Eating Healthy: Black Bean & Corn Tostadas

We are working on eating healthier and still keep within our budget, as I'm sure most people are.  We are eating more veggies and fruits and cutting back on meats and sugars.  So in my search for recipes I came upon a Black bean and corn recipe that I couldn't pass up.  It's so easy because I usually have these things in my pantry!  I made it and everyone, but the twins, loved it!   I was able to revamp my tostada recipe and make it better and meat free...

Black bean & Corn Tostadas

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 a bag of frozen corn (you can add more or less)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 a cup of vegetable broth

Add your favorite taco seasoning, I make my own 

Corn tortillas

Olive oil spray

Toppings:

Lettuce

Tomatos

Salsa

Chopped peppers

Sliced avocado

Beans, corn, & onions simmering in veggie broth

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. So I lined a baking pan with aluminum foil (for easy clean up) and sprayed the pan with olive oil.  Then lightly sprayed the corn tortillas front & back.  We used a bag of 10 corn tortillas and baked them for 10 minutes, each side or until crisp. While the tortillas are baking mix the beans, corn, and onion in a skillet with the vegetable broth and seasoning.  Let simmer until heated through.  I put our toppings together, although I was out avocados, I missed those!  When the corn tortillas are finished it's time to assemble!  I just put a tortilla on the plate, then a layer of lettuce, the bean/corn mixture, then my favorite toppings, and Voila!  Dinner's ready!

*You can also use the bean/corn mixture over just the salad and you have a great taco salad!

Finished & ready to eat!

This is a quick, healthy, and yummy recipe that the whole family can enjoy.  The twins are not keen on this, so I just whipped up a sandwich and some fruit and they were good to go.  We are working through picky eaters right now.  I always offer them what we're eating and encourage them to taste it, but I don't push it.  Life with little kids is an adventure!  But their spells of pickiness is no reason why we can't endeavor to eat healthy & bring them along too, right!  

Try it out let me know what you think!  Any advice on how to help with picky eaters?  

Twinsie Tuesday: 3 Awesome Things about Raising Twins

1.) They can entertain themselves

Whether it's rolling the trains through the living room, scooting their tricycles around the kitchen, or just running around together in the backyard our twin boys almost always have a playmate in each other.  I say almost always because they do get irritated with one another, but it's over pretty quickly.  Sometimes it's not even that they are playing the same things as much as someone is playing beside them that helps.  I'm sure there's comfort in that feeling.  There are people who have said to me they think the twins must be separate in some things and they do have their time a part, but I think I there's something very special in being born with a friend by your side.  

2.) They teach each other

With our boys, when one learns something the other brother will pick it up pretty quickly.  Sometimes faster because they watched the other learn it.  It's really cool to watch them teach each other.  We saw this when the little boys were learning to walk.  We had one child that had no interest in walking, mainly because he could speed crawl everywhere he went, and we had another child who spent a couple months trying to walk.  So when the little one who had been practicing to walk for so long finally started walking, our speed crawler was up and it by the next week.  As they got older they would teach other to climb cabinets, open the fridge, and all the other FUN things I never even thought about with our oldest singleton.  WE learned to baby proof quick!

3.) They get to learn to share, really early

A very true statement.  With twins learning to share happens immediately.  Starting with us as parents. A singleton baby, even if they're born into a family with older siblings, usually has mom exclusively to themselves.  It's not like that with multiples.  I dealt with a little guilt at first, especially when they were tiny.  As infants, I would find ways to get that one on one time and still do.  They learn quickly to take turns and there's some benefit to that.  It doesn't mean they are perfect at sharing, it just means they're a little more adjusted to it earlier than most kids.

Every age with the twins has been fun and full of new adventures and challenges, but we wouldnt' trade it for anything!  It's not easy, but parenting in itself isn't easy.  It is rewarding though. What's some of your favorite things about raising twins?

4 Things to De-stress a Stressful Day

We have all experienced a stressful day or days.  So here are 4 things I try to do when life gets a little crazy and chaos feels like it's
running rapid.

1. Slow down and Engage
Stop what you're doing when things get a little crazy.  Engage with the people around you.  I find that sometimes the whining or fussing seems like it just grows louder and louder as I'm working through my day.  So ofter I will stop my chores or whatever feels pressing to me and just engage with my boys. The chores can wait and I sit down and we read a book or play with their trains.  Just sitting with them can change the mood in the house from crazy to calm.  Talking with them and being with them helps them relax.

