Weekly Musings

These two things...


make me feel very happy and spring-like.  I bought them on Sunday, and I've used the candle every day, and I think worn the necklace every day too.  I'm pretty sure the necklace does NOT match at least half of the things I wore it with, but like I said..it makes me feel spring-like, and I'm in the mood to feel spring-like.

I failed...
So big...so majorly...in my parenting this week.  As you well know, I've been ALL about "Love and Logic" lately, and ALL about letting Gunnar experience the consequences of his choices, etc etc etc.  Now I know I'm not going to be a perfect parent, and I know just because I'm reading the book, and trying really hard to implement what I'm learning, doesn't mean I'm going to implement it 100% of the time.  I know I should give myself some grace, but.....Gunnar and I had an incident occur at Target that, had I witnessed another mother doing what I did, I would (shamefully) have instantly judged her, and in my head thought "she needs to go read a good parenting book, because she clearly doesn't know what she's doing".  So every time we go to Target (which is OFTEN) Gunnar asks to go look at "Cars" stuff and "Toy Story" stuff.  Not to buy, just to look.  I always let him, and I always tell him "five minutes of looking, and that's all".  He's usually good with that arrangement.  This week, we started with the Cars stuff, and the plan was to move on to the Toy Story stuff a few minutes later.  After browsing on the Cars aisle for a few minutes, I told him it was time to move on, if he wanted to have time to look at the next aisle, too.  He pitched a fit.  As in,  went absolutely crazy.  Ape s**t, if you will.  I've never seen the likes of it, and judging by how other people were looking at me, neither had they.  So, I calmly told him, because of the way he was acting, we would not be able to look at Toy Story stuff, and would instead have to leave.  He then moved up a level from "crazy" to "demon-possessed".  I stuck to my guns. We left the toy section, and worked our way towards the checkout. I had  willpower like you've never seen.  People probably thought I was kidnapping him or something, based on his rageful roars and freakish screams, but I didn't care.  I was not backing down.  And I didn't...for about three minutes.  Then, I pulled our cart over, asked him to please calm down, and...........(covering my face in shame as I write this) told him that if he did, we could go back and look at the Toy Story stuff.  What?!????!????!????  Who AM I?  Surely not the girl that has been touting the merits of "Love and Logic" for months now.  Surely not the girl who sometimes secretly feels so high and mighty when witnessing other moms be so "weak", while all the while vowing NEVER to do the same.  Ugggggggggghhhhhhhh. Ok, so i think I needed that dose of humility, so maybe it was a good thing.  I SWEAR it's not going to happen again any time soon, though.

Vegan...
I KIND of am, again.  Seriously, "kind of".  I had the distinct UNpleasure of viewing some VERY NON-flattering pictures of me from the Capitol 10K last weekend (pictures that not a SOUL will ever see, unless my dad breaks his promise to me, and decides to go public with them, in which case I may disown myself from him).  These pictures made me aware that I SERIOUSLY just cannot allow myself to eat the way I've been eating since December. The "way" being anything and everything in my sight, in portion sizes only suitable for someone in some sort of eating competition.  I've learned that I absolutely need to set boundaries of some sort for myself...if I just say, "I'm going to try to eat better", but don't define what "better" means, I tend to just run wild with it (in a bad way).  So, I'm allowing myself SEVEN non-vegan meals a week, and the rest of the time, it's vegan.  So I could do one non-vegan meal every day, or save them all up for the weekend, or whatever I want.  "Flexibility within set boundaries."  That's my philosophy for just about everything.  So...this week went pretty well, AND I lost 3 pounds!  I think I'm going to do another blog post with some vegan recipes that I've found to actually be REALLY good.  Not just tolerable, not just a hair above disgusting, but actually good.  Because believe it or not...I've actually found a few.

Georgetown Easter Egg Hunt...

(Good pictures, Lance.  You might should consider being a photographer on the side)......

