A Week in Review

    This week has been one for the birds - my poor hubby has worked 14 + every day that I wasn't working (which is only two days during the week).  Therefore, I am home with the littles all by my lonesome ALL day and LATE into the night.  I have some major respect for single moms!!!  I don't think that I could ever do it and be a sober person!!  As I type, I am impatiently patiently waiting for Evyn and Sylas to pass out so that I can go snuggle up with Beccan and get some nap time in.  I figured with the big day we had - up early, soccer game, lunch with the family, birthday party shopping - that they would just fall asleep as their pretty heads hit the pillow.  They just love to prove me wrong!

    Sylas's birthday party is coming up and I'm so excited!  He is going to be beside himself with his presents from Mommy and Daddy.  I planned on practicing his birthday cake in advance, but of course, that plan didn't make it into real life.  I may try this next week, but then what do I do with the cake???  I most certainly cannot keep it around the house.  Suggestions would be appreciated!

    The hubby stood in line for THREE HOURS today to turn in a preschool packet.  Bless his heart.  We aren't even for sure that we will get a spot and won't know until May!!  Keep your fingers crossed, please, because Evyn needs some time away from Mommy.  In addition to that fact, she is brilliant and would do so well in school.  I think she will make a lot of friends and get over this "shyness" in a heart beat.

    I did do the baby food cooking day on Monday.  Silly me thought it would take a few hours at most!  I began officially at 10:15 am....ended officially at 7:45 pm.  Keep in mind, I juggled the cooking with the littles, lunch, playing, laundry, and cleaning.  I still was baffled at how time consuming it was!  I even ran out of tupperware containers for my food!  Thankfully, my sister swung by Walmart and grabbed some more!  I ended up not finishing the squash...I ran out of containers for a second time and he can't really eat those until 8 months any way.  I threw in the single pear because I had it and didn't want it to go bad!  I also didn't use all the peas or green beans.  Here are some photos of the day in the kitchen:

My helpers!



The kitchen about mid-day:



 

The end product!!

    I got:  two pears, four green beans, six apples, six peas, 7 sweet potatoes, three apples & sweet potatoes, four sweet potatoes & green beans, and two peas & carrots.  Whew!!  I'm thinking that by the time he is done with these (and really even before then) we will be working on food that is diced, BUT I had a lot of fun making these.  I also take pride in the fact that I did it!!  They will be handy as snacks in the future.  My hubby came home, patted me on the butt, and then made dinner.  I think that means I did a good job =)



Randomness...

    I've been working on my list of things to do and I've made a pretty good one.  Now to get to the timeline part!!  I'm really bad at starting projects and not setting aside time to finish them.  Just ask my sister - I am in the process of making my nephew a mobile.  I've been in this process for months now!  Due to this, his mobile is first on my list of things to do! 

    I'm still looking into breakfast ideas.  Unfortunately, my littles are pretty picky.  This means that most of my new recipes have be offered a few times before I can even get a bite out of them.  It can be really frustrating!  I am determined to get them to open up their taste buds, though, so I will keep doing what I can.  I am trying smoothies this week, so here's hoping Evyn and Sylas like them!! 

    Speaking of smoothies, I have been doing a little research on juicing vs. smoothies.  I don't really have the money to fork over for a juicer, but I do have an awesome blender.  I need to look into it some more, but I think I may be trying a smoothie cleanse within the next few weeks.  Of course, I'll keep you updated!

    I'm dreading my grocery bill this week as I am probably going to buy out the produce section!!  Not only am I getting our normal fresh veggies and fruits, but I am getting lots of extras for my baby food cook day (which is tomorrow).  I am making Beccan's baby food instead of using the store bought kind.  I've just been making it as I go, but I decided I needed to just set a day aside and make lots of it to freeze.  This would make it easier on me, my hubby, and any family that is over.  I'm actually excited to do all this cooking, as I find the idea of making my own food for him exciting.  I like all the combinations I can come up with!  In addition to his baby food, I am buying fruits and veggies for smoothies (as previously mentioned!).  I'm nervous!

