{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama. A single photo –
no words –(cheating this week with words and an extra video) capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special,
extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If
you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the
comments for all to find and see.
My Step-sister becomes a US Citizen!! So happy for her!
This Tuesday my step-sister became a US citizen! I'm SO very proud and happy for her. Our parents married over 20 years ago and she has been a part of my life since I was 7. She is an amazing person with a HUGE heart and someone who I love dearly. One of her desires for I don't know how long has been to become a US citizen. She moved from Panama to the States about 10 years ago and finally after a very long journey became a citizen. When we heard she passed her test, we all decided that we had to go to her ceremony to support her. None of u had been to one so we weren't sure what to expect but it was pretty interesting. First thing I thought when we sat down in a conference room FULL of people was where are these people from. And part of the ceremony is them saying a country and the person(s) from that country stand. There were people from all over the world but only one from Panama!
During the ceremony, they also played God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood and this is a song that they used to play ALL the time on TV in Panama on the 2 English channels that I grew up on, channels 8 and 10! Yes, I grew up on only 2 channels in English on TV so if I don't know a reference to some show you watched as a child that's why! I didn't get Disney growing up but I remember LOVING to watch it when we came to visit the states. Anyway, the song was great and I knew every word.
My step-sister swore in as a US citizen and I'm so glad that I could be a part of it! After the ceremony, we went to the Cheesecake factory to celebrate and then Carmen got to sit on Santa's lap, which she was not a fan of but pic to come.
Oh so much has been going on in my brain...I can't exactly figure out where to start but I have several posts that I have been wanting to write lately but haven't figured out exactly what I want to say yet. I think I'm going to start by which one inspires me most when I have time to write. I've been working on this post for about three weeks and I think I'm just going to post what I have.
Many of you might not be aware but I have lost a pretty substantial amount of weight since I went on what I like to refer to as the Carmen diet. It's a diet I would have never done for myself but because of Carmen's allergy needs I gave up everything milk, eggs, and peanuts for over 5 months. I will freely admit that the first week I cried almost every night...I just didn't know what I could eat. The problem was we had not up until that point been buying groceries with these allergies in mind so when I would go to grab something to eat most of what we had was on the list of food to avoid.
It took several weeks before I was able to find substitutes for some of my favorite foods so I didn't feel like I was giving everything up. I didn't try very hard to find sweet substitutes but things like mayo, yogurt, peanut butter had to be replaced with something. I spent several years of my life drinking only soy milk so that was not a big change for me. I now look back and realize that it was a blessing that I had done the switch earlier because if I had to while giving up everything else soy milk would be hated and not loved like it is now.
Through these months of giving up these foods and being a royal pain in the butt when it came to eating with others, I learned a lot about myself. First I realized that I could sit in front of a chocolate cake and not feel like I HAD to eat a piece. Yes, I wanted some but I was able to say no and be fine. I knew that I was saying no for Carmen and that made the no so much easier. And that brings me to the second thing, that giving things up for my daughter is SO much easier than giving them up for myself. When I knew it was for her, I just felt like it was something I had to do and not something I was choosing to do. I know many people just said why don't you just wean and do formula but that just wasn't an option for me in my head. I'll go into that more in another post I have planned but my goal was to nurse her for a year and then let her wean and that is what I was able to do.
The third thing and what I originally started this post to write about was I learned I really didn't know how to respond to the comments people made about how great I looked because of the weight loss. I have never in my life been what you would call thin. I have gone through periods of my life where I felt I could lose weight and I know there were several times I wish I was thin but once I got past my mid-twenties I stopped wanting to be thin. I want to be fit and healthy but not thin. Getting pregnant I was not upset with the weight gain, my body was creating life! I was proud of my body for creating such a beautiful little girl and being able to carry a baby to term and even though I ended up getting an epidural, I was able to labor without it for over 12 hours. I was proud that I was able to provide my daughter milk for a year...my body is amazing! I love my body not for what it looks like but for what it has done and what it has created and where it takes me.
When people started commenting, I had to refrain from telling them what I felt but have stuck to thank you and to say that I can't eat anything. What I want to say is that I wasn't unhappy with my body before the weight loss. I wasn't unhappy with myself or unhappy with the way I looked. I am a mom and I had gain those pounds with pride. I knew they would come off when they were ready but I wasn't going to starve myself or workout incessantly or sacrifice the time with my daughter to lose them.