Weekly Musings

Mission Impossible.... Finding the notebook you see pictured below:

I originally bought this notebook at Target, two years ago, and have bought six more since that time. I use it for EVERYTHING....it's my journal/to-do list/jot notes down at a meeting/etc notebook. Yes, I realize most people in my generation use things a bit more tech savvy, such as an ipad, or iphone, or isomething, but as I've mentioned before, I never claimed to be a tech savvy kind of person.  I like paper and pen just fine.  Anyway, Target seems to no longer sell this notebook, and neither does any other store I've been to.  I've looked EVERYWHERE.  I've even sent my mom to several Targets in Houston trying to find them. I've even tried to call and email the company that makes them.  I've  had no success.  I wrote on the VERY LAST PAGE of my VERY LAST NOTEBOOK this week, and was then finally forced to go choose another kind of notebook, which I then went home and wrote in, and decided I  hated.  The pages just aren't as soft.  The ink doesn't write the same.  It doesn't have the same feel to it.  The paper smells different.  I'm serious, ya'll. I NEED the other notebook.  If you see it somewhere, and you buy it for me, well, I'll be your indentured servant for life.  I'll also reimburse you the $6.00 for the notebook.

I discovered.... a new playground that Gunnar adores.  It's the McDonald's playground on Parmer, kind of near the Avery Ranch area.  Perfect place to sit and sip on my beloved diet cokes, while I watch Gunnar play.  Well, this particular time, I didn't watch Gunnar play much, because it was the day my video got posted on Bobby Bones' page as one of the Top 10 Finalists, and I was therefore glued to my phone the whole time, watching with an eagle eye, the mean comments as they rolled in.  I'm usually not the mom that sits on her phone instead of playing with her kids.  I'm seriously not.  But this was a special circumstance, I like to think.  Anyway, it was fun, and way better than the icky sticky indoor playground at the other McDonald's, so we'll be back.

"Return to Innocence" by Enigma...is a good song to run to.  Or I'm just weird. Either which way, I've  found myself listening to it on repeat a few times during my runs this week.

Krista Box....once again, earns recognition on this blog. She kept Gunnar for half a day on Friday for me while I did some shopping. I bought myself a new pair of jeans (my first NON-skinny jeans in ages), some jeans for Gunnar (which do not fit his tall and skinny little self...in fact, at church today, the guy walking behind us called our attention to the fact that Gunnar's butt crack was hanging out of his jeans.  That was a proud moment, for sure.), and some pretty new things for my very "blah" living room mantel. The entire wall is about to get painted, but here's what it's looking like so far:

I'm considering...reinstating the gag-worthy vegan diet.  I had a horrifying, terrifying, and petrifying thought earlier...bathing suit season is, at most, 6 weeks away.  If I'm not going to be pregnant during the summer months (and it's seeming like I'm not), then I don't have a valid reason for looking gross.  In the winter, when jeans and sweaters can easily cover a bit o' flab, it's easy to justify McDonald's for breakfast and Wendy's for lunch.  In the summer, when your flab is on full display as you chase your toddler round and round the pool....not so much.  Bye bye delicious french fries.  Hello dry and tasteless carrot sticks.

Weekly Musings

It turns out that....
I can't eat whatever I want, in whatever quantities I want, and NOT gain weight.  Who woulda thunk it?  Mine and Nason's infamous vegan diet kind of tapered off in December, and we just haven't seemed to be able to get back on track.  I think partly due to the fact that I'm running again, and try as I might, I can't seem to convince my subconcious that people who run a lot do NOT automatically have a license to consume 3000 calories a day.  It's also partly due to the fact that I hate vegetables.  I mean, I just really do. How in the HELL are you supposed to be a vegan when you hate vegetables?  I was telling Nason this morning, here's the deal: I can pretty much starve myself (not that I've ever done that) and exercise like a maniac, and I'm capable of losing about 8 pounds total.  That's pretty much the most I've ever lost.  Or, I can live off of cheeseburgers and tater tots, and GAIN about 8 pounds total.  That's pretty much the most I've ever gained.  I never seem to notice a HUGE difference between the two extremes, except maybe having an indentation in my hips at the end of the day, from the waist band of my slightly-too-tight jeans digging into my waist, so I may as well just eat what I want, and forget about it.  Then Nason reminded me, "yeah, but you can still get cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and premature aging".  Oh yeah.  There is that.  Well crap.

It also turns out that...
I have the skin of of 14 year old kid.  Oh wait...not in a good way.  I don't mean that my skin is youthful and glowing.  It's so not.  I mean that I still break out like a teenager!!!  I NEVER EVER EVER had pimples in junior high or high school, when most people get them.  I'm serious...never.  Then, suddenly, when I was 24, I started getting a bad case of pimple face.  I actually had to start using Proactive.  I've been using it ever since, but it's expensive, and honestly, it's a pain in the butt to haul Gunnar into the mall once a month to buy a new bottle, so this month, I thought, I'm 30 years old for crying out loud.  Surely I don't need medicated face cream.  So I quit using it, and guess what?  I broke out!  Oh my gosh.  My self-esteem has taken a beating this month.  Weight gain and pimples all in one month?  Lovely.  So, it's back to Proactive.

