Life – Page 20 – xangelle.com

LIttle Bit ‘O This and a Little Bit ‘O That

I’m sitting on the main level of my house killing time listening to my baby scream his head off because he,
“WAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNTTTTTSSSSSS MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMAAAAAAA!” and seeing as he is mostly over the whole measles thingy and I’m so tired of his incessant night waking, we have started to institute the

Back to Bed, Baby! Initiative.

This involves getting up every time he wakes up and putting him back in his own bed. He is in a bed, and so he can easily get out and the biggest issue that we have is not even him coming to our bed in the middle of the night.

The biggest issue is the fact that since the while measles thing, he’s been waking up around 11 or 12 and screaming for no reason that we can figure out. He is quite verbal (as in everyone who hears him speak can’t believe he’s only 2 years old) and his language skills are quite advanced and so if he so desired, he could tell us if there was an issue…..I think that he’s OVERTIRED and can’t even really handle himself. You should see the dark circles he’s currently sporting under his eyes. Poor Baby.

The 11-midnight scream fest comes in a close second in the frustration factor. The number one issue is that he’s decided that regardless of whether we let him sleep with us or if we put him back in to his own bed, around 2am, he wakes up and then is basically restless and awake from 2am until after 5am. This time usually involves TONS of thrashing around. Crying because the covers are on. Crying because the covers are off. Kicking mommy and daddy in the head/stomach/back/whatever happens to be closest to the thrashing feet. Crying because we won’t let him watch a movie. Crying because he wants to go to the bathroom. Crying because he doesn’t want to go to the bathroom. Basically, there is lots of crying and very little sleep.

And so, it is time to learn how to sleep again.

This likely means that we will get even less sleep over the next 3-4 nights as we sleep train him to stay asleep or at the very least, to once again stay on his bed. YUCK! but it will be so worth it by next weekend when we are all sleeping soundly. I hope I’ve not jinxed it by saying that.

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It was my baby girl’s 13th Birthday today. Angelica became a teenager today. I’m still a a bit amazed that I have a teenager and yet….it’s really not that different feeling from yesterday as she was quick to tell me. Time sure flies doesn’t it.

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Jon and Jeremy went to church today and Xani and Siah and I stayed home. Siah’s still officially within the contagious time period and Xani was coughing like a mad woman. We made coffee cake and an egg/hashbrown hash-type breakfast. We cleaned the kitchen and then sewed like crazy.

I’ll be showing you over the next little bit some of the fun things that I made. Xani made 2 pillows and she did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.

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We’ve filled and hidden the kid’s Easter Baskets and tomorrow morning we’ll have a treasure hunt for the kids. They are looking forward to it and if it weren’t for Geli’s birthday being today we probably would have done them today, but I wanted to make her birthday special. We had her favorite meal of roast chicken, and potatoes, with carrots and asparagus and gravy AND…..Yorkshire Pudding. And she was a very happy girl. We’ve still not given her a gift or even had a cake so I’m not sure how special of a day it was, but ….well…….ya know……it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?

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I’m still trying to come up with a fun activity for us to do as a family tomorrow……ya know, one that involves being trapped inside the house with a contagious child….ya! should be fun! It’s been a long LOOOOOOOOOONG week and I still have a few days left to go.

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The baby has been making the funniest movements. I’ve been bent over the sewing machine and apparently, he didn’t like being squished because he kept trying to streeeeeeeeeeeeetch out and kept kicking out the sides of my body towards my back. It felt so weird, and yet……….TOTALLY AMAZING. Baby movements are the best thing ever.

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Some people from our complex just had a stillborn at 24 weeks. One week shy of when Nathaniel was born. My heart os breaking for them and all they are going through right now. I only hope that I can, in some small way, reach out and be a support or comfort to them. I’m feeling stressed that I’m pregnant, though and am feeling cautious as to how that might make them feel. So many sad conflicting emotions. In some ways, it’s like reliving the whole loss over again. So SO sad!

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Well, after half an hour, it’s quiet and so I’m gonna sign off and head up stairs to bed. I hope you all had a great Easter Sunday with great food and hopefully lots of chocolate…….

Measles Hits Close to Home

My baby (won’t be able to say that for much longer) has the measles.

Earlier this week, we noticed that he had a bit of a rash on his hands and by that evening it was on his stomach and back. By the next morning, he was pretty much covered in this red, slightly raised not really itchy, rash.

