If any of you have recently read Dave’s blog, you’ve realized that our family just had quite a scare with Annie’s recent illness and stay in the hospital. We had a scary few days, but thankfully she’s now on the mend.  Marine Corps hubby, Erik, flew here on emergency leave to help with child care duties as well as to fatten his pregnant wife up. (He’s quite the good cook!)

That first moning while Annie was in the hospital, Dave was in charge of Annie, and I was in charge of the little ones. I zipped Olga off to school along with our high school boys, and then 4-year-old Gavin and I had quite a nice morning together in my office. He was delighted to find a lego toy (smart little thing put it together easier than I could!) and after I took care of just a few important items in my office, we headed to a local eatery in search of a big pancake for his hungry tummy.

Both Olga and Gavin stayed with us for the several days that Annie was hospitalized. Luckily, they had lived here for several months this past year, so between the familiar people and the familiar household, they adjusted just fine. But even 6-year-olds know how to worry. At 4 am during one of those nights, Olga asked me, “Is the baby getting enough oxygen?” I get teary just thinking about it.

Gavin enjoys a lego toy in my office. Maybe he'll help me file all my 2009 papers behind him!

I’ve been crunching numbers, adding magazine checkbook info into Quicken, and editing my excel spreadsheets that contain the business’s deposits for 2009 like mad lately. I’m sure our accountant will think it’s a modern miracle when my package arrives to them (hopefully) early next week. So when I asked husband, Dave, if I should enter another month’s worth of bookkeeping into Quicken or make a banana cream pie…well, you can probably imagine which was his choice.

Banana cream pie was my mom’s favorite, so I always think of her when I make one. I was short on time since it was already getting late in the afternoon, so I cheated and used a box of vanilla pudding that you cook on the stove rather than my usual batch of homemade custard. I like the homemade kind better, but in a crunch, the boxed pudding sufficed. It’s nice to have a stash of that type of stuff in the pantry for treats. I happened to have enough bananas that weren’t past their prime, so I thinly sliced up a big banana and spread it onto a baked pie shell. Then I added the somewhat cooled pudding, refrigerated the pie, and by late evening it was time for dessert. It made a nice 2 am snack for Dave too as he was up LATE working on getting our upcoming anthologies ready to go to print. Son #2, Robby, thought it was pretty cool to have a big slice of it for his breakfast before school the next day too.

Banana cream pie is one of our favorites.

Okay, so it’s already the 7th of January and I’m just now coming up with my New Year’s Resolution. Had to think about it a while.

I really need to lose some weight. I’ll feel better, my clothes will fit properly, I’ll be able to hoist those growing grandkids without moaning like an old granny, and my nurse practitioner will think my fantastic cholesterol numbers can go on display on the refrigerator right next to the kids’ awards.

The problem is I like to cook, bake, and eat way too much to slow down much on watching what goes in my mouth. We’ve already learned a lot about food preparation and the types of foods to eat for a heart healthy diet after Dave’s heart surgery. Nothing like seeing all those guys with their big fresh chest incisions to make you realize that taking care of our health should be a top priority.

So I don’t think that food is the issue in my case since we’re already eating a pretty healthy diet….it’s exercise. I’m simply not MOVING enough. I need to swim, ride my bike, and walk….all of which I enjoy tremendously, especially nice long walks on the beach at low tide.

Okay. I’ve said it. It’s in print now for all the world to see. The 7th of January isn’t too late. Think I’ll go WALK to the bookstore and proofread some articles for our upcoming issue.