    Evyn had her first soccer game this past Saturday!  This is her first social interaction with a team since she was in gymnastics a couple years ago.  She ended up not playing, but sat on the sidelines taking it all in.  Afterwards, she ran on the field with her Pop-pop and Sylas and kicked the ball all over.  It was adorable!  We are going to practice kicking at home and I am hoping that she will be ready to play next Saturday.  She will know what to expect this time.  Evyn is much like her mommy when it comes to new things and I know that she just needs some time to warm up to it!  She did look ADORABLE in her little uniform!!!  Here she is before she got her jersey: 

    Stay tuned for more cute pictures and more of me learning how to figure out what the heck I'm doing  =)
     
  

Time to Make it Happen

    I've decided it's time to make anything and everything happen!  Time to get a new career path figured out...or at least figure out what I need to do to get to where I want to be.  Also time to quit pinning so much on my Pintrest account.  I need to stop finding things that I want to do and DO THEM!  Time to have a little more gumption when it comes to losing weight.  Time to implement the ideas that are swirling in my head.

    I plan on making a timeline for the next few months and write down what I want done...and when it needs to be done by.  I'll post that when it's finished.  I tend to work better with deadlines, so hopefully this will get my butt in gear!

    I do know that one of my food plans for the month of March is to make breakfast every morning.  I am not a big breakfast eater (I know, I know...the most important meal of the day, blah, blah).  I never have been!  However, I have noticed that my indifference to breakfast has been passed down to my kids (my fault) and I don't like that!  Evyn and Sylas love pancakes, waffles, sausage, and bacon.  I'm pretty sure these aren't the best breakfast foods out there.  My job this month is to find new, healthy breakfasts they will look forward to eating.

    I tried to be sneaky today and give Evyn a frozen gogurt passed off as a popsicle.  She takes after me in the yogurt department - a big NO THANK YOU whenever it is offered.  I wish she would like it though and thought I may have come up with a solution.  Well, that little munchkin too smart.  I waited until after nap time when we always have the yummy snacks.  As I handed it to her, she took a sniff and stated, "This smells like yogurt, not popsicle."  After licking it a few times, she added, "It also tastes like yogurt.  This is not a good popsicle like at Manmum and Pop-pop's house."  I tried to laugh it off without having to outright lie to her, but it was to no avail.  She decided to have no snack at all if that meant she could throw away the "smelly popsicle". 

    Guess I'm going to have to be sneakier than a four year old in the future!

Whew

    Let me start off by saying that this blog has gone too long without some love!!  I didn't even realize it had been so long...shame, shame, shame.  So I'm back (again) and I have another new plan (again).  Plus, I totally re-vamped the site and I am really digging it!!

    My very dear friend, Jessica, has brought juicing to my attention.  I love this woman so much...and I am convinced that if we lived closer, we'd be seeing each other pretty much every day.  She has held my hand through my never ending cloth diaper journey and is now about to take me on another ride.  I have heard about juicing a few times and always thought the idea was cool, but not for me.  I just don't think I have it in me to give up all food and rely only on juice.  I am a food addict.  This is where Jess comes in!  She has started her own juicing system and to ease herself into a juice "feast", she has started drinking juice before a meal.  This helps with filling up on good-for-you juice and not overeating the real food.  I think I'm going to start doing this!! (After I gather up enough doll hairs to buy a juicer that is!)  Jess talks about having more energy and is losing weight fairly well.  I think I'm going to team this up with my irregular zumba schedule and see where this takes me!  She, however, will begin a juice feast on March 1st and try it for 94 days.  You can read about her awesomeness HERE!

    Now I just want to post some photos of my beautiful children.  It is GORGEOUS outside today, so we have been living it up out there.  Played all morning, had a picnic, and then ice cream!

       
    One more thing I wanted to pass along to all you moms.  If you are anything like me, you have "bad mom days" as I like to call them.  Those are the days when I'm extra tired/cranky/stressed/anything other than happy and I'm not my normal mommy self.  I tend to carry a lot of guilt around after days like that.  I read an article this morning about that subject and I really enjoyed it.  It reminded me that I am only human!!  If you're interested - take a look.

    Time to get ready to go hold my sweet, new nephew Ezra!  I'll be back sooner rather than later!

Winning!

