A Christmas Visitor

This was one of the best Christmases I have ever had. Being surrounded by my family and watching my children's bright eyed wonder filled my heart with happiness. To me, togetherness is an important part of celebrating the birth of Jesus. We spent the day laughing, telling stories, opening gifts and eating too much delicious food. It was a perfect celebration.
The day before Christmas Eve, my mother, who works at a veterinary hospital, called to tell me about a little dog that was abandoned and in bad shape. We are big animal lovers, and she was thinking of bringing him home with her. He desperately needed a good grooming as his fur was completely matted. The groomer had to shave him and the veterinarians looked him over. He seemed to be healthy and they estimated his age to be 1 year. My mom couldn't resist and ended up taking him home for a trial. She brought him over to my house for a visit that night and it was love at first sight. He went home with her and she brought him over again on Christmas Eve.

I have never seen my son so delighted. We already have two dogs and they didn't mind him at all. We decided to call him Walter. He spent the day rolling around on the floor with Brady, getting passed around by the family and being completely spoiled. My husband told me not to get any ideas; we would not be getting a third dog. Well, after Brady begged and pleaded, and I accused James of being a Grinch, Walter ended up spending the night at our house. The next day James reiterated that it would not be logical to adopt Walter. What about the extra vet bills? The grooming expenses? Having another dog to board in the kennel when we go out of town? Taking another dog out to be walked? We all gave James puppy eyes and Walter spent Christmas night with us as well.
He is fitting right in and has made himself completely at home. I see James holding and cuddling Walter when he doesn't think I am looking. I can tell he would love to keep him. The little guy hasn't had any accidents, destroyed any shoes or furniture, and hasn't even barked once. He is a perfect little gentleman. James put his foot down though, and Walter will not be spending tonight with us. He will go to my moms house, where he will continue to be spoiled. I don't know if he will come back here. I have worked some magic in the past, but James is pretty firm on this one, and in my heart I feel that he is probably right. But I think God sent this little guy to be in our lives, even if it was only for Christmas. I have no doubt that he will be just as happy at my parents home and we will still get to see him often. I am just happy for the time we had with him and I hope he wasn't the only abandoned pup to find a special home for the holidays.

(Almost) 48-Hour Cleanse

I don't know what it is about Dr. Oz, but I love him. He always has great recipes, an interesting show, and good advice when it comes to health matters. I finished (kind of) his 48 hour cleanse this past weekend. Here is a link to his website which contains the information on the cleanse:
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/48-hour-weekend-cleanse
The premise behind the cleanse is not weight loss, but to detox the body's main organs. Reviewers of the plan promised that while not easy, they felt revitalized at the conclusion of the cleanse. It sounded exactly like what I needed.
The website provides a shopping list for the 48 hours of meals and snacks. I use the term "meals" loosely. It was more like liquids and snacks. It is advised that you read through the list instead of purchasing everything, because there are different options for juices and smoothies, and you may not need all the ingredients.
I am not a big breakfast eater (I know, I know) so I skipped the breakfast the first day. Lunch was a blueberry smoothie, which I found rather tasty. Dinner called for cabbage soup with a side of applies and sauerkraut. I don't care for sauerkraut so I just had the soup with apples. I did modify the soup a bit; I was pretty hungry by this point, so I did add barley, a couple of potatoes, and a can of northern beans. It made it a bit heartier and I was full. In addition to the smoothie and soup, I prepared the pineapple and pomegranate detox juice. I loved the juice and will probably make it again. It would also make a great base for a cocktail ;) The first day was a cinch.
The second day I woke up hungry. The breakfast is a quinoa dish. I love quinoa but I didn't have any so I had oatmeal instead. I made another batch of the pineapple juice drink and sipped on that throughout the day. I prepared another smoothie for lunch. Dr. Oz says you can eat cut veggies (green beans, radishes, and cucumber) as often as you would like so I made a little veggie plate and had that in the afternoon. By evening, I was feeling a little lightheaded and tired. We took the kids for a ride to look at Christmas lights. All the lights made me dizzy and James declared he wanted a pizza instead of cabbage soup for dinner. In my weakened state, I agreed that pizza was just what the doctor ordered. Not Dr. Oz, of course.
So I almost made it. I did, however, feel very refreshed the next day and even made another smoothie. I noticed my tummy was a little flatter and I probably lost a pound or two of water weight.
I think this is a great cleanse and I liked that it actually had some food instead of just liquids. I would like to try this again in a couple of months, but next time I will definitely be eating the quinoa breakfast and more cut veggies throughout the day. Even though I didn't complete the whole 48 hours, I would still consider this another Dr. Oz success story.

This Year

Lately I have been feeling sort of off. Tired, sluggish, and worn out. I don’t know if I am coming down from the adrenaline of James’ 5 month deployment to Afghanistan and subsequent homecoming, or if I have just picked up a case of the winter blues, but I’m tired of feeling so blah. I decided to take a break from everything and relax and reflect on my year. It was super busy, being a mom to a baby and rambunctious 4-year old. I missed James and I missed the extra backup helping with the children and household chores. During a deployment, you really learn who you can count on. I am used to James being gone; he is gone approximately 4 months out of the year (not counting deployments) since becoming an officer in the Marine Corps. I know people are busy, and let me tell you, I truly appreciate everything my friends and family did to help during his absence. I will be forever thankful for those who stepped in to help when I couldn’t take it another minute.  

James coming home was another big part of the year. He’s been home about a month now and it has been a major adjustment. I became so accustomed to doing everything on my own that it became awkward (and somewhat irritating) to have another adult in the house. We are finding our routine again and I feel like we are finally settling back into our old lifestyle. This will be short-lived, because he will be traveling every other month for the next 6 months. But we will deal; that’s what we do. Instead of whining and complaining, I prefer to just get it done. I feel very accomplished and proud of myself for all I have done this year.

After deciding to give up Facebook until after the holidays, I decided to further my end-of-year reflection time by detoxing my body as well. I began the Dr. Oz 48-hour cleanse in order to restart my system. It is said that doing a whole-food based cleanse with the proper ingredients can help to detox the body’s major organs: the liver, kidneys, and colon. I am halfway through the cleanse and feeling great. I will post my experience after I complete the detox. Here’s to rejuvenating the mind and body in preparation of a new year!

The Reason for the Season

I love Facebook. Actually, I think I got a little addicted to it. I would find myself checking the newsfeed every morning and several times throughout the day while I fed Cecilia her bottle. I would skim through looking for pictures, jokes, and stories about friends’ kids. Somewhere along the way, though, Facebook seemed to change. Everything became too political and too divided. Anything said about anything offended somebody. Every other post was a joke about the government. I truly believe in freedom of speech and everything else this country was founded on. But is it taking it too far when you attack a stranger’s personal beliefs? Is that a form of bullying? I don’t know but I do know one thing. All this ugliness saddens me, especially at Christmastime. So I chose to suspend my account* and take a break from the newsfeed. All the drama, pictures, happy stories, government jokes, and eCards can wait. It’ll all be there after the New Year. For now, I will be focusing on what matters and celebrating the reason for the season. Merry Christmas!

*Unless an active account is required to play Candy Crush J