Real Life

Hello!  I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything (over a week) and it's not because I haven't thought about it.  It's just because I really haven't thought of anything profound to write about or share.  Lately, things have been exhausting around here and I didn't really want to share them because who wants to read one long list of frustrations.  But I could really use the prayers so here goes in no particular order:

1.  Hattie Boo:  For those that don't know, my little Hattie love is a sensitive girl.  She tends to get sick often for what seems to be no apparent reason.  And each time she gets sick, she gets a fever and vomits.  We've tried eliminating things from her diet, blame it on teething, or tried to find various other explanations, but we haven't come up with anything yet.  This past weekend was another one of her episodes in which she threw-up on Sunday night (twice), had a fever Monday and part of Tuesday, was fine yesterday, but then threw-up twice later last night.  Of course, this means lots of sheet changing and worrying that it's a stomach virus and that we're all going to get it, only to shrug it off as "that's Hattie" and thinking that the puking is over.  But then - bam it happens again.  We've been experiencing this about once a month and my nerves are shot with worry.  It's not normal for your child to vomit that frequently.  But at this point I'm not sure what to do.  And my little love doesn't even cry when it happens.  Half the time I have to have super hearing power to even realize she's vomited in her crib.  *sigh*  It's been a few rough, sleepless nights for all of us.

2.  Lucy:  This child never sleeps.  She has had this problem since she was an infant and we thought she'd grow out of it, but three years later, she's still not sleeping through the night in her own bed.  But while that's just life with Lucy, this month she needs to see the dentist for some cavity repairs.  Call it a combination of bad genes and bad parenting, Lucy has so many cavities that the best way for the dentist to take care of them all is by having her be put under full anesthesia while a special pediatric dentist does the work.  While I realize cavities are a fact of life and that this is not a life threatening procedure, I'm still stressed and wrecked with guilt about contributing to the fact that she has cavities in the first place.  (Constant juice in sippy cups is to blame.)  We have since cut the juice entirely from our house and that seems to be going better than I had thought it would.  Still, I'm just wanting this to be over so we can move on.  Hopefully once they are fixed, we'll be done with dental problems for awhile.

3.  Family illness:  My grandpa isn't doing too well these days and although there's nothing I can do about it, I'm still stressed and sad for everyone involved.  I already lost my grandma (my dad's mom) this year, so I don't want to think about losing another grandparent so soon. 

4.  Life in general:  You know, it takes a tragedy in someone else's  life in order for you to realize the blessings in your own and unfornately that's what happened recently.  Whenever I'm having a pity party for myself, I just have to remember that my life is full of wonderful things and I have much to be thankful for, even if I'm just feeling crabby or overwhelmed.  It helps to put things in perspective.

Thanks for reading and for the prayers. 

Tasty Treat Tuesday - Breakfast Popsicles!

 

Good morning!  This post is semi-misleading, because it's not so much a recipe, but an idea.  Sometime this last summer I made the mistake of telling Lucy she could have a popsicle if she slept in her bed the WHOLE NIGHT!  (One of many, many incentives that  we tried to get our three-year old to sleep.  *sigh*)  Anyway...It seemed to work - for a few nights at least.  But, I was feeling a bit guilty about letting her eat the super sugary stored bought popsicles for breakfast (even if they were the red, white, and blue rocket pops - my personal favorite!)  So, I thought, why don't we make our own?  Now, I realize this is not an original idea, but I was pretty excited to make something healthy that I would normally give her to eat for breakfast (with a few arguments about it) in popsicle form.  It was a win-win situation!  She thought she was eating a popsicle, but I would know she was eating good food!  Genius!  This was one of my better parenting moments. 

