Sunny Day Meals

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Laura

As the temperatures rise, I find myself less and less inspired to cook. I neglect the housework until the last possible moment and spend as much time outside as possible. The kids are at an age where I’m bargaining with them on a nightly basis and promising we will be outside as soon as possible the following morning, just to get them inside so I can wash their feet, faces and hands before bed!

With this in mind, I put together this list of my favorite beautiful day meals. Meals I serve because it’s too gorgeous to stay inside at the stove or it’s just too hot to even think about eating a full meal.

Summer Steak Salad: Nothing like a beautiful afternoon to make you want to fire up the grill! This is our summer go-to date night meal.

Dippin’ Chicken Tacos: Quick and easy to eat in between water balloon fights or even poolside, this recipe is one of our family favorites.

Thai Chicken and Vegetables: I made this last night! I recently discovered a wonderful rice pasta that cooks up in about 5 minutes and the kids just gobble down. I love to eat this as left overs, cold, the next day too!

Cheddar-Stuffed Burgers: This is my husband’s pride and joy. And it just takes burger night to a fun new level with the oozy cheese in every bite.

Sloppy Lentil Sandwiches: Sometimes, you need fast picnic-style food that isn’t for the carnivores. This is another one of my cold-leftovers-for-lunch favorites.

Creamy Quinoa and Vegetables: I fully intend to make a large batch of this on a weekly basis and bring it with us as pool-side lunches.

Peanut Butter Fondue: Another poolside option for me. I like this dip as a meal or a quick snack, but either way it’s loaded with protein and good fats, so it’s practically guilt-free… right?

So there you have my summer’s worth of go-to meals. What are your favorites? I’m going to be in need to poolside snacks in another month or so, what do you take with you for the kids to munch on during the lifeguard breaks?

Handwritten Simplicity

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Laura

When I was in high school, it was a big deal if you had internet at home. Most of my peers had an AOL address, but I didn’t get my first email address until I was in college and was assigned one by the student services. It took me until I sat through a lecture on Stream of Consciousness writing (which I fell in love with) before I really started to email. You see, once I started typing, words just fell from my fingers and I was able to follow the flow within my own brain. Personally, I was a fan. I’m a fast typer and my fingers were able to keep up with my thoughts fairly well. I was a college student and pressed for time, so this was my solution. As much as I liked it, most of the people I emailed were decidedly against it. My uncle used to return my emails with proper punctuation and edits.

Thankfully, I eventually made a decision to slow my life down and returned to proper sentence structure in all my communications. Around this time, my husband bought me a PDA and I attempted to forgo my previous dependence on a paper calendar. I thought that if I could only learn to use an electronic format for everything I did, my life would only increase in it’s simplicity. Not surprisingly, around this time, my precious Nokia phone finally had to be retired and I replaced it with a phone that had some touch features on it. I actually stopped making phone calls because I was so annoyed with the “high-techness” of it all!

And yet, even with two computers in my home, smart phones, eReaders and lightning fast internet connections, I still find myself loving the feeling of a pen in my hand as I write a card or mark in appointment in my calendar. I rarely use my phone’s calendar function, instead spending weeks every year searching for the perfect calendar to write all my notes in. My journal is simply lined, no frills, smooth pages and a flexible spine. And a teal notebook to keep track of post ideas, to-do lists, notes from phone calls and potential meal plans.

These are things I employ to keep my own mind from whirling along in it’s conscious flow that quickly becomes a rushing river leaving chaos behind as I attempt to remember things from a phone conversation. Granted, my auditory skills have always been lacking, but I just cannot let go of a simple pen and paper. I find it comforting. I find it refreshing.

My postman has commented on how many cards leave my mailbox on a weekly basis. I treasure the cards I receive in the mail and hold the belief that everyone deserves a pretty card with kind words in it from time to time. Handwritten words are personal and simple. I still have the letters my great-grandmother sent me as a child. My high school BFF had to move and we exchanged thick envelopes filled with handwritten pages for year. Dozens of her letters have sat in a box, neatly organized and frequently read.

This card was my screen saver for a few days while I really needed the reminder!

