Time is precious.

My days are very full lately. School for me and Sweetpea, working and activities in the evenings, and fitting in cleaning, cooking, and errands during "down time". I thrive when I am busy, I feel like I have purpose. My only regret is that I tend to drop the more creative aspects from my life, things like crafting, blogging, and taking pictures. 

I was talking to my husband on the phone the other night (brief but sweet conversations now a days) and he noted that I haven't been uploading photos to Facebook. Facebook is a very important tool to me because I have family and friends literally around the world. It is truly a blessing to be able to upload a photo from one of my daughter's numerous events and have it instantly available to my parents in Nebraska and my in laws in Japan. I argued that I've been uploading random phone pics, but don't have the desire to use my "nice" camera to make record of mundane, everyday activities. Until tonight.

As soon as my daughter stepped off the bus yesterday I knew something was wrong. She complained that her stomach hurt, and sure enough, she was vomiting about an hour later. She caught a nasty stomach bug that has been going around and I had to cancel my classes that I teach, skip my college classes today, and cancel several plans with friends over the weekend. Honestly, it was a blessing in disguise.

I've been going a mile a minute and I haven't taken the time recently to sit with my girl, hold her and cherish her. She still loves to snuggle and I spent as much time as I could today to do nothing. Watched a lot of Spongebob. Did some tidying up while she napped. Then I took the opportunity to give her a bath, scrubbing her not-so-little-anymore toes (that I painted a sparkly purple afterwards).  I know she is growing up so quickly now so I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots.

 It was unprovoked and absolutely necessary. 

I still need loads of practice with both using my camera and editing, but played a little tonight once she was in bed. Trying to get her eyes to pop more....

As you can see, she is feeling much better after her bath!

-Barbie

Day 5 of 56

It's Friday, and I feel great! 

This cutting out carbs and sugar thing really had me worried. I thought I would have massive cravings but honestly it's been smooth sailing. I have to give credit to the smarties who create delicious meals with unconventional ingredients and so graciously share them on the internet. Here is a sampling of some of my food from the week (in low-res phone pics, of course):

  

1. Spinach Smoothie
2. Grain-Free Apple Crisp
3. Grain-Free Fried Chicken with some salsa, avocado, and cauliflower "rice"
4. Salmon, green beans, butternut squash with toasted pecans 
5. Grain-Free "Pancakes" with berries
6. Baked Kale

Surprisingly, I've been able to get most of the unconventional ingredients that I've needed at the Commissary, where I normally do my grocery shopping. There were a couple items that I could only find at a local natural market. I've tried a lot of new foods and LOVED them. Cashew butter is amazing, and so is Sunbutter, although that has some sugar in it so that is just for Sweetpea at the moment. She is also trying everything with me, which I'm so proud of. I really hope to raise her as a curious eater.

Today was the first day I've ever made butternut squash, and man have I been missing out. It's like if a pumpkin and a sweet potato had a baby.

 A delicious, delicious baby. 

I've also been doing all the required workouts for the challenge. That, on top of ballet class and other random workouts that I throw in each day. I feel really good and I'm so excited about the next 51 days! I can't wait to see how I look and feel at the end.

Tomorrow I plan on making these for girl's night:

Source

Guac Poppers 
Source

...and possibly these:

Cauliflower Tots
Source

I'm not usually the biggest fan of cooking, but all of these things are easy and quick to make. And since I'm eating well and in a solid workout routine I have a lot more energy to commit to things like cooking and cleaning.

Who am I?!

My goal in sharing all of this is to hopefully inspire someone to start making healthy choices. In no way do you have to make big changes like I am right now (I'm kind of a health nut so this crap gets me giddy), but little things everyday will add up over the weeks, months, and years.

 Love your body and it will love you back!

-Barbie

Day 1 of 56

I've started a fitness challenge. It is 8 weeks long (56 days) and by the end I hope to be stronger, leaner, and most importantly, healthier.

I'm no rookie to working out. I really like getting my sweat on, but tend to do the same cardio and light lifting exercises, which give me the same results. I wanted to change things up a bit and see where it will get me. Working with the trainer over the holidays clued me into how awesome it is to feel strong!

