There's more to it

Ever get that feeling, that thought that 

'There has to be more to this life'

Maybe I've become very contemplative because I've been on bed rest for over two weeks now. 

I have to apologize for being away for so darn long! But I've been dealing with health issues for a few weeks now. This year has sort of been putting me through the ringer with health problems. These challenges have landed me straight on my butt with not a whole lot of energy to get back up. I've had very little inspiration to blog since I've been in this bed of mine. But I've been thinking about this very subject for days, so I thought I would swing by my blog, say hi, and talk about this with you. 

So, do you get that feeling in life? That big question of 

"IS there more to my life than this?"

I guess with so much time on my hands- I have gone there. 

• YES I'm a mother to the most wonderful child

• YES I have the love of my life 

• YES I have the pleasure of staying home to raise my family, and take care of my two loves

But in a way I almost feel like there is no 'ME' there in the mix of my own life. 

I've always wanted to raise my family. It's been my dream since I was a little girl who had been moved around a lot from one family member to the next. But I feel like that is only a part of who I am. 

Am I the only one?


I'm hoping to come back here more regularly next week, or the week after- depending on how I'm feeling. But thank you for the continued support, and patience as I start to feel better. 

Hiatus

Hi all, 

I know I've been away for quite some time now. And I keep meaning to properly sit down and write a post for the day but I've had a lot going on in the past little while. 

For some reason stress has taken over- along with a liver cleanse that was absolutely needed at this time in my life. The move took a lot out of me. I'll be very honest with you about that. There's a part of me that loves constant change, thrives in it actually. But two moves in one summer really did me in. 

So I guess what I'm doing right now is taking it easy and slowly making this new apartment feel like my home. I promise I'll be back soon to give you a full update on life. For now, thanks for hanging tight, and thanks for staying with me. 

Peace. 

Moving 'to do' list- time out!

Ok, as I've said at the beginning of the week I'm a tad busy with this whole move. But Wednesday's are very important to me, as I'm really excited to share The Self Care Series with you, and I started Part I with you last week. But to be honest with you (which I absolutely need to do), I have not been able to keep up with week 1! I've done a meditation here and there, I'm also keeping up with my health cleanse, but I'm just not able to stay committed this week. So as next week approaches I will continue to try and find the time to do at least the 5 minute relaxation meditation that I have on my phone. Next week I will come back fresh... hopefully unpacked and ready to start in on the exercise series ok? 

Please bare with me :) This is what my life looks like right now (excuse the sloppy writing, I blame it on my 'lefty' hand. I'm damn creative, but I'm a messy creative!).

Because I've moved so much, I would think that by now I'd had a system down. And I do (I'm even trying to colour code the boxes as I tag them for different rooms- hopefully I remember along the way!). We are moving into my uncle's 2 bedroom 2 bathroom, walk in master closet apartment as he takes the next step with his girlfriend and moves in with her. He is SUCH a sweetheart for letting us take over, as it will give us a chance to save up for our wedding *happy dance!!*

Toddler biking (review)

The best part of my day today was watching my son ride his bike outside for the very first time at 25 months old. He was incredibly conscientious of his surroundings making sure not to run over anyone who was lying around in the grass. Such a little sweetheart!  

Here's my review of the Strider bike- AMAZING! He's been small since the very first day he was born. I researched the best, and smallest version of a balance bike I could find and at a price of $110 I was sold. Its light, easy for him to move around, and more than light enough for me to carry if he wants to take a break and rest on my hip while we walk. Worth the buy if your looking.

He'll be able to grow into this bike as well as the whole bike adjusts as he grows. The one thing that I might comment on is the seat for his little bum, it doesn't seem that comfortable, but he doesn't seem to mind it :)

Ease of use:

5/5

Comfortablility:

3.5/5

Longevity of the product:

5/5

Lightness & Durability:

5/5

Coolness factor:

5/5

Anytime we take his bike out for a ride he's always turning heads. People come up to him and ask me how it works. He just loves his little bike! I also ran into a cute youtube video of a 3 year old doing dirt biking trails with his dad (I'm going to assume it wasn't a hardcore trail- as he was only 3, but how cool is that?). Needless to say, Toli's dad is now urging me to take him out to practice everyday so the two of them can go off into the sunset and bike into the forest together :) If your in the Vancouver area, and want to check out the store I got my sons bike at its called Bike Doctor. Hope your enjoying your week!

The weekend report

Well, I must tell you that my Thursday night was a lot more exciting then the rest of my weekend.

Toli and I made our way over to Nanaimo to stay with my close friend at her new pad. I feel like I see her more now than I did when she lived in the city (goes to show how 'busy' one can make their life when simple friendship is probably one of the greatest things in the world).


So today, its gonna be a short one. 

One very awesome tidbit- Thursday was Toli's very first ferry ride! We ended up playing at the top of the boat outside the entire time (which left him out cold for a good long 3 hour nap when we arrived- which made for great girl time!). He then awoke and made a cute little new friend whom he loved playing with for the whole of our stay!

** Mommy/ Parent tip** Do something NEW with your toddler every so often! I'm not a big fan of routine but I know its necessary for a child to thrive when they have things that happen everyday- but giving them a little excitement will stimulate their mind, and the side benefit for you (and them) is that they will have a really good sleep! 

He's also adopted a new "Auntie", he only has a couple other's and he's decided that this is what she is to him- so endearing how he chooses his relationships :)

And don't expect too much more from me than that today haha! Saturday I picked up some supplements where my friend works, and brought my son home for nap time. We had a lot to do that day like; grocery shop, clean the house, amongst other boring household chores. 

