I Love Food {I Hate Food}

I have a love-hate relationship with food.

You know the battle? I love to eat food. Yummy... Tasteful... Flavorful... I love ingredients that are common but thrown together in such a way which cause your taste buds to dance. I love foreign and exotic flavors from across the globe which add an element of excitement to dinner. I love trying new foods, new recipes, and eating something outside of our normal dinner line up.

But, for the component of supreme dislike: I don't like to prep food. I am not good at taking the time to read the ingredients and follow the directions. I usually end up making a mistake and botch dinner or I change it to the point where it isn't the same and can't recreate the amazing meal. Hey, I'm working on that! But, it probably keeps me from eating all the food all the time! Ha!

The other night I was super excited. I found a cool cookbook at the library and was going to try one of the recipes. It called for wine, an inexpensive cut of beef, some simple ingredients in my cupboard already, and a new veggie I have been trying to fit into dinners lately. It was a win in my book all the way around. I even doubled the sauce, a mistake I thought I learned the week prior with a recipe from the same book. I followed directions, prepped the ingredients, set the crock pot and was good to go!

I loved it. Loved the flavor. Loved how the meat turned out, tender and juicy. I loved the combination of it with the orzo (first time trying that too). Took a bite and I was ecstatic. Looked over at the baby who was happily devouring her food...

See, I have this tendency to cook for the people in my house. I cook to appease the minions. I cook to feed the husband.

This time, I did it. This time I cooked for me.
Love. The. Food.

I look back at the baby who was silently spitting out all her food. The oldest was complaining about the leaves being something you weren't supposed to eat (it was bits of dried basil). My middle was pushing her meat around with her fork and her orzo with her spoon. Husband asked with every bite, "what's this, what's that flavor, what's this flavor".
Hate. The. Food.

We made a meal once and had some people to come over. One of our guests complained about feeling bloated from "eating this junk". That was a few years ago. What we made was from scratch. How could it be junk? It wasn't junk. But it stuck with me. It was enough to discourage me. Maybe there was/is something wrong with my taste buds. Or, maybe my flavor palate is just different.

And now my family was not eating what I had made...  again...

Love the food...

Hate the food...

It's a fine line.

Do I cook to appease the masses? Or do I cook for me?

I think I am just going to start cooking for me. I have a feeling there will always be that love-hate relationship with the food.

Being Thankful

I have not posted in a long while! I've been lucky to get through day to day! This thanksgiving, as the kids and I discuss the holiday we are also talking about being thankful for what we have and what we are given. Especially since the start of school, attempting to introduce my middle to letters (I think we are going to wait and focus on other things, like this), and the baby needing much attention and rarely sleeping, having the visual reminder of things we are thankful for is so important. The kids and I need it (ok, maybe mostly me), and it's been fun!

I did a simple 'kids thankful craft' search. There are so many ideas on pinterest for thankful trees, displays, banners, and even jars! I've decided to go with a banner, writing what we are thankful for on leaves printed from here done like what was done here.

But before we got started with the leaves, I needed an introduction. Teacher me coming out here. They really have no frame of reference for the Thanksgiving dinner. I don't think I have really talked about it with them directly. And if I did, they most likely do not remember. Especially my middle, after all she is only 3!

I reserved a lot of books from the library. Some that we have been using are: (each book is linked)

It's been a fun. We have been talking about:
-The First Thanksgiving and how the pilgrims were thankful for the help when they needed it
-How to be thankful when you don't have much and are given something (even when it might not bee what you specifically want) <-- This one is because we have a hard time with that, just thankful for generosity
-Finding things to be thankful for when you think there is nothing to be thankful for
-Saying thank you to people for more than just giving you things
-Being thankful for God's grace and love

So far, I love it. Writing and coloring on the leaves is so fun.

Filling out some of our #thankful leaves

A photo posted by JessiBerry (@jessiberry09) on Nov 15, 2016 at 10:00am PST

My favorite one to this date is my middle, "I'm thankful for my heart that beeps". I think that is the cutest thing!

My little boy so far is thankful for star wars characters. Ha!

It might not be the most glamorous of banners, but it is something we've been looking at and reading as a reminder. It's serving it's purpose. The leaves have some thing written on the front and the back...

And, what I am very thankful for, is that this has been said by one of my littles...

#thankful At least this has been said. Makes my heart happy.

A photo posted by JessiBerry (@jessiberry09) on Nov 15, 2016 at 2:53pm PST

I'm hoping to make this a tradition. Or at least some variation of this every year. I'm not going to save the leaves though. That would be too much, and I trying to use craft supplies not change their shape.

What thanksgiving traditions do you have?

Read a Book: Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey {An E-Book Review}

Happy Leap Year!
February has been an interesting month and even though our Lil' Munchkin arrived, I was still able to get some reading time in. Hey, those late night feedings are good for something as she sleep nurses. Of course it is hard not to fall asleep while reading, especially when already tired...
I am thankful for the extra day this year to let me finish my third book for the month, and to be able to get this review up!

