Daisies

Daisies

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Disaster Zones

For some time now, I have been wanting to organize different disaster areas of the house. The clutter was getting out of control and it was time to purge some of it. My plan was to take care of all three major problem areas; my bedside area, the kids' room, and the craft room over Spring Break. Unfortunately the illness basically kept me bedbound, so I decided the area that I can not avoid seeing everyday was the number one priority.
I know, awful right. There probably is no excuse, but I do have to say that my life is super duper busy. I go to school full time and work around 30 hours a week. I am also in an NA class where I have to go to class two nights a week and I have clinicals on Saturdays. Also those 30 or so hours I work are all on Thursday-Sunday, so I only have Monday and Wednesday nights to do any kind of housework. Which is great and all and probably enough time to pick up around the house and keep it somewhat neat, but my priorities are hanging with the kids and making homemade family meals on those nights. Things will be much better once this NA class is over at the end of April and then I will have Monday-Thursday nights free. Woohoo. The only problem with these disaster zones is that it causes me to have anxiety and stress to the point that it feels so overwhelming that I never start attacking those areas. Do you guys have that? It happens sometimes with homework too...I eventually get the homework done in a just before class cramming session, but I can't keep avoiding homework by knitting or reading a book. Things have got to change, right.
Ok, so that is the end product. Not too shabby, but not completely organized. Some of the stuff will eventually have to go into the craft/office room, but for now it will do. I know I have a lot of books/magazines. I love them. Speaking of magazines, I have been thinking for some time now that I need to do something about the hundreds of Vegetarian Times magazines I have. Any suggestions? I thought maybe I could take all of the recipes and put them in a folder, but who am I kidding...I can't even keep the house clean. Do you think I should donate them to someplace? I really have a lot of them. Anyway, it is time for me to finish packing for out trip to pap pap's house tomorrow. I'm hoping for lots of relaxing and some DC fun. See you all on the flipside.
Peace, Yasmin

Monday, March 25, 2013

What happened to Spring?


On the second day of Spring, we woke to the snow pictured above. Now I know it doesn't look like much for the Northerners, but this was considered significant snowfall for the mild winters of North Carolina. Maybe it is the fact that I have been pretty ill since last Monday or the fact that Spring should be here, but I am in a bit of a grumpy mood. This weather called for comfort food, so I made black bean soup, Immaculate Baking Company's mini crescents, roasted potatoes, and brussels sprouts. I was delighted to find out that both kids really like brussels sprouts recently, so no more cooking just a tiny amount for me and my husband. It is always wonderful when we find a new vegetable that everyone like. I roast the halved brussels sprouts with oil (I use grapeseed), chopped garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. We like to cook them at 400 degrees until some of them have a crispy golden brown outside. My spring break officially started on Saturday around 5:30 pm, when I promptly went to bed until Sunday morning, because I felt so awful. The stomach virus had turned into a monster sinus thing, where my head basically feels like it is full of mucous. Ugh.



When I woke on Sunday morning...a lazy Sunday, I decided to make a nice breakfast for the family. I roasted what potatoes we had, cut up some fruit, toasted some bagels, and made an egg white frittata with broccoli, onions, and feta cheese in it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had time for lazy mornings full of wonderful breakfasts every day. I really enjoyed my bagel with butter, honey, and some banana slices on top. I had also received a marathon training care package from my sister on Saturday, and was delighted to see some new fun books to read for motivation. Unfortunately I have not been on plan due to this crazy illness that has taken over my life for a whole week now. I will have to jump back on plan as soon as I feel up to it...and can I just say how annoyed I am that this is the way I am starting out my Spring Break...I had so many plans for this week. We did go and watch the Croods with the kids yesterday. Rian has been looking forward to it, since he saw the poster last year. We were planning to go to the bookstore afterwards, but I just did not feel up to it, so we went home and I basically crashed for the whole night, again.


Today it has been snowing off and on all day. Nothing is sticking, but as you can imagine the weather is quite cold. This weather called for some more soup, this time store bought. I haven't bought soup from a grocery store in years, but the thought of not cooking and the lure of the Pacific Organic soups won me over...and by the way the soup was delicious. I also bought a loaf of rosemary olive oil bread and made some earl grey tea with rice milk, honey, and vanilla. So delicious. I was able to get out of the house today and so I took the kids to the mall, so that I could get a ring resized and maybe check out some clothing. The kids were in dire need of new pants. Are my kids the only ones that wear through the knees of pretty much every pant they own? It is ridiculous and obviously winter is not over yet, so the buying of new pants was a necessity. I also found a dress that I really like on the rack and I found fits me well too. Yay. I love stripes and not to be too materialistic, but sometimes a purchase of a dress is exactly what someone needs to lift their spirits. I am still slightly grumpy and still quite stuffed up, but hopefully this illness will let up by Wednesday when we drive to my father in-law's house. Happy spring break.
Peace, Yasmin
 

Monday, March 11, 2013

Weekending






Signs of Spring are slowly starting to appear. We had beautiful 63 degree weather this past weekend and my clinical on Saturday was cancelled, so we took advantage of my free time and took the kids and pup to a new dog park. The pup was so happy to be able to run around freely and the kids got plenty of exercise running back and forth as well. We have noticed daffodils blooming and the temperature has definitely taken a turn for the better. As I look at that picture of me above, I realize it might be time for me to go get my car washed...sorry for the fuzziness. Ashleigh also decided to get a little crafty with her silk screening gift that she received for Christmas. I love it when my kids get crafty. Although I worked most of the weekend, it was still a pretty fabulous one...one more crazy weekend of work and then Spring Break in two weeks, woohoo. Looking forward to visiting family and sightseeing in DC. Alright time for me to hit the sack, as this daylight savings mumbojumbo has thrown me for a bit of a loop.
Night, Yasmin

Friday, March 8, 2013

This Moment

Joining in with Soulemama for "This Moment" to capture a moment from this week that I want to keep close to my heart and fresh in my mind. I would love to see a moment from your week that you savor...feel free to leave a link in the comments below.


