Mid week reminder.

Remember those awesome fruit popsicles I talked about? We cannot stop eating them at our house! Later in the week I made the tropical version with dices pineapple, mango, kiwi, and orange just and HOLY MOLY they are delicious! Davy was hesitant to try them thinking they were bitter but then quickly realized how much flavor they had! So easy to make and store and eat and eat and eat! I think mentally after Moses is in bed I want to be eating a little treat so being able to naw on a 40 calorie fruit popsicle for 15 minuets does wonders for me. If you haven’t already made them, you must!


Also remember that secret I mentioned a couple weeks back about bloggy stuff? Well get ready because it will be ready in a couple weeks! Still not sharing what it is however I will do an (obvious) teaser in advance so you won’t miss it!

Tip of the day: exercising will give you more energy! Sounds like an oxymoron because exerting all that energy should drain you, right? Nope! Even if it’s a 20 minuet jog or fun group fitness class; moving around will boost that energy you need to get you through the day. I have to remember this little tip about 1,587 times a week. Another thing exercising will help you do is be more conscious about what you’re eating! Mentally there is no way you can exercise for 45 minutes then sit down and clean out a pint of Ben & Jerry’s; you would hate to “ruin” all that work you just did.

(I’m sure majority of you already knew this time but if I need to be reminded 1,587 times a week you do too!)

My biggest boy

I need some happy in my life today and something that makes me really happy is talking about my baby boy. His half birthday is coming up next week (I have something special planned for that day) but I wanted to highlight some of my favorite things he’s doing lately.

He’s learned the word probably and uses it in all the appropriate times. Moses “I’m going to have waffles at school today”, Me “Yeah, maybe”, Moses “Probably”. It cracks me up.

He can pronounce love but sometimes still slips up and says lub and I LOVE it. We’ve started playing this game where I’ll say “I love (or lub) you” then he’ll say “I love you too” then I’ll say “I love you three” and we normally jump around with a few more numbers then he bounces over to saying the numbers in Spanish. That’s another thing that’s adorable…his Spanish counting skills. He can go up to 6 and loves to randomly blurt them out.

His vocabulary is never ending and has picked up so many phrases we say. This morning he ran into the bathroom and said “I gotta get the poops out” (I’m always asking him if he needs to get the peeps or poops out). When he’s naked his potty training is going great. He’ll go peeps every time into his kiddie urinal (if you have a boy this is an INCREDIBLE invention) and likes to wait until the last second to run into the bathroom to go #2. Our next phase is going to work on wearing underpants or clothes and still catch the feeling he needs to go before it’s too late. Thankfully with the hot weather running around as “nakey boy” is quite enjoyable for him.

He knows naughty words and knows they’re naughty. Dang-it is the biggest no-no phrase on his mind right now and he can’t stop saying he shouldn’t be saying it. Thanks to my big mouth he’s learned this phrase and just the right time to use it. After a pop in the mouth one day he now knows it as the foulest phrase on the block. He’ll say it and quickly follow it with “no do NOT say dang it…I get a spanking”. This past weekend he blurted it out without thought and quickly put his hand over his mouth in shock that it came out. He even told us all he’ll get a pop on the mouth if he says it!

He’s into doing everything himself; putting on his socks, climbing into the car, climbing into his high chair, carrying something. He’s also into throwing a huge fit if he doesn’t get to do it. Sometimes when we are running 5 minutes late in the morning and I’m in heels with bags filling each arm it’s not always the best time to let him be independent but I try to give him as much leeway as possible.

He is a complete water boy and loves loves loves swimming around the pool!

That’s all for now and within the few minutes it took me to write this is brought a smile to my face thinking about him.

Summertime Chill

With the 100 degree heat hovering over North Florida lately and Summer Solstice this week I knew I wanted to make something that yelled “SUMMERTIME”! I stumbled upon Gina’s Skinny Recipes a couple weeks ago when trying to find a healthy banana nut bread recipe and have fallen in love. She takes classic recipes (along with some I’ve never heard of) and gives them a healthy spin all while keeping their flavor. Not only does she offer up the recipes but she gives Weight Watchers points and nutritional facts on everything.
I have been eyeing these fruit filled popsicles since last week and can imagine many hot summer days in the kiddie pool with these in hand.
I quadrupled the recipe to make 16 popsicles and used organic apple juice (because that’s all I had on hand). They are super simple to make and taste wonderful!

Basically you pick out a few of your favorite fruits.

 Dice them up and add them together in a big bowl.

Fill each of the 5 oz cups with the fruit mixture and add 1 tbsp of juice.

Insert popsicle sticks and freeze.

I was hoping to debut them this weekend but after dinner last night we couldn’t resist!

