What a beautiful day!

I am sitting outside watching my three little angels play in the backyard. I love it when the three of them can play together without screaming and fighting. Why does it take the sun to make my kids be civil to one another? The weather really does make me a happier person, so I guess I see where they are coming from.

Carter started little league practices this weekend. He is on the Angels (notice the hat in the picture). I think this is a very fitting name for my little guys baseball team as he is my little Angel (at least about 30% of the time). Nate is the coach which makes it extra fun to watch. What a great weekend, baseball and sun...spring is indeed in the air!

I have two vegetarian recipes picked out to try this week, stay tuned for reviews!

Healthy(ish) meal #1

So, I have made this before, but it is so good I am using it as the first healthy(ish) recipe I am writing about. I made these Asian Lettuce Wraps from Allrecipes.com. I love that site. Whenever I am in the mood to try something I log on and find a great recipe. My husband is gluten intolerant so this is a good meal for him. First of all, I used ground turkey instead of beef to cut some fat. I also added a packet of frozen organic brown rice from Trader Joe's to make the meal a little more hearty. They were delicious. The kids even loved them!

Laundry

This morning in bed I was contemplating the enormous task looming over my head for today...laundry! It's not like I have not done plenty of laundry this week, it's a constant battle. I broke done the process into these 10 simple steps:

1. Gather laundry (includes gym clothes, work clothes, play clothes, pajamas, underwear, socks, towels, wash clothes, etc...from 5 people) from all three bedrooms.
2. Sort on my bathroom floor.
3. Lug one basket at a time down the stairs (praises to home builders who went the extra mile to put the laundry upstairs...ours apparently didn't think of this!).
4. Start the washer, add soap and dirty laundry.
5. 45 minutes later, take the clothes out of the washer and put in the dryer.
6. Another 45 minutes later take the clothes out of the dryer and take to the couch to fold.
7. Fold all clothes, towels, sort socks (carefully deciding which ones belong to whom), set aside clothes to hang in all three different closets.
8. Place clean clothes back in the laundry basket and lug back up the stairs (why oh why is our washer and dryer not upstairs?).
9. Sort and put away everything in all three bedrooms.
10. Hang all hanging clothes in appropriate closets.
*Repeat above 10 steps about 10 times per week.

When you looking at laundry as the daunting task that it really is, you can appreciate why most women have precious little free time to do anything else, like cooking, cleaning bathrooms, dressing, undressing, feeding, bathing and hopefully occasionally loving their children!

This is why we need to take a step back and focus on the specific task at hand. Life should be lived taking baby steps. Right now I am just thinking about going upstairs and collecting one load of dark clothes. If I thought about the 9 other steps involved in that job I would probably just give up right now! Just don't forget to make time for the really important steps, like snuggling your kids on your lap and reading them a book. This step often gets lost in the constant footrace of life! Take each step in your race carefully and with love.

The Art of Healthy(ish) cooking

I recently watched "Julie and Julia" for the first time. I think the idea of committing to cook my way through an entire cookbook and blog about it sounds fabulous. I just have three things holding me back from making that commitment. Their names are Carter, Maddi, and Kenzi! Like Julie in the movie, I am also approaching my 30th birthday (I still have 10 months and 2 days!). This movie prompted me to think of something meaningful I can commit to that will help me bring in a new decade in style.

I have done 3 half marathons now and would love to commit to a full before my 30th birthday. 26.2 miles sounds like a great way to prove to myself that 30 is not so old! Thats the first goal I have to accomplish in the next 10 months.

I really like the idea of trying new recipes in the kitchen, however, I do not want to gain 10 pounds before the big birthday comes. I work too hard training for marathons to eat a pound of butter a day (like Julie in the movie seemed to)! So, my goal is to experiment with more healthy cooking. I have thought about going vegetarian, cutting out all sweets, lowering my carbs, blah, blah, blah. But, when it comes down to it, I do not have the will power to make changes that are too drastic. Nor do I have the time or money to travel to specialty grocery stores to buy a bunch of crazy ingredients. Trader Joes is my idea of specialty. So, I am setting a reasonable goal: try one new healthy recipe each week for the rest of the year. I will try to post the recipes and results...that may be slightly harder to accomplish than actually cooking them! I will call it, The Art of Healthy(ish) Cooking! Goal # 2 set!

