A few weeks ago, I decided as I was cooking dinner to make my family a last
minute dessert. I adapted a brownie recipe to fit with the ingredients I already had in the house. It seemed like a good idea at the time to cook the brownies in muffin cups so that I wouldn’t have to deal with them crumbling apart while trying to cut them. There was no time for letting the brownies cool first, bed time was fast approaching.

The brownies came out terrible! Hard. As. A. Rock. I was bummed big time.
Nevertheless, I still gave them to my family. I’m just a rock star like that
;-). To my absolute surprise my son took his rock hard brownie, not joking, you could stand on the darn thing, and said, “Mommy, I love it when you make them like this! [Big Smile] It takes so long to eat.”

Wow! Who knew it taking a long time to eat was going to be such a big plus?! Score. Life is all about perspective isn’t it?

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”   
~ William Shakespeare


“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
 ~ Abraham Lincoln

Don’t you love it when your kids give you little life lessons at the dinner table?

Nine years ago today I married the love of my life, my best friend and soul
mate. Every day he makes me smile and laugh, a lot! Besides being handsome, smart, kind and loving, he is also really funny. I love being with him!

Last week I was sick, feeling pretty crummy with a fever. My husband did so much extra work to help me out. Lots of cooking, cleaning, and he even took 2 kids with him to the store to buy groceries. Something I avoid doing!

I know my husband always has my back. There are a million things he does that shows how much he cares about me and our children, and that he wants the best for us. He’ll even watch my DVR recordings of Dr. Oz and Oprah, while listening to sports in one ear phone of course ;-).

Without him I’d probably never end up in the right place. I have no sense of
direction. It is still hard for me to tell my left from my right on a good day.
He is my North Star. Each and every moment we have together on this beautiful planet is a blessing, and today I’m so happy to be celebrating 9 years of those moments.

Happy Anniversary, my love!

I love you now & to infinity

The snow sparkles, a glittery dance as the sun shines across the white field. I watch little feet walk to the top of a small hill. I hear the snow crunch as each foot pushes through the outer icy crust.

Our little girl hops on her Daddy’s back as they lie tummy down on a slick-bottom sled. She, only a fraction of his size. They glide and the memory burns into my heart. Everything. All of it. The laughter, the smiles, the rosy red cheeks.

I lie down in the snow and gaze up at the bright sun. I feel the sway of the tall trees, and am overcome by the strong sensation that none of this is a random accident. It is much greater than me.

My mind wanders to something I recently learned on the Science Channel. At
the center of our galaxy lies a super massive black hole. The black hole is no longer feeding, and extremely unknown. Many more black holes exist sprinkled throughout the beautiful colorful puffy pancake of a galaxy we call home - the milky way. The earth rides up and down and around, much like a merry-go-round ride. We feel the warmth of our one sun. There is so much more out there! It is millions of years old, that’s if time is even relevant at  all.

Let’s take care of our one home and love everyone! We don’t need more than our neighbor; we just need to be connected through our hearts, as a
collective whole.

As sure as you are to breath, while you are here on earth make sure you have fun! Take time to play, to feel the wind, appreciate earth’s life giving water, and the frozen miraculous flakes of snow.

Playing makes it all worthwhile!

May your heart sing today when your priority is play <3

The snow was falling outside. With the wind it felt as though our home was the center of a snow globe. The crystal flakes whirled in every direction.

The fire was glowing, pumping out heat to keep our bodies warm. The television was on quietly in the background tuned into the ever so inspiring
Martha Stewart Show. My daughter, in her beautifully adorned collar knit sweater curled up next to me in bed. The window blinds were open wide so that we could see the beautiful winter storm outside, and feel gratitude for the love and warmth we felt inside.

Two girls sitting together reading our magazines, even though technically one not old enough to read. My son sat at the counter in a still concentration mode- creating! He was working hard on a book, pictures and words. Big Brother is in kindergarten learning how to read and write. Seeing the very
cute way he sounds out words and tries his best to spell them tickles my
heart.

I couldn’t help but think this was heaven, right here, right now. Turning to my daughter pressed up sweetly against me I asked, “Can we always do this?” Read side by side in a winter storm. With a big smile she looked at me and said, “Yes Mama.” Then gave me a little girl kiss. Pure sweetness.

Sometimes I think we have unrealistic expectations of what happiness should look like, that we pass right over the true moment of bliss. The happiest moments are not big and loud. True lasting happiness is quiet, peaceful, with a strong feeling of love that permeates your skin.

You don’t need big things to be happening to feel happy; in fact your happiest moments may be all together ordinary.

Want to know how to be genuinely happy?

See the extraordinary in the ordinary.


