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Watching my beloved train for a marathon that is THIS WEEKEND! since April? May? means I’ve cheered, encouraged, cried in frustration, jumped up and down for joy, and been schooled in stamina and sacrifice. It also means I’ve learned to make space. Make space for him to do something he’d love, even though it’s not always been convenient or fun for me. Where’s the sacrifice and growth for me if it were easy for me to encourage and support him in his training? If it’s easy, I’m probably not learning much. And this past 5 months or so have not been easy for either of us, but we’ve both learned sooooooo much. AA has been a serious runner forever. As a middle schooler & high schooler, he broke and set all records for his long distances. He was asked to run for a fabulous college. He lived, slept, ate, breathed running for a very long time. In the decade between his peak collegiate running and us having kids, he ran regularly. Add kid. Add long hours high stress job. Add more kids. Running had fallen to the wayside. Despite the wife encouraging and nagging, it took him finding his own visceral need for it again to bring forth: marathon training! I listened as he gauged and researched and poured over his laptop for races near by and far from the Twin Cities before he landed on the big TC Marathon. When he announced he thought he’d sign up to run…
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What can I say? I was raised on Velveeta and Tastee bread. But I’ve come around to love real food. And love making it for my family. So much so that when we took a family-do-nothing-vacation, I relished the opportunity to cook–> photos back here. I used to blog a lot more about food so recipes & other items related to food & garden are here. I ran a meal planning linkup for a while, too, called WeekEats. I’ll even throw up food pics on instagram under #wholeparentingeats But now, I’m a slacker in this. Trying to get back into planning ahead. With three kids at home with me and always underfoot, I’ve finally figured out how to make dinner without crashing and burning. I make it during NAPS in the afternoon. And then warm it up for their 5pm dinner time. My husband doesn’t get home til after six, but at least the kids aren’t howling monkeys, or if they are, it’s not for empty stomaching. A quick list of things that make my multitasking life easier in the kitchen: 1) Digital Probe Meat Thermometer. Gift from my sister Bridget a few years back. I use it on meatballs, meat on the grill, you name it. Love it. So so much. I summarily wipe the pointy blade clean and put it away. No more wondering if the chicken is done and overcooking it. Like I did for about a decade. 2) Plastic Cutting Board with Grip. I’m picky about not…
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It’s been a fascinating journey for me, to sew and create patterns, and sell the goods to friends and strangers alike at my shop, Whole Parenting Goods. I’ve learned so so so much about fabric and how forgiving or unforgiving it is, how long it takes me to do a job, and how much delight I feel when seeing babies kicking around in something I was able to make for them. Mostly, I’ve oscillated between humility and elation. My products have range from double layered blankets, bandit bibs, contoured burp cloths, leggings, skirts, caps, banners, washcloths, and then an assortment of washable wool knit blankets. I wrote a post a while back about tips to starting your etsy shop. Now I’m ticking off what I’ve learned along the way. 1) Precision and perfection. Sewing for others taught me to be precise, not a skill I had before. To truly tweak and fix and press and stitch as correctly as a human being can–not natural for me! To know it needs to stand up to wear and tear and washings and wearings informed my skills at durability. Yet, these are handmade items. No one is going to be exactly like the other. No one is going to be perfect. I’m not a perfectionist but I am always striving to be better and better. Sometimes that means I’ve had to change my pattern, or drop a product line. A few times my daughter stabbed a scissors through a leggings that I was…
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photo by the talented Emily Rumsey–more where this outtake came from! complete with my attempted replacement ones. Because I really really am working on being a better wife. And a more loving wife. And a more kind one, too. Because I could really use work on this, I thought about all the things I say to my husband that I really cringe when I hear them aloud. I read an excellent book called The Power of Habit. Part of breaking a habit and shifting your behavior is replacing versus simply stopping cold turkey. Here’s my swap-out list of phrases not to say combined with those which are perhaps a sufficient replacement. As a preface: My husband is a great guy. He’s a wonderful and present father. A doting and kind husband who never ever yells. And right now our marriage is in a good place. These lines might not work if you feel like you’re unevenly yoked or wanting to get insight from an outside counselor for deeper marital or personal challenges. I have great recs for one or three of those if you need them! 1) Didn’t you wash their hands and brush their teeth yet? Using the accusing form of the verb: the one that says, you’re an idiot and I can’t believe you haven’t done a simple task that you should know you should do. It’s so easy to be demeaning to your spouse. It’s so horrible to say that, and maybe it’s just me. Small children…
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This past week, I actually had an in-real-life moment that mirrored what I’m always encouraging other moms not to get worked up about little kids are just like this, right? At moms’ group, my daughter had a complete screaming fit while grabbing ahold of me, in front of everyone, while I was taking notes on the white board. I love cheering and encouraging the young mom on. I’m often thinking about the problems we face, and blabbing about it on Facebook. Or snapping a really real pic of my house’s messes and screaming kids for instagram just to say, hey, it’s okay, we are all in this hard time together. I had to cheer myself on a little bit. Because every now and then, be it at swim class or at mom’s group, or anywhere that isn’t in her comfort zone, my three and a half year old SweetPea can really lose her s*&t. And so it happened the other day. I was embarrassed, a little. I was kinda glad it was my kid and not someone else’s because I wasn’t that embarrassed. Maybe I should have been. I scanned the crowd and figured the ladies with older kids thought that looks familiar and the ladies with younger kids probably thought what the heck is her problem and why isn’t Nell doing something about it. Buckle up for a long narrative. Ready? Here’s my overwritten version of the aforementioned meltdown. 1) It was going to be a busy day. A busy, driving around, balancing boxes of napkins…
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My junior high friend, Cynthia, has become one of my favorite adult mama Catholic world friends. She was actually Molly’s friend first, but I coopted her now as we go to the same parish, have kids around the same ages, and our husbands like to hang together too. We share of love of crafting and cooking, though I think she’s better at both than I am! Today I’m sharing with you about the vestments she’s hand-made for the little aspiring priests in your life. Of course, my mom bought three of these for her grandkids last year so I’m pretty partial to them, too. My oldest is five now and has had a serious hankering to become a priest since about 2. He’s fallen a bit out of this holy stage as piety swapped out for knighthood attempts (now it’s all honor and valor, so really similar, right?). BUT then I brought home Cynthia’s vestment for him and VOILA. Back to the altar making we go. But she also sells an entire KIT, people. Not just the vestments. And the three year old wears a few blue outfits and is playing “Holy Nun Mother of God Mary Jesus.” Cynthia’s going to tell you a little about herself and her work. And every single one of you is going have a 20% off coupon code for your shopping delights–use coupon code NELL20! SHOP HERE at Interior Castle Goods to support this sweet mama of five. — I know so many Catholic families who’ve…
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