7 Dimensions of Wellness

7 Dimensions of Wellness
7 Dimensions of Wellness

Sunday, February 22, 2015

#momsbests


The other day at my son's school I noticed an extra amount of kids smiling at me and greeting me.  One of my son's friends even came up and gave me a hug.

"Hey, kid's name mom", she said.  "Hey, pretty girl, " I said in return.  Pretty girl chosen because I didn't know the child's name and my go-to when I don't know someone's name is girl or lady.  However, given her age and I think it's important to speak positives to people given the chance - I decided to call her PG. 


"How's school going" I asked.  "Are you good?"   PG replied, "Yep, it's good"  She twirled her hair, "Well, I just wanted to tell you hi and let you know I love you on Snapchat.  Bye"

"Bye", I said.

Snapchat?  I asked my son later what was up with Snapchat.  "What you mean?" he said.  I told him that kids were smiling and saying hi and then PG said she loved me on Snapchat. 

Kid, "Oh, I be putting your bests on Snapchat".

Me, "My bests?"

Kid, "Yeah, like when you are dancing and rapping or when you telling me stuff.  It's nothing bad.  I mean it's not like the yelling parents on Vine.  Kids always telling me that my mom is cool and funny.  You got fans".

My bests on Snapchat.  So there are kids out there judging the whole of my brilliant parenting in 5 - 10 second vignettes.  How on earth can they get the gist of being a good human, loving your family and friends, serving God and your community in 5-10 seconds?  Especially 5-10 seconds that are instantly erased by the next 5 - 10 minutes of me in traffic twirling my own hair singing and telling my stealth filming kid, "You don't know nothing 'bout this".


Part of me was kinda weirded out.  I mean, I'm not a Snapchat fan anyway and to think there's a high school contingent out there watching my bests is kinda weird.


But while it's weird, it also made me kinda happy.  My relationship with my son is one of the most important in my life.  I love him and try to do everything I can to live that love and show him that love daily.  I fail miserably somedays.  Somedays I yell, somedays I cuss, somedays I ignore him and speak to him curtly as if he was someone in my office that pissed me off or a service employee who didn't give me the service and attention I think I deserved.  In those moments, I'm not at my best.  I'm thankful there are no social media reminders even if they are only 5-10 seconds long of how I get it wrong.  Those moments wouldn't get me any nods or smiles from teens and surely no hugs.  Most importantly they aren't my bests.  Far from it.  

As this month of love closes out, I'm humbled to consider my son's loving ode to me.  I know he loves me.  I know it even when he is ungrateful and self-absorbed and when he can't or won't give me a straight answer or when he can't take responsibility for the homework that he didn't turn in.  He loves me enough to celebrate more of my bests instead of calling me out for my worsts.  That he uses up valuable teen social media bandwidth to do so is pretty cool, too.


Lisa Coffman

Monday, February 9, 2015

Meatless Monday: Orzo

Orzo pasta. Small. Rice shaped. Perfect. This post all about Orzo. Just look at it.
OrzoWeb
Isn't it lovely? Isn't it wonderful? (Yep, I serenade my good with Stevie lyrics. judge me.) But let's talk about why I love it. 
Orzo pasta is a short cut pasta that is similar to the shape of rice. It's light and fluffy and will become a go-to pasta in your pantry. Below are 5 things I like about orzo. 
1. Orzo is versatile, I've used orzo in soups, salads, casseroles. I've used it hot and old. This little noodle can do no wrong. 
2. Orzo is fairly quick cooking. I've made a pot on the stove in about 9 minutes. I've also made a batch in the microwave, covered in 7 &1/2 minutes. 
3. Orzo is a great change out instead of rice. We eat a lot of rice in our family, so when I'm over rice, I boil up a bot of orzo instead. It's a great alternative. 
4. The small yet, full shape of orzo is perfect for little fingers. Once booked, orzo blooms quite nicely, which helps little fingers pick it up and self feed. I'm all about dishes I can make for all 3 of us, and orzo pasta helps me do the trick. 
5. Shelf stable. Like all pastas orzo is shelf stable, which means I can keep it on hand and drop it in a dish or boil some up as a side for something quick and easy. 
Quick tip recipe: Warm Orzo Salad: Boil up 1 cup of orzo according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.  Chop a handful of halved cherry tomatoes, handful of parsley and a half of a shallot. Toss together with reserved orzo, season with salt, pepper. Drizzle a little Sweet Balsamic dressing. Toss gently to combine. Serve warm and enjoy!
I hope you'll befriend Orzo. It's truly a noodle for any job.

Candace Boyd Wylie is an Indianapolis, Indiana native who believes in the power of a good meal.  She is the Recipe developer, Content creator and Recipe slanger at FoodLoveTog. FoodLoveTog is a food blog that is dedicated to sharing good eats and food for the soul. Candace is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and CWUW supporter. She can be found on the web at FoodLoveTog and at BoydWyliePhoto

Monday, February 2, 2015

Positive Thought For The Week - Taking Steps Into Your Destiny


REALIZATION
What if I told you, you could change your life with a few steps? I won’t use the cliché “simple” because as you probably already know that if change was always simple more people would do like Nike says and “Just Do It.”
What if we all truly understood the importance’s of steps? And that steps either take us closer to where we want to be or further from where we should go?

What if we began to look at steps from a different perspective? What if you decided to make each step you take something personal? For you see when you make something personal, you give it life. What if you saw each step as your baby and what do we do with our babies we name them. So how about if each step had names like:
1.       Realization

2.       Identification

3.       Courage

4.       Strength

5.       Sacrifice

6.       Willingness

7.       Openness

8.       Faith

9.       Perseverance

10.   Wisdom

11.   Humility

12.   Revelation

If you tackle all of these steps, at once it can be overwhelming and paralyzing. So you are not overwhelmed by the entire process, what if we started by taking just one step at a time. Let’s make Step 1. REALIZATION. What does that mean? When you truly want change in your life, to me realization is the moment of absolute honesty. It is when you recognize and acknowledge that all is not well and that something needs to shift. It is the moment of self-awareness that can propel you forward or cause you to begin to tail spin where you hibernate because you can’t or won’t handle the truth.

Realization is that step that starts it all, and for some the hardest. Why? Because once you know something, no matter how hard you try, no matter how deep you bury it, no matter how far you run from it, you can never truly un-know it.  So how about you stop hiding in the shadows. Step into the light and fight past the fear. Only when you can acknowledge the things that hold you back will you give yourself the power to make the first step to change your life.
Y.Askew