Drops of Awesome

It’s Alive!

March 9, 2015 by Kathryn

Wanda has developed a taste for fruit leather. She loves it and she will have it and there is no limit to her insatiable dried fruit-squish thirst. The other day she ate four.

“Don’t eat four,” I said, my words like feathers in the wind. “Eating four is bad. Eating four will make you sick.”

She gave me a look.

I didn’t enforce the Don’t Eat Four policy.

Four were eaten.

Later that night I was using my magical lay-her-to-sleep powers by laying with her until she fell asleep and she lurched to a sitting position.

“AHHH!!! I just felt my heart beat!!!”

“Yes. That is normal. Because you are a human child,” I said.

“Woah.”

She laid back down.

“MOM!! It just did it again! HA!”

“Ha?”

“Yeah. Ha. You said I would totally get sick if I ate four fruit leathers. And I ate four fruit leathers. And my heart still totally did two beats. So. HA!”

Well, my heart is still beating today but so are my mucus producular glands. And my dizzy glands. And my lay around on the couch all day while building a mountain of balled up tissue glands.

I am a horrible sick person. I always tell myself that if I were terminally ill, I would be extremely positive and long suffering. But, give me a cold, hooooo mama. Call the wambulance. It’s not that I whine out loud, but my inner whino is super duper annoying. It’s like I can’t remember ever having energy or functioning sinuses or a head that wasn’t full of liquefied slugs.

My kids were sick today too.

And they weren’t annoying. At least not about being sick.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. HA! My heart just beat THREE times! I guess I’m fine.

Veganish – Review and Giveaway

February 4, 2015 by Kathryn

I am Vegan sometimes. Sometimes I’m Paleo. Every once in a while I’m a Dorito-tarian. (Don’t tell Jamie Oliver!) I love food. I dream about food. I consume it in ample quantities and I spend a lot of time thinking about what I do eat, what I should eat, and what I will eat.

One of my biggest goals is adding more vegetable into my life in a delicious and sustainable way. By sustainable, I’m not talking about composting and buying local. I’m talking about eating vegetables in a way that I’m willing to do over and over again till death do we part, which hopefully won’t be for a long time because, LOOK, I’m eating so many vegetables!

So I’m always checking out new cookbooks and I love vegan and vegetarian cookbooks especially because they focus so heavily on veg. I’ll take an awesome vegan casserole recipe and substitute chicken for beans or cheese for fake cheese. Because I like me some tasty animal products.

Mielle Chenier-Cowan Rose’s new-ish cookbook Veganish: The Omnivore’s Guide to Plant-Based Cooking speaks to the world of vegetable lovers who add in an occasional animal product for the health benefits. It’s pretty fabulous. The book has no pictures and a horrible index but the recipes and information are so good that I’ve gone back to it again and again. This is surprising if you know me and how heavily I rely on good indexing.

I worked through several of her recipes, cooking from it almost exclusively for a week and we enjoyed nearly everything. I think during that week I tripled my family’s veggie intake and not just for the meals I was preparing from her recipes. Veganish gave so many great veggie prep instructions and just plain motivation to live and eat healthier, that I found myself snacking better, sleeping better and drinking more water between meals.

In the introduction to the book, Mielle says she wants it to be more of a cookbook than a recipe book, to inhabit the nightstand as much as the kitchen. It did just that. I read it from cover to cover and got really fired up about eating better.

I’m sure you will too. If your New Year’s resolutions for healthy living are starting to fade, this book is a good refresher. I’m giving away a copy. ~~Just leave a comment below, listing your favorite veggie and I’ll choose a winner the evening of February 6th. You need to live in the continental US to win, unless you want to pay the shipping.~~ The winner is comment #5 – Valeri!

For those of you who don’t win the book, you get something too. By request, Mielle is sharing her Massaged Kale Salad with my readers. As a person who wants to love kale so I can feel superior to my spinach-eating friends, I was excited to find a salad that finally made this monster green palatable to me. I LOVE this salad. Maybe it’s because the kale is so happy and relaxed after its massage and happy food is tasty food. Whatever the reason, this one is a winner. I’ve made it for extended family dinners and neighborhood potlucks and it’s a crowd pleaser, among people willing to put kale in their mouths and chew. Enjoy!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:3]

Football Agnosticism

January 29, 2015 by Kathryn

I don’t have anything against football. I just don’t necessarily believe in it. In fact, I ignore it most of the year/decade until something big happens and then I jump on the bandwagon of our winning home team. Die-hard fans are annoyed by this, but I don’t see why. I’m sort of like an agnostic who loves to decorate for Christmas because it’s tradition and it’s fun, it gives me a sense of community, and… OOOOOO Shiny!