That was his only symptom.

There was no preceding cough, cold or conjunctivitis (pink eye). He hadn’t had the 3-4 days of wicked high fever. Aside from the rash, there was absolutely nothing else to indicate any specific disease, virus or allergic reaction. He wasn’t even really acting any different than normal. He was eating, and sleeping (about as poorly as he normally does) and drinking. He might have been a bit fussier, but seriously – he’s two and the “fuss factor” can erupt for any reason at any time.

I googled, and googled and googled some more. I haven’t got my Google Medical Degree from just sitting around on my butt doing nothing, y’all. (Ha Ha!!) The results that I came up with loosely pointed to some random viral rash, Measles, German Measles or possibly some weird form of Hand-Foot-and-Mouth Disease (which based on previous experience with HFM disease – I had pretty much ruled that one out.)

I honestly figured it was some viral rash (of which measles actually is – a virus, not a bacteria – that is) and that it’d disappear in a day or two. I’d taken some of my other kids in to the Dr when they were younger for rashes and got the whole….you don’t need to stress out over every rash and cough. It’s just viral….Chill out and it’ll run it’s course in a couple of days.

I mean it wasn’t said exactly like that, but that was the general gist of the message.

And considering that Siah wasn’t SICK! I just waited.

By the 3rd day (we were at home all this time) he had a bit of a fever, and seemed achy and one eye looked a bit red (but no gunk – thank goodness) and he had managed to cough a grand total of twice.

The thing that kicked it over the edge for me, were news reports of a measles outbreak in the Metro Vancouver area.

Awesome!

So we called our family Dr and had a nice phone chat. His professional opinion is that Siah has measles. Even though the symptoms are out of the “normal order” he still has enough of the symptoms and combined with the recent outbreak – SHAZAM! He gets the measles diagnoses!

Obviously, this means one of two things. Either Siah’s not been vaccinated for the MMR or he’s only had one of his vaccinations and is one of the unlucky ones that still needed the booster to provide complete immunity.

In this case, it’s the first one.

I’m not usually one to talk too much about controversial things as I don’t like to argue and fight about personal decisions. I will gladly talk with anyone who asks about our personal family choices and the reasons as to why we make those personal family choices. I NEVER make decisions without absolutely plowing through massive amounts of information (from a variety of sources, not necessarily Google – Google is just a diagnostic tool! (that was supposed to be funny)), and using BOTH the positive and negative information to round out my decision. I don’t typically go just searching to prove my viewpoint…..that’s useless as far as I’m concerned. I also try really hard to not judge others for their personal choices. I feel that I am not living in their shoes and can not possibly know all the details, emotions and nuances leading up to their decisions and that really when it comes down to it…..I get to make choices that I believe are best for my children and my family. Others also have that same freedom. I’d like to be given respect for the choices I make even if they are not agreed with or understood and so, in turn, I also need to give that same respect to others regardless of whether they make the same choices that I make or ones that are completely different. I actually don’t EXPECT that others will make the same choices that I do. I hope that others make the best choices for them.

I understand that there are risks associated with not being vaccinated and if you were to ask me, I’d talk about our experiences with vaccinating Jeremy and what happened with him. My girls are vaccinated and aside from 2 vaccinations that I declined at the grade 6 offering they are current and up to date with their vaccinations.

If you were to ask me about vaccinations and whether I am for or against them. Considering that Siah currently has measles and at 2.5 years old hasn’t received his MMR yet, you might think that I’m against vaccinations. You might be surprised to learn that I do agree with vaccinations and that I see the benefits in having and “using” them. I also think that I need to take our personal history and experience into the mix and make the BEST choice for our family. If I were to give myself a vaccination type label – I’d say that we delay and select vaccines, we don’t completely avoid them.

pics of Siah from this morning

Obviously, we got the measles from somewhere. Do I have any idea where? Nope! Absolutely no clue! Do I even really care? No! I’m not even interested in finding out. It makes no difference to me where it came from or who passed it on. I am not mad at whoever passed it on or even really annoyed. The fact of the matter is that Siah has measles. He is currently cooped up at home until next week sometime and we are just chilling and taking it easy. It’s done! He has them and no amount of stressing on my part will change anything. Once we pass this week, it will be over and done with and he will be as immune as the other kids.