With love, peace & happiness

It is extremely early in the morning. The sound of thumping coming from the ceiling above abruptly awakes me. I hope it’s just a fluke- the wind, perhaps a large truck that happens to be passing by our house on a tiny suburban street. The clock may say 6:30am, but my body is certain it’s just after midnight.

The banging and thumping continue. If you have never been in my home you’d be certain I housed a herd of elephants. Here in my house in Northern Idaho, a herd of elephants = 2 children awake and bouncing around cheerfully upstairs.

Lately, I’ve been really working on my telepathy. I’m certain it’s a skill that can be picked up with some practice. I send my children a mental message to GO BACK TO BED! That’s the best I can do for now. I don’t dare go up there. I’m feeling WAY too grouchy and unpleasant.

Either the telepathic message doesn’t reach them, or it does and they just don’t care. Either way, they continue on their mission to come downstairs via following through the ceiling.

I close my eyes, and roll over. I try to pretend that it is OK- I can go back to sleep for at least a few more minutes. That’s when the bedroom door flings open with a large force crashing into the wall! The kids removed the doorstops long ago.

A little light dances around the room and before I know it the light is pointed directly in my eye. “Never point that in someone’s eye,” I say. “You could blind them!”

Behind the light is my little girl. As she smiles, she gently tips her head to the side and in the sweetest voice you have ever heard- the voice of a young angel- she says, “Thank you for loving me, Mama.” Followed by an adorable, sweet little girl kiss.

As I can feel my heart melting and dripping all over the floor, the door crashes into the wall again...

“Mom! She was scared to come downstairs in the dark and wake you up so I gave her my flashlight! Isn’t that nice of me?”

I wonder, is it ever too early in the morning for praise?

We’ve decked the halls...

Baked a few special treats...

Brownies – mmmm!

Recipe Link- Very Tasty Vegan Brownies

Cake – also mmmm!

Recipe Link- Pumpkin-Gingerbread with Spiced Buttercream by Oh She Glows 

Substitutions:

• Replaced Chai Egg with a Flax Egg (1 Tbsp ground flax seed + 3 Tbsp water)
  
• Substituted toasted walnuts for ½ cup semi-sweet mini-chocolate chips (non-dairy). 
  

Simply Divine!

Cinnamon Rolls (Vegan) – triple mmmm!

Recipe Link – Skinny-Mini Globuns by Oh She Glows (in case you couldn’t already tell, I do LOVE her recipes! Every recipe I have tried has come out great.)

We pre-made some of these bad boys for Christmas morning! Super excited - these skinny minis will replace the traditional Pillsbury (non-vegan) version we are used to popping open every year.

And this one required NO BAKING!

Who could forget the wonderful Holiday drawings?

For the bargain price of $1!

And time spent with cherished friends

We’ve still got wrapping to do, but we are soaking up every glorious moment with joy in our hearts and sugar in our tummies :).

No matter what happens, stay in your happiness. Do not give that away! Aim to avoid complaining to keep your pure joy, and truly cherish this special day. It is your gift to unwrap.

May the joy and warmth of the holiday spirit fill you from the inside out. Let your spirit sparkle and shine this Christmas.

May your day be merry & bright, illuminated by your divine self.

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

Most of all, Much Love ♥

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. “ ~Norman Vincent Peale

By it I mean Shredding Paper! My friends that have been with me on this journey for a while might remember how much my daughter LOVES shredding paper. I thought we were through this phase. Apparently not!

This is just a small sample of the paper she decided to shred. It wasn’t until after picking up most of the paper that I decided to snap a picture for the smiling memories folder. By smiling memories I mean, smiling in the future...  OK, I know she’s cute so it didn’t take me too long to smile :). The floor was covered in lovely Hello Kitty coloring pages darling daughter decided to rip up. I couldn’t help but think to myself I wish she at least colored them first. I’m kind of wondering if shredding paper is a unique talent of hers, or do other kids love doing it too?

There is a whole bucket of papers sitting in my office that need to be shredded each week. Bank statements and crap like that. Why doesn’t she want to shred those? Do you think I could pay her to do that? I mean, she doesn’t know the difference between a quarter and a penny now, right? Or would that be taking advantage?

I hope you have a wonderful day! If your kids love shredding paper send them over. We might as well contain it.

O You! is a day about putting yourself first. Realizing that YOU matter. So many women struggle with this. As Suze Orman says- it’s like putting the oxygen mask on yourself first, then your kids so that you are available to them. Many Moms and women burn out, putting their happiness last, becoming paralyzed with zero energy to make necessary change.

Attending an Oprah show has always been a dream of mine. I never got to do that. Quite frankly, as Oprah so nicely puts it “God can dream a bigger dream for you than you could ever dream for yourself.” O You! 2011 was that bigger dream for me. Although I was part of a larger audience, getting to hear Oprah speak for most of the closing ceremony was better than anything I could have ever imagined.

