Don’t Doubt Yourself

“Mommy, Somebody Needs You.”

I love this!, she totally nailed it!

Ever since we brought our new daughter home, her older brothers have been the first to tell me when she is crying, whimpering, or smelling a little suspicious.  “Somebody needs you,” they say.  I have no idea how this little saying started, but at first it sort of annoyed me.  I could be enjoying a quick shower… “Mommy, somebody needs you.  The baby is crying.”  Or, sitting down for a second, quite aware that the baby was beginning to stir from a nap…. “Mama, somebody needs you!”  Okay!  I get it already!  And not to mention that the newborn’s needs pale in comparison to the needs of 2 little boys.  Somebody always needs a snack, a band-aid, a different sock, ice cubes in their water, a NEW Paw Patrol, a stream of snot wiped, a hug, a story, a kiss.  Some days never seem to end, and the monotony of being “needed”…

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3 Tips for Women from Antoniette Pacheco

Photo courtesy of: dianesera.com

Antoniette Pacheco and her boyfriend Frank Medrano were interviewed together last year for Fitness Magnet. Frank Medrano translated the article into English on his Facebook page, and I recently came across the article. One of the things that I wanted to share from the article was Antoniette’s answer to the question, “What 3 tips would you give a woman wanting to get “lean”/weight loss?” I thought her answer was really great and I was most intrigued by her support of doing sprints opposed to long distance running.

I plan to give this a try for a while to see how I like it. Has anyone else used sprinting as a cardio workout? any tips or comments about it? Well I would love to hear others thoughts on the matter but in the mean time, here are Antoniette’s 3 tips in regards to the question above.

“Eat clean – Us women store food differently than men. It’s even more important to eat clean so that our bodies don’t store fat. That doesn’t mean starving yourself either! I am eating consistently throughout the day to speed up my metabolism, as well as feeding my muscles for growth and repair. More muscle means less fat.

Lift heavy weights – Lifting heavy weights will build muscle, burn fat, and increase athletic performance. It’s the sure-fire way to not just get lean, but to be strong!

Sprints- Burns fat and speeds up metabolism faster than long, slow, boring cardio. It also increases endurance, which helps with other forms of training that you do, and the results are quicker too.”- Antoniette Pacheco

This excerpt was taken from Frank Medrano’s Facebook page and can be found here, if you would like to read the full article.

Meal Prep Recipe: Breakfast Casserole Squares

One of the things that I like to do on Sundays is to prepare breakfast and a few dinners, for the week. It helps me to ensure my family is getting a hearty breakfast in the morning, without me actually having to cook every morning, and on days when I feel tired after work I can just throw something in the oven and call it a day.

One of my newer recipes for breakfast that I have been making is a breakfast casserole. Thing 1 LOVES eggs. He could eat them everyday for every meal if I let him. So I used to make little egg omelets in muffin tins for the family, but I began to grow bored. So I decided I was going to make a breakfast casserole one day from some craps of stuff in the fridge. It came out great and the family LOVED it.

Once I completed the casserole I cut it up into squares (12) and everyone got one for breakfast on Sunday, and the rest I bagged in little sandwich bags and put in the fridge. Now in the morning all everyone would have to do is grab a square and heat it up and go!  My life made simple people. 🙂

I am including the basis of the recipe below, you can add in whatever you like to make it personal. Last week I wanted my kids to eat more veggies so I added in mushrooms and spinach and left out the salsa. You can pretty much make it your own. I hope you give this recipe a try and let me know how it goes over. If you have any questions feel free to comment below and I will answer. Enjoy!

(also, I keep forgetting to take a picture, so when I make this next weekend I will take a picture and upload to add to this post. Until then here is a pic from a similar recipe on allrecipes.)

