Operation Breakfast Makeover

We have made a lot of healthy changes in our lifestyle the past 9 months.  We have started to exercise together almost every day and we are eating way healthier too.  We are not on a diet, but we have tried to eat more clean (less processed foods, more whole foods) and eat less overall. 

The kids, for the most part, have been okay with the changes we've made.  They have actually learned to like some new foods and they are learning how to make better food choices and be more active.  It's been a good lifestyle change for our family.

One thing I hadn't tackled yet was breakfast, though.  Every single morning the kids had cold cereal.  And they really liked it, I never heard complaining.  But deep down inside, I knew it wasn't very healthy for them and it was also getting very expensive!  So I decided that we were going to work on making over breakfast.  I cut down cold cereal to just one morning a week (Sunday) and searched Pinterest for some yummy, healthy, kid-friendly breakfasts.  Not everything has been a hit, but the kids have found some new favorites and they are actually eating less and staying fuller longer. 

Some of the things we have tried are:

• vanilla greek yogurt with homemade granola (minus the cranberries) and berries
• homemade instant oatmeal packets - these were only meh and actually quite a bit of money, I probably won't do them again
• Applesauce oatmeal muffins
• French toast muffins (with less sugar)
• Banana cinnamon waffles
• Pumpkin Oat 'n Honey Muffins
• Whole wheat cinnamon rolls
• Biggest Loser pancakes

Overall I think the kids enjoy something different every morning for breakfast and I enjoy starting them out for the day on a full stomach.  And I am saving a ton on milk and cereal, so that's good!  We actually go through more eggs than milk these days now.

Kitchen art

I have updated our kitchen with some new art recently.  This picture was drawn by our very own Preston!!  One of the kids in his class grandpa came and taught them how to draw and he came home with this!!  What a great job and we thought it was frame-worthy.  This is the first picture we have every framed, how special!  I hope the other kids don't think we are favoring Preston in any way by doing this though.

 

 

These following pictures I made, printed out and put in white frames above our sink.  These are just verses that have spoken to me lately and since I spend a lot of time at the sink (unfortunately!), I figured that was a good place to put God's truth.  Plus, the colors are bright and fun and match my kitchen - win, win.  The last one, with the orange flower, is my favorite right now!

Sweet princess

These pictures were taken on Ashten's birthday - so a little old - but cute nonetheless.  Our little princess is getting so big!

 

Parabalooza

 

Brayden and Logan participated in the musical at our church this spring.  They spent many hours learning music, choreography and their lines, in Brayden's case.  This year the musical was based on a game-show theme, which was really fun because it was live, not scripted, so the kids were playing the games in real time without scripts.  They had practiced the games, but didn't know if they would be chosen for a game until that night.  And it was way more engaging for the crowd as well, we had things we had to do too, so it was more than just sitting and watching a performance.

 

(Sorry for the grainy photos, it's so hard to get a good picture in that lighting!)

 

A new perspective

I tend to complain a lot.  If you don't know me in person, you should know that about me.  Just take my last adoption post for example.  I mean, who would read that and ever wanna talk to me about adoption?  It was a downer post, I'm sorry.  But it's also real and it comes from my heart, and I want to remember all the ups and downs of this journey, so I am still glad I wrote it.

Someone posted on FB a few days ago about no matter how hard the wait was for the adoptive family, no matter how long and discouraging it is, it still can not compare to the what the child is going through.  So much pain and loss and trauma during that time.  Wow!  Really gives me a new perspective!  This is not about me.  Yes, someday a once-orphan will call me 'mama', but right now (or sometime during our wait), her young life is going to be hard and she will experience loss.  And somewhere across the world is a birth mother/family who is going to be losing a child.

A few of the adoptive moms with our agency have organized a pray-for-Ethiopia group.  Ehtiopia's latitude/longitude lines are 838, so they have been setting their alarms on their phones to pray for Ethiopia at 8:38 am and 8:38 pm.  Seriously, these are women who have been waiting way longer than they thought they would have to and their response is to pray.  I wish that was my first response.  I thought about doing this 838 thing, but I leave to take the kids to school at 8:40 and it just seemed like a super inconvenient time.  But this week I decided enough with my complaining, if things are ever going to happen in Ethiopia it will be by God's hand.  So I set my alarm with some African drums music and when my alarm went off, the kids and I stopped, held hands in the middle of the kitchen and prayed.  It was such a sweet time.  I got to hear their hearts for their sister and, more importantly they got to express their heart to God about their longing for her to be home with us.  I am looking forward to this time each morning.  And at 8:38 pm, I am hoping that Chris and I will have most nights where we can pray together. 

If your heart is for Ethiopia, you are welcome to join, or you can also pray for us, as I am sure we will be under a lot of spiritual attack around those times each day.  Satan does not want to see movement in Ethiopia and he doesn't want to see an orphan with their forever family.

Sleeping beauty

It's times like these when I forget she's been in full-blown toddler mode lately, if you know what I mean.  She looks so peaceful and calm when she's sleeping.  Love her to pieces either way though!

 

Adoption update, May 2013

We got our new wait list number on Wednesday and it is still sitting steady at #114.  Super discouraging!!!  I can't even imagine doing this for another 2 or more years.  My strength and stamina for this wait will be coming from God alone, I can promise you that, I don't have the strength for it in my own flesh.

