Happy Birthday, Nana!

First Day of Class

 

This is what I made. :)

Hopefully I will soon learn how to make better use of the flower foam, but for my first time working with it, I'm fairly pleased with the result. :)

 

Class was fun, and everyone seemed very nice. I especially like that the horticulture department manages an on-campus garden that we're able to utilize as a cutting garden! I'm going to have a great time with this class this semester!

Rainy Day Sunflowers

We had a busy day today. It was nice and cool outside since it's been rainy, so I took the opportunity to get us out of the house and into the lovely 70-degree day.  First thing, we had a Jamba smoothie and scrambled eggs,

        then we loaded up in the car

and headed over to OurKid's grandparents' house to check on the sunflowers she planted. She was pleased, after she finished checking out the tomatoes. ;)

Once we returned home, I made some "detox water"

by mixing about 2 quarts of water (there was more in here, I promise), with a lemon, a lime, a small cucumber, each sliced, along with about 10 mint leaves.

Next, I made a fat-free spinach/artichoke dip that was tasty enough I ate without dipping anything into it at all.

Then, OurKid wanted pancakes and I couldn't resist. (Who could resist this silly charmer?)

And lastly, I turned this....

into this.

(Yes, I did actually take the effort to snap before and after shots of this. The only way that anyone who knows me would believe it- maybe!)  The way I measure time for me to do a task by myself is usually by how many segments of a TV show OurKid watches, or how much food she eats during that time. During this task, she ate 6 pieces of roast beef and some frozen raspberries and strawberries.
Before she and I went to pick up pizza (Monday night= Pizza night at our local little Italian place), my new Scentsy samples were delivered! OurKid gets super excited about packages, especially packages that are Scentsy. We sat down and sampled them. She agreed with me that one, in particular, was unpleasant, but she thought the rest were "great!", and one was "splendid". We started warming September's Scent of the Month, Caramel Pear Crisp, and today's weather was perfect for it!
The anticipation of the holidays brings much excitement to us, and todays questions from OurKid included, "But why does Christmas have to be in December?" So we had to write a letter to Santa, already outlining what she wants. This, from the girl who, when asked last year what she wanted by Santa himself, said, "But I already have presents at home, under my tree!" and proceeded to tell him about her new shoes and her toenails being painting lavender. Mommy's little go-getter doesn't want to wait for Santa, by the way. She said she would feel better if she could go get it now, all by herself (!).

Choosing to Find Happiness

I am so not for slapping a smile on things unworthy of it. Sometimes it is HARD to be at home with work piling up, a toddler wanting to play again, and no adults to talk to for most of the day. But then I realize- is this really unworthy? It is one of the things I always wanted to do, after all. Priority assessment. I am in charge of my destiny. I can be happy and still do sometimes menial, often boring tasks.
So here are some of the things I have chosen to do in the last few weeks to make being happy an easier choice for me:
1) Enroll in college. Just one class for now. Intro to Floral Design. Let's see how I like it.
2) Try to complain less about the tasks I'm going to do anyway.
3) Step back from the computer more and enjoy my child more. I'm finding myself to be more patient with her, and happier with life in general.

This is my journey.