Family: Dinner Date with my Lovely Lady

I got a rare opportunity to have some special alone time with my oldest, Ella! :) I let her pick the restaurant and she picked Nothing But Noodles!



She really only likes to eat there cause they have chopsticks and special holders that teach you how to use them. Anything that she can me a game out of, she is down for! We also brought our Just Mom and Me book and took turns "getting to know each other" and asking fun questions! :)



I had a great time with my girl! Can't wait to do it again soon!

Family: Time to end the Mommy wars!

I really love this topic. Some Moms are very judgmental of others and it is hurtful and sad. There is more than one way to raise children, parent them, feed them, discipline them, teach them, mold them and shape them. Not one way is the best or correct. If it were, somebody would be teaching us all.

I LOVE this article below that I am re-sharing from Connecticut Working Moms.

Posted June 11, 2013
"It’s hard to believe that this month marks the one-year anniversary of our post-baby body photo-shoot – I mean where did the time go? In true CTWM’s fashion, we decided that we wanted to do something to commemorate this important anniversary so we chose to tackle a topic that makes our skin crawl – the mommy wars. Last year’s photo shoot was about embracing our bodies and this year’s shoot was about embracing our different parenting choices. Cause seriously people, the world needs more love and less judgment.



Personally I think the mommy wars were created by the media as a way to pit women against each other and gain ratings and I just don’t want to be a part of that. I am soooo over it. Who cares if some moms choose to homeschool vs. use public schools or if some moms breastfeed and others don’t or if some moms let their kids watch more TV than others? The only choices we have control over are our own. What another mom chooses is her decision – who are we to judge that? And when you really think about it – what’s the point? It feels so much better to treat people kindly with loving intentions than to go straight to a place of judgment. We should be supporting women’s decisions instead of critiquing them and making snap judgments based off our limited knowledge of other people’s situations."




What an AWESOME message! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! I am so glad to have found this. I also located a Facebook page for them. Go like them here!!



And honestly, in my opinion, sometimes it is not the judging that is the big enemy, it is the comparing. YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH JUST AS YOU ARE. You be you. Let everyone else be them. God made us each unique and different with our own talents and strengths. That Mom that you think "has it all together", could just be wishing she was more like you in some ways. We are all in this crazy, hectic, roller coaster ride of Mothering together. We need to support, respect and accept each other for who we are. And for God's sake we need to be KIND to one another.

Food: Pumpkin Pie Cake - Recipes

I feel like I am on Recipe overload lately but here goes! :) I will update after we make it!



Pumpkin Pie Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
3/4 c butter
4 eggs
2 c pumpkin
1/2 c br sugar
3/4 c wht sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 c milk

Mix cake mix minus 1 c (reserve and set aside for topping)1/2 c melted margarine, and 1 beaten egg.
Put in bottom of a 9x13 pan.
Mix together pumpkin, 3 eggs, 1/2 c br sugar, 1/4 c wht sugar, 2/3 c milk and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
Spread over cake.
Mix together 1 c cake mix, 1/2 c wht sugar, 1/4 c marg (not melted)and and sprinkle on top of pumpkin mixture.
Bake at 350* for 50-55 min (or longer depending on your oven)

Future: 8 Things you can do NOW to have a better life! GO!!

I really liked these 8 tips, which appeared in an article on Huffington Post today! Link to full article is at the bottom. Happy Reading! 

1. Stop believing your bullshit.

All that stuff you tell yourself about how you are a commitment phobe or a coward or lazy or not creative or unlucky? Stop it. It's bullshit, and deep down you know it. We are all insecure 14 year olds at heart. We're all scared. We all have dreams inside of us that we've tucked away because somewhere along the line we tacked on those ideas about who we are that buried that essential brilliant, childlike sense of wonder. The more we stick to these scripts about who we are, the longer we live a fraction of the life we could be living. Let it go. Be who you are beneath the bullshit.

2. Be happy now.

Not because The Secret says so. Not because of some shiny happy Oprah crap. But because we can choose to appreciate what is in our lives instead of being angry or regretful about what we lack. It's a small, significant shift in perspective. It's easier to look at what's wrong or missing in our lives and believe that is the big picture -- but it isn't. We can choose to let the beautiful parts set the tone.

3. Look at the stars.

It won't fix the economy. It won't stop wars. It won't give you flat abs, or better sex or even help you figure out your relationship and what you want to do with your life. But it's important. It helps you remember that you and your problems are both infinitesimally small and conversely, that you are a piece of an amazing and vast universe. I do it daily -- it helps.

4. Let people in.

Truly. Tell people that you trust when you need help, or you're depressed -- or you're happy and you want to share it with them. Acknowledge that you care about them and let yourself feel it. Instead of doing that other thing we sometimes do, which is to play it cool and pretend we only care as much as the other person has admitted to caring, and only open up half way. Go all in -- it's worth it.