 

Moses is picky about his fruit but since everything was chopped up and frozen he didn’t seem to mind the tartness of the kiwi. When I first made them I thought they seemed kind of small but since they literally are frozen fruit chunks it actually takes a nice long while to lick (or bite if you’re a toddler) your way through.

About half way through bitting/licking/chewing

I stuck with Gina’s recipe to avoid a flavor mix up but next on my list I’m going to make more of a tropical popsicle by adding chunks of pineapple, mango, banana, and kiwi with a slash of orange juice. At under 40 calories a pops these are the perfect hot summer day treat regardless of your age!

When crying about it doesn't help.

Somedays life crushes me like a big wave. Somedays I’m on the verge of crying for hours and the clock literally ticks away by the minuet. Somedays I don’t want to work or eat healthy or cross off my check list or smile or do anything. Somedays I need to be shaken alive. Yesterday was one of those days. So what did I do? Threw all my evening plans out the window and started fresh.
I cancelled my evening exercise plans and met the boys at the mall for some family fun. We let Moses play on the playground, I ate a slice of pizza (Cinnabun was calling my name but if I ate pizza and a Cinnabun in one setting I might have had a remorseful meltdown hours later), and we walked around window shopping. Then we headed over to another store to buy Davy two new shirts (poor guy needs about 10!) and home in time for Moses to head to bed. Then I sat on the couch with a big pile of laundry and took my sweet time folding it. If it didn’t get done, so what. I needed to just relax, keep my hands busy, and come back to reality.

Today I woke up and baked squash for tonight’s dinner (workin’ women need to plan ahead even if it means cooking dinner at 8am) took a shower and started a new day.

Weekend getaway

In my array of blog subscriptions I find myself constantly turning to the simple blogs that note their daily life activities. Sometimes pictures, sometimes a story, but the reason why I’m so glued to these is beyond me. So without further ado, here’s our weekend in a nutshell.

Friday night was our even-if-we-are-only-going-a-couple-hours-away-for-one-night “supply” trip. Which means we write a very small list then stroll the isles thinking “do we NEED this for our trip?” This time we stocked up on fresh berries, oil and other car thingymagiers Davy needed to change my oil, and a present for the birthday girl.

Saturday morning while Davy was working Moses and I took it easy getting our things together; I’m normally one to stress and make the entire day about packing but seeing as it was Saturday a little laziness was due. By 1:15pm we were packed and ready to hit the road; I even managed to shower and put makeup on for all the passengers in passing cars to admire (wink wink).

We arrived at Davy’s grandparent’s house in Panama City Beach late afternoon and spent some time catching up. I had visited their house once over 8 years ago so it was a bit of a shock to me to see how much of a “collector” his Grandmother was. To sum it up there were over 200 Barbies, 250 CareBares, and an assortment of other very strange things all over the house. Moses was in heaven because almost everything was to be played with. At some point in the evening Davy had the realization that his Grandpa (and their furniture) smelled just like his Dad did. As I took a big whiff of the couch I instantly thought back to the pile of his Dad’s cloth we took home after he passed away and how they’re tucked in a small pile in our office and how I remember him standing their wearing those pajamas pants and T-shirts and how it made us smile but feel sad all at the same time. I smelled the couch a lot that night. Later we did the tourist thing and headed down to Pineapple Willy’s for a beach side dinner on their back porch complete with a beautiful sunset.

Sunday morning we headed to Golden Corral for Father’s Day breakfast. I couldn’t tell you the last time I had eaten here but something about being out of town and being a holiday made it wonderful. All the way down to the mass amounts of People of Walmart faces and breakfast pizza. We then went over to Pier Park Mall for a little shopping before the birthday party. My wallet was thankful we only had a couple hours to shop because I could have done serious damage!

"Hi Mom, I'm too grown up and busy to turn around for a real picture but I'll flash you a quick wave"

The best part of the trip (and the reason we went) was the birthday party at a State park water area. It had large lap pools with diving boards, a big tube slide, and an entire area dedicated to kids. To say Moses was happy is the understatement of the year; he was beyond thrilled, couldn’t stop smiling elated to be there. The entire area was shallow enough for him to swim/crawl/walk around in and he did not stop playing the 2 ½ hours we were there. He loved jumping into the deep end with me and kept asking for me to back up so he was able to be under water long. He even got brave enough to go down the mini tube slide by himself! After this trip we saw how much he likes the water and will make it a point to take many trips to the pools here in town.

To wrap up our weekend we got home around 7pm in a three hour time period I unloaded our bags, cleaned up the house, did the diaper laundry, did a load of regular laundry, and make homemade banana nut bread!

I am me.

