Winter blues...

Wow. This winter season has been FULL of ups and downs...but it feels like mostly downs. I have missed so many days of work due to my sick kiddos that I think my co-teacher is just about ready to sack me! Love you Linds. ;)  All 4 of us girls have had strep, 2 of the 3 girls had a stomach bug, baby girl had a horrible ear infection which led to her ear drum rupturing and then had a horrible allergic reaction to her antibiotic, and now my oldest is going on day 5 of fever with a horrific barking cough. Taking her to the doctor, again, tomorrow. I'm starting to know everyone at the doctor's office pretty well now. ;)

Here's my poor LuLu when she had strep. LK had it just the week before her. We had to leave school early on this day due to her fever and she was so bummed because it was 'super hero day' and she had dressed up like bat-girl ballerina princess. Don't ask. I felt so bad for her but of course I did not mind her  falling asleep on my chest as we watched tinker bell. This little lady hadn't done that since she was about 4 months old!

The little trooper, feeling a bit better after a bubble bath. Love that face!

Then of course the red headed stinker decided it was her turn to be sick. I call her a stinker because she had a triple, well, almost quadruple sickness going on. She started with the stomach bug then continued to be so fussy for days after her bug was gone and woke up one morning with an ear full of puss! Gross, I know. Sorry. We took her to the Dr to find out she had a horrible ear infection, the eardrum had ruptured and had what appeared to be strep! Whew! No wonder the poor girl was so cranky!

Thankfully Lucy and Chloe were feeling better and our household was starting to brighten up. The girls LOVE to help me cook and especially love to bake so we made daddy some "skinny" chocolate chip cookies for an after work treat. Recipe here.

I just love their little chefs hats and aprons. They kept referring to themselves as "makers" rather than bakers. ;)

Oh, Luc. I could just kiss that face all over!

Well, just a couple days later, Lucy got "the throw ups", as we call them, and Chloe had a horrible allergic reaction to the antibiotic she was taking. This pic was taken the first day we noticed her rash but the 2nd day was even worse. Her face was puffy and the rash was raised and all over her body! She was so miserable and just cried all day.

Here's a pic of her poor little legs. ;(

Thank goodness for loving husband who appreciated my new title of nurse/ Dr Mom and brought me breakfast in bed. I <3 breakfast in bed and he knows that. Part of the reason as to why I adore him so much is because of how well he knows me. .....and yes, that's an elephant shaped waffle. ;)

Due to Chloe not feeling so hot, we stayed home from school/ work to take care of her. The big girls LOVE school and were so bummed to miss so while Chloe was napping, I turned our living room into a spa to give the girls a special day and we had SO much fun! We turned on relaxing music, lit candles, had them put on my robes and gave them pedicures using a roasting pan full of soapy water. I called them "ma'm" and "miss" and they just thought it was hilarious. Then, later that day, LK started feeling sick and sure enough she had a fever of 102 and has had a fever every day since. Oy!

We've all developed a yucky cough and cold but so far only LK has the fever. This is how we've been spending most of days lately. Staying in our jammies until noon and watching waaay too much tv.

Oh, and of course taking naps at the table is also a new thing we've started doing. Poor little thing.

So, anyways, we've had good days, then bad days, little sleep, doctor visits, school, no school, husband on business trip, dance, church...and the list goes on.

Luckily my sweet hubby let me have some time away from the sick cave yesterday and I got to have a nice lunch with my mom and sister and even saw a movie! It was a nice treat.

I must say, I'm not a fan of winter. My husband and I have tossed around the idea of moving to a warmer location before, only being half serious. I'm sure we'll stay put but for now, I'm dreaming of spring, baby! Give me warmth! We need that vitamin D! 

For now, we're just going to give the girls an extra dose of vitamin c as well as their normal daily vitamins, give them all a round of probiotics, and be even more picky about hand washing and drink sharing.

One quick confession before I end this novel. I. am. a. stress. eater. whew! There, I said it. Feels good to admit it. ;) With my recent situation and having my hubby gone on business for a bit, i have been FRAZZLED and I haven't been able to get to the gym much so this girl is packing on the pounds!!! Yes, I like to eat healthy but this queen of all things sweet doesn't say no to a cupcake, cookie, cakepop (Christina and Lindsay can attest to that one.) So, all that to say, I'm sorry I haven't had the time to post another meal plan but I haven't even planned my own meals. This lady is getting back on track THIS WEEK  so be watching for my week of meals and work outs that I'll be doing this week and we'll see where I'm at next Monday.=)

Love, 

Melinda

momentous occasion in the land of parenthood. recipe included.