For someone who has never adopted, the feelings and emotions that go along with the whole process, specifically the wait, are so hard to describe.  It can be very a very lonely feeling.  I can't go to my friend and tell her how I'm feeling and have her understand and sympathize.  Not that she won't try, but there is just no comparison.  Someone asked if it was kind of like being pregnant and waiting for the baby to be born.  Not really.  For one, in pregnancy, even though the baby isn't present outside my body, I am still getting to know him/her.  What do they like me to eat and not eat?  What times do they wake up and sleep?  How active are they?  What noises do they like?  I know they are safe and I have some control over the situation.  And most importantly, I have an approximate date that they will be here, in my arms.  But I don't know any of that stuff about our daughter right now.  Is she safe?  Is she hungry?  Where is she?  When will I see her face and hear her voice?  It's very much of an out-of-control situation, on my part.  I can't think of anything to compare it to.  I am so grateful for the people who ask how I'm doing and ask about our adoption, but no one "gets it" like a fellow adoptive parent.  Unfortunately I have very little "real-life" ones of those.  However, thanks to social media, I do know quite a few adoptive mamas via an Ethiopia adoption group.  These are the ladies I turn to when the discouragement sets in and I miss our girl like crazy.  They get it and they are always ready with Bible verses, encouragement and tons of advice.  

Our social worker emailed me today and reminded me of a truth I have to keep remembering: God loves our little girl (and all orphans) more than we ever could and He has everything in His control.  This wait doesn't make sense to me, but I have to trust that God knows.

Our coffee date

Wow!  It's been awhile since I've blogged.  Sometimes life just doesn't slow down!  I feel the need to update this blog with something, but I don't have any great pictures from recently and nothing super eventful has happened, so I am just going to pretend that you and I are out to coffee and I'm sharing a recap of our lives, like I would when catching up with a friend over coffee.

 

 



The boys are all in soccer right now, I don't know if I've mentioned that on the blog yet.  It's super busy, but we really lucked out in that all the boys have practice the same two nights of the week.  So those nights are busy, but it's not like we have 4 nights of the week of practice like we had the last time they all played soccer.  They practice at the same time, but at different fields, so it requires both Chris and I to clear our schedules every Tuesday and Thursday to take them to practice.  Every Saturday we have 3 games to attend, which isn't too bad when the weather is nice, but when it's cold, it's kind of miserable.  Preston really loves soccer and he's good at it too.  He just has natural athletic talent.  The other two don't love soccer as much, they don't enjoy the practices and games.  I don't think soccer is either of their things.  Brayden LOVES basketball and Logan LOVES music right now, so we will encourage them in those areas instead.  We only have 2 more Saturdays of games and then no sports for the summer!  Yippee!  Well, unless you count swim lessons, but I don't because I get to go sit out at the pool for a couple hours every day for a few weeks and work on my tan swim with Ashten in the kiddie pool.

My birthday was last week and I am now 33, crazy!!!  I kind of forgot it was my birthday coming up until a few days before and then it was just weird to think about it already being almost the end of April.  This year is seriously going so fast!  It snowed on my birthday (of course, it almost always does).  We got like 6 inches and the roads were bad for the morning, but then the sun came out and most of the snow melted like the next day.  Chris' school was doing ACT testing that day, so he didn't have to be there until a little later since he didn't have to proctor a test.  So he got up and made me a delicious breakfast of french toast and eggs and then I opened my presents before he left for school and I started getting the boys ready for school.  The best part of my birthday was when Chris and I went out to Maggiano's for dinner.  I had been craving a date night for awhile, and the food was delicious!

Preston has been having ear pain a lot lately.  He has had like 4 ear infections this winter, the first ones he's ever had.  He didn't get them as a baby, but now he's getting them?  Weird. We finally figured out that his ears hurt a lot worse when the weather is nice and then it is going to get bad again in the next day or two.  Like yesterday it was almost 80 and tomorrow it's supposed to snow and last night his ears were killing him.  I think it's the sudden and drastic change in the pressure that does it.  I'm just ready for it to be nice all the time and let's give his poor little ears a break.  The last time we took him to the doctor a week ago (right before it snowed on my birthday), she said it was just a little tiny bit infected, but that maybe ibuprofen would knock the edge off the pain away and his body could fight the infection itself.  She ordered an antibiotic just in case, but we haven't had to use it yet.  When the weather is nice, his ears are fine, which it's pretty much been between then and now.  Maybe this will be our last snow of the "winter"?

Our church got a new pastor this month!  So exciting!  He is really passionate about God and hearing from God and doing what God says.  Obviously Chris and I are passionate about this too, so it's exciting to see what God takes our church, under Pastor Tony's leadership, in the months and years to come. 

Yesterday the kids were playing in their swim suits on the slip-n-slide in the backyard.  Tomorrow we are supposed to get 5-9 inches of snow.  Seriously?!?!?  I think Colorado must be the only place on earth where you can experience all 4 seasons in one week, sometimes even one day.  We desperately need the moisture though, so I will try my best to have a good attitude and endure yet another snow storm.  Just for the record, I don't hate snow, I just hate it in April.  Give me snow any day in October-March and I'm fine, but once April hits, it's time for spring.  That's just my opinion, but I'm not God, so what do I know?

We are still waiting, waiting, waiting to see our little girl's face.  At the rate the wait list is moving right now, it will be another 24-30 months before that happens.  It's so discouraging because the long wait is not for lack of orphans.

Wow, I guess I had more to say than I thought.  I will hopefully get some pictures taken and get some real blogging done here soon!  Now, I'm off to drink a cup of coffee and watch the weather roll in!

Mr. Snowman

We haven't really had too many good snowstorms this year, so over Spring Break when it snowed with the good, sticky snow, Logan spent a couple of hours out in it, just playing and enjoying it.  He built a snowman all by himself and started on a fort before it was time for dinner.

Preston and Ashten were also out there playing in the snow most of the time, but they had more fun trudging through the melted snow/water running down the street.  I think they helped put some of the finishing touches on the snowman, but otherwise this was all Logan's doing!  

And yes, Preston is out there in his pajamas and snow boots with no hat or coat!

Licking the spoon

This is the best part of making brownies (or cake or frosting or cookies)!