As a fellow Christmas lover, I’m happy to see anyone celebrating Christmas, no matter how deeply their religious fervor goes.

And I thusly support the Seahawks at this time of year.

Last year when they went to that really great bowl, you know, the super one, we watched the game. It was the first football game my kids had ever seen and it was a doozy.

“What’s a safety?”

“What’s an interception, mom?”

“Does one team always get that many more points than the other team?”

Two Sundays ago we wore our outfits from my sister’s wedding last summer (conveniently Seahawks colors) to church in support of the NFC Championship game. What does NFC stand for? “Um… National Football Something Niner…”

And we got out of church at 2pm only to see we’d lost the game. There were 5 minutes left and the Seahawks were behind 19-7. Three minutes left and suddenly they came back and won the game in overtime. Crazy. The entire city of Seattle and every surrounding town had a collective heart attack. It’s sad really because no one will be around to watch the Super Bowl in a couple of days. Even now, my ghost is typing this. Because I died listening to the game. On the radio. We don’t have cable this year because the Olympics aren’t currently happening.

So this weekend will see us in our Seahawks gear, cheering for the home team because we can and it’s fun and we love Seattle and we tolerate football, especially when we’re winning. Go Hawks!

Crazy Hair

January 21, 2015 by Kathryn

They sleep in their clothes most nights. Wear-Pajamas-To-Bed-Like-Normal-People-Gate 2014 did not end in my favor. I decided to cave and save my fight for fights worth the fight, knowahmsayin? I still put my foot down hard in the face of their desire to wear the slept-in clothes the following day. If you sleep in them, they become pajamas until they go through a washer reset.

This morning, Magoo woke up in his basketball clothes with dark face-punch-looking circles around his eyes. He’d been up late reading like a disobedient literate. He looked awful and when he’s tired, which is most morning, re: he is my son, he oozes around the house wrapped in a blanket and running into things.

Suddenly his eyes brightened, “Oh! It’s pajama crazy hair day at school. I almost forgot.”
He shed his fluffy blanket and ran upstairs to change out of his slept-in clothes in favor of un-slept-in pajamas. I spent several minutes combing gel into his hair so it would stand up all over.

Oh how proud he was of this look.

The hair put us behind schedule so I drove him to the bus stop. As we were waiting, Wanda suddenly opened her sleepy eyes and gasped, “Oh mom! Did you see Magoo today? He looks sooooo HANDSOME!”

Yep. He does. Tall hair is good hair, says the eighties.

Hooked on a Feeling – A Peace Resolution

January 9, 2015 by Kathryn

I love pressing reset at the beginning of the new year. I’ve heard a lot of people going off about New Year’s resolutions the past couple of weeks.

“They never work.”

“They’re too much pressure and then you just feel like a failure when you don’t accomplish them.”

“Pass the chocolate.”

And you know how I like to get all Drops-of-Awesomey up in here. And chocolate. BUT. I still really like the feeling of making a fresh start on January One, or rather on the first day the kids go back to school after January One.

So, this year as I thought about why so many people are skipping out on resolutions, it occurred to me that the reason resolutions stress us out is because we’re perfectionists and we’re not resolving to be better, we’re resolving to be perfect immediately and our lack of flexibility and self-mercy put us in a mental place to feel like failures because we’re improving our lives but not COMPLETELY. NOW. And therefore we suck.

This is dumb. And stressful. And counter-productive. And un-Awesome.

For 2015, I have one resolution. And it’s not about what I’m going to do perfectly or stop doing completely. It’s about how I’m going to feel. And that feeling is peaceful.

For 2015 I am resolving to increase the level of peace in my heart and therefore in my home and thusly in the world. I am resolving to make peace on earth in 2015.