What is the momentous occasion, you ask. Well tonight I prepared a healthy meal for my family and baby girl actually ate it AND loved it! She devoured it! She had recently followed in her sisters' footsteps and become a picky eater so this is a big deal! Now we'll just have to work on getting the older girls to jump on the band wagon.

I made chickpea burgers, a recipe that I posted last week, and they. were. delicious! Click here for the recipe.

I wrapped mine in lettuce to cut down on the calories but the rest of the fam used toasted whole wheat hamburger buns.

Yum!

We used normal burger condiments and fixins'. I sliced up some roma tomatoes, avocado, sliced low fat cheese and on mine I used low fat ranch dressing. We love our ranch around here.  

As you can see in the pick, we had a side of baked sweet potato fries. Click here for that recipe. They are also delicious but this particular recipe is a bit spicy which my kiddos weren't crazy about. Use less spice or no spice when cooking for little ones.

This recipe was just too good to not share! Enjoy!

A week of healthy dinners

First, let me start off by saying I'm SO sorry that my blog is not pretty. I don't have picks on this post or all the bells and whistles. I am technology challenged, y'all and am working on it. Bare with me. :) I'll get there, Just still new to this blog business.

It's a new year and it's the perfect time to start over! Those holiday cakes, cookies, and candy were amazing, and I mean AMAZING, but the holiday weight has got to go and we've got to get back on track with a healthy life style!

Motivator:
Have any of you heard of or watched the documentary called, "Forks over knives"? In a nutshell it is about how you can control and even reverse disease by eating a whole foods, plant based diet. Watch it and you"ll go vegan for at least 2 days. ;) My husband and I watched it and I think we were vegan for maybe 2 weeks...ha ha! Needless to say it REALLY  changes your outlook on what your putting into your body. If your a netflix user you can watch it for free using netflix instant watch or I think you can rent it on Amazon instant video.
http://www.forksoverknives.com/

So, since my husband and I didn't quite have what it takes to be true vegans, we decided to really try to cut down on our intake of animal products. I.e. eggs, milk, yogurt, meat, cheese, etc.
I no longer use meat as a main dish item and try to not have more than 2 dinners a week where we use meat. If vegan products and health food as a whole wasn't so expensive, I think I could be vegan but all those cheese, yogurt, and milk substitutes are SO expensive and with 3 little kiddos at home, we have to really watch the grocery budget.

Alright, so, eating healthy is not easy, right? What to eat? How many calories to consume? good/bad carbs, good/bad fats. So much to think about so don't think about it. Let me plan your meals. ;) I love to cook healthy food and I've done quite a bit of research on healthful living and weight loss. As you know, I've had 3 babies and gained a good amount of weight with each of them. I gained 55lbs with my first child and was able to get the weight off with diet and exercise alone. No I do not have fast metabolism and no I'm not just "lucky". I can gain 5lbs with the snap of my fingers. Soon and very soon I'll be posting the "skinny rules" that I follow and giving you some tips and tricks to help you meet your weight loss goals along with my own person meal plans with what I eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks but for now I'll just plan your dinners. ;)
Warning:
The meals are not for the picky eater. I've tried helping picky eaters plan healthy meals before and I just can't do it. ha! Branch out and try new things. You just might like it. After the list of meals I have a recipe for a healthy sweet treat to get you through the week.

Here are your dinners:

Monday: Quinoa salad (one of our faves)
http://www.eating-for-england.com/quinoa-salad-beans-avocado/
-For my kiddos, who aren't thrilled with the strong tastes of garlic and onions, I usually set aside a bit of quinoa for them along with some of the cubed avocado, diced tomato, and black beans. I squirt a bit of lime juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper over it, give it a stir and that's the kid version of this meal. I slice up some apples and maybe some carrot sticks and ranch dressing for their sides.

Tuesday: Turkey and spinach meatballs over spaghetti squash
http://thediva-dish.com/uncategorized/hubby-meals-simple-turkey-meatballs-over-spaghetti-squash/
-If you've never tried using spaghetti squash in place of normal spaghetti, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised! It tastes wonderful and excludes all the many calories and carbs that pasta contains.

