Photos of our days.

Jingly skirt.

My new love.

Hooping under the trees.

Kumquat cheek fashionista.

I'm letting my hair dread naturally. I feel so pulled into doing this. We'll see where this journey takes me.

Getting dreads.

Leaves love me.

Polypro. <3

Cheerio stalking a lizard.

You can't tell, but he's sitting here with a lizard in his mouth.

Torturing his prey.

Hope you've all been having a great couple of weeks!
It's been a bit, uh, crazy around here!

Peace and Love.

Happy list

Now is the time I need to sit back and make a list of all the things that make me happy lately.

Yesterday was an extremely hard day here.
Among other things, we had found our kitty boy, Bonzai, dead on the side of our house.
So, here is a list of things that bring happy into my life lately.
1. We took Leena to a parade yesterday at my friend Rebecca's kid's school for Mardi Gras, even if I don't exactly agree with Mardi Gras, it was lovely to see Leena willingly and unprompted, sharing her goodies that she got in the parade with the little girl that was sitting next to her and my friend's son.
2. Penelope's giggle.
3. Going to bed with my husband next to me, my baby on my chest and my big girl, who generally crawls into our bed in the middle of the night, every night.
4. Leena's love for puzzles lately. We will need to get her some more 100 piece puzzles so we stop doing the same two we have about 20 times each day. :D
5. Seeing progress with our homeschooling when we were starting to doubt our teaching abilities. Leena asked how to write Bonzai yesterday and when I spelled it out for her, she did this.
6. The new puppy girl we are going to be adopting hopefully Monday. Funny, this was decided on before the whole Bonzai fiasco. A beagle schnauzer mix. Which Joey has started calling a Sneagle. Yes, he thought about that all day. He calls Brownie, our poodle terrier, a toodle or a perrier. He loves making up names. Good thing it's not a bulldog and a shitzu mix. (Dumb and Dumber reference anyone?)
7. I started my series of photos I am putting together for an exhibition I plan to put together towards the end of the year for "The Emancipation of Artemis." I know the woman that runs the organization from facebook and let me tell you, she's an amazing gal!
These aren't the photos for the exhibition but here's a sneak peek from the shoot I did for it yesterday.
8. Starting a belly dancing class in March with a wonderful friend of mine teaching it.
9. The love and amazingness floating around in the 30 days Mind and Body group.
10. A facebook friend becoming pregnant after I believe trying for over 7 years! She had started doing a fundraiser to get money to start IVF and what do you know, she and her husband got pregnant on their own! So wonderful.


Just a few for now.
Peace and love.

Happy

Some happy for you today.


Peace and Love.

2 months.

Joey took some photos of Penelope and I yesterday.
She's two months old.
Crazy.












I'm soaking up every moment of breastfeeding this time around.
With Leena, it was such a different experience.
I wish I enjoyed it more but that just wasn't in the cards for us.
With Penelope, I've learned so much more about breastfeeding and have the support needed to get through the rough times we've experienced.

For Valentine's Day, we used it as an excuse to get cupcakes.
After Leena's dance class we stopped by the bakery and grabbed picked out our cupcakes.
She got vanilla with a chocolate covered strawberry on top.
I got a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese filling and a chocolate covered strawberry on top.
Joey got a white chocolate raspberry cupcake.
Mine was so good.



Day one of the 30 days mind and body went well.
I got some time with my hoop and worked up a sweat.
I plan on doing some more hooping now that Leena is asleep and Joey has Penelope so I can really go into a meditative state with my hoop.
It's been a long time.
My 2 year hoopiversary is coming up and I don't plan on spending it NOT hooping this year.
I need the hoop.

At the end of this 30 days, I'm hoping, money willing, that I'll be taking my hooping to a whole new level.
I hopefully will be fire hooping.
This is the year.
I will no longer tell myself that I'm not experienced enough to fire hoop and I will just go for it!
With eyebrows and hair intact.

Outfit details:
Hat: Forever 21
Dress: Love Stay Gold
Tights: Target
Boots: Commissary in El Paso, TX.
Ring: Roots and Feathers

Peace and Love.

