The Great Lunchbox Debate

I love to shop for school supplies. So I'm not the least bit put-out by the massive amounts of supplies sitting in a corner in my dining room waiting on meet-the-teacher night to be deposited into the K, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms for use by my children and their peers. We try to reuse what we can, and buy quality items when we need to get new. For example - for 29 cents more, a pair of Fiskars blunt-end scissors will last a heck of a lot longer than the Rose Art ones. Same goes for Crayola products - you can't beat 'em. (Except, of course, for those colored bubbles that recently came out - yikes!). And much to my children's sadness, the teachers recommended plain yellow #2 pencils (already sharpened, thank you very much) instead of pencils with TinkerBelle, or the like foiled onto them. Evidently, the cheap-o pencils are harder on the pencil sharpeners than the regular pencils. So having navigated all of that, we moved onto lunch boxes...

I bring my lunch to work most days. I carry a Laptop Lunchbox because I like to eat lunch bento-style.

I'm not really a sandwich, chips and apple kinda girl. I like left overs for lunch. However, I will say one of the issues that I have is that I don't really warm anything up in these containers, and I can't pack already warmed food and expect that it will stay warm. Also, my 7 year old and my 5 year old don't seem to be able to get all the little lids off, and by the time their teacher can help them, lunch is nearly over.

Then, I looked at one of these: a planet lunch box, but it doesn't seem to have the versatility of my laptop lunchbox, where I can remove sections if I needed to.

I also looked at old-school lunchboxes off of eBay. I remember being in the second grade and having a crush on a boy named Brian, just because he had a Dukes of Hazard lunchbox. I loved my Rainbow Brite lunchbox and thermos set. But I didn't love that my apple made a permanent dent in my fluffernutter sandwich. This might be why I'm not a sandwich person. See, blogging really is therapy!

Anyhow, we decided on plain lunch sacks - something similar to this. So that I can put leftovers in our Funtainers, and still have room to pack bento-style using our lock and lock containers.

I love to follow blogs about healthy lunches for both adults and kids. Some cute ones that I look at are:

Another Lunch

Bento Mama

Going Against the Grain - Gluten Free stuff here is awesome!

Why is there paint on my mirror?

When we purchased our home, the previous homeowners left a huge, framed mirror on the wall hung horizontally, as though a dresser should be beneath it. Up until last year, we left the mirror where it was and put our bedroom dresser below it. However, decided sometime last year to do away with our dressers in our master bedroom, and instead put in two giant wardrobes with deep drawers for easier clothing storage. This left the question of what to do with the mirror?

My hubby took the mirror and turned it on it's side and installed it on the wall as a full length mirror. He had to take the framing off of it to make it fit. This was ONE YEAR AGO.

Yes, that's the glue that surrounded the mirror from the framing. And, yes, it stayed on their for over a year, just waiting for someone to scratch it off. It's one of those things that I see so often, I forget it's there. Until one day last week, when our youngest asked why we had paint on our mirror. I was like, "huh?", and when he showed me, I was dumbfounded - has that really been that way this whole time?

So, very proud of myself, I got out a hand-dandy scraper and scraped it all off nice and clean. This brings me to having two issues....

1. How many things do I walk by that need to be fixed and I just don't notice?

2. Why hasn't my husband fixed this yet? :)

Professional Nursing Portfolio

Hey nurses! If you don't already have one, you should really put together a Professional Portfolio. I find it is extremely helpful to keep all of my professional items together in one area. This helps keep my stuff from looking like this...

and looking more professional!

I use my portfolio when I meet with my leaders for my annual review. It helps to show the story of who I am as a nurse and why I'm an asset to the organization. My portfolio is a crisp white binder with 5 divided areas -

1. Annual Requirements

- In this tab, I keep all of my professional and hospital required annual requirements. This came in handy just the other day, when the hospital misplaced my annual TB test readings. I was able to fax them the results when I got home from work that day. In this tab I keep...

* nursing license

* CPR card

* NRP card

* Mask-fit test results

* TB test results

* Most current evaluation - a word about this. Be sure to actually look at this from time to time. If your goal at the end of your evaluation (and everyone needs a goal!) was to join a unit-based committee or obtain CEUs with a focus in your area...you should be looking at those goals and making them happen before your next review.

2. Resume

- You should always have an update resume on hand in both paper and electronic forms. You never know when the opportunity of a lifetime will knock and you want to be prepared. In this tab I keep...

* updated resume

* a copy of the job descriptions from the last 3 jobs I've had. Why? Well, your resume as well as cover letter can and should be tweaked with the information that most pertains to the position you are applying for. For example, if you want to manage a department, you would highlight the management tasks you were responsible for on your previous job descriptions. Remember, your resume should be close to one page, two pages max. This is for a resume, not a CV. At some point I'll create a CV, it's just not necessary for the type of work I have been doing. Many other professions like to throw the title "CV" around, but unless you have given talks, been published or are professional recognized in research, then a true CV is unnecessary in this line of work.