2.  Make time for Quiet Time
This is for me and for the kids.  They need it just as much as I do.  Life is so busy all the time and if we don't slow down it's easy for all of us to feel overwhelmed and stressed.  The boys may not always take naps but they can lay down in their room and play quietly or look at books.  Usually they fall asleep, but if they don't we shoot for an hour.  Granted somedays it takes work to get them settled, but it's more than worth it when we are all enjoying the quiet time.  If your stress is work related make time during your work day and find a quiet place to shut off for 15 minutes.  Five if you don't have that long.  It always helps me reset.

3. Talk Happy
Be posistive. Speak good things over your children, yourself, your spouse, and every situation.  I might be having a crazy day, but it's hard for me to feel overwhelmed when my words aren't saying it.  When I give in and start saying I how feel about whatever is stressing me I notice the stress just gets worse and that's when it gets transferred to everyone in the house too.  Because they hear me and my words bring them down.  If it's hard for you to find something to talk happy about, then think on the things you're thankful for and talk about those things.  I think everyone can find something to be thankful for.  Just like bad talk is contagious, so is good talk.  So talk happy!

4.  Pray
It doesn't have to be long and drawn out.  It can be short and sweet.  "Thank you Lord for patience and grace in this situation" as your shuffling your children out the door for school because you're running late.  That was me yesterday.  I don't make a spectacle of myself so everyone around me knows what I'm doing either.  For me praying is just talking to God all day long in my daily goings.  Thanking Him for the little stuff and acknowledging Him in everything I do.    It helps keep me close to Him and when I'm closer to Him I don't feel as stressed.


Stressful days come, but I think it's all in how we handle them that determines how long they last and how they affect us. The best way our kids learn how to handle crazy days is by us showing them how to deal with them.  Do I get it right all the time?  No.  But I can't give up and that's what they see most!

These are just 4 things that I do.  What are some things that you do to De-Stress a Stressful day?

A Beautiful Vue-Winter Roadtrip

My vue on our way home from visiting family.  We left early Monday morning to be back to work and school stuff that needed to preped.  We had a pretty eventful trip in the 6 hours it takes to get home.   Everything from a flat tire at 5:30 in the morning to not one but two car sick episodes.  The word "projectile" was used!   By the end of the trip J and I just had to laugh and joke about it.  But this picture captures a peaceful in between moment, when all the kids slept quietly and we were able to enjoy it.  We made some memories for sure!  Happy Friday!

Motherhood is Calling & it Isn't what You Think!

 

There are about as many different types of people in this world as there are grains of sand.  Deep I know, but truth right?  Well you could say that same phrase about mothers too.  I don't care what the parenting magazines say, there's not 5 different types of mothers and you can't just take a 2 minute quiz to figure it out.   Some mothers are just naturally nurturers who find their passion in doing the mommy stuff and being home all the time. While another mother finds her passion outside the home all the while still caring and loving her children with passion and zeal.   Be careful not to let what others think a mother should look like determine how you feel about your own motherhood.  Mothers look different in every situation.  Don't compare yourself to another woman.  You'll only pick yourself apart and rob yourself of joy that you could be spreading to your family.  Relax and rest in this, if you are somebody's mother then God has equipped you with everything you will need to be the mother He designed you to be.   You just have to believe it.   I think that motherhood isn't just for those of us with children, but for all women.

A mother isn't just someone who gives birth to you or who just sees to the well being of those in her family.  Motherhood isn't tied to blood lines and physical attributes.   Knowing what kind of mother you are boils down to one simple thing...love.  Not the gushy, sweet kind of love, but the I'm here for the long haul, never giving up on you kind of love.  I like the gushy sweet stuff, but that's really the perks of being a mother I think.  The committed love is what motherhood is built on.  It's choosing to put others before yourself in all things.  Motherhood is saying I choose to love you, whether I gave birth to you or whether someone else did.  I choose to love you whether or not you'll love me back,  whether or not you deserve it, and whether or not you do things I think you should.  You don't have to have children to be a mother.  Motherhood is even sometimes the women who come into our lives as adults and guide us gently through the muck and the mundane.  Who spend time with us, sowing wisdom and health into our hearts.   Helping us in the hurts and lifting us up to be better women!  They say "I've been where you are and I've seen that.  You can do it.  Don't give up!  Stay the course."  All the while choosing to love us when we're not their own.   