I Tweeted this the other day out of raw emotion but it’s stuck with me:

"Sometimes reading too much about other people's lives will make you jealous when in reality your life is pretty dang good! #takeastepback"

 Sometimes reading blogs and websites can be wonderful; I get great ideas, catch up on friends, see into others lives, and get lost in the world of wishing. On that same note it can turn incredibly sour; how many times have you found yourself lusting over someone else’s life? If I’m not careful I find myself becoming jealous and envious over a complete stranger. I can walk away from the computer sad because I have mentally beaten myself up about every aspect of my life.

I want to eat more organically like her family does.
I want to be as thin as her, as curvy as her, and pretty as her.
I want a cleaner house like her.
I want to be able to decorate like she can.
Her kids are so much more advanced than mine; I want to be a better teacher.
I want a perfect marriage like her.
I want all those friends she has.
I wish I lived where she does.
I wish I was her.

If you reverse all the sentences look what they say; I’m not a thin, curvy or pretty. I’m not a good decorated, I’m not a good mom. I don’t have a good marriage. I don’t have good friends. I don’t like who I am.

Wait a minute, I do like who I am! Snap out of this funk and look around; I do have a good life! I do love my son and husband and friends. I am thankful for my house, my food, my body.

Be careful what thoughts you let into your head. I love blogging and reading others blogs but if I don’t have that protective wall up mentally it can cause some seriously damage. We are so wonderful in our own way regardless of what others have.


I’m loving myself today, how about you?

The Blonde Bob that is no more.

Before: This picture doesn't do justice to how long and big his hair had become. The thickness made the sides and back poof out and backside was climbing down his neck. 

During: Throughout his hair cut he counted to Mrs. Julie in spanish, in english, told her what every color around us was, and how he likes to go swimming in the pool amoung 10 other stories.

After: No matter how hot it is I can't get rid of the bleach blonde swoop in the front. Call it Beiber Fever if you will but it's just too dang cute!

Blury shot but you can really see how much hair she took off in the back. She even thinned out the sides to help with future poofy-ness!

And of course the one thing that keeps him happy at Mrs. Julies salon is the LOLLY POPS!

All this was done before school this morning! That's how the working Moms roll!

Get Happy.

Things that are making me happy this week:

1. CamelBak’s Podium Chill insulated water bottle. I kid you not, it IS the best water bottle ever invented. My mom uses them when she cycles and I’m always using them when I’m at her house. A couple weeks she got me an “I love you” gift and it was the blue version of the water bottle. I’m convinced I drink double my daily water intake by always having cold sip at hand. It has a “jet valve” feature that the boys find glorious when they hold it about 6 inches from the other’s face then shoot it into their mouth. They are around $14 each and worth every single penny.

2. Moses’ American Appeal t-shirt. It was a 2nd birthday present from a dear friend and it is just now fitting him perfectly. Actually to be honest after his party I couldn’t find it. I searched our house up and down and called both grandparents hoping they knew where it was. It went missing for months and I thought I would have to break the news to the gift giver until I surprisingly found it stuffed in a gift bag in our office. It’s a heather grey blue t- shirt and probably the softest thing he’s even worn. He looks adorable in it paired with some shorty shorts and his long blond locks. Making a mental note to photograph this memory ASAP.

3. Biggest Loser’s theme song; particularly the main lyric “What have you done today to make you feel proud?” Not boastful, of course, but proud that you’ve accomplished something. Especially when I’m in the middle of something really tough or dreading doing a daunting task it pops in my head and I practically scream it aloud; “What have I done today to make myself proud?” After I’ve gotten through the task I always reiterate “THAT’s what I’ve done today to make me feel proud”. If you don’t know the song then download it ASAP and let it be the first song on every motivational playlist. The day I get a smart phone I will find a way to make it my alarm clock ringtone.

Yep, it just happened.

My entire world has come full circle…my mom got a blog. Well it’s going more like this…



Mom: Hey, how do you start a blog? Do you do Facebook blog or just go to I want a blog.
Me: Uhhh….. there are lots of different hosting sites. Try Blogger.com, it’s Google’s blog.
Mom: Ok..

 A few minutes later, another call.


Mom: I’m trying to log in…I already have a Google name….now I have to get a Google account..but I already posted a blog.


A few minutes later, another call.


Mom: It says domain name and blog name….do they have to be the same.
Me: It might help

 A few minutes later, another call.


Mom: Ok I’m done now it’s asking if I want to decide on a layout or post….there are only 6 options
Me: No you can edit color and font within those options. (dying at the thought of explaining that)
Me: ok…


Mom: I tried to post something but it messed up.
Mom: How do I see this blog? It’s asking preview blog but now do have I to go back and post it? Oh publish post?
Me: Yes

 A few minutes later, another call.

