Motherhood is...

Motherhood is:

Smooching sticky faces.

Celebrating the first poop in the potty.

 Loving til you think your heart could burst.

Memorizing their little faces.

Speaking their language.

Answering their questions.

Trying to remember that "a person to be loved is more important than a problem to be solved."

Playing superheros.

Building legos.

Doing homework.

Cheering them on.

Reading "Where the Wild Things Are" until we all have it memorized.

Watching them sleep and being in awe that they are yours.

Tickling tummies.

Kissing owies.

Rediscovering the world.

Catching bugs.

Baking birthday cakes.

Singing lullabies.

Stepping on cars in the middle of the night.

Taking a thousand pictures.

 Just being there.

Have a Happy Mother's Day this weekend!

 

 

 

One of those scary moments...

Last night my husband had to work late.  I wanted to do something fun with the kids, so we decided to ride our bikes to SONIC and get milkshakes.

Saxon has a big-kid bike (it looks like a motorcycle), and Bridger does really well on his balance bike.  My mom gave me her old bike that has a baby seat on the back.  I put helmets on everyone and then we all argued over shoes.  I lost the battle and the boys got to wear rainboots without socks, instead of tennis shoes.  Gross...that makes for very stinky feet!  I was wearing yoga pants (no pockets) so I stuck my phone and debit card in the pocket of Saxon's cargo shorts.  He felt very important for being assigned such a big responsibility :)

I lectured the boys before we left
"You have to stay next to me."
"If I say STOP, you have to STOP immediately!"
"If I say 'Go to the side!' you have to do it."
"Watch out for cars...listen too."
"Make sure I can always see you and you can see me."
"If we're not good listeners, we can't do this again."
"You can't quit half-way there and tell me that you're too tired."
etc...

A lot of instructions...I know...but we were riding out on the road and I wanted them to be safe.  Sonic is about 3/4 of a mile away.  We have to ride to the front of our community, cross a somewhat busy road, ride through another community, and find the short-cut into the grocery store parking lot.  Then we ride around to the front of the grocery store and up to SONIC.  

We got there without any incident and I bought the kids grilled cheese and slushies.  We saw some of our neighbors and all of the kids played.  It was really fun!  On the way back, I repeated my instructions.  Saxon has a tendency to want to ride far ahead because he is a lot faster on his real bike than Bridger is on the balance bike.

On the way home, we were in the community right behind the grocery store when Bridger stops.  He's too tired.  His legs are tired.  His feet are tired.  He wants to walk.  While I was trying to convince Bridger to get back on the bike, Saxon rode ahead.  I called out for him to stop, but he didn't.  I finally got Bridger going again just as I saw Saxon turn the corner.  We hurried up to him, and we turned the corner.  I looked down the next street for him...but he wasn't there.

Is he far enough ahead to be on the next street?  We hurried ahead.  We got to the corner where we would usually cross the busy road to get back into our community.  There were some little girls playing on the corner.  I asked them if they had seen a little boy with flames on his helmet ride by here. 

"Oh yeah...we saw him earlier by the basketball courts, but he didn't cross here..."

Ok...so where is he?  Bridger and I circled back around.
No Saxon.
I started to get that feeling...
That heart pounding, sick to my stomach, saying constant prayers in my head, feeling.
What if I can't find him?  What if someone took him?  How long should I look before I call the police.  Except that I can't call the police because my phone is in Saxon's shorts!

We went back to where we last saw him because there was a family sitting outside and I wanted to ask them if they'd seen him.  I started to describe him and the dad say "little boy on a motorcycle bike?  Yeah, he went by right before you came by the first time.  Is he lost?"  I told them that I couldn't find him, but that he knew where lived, but I was sure he would not have crossed the busy road by himself.

The dad said, "Are you really sure?" 
Well, no...I guess not.  I just really hope that he wouldn't have crossed by himself.  He would have known better...

The mom hopped in her car and said she would drive a circle through my community and look for him.  The dad told his little boy to hop on his bike and help me look.  Just as we got back to the corner of the busy road, I see one of my neighbors drive by.  She stops when she sees us.

