First Month as a SAHM

Monday marked my one month anniversary of staying home with the girls. And I love it!!
So what have I been doing this past month..besides spending alot of extra time blogging????

Spending lots of snuggle time with this angel. I love when he cries at my legs to pick him up and then he snuggles his sweet little head in my neck or beside my ear. I love to hear him snore when he puts his nosey in my ear. He recently started sleeping beside me at night. Usually he would lay on my tummy for a while then move down to my feet or to the top of my pillow and suck on my hair. Now he sleeps beside me and it feel sooooo good!
I have also been cooking more than I think I ever cooked in my married life! J/K! But when you worked around 50 hours a week, cooking wasn't at the top of your list of things to do!

It's a good thing I love to cook. Because I am literally in the kitchen from the moment I wake up until bedtime.

But I'm not complaining at all!!!!

And neither is anyone else here at home!
Since I cook all day, I am also washing dishes all day!

I cannot stand dishes in the sink over night!!

So dishes never stop piling up and I never stop washing. Since I've been home, in one month, I have gone through an entire bottle of dish soap!!

Another thing I have been so happy to do is ....CLEAN!!!

The bathrooms are cleaned.. my closet is 3/4 clean (I just need Papa Bear to go through his side, or his 1/4!), the tea sets are out of my bedroom and I started on the laundry room yesterday. I eventually want to paint the laundry room and add some shelves in there.

Now that I'm home I have been more on top of the girls homeschooling... I prepare their homework on Sunday night and am actually HERE to help them do it!!

You cannot even imagine how good that feels!!! I love homeschooling my girls. They learn so fast in that one-on-one environment. They love to take "field trips" to Sonic for happy hour!

And I've even ventured into crafts... this is a fuzzy flip flip we've been making. I made one flip flop for each girl. I guess I need to finish the other ones! Ha!

And as I've said before I am spending so much more time with my Lena. She is such a sweet, amazing, kind hearted girl.

I am realizing how much I have really missed out on learning about her and who she is when I worked so much. It depresses me. And she is so happy to have me home. She constantly comes up and hugs me or kisses me. Her little arms feel so good around my neck! I love her more than words can say!

It's been fun and wonderful spending time with CC and relieving her of household duties. She is finally able to be a teenager and sleep and relax. It's fun to watch her and Lena bond and chase each other and giggle and share secrets! I love what a good and sweet girl CC is...and she's so responsible! I hope those traits stay with her as she goes through life.

So, this past month has been wonderful. I do help Papa Bear with his work and I enjoy doing it. At times it seems I stay busier here than I did working. I get to sleep as late as I want, which usually is never past 8,but hey, it's better than waking up at 4:30a.m.!!

The Vegan Way...

Sierra has decided she wants to be a complete vegetarian. Good right? Ummm.... not really. It's so difficult to plan meals, I don't know what she can eat. Wait, yes I do. Nothing!!! Nothing with eggs, dairy products, no meat, chicken, fish.... nothing except vegetables and tofu and fruits. It gets really frustrating! So I gave in. I have been buying nothing but healthy foods, fruits and veggies and veggie burgers, soy chicken (yes that really exists) and tofu steaks. I have been forced to eat heathly. I know it's a good thing because I will have to make major changes for my lap band but , man, this gets difficult at times.
At work today I was sitting at my desk and thinking, "I can't wait to get home and cook..... cook what? Oh man! There is no meat there to cook! There is no chicken, no fish, no sandwich meat!! What am I going to cook?" It was scary. I LOVE to cook and the thought of not having the ingredients I am used to cooking with was hard! So I decided to buy the healthy things I need to cook for the family. So that we as a family can eat and try to live more healthily. (Is that a word and if so, is that how you spell it?)
What did I make? Oh man was it good!! And the best part about it, I ate two servings and don't feel full and sluggish. I feel satisfied and comfortable! I made this salad that CC found on the computer. Don't know what it's called.
Ingredients:

2 avacado diced
2 tomatoes diced
1/2 cilantro chopped fine
1/2 red onion diced
1/2 lb small shrimp halved
fresh lemon juice
salt to taste

I served us this salad on a romaine lettuce leave and it was super delicious!! I will probably have to make more tomorrow because there is hardly any left. CC put her some in a bowl before I added the shrimp. Orginally it does not include shrimp but I thought it would be so good to add some and it sure was. I will try to post a pic!
I also bought sugar plums today. Have you ever tried them? I haven't. I don't know how to say this without being silly, but I didn't know they were even real. I thought it was just part of the song and a scent of candles!
Ok. I have something bad to admit! I have been putting off cleaning my bathroom for quite a while now. I do the tidy-ing that I need to do. Sweeping, washing clothes, cleaning the tub and counters. BUT.... the toilet itself. UGH! So I have been planning to really get in there and give it a good scrub. Imagine my surprise when I was reading out of my church book last night, Secret to Real Family Happiness, and one paragraph was about..... keeping the bathroom clean!!!! AHHHH!!! Does God know how to talk to you or what? While I was grocery shopping I bought a little extra toilet stuff to motivate me. I will be going in there shortly!
Ok. That's about it for now. Emil was sick again. He never really got better. So our family doc is not testing him for H-Pylori. We were supposed to get the results back yesterday but as of today we still haven't heard anything. After ALL the tests they did on him so far, nothing has shown up. I hope this is all there is and he can do his two weeks of antibiotics and get well.
These blogs always end up being toooooo long.

My First Blog...

Ok... here goes. I have never done anything like this.. and I suppose over time this will allow me to vent many complaints, keep online journal, connect with family and friends and who knows what else. I hope that I can actually keep up with this.

So I am married to a wonderful man. We've been together for almost 14 years. We have two wonderful children (who this blog will more than likely be about). We are just now entering the teen years with our 13 year old daughter, Sierra. OH MAN!!! I didn't expect the things we are beginning to encounter... AND ... she's only been 13 for a month! I'm scared to know what the future holds in that department. So for now we are trying to instill in her good solid morals, let her know their can be very bad consequences to some of the things she may be pressured into doing and most of all to let her know that she can say "NO", she must respect herself before anyone else will respect her and me and her dad are always here for her with anything that may come up. If she is honest with us we will help her out and help her through it... if we find out she lied.. well... there's another story.

Lena, our 8 year old is really a character. She is funny, silly, strong, emotional, a clown, sweet, loving, mean, sneaky and too much more to name. She can make you feel better in an instance but also knock you down just as fast. For instance... I had recently begun going to electrolysis and needed to make another appointment. Lena was looking real close at my face and said, "Mom, does that Grace lady still work in daddy's building doing electrolysis? Because you really need to go!" NICE!!! What a way to pick me up and make me feel better! BUT... on the other hand I can always go to her for an honest opinion about what I am wearing.. she may hurt my feelings but at least she's honest.

I guess for now that is it. I need to start my cleaning. The dog decided to pee on my big chair in the living room so now not only do I get to sweep and mop, I also get to clean the chair with soapy water! WONDERFUL!!!