To my demise that day my son lost my only set of house/ car keys (which are STILL missing!). So we ended up sitting at home all day waiting for his Dada to come back from a fishing trip- UGH! Needless to say, as irritated as I felt I ended up taking some action and upping my liver cleanse by juicing some great vegetables for my liver- check out my Health Cleanse blog here . And yesterday was spent at numerous furniture stores, and Ikea- where we looked for couches, mattress's and other necessities for our new apartment for the end of the week. That was it. Sorry to be so uneventful this weekend, but that's how she goes! 

I'm hoping to stay up to date with my blog this week, but with packing going full tilt as of tomorrow I'm just hoping to have all of my ducks in a row for the move come Saturday.

Please bare with me, as I may be attempting to pull my hair out during this move :) Moving with toddlers is not fun.... but maybe he'll be used to it this round? I can always hope, right?

Recipe of the week: Quinoa Salad

This weeks recipe is by far one of my most favourite new simple recipes. I will say beforehand to cook a batch of quinoa (which can be used for days for salads, or breakfast dishes). I didn't have any quinoa pre-cooked, so before dinner time came, and while I was reading blogs I cooked 

• 1 cup of quinoa
• 2 cups of water
• a splash of coconut oil
• Himalayan salt. 

It cooks just like rice if you've never cooked with it before, so it takes 20 minutes in a pot with a lid. Once its cooked I will take the lid off, and use a fork to fluff up the quinoa before I let it cool a bit with the lid off.

After reading my blogs for the day I took out a nice big salad bowl, and filled it half way with salad greens that I had in my fridge.

                  

Next I took out everything I wanted for the salad

• 4 radishes
• 3 inches of cucumber
• 1 handful of blueberries
• 5 slices of turkey bacon
• 1 cup of cooked quinoa
• Extra virgian olive oil
• Balsalmic vinegar
• Himalayan salt, and my pepper grinder for some fresh pepper 

                  

Mmm, my guilty pleasure- turkey bacon!

                 

Here's my cooled quinoa

                 

                  

Once I chopped up my veggies, and cooked bacon I added it all to the bowl of greens

                  

I don't really measure how much olive oil or balsalmic I use because you either like your salad really saucy, or a bit on the drier side, so I'll leave that to your discretion. 

Salt and pepper to taste.

Here's the final product! It was incredibly yummy, and when I served it to my son he had a great big smile on his face :)

Hope you enjoy! 

                 

Health Cleanse

A couple of posts ago- I mentioned that we are finally going to be setting a date for our long awaited wedding!

As always, things move fast (although, not my wedding plans until just now), I've started this Self Care Series which will run for the next 5 weeks after this week (and also means I'm practicing everything I talk about everyday). We are moving soon, and also buckling in for some great life changes at home for the long haul (I'm talking buying our first home, and expanding our family). So a lot is happening around me as I sit here and blog about it. Oh, did I mention I'm night weaning my toddler? Ah!!

No need for stress, its time for action! I want to feel and look my best not only for my wedding (but yes, it is a major plus to have a date to push towards with some healthy lifestyle goals), but for my life. So what did I do amongst all this chaos? 

I started a liver cleanse.. Was it a great idea for such a busy and hectic time in my life? I'm not so sure about that, but I'm doing it anyways. You know why? Because there's never a time like the present. No, my liver cleanse isn't planned and 100% ready to go (I had such a stressful evening I didn't get around to my tumeric tea- tomorrow is another day!), but I did a little research and instead of perfecting, thinking, dreaming and wishing I would just do it already, I'm doing it.

I've recently been talking to a friend- who is in the nutritional field- about liver function. And it hit me after that conversation that some things needed to change so I could have glowing skin for my walk down the aisle! Because of medication that I used since I was a young child, it has not been good for my poor liver, add in a couple trips to Vegas and free booze in Mexico I think its time I said "hey liver, I love you too!", right? Couldn't we all show some appreciation for such a wonderful organ that is our basic detoxification centre? The skin will usually try and help the liver by expelling toxins through the skin, so its time to give all of my organs the love that they so truly desire.

Amongst other things, here are a couple of links about foods that cleanse the liver, how to boost the functioning of your liver, and release toxins

• 14 Foods that Cleanse the Liver
• 9 Simple Ways to Boost Your Liver
• Get Rid of Toxins

So far, I've started drinking warm water (half boiled, half cold) with half a lemon in the mornings before I do anything (other than make my son gluten free toast with fruit for breakfast), I'll also be adding more liver supportive foods as I go along. I'll be doing more as the days continue, but for now I'm solely focused on my morning routine of lemon water with a tumeric milk tea before bed (yes, sounds a little strange, but the liver absolutely LOVES tumeric- add black pepper for optimal results).

On top of that, from one of the articles above it says to do tumeric milk for 3 months. I plan on doing that, but for at least 21 days I'll be doing a good enough (for my lifestyle, and I'll be doing as well as I can with a toddler, trust me, I'll be happy) liver cleanse.

Here's my recipe with links about tumeric included at the bottom

Tumeric Tea:

1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
1/2 tsp organic tumeric
As much black pepper as you handle (I like my tea a little spicy!)
Honey to taste

Heat milk slowly, add tumeric, black pepper and honey. Once steaming, drink.

Voila!

• Tumeric Milk
• Golden Milk
• Benefits of Tumeric enhanced by Black Pepper

Sorry if this post is a bit lengthy, I think my inner Wellness Geek is coming out to show the world some love :)

This picture is courtesy of Anusorn P nachol/ freedigitalphotos.net