Looking back at the past week...in the eyes of this good momma going green!

My life has been really crazy lately. Papa Bear now has two jobs and is working seven days a week. I am a good and loving other half and get up with him every morning to make his lunch and see him off. We do our daily planning then, which is basically him telling me what I need to do for the day in the nice way I need to be pushed. Sister Bear is now officially cruising around everything and giving me mini heart attacks constantly (seriously, she's such a headstrong child!). Brother Bear is currently learning the range of his emotions and the communication barrier is causing us both to get frustrated. He is such a intelligent and well-spoken child but he hasn't grasped the range of emotions yet. I am finding myself walking out of the room to calm down or I get short with him and it hurts his feelings more -which is a vicious cycle that leaves us both stressed!

I'm trying to gather all my thoughts to create the blog post explaining how and when (and what) led me to being more "crunchy". This is hard, because I can tell you it in a heartbeat, but when I start to put my thoughts on paper I always *fail*. (This has been a problem since my Creative Writing class in high school. I'm just not descriptive enough on paper or the opposite, too descriptive that it ruins the story.) I know the point in which the journey started. It was after the birth of Brother. I started to learn about how my birth ended up in a C/S and how it could have been avoided. I dived in, head first, into the world I now love. Little did we know we were already practicing a lot of the principles that generally go into this lifestyle. We were AP parents from the start, because I'd rather soothe than listen to a baby cry. But..again, this will eventually make it's way into a blog post.

I've done some reconnecting with a few old friends this week. It was nice. It's amazing to see how God brings certain people into you life when you need their uplifting spirit. It is almost like He knew I needed the examples of these people in my life. One in particular gave me a memory that had stuck with me since 7th grade and I'm finding her wisdom and grasp of the world to be extraordinarily beautiful. It goes to show that not everyone who leaves your life is meant to stay gone.  Maybe they are just meant to reappear when you can learn the most from them!

We *attempted* to participate in No Screen Time this week, but we did watch some movies. Overall though, we spent way more time at the park and outside. We even did a craft day on Saturday and are planning to do one again today,  maybe. It's storming and my family kind of needs to recharge our batteries (and clean our house!) so I'm not sure if I want answer the door. Don't judge, I just need the peace and quiet! Thankfully though Brother enjoyed his week with way more activity. We're not huge tv watchers, but it was a refreshing break for the entire family. Though today we are fully enjoying Scooby Doo and relaxing and recharging.  We did have fun doing colored rice and moon sand and playing with glue and glitter. I'm looking for more ideas for stimulating his senses so that way we're hitting everything. I'm really interested in the Montessori style of learning and am going to be thoroughly researching this in the next coming week!

I revisited my goals that I set for myself in the beginning. We aren't anywhere near where I wish we would be, but life is a journey and I'll continue on it. I've been slacking on my exercising a bit with us being so busy, but I have been walking (wearing one and pushing the other in a stroller) to their preschool every single day, except Friday this past week. It averaged out to over an hour of walking two and from twice a day. This has to count. I've also started walking more places that are in a reasonable distance instead of riding the bus. I do love having the opportunity to ride the bus, but also being able to strengthen my body is amazing. I'm focusing less on actual exercise (frankly, it gets me down) and more on constantly moving. I do plan to continue yoga and meditation a few times a week as well as upper body work and some abs, but I'm no longer going to beat myself up for skipping a day or enjoying an ice cream cone with my son. I think it's more important to have that moment with him, than make him feel sad (did I mention his emotions? ;) ) about mommy not having one with him. Healthy living and weight loss isn't overnight or even over a month, but a lifetime goal and I'm going to remember that.

So this is a few of my highlights from the past week. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next week brings me! For now, keep it green, keep it real, and keep it fun!

Hollea