All mother's have one thing in common, we're women.  So as women lets lift each other up.  Let's commit to only seeing the good in each other, only speaking the good about each other, and only helping each other to rise above the things that hold us back.  Not everyone is meant to be best friends, but we are meant to love and encourage and build each other up.   I know that some of us have had bad experiences when it comes to relationships with other women.  I think most everyone has a mean girl story or that gossipy, backstabby friend who cut you down, but that's when forgiveness can help you heal and love will pull you through.

1 Peter 4:8

 Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others].(AMP)

With a new year in front of us this is the perfect time to start fresh in how we think about ourselves and other people.  It will make difference in our lives when choose to love others and ourselves.  It will make us better wives, mothers, friends, workers, business owners, and better women.  Isn't that what we want?  To come up and over things all while bringing others with us.  Life isn't just about being alive, but living it to it's fullest.  True happiness is found in truly loving others and that's what motherhood is all about.

Twinsie Tuesday: One on One Time

The other night I was laying the twins down for bed.  They each have their own beds, but share a room.  This night was like any normal night.  I had spent almost 30 minutes reading books, singing bedtime songs, tucking everyone in, and kissing little faces.  As I was tucking Levi in I noticed that he was scowling at me.  For anyone who knows Levi he doesn't hide his emotions very well, in fact you can read his face like billboard!  Sitting back down on his bed, even though all I really wanted to do was tuck myself in, I asked him "What's wrong?"  Looking at me with his big blue eyes he held his arms out.  So I reached for him, pulled him close and hugged him ONE more time.  He held tight and then a thought came to me...had I held him today, really held him?  I hadn't.  I had kissed and hugged.  I had lugged him around.  I had fed him, bathed him, and all the things moms do, but I hadn't taken time to hold him.  I propped him in my lap and rocked him.  We sang a few more bedtime songs and we cuddled for a while longer.  It was nice to slow down and be intentional about it.

Often times, I am doing the "mom stuff" and haven't taken the time to just be with them seperately.  I ususally feel pulled in many directions in my life and when we're home just trying to get ahead on the laundry and keep the house clean feels daunting some days.  The other thing I find with the little boys is I do less one on one with them than with their older singleton sibling.  It's not that it's my desire, but mainly because wherever we go and whatever we're doing I find we do it together.  Sometimes for convenience, sometimes out of my desire to keep things "fair", and sometimes out of habit.  

The fairness thing really gets to me at times.  I try to do for one what I do for the other.  This is probably not unusual for any parent with more than child, but I think it can amplified with multiples.  The boys have never expressed a concern for me being fair, it's mainly my own hang up.  When I start to think like this I remind myself that they are individuals with different needs sometimes.  While I was rocking Levi that night, Liam was content playing with his little trains on his pillow.  He didn't give it  a second thought.  When they were infants we kept them on a schedule and it worked very well for all of us.  It kept me sane and helped the whole family.    So I'm in a habit of just doing things with them together.  As they've gotten older this habit has carried on and I think that breaking the norm is going to be good for them and us.  

So how to do I go about it.  Making one on one time with each little one doesn't have to be hard.  I don't have to take them out each time or make big plans to make it meaningful.  My plan is to make tweaks to our daily lives.  Yes, we can do the occasional one on one trip to the park or the play area at Chick Filet, but these things are more special than simple every day tweaks.  My idea is this, to get our one on one time in  by simply changing a few of our daily routines.  Like giving them baths separately or letting them stay up a little longer while the others go on to bed.  Having Jo watch a movie with one little guy in the living room while I read or play with our other little guy in another room.  I think I'll have to be a little creative sometimes, but I'm looking forward to it.  I enjoy seeing our children's different personalities and with as fast as their growing lately I don't want to miss it.  The laundry will always be there, the dishes keep on coming, but time with these precious kids sneaks by too fast!  

I would love for you to share what you do to get your one on one time with your kiddos.  Have you had to get creative?  What's your favorite thing about it?  Let me know and leave a comment!  

Dare Not to Compare

Photo Credit

Oh mornings...I AM a morning person but not the kind who get up with zeal to start my day.  It's more like a slow go, most mornings.  I don't get all  my chores and tasks done before noon.  I enjoy the new day, the coffee, and the snuggling with my kiddos!  I have read that successful people get the majority of their work finished in the mornings and that is AMAZING to me.  Really!  It is on the mental list of changes I'd like to see in my life.  Actually, as a mom I know other moms who do this and I'm in awe...but that awe usually turns into comparison and leaves me feeling like I'm not measuring up.  Can you relate to that feeling?  Maybe not with that particular example, but what about something else?