"Brenda!!!  Have you seen Saxon?"

"Yes, I have him with me."
Oh...I can breathe again.  Apparently he just went right on home (nevermind that he is 5 years old, was alone, and crossing a busy street by himself on his little motorcycle bike).  Brenda saw him sitting on my driveway and asked him where his mom was.

"She's not here...she's at SONIC."  (Yep...makes me look like parent-of-the-year, right?)
Brenda tried to call me but realized that Saxon had my phone when his pocket started ringing.  She had him get in her car so she could drive him over to Sonic to find me.

I was so relieved...I had to then circle back around and tell that sweet family that we found him.  Since Brenda was there, Bridger wanted a ride home too (since he was exhausted after all of our circling around.)

When we got home I asked Saxon what he was thinking!
He said, "I just wanted to beat you...and I already knew the way home."


Of course, we had a long talk about this, but at least I have him home safely.

Have you had any of those scary parenting moments lately?

What I Wore Wednesday

We have had a ton of wind here lately.  A ton!

The forecast for this whole week looks beautiful...except for the wind!

It's been doing all kinds of crazy things to my hair...

For example, my side bangs, have become real bangs when the wind picks up.

I snapped a picture when I was outside the other day to see what I looked like with bangs.  What do you think?  I toy with the idea of bangs every once in a while, but then I chicken out.  I'm afraid they would drive me crazy.  But my sister-in-law just cut some light bangs (the "Jennifer Lawrence" hairstyle) and she looks gorgeous.

It's making me consider it again...

A few weeks ago, Old Navy had their "stuff and save" sale.

As much as you could fit in the bag was 40% off.

I saw this shirt on the manikin and liked it, but they only had it left in an X-Large.

So I bought it anyway.

My little sister never looks at sizes...she says you can always make it work :) 

I'm also wearing my favorite JOLT jeans from Nordstrom.

Love them!  So comfy!!!

They also have "butt lift" in them.

I guess they have a little tighter elastic in the bum to give it a little lift.

I was excited about it because I used to have a bum, but it went away after I had kids.

When I first saw this picture of myself, I thought:

"It worked!  It looks like I have a bum!"

...

Then I remembered that I had stuck my phone in my back pocket so I wasn't holding it in the picture...so I guess it didn't give me a bigger bum.

Oh well.

They're still my favorite jeans.

And, I'm standing in my soon-to-be-garden.  Soooo excited!!!

Grilled Zucchini Panini

I'm blogging today over at LOVE STITCHED.

Come over and say hi :)

Herb Gardening

It's that time of year to start the garden and I am soooo excited!

 

I spent all day on Friday running around to every greenhouse and nursery in town trying to find the best deals.  We finally found what we were looking for and I was so excited to get started.  The weather has been consistently nice, but when I checked the forecast, it said that Saturday night would be 36 degrees.  That's a little too close to freezing for me to risk all of my baby plants.  So instead, we just planted our herbs on the balcony.

 

This is my third year planting herbs and they can be a little tricky.

The first year, our basil turned into a giant bush and the cilantro turned into a massive weed.

The next year, our basil did great but I killed off our camomile and cilantro almost immediately (I don't know what happened.)

I think we've finally mastered growing basil, but I'm branching out and trying cilantro (again), rosemary, and parsley.

I also planted wildflowers, but if they don't grow, I'm picking up some more herbs.

Here's some helpful tips I learned about planting herbs:

-It's better to buy herbs at the greenhouse and then plant them.  You can grow them from seeds, but they can be fragile and take along time to be big enough to use.

-If you're new to growing herbs, start with basil.  It's pretty easy to grow and easy to use.  

-Make sure you cut from your herbs often or they can get out of control.  My first basil plant was great, but it was massive and started flowering.  You don't want it to flower because then it will put all of it's effort and flavor into the flowers and not the leaves.  Plus, it attracts a ton of bees.  If you trim it regularly, you will be able to clip off the flowers right as they start before it gets out of control.

