From My Heart to Yours

http://benjaminorton.blogspot.com/

Zach's nephew Benjamin Orton, died peacefully yesterday in his sleep. We rejoice for his freedom from his imperfect body, but we grieve for his loss and for his family's loss. We love you Ortons!

My heart hurts for you. My eyes cry with you. His memory will always burn in our lives.

BP ain't got nothing on slippery spills

Today while I was putting Cheeks to sleep for his afternoon nap I let the boys play in the closed garage with their toys. I thought it was safe enough. After I laid Mac down, I heard a squeal coming from yonder garage and hurried to the scene of the crime. It was David who had slipped on the cement ground and given himself a sliglt bump on the bum. He looks at me happily and says, "Slippy mommy, slippy!"

Turns out Gabe had gotten the big bottle of bubbles off the shelf (which he knew not to do) and David Hyrum and dumped them all over the floor (which is precisely WHY Gabe was not supposed to get the bubbles down). Well I was relieved it wasn't worse- say some sort of hammer and nails incident, but a little annoyed that they did it. They were both slippier than a fish so we had to change their clothing before they got a mild time out. (I say "mild" because they got to sit together while I cleaned up the mess, which is basically like a little boy party on the stairs.)

Cleaning turned out to be no small task since I don't want my bionic mother to break her already replaced hips on that hard floor. Better yet, the renter to slip and sue us for an unsafe living arrangement. I whiped, then mopped, then set out a path of towels for those who dare to tred before the final check. I'm just glad it wasn't worse. BP ain't got nothing on our slippery spill. No more garage when I'm in with the baby I guess.

Did you get your fiber today?

In school, as a dietetics major, I studied all the beautiful workings of the digestive tract. During my magic school bus adventure the subject of fiber came up more than once. How much, what kind, why you needed it, does it really prevent cancer etc. Well I am here to tell you that I believe in fiber. Can I get an AMEN? One might use the term testimony even, of the natural foods that fiber comes in. I say "natural foods" because there are a bunch of food products out there that just add fiber in and I'm not sure it works quite the same way.

Fiber is really a group of undigestable carbohydrates that serve different functions in your body such as (but not limited to) bowel health (read: poop'n), keeping your cholesterol down, and keeping your blood sugar in check. Fiber mainly comes in plant products which also lower your chance of cardiovascular disease, all forms of cancers, diabetes, gout etc. I don't think too many people would argue with me about the importance of fiber-ful foods in our diet- except perhaps Dr. Adkins himself. (A food craze I am happy to say is dying out.)








Well why this monologue about fiber? I'm glad you asked! I was scanning my salad dressing label the other day as I am wont to do, and low and behold it contains 2 grams of fiber per serving. That may not sound like a lot to you, considering we should all be getting around 25-30 g per day, but let me just give you a little perspective. My 100% whole wheat bread only has 3 grams per slice and a dose of many over the counter fiber replacements is only 3 grams as well. Check your kids cereals and white breads- they may have none at all. Most salad dressing checks in at a big fat 0. I read the list of ingredients in this Kroger brand creamy cesar dressing and the only source I could see was garlic and onions. No fiber additive that I recognized like oat bran. Well fantastic, add that to the fiber I'm getting in my salad and I'm well on my way to happy intestines. It almost reaches the magical 10% to be labeled as a "GOOD SOURCE". My hats off to the food scientist that came up with this one, I'm surprised they didn't advertise it on the front.





And a shout out to my mother in law that made all her 300+ missionaries get their "fibah" every day in the Tampa Florida mission. Hopefully they have not only kept the faith, but their good food habits as well.

Three men in a Tub

Rub a dub dub

Three men in a tub

And who do you think they be?

The Gabey, the baby, the little boy Davey

Scrub them down filthy all three

These two are begining to be thick as theives, but I think there will be room for the wee one when he gets old enough to join the crew. Cheeks was very excited at his recent promotion from baby bath to little boy bath. The picture doesn't quite capture the moment.

Guilty Pleasure

You know what I love about summer- fresh produce. It makes my soul happy. It is too early in the season to have my own tomatoes from the garden, but the ones I've been buying on the side of the road are really the next best thing. I ate a store bought tomatoe along side a local tomatoe and there is really no comparison at all. I wonder to myself, why on earth do I buy out of season tomatoes from Argentina that taste like cardboard in the winter? Yes it may be twice the price, but it is twice the taste and twice the nutrition as well.

In Michael Pollan's two books The Omnivore's Delima and In Defense of Food, he talks about the importance of eating local for the health of the earth and for your own health. Since this is not a book review I'll sum it up: it takes less gas to get it there, its picked after it has actually ripened so the produce has reached it's peak in nutrition and taste, and it is often grown with less chemicals being oragnaic in everything but name and fancy label.

Zach commented to me as I was savoring a sun rippened juicy tomatoe, that if I ever died, he would probably cry when he saw tomatoes- I love them that much. Its a gift I wish I could share with all of you.

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Congratulations Zach!!!

"Good job Daddy"

Zach and his advisor, Dr. Gura- the "twin towers" were probably
the talest pair at the hooding ceremony. Gura is 6'4", Zach 6'7"

Mom and Dad Hutchins drove 2 days for this momentous occasion.

(One of Zach's freshman students was playing in the band you can see a part of in the background)

Big Mac is tired of having his picture taken at this point.

For those of you who are wondering what they do at a doctoral "hooding ceremony" I will tell you (because I had no idea). Your advisor, who has worked with you for a number of years, takes the "hood" and places it over your head. Its sort of like your professor superman cape. That makes him officially done with school. What next? A post doc at UNC with a little bit of a pay raise. After that, "to infinity and beyond".

A proud moment for all 3 mothers in these pictures. Happy mother's day to all.

Very Merry Un-birthday

Why an un-birthday do you ask?Well because I have no camera and I'm on vacation as my oldest little angel turned 4 yesterday. Old pictures will have to do. We are at Zach's sister's house in West Virginia (Amy Jo) and she was kind enough to make a cake and have a party for him. He was very excited about the presents, especially the edible ones. The boys have been enjoying their stay immensely, getting 2 days worth of dirty in one day playing with all the other boys outside. I asked Gabe if he would like to come live near Aunt Amy Jo and he said, I want to live here WITH Amy Jo. No higher complement from a 4 year old.

Our other un-birthday goes to Cheeks who is officially half a year old today,born November 6th. Half of his baby life is done now- sad, where did it go?

By the way, Zach is being "hooded" on Saturday for his doctoral degree. Mom and Dad Hutchins are coming down for the momentous occasion. We look forward to seeing them and to the ceremony.