Come On Izzie

Now that M talks, she talks a lot to Izzie.  She says “Come on Izzie” when she wants her to go somewhere.  Other phrases are “Margeaux chase Izzie,” “Izzie outside poop” and “No stop it Izzie” when the dog is licking her or pushing her over with excitement.  She also says “Good Dog” and “Ok” a lot, which is Izzie’s signal that she can do something – like come in or go out, or start eating.  M also likes to put a towel on Izzie and put her to “night-nights.”

My girl and I were on our own again Thursday night because R had his final concert of the year at the high school.  I made a yummy dinner – Roasted Sweet Potato with Orange Cilantro Glaze and served it (to myself) with Quinoa and a side salad with Curried Chickpeas.  It was delicious, but . . .

I didn’t really get to enjoy it because this was happening almost the entire time I was trying to eat.  She’d ask for something, I’d give it to her, she’d throw it on the ground.  Rinse and repeat, with a few different things.  Finally I gave up and called my parents to commiserate and tell them I was planning to leave her in the dining room on the phone with them and I was going to go on the back porch to eat my dinner in silence. As soon as she heard GeeMa and GeePa were on the phone, she was all smiles and dinner was saved!  Bedtime was finally easier again and has been ever since, knock on wood! I think our new routine after bath and reading is a kiss and a hug and then off to bed.

Smoothie photos (like any food photos I take) are probably pretty boring.  But man, the color was beautiful on this one.  I’m still loving these every morning. It’s been probably about 4 months that I’ve been drinking one of these for breakfast everyday and I am feeling great!  I don’t even remember what it feels like to eat a bagel for breakfast.
And finally, check out this bumper sticker on one of my co-worker’s cars.  Love it. Apparently it’s from Penzey Spices.
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Raw Chocolate Torte

30-Day Vegan is going very well!  I have not experienced any withdrawals, I am feeling full and satisfied, 100% not craving meat and only slightly missing cheese and yogurt – mostly because they are convenient snacks. I had already switched to almond milk.  I think doing the 3-month Whole Food Kitchen workshop just before this has really helped me.  This was only just a teensy bit of a change from that.

In the span of about a week we’ll have three birthdays at work.  We have a friend of a friend, “the cake lady,” make all our birthday cakes and it was really hard on Monday not to eat any of that delicious cake! One of my co-workers is gluten free and two others are also taking the 30-day vegan workshop, so I took the opportunity to make something “different” for her birthday and made this Raw Vegan Chocolate Torte. It was pretty easy to make, but you need a pretty serious blender.  Mine was getting super tired. And it’s not cheap – it uses a lot of nuts! I think the consensus at work was that it was pretty good. I suggest serving it with fresh fruit. Enjoy!

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Every night after bedtime, I just want to sit down.  But I’m not the type to sit and then get up and get things done.  I get things done and then sit. With two of us working on the chores, we’re hardly done with things before 9:15pm, and if it’s only me, as it often is, I’m lucky to be settling down by 9:45pm.  And that’s the bare minimum.  When did I last mop the floors? Clean the bathroom? Vacuum?  Scrub the tub that I put my kid in every night?  When will I plant the garden?  What will I do when I am on my own for four nights?  But oh some nights how I long to just sit down and let it all go – no cat boxes to scoop, no dishes to do, no lunches to pack, no toys to put away.  Not that night.  That night I’ll just curl up and read for hours, choosing from one of the many books on my to-read list, before drifting off to a full night’s sleep, not awakening before my body feels ready or my alarm clock goes off, not jumping into action instead of easing into consciousness.  Or maybe I’ll get up before the sun and meet myself on my mat, not worrying about turning lights on or flushing the toilet.  Wouldn’t that be lovely.  That seems far away.  A distant memory.  A day when I would come home, with nothing to do and wonder, what in the world should I do with my time?  Life is different, that’s all there is to it.  It’s no worse, in fact it’s much better, and just different.  I wonder if other’s reflect as much on the difference or just move forward with no thoughts of the past.  Maybe it’s just as much a part of getting older as it with being a parent.  I see a young co-worker’s fun photos of weekend concerts and I remember all the really fun times I’ve had seeing Phish or Ani Difranco more times than I can count.  Someday I know my daughter and I will do these things together.  And then she’ll want to do them by herself, and that terrifies me too!  I have to laugh at myself when I get so frustrated at her “fighting” with me about something as trivial as brushing her teeth – I know that in a matter or years, maybe even months, I’ll look back and laugh about the things I used to get upset about.  She’ll be a teenager someday, and we’ll fight about much crazier things than teeth brushing!  I think parenthood is a lot about lowering your expectations for yourself.