Oprah live is just like watching her on TV. For my fellow Oprah fans out there, listening to Oprah speak at O You!  was similar to watching the very last Oprah show with an extra dose of light heartedness and humor. The energy she exuded, which was in turn magnified by the crowd was more incredible than words could possibly explain- pure magic.

By attending O You! not only were you able to listen to and learn from Oprah about what she knows for sure, but you also got to learn from many talented stars at the top of their game- Dr. Oz, Gayle King, Suze Orman, Donna Brazile, Lisa Ling, Martha Beck, Nate Berkus, Peter Walsh, Bob Greene to name a few of the many great people who were there to speak.

In the lunch tent I saw David Venable from In the Kitchen with David on QVC. I was immediately reminded of my Grandma who would have loved that! I’m pretty sure she got most of her Christmas shopping done in the middle of the night when she turned on the TV to QVC as light to go to the bathroom.

In between sessions, I visited the Kleenex booth to meet the very lovely and talented Erica Diamond founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on the Fence. In my pure joy to meet her I forgot to ask my husband to snap a picture. Hopefully one day I’ll get the chance to see her again and do that!
What I really wish is that you all could have been there with me to share the experience. Although I know that didn’t happen this year, what I can do is share with you some of the great lessons I learned while I was there. So stay tuned for more about what I learned at O You! 2011.

Have a great day, friends!

Last Saturday, while Grandpa & Grandma/Traveling Pat were visiting we spent a day at the Spokane Fair in Washington. It was the perfect day for the fair. Sunny and cool. It’s really starting to feel like fall in this beautiful part of the world, that is until the end of this week when it is supposed to be 90 again?!

We started things out by taking Big Brother to the pumpkin carving contest. I have a little obsession with pumpkins. Soon my house will be covered in them, and it is never too early to start buying them. We already have 2, of course ;-).

Despite my cringes and worry that my son might in fact carve his hand, he did a great job! Here is what the fabulous work of art looked like.

We completely forgot to go back and pick up my son’s pumpkin before we left the fair. I was totally bummed about it. I’m pretty certain it would have had a first prize ribbon on it! Grandma guessed it would probably go to a child who doesn’t have a pumpkin, and Big Brother thought that was a pretty awesome idea.

After the pumpkin carving, we went and visited lots of animals. Too many to share them all here, but don’t worry I took 800 pictures of animals just to make sure my computer was completely jammed with them :). This is a picture of the hairiest rabbit I have ever seen.

There were so many adorable bunnies at the fair. And, also snake skins, because it wouldn’t be a fair without snake skins.

They had real snakes, too! I’m happy to report I do not have a picture of my children petting the snakes.

After seeing all the cute & very stinky animals it was time for a little more action.

PIG RACES of course!

I was rooting for number 7. I can’t remember his name. I just liked the number. And although he didn’t say so, I’m pretty sure my husband was cheering for Natalie Porkman.

As you can see my piggy was in first place. I should have put money on it! The piggies surprised me with their hurdle jumping capabilities. Pigs and hurdles, who knew?

The pig races made us hungry. While we scoped out the food tents Grandma and Little Sister watched the Hawaiian Hula dancers.

The wonderful smell of fair food definitely had me wondering if fried dough was Vegan? If you happen to know, please tell me because if it is... who cares about all that oil, I’m totally going to get it next time! I’m sure it would be much tastier than the bean & rice wrap I ended up with. Although, that wasn’t bad either.

Luckily Grandpa bought some cotton candy for all of us to share. Little Sister had her first ever bite of cotton candy. Her face was priceless. She HATED it! I know. I’m as shocked as you are.

After lunch we went on a few rides. Despite the fact that I took my kids on the tilt-a-world, and they cried and hung on for dear life, they didn’t puke. Thank goodness, or I’d feel like even worse of a Mom than I did for taking them on a ride they were nowhere near ready for at their age. 

All in all, it was a gorgeous and fun day at the fair. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for taking us! :)

On the way home the kids fell asleep in the car, which was a sign that I should absolutely stop to buy ingredients to make COOKIES!

There was a recipe I came across on the fantastic blog Oh She Glows by Angela Liddon. Ever since seeing the recipe I’ve been dying to try it out. Angela notes that this particular recipe for Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies is her favorite. Her blog is my #1 go-to site for Vegan recipes.  You should really check it out!  You can find the Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe here.

Angela’s recipe was an absolute success! I only wish I made more. Without a doubt, it is the best homemade Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie I’ve ever made. 

Vegan or not, 

don’t you want to try one of those?!


Have a beautiful day, friends! Thanks so much for coming by :)