Foodie

I am a foodie! I love to eat, BUT not just anything. I love to eat good food. Food with lots of flavor and seasonings, the fresher the ingredients the better, of course. My favorite foods are vegetables. (seriously, im not making that up) I eat all veggies. *This is another reason why summer is so awesome. Vegetables are abundant in the summer! and farm stands everywhere selling fresh veggies. I luv it.* We have a farm stand in walking distance from our house that we go to almost every weekend.

But when I am pregnant, my taste buds and appetite change a little. (No I am not pregnant) :) When I am pregnant I want sweets and junk food and meat and french fries and anything that is easy to prepare. My last pregnancy I couldn't even eat salads because they grossed me out. Then after having my babes it takes me a while to get back to my normal self. My appetite for fresh veggies and healthier foods starts to come back. Six months seems to be my magic mark. With both girls by six months after having them I have been back to my normal eating habits. (And back to pre-pregnancy weight, YAY!)

So the past few weeks I have been putting so much more effort in to meal planning and preparing good foods for my family. With a picky toddler and a little to no veggie eating hubby I have to be creative if I want them to eat well.

I have started using this cook book. "Deceptively Delicious" was given to me by a friend when I had Nonah and I wasn't too intereseted in it at first. But I kept it just in case. Well it is brilliant! I love it. The basic jist is you steam and then puree fruits and/or vegetables and then freeze them to use when needed. Then she has a bunch of recipes on how to use the purees. You add it to things like mac n cheese or sloppy joes or spaghetti. So your family doesn't have a clue that they are eating veggies. Last night Nonah ate sweet potatoe for the first time since she was a baby because it was mixed into a sloppy joe, she had no clue. That is the only one I have made so far but I plan to make a lot more purees.

I have also been making healthier breakfasts and lunch for Nonah and I. I was getting really lazy with what Nonah ate and Im very surprised at how well Nonah has accepted the change. There will be no more pop tarts served for breakfast. Thankfully she loves fruit so we always have fruit and then some sort of eggs or oatmeal or Gluten Free cereal or granola. (I still try to limit her gluten intake) Oh and she always has a yougurt for breakfast.

For lunches we almost always have pickles and olives and some sort of tortilla chips and salsa. They are staples in this house. The other day we tried ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins) and she loved and ate 3 stalks of celery. Yay! Here of late I have been making hummus once a week which Nonah enjoys. My absolute fave summer lunch is gaspacho soup which is a cold tomatoe soup. We also eat lots of cucumber and tomatoe salads with a little lemon or lime juice on it. I guess I really shouldn't complain about a picky toddler because my girl eats all that stuff and not many kids I know would.

For ideas for meals I have been going to this website that I found on Pinterest. I am not strictly following there plan or anything but I browse their meal plans and use some recipes or tweek it to what will work for us. Its really helpful.
I never understood why my mom would complain about coming up with meal ideas but after doing it now for almost 7 years I get it mom! I need all the help I can get right now.

Heres some yummy healthy recipes to check out if you're interested.

Gazpacho Soup I have never added the sugar but might try that next time.

Hummus This is a very basic recipe, you can all sorts of things to hummus like roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, your favorite spices or herbs, hot peppers, a different bean, the possibilities are endless. Also I don't always add the tahini just a little water and it turns out fine.

Kale Chips These are so yummy. Noni and I ate these for breakfast the other day, she loves them!

Guacamole We usually don't add the tomatoes or cayenne pepper and we don't always add the cilantro. Noni will lick the bowl she likes it so much.

Goulash I made this the other night and was able to chop up kale red peppers and carrots really fine and everyone loved it. You could add all sorts of things to a dish like this.

Another suggestion that a friend of mine made for me is dates wrapped in bacon. simply wrap up the dates with raw bacon and bake in the oven til bacon is as crispy as you want. They are soooooo good. I usually don't eat dates but these are delic. Noni actually does not eat this one. She eats the bacon but not the date.

Thats all for now! I will post more recipe ideas as I find them!

Parenting Books

There are sooooo many parenting books out there these days it can be soo overwhelming to know what to read. There are so many different philosiphys and theories and how to and there is pretty much a book for everything anymore.

Some mamas hate parenting books and don't read any and then there are mamas that read every book they can find on everything they can think of.

I am somewhere in between. I have read quite a few parenting books. I love that their are resources that I can go to to get some reassurance or input. My mom picks on me and says, "oh what, did you get that from one of your books?" I have learned a lot from my "books" and I don't always agree with everything but I find it helpful to read about an issue I am having or advice on how to handle something.

That being said I don't go to the library and check out every single parenting book there is. It has to be one someone recommended or I heard about or I know is somewhat in line with where Im coming from. (gentle, christian mothering)For example I will not read "Baby Wise." I have read snipits and I know its not the right book for me.

