Week 12: What Being A Mom Looks Like

1. Being a mom is messy. When your children are little you have puke stains, boogers, baby food/milk, and possible poop on you. Don't lie and tell me you have never had your baby's poop on you. Being a mom is messy, because there are some days when it's 11 at night you realize that you haven't showered for the day yet.

2. Being a mom looks like a library full of parenting books. I can't begin to tell you how many parenting books I've read and how contradicting the "experts" can be. Every day parenting advice is being published and it can be overwhelming. However, I think a full bookshelf shows you are trying to do your best as a mom. Just remember the most important instructional book, the Bible.

3. Being a mom looks like cuddles. My children, despite how big they are, still love to come over and cuddle with their mommy.There is just something calming and reassuring about your mom's arms and being cuddled by her. It just feels like everything in the world will be ok.

4. Being a mom looks fun. Just the other day, my kids made a fort in the living room and camped out. It is so fun, bringing out your inner child and playing with your children. I loved going into their fort and exploring their wonderful creation and remembering how much fun being a child is. 

What does Motherhood look like to you? Can you relate to any of these?

Week 11: I Said I Would Never

My blog has had no purpose lately, as you can tell I haven't been keeping up with my 52 weeks of blogging with purpose. So here I am trying to play catch up, but hey, life gets busy and that is OK. We've been having fun!

I've honestly thought about this one and all I can come up with is:

1. Give my children formula. Christian was a pig. I also worked part time and I could tell you stories of trying to pump and work and keep up with the little munchkin. So unfortunately he had to go to formula. I was devestated and did better with my second one. 

2. Allow them to have nasty snotty noses in public. I was always big on having clean children. I had extra clothes packed in car and wiped their noses with the first sight of boogers. Well, Christian was a very sick kid. He was constantly having a runny nose due to teething, ear infections, colds, whatever. His poor nose was so raw that I just let go of the snot thing.

3. Let them stay up past midnight. Funniest story: It was New Year's Eve 2007. We were getting ready to join the Army (Active Duty). Ashlee had just turned two and my family was over at our house, ringing in the new year. It was tradition that we ordered pizza, had smoked sausage with cheese and crackers, chips, and soda. (And we wonder why we gain weight over the holidays...ha ha). Anyways, I bought the kids pop, for the first time. I thougth orange soda was caffine free. Long story short: Ashlee was awake until 3 am, orange soda DOES have caffine, and caffine mixed with a two year old is not a fun combination. 

Dairy Free Mac n Cheese

I am so excited that I finally found a easy and delicious dairy free Mac n cheese recipe that I just had to share A.S.A.P! 

I just searched Pinterest this afternoon and found it. It looked easy, compared to a lot of other ones I've tried, but I really doubted the taste. Well, I made it for dinner....and.....the critics approve! Ashlee didn't even know it was dairy free cheese and she's my Mac n cheese fanatic. 

I may be making a big deal about something so insignificant, but you seriously don't have any idea how frustrating this dairy free thing can be sometimes. I'm so grateful for the world we live in today, with all these specialty foods. 

So here it is:

1 (16oz) package of elbow noodles

2 packages of dairy free cheese (I used Daiya brand-1 mozzarella and 1cheddar)

2 1/2 Cups of dairy free milk (I used unsweetened So Delicious Coconut milk)

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Boil noodles for 5 min. (No longer)

3. Bring milk to a low boil and then add cheeses and salt/pepper. Stir constantly until cheeses have melted.

4. Drain noodles and put into a greased casserole dish.

5. Add cheese mixture to noodles 

6. Bake for 30-35 min.

Enjoy this! If you don't do dairy free, I'm sure regular cheeses would taste just as good. Also, gluten free would just swap out the noodles, for gluten free ones.