Get off that Cranky Train!

This is my first post in awhile, and I feel like I have a lot to say.

I just wanted to talk about bullying for a moment. It's happening. It's here. It's in our schools. It's your child. It's my child. We are ALL affected by it. The amount of children who commit suicide over bullying is just so staggering. Whatever happened to, we were all created the same? Love one another? Stop the hate?

When I was younger, I was definitely a victim of bullying. I was made fun of because of my clothes, because of my hair, because I had brown eyes, because I was short, and because I moved a lot. I didn't have many friends and was quiet and withdrawn. I didn't have the energy to make friends with anyone because I was hurt from all the hate. Being a kid is hard enough as it is. You wake up in the morning, have a certain routine to follow.... have to get ready for school. You go to school, you have to sit quietly for long hours on end and pay attention the entire time. Now, recess is being taken away along with fun classes like art and gym.... how in the world can kids be kids if they have no time to do that?  

On top of that, kids are being bullied for anything and anything. The shoes they wear. Their name. How short or tall they are. What they look like. Who their parents are. It's insane! Why are they being bullied? Shouldn't we EMBRACE differences? Isn't that what we teach to our children? That everyone is different, everyone is special, everyone has their own thoughts and feelings and that's ok. That's what we teach our children, to embrace the differences, to embrace the change, that we LOVE being diverse and can learn from one another. Well, that's what we TELL them, but is that what we teach them? I don't think so. What we are showing children is that everyone has to be the same. You are worth less if you make less money. You are frowned upon if you ask for help from anyone. Don't we teach them to ASK for help instead of whining? Well then why are we criticizing those on government assistance because they are asking for help? What are you TEACHING your children when you are standing in line at Wal Mart behind someone using their WIC card or whatever. Just assuming that their purse was far too expensive for them to afford. Never thinking for once that it may have been a gift... or they MAY have gotten a really great price at a yard sale. I have seen some amazing things at yard sales myself. Instead of pushing your biased opinions aside, you are scoffing at them.... SHOWING your children that they are worth less as a human being for accepting help. Sure, there will always be people who take advantage of anything. Honestly, we all break laws! Do you EVER speed? That's a law you are breaking.  How is one worse or better than the other? Why doesn't everyone in this great country deserve food and a warm and safe place to live? Why are children now forced to live in fear because they never know when someone is going to bring a gun to school.

The adults in this country sure aren't setting a very good example. I remember the simple thing about making friends in school... DO what they do, wear what they wear, look like how they look, act like they act, and believe what they believe. Don't be yourself. Be like them. That's how you can be popular. That's how you can fit in. Not by the amazing person you are on the inside. You have to CHANGE yourself to be accepted. "I hate you because you don't have the cool clothes that I do, I hate you because you're Catholic and I am Christian. "I hate you because you're fat, you must be lazy. I hate you because you're skinny, you must be anorexic. I hate you because you don't have tan skin. I hate you because you don't have blonde hair and blue eyes. You can't sit by me at lunch because you are not like me."  How is that any different than what we are doing in this country? I understand religious beliefs and the Bible and how if you believe in it, you should follow it as closely as you can. But what if you don't believe in it? Should you be treated like you are not a human with basic human rights just because you believe differently, make a different amount of money, love someone, do things differently, see things differently? What happened to what we teach or kids and how we teach them to LOVE everyone... to accept everyone..... to CHERISH and embrace the differences because life just wouldn't be the same if we were all clones of one another. Why can't we learn from each other instead of hating the differences? Why must we force everyone to believe, dress, act, and breathe the same way?

You may SAY things to our children to teach them one way... but what we are SHOWING our children and youth in this country, is completely different.

For the record, I am not saying that I am perfect. I am NOT saying that I have never judged anyone, never assumed, etc. I am in NO way perfect. Not even close.  I am a human. 

I will tell you this, the law isn't going to change the way people feel. Just like NO law will stop me from loving my husband or my child. That love doesn't stop just because it isn't accepted by everyone else. If this is a Godly issue, God hates NO ONE. God loves everyone. End of story.

Think about it.