-I'm making these meatballs (link below) rather than the one's in the above link. These I've tried before and are really good, I've never tried the others before.
http://homecookingmemories.com/baked-turkey-meatballs-with-spinach-10-ideas-for-meatballs/

Wednesday: Roasted veggie tostadas with chipotle cream sauce (One of our favorite meals)
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/roasted-vegetable-tostadas-with-chipotle-cream-recipe/index.html
-We use whole wheat tortillas or if you're watching your carb intake you can use lettuce to make a lettuce wrap.

Thursday: Roasted tomato and cannellini bean pasta
http://www.forksoverknives.com/roasted-tomato-and-cannellini-bean-pasta/
I'll serve mine with a side of steamed veggies of choice. Our favorite is broccoli.
-This is a new recipe that I look forward to trying. I haven't cooked  much with beans before, besides black beans, and I look forward to cooking more often with beans rather than meat.

Friday: Chicken and lime soup
http://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/10/chicken-lime-soup/
-I add 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed) and about 2 cups cooked quinoa or brown rice. (1 cup uncooked) My kiddos liked using tortilla chips to dip into the soup and we crumbled a few to top.

Saturday: Chickpea burgers with baked sweet potato fries
http://www.forksoverknives.com/sneaky-chickpea-burgers/
http://www.ariellelikestocook.com/home/2014/1/9/sweet-potato-fries-with-tahini-aioli
-I would use whole wheat hamburger buns or to limit the carbs you could wrap it in lettuce or sliced it up over spinach for a salad with dressing of choice. This is a vegan recipe so if you're not vegan and want to spice it up a bit, add a low fat slice of cheese.

Sunday: Egg white sandwiches with avocado, turkey bacon, and tomato (simple meal)
No link to a recipe for this one. It's pretty self explanatory. I usually use 2 pieces of toast and scramble about 3-4 egg whites. I like to use "quick whites" because it's just easier than cracking eggs and trying not to get the yoke in the skillet. salt and pepper the eggs and top with sliced roma tomato, sliced avocado and a slice or two of turkey bacon. There will be plenty of flavor, you won't need to add cheese. Don't get me wrong, I love my cheese but if you're watching your fat and calorie intake, skipping the cheese is a good choice. You can get fat free shredded cheddar or a shredded vegan cheese at your local grocery store if you HAVE to have it. ;)

Sweet treat for the week: Peanut butter balls
http://thediva-dish.com/desserts/peanut-butter-pong-balls/
These are awesome! The husband, myself and the kids love this healthy sweet treat! They taste like peanut butter cookie dough. I made a few change's to the recipe. I did not use chocolate chips, instead I used cocoa almonds instead of the regular almonds so that the chocolatey taste got into the balls without the sugar and fat that's in chocolate chips. I couldn't find dates at the store so I used figs and they still taste great. I'm sure you could also use prunes. Also, the price of pure maple syrup is a bit steep for me so you can use honey instead. These are roughly 96 calories a ball. (depending on how big you roll your balls) I already had sweetened coconut on hand so I didn't buy any unsweetened but using the unsweetened will save you a lot of fat and calories.

Enjoy!
Love,
Melinda
P.S. If you try any of these recipes, let me know what you think. I'd like to know also if you changed anything or swapped out ingredients.

GRACE

Jared and I have been feeling quite sleep deprived lately...It feels like we have a newborn again. Over the past few weeks, the girls have been taking turns being sick, Chloe is teething, and Lucy is in a twin bed now which means she gets out of bed through the night as she pleases. Our new norm is to get up in the night at least once every night and it's starting to wear us thin. A lot of nights we get up 4 or 5 times with the girls and this recent time change hasn't helped! Our earliest riser is now getting up at 5:00! We have been consuming large amounts of coffee and taking big doses of patience and grace but it's not that easy. I don''t know about you but I need my coffee before I can truly function. When I'm up so early in the morning with Lucy after I hardly slept the night before, there is very little patience or grace, folks. Just being honest.