Here are the books I have read this month!
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
The Silver Door by Emily Rodda
Love Does by Bob Goff

This book, I have no idea how I came across it. I don't recall. But I read it as part of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge for task 16: "read the first book in a series by a person of color" ...

The Story
This was a fascinating murder mystery, set in Ghana, Africa. We follow the detective through his investigation of the murder, while unearthing the truth to his own family tragedy.

I found the character in the book as neither extremely likable nor hated. But it is not because they were not developed well enough. They were developed well, with aspects which make them admirable and not. I did not like, nor appreciate, the main character's addiction to marijuana and his aggressive behavior. But at the same time, his aggression was towards those who mistreated and abused others or broke the law (even though his was hypocritical, with the marijuana addiction).  Yet, these elements of each character made them more real.

I found the language intriguing. The way the characters interacted and spoke to each other was almost formal. I wondered if this was just the others writing style or the way they actually spoke to one another. I'm thinking the later since the author, though living in the states now, was born in Ghana.

My favorite parts was the glossary of terms at the end and the background information of the given in the beginning about the servitude and slavery of women taken by "fetish priests" (Trokosi). A huge part of the book focuses on the controversial of the Trokosi within the nation itself. Ok, maybe not huge, but it took up a big part of it. 

It's a series!

Am I going to pick up the next book in the series? Probably, probably not. I really don't know right now. I liked it, but am not chomping at the bit to read the next one... I do want to learn more about the detective's family and what happens with his son who has a heart problem and the insurance in the country is not great, they cannot afford the surgery he needs.

Extra Thoughts

As a teacher, we were always on the lookout for books and stories which accurately betrayed other cultures. There are so many out there which do not give an accurate representation of countries and their people. When I end up finding one I hope does provide an accurate representation, I want to share it. I hope this book is such.

What do you think?
What books do you think are great/accurate representations of other countries, other cultures, and their peoples?

Read a Book 2016:
Maltese Falcon

Happy Reading!

Read a Book: Clutterfree With Kids by Joshua Becker {Book Review}

*This post contains affiliate links. I have not received compensation for this review nor was it requested of me to do so. All opinions are my own.*

I saw someone mention this book, but I cannot remember where. So I decided to pick up a digital copy for the Kindle app on my phone and see what it was about. I know that I could use some help cleaning up, organizing and de-cluttering my home.  Clutterfree with Kids: Change your thinking. Discover new habits. Free your home is about minimalism, not just de-cluttering but about living with less. This book is written by the man behind Becoming Minimalist and his other book Simplify (2.99 for the kindle version right now).   It's about living with simplicity and helping your kids to do so as well.

At first the beginning of the book (the first 1/3) focuses on the benefits of living with less. I know I have accumulated more stuff than necessary. The points that the author makes towards living with less make complete sense. That with less stuff, you spend less time organizing, cleaning, and maintaining said stuff and more time doing things you enjoy doing. I know I would love to spend less time organizing stuff and more time sewing, or playing with my kids!

The chapters are set up nicely with a story that pertains to the subject (toys, pictures, collections, etc) where a person makes a change to live with less. Brief, but gets the point across that there are different reasons for people to take a step towards minimalism. It helps to connect to the process of how to minimize the contents.

Then it gets into the nitty gritty of how to go through things as almost a step by step process. I say almost a step by step process because it is not quite a step by step process. It's more like a series of questions and guidelines to base your needs off of and make your own decisions on how to declutter and de-own. In the section about clothes it mentions project 333 where you limit yourself to 33 articles of clothing for 3 months (don't worry, there are exceptions).  Or the craft room and my fabric supply would be a beneficial place to go through (the opening story for collections is about a knitter and her yarn... close enough!). But, baby steps. I'd rather start with my clothes instead.

As I think about this book, and share my findings with friends, I can only think about the difficulty. Sure, I have started going through and purging damaged items in my sock drawer. I've removed clothing articles that no longer fit me (they are now sitting in a re-purpose pile in the craft room). But, I am horrible at comparison and fall prey to envy often. It's something I am working on.

I still need to get rid of stuff. Several months ago, prior to reading the book, my son and I had a game of tug-o-war about cleaning up toys. After an entire day of making requests, spending time in the corner and more requests, toys got 'taken away'. When this happens, they need to be earned back. Needless to say, most of the toys are not yet earned back. Seriously, that's a lot of toys! And it isn't even all of them!

You can imagine what his room looked like when we took all those toys down and put them in his room. Can we say overwhelmed child?

This took a while. We got a box for trash and a box for toys to get rid of and started going through them. There is probably a lot more toys we can get rid of that are too young for little man, but a baby wipes box full of broken toys and trash and a huge box that held his desk/easel full of baby toys is not too bad.

One of the biggest helps is having a place for toys. we are still working on a designated place for some toys, but now it is not as much of a fight to get him to clean his room. And, he is even earning a commission for it (that is based on another book to be reviewed later).... But seriously, so much better than when we started! Still have a ways to go but already we are feeling better. Even little man is proud of his hard work when he cleans his room.

