First off, a little inspiration for you. These are some quotes that I stumbled across this week that have helped me, so I wanted to share them with you too.

 “Live life fully while you’re here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You’re going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don’t try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.” – Tony Robbins

“Don’t play small! Stand up! Take charge! You are doing yourself and others a disservice by catering your actions towards how you think others will react. Instead, just be yourself, exactly as you are. When you are simply being yourself you will attract everything that is in alignment with who you truly are. You will be shocked to see who drops away. Their absence will leave a space for new and amazing relationships to enter your life. Just be you, and let everyone else do what they may. You are not what others believe you to be, you are what you know you are and nothing else. Just be. You will be rewarded for your courage with a life that reflects your true essence instead of an invented identity created to “please others”. Ahhhh, doesn’t it feel good to just be!?”  – Jackson Kiddard

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” – Judy Garland

“If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.” – Johann von Goethe

And now, two days worth of salad recipes. I am sorry that I got behind. Yesterday I was crazy busy with organizing and cleaning every inch of my house. It is almost back in order now, which feels so good. I love having a clean living environment and when it is out of order, I know that I am out of order. It was terribly out of order and I didn’t even realize it until I started organizing and cleaning things. I must have swept up a pound of dirt, that was hiding in the corners of every room. I really do believe that my home is a reflection of my mind and today I feel much more peaceful.

I have chowed down on so many raw vegetables this past week. More than I have in a long time. Maybe I am weird, but somehow I just don’t really like raw vegetables and the fact that it takes so long to eat them. I never have. Cooked vegetables are way better to me. So I usually cook my recipes for soup, chilli or stir-frys and load them with vegetables to get them into me and the family.

I see how eating a salad a day has totally helped me to be more mindful and take my time eating. Usually when I eat, I eat pretty fast. These days (actually the past month) have been especially bad because I have been so stressed out. I am trying to break that habit though and take my time and be present with my meals so that I can enjoy them more. It is just so easy to stick a spoon in the peanut, cashew or almond butter jar or scarf down a bunch of banana bread or cookies, but I really do want to take better care of myself so I am going to continue to try to eat some raw vegetables or a big salad everyday to help me slow down and be more mindful.

Here is yesterday’s salad

This one was supposed to be a Greek salad, but the dressing did not turn out and I never had time to try again so I just ate it with the Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette.

The salad was made up of:

• 2 large handfuls Spring Mix
• 1/3 cup chopped cucumber
• 6 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
• 2 tablespoons diced red onion

Today’s salad was supposed to be a Rainbow Salad with a vegan ranch dressing. I looked online for some ideas of what to put into a  vegan ranch dressing and tried to whip up my own version. It had vegan mayo, almond milk, garlic and onion powder and was pretty awful. I didn’t waver too much from the original recipe either so I don’t understand how it got such great reviews.

I thought that I could fix it by adding some extra garlic powder to it. Garlic fixes everything right? WRONG! Then I thought to flavor it up I could add some vegetable powder to it. It still was awful but not as bland. I then proceeded to add dill and it was just getting weird, so I just ate my salad with the Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette again.

I feel bad for not trying to come up with some other recipe to share, but I had no time and I needed to eat so I was at least proud of myself for eating the salads and showing them to you!

For the Rainbow Salad, I just chopped up all different colored vegetables and chowed down. We have:

• Romaine Lettuce
• Cauliflower Pieces
• Red Bell Pepper Slices
• Baby Carrots
• Yellow Bell Pepper Slices
• Chopped Red Cabbage

This past week I am beginning to feel a lot better. To feel more holistically healthy, I have added these things back into my life to try and find balance and peace.

• Yoga and cardio workouts, interchangeably to get my body moving and some energy in
• Raw vegetables and salad every day
• Shoulder stand every day
• Drinking lots of water
• Resting and napping if I need to
• Taking a bath with some essential oils
• Reading a book myself and/or reading to the girls
• Cleaning the house and trying to keep it clean
• Listening to music that I enjoy and find uplifting
• Getting outside when I can
• Cooking
• Playing
• Laughing
• Writing a blog post

There are so many things that I love and that make me feel good and lift my mood, but it is hard as a mother to find the time to fit it all in. I am happy to report that I am beginning to establish more of a routine again. At least for the first half of the day. Every morning we have our oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, then I feed Serafina and get her for a nap. After that I get the girls busy so that I can fit in time to exercise. Autumn does her schoolwork and Kesa colors, plays or attempts yoga beside me (which is super cute).

After that it is VEGGIE TIME. The girls are eating those veggies right along with me.

Kesa still loves her Catalina dressing.

I am always striving for balance in my life. I believe that whenever I find that balance I also find joy and peace. Some days are better than others and some days that balance is just impossible to obtain, but I will continue to just take it one day, one moment at a time and live this amazingly beautiful, crazy thing called life.