Breakfast Casserole Squares

Ingredients:

1 package of turkey sausage, cooked and crumbled (you could also use the pre-cooked turkey sausage)

10 eggs, beaten (seasoned to your preference)

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup shredded cheese

1 1/2 cup Tater Tots

3/4 cup of add in vegetables (optional)

1/2 cup salsa (optional)

non stick cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8×10 baking pan or casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray and then sprinkle turkey sausage evenly across the bottom of the pan. Next sprinkle cheese and veggies (if using) on top of the sausage. Beat the milk into the 10 eggs, until well incorporated,  and then pour over sausage and veggi mix in pan. Next if using salsa scoop over the eggs and lightly stir into egg mixture. Finally you will place the tater tots all over the top of the mixture, and place into the oven and bake for about 25-35 mins. Once the casserole is done remove from oven and let cool for about 10 mins and then slice into 12 even squares.

Move over He-Man, Antoniette Pacheco has arrived….

Antoniette Pacheco is awesome, what more can I say. She is a mom, a marine, and girlfriend of Frank Medrano (who is pretty impressive himself, after her of course, yay girl power).  I recently came across her on Google and started following her on YouTube and Instagram because I was so impressed, and I am one that is hard to impress. Yet, she impressed me, and it is not only because of her athletic ability, and her super toned bod that I hope to have some day, but it was because of her attitude and her dedication to her health in spite of being a mom. She doesn’t let being a mommy get in her way she makes it fun for both her and her daughter and I am totally for that. (I work out with my kids as well but I am not as committed as I need to be, and she inspires me)

In addition to being impressed by her for those reasons, she is also a marine, which means she fights for my freedom, and that alone is enough to make me appreciate her.  So in honor of Antoniette Pacheco I am writing this post, for her service, and for inspiring mama bears all over to be greater. Thanks Miss Pacheco!

-A Humble Fan 🙂

Stop the Mommy Wars: Empowering Photo Series

Stop the Mommy Wars: Empowering Photo Series

This is a pretty awesome thing that happened, and more moms should share their attitude. 🙂

Photo Cred: herscoop.com

The Best Dollar I Ever Spent

Imagine yourself, if you will, with a headache in the confined space of your car with your two beautiful lovely arguing children (yes I am being sarcastic) screaming at each other in the back seat. You want to yell at them and tell them to shut their traps, but you know they will probably end up crying and that will just make things worse. You could also tell them to be quiet but who knows how long that will last, especially when they will more than likely start telling on each other to get one another in trouble.

Ahh the joys of parenting people. I swear my kids wake up each morning and make a list of every little thing they want to argue about in order to annoy one another and ride my last nerve into the sunset. For the longest time I would fight with them to be quiet and stop arguing but now I have a game that I have developed that resolves this problem with not only a smile on my face but also my children’s and it only cost me one invisible dollar.

It is called the quiet game people. I have decided to pay my children one dollar to whom ever can be quiet the longest. One dollar is all it cost me for minutes on end of unadulterated peace and quiet. Do you know how valuable that is to a mother? Let me explain, if my husband offered me a diamond ring or a weeks worth of quietness in a place where no one would be asking me for anything, hands down I would take the latter.

Here is the kicker……I never actually have to spend the dollar. You’re wondering how does that work? You are probably thinking “My kid would be begging me for the dollar until I gave it to them.” The way I get away without ever having to spend the dollar, is because I can pretty much always guarantee that my kids either never did their chores at home or will do something else they aren’t supposed to do and then they lose the dollar for misbehavior. So when Thing 1 ask for his dollar, if he wins the game, I simply ask “Is your room clean?”, “Did you behave in the store today?”, “Did you put away the dishes out of the dishwasher?” Usually the answer to this question is “no”, so he loses his dollar.

Some parents, I am sure will think it is bad for me to try to bribe my children  to be quiet or to “lie” to them about getting the dollar knowing they will never actually get it, and to those parents the only thing I can say is; tough cookies my friends! As the blog title implies I am trying to keep my sanity so I do what works for me and my household. My kids like playing the game as they are in hopes that they will someday get this imaginary dollar, and I enjoy the momentary peace and quiet it buys me. I don’t claim to be a perfect parent but this game works for me so I am sharing it in hopes that maybe it will work for some other mom who is struggling to keep her sanity.

