I want to begin by saying thank you! Thank you for commenting, sharing, liking and reading my last post. I appreciate all your support! Please keep on sharing and liking if you have enjoyed a recipe or what I had to say or even if you think a friend might benefit from a product I’ve recommended! Truly, that goes for anybody’s blog! If you like something you have read, pass it along so others may enjoy it too 😊. THANK YOU!
This was a week of dance. HBear had a professional photographer (Janelle Photography) at dress rehearsal that took so many amazing pictures. I showed her my 2 favourites and she shuddered and began listing off the things she didn’t like about the pictures or rather what she didn’t like about herself. She hated her clawed hand. Her bent back leg. Her wonky arm.
I see beauty. Grace. Effort. Confidence. Courage. Joy. Determination.
Every night we cuddle and list 3 things that were good about the day. One of them has to be something she’s proud of about herself. At first she protested every night. Then she realized she had to do it so she just started talking about her day. And we began picking out the good things of each memory. It’s been over 3 weeks now and she no longer has to be prodded, in fact she comes in each night and asks, “3 things time?”
I can see her laugh more. Focus on the positive more. Communicate more.
Talking is key.
When HBear was in kindergarten I remember reading that children need to be asked specific questions so they can remember specific parts of the day. When you ask, “how was your day.“ They say… Fine. But if you say “did you have art or music today?” They remember they had a fun class and it gets them talking about specifics in their day. As they get older we forget that these tools are still at our disposal.
One time last week she said it was an awful no good day so I told her to list 3 bad things that happened including 1 thing that she personally did badly. She listed so many and I told her to put on different lenses. My Political Science Prof used to say we needed to view different situations with different lenses. That stood out to me and I have been trying to do so ever since. I told her if we metephorically keep on our green lenses it taints our view with jealousy. When we wear blue lenses we see things in the light of sadness. I like to wear pink lenses so that I can see the positive sides to life. I wear yellow lenses when I look at her, yellow is my colour of love 💛. We agreed that we need to look at her list from a different side and together we found the good parts of every awful no good thing she had listed. At first it pissed her off but by the end she was light and happy. Which makes me light and happy 🥰.
We had the last dance competition of the year and it went great. I had so much fun hanging out with HBear as we listened to music, went shopping, chilled at the hotel, walked around Kelowna and watched a LOT of dance. I did better than I thought I would, physically. I really tried to take it easy. Big groups are hard for me so I was in and out depending on my fatigue. HBear let me nap, carried everything all the time and did her own eyelashes, makeup and most of her hair. It was pretty relaxing as I just watched HBear doing all these independent things, I was just there to be with her because she wanted me there 💛… and to drive 😂.
SBean went camping with my Sis and her family. It was her first real camping experience and she LOVED it. She came home full of stories and bubbling with excitement. It is wonderful to see the exuberance in which she does well, everything 🤣. I was glad that my Sis took better care of my baby girl than I did of her poor dog! On Sunday I let the dogs out and Lennox, 100 year old Lennox that is thick and barely moves… jumped the fence! He literally didn’t move for the past 5 days I mean, HBear nicknamed him Loaf 🤣 but he jumped the fence while I was making dinner and when I opened the door for the dogs, there was only 1 left! I was sick to my stomach. I had the neighbours searching, I called Ninja home from Sunday dinner at his parents (HBear has strep so we stayed home) and I walked up and down our streets. We drove around for 2 hours before I went on to the Facebook Penticton Dog Control page and there he was! He had been picked up at the gas station at end of our street! Thank goodness!!! I was dreading calling my Sis and explaining that I had lost their dog 😬.
This Got2b Freeze Spay is the BEST hairspray I have ever used! EVER and I grew up in the 80’s & 90’s!! I even used to use sugar water to keep my punk spikes standing erect! SPOILER: Don’t use sugar water. It works but you will have flies and wasps buzzing around your heard constantly 😂. This stuff works for dance but it would also be good for day to day use as well!
Did you know there is a difference between U Shaped Hair Pins and bobby pins? I didn’t but I do now! I hate bobby pins! They get stuck in your hair and tear as you pull them out. Hair pins slide in gently, hold anything and everything and don’t pull when you take them out! These are IDEAL for buns of ALL types!
I’m going to be completely honest, I just ordered this Hair Wax Stick one so I don’t have a personal review but the Dance Mom that sent this link to all the other Dance Moms gushed and said it was her favourite product of the year and she has NEVER let me down before. In fact, up until now I’ve used Pantene Spray Gel at her recommendation and I didn’t think ANYTHING could work better but she says, this does!!!!
Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? Episode #277: Who Let The Dog Out? HERE! This week, another dance comp. in Kelowna. Topics: Lenny’s adventure, pedestrians, driver’s license, toilet clog, broken braces, Great Canadian Dance, brotherly influence & David Milgaard.
HBear has been doing a lot of “finding herself” this year. At least once a week she complains that we eat too much meat in our household. I used to make a concerted effort to eat vegetarian once a week but I got away from it for a bit. However, with HBear’s urging, we have been doing it more and more, sometimes 2-3 times a week! This past week I made something that tasted like a Veggie Delight Pizza but in the form of pasta! It was INCREDIBLE! You could use any veggies you like but try to throw in ones you don’t always make. I added zucchini and spinach and they were BIG winners in this dish. We almost always have spinach on hand because the Kids love throwing a handful into their smoothies. I don’t measure spinach well. 3 cups to me is 3 BIG handfuls but we all agreed I could have added more, remember spinach REALLY wilts down!
Veggie Delight Baked Pasta
Adapted from Build Your Bite
3 cups of spinach
1 onion, diced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced (I used cremini)
1 bell pepper, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 can corn, drained
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb pasta
1 jar pasta sauce
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon pepper
¾ cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded (I always use less but use as much as YOU want)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cook pasta according to instructions and set aside.
In a large skillet, combine onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, zucchini, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Add corn last.
Sautee on medium high heat for 12-15 minutes, or until liquid is released and vegetables have started to cook down.
Add spinach and wilt (2-3 minutes).
Add sauce and stir well.
Mix the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses together in a bowl
Add 1 cups of cheese mixture to the sauce/veggie skillet and stir.
Combine pasta with sauce/veggie skillet and transfer mixture to a 13 by 9 baking dish. Top with remaining cheese.
Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.
This was a busy week! It almost felt, dare I say, normal? We are incredibly excited to be cheering on the Edmuton Oilers in the second round of the NHL playoffs! HBear enjoyed spirit week at her school, I got my license renewed, and my Sister’s dog Lennox came to stay with us!
The Great Canadian Dance Challenge was awesome! HBear started her weekend off performing her Teen Jazz Solo for the very last time. She brings so much joy to the stage, it was a pleasure to watch her! For her efforts she received a, GOLD! The first day was wonderful because my Sis and all 3 of the Girls were able to come cheer HBear on! It was so nice to have them there in person for the first time! After HBear’s solo SBean went off with my Sis and HBear and I went shoe shopping and she convinced me to go out for Chinese buffet 🤣 it’s her favourite… Mine? Not so much 😂. We finished off day 1 with a 1st place and a GOLD for HBear’s group Tap routine! They even made it onto the leaderboard and stayed on it until Saturday! We drove home that night and went back on Friday for HBear’s group Contemporary piece, Obsolete where they received a GOLD and placed 2nd! We stayed at the hotel that night and ate pizza, snacks, and watched the 3rd period of the hockey game. Our last day was a full one! We started with Ballet first thing in the morning which received a GOLD and a 2nd place! Then we went shopping, out to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch with the dance crew, and then back to the theatre for Jazz which earned a 2nd place and a GOLD as well! We ended our weekend with a GOLD in Hip-Hop!
SBean had an incredible weekend camping in Alberta! She made so many new friends, did so many new things, and ate so much candy… Or at least that’s what she says 😂! I’m grateful that SBean is able to experience camping. We grew up tenting it all around Manitoba and I remember those weekends filled with adventure and fun. Thank you to my Sis and BIL for including SBean on their wonderful camping May long weekend!
While we were all out of the house, Ninja spent time with his Brother who is visiting from Edmonton! They went out and watched the hockey game, built us a fancy new shoe rack, and had some delicious dinners at his parents house! He also looked after the crazy dogs 😆. Oliver was a bit out of sorts and tore apart Lenny’s bed, Lenny had enough of Oliver and jumped our backyard fence and ended up in the dog pound! 😂 Seriously, that happened. I let them out into the backyard to go to the bathroom and 5 minutes later only Oliver returned! Ninja and I drove around for almost 2 hours looking for him and thankfully a kind woman found him not too far down from us and called dog control who kept him safe until we picked him up soon after! So grateful for kind neighbours.
Holiday Monday was spent inside recuperating. HBear has strep throat and SBean came home with a sore throat and slight fever as well. We’re going to take it easy today and hopefully everybody will bounce back tomorrow!
