Summer, Summer, Summertime

Whew, what a semester! I find it horrifying that I haven't had time to write and edit a post since spring break. After the last eight weeks of my life however, I shouldn't be surprised. With Louis going through an awful sleep regression, me being sick and then sick again and finally one last bout of sickness, a campus in chaos, and the every day that is our life, I haven't had much time for the extras lately. 


I spent the first weekend after classes wrapped up moving Jo into our spare bedroom and celebrating Dylan's graduation from UNI. Mom came down for a few days to help and it was fun having her here. Louis received some coveted alone time with Grandma and I had some help with meals and childcare for a much needed reprieve. I wish the rest of the family could have been here, but if we only got together when all eleven of us were free we'd never see each other. After playing too hard, I spent Sunday locked in my bedroom grading my last round of final exams. I had hopes of being done with my grading last Wednesday but a sore throat and loss of voice sidelined my plans. Being done on May 6th for the summer is still pretty amazing though, so I'm not complaining!


Today was my first "official" day of summer and Louis and I filled it pretty well. Last night I cornered Joanna and Nevin in front of Once Upon a Time and we created a meal plan for the week. One of the entries on my summer bucket list is good food! This plan is twofold. First, Louis is used to eating healthy, well-balanced meals at daycare and I don't want to get out of that habit. Second, I love experimenting with good meals with my family, the school year is just usually a hard time to do too much of that. I have been following a bunch of food blogs in my Google Reader and bookmarking ideas for months. This week I really focused in on the basis of a plan on Super Healthy Kids. I'm really excited about the plan and one day in, we're right on track!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	Oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon	Bran muffin with banana	Omelet and toast	Smoothies and toast	Egg sandwiches with strawberries
Lunch	Pizza Pitas and grapes	Leftover Lasagna	Leftover chicken, bacon, ranch wrap (FM 78)	Quesadilla	Strawberry Spinach Salad
Snack	Crackers and string cheese	Apples and Peanut Butter	Veggies With Hummus	Crackers with String Cheese	Bananas and Pretzels
Dinner	Vegetable Lasagna (CL)	Chicken Stir Fry (SIS 65)	Lemon Asparagus Pasta (SIS 57)	Sausage Asparagus Skillet (SIS 56)

I always struggle with finding a delicate balance in the summer between going with the flow and getting things accomplished. I am starting my summer with a cleaning task and a laundry task for each day of the week, but the rest of the time I can fill with whatever Louis and I see fit. 

	Clean	Laundry
Monday	groceries clean refrigerator	Lou’s
Tuesday	bathrooms	towels
Wednesday	store clean kitchen	darks
Thursday	dust	whites
Friday	vacuum	rugs
Saturday/Sunday	farmer’s market meal plan	sheets

I also will benefit from Aunt Jo doing about 10 hours of babysitting per week. I offered her room and board if I can get into the office and get some work done this summer. Lou will enjoy the fun times with Jo and I'll have some child free hours to regain my sanity.

With the first day under my belt, I can say I'm very excited for my summer ahead. Next up I want to finish that summer bucket list I mentioned above. I hate when the months get away from me and I didn't get to seventy-five percent of what I wanted to accomplish!

Cleanse

I have been reading about the Whole Living Cleanse for the last month and tomorrow I'm jumping in. I planned to get started last week but a family emergency (aka my brother's appendix rupturing) and lack of preparation kept it from happening. I was going to do it in conjunction with Dusty on All Things G&D, but I actually think it may be to my advantage to be one week behind her.While this means she'll be through some of the struggles before I get there, it also means I can take her organization and preparation and use it to my benefit. On Friday, I pulled together a bunch of recipes and a pretty complete grocery list. Today I took a trip to the produce section at HyVee and chopped bags of vegetables and mixed up some fresh dressing for my salads for the week.

While I'm sure no one recommends starting a diet in the worst valley possible, I definitely overindulged today on the things I won't get for the next couple of weeks. Pancakes for breakfast, M&M's and a frappuccino for lunch, pizza for dinner and I plan to pair the Grammy's with a nice glass of wine! I'm not sure my diet today will make tomorrows veggies, fruit, nuts, and water that much easier but at least I'll have the memories of today!

This week I plan on focusing my blog on the cleanse. That may make my posts boring (cranky), but it'll be an easy way to hold myself accountable. The big rules of the three (to four) week cleanse is NO added sugar, NO processed food or beverages, NO gluten, NO dairy, NO caffeine, and NO alcohol. Week one focuses on fruits, nuts, vegetables, seeds, and plant-based fats and oils. I can do anything for a week, right?

One of the points of the cleanse is to think about why exactly I'm doing it. While I do hope to lose five  pounds, my three main goals are related to my longer term relationship with and want from the food I eat.

1. I hope to find a more genuine energy and wakefulness. It doesn't matter how much caffeine I drink lately or how early I go to bed. I am exhausted ALL OF THE TIME!

2.  A would like a better sense of control over what I'm putting in my body. I've done a genuinely good job of cutting fast food almost entirely out of my diet (except for the rare occasion when I don't really enjoy it anyway and regret it almost immediately), but cutting processed foods out is tougher. I'm in a busy, working family. It's hard to find the time to cook and consume balanced meals.

3. I long for a stronger connection to why I am eating what I am eating in this moment. I am a comfort eater. It is a way of celebrating, mourning, relaxing, de-stressing, worrying, and procrastinating for me. I would really like it to be first and foremost, a way of sustaining.

Cheers to a new adventure!

Mmm...mmm...growing up...

One Year Old

One Year Ago

I can't believe we celebrated Louis' first birthday this month. If it continues to go this quickly he'll be moving out in what feels like a few weeks. The day to day of being a mom can be quite a lot to handle but this "being mindful" mindset helps. When I'm overwhelmed by the toy clutter or the whining of a teething boy, I've been working on taking a breath and looking at the larger picture. I'm so blessed. 




Other than celebrating with our family, we've been working on using our time more effectively around here. We like being successful at work, raising a happy child, having a clean house, creating healthy meals, finding time to relax, and cultivating relationships outside of our trio. There aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week for everything though. I've always been an all or nothing type and it's hard for me to do something halfway; I'd rather not do it at all! I'm trying to work on that mindset. Life can't be all or nothing or most of us would digress into nothingness. While I may strive to be perfect, it is an unattainable goal. Doing the best I can most of the time and getting by the rest has to be good enough. 


One of the places I struggle most with this is with grocery shopping and meal planning. This part of my life often falls into my overwhelmed so nothing category. I like the physical act of walking through a grocery store. The possibilities are endless and it's exciting to try new dishes or combinations. The place I falter is in the list writing and meal planning. I have a hard time imagining and planning for what I want to eat next Wednesday. I find great comfort in food and I want every meal I eat to be great. I hate mediocre food but I don't have the time to invent and cook grand cuisine three times a day every day. Also, Louis really needs healthy balanced meals three to six times a day. He is not a big eater and prefers little snacks continuously throughout the day, but this is hard. I don't want to throw crackers at him every two hours but preparing a healthy unprocessed concoction that many times a day is hard.


I'm finding help with this in food magazines and online food blogs. There are many out there that have done this before me and so I'm stealing their hard work to jump start me. Here goes nothing!