The friends that send me letters and cards now are no longer writing about the latest romantic crisis in our lives, instead we exchange words of encouragement for our days. I write cards to each child on their birthday, telling them each of the amazing milestones from that year and how much I love them. I in write in my journal telling our family’s story and hope that someday my own children will find comfort in the handwritten words about their childhood as much as I find comfort in reading the writings of my mother, her mother and my great grandmother.

What about you? Are you a paper and pen sort of person or have you embraced this digital age?

After Seven Years

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Laura

When Matt and I got married, we moved in my furniture… a Pier 1 set I’d had since 7th grade. Matt has hated it since day one. At one point, I thought it would be a good idea to revamp the furniture, so I purchased 10 cans of spray paint and got to work turning the white wicker dressers into brown wicker. Turns out wicker is terribly difficult to spray paint and I’m fairly certain half the neighborhood was high from all the paint fumes. I made an upholstered headboard and we called it a day.

Over the course of the last year, we’ve talking about finding new furniture for our room. I wanted a simple farmhouse style bedroom set. I’ve looked at several Amish builders and in furniture stores, but I just didn’t want to pay their prices. Along the road, I discovered Ana White’s plans and Matt felt like he was up to the task.

Thanks to Pinterest, we picked out a plan we wanted and started looking for new bedding. Then, for Christmas, Matt’s parents took us to an Amish mattress builder and we picked out a fantastic pillow-top mattress… King size. Plans changed once again and I had to purchase all new bedding, but man alive is it nice to have elbow room in bed, even when both kiddos join us for the night.

The project took about 3 weeks time to complete, although once we got down to business (big shout out to the in-laws for helping keep an eye on the kiddos!) we finished all the paint and staining in about 24 hours. I made the decorator pillows, both from patterns. The flower pillow pattern can be found here. It took me almost 3 hours to make… however, very worth it!

The dresser was in the basement of this house when we moved in as part of a 3-piece set used to store my grandmother’s fabrics and sewing nick knacks. We had painted it 2 years ago when we moved in, so the only work left was to sand it roughly and wipe stain over it. All the woodwork did get 2 full coats of polyurethane to protect it.

We got the wood for the headboard from our brother-in-law’s sawmill and it is poplar wood. Both Matt and I are so pleased with how it worked out! The headboard is h-e-a-v-y! We had to ask a friend to come and help Matt carry it up from the basement and bolt it into place on the bed frame as we discovered how wimpy my upper body strength still is

So here we are… all grown up with actual furniture to prove it. I still need to come up with window treatments and paint the heat registers this spring… and eventually, I hope to figure out how to reupholster a vintage armchair in the corner of the room. The more projects we do, the more we fall in love with diy projects. When Matt and I got married, he didn’t own any tools or posses any building skills beyond putting together pre-fab bookcases. It’s been exciting to watch him learn and grow in talent and confidence in these seven years of marriage.

In the last 4 years, we haven’t really made a huge effort to celebrate our marriage on it’s birthday. So this year, we made up for it with a project that we love and are proud of. And a night away in a Castle. It is amazing what a full night’s sleep can do! The gorgeous furniture and Celtic music playing everywhere reminded us of our honeymoon and it was just the perfect way to celebrate our life together; what it has become and what is in store for the future!

Salads and jump starting my Spring Cleaning

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Laura

Last week was overwhelmingly busy for me. I don’t like to have more than 2 outside activities in a week, but somehow, I scheduled myself at least 1 thing every single day. Sheer foolishness. Add to this, my poor husband was in the process of finding a new renter for our first home and the whole family was pretty frazzled by the end of the week. Thankfully, we did have fun and we do have a renter happily contracted for 2 whole years!

Today being Monday, I dove right in with my usual chores and the week’s goal list. What started out as just unloading the dishwasher and cleaning out the fridge turned into a 2 hour long deep cleaning of the kitchen. I didn’t realize how much time had passed until I saw Sylvi standing in the hallway, awake from her nap.

