Things I Learned Last Week

1. I am starting to worry about the amount of food my kids ingest.  I think such large amounts are abnormal. We aren't even to the teenage years yet... Be afraid, be very afraid!  They have been compared to goats and bottomless pits.  I have yet to run into anything they won't eat.  I'm not complaining about the latter though.
2. Making cream cheese frosting during the summer isn't the best idea.  I guess it doesn't help that we keep the thermometer at 78 degrees to help keep costs down too.
3. Looks don't matter.  It's the taste that counts!  (see above)
4. I am toying with taking refined sugar out of our diet.  There is sugar packed into a lot of grocery items you might not think about: spaghetti sauce, crackers, and the list can go on and on.
5. I've been looking into vegan baking.  I found it is easy to do egg substitutes in more savory items, but not so easy in sweeter dishes.  I think 4 and 5 kind of go hand in hand.
6. I am not above bribery to lure the kids into doing what I would like them to with good behavior.  I think I should be more ashamed to admit it.  I will really be hurting when ice cream is no longer a good reward.
7. Taking tags off of new clothes is a bummer, especially when clothes shopping in mass.
8. Labeling new school supplies for 3 children is an even bigger bummer.
9. I learned how to hem pants so we didn't have to pay $30 to get Jay's new suit pants hemmed.  It was surprisingly easy, and it definitely didn't cost $30 in materials or time to make it worth going to a tailor again.
10. “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” Proverbs 12:25  I should put this on my badge for school since I had the remarkable ability for getting the most confrontational patients last semester.