It's Monday, and we all remember how I feel about Mondays from another post. I don't like them. I'm definitely grumpy today. Especially since when I got to work I realized I forgot my smoothie cup to use in my ninja blender. So now I'm not going to get my morning smoothie...and I'll be super hungry by lunch and make a bad food decision.
Thanks @shopsweetlife for the Instagram steal
Speaking of that. I tried to have a discussion with Ellie yesterday about food choices. I feel like I talk to her about this a lot. But usually it's when she's throwing a fit about not wanting to eat something, so I don't think what I say registers. So yesterday after cheer competition the girls had a lunch time. A few moms went and got some croissant sandwiches from Costco. Ellie refused to eat one and just wanted to leave. So we left. I said "Ellie you could have still eaten the bread, lunch meat and cheese and just took the lettuce and tomato off. All your friends were eating the sandwiches, so they must be good, right?" She just shrugged her shoulders. So in the car I talked to her about nutrients. She had a bag of Cheetos and a banana. So I explained how fruits and vegetables have nutrients in them, and why those are good for you and your body. She seemed to get it, I tried to engage her by asking questions so it didn't seem too much like a lecture. I explained about how Cheetos are not nutritious. She asked about the spaghetti dinner we had, aren't the noodles nutritious? No, Ellie, it you would eat the sauce with hamburger at least you would have gotten some protein. I tried to explain how there has to be a balance. We wouldn't eat all this good stuff if it was gross. She ate that banana like it was covered in medicine. It took the whole drive home for her to eat 3/4 of it. Moms, I need some help. What do you do with your difficult eaters?! We try every meal to get her to eat 1 vegetable, and its excruciating. Sometimes there's crying, or it takes an hour. I thought, eventually she'll get over this. No, this has been going on for years. I'm at my wits end. I want my kids to eat good, we try to eat good. I show them how I eat salads and vegetables. Nothing works. And in the end, I'm terrified my pushing her or something is going to trigger some eating disorder. Okay...that got deep. Onto a brighter topic. Our weekend was busy with our little performer. She got to perform with the Capital Cougarette drill team on Friday night during half-time. She was great. All the girls looked so cute out there all in pink (it was the pink out game for breast cancer). She asked to do it every year. Saturday was just a typical cheer game day. And the girls had a hour practice afterwards in preparation for Sunday's big cheer competition. Side note- A few moms snuck down the street for a Mimosa during this practice, so yummy and needed. And then Sunday was the big day the girls had been practicing for all season. They did so good. And although they didn't win a medal for their age group, they were so supportive of the teams that did. She was a tired girl. We have survived the second season of cheer.
My big adventure last week was being summoned for jury duty. I and 80 locals got selected to be on a panel for a civil (non-criminal) case that was scheduled to last 14 days. This caused a lot of groaning. Day one people were excused for various reasons, I was extremely jealous of the woman who got excused because she had a vacation scheduled to Cancun during the trial. Given my work for the Attorney General's office I figured I would be cut the first day. But I wasn't, which was intriguing. So day two I rolled back in there with the group cut in half down to 40 left in the pool. We continued to answer questions, and a few more people were cut. In the end, there were about 25 of us left, me included. They picked their 12 jurors plus 2 alternates and I was not selected. So let me use this to make a little PSA. If you are ever called, really do your civic duty and go. Whatever you think of our justice system, its what we have and it has served our county well the majority of the time. Go with a good attitude and the mindset that you may really learn from this experience. If you for some horrible reason had to be in the position of needing a jury of your peers to decide for you, wouldn't you want them to want to be there? And, you end up meeting some really interesting people from your community.
A friend from high school, who I run into through the year at local events, her mom has been diagnosed with cancer. Her mom, Cyndi Dickson, has been a local business owner of the Filling Station Espresso for over 20 years and has always been a kind smiling face in our community. My good friend Amy always steps up to the plate and jumped on the chance to help. Through her local boutique Bon Lemon, she sold 100 bracelets in 3 days with all proceeds going to help this family with the expenses of fighting this terrible disease. Please read and share Cyndi's story.
I cut out the spiderman one, aren't I good. And by "I" I mean Kyle
Mike & Alyssa Camus (Mike is one of the Twins)
News to look forward to next week: I'm running/walking a 10K Sunday, see if I survive. Karlye and Josh may be able to buy and/or build on Camus Rd...nothing is finalized yet. I am starting an 8-week boot camp and I'm hoping I get some amazing results, so any and all encouragement is needed. Oh to maybe help your Monday be brighter, Charlie says have a good day.