This tidy state didn’t last long… don’t worry

Of course, while I was working away and one child was sleeping, the other was left unattended. He’s pretty quiet when he’s alone and content, so I kind of forgot about him. (Does this give you an idea of the impending disaster?) He was very helpful to me by taking every single last toy out of their bins and spreading them all over the living room. I’ll admit to being shocked when I came around the corner and saw the chaos. On the upside, I went through the toys (since they were laid out for me to see anyway) and weeded out the ones no one plays with on a regular basis, and swapped them out for the Lauri pegs, Farm animal Dominos, Farm animal lacing cards and beads.

Not pictured: the couch, behind the love seat and the dining room.

Our day ended very nicely and I’m thrilled to say that my floors actually got a through vacuuming. That was much needed, I tell you! Supper was pretty hasty and made me grateful for always keeping my salad greens washed and ready. I recently made a new salad dressing and have been craving salads even more since! I have nothing against store-bought salad dressings; I love them actually, but Sylvi has (at the least) a sensitivity to some of the preservatives in salad dressings and dips, so I’m back to making my own again. Nothing like watching your child’s face become covered in welts after eating your salad dressing kissed cucumbers to jump start your creativity! This dressing is tangy and flavorful and in my opinion, even better than my old Italian dressing recipe. Probably because it’s more Greek than Italian, but it still dresses up a bowl of kale like you wouldn’t believe!

Greek Feta Salad Dressing

1 cup oil
1 cup white vinegar
3 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. ground pepper
2 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese

Pulverize the feta as best you can and then sprinkle the spices over the top and stir thoroughly Then, mix in the mustard, oil and vinegar. (Alternatively, you could do this in a blender.) Store in a lidded container in the fridge and shake well before each use.

The oil that keeps the wheel running

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Laura

One of the most frequent complaints I hear from women be it stay-at-home, working full/part-time, parenting or not is the struggle to balance housework. There are dozens of planners, website subscriptions and outlines for scheduling your day. Personally, I don’t use them. I’ve printed out planners and things of that nature multiple times or tried a digital calendar, but in the end… I’m just a lined sheet of paper and spiral bound calendar sort of girl!

The “brain” of my kitchen: calendar, lists, coffee and the phone.

Before I go any further, let me say this: housekeeping comes naturally to me because I’ve been doing it since I was a little girl. Because of my family’s needs and dynamic, I was capable of doing laundry from start to finish, including ironing without any assistance. I could cook simple meals, clean the house and plan a weekly menu/grocery list. When I was nine, my mother’s health had a collapse and although the grandmas came to help out often, I still needed the skills for days when Mom simply did not feel well, but wasn’t emergent. Therefore, I iron like my Mother’s mother, menu plan like my own mother and fold laundry like my Father’s mother. I enjoy housekeeping in general with the exception of dusting. No matter what I do, I always sneeze. Always.

For my home, at this current stage with two children under the age of 4 this is what works for me. Last year, I wasn’t doing things exactly the same, and next year, I may need a change again. But right now, I need to care for my home and family first, train for my next triathlon, sew and write. In order to get the “fun” activities in my life, I am willing to give up sleep. Like I said, this is what works for me

First thing in the morning (often before the sun is even out of bed), Sylvi wakes me up, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Sometimes, I let Matt sleep a little longer, sometimes I don’t and get him moving to work. Either way, I head straight to the kitchen and turn the coffee pot on. I get food for Sylvi and unload the dishwasher and start laundry. I read somewhere that if you spend your first hour of being awake getting your tasks done and don’t check email, you’ll find your day to be much more productive. For me, this is genius since I am a morning person. So… I leave my phone on the charger and the monitor turned off and get my tasks for the day as completed as I can by 9am. That’s the goal. I was done by 847 yesterday, 1015 today.

Every single day I complete 5 tasks:

Make the beds
Unload the dishwasher
Clean the kitchen after meals
10 minute tidy of bedrooms and living room midafternoon and before bed
Daily chore

This is why I am not stressed by my home. I am a very particular housekeeper, so I keep up on the clutter (except for the hideous pile of paperwork to my right) and as long as I do that, general tasks are simple.

