I’ve been cleansed!!  I finally tried a cleanse.  I’m such a follower sometimes!

My sister-in-law is a rep for AdvoCare and I’ve always been curious but never really had the intentions of trying it.  She posted a picture of a woman a couple of months ago that perked my ears up.  It was a woman with what looked like a similar body type as me and the progression was awesome.  I struggle with constantly being bloated and I work my a$$ off, literally, 6 days a week.  Sometimes 8 or 9 times a week.  It gets annoying to work that hard and still have your 6 year old ask you if you’re having another baby.  The diastasis recti I suffer from could be surgically fixed but I’m not even close to there yet.  I figured why not try this, what’s the worse that could happen? I gave myself and my SIL approximately 12 hours to get in gear — I knew if I waited, I’d change my mind.  March 1 was the perfect start date for this planner!

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit how much thought I gave to not drinking for 10 days.  It’s pathetic really.  But, it’s my thing, my routine, my comfort zone… I get home from school pick-up, I organize everything and everyone, pour a glass of wine, start making dinner, and take a deep breath for the home stretch.  I kept reminding myself that I have given up drinking for at least 30 months, minimum.  Also, dummy me, started on a Friday which is BW3’s day in my house.  Dummy.

BUT I did it.  I did it!  And I feel great about it!

The first weekend was rocky — sorry Babe.  I wasn’t prepared food wise and I was hungry and irritated and I didn’t want to eat the wrong things and I didn’t have the right things at hand.  I spent Sunday getting ready and when Monday came it was all systems go!  The week went by much more quickly.  Yes, I missed my drink but I got over it quickly.  I didn’t cheat until Day 9 when I was making some cake balls for a fundraising party on Sunday.  I indulged and didn’t even feel guilty about it — HUGE for Miss Patty!

I’m now in the max phase but wanted to share some of my tips and recipes for the first 10 days before I forget them!  I’ve seen some slight changes, nothing major but I didn’t have high expectations with that.  I have felt some big changes with my habits.  I’m so much more aware of what I’m eating.  Now I can make better choices when we’re out and when I’m at the grocery.  The first ten days were good for me overall, I’m very happy I did it.

Tools…

- Throughout the challenge you have to mix drinks.  Your day starts with one, there is the delicious (gulp) fiber drink, and the shakes.  I have a hand immersion blender that would have worked ok but it wasn’t the convenience I was wanting.  I came across this formula mixer from Munchkin at the baby store for less than $5.00 and it was PERFECT!  Convenient and worked like a charm!

- A new, pretty, measured water bottle.  I have a bunch of race ones that do the job but I wanted something to keep the numbers in my mind.  A gallon a day is recommended.  For me, I knew that was 5 water bottles worth.  Just made it seem easier than marking each glass.

Foods.…

- First, I firmly believe that a life without cheese is not a life worth living.  BUT I have found that not having it on everything is actually ok.  Babe doesn’t believe me about the burrito bowl, but it’s true!  If you have enough crunchy things on top, the missing cheese isn’t even noticeable.  Promise.

- I am a salt person, not a sweet person so I knew I needed to find a handful of something’s that would trick me.  Insert raw cashews.  And yes, by raw I mean unsalted.  But I love them.  They are filling and crunchy.  I’ve only found them at the grocery stores that have the self-serve bins.  So good, I don’t think I’ll go back.

- Eggacado salad.  Delish!  I made mine with three hard-boiled eggs, an avocado, chopped celery, green onions, and some pepper.  Sometimes it was my snack on a spoon.  Sometimes my lunch, served on one piece of 100% whole wheat bread, with a tomato slice.  Again, delish!

- Tuna salad.  I used the tuna that was vacuum packed in water, three of packets.  One hard-boiled egg, chopped celery, chopped carrots, green onion, olive oil mayo (just 1 tablespoon is plenty), and lemon juice.  This made enough to last three or four days for lunch.  So good.  I’ll never buy regular mayo again.

- Smoothies!  My house loves smoothies and I was so pumped to come up with this even healthier way to make them for all of us!  I used either coconut milk or almond milk, baby spinach leaves, frozen mixed-variety fruit, natural peanut butter (had sunflower seed but any would work), and a banana.  The spinach makes it green but no one minded that at all!  These will be part of the weekly rotation for sure, cleanse or not!