This may sound abstract and it could be, but I spent some time thinking about what peace looks like for me, what choices I make that lead to peace. Basically the practical side of this resolution is to ask myself as often as I can remember to be mindful, which of course won’t be all the time, “Is this choice adding to or subtracting from my personal peace?”

There are a few things I know will help me feel peaceful:

1. More spiritual devotional time
2. Less desire to control situations or people other than myself
3. More love
4. Fewer comments I regret
5. Less time spent in the bad hotel, or as Queen El-to-the-Sa would say, more “Let it Go!”
6. More gratitude.
7. More love – I know I have this one on the list twice, but I need to not only love others more, but also love myself.

In practical use, those might look like:

1. Pour my heart out to God in prayer, rather than watch one more episode of Gilmore Girls tonight.
2. When one of my kids does poorly on a report card, try to guide her gently without feeling personally injured by the setback.
3. If Dan is grumpy, give him a hug, rather than being annoyed. After all, that’s what I expect him to do for me.
4. Say one less TMI comment at the next book club.
5. When I share TMI at the next book club, I won’t obsess about it for days.
6. Be grateful that my 80s cabinets are sturdy enough to have lasted since the 80s.
7. Spend time tonight thinking about all the good I’ve contributed to the world today.

Any time I make one of those peaceful choices, I am adding to that feeling, I am succeeding in my resolution. Any time I make a choice that slurps the peace from my life, I can always make a different choice and add some peace back in.

How do you want to feel this year?

People

December 16, 2014 by Kathryn

People. Crowds. Groups. Who wants to be one of them? One of many? I’ve got a new post up at the fabulous site I write for once a month.

[read more at HowDoesShe.com]

Lows and Highs

December 10, 2014 by Kathryn

I wrote this post a week ago.

This day could not figure out what it wanted. For a while things were great. The sister missionaries from our church stopped by and chatted and shared this amazing Christmas video with me and Wanda. Incidentally, Wanda cursed them in her prayer tonight by praying that they’d “grow big and strong” and “have great travels.” So she wants them to grow fat and leave, basically. Sad.

We got some stuff done. Men were no longer excavating my crawlspace and hauling hundreds of pounds of rock through my entire house to lower through a tiny hole in my hall closet. That was yesterday.

It was cold but not freezing. There was snow on the ground but not the roads. This strange yellow orb was sending magical light rays down on us from the sky. I spent some fun time chatting with a friend today.

And then things sort of unraveled. There is just this sort of brain-slamming chaos that happens sometimes in the hour after everyone gets home from school. We need snacks and we need to share the stories from our day and everyone wants to hear about everyone else’s day while simultaneously telling about their own day and if we are five-years-old, we need to yell, “MOM! MOM! MOM!” into the wind every few minutes in hopes that anyone will pay attention to us ever.

If it’s a day like today, people lose their homework and procrastinate the rest and they ask you for some wood and a saw to make a quick catapult… for science. Eventually you decide you have to skip Cub Scouts because the homework is too big and too deep and too wide. And everyone cries. Because Cub Scouts is where the joy lives.

And through the tears and the mania and the MOM! MOM! MOM!-ing, you work to make dinner for your family and the family up the street whose mom is sick, only to get a text telling you that the dinner didn’t come soon enough so the whole family has already left for their evening activities and you KNEW you should have asked what time they needed dinner but you neglected to ask and you just want to dump the coconut chicken curry and naan bread out in the snow.

And then you realize that your problems are actually quite small and that you should be grateful that you have lovely children and you’re all in good health and your marriage is going strong and your careers are going well. You realize these things, but you don’t feel better. You just feel guilty because you shouldn’t be frustrated, but in that moment the day just really REALLY eats rocks.

That was my day today. And when Dan got home from work, I stood there in my un-earned stretchy pants. No yoga happened today, even though I was dressed up for it in case it somehow snuck up and attacked me from behind. And I unloaded on him about each and every straw that had contributed to my camel’s back injury. He listened. And then he left for his band rehearsal.

My internal Magic 8 Ball told me that its sources said no good would come of this night. But its sources were wrong.

Laylee, who had been madly reading her scriptures all night in an attempt to achieve a very aggressive, bribery-induced study goal emerged from her reading with a happy glow about her. And she made peace in our house.