What about the time period before we knew that Siah had measles, when we might have possibly passed it around to others? Well, I’m not happy about that (who wants to contribute to others getting sick), but again – it’s a non-factor for those who choose to vaccinate AND it’s one of the things that is a possibility for those who chose to either not vaccinate or to delay vaccinations. I knew that was a risk and I had to be willing to deal with that risk when I made my choices. It is just one of the MANY things that needs to be thought through when you are making your decision. Obviously, we ended up dealing with one of the risk factors of our choices and while I’m not thrilled about Siah getting measles; It is what it is and we, in a sense, “chose” that this might be a possibility….which obviously has then turned into a certainty.

If you’re interested in sharing, I do love hearing how and why others chose to come to their personal family decisions regardless of whether they differ from ours or are similar. I love learning more about people and the experiences that lead to their decisions. I’m not going to change my decision and I’m not looking to change anyone else’s decision. This is just another record of what’s going on in and with our family. That’s what this blog is….a record of our lives and a place for me to share what we are going through.

If This Was An Olympic Event……

I have spent the day baking and now my feet feel like the bones are trying to poke through the skin. Yah, they hurt!

The kids have been wanting snacks and treats and we’ve been buying way too much “garbage” from the store.

By garbage, I mean, cookies and crackers and other colorful, chemical-filled crap. I cringe every time I put a box into my shopping cart. I hate the cost. I hate the chemicals. I hate the massive amounts of sugar. I hate the excessive packaging. I just hate buying it, and yet recently….I’ve been tired and busy and busy and tired and well…….enough is enough.

This weekend has worked out nicely that the kids got both Friday and Monday off AND we had nothing planned for today and we are not having anyone over for lunch tomorrow and so aside from a roasted chicken dinner with potatoes, carrots, gravy and salad (I’m already drooling over tomorrow’s lunch) we have a pretty quiet, normal day tomorrow.

All of that adds up to a mostly relaxing weekend.

I had thought that I’d get the house a bit tidier than it currently is, but between tomorrow afternoon and Monday morning – it should be back into shape.

Yesterday the girls and I planned out that we’d bake like crazy today, in the hopes of stocking the freezer with enough goodies to keep us going for a while. Our list was WAY longer than what was actually possible to accomplish in one day, but it helped to have something to pick through while we were working our way throughout the day.

I managed to bake 4 loaves of Spelt bread, and 4 loaves of Kamut bread.

The Spelt Loaves rose amazingly, but the Kamut was a bit of a flop. The dough didn’t feel right while I was working with it, so I’ll try again and might even look for a Kamut Flour recipe. We ate one of the Spelt loaves for dinner and the kids LOVED it. We’ll slice them all up with our slicer and then keep one out to use, and freeze the rest.

I also made a ton of Soda Crackers using the Spelt flour.

They are a little fluffier than a soda cracker from the store, but that was also eating them fresh and hot. I added some garlic powder to the mix and then sprinkled salt on top of them before cooking, so they have some flavor. We tried some tonight with meat and cheese and pickles and again…..they were a big hit. I think the kids will enjoy them in their lunches or as snacks and they were so SO easy to make.

Xandra and I whipped up 3 batches of cookies. We made gingersnaps, oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies.

The gingersnaps were the only thing today that were not vegan. I used honey instead of sugar. Everything else was made with Earth Balance Spread instead of butter, Ener-G Egg Replacer instead of eggs and Oat Milk where it called for milk. This is to accomodate Siah’s egg and dairy allergy. Everything still tastes amazing and turned out fabulously (minus the Kamut bread, but that has nothing to do with the substitutes and all to do with the flour being a heavier/denser weight. AND….it’ll still make great toasted garlic bread.).

Each batch of cookies made over 4 dozen cookies and I froze 3 dozen and baked the rest. Here they are ready for the freezer.

I love them like this because now when we want cookies…..we just have to pull out a dozen, let them sit on the cookie tray for about 5-10 minutes while the oven is pre-heating and VOILA! Fresh delicious cookies!

I also made a Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf (my FAVORITE!) but I didn’t get a picture of it…it was cooking and I uploaded these before it was finished cooking.

I also made one more batch of bread (4 loaves worth), BUT…..this time, instead of regular bread – I made one loaf of Cinnamon Bread. I also made 16 Cinnamon Buns. Here they are rising. They were about twice this size when they were finished……….

