Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Monthly Check-In: February

My February check-in of my new years resolutions - I barely got any writing done, everytime I picked up something to write, Natalia interfered - she'd grab my pen or delete everything off the computer. And when she napped, I did too. She's been nursing all night and I've been exhausted. Writing has NOT been on the top of my list, consequently. Everything else I've been doing A-OK on! So, on to how I did:

Workouts:20

Writing: 10

Color in food:28

Raw foods: 28

So, overall, not terrible, just not great on the writing. I'm slowly - ever so slowly - getting bits and pieces done here and there. The working out has been going pretty well, but I just haven't lost any weight,I've been doing lots of smoothies, which is getting me my raw foods, and making sure we have color in our food so we're getting lots of nutrients. Hopfully Natalia will start sleeping better so I can focus on writing. I've literally been so tired I can't focus, not even to read, and if you know me, you know that's saying something! I'm the one who can read, and read, and read, and that I'm not, that's just crazy!

My one-month no-yell challange went pretty well. I only yelled maybe 10 times the whole month. When I did, I caught myself, apologized, and figured out what my trigger was so I could work on eliminating it to (hopefully) prevent it in the future. One of my biggest triggers is bedtime. Leilani fights bedtime every. single. night. So, we've been working on a smoother bedtime routine, calm voices, staying in bed, and getting good sleep. I know that when I'm tired, I have more of a tendency to yell. So, it's been a good month on that front.

Now, on to March and keeping going!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Picture Post

I haven't blogged much lately - everytime I get on the computer or anything, Natalia decides to "help" by deleting everything I've written. So I'm just doing pictures here, so enjoy!

Natalia with a balloon


We made vegan rice krispie treats.


100th Day of School lunch :).


Leilani icing I you cookies


finger painting!




I helped Natalia because she just mostly wanted to try to eat the paint


Natalia mostly just covered herself in paint :)


She chose her outfit the other day.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Yoga, Veganized Comfort Food, and Short Walks

These new yoga books are fantastic. Leilani has done two pages (a is for airplane and b is for butterfly). She does not want to do one pose a week, she wants to do a new one every day! And Natalia's been having a blast with Itsy Bitsy Yoga - yoga for newborn-24 months. She's loving the fun playtime it brings and the stretches make her feel good. I can tell, because she keeps doing them and has the happiest, most content little look on her face *smiles*. Those books were some of the best things I could have bought.

Now, on to comfort foods. I've been wanting chocolate (twix, thin mints, reese's, mac 'n cheese, cheesy potato soup, etc). So, I've been veganizing them. I found a homemade twix recipe that I'm going to work on veganizing either later this week or next week. I discovered how to make the most amazing baked mac 'n cheese, I made thin mints today (and they're amazing) and I'm going to be making the potato soup for dinner today. The bread is in the oven and the pot is in the dishwasher. I'm beyond excited. Tomorrow I'll let you know how it turned out :)

Natalia and I have been taking short (20 minute) walks around the neighborhood. Natalia LOVES sitting in the stroller (we're to the point that the Moby isn't really working anymore, she's kind of outgrown it, so I'm going to have to get the Onya carrier). Meanwhile, she's enjoying the stroller, being outdoors, seeing the trees and birds, feeling the sunlight. I'm enjoying walking around and getting some exercise, even if it's just a few minutes here and there.

So, basically, we've been having a pretty good week, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it - more walks, yoga and yummy foods.

Friday, February 1, 2013

The First of February

So today, to help me along in my no-yell challenge, I made this:


I went to Wal-Mart and found a frame on clearance, got some orange paint, glitter and ribbon. I painted the frame, glittered it up, made a bow and glued it on. Then I put some pink colored scrapbook paper and used the glass as a dry erase board and wrote "Raise your words, not voice. - It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder."

After Natalia woke up, I put her in the stroller and we went for a little walk around the neighborhood. Only about twenty minutes, but it felt great and Natalia LOVED it. My new mantra is "even a small workout is better than no workout." Sometimes I feel kind of like "why should I work out, I can only do it for a few minutes" so now, I'm just gonna do those few minutes. I also bought a baby yoga book for Natalia and a Yoga ABC coloring book for Leilani - we'll do a new move each week and she'll get to color it in, too. I'm really excited. I've been wanting to teach Leilani yoga for a while and now I think I've found a good way to do it.

I had to go get a few things for Super Bowl Sunday...we'll be going over to some friends' house and obviously we'll need some vegan options. I got some vegan burger crumbles, daiya cheddar, salsa and tofu (to make my own vegan sour cream), and I'm going to try to make a dip my brother used to make all the time. It was fantastic and I can't wait to vegan-ize it. I'm also going to try veganizing one of my favorite soups sometime next week - cheesy bacon potato soup. I made a soft cashew cheese I'm going to use in place of the cream cheese, I have smoky tempeh crumbles (in place of the bacon), and soy milk powder to make the heavy cream. Anyway, back to Super Bowl Sunday - I'm also going to make chocolate chip cookie doozers. I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow, Leilani and I will be baking up a storm :).

Tonight we made one of Leilani's favorites - tacos! I use TVP (instead of buying veggie crumbles, it's so much cheaper!) and we used crunchy shells since Leilani specifically requested them. Also, Leilani's school is doing a Read-A-Thon and Leilani needs sponsors! We're going to read 20 minutes a day for the whole month of February (since, ya know, we don't ALREADY do that - averaged out, anyway) for a total of 560 minutes for the month. She's going to read at least five of those minutes, then I'll read the remaining 15 or less. Hopefully, by the end of the month, she'll be reading most of it. That's my personal goal, anyway.

Tomorrow, it's on to baking!

The One-Month No Yell Challange

I don't know when, or even how, but somewhere along the line I turned in to a yeller. Leilani does NOT like bedtime, so puts up a huge fit. I yell. Leilani doesn't want to brush her teeth. I yell. Leilani takes toys away from Natalia. I yell. Leilani plays instead of eating. I yell.

I think you've got the picture. I yell. A lot. I'm not proud of it and I want to change. So I'm issuing myself a month long challenge. For the whole month of February, I'm going to try not to yell. And if I do, I'll apologize and move forward. I'm also going to reward myself if - no, when - I make it. I'm going to buy myself this
from babycakes NYC to make the Fat Pants Cake - brownie, covered with vanilla frosting, then crumbled cookies. Oh yeah...that ought to keep me on track, if nothing else will.

Although, really, I think the improvement in our relationship will be good. I'm tired of yelling. I'm tired of arguing. I'm tired of it all. I need a change and I'm hopeful that this will help. It's hard putting this out online, but I'm hoping that the transparency and accountability will help me. I'm hoping that all of you, my readers, will help me. Just knowing that you're reading this is making me feel more accountable already.

I'm also going to buy the materials to make this today, so I can use it as a bit of inspiration:

I got the idea for both the no-yell challenge and the framed saying above from The Orange Rhino.