Self-Love

Recently my beautiful friend Betsy contacted me to do 30 days of yoga with her.
This is to help us find our center and practice self-love.
A lot of the time we find ourselves so busy pouring out our time and energy into the world that we forget to focus on us every now and then.
We need this time every day.
It helps us to remain full in our lives.

With Penelope and Leena taking up my time lately, I've been trying to make time for pilates and hooping more often.
After I had Leena I neglected myself for so long that I feel it contributed to the post partum depression I had.
This time around, I knew better.
I've been making more time for everything.
For my babies.
For my husband.
For my friends.
For my art.
For me.
I am just as important in this mix and I deserve to give myself that time out of each day to reconnect to myself.

Yes, with an almost 4 year old (gosh I still can't believe that) and a 2 month old, it is a bit hard to find that part of the day where I can just focus on myself with my hoop in hand or by doing pilates but I try.
Even if it's only 10 minutes a day.

So here I am, while basking in the lovely smell of the quinoa burgers Joey is making us for lunch, telling you all of my commitment.
Starting today, I commit myself to work on my self-love more.
I commit myself to mediate each day for AT LEAST the next 30 days.
Whether that be pilates, hooping or yoga.
The group challenge may not begin until tomorrow but I choose to start today.

I have HUGE plans for this year.
And by golly, I'm making them happen!

I'll be linking this blog up over on Betsy's lovely blog.
If you want to join feel free!

Peace and Love.

Update: In the time I wrote about Joey making the quinoa burgers and the time I finished this blog, I ate mine. Um, do yourself a favor and make them!

Post Baby Body-Week 2

Week two of my 12 week post natal work out is going well.
It's coupled with a week of no sugar.
I'm on day 3 of that.
So far it's no big deal, but I really don't eat that much refined sugar.
Honey is fair game so that helps with needing to sweeten anything, which tastes better anyways.
I was fine yesterday and the day before but today I really really want a chocolate cupcake.

And holy cow you guys.
My belly is soooo saggy.
In time though, it will get better.
I went through this with my body post Leena and now will have to work at it post Penelope.
I just forget how saggy my tummy can get.
I still have reservations about sharing photos with you all but whatevs.

Really I wasn't upset. I'm just socially awkward when it comes to smiling now from far too much Novocain injected into my mouth.
My lip is slightly lame now. Really.


I have no idea how much weight I've lost, etc.
I don't care about that.
I just want to fit in all my damn pants again!
But I am only 6 weeks post partum.
Patience young grasshopper.

Hope you all are having a great day.
We are having movie night on this rainy day.
We're watching Legend of the Guardians: The Owl's of Ga'hoole tonight.
Joey has never seen it and I know he'll love it.

Peace and Love.

Not your average grilled cheese

I've been eating more sandwiches lately.
Mainly because they are easy and there are infinite ways to make one.
I need to be more focused on getting enough calories, from good, healthy food, to continue making super nutritious milk for Penelope.
And to keep my milk supply up, of course.

This has been my lunch the last two days.


Fried Egg Grilled Cheese

2 slices of wheat bread
1/2 an avocado, smushed
4 slices of a roma tomato
1 egg, preferably organic
1 slice of swiss cheese
1 slice of muenster cheese
A pinch of salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Cook your egg on medium heat in a bit of coconut oil to prevent sticking. Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile build your sandwich with the cheese on one slice of bread and the avocado spread on the other slice, topped with tomato. Put the slices of bread on the warm griddle to start warming up the cheese. When your egg is cooked how you like, I like it with the runny yolk but whites completely cooked (which I am the master of, Joey doesn't win that cooking battle), put it on the slice with the cheese. Carefully close your sandwich so you don't break your yolk and keep cooking till cheese is melted. If you are having trouble getting your cheese to melt then throw that sucker, okay, gently place, into a 350℉ oven for a few minutes.


Pretty simple. I know I get stuck in a rut and start making the same sandwich over and over and OVER again so simple sandwiches like this are awesome to get out of that rut.

Peace and Love.