I know I am guilty of comparing myself with others.  I could write a big fat giant list of things.  I know men and women deal with this issue, but women are probably more vocal and have had longer practice at it.  I know for me it started young, like elementary years young.  Not meeting others, or mainly my own expectations, of how I thought I was supposed to look and act or dress or talk or even worship and pray.  Isn't that ridiculous that worship and prayer makes that list!

Then I enter motherhood and it's a whole new ball game.  There's a million ways to measure yourself when you're a mother.  I've compared myself against the best and the worst, in my eyes, and if I can be candid, sometimes I'll feel better than the other mother, but normally I come out lacking.  My guilty comparison is usually the stylish mom who has it all together.  You've seen her.  She's carrying her kids around while wearing sleek tall heels with not a hair out of place.  Nice.  Then I turn that comparison on myself and that is NOT who I am...I've never been that person...I'm more of a "we made it out the house with everyone in clean clothes and I got to shower today kind of person".  But you know what, that super stylish mom with the "all together look" probably got up extra early and more than likely she probably has her own issues she's dealing with.  

Why do we do this to ourselves?  Why do we look at something or someone and immediately bring out the yard stick?  I think that answer could be different for everyone, but I was thinking that comparison probably stems from insecurities in my own self that's rooted in fear.  Fear of things like rejection, failure, loss, what other people might think or say, fear of the unknown, and I'm sure the list could go on.  But as I'm writing this I know this isn't God's best for any of us...there's actually a promise that he has for us that totally releases us from this way of thinking...

2 Timothy 1:7 

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control. (AMP version)

That verse kicks fear out the door and gives US the power to kick fear out the door.  It's our choice if we actually do it.  We no longer have to live in fear.  That doesn't mean once you give fear the boot it wont sit outside your doorstep and knock and whine to be let in.  Again, we have a choice not to open the door.  Did you notice when the fear leaves that we actually get some things to take it's place...power, love, calm, a well balanced mind, discipline, AND self control!  I'm going to have to remind myself of these things.  WOW!  With all those things consistently operating in my thought life I would never compare myself to others again.  That is freedom for us all!

With that said, this year we picked one word to encompass the changes we wanted to see in our lives.  Ours is Peace. How can I have Peace in my life when I compare myself to others?  J and I were talking before the new year about how that's exactly what we want to see dissolve from our lives.  We have let ourselves compare.  That comparison grows more insecurities and chokes our ability to love each other, our kids, and others because the constant thought of not measuring up or making the mark nags at us in the back of our minds. So to have Peace we can not compare.  This last verse brings it home...

Galations 6:4-5

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. 

(The Message)

This verse for me not only reminds me of my purpose, but gives me permission to not care to compare myself with others.   Then I'm free to turn that switch off and focus on what's most important. Which for me is raising healthy boys, cultivating a happy and loved filled marriage, serving and loving an amazing Creator, and loving others like that Creator loves them! 

Sounds good & easy doesn't it?  Well, it is good, it's really really good! But not always easy.  For me I know that just in the last few days since deciding to make a conscious effort not to compare in any way I've had lots of opportunities to do it.  Have I succeeded?  Not every time.  Am I going to quit?  Absolutely not!  When I have failed I just remind myself of how thankful I am for whatever it is that I'm dealing with.  Just recently, last night actually, when one of the twins was very unfriendly with someone and I felt like my parenting skills were lacking a lot, especially when I compared myself to the other parents around me...I had to mentally stop and thank God for my healthy little boy who is currently growing and learning how to respond kindly to others.  Being grateful can help squash the failure feelings. 

One more thing that might help keep comparison out of our lives, try limiting your social media usage.  We live in a time where people post every thought and feeling, every success and failure.  Dozens of pictures flood Facebook feeds and Twitter all day long.  And if you are committed to not allowing those comparison thoughts in at all...shut down your view of those social sites for a while.  Limit how many times you look  at them during the day.  It will help.  I know in my own life that comparison has tried to sneak in through the "I have a clean house, my kids are perfect angels, and there's a tree that grows money in my backyard"  post.   Going on a social media hiatus for even a short time can't hurt the cause and I promise you won't miss much.

Basically, if I want Peace this year in every area of our lives I can't compare myself with others anymore.  So, will you join me?  I dare you...NOT to compare yourself this year anymore! Listen...what's that sound?  It's the sound of my measuring stick breaking!   Get yours out and snap that thing in two.  I don't think you will regret it...I know I wont!

**Leave a comment!  I love to engage with my readers!**
Photo credit Image courtesy of Sattva FreeDigitalPhotos.net