We’ll probably have some for breakfast tomorrow. I also made a bunch of regular buns. I figured I could freeze half of them and with the rest, the kids could use them for lunches. They are on the smaller side so a perfect kid lunch size. Here they are in the prep stage…….

I love my apron. I don’t often wear it, but on “messy, flour-y days” it does a great job of keeping me from being an absolute mess as I tend to fluff a lot of flour around and also to wipe my hands all over myself.

Any guesses as to how far along I am? If ya know…..then don’t spoil it for others! M’Kay? Thanks! You could always throw out a guess to try and throw others off? Or not?!?

Here are some facts for you. This is pregnancy #9. I have just recently stopped barfing all day. This will be our 5th child that we bring home. I’m up 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I do still feel a bit queasy throughout the day and am still barfing most mornings.

Does that make it any easier or more confusing? Oh well, happy guessing!

2010 – The Year of……..

Okay, so I’ve still not gotten around to editing my Christmas Photo’s but hopefully soon…….

And one quick thing about my post from yesterday – Every word I said was directed at me, to me, by me, for me and had nothing to do with you. What I mean by saying that is that I don’t care if you LOVE Facebook or if it’s a great place for you to connect with all your family and long lost friends or if that is how you choose to spend your free time or if it’s your hobby or whatever. What you choose or decide to do with your time is TOTALLY and COMPLETELY UP TO YOU, and I am making absolutely NO JUDGMENTS on you or on anyone else as to how they spend their time. I chose to delete my account because Facebook was not something that I was passionate about and yet it called to me from time to time and sucked me in and I hated that. So, just so that we’re clear. No Judgment on you…..just simplifying for me. Good? Good!

Now that all of that is out of the way, I’d like to talk about this New Year.

I’ve seen on more than one blog the concept of choosing a word to define your year, and the more I thought about it….the more I liked the idea.

I have read in a lot of different places how 2009 was seen as a horrible year for many for a variety of different reasons. While the last quarter of 2009 is a little fuzzy or blurry in my mind, there are so many good things that have happened to us last year and I don’t resent 2009 at all.

January – We started part-time at the Life Center.
February – Does Valentine’s Day count???
March – Get Away to Harrison Hot Springs
April – My Oldest Baby turned 12
May – Approved For Mortgage
June – Bought our First Home
July – Moved into our First Home & Celebrated 14th Anniversary
August – Family Holiday to Whistler
September – Kids Love New School
October – Swine Flu (Hmmmm this one might not be a positive, eh?)
November – More with the plague….
December – Christmas counts, right? Actually we’re on Full time at Life Center, now.

So, see….2009 was actually pretty good to us.

Looking forward, I have a GREAT feeling about 2010. I think that this year is going to be an amazing year for us. I originally thought about the word HOPE….there are so many aspects to this word that I think apply and really would be great for our family, BUT……it just didn’t sit completely perfectly with me.

The longer I thought about it, the word I was most excited about was….

EXPECTATION

Here are some definitions of expectation, expectancy and expect….

1. anticipation, hope
2. that which is looked or waited for with interest
3. the feeling that something is about to happen
4. looking forward to something about to happen
5. to regard something as probably or likely

Having just come through Christmas and being able to watch my kids on Christmas morning while they HOPED for certain things was amazing. To see the EXPECTATION on their faces as they waited for a present to be handed to them, and them to see the EXCITEMENT that the ANTICIPATION of finally getting to open that present brought to them was……well, it was tangible. You could feel it in the air and in the energy that they exuded as they wiggled and bounced and finally in their cheer when they RECEIVED something that they had HOPED for.

I just have this feeling that 2010 is going to be a great year. I am confident that good things are going to happen. I can’t explain exactly what I mean by this, but I believe that this year will be full of excitement, blessing, health (I’m throwing that one in there…the power of positive speech and all), stability, etc….I just really feel like we’re going to be able to look back on 2010 and say to ourselves, “WOW! What an AMAZING year!”

I’m really looking forward to this new year and also to living up to the word “EXPECTATION”. I want to expect good things from life. I want to teach my kids to expect good things. I’ll also teach them to deal with the rough things that come along the way, but you can learn to see the silver lining in the middle of all of those dark stormy rain clouds that might come your way. I want to be a person who sees the positive in things FIRST, and to not have my first response always be a pessimistic one. I want to learn to HOPE a little more than I currently do.

