The power of words

I finally have a computer cord again. I have had a million different post ideas and have been wanting to write all week but it's just not as easy on the iPad...anyway.

I had the nicest thing happen to me today. It was a reminder of the power a simple compliment and how it can literally turn your day around. Really it was a God thing I think. That funny man, He sure works in mysterious ways and brings people in and out at the perfect time.

This week has been rough. I was lacking patience with the boys, got frustrated very easily, Jonas has been getting his back molars and I had a bad allergy attack yesterday that left my head out of sorts. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of week I'm talking about.

So this morning, randomly and completely out of the blue, I received a Facebook message from an old friend. I haven't seen this friend in years - I knew her well in high school and we talk every great now and again. In the message she complimented me on my parenting abilities, encouraged me and thanked me for being a great example for others.

I'm not kidding, I cried like a little girl. It was just what I needed to hear in the midst of such a tough week because you know what, being a mom is HARD WORK. And to make things worse, I think we are the hardest on our own selves, you know? Needless to say,

The point of this story is if you have been struggling in something, I want to encourage and uplift you. You are doing a GREAT job! Keep going. And if you know of somebody who is having a hard time and have been thinking of saying something, do it.

You have no idea what your words will mean to them, trust me.

A 30 Minute Meal: Curried Chicken with Quinoa and Veggies

I'm not going to lie, I've been in a dinner rut. We've had about a million variations of pasta - much to Gabriel's delight - and more breakfast for dinner than, well, breakfast.

Armed with the motivation fueled by my workouts, I decided to change all of that this week. I want to get excited about food again and to start using it to make my time at the gym worth it because you know, they say it's something like 70% nutrition and 30% exercise, right?

I wanted to find something packed to the brim with flavor but without any "naughty" foods and this fit the bill in so many ways. Not only was this dish flavorful and filling, but it was homey and warm on such a cold night.  Oh, and did I mention it was FAST? We are talking 30 minutes or less.

Here's a confession for you - I have never used curry powder and I don't know how I have ever lived because it is SO good. After scouring website after website looking for the perfect recipe, I decided to use this recipe as inspiration. It doesn't have any weird crazy ingredients that I would never ever have in my house. Perfect.

One note - you will notice if you google something like this that most recipes call for turmeric. I didn't have it, nor did I have any desire to go get it, so I left it out. It was delicious without it but if you have it and want to use it, I would say around 1/2 tsp. would suffice.

Ingredients List

1 c. quinoa

4 c. chicken broth, divided

3 chicken breasts, diced in 1 inch cubes

salt and pepper to taste

6 tsp. curry powder, divided

1 tsp. garlic powder (I was too lazy to mince garlic, but you certainly could)

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. celery salt

1/2 tsp. fennel seed

1/2 - 3/4 c. Greek yogurt

1 yellow onion

Veggies: zucchini, mushrooms, peas and steamed carrots (etc., etc., etc., basically anything you want)

Olive oil

Start your quinoa using directions on box. The directions are the same as rice with a ration of 1 part quinoa to 2 parts liquid, in our case, 2 cups of chicken broth. This will need approximately 10-15 minutes to cook, which happens to be the perfect time for prepping the chicken and veggies.

While your quinoa is working, dice your chicken and mix it with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of curry powder. Cook on medium high until it is just barely cooked (don't worry, it's going back in for a little while later). Meanwhile, chop your onion and other veggies that you will be adding.

Once the chicken is done, set it aside and then, using the same skillet, add your onions and garlic powder. Saute for 2-3 minutes, then go ahead and toss in your other veggies along with the other two cups of chicken broth, the rest of the curry powder and other spices. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the skillet as you are stirring as it will bring out the flavors rendered while the chicken was cooking.

After about five minutes, turn off the heat and go ahead and toss in the quinoa (assuming it is done), chicken and Greek yogurt for thickening.

Try to resist the wondrous smells that are wafting inside of your nostrils right now. Just try it. Mix everything up to your liking, serve yourself a piping hot bowl and relax. 

Getting healthy in 2013

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I am certain I am not alone when I say that as a mom, it's easy to struggle with issues regarding weight loss, healthy eating and incorporating fitness into everyday life. In the last several years, I have sworn to myself that I would get my body in good shape, start fueling it with good foods, but I just have not been able to get on board.

I have been a yo-yo dieter my entire life and have had an unhealthy relationship with food for as long as I can remember. Luckily, I was always involved in sports and up until several years ago, that helped to counterbalance the crap that I put in my mouth.