* copy of your diploma

3. Volunteer Work

- Many industries are now requesting volunteer work from their employees that wish to advance in the professional practice model. My volunteer work tab includes thank-you letters from classrooms that I've taught handwashing to, my letters from volunteering with breastfeeding mothers in Alaska, as well as proof of being a medic at some local road races. Opportunities are endless, and the ability to volunteer is so easy these days.

4. CEU's/Conferences/Professional Organization Memberships

This is pretty self explanatory. You want to be well-rounded on your continuing education. Yes, you can get all your CEUs online these days, but you'll want to check to ensure your state will recognize online CEUs. I do a mix of on-line, in-hospital and community education. Our competing hospital has some great one-day conferences with nationally recognized speakers, and it has been nice to be able to rub elbows with other professionals.

* CEU certificates

* Conference flyers, as well as certificate of attendance

* Professional Organization card, as well as printed Mission Statement from their website.

5. Kudos and Special Moments

Our hospital uses a system-wide complement card for individual recognition. These can be submitted by anyone - employees or patients alike. I keep these in this tab. I also keep any pictures that family members give me of their child, and I make a quick note of why it was significant. I keep funeral notices and thank you cards from families. I keep emails from my boss that recognize my good work. And pictures that have been taken of the nursing staff for fun. This is the section of your portfolio that is more for you than for anyone. It's the part you turn to to remember why you do the things you do. It can also be used to show your manager a story or two of difficult patient cases that you successfully managed.

Snickers Salad

OK, let's just take a time-out from all this healthy business to have a not-so-diet-friendly dessert.

My goal is to have fun dye-free desserts with the kids. Now, I will confess that I did not fully read each and every label here, and so I can't be 100% certain that there isn't a food dye hiding in this salad. After all, did you know marshmallows have blue dye in them? I digress, there are no marshmallows in this recipe!

3 granny smith apples

3 snickers bars

1 small tub of cool whip

1 block of cream cheese

1. Chop apples and snickers bars.

2. Mix cream cheese and cool whip together in mixer.

3. Add apples, candy bars.

4. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Very yummy, all the kids loved it.

Baked Tomatoes

Sometimes I'm tired of salads, and sometimes I just want a warm yummy side-dish. Of course, since I'm trying to watch unnecessary carbs, I've been getting more creative. A friend of mine that is doing the South Beach diet shared her Baked Tomatoes recipe with me.

Forgive my lack of actual real measurements....

4 Roma tomatoes

Fresh basil leaves

EVOO

Salt

Pepper

Fresh Mozzarella

I've eaten this mixture cold on many occasions and it's delicious. For a twist on the salad-version of this...

Slice tomatoes in half longways. Scoop out the interior. Mix chopped mozzarella and basil together. Drizzle tomatoes with EVOO, put cheese mixture inside, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Put in the over 350 for about 10 minutes or so.

Very gooey-delicious yumminess!

Cherries!

Today is my weigh-in day and I'm at 153.0. I'm happy with that considering I was almost 160 just a few weeks ago. Yikes!

I went grocery shopping today and bought strawberry cherries. O.M.Goodness...they are fabulous! I had a handful with my lunch today.

I'm trying to eliminate some of the high-glycemic index foods and cherries are a very low glycemic index food. Cherries also naturally cleanse the blood from toxins. And they are a natural anti-inflammatory, which is great for post-workout soreness.

Yum!

I'm an Ostrich

Yup, that's right. I've got my head in the sand and my big butt in the air.

There...admitting it is the first step.

The second step...calling my doctor to make an appointment for an annual physical.

Oh, wait, did you say annual...since I seemed to have done this pretty regularly when I was in baby-making mode, but not now. It's been almost 6 years since my last pap/complete physical. The last time I had a physical, I was breastfeeding full time and weighed 129 pounds. My labwork was great and I was in the best shape of my life. Did I mention I had a 6 month old, 24 month old and a 3 1/2 year old? And I'm complaining now that I can't find time to work exercise into my day. Hmmmph...time to give that more though.

After casual conversation with some physician friends, I am showing classic thyroid/stress hormone problems. Ugg...I've always been annoyed by the Oprah-like excuse people use for their weight-gain, "my thyroid is off". But now, I feel empowered that there's a real reason why my weight watchers weigh-in is showing +9 for the past couple of weeks. I won't even put a picture of my weight on here, because I wasn't brave enough to want to see it every time scrolled through my pictures so I deleted it. To coin another phrase that I detest...it is what it is.

So, I'm still around. I have found that I avoid going out with friends because I don't have any clothes that fit me. There, that's my confession....

...I'm 30 pounds heavier than I should be, and I look about 6 months pregnant.

My doctor's appointment is the first week of August, and I'm making my list of questions now.