Sunday: weekly fruit/veggie prep (washing, cutting, etc.)
Monday: Clean bathroom and diaper laundry
Tuesday: Vacuum and 1 load of laundry
Wednesday: Laundry and declutter and dust
Thursday: Diaper laundry and menu/grocery plan
Friday: Wash sheets and towels
Saturday: any catch up housework

Each task that I assign to the days are quick ones. I don’t do laundry all in one day because I get burnt out. I do a little bit each day and it’s quick enough that way that it takes about half an hour of total active time. The task that takes me the longest honestly is the veggie prep because I’m washing, peeling, cutting and organizing about 10-15 pounds of produce.

I go to bed with toys picked up, laundry put away and the dishwasher running. Every now and then, I skip this step and then have a grumpy start to the next day because I hate waking to a mess. When Liam was a little baby, a friend mentioned to me that I needed to learn to do my chores while he was up so that he saw that I did other things than wait on him hand and foot. Perhaps a kinder way of saying this would be to simply involve your children in the tasks. When I sweep the kitchen, both kids get out their brooms and “help”. They help me match socks and carry laundry to the bedrooms. Liam unloads the silverware from the dishwasher and both children are responsible to take their plates to the counter after meals. And if that doesn’t keep them occupied for a few minutes, I can always pull out the crayons and paper and they create for a little while.

Once I have all my tasks done… I’m free to start on the list. I make a long list of all the things I’d love to accomplish and keep at it for a week. I’ll assign things to myself in the morning and what gets done, yay! The rest goes back on the list for another time. I’m supposed to roast garlic today. We’ll see. I’m not overly enthusiastic about it. Some days, like today, I’m in the mood to do nothing extra… my house is clean, the kids are happy and I think we’ll have leftovers for supper. Every day is different!

So how about you? How do you tackle balancing life and your home?

If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Laura

You’re supposed to be reading a well thought out post about my home organization. It was going to be great and I was really excited to share how we are taming the daily beast lately. Considering today, though… I’m thinking I’ve goofed.

Sylvi is back to waking up long before my alarm goes off, so I start my day pretty early. I am feeling pretty calm and collected on a regular basis. It’s nice, you know? This morning, I had all our beds made before Matt even left for work, the kids and I were dressed and I had pancakes on the griddle. At 930, I was shocked to walk into the living room and realize I was supposed to be babysitting and the family was here. Uh huh, I tried to be cool and would have never mentioned this, but it definitely sets the tone for how under the bus I was for the rest of the day.

Morning: manageable. Then, 45 minutes after my extra charges left absolute insanity hit. Thus far, my philosophy on parenting has been to stay one step ahead of the short people. Oh and remember where I set the dirty diaper. For the most part, this goes well for me. And then, I get overconfident and try to bake a cake while the kids are eating lunch, get distracted by Lord knows what, resume the cake baking and get it in the oven only to realize that the house was silent. I went to investigate only to find my children hunkered down behind the 25 year old child-sized rockers in Sylvi’s room. The overwhelming smell of Burt’s Bees baby powder hit me in the hallway from behind the closed bedroom door. They had managed to dump out at least 50%-75% of the bottle on the floor: Liam was scooping it up to “make art” on the walls and Sylvi was scooping it up to eat it.

I called my wisest mom friend who then told me to call poison control. While on the phone with that kind lady, I herded the kids into the bathroom since they were ghost white from all the powder to prepare to bathe them. She asked for the ingredients on the bottle, so I left the room only to hear a loud crash and Sylvi try out her newest word: “oops”. In the corner of the shower/bath, we have a tension rod with baskets on it. It took two adults to install it 2 years ago. However, the two small children who climbed in the empty bathtub who decided they wanted the shark in the lowest basket managed to yank the entire thing down, which then almost took out the shower curtain.

Listen. When the lady from poison control wishes you a “less eventful” afternoon, it’s a sign you’re not a wimp and it’s ok to take a break. So I dressed both kids and informed them we were all taking a quiet time. This of course did not occur until I discovered a missing bottle of body wash in Sylvi’s room. Said bottle of body wash, has a pump on top. I have visions of the kids bouncing up and down on that pump while I wrestled with the tension rod in the bathroom. Regardless of how the soap managed to get on the floor, it got there. I just stood there and laughed. At least my floors are really clean.

