Diabetes Prevention

Lower Your Risk!




People who drink up to 34 ounces of water a day are 36 percent less likely to develop diabetes, says a French study.


What are you doing to reduce your risk?  Something as simple as drinking more water can help.

Some Sanity in the Madness

It's that time again this year. Time to start your OVENS!! Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Every year I go baking mad and it all starts with the baking marathon that is Thanksgiving.  My very large family still gathers together every year even though we have all grown and had our own families.  In this gorging spectacle my job has always been the pies.  I love to bake, if you don't... tough cookies and nasty store bought brick cookies to you too.  I'll add a few more tips for Thanksgiving to satisfying even the most baking challenged.

Various Thanksgiving Tips

Even with all the dangers of stuffing turkeys people still enjoy doing it.  Nothing like bonding over a family struck down with food poisoning.  To be safer this holiday after draining the excess blood from the turkey heavily sprinkle kosher salt on the inside cavity of the turkey.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes and rinse in cold water.  The salt will draw the excess blood out of the cavity.

A good time saver is to cut all the vegetable for the hor'dourves tray the day before and just store the cut vegetables in an ice bath in the fridge.  You can also cut the veggies in to decorative flowers if the mood strikes you.  The easiest to make by far is a mum.  Cut a criss-cross pattern (4 lines intersecting from 2 different sides in an X) into the top half of a radish and store in an ice bath for it to "bloom" open.

When making your apple pies this year for thanksgiving be sure you simmer the apples in a pan before baking in the pie shell.  If you don't precook the apples you could end up with a large gap between the top crust and the apples. 

A extra tip when making the pie dough crust use ICE cold water.  It keeps the fat from blending easily with the flour.  The less you blend the dough the flakier the crust. I prefer placing all my ingredients in the freezer after measuring out the dry ingredients (salt and flour) into a freezer bag.  In a separate bowl cool the fats (butter or shortening).  I cool all ingredients separately for 30 minutes before blending together as usual.

While baking your pies and the crust starts to darker long before the pie will be done. Make a ring around the outside edges of your pie with tinfoil.

To get that extra golden look to your crusts lightly brush the crusts with a egg wash.  Sprinkle with sugar to give it extra crunch.

Egg wash for browning baked goods. 1 egg whipped with 1TB water.  Brush on baked goods lightly to get a golden sheen.  Then bake as usual.  This will even work well on rolls.

Already a Biter

My son Maxx got his first tooth at one week shy of being 8 months old. I am positive my daughters all had multiple teeth by 8 months. I'm not complaining. I was actually dreading the day his teeth would come, they always want to test their chompers out on human flesh like little zombies. It's usually my poor defenseless Mommy flesh that is on their menu. My husband believes that Maxx was holding back on growing them in because when teeth appeared was when I stopped breastfeeding with the Nadia.

It wasn't the teeth appearing that scared me off breastfeeding. I had stopped breastfeeding Nadia after getting repeatedly being bitten while nursing her. It was so bad on many occasions that I was left bleeding and dreading the next time I would need to bare my tender bits to her. At the time I didn't know any better that she wasn't nursing but instead messing around when she would hurt me with her chompers. I didn't know I had never breast-fed a child that had teeth. With each baby I have breastfed I have been able to nurse longer and longer with each one.

Appearance of the tooth

I was sitting around after dinner watching tv while the little man cruised around the front room in his regular super army crawl. He pulled himself up on our coffee table as he always does to see what he could throw to the ground or check for any papers he could attempt to eat. Instead he started chewing on the edge of the table, so I pull him away and began playing with him. He grabbed my hand and started gnawing on it as usual. I felt something scratching me, so I inspected his mouth thinking he had some contraband. I was in shock to see a tooth since not even minutes before he had no teeth at all.

I started yelling OMG a tooth! My oldest kids come running and ask if I had lost a tooth. (being stuck in the losing tooth mode) Which is understandable considering in the past two months my two oldest daughters have lost around 10 teeth combined. (leaving our 4 yr old jealous of the all tooth fairy earnings) Once they found out it was baby Maxx's first tooth, they instantly started cheering. This little man is gonna wonder why he feels the need to have lots of cheering and applause.