I feel justified.....
In cutting Gunnar's grapes and hotdogs in half.  I have taken a lot of heat over the last two years, for how I cut Gunnar's food up into microscopic bites.  Everyone can lay off me, because in the last 5 months or so, I have eased up a lot, and today, can proudly report that for the most part, Gunnar's morsels are about the same size as all of our his other buddies.  However....I have a thing about grapes and hot dogs.  They freak me out.  Well, hot dogs just freak me out in general.  Gunnar does NOT eat many of them.  They just seem....icky.  But when he DOES eat them, and when he eats grapes, I still cut those suckers up pretty small...and this week, I read an article in a parenting magazine, about how grapes and hotdogs are the NUMBER ONE thing that kids choke (to death!!) on, and that kids UNDER FOUR should NOT eat grapes or hot dogs that have not been cut up.  So there.  I don't want ANY lip, from ANYbody, ANYmore.  When he's four, we'll reassess the situation.

You should...
Live near your parents and/or in-laws if you have kids.  Well I mean, unless you just have a good reason not to.  But seriously....having grandparents (who are willing and eager to keep your kids) nearby is just about the greatest thing ever.  Lucky for us, BOTH sets of our parents live close, and volunteer to watch Gunnar for us often.  This weekend, Little Man stayed Friday night through noon on Saturday at Nason's parents, and although we missed him (seriously, we did), we had the BEST time.  We tried out Contigo, which we'd never been to before.  Super cool.  I had their "Moscow Mule" (vodka, ginger brew, and lime)...tasty.  Go! Try it!  We'll go with you! : )  We should be able to get a sitter pretty easy ; )

I found...
A few never-before seen pictures, on my phone.  My phone is actually Nason's old phone, so I was scrolling through all the pictures, and found a few cute ones he'd taken, that I'd never seen before.  Let's just call this "Picture Dumping for the Sake of Making My Blog More Visually Pleasing"...

So yeah...you may not want to sit in that particular chair when you come to our house.  That's a bit gross, I suppose.  

          The night we brought cupcakes to the Looper's at the hospital, for Benjamin's 1 Week Birthday

Ok, this is a weird one.  My parents have a ping pong table at their house, and Nason and my brother, Josh, invented a game where they hit ping pong balls at each others backs.  I think there's more to the game than that, but I can't remember the details.  This is what a person's back looks like though, when another person hits ping pong balls at it.  

Grammy and Poppy's gift to Gunnar for his birthday

Skyping with the Box's while they were in Uganda!  

Aww. I like this one.  Dancing at the Domain with my (little) man.  

Weekly Musings....

Monday...was the only day of this entire week I didn't feel sick.  On Tuesday, I came down with the WEIRDEST virus. It was weird, because first of all, I would be super sick for a few hours at a time, and then I would feel fine again for a few hours, and then the fever/sickness would come back.  The other weird thing, was that my forearms ached...like, they were actually sore to the touch.  I'm serious.  I know that is so weird, but they were, and as soon as the cold and flu symptoms went away, so did the forearm soreness.

I made.....this for dinner one night, and it was sooooooo good.

French Fried Onion Spaghetti Bake

I read.... an article in Parenting magazine about a little kindergarten girl that was getting bullied by her classmates.  It wasn't like the crazy awful bullying you hear about on the news and such, where kids end up getting hurt or killed.  It was just a mom, writing in and telling the story of how heartbreaking it had been for her to watch her little girl come home from school every day in tears, because the "popular girls" (in kindergarten!!!!!) were telling her that her clothes were ugly, her hair was ugly, she wasn't cool enough to come to their birthday parties, etc, and how she had then successfully dealt with the situation.  BUT...oh my gosh....it gave me a whole new topic to worry about...something I've never really considered...and that is the thought of Gunnar getting made fun of or picked on in school one day!  That thought just seriously almost brings tears to my eyes.  Kids are SO mean.  I think its the saddest thing in the world for a little kid to get bullied by other kids.  Everyone reading my blog: you better never let me hear about your kids bullying The Gunster, or you may just see a crazy side of me you never knew existed.  Along the same lines, if "The Gunster" is bullying YOUR kid one day...you let me know, and I"ll make sure he has hell to pay.  

