Feeling Grateful

The other night a friend drove me home and said, "Oh what a lovely big house you live in, it must be so nice for you and your little girl." This comment took me by surprise since I am not used to thinking of my mother's house as particularity big, it is a typical (for this part of the country) three bed room rancher. It has "only" one bathroom and sometimes doesn't seem large enough to accommodate an extremely active Bumper, it's just Nana's house. My friend's comment made me think. I have been taking a lot of things for granted lately. The house is just one among many. I have a lot to be grateful for, so here is a list of some of the every day things I am thankful for and often take for granted.

1. A good, strong, warm, safe, dry house to live in.
2. Plenty of food to eat.
3. Clean water to drink, cook, and bathe in.
4. A soft bed to sleep in.
5. Solid, well kept, clothes to wear.
6. A healthy child.
8. Friends.
9. A loving and supportive family.
10. Faith.

I am humbled as I write this, because there are many people in the world, and in this country who do not have access to these things. I am grateful and blessed.

Blessings,

Kim

Summer's Bounty

Lush green trees and blue sky

Summertime is here and with it comes an plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables. The Bumper's Nana is an avid gardener and sometimes there are more vegetables than we know what to do with.

Chickpea cutlets and ripe tomatoes

 

Last night we were in a cooking frenzy as we realized that many of the items, such as cumbers, kale, celery, mushrooms, and squash and tomatoes would go bad if we did not use them right away. The result was a grilled/roasted veggie extravaganza!  Yum! I would have taken a lot more pictures, but the Bumper kept eating things as fast as we put them on the table.

I feel very fortunate indeed to be living in a time of such plenty.

Blessings,

Kim

Peppers

Day Lily

Child Training and Attitude

The Bumper is a wonderfully active, curious and headstrong toddler. She loves to explore, climb, run, swing, jump, and dance. She entered the terrible twos with a vengeance. These days it seems like the only thing I say to her is "No!", which she says right back. The Bumper also likes the words: "mine, stop, and especially I do it myself".

It is this latter phrase that has me thinking. She is growing up, she is becoming her own little person, and as her mother I have to guide her and train her. When we were first married the Bumper's dad and I did talk a little about what we wanted our children to be like, what values we wanted them to have, but it was always in the abstract and theoretical . Now I am down in the trenches, and the Bumper's dad is unable to help, so I have to make the choices on my own.

The difficulty for me is that the Bumper is an only child and not only am I her parent, but I am her primary playmate. How to balance the two roles? Some days are better than others. Last week she successfully went to the potty, brushed her teeth, sat at the table and ate and went to bed with very little effort on my part. Yesterday... not so much. Yesterday was a complete struggle, it seemed like I was constantly cleaning up after her, and scolding her for every little thing. I kept putting her in time out until we were both exhausted. Then I had an epiphany the Bumper wasn't doing what she was to deliberately irritate me, she was behaving badly to get my attention. I was so busy trying to get the house work done that I was ignoring her. So I stopped, took a mommy time out (went to the bathroom and counted to ten), and came back refreshed. I decided the house work could wait. It was too hot to play outside; an indoor activity was called for. The Bumper and I spent the rest of the afternoon making play-dough animals.

What did I learn? When I pay proper attention to her, she is more likely to obey me.

Blessings

Kim

Weekend Reflections

This weekend I took the Bumper to visit her dad at the hospital. It was a sobering visit. She barely recognized him and he recognized her, but could barely speak. Once she got her courage back, she started chatting merrily to him. The Bumper told her dad all about the kittens, planting the garden, and building a tower of rocks in the hospital courtyard. Then she turned to me and asked if Daddy was sick, to which I replied that he was and with all the seriousness that a two and half year old can muster, she told me to go home so we could get her medicine from her doctor and make her daddy better. Ah, the faith of a child!

For me the visit was quite a shock, I knew he was ill but I did not really understand how badly. I now know. I am still trying to processes this. All I can think, is that none of us know how much time we are given and every day is precious (all the more important to remember today when the Bumper has made more messes than I can clean and completely frazzled my nerves).

A friend sent me this verse: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength  is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9.

Very appropriate and very timely, as I try to repay hurt with kindness.

Blessings

Kim

Low Key

Summer is officially two days away, and we are finally seeing some summertime weather. The Bumper is out chasing kittens again, we are taking long walks to the zoo, and spending the evenings chasing fireflies.
I love watching my little girl grow and discover new things. This past week she has been asking about a picnic on the beach. Her Nana and I had hoped to oblige her today, but she wore herself out  at the park!
I am enjoying these low-key days.

Blessings
Kim

Beach Day!

I am quite fortunate in that I live about thirty minutes from the beach and last week I was definitely in need of some beach board walk time. I normally prefer the quiet solitude of  Assateague Island but this was an emergency! I needed the vibrant energy of the Ocean City Boardwalk to take my mind off the heavy stuff I have been dealing with. So I packed up the Bumper and the babysitter and off we went

 

The day was a bit blustery and chilly, but we were undaunted. The Bumper wanted to speed straight for the sand and surf, but I wanted to check out, My Nature, a new raw/vegan restaurant on the boardwalk (that will be a later post).

 

 

 

After getting my mango cobbler fix we headed out. The Bumper made sand angels, chased seagulls and even rode a motorcycle. She had  a marvelous time and I had a marvelous time watching her! 

The hardest part was convincing her to leave when it was time to head for home, but head for home we eventually did. We were all tired, sandy and spirit refreshed.

 

Being out and about with all those other people having fun renewed my energy and filled me with positive thoughts, so much so that I tried a brand new exercise class, and wrote a few pages on my new novel.

Blessings.



Kim



P.S And made more Granny Bunting Triangles of course!

 

Meatless Monday and other Musings

Meatless Monday

Hmm! I didn't even know there was such a thing, but since I am trying to give my daughter a better example this is what our Meatless Monday looks like:

Breakfast - Oatmeal with rasberries, blueberries, and soymilk.
Lunch- Peanut Butter & Jelly, carrots and peaches.
Supper- either Spinach with diced tomatoes and curried chick peas or lentils, rice and broccoli

When in stress I bake, and over the weekend my stress meter went through the roof.
I was once again in contact with the hospital caring for the Bumper's Dad. They informed me they would be sending him to rehabilitation. Ok fine. A few blocks from my mom's house. Not fine.
I freaked. I barely even heard the nurse tell me how all the doctors agreed it would be better for his recovery if he were near family. When I finally calmed down, I realized he does have other family here, his Dad is here, his grandmother, aunts and uncles. The doctors were not intentionally trying to make my life difficult, they were trying to look after the best interest of their patient. I had to take a deep breath and realize that right now the Bumper's  Dad is not in a position to harm me, I could choose to be mean- spirited or I could put aside my grievences and help out. I have chosen the latter because it is not in the Bumper's best intrest for me to refuse. That being decided, I was stressed out so I broke out the recipies and started cooking. I made snikerdoodles, hot chocolate snickerdoodles, banana "ice-cream" and blue-berry jam. When I was done I felt a lot better. My waistline on the other hand? Well, that is a different story. Any body need two dozen vegan snicker doodles?

Kim