Sick as dogs - guess it wasn't something he ate

Had a lovely Easter. The food was divine. Lovely spiral ham, rotisserie style roasted chickens, a kick arse potato gratin recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence, roasted fresh asparagus, mixed greens salad, jello salad and for dessert, lovely strawberry lemon trifle and banana pudding w/Nilla wafers with a nice hot pot of tea. We also had an egg hunt for all 6 kiddos with over 100 eggs hidden by the hubby and myself.

Of course, that was until about 4pm or so when Dv. and T started complaining about belly aches. Considering that T was up at 3am (into his Easter basket and watching TV) and that the younger three were up just a bit after 6am, I figured it was a combination of being up early and eating too much candy. Needless to say, by 7pm we had a couple of pukers. By 10-11pm we had 3 pukers (Bec) and by 1am we had 4 pukers (Em). At one point Bec was in the bathroom washing up and T busted in because he needed to puke. Not much sleeping went on last night. Thankfully, Em just tossed her cookies once, Dv. was asleep by 1-2am w/no more puking and T was done by 2 or 3am. Poor Bec. She got the worst of it by getting sick every single hour until about 5 or 6 this morning. When she came downstairs this morning her whole face was a mess of broken capillaries (petikieye). Not a very nice way to start your spring break, I'm afraid. I guess Dn. did indeed have a stomach bug and it wasn't something he ate. One can only hope that the hubster, J and I escape its evil grip.

Today has been a terribly lazy, blah day although it was brightened by a phone call from my favorite Auburnite. To top things off, I didn't use the treadmill or exercise yesterday and what I found is that it was harder to get back on it today. Although, I am learning that it's ok not to push myself to the limits every day. That it's ok to go easier as long as I am exercising. So, I ended up with 40 mins. on the treadmill with the last 10 minutes or so at a slower pace on the lowest incline while I did arm exercises with some hand weights. I actually have been doing the arm exercises every day during my "cool down". The only thing I didn't do today that I usually do is some pilates. Maybe later, maybe not. The best part of exercise has not been the fabulous weight loss (hahaha - I wish), but the fact that I'm starting to like myself again - starting to feel like that even if I am still as heavy as I was when I delivered J. and 15lbs heavier than after I delivered Em, my determination to be healthy and strong is probably better now than it ever was. That's something, right?! And I know that when I need a lift or a pep talk, I've got the BEST cheerleaders in the world rooting for me.

Some days, just knowing you have people watching & cheering you on is enough to spur you into action. It's so much harder doing it by yourself because you sometimes can lose sight of how important you really are and basically, that is what exercise comes down to. Yeah, it is a total pain in the arse (literally sometimes!), but it is about putting yourself first and by doing so you can continue to take care of everyone else. I wish more Moms would embrace that thought...the putting yourself first one. So many times I see or hear things that really make me sad. While our children should be one of the most important things in our lives, we have to stop forgetting about ourselves. Most of us would never let our children sit around, eat bad food, etc., but we allow ourselves that. It's a vicious, vicious cycle. One that I'm determined to ditch - not just for my sake, but so that I can finally be a decent role model for my kids.