Rian lost another tooth naturally right next to the other tooth he lost the day before on the bottom row. I really really tried to take a normal picture of him showing me his teeth, but all I got were these silly faces...I actually might prefer it for this occasion.
Peace, Yasmin

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Snow Day!






 

 
We woke up to snow again. They cancelled all schools in the area, except for my school that decided to do a delayed start. Thankfully one of my teachers cancelled class and the other one gave us the option to make up today on Friday or Monday, so I took the day off with the kids. It was nice to be inside on this frigid day, although we did venture out in the afternoon for bootcamp fitness/gym. I think the kids were happy for a break from their cooped up state. I started out the morning with a yummy scrambled egg white + veggies & salsa breakfast in bed with delicious coffee. Yummm. Rian has had a wiggly tooth for a while now, so I decided to take a picture of his wiggly bottom tooth smile. This is his first real loose tooth. The top tooth that is gone was a dead tooth from an accident that was removed by the dentist, so this is really exciting for him. So we got to bootcamp fitness and lo and behold, at the end of the session Rian came over and showed me his formerly loose tooth in his palm. I was super lucky to have taken that before picture and now there is an after picture as well. He is so stinkin cute. I decided to make an easy dinner of salad and pizza...to make it even easier I bought ready to go pizza crust as I had limited time due to homework deadlines. I made one with mixed wild mushrooms, spinach, feta, and mozzarella. The other one is a ricotta base with spinach sauteed in garlic and feta sprinkled on top. That little boy with one less tooth ate more pizza than me...oh those growing kids. Sometimes it is hard to keep those kids filled up, it seems that they are always hungry...I mean really always. A bit crazy, but I understand that they are growing kids and its not such a bad thing for there to be less portions for me anyway. So that was our day and I am completely and utterly exhausted. I may have overdone it a bit with the exercise today...after my bootcamp workout, which was extremely tiring today, I took my exercise high self over to my gym and ran / walked a bit over 2 miles. Yep exhausted, and on that note I think I will go wind down with a bit of knitting and my guilty pleasure of watching tween movies like Twilight...don't judge.
Good night, Yasmin

Monday, March 4, 2013

A fresh start to a fresh week









I am determined to not be in a complete exhausted daze this week like last, so I slept in a little bit this morning and went to bootcamp at 3, which was right after school. I still got into the tired slump around 10am to noon, but when I got home, I took the kids to the park to enjoy a beautiful sunny day. This helped me from crashing on my bed for that afternoon half awake state. We had a lovely time in 53 degree weather. These days we have to take full advantage of sunny, not totally frigid weather...especially when we know those days are right around the corner. The weather station said that we can expect freezing weather and snow starting tomorrow night. I think I am ready for spring, but I don't mind the hanging in the house because it is too cold thing. Our pup, Molly, really enjoyed the running around and the kids loved getting to be outdoors for a bit. The outdoors sue does have a way of lifting you up and energizing you. When we got home it was homework time for the kids first and foremost and I tried to think of something to make with the cooked kidney beans I have in the fridge. While browsing recipes, I found one for singapore style noodles and decided to make something similar to that instead. Lots of veggies with rice noodles and I added an egg and kimchi for mine. It was delicious and filling. I have to cut this short so that I can get some homework done to avoid being completely overwhelmed the rest of the week, but here's to a fabulous fresh start to a sure to be fabulous week.
Peace, Yasmin

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Oh lovely day








This morning we woke up to snow...not a huge amount, but enough to cause lots of trouble for driving here in "unprepared for snow" Asheville. The good thing about today was that I was able to have a full day off. This business of going to school and/or working 7 days a week was getting a bit too much for me, so this full day off was a very nice welcome for me. My family hasn't had a full day off with me since the beginning of January, so yes it was so needed. I started the day with a leisurely breakfast of Toad in the Hole, fried potatoes, and yummy coffee. Rian also asked for a Toad in the Hole, but I had used our one egg, so he settled for some butter toasted bread with a shape cut out of it. He picked a Christmas tree cookie cutter and proceeded to sing "Oh Christmas Tree". What a silly little boy. By 11 this morning all the snow had melted and so my mom treated us all to the movies for "Jack the Giant Slayer". We all really enjoyed that movie, the animation of the giants was wonderful. After the movie we spent a bit of time at the bookstore and then went grocery shopping together. After I put the groceries away, I was able to clean the house up a bit...finally! It is so nice to be able to sit in the house, without being antsy about how messy it is. I made a simple dinner of Vegan Italian Sausage, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Steamed Broccoli, and a pickle for me and the kids. Today was a good day and it was spent just the way I wanted to...not too much going on, and time to take care of what I needed to take care of.
Hope you all had a lovely day, oh and can you believe it is March already. What the heck.
Peace, Yasmin