After a week of 78 ice storms, 4 days of no school, and a round of strep that could be described as the image you DON’T want to see when you google “strep”, I am grateful that we all survived!

The week may have been crazy, but there were some really sweet and wonderful moments mixed in! Here are my moments of gratitude for the week:

Saturday Morning

A normal morning for me looks like this…

As I wake up to the sound of my alarm I can feel that half of my body is teetering on the edge of the bed because the other half is being warmed by the little person that has scooted too close. As I try to open my eyes I am off to wake up Maddie and start our day. For the next hour it is a whirlwind of making breakfast, cleaning up breakfast, attempting to wake Kyle without inducing tears, making beds, picking out clothes, re-picking out clothes, styling hair without inducing tears, yelling “we have to leave in two minutes” – for 10 minutes, and then searching to find everyones shoes. Sound familiar? I’m guessing a lot of Moms go thru this same routine every morning.

Even on Saturdays I usually wake up with anxiety-producing thoughts of everything that needs to get done running thru my head.

Not this past Saturday! I had the most peaceful morning. I got to wake up 100% naturally. No alarm, no children in my bed, no sun glaring in my window.

It was a bit of a rainy morning making the light in my room a cozy haze of dull gray. I drifted in and out of sleep for about 30 minutes. My bed was the perfect temperature, not too warm, not too cold. As I finally woke I snuggled under our new blanket that still has that new soft feel and let my body sink into the softness of my mattress. I enjoyed every minute of laying there in peace. I actually had a smile come across my face.

I was so grateful for a chance to wake up in pure peace and bliss on Saturday morning.

Birthday Party & A New Experience

About two weeks ago my daughter, Maddie, turned 10. Usually for her birthday we will have a family dinner with all the aunts and uncles and cousins and then a small family celebration with just mom, dad and brother. This year we decided that she could finally have a (small) friend birthday party.

Where we live it is pretty common for people to have big birthday parties at places like painting studios, waterparks, gymnastic gyms, or pottery cafes. Growing up in small town Iowa I was used to birthdays being  cake at a friends house and a few games in the back yard. Things have definitely changed.

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Wow what a week! This is always one of the busiest weeks of the year for me. We have a birthday, Valentines Day, crafts abound, parties, multiple parties, family dinners and volunteering at school. Not to mention all the regular old life stuff!! Even though it was busy I had a lot to be grateful for. Especially all the LOVE during this week ♥

Here are 5 4 of my happiest moments: (Oh man…I didn’t get around to writing the 5th. It was a BUSY week to say the least!)

My Tribe

In college it was so easy to make friends. It was like you had an automatic tribe. I had an amazing group of friends. We lived together, played together, and stood beside each other no matter what! Most of those ladies are still in my life today and I am so thankful for them. As time has past we have all ended up in different parts of the country. Now our time together is over text, phone, social media and the occasional visit. Which I always cherish!

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I’m struggling a little bit to write my intro this week, it’s been a long day of parenting. So instead of sweating it out I’m going to keep it short and sweet.

It was a great week- I got to spend time with my friends and I posted some really good recipes! Here are 5 more things that made me grateful this week:

Love Letters

The other day I stopped at our mailbox to get the mail for the day (read week). When I hopped back in the car Kyle said “do I have any cards in the mail?”. Of course he didn’t. Writing letters and sending cards is definitely a lost art. Not to mention when this happened it was the end of January when NOTHING is happening and there was no reason for him to receive any mail. I said “Well, no buddy, the best way to receive mail is to send mail.”. So we decided he would send a card to his little friend in Arizona, we’ll call her P.

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Well hello there February!!!! Long time, no see.

We did it, we made it thru January. In my opinion it is one of the worst months of the year. You have the let down from the past two months of holiday excitement. It is ridiculously cold and everything is brown. At least in February we have Valentines Day, the Daddy Daughter dance, and Maddie’s birthday.

I am definitely looking forward to March. That is when I feel like we have really made it thru the winter and we are staring Spring in the face! We’ll finally have a few warmer days, which means friday afternoon happy hours and time with friends. The flowers begin to peek thru the dirt and the trees start to show a haze of green. I will welcome those days with open arms!

I am going to fill this post with summer flowers to give us all a little winter boost!

Here are a few things that got me thru this last week in January, gratefully: [Read more…]

Wow, this past week was busy but great! Full of birthday parties, family activities, school, extracurricular activities, and doctors appointments. As I am writing this I have to say that I am thankful I did not have anyone home sick this week. Since Christmas break I have not had the kids back in school for a full week. We have either had someone sick, recovering from surgery (tonsillectomy), or at home for a snow day. I think we are finally on the upswing!

I am loving my gratitude journal project. It really makes me take the time to stop and be thankful for ALL the things in my life, not just the big exciting things. I hope you are able to “stop and smell the roses” with me, or in the case of this week “stop and smell the humidity”…. read on : ) [Read more…]

I’m super excited to be starting this new experiment in 2018. A gratitude journal!!! I have heard about gratitude journaling and the 5 minute journal for a while now. The idea is to take a few minutes, at least once a week, and write down 5 things for which you are grateful. I started to do this in December, only in my head, a few times a week and have loved it! It really makes me aware of how little things can make a big impact, things I would normally miss when I’m not being mindfully grateful. Sometimes my gratitude can be something as small as “Im thankful for the birds chirping while I walk outside” or “Im grateful for my car seat heaters on this chilly winter morning” or sometimes larger things like “I’m thankful that I love my husband and he loves me”.