I want that child-like EXPECTATION not only in my life, but EVIDENT in my life.

I’m excited to see what this new year brings and I’m expecting that I’ll be able to look back and be so pleased with how things turned out when all is said and done.

Simplifying and Cutting Back

I deleted my Facebook Account yesterday.

It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.

See, I hate Facebook! Well, hate might be too strong a word, but I’ve disliked Facebook almost since the day that I signed up.

And why did I sign up for something that I didn’t really like, even at the time?

Good Question?

My honest answer, “Because everyone else was doing it!”

Apparently I’m just a lemming.

I hate getting notifications of group invitations and knowing who’s got a fish tank or who is playing Farmville or who is as sexy as Edward Cullen. I don’t want to know what type of personality you are or to even have friend suggestions for people I don’t know.

It was ego boosting to have people “friend” me at the beginning, but then there were people that I didn’t want to necessarily be “found” by and then what? Do I accept them? Do I reject them? or do I ignore them? It gets messy! I hate messy!

In the end, Facebook was a place where I felt like I was stalking. Ya know, signing in to see what everyone else was up to without ever contributing to the “Facebook world” and really….that’s just HUGE waste of my personal time and so…..POOF! I’m no longer there. Which for me means…..no more time wasted ((cough)on that site!(cough))

I do still have my Twitter account and really that was the only part of Facebook that I really liked (the status updates) and although I haven’t twitted/tweeted (Whatever!!!)…..I haven’t posted a tweet in a while…..I’m hoping that I can – figuratively – OOOOMPH my tired behind off the couch that it’s been parked on and get back to seeing the funny side of life.

I love to update the silly stuff my kids say. For example, Siah pulled this one outta the air the other day.

“Yesterday, I was younger than J.J.”

He’s two, people, how does he even know what “yesterday” means let alone that he was younger. It was all used properly in context and was said as if now, NOW, he was much older than Jeremy.

Obviously we have an incorrect grasp on age, but still….so SO cute coming from his little tiny voice piping outta the back seat of the van and said to no one in particular (he was chattering to himself while we were driving)!

Anyway, anyone who really needs to contact me has my e-mail address or else, we’re not really that close, are we?

I’ll admit, it did feel a bit like I was cutting myself off from a huge section of the world, but really…..am I leaving a part of the world? or am I taking a step forward into my reality?

Questions? Questions?

Only time will tell…………

Focusing on an Attitue of Gratitude

I know that it’s late and that Thanksgiving is over, but seeing as I was sick through the weekend – I figure that I got a little extra time….and really, who needs an excuse to be thankful, REALLY???

Recently, I read this…

and it really struck me.

Only shortly after reading it (while I was feeling like death warmed over and stuck at home alone left to care for two children, the 11 yr old, who was sick and the 2 yr old, who was not sick…..I know, poor me!) Xandra dumped a bag of popcorn – by accident – all over the kitchen floor.

This flashed back into my thoughts and I realized that I had a choice as to how I was going to view this situation.

I could be SO annoyed and angry that she did this and that now I had to clean a huge mess when I was already feeling cruddy and the baby was just getting into everything and spreading mess everywhere and everything hurts, especially to move and this required a lot of moving and bending and extreme head ache-y-ness and my mood could have just spiraled down so that I ended up feeling even worse than I already did. If I was feeling particularly bad, I could grouch loudly at Xandra and make her feel even worse than she already did…maybe I could even make her cry….see it could just be an all round amazing situation…..

Or, I could realize that it really wasn’t that big of a deal and not only did I get to spend some extra time with my daughter, but we were in no hurry and had tons of time to clean the mess up AND….I got a clean floor out of it all.

I CHOOSE to grab a hold of the second option and felt a lot better than if I had gone with Option A.

I’ve found myself over the past couple of days with time to think and seeing as life has drastically slowed down for me this week – what with me being sick and all – I’ve had lots of time to think about this whole “attitude of gratitude” thing.

It is amazing what can happen when you choose to focus on the positive in any situation.