Photo Contest

Hey, wanna do me a favor? 

Hopefully this link works but if not, go to my facebook page, like A Lenae Photography ..... Once you're there, "like" her page then go to the Mother's Day Contest Page and "like" The picture of us =]

If you don't like the photographer's page AND my picture, it wont count.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.351889871584137.1073741828.125482590891534&type=1#!/photo.php?fbid=351890391584085&set=a.351889871584137.1073741828.125482590891534&type=3&theater

Small Business Shout Out- evans photography

 Today, I would love to share with you the awesome work of evans photography. I personally know the photographer and she is one of my very best friends.  Although I am biased as to how awesome she is, I will share with you some pictures she has taken to PROVE to you how awesome she is. Don't just take my word for it. She is from the Winamac area so feel free to visit my facebook page and look her up for your photo needs!

Here are some photos that she took of us this past fall:

Check out her website:

http://alisonreneevans.wix.com/evansphotography

Branch Out

I have recently come to the conclusion that I am home FAR too much. I am with Vera every second of every day... and even though I love spending so much time with her, I realized it is becoming unhealthy. Plus, she doesn't get much time with her dad. I have been brainstorming ideas of what I could do to help this situation and only came up with a few. One of which, was spend more time at the library. I love the library, but I need something to focus my energy and attention toward.  So, I signed up to volunteer at the local Humane Society. I absolutely LOVE animals and anyone who knows me, knows that.  SO, I thought this was the perfect placement for myself. I attended an orientation/training class last night and am even MORE excited to volunteer now! I learned more about my options, opportunities, what the shelter is about, how it works, and so on.  I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner.  This will be a great time for me to get out of the house and do something for a cause, while Vera gets a little separation from me (distance makes the heart grow fonder) and she gets some time to do fun things with her dad. It's a win-win!

So, keep me in your thoughts and prayers if you would, as I start this new journey in life!  

Also,  if you have some spare change lying around, feel free to donate it to this wonderful no-kill shelter!

My dog was adopted from a shelter =]

hshv.org is the website and click on "donate".

Birthday Play House

For Vera's second birthday, we decided to build her a play house. My husband has been building things recently as a new hobby of his and has been doing a wonderful job! For the house, he asked his brother to come and help him. I will share the progress with pictures.

^ Who needs a truck when you have a hybrid with fold down seats and a hatch back??

They started off with a written plan, searched ideas online, then built it with those things in mind.

 

We now plan on staining the outside, waterproofing it (putting windows in), putting in some hardwood floor we had left over, maybe some drywall.... some flower boxes, a bench attached to the side with the big window, and a mail box! We see a lot for the future of this little play house!

Easter Basket Ideas

In our family, Easter baskets are a must. It's sort of a tradition along with an Easter egg hunt.  However, once Vera is a little older, we are hoping to teach her the real meaning of Easter aside from the Easter bunny and all those fun things.  Religion aside, I just wanted to give a few ideas if you are stuck on ideas of what to put in your child's Easter basket this year. We are a family who isn't very fond of candy for our almost 2 year old and are also on a Vegan diet so not much works anyhow.

Here is a photo of the basket I made her:

So far, she's very girly so it wasn't very hard to choose. We literally just went to the Target $1 section and chose a few things. Some things I got for more than a dollar but her birthday is also the day before Easter so I combined a few things for that as well such as shoes and a Dora doll. Vera has only watched Dora a handful of times but seems to remember it well, so I thought I would encourage it. Originally, I was against characters and such. I guess things kinda change once you become a parent.

Anyhow, I bought some plastic eggs and filled them with hair ties, cars, bracelets, necklaces, stickers, and things like that. I also stuck a shirt that she will wear for Easter, an Easter hat, a purse, and a shaker. There is a book in there, as well.

Some more Easter basket filler ideas are: art supplies such as crayons, colored pencils, coloring books, sponges, paint, beads and string to make their own jewelry, figurines, balls, plastic links for babies, small games, plastic animals, stuffed animals, chalk, play dough, markers, Easter eggs full of treats such as goldfish, trail mix, crackers, little cookies, etc. Bubbles, paint, paint brushes, popsicle sticks for arts and crafts, cookie cutters, flash cards, notebooks, headbands, fruit, books, blocks, marbles, photo album.... Those are all just a few ideas and obviously, it will depend on the age of your child. You wouldn't want to give your infants/toddlers things they can choke on.