So maybe one day I’ll treat myself and just sit down after she goes to bed.  But my rational self says, the dishes will still be there and the lunches will still need packing.  The cat will get mad that her box isn’t scooped and just cause more mess to clean.  As for the toys – who cares, they’ll be gotten out all over again tomorrow!  Well, for now, I will use these feelings as a sign to really cherish the time I have – both with my family and with myself, and make them mean something.  And hey, look at that, I’ve sat down and taken some time to myself now haven’t I?  Feels rather therapeutic.

Posted in Motherhood, Toddlers | 1 Comment

Nourishing My Whole Self

“This isn’t a challenge, but rather a practice. Closely tied to yogic principles, for me this is about setting an intention and being the ever present observer (and nurturer) of self. Day to day, moment to moment.”
Heather from Nourish the Whole Self

The three month Whole Food Kitchen program officially wrapped a few weeks ago, but my plan is to continue to try the new recipes until I’ve completed them all, hopefully by the end of this year.  Thankfully a friend talked me in to trying out Heather’s 30-day Vegan workshop, which started yesterday.  I just love her quote above, how beautiful.  I intend to be vegan for the full month for as many meals as I can produce or purchase, but don’t expect my friends and gracious hostesses to cook around my eating.  So, I doubt it will be an all in month of vegan eating.  We’ll see.

So far I’ve made Family Friend Pad Thai (pictured), Curried Chickpeas, Orange Creamsicle Smoothies and Avocado and White Bean Wraps.
Oh, and I’m working on nourishing this little one too:

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Happy Wedding Sarah & Mike!

I’m so excited to announce the marriage of my beautiful cousin Sarah and her wonderful husband Mike!  We attended their wedding on Friday at the beautiful Belhurst Castle on Seneca Lake in Geneva, NY.  We were honored that they asked M to be the flower girl and very excited that she actually pulled off her walk down the aisle.  Congrats to the beautiful couple!

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Mothers’ Day

We had a very low key and wonderful Mothers’ Day.  We went out to breakfast at one of our favorite diners, took a nap and went for a nice walk to play a little soccer in the park.  R and M even played me a little LeLe at the end of the evening!  I’m a lucky mama.

I also realize how lucky I am to have a mama that I can talk to and really run things by.  I know she won’t judge, or if she does, she doesn’t do it verbally!  She always has sound advice for me and really listens to me.  I realized this week when she had company all week how much I call her!  I can’t wait for her to see M this week and hear how much she’s talking!  And I’m also lucky to have a wonderful hubby and a wonderful daddy for my baby!  He gifted me my most favorite vegan chocolates – always a big hit with me!

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Toes

Last week when M was sick and we were home together, I decided to paint my toenails.  She was fascinated and really wanted me to paint hers too.  I really considered it, but couldn’t imagine getting her to hold still long enough to do each one, let alone hold still to let me take the polish off some day.  She was relentless, until we just pretended to paint her toenails and that seemed to do the trick.  She’s growing up so fast.  I am just not ready to introduce her to painting her nails yet!  But how cute would she have looked with her toes painted in these super-cute new shoes from Target:
M’s sick day wasn’t really a sick day.  By morning she was already feeling way better and she spent some good time practicing her jumping and hopping on Friday morning.

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Neighborhood Church

When you walk around the corner from my downtown office, there is a beautiful church. The stained glass is breathtaking.  It’s visible from some of the offices at my company, but unfortunately not mine.  They have a noon mass everyday.  I think it’s a short one, only half an hour – a lunchtime mass.  I’ve only been inside once, to light a candle for a dear friend, hoping that doing so somehow helped with her loss. I forget it’s there sometimes, that church.  It has a beautiful sunken courtyard.  It’s always there, but only every once in a while do I remember to look down and really enjoy it.  To me, it looks like a sanctuary, down there below the bustle of the downtown streets.  I long to go in the gate and down the stairs, but I never see anyone in there, so assume it’s off limits.  I have a co-worker who attends that church and drops off homemade casseroles once a month or so, I’ll have to ask him.  When I do remember to look, I feel really peaceful when I see it.

