The ‘not-so’ little things…

Do you remember the commercial (maybe a Virginia Slims cigarette commercial – yuck) that had a slogan about ‘you’ve come a long way baby’? That’s how I feel today… If you read one of my first posts about living with my daughter and her family, you would know that initially I struggled greatly in the morning with the two boys and getting them to do what needed to be done in a reasonable time frame.

Well – today, I’m so proud of me 🙂 I was up on time (5:25am) and by the time Cameron had to get on the bus (6:09am), all THREE children were dressed, fed, and when mommy was ready to go, off they went!!! AND might I had we didn’t have ONE argument as to who was going to do what, no ‘discussion’ about ‘why’ they needed to get ready… Go Mimi!!! I guess I do have super-powers after all 😉 It’s these little wins each day that help keep me motivated!

Then I got to watch the sunrise and enjoy my tea and oatmeal… so grateful!

Wishing you an AMAZING day, and sending hugs and love for all of the little wins in your life today and always :-).

This little human…

Bear with me for a second, I haven’t posted about Aléa in a little bit and I honestly can’t believe she is now 5 months (plus a few days). In the past month she has learned to roll over, sit in the walker and kind of scoot around, and is starting to find her voice. We’re in big trouble… she already as a ton to say and I’m sure will be as vocal as the other females in the family 😉 Her biggest competition will probably be her middle brother who can out-voice everyone in the house right now! I thought you may enjoy some of the tummy time pictures we just took, and listen to our future orator… She has mastered going from front to back and is working on back to front, but her little belly is getting in the way!

A carnivore’s take on the Daniel Fast.

Some of you know that Chelsea and her family do a 21 day Daniel Fast at the beginning of each year. Since I’m the primary ‘cooker’ in the family, I decided to support them and join in. Basically the food goal is to eliminate processed foods, sugars, and meat and dairy. In addition, this is a period of reflection and allowing God to come into our lives through fasting and prayer. This is new to me as we never practiced a regular ‘religion’ although I do believe in a higher spirit and find there are many things that can’t be explained by science… But that is for another time and place 😉

I don’t do well with diets, never have… However, now that I’m gluten free and I try to be dairy free, I thought this would be a piece of cake to stick with it. The nice thing is that we’re not limited to specific quantities of foods, which drives me crazy and I don’t have the patience to measure, weigh, calculate calories etc that goes into all of that. In addition, I’m a grazer, so I want to eat when I want to eat, simple as that.

We have some standard recipes that they use each year, and to be honest, I wasn’t over the moon about trying some of them, but the first week I went along with the prepping. We had some great successes and some “meh” meals. What I’ve discovered during the second week is that there are a lot more choices than I realized, and even some of the items I normally would not have paired together really enhance each other.

Do not try to get fancy, this diet is for sustenance and not satisfying any cravings. That said, making my own almond flour tortillas and chips was fun and I love the fact that if I want to have chips and hummus, I can 🙂 I haven’t really missed the meat, I was thinking that I would, but I am missing the dairy a bit, no butter, sour cream, and my favorite topping, cheese. The other item I miss is eggs, I’m a huge breakfast person and could eat eggs daily. This has been a great lesson in experimenting with different breakfasts, I’m loving the home-fries that Chelsea makes! Otherwise, I’m eating non-dairy yogurt with homemade granola with some cayenne pepper, it’s really yummy! My banana bread missed the mark greatly, but to be fair, we only tried one recipe, and for me, without the butter, I can do without it.

Tonight we had Moroccan Baked sweet potatoes. Both adults loved it and the seven year old ate most of his. The two year old didn’t love it, but that was more for us 🙂 This is one of the easiest meals we’ve had and very satisfying! We made our own spice mix and the yogurt drizzle to put on top, definitely adding to the regular menu.

More to come! Enjoy your Sunday and I hope you get to spend it with those you love.

Weekend Shenanigans…

Again, it’s the weekend and we’ve already been up several hours… During that time, we’ve gone to work and returned, fed and changed/dressed children, did dishes, started laundry, napped (infant), prepped breakfasts for the week, and prepped dinner! All of this taking place during a sibling confrontations, negotiating a truce, and restarting the day after removing TV and replacing with music.

