Guilty Pleasure Sunday

As part of being semi-healthy it is important, nay VITAL, to make sure you enjoy some of those guilty pleasures every once in a while, and not feel guilty about it! For me today it is Reese's Eggs!

Is everyone familiar with this Reese's campaign? Well I whole heartedly agree! I love Reese's and no other peanut butter filled chocolate can even begin to compare to the perfection the Hershey's has achieved. This is especially true for their Easter time special of Reese's peanut butter eggs

Here I present you with the perfect chocolate to peanut butter ratio, in the form of an egg. Any Reese's lover like myself already knows the wonders of this simple seasonal candy.

This year for the first time I noticed the Giant Reese's Egg, and being the enthusiast I am, had to endulge myself and have one.

Of course it was delicious, but in the end, the original egg is still perfection in my book. Which is the reason why this last week after Easter Sunday, I went to Wal-mart and bought 16 of those wonderful things for only $4.30. I am not encouraging gorging yourself with that excessive amount of candy all at once, but when I allow myself a break with just one of those things, life becomes a little less stressful, and that is why it is a semi-healthy choice for me to allow myself the guilty pleasure of Reese's eggs this time of year.

Until next time, enjoy those small guilty pleasures, without any of the guilt.

Changes Finale

This is a the third and final installment in my Changes Series. The first two can be found here:
1. Changes
2. Changes Cont...

This series has been about changes I have made in my life, and blog, and the reasons behind them. This is I hope the final major change I will be making which will effect my blog, and so without further ado...

Welcome to Angelyn's Semi-Healthy Lifestyle

I've been thinking about this concept for my blog a while now, but was not ready to fully commit to it. When I originally started this blog I had intended it to just be a personal blog for my friends and family to stay updated with my changing life with Camilo and the start of our own family. However when my engagement with Camilo was called off I had just caught the blogging bug and couldn't quit, but I also couldn't keep "The Riviere Family" [the original name of this blog] because that is no longer the case. However at the time I still was not sure if it was going to be a blog primarily for close friends and family, or if I wanted to try to expand my horizons, so I went with the very generic name of "The Life and Times of Angelyn." 
Now to the present, as mentioned the idea of a semi-healthy lifestyle had been rolling around in my head for a while now, but this would be a blog meant for the masses, and not just those I know personally. This required some commitment to blogging on my part, and of course...a BUTTON! Well as you see, I have made that leap and am now the author of Angelyn's Semi-Healthy Lifestyle! Button and all [which you should grab].

<a href=http://angelynslife.blogspot.com/><span class="apple-style-span"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k620/angelynr91/Button.jpg" /></span></a>

Now to the question, what is a SEMI-healthy lifestyle? Well it is the lifestyle I strive to live, and the key concept to living a semi-healthy lifestyle is moderation. Junk food is not really bad, it is TOO much junk food that is bad. Eating healthy is not difficult nor lack luster, but TOO much is being a health nut, and well that is just not a good thing. TOO much exercise, TOO much sleep, TOO much of anything turns into a bad thing. 
But if you live by the standard of all things in moderation, then you can really enjoy life to the fullest. You can enjoy the benefits of healthy eating and all the fun of guilty pleasures which let's face it, if you did not have any guilty pleasures, life would be difficult and dull. This blog is about lifestyle though, not diets or recipes. So I will be blogging about a variety of topics including: eating, exercising, hobbies, kids crafts, education, relaxing, rewards, anything you need to live your version of a Semi-Healthy Lifestyle. 

GRAB MY BUTTON!

<a href=http://angelynslife.blogspot.com/><span class="apple-style-span"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k620/angelynr91/Button.jpg" /></span></a>

It only took me 2 hours and lots of hair pulling to get it right, but by golly if that ain't the best button you ever did see! 

Please forgive me - 2 hours of struggling with HTML is not good for the sanity. 

Worst week of my life...

Is also turning out to be the best yet for me in blogland! 


First I need a little venting time so feel free to skip the next paragraph. Teachers are ridiculous, ex-fiancées are hurtful, and exams are DREADFUL! Why why WHY would you assign the biggest research paper of the semester to be due during exam week? Is this week not stressful enough? If you loved me so much this past year, how have you already moved on? I have to know every major world event from the 1500's to the present for one test, how does one even begin to study for that?


Did ya skip that? Good, it was painful. Onto why this is turning out to be my most successful week for blogging. The other night I discovered I had received  [I before E except after C and in words that sound like A as in Neighbor...and every other stupid word in the English language that can't be normal. This is why spell check was invented.] My very first Feature over at Delicate Construction and was ecstatic to say the least. Check out my last post to understand what I mean. Now I find out I have been featured AGAIN!!! 

Same post as last time, Raindrops. WOW I could get used to all this special attention ;) 


It makes me so happy to see I may actually be inspiring some people out there. 


Thanks soo much Rachele@Messy Kids! 




I don't know if these pictures will be inspirational in any way BUT I was digging around my old clothes and stuff for some scrap fabric for a project I'm working on when I found a bag with some old costumes in it. Of course I took a trip down memory lane. 

Can ya guess what I was here? A box of nerds! yes it was nerd day at my high school and while everyone else drew on uni-brows and threw on suspenders I sewed these two shirts together, strung a bunch of boxes of mini nerds into a necklace + belt [that got thrown out] put on pair of pink leggings+knee high purple socks and VIOLA! 

