A Mommy's Lunch

No, this is not about a Mommy's LUNCHEON. This is about a mommy's LUNCH. 

**Hey, but if any of my mommy friends want to get together -- let's do lunch! I promise we will have something better than what is described below! :)

I'm at home with my two precious littles. Today is laundry day (I think I hear the dryer beeping now....) and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly that stuff accumulates. I think.....didn't I just do this amount -- YESTERDAY???!!?? (actuality:  5-7 days ago) Time continues to fly and laundry continues to pile. That's just a fact. 

SO -- back to lunch. The clock is nearing noon and I just begin to think about LUNCH. Spice is a little creature of habit. She eats "roll-ups" (a tortilla with some sort of yumminess inside; not to be mistaken for a fruit roll-up....I'm not completely against the idea of a fruit roll-up as part of lunch, but just wanted to get that straightened out) often with our babysitter. Therefore, she often requests roll-ups. Today Spice wanted a peanut butter roll-up. Out with the PB and tortillas -- no problem. My challenger is Miss Bean. She is a little rooty-toot these days. Doesn't want in her high-chair, doesn't want help, says she wants this, but when you get it that's not what she wanted....and the list goes on. After she pointed to fifteen hundred and fifty-two things, I decided to allow her to sit on the stool at the island (yes, I was right there with her, dad) and allow her to attempt to feed herself greasy taco meat (that's what she "SAID" she wanted to do, people). That was hard for me. MESSY is an understatement. AND the fact that she was able to get ZERO meat in her mouth with the spoon was difficult to watch. That combined with Spice tugging on my leg, crying and begging for me to hold her pushed me to the point that it was time to stop this fun activity and move on to the next.....NAPTIME!! Bean was pretty much against this idea initially. Can't say that I blame the girl. I took her away from something that she was really enjoying. She debated for a short while, and soon changed her tone to the sweet little sounds she makes before drifting off to zzzzzzland. 

Back to Spice. She is taking her sweet time with the peanut butter roll-up. Bless her heart -- she didn't have much choice. Have you ever eaten a tortilla with peanut butter alone? (GULP) Not the easiest thing! I decided it was time for Mommy's lunch. Earlier in the day, I had dreams of a delectable salad with some sort of vinaigrette. However; after 5 loads of laundry, kitchen duty, and refereeing....I settled for leftovers.....a Mexican stack-up (fancy for chips, taco meat, grated cheese, tomatoes (that's thrown in there to prevent feeling like a total HOG), sour cream, salsa, and jalepenos.) I also ate a small amount of veggie fried rice. (Didn't want to waste the stuff!!) Mexican and Chinese....what a combo!!

I KNOW I'm not the only Mommy out there that when it comes time to eat, we either settle for crazy combinations to clean out the fridge or don't eat at all!! 

As always......

At the end of the day........

wouldn't change a thing.

A few pics I would like to share...

before I forget, I want to tell you about these fabulous jalepeno peppers. They are made by Mezzetta and they are TAMED. They have the great flavor of jalepeno without causing the major pain and burn to the mouth (at least that's what regular japs do for me)! I recommend them HIGHLY! Love them!

this is my precious little that fell asleep last night LITERALLY while eating. And popcorn no less!! Yes, I realize this was a choking hazard -- but, had to snap a pic before removing the popcorn. 

**No one was injured or harmed preserving this memory.

A few pics of my littles in their Halloween costumes. iPhone and unedited quick pics, but pics as promised!