As early as 13, I was drinking SlimFast shakes in place of meals to drop a few pounds. After that, I counted Points with my mom on Weight Watchers while she combined that with Herbalife or Phen Phen or whatever the supplement craze was at the time. Then, my junior year I did the Adkins diet on which I got so sick during basketball season because I wasn't taking in enough carbs to sustain my body. I was so sick of the typical "low-carb" foods that I didn't eat eggs for at least 3 years.

In college, food was so available that by the end of my freshman year, I gained...well, let's just say the beginning of my sophomore year was the beginning of my "fat year." It didn't help that all of my best friends had gone overseas so I was left to stuff my face with chocolate chip muffins and cookies to cope with my depression.

When my best friend/roomie got home, we lived together in Malibu and thus continued my cycle of unhealthy eating habits. We became obsessed with fitness and counting calories, so much so that we considered 1000 calories to be a big day. Even at the time, we knew that it wasn't enough to fuel our bodies but the weight just fell off...until we turned 21 and drinking was too much fun. However, I was still so busy that I didn't gain a huge amount back until I got pregnant with Gabriel.

After Gabriel was born, I stayed fat. I was completely in denial about how heavy I was until his baptism when he was a little over six months old. I remember sitting on my bed and crying before the ceremony because not only could I not afford to buy anything new, not one thing in my entire wardrobe fit me. After looking at the photos from that day, I cried even more because I was just so huge. I would guess at this point, I was hovering around 165-170 and with my 5'2" frame, it was ugly.

Several months later, after we had moved to San Diego, my mom signed me up for Weight Watchers with her and thank God she did. I lost all of my baby weight (twice!) and have hovered between 150 and 154 since then (I'm back there now as well). I still have not been able to reach my goal weight, which I think is around 135, though I realize a number doesn't tell the whole story.

The whole point of this is I haven't found anything to commit to lately. I'm tired of yo-yo dieting and counting calories and points and limiting this or that. I'm tired of getting gym memberships and then flaking a month later. I'm tired of feeling weak and tired and dead by 3 pm.

I had been dying to try Crossfit and so, after a lot of deliberation (because who wants to shell out $85 a month on the gym?!) and talks with Adrian, I decided to jump in a few weeks ago.

I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of addicted already.

I have already seen a surge in energy, more focus on what I'm eating peace of mind in knowing I'm taking care of my body again and overall increase in happiness. I'm also finally getting out of the house without either of the boys and THAT. It's really nice.

I think about it multiple times during the day! I've been obsessed with finding paleo-style recipes online and I love the idea that you can eat what you need to fuel your body as long as you are eating certain types of foods. I bought new shoes and a few new workout clothes. I even went so far as to take "before" pictures so that in two months, if I have seen progress, I can share with you the "afters!"

I haven't been this excited about working out since...well...high school basketball?

So anyway, I'm not going to get annoying and talk about how awesome Crossfit is all over my blog. Who am I kidding, I might! But if I give it up in a month or two because I'm a weanie, don't judge me either. I'm not saying I will, but you know. Who knows? However, if I look super hot and fit and awesome in a bikini, well...it was from HARD WORK.

What are you doing to get healthy/be healthy in the new year? Have you made any changes or do you already have a good routine in place?

Big Bear Trip

On Monday, my baby turned a whole year old. All I have to say about that is, where the hell did this year go? I'll have more about him and his birthday in another post, but as we were deciding what to do, we kept coming back to Big Bear. 

Adrian has been dying to go there for a while now and we thought well, why not? Monday night I packed us all up, booked a killer (and inexpensive because it was a Monday!) hotel, we threw the kids in the car and headed up north!

Absolute breathtaking, right? It was way better in person! 

My boy. 

We went sledding and we literally had to carry him to the car because he was all, uh uh, I'm having way too much fun! 

Everything was still decorated with Christmas stuff and it was just gorgeous at night.

First experience with Indian food. Delicious! Um, if you have never tried cheese naan, you have never lived. I don't even know if it's a normal thing everywhere but oh mama. It is the business.

This is us booing the food. BJ's (not the real brewery BJ's, Big Bear BJ's) was nasty with a capital NNNNNNNN. Bad food. Never ever ever again.

So, I did a little research and it turns out there is a zoo in Big Bear. Who knew, right? It was pretty awesome. We saw wolves, mountain lions, bears, foxes, bobcats, raccoons and so many other kinds of animals.

Seriously? Have you ever been this close to a bald eagle? Me neither. It was awesome.

Watching the raccoon show. Apparently our kids were not interested, considering Jonas is looking away and Gabriel was asking me to leave the entire time.