-Trim from the top, not the base.  Even though the top leaves are newer and smaller, you don't want to end up with a skinny stick with leaves on top.  Plus, the big bottom leaves soak in all of the sun for the plant.

-I found this great blog called The Skinny Gourmet that explains 10 mistakes that herb-growers make.  It's worth reading.

-I have been reading a lot lately about growing cilantro.  Apparently there is nothing you can do to keep it from bolting.  Every plant wants to reproduce.  Some tips to help are to keep it trimmed, keep it cool and shaded, and grow it close together so that they can shade each others roots.  When it gets too hot, it knows it will die soon and it starts to reproduce and then your cilantro is useless.  Cilantro seems to be a pretty high maintenance plant because everything I've read suggests that you replant every few weeks so that when one starts to go to seed, you can pull it up and use the next one.  Then you always have one ready.  Hmm...seems like a ton of work.  We'll see how it goes this year. 

- One thing to be aware of is choosing the right herbs.  Make sure that you choose things that you will use, or that you can dry or freeze for later use.  Make sure that you are choosing the right kind of herb for what you want.  For example, in basil alone there is sweet basil, lemon basil, purple ruffled basil, etc.  This year, I picked a curled parsley because it looked like what I would have bought it the store.  However, upon further research, I read that Italian parsley is the way to go if you are using it for cooking, curled parsley is more of a garnish.  Oops.

-Don't waste your herbs.  Make sure that you dry them or freeze them if you can't use them in time.  They are too great to go to waste.  I learned from my husband (who lived in Italy for 2 years) that you can freeze basil.  Right before the end of the season, we picked all of our basil leaves off and put them in the freezer.  Now we have garden fresh basil all winter long.

If you're new to gardening start with an herb garden.  It is fun, simple, and you don't need a lot of space.  I keep mine right on the balcony.  Plus, it's portable so you can bring it inside if you need to.  Herb gardens are fun because they force you to be a little more creative with your cooking if you want to put them to use :)

Treats

I took my kids to the dentist to have their teeth cleaned, and Saxon had another cavity!

I was so sad.  Sad for me and sad for him.

I brush his teeth every single night.  Always.  We usually floss and rinse too, but we always brush.  When he got his first cavity a year ago, I really cracked down on the brushing routine.  I even brush and floss Dalton's baby teeth.

I asked the dentist what is going on...how else can we prevent cavities if what we're doing isn't helping.

He said that it's interesting because a big study was just done in New York about how preschoolers, now a days, are getting tons of cavities.  He said he is currently writing a paper on it.

So I asked the obvious questions.  "Well...why?"

He said that's what every parent wants to know..."why?"

He said it's more important than ever to brush, floss, rinse, and go to check-ups. 

Great.  We already do that.

Genetics can affect teeth.

Well...nothing we can do about that.

Also, diet can make a difference.

I'm really careful about what we eat.  I try to not be crazy about it, but I am always aware of how I feed my family.

Last...candy.

I told him that I don't give my kids very much candy.

He asked me to think about all of the other people who do give them candy.

If they are good in church...the teacher gives the a treat.

If they are good in preschool...they get a treat.

If they complete their homework...treat.

Relatives come into town...treat.

Babysitter...treats.

Anytime we need to bribe them to do something important...treat.

My preemptive attack against grocery store tantrums...treat.

Wow.

Even if I never gave them treats, they would still be getting tons of them!

Our dentist was saying that years ago, treats were rare.

They were for special occasions.

Now kids get a treat even at the bank drive through.

Well, obviously we need to be more careful about treats if we want to protect our kids teeth.  But what do I do?

It doesn't seem fair to tell Saxon that everyone else in church gets treats...but not him.

Or everyone else gets treats in school...but not him.

I did have a talk with him about keeping our teeth healthy and how too many sugar bugs can hurt our teeth, but it made him nervous about everything he eats.

I remember my Dad telling me about dog-training once.

(I know...totally not the same as raising children...but it reminded me of this)

My Dad never trains his dogs with treats.

He pets them and encourages them and praises them, but he doesn't feed them to get them to obey.  I asked him once, why not?  That's how they train dogs that are in movies.  He asked me what would happen if the dog wasn't hungry.  Then it wouldn't obey.