I have a terrible headache, can’t stop thinking about chocolate and am counting the moments until back up arrives. But, I now know beyond a shadow of doubt, silence is certainly not golden and tension rods loosen their hold over time. The point of this quite laughable story from my day is really to myself. Had this kind of a day happened 2 or 3 years ago, I’d have called my husband sobbing and begging him to come home because I didn’t trust myself to remain calm. Today, I called him to ask if he’d mind stopping at the Y to pay our membership fee. Considering the day’s mayhem, it’s probably better if I don’t attempt to take my little hooligans out in public. Yes, today has been hard. Yes, today is not over. But today, I realized that I needed to stop and take a break. My husband won’t be coming home to a tidy house or children in matching clothes, but that cake that kept me from being attentive to my children’s mischievousness was amazing.

Work in Progress Wednesday: My debut post!

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Laura

Liam's quilt... photo taken artistically so you can't see that it appears a 3 year old made it... because he kinda did.

When I turned 30, I asked my husband to take me to Amish country and let me buy the material to make a quilt for our bed. I mean, seriously. How hard could it really be? If you can sew a straight line, you can totally quilt, right? Wrong. You have to cut in a straight line AND pin AND sew AND press AND THEN… you have to cut things like a 12.5 inch square or manhandle massive lengths of fabric and the worst part… make your own bias tape.

Sylvi's finished quilt

Quilting detail on the back... not too shabby!

So yeah. Did some cutting for that quilt and started piecing. I made a mistake, cried over it and then put the material in a drawer afraid I’d really screw it up. Along came Pinterest and I thought to myself that if I suddenly had all these patterns and tutorials, hunted down by other people with a seemingly endless amount of time on their hands, I could perhaps suck it up and try again. In December, I made Liam this super, simple (what I now call a “cheater”) quilt. It wasn’t hard. I didn’t make any mistakes really, other than to let the kids sit on my lap and “help” while I tried to sew. Also, I learned how to make bias tape and consequently wondered why on Earth I’d never so before.

Valentine's Day applique project

Roughly two weeks ago, I realized my husband’s work hours were about to get nasty and I’d be alone at home with kids who were recovering from the flu for most of January. I panicked and started hunting up projects. I went on a fabric binge and shopped for material to make dresses for Sylvi. And then, it dawned on me she needed a quilt as well. I headed out to a fabric store, with the Moda Bake Shop pattern in mind and started fabric hunting. I came home with two charm packs in the Paris Flea Market pattern, soft flannel backing, white sashing and a polka dot pattern for the binding. Last night, I sat back and looked at the finished product and felt an incredible amount of pride.

Pillow tops to be quilted for our bedroom... colors will then go with whatever we decide to use for the top quilt.

Of course, now that I have 2 major stitching projects under my belt, I feel like it’s time to try some other shapes. :) I spent another weekend in Amish country and came home loaded with dress fabrics, this pillow project and fabric to begin a quilt for my friend’s baby due later in the Spring. My Pinterest board is filled with ideas and plans for the future… I’m thinking it might be a good idea to try some mug rugs so I can get some more piecing experience.

Up Next: Cutting pieces for this baby quilt.

I get to join in on blog link ups now! I actually have a Work In Progress! I have plans and goals and lots of fabric… also, I’m stalking the mail carriers because a paper pattern should be delivered before supper today and any day now a shipment of fabric should also arrive!! Although… as a note, I’m realizing that as I scroll through all these blogs and I read the instructions, I just want to spend my time sewing so be forewarned… my home is a mess, our meals are… easy and I will probably not respond to playdate requests right now. I’m addicted to creativity!

Are you feeling crafty lately? Share what you’re working on in the comments!

The recovery in the change

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Laura

Welcome to the January 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting:
Recovering from the Holidays

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about how their families get back to normal after the holidays are over.

This post went live last week in error, so I apologize to my regular readers for seeing it again, but I do encourage you to scroll to the bottom of this post and check out the rest of the posts from our NPN participants!

Hmmm… how do we recover from the holidays around this kitchen? Well, in past years it took at least a week. Eating rich foods, staying up absurdly late far too many nights in a row, plus the stress of crazed travel? We were always sick and grumpy the next week. This year, though, I didn’t want to repeat the drama, so I made changes.