5. Stop with the crazy making.

I got to a friend's doorstep the other day, slightly breathless and nearly in tears after getting a little lost, physically and existentially. She asked what was wrong and I started to explain and then stopped myself and admitted, "I'm being stupid and have decided to invent lots of problems in my head." Life is full of obstacles; we don't need to create extra ones. A great corollary to this one is from The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz: Don't take things personally. Most of the time, other people's choices and attitudes have absolutely nothing to do with you. Unless you've been behaving like a jerk, in which case...

6. Learn to apologize.
Not the ridiculous, self-deprecating apologizing for who you are and for existing that some people seem to do (what's up with that, anyway?). The ability to sincerely apologize -- without ever interjecting the word "but" -- is an essential skill for living around other human beings. If you are going to be around other people, eventually you will need to apologize. It's an important practice.

7. Practice gratitude.

Practice it out loud to the people around you. Practice it silently when you bless your food. Practice it often. Gratitude is not a first world only virtue. I saw a photo recently, of a girl in abject poverty, surrounded by filth and destruction. Her face was completely lit up with joy and gratitude as she played with a hula hoop she'd been given. Gratitude is what makes what we have enough. Gratitude is the most basic way to connect with that sense of being an integral part of the vastness of the universe; as I mentioned with looking up at the stars, it's that sense of wonder and humility, contrasted with celebrating our connection to all of life.

8. Be kind.

Kurt Vonnegut said it best (though admittedly, and somewhat ashamedly -- I am not a Vonnegut fan): "There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'"

Kindness costs us nothing and pays exponential dividends. I can't save the whole world. I can't bring peace to Syria. I can't fix the environment or the health care system, and from the looks of it, I may end up burning my dinner.

But I can be kind.

If the biggest thing we do in life is to extend love and kindness to even one other human being, we have changed the world for the better.

Excerpt taken from an article authored by Kate Bartolotta. You can read the full article here.

Food: Sesame Chicken for Slow Cooker - Recipes

Saw this on Facebook and it looked delish. Which means, I WILL find a way to screw it up, ha ha. Just Kidding. I will update post when I get a chance to actually try it out! Stay tuned!



Sesame Chicken for slow cooker

1 1/2 pound boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dried onion
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Put chicken into crock pot. Combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, and garlic. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 2 teaspoons of cornstarch in 3 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened. Cut chicken into bite size pieces and return to crock pot - can leave chicken in and simmer on low or serve. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice.

Faith & Family: Home

I have to say, lately I think the enormity of the move we just made is finally starting to sink in. It must be a delayed reaction or something. I am not exactly sure. I just seriously can't believe it lately sometimes. I drive around and run my errands and go through the motions each day and think, where am I? How did I get here? Don't get me wrong, it is not that I regret the move at all, I just am shocked at how fast it all happened.

I found out on March 1st that my Dad had Brain Cancer. The "non-curable" kind. Whatever the hell that means. I don't give a shit if it is curable as long as it is livable. And it is... for how long we will have to see. God willing, I will have my Dad for decades to come. But when I returned from my Dad's surgery in Boston, Jimmy mentioned maybe we should reconsider a move to Charlotte to get closer to my family. We had tabled that discussion about 5 years earlier. I immediately blew him off. "No! We are not moving. We are happy here. We love it here." He kind of laughed and said "Honey hear me out". He made a good case about why we should reconsider it (and he seduced me with images of FALL and FIREPLACES), but the best one was when he said, "Something in my gut is just telling me we are supposed to do this. That I am supposed to make this happen for my Family" As I learned from my friends, The Wilsons, recently, you don't ignore something like that. So we agreed to start looking into it. Just considering it. Jimmy even let me tell my Mom and swear her to secrecy. 2014 I told her. Summertime. Right after school gets out. A few weeks later, Jimmy shocked me even further when he came to me in April and said, "screw it. If we are going to go, let's just go now. Let's get out there before school starts this Fall- 2013!!" "No way! Not gonna happen that fast:, I said. "Let's try", he said. And it did happen. Every step of the way, I reminded him God will either bless it or block it. We kept praying on it, and kept looking inside ourselves for clues as to what we should be doing.

