Healthy Soft Serve

When it's hot and my sweet tooth goes nuts, this is one of my favorite quick things to make. Mackynzie goes bananas over it. It takes two seconds and is only 3 ingredients; frozen banana(s), cocoa powder, and a tiny bit of canned coconut milk (I added a little bit of vanilla). 

Om nom...

Kitchen Command Center

I decided to finally update our little family notes/important stuff wall. I made a little 'kitchen command center' and it's working fantastically already. Being able to mark off things as I go is a giant help.

We will add more as we need it, but for now it's a huge sigh of relief for my brain. This is much better than the old system.

Birthday Season is Arriving!

 As summer is coming to a close, thoughts of the upcoming seasons are on my mind. The cool weather, my ideal comfy wardrobe, fall food, holidays, and birthdays. Birthdays. Mackynzie is going to be two years old in just over a month! How fantastically crazy!

 It has snuck up on me a bit this year. I am sort of glad it did though. It means I haven't been party planning for five months, haha. Mackynzie is old enough to decide what she wants her party to look like now, so we have been having many discussions about her birthday. I am pretty sure we have a very loose theme now, but either way It's going to be so fun!

 This year is going to be very different from her first birthday. The days leading up to her party last year, were hectic and stressful and costly. It was a fantastic birthday, but there are things we are definitely changing this year and for birthdays to come. We are done with food-centered birthday parties and gatherings. We didn't even realize that it had been food centered until we were discussing it one day. Parties have been centered around food for a very long time. Of course it's not just about the food, the company and people you share it with are a huge part, but there is always huge amounts of food, and people are always eating. Anyway, we decided we don't want Mackynzie (or us) receiving that message, so we are going to make her party activity based (I am still struggling with my 'food issues' too, and I don't want Mackynzie to have them.). There, of course, will be food, but only a few fun snacks and the party will take place between meal times. This alone, makes party costs fall drastically! I really can't wait for her birthday. It's going to be so much fun!

 I can't talk about birthdays without mentioning Cody's too! As many of you know, Cody and Mackynzie share their birthday with each other, so we have a weekend full of birthday/thanksgiving fun. I have plans for Cody's birthday too, since we keep them separated, but I can't really chat about them much here, since I never know which post he will drop in on. His is simple too (the way he likes it). I think we will be doing a weekend party for them (her in the afternoon, him in the evening) and then having a family celebration and some sort of activity for their actual birth day, since it's on a Tuesday.

How Awesome is it that I get to celebrate my favorite people at the same time?!

It's going to be a super fun filled time! I always get over excited for stuff like this...

Finally Doing Something to the Living Room Wall

Our living room wall is huge and brown. It has been a challenge trying to figure out what to do with it to both lighten and cover it. We were originally going to do one giant picture collage, but it was a huge undertaking to paint and find all white frames, fill all of them, hang them etc etc. So we decided to skip it and put up a large piece of art, but there was still a naked spot above our little breakfast nook. We had plans to go buy white shelves and set them off center from each other, then fill them with photos, nick knacks etc. The shelves we wanted happened to not be at the store in white last weekend, so I kept myself busy with painting frames (I was going to use them for another project.).

After I finished, I looked at all the stuff we had that could go in a collage, and I threw the idea out to cody. He agreed, so we set to work.

 I placed newspaper cut to frame size, and rearranged with painters tape until we had something we liked.
 Then we measured and marked the newspaper, popped a nail in each spot, pulled the paper over the nail, and hung each frame.

It actually turned out really sweet! It fills the space great, and gives more personality to this floor. I love it. Cody still has to level it a bit, but I just wanted to get it up and done haha.

Now Our living room looks much more put together.

I'm thinking there will be an area rug in our future. Maybe in a nice patterned yellow or blue....

A couple thoughts on food

 Food used to be so easy. You put it in your mouth, chew it, swallow it, done. Now, food can be a chore at times! In our culture, it's processed, quick, easy, and packed full of sugar, bad fats, and bad carbs. We really try to be conscious of what we put into our bodies. We have tried a few lifestyle diets, and drastically changed our way of eating. This summer, we just so happened to be in a 'processing, discussing, and thinking' phase of what we eat. In other words, everything was off the table (within reason for us.) and we have been eating very poorly for what we are used to.

 We were paleo for very close to a year, and Mackynzie and I were (i guess you could say) vegan for a few months. All the information got a bit overwhelming, so we just stepped away for the summer (mostly.). After everything though, I think I have a very good knowledge and judgment of my body, and our diet after being on both ends of the food line. paleo is the caveman diet. absolutely no grains, sugars etc, where vegan is no animal products. Polar opposites. I have learned so much. I think we are just about ready to get into a lifestyle diet based on the things we have learned, and what our bodies have told us.  We still have a little bit of trial and error with Mackynzie (and possibly myself) to rule out a few of the causes of our discomforts. So I think we are going to ease into things and see where we end up. That's my favorite part. Letting go of 'the plan' and seeing where we end up.

A weekend full of little smiles!

  Hello! Dropping in to share some pictures from the weekend. Nothing special; it was pretty mellow, but it was a very welcomed break from our usual weekends.

We started off with a trip to the park, to take up some time while we waited for Cody to get home.

 Saturday, we went to Cody's sister's birthday BBQ. yes, she wore the same shirt the next day haha. She really likes it. In fairness, she only wore it for a short time Friday, and we altered it on Saturday. It's nice that she is older and can do that now... It would be rare if a shirt lasted an entire day when she was younger...

Tickles from Meme.

Yesterday (Monday) we went to the zoo with a friend. We had a wonderful time. Mackynzie had the most fun she has ever had at the zoo, with her new friend.

  I love to watch her adventure and explore. This particular experience, she showed adventure and play I had never seen before. It was so heart warming to watch. These two were adorable together and she is already asking when we will see her new friend again. 

From my warm heart to yours,

Rainbow

Ducks and parks and mommy and me fun

  Sometimes, we get caught up in really routine things around the house (like cleaning and organizing.) and before we know it, half of our day has gone by. Today was one of those days (not in a bad way, though.), so Mackynzie and I threw the last load of laundry in the dryer and headed out for a bike ride.

We sat on the bank of the canal and fed the ducks. It's really sweet- we have been watching three duck families grow up all summer long. Mackynzie loves to visit her ducks.

Bread still in hand, we headed to the park for some fun. The weather was beautiful. Finally a nice warm day instead of incredible heat.

 I love this little girl so much. She is getting so big! We are about to start doing some newer/more consistent activities both in and out of the house. It's going to be so much fun to explore her more developed creativity and adventure!