I didn’t send out hordes of Christmas cards and photos. I sent out 52. The rest, I just handed to people. We didn’t have massive baking days, I did what I could as I could. I started shopping in July and while I was still wrapping on December 20th, it was peaceful. All that to say, as we prepped to leave the house each day for our events, I kept mulling to myself how all the time I had spent getting myself organized was paying off. Christmas morning as we slipped out pajama’d children into the car, I actually thought “easy peasy, lemon squeeze-y” as I drank my homemade mocha and settled in for the long drive.

This year there really isn’t a recovery. And for that, I am grateful. My 3 year old has returned to his sweet self now that the anticipation is over. Their gifts were very carefully thought out and I am so grateful for the generosity afforded by not only our current financial status, but in the hearts of our family. The blizzard that forced us to be home bound in the days following Christmas was quite possibly one of the greatest blessings. Instead of feeling compelled to rush out to the store and find storage bins so I could kick the home into top organization, I simply unpacked and wrote thank yous.

Instead of rushing to prepare meals, I was grateful for my panicked Christmas Eve Walmart run for fruit and lettuce. To recover from our holiday meals, we ate fruit and chicken and whole grains. We put together puzzles for days and I watched the kids create train track masterpieces and paint elaborate stories. We watched movies and played games. I folded diapers and washed the sticky kitchen floor under Sylvi’s chair.

This year, I didn’t really need much of a recovery because it was honestly the best Christmas I’ve had in the past 8 years since Matt and I started dating. This year, I wasn’t up all night with sick or nursing babies. I wasn’t dealing with horrible morning sickness. We hadn’t lost family to cancer or babies or miscarriage. Although we were busy and spent a lot of time in the car, we were peaceful. I don’t think life has changed so much as my heart has. Perhaps, just perhaps, my recovery started after last Christmas when I decided it was time to take care of myself. In the last year we’ve become a healthier family: physically, emotionally and mentally. We’ve grown and learned and loved one another more deeply.

Life may not always be so peaceful and easy, but I’m going to enjoy every second while it remains. I learned many lessons in 2012, but perhaps the most important thing I learned was that in order to truly recover, you must be willing to change. In my case, that change was long awaited and much appreciated!

***

Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting this March!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be live and updated by afternoon January 14 with all the carnival links.)