The great thing about the popsicles is that you can make them using whatever you have on hand -  or whatever you would use to make a smoothie.  Fresh fruit is ideal, but if you don't have that, you can use fruit cups (that what we used today along with bananas), juice or milk (we used almond milk, but coconut milk could be amazing with some fresh pineapple - a healthy pina colada), or whatever you can think of.  Sometimes when I'm in a pinch for a different fruit I use a spoonful of jam.  And if you want a creamier consistency, you can throw in some yogurt.  It's literally breakfast in a frozen form! 

Here are some flavor combinations to get you started:

-orange juice and vanilla yogurt (like an orange julius)
-pineapple and banana with milk/yogurt
-strawberry and banana with milk/yogurt
-strawberry and blueberry with milk/yogurt

If you want to get crazy you could add banana and peanut butter with milk or peanut butter and chocolate chips with milk (although now we're starting to get away from the "healthy" aspect.)  And with summer just 3 months away, I'm dreaming about watermelon and honeydew which would make delicious popsicles too!  The possibilities are endless!  :)  So, get out your blender and start blending!  Who said popsicles are only a summer food anyway? 

 

Gratitude - March 4, 2013

It is still very strange to consider myself a writer.  I think I’ve secretly always wanted to be a writer on some level.  In elementary school I loved creating books in class.  I kept a diary starting in third grade through fifth grade (which is hilarious to read now) and one again my senior year (which is not so funny to read now.)  (Side note:  I kept the diary my senior year while I was preparing for my role as Anne in the play “The Diary of Anne Frank.”  I thought I was really doing some method acting by keeping a diary, but it was more like therapy as I was sorting through the typical high school boy drama.)  In eighth grade I wrote a story about a swan that was about ten pages long (which is long by eighth grade standards) that I thought  was “sooooo good” but now looking back on it, I think it’s kind of a knock off of “The Trumpet of the Swan.”  Anyway…  Now that I’ve had the amazing opportunity to publish my own book and actually become an “author” I have found that I’m sort of re-inventing myself.  I used to define myself as a teacher.  For six years that’s what I was and what I wanted to be since I was five years old.  Then I had a new role:  Mom.  And although this role is the most important I’ve ever had, it took me awhile to figure out how to be a mom and still be me, since being a mom requires ultimate selflessness.  But now that have this this new role as “writer” or “author” I have found that it satisfies the part of me that needs a creative and intellectual outlet (not that Jedi mind tricks with a three-year old and an eighteen month old aren’t mentally  challenging and exhausting,) yet it allows me to still be at home with them.  And I think I’ve learned to appreciate my time with my girls much more now that I’m also taking care of my needs as well.  It’s hard to give and give without refueling and writing is my way of refueling.

Writing has also connected me with the community, which is something that I wanted to do, but wasn’t sure where to start.  In high school I had school projects that kept me involved as well as community theatre.  College provided opportunities as well that were easy to fit into my class schedule.  While teaching I was the student council advisor, so I made sure we did community projects (best parade floats ever!) and it was relatively easy since I didn’t have kids yet.  But now it’s hard to do anything with kids – getting them dressed is a chore, let alone being involved in things that require commitments outside of the home, yet through writing I have been able to slowly wade into the community pool (ok, that’s a strange metaphor) and can be as involved as I am able.   I have been so blessed to connect with so many people.  I’ve met other authors, artists, and members of the community.  I have been featured on blogs and done give-aways that have spread my story to parts of the country that I couldn’t reach on my own.  I’ve met lovely people who support and encourage me and are happy for my success.  I am so grateful for this time in my life right now and I just wanted to say thanks.  Thanks to you, the readers of this silly little blog, which doesn’t really provide any deep insight or advice (except for how to make cake mix cookies.)  I am grateful for the encouraging words and comments which let me know that people are actually reading this!  J  I hope to continue to improve and grow as a writer – and as a community member, friend, wife, and mother and I look forward to sharing this journey with you.

Favorite Things Friday - March 1

Wow!  It's March already!  Where have the past two months gone?  Anyway...Today is Friday and so it's favorite things Friday and today I'm going share a yummy product:

Love Crunch Granola!

