement. Positive outlooks and thoughts will produce positive results with the desire to keep on keeping on!

March For Life

I am at home reflecting on this day in history and how many millions of lives have been lost to abortion and the numbers of lives forever changed because of a choice made. Was there really a "choice" for these woman? What were they told their choices were? Adoption? To think the number of empty arms that could have been filled with the babies that were taken by abortion. Were the babies given a choice? Did they choose to have no future, no voice? Oh how I wish I could have been down in DC for the annual March for Life, to give a voice to the millions that were never given the opportunity. Instead, I'm home praying for the future demise of Roe v. Wade, for the nightmare called FOCA and for all the babies without a voice of their own.


I'm looking forward to Barbara's blog entry and pictures of today's events. Lord knows the mainstream media won't be providing any detailed coverage of the March. How did we ever get by before the internet?

The marriage - job link

Nolan, my 6 year old stereotypical middle child, gave some insight into the economy this morning. He stated very emphatically, "Well actually, I do want to get married cause I want to get a job". Hmmm, where do you go with that one? If everyone would just get married, then everyone would be employed? Get married and get a job so you can be out of the house? A marriage will be his job?

I chose to just stop with my deep thoughts and chuckle at the funnies that are always coming out of their mouths. How blessed we are, when we listen to their deep thoughts instead of our own.

He's a walking commercial

This morning Riley was eating his 23 french toast bites, (yes you read that right, 23, he's on a weight gain diet), when I guess he realized it was time to educate his mom (that's me:)

Ri - "Hey mom you need to get me some Arthur books"
Me - "Arthur books? Sounds good, but why Arthur?"
Ri - "because they are at the local library and we can find Arthur books and other cool things at the local library"

Maybe he has a future working for PBS. Apparently, Riley hasn't figured out that I have a very strange phobia with public libraries and that is why we always order from either scholastic or amazon.com!

Downsizing hits the Park house

OK, no I didn't leave a kid at Target or follow through with the threat of giving the naughty one to my neighbor for a few weeks, but downsizing has hit our house. Now most people would not be too concerned that their kids vitamins went from a 220 count to a 200 count bottle, but in this family with 5 little ones that take 2/day that just cut us from a bottle that lasted 22 days to now only 20. The good news is that we don't always remember to take them, so I may get 30 days out of a bottle. Thank goodness for Costco!!



It is good to look carefully at packaging though. I was buying pasta a few months ago and noticed the size of the box was much smaller. After a closer look, I figured out that the boxes were now 12 oz packages versus the 16 oz (1 lb.) boxes that use to stock the shelves. Now I ask you, how often do you see a recipe call for 12 oz of pasta??? No, it usually a 16 oz box, so now do we split noodles?

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Clearly, I need to retrain these boys

We are having a lazy day here after a quick trip to and from PA. I'll set the scene of the latest conversation that reminds me I NEED to retrain my boys thinking...

I'm sitting at the computer in the family room, Hubby is at the kitchen table on his laptop. Before I sat down to the computer I had put waffles in the toaster for Andrew. Once I was all comfortable and "working" away responding to emails and checking in on the diet group , Andrew came into the room and this is where the fun begins..

A: "Mom, my waffles are ready"
Me: "And....? Can you not get them and put peanut butter on them?" dripping in sarcasm
A: "No, I broke my hands while I was downstairs" he said with an equal amount of sarcasm. Where did he get THAT??
Dad: "What about me, why didn't you ask me?"
A: "Because you are working"
Me: I'm now facing the cabinet with my hands up in the air looking at the ceiling.
Dad: "And what is Mom doing?"
A: "Well right now she is praying for Mercy"
Dad: "The year is 1952, Ladies don't bother your husband with your problems, because his problems are far worse......"
Me: At this point I tuned him out as he continued to repeat the email that circulates every few months about life in the 50's and how woman were to act.

So we all had a good chuckle, but it really does show me that the kids see very distinct roles here in the house. It's not that dear hubby wouldn't have taken care of the waffles or sippy cup, or bottom that needs wiping, or diaper change.... It's just that as a Mom who is here 24/7 and has always done everything, that is the role they see me do the most. I'm OK with it, but sometimes it's good to say "hey, go ask your dad!" I know for certain that if I weren't here this morning, you know if I was off getting my nails done, shopping and having a cup of coffee (WAKE UP MARGARET!!, you are daydreaming), the boys wouldn't have starved because they wouldn't have hesitated to ask daddy for anything.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

