2014 - almost Spring!

My last post was ages ago it seems but anyone who is a parent, especially a mother will tell you that time and what each day entails flies by so fast you don't know which day of the week it is sometimes haha!

So much has happened and we also hoped we would have been gone from Arkansas or at least sold our house and moved and settled in already but we know God has his own timeline and we just need to realize we can't adjust it.

Nicholas is a joy and a blessing everyday.  He is not always a ray of sunshine but what 2-year-old really is LOL!  The least of our problems with him is the occasional temper tantrum which is usually curtailed by the showing of a small wooden cooking spoon.  It has been used a couple times and he knows now we mean business.  Yes, it is not the most fun to discipline your child but in our view if we do it now it will save us grief later on.  

Nicholas' eating habits have not progressed to table foods and we were alarmed about it at first and still are to some extent but his doctor says that once he is healthy, gaining weight like he should that is all that matters.  It does not matter what form the food is in.  I am happy he is not a junk food eating baby and he would not even eat it if we offered it to him.  I was concerned it was sensory issues related but he would eat other textures fine like cookies, cakes and some breads, yogurt with fruit and fresh fruit smoothies just fine that has pulp.  So, alas the mother that cooks a lot is left with a child that doesn't want to eat what she makes and prefers it out of a jar for the most part.  I don't post about his eating habits on other social media like Facebook because of the barrage of criticisms.  Hence, I choose this forum to talk about it.

There has been a lot of tension, stress and drama (family) related for all of 2013 and finally it has been resolved by us taking the step to put an end to it and get answers.  It is a huge disappointment finding out the cause but needed to do it.

I am ready for a new chapter, new scenery, new anything to get out of some depression that has been building for quite some time now.  It is not a good place to be left with your own thoughts and disappointments.

So, here's to the dawn of Spring to a future of some hope and good news for a change!

Fall and holiday season 2013

So many days have gone by since my last post it is still amazing how fleeting time is.  I know I say it a lot but it is true!  We have learned some hard lessons in the last year about who to trust and who will betray you, even those closest to you.  The best reaction is non-retaliation.  It is the hardest thing to do and stomach but for progress a necessary action.  I cannot believe how one act can change the course of our lives but then again that is how evil works but there is always hope for a better tomorrow and we have been seeing a lot of those as well in return.

I have been working as a court transcriber and  still a stay at home mom doing the occasional catering jobs which I love!  My son is still my world and without him some days I don't know how I would make myself smile.  Times are tough financially as it is for everyone I am sure but by the grace of our little family and God we are doing the best we can.

Our house is STILL on the market but we are making plans in the event things don't go our way!

This holiday season will be a quiet one and for the first time on thanksgiving it will just be us :)  I make a lot of the dishes anyway in the past years so it will be so peaceful to just be us and truly, genuinely and perfectly a thankful event :)

Thanks for reading!

Summer is almost over

Wow, the last 6 months was a blur.  So many milestones and memories we made with Nicholas.  Who is now 2 years old!  When did that happen.  I remember when we brought him home.  They weren't kidding when they said time would fly.  We have also had a lot of battles to fight in the face of all the excitement but at least we have each other and we are a family.  Our eyes were opened in such a way that we never realized how other people were viewing us and judging us and attacking us for no valid reason but we stayed calm and stuck to our beliefs and how we want to live our life and raise our son and it is getting better everyday.

Our house is on the market again this summer and we had a few offers but none that we could work with to make it comfortable for the sale and move.  We are wanting to move to Foley, Alabama.  Lots of beaches, calmness and a fresh new start.  I am sure it will come to pass when the time is right but for now we are just living day to day.

Nicholas, buddy when you are reading this know that your mommy and dada love you with all of our hearts and everyday with you is a blessing!

Right now your favorite object in the world is a kitchen aid mixer haha, you love watching cooking shows and everytime we go to town you ask to go to Target, Walmart or Best Buy to see the mixers.

You also love mailboxes, especially the yellow one at the top of our street and you also ask to go see mamaw and papaw after.  They love you very much!

You love playing outside with water and just pretty much love doing everything.

It has been an awesome summer and you love going to the park and seeing the ducks and the swings :)

You also LOVE ice cream like your dada haha!

BUT best of all everyday you skype with your grandma Helen, you call her Mama and she loves you with all her heart!

Cookbook Launch!

The holidays are over and 2012 was an eventful year with a lot of firsts for Nicholas and Paul and I along the way.  It is still a blessing everyday to be parents to such a special child :)

 

The new year started off with me digging in deep and finally getting the last edits done for my cookbook that has been in the making, forever!  I have had a lot of friends encourage me almost daily sometimes to do it or make it accessible in one way or another.  I struggled with trying to figure out the best way to get this done to please all parties, including myself economically.  One day, it dawned on me that I should do an eBook.  Everyone is always walking around with their phones, devices, iPad, iPhone, iPod touches, Kindles, etc. as if their lives depend on it and what better way to sustain that thirst but to have a cooking book right at your fingertips while shopping and cooking.  The idea to go paperless extends not only in the shopping aspect but cooking as well, no need to print out a recipe either.  I know that I am not a genius by any means, practical yes, but I am sure this is not the first instance where this idea was fashioned.

 

So, here we are mid-January 2013 and I am pleased to announce that my eBook is available for purchase.  If you are interested in a copy, please visit for more info and send me a message with your email address:

www.facebook.com/trudythefoodie

You will taste food through my eyes and soul and experience the love for cooking if you haven't done so already.

