Three Sneaky Health Boosts for April - Barleans Omega Swirls and Fortiflax

In my ongoing search for a  way to boost the nutritional content of my food and my children's food, I happened upon an offer to try Barlean's Swirls and Barlean's Fortiflax. I am not a supplements kind of gal, and my children are suspicious of anything that looks at all different. It was a reach, but with enough recommendations, I decided to go for it.

First, when someone hands you something that they claim tastes like key lime - but is made with fish oil - you should definitely be suspicious. I skeptically dropped a teaspoon into my standard Stonyfield vanilla yogurt - and surprisingly, I had concocted key lime yogurt, rather than the weirdo product I was expecting.

So now, I swirl a teaspoon full into my morning yogurt and walk around all day feeling extra healthy. It actually does not have even a hint of fish oil taste, which is surprising - and awesome.

The second substitution I made was in my banana bread. I was totally nervous about dumping flax into the recipe in place of flour - because Connor is super sensitive about both looks and taste.  Luckily, Helen was the first to taste the bread, and she could not stop telling everyone about how it was the best banana bread I ever made. It does not look exactly right, but the flax ends up looking like I tossed extra bananas in there, so it works. I substituted about a half cup of forti-flax for a half cup of white flour. The break did not rise as much as normal, but it was close. I'll definitely make this substitution again.

Finally, Ed treats the kids to smoothies some weeks. He tosses whatever frozen fruit we have in the freezer, adds OJ, possibly some yogurt - and now he adds a spoon of the berry flavored Barlean's Swirls. Again - no fish oil taste, so that one is a keeper.

I can't say we've had any radical health changes - but I don't think that's what the experiment was about anyway. I do feel like I'm able to boost the nutritional value at little to no cost in taste or texture to some breakfast favorites. Plus, secretly, there's a brand of yogurt other than Stonyfield that has a key lime flavor, and occasionally I think of going non-organic just to get it. And now I don't have to!

Elaine

As a Yogetter Stonyfield blogger, I received samples of Barlean's products and yogurt free. All opinions are my own.

Thumbs Up

I don't know quite when it started, but at some point, Connor started looking over at me when he got to first base. So far this season it has been on a hit once along with a pile of walks. When he's taking his bag, he looks for me in the stands if his team is away or where I like to stand with my camera on the first base side, and then gives this wonderful smile and a thumbs up to me. I smile back at him with my own thumbs up and nod, with the key to my move being as subtle as possible. I want Connor to know I saw what he did, but I also want him to know it wasn't a surprise to me (even if it was!).

I think I didn't really appreciate this was going on until Connor's team was playing a team composed mostly of other boys from his school. It's a big night for all of the boys, and I went over to say hello to several of the parents with boys on the other team. Of course, as Connor zipped down the first base line after a walk, he looked for me and did this signature move. I responded. And at that moment, another mom looked over at me and said "you are so lucky - how do you get him to do that"? It dawned on me - I am the luckiest mom in the bleachers. (Her child is the youngest of three and he is just much more 'grown up' than Connor.)

Connor is either the youngest or close to youngest team member. And possibly that explains why he's still willing to give his mama a smile. He hasn't quite reached that point where he wants to pretend I don't exist. (Though trust me, he would die if he got hurt on the field and I followed my instincts and ran to him.*) I like to think it's also because I have exactly one cheering word I shout for him "bravo" (which I use with care), and one phrase I compliment with regularly "atta boy, that's how we run". (Nobody else in our circle uses the word "bravo", so I always figure when my kids hear it, they will know exactly who said it. And I do appreciate a good hustle on the base paths, and so far Connor has never disappointed me by not going fast when he's called to do so.) I have worked really hard at sitting calmly through games, even as parents around me are shouting. I leave it to the dads who stand by the fence and the coaches to send out their words of wisdom (there are a few who do this with absolute calm, and it's a real art form to witness).

My only regret, is that I may never have a photo of our exchanges. You see, if I had my camera up when he was ready to give the thumbs up, he might decide not to do it, because it would be clear I couldn't communicate back to him with my own gesture. I'm thinking about setting up another parent with my camera to capture the moment - but I'm afraid of destroying it if I try.

Elaine

*For the record, he did get hit in the head with a pitch last year. It smacked off his helmet and into his arm. Every part of me wanted to rush onto the field, but I am aware that every part of him was simultaneously screaming at me to back off. And so I sat perched on the edge of my seat as he trotted to first, and the mom sitting next to me urged her husband (a coach!) to go check on Connor at first. She knew exactly how I felt, and she also knew her husband could get an accurate read on whether Connor was actually hurt. (He was not - thank you helmet. I do not regret spending money on that piece of equipment.) Afterwards, he expressed gratitude for my sitting tight, and tried to convince me the ball didn't actually hit his helmet, which made me worry more!

Race recaps

I haven't run a 5K without a child by my side for a few years, so when a friend mentioned a small, evening, local 5K that I've been curious about (Crystal City 5K Fridays), Ed and I decided to go for it. We totally missed  my friend at the start - but eventually found her afterwards, and she'd found another friend, too. That's a win, overall, since the race inspired us to go have dinner and beers afterwards.  Even though we were a bit sweaty, we ate outside and were in a sports bar after that, so it wasn't too gross.

There were no age group awards, but that didn't stop me from looking up my group (40 -44) and then bragging on facebook that I won it! (24:14). The race was a bit bizarre at the start because right as the starting bell chimed, I got a call from Helen and Connor. Ed and I stepped off the course, fielded the call (TV troubles at home) and then hopped back onto the course and officially started. This meant we started behind EVERYONE! I set an immediate goal to not get beaten by any running dogs (goal met).