So for 56 days I will be eating more lean protein and no refined carbohydrates. A paleo diet. I do love my carbs, so it will be a challenge. I normally am not an advocate of carb free diets, I just don't think it's healthy to eat a lot of meat because of the saturated fat, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Why not? It definitely won't be forever.

And of course I'll also be doing a different workout everyday. I get the workout sent to my email the night before so I have all of the following day to fit it into my schedule. 

Today was good, I'm optimistic. Hopefully by the end I have enough upper body strength to do at few pull ups. Can't even just do one, so part of my work out today was to just hang for one minute, which is actually much harder than you think it would be!

I've been pinning a bunch of "fitspiration" to get me motivated. Feel free to follow me on Pinterest!

And just to set the mood a little more...

Stay strong!

-Barbie

I was hibernating.

Random phone pic snapped during a layover today.
I like it.

Actually, I was in Omaha, Nebraska visiting family for the past month.

Got to visit with my friend Kim from The Wicopy for a day. I kick myself for not spending more time with friends while I was in the area, but honestly I didn't do much. Was a good vacation, minus Daniel being gone.

           Slept a lot. It was awesome.

Worked out a lot, too. Actually lost a teensy bit of weight over the holidays, and GAINED a good bit of muscle (my upper body is weak!) woot! If you are in Omaha and want a kick ass trainer hit up Aundrea.

And read the Hunger Games series. Pretty good, quick reads, and yeah I'll probably see the movie.

Don't have any big plans for the new year, just class and work like usual. No excited blog plans either. Maybe some fitness stuff? We'll see.

          Missing Daniel. Just waiting.

Trick or Treat!

I got something very sweet!

She told me this was her "pretty pose".

Check out her rock! ;)

I sure hope it takes a while before she finds her Prince Charming....

Happy Halloween!

Last Year in Wonderland

Thought I'd quickly share some pictures from last Halloween. We dressed up as a family and it was so fun! 

Sweet Pea was a spot on Alice!

I wasn't planning on dressing up our dog Jazmynn, but I saw this costume on clearance and couldn't resist!

Hubby was a last minute Mad Hatter. His costume consisted entirely of Dollar Tree items.

I was the Cheshire Cat. I love an excuse to break out the face paint!

I think we make a lovely couple ;)

I love Halloween and I'm bummed that it's just me and my girl this year. But at least I get a whole year to plan next year's family outing! Any suggestions?

Sweet Pea is going to look great again this year, I look forward to posting pictures tomorrow!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

No, no. I'm not alluding to the fact that I haven't blogged in forever and a day. However,  I'm sure my (maybe five?) dedicated readers have missed me a great deal. Hi, mom. 

My husband left for a "long trip" a few weeks ago. This has been in the works for a couple months prior to his leaving, so I've been prepping myself for quite awhile. He was all ready to go, then they cancelled everything. A few weeks later he got the green light again, and in less than a week it was cancelled again. Another week, and it was a for sure thing. After going through so many ups and downs it was almost a relief to know that we was, for sure, going to be gone for half a year. No, I am not happy about his leaving, but it's good have the plans laid out that I've been preparing for.

The first week was hard, just personally very difficult for several reasons that weren't necessarily caused by his absence, but definitely made worse because of it . Thankfully, I have a great support system of friends who encouraged me, several of whom have been through multiple separations like this. Not once did I hear "Suck it up, this is only your first time, and you only have one kid to deal with!" Encouragement and reassurance were gracefully bestowed upon me, and for those who gifted them I thank you wholeheartedly! I can't imagine what this is like for the third time around with several little ones to care for.

I can say that I'm slowly figuring out how to function on my own. Sweetpea and I are gradually getting into a routine, if you could call it that. They say to stay busy, it makes the time go by faster, and busy I am. School and work for me, plus shuttling little miss to school and activities leaves me just enough time to clean the house and microwave cook a meal. It isn't clockwork yet, but it should be fairly close (I hope) soon.

I intend to make crafting, work outs, and blogging part of my routine as well. I'm chock full of great intentions.

For now I am just appreciating the joys of fall, and missing my husband dearly.

Our Family
Fall 2010 © The Happy Yoga Mom