The Lively Kitchen

My 2013 List of Thing I Hope to Accomplish:

1.  Visit either Colorado or Minnesota or both.
2. Make the 2011 and 2012 family photo books.
3. Take a trip with just the husband.
4. Practice yoga at least 3 times a week.  Stretch goal (pun intended) – be able stand up out of a backbend and/or go to backbend from standing.
5. Try making sauerkraut or something fermented.
6. Be able to do at least 2 pull-ups.
7. Read some of the Little House on the Prairie series to my girl.
8. Take advantage of this last spring with my boy at home and do more fun outings than errand running.
9. Take a picture a day, even if it’s with my phone.
10. Be consistent with the kid’s chore chart and allowance.
11. Learn to use my camera better.
12. Send a real letters/card to friends or family at least once a month.
13. Read 36 books this year (or more).

2012 Goals with Results:

1. Go to a beach and watch my kids see the ocean for the first time. Yes!  And it was awesome.
2. Be able to do a head stand in yoga. Yes!  And it took most of the year to get the traditional headstand.  The tripod headstand came much faster. I’m no where near the ‘holding it for 20 breaths part.’  I’m good for at most 10 and sometimes only 2-3.
3. Make the 2010 and 2011 family photobooks, as well as my kid’s annual photo books.  I’m way behind. Made 2010, the boy’s age 3 and 4 book and the girl’s age 5 book.  Still need to make girl’s age 6 as well as family 2011 and now 2012.
4. Run a couple of 5Ks if my knees will allow it. Not even close.  I think running and me broke up. It was mutual.
5. Get a better handle on the grocery budget. Comes and goes.  Always room for improvement.
6. Go camping. Kinda.  We took a fun trip with friends and stayed in some cabins.  There were the perks of camping, like roasting marshmallows, hiking, fishing, bug catching and exploring nature, but there were also beds, showers and electricity.  
7. Organize my blog recipes better. Oops.  Should get on that.
8. Sit down and do art with my daughter more.  We definitely did some art, but I told her ‘not now’ more times that not.  Ugh.
9. Finish the living room/dining room remodel.  90% done and through in a major bathroom overhaul too.
10. Go to one of those painting places where you drink wine and leave with a painted picture.  Didn’t happen.
11. Leave the state at least once.  We went to Florida in December.
12. Read the following books, just for starters

• The Hunger Games Series - yes!! and loved them!
• Mindset - not yet
• One Thousand Gifts – not yet
• Loving The Little Years - not yet
• Parenting with Love and Logic – not in its entirety.

Wish me luck!

• I finally understood what the fuss was all about with The Hunger Games. As well as the fuss about Veronica Roth, Gillian Flynn, Jen Hatmaker and John Green.

• I got to celebrate 10 years with my perfect partner at a winery.  Bliss.

• We started our biggest remodeling project as homeowners and spent too much time (and money) in tile stores, appliance showrooms and hardware stores.  Notice I didn’t say we finished our project.  Here’s hoping for that sentence to appear in the 2013 write-up.

• They boy visited the dentist for the first time.

• The girl lost her first tooth.

• I got to share coffee dates, dinner dates, play dates and wine nights with a much appreciated group of girlfriends.
• I also got to see both my undergrad and grad school roommates this year.  I love that we are still friends.
• American Girl dolls and stories came into our lives in a big way.

• I finally joined Pinterest and my project loving daughter rejoiced.

• We took another trip to the Frio River with some fun families and made some fantastic memories complete with catching fireflies, fish, butterflies and a tadpole.  They were all released, but I’m 99% sure the tadpole didn’t make it.  oops.
  
• The girl learned how to play Uno and we played it several times a day for months.

• We all survived the boy’s first head injury and he now brags about having staples in his head.

• She became a fanatical reader and my heart smiled.

• She rode the bus for the first time.  The proud smile on her face matched mine.

• We took our first family trip to the beach.  The kids smiled for two days straight.  Except when their mouths were full of smores and even then, I’m pretty sure you could detect a smile.

• I found my peace (and abs) on the yoga mat.

• I finally got my act together and let the kids have a lemonade stand.  They’ve only been asking for 2 years. It was a success.
• We went to Disney World with a group of 8 and even with the girl coming down with the flu on day 2 of the trip had a ‘magical’ time.  Disney approves of the word magical.  

Cheers to a pretty great 2012 and hopes for an equally eventful 2013!

All my best laid plans for super efficiency during this final week before Christmas went out the door on Sunday night when my little guy came down with a fever. We are going on 3 days of what I assume is the flu and he and I have been holed up at home for most of that time.

My mental to-do list is growing, but I also am cherishing the time to just be present with him. The teacher gifts only contain one baked good, instead of the tray of goodies I had planned, but I’m thinking that will have to suffice (as will the Starbucks gift card and Trader Joes Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels). I haven’t cooked much of a dinner in 3 days; mac & cheese from a box and scrambled eggs is as fancy as we’ve eaten. I haven’t fixed my hair and I may have both scared and scarred my neighbor with my bare face and messy hair when she stopped by today.