We wove in and out of other runners for the first mile,  found a relatively clear space at mile 2, and then cruised into the finish. Ed beat me by 7 seconds. I recovered a lot faster than he did, so there's some solace in that. Still - although he will say he didn't think I was trying, let the record note that I was trying, and felt like I was going all out.

While it is very empowering to pass a bunch of people (I was passed by 2 - Ed and another guy), it's also pretty tedious to be running around people for such a significant part of the race. Lesson learned - tell the kids no TV when we're away (kidding!).

On Sunday morning, my friend came back from the Netherlands and ran the GW Parkway Classic 10 miler. I have never signed up for this race before, because it is a huge time sink. You must be at the busses to get to the start by 6:30 (and past runners urged 6:15) and then after being bussed to the start, you stand around for over an hour waiting for the race to begin (8:00). Normally, I would've been thinking about how I could've run 10 miles, showered and had a cup of coffee before the race started - but today was all joy. A large group of friends had gathered to run together - and we even stopped and took photos at a scenic overlook.

Also, because I have never run a 10 miler, I automatically got a PR! (1:24:34). All of my miles were faster than 9:00, and the last two miles were a pretty good clip faster than the others. During the race, I felt tired, but after the race, it took about 3 minutes to feel fully recovered. Clearly, I need to figure out how to work harder during the race.

Photos to come when my friend posts them.

Elaine

Dogsitting

We had our best dogsitting experience yet a week after spring break. Helen's friend's dog needed a place to stay, and we were happy to provide it. Parker was the first dog that didn't feel the need to follow me everywhere. Parker was also happy to claim Helen's bed as her own - and in a true act of kindness, Helen agreed to exchange beds with Connor every other night so that he could sleep with Parker, too.

We took that little dog everywhere - to see the cherry blossoms, to watch Helen practice softball, to the nature center, and on our runs. She was a trooper!

She became expert at sitting only on the area of the sofa that I had covered with a blanket (thank you) and let the kids play with her all the time and walk her whenever they wanted.

For Helen's Rhyme and Cheese story this year, she wrote about her experiences dogsitting. The title? Compromises.

Elaine

Seasonal Cookie Houses - Walkers Shortbread Castles

Building gingerbread houses is so passé, right? And at least in my house, nobody even likes gingerbread so it's never as satisfying to take them apart and eat them as it should be. But if cookies and homebuilding are your thing, the folks at Walkers Shortbread have laid down the gauntlet. Check out the Outlanders castle -  in edible cookie form.

I fashion myself a bit of a baker, and I am in love with the idea of making a perfect gingerbread house. But after many barely passable attempts, from a kit, I was excited to go a different route.

So tonight, in honor of the SNOW that may fall this week (yes, this makes me almost cry, I would REALLY like to close the door on winter and start running with fewer layers), Helen and I made our own cookie house. It's held together with an icing made from butter, vanilla, milk, and powdered sugar (yum!) and my taste testers report it was delicious.

Elaine

I am officially over winter, but it was a nice day brightener to find cookies in the cabinet gifted to me by the folks at Walkers. Maybe next year, I will build my house even larger and score a spot on a TV show making cookie houses. Or not. Either way, the kids are eating this and loving it.

Math Dice

The gifted teacher at Connor and Helen's school runs a Math Dice team. Math Dice is a game for math nerds, so our house is totally up to the task of playing it. And, because some members of the house are supernerds (cough *Ed* cough), we not only play math dice at our house, our resident supernerd created a computer program that can play math dice against you.



And so it was that for a few weeks, we'd play math dice after Helen went to bed. Connor is a somewhat savvy player, but I'm a "blurt it out if you got it" kind of player, which means Connor would do much better in a tournament than me.



In brief - you roll two twelve-sided die.
Multiply the numbers you roll - this is your target.
Roll 3 six-sided die and use those three numbers to make an equation that gets you as close to the target as possible.



For example, if we rolled an 8 and 6 in the first step, the target would be 48.


If we rolled a 2, 3, and 6 on the next step, the winning equation would be 2^3*6.



If Connor and I were playing, I would shout "36 (6*3*2), no, 48 - bam! Old lady has mad skillz" and Connor would look at the dice carefully, and then say "48" and remind me that only your first answer matters. He would get the point. Although Connor has basically modified the rules when he plays with me to be that he has to land on the correct answer before I do, which gives him a lot more challenge since the modified rules allow me to get my best answer, not my first answer.



There is a trade-off between speed and accuracy - and basically the first responder is stuck with her first answer, and the second responder can take as long as they wish. This fact becomes important at tournament time.



At first, probably half the 5th grade wanted to be on the 6 person math dice team, but after many lunches playing the game, I suspect the group was whittled down to about a quarter of the kids (about 20 kids?). Connor made the team, and he was thrilled. He also got chosen as one of the 4 people on the team who participates in what is known as the "head-to-head" portion of the tournament. Students were selected for the team based on their "paper challenges" which is a version of the game where you have as much time as you want to write down your answers and then head-to-head play with other students.


At the tournament, you get points for each head-to-head win you get, and the time allotted to do this is capped. That means, a player who can get through a lot of rolls has an advantage over a player who only rolls a few times. I've heard that students intentionally try to slow the game down when they're against a good opponent, which can hurt that opponent overall. They stare at the dice after the first responder and take a ton of time before either giving their own answer or conceding the point.



Math Dice has served as a great respite from the rest of school, and we are so lucky to have this great program at our school. We'll be cheering Connor on in a few weeks as he attempts to bring home an individual and team award for our school. Historically, our school has not done very well at the tournament - but Connor is really trying to change that.



Go TEAM! and go Connor!!



Elaine