This breakfast cereal is not your average granola.  Nope, it's better because it comes in three amazing flavors:

 

Apple Crumble

Carrot Cake

Dark Chocolate and Red Berries

 

They sound more like dessert, rather than breakfast!  Each flavor comes with an abundance of dried fruit and bits of nuts (or pieces of chocolate.)  I find these in the health food aisle of my local grocery store, so they should be easy to find (hopefully!)  And I love to mix them with almond yogurt (since we're a dairy free home) which has been a fun find as well!  So go ahead and serve up a bowl for yourself and you'll realize just how delicious breakfast can be!

Favorite Things Friday

Hello again from the UP!  We decided to stay another day because we wanted wait out any other bad weather.  That means I am able to write about one of my favorite things - used books!  Right here in Houghton, Michigan is an amazing bookstore called The Bookworm that is a treasure chest of amazing hidden gems!  The last time I was home I went to The Bookworm in search of used Christmas children's books to create a fun countdown to Christmas (thanks Pinterest) and it did not disappoint!  I found an amazing selection of books ranging from $1.00 to $2.50!  Fabulous!

So, this trip I was on a mission to find some Classic Winnie the Pooh books for a birthday gift, as well as Erma Bombeck books, which is kind of a specific search.  But - The Bookworm came through again!  And besides finding the books I was searching for I found so many other great books too!  In fact, here they are: 

 

Now, I actually found a few of those books at another consignment store in town, but still!  AMAZING!  I can't tell you how much I love The Bookworm in Houghton!  I guess it's true about the sweatshirt I was wearing in a photo I posted on Facebook - lead me not into temptation - especially bookstores! 

 

 

Tasty Treats Tuesday

Greetings from the UP!  It is a crazy blizzard here and everything is covered with mounds of snow!  When I'm at home I like to bake on snowy days, so today we baked a favorite cookie recipe that I found on Pinterest and shared before on Facebook:  Pistachio-Cranberry Cookies!  These are so delicious and so easy to make.  They are perfect for Christmas (since they are festive colors), but yummy anytime!  Actually, since they are green, they could be fun for St. Patrick's Day!

 

Ingredients:

-Sugar Cookie Mix

-Box of Pistachio Pudding

-1/4 cup flour

 

-1/2 cup melted butter

-2 eggs

 

-dried cranberries (or craisins)

-shelled pistachios (whole or chopped)

 

Mix the dry ingredients together.  Then add the wet ingredients.  Fold in the cranberries and pistachios (as much or as little as you want - about a 1/2 cup of each is good.)

Bake for 8-10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

 

(My helpers)

 

Eat and enjoy!

 

 

 

I'm also excited to share my Favorite things post this week, although I may have to post it early, since I'll be driving back to Fond du Lac on Friday.  And I'll try to post pictures of this crazy snow storm!  It's nuts!  Until next time...  

 

 

Favorite Things Friday

Hello there!  I've been meaning to post all week, but alas, I haven't.  So today will be a combined post of favorite things and a recap of Valentine's Day.  On Tuesday the girls and I made Red Velvet - White Chocolate Chip Cookies.  These cookies look very festive and are super easy to make!

 

Here's how you make them:

 

1 box of Red Velvet Cake Mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

 

Mix together in a large bowl.  Then add about a half a bag of white chocolate chips and stir.  Bake for about 8 - 10 minutes in a pre-heated 350 degree oven.  The cookies will seem a bit underdone when you take them out, but will continue to firm while they cool.  I love cookies made from cake mixes!  One of these days I'll post my Snickerdoodle recipe - amazing and so easy!

 

We had nice Valentine's Day complete with lots of lovely cards and a delicious dinner at home.  I wanted a nice picture of my little Valentines in their Valentine's jammies, but they weren't excatly in the mood (both we're feeling that well.)  Here's the best one:

 

 

Oh my little loves! 

 

Hope you all had a wonderful day too!