Just gorgeous. 

And then we were on our way home! It was way too short, but we made it a liiiittle bit longer by stopping for one snowball fight.

My husband did not understand the fact that I was just the photographer. First snowball thrown. Definitely not the last. 

Second snowball thrown at me. Shit just got real.

Aw, how sweet. We are snuggling!

BOOM! Gabriel throws a snowball at us!

And that. Was that.

I think what made this trip even better was the fact that Adrian actually shut off his phone and did not check his email. His work tends to take over his entire life when he is "on" and it was refreshing to just have his full attention. It made me remember how much I like him (HAH)!

We had such sad faces in our car on the drive home because two nights was just not enough time. We are already planning another short trip next month.

Adjusting to life with an asthmatic baby

When Jonas was hospitalized for the first time, I had no idea what was ahead. I thought that his first asthma attack was merely a respiratory infection that, with some strong antibiotics and maybe some steroids, would shake itself out in time. Now, four months later, I'm starting to see how wrong I was.

Since September, he has been hospitalized twice, been twice to the allergist and three times to his regular pediatrician. They have put him on a strict regimen of Pulmicort twice per day with the nebulizer, as well as albuterol as needed. Lately, "as needed" has been everyday.

I wasn't aware when we moved to the Valley just how bad the asthma problem is here. After doing some research recently, I learned that it is actually the worst county in the entire state of California for asthmatics and that over 1/5 of the children living here suffer from asthma. Um, that's a lot of children. There are so many allergens out here: the dust, wind, regular controlled burns, fields, pollen, pollution...you name it, it's here.

And it is affecting my child on a daily basis. Actually, children, because in the last month we have had to treat Gabriel for wheezing as well. He has had occasional (and by occasional, I mean like once or twice a year) wheezing since he was 14 months old that we treat with an inhaler, but that is SO much easier than using a nebulizer!

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I'm a research junkie by nature. When I was pregnant with Gabriel, I spent countless hours online and reading books to be as educated as possible in everything to do with birth and babies. So of course when all of this happened, I hit the books (computer). If you have an asthmatic child, this all might be old news, or maybe this info will give you an idea you hadn't thought of!

We have made many changes to our everyday life in order to accommodate Jonas' asthma and to keep him at a therapeutic level (basically, to keep him comfortable, breathing just like you or me). Some of these changes have been difficult, some much easier to make...

• Stop burning candles - the smoke is an irritant
• Speaking of smoke, it goes without saying...no smoking and no secondhand smoke exposure!
• No live flowers (or Christmas trees, sad day...)
• Keep windows closed and use air conditioning
• Reduce exposure to cold air
• No perfumes or aerosol sprays
• Be cautious of cleaning products
• Dust, dust, dust! And by that, I mean dust your house as regularly as humanly possible
• Vacuum the carpets and rugs if you have them
• Reduce the possibility of mold by keeping kitchen and bathrooms clean and dry
• No pets in the house - easy, since we have no pets - we reduce his exposure to any pets in general at other homes
• Keep bed free from stuffed animals and blankets, except his favorite - wash sheets regularly

There are so many triggers that I had never considered before! Understanding how asthma works has made meeting Jonas' needs much easier. Like I mentioned earlier, there is a therapeutic level that you want your child to stay at.

I find it easy to understand by considering his body a heavily guarded castle. I'm just warning you, this analogy is super nerdy. When his level is at its highest, that is when the castle has its drawbridge up, archers ready on top of the towers, and entrances locked up tightly. All of these triggers are the neighboring knights trying to infiltrate the castle.

If we miss a scheduled nebulizer treatment, that would be like leaving the drawbridge down. Missing many treatments would be like leaving the castle completely unguarded. As the neighboring knights start to find ways in, the castle becomes more and more vulnerable, just like Jonas when we miss treatments and expose him to more triggers.

Without any protection, Jonas is extremely vulnerable to all of these factors. Respiratory infections love him and his tiny little airways close up faster than a melting snow cone in hell. We have to do everything we can to avoid any more hospital stays because well, they suck. Big time.

Do you have any experience with asthma? Do you have any other suggestions for reducing asthma triggers?

A New Year's breakfast treat: Cinnamon Roll Pull-Apart Muffins

I don't know about you guys, but our New Year's Day involved a LOT of lounging, TV watching, game playing, nap-taking and eating. Lots of eating. Mostly leftovers from the night before because I make way too much food whenever I cook.