Mom: So when people ask whats your blog name do you just say the name?
Me: no you tell them your domain name
Mom: So you tell people Busytown
Me: It’s called Busyland
Mom: Ok so you say Busytown or your URL
Me: I’ve never actually had a conversation and given out the URL to my blog

…..

Mom: So if I find people and want to read their blogs and they want to read mine how do I “follow” them.
Me: Mom, I can’t sit down and have this conversation right now. I’ll call you later and we can talk all about it.

 Again, my mother has a blog. No she will not be following mine but at one point she might figure out how to find my and she will read this post and although she will be annoyed I just blasted her to the world I hope it makes her laugh.

The beauty in growing up

Last night after rushing home from work to get ready and walking down to the [almost] front row I sat down and watched my baby sitter graduate from Middle School. And do you know what that means? She’s officially in High School! You know the place you get your braces off have your first kiss, learn how to drive, fight over boys, get your heart broken, apply for college, and all that jazz?



According to my husband normal Middle School graduation is no big deal but when you’ve gone to the same private Christian school since Kindergarten and over half your class mates attended your 6th birthday sleepover it’s kind of emotional. No longer will they be the intimate class of 30+ students but now move on to different high schools and friendship circles. The parents have formed bonds and spent many afternoons carpooling, coordinating snacks, and sitting on the sidelines at volleyball games.


Their Valedictorian had all the girls in tears talking about their years of building Godly foundations and friendships that will last a lifetime and the tears didn’t stop flowing until after pictures were taken.


This picture does not do her justice because of the terrible quality (that’s what happens when you try to take a picture of a picture that’s displayed on the camera screen) but I wanted to show just how grown up she is. I had to ask her again today because I swore she was wearing heels by our height different, but no, that’s her….my beautiful, mature, remarkable High School sister.

Wow I didn't realize how terrible the quality was until I uploaded; I WILL be changing it out this weekend!

On a funnier note: we were texting about the pictures from last night and I told her she was so pretty she could be a part time model. Which of course made me think of the brilliantly delivered “Part Time Model” song by Flight of the Concords.

Shh....

If you don’t like being teased go ahead and stop reading now. I have two teasers I HAVE GOT TO get off my chest or I might explode (from secrecy, of course!).

The first one is something’s coming up on Busyland that I’m super duper excited about! It’s been in the works for a couple weeks now and will still need a couple more weeks until its ready for its reveal. It’s been so fun to work on and I hope that everyone will enjoy it!

The other thing is something outside of my Busyland life is going on. Well…I consider mostly everything Busyland worthy but this needs to be kept quiet for a little while longer. It’s one of those things I’m superstitious about and if I share now then it might all go away; the good of it has yet to come to fruition so until it does…or comes closer to…it will remain a secret! And by secret I mean not one single soul that knows me knows about it. Yep so that thing you’re thinking that might require another human being to know probably isn’t it!

I’M SORRY FOR THE TEASE! As I looked over what I just wrote it makes it seem like they are so OBVIOUS which is fact they are probably not what you’re thinking. I hate this for ya’ll, I really do, but if I didn’t let the universe know I was holding secrets then I might just EXPLODE.

Warning: Momentarily morphing into a teenager.

After finishing a few books in the winter I was out of “must reads” on my Kindle and started searching for the next great book. I asked Facebook for suggestions and found Mystery/ Thriller or Rom Com/ Sappyness I just couldn’t handle. Desperate I started reading a free download which barely held my interest. A few months back my friend and fellow reader couldn’t stop talking about this great new series she was HOOKED on; The Hunger Games. Spouting they were “better than Twilight” (oh yeah, my other LOUD AND PROUD guilty pleasure) and began explaining the premise.

About halfway through her explanation I was lost and thought a story set in the future about the world as a different place sounded stupid. Not until my other friend and fellow reader gabbed that she could not put them down and read all 3 books in the matter of days. At that point I knew I had to check them out. I bought The Hunger Games and started reading that night. By night 2 I was intrigued and by night 3 I couldn’t put it down! It wasn’t cheesy, it wasn’t overly romantic and it had me hooked! Just when I thought the plot was leveling out …BAM here comes another twist. One night I stayed up until midnight clicking page by page as fast as I could because there was no way I could sleep with the anxiety of not knowing what came next.

This weekend I got the second book and cannot wait to dive in. If you didn’t like the Vampire love in Twilight then you’re going to love these books. If you did LOVE like Twilight then you’re going to love these books. If you’re a human girl then you’re going to love these books! Made for teenagers? Yes. Addicting? Yes. Already stalking Google for any updates about The Hunger Games movie being release next year? Yes please!


Please proceed to fast forward to your adult life and carry on…