Emme’s maternity shoot

 My morning started off feeling heavy. I tossed all night without ever being able to get a good night sleep. I had no energy to get out of bed had it not been for Nate saying ” Let’s go sala (Spanish for living room) mami.” I have been feeling overwhelmed by everything and everyone. But it all comes down to one little person, my little Giant. Her absence has been heavier than ever. I can feel myself putting her in the white basket she left in. I can feel the loss of her touch as I snuggled her tightly one last time. I can feel the light weight of her body lying on my chest the last night she spent with me.

This morning as I was making my little prince his breakfast, Z comes around the corner and makes a simple request: Can I please find some time today to do some, not all, just some of the laundry. Simple right. I completely agree with you. However as the words came out of his mouth I imagined myself running away into a nice little cave, all while crying my eyes out. I responded with I will try my best with tears in my eyes, all while trying to understand why in the world doing laundry was flipping me out.

8 Golden days

Nate and I had errands to run all morning as we were hosting a surprise Mexican 25th Fiesta party for my little sister. As we went from store to store I felt worse and worse and worse. My mind kept escaping my body, wandering away with Emme. It took all the energy I had to bring myself into a peaceful place where I could focus on the present. I ran through my list of thankfulness and talked to my Father, trying to make myself realize how much worse it could be.

As I looked for the perfect birthday cake, my frustration grew as I was unable to find the right size and taste. As a solution Nate and I decided to make our own cake. We have baked tons of stuff but never a flan, especially for 20 people. As Nate and I boiled all the contents and slowly stirred away for 40 minutes, I began to wonder when it would come to a boil. It being my first time, I have no idea how long it would take to boil and while I thought I was paying attention (I was standing right in front of the pot stirring with Nate), the whole thing blew up in seconds and Flan flew EVERYWHERE! It took me 45 minutes to clean up the mess, all while Nate and I laughed.

This was my aha! moment. Something can be starring you right in the face but you will miss it if you aren’t in the present. My cake boiling over was the best thing that happened. We figured out how to salvage whatever was left and the birthday flan ended up being one of my best creations yet. My day turned around, all while giving me more work 🙂 Although it’s perfectly normal to be overwhelmed and saturate yourself in how you feel, I have to remember, as hard as it is, that there are great things happening around me but I will miss them if I’m not present. I may feel horrible now, and I can and should embrace it, but I should also allow the sun rays to pierce in.

Tia Dini blowing out her birthday candles

xoxo

Aunt Norie is very special to Natey. She comes to swim class with Natey almost every week and swims with him when mommy is under the weather. She lets him watch some television with a lot of singing involved (which Natey loves) and she lets him try all her delicious cooking (Natey’s favorite!). Today was an Aunt Norie day…well more like sister day. Norie and I spent the day together, going to the dmv, playing with Nathan, cooking, and finally relaxing at the end of the day with some delicious fruit cake from Whole Foods.

As we were cooking another delicious dish for our weekly Thursday night family dinner it dawned on me that Norie could be helping all of us make some very delicious quick to make meals (an area I have clearly neglected). Norie makes the most delicious gourmet meals and she does it without much effort. It doesn’t matter that she doesn’t have 3 of the ingredients she needs, she’ll substittute, make adjustments to make the dish healthier and you’ll eat it never knowing a thing!

Anyway, I offered her a position as a guest writer on our blog to talk about nutrition and her fabulous cooking which she found irresistible after the offer we made her. Endless kisses and hugs by your one and only, Natey! So look forward to her posts and food links under the Recipes tab. I hope you all enjoy her cooking as much as I do.

On a side note, when taking your photo at the DMV, please be aware that the camera has about a five second delay. Do not move your position until you have seen the flash! I for one, was not aware of this today and after waiting two hours to submit a change of name application ( and it was a so called slow day!), I am doomed to carry around an ugly picture as my form of identification for the next several years. Boo.

The Merriam-Webster defines COOK as a person who prepares food for eating. Now this I do, I prepare food for my family every week. However, when most people think of a cook, they think chef, gourmet food, experience…all qualities, I’m sorry to say, I haven’t quite achieved . The thing is I love food, spicy food, bland food, there is hardly anything I won’t try.

Today I made my best meal- pureed sweet potatoes for Natey. Now I can’t say that he thought it was delicious but he ate it…after gagging some but what baby doesn’t gag when tasting something for the first time. Well while I made this awesome dinner for my munchkin my husband made us gingered sweet potato and carrot soup from scratch (recipe can be found in recipe tab). It was very good with a spicy after taste. Now you must know I have always had a hard time eating my vegetables, something I am working very hard to change and this soup was so good!

So as Natey discovers a new piece of food every 3 days, Z and I will be cooking up a new dish using Natey’s main entree. I will keep you all posted.