Week in Review: February Vacation, The First Half

It's February Vacation here in Massachusetts, which means that Phil and the kids are off of school/work but I still have to work - womp womp.  I do get out an hour early each day at least.  We seem to have lots going on this week, so I thought I would split this week's activities into two posts.  I swear I used to write about all sorts of topics, but after blogging for 17 years, it's mostly just family updates now.  I've said it all y'all!  

For Valentine's Day, Phil and I ate out at The Mooring restaurant in Newport which was beautiful, right on the water.  We got the baked brie (tiny!) and I got the fish sandwich and he got the burger like the seafood lover and hater that we are.  Our hotel was meh, but you get what you pay for, and I had a gift certificate that I had paid half price for.  Their was a very large and LOUD group of people that were down the hall from us and we had to be *those people* who called the front desk to complain about the noise at 9:30pm.  Of course I made Phil do it because I was too scared.  I'm not sure they got spoken to, but they all left after 20 minutes or so and we were able to fall asleep by 10 just like we like it, cough cough old.

On Saturday morning, we drove from Newport to Boston to watch Eamon run his two races at the State Track Meet.  We were just so happy to support him in his first track season, qualifying for states in two events and wondering why he has played basketball for the past twelve years instead of running winter track.  Ah well, you live you learn!  Plus he really did love basketball for all those years.  Eamon ended up getting a PR in the 1000m and his 4 x 800m relay team placed 9th, which was just shy of getting a medal.  It was a long but fun day, and we were very surprised to have one of my sisters show up to cheer him on, along with her husband and their son.  We drove home and went to a vigil mass in town because more snow was forecasted for that night, then ate pizza with the kiddos.

Before

After - dead on the ground

Recovering

Week in Review: A Lovely 25 Years, An Eggcelent Family, and Another Snow Day

Happy Valentine's Day Lovers!  

Ick. I actually hate the word lovers, it's too visual for me, ya know?  

The guy who asked me to be his valentine 25 years ago has apparently not changed his mind and is taking me away on a little overnight date to celebrate. 

Valentine's Dance in a ballroom in Gaming, Austria in 2000

 25 years together and he's still my favorite.

I think this all the time :)

OK that's enough mush, let's look back at what happened this week.

Eamon and a cousin went snowboarding and had a blast.  His phone, however, also had a blast when it dropped out of his pocket and was run over by a car or twenty.  He was due for a new phone anyway but man that was an expensive day!

Week in Review: A Pathetic Snow Day, An Almost State Qualifier, A Scam That Worked, and Some Chicken Biology

Another week of illness in the house, this time for the younger three boys.  I'm pretty sure it's the flu, as people they are friends with have tested positive for it.  I didn't bring them in because we are managing their symptoms at home and there's nothing the doc can give us for a virus except advice.  Lots of resting, fluids, and alternating tylenol and advil for the fevers.  Poor babies.  JP says there's tons of it going around at the hospital where he works.  Brendan was the first to recover and is back to school today, but Declan and Xander are still home.

We had our first Snow Day except that it barely snowed!  School was called off the night before and it only snowed a couple of inches, but we will take it!  I always try to do some deep cleaning or organizing chore on snow days because they are bonus days of no work.  I swear I'm fun ;)

Phil and I went through the three younger boys clothes and donated lots (no need to save the smallest boy clothes anymore!) and moved everyone up a size.  

Then we put winter sheets on their beds and washed everything in sight and opened windows and sprayed their room down with this disinfecting mist.  At night they all took showers and put on fresh pajamas, and there's almost nothing that makes me feel like a better mother than turning a sick room into a clean and healthy room.  Aaaahhhh.

Last weekend, Eamon ran in a track meet and got a PR in the 1000m:

He's in maroon tank and blue shoes

Even though he is a senior, this is Eamon's first time ever running high school track...as he has always played basketball in the winter since age 6.  But when he made the Varsity Basketball team last year and was a benchwarmer, he didn't want to go through that again.  The winter track coaches are very happy to have discovered him "where have you been hiding?".  They want him to run Spring Track and think he can qualify for states (he missed it by a couple seconds) at tomorrow's last chance meet.  I guess soccer players make great runners!