And it went so smoothly. All of it. Everything fell into place exactly as it needed to. And so that was that. My house was sold in 24 hours and the house I bought in Charlotte, sold in 24 hours. Funny huh?? And just like that we had an official move date. Now I am starting to finally understand why my friends were so distraught. I said to Jimmy, I am not dying I am just moving. We will still be friends. We will stay in touch. But I get it now... It is because they didn't really have time to prepare. I told them in mid April we were considering moving to Charlotte in 2014 and we were driving away 3 months later in July. They barely had time to process the news and say goodbye before we were gone. And I think I must have not really had time to process any of it either. Till now. I still look around sometimes at the greenery, at my neighborhood, even at my house every time I pull up to it and still think, where am I? How did I get here? Is this really where we live now? Did we really just do this? It is not sadness I feel, just awe. Maybe a little anxiety mixed with a little excitement mixed with a little wonder mixed with a little fear. It just doesn't seem real yet. We were happy in Arizona. We were settled. We were planted. We had set down roots and watered them. We had bloomed. We were a part of a community. Part of groups. Part of a Church. I was about to start a position on the PTO Board. We had friends and family of choice there. All my favorite places, restaurants, shops, and fun little places to take my kids. It was all so comfortable. It was so familiar. It was so us. But you want to know a secret??? I never called Arizona Home.

It was a pet peeve of Jimmy's that I would not call Arizona home. We lived there for almost 10 years and the only place I ever called Home was Boston. I would say to my kids, "Girls we are going home to Boston" when I booked us flights, and Jimmy would laugh and correct me and say "Honey, this is their home. They are born and raised in Arizona. Boston is not home to them." I would think, oh yeah whoops!! I would talk about going home all the time and he would say, "Honey you are Home." And he was right of course. Home is where my heart is. Home is where my kids and my husband are. But home to me will always be where my Family is too. My parents, my siblings, my Papa, my nieces and nephews, cousins, friends etc. Maybe if my parents didn't still live in my childhood home that I grew up in, I wouldn't still call Boston home. Or one day when I am old and my parents are no longer with me, maybe I wont call it home anymore. But right now, it is  "Home" and I think it will forever be...

But a funny thing happened. I moved from Arizona to Charlotte and suddenly when I talk about Arizona... you guessed it... I call it HOME!!! So now I have TWO homes. Boston and Arizona. So what made this place that I never called Home in the 10 years I lived there, suddenly home to me?? I have realized lately home truly IS where your heart is. But you leave pieces of your heart in many places. Some of my heart is with the love I left behind there. The people places and things that we met and experienced there. The friends and loved ones waiting for us to return and visit. Sometimes it takes moving to realize how lucky you were to have those things. It takes flying the nest for you to realize that nest will always be there for you to fondly remember and to visit when you miss it. There will always be couches and bedrooms willing and ready to take us in when we come visit. There will be open arms there to greet us. There will be warm smiling faces and hugs and genuine happiness to reminisce and reflect. To tell old stories and belly laugh till your cheeks hurt. That sure sounds like going home to me...

And after writing this blog post I searched for a quote I could include and this one popped up. I think it summarizes what I wrote above just perfectly!

Food: Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies - Healthy Living Recipes

Gonna try this new recipe for next months book club! Hope they turn out great and that the kids love them!! Will update after I make them of course.

Recipe courtesy of Chocolate Covered Kate. Check out her blog here! She is also on Facebook and you can follow her page here. Thanks Kate!!



Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Brownies.

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup ww pastry flour (or white, spelt, or even oat flour)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp plus 1/16 tsp salt
2/3c sugar or xylitol (or 1/2c maple syrup or agave: it’ll be a bit less cakey with liquid sweetener)
1 packet NuNaturals stevia (or 1/32tsp uncut stevia), or 1 more tbsp agave or sugar
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (or pureed pumpkin or sweet potato)
3 tbsp oil (You can omit, but be warned: the brownies will be gummy)
2 tbsp milk of choice
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips (not optional)
Combine dry ingredients, and mix very well. Combine wet ingredients, then mix into dry. Pour into a greased pan (it will fill up half an 8×8). Cook for about 23 minutes at 330 F. I’m not sure why this is the case, but these brownies seem to taste ten times sweeter if you don’t eat them for at least an hour after they come out of the oven!

Fun: Fall

Somebody is excited... this girl!!

Family: Fun in the Park - Downtown Waxhaw

Last night there was an event in downtown, sponsored by a local Church in the area. I didn't even know when I went there, that it was the Church I have been meaning to check out. How cool is that? As my friend Kim would say "Purpose in all things". So the girls barely made it out of the car before they were booking across lawn to get to the bounce house.



Crazy wind monster and guy on stilts!



The girls got free icees while I waited in the long face painting line.



Finally it was out turn! Ella was caught photo bombing by the face painter who reached out and smeared her nose with blue lol!



So excited to check out their faces




Next we headed over to the sand art table where they both made a necklace.



Then as night fell the movie started! Toy Story 3 on a large inflatable screen. The kids and parents were all sitting around in lawn chairs and some kids were planted in the giant sandbox playing and digging while watching the movie.



While the kids watched the movie we stood in another longggggggggggg line for balloon animals! Jimmy was saying "so much for spending time as a family, you and I are stuck sitting in lines while they run around." haha



The girls had a blast. The event was 100% free and such a good time was had by all :) Thanks Five Stones Church!