She listened to Wanda while I worked with Magoo. Then I took Wanda up to bed and when I came down, Laylee was tenderly coaching Magoo through a written assignment. There is such a thing as coaching someone in a way that lets them know exactly how big of a moron they are with sighs and eye rolls and repeated reminders of your own personal brilliance in comparisson to their pitiful nine-year-old pea brain. This was not that. This was kind, gentle, encouraging study help, the kind of study help parenting dreams are made of.

For a second, I considered relieving her and taking over homework helper duty. Then I listened to them for a minute more and chose to sneak away and let the magic happen.

“That’s a great sentence, Buddy, but you already started one with that word in this paragraph. How could you say it a little differently? Perfect!”

When they had finished, Magoo proudly showed me the paper.

“I wrote this whole thing myself,” he beamed, “With a little help from Laylee.”

And she stood behind him grinning and giving me a thumbs up. Um? Angel choirs! If I could bottle that moment and uncork it next week when angel choirs are far far from my thoughts as I look at the way those two interact, I would shave my head in payment.

I apologized to the kids because, oh, yeah, I forgot to mention earlier, I had snapped at and yelled at and snapped at them again earlier in the night.

Laylee, still bearing a halo, smiled and said, “Of course you did. Anyone would. Your day was really stressful, mom.” WHA?

I asked Laylee if she thought her time reading the scriptures had made a difference in how she treated everyone tonight and her eyes got really big with understanding. “Yeah… I really think it did!”

Deal. Sealed. I love watching my kids choose things that make them happy.

And to think, only a few hours earlier my scalp had been going numb at the thought of all we had to do and the frustration, stress and chaos of my home. Parenting is a bipolar realm.

Love Notes

December 3, 2014 by Kathryn

Wanda moves at her own speed, to the beat of her own crazy drum. Her awesomeness will not be rushed and she very sweetly and joyfully goes about doing what she does. Last night what she does did not include going to bed ever. She would come down and get a drink and come down and ask us to unclasp her unicorn helmet, an hour and a half after she’d been sent to bed. That’s the problem, really, the sending.

We’ve been doing a lot better lately making bedtime a social experience, taking her up, reading to her, tucking her in, singing songs, and snuggling. Last night we fell back into the lazy, “Go to bed” mode and she did not, in fact, go. Well, she went upstairs. And she growled. And she giggled. And she kept her brother awake. And she did some feat of bravery, requiring a unicorn helmet.

And then she came downstairs when she couldn’t take it off. What amazes me is the way she so calmly and sweetly approaches us at 9:00 at night, as though of course she needs help with her unicorn helmet deep into the sleeping hour.

“Hey. Can you please help me get this off?” She beams.

Dan helps and sternly reminds her to get the heck in bed and stay in bed… also the heck.

“Okay,” she says unconvincingly. Then she bops out of the room, the unicorn helmet unclasped but still resting on her head. I wait for the sound of the stairs creaking. Nothing. I peek my head around the corner. She’s walking slowly across the dark living room in her unicorn helmet and Snow White dress, weaving back and forth with her arms arching and curving around her body in a slow motion interpretive dance. She is silent and happy and in no hurry at all.

I just stand and watch, fixing the image in my mind. I love that tiny person more than my own life.

And things stay quiet. I’m assuming she’s gone to sleep. And two hours later when I head up to bed, I find a love note on my pillow, a love note made on the stationary I keep in the cupboard in my room. Dan and I muse about when she must have made the note. Then we see it. A unicorn helmet sits at the foot of our bed.

I add this to my collection.

Christmas Gift Idea Smackdown

December 1, 2014 by Kathryn

Raise your hand if you’ve been planning and shopping for Christmas presents for months. If you’re like me, you feel like you’re behind if you’re not done your shopping by December One. But it’s December One and I’m not done. I want to spend that month celebrating, not fighting over the last Queen Elsa’s demonic disembodied head hair salon. So we need to get moving.

Let’s help each other out. I’m gonna throw out some gift suggestions I’m excited about and then you show me yours in the comments section. If you’ve blogged gift ideas, include a link to your page. Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. It’s just stuff I like and think you might like too. Also keep in mind that you can give pretty much everyone on your list a copy of my book and I won’t judge you for your lack of creativity.