Pinterest Inspiration for Easier Winter Holidays Shannon, writing at Natural Parents Network, shares inspiration for having more relaxed winter holidays from their Handmade Holidays Pinterest board.
Seven Recipes for Beans – Post Holiday Cleaning — Destany at They Are All of Me shares her favorite bean recipes that she hopes will help her body recover from overindulging her sweet tooth during the holidays.
The Recovery in the Change — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen made changes in her life and attitude throughout 2012 and was pleasantly surprised at how those changes impacted her holiday recovery!
Could this question change your life for ever? — To get your new year off on the right footing, Mrs Green of Little Green Blog is challenging us all to love ourselves with commitment and discipline. She asks you to focus on a simple question which might just bring you back in balance…
Holiday Recovery — Meegs at A New Day talks about how the holidays can be overwhelming for a toddler, and how she’s helping her 3 year old recover.
5 Ways to Detox After the Holidays — Brittany at The Pistachio Project gives a few ways to help you detox and get back on track after the holiday season has passed.
3 Simple Ways to Establishing Rhythm After the Holidays or Any Time — Sheila at A Living Family shares 3 simple ways to reestablish a rhythm of connection and calm in your family after holidays, visitors, travel or any time.
Gemstones For Holiday Hangoverss — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama delves into the power of gemstones as an often overlooked means of dealing with the holiday letdown.
Getting back to Healthy — Bess at A Warrior Mom talks about the struggle of getting young ones back to eating healthy after several days to weeks of getting more candy and sweets than normal for the holidays and gives some suggestions on how to get them back to eating healthy in the new year.
Post Christmas Juice Feast — Sam at Love Parenting explains why she has created a new tradition of juice feasting, and how she includes her toddler when detoxing.
The Java Monkey On My Back — Christy at Eco Journey in the Burbs realizes it is time to kick her cup of Joe habit as a first step toward detoxing.
Minimalist Holidays — Jorje of Momma Jorje doesn’t find much need for recovery after her minimalist version of the holidays.
Do something for you — Lauren at Hobo Mama urges you to find a silly and indulgent reward of me-time — and she has hers.
do we recover? — Kenna at Million Tiny Things wonders what recovery really means in the context of the tragedies of this past holiday season.
37 Easy Ways to Save Money — Shannon at GrowingSlower is sharing these money-saving tips to help get your budget back on track after the holidays.
A Two Year Old’s Resolutions — That Mama Gretchen is putting the holidays behind her with a spin on traditional resolutions — New Year’s goals for her two-year-old! Sound crazy? Read on for an explanation!
How to Find Balance after the Holidays — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now tells her favorite ways to start a new year with hope and calmness.
Fresh Awakening — For Luschka at Diary of a First Child, the new year has coincided with a return to restful nights. With sleep, she’s found new directions in life, but while she can’t make too many changes to her life right now, she’s inspired and excited about the future.
Learning to slow down after a busy Festive Season — Stoneageparent describes the joys and lows of this year’s festive season, as well as her New Year’s resolutions.
Detoxing’ Your Toddler After the Holidays — Does your family suffer side effects from the holidays? Join Christine from African Babies Don’t Cry to learn how she detoxed herself and her toddler off the treats and festivities of the season.
Scheduling is OK! — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep explores the possibilities of the — SCHEDULE!!
Holiday-Free but not Stress-Free — Mercedes at Project Procrastinot takes it easy after moving with her husband and new babies to Scotland.
A Vacation from the World — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children retreats with her family at the end of every year in order to recuperate and enjoy one another.
On the Road to Recovery — Dionna at Code Name: Mama isn’t just recovering from the holidays, she’s recovering from a lifestyle.
We Never Left the Grind — Erika Gebhardt compares a typical day pre-holidays and post-holidays.
Remembering and Recovering from the Holidays (One day at a time) — Emily at S.A.H.M i AM is recovering from holidays slowly–taking one day at a time–while trying to remember all the sweet moments that passed too quickly.
5 a Day — To get back on track Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy needed a simple system to help her family learn new values.
Holiday Detox & Healing: Bieler Broth — Megan at The Boho Mama shares her secret for a gentle, whole-foods-based post-holiday detox: Bieler Broth!
I’m Mama Not Supermom — After a year filled with changes Angela at EarthMamas World has to remind herself that she does not have to be supermom while recovering from the holiday chaos.

New Year, New Perspective

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Laura

I rang in the New Year quietly. Sylvi was battling what we thought was the flu, and so she went to bed early and I stayed home while Matt and Liam went to a friend’s home to play games and hang out. We’ve become less and less social in the years since having a colicky baby that made outings awkward, so I was glad for him to have the chance to get out of the house. Although neither of us ever really crave much as far as social events, it’s still nice to break out of the routine.

Last year, I spent New Year’s Eve nursing a baby who would not sleep and somehow decided that I would be spending the next 365 days being more intentional in my life. I got up the next morning and hacked and slashed my way through my involvements. 2012 was a year that challenged me, but in ways that helped me grow as a person, mother, wife and friend. I got back to regular journaling, ditched the family blog and kept up with the baby books. When I look back on 2012, I feel that although it wasn’t my most productive year, it was one of my best. I love that I saw (and have memories of) so much beauty and love, no matter the circumstance.

So then as I pondered another year of my life beginning, I considered that this would be the year to focus on Grace. All to often I don’t even try a new recipe or skill, talk to someone new, attempt a longer distance in running or gosh, even get dressed because I’m afraid of failing on some level. I crave perfection from myself and the thought of not living up to expectations, even though they may not be realistic holds me back. Last year, I started taking care of myself through exercise and sit here typing knowing I can run for 40 minutes when this time last year, I could barely get through a 5 minute free run in my fitness class. I tackled an indoor triathlon in October and when I hopped off the treadmill, I struggled to not scream in victory.