I was going to wait until daddy got home from work to tell him but I can't keep a secret/surprise. Daddy was on speaker phone when I told him about the new tooth. After crowing with pride about his little man becoming such a big boy, he then asks me if this means breastfeeding will soon be coming to an end. Before I could get a response out Maxx was vigorously shaking his head no. When hubby didn't get a response because I was giggling too hard, he repeated his question and Maxx shook his head no all over again when daddy mentioned breastfeeding ending. We have our answer and will continue to breastfeed hopefully to 1-year-old. Little man shows no signs of wanting to give it up. Hubby says it is the boobies addiction that most men have it's just starting early.

Abuse of tooth power

That little tooth was not even 24 hours old and Maxx had try it out on my poor defenseless nipple. This time I knew what to do though. I still said ow because it still freaking hurt. I immediately told him no bite and set him down away from me and ended the breastfeeding session. He startled at me screeching ow but then laughed. As soon as I told him no bite and set him away from the boob you would think it was him that had just been bitten. Maxx was howling down the moon, all while giving me the most pitiful looks. For the sake of my poor nipples I stuck to my guns and again told him no bite and handed him a toy to play with instead. Less than a minute later, he had given up the howling and had turned his pitiful looks to glares of indignation.

Have you had to handle a biter? How did you overcome it?

Tip: When breastfeeding and your child bites you, tell your child "No Bite" and end the nursing session.  Set them down away from you. (near toys to play with since they were not eating but playing when they bit)  Try again in 10 minutes. 

Related Articles

• The Tooth Fairy Drops By (lauramaly.wordpress.com)
• Breastfeeding tips - All Information (umm.edu)

Basket-case

I've been a bad blogger lately, I have been so busy with life that I didn't have the mental capacity at the end of the day to come up with coherent thoughts.  I've been waking up in time to walk my oldest girls to school for their early morning instrument ensemble and then having trouble falling asleep at night.  With being a stay at home mom I still feel like there is never enough hours in a day.  (even with insomnia)  I keep trying to remind myself that Halloween is just the warm-up act for the insanity that is the Holiday season.  I can't lose my grip on my sanity just yet.  There are still a few more months to go before we are safely through the season.

My husband has taken a few days off from work and you would think that having him home would make things easier. I have found it isn't true at all.  It may just be me but I can't seem to get that much of my housework done with him home.  We end up sitting around watching tv or joking around.  Not a bad alternative but my house needs serious cleaning daily with four kids, 2 adults, a parrot and two hamsters living in it.

To help make cleaning easier I use the basket method.  When cleaning my front room I take a small laundry basket and put everything in it that does not belong in that room. Tidying everything up as I clean.  When I get everything picked up in the room I put away all the items from the basket and then continue with another room.  I love using small laundry baskets to clean but laundry is one of my least favorite household chores to do.

I love small laundry baskets.  Everyone in my house has one with their name on them.  When doing laundry I gather the baskets I place the laundry in each basket as I fold.  Then I have my children put their laundry away.  Even my four-year old tornado puts away her laundry.  Sometimes it inspires her to have a full-blown outfit change, but it's one less basket of laundry I have to contend with.

White Distilled Vinegar

Did you know word vinegar comes from the french word “vinaigre” meaning sour wine?  Which makes you wonder was vinegar discovered by some happy accident thousands of years ago when a cask of wine spoiled?  During winemaking the natural sugars ferment into alcohol.  Bacteria from exposure to the air changes the alcohol into an acetic acid.  The acetic acid is what gives the “sour wine” its taste.

I've never realized just how many uses around the house for white distilled vinegar .  I could go on forever about vinegar and it's multitude of uses.  Ask my poor husband, he's tolerated my constant vinegar praises.  Instead of a dissertation here are a few household uses that I tried and have worked for me.  I've tried more but these are my favorites.

Toilet Cleaner / Deodorizer

Put 1/4 cup of vinegar into your toilet bowl and let sit for about 20 minutes.  Clean with standard toilet brush.  Not only does it clean the toilet but it prevents the toilet ring from building up as soon.