Happy New Year!

AUGUST 2012

The hottest month of the year means lots of time spent indoors or going places that are cool and not being outside in the upper 100-degree weather.  Nicholas is growing and learning more and more everyday.  He learns easily and speaks words in context and we are amazed at his personality that is growing more and more everyday along with his height and appetite haha!

The one thing that stands out for this month is that we do scorpion checks every morning and evening, yes, scorpion checks and one morning he picked one up and it stung him.  He cried for a minute and he dunked his hand into iced water and he was fine.  We took him to town just in case he had a reaction and needed to be close to the ER or his pediatrician but he was a champ.  From what I hear the sting is painful and lasts for hours and this was a huge one that stung him.  He is amazing!

I found out that my mom is coming for a visit this Fall and I am super excited that she will be here with her grandson soon :)

Nicholas loves Baby First TV and there are a few characters that he loves on there.  We got them for him as a surprise and each reaction was so precious :)

Here are the links:

Juno

Indie

Harry the Bunny


So, that's it for August 2012.  Thanks for reading and as always, spend your time wisely with your loved ones, be blessed that you are alive and well and help others as much as you can.

JULY 2012

This month has been so hot it is ridiculous! It seems we have to stay inside more than anything else.  If we do go out, we go very early to ensure it is not over 100+ degrees out there.

Nicholas is growing up so fast and we are having so much fun teaching him new things every day and he is truly like a little sponge absorbing it and then expressing the words and looks and the like in his own special way.

He eats mainly pureed fruits and veggies still with puffs as snacks but not too keen on textures yet.  I have read until I am exhausted about it but all toddlers are different in their likes and dislikes neither is perfect or ideal so the pressure is off of us in that department.

These are the things that we can control on a daily basis: how he is treated, dressed, played with, fed and taken care of and loved.  What I am about to tell you is what we cannot control.

This status update is from my Facebook account on July 30th:

An innocent trip to Kohls today turned out to be infuriating when a little girl about 3 or so came up to Nicholas in his stroller, grabbed his hand and proceeded to bit down on his fingers with all her might and Paul had to pry her off of him and she scratched Nicholas in 2 places causing one of them to draw blood.  I am so angry about the whole thing...long story short, the mother could care less and the store manager knew her so she gave us her info in case we needed it but while she was doing so the little girl was trying to kick Nicholas in the head while she was holding her. If you have a child with that type of behavior, please restrain her and don't have her roaming around terrorizing other kids or people because she was even trying to grab stuff from the manager. Nicholas is fine now but he had deep impressions from her teeth on his middle finger knuckles and he was screaming so much he couldn't catch his breath. We were all in shock. Paul took him to the water cooler to wash his hand off with the cold water and we tried to calm him down. We were having a great day and it was quickly ruined...my blood pressure is through the roof right now.

Needless to say, the above was an awful experience for us.  My friends and family rallied around us offering support and advice and extreme measures that we should have taken but we chose to be more aware and alert of other children around Nicholas and would rather not dwell on it anymore.  Some people said they would have been in jail if they were the parent but Paul and I would rather be here for Nicholas than to create more stress in this situation.  Our first thought was to get him out of the vicinity of the little girl and taken care of.

I am writing all of this so that Nicholas will be able to read it someday.  "Baby, we love you so much and we were both sickened and heartbroken that we failed in protecting you that day...never, again!"

So that was the tumultuous ending to July.  We may not have seen fireworks on the 4th but it was an explosion of shock and horror that we will never forget!

JUNE 2012

June 2012, well you are going to be a most memorable month, that's for sure! I remember this time last year how palpable the excitement, anxiety, anticipation and all those similar adjectives to convey what I was feeling.  I was going to be a mom, for real!  The last year had a lot of ups and downs as always but the ups were a-mazing! God has blessed us with an amazing child and he is the best at brightening our spirits and those around him as well.

As his birthday approaches, we are not financially able at this time to give him a blowout birthday bash or take him to Disney World like we hoped but the everyday love, kisses, time spent together trumps all the material things we can dream of or buy for him.  Of course, we are still going to take him to Disney World maybe before the year is over but it will be more of a family vacation.  He will get to meet his cousins.  He has a lot! LOL! and that is only in Florida.  I need to make a family tree for him.  I was telling Paul, how funny it would be to print off my FB family list and put it in his baby book or box, since it is the way of the times these days haha!

Our house is still on the market and we had a few hopefuls but nothing solid but we are just going to roll with it and if we stay here, that is fine too.  We just want to be able to have the means to lead a balanced life as in working to live and not living to work.  I went back to work but the money was not worth it for the time away from my son and hubby.  I am keeping my options opened for a different position in the same MT field but for now we are making the sacrifice and it is worth it.  I would rather not go out to eat or have the money for mindless shopping and spend the evenings with my boys.  It has been tough, I'm not going to lie but it makes the little things more spectacular.  One might think we put on about our lives but what you see is what we are, no pretense.  Who are we trying to impress? No one :) The best part of life is living it without having to try too hard and just do it, period.

I still long for the day Nicholas gets to walk on the same beaches I went to growing up and for him to savor the dishes and feel the breezes of my childhood but I will be patient and know that in time, it will all come to be :)  For now, there are other ways to introduce him to it and the people I love and call family.

I thank you for accompanying me on this journey I call my life... Have a blessed day!