In closing I would say that this tactic (on the battlefield of parenting), I am sure will only work for a few more years as my children are 4 and 6 now. I know as my children get older that they will begin to recognize the fact that they don’t actually ever get the dollar. For now, I will enjoy these moments of silence that my imaginary dollar affords me.

Mama Bear Wisdom- “Who are you living for?”

I have a network of moms and wives that I speak with about “the joys of being a wife and mom” (please know this statement is drenched in sarcasm, lol). Anywho one of the things that I constantly hear from my fellow wives is how they tire of always feeling like they have to be the responsible one, or the planner, or the bigger person in arguments with their significant other.

Now I know how they feel as I have most definitely been there myself. There were many of times where I have gone to God and said “God, why do I have to be the one who submits or the one who has to be considerate or the one who has to do what’s right. Why can’t I be the irresponsible one or the selfish one sometimes” (please know that of course I am these things sometimes but when I go to God I am whining and feeling sorry for myself, sue me, God still loves me 🙂 )

Nonetheless one day God answered back and he simply asked me “Well who are you living for, yourself or me?” That simple question really helped me put things into perspective because as I answered the question (with the obvious, “For you God.”), God revealed to me that if I was living for myself than fine I have every right to feel like it was unfair and I could go on complaining. However, if I was living for him than I needed to suck it up and get over it, because he has called each of us in every relationship of every kind to play a role and to want to be anything other than who He has called you to be, is to be living for yourself.

So, I encourage you the next time you find yourself confronted with feelings like the ones I described above with your significant other, or any other individual you maybe in in a friendship or working relationship with,  and you feel it is unfair, ask yourself “Who am I living for?”

peace and gummy bears to you….

-Mama Bear

My stubborn mule…

Photo credit: Denis Felix/Corbis

So yesterday my son was able to do something that rarely happens for me and that is, he made me feel embarrassed. My son can be very challenging as he is well equipped in the little body God gave him with the temper and stubbornness that both me and his father both possess. (Thanks God, j/k God please don’t smite me, lol) Any who the hubs and I have been working with him as diligently as two parents can on learning to control his attitude and mouth, because he loves to talk back and feels he always has to have the last word. Well yesterday whilst picking him up from school he proceeded with his usual request to go to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and I proceeded with my usual big fat answer NO and told him the discussion was over after he continued to plead his case on how he never gets to go and I said my usual “well since you never get to go then you might as well not start going now”. But as usual this fool can never give it up he has to continue to plead and try to talk over me in front of the teacher making me look bad because he wasn’t following directions.

Once we got in the car I was so upset because I was tired of him making me look bad in front of his teacher with his behavior. What really bothers me even more is when people try to tell me what I should be doing to him and how I’m not doing enough as if I haven’t already tried every discipline tactic in the world in the past 5 years already, the boy is just as stubborn as a fricken mule, so unless I tie him up and tape his mouth together which is ABUSE then shewed I am running out of ideas here so I have to start circulating back through the methods.

Getting back on track, once we got in the car and he began to try to talk to me in his soft voice to….wait for it…ASK ME TO BUY HIM SOME STARBUCKS HOT WHITE CHOCOLATE….um excuse me where were you in the past 5 mins when I wanted to drop kick you because of your mouth? Dude as if, I seriously don’t even like you right now and you are my child! But it’s cool you guys because discipline tactic #257 popped in my head at that moment.

I proceeded to drive to the Starbucks and order my tall chai tea latte with soy milk, and a chocolate cinnamon bread for me and thing 2 to split. and since thing 1 is allergic to chocolate guess who couldn’t get any, ha ha sucker mommy wins the battle!

When he cried because he didn’t get anything I explained to him that for now on if he keeps talking back when adults tell him the discussion is over, and if he doesn’t begin to have a better attitude there was going to be a whole lot more of mommy and thing 2 eating and drinking while he has to watch or he will have to stay home with daddy. I am a strong believer in discipline follow up. A kid needs to understand why they are being disciplined and that you still love them even when your disciplining them. So I always do the follow up.

So, does anyone else have any stubborn as a mule kids that seem to be immune to all forms of discipline? If so what tactics have you tried I am interested to know, or hear of any stories where you won the battle.