photos.

Well. I have written about 8 blogs in my head. about kids. the holidays. relationships. expectations both met and failed. excitement. and disappointment. December is an emotional month for me. 10 years ago this month, Steve and I decided to take a break and see where it would lead us. 10 years later we are good friends, good solid parenting partners. But I miss being a traditional family and I miss being a wife. I never thought I'd say that.

But. Since I don't really have the time to write, I'm going to post my favorite, well most of my favorite pictures from 2011.

Happy Holidays.

Blended.

This could be a really awesome entry about being a blended family, but alas, I'm not feeling like going THERE this morning. But I do have an idea I wanted to share with other parents. One of my biggest challenges last school year was getting my then 13 year old to eat breakfast. I completely get not wanting to eat as 10 am is more my speed for breakfast, and even then breakfast food is not my choice. But sending my kid off to school day after day with no food felt like a major parenting fail. I tried breakfast bars (most are crap), a plethora of cereals, home made pancakes . .. nothing. Then i was on attempt 10,342 to loose weight and decided I was going to start with protein shakes and bought myself this dandy of a blender. Then it occurred to me that maybe I could get my KID to drink them. Low and behold, after a few failed attempts to please his palette, I found some combinations that worked. For Chase it is pretty simple: frozen fruit of any kind (i prefer to go with the more nutrient dense berries, cherries etc), some fruit juice and a scoop of vanilla protein.  Voila. Pictured is my blender. Its perfect and I've been using it for over a year and havent killed it. $60.00 at Walmart. . .  I have started adding a bit of wheat germ and flax oil to his smoothies (shhhh) which help with his dry skin and are just all around good for you. I'd like to try some of the naked juices in there, but they are awfully pricey  . .