A New Year. A New Start.

Warning: New Years Resolution Post. Pass it by if you don't want to read another one.

Taking a needed moment to put in my resolutions for this year. Yes everyone puts them up. I need to to keep myself towards my goals. I don't like the way I have become a stressed, overworked, frazzled mom. I need to take a stand against myself and set some rules. The best way to fallow them is to put them out there for others to see. There are a lot, yes but they are realistic ones that will lead to good outcomes.

1. Omit "Hate" from my vocabulary. It's such an awful word. "Don't Care For" or just "no thank you" are so much more pleasant sounding.

2. Try to have more patience and raise my voice less. It's so much easier on everyone to get up close and whisper things anyway ( I think whispering gets my seriousness/ creepy momness across more).

3. Try not to stress over things I can not change. Like how fast the car in front of me is moving or whether they used the near extinct turn signal.

4. Don't sweat the little stuff. Really.

5. Accept that as a working mom, I will not have a perfectly clean house. I MUST learn that and be ok with it.

6. Eat Healthier. Really this isn't a big adjustment. Just eat less cheese. It has snuck into my diet more.

7. Go to bed at a reasonable time. I will wage war on my internal nocturnal clock that has kept me awake until 1am most of my life. I won't say 10 because I need to work my way there. I will say before midnight. I want more energy to have fun and no longer have the option of a midday nap.

8. Stress less about time. I worry to much about getting stuff done on time and run around like a chicken. The fact the school wants us there before the other kids is an unrealistic goal we can't meet. Done.  

9. Find the joy in the small things and worry less about the big. A variation on 4, but still worth it's own.

10. Meal time is not a battle ground. Play time is not more important then eating, but we need to find some way to work this a little better.


 Love life for what it is not what it could be. I am me, this is my family, this is the way our life is. Take things as they come and roll with it. For life changes everyday and every moment that passes is gone forever.

Graze Review

This blog post in incomplete. Pictures will be added soon.

   Monday in the mail I received a small box of healthy snack goodies from Graze . Graze is one of those mail subscription boxes that have been popping up all over the place recently. I had originally looked into NatureBox , but they are $20 a month and it's a surprise what kinds of things they may send. Which knowing my snack preferences, I'm not sure how much of it I would actually enjoy.

First a Little About Graze and Their Boxes.

    Graze is different. It's only $6 a box ( and that includes the shipping) with four serving size snack pots in each box. If you sign up using someone's friend code, you receive your first and fifth box free! You have the option of getting your box every two weeks or four weeks. You can go in your account on their site and easily adjust it more or less often as needed. You can even hold it off for several months if you are moving or on vacation. It's so uncomplicated and easy to use. It even tells you how long you have to adjust the settings on your box before it is sent out.

     The best part is though, you can pick and choose the snacks they will send you. They have over 90 snacks and you rate them Trash, Try, Like, or Love. You receive snacks based on how you rate them. . For instance I marked all mine as 'Try' with the exception of the snacks containing mainly  fruit, nut, and seed. Those I marked as 'Like' because I want to receive more of those then say the chocolate options. I also marked the cracker and pretzel snacks as 'Trash' because I don't want to receive them.

   For those that have special diet needs, they have buttons you can click on labeled 'Non- Vegan', 'Non-Caelic', or ' Dairy'. You press one and it show you all the items that contain those items so that you may 'Trash' them. That way you can make your box Gluten Free, Dairy Free, or Vegan. Which means I can set up a box for my Gluten intolerance son.

On To My Box

     My box came in quicker then I anticipated and on a Monday!. Great surprise to lighten up an otherwise dreary Monday. The box itself was smaller then I had expected, but the snack 'pots' were about spot on. My box contained Scrumptious Blueberry Swirl,  America's Nut Mix, Korai Chutney, and Seedsational.

Korai Chutney was one of those I had considered marking as 'Trash', but decided to 'Try' it anyway since it sounded interesting. It comes with 8 little curry flavored rice crackers and a nice dollop of a tangy sweet and spicy chutney. It came with more chutney then the crackers needed which is great. I'm a drencher. I was not to impressed with this one. While the flavor was good, I'm not a cracker person really. I marked it 'Trash'.

