Ferbering to Zerberting

So often I start a blog post and am interrupted and completely lose where I was going with it or it just doesn’t seem as relevant as it was when I started the post. The blog post that I had started several weeks ago was about how we had tried to Ferber my giant baby (GB) unsuccessfully. (He is one determined little guy!) When I decided to give-up (for now…) on any sort of sleep training, my GB slept through the night! That morning, I was so thrilled that I gave him big zerberts on his chubby tummy and while we were both laughing, I realized how funny it was to go from Ferbering to zerberting. Hence, my clever blog title! Thanks for indulging me- my blog content is soooo 3 weeks ago but I just had to use that blog title!

August wasn’t very sleep-filled but it was filled with perspective, as well as laughter. I always admire people like David Sedaris who can find the funny in anything, even cancer or death. That’s not usually me, it’s so much easier to give myself excuses to be cranky and irritated. It’s not cancer, but we did have a stomach bug buzz through our house. While it wasn’t funny watching our daughter vomit, it was sweetly funny when she couldn’t stop talking at 3 am and we were exhausted. Also gross and funny? My GB had a blow-out in the car (no stranger to us) and I realized I had taken my bag of extra clothes inside our house to be restocked. Not helpful when we needed back-up. So the GB had his first partially nude visit to Target (in a diaper and hat). We just had to laugh!

Speaking of my GB, he has a new skill: dancing. And my daughter is starting her very first dance class today. Does anyone remember what my very first resolution was? It was dancing and so this month, I’d like to enjoy a little dance remix resolution.

Here’s what I’ve been dancing to the first few days in September: perfect song to start this month off (Wow. Don’t you wish you could dance in those performance outfits?), the song that my husband and I forgot the steps to, and this morning’s song (that I’ve heard 2,394 times).

Hope to inspire the dance within you this month. ; Re-re-re-mix!

Candy, Chocolate and Lollipops!

I woke up at 5:15 this morning. (My apologies for any incoherencies-ness in this post.  I’m ti-ard.)  Correction, I was awakened this morning at 5:15.  I endeavored for over an hour, trying to get my little guy to fall back asleep.  As his cries started to fade, I heard my daughter’s voice in his room, “Good morning, Brother!” I was extremely frustrated- but only for a moment because I realized I had a choice: hold onto the story all day of how miserably tired I was or just do my best and show up for today.

My husband remarked at how chipper I was considering how little sleep we had. It is days like these that I’m thankful he doesn’t remember dates.  This morning as I started the daily grind with the littles, I remembered that not only is it my very favorite four year old’s (my bff’s daughter) birthday but it’s also the anniversary of my husband’s mother’s passing.  I never met her but I miss her so much.  I know she would have been a wonderful grandmother to our children.  I know she would have done anything to have another day with her children, even if that day started at 5:15am.  Today, this month, I’m going to celebrate the gift I have, another day, another month with my (early-rising, spirited…) munchkins.

You all know how much I love to mark things off of a to do list and the feeling of being productive. However, I know that sometimes it overwhelms my life. As much as I love being a mom, it is a daily challenge to keep it together (especially when I’m not getting the sleep I’d like).  A few years ago, I created my ultimate mom to do list.  It consists of one question:  “did I laugh with my child(ren) today?”  I haven’t found anything else to be more important than this in my life- or anything so challenging.  This job is hard but there’s so much I can let go of and so many more opportunities to get down and have a ball with my little crazies.

How can I not laugh?  This morning my newly potty trained daughter leaned into the toilet to sniff her prized poop-a-doops and exclaimed “it smells like candy… and chocolate and lollipops!”

Wishing you all a fun-filled month with laughter, candy, chocolate and lollipops!

The Anti-Anxiety Diet

I’m not sure if it’s the frantic business of being a mom of 2, my post-partum hormones, my lack of sleep, my sometimes horrendous diet (fast food is sometimes the only option…) or my sugar addiction (or all of the above?), but I’ve been feeling anxious lately. I experienced terrible anxiety attacks in college and I will do everything I need to avoid going back to that dark place.

So, my resolution this month is to put myself on a diet, an anti-anxiety diet:

• reduce sugar intake
• reduce processed foods
• reduce caffeine and alcohol
• exercise regularly
• daily meditation/checking-in spiritually
• adequate sleep
• giving myself space and boundaries (i.e. saying no, being easier on myself, etc.)

Am I missing anything?  What do you do to keep yourself balanced?

Complaining

I chose my resolution poorly this month. Not complaining doesn’t make me any happier. In fact, it has made me realize that 1) I’m not the Debbie Downer kind of complainer (or at least I hope not…) 2) my “complaints” are necessary for my expression, the way I process things 3) stuffing my complaints away only makes me feel worse. My intention this month was to stop complaining about all the hardships of parenting and to get my role as a mother into perspective (i.e. take the tantrums in stride, be present and model calming down). This might still be hard for me to do but honestly, by letting go of this month’s resolution, I think I’ve learned a lot about myself.
The irony is not lost on me here: complaining about not complaining!