Siah poked a pencil into my BRAND NEW LEATHER OTTOMAN…13 times ….and I wanted to cry. I called Jon, and whimpered quietly into the phone. After I got off the phone, I thought to myself, “Really, what is the good in this situation?” it took a bit of thinking, and what I came up with was that now it’s had it’s first “child wounding” and unless you really look for the holes, you can’t see it and well, really in the grand scheme of things it’s not the hugest deal AND I got to talk to Siah a bit more about treating things with respect (“being nice” – in 2 year old language).

I could have been angry and yelled at him and been annoyed for the rest of the day, but I choose to focus on the positive and not to dwell on the negative. It was amazing.

I have caught myself multiple times feeling grouchy and annoyed that I feel SO CRAPPY, but instead of wallowing in my own personal dimension of hell, I’ve focused on the fact that I’m having a quiet week. I’ve stepped off the crazy train of life and have been able to cocoon inside my home and rest. I’m able to rest…..that right there is amazing. Aside from the feeling crappy part, oh, and the part where I still have 4 kids and 80 million loads of laundry to conquer and a kitchen that never seems to stop spitting out dirty dishes and……okay, I’m getting carried away again……aside from all of that stuff, it feels almost like a little vacation.

I am choosing to slow down, take it easy, rest, relax, heal…. I’m not pushing past it all and valiantly forcing onward. I’m being selfish and not sharing any of the these germs with anyone else, if I can help it.

I LOVE that in the middle of this rough week, that I can still smile and be thankful…..for everything…..even if some things require a little more thought to see the positive within the situation.

What are you thankful for today?

Eating Right…….for ME!!!!

I’ve been really trying to watch what I’m eating recently. Not only because I want to loose weight, but because I really want to be HEALTHY!

I’m trying very hard to switch my focus from being “THIN” or “SKINNY” to being “HEALTHY”.

This is a very hard switch for me as I’ve wasted YEARS attempting to attain this image that I see in ~~my head~~ the media. I’ve been all over the “weight map” from seriously overweight to thin (although I would say that I’ve spent way more time in the overweight camp than I ever did in the “normal” weight camp, but still, I was there from time to time and that counts for something, eh?)

I am a big person. I’m not talking about weight – with that comment – I’m talking size. I’m 5 foot 10 inches. I have a HUGE bone structure. I will never be a “petite” person, but I can be healthy….and where I am at right now….is not where I’d like to be.

I’m not looking to be super-model skinny, but I’d like to lose a few more pounds. I don’t want the extra weight around the middle and the extra jiggle that I’ve been carrying around for the past few years.

And so I’ve made some changes…the first was to start regularly exercising and NOW…….I’m finding that I’m really enjoying it. That’s not to say that I always enjoy it, but I do find that I crave it during the day and then usually dread it in the hour or so before I actually go and then am exhilarated after it’s finished and then I am brutally tired a few hours after that….wake up the next morning and rinse, lather, and repeat….

We have a pretty good diet. We made some rather HUGE changes a few years ago when we cut out dairy, most wheat and processed food, and sugar. Normally, we eat HUGE amounts of fruit and veggies, a small amount of meat, a variety of whole grains and we typically have a meatless meal or two a week.

I know that I do better when I have “less to no” meat and about 2 weeks ago I re-read the Eat Right for Your Blood Type Book. There are so many things in there that make sense to me and “feel” right to me and I’ve been implementing more and more of his suggestions into my daily eating and it’s making a HUGE difference.

The biggest, most radical difference that I notice is when I cut out meat, specifically red meat. When I eat any red meat, I feel so bloated and sluggish and BLURGH! But when I don’t eat meat – I feel amazing. I have SO. MUCH. ENERGY.

I am eating way more fruit, veggies and eating beans, eggs, nuts and goat cheese for my protein. The biggest area that I’m noticing that I’m lacking is in the whole grains. I need to add some more grains to my meals, but other than that – I’m doing pretty well and I’m feeling so much better than I was, even two weeks ago.

I’m finding that I’m more aware and in tune with myself and my body and am recognizing that when I eat crap food….typically, I end up feeling very crappy. Who wouldda though it, eh?

I recently bought a mandoline and it is all that I thought it would be and more. It has seriously cut down time spent slicing and has totally helped me to up my veggie intake.

I’ve been implementing more RAW foods into our diets and I have to say that there are some seriously tasty recipes out there in the RAW food world. I’ll try to throw up some of the recipes that I’ve tried recently and LOVED! One thing that I’m really loving about this kind of food is just how quick it is to throw some of these recipes together. No waiting for cooking or baking – just quick, throw together recipes and then YUM!