It just made me think of how often we teach our kids with treats.

So, we're making a huge cut-back-on-the-treats-goal in our house.

It's funny because I don't even buy treats or snacks...but I'm going to have to pay much more attention to what happens when we're out.

I think sugar-free-gum might be a nice compromise when I feel like they deserve a special treat.

Any other ideas?

Picking Paint

I've decided that I want to re-paint, but I'm can't seem to decide on the color.

I bought a million samples, and narrowed it down to two.

I really want a soft, pretty, creamy tan.  Not too yellow or pink or green or gold, etc.

Just, soft and neutral, because eventually, we want to rent out our townhouse and get a small home somewhere.  So I want the colors to be something that I like, but also that a future renter would appreciate.

So, here's what I've got so far... 

Cozy Cottage on top

...

Raffia Cream on the bottom 

(both colors are the middle one on the pallet and both are painted on the wall behind) 

My problem now, is that they are so similar, that I can't even see the line in between them.  So, does it matter which one I pick if I can hardly tell a difference anyway?

 

Boys Bathroom:

 Currently yellow.  I want it to be gray.

First I tried "upward" (the one on the right.  In the bottle, it looked like a soft watery gray.  On the wall, a dark bluish gray.  Paint is so deceiving...

On the left, Martha Stewart Cumulus Cloud.

In the bottle, a whitish gray.  On the wall...true gray.

I think I like it.  What do you think?

My bedroom:

Also currently yellow (obviously I like color)

On the top: Martha Stewart Opal.

On the bottom: Martha Stewart Cumulus Cloud.

I like both, but in my room, Cumulus Cloud looks dark gray.

I wanted a barely there moonlight kind of gray, so I think maybe opal.

I'm just afraid, judging my the name, that it might turn out kind of blue...

My bathroom:

(currently green)

Top: Opal

Bottom: Cumulus Cloud

Opal looks just white in the bathroom and Cloud looks like a light gray.

I think I might have to do Opal in the bedroom and Cloud in the bathroom.

What do you think?

Picking paint stresses me out.

It's hard to really tell what it will look like, and it's so much work that if you get it wrong, it's a huge pain and more money, to have to re-do it.

Pineapple Fried Rice

I used to be in love with this one baking blog.  Her treats were amazing!  Plus, they were all really do-able.  You know what I mean?  Nothing too weird or too complicated.  Simple and delicious.

Then my favorite baking blog decided to go Vegan, change the blog name, and make food instead of just treats.  I was a little bummed, but I tried one of her new recipes and I LOVED it!

Vegan Pineapple Fried Rice

Via Cheeky Kitchen 

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red pepper, diced
3 cups sweet brown rice, cooked
3 tablespoons vegetable broth
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/4 cup peas, frozen
1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into chunks
1/2 cup toasted coconut
1 cup roasted & salted cashews
1/2 cup scallions
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

First, heat up the oil in a wok.  Then add the garlic and red pepper and cook for a few minutes until softened.  Then add the rice, vegetable broth, soy sauce and curry powder and stir it until all combined.  It should start to sizzle and pop and smell delicious!  Then turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients and stir until heated throughout. 

*I actually left out the coconut because I thought it had enough going on without it, but that's up to you.
*I also used a little less cilantro and a little more vegetable broth too.
*Check out Cheeky Kitchen Blog for more details and pictures.

I have always steered clear of fried rice because of the "fried" in the title.  I decided to try it after reading the recipe because there really isn't that much oil.  I loved it, my husband loved it, and my kids loved it.  I can't wait to make it for my sometimes-vegan-mom and my all-the-time-vegetarian-sometimes-vegan-little-sister.

Don't let the "vegan" scare you off though.  This recipe is delicious and super-easy.  One hint that she gives on her blog is to have rice pre-made so that you can toss together easy dinners like this.  I made the rice in morning and then put it in the fridge.  At dinner time, I just tossed everything together and it was ready to go.

Try it out.  You'll love it!