Hope that helps!

Pushing Through

I have slacked on the blog this week, and  I apologize. I have been getting over some illnesses and just feeling down lately.  My main focus and goal is to be positive but sometimes, life brings you down. We all have those days. It takes the special people in your life, or a special activity you like to do, to remind you again why life is so great. You have to pick up the pieces, and just keep moving because life will not wait for you. It will pass you right by as you sit there in sadness and sulk. I promise you that.  When I'm in a "funk,"  I try to remind myself that it doesn't last forever and that things ALWAYS work out. It really helps to talk it out with my husband and friends, as well. I also try to find my own solutions to issues and seek out reassurance and make sure I'm on the right track.

The truth is, people will get you down. Life will get you down. The world will be on your shoulders at times.  But even then, even though you desperately need that break from life to refresh yourself and clear your mind, time will not slow down for you. You have to keep up, despite the weights dragging you down.  Others will treat you poorly, you wont be in love with your job every second of every day, and things wont always go your way. I believe those are a few things we can ALL agree on.  Some days are just plain hard. Like a foggy window that you continue to wipe off but can never clearly see out of it.  Let it warm up.... give it some time.  Keep the faith! Things WILL work out, they always do. They may not always work out the way you want them to, but they work out.  I find the hardest part of the journey is patience. Patience to understand what the plan is for me or why things make me unhappy the way they do.  Why I let people and things bother me.  Why do we allow so much unhappiness into our lives when we have such little time here?  Look around you. Those little children in our lives are growing up within a blink of an eye.  We are hurdling obstacles each and every day. We wont get today or yesterday back..... and worrying isn't doing us any good. It's great to have a good cry every now and again, but don't make it a habit. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and remember that TODAY is YOUR day. Your chance at happiness. Your chance at doing what you want and living the life you dream of. It wont be easy. Not even a tiny bit easy. It will be HARD and every day will be a challenge. But because of this, we learn to appreciate those few times life is going as planned.

Push through, find the strength, and don't give up. Today is YOUR day.

Small Business Shout Out- Sew Fun

Brett and I are both OBSESSED with small businesses. That doesn't mean we shop only at small businesses but we try to support them as much as we possibly can.

Today, I wanted to give a shout out to a great and talented friend of mine, Fina, and her business.  I have been purchasing things from her for a year or so and have never regretted it! Vera and myself have definitely loved our products. 

Here is a small sample of some of the work she does:

$10 each (bowholder or dress) 

 $1.50 each (headbands)

 $5 each

 $8 (tutu)

And ALL of these items are VERY affordable. They are all approximately $10 or under.  The bows and headbands are much less then that.

Feel free to visit her facebook page:
www.facebook.com/sewfunbyfina

Also, I have ordered custom colors and things and she has been VERY flexible with it all. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Vegan Recipes

As promised, I am relaxing on the couch while Vera is asleep for the night and Brett is in the garage working on her birthday gift.

This means, I have time to include some Vegan recipes!!! SO excited for this.  Speaking with a friend today, we realized how common the misconceptions about eating Vegan are!  A lot of individuals assume that eating Vegan is unworthy and distasteful. To us, it has been quite the opposite.  We have never had such amazing food! It has also been a joy to shop for it together, to prepare it all, and to cook it! We have even come up with our own tips and ideas in the kitchen which I am positive I will share in the near future.

First, I want to start with our grocery list.  We do make a list of things we would like to get but we also base our meals off of the great deals we find on fruit, veggies, and soy products such as tofu.

