Earth Day

Just a quick post, as I am busy getting ready for last exams and finals. Phew. About two and a half weeks left, that is it...and if all goes well, my class schedule for the fall semester is pretty sweet. I may actually have a full day off, with no classes or work. Like I said, we shall see. So, I wanted to share what we did on Earth Day...which was Monday, right? The days are melding together. The kids had school and so did I, so they didn't get home till close to 4pm, but it was a beautiful day and I wanted to do something outdoors for Earth Day. I took the kids and our dog, Molly, to Mills River Park, which has a beautiful dog park. We brought along Rian's new skateboard so that he could finally try it out...let's just say that he has a long way to go until he can ride it smoothly. We had a skateboard when we were kids, but I can honestly say that I don't remember the mechanics of riding one. Hopefully he will eventually pick it up naturally. I do have some fun news...tomorrow is my graduation from the Nursing Aide class and we are having a potluck party. I am making lasagna and maybe some other things as well. I'll try to take some pictures. Ok, time for sleep so that I can have the energy to cook most of the day and do some homework as well.
Peace, Yasmin

Spring Birthdays

On April 8, my little man turned 7. I know I know, it has been over a week and I haven't posted anything about it. Well, life has been super busy. I am coming to the end of my NA class and I also only have three more weeks of school, which means finals are right around the corner. Yup, busy. We had a pretty low key birthday. Jason was at school all night on that Monday, so I took the kids to a place called "Mountain Play Lodge", where there are bouncy houses and play areas and dress up. They had a ton of fun and afterwards Jason was able to join us for Rian's choice of a pizza dinner out. I wasn't able to make anything for him, but we did get him some sunglasses and a skateboard, which he has been asking for a very long time now. Anyway, low-key just the way I like it. We ended the night at one of our favorite place, the bookstore, to eat a big slice of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, yummm.
Peace, Yasmin
P.S. I can't guarantee that I will post regularly in the next couple of weeks, but I will try.

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

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

 

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

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

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