    Just wanted to make a quick entry - I made a lunch today that Evyn had TWO helpings of!!  I am so excited!  For those of you that know us, Evyn is my picky eater and the one that I am always trying to find food for.  Today's lunch was so simple.  I used Light Italian Flatout Flatbread that is 100% whole wheat and has zero grams of sugar, added turkey, and then cheese.  All I did was roll it up and slice it like sushi - super simple!  Evyn ate five of the rolls and all of her strawberries that were served with it.  I even heard her say, "Come to mama" while she was eating!  Sylas ate a little bit, but I know this was because of the strawberries.  He is a fruit fanatic and will eat that over anything. 

 
    My wrap was a tad bit more nutritional.  I had brushed fat free Poppyseed dressing onto mine, then added pepperjack cheese, turkey, and spinach leaves.  So yummy!  I wanted to add spinach to the little's wrap, but Evyn informed me that they "don't eat leaves yet."

    I loved hearing Evyn tell her Daddy all about her "delicious lunch" and that she couldn't wait to eat it again.  Score one for Mommy!!!

Starting Over

    ALRIGHT!  I am starting over!  I got really overwhelmed with my new adventure...I was confused, nervous, and a little self-concious (when it came to the blogging).  I got in my rut, then realized I needed to be more realistic. 
    
    When it comes to our food, there aren't too many changes I really need to make - yay!  I already made fresh veggies and fruit.  I already tried to make as many meals from scratch as possible.  I already made sure my kids didn't get Little Debbie cakes for snacks.  SO my new goal is take one step at a time in making little changes.  The blog, Real Food in Little Rock, helped me understand that it is easier to do a change like this in baby steps.  For example, this month I am trying to buy more organic foods and to reduce our consumption of high fructose corn syrup.  I am going to look into local farmers so that I can compare the pricing.  I am more jazzed about this, because it seems less overwhelming by doing it in smaller stages!
   
    As far as the blog goes, I know that I need to write more often!  I am going to set aside time one night a week (Wednesdays are my night of choice!) to blog.  I was wondering if there was a point to write, because I felt that I wasn't writing about interesting topics.  I got caught up - again - in all these other mommy blogs that look awesome and have a ton of followers.  Then I remembered why I started this - for ME!  I'm sure I'll get better at blogging as time goes on.  I'm even going to look into how to design it a little better...maybe even add some ads or more decor.  For those of you that do read, thank you :)

    Tonight, the littles, hubby, and I are going to a latern festival.  We are all very excited as this will be something we've never done.  I'm hoping that it's a lot like the laterns in Tangled, as that is what I told Evyn is would be like!  If anyone would like to go, here is the link: Laterns!.  I'm pumped for the Rio de Janeiro vista because Evyn loves the movie Rio and also for the American Baseball vista as Sylas lives and breathes baseball. I'm hoping to get some awesome photos to share!

    Thank you to everyone who encourages me in my life changes - I love all of you!

Back in the Rut...

    I'm sad to say it, but I'm back in my rut.  Maybe it has something to do with waking up with a super sore throat this morning...maybe it has to do with all the junk we ate this past weekend while out of town.  It's probably a combination of things.  I'm just feeling overwhelmed and out of my element.  I want desperately to de-clutter my house, but I can't seem to find the time to do the big plans I have.  I have most definitely been cooking better foods, but now I am having trouble finding new recipes that I think Evyn and Sylas will eat.  Not only am I making dinner, but I am also having to find healthy lunch recipes.  I want to work-out, but haven't been able to stick to a normal schedule.  All these things sound like excuses to me, so then I feel down about not just getting up and doing it.  This is a vicious cycle that I've gotten stuck in my head and want to break free of!!

    On a positive note, I did make my own chicken nuggets last week!  The littles LOVED them.  I thought they were pretty delish myself!  I got the recipe from a blog that I frequent weekly to get meal ideas.  Get the recipe here!  I made extra so that I could freeze them and have them on hand for other lunches or an easy dinner.  Evyn told me that she liked these better then the dinosaur nuggets we used to buy - which is a HUGE win for me!

    I suppose that's enough venting for now...I need to get up and do something productive to help get me out of this slump! I need to find that gumption I had when I started this blog....