America's Nut Mix was one I had marked 'Like'. It was a middle of the night snack I split with Mike. There were tiny redskin peanuts, almonds,  pecans, and Brazil nuts. It contained a nice even mix of the nuts and they were unsalted. It was what I was expecting except delicious. These weren't like those old dried out nuts you buy in the stores. They were full of flavor and not super hard Mike wasn't excited about eating it. I don't think he has much interest in nuts. I will keep this one rated 'Like'

Scrumptious Blueberry Swirl was one I had marked 'Like'. It contained raspberry infused cranberries, black currants, and blueberry yogurt covered raisins. I was really looking forward to this one when I was looking at snacks on their website. It was not what I expected. I am used to the yogurt covered raisins you get at the grocers. Those are more sugar really. The ones in the snack box were covered in real yogurt. It had a slightly sour taste that all yogurt has. The whole reason I don't eat yogurt really. The flavor was good though despite that. The cranberries were devine. A little too sweet to stand alone but when you combine them with the ultra tart black currants, it's perfect. Except for the slightly sour yogurt taste I really enjoyed this one. I'm all about some berries.  This one stayed rated ' Like'.

Seedsational I had also marked as 'Like'. It contains soy infused sunflower seeds and roasted pumpkin seeds. There are a lot of seeds in that little pot. I am eating this one as I type. It is delicious. The saltiness and taste of soy are not overwhelming, but add a wonderful flavor to the seeds. I'm already a big fan of both pumpkin and sunflower seeds and this one does not disappoint. My favorite pot in the box. I won't rate this one as 'Love' just yet though. I want to wait to try a few before I rate things that high. This stays as 'Like'  for now.

The Container  is made with wood from a sustainable forest. It's recyclable, but I have other plans for it.  The bottom when you remove the tray, has a picture of grass printed on it. It would be great to stash some toy animals or dinosaurs in for trips to a restaurant or shopping.

      All in all I enjoyed my Graze experience. I do wish a little more came in the box, but they are portioned properly for healthy eating. I tend to eat more then the average person because of my unique dietary needs so it was difficult for me not to dive in and devour the whole thing. I did make it last until Thursday which I believe is remarkable, The snacks were awesome and I will be continuing with my subscription and probably set one up for Corbyn as well. These would be great to pack in his lunch or snack bag for school. I'm glad I found Graze.

Amanda

Leprechaun

I had originally planned to do a simple plush shamrock for Corbyn's St. Patrick's Day gift. I saw this cute little Pattern and thought "that would be an awesome little Leprechaun" So I of course made one with red hair and added a little shamrock on it. I like how it turned out. I wish somewhere around here sold embroidery thread, but the fabric markers did a great job when limited by time. I didn't finish it on St. Patrick's Day unfortunately. I did finish it by the day of the parade so it was a memento of Corbyn's first parade.

90-minute shirt

I needed some summer cloths for Corbyn so I decided to make some. I stumbled across this TUTORIAL from MADE. Of course being my first try it took a me a little more then 90 minutes. An hour more to be exact, but it was still pretty easy. I wasn't too happy with the way the first one turned out so snug around the neck. I adjusted my pattern by an inch around the neck and that one was way to big. I need a happy medium. I plan on resewing part of the second one for a better fit and will take some pictures of that as well.

more pictures of my first shirt:

I love green on him. Most of the stuff I make him is green or grey.

reading his favorite catalog Playmobil

Plush Car

For Valentine's Day this year I decided to make a Plush Car for Monk. It turned out really well, but it took a lot more work then anticipated. This is the first time I have attempted a plush(with the exception of my deformed bee) so I was figuring out tricks as I went along. I was not happy with my work several times and redid them, but hey it turned out pretty good. Monk loves it and asks for it at bedtime every night now.

In the works

I plan to post on here a bit of my sewing creations. Recipes, tips, and anything I have found helpful or creative as well. I'm not sure how much will get done on here as I am a busy mother with many projects on my list of "to do"s, but I will try to keep up when I can.