HOKIE Training Camp

Apparently, I missed the memo that the training camp for future HOKIE football players was to be held at the Park house this morning. Last night, before bedtime, the kids were listening to songs off their Dad's IPOD and specifically "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. He told the story of how before every VT home football game the fans and players would be jumping up and down to the first part of the song prior to running out on the field. Andrew picked up our HOKIE blanket and started practicing with his brother's running through the blanket. Once we had them wound up enough, we put them to bed and reminded them to sleep in until AT LEAST 8:00 am. Well that was wishful thinking! I heard them all in Andrew and Ri's room with the door closed as I snuck down to make breakfast at 7:30. At around 7:40, I heard music start to vibrate the floor above me and ran up to quiet the boys down before they woke up Mary Kate. Well to my surprise when I opened the door, I found all 4 boys jumping up and down on the bed to "Enter Sandman". My oldest and oh so intelligent one, quickly jumped off the bed to tell me how he was teaching the boys how to be HOKIE football players before they enter Lane Stadium.

Now how could I argue with that?

Friday, January 16, 2009

Husbands Delight is...

DELIGHTFUL!!! No worries this a totally G-rated post :) About 6 1/2 years ago I helped put together a cookbook for our Parish to help raise funds. I typed in over 700 recipes and remembered seeing this particular one "Husbands Delight" and thought that was interesting, but never went back to it. Then a few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend that has a copy of the cookbook and she had mentioned that she made the recipe and that the family loved it. Always willing to try something new, especially one with a catchy title. "Hey hon, I'm serving up some Husbands Delight for dinner!" He was on the next train home :)

So the vote was cast and came back with a resounding "make it again mom"! Mary Kate ate the most. After finishing her own 3 helpings, she got out of her highchair and went to the table to help Nolan finish eating his ;) Ri stuck with his Mac-n-Cheese (ONLY Kraft and ONLY the blue box please). Hubby also went back for seconds which speaks volumes because he rarely has seconds since he dropped 30# last Fall.

So for anyone interested here's the recipe (or if you have the book it is on pg 105 in the St. V's cookbook)
Brown & drain 1- 1 1/2 lb ground meat. Add 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1tsp each salt & pepper, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2-8oz cans of tomato sauce and 1 med. onion (chopped) {NOTE since my hubby thinks that onions are made by the devil, I omit them and instead sneak in 1 tsp onion powder}. Let that simmer covered for 15 minutes. Meanwhile cook as directed egg noodles. Mix 8 oz pkg of cream cheese and 8 oz sour cream. In greased casserole dish, layer 1/2 noodles, 1/2 meat and 1/2 cream cheese mixture. Repeat layering and then top with 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Cover & cook for 30 minutes at 350. YUMMMM!

Oh and nutritionally speaking, I did use 93% lean beef (you could use ground turkey), light sour cream and 1/3 less fat cream cheese.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Going nutty

Spent a good 20 minutes on the phone this afternoon with a kind gentleman from General Mills trying to figure out if there new product, "Honey Nut Cheerios Snack Mix", is peanut/treenut free. I know you would think that with "Nut" in the title, it would be an obvious answer, but NO!! The label makes no mention and only warns for "Wheat, Milk & Soy ingredients". AHHHH!

If peanuts or treenuts are present in the product or have the potential for being present due to cross contamination in the manufacturing, they would BY LAW have to label it.

So the phone representative I spoke too clearly understood the seriousness of knowing if it was a safe food for a child with nut allergies. He said he did not feel confident in telling me to trust the packaging, so now we wait. He sent in a request - to who? I'm not sure, but someone that apparently has the inside information on nuts.

Hopefully, I'll get an answer quickly. We are one month from little guys weight check and he has decided to move Oreo's from his "like list" to his "do not like list". Seriously, I question his genetic makeup?? Oreo's and milk would be at the TOP of my LOVE FOR ALWAYS AND EVER list!!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

SLACO'S.... It's what's for dinner!

Sloppy Joes were on the menu tonight and I knew there would be a struggle getting my second boy (aka WORLD'S PICKIEST EATER) to eat them. However, he does like taco's and will easily eat 4-5 of them in one sitting. So we made a deal, I would put the cheese and sloppy joe meat in a taco shell. He was not buying into it.
son - "Mom, what happens if it's not good"
me - "you are setting yourself up to not like it, you have to think positive"
son - "but what if it's bad"
me - "Hey it's slaco's, it's what's for dinner"!
2 of the other boys joined in on the slaco brigade, one of them even ate 3 of them!

I'm happy to report that my darling picky one did in fact have 2 slaco's! This is HUGE, he may even add it to his "like" list of foods. More on that list later...

It's how I (blog) roll...