I probably would have waited to start going through the toys until they were taking over our entire house. Just looking at this picture is giving me motivation to tackle baby girl's room!  We just have so much stuff. But, we are slowly working our way through it all.

With having developed a better way of budgeting, and us working on eliminating debt, I know that stuff is a bit of a road block for us. This book provides a nice stepping stone with questions to ask yourself as a you prepare to make a purchase, tips for controlling clutter like having designated spaces for stuff (I don't think an old fishtank stand counts as in the first picture of little man's toys), and advise for overcoming envy and comparison. It also gives some lee-way and understanding that one person's version of minimalism may not be exactly the same as another person's.

Check out his books Clutterfree with Kids: Change your thinking. Discover new habits. Free your home or his other book Simplify  and tell me what you think. Was it helpful for you?

Here is to working on living simply. Living within our means and working on having our children growing up with a sense of gratitude without a sense of entitlement.

Live Well,

Indoor Fun With Kids: Create your own Bowling Pins (Read and Play)

Monsoon season has started here in the desert. That means lots, and lots, and lots of rain... I love it. It's great. But for the kids, being cooped up in the house all day, all afternoon, day after day... Well... At least we are getting rain. That does not happen all that often. What indoor activities do you do on rainy days?

We have been making good use of our local library and little man loves it. One book we picked up is Mitchell Goes Bowling by Hallie Durand (affiliate). How perfect? I used to work at the local bowling alley for the summer when I was pregnant with him. He hasn't even been to a bowling alley yet!

Amazon affiliate link

I decided (based on some bottle saving a year ago) to make some bowling pins using PediaSure Nutrition Chocolate Drink, 8 oz bottles (affiliate).

Here is our process... There are so many out there, but this is what we did. :)

Once you have drunk the contents (this part took a while as these drinks were a treat), remove the wrapper and wash thoroughly inside and outside. Then dry. I washed them in the dishwasher and let them air dry.

Once they are dry, paint them how you want to paint them. I love these little paints! I used Folk Art Multi Surface Paint, 2-Ounce (affiliate) in licorice, that was what little man picked. Since I was enlisting the assistance from him for the painting, it made sense to him to pick. He wanted to help and loves to paint. Plus this is more for him than anything else. Sure, the lines aren't perfect. Hope you don't mind. ;)

Once the paint is dry, you can add sand or some type of filler to weigh them down. Otherwise they topple over super easily. We decided not to weight them.

Then, set them up and roll a ball to them to knock them down! So much fun! You can mark the spots with tape, or on a cardboard alley. we just played however we set them up.

extension: difficulty at different distances.
pick several different types of balls and make predictions. Which one will knock the pins down easier? Which one will be harder to make it to the pins? etc. Explore and have fun! :)

Read a Book: Carry On Warrior by Glennon Melton {book review}

*This post contains affiliate links. I have not received compensation for this review, nor was it requested of me to do this review. All opinions are my own*

'we live in a brutiful world... brutally beautiful'

I have been looking for books to read, and I am so lucky that the moms with MOPs do a book club every month to every couple of months and last month's book was Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed by Glennon Doyle Melton. She is also the person behind Momastery. I will admit, I am not too familiar with the website before this book. But now I have and will explore it a lot more.

This book is almost like her autobiography, the story of her life. I could only imagine what the story of a previous drug addict would be like. Hers is an incredible one.  She has lessons that are important to share and I think I may need another copy just to write, highlight, and post-it certain parts. So many "pages from her book" that I would love to be able to apply to parenting and relationships.

One of my favorite lines is "Be confident because you are a child of God. Be humble because everyone else is too." I am exploring my faith more and a goal of entering my 30's was to understand more of what it means to be Christian. So this line spoke to me. But this is not her entire book. 

Another that had me thinking over the weekend, especially with some pent up frustration (the last time I was without the kids aside from my nap on Sunday was over a month ago), was that someone has to be the first one to pour the wine, assuming your significant other drinks wine. In my case, it's water. You need to forgive each other, and you need to communicate. When the communication falters because of whatever life gets in the way, someone has to do something nice for the other. Monday, I had a cold glass of water waiting for hubby when he got home. It's amazing the things that can happen when you do something for somebody else.

Though, I don't think I will be placing a paper bag over my head anytime in the near future.

In her book, Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed, Glennon stopped drugs and drinking when she found out she was pregnant with her first child. And from there she has incredible stories of dealing with no longer doing those things and relearning how to live while, at the same time, teaching her children to be the best people they can be. Love others, treat others with respect, love yourself, appreciate life. It is all in there! I'm sure there is something in there almost anyone can relate to!

We are not all perfect, and there is no reason for us to hide that.

I really recommend this book. It is an incredible, fast read.

I have laughed out loud, I have cried and I would read it over again.

Some of the reviewers on GoodReads and Amazon complain that the chapters are not long enough, that several blog posts do not make a book. My opinion differs. I am one who has to complete a chapter before I can put a book back down. This makes it hard with the demands of children and husband, dishes and laundry (when I try not to leave them in the washer for a week), and with the shorter chapters, I can read them quickly and attend to their needs.

Check out her website Momastery.

Happy Reading,