This was my 80's costume. My hair was teased that day but don't you just adore that scrunchie!?!

I also found a a Bonnie and Clyde costume I wore to a couples Halloween dance a couple of years ago, but this was midnight when I re-found these costumes and didn't feel like whipping out the stockings and beret. Random pictures I know. 


I don't know how I transitioned from being excited over my SECOND - count them...1...2 - feature, but then again I've been trying to stuff centuries worth of knowledge into my head the past 5 hours so... Until next time, hopefully I'll have a legitimate post for you to read. 

Proudly presenting from Angelyn's half conscious brain...

MY VERY FIRST FEATURE!!!

OHH-EM-GEE

Thank you, Michelle!

I always link up to her Made by Little Hands Monday's [check it out] and this week she featured my Raindrops post.

I'd like to thank my mommy, because without her...*sniff sniff* I wouldn't be here [literally].

And of course the man up stairs. Thank ya big guy!

And finally my little ones, because well they are the ones that actually made the project with their little hands. 

YAY WOO-HOO HOORAH HIP-HIP HURRAY

Hopefully this is not the first and last time I am featured......

Well seeing as I am in the midst of final exams, my brain is fried and no longer functioning properly [as you can probably tell from this silly post] 

so until next time...

grabbing some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzs

Rainbow Collage + freestyle clouds

I got this idea from The Imagination Tree. Great blog with tons of inspiring posts. I love how she emphasizes the importance of play in her blog, and her kids are beyond adorable! You should check out her posts about Discovery Boxes and Treasure Baskets, those are my favorites.

Moving on, I got the idea to do a Rainbow Collage from their, and I wanted to share my results.

Remember this messy looking rainbow painting from my post The Sad Life of a Poor College Student.

Well there WAS  purpose for that sad looking thing, and it was this rainbow collage! It's a pretty self-explanatory project; basically I painted it - cut it out - spread some glue out on one color at a time - gave my kids a variety of objects of that color to place on the rainbow. I did this over 4 days, 2 colors of the rainbow each day + one more day for the clouds. I skipped indigo...eekk! 

You can see a few misplaced colors, not a big deal, I am actually surprised it came out as correct as it is! This is all due to Talen. During her turn if she noticed any misplaced colors from one of the other children she had to fix it! Haha it made me laugh, and I was very proud of her color recognition. I used foam stickers [their favorite] sparkle balls, paint chips, feathers, & pipe cleaners. Lots of texture and fun in this project.

We also made clouds to go underneath our rainbow. I was going to have a coffee filter covered in cotton balls with a little glitter sprinkled over for this project. Sounds pretty right? Well my plans changed the night before when I read this post about Art Placement at Art 4 Little Hands. Another great blog, and inspiring post. Unfortunately letting go of control is not my strong point! You're supposed to leave some art supplies out when kids aren't paying attention and let them come to it on their own time, and do with it whatsoever they chose. Well I cheated a little bit. I had my kids sit at the table and handed them these art supplies.

Some gluey coffee filters

And a coffee filter with a few cotton balls, white pipe cleaners, and silver glitter.

Sensing a theme? AHH I'm a terrible art teacher, this is hardly giving them free reign over their creation process. It was a baby step though, a very small first step, but progress from my usual reign of control. I also gave them paintbrushes so they could have something else to utilize if they wanted. Here is what I got...

 Bre dipped her paintbrush in the glue and painted her hand with it, not how I had intended BUT this was not about my wants, but hers and a gluey hand is what she wanted =] 

Then dipped her hand in the glitter. This is Bre's final product. It sure looks pretty.

 After decorating her hand, she decided to add a couple cotton balls and pipe cleaner to her coffee filter.

This might have been with the help of Talen though...

Here is Talen's work in progress. She went at it like she was a cloud making professional!

Here is her finished product. She finished before everyone else, so decided to lend her cloud making talents to help her friends. No kidding, I guess she thought because I wasn't taking control, she should. She went around the table 'helping' them put their clouds together.

I saw alot of smearing the glue around with the paintbrush before adding anything, I guess they learned that technique from me.

 I LOVED Emery's idea to dip her brush in the glitter, then put it on the paper.

 Unfortunately this process is time consuming and after a while when she saw her friends finishing, she decided the dump method would suffice.

Pretty, no? 

Linking up to...

Raindrops

...keep falling on my head, but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red. Cryin's not for me 'cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin' because I'm free nothin's worryin' me.


I did this real simple project with my kids at work to demonstrate raindrops. We used a medicine dropper to drip watered down blue paint onto white paper. Boring I know, but I was really interested in introducing them to the dropper and teaching them how to operate it. We always use brushes or sponge stamps to do painting, but you can paint with tons of items: trucks, q-tips, nature, feet, etc. I wanted my kids to experience making art with a non-traditional art supply. They wanted to dip the dropper in the paint, then rub it onto the paper like a brush, but after a couple of times of helping them squeeze water in then squeeze it out over the paper they got the hang of it. Well, most of them got it... I was surprised my two oldest were determined to 'paint' with the droppers, even after showing them the dripping method, while my younger kids picked it up quickly. Oh well, it was a fun new experience for them, easy to prepare, and interesting to see their reactions. Plus I thought it was great fine motor practice for pinching, and releasing. Here are some pictures I took =]

 

 

 Linking up to some AMAZING linky parties this week, starting with...