What’s for Dinner?

Here are some of our dinners from the past month:

• Tacos with sauteed zucchini, corn, carrots and cojita cheese
• pasta
• lots of pizza (my husband is perfecting the dough recipe for his new venture, Pinthouse Pizza)
• our “random” soup: vegetable broth, pasta, whatever veggies we need to eat up, seasoning
• quesadillas
• rice/quinoa/polenta +  vegetables
• paninis (We had goat cheese, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and basil on ours.)
• Nordstrom’s tomato basil soup and grilled cheese
• Sloppy Joes (with soy crumbles) and sweet potato fries
• Veggie burgers

We also tried a few vegan recipes from Veganomicon: Quinoa with Pineapple and Cashews and Pumpkin Scones with Cranberries.  Both were really good!  The Veganomicon authors have a great blog and this fantastic website too.

Moosewood cookbooks are always a win if you’re looking for healthy and delicious recipes.  In fact, the number one searched term that leads to this very blog is the Moosewood recipe for Armenian Lentil Soup.

Thank you to my friend, Kate, for informing me about the website Treehugger.com.  A great resource for all things green, including vegetarian recipes.  Although today there’s an article about eating protein-rich insects.  Hmmm…..not sure about that one.

I also found a great resource on Gwyneth Paltrow’s website compiled by famous vegetarian, Paul McCartney- with recipes, cookbook recommendations and other tools.

It’s not a vegetarian blog but most of the recipes from Farmhouse Delivery’s blog are vegetable-based, with beautiful step-by-step photos.

Of course, this month isn’t the end of our vegetarian/vegan eating, so what are your favorite vegetarian resources, websites, cookbooks, or recipes?

2012!

Yahoo! January 1st is such a momentous day for this blog. It’s our 2nd anniversary! Thank you for reading and playing along with me. WordPress just sent me a summary of this year’s visitors- how fun that we’ve had visitors from Canada and Italy? It does make this giant world seem a little smaller.

My husband (and a few of his friends) suggested we be vegetarians this month. After eating lots of meat during both pregnancies, I’m ready to get back to what always felt natural to me (since November 1995). My challenge this month will be to try out more vegan food and to be a healthy vegetarian (and less of a gelato/candy/potato chip/fried cheese-eating sort of vegetarian). I’m hoping to have a few guest posts on here too (maybe you?).

As always, if you feel inclined, I’d love for you to join in on the resolution fun. Or share your own resolutions- what are your resolutions?

Happy 2012 to you all!

Magical Sanctuary

Oh, it was such a magical month!  I had absolutely intended to post so much more in December, but I suppose I was lost in those magical moments.  Ha! No, really this resolution helped me to keep perspective when things got tough during this transition to life with two kids.  A big thank you to my teammate (who incidentally is the Magic: The Gathering Hawaii State Champion of 199-something)!

I wanted to send you all a special Christmas magical treat.  Or maybe you would enjoy this more?  I wanted to post all of the fun places our Elf on the Shelf, Dee, appeared, but I suppose I’ll just have to be content with this one photo.   It was nothing short of magic to watch our daughter enjoy Christmas this year, including her daily search for Dee.  I can only imagine how much more magical future Christmases will be as she gets older.

Hope you all had a magical month as well!  Here’s to 2012!

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” 

-Roald Dahl

Restful November, Magical December

I’m truly honest when I say I really have slept relatively well this month. It was the perfect resolution, because I really focused on getting as much sleep and resting when I could. I’ll also be honest and say it was hard to do with a toddler, newborn and (almost done!) remodeling project that needed attention. I hope you all had a sweetly slumbering month as well.
And it’s December- can you believe it? I struggled these last few days thinking of what I’d do this month- what should this month be about? What do I need? Maybe it’s the Elf on the Shelf idea that we’re implementing at our house (with no effect on behavior whatsoever…), maybe it’s the sweetness of having a newborn, or perhaps the fact that I had “The Final Countdown” running through my head all day yesterday, but it occurred to me that this is a magical time. So this holiday season, I’m going to embrace the magic of having a precocious toddler and a darling newborn. Wishing you all a magical December as well!

A Friendly June, A Verbose July

Ah! June was a lovely month spent with many friends. I look forward to connecting with more friends in our new house; in fact, we are entertaining tonight!

Is it strange to daydream about blogging? I’ve been longing to spend time writing, as I have spent very, very little time writing in the last few months. It became obvious to me that July absolutely must be spent journaling, blogging, and working on kid lit. stuff (my favorite!).

Anyone want to take the July writing challenge with me? (Oh, how I love it when you play along! [no pressure!])

Spring Cleaning in February!

I am so happy that three people an overwhelming majority of you voted for spring cleaning as February’s resolution!

I’m making a list of all the areas I’d like to tackle.  I’d love to hear if you’re playing along this month too!