Here is a dip that is SO YUMMY and quick to make found via here and then originally here(it’s the second video down).

Non-Dairy Ranch Dip

1 cup of soaked sunflower seeds (soak for 2 hours and drain)
juice from one lemon
1/2 cup chilled water
1.5 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp of onion powder/granules
1/8 tsp of black pepper
1/5 Tblsp dried Dill

Blend everything together and serve with veggies or chips or over a salad….YUM!

You can thin it out with a bit more water to make it creamier if you like a thinner dressing for your salads.

This dressing is so delicious and everyone in our family likes it but Jeremy….and well, he doesn’t like food in general so his opinion doesn’t count.

I recently made these…..well, I’m not even sure what to call them. I sliced yellow zucchini thinly and length wise on the mandoline. On each strip of zucchini, I placed small pinch of sprouts and a small spoonful of the sunflower dip and then wrapped them up like a sushi roll. I served them with a small dish of the dressing, in case a little extra dipping was required and well…..they didn’t last even a few minutes. I’m lucky I snagged these few to take a picture of.

Let me know if you give the dressing a try and what you think? Or if you have any great, healthy recipes…I’d love to hear about ’em?

Hangin’ with ma’ boys…(picture heavy)

Jon took the girls and went into town yesterday. The boys and I stayed home.

We decided to take a walk and hit one of the local Starbucks while we were at it.

We left the house and all was good.

Although, we hadn’t gone more than a few steps when the baby decided that he really wanted to push the stroller….

As is typical, he is not scared to really voice his opinion……..LOUDLY!

When I finally took the stroller away from both the boys, they started to lighten up….

While Jeremy explored the blackberry bushes along the side of the trail…

Siah checked out the bridge….

We finally made it to Starbucks and ordered our drinks. Jeremy waited patiently for his…..

Siah was less patient, but he was thrilled to get his “Blended Apple Juice”

When Jeremy got tired of the photo shoot, we packed it all up and headed home.

We picked a few Blackberries as we slowly walked home but we were too busy cramming them in our mouths to stop for any pictures.

With all the crazy business that we’ve been dealing with, it was nice to have a quiet day with just my boys.

Reality… in pictures.

So! Yes, things have been quiet around these parts because our lives have been INSANELY busy in all other areas.

I’ve had a few people asking for pics of the new place and today I ran around….mess, painting swatches, and all…..and snapped a bunch of pics. I’ve not edited them or staged anything….I just snapped and uploaded and then tried to title and label them appropriately.

If you look, you can see all the unpacked boxes, the chaos that we are thinking will eventually be our office or our TV Room. I don’t really want the TV in the front room and at the same time I like to see what my kids are up too so I’m undecided on what to do about that. You might be able to see the brushed silver knobs on the kitchen cabinets that totally update the look of the kitchen (there were gold brass knobs previously – there is SO MUCH gold/brass accenting this house. NASTY!) Our messy, MESSY bedroom, the kids stuff everywhere and the nasty couches that we dragged upstairs the the previous owners had left behind just so we could have something to sit on. The couch doesn’t match the grey/beige (greige) color that you might be able to see in some of the pictures as tester swatches on a few of the walls, but at least we have some place to sit and I don’t feel like I have to hover in the kitchen 24/7.

Funny story about the paint….although it still deons’t seem THAT funny to me…

I picked out a color that I thought I would love. I had seen pictures that I had liked and so we found out the color and even went and bought a small can. I brought it home and painted it in a few places and then freaked out that it was sucking ALL THE LIGHT IN THE HOUSE into the walls and that we’d end up feeling like we were living in a dungeon.

So, we went out an bought another small can of paint in a different color…..nope it was WAY TOO BEIGE. So we bought ANOTHER can of paint and it was WAY TOO silver/blue grey…..and really when it all came down to it the color that I really wanted was the original color…it was the perfect blend of the two and when we painted an entire section it actually looks AMAZING and I LOVE IT with all my heart and it will look perfect when it’s all done. Especially when we have everything pulled together and all the white accent pieces that we plan to use.

The colors that we are going with are this greige color with tons of white accessories and a gorgeous espresso color and some black thrown in to tie it all together.