For Babies

Silicon Bibs – I had this style of bib in hard plastic for my kids and I loved that you could just scoop up the food from the pocket and shove it back in their mouths. These silicon versions should be more durable, less hazardous, and they are stinkin’ cute, yes?

Orbit labels by InchBug – I’ve given these as gifts countless times. You personalize the bands and they can be stretched around cups, sippy cups, bottles or sports bottles. For the second line of text, I now put my cell phone number. I have been called multiple times when we’ve abandoned the One True Sippy Cup at Target or track camp. Kids won’t love them, but their parents will!

Sophie Giraffe – Classic, Sweet, must have for a new baby.

For Kids

Snap circuits – My kids have built alarms, fans, and light switches with these versatile, durable electronic toys. Hours of educational fun and with the simple instructions they can do it themselves at an earlier age than you’d think.

Break Your Own Geodes – We ordered this specific set from Amazon when my son turned 9 and became obsessed with crystals. Every rock had beautiful sparkly joy inside and it was really fun to discover.

Zoobs – If your kid likes legos, check these out. These are probably the coolest kids building toys I know of. Their creations can pivot on hinges and there are so many cool projects they can build.

Party Machine – So, I bought this for me. And for a wedding present once. But the kids LOVE it. I probably really bought it for them, right? The sound quality is good, but not amazing, and it can hook up to your phone or MP3 player over blutooth or with a patch cable. The lights are really fun and it’s turned our Saturday chores into a dance party.

For Old People Like Me

Fit Bit – I keep giving these as gifts. I’m not sure why. It’s like I just want other people to count their steps and sign up to be my friend on the fitbit app so they can pound me. I am only asking for trouble. It’s fun to keep track of my movement during the day and sleep at night and compete with my friends and family. I’ve used the One and the Flex and I prefer the One.

*Punk Wireless Speaker by Sol Republic – I’ve tried several wireless speakers and I loved this one. It’s rugged and has great sound for a device this small. Give the gift of kitchen dance parties.

Glass Water bottle – We love these bottles and have given them as gifts several times. There’s no better way to drink water than out of a glass container. It just tastes better and these are so cute.

For Everybody

Woot Shirts – There is a Woot shirt for everyone.

Experiences – Indoor Skydiving, Laser Tag, Memberships to your favorite Museum, or Waterpark, tickets to a sports event, concert, or other performance

Something You Were Going to Buy Anyway – Sometimes I think about what I’ll need to buy for the person in the coming months. Buying it for Christmas and wrapping it up eliminates the need to “come up with something” to give someone. For example, I may give my kids supplies for band or ballet or baseball. They’re excited to get something useful to them and it saves me time and money. Clothes items are great for this too.

*Sample provided to me by manufacturer.

Affiliate links are included in this post.

Thursday in Pictures

November 21, 2014 by Kathryn

Enterprise upgraded me to this cute little Jeep at no extra charge because of the possible pending snowpocalypse later this week.

Because of some work being done on the plumbing at my in-laws house, we got to drink bottled water the whole time I was there. I even brushed my teeth with bottled water. Whoever said book tours were not glamorous was obviously not me.

And raspberries in Utah in winter for breakfast? Living the high life.

Arriving at KSL Studios in Salt Lake for the taping of Studio 5 with Brooke Walker. None of the other guests had an entourage. I felt sad for them.

I had on my TV interview shoes.

And they gave me a mic.

They did not let me keep it.

They shot it like it was live, pausing between segments just long enough for commercial breaks and adding in titles, B-roll and voice-overs as they went.

Brooke was super nice and easy to talk to. She should do this for a living.

We both have excellent posture.

My sister caught this picture of me right before I went on. Nervous much?

And afterward, we got silly in the fancy chairs.

Then off to see my sister’s office in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Gorgeous view from her floor.

Afternoon Drops of Awesome talk with friends old and new in Saratoga Springs.

Fun fancy “liquid awesome” Mary Kay stuff from one of my favorite people Myla and a thematically appropriate gift from Sina. Aren’t these cute?

I stopped by the temple where Dan and I were married and recreated this picture all by myself. I miss my boyfriend who’s at home winning Husband of the Year while I live it up in the UT.