I have gone through an entire box of tissues wiping my little guy’s nose and cleaning up from his projectile sneezing. I have watched more NickJr and PBSkids than I thought possible (as an advantage, my counting to ten and shape recognitions skills have never been better). I have drank at least 6 cups of tea a day. I have made 2-3 smoothies a day for my little sick one. I have washed my hands obsessively (I’m hoping Santa brings hand lotion). I have been so grateful for a husband who takes such good care of all of us, even after a long day in the corporate world.

The boy has had spurts of feeling normal and then spurts of feeling awful (especially at night). In his well moments, he’s been ablaze with questions. Here are a few from this week:

• {seeing leaves falling outside} How is it fall and Christmas at the same time?
• Why does the grumpy old troll live under the bridge? {from Dora the Explorer}. How does he eat under there?
• How can whales drink salt water if they are mammals?
• What is snot made out of?
• Did they give you medicine to make you sleep when they pierced your ears?
• How does your body fight germs? Like a ninja kick?
• What are eyeballs made of?
• What do hippopotamuses eat?
• How come you can’t hang on to ceiling fans and swing around? What if you wore a seat belt when you tried?
• What does ‘mean it’ mean?
• What happens if Rudolph’s red nose runs out of electricity?

I am knocking on wood that the husband and I stay well. Our girl had the flu last week (while at Disney world of all places), so we are certainly testing our immune systems. We’ve been taking probiotics, vitamin C, oregano oil and multivitamins diligently.

Still, in light of recent events, I’m thankful to have the flu be our biggest problem right now.

Off to wash my hands and make some tea…..

Mama Reads (hitting home after last week’s events)

• How To Miss A Childhood (Hands Free Mama) I try to limit my phone time when the kids are awake, but I can certainly do a better job.  I have absolutely sighed in protest when they interrupted me in a silly game of scramble.  Ugh.
• Why You’re Never Failing As a Mother (Huffington Post) I do think you can fail as a mom, but I get what the author is trying to say.  I think if you are acting with love and with your children’s best interest at heart, you are doing your job.
• An Open Letter from a PTA Mom to Mike Huckabee: A Message for Those Who Long For God’s Presence in Schools (Educate for Texas blog) – Yes.  And yes again. We are a Christian family, but I firmly believe that faith education belongs either at home or in a private school.  I don’t send my kids to public school to learn religion.  We go to a very good public school, but even there I’ve seen the crazy challenges the teachers and staff face.  Let’s not add another thing for them to teach and be judged upon.

Deceptions in the food industry Applegate Organic and Natural Meats . Ugh.  I knew there was naturally occurring nitrates in celery juice powder, but I was putting my head in the sand as to just how much.

When The Doctor Says This Won’t Hurt A Bit – And Incredibly, It’s True (commonHealth). Fascinating read.  What I would give to have more doctors like the gentleman profiled in the article.

Read anything worth sharing lately?

I started writing a little ‘what I’ve been up to’ post yesterday in the midst of laundry, cleaning and daily busy-ness.  Then I heard the news out of Connecticut.  My heart instantly seized in fear and sorrow.  Suddenly my little post seemed trivial and silly.

My kids seemed to wonder why I was hugging them so much last night.  We had our usual movie night and instead of going back and forth between the movie and house tasks like I usually do, I sat on the couch with my three favorite people and held on to them tightly.

I started to ask the kids to use inside voices yesterday as I made dinner and they played in the next room.  Then I thought of those mamas that would give anything to hear their kids play too loudly.  I stayed silent and enjoyed their laughter and singing.

The sibling bickering, the shoes on the stairs, the lego I stepped on this morning in the dark – all seem like enormous blessings in light of what those poor families lost.  I cry this morning when I think of the parents waking up (if they had the miracle of sleep at all) and realizing for the hundredth time that it wasn’t a bad dream.  Seeing the presents under the tree that won’t get opened.  The birthday party invitation on the fridge that won’t get attended.  The drawing on the coffee table that won’t get finished. There are signs of my children in every room of this house and I’m sure it is the same for them.

I can only pray for the families, the school, the community.  Share in a small fraction of their grief and outrage.

My kids better get used to the extra hugs.

Here’s what I’m planning on contributing to the big family Thanksgiving dinner:

(First three are repeats from last year - why mess with a good thing?)

Holiday Salad with Cranberry Apple Orange Vinaigrette (from Oh She Glows)

Fall Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash and Onions

Pumpkin Gingersnaps (from Peas and Thank You)

Pinterest Inspired Veggie and Fruit Trays

(see my Pinterest board for links)

I’m looking forward to:
- loving on my 1 year old niece
- loving on my grandparents
- eating too much pie
- black Friday with my sister (best shopping partner ever)
- a break from daily life

Happy Thanksgiving week!