"The Baby Book" by Dr. Sears though, got me through my first week...month...year of parenting. It was my go to, my reassurance, my encourager. It helped me become the kind of parent I am today. I am not even sure who told me about it or why I got it from the library in the first place but it just clicked with me. I loved their view on parenting. It taught me to listen to my babies ques and to trust my own mama instincts and not give in to well meaning friends and family telling me what I should and shouldn't do. It was hard enough becoming a mom but to do everything different than my family was even harder. I got into a screaming fight with my mom the first week my baby was born over some issues and this book was my go to. When I would doubt my self and what I was doing this book would make me feel better.

I have since read almost all of Dr. Sears books.
The Nightime Parenting Book
The Fussy Baby and High-Needs Child Book
The Complete Guide to Christian Parenting and Child Care
The Successful Child
The Discipline Book
They are all great books and been helpful to me off and on throughout my mommying.
(I did not read there Pregnancy or Breastfeeding Book but I might during my next pregnancy. we'll see)

I have also read
"Raising Your Spirited Child" Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
"Your One-Year-Old" Louise Bates Ames
and probably more but these are what come to mind.

I am now reading "Loving Our Kids on Purpose" Danny Silk which so far is really good and I am also reading the "Mission of Motherhood" Sally Clarkson. These ones are not neccessarily how to books but more of an encouragement for christian parents. Both have been exactly what I need in this stage of mommying. It was Gods perfect timing that brought me these books.

So I love parenting books. I feel like they have helped me be a better mama and be the kind of mama I am today. I do however, need to put them down and just be me. Sometimes I get overwhelmed feeling like I am not doing a good enough job or should do this or that differently and I just can't take it. I am not perfect and neither are the people writing the books but I guess I feel like they are sometimes. I get hard on myself and down about something and I need to just figure it out on my own.

It is a balance. The books are there if I need them but sometimes I don't need them. I don't need to read about everything. Ya know?!

"The Vow"

Probably everyone has seen the movie "The Vow" by now. It came out back in February for Valentines day. I am a big sucker for chick flick, love stories, the sappier the better. I guess its the girly girl in me but I always have been drawn to those kinds of movies. So when I saw previews for it I knew I wanted to see it. It looked soo cute. But due to the fact that I have two little girlies we did not go to the theater to see it, I had to wait for it to come out on DVD. I love Red Box, by the way. Peter surprised me last weekend and brought home "The Vow" (he knew I wanted to see it) and he actually watched it with me. We put the kids to bed and watched the movie together. This is so rare that we actually watch something together anymore and by ourselves. It was so nice.

I'm not going to tell you all about the movie if you didn't see it, I don't want to ruin it for you. But the jist of it is that they fall in love and get married and then they are in a car accident and she looses her memory and he has to get her to fall in love with him all over again. It is really sad but really beautiful all at the same time. Thier relationship before the accident is so sweet and then afterwards he is willing to start new. I want to say more but I don't want to ruin it. It is based on true events and they show the couple at the end of the movie.

So I am rambling on about this movie because it brought both Peter and I to tears at the end. It just reminded us of our relationship and how things used to be before we got married. We were madly in love and nothing else mattered. I am still in love with my husband don't get me wrong but our relationship has evolved. After 6 years of marriage, two kids, and the craziness of every day life you kind of get distracted. We have been through some ups and downs and some distractions but this movie just reminded us where we came from. Not in a way that made us wish we could go back but in a way that made us happy and reminded us of why we fell in love in the first place. How we fell in love, how we used to go on dates every weekend and do sweet little things for eachother. Peter used to be so romantic. Yes I say used to be, he still can be if he really tries but it doesn't happen often. And thats ok. I love where we have come and that we don't need all those little things inorder to know that we love eachother. (not saying that romantic jestures are not welcome, just not neccessary)

I forget that I am living the dream. This was part of our dream. After we got married we wanted to some day have kids together. We are living the dream!! Raising kids gets hard and crazy and tiring and sometimes I just forget that this was our dream. I am living the dream and I am doing it with my best friend!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband! I am so in love with him!

I definitly recommend seeing "The Vow" if you haven't already. Its sad but beautiful!

Early Mornings

SO. I have discovered that I really really need ME TIME in order to be the mama that I want to be. I get very bogged down if I don't get a little time to just think, or read, or just BE all by myself. It's become very important to me to find that time. At nights when Peter gets home I want to be able to spend time with him and all of us together as a family so I don't like to do ME time then too much. So I have been purposeful to find the perfect ME time and therefore I have become a morning person. Not really, Im still working on it but the prefect time for me is to get up really early before the girls get up. Which means getting up with Peter any time between 5a.m and 5:30a.m because you just never know when Miss Noni girl will wake up. Every day is different, sometimes she sleeps til 7a.m but usually she is up between 6a.m and 6:30a.m.

Doing this gives me enough time to wake up (with peace and quiet), make my coffee (maybe even drink it), read a little, check emails, or just watch TV, whatever I want and I get to see my hubby before hes off to work which is really nice! I feel rejuvinated and refreshed by the time Noni gets up and ready for the day! (which was not the case back when I used to sleep until Noni woke me up) As hard as it is to pull those covers off and climb out of bed at that early hour it is TOTALLY worth it for me!!