Super Grump

It is hard at times with all the social media outlets available to us to not become a big public complainer. The economy is hard and money is tight, jobs are stressful and kids are tough to raise. We are bombarded with images of people who have brand news cars and huge houses, who wear designer clothes and who's kitchen sparkle and probably smell lemon fresh all the time.

It is easy to blow up twitter with tweets of how frustrated I am with my kids, or how angry I am at the inconsiderate drivers on the road. I am intrigued by how easy it is to be miserable - and how much misery really does love company.

There is a fine line to walk when putting parts of your life out there for the world to read and see and examine. I want to share real emotions with you, but I also don't want the majority of those emotions be when I am frustrated. (And there are days when I am frustrated a lot!) 

The other side of the line is portraying myself as some kind of supermom. We all know who those women are. They go to the gym early and teach the class there, they come home and make their kids steel cut oatmeal that they soaked the night before - and their kids are so perfect they don't even want butter or sugar in their oatmeal - they want fresh cut fruit (which supermom also remembered to buy). She decorates for every holidays and sends themed treats to school with catchy sayings on them made with scrapbook paper.

So this blog and online presence is an experiment for me, I used to blog daily and was quite prolific in writing, but due to some big life changes I have taken an almost three year break. I love sharing, I love thinking that perhaps there is some mom out there that says, "yup, that is the way it is - and I can try again tomorrow too".  

For all the reality we have on tv, there really isn't a lot of Real reality.  I don't get to swap my life with another mom and come home to appreciate my own mcmansion. I don't get to be a Real Housewife of Nowhere in Particular and have my closet filmed and women everywhere swoon with envy.  If my closet ever made it onto tv there would be some swooning, but not with jealousy.

I have the same life as you do, and it is both a beautiful life and the hardest thing I have ever done. I fight the big battles and the little ones too. And hopefully I rejoice in the big victories and the little ones.  I try to laugh everyday and with a little luck I only cry sometimes and that makes it a pretty good life. 

Phone Yoga - Pho-GA!

I love my phone! I use it for just about everything. I use it first thing in the morning when the phone alarm wakes me up, to the beeps that remind me throughout the day to change my laundry and take my vitamins. I look up recipes, read blogs, email family and friends, take pictures of my kids, and listen to my music. I use it to read books and have books read to me. My kids play games on it (so do I). I follow the news, check the weather, and even watch movies and tv shows. But I have recently discovered the one use that has made me fall in love with my phone all over again. It is a daily Yoga app, and I got it for free in my phone's App Store.

Last summer shortly after I had the baby I found a community yoga class. I was shocked to find it since the area where I live in is much more rural than urban. I immediately dragged my sister to class with me, and we fell in love with it. My sister was a yoga fan from her time in a large west coast city, and I had always been jealous that she was able to attend a real yoga class.

Now I am not a big fan of being "athletic:" I don't like the feeling of sweat, I do not enjoy competition, and I don't like being in a big stinky gym where I am uncomfortable in my own skin—my own skin in lycra spandex! But yoga was different. We had a great instructor who taught us that yoga was about the practice and loving our bodies and being grateful for what they could do, not what they could not do. I love the peace and the quiet and the strength. I think I enjoyed the way it made me feel mentally more than the way it made me feel physically. I certainly didn't start to have a supermodel body.

But the end of summer rolled around and soccer started. Wouldn't you know it—practice and games were on the same night as my yoga class. Then it got to be dark sooner, and I didn't want to go out, and then I was out of the habit, and before I knew it, I no longer missed attending my Yoga class.

Which brings me to the discovery of the Yoga app on my phone. I was browsing a while back in the App store, and listed under one of the categories of recommend apps was this Daily Yoga app. Well, I downloaded it immediately because I should be able to reap all the benefits just by having it on my phone... right?  It has honestly sat there for months and never been opened. I have good intentions because I haven't deleted it when I go through and delete all the games my kids download onto my phone, but I had yet to use it.  Then a few days ago, I decided I would explore it—now mind you, I wasn't about to USE it, I was just going to look at it a little. There were lots of programs that I could download and access: ones for relaxation, or weight loss, or back pain. So I downloaded a few of them. I even picked one and started to listen to it. (Isn't that ridiculous, I sat on the couch and listened to it, instead of doing it!)

But Monday it was sunny outside, and after the rain and the long winter it just feels good to be alive. I decided I would get out my yoga app and use it. I chose the 14 minute sun salutation because I figured I could sacrifice 14 minutes of my day to exercise. At first it was a little goofy, my son giggled at the words the instructor was using, "delight in your breathing.” I giggled, too. And the cat came and tried to take a nap on my yoga mat right in the middle of my downward dog. My preschooler tried to do some of the moves, but it wasn't bouncy enough for him and so he left.

But after I finished my 14 minute practice and as I lay there on my mat, I meditated (was thinking) about how truly beautiful it all was. My body is strong and useful; I can do so many things to provide for my family and help others with it. How joyful I was surrounded by the people that I love and who love me. How grateful I was for the sunshine and the coming springtime and to be alive and breathing.

And then, when I was done, I set a reminder on my phone: "Do Yoga! - Remember how much you love how you feel after." 

** For those of you interested in "free yoga," all major phone markets have free apps, as well as all major tablet markets. If you are on a computer, YouTube has some wonderful ones also. 

Hurry Summer

I made the kids a surprise summer treat today.

 I took the orange juice from yesterday, and put it in the popsicle maker that I dug out of the very very back of the kitchen cabinet. They thought they were so fun and yummy. We haven't had Popsicles since the weather turned cold. And they were all very impressed that they were good for them. I have a can of mango nectar in the pantry that I haven't known what to do with, I am going to make it into Popsicles.

 Hurry summer, so they can slurp and suck and drip outside!

Cooking Mistakes

I won't even tell you how many of these I have been doing. Let's just say that if it was a quiz in a magazine I would have had to be using fingers and toes to add up my score.

17 Basic Cooking Mistakes and how to fix them - from Real Simple.

A Place at the Table.

http://www.takepart.com/place-at-the-table

50 million people in the U.S.-one in four children-don’t know where their next meal is coming from, despite our having the means to provide nutritious, affordable food for all Americans. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush examine this issue through the lens of three people who are struggling with food insecurity: Barbie, a single Philadelphia mother who grew up in poverty and is trying to provide a better life for her two kids; Rosie, a Colorado fifth-grader who often has to depend on friends and neighbors to feed her and has trouble concentrating in school; and Tremonica, a Mississippi second-grader whose asthma and health issues are exacerbated by the largely empty calories her hardworking mother can afford.

Opens March 1st in theaters nationwide, on iTunes and On Demand everywhere