Chloe, my 14 month old is getting her 1 year molars in and therefore has spent the majority of the past few days screaming. Just walking around the house, aimlessly, screaming. It. Has. Been. a delight. :P

To get to the point; no, I'm not trying to vent online about how horrible my kids are, blah, blah, blah...
I want to share my outlook on getting through the tough times. We've all heard the phrase, "This too shall pass" and in my little world, that phrase offers me so much hope because it's true! Every tough phase that I've gone through in life has indeed either "passed" or God taught me how to live through it. For example; when each of our girls were newborns, we felt like we would never feel normal again! We were SO sleep deprived and I was on an emotional roller coaster with a touch of the baby blues. Eventually, our babies did learn how to sleep through the night though and we felt normal again, more rested, and ready to go through the next phases of parenthood. Right now I know, or at least I hope that our girls wont be getting up in the night forever. In the middle of the night and early in the morning, it's hard to have grace and to be patient and even loving but I just have to remember that wether they're sick, had a bad dream, teething, or just plain being ornery and not staying in their bed, I am called by God to treat them in the way that God treats us, His children.

I was up at around 5:30 this morning after a night of on and off sleeping and it would have been so easy to use my sleepiness as an excuse to be grouchy and let my kids sit in front of the tv all day but the show must go on. I've heard it said before that you have to be the person that you want your children to become. They are always watching us and mimicking our actions, good and bad. (scary!)

Even though I'm so tired and weary in this phase, I know that it too shall pass so until it does, I am going to make the choice to be a good mom. I will take my extra dose of patience in the morning. I will look to God's word for encouragement and strength. I will try my hardest to hold my tongue when I want to lash out because that only results in fear or resentment. I will be loving, caring, understanding, and fair. Most of all, I want my actions to reflect God's love. I want my children to see my love for Christ, not my anger and frustration toward them.

I know I will make mistakes. I've already made plenty, but while my children are still so little and impressionable, I want to give it my all to mold them into the women that Christ longs for them to be and to remember to apologize to them when I do mess up so that they know the difference between right and wrong. There are so many memories to be made in these years and I want those memories to be good ones.

I recommend reading, "Grace Based Parenting" by Dr. Tim Kimmel if you haven't already. I'm currently reading it and it was definitely the inspiration for this post. Here's a quote from the book to think about: "You've been handed a piece of history in advance--a gracious gift you send to a time you will not see.

No, I'm not M.I.A

Whew! These past two months have been a whirlwind! Let me get you up to speed on all the happenings.

Since my last post I have been training for the half marathon, started a new job as a pre-school teacher and therefor put my kiddos in the pre-school where I teach, injured my knee from running, was sick and had sick children on and off, husband traveled for work, 2 of my daughters had birthdays, I had a birthday, Lily-Kate started dance, and Jared and I started working in our church's youth group on Wednesday nights. I'm out of breath from typing all of that. ;)

Let's start with running. A few weeks ago, when attempting my 7 mile run, I felt a new kind of soreness in my left knee. Seeing as I am a new (stupid) runner, I didn't pay much attention to it, thinking no pain no gain, right? Wrong! I tried to run 6 miles the next week and had to stop after mile 4 because my knee was in so much pain. I iced it at least once a day for a week and took about 2 weeks off from training as well as purchasing some new running shoes from Fleet Feet, per the advice of a more knowledgable, more experienced runner friend. You know who you are. ;)
Once the knee was feeling better I got back to running, starting at 3 miles and now I'm up to 9 miles. 9 miles!!! I'm incredibly proud of myself because I NEVER thought that was possible! I will be running my first 15k race this Saturday, the Tulsa Run, and the Route 66 half marathon is in 4 weeks!