Supplemental Income

If health is wealth, then here is how we are supplementing our income diet in the Martin household.

The daily doses:

Started taking this iron supplement when pregnant and anemic, worked so good that I was told to only take every other day.

Mini Fish Oil because those big ones are hard to swallow

Nutrafol for the year of Colleen's hair regrowth

Magnesium every night before bed - no more charlie horses in my legs and magnesium levels are so important for so many things (google it)

Probiotics for adults

Probiotics for kids

Vitamin D3 + K2 drops for everyone (you're probably deficient and this bottle contains 600 servings!)

~

Under the weather helpers:

I prefer to drink an Emergen - C every day in the winter, made with hot water

Raw Vitamin C

Zicam (Phil swears by these when he feels something coming on)

Propolis Immune Support throat spray

~

Gummy candies, I mean vitamins:

These are too fun to take, so I'm not sure how effective they are but I figure if we are trying to eat a balanced diet, then these will fill in the cracks of any deficiencies we may have.

Men's multi

Women's multi plus Collagen (I also put this collagen powder in my coffee each morning)

Teen Boys Multi

Teen Girls Multi

Kids Multi plus Omegas

Cheers to a healthy and active 2025!

Week in Review: January's Done, Science Fair Won, Fattening Up a Skinny One

Happy Last Friday of January!  For anyone participating in a Dry January, or Whole30 or Gluten Free January - you made it!!  And yes I am patting myself on the back there, as Phil and JP and I have successfully given up gluten for this last month (minus the eggo waffle I absentmindedly ate one morning when really sick and totally forgot about gluten).  

JP has had really good results going GF including less bloating and he's also lost a good chunk of weight between eating better and his job as an ER Tech which gets him lots of steps and then he goes to the gym straight from work.  Phil and I have been eating too many chips and chocolate to have lost much weight but I think I feel less bloated overall, like I don't have days when I feel gross/stuffed.  I absolutely hate that feeling and try to never overeat so as to avoid it.  The real test will come tomorrow when we introduce gluten back in.  I'm dreaming of a cheeseburger on a brioche roll.  One addition to my diet that I want to keep is eating Oats Overnight for breakfast.  It feels like a luxury to pick a flavor each night, shake it up with unsweetened almond milk, and grab it in the morning.  Yum!  Plus oatmeal = good for my cholesterol levels.

Are you tired of hearing about gluten?  Me too, moving on.

Alexander went ahead and won 3rd place for his 8th grade science fair project which means he is supposed to compete at the regional science fair in a month... which happens to be the same day as their huge end-of-season swim meet.  Dude, we said just get an A.  Kidding, kidding (kinda) we are very proud of him.  

After 14 science fair projects, we finally cracked the code on how to set up a trifold board with ease.  The secret is in creating documents with the perfect dimensions and background colors and borders that get printed at Staples, instead of printing a whole bunch of papers and cutting and cropping and placing on construction paper.  

Old way of creating the board:

New way of creating the board:

My my how he's grown in a year!

Week in Review: Still Sick But Perking Up

 This past week was rough, illness-wise, for the parentals at Casa Martin.  I had a fever for a whole week that had me not sleeping and eventually turned into congestion and a cough.  Phil has had a cold and bad cough for almost two weeks.  We both went to the doctor, which included a chest x-ray for moi, got prescriptions for antibiotics (and steroids for Phil) and have finally turned the corner.  The only upside to being sick?  Not having to go to work!  But the whole catching up at work after a week off has not been fun.

Guys, my glasses were fogging up because of the mask and I felt like I was suffocating.  How did we wear these things for so long?

Let's focus on some good things mkay?

The Washington Commanders won on Sunday night, which was a huge victory, and Eamon got so excited that he threw off his shirt and ran around the family room.  Andrew was freaking out as well, texting and face-timing from Ohio.  These boys have been fans for so long to a team that stunk, and I'm so grateful they are able to see them go this far into playoffs finally.  Next big game is this Sunday!  Go Commies!

Sept. 2010

Lucy Doodle got a DIY bath at our local pet store.  For $12 it's worth it for the ease and to not have a wet dog run around our house :)  Plus the kids seem to think of it as fun and not a chore, muahaha!