So my plan is to reflect on my week and journal here, every friday, 5 things for which I am grateful. All this to hopefully gain a little perspective on what is important to me so I can cut out the junk and allow more time to focus on my family and friends and all the wonderful little things in my life. Here we go… my first Friday Gratitude.

Ice Cream Experiment

On Saturday Kyle, my son, and I had an hour or two home alone together. I wanted to do something fun and not just sit down in front of the tv together or each go our own way. So I decided we would make homemade ice cream together! It was a great 10-20 minute easy activity that we both enjoyed. It kept Kyles interest and we got to eat really yummy ice cream at the end!

I am grateful that we had this Ice Cream Experiment to do because it allowed me to connect with Kyle one-on-one.

5 minute Homemade Ice Cream Experiment

Homemade Ice Cream is a fun, edible craft to do with your kids. Easy to make and delicious to eat.

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Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 1 serving

Author: Susie Weinrich

Ingredients

Supplies

• ▢ 1 pint sized zipper top bag
• ▢ 1 gallon sized zipper top bag
• ▢ Ice
• ▢ 6 tablespoons salt

Ice Cream

• ▢ 1 tablespoon sugar
• ▢ ½ cup milk
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

 

• Fill the gallon size bag half full with ice. Add the salt to the ice and seal the bag.
• Put the pint size bag into a glass, folding it over the top, so it will sit upright while you fill it.
• Add the milk, sugar and vanilla to the pint size bag and seal the top completely.
• Place the pint size bag into the larger one and seal again.
• Shake the bag until the milk mixture becomes ice cream, about 5 minutes.
• Take the smaller bag out of the larger bag and wipe the ice and salt from the outside.
• Open the bag and enjoy the ice cream with a spoon

Recipe Tips and Notes:

Try adding some flavorings: pureed strawberry, mint extract, mini chocolate chips or chocolate syrup.

Did you make this recipe?Connect with me and let me know by commenting below!

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Holding Hands With My Daughter

This past Sunday I took the kids to a birthday party at the roller skating rink. I cannot tell you how much I love roller skating (not joking). It was my everything when I was a little girl. Me and my friends would spend hours coming up with roller skating dance routines in the driveway to then perform for any parents willing to watch! Well, I don’t think my daughter got the roller skating gene or maybe it’s just not as popular an activity as it once was. But as we took to the wooden floor her skates would slip and slide from underneath her and she would grab for my hand. We would skate around the rink holding hands lap after lap.

As my daughter gets older the times to be present and connected with her are becoming fewer and fewer. I am grateful for these moments when my daughter still needs me, holds my hand, and wants me by her side (even if it’s only because she doesn’t want to bite it in her skates!).

My Headphones

As I write this I am sitting in the middle of Urban Air Trampoline Park on a Tuesday afternoon. School is out and it is -3 degrees outside. Needless to say this building is bumpin’ with music and busting at the seams with kids. Obviously I am not participating in the jumping and instead trying to get a little work done. (At a certain point in your life jumping wildly on a trampoline is just a bad idea… especially after carrying two babies- It makes my organs feel like scrambled eggs! No thanks!)

I am having mucho grande gratitude for my lovely little headphones right now. They are currently piping the sweet voices of the ladies from Bitch Sesh into my brain. Love that podcast!

A Reminder

This week my younger sister came for a visit. She is the only sister that doesn’t live in the KC area so it was great to have her here. We got to hang out, relax, eat, play games, and talk. When all four sisters get together there is a lot of laughter and a lot of talking. It’s wonderful!

On her last night here we stayed up late and talked about our lives, our goals, our worries, and anxieties. It came at a really good time for me. Right now I am a blogger/recipe developer/photographer/mom when you mix that with a titch of winter blues and a couple failed recipes you get a particularly low moment. I was second guessing my goals and feeling like I hadn’t made any progress on Mom’s Dinner. What I had forgotten is where I had been and how far I have come. A year ago all I wanted was to be able to create content and post on my very own website. Instead I was stuck trying to figure out code and how to build a website (insert blood, sweat, and TEARS here). Now my website is up and running and I am able to post whenever the mood strikes! I had completely forgotten all the steps I had taken to get where I am today. A year ago, if I could have looked into the future at myself today, I would be SO PROUD!

My sister reminded me “If you can’t be happy in the here and now, you will never be happy”! How true! I was putting a goal on my happiness…. If I accomplish this, THEN I will be happy and feel successful. The problem with that is you will always move that goal to something bigger and grander… so you are never reaching that happiness/success goal!

I am so grateful for the convo with my sister and the reminder to be happy and grateful in the moment you are in RIGHT NOW.

A Warm(er) Day

I feel like this winter might just swallow me whole! It has been colder than any winter I can remember in the past 10 years. I am very much looking forward to spring. But, we finally had a day over 20 degrees here in KC. I think it hit 40 today! Woo Hoo!

Even though there was still a bite in the air and the wind whirled I took advantage of the sun and the warmer temps. Around 3:30 my son and I bundled up and took a 20 minute stroll around our neighborhood. It was short and sweet and I enjoyed every minute of the sun on my face. Kyle enjoyed stomping in the melting snow and picking up fallen leaves and something we call “sticky balls”- see the photo below.

Today I was grateful for the warmer temps and the chance to get outside and feel the sunshine on my face!