- Lemon-Lime Chicken.  Another one of my own that I’ve got to tell you about… Middle-man asked for three helpings of this.  That alone was enough to insert this into our normal rotation, cleanse or not!

Pre-heat oven to 350.  Spray cooking spray in skillet and brown the chicken breasts on each side.  I used pepper over mine.  Cut one or two onoins, two or three lemons, and two or three limes into large chunks.  Mine were mostly quartered.  Chop one or two cloves of garlic.  Place chicken in an oven-safe dish that’s been sprayed with cooking spray.  Cover chicken, first with garlic and onion chunks.  Followed by the lemons and limes.  I squished the juice when laying them over the chickens.  How many you use doesn’t matter, just try to cover the chicken and the dish with lemons, limes, or onions!  Bake for about 20–25 minutes or until cooked through.  Yum yum yum!  I served mine with cauliflower pureed — looks like mashed potatoes but actually a much sweeter taste that the kids really like!

Hopefully I’ll tell you the ending of this challenge with more goodies!  I had pictures of all of these yummy foods and of my Day 1 to share but then my awesome phone went and died and restarted pretty much blank.  Awesome.  Really.  BUT, I’m moving on.  I took photos on Day 8 and will again on 16 and 24.  I’m actually looking forward to seeing what happens!

(Let’s see how crazy my spam gets with that post title!)

If you’ve been following me on my other blog, aka Instagram then you’ll know that I am once again walking 60 miles!  60 miles in 3 days for the fight to find a cure for breast cancer.  My sisters, my good friend, and I are Team Pink & Pretty 2013, Cleveland bound!!  Our team goal is $10,000 and we are about a 1/4 of the way there already!

My personal goal is $4,000.  It always sounds good but then I go days or weeks without a donation and I start to wonder if I set the bar too high.  Then I remember why I’m doing this in the first place… boobies.  Mine, yours, my girlies.  And I’m once again energized and coming up with new ways to grab your donations.

A sampling of my fundraising activities…

Boobie Boxes are on the street.  What’s a Boobie Box?  Well let me tell you… mine are 4x4x4 decorated boxes.  I reached out to some friends and asked each of them to be in charge of filling one box with donations from people in their circle.  The people I asked all have different jobs with different coworkers and different family members and different friends… and a bigger circle of people that I couldn’t begin to tap without their help.  I gave them a 2nd box and asked them to designate another person to be in charge of filling it with donations.  Think change in your car seats, the dollar in the bottom of your purse — every little bit helps.  I have six Boobie Box keepers (some changed the name to Change for a Cure due to their workplace) and they each have six keepers.  Which means there are 12 pink boxes floating around out there just waiting to be filled!  Exciting, isn’t it!

Hot off the presses are the Pink and Pretty raffle tickets.  We are raffling off a brand new iPad Mini, 32GB.  Tickets are $10.00 or 3 for $25.00!  This is all being sponsored by Bill Hicks Body Shop in Centerville, Ohio — LOVE having community support!!  The drawing will be held on Saturday, July 20 and there are only 500 chances to win!

Speaking of community support…

Hot Yoga and Wellness Center is holding a community class — all donations for the class will be contributed to our team!  For more details.

Hand 2 Hand gymnastics center is donating the proceeds from two open gym times to our team.  For more details.

Just like my personal donation page says, I did this walk last year because it was on my bucket list.  I’m doing it this year because the experience from last year changed everything else on my bucket list.  So many of you supported me and I’m hoping I can count on that support again this year.

Like our fan page for Team Pink & Pretty.

Want to have your own Boobie Box?  Done.  Just say the word.

Want to win the iPad mini?  Done.  I can mail tickets anywhere!

Live in my community?  Plan on trying out hot yoga or bringing your munchkins to one of the two open gym times.

Every little bit helps!!

In all the yoga classes I’ve been to I’ve never once oh’med.  It’s not a requirement.  But I didn’t know that until I went.

I remember the very first yoga class I went to, I had the giggle anticipatory nerves.  I had no intentions of oh’ming but outside of that was ready for whatever came  my way.  When i got home Babe asked how it was… the most relaxing kick in the ass were my exact words.  He was confused and eventually went and saw what all my fuss was about.  The more I went the more common the phraseMamas going to yoga-yoga-ya-ya-ya became!  Most recently I’ve been going to a strictly hot yoga studio.  I am in love.  I always leave class feeling energized, alert, excited, and refreshed.  It’s addicting, really.