Goal # 3 is to stick with the goals I have set. This is something I am still learning how to do. I am very ADD. I love to try new things and start new projects, but I loose interest easily unless I am being held accountable by someone. I am NOT good at being my own boss. Maybe I will be enlightened in my 30's??

What I am too chicken to say on Facebook!

I need somewhere to vent my frustration with people without actually attacking them directly. I like having friends…even if they have very different political opinions than my own. One of my friends posted on facebook how she was upset because her son said President Obama was his idol. The comments that followed talk about the demacrats and their “economic redistribution.” One poster wrote:

“Drive him to the North Highlands and tell him that this is where the current administration will give all of Mommy and Daddy's money, then we will have to live here to. Then make him get out of the car and pretend to drive away. That oughta do it.”

This is the response I was too chicken to give:

"I think taking your kids to North Highlands to see were all of your money is going is a great idea. Those human beings live a pretty cush life with their shiney public schools and well maintained streets and beautiful public parks! Then, you can take them to their new, state-of-the art public school in EDH and explain to them that the money to fund their school (and brand new local public park and perfectly maintained streets) just falls from thin air. Besides, they deserve it more than those kids in North Highlands anyway!"

I am not claiming that Barack Obama has been our savior (at least not yet, some of us still have a little hope!). I do not even claim to follow it (politics) all very closely. To tell you the truth the whole situation with the constant fighting between parties just frustrates me. I have too many other things in my life to worry about (like the three year old who just woke up from nap and is4 crying on my lap!). Someday I hope I can take action on all of my very strong political opinions and not be too chicken to state what I believe.

Time flys when you're....

I just happened to open this up tonight and noticed my "Let's try this again" post was two years ago. I can not believe it has been that long. I know it is a cliche, but time really does just fly by! Wow how much things can change in two years too! I have one more child, beautiful MacKenzie. My oldest baby is in the first grade and the angel that was my baby two years ago will be turning 3 in a week. One thing that has remained the same...life is good in suburbia!

I love my life, I feel so blessed. I have a wonderful husband, three amazingly beautiful children, a great house, a fun, loyal family and some really great friends. I often wonder how I got so lucky and how long thing can go on being perfect.

I think so much of how we feel about our lives is in our perception of ourselves and our life. I am such a believer in the kind of energy you give off into the world is the kind of energy you recieve back. When my husband was laid off in January, just a month after our third child was born, I didn't really panic. I knew things would work out; even if we lost our house and everything in it. There were so many things to be thankful for and focus on, I felt like why focus on the bad? I think that mentality really helped pull us through. Nate got a job and we are still in our house having learned a valuable lesson. Positive energy!

Maybe I will start writing on this blog again, it is a fun outlet. So, if anyone happens to read this, I may or may not be back :)

Let's try this again

I started this blog with great intentions. I wanted to write everyday, even if it was just for my own viewing. But, after five posts life caught up with me and I stopped making writing a priority. So, I am going to give it another try!



My baby girl is turning one next Monday. I can't believe how fast a year has gone by. She is of course the cutest baby on the face of the planet (sorry all you other moms out there!). She decided yesterday that she would rather walk than crawl. I love how even at one year old girls do what they want on their own time. She has been taking steps for over a month now, but I couldn't get her to just walk. I guess she decided it's time!



Carter has started playing soccer. By the way, I live in stereotypical suburbia! Soccer is just what people do here. In a town of 60,000 people, 3300 kids play soccer. That is 5% of the entire population! There are about 40 teams of kids under 5. All of the moms on Carter's team lead the same exact life as myself. We all stay home, work out at the same gym, shop at Costco and Target, send our kids to the Parks and Rec's preschool, and drive minivans! It is scary how much I feel like a stepford wife. I totally make fun of it, but I love it. It really is living the American Dream. House, family... soccer.

Folsom is where you want to live if you want to have kids. There are kids everywhere, not to mention pregnant women. There are endless activities for kids. We have and awesome new library, a zoo with train, tons of parks (some with water features), great schools, and of course...soccer! My new mom friend from the soccer team and I were joking about how we NEVER leave Folsom. We have everything we need right here (including a state prison!), its great!

One of the best parts of being a stay-at-home-mom is the friends I have made. It seems like we are all in this together. We have each other to bitch to when the kids are out of control or the husband it annoying us. We work out together, shop together, take the kids to the park together. I really cherish these friendships and hope they last beyond our kids growing up.

Well, I did a lot of chatting today with nothing very interesting to say....