Our shopping trip usually involves several different stores. I know this can be a pain, but for now, since we live in the city, it's not too much of a hassle.  These are our go-to places: Aldi (fruits, vegetables, and oatmeal are always cheaper there), Costco (we buy rice and beans in bulk, almonds/peanuts, flax seed, as well as craisins and other things that they have on sale. It differs each time).  Trader Joe's- we buy a few packs of veggie burgers for quick meals as well as jarred coconut oil, tofu chorizo, dark chocolate, gluten free flour, and random other things. These are the three main places. We also have a bread store not to far from us where we can purchase whole grain, all natural, loaves of bread for 89 cents a piece! They sell things like pita bread, english muffins, etc. there for SUPER cheap. Brett can't eat these items due to the gluten but Vera and I eat it on ocassion and keep the rest in the freezer until we are ready to use it.I literally just made some cookies and icecream tonight that were gluten free as well as Vegan so I will go over those first.

the cookies:
oatmeal/craisin cookies.

preheat oven to 350.

3/4 cup of  uncooked oats (quick oats)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 TBS sweetener (I used some syrup stuff we bought today, can't for the life of me remember what it's called)
2 TBS craisins
1 TBS coconut oil
2 TBS nondairy milk (I used vanilla almond milk)

I mixed it all together in a bowl, formed little spheres, and pressed them into the cookie sheet. It doesn't make very much at all but I thought it was the perfect start to make sure we liked them, first.  I baked them for 15-20 minutes then took them out and placed them on cooling racks. It didn't take long before we devoured them. The end!

Icecream:

I always buy extra bananas to make our own icecream. I peel them, cut them into chunks, and place them in a freezer bag. I froze them when I got home from the grocery store (around 2pm) and got them back out of the fridge around 7:30pm or so. Not sure how long they have to freeze but this amount of time worked for us.  Once I took them out, I put them in our magic bullet and attempted to blend them.  This  didn't work amazingly well so I did have to add a few splashes of vanilla almond milk to get it to mix a little better. Once I blended it all into a soft-serve consistency, I added one spoonful of peanut butter and one spoonful of coco powder.  I blended it well and TADA! Done-zo. 

I served the icecream and cookies together and they were a hit. Again, it doesn't make the largest portion but it was enough to take care of our sweet cravings!

As for dinner:

Tonight, we had chorizo/refried bean nachos with a lot of fixings.

I made a little taco bar with the veggies and such that we bought today.  I chopped up some onion, lettuce, red pepper, put some tofu chorizo sausage into the frying pan, heated up some refried beans, got out the jar of salsa, and cut up some fresh tomato. I served it all separated in a veggie tray to keep it tidy and let the guys go to town.  Served it all on top of tortilla chips.  They loved it!

This meal was so quick and easy, even with a toddler demanding my attention.

Another favorite is:

zucchini lasagna.

Sound strange? we thought so too but we have made it a few times and LOVE it. Actually, I have sauteed it in a frying pan as well as baked it, and it worked better in the pan.  However, I will go with the baked recipe first.

It's so easy to make! I just take a few zucchini and slice them coin-like as thin as I can.  I then get some pasta sauce and add my own seasonings into it.  (you can also make your own pasta sauce, but I will get to that point eventually).  I layer a bit of sauce on the bottom of a glass pan then layer some zucchini on top of that. The last time I made it, I also added a layer of mushrooms onto that. I layer them all again and do this until the ingredients are out.  I bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes.  I do know that the pan gets a little watery so I drain it a bit once I take it out. 

If you want to do it the frying pan way, I just put some sauce in the pan, add the zucchini, add the mushrooms, italian seasoning, and sometimes, I add rice.  I add the rice only after the veggies are soft and cooked, though.  It was SO good the last time I made it. It's really hard for us to control ourselves and leave some for lunch the next day!

I will stick with these recipes today but will add on as we get more together. As I said, a lot of them are just inspired by other recipes but we do it in our own way with our own ingredients so it's hard to report exactly how we make it as of yet.

In the future, I'd like to add some photos, too, to add some flare!

Take care!



< lettuce wraps. Inside, there is home made hummus, white rice, and black beans.  kiwi, and a taco/rice side. We eat a lot of rice.

Over here -------------->
is an example of the lunches we pack for ourselves. baked sweet potato with some brown sugar in it, celery (with peanut butter in one of those small containers), tofu salad w/ salad dressing, and an orange.