We had...a great weekend.  My idea of the perfect weekend, is one in which there is a PERFECT blend of family time with Gunnar, time alone for just Nason and I, AND still some time left over for each of us to do a few things that we want/need to do on our own.  This weekend, we seemed to be able to fit all of that in well.  Nason and I had a date night Friday, and watched a movie together during Gunnar's nap on Saturday.  We took Gunnar to Zilker Park yesterday, and had breakfast at Juan in a Million.  I got my weekend run in (3 1/2 miles.  With my mom!  So proud of her!!).  Nason had a guys night to celebrate a friends birthday, and saw some Navy Seals movie which he came home super pumped up about.  I got some house cleaning done ALONE (isn't it funny how once you have kids, cleaning house ALONE actually becomes an enjoyable activity?), and we had a lazy morning at home with Gunnar this morning.  Did you just hear that?  I said a LAZY MORNING AT HOME. I just wrote in my last blog post that a lazy morning at home with a toddler is something that is unattainable, and yet, this morning, we went to LATE church (11:30), and beforehand, enjoyed what can only be described as a LAZY MORNING.  AT HOME.  WITH GUNNAR.  So I (somewhat) take back what I said before about that not being possible.  

So I really didn't have much to "muse" about this week.  Sorry.  The theme of my week was basically: sick.  Make it through the day, until I can take some Nyquil or Advil PM at night, and crash.  I seem to have a weekly tradition at this point though, of writing my weekly musings on my blog, and I didn't want to break with tradition.  Heaven forbid.  

Some Musings on the Week...

Monday....Nason and I are back to having Monday-night "meetings".  Really, it's just planned out, quality time, where we're not allowed to look at phones, computers, ipads, ipods, or TV.  We actually have to talk to each other.  Remarkable!  And.....the TV DOES come on eventually, because after all, Monday nights are Batchelor  nights, and heaven forbid I miss that.  I love our Monday nights together though.  Wine is most definitely a part of it, and it is just so wonderful and refreshing to be able to have an actual meaningful, COMPLETE conversation, with the guy that I love.  I think I like the "complete" part even more than the "meaningful" part. Being able to spit out MULTIPLE sentences at once without getting interrupted by a certain little voice saying "mama" is just divine...I don't even care WHAT we're talking about

One Reason I Love Nason....he can always be counted on to say what's on his mind, and say it without beating around the bush.  He had lunch with some guy this week, and somehow the topic of church, God, and Jesus came up.  Nason starts describing to him the relationship between God, and us.  Nason doesn't go all "spiritual" on him, or "church talk-ish".  He says this: "Dude, it's like a loving husband, and a wife who is a cheating whore.      Every day the husband comes home from work, and find his wife sleeping with some new dude.  God is the husband,  and we ALL are the cheating whores.  God keeps pursuing us and loving us and coming after us over and over, even though all we do all the time is "cheat" on him by constantly pursuing and loving other things more than Him."  To which the guy responded, "Hmmm.  That's good.  I've never heard anyone put it that way."  I'm sure he hasn't!!!  Ha ha.  I love it though!  What a wise and funny guy 'ole Nasie Cat is.  

I made......yet ANOTHER super delicious recipe off of Pinterest.  Icebox Cake.  Look it up.  I don't feel like fiddling around and figuring out how to link it to this post, but trust me...it was GOOD.  

I found out....some really fun news.  No, I'm not pregnant.  And don't you worry about what the news is.  When this blog is ready to share it with the world, it will.  

I am SO excited BECAUSE....Little Benjamin Looper is FINALLY coming home!!  Whoo hoo!!!! Wanna see how cute he is?  Look!

If you don't know the Looper's, and haven't followed their story, Ben was born about 9 weeks early, with some heart complications, but he is A-Ok now..healthy, happy, and getting chubbier every day...and I am so excited he gets to go live at home with his wonderful Mommy and Daddy now, and get out of that dang NICU!!!!

I Should Be.... folding laundry, and running 2 miles right now, instead of blogging.  It is FREEZING outside though, and windy, and downright miserable, so whether or not the running happens, remains to be seen.  I have no excuse for not doing the laundry though, so off I go......