Body, Mind and Spirit

I'm feeling a little flustered. I had the wonderful opportunity to take advantage of this beautiful weather and beautiful day and do my long run. Today's goal: 10 miles. I don't have a specific race I'm training for right now, but I usually increase my running distance in the fall/winter because I enjoy running in cool weather. I do one long run and 3-4 shorter/middle distance runs. I increase the long run by one mile per week. Because I do not have a specific race -- I told myself that I canNOT move onto a different distance (skip a mile) until I've met that specific goal. Last weeks goal: 10 miles. What happened? Before I set out for my long run last week, I had a negative mindset. The weather was warm and muggy. I was worried about potential pain in my hip and knee (IT Band related). I was Debbie Downer. Guess what? I only made it to mile 5 when I stopped and walked. I finished the day at mile 7.  So, that's why today's goal was 10 as well. Remember: no moving on until the goal is complete! This time, beautiful day, beautiful weather, perfect temp.....things were going well. Until about mile 6.....I will try not to go into too many details, but let's just say that mother nature was making an urgent call. I tried to ignore it. I tried to take my mind to another place. I tried relaxing some places while fighting with all my might not to relax others. I pushed on, determined to make it to mile 10 today. I had a chance to turn towards my house around mile 6.5 for a pitstop, but pushed on because I KNEW that if I walked inside the doors of my home, I wouldn't get back out there. Mother nature did not go away. As much as I wanted her to -- she was very persistent. (have you seen Bridesmaids.....yeah, no need to explain further) So much so, that I gave in and headed home. As I entered the doors, my Garmin read 8.65. DEFEATED once again. Beat by MIND one week, beat by BODY the next. Fortunately, I have a very determined SPIRIT and I will give it a go next week!! (and will try and remember NOT to eat Mexican the night before! ha!)

Can you believe it's the week of Halloween? Craziness! We had a little "dress rehearsal" at our "Holyween" Carnival at church yesterday. The girls looked precious (of course!). I will have pictures to post soon. Despite my dreams of super-cute themed Halloween costumes, they looked adorable in their individual outfits. A witch, a mermaid and a strawberry! Love my girls!

Blogging Woes NO MORE!!

I love blogging. I love the idea of blogging. I'm constantly thinking in blog mode. Taking a picture and thinking of the perfect caption. Thinking of an occasion and knowing it must be blogged about. 

There are so many fantastic blogs out there. Seriously. So. Many. I think I have been suffering from blog intimidation. I worry that my photos aren't good enough. I want them bigger and better and have no idea how to do that. My layout is terrible. I have no idea how to change that either. I have vowed to do the research. Yeah -- hasn't happened. I have postponed blog after blog after blog because I've yet to do  the previous 25 blogs before that. 

When I don't blog, I avoid reading blogs. That makes me sad because I know I'm missing out. I have blogger's guilt.....yes, yes -- silly me. No more blaming the clock, the camera, or the computer (that will be a hard one) -- I am was my biggest blogging enemy. 

So -- all of that to say this. One last explanation. One last apology. If anyone cares to comment (and I always welcome comments) about this or that -- THIS should be a post I can refer them to.

I apologize because.....

I blog like I think. I place grammar rules aside (and I do I have the utmost respect for the English language, but come on people, I love my dashes and unruly commas and exclamations AND the beloved smiley face. One might think I'm a 16 year-old girl based on my punctuation at times....). Yep -- I pretty much break them all. 

My brain goes in a thousand different directions throughout the day. It's not always going to make sense. If you have a question -- ask. I MIGHT have an explanation.

Chronological order. Love the thought -- can't get it together. As many times as I've dreamed of having this darn blog in perfect order -- well, as I said before -- I will keep putting if off, putting it off. So I'm done stressing about it. I have journals, pictures, blogs.....I'm hoping my girls will have some sort of documentation to represent their whole lives. It's just going to take quite a bit of detective work to put it all together. 

Pictures. Oh how I LOVE pictures. The Kodak moment. An instant frozen in time. The precious moment you never want to forget. Well, I've come to realize it's not always going to look perfect (well, for me anyway. I'm not talking to all you perfect bloggers out there). It may be blurry, or tiny or sideways.....but, it will be documented. Once again -- any comments and tips for improvement are ALWAYS welcomed!

SO -- my point: I'm challenging myself to get back to blogging. Get back to doing what I enjoy. To stop stressing about the minor details and MAKE IT HAPPEN. Recent events (experienced or witnessed) in life have brought to my attention that words and pictures are so very important. Documentation. It may be someone's one and only way of remembering a magical moment, a life-changing event, a loved one. 

There will be days I'm ecstatic. Days I'm sad. Days I sound ungrateful. Please know that I am so eternally grateful for all that God has blessed me with....I think I actually obsess about it. I am constantly looking at my girls and trying to remember the moment. Remember them in that moment. I think of my husband, my family, my friends.....I can't' slow down the hands of time enough. 

I don't promise that there will never be periods of silence. Days, months.... it's happened before. I may stumble. I may fall. But, I'll get back up and keep on blogging.

So Cheers! Here's to the moment.