But before all of this love I was like everyone else who’s never tried it.  It’s not for me, I am too wound up, I have too much energy, I’m not flexible at all, meditation makes me giggle… those are some common resistances I hear.  And it’s ok.  Even though I know there is a place for everyone with yoga, I also know it’s not on everyone’s list of things to do (even though it so should be.)

Beyond the physical, it offers me so much more of the emotional.  For example, just after we lost our Boomer I was in practice and my teacher was telling us the tale about our breaths.  Yogis believe that we are each born with a certain number of breaths, not a certain number of years.  Dogs breathe up to 30 times a minute and much shorter lives than the turtle who breaths once every four minutes and lives to be 300.  It brought a tear to my eye but a smile to my heart to think of my sweet Boom, always excited, always panting, always ready.  That little story brought a peace to my heart for him that I didn’t even know I was searching for.

Just this week I was in practice and we were finishing up class with a spinal twist.  The teacher had just returned from an intensive week long training and had been sharing with us some of the stories that had come up while she was gone.  This one in particular won’t let go of me.  She said we should consider our landing.  How we land on people, how our words land on their bodies, minds, hearts.  And is it the way we want them to?  How do our actions land on those around us, do we act and say the way we want to land?  I kept thinking GAH — no I don’t.  I don’t land at all how I want to.  Gah.

My landing has been on the forefront of my mind since leaving that class.  And without my yoga-yoga-ya-ya-ya I wouldn’t have had the kind of snow-day I had today.  It was just the right mix of pjs, syrup, and cuddles.  Just right.

Namaste.

Some of my favorite songs pop up out of nowhere.  I’ve had a hold of this one for a few months now and I still love singing along to it.

My favorite line… I’ll stand up for you if it’s what you need, I can take a punch, I don’t mind to bleed, as long as afterwards you feel bad for me.

Griffin House | The Guy That Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind

As a baby he wasn’t all that into being ‘babied.”  He never like being rocked with a story and a song to lull him to sleep.  He preferred his blanket, eight or so various stuffed objects, a pat on the head, and a lot of I wuv ewe’s heading out the door.

As he’s grown older he’s always the one to shrug out of your hug.  He dodges your kiss goodnight, pushing his face into the pillow so that all you get is a face full of his hair.

He says what he probably thinks are the obligatory words of love.  He feeds off a lot from Biggest, who is a total sucker for hugs, kisses, squeezes and anything of the like.  If Middle sees it work for Biggest, he’ll try it too but not for long.

I imagine his mind to be racing a million miles a minute.  Always thinking of a thousand different things and still trying to put everything in it’s category of breakfast, snack, or milk to drink.  Please.  He is deeply affectionate towards his sisters.  He shows them such patience and kindness and all around big brotherness… I know he was meant to be their big brother.  Every once in a while you can sense or if you’re lucky, feel, the squeeze of his emotions overflowing.

He is slow to wake and is usually crying or grumpy about something within the first few minutes his feet hit the ground.  He often has his mind set and is possibly more stubborn than I when it comes to changing it.  He has no “thing” to hold over his head when it comes to punishment.  Loud voices, time outs, taking a toy away… they all mean nothing to him.  If I could figure out a way to take his brother away that might work, but you can see why that would be a problem!  Ironically, he is probably the one that I can identify with the most.

All of this so that you would understand how  ah-ma-zing nuggets like this are.…

I was out of town one night last week, having a blast with my sister and swooning over Adam Levine.  When I arrived home everyone was happy to see me.  Middle gave me a hug but quickly ran off to finish sorting his Valentine cards.  All normal.

Late that night, morning actually.  4:00 am-ish to be clear.  I heard someone heading into our room.  I waited to determine if it was Biggest or Middle.  I can usually tell within the first few seconds.  Middle shuffles his feet.  Biggest walks but has the drag of his blanket close behind.  Turns out it was Middle.  I didn’t turn over, just waited for him to tell me whatever it was he needed.  I assessed myself quickly and was surprised not to find any annoyance or whatintheworlddoyouwantnow’s in me.  That’s what happens with a night away I guess, my refreshed self hadn’t expired yet.  In the dark What do you need Middle?  Some quiet pause before he simply asks me to carry him back to his bed and to fix his covers. Of course buddy.