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Not sure if I’ve mentioned it, but I’ve been looking at houses in the town where R works. My office is planning a move, so that area would be a little closer for both of our commutes.  I’m not having much luck, and I’m realizing what a pain it is to sell a house and buy a house at the same time.  But goodness, we need another bathroom – badly! So, we decided to take our tax return and move forward with new carpet and interior paint for the whole house. If we move, it will help us sell the house, and if we don’t, we’ll get to enjoy it and feel better about what we do have. I had a friend over to help me pick out paint colors tonight and M decided to throw up ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.  Thank goodness my friend was calm and cool, and didn’t seem too grossed out by the whole thing – she even helped me clean up.  We had one more small incident after bath time, but I’m hoping we’re done with that for the night.  This has been yet another busy week, with R working 5 out of 7 nights again (only last Monday and next Sunday nights off).  We’ll be tag teaming parenting tomorrow, with him working in the morning and me going to work in the afternoon/evening. Thank goodness it’s almost Friday!

Whole Food Kitchen recipes since last posting: Creamy Italian Wheatberry and Kale Bake and Thai Noodles with Orange Ginger Dressing.

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Wednesday.

The kiddo is in bed, the dishes are done, the lunches are packed.  I am spent.  I’ll confess I’m gnawing on a frozen leftover Halloween Snickers bar that I just found at the bottom of the freezer. It’s been a heck of a day, with a super grand finale.

Yesterday afternoon I got the call that M’s running nose seemed to have turned into pink eye.  Even though she had green goopy eyes, her spirits were still good and she was a champ at the walk in clinic.  Her regular doctor couldn’t get her in until mid-morning this morning, meaning she would not be on antibiotics for 24 hours by Thursday morning and I’d be taking two days off.  There’s something about being forced to take one of your 15 days off a year, even if it is to hang with your pride and joy.  So, the walk in clinic doctor reminded me of Charlie Sheen during his winning days.  Hey baby, stop crying, I’m just going to stick this thing in your ear and see if there are any bunnies in there.  So verdict was ear infection and either pink eye, or the nasty stuff in her nose coming out of her eyes (yeah, that happens).  We had to hit up two pharmacies to get eye drops and an antibiotic. But we got them started last night, so she can go back to daycare tomorrow.  She was a bear in the tub last night, refusing to sit down.  I lost my cool and shouted.  She shouted back, over and over and over again, DADDY SAID SIT DOWN!  Horrible.

Even though it wasn’t my choice to take the day, I was still going to make the most of it.  I would hang with my girl, and disconnect – no Facebook, Instagram, Email, etc.  I would unplug.  That lasted about an hour.  We’d go for a walk, heck, maybe I’d even jog, yeah right.  We stayed in our pjs all day. We (I) baked cookies – Almond Strawberry Thumbprint Cookies from Whole Food Kitchen.

She wanted to color her new coloring book that the pharmacist gave her.  So we colored and colored and colored. And then we colored some more.

She resisted every diaper change and at one point I had her upside down by one leg wiping the poop off her while she screamed for Daddy to save her (he was at work).  We had a flooring guy come over and pretty much refuse to give us an estimate unless we committed to an install date.  I pretty much had to ask him to leave.  But, mixed in with all that were lots of hugs and kisses (and hopefully not pink eye sharing).  It’s a lot of work raising a kid, and I’m only doing it 5 nights and 2 days a week.  I’ve got to make it a priority to get to some of the discipline reading that I’ve been avoiding.  It’s getting rough over here – a war of the wills and I might be losing.  It’s hard to discipline someone when they are giggling in your face.

So, the grand finale to a difficult (but not horrible) day? She locked herself in our bedroom right before bathtime/bedtime.  I tried to find something to stick in that hole that unlocks the lock, but could seem to find anything the right size.  I decided to remove the doorknob and certainly the lock would just fall out.  Nope.  I called our handy neighbor, no answer.  I did NOT want to call the police.  She’s crying the whole time, but I at least felt a little bit better when the knob was off and I could see she was upset, but ok.  I knocked on the neighbors door, he came over and after a few minutes was able to break the lock without any real damage to the door.  We’ll need to get a new knob, but who cares.  We all tried to relax with a cookie or two.  Then my neighbor’s wife came over and she was really upset that she hadn’t been able to find him for the last ten minutes. What a night!   I gave my girl lots of snuggles and kisses at bedtime tonight.  I thanked her for being patient with me, even when I wasn’t with her.  We’re all safe and sound now and I can hardly wait to shut my eyes.

New recipes since last post: Sweet Potato Fries with Cranberry Dipping Sauce, Strawberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies and Red Lentil Dahl.

Posted in Cooking, Miss M., Motherhood | 1 Comment