The first one is fairly new. I began receiving the Faith & Family magazine a few years ago and is a great source of information for this Catholic family. The blog is like a live version of their magazine. Lots of discussions and fun things to read. http://faithandfamilylive.com/blog/


http://daniellebean.com/ is the very first blog I ever read. She is an incredible writer, woman and mother to 8! I was first introduced to her books "Mom to Mom, Day to Day" & "My Cup of Tea; Musings of a Catholic Mom" a few years ago. She's funny and it is easy to relate to her and the craziness she talks about in her household.


I came upon my favorite blog, http://mommylife.net/ about a year and a half ago and was able to follow a journey of a woman as she made some major life changes. I now consider her a friend. There is a huge amount of information on her site from politics, religion, parenting to dieting (which is where I'm a bit involved).


Believe it or not there is another mother out there that has more boys than me and she writes to about it. Visit http://www.testosterhome.net/ for a great laugh!

I began following the story of Nathan & Tricia Lawrenson a year ago and it has stuck with me and brought me to my knees countless times in prayer. http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ It is an incredible love story and double miracle with the birth of their little girl at 24 weeks and then Tricia receiving new lungs just a few months later secondary to CF.

Elizabeth Foss is a parishioner of ours and local author. She has a wonderful blog on motherhood, parenting, Faith and homeschooling all intertwined and generously shared with readers http://ebeth.typepad.com/reallearning/.

Another blog written from a man's perspective and one that I stumbled upon via Google Reader, http://www.mattlogelin.com/, is another one that from the very beginning was heavy on my heart and what that I read to remind myself to pray for this man and his daughter. He lost his wife 27 hours after the birth of their first child and so the blog chronicles him getting on with life and raising his daughter.


Finally, the last blog is a satire written by a friend that lives in Maryland. He's funny (but I don't let him know that I think that!) http://votenomalley.blogspot.com/

So that's about it. I grab my cup of coffee in the morning and hop on to see what's new on these blogs through Google Reader and then usually again during nap time before it starts to get crazy around here. Which it is now about to do! The buses are arriving so it's time to start homework, come up with a dinner plan and then scoot the two oldest off to karate.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

I'm raising a school of sharks

3 of my 4 boys have had the distinct pleasure of trips to the dentist to have their first teeth removed, nothing serious just that the baby teeth are holding on for dear life even though the adult teeth have already come through. Not much pain involved with the extraction and then the rest of the teeth typically do what they are supposed to do and just fall out (read: sometimes get hit out by a younger brother).
Well now my oldest is pushing the gross button a bit far and has been walking around with a mouth that resembles a great white shark for awhile now. Adult tooth on upper left has come in but baby tooth was still hanging on for about 2 months now. A few weeks ago, out popped the teeth on either side, but that stubborn baby tooth was determined. Until today that is, when Andrew greeted me with 1/2 of his tooth while I was cooking dinner. Great, I thought, now I have to take him to the dentist to get the remaining piece out. Oh be patient Margaret, because as we all found out while he was eating his grilled cheese and tomato soup the remaining half of the tooth came out.
So now the question is, does he get more from the tooth fairy because the tooth is now in two pieces??

Penguins in Virginia

Well here it is, my first post.... the thought has been brewing for awhile and yesterday morning when we awoke in a frozen state and swore that there had to be penguins in our bedroom, the morning "Park Antics" began. Apparently, mischievious Mary Kate pulled a chair up to the thermostat on Sunday and not only turned the heat off, but turned the AC onto 61 degrees. We were FROZEN!! I did as best as I could to warm the house up - fireplace on, baking Riley's breakfast in the oven. I called Ri over to the table and found him laying on the heat vent trying to warm up. Sweet Mary Kate had no problem keeping warm because she has a space heater in her room and nice fleecy footed PJ's!

Once we were all thawed out, I was talking to a friend on the phone and when I told her the story her first words (after the laughter) were "you need to write a blog". I have also recently started to dust off the RD books and remove the cobwebs from the nutrition side of my brain to help Barbara Curtis of http://www.mommylife.net/ with the diet group that she has started. Barbara Curtis also gently encouraged me to start my own blog (thanks Barbara). I have another dear friend that I talk with daily and have been providing lots of surviving-pregnancy and parenting-boys advice to for the last 4 years, until recently she always referred to me as "I have this friend with 5 kids and she says..." She's told me countless times that I should write a book (yeah, No!) So here goes.... Who knows what this blog will become. I hope the Park Antics will provide some laughter to you. You can count on not finding a perfect writer, there will be many grammatical errors. Most things will be lighthearted, but I can get deep too!



Enjoy!