I know people may not understand where I'm coming from but I don't want my personal value to be based on how I look, I don't want to teach my daughter that looks are everything. I want her to love herself for her. I do plan to teach her how to be an active child and play sports and be healthy and fit but if that means she's not what society considers to be thin or beautiful then so be it! I will always think she's beautiful as I will always think I'm beautiful no matter what weight I am.
A friend posted a link to a video today that describes what is going on in society today and it really pushed me to post this finally. I was thinking of posting pictures of the weight change but I really don't think that's what this post is about...what I look like now. It doesn't matter what I look like now. I'm sure you can see pictures of my thinner self on this blog but this post will only have this video.
Socks, socks, everywhere socks! I love socks...I love wearing them and I love knitting them! When Carmen was born I knit her a tiny pair of infant socks and she wore them a couple times but they were so adorable on her! When I was looking for a pattern to knit socks for her for her first birthday, I couldn't find a pattern that was her size but how I knit socks. I don't like knitting from formulas as sometimes, especially when it comes to socks which are my brainless knits, I want it already spelled out! I want to just see the numbers and go from there. So, I came up with this pattern so I can knit her multiple pairs.
If you find any errors or have any questions, please contact me. As bigger sizes are worked, I will add the stitch counts to the pattern. Can’t wait to see the little socks others knit from this pattern! Enjoy!
Happy Sock Knitting!
PS...with a walking toddler...it's amazingly hard to get a good picture of her wearing these socks.
{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama. A single photo –
no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special,
extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If
you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the
comments for all to find and see.
This past weekend was crazy! Between my company holiday party and Carmen's first birthday, by Sunday I was spent! I've been trying to get this post up since then and well...it's Wednesday night and I'm sure I won't have it post until Thursday...so I didn't quite get this up quickly. Oh well.
The holiday party went great! It was so fun to spend time with my co-workers outside of work and the hotel room that the company got us was great!
Special K and I at the party...him in a co-workers cardi
Special K had too good of a time but I'm glad he had fun! It was my first night away from little miss Carmen and as hard as it was not waking up to her noises, I know it was good for us to go through with it. She was home with her Auntie and I heard they had a great time. This also helped smooth over our weaning but I'll talk about how weaning her went in a separate post. The morning after the party, we slept in a bit and then stopped for breakfast on the way home. Once we got home, I was go go go until we got to my FIL's house to start setting up.
I was very happy with how the decorations I made looked and check out the balloon that the magician at the holiday party made! He was pretty awesome.
Everyone seemed to have a great time....I won't talk too much but here are some pictures of the event!
{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama. A single photo –
no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special,
extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If
you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the
comments for all to find and see.
I have written this post several times in my head and I'm still not sure what I want to write. I had all these ideas of what I would like to write about my first year with the most amazing blessing I could have ever asked for but I just can't find the right words to put down...so instead I pulled together some of my favorite pictures and created this slide show to show you all the fun we've had this first year of Carmen. I look forward to many more years watching this determined and smart girl discover the world. Thank you!
Hope you all have a great day! After Carmen's first cake, it took us a while to get her to fall asleep so after making this slideshow and talking to a dear friend on the phone...I'm ready to head to bed.
What is NaBloPoMo and why haven't I mentioned it before? NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month. It's a challenge to blog every day in the month of November. It's along the lines of NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writing Month and NaKniSweMo, National Knitting Sweater Month...and I think there might be others. As you probably have noticed, there has been A LOT of blogging lately...every day in fact. Most the time, I wrote them prior to the day and then had them post that day or I posted them after the day but I have a blog post on this blog for every day in November! I didn't mention it because I wasn't sure I would actually be able to accomplish it and figured it would be best be a challenge that I just do and not mention until it's over.
And this is where we are at today...I have accomplished my goal! I blogged every day for a month and I feel great about it! I don't get any award but just to know that I can post a blog every day for a month is great! I'm hoping it's gotten me in the habit of blogging again. I really enjoy posting to this blog, even though I know I have lost many readers with my lack of blogging days but that's ok. I'm happy with those who have stuck it out and are still with me.
Through this month, I learned that sometimes just posting a picture and a little bit of text is better than not posting at all. Before this started, I went through old posts and I LOVE that it's all here...from planning my wedding to some about my pregnancy, lots about my baby, and a lot of crafting!
This blog as I've mentioned before is more of a journal of my thoughts and what's going on with me. I would never call myself a writer because I write how I speak and I rarely go back and edit posts. :) I hope you enjoy my blog anyway! Welcome to those new readers who have joined us this month and as always Thank you for those long time friends who have stuck around!
Happy Blogging!
PS...yes there will be a Carmen post today...but I wanted to get this post up first.