With no other words or instructions, I climb out of bed.  He climbs onto the bed so I can pick him up easier.  He wraps his too-big-to-be-4 self around me.

Barely three steps into our journey to his bed, his hair on my chin, his breath in my neck, he sleepily shares a little nugget with me.

I miss you when you’re gone Mommy.  And squeezes me even closer to him.

I squeeze him back, pause to still myself and the moment.  Me too buddy. Me too.

I am Catholic.  Baptized and raised as such.

I have so many memories of Mass with my Mom and my Grandparents.  The ritual of the Mass is so comforting to me, even today.  As a child I attended other religious ceremonies.  My childhood best friend was Mormon and I went to her services a bunch of times.  I remember thinking how weird it was that they went basically allllll day.  But I also remember thinking how much I loved being in her house and being a part of her family for those few hours.  I attended a number of Baptist services. Aunt Liz took me with her whenever it was his weekend.  I remember they sang a lot, raised their hand in the air a lot.  But most importantly I remember eating all the Certs that Papa would let me have and trying to follow along with the words from the Bible.

Babe was never baptized, so technically has no religious affiliation.  He believes in the belief but is sketchy on the stories.  He loves discussing the topic, he’s curious about what you think and why you think it.  I remember when we were in high school he told me that he prayed every single Sunday night before he went to bed.

Church has never been a part of our relationship as a couple.  Yes, we got married in one and we’ve attended about a bazillion other weddings in them but we don’t go regularly.  I have gone through phases where I did.  When I was pregnant with Biggest I went all the time.  I loved sitting in the comfort of the pew, rubbing his kicks.  It was so peaceful for my usual anxious heart.  I felt like everything was going to be ok when I was there.

Another spurt came when I decided the boys were old enough to attend services without making a scene.  One, I have no idea what I was thinking because Two, they were right in the middle of high scene making age.  That lasted a couple of months.  I’d try to bribe them with a post mass-treat for good behavior but it usually just led to me being frustrated and them being bored.

Biggest now attends Catholic school.  The same one affiliated with the Church we belong to and don’t attend.  A choice we made for the education, not for the religion.  My credit card is automatically swiped every Sunday to meet the weekly donation requirement school set to qualify as an active parishioner.

Last week after an intense K-1 basketball game, Coach (aka Babe) brought up the fact that Biggest didn’t know the Our Father.  But that most of the other boys on his team did.  I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.  I don’t think anyone ever taught me that prayer.  I just learned it.  Sunday after Sunday of hearing it said in unison out loud, while holding hands with the people around us.

What a disconnect Biggest must feel to his peers when his teacher discusses Mass or church behavior or the Our Father or the Lenten candles.

How confused he must be about praying when we’ve never discussed with him how or why or what.  Sure we’ve read the Berenstein Bear book about it but those books can get pretty wordy and I’m certain they’ve lost the point by the time we get to the end no matter how much I interpret.

I suppose my concern lies with the bigger question of what do I want him to know, learn, accept, practice, believe, etc.  How can he form opinions one way or the other if I don’t give him something to compare and contrast it too?   Am I giving him enough opportunity at home to enrich what his school is trying to incorporate? And most importantly, can I handle Mass with four children?

Because then I get confused… let’s say I take four children, two have to pee, one needs a new diaper, another needs held, three need shushed, four need to kneel, two dropped their books, one can’t see, one can’t hear, one can’t stop waving Hi to the people in the balcony, three want to sit on my lap, two are ready for their nap, and Daddy is already out in the lobby walking with one of them.

Where in there is the message?  The story?  The practice of religion and not of parent torture?

Do you just do it anyway?  Does it just become part of your family routine together?  And then you think of something wonderful and exciting to do afterwards so that you all don’t disown one another?

How do you make it work… and how do you make it worth it?

I struggle with the big picture.  The right answer.  The right question.

It’s that time of the year again when we fill our calendars with fish on Fridays.  And we all think of something to sacrifice.  One year I told my Mom that I had decided to give up giving up things.  She didn’t like that very much.  In more recent years I’ve tried to think of something to do instead of giving up something.  Volunteer, write a handwritten letter to people I thought of often but never told, go to church….   I’m hoping this year I can come up with something to do for all six of us.  So that we all start to practice a little bit of what I preach.

So far… all I’ve got is Fish Fillets from McDonalds every Friday.  I’ve got some work to do.