The job: A couple weeks after my daughter had started pre-k, the preschool director at our church approached me about taking on a teaching position. One of the teachers had decided last minute to not teach this year and the school year was about to start. The director told me that all 3 girls could attend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and I would only teach Tuesday and Thursday. That meant I would have 1 day a week all to myself to do whatever I needed to do/ wanted to do. Ever since our third child was born, I had been saying, If I could just have ONE day to myself, I could get so much accomplished and that's exactly what I got! One day where I can clean the bathrooms, do the dishes, or go shopping minus the kiddos. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely treasure my time at home with the girls, I really do, BUT, I have a 14 month old who insists on "helping" me load the dish washer and who unrolls an entire roll of toilet paper while I try to clean the bathroom and two other little helpers who think that if I'm sweeping, they need to sweep too with their little play brooms and suddenly my pile of dust and crumbs on the floor is once again strewn about the house. (sigh) When I'm home with the girls, I'd much rather be playing with them so that's why this "mommy day" is so nice. Also, now that we are a family of 5, we are so thankful for the extra money. I didn't think there was any way I could have a job at this phase in our life but this job provides me with the ability to take the girls with me. I love teaching my class of 3 year olds. They are at such an enjoyable age. It's definitely a challenge but I do love it. I'm so thankful that I was given the opportunity to work amongst friends at  a christian pre-school and share the love of Christ with the little boys and girls in my class and also SO grateful that my girls have the opportunity to attend! They LOVE it  and have learned so much already! We took Lily-Kate out of public school but she will return next year for kindergarten. (tear) God basically opened the door and lovingly pushed me through it with this job. =)

Life is BUSY, folks, but we are happy, blessed, and doing the best we can during these precious years while our kiddos are little. =)

Here are a few pics of what we've been up to the past couple months.

LK's first day of pre-k

Poor LK had a stomach virus on the day of her birthday party so we had to reschedule.

The baby had her first birthday!

birthday tea party with mommy.

first cupcake!

combined family birthday party for LK and Chloe at El Tequilla.

LK's rescheduled birthday party. It was SO hot!

....then Lucy got the stomach bug...a few times.

...and Chloe got it as well... :(

The big girls being cute as always.

A family trip to the zoo.

Lily-Kate started dance classes with her little friends ;)

Ice cream after her first class. According to LK, this face is a "fancy smile".

Chloe getting into EVERYTHING! 

Lucy with purchasing her first ever big girl panties! Exciting times.

Lucy potty training while LK gives her a pedicure. ;)

Jared and LK took and father daughter camping trip where LK caught her first fish!

I started adding miles with my running, thus learned how to supplement before, during, and after my 

runs.

we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch in Claremore 

Love this pic. Me and my little ducks.

pumpkin ring toss

I ran the Tulsa Run 15k!

It's starting to look like fall at our house.

Costume night at dance class! Adorbs, right? ;)

Well, that's what we've been up to! Until next post.

The big girl

My sweet Lily-Kate, my big girl, will be 4 years old on August 25th. Because of the date of her birthday, we had the option to go ahead and put her in pre-k this year or wait until next year. We weren't too fond of the idea of her being the youngest, smallest, kid in her class but she is so mature and is so ready for some kind of learning/ crafting outlet so we decided to let her start pre-k this year through our public school system. It's only 2 1/2 hours a day so it's just enough time for her to go play and learn without missing mommy too much. ;)

Lily-Kate is very much my "minnie me". She wants to everything I do, go everywhere I go, etc. She loves when her and I do "big girl things" together, just the two of us. For a week or so, she'd been asking me to do something "fancy" with her, just the two of us. I figured it would be a good idea to do something special with her before she started school so we had a "fancy day". 

Now, I'm as girly as they come, but I wasn't exactly sure what her expectations of a fancy day were....

She said we had to wear long dresses, eat chocolate, and go somewhere fancy. Apparently, the dress I had worn to church that day was not fancy enough so she made me change into a maxi dress because everyone knows, you're not fancy unless you're wearing a long dress. ;)

I wasn't sure where to take her for our fancy place. We have an Olive Garden in town which I figured she would consider "fancy" and I knew she'd love their black tie mousse cake!

Below is her expression after her first bite of the cake. ;)

We easily finished it off!

For our next event, I decided to take her to get her first manicure.

She just made herself right at home, reading magazines. (National Geographic, to be specific)

In the picture below on the right, she showed me this picture and said, "Mommy, look at this old lady! She's gorgeous. I love her." =) She made quite a few ladies in the waiting area chuckle.

As soon as she started soaking her nails, she was in heaven. ;)

The final product!

We had so much fun together and I was given the best mommy ever award! ;)

I love all my little Tabblettes the same but every once in a while it's so nice to do something special with just one of them, to really get to know each one of them as an individual and to make them feel special. With 3 kiddos all so close in age, it's easy for one of them to feel lost in the shuffle. I'm thankful for these special times I get to have with my girls and look forward to our next "fancy day!"

Do you do any kind of special day every so often for your kiddos? Do you do it monthly? Yearly? At random?