When all is said and done we should have a very contemporary looking place.

I only know that because I went looking in decorating magazines and online to try and figure out what my “style” actually is.

It’s the very straight edges and clean lines and simple pieces….yah…right now my house doesn’t look anything like what the picture in my head looks like, but one day…..one day it’ll all come together as we are able to save up and buy the different pieces that complete the “look” that we are going for.

Now that I’ve blathered on and on and on, Here are the pictures if you want to peek at the place.

If you click on the picture it’ll take you through to the set. (edited to say that I’m not sure why the picture link isn’t working, but if you click HERE it’ll take you through to the set.

I hope to have anyone local over fairly soon for a “Yah we bought a house party!” Until then go ahead and familiarize yourself with my place via some pics.

Too Fast, Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

I can hardly believe that SIah is almost two years old.

I know that I just did an update post about him, but it’s really hitting hard that my baby is moving on from becoming a baby and that he’s becoming a little boy.

I have nursed him to sleep forever. Yes, I nurse him to sleep and you know what……I do it gladly…well, mostly gladly. And I’m not even really that much upset that it means that I’ve had absolutely NO LIFE for the past almost two years.

I chose to do this. I didn’t have to. I wanted to.

All the “things” that they tell you to do with your kids…I have tried it all. I nursed them. I bottle fed them. I formula fed them. I swaddled them to sleep. I put them to sleep on their backs and on their sides and on their tummy’s and I let them cry it out and I bounced them and rocked them and sang to them…pretty much if its out there….I’ve done it.

I wasn’t trying to create little schizophrenic little babies and so I didn’t do this to one kid all at the same time. It just seemed that for each kid the “experts” recommended something different. I guess that’s what happens when you have kids over a 10 – 12 year span.

But with Siah, I wanted to slow life down and to take the time to really enjoy him. I wanted to cherish every last minute that I could.

Before I just couldn’t slow my life down. I “fit” the babies into my life and now I regret it. I couldn’t wait for them to grow up. I was always pushing and encouraging them to reach the next milestone beacause it meant that I was one step closer to freedom. I was one step closer to getting “my life” back. I was so selfish and immature back then. I wish I could go back in time and have a chat with myself and tell myself that this time with them was so short, that once it was gone – I could never get it back; and that I would regret not just enjoying them where they were at.

Now I know how fast they grow up. I did not know to take advantage of the fact that one child is so easy and that you could “try” to nap or at least rest when they slept because if/when you had a second one…..ya, that possibility is not even anywhere close to being a reality. Now I know that the crazy first year of life is one to hold onto and enjoy…even the cruddy lack of sleep times and the crying times and the all the horrible times……it’s such a short amount of time and when they are 7 or 10 or older – you realize that the time has flown by and you wonder how it happened that you got from there to here.

I don’t believe that this means that you can’t whine about how tough it is….it is tough. MOTHERHOOD IS TOUGH….but try to enjoy every minute that you can, recognizing that it goes all too fast. Now I realize that all those things that I thought were so important – were not; and the times that I resented my tiny little one for getting in the way of “my life”…….well, I can never get back that time, but those opportunities that pop up….well typically a better one comes up later down the road and now I know that “this time” is the most important thing to me.

I chose to take extra time with Siah and now I’m finding that our time and our routines and our schedules are evolving to accommodate a little boy instead of a little baby. We still nurse but even that is changing. He used to fall asleep when he nursed and now, more often than not, he is still awake when he’s done. And Jon’s been putting him to sleep….which is another step of him growing up and moving on. He’s not needing me for everything. I’m getting to adjust to not being his “everything”. It’s another adjustment and yet like all the rest of “this growing up” and transitioning from one phase to another…..I am determined to enjoy it.

I want to be able to enjoy all of the different phases of all of my kid lives. Sometimes it is easier to enjoy the different phases than at other times, but one thing I’m learning is that “this time (the present)” is so fleeting and that once it passes I can never get it back.

I want to live my life so that I have no regrets or at least as little regrets as possible. This requires that I take time to figure out what’s really important to me and what things just aren’t as important. It also requires that I spend time talking to and gleaning information from those who are further down this road of life and who have been where I am at. I can learn from their experiences, from their mistakes and from their successes. Then I can make the best choices for me and for my family. Years from now I will look at my family and see the investment of my time and love and effort and I will never regret that.

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