While cooking pancakes this morning, with the smell of cinnamon wafting from the stove, the sun rose and came into the kitchen window. I was again reminded of how very blessed and grateful that I am to have yet another day and feel the sunshine on my face. I will definitely be looking for a house with a kitchen window facing east!

As usual, the universe allowed me to be the receiver of multiple lessons this week, and I’ll share a few 🙂

When looking for a ‘good’ recipe online (not something I’m used to doing) pay attention to the number of reviews and stars… Just because a cottage cheese pancake recipe is simple, looks good, and “seems like the one mom used last time” it clearly was not… So we now have a large stack of cottage cheese crepe-like pancakes – fortunately these kids are awesome about not complaining about flat pancakes!
Mimi discovered this week that Maple syrup is NOT an early breakfast friendly condiment – this time I added a little into the batter – hopefully that will speed the trip out the door in the morning.
Potty training is a complicated system and if you think you’ve got it figured out – you’re wrong… Just after pinpointing the exact time the 2 year old ‘usually’ goes all week, he throws a curve ball and waits until the next day – surprise, surprise!
Everyone deserves a DO-OVER… so after the screaming, arguing, frustration and sibling competition – they both got an opportunity to make up and try again.
Little sister is now on the move in her little walker-like-thing… She hasn’t exactly figured out how to get where she wants to go – but is loving the fact that she can be part of the action in the room with everyone else. She’s becoming quite verbal and has a good set of lungs on her. The boys will have some competition very soon.
We’re anticipating another tooth being pulled soon, but the new tooth is actually pushing it sideways, so it will be interesting to follow.
I’m learning a lot about personality tests, if you haven’t taken it yet, try this… https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test I’m an eight. I found it enlightening and apparently there are songs created for each one also. I plan on learning more about this 🙂

I don’t remember my life with small children as being so busy, but that may be part of my repressed brain memories. I firmly believe there’s a reason that your brain helps you to forget the crazy/painful/unbearable moments such as childbirth or losing a parent or a child.

As we so blissfully head into a three-day weekend, I’m ready to keep my eyes open to new possibilities, fun, opportunities to improve and give to others. I wish you peace this week ahead!

Lessons

I’ve always wanted to write – for years I’ve said that I need to write a book. This year when I moved to Florida to live with my youngest daughter and family, I started posting some Mimi lessons on Facebook (I’ve added a few to this blog for now…) and in the process I’ve come to realize that everything I AM is based on lessons and experiences I’ve had and my reactions to those situations. I also discovered that part of me is also the result of not learning from those experiences… but I do find that as I get *slightly* older I’m more intentional in looking for the lessons in each situation and more thoughtful about my actions in response.

So, welcome to my new place to share some thoughts… I’m hoping that you’ll find my posts funny, insightful or just plain interesting. If not, I want to thank you for giving me a chance to come into your world in such a way that you can easily turn off my posts. (Isn’t social media wonderful? 🙂) If my views bother you, or you decide that my thoughts are not what you need to read, I won’t take offense… You are welcome to choose not to visit here or to unfriend me on Facebook.

If you feel the need to leave a negative comment, then you are in the wrong place. My daughters have always reminded me to be positive when I get too sour, angry or resentful. Collectively they are the best cheerleaders I’ve ever had, and am so grateful to have learned many of the aforementioned lessons from them.

I have learned over my years on this planet that negativity has never gotten me what I need or want. It is physically and mentally exhausting and does not serve your body well. Life is too damn short for such shenanigans, as I learned this past year when I lost my oldest daughter, Kristina. Definitely the most painful thing I’ve ever endured… Some of the funniest stories will come from her collection of adventures.

Above all, I’d love to hear from you if you enjoy reading… I’m not sure how regularly I’ll post – this has been a long time coming and part of me is terrified of putting my thoughts “out there”. It can be a little scary in this skull sometimes…(trust me on this).

However, if at the end of the day, I’m able to bring a smile, share some insight, or just encourage some ideas, thoughts, or inspiration, my job on this earth is complete for the moment 🙂

As I begin my 60th year on this earth, I want to wish everyone health, happiness and more joy that your heart can contain so that it begs to be shared freely! I am beyond grateful to share this earth with the wonderful humans I have in my life…

Please understand that these posts are my own creation, and as such, may not be used without my permission. Enjoy…

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