The kitchen... ah the endless organization and re-organization of kitchens... Thankfully there are pretty products to make the cooking and cleaning a bit brighter and sunnier.
Happy Friday, friends! Come back for links this weekend! xoxo
Today /
Dear Diary / Internet,
The weather this week has been insane. Like, insane in a good way.. sunny + 75 degrees good. I haven't had the willpower or brain cells to stay inside and type anything.
I'm working on these resolutions to DO rather than thinking forever about what I should be doing, to eat more veggies, get organized, and to enjoy each moment. We just passed the mid-January point... today, I want to lay on the couch, not DO anything productive... eat a giant pan of brownies, let the mess linger, and well... enjoy this moment of doing so.
It takes 30 days for adults to form good habits or to break bad habits. I'm more than halfway there and it's at that tricky point where I REALLY want to "call it" and retry resolutions again in 2015 when I'm 32 and far more mature and capable of handling them properly.
I'm not really going to give up, but it's tempting.
I AM going to give the home a rest today-- tidy, but save the extra laundry for tomorrow, refrain from finding a new corner of my home to tear down and rebuild, have a sweet cup of coffee with some strawberries to squelch the sweet-tooth, and get some rays.
Tomorrow I'll be back with a bit less of a "hey fall off the resolution wagon with me" post, and more of a "let's be better in 2014" post.
xoxo,
Kate
Best. /
Loving & Linking /
Photo via Julep
I'm so into this accordion thank you card. Seriously perfect.
Because top knots were never my thing, I'm happy with these pretty alternatives.
Uses for household products to save money and avoid toxins. Great list!
Seriously- $5000 of baby gear {including a year of diapers!} seems like a worthwhile giveaway to enter!! Enter with BabyLi.st HERE. Ps. Every BIT of it is stylish and totally something I'd want on my registry the first time around!
A printable 2014 calendar... love!
Fudgy chocolate cake. Because we all need cake in January to get us through the cleanses. ;)
I'm not sure I'll actually do this DIY, but I can tell you that I love what they have going here... and if I had an extra hour in the day, I would give it a go.
This house tour is so my style. Such perfectly crisp white walls with just the right amount of color.
California rattle? Best baby gift everrrr.
A little behind on this, but 52 weeks of drawing. I love this idea. Sketching is one my favorite ways to relax.
Green Grass /
Sometimes we get this grass-is-greener mentality.
I hear it everywhere from perfectly healthy & blessed individuals. I hear it regarding work, I hear it regarding relationships, I hear it regarding children. I hear that if my scenario was like another's day-to-day, I'd understand. I hear if their scenario was like this or that person, they'd have it better. If they had more of this and less of that, they'd have it better. If life hadn't handed them this or that, it'd be better.
Here is the truth about life: though there are plenty of things out of our control, we all make choices. We choose to work where we work {or not}, we choose to live where we live, we choose to cultivate and commit to certain relationships and not to others. We all make sacrifices to do the things we want to do, and we need to be grateful for the good things that are happening, rather than the have-not mentality.
Our little family together made the sacrifice for me to stay home and raise our girls during the day-to-day. This isn't common around here and it isn't easy. We've also decided to live in the city, which brings with it good & bad. For years, we lived in a small one-bedroom to make this work for our family. I don't have a car to get here and there. We chose this lifestyle, and we're living it.
Was it simple for us? No. I remember when I had Sophie and none of my friends were pregnant or even close. I lived in our small home with no dishwasher or modern amenities, with all my local friends working during the day, and my life including walking our laundry blocks to get to a laundromat and then had coffee dates with my girl while we waited. I also hauled the laundry back home balanced on the stroller while I was 8 months pregnant.
Is that the scenario I would have painted for myself at that time? It really wasn't. I had lonely thoughts, and thoughts about how sad it is that my coffee dates were with a small child who couldn't even form complete sentences yet. I look at that time, and though it felt like a sacrifice at the time- we were striving for greener grass; today those days feel like some of the most precious and lovely moments of my life. It feels like God gifted me with solitude during those days so that I could experience the slow-moving, sweet days of toddlerhood with my little girl, and cultivate a beautiful mother-daughter relationship with Sophie.
The grass was sufficiently sweet then, whether I was noticing or not.
Today, the grass is also sweet. I am sleeping full nights. My children can play together without me completely devoted to every moment and movement. I have bigger days because my children require a bit more runaround than they once did. I end each day a bit wiped from the chaos and often feel like simply a hired hand to cook & clean and grasp at straws to make things work and I get so tired.... There are many things I would adjust if everything was painted my perfect way {like hiring a housekeeper, perhaps?}... but the fact remains: this is green grass we're living.
These days are so long and years so short. It just seems that we shouldn't be pining for perfection when we have so much lovely around us now.
xoxo.
Healthy Eating /
I went to the grocery store the other day, and stocked up on veggies. The store was packed and the cashier told me that people have had their carts full of similar products all day long. It's the January health, cleanse, live-fresh mindset.
It's a good thing to start the year right! What is hard for me is maintaining it. I mean, when I buy those fresh veggies and bright fruit, I am happy! I am pleased with myself. I am excited. I am ready to prepare every meal with love and full of vitamins.
Then today happens. I read something about nachos and can't stop thinking about them. I got a sweet tooth and went in search for leftover Christmas treats. I drank double the volume of coffee as I did water. Just being real here. I didn't want to be healthy anymore.
SO. No, I did not eat the candy {yet}, and no I will not eat the nachos. What I did instead was make a list of some stunningly picturesque meals from Pinterest that are both healthy AND tempting {and not too involved... because who has time to go gourmet on the regular, really?}
Consider me back on the nutrition wagon, friends. Also, consider making any and all of these beautiful recipes:
- Tilapia: I love to have fish at least once per week. It adds variety, freshness, and isn't as heavy as meats.
- Kale Salad: I'm not big on salads with basic lettuce, but kale I actually do like, and the inclusion of nuts, cheese, and avocados make it hearty enough to qualify as a meal.
- Burrito Bowl: This is my favorite kind of healthy eating... where you just take something you love and substitute ingredients for healthier options to create something nutritious that you truly love eating.
- Soup Recipe 1 & Recipe 2: We eat a lot of soup around here... I've always been big on soup, and these two are in the regular rotation for a good reason.
- Spicy Chicken Stir-fry with Peanuts: Saying no to takeout is way easier when you have some asian flavors and spices in your home-cooked meal that took 15 minutes to make... {plus or minus 5 minutes for management of children at your feet doing the food-begging routine... is that just me?}.
- Lime, Shrimp, and Avocado Salad: I would like this for a meal any day of the week. I love everything in this salad, and right about now, it sounds 10x better than nachos.
- Coco-nutty Cookies: Next, because we all need snacks... why not make them whole grain and healthy? Perfect for breakfast, lunch, or snack time!
- Avocado Stuffed with Tuna Salad: Another great snack {or lunch, if you're a light eater} that's a little more involved to make, but looks amazing.
Special thanks to the Internet for keeping me endlessly supplied with meal-planning recipes.
...also, hey! Follow me on Pinterest!
This is the kale salad I mentioned above. I mean, if a salad looks like that, how can it not be good??