What would we all do if we weren’t afraid of letting ourselves down? Who would we reach out to in friendship if we weren’t afraid they’d judge us? If we could learn to be gracious with ourselves, could we allow for flaws in a project with the realization we stepped out and tried? If we could learn to be more gracious with others and give them the understanding and mercy they may not necessarily deserve but need, perhaps the time spent mulling over hurts would simply fade away. This year as I wrote out my goal for myself, I have kept in mind that above all I want to develop an attitude of grace toward myself and others.

Complete a quilt for Sylvi’s bed
Finish decorating our master bedroom and work on a quilt for the bed.
Plant a vegetable garden, putting by as much as possible.
Continue writing for Mom’s Clean Air Force
Continue writing for The Green Phone Booth
Contine writing for Natural Parents Network
Complete the Clearfork Warrior Dash (June)
Complete the Bucyrus Y Triathlon (May)
Complete the Healthy Homes Tri (July)
Complete the Lifetime Indoor Tri (either April or October)
Continue regular interval training so as to improve my running time.
Swim 500 meters in less than 10 minutes
Continue with regular dates with Matt!
Begin preschool materials with Liam
Teach Sylvi her colors
Finish out the MOPS year as the Publicity ST Member and pray about continuing in 2013-2014
Lord willing, add another baby to our family (pregnancy is always on my mind!)

I’m still learning a lot about the blog world even though I’ve been online since 2007, and I’ve discovered that this blog cannot be pigeon holed. Well, I suppose the title is, but I am looking forward to talking more about my family, my projects, homeschooling, fitness and faith as this year progresses. I had intended to start this blog entry with an apology for not posting this 5 days ago, but then… where would be with my intent for more grace? So instead, I leave you with excitement for my year, plans swirling in my head, but acceptance for life as it may be in my heart.

On Christmas organization

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Laura

Christmas is a mere three days away and my Facebook feed is filling with friends and acquaintances declaring victory over the to-do list and sitting down in front of a tree surrounded by beautifully wrapped gifts and drinking an egg nog. I just wrapped my last gifts last night, programmed my children’s Leap Frog gifts and checked the piles one more time.

Canning cellar = Super secret present location

In our home, we wind up traveling a lot for the holidays. My in-laws live an hour away and we usually make two trips in a week because the reunion typically falls within days of the holiday (for 2012, it’s tonight). If we are going to my grandmother’s, she also lives an hour away and in the case of this year, we’ll also be going there twice in a week: Christmas Eve to celebrate with her, my father and youngest brother and then next weekend to celebrate with my uncles and cousins. Between November and January, we will have had 6 separate Christmas celebrations. It gets a little overwhelming and now I know why my parents would forget gifts at home or lose hidden ones!

For me, I start an idea list in the summer. Two of our nephews have birthdays in December and so we also have a birthday party to attend. On my list, I have the gifts grouped by event and when the date is known, I write that as well. Once I’m sure I know what we are purchasing for people, I write that item down and then I make an additional note: purchased/arrived/wrapped. I try to do as much of my shopping online as I can since I hate going into stores this time of year, hence the “arrived” slot. I cross each off as it is applicable.

All those shipping boxes sure come in handy since that’s what I use to separate out the gifts. Of course, I box them based on date needed and then when we are ready to leave, I just grab the appropriate box and head out the door! And believe me, when it’s a struggle to get your children convinced that a drive in the car won’t end in disaster (both kids detest their car seats), any bit of easy I can get is right up my alley!

I do Christmas cards, and this year they were done prior to Thanksgiving only because Hallmark had a sale in October and I had nothing to keep my hands busy one night while we watched a movie. Even though I printed photos to include in some of the cards, my total for 80 cards and photos was still less than $20. It’s the postage that gets you though… Anyway, I was happy with my cards and photos until I saw some of the photocards we were sent and I remembered why I always do those instead. Next year. There’s always next year…

Christmas has gotten easier for me over the years, even though we’ve had to add more celebrations and we’ve had our children. This year was the easiest, lowest stress and most enjoyable we’ve had in the 8 years since we started dating! Although, I should mention that I got to do it all by myself. Neither child was interested in choosing gifts for others and Matt has been working a lot lately, so I was able to just do my own thing. For me, doing my own thing, wrapping gifts alone in the basement after the kids went to bed made for a practically perfect way to usher in the holiday celebrations!