For breakfast/brunch, I wanted something extremely easy, but delicious. And since I've been obsessed with cinnamon roll flavors (without the actual tedious task of rolling out dough, etc. - see this recipe, I made a cinnamon roll cake for Christmas Day and it was AMAZING), and since I had some Pillsbury biscuit rolls leftover from Christmas, I thought that combining those two things would probably, most likely, be amazing.

They were, fyi.

You'll need:

1 roll of Pillsbury Biscuits
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon (or more, depending how cinnamony you want them)
1 tbsp sugar
1 c. powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Let us begin...

Preheat your oven to the temperature mentioned on the package. Open canister of biscuits, then separate them and cut into quarters. Spray a muffin tin with baking spray (or grease, however which way you want to go with this one). Go ahead and shove about 3 pieces into each muffin cup and that should give you about 10 muffins total.

Meanwhile, on medium high heat, melt down your butter. Add cinnamon and sugar. Stir until bubbly and delicious looking. If you would rather do this in the microwave, you certainly could. Drizzle the mixture over each muffin tin.

Pop the muffins into the oven for 14-16 minutes. They will be nice and fluffy when they are finished.

Meanwhile, mix together your yummy glaze. You could make a frosting like typical cinnamon rolls, but I liked that it wasn't too heavy. They are sweet enough as it is!

Use a whisk, like so.

See how puffy and fluffy and amazingly delicious they look? Drizzle the glaze on top of the muffins as soon as they come out of the oven. It gets so warm and gooey and I'm just saying, they go really well with a nice glass of milk. Or coffee. Or anything, really.

Try not to eat the whole plate.

I dare you.

2012: A year in review

As we enter 2013, I can't help but feel mildly nostalgic about all of the things that happened in 2012 - the good, the bad, the sad, the happy.

So many great memories. So much to be thankful for.

In January, my sweet, beautiful little Jonas was born. It's hard to believe it has been almost an entire year, the emotions from those first few days are so vivid in my memory still!

In February, we re-did Gabriel's room into a "big boy" room in preparation for his third birthday in March. I also talked about the baby blues and basically how much they sucked. We had a snow day at my parents' house in March.

In April, I finally started doing a little bit of work from home, which has helped give me back a little of my sanity! We also visited Salvation Mountain, which is always a really cool thing. We somehow managed to get rid of my car and buy a new-to-us Chevy Tahoe - such a blessing to not have any car payments! And finally, we took Jonas on his first vacation and spent a week on the beach in Mexico!

 

In May, we sent Gabriel to preschool for the first time. It was gut-wrenchingly painful in the beginning, but now he has grown to love it and has made some very close friends! I also wrote a popular article about breastfeeding and how much I just don't get people. At all.

I turned 26 in June. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is! It is, people! I'm 26...ahhhhhhh! We also checked off a bunch of stuff on a summer fun to-do list. It was mildly successful...we didn't do everything but hopefully next summer, we'll check the rest off!

We celebrated the Fourth of July camping at Silverstrand, which was amazing minus the fact that Jonas of course started getting his very first teeth! It just figures, right? It was still amazing.

In August, we went to the races at Del Mar, visited with lots of friends and finally made some new ones in El Centro! I also left the kids with Adrian for the first time to go to Napa Valley with girlfriends. It was much-needed time away but umm...extremely nerve-wracking. 

Adrian was in our good friends' wedding in September and we had such a blast dancing the night away...and then boom. Jonas' first hospitalization. It was extremely hard and frustrating and our first experience with asthma. Oh yeah, also in September we got invited to Chicago so Steve Harvey could make fun of the fact that my husband is a mama's boy. We didn't go, but it's still a funny story!

At the beginning of October, two of our very best friends tied the knot. They actually met because of myself and Adrian! We were both in the wedding and it was the funnest wedding I've ever been a part of.

Towards the end of October, we moved and I got to meet Kelle Hampton. One was awesome and one was not - I'm sure you can take a guess on which was which. We also took our annual trip to Julian. This is the fourth year we have gone! Halloween was also hysterical...

In November, we started doing some work to the house. You can see that here and here. There is still SO much to do. I also talked about why I chose to have a natural childbirth the second time around, even though it wasn't what I choose with my first birth. 

I also talked about weaning and, holy hell, how much it sucked. We're actually nursing again because of his SECOND hospital stay (and then everyone was sick and it was easier and, and, and...you get it) and probably going to start the process soon. 

And then Christmas...

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So now here we are, on the day of the new beginning, the new year. I have a list of things we will be working on (I don't believe in resolutions!) and in the upcoming days, I'm going to share some of those with you.

Happy New Year!

Love,

The boys (monsters)