Burned Water / Scorched Pan

Even I have burned a pan after boiling away water.  (shhh, don't tell my chef friends)  After the incident I was left with a horrible scorching on my pan.  I found that to remove the scorching just add 1/2 cup baking soda and some white vinegar. You will get a bubbling mass just like the old volcano science project as a child.  Let the mixture sit in the pan for a few hours.  Pour out and it will need very little if any scrubbing.

Laundry

Add 1/2 cup to the wash water before adding clothing.  Vinegar will break down fresh stains.  It will even prevent clothes from getting mildewed if forgotten in the wash too long.

Shower doors

To clean the soap and water buildup on shower doors you can use white vinegar as well. First using the scrub side of a sponge lightly scrub baby oil on the glass shower doors.  Wipe doors with the sponge soaked in vinegar.  Rinse off the doors with clean water.  This will even prevents future buildup.



The biggest complaint most people have with using vinegar is the odor.  The smell when cleaning with vinegar only lasts a few hours before it dissipates.  If you still want to try cleaning with vinegar but the smell is still holding you back here is a recipe for an All-Purpose cleaner using vinegar.  Be sure to add the essential oils and it covers the vinegar odor. (citrus does the best)

All Purpose Vinegar Cleaner

• 1 cup distilled water
• 1 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon dishwashing liquid
• 15 drops or so of essential oil (optional)

Mix all the ingredients in a good quality, clean spray bottle.

Do not use on Marble. Vinegar is acidic and will damage the marble.

Related Articles

• Ah, vinegar. I love you. (enviromom.com)

Boiled Eggs

When boiling eggs and you notice a crack forming in the shell as it cooks, simply pull the egg out of the water with a slotted spoon and throughly coat the crack in salt. Let the salt sit for a minute then add the egg back to the boiling water.  The salt will seal up most cracks that form after cooking has begun.

Or to prevent the cracks in the first place add a few Tablespoons of white vinegar to the water.

When making deviled eggs do not over crowd the pan. Leave room to stir the eggs around while cooking.  If you gently stir the eggs while they cook the yolk with form in the center for an attractive uniform base for the deviled eggs.

When poaching eggs add a Tablespoon of white vinegar to the water and the eggs will stay formed better.  Cook as usual.

Related Articles

• Super-quick Egg Shelling (quazen.com)

30 Day Shred Redux

That's right you read that right, I'm starting over on the 30 day shred. The results I was getting were just too impressive not to fight through it again. I only made it just surpassed the halfway point before I was sabotaged. I didn't even make it to the change-up into difficulty level three which has really bothered me.

As of today I am back on day 3 of the 30 day shred. I started back on level one of the three difficulty levels and I am so glad I did. Let me just say, I am really feeling it today. Yesterday, I caught myself at some time or another walking as if I were decrepit old woman. After going for a walk with my kids to the store my aching muscles felt so much better. They just needed a better cooldown than what it shown in the video, nothing over the top just a nice 15 minute walk.

Julian Michaels is still the same reincarnate of a medieval torturer that I remembered. Even though I've done these workouts before, it really was day 1 all over again. It's not that I lost the muscle tone just the muscle memory of the workouts. Don't get me wrong, I love doing the 30 day Shred. I love that Julian Michaels is not your average cookie cutter, annoyingly perky trainer gazing blankly at you from screen like most other workout videos you've seen in the past. She is one tough cookie. She doesn't try to cheer lead you through the workout, but instead pushes you with her no excuses attitude. At one point in workout level one she says, "I have 400 lb people who can do jumping jacks, so can you!" Just when you start to feel the burn she gets this demented look on her face like she will come through your TV screen if you even think about resting.

On days when I want to get in a little more exercise (which is crazy sounding within the first few days of each level of the 30DS) I do a few repetitions of V-ups with my exercise ball. To me exercise becomes an obsession, once I really get over the first shock to my body and into a good workout schedule. The endorphin rush from a great workout is very addictive.

Here is a video of a good example of V-ups

My belly may have been cute 7 to 8 months ago when it was round with my baby boy. Now that it is round from too many sweets it's not so adorable. So it's outta here!

I will be wearing those goal jeans for my birthday. That means less than three more months to go!