Tales From a “GREEN” Minivan

From the time my daughter was little she’s always been so different from myself. A friend of mine whose daughter is a few months older always used to joke we got the wrong kids! Her daughter was always so rough and tumble and Mackenzie was always super careful didn’t really enjoy sports and was a real girlie girl unlike my Tom Boyish ways growing up. Over the years I’ve always heard how much my own mother and I were alike so I just assumed that Kenz would eventually gain some similar traits.  Can you believe that it’s taken me 13 years to finally realize that that’s not going to happen.

I think many parents have so many expectations for their kids, but so often their expectations are too high and just not realistic.  I was the social butterfly, always around a group of friends, talking on the phone, having sleepovers etc. Mackenzie is just as content to be with a bound sketchbook and pen or a good novel  off in the corner by herself.  Is she lonely? Perhaps.  Do I worry about her? On a daily basis.  The thing is I need to accept her for who she is for her to grow as an individual. I can encourage her strengths like art and protect her from the things that cause anxiety.  These things are the very things I thrived off of when I was her age, organized group activities.  We’ve tried to encourage her to join Cadets and that was a bust, sports are not her thing, so our next step is finding something that she loves and that is art.

From the time she was very young I knew she had a talent. This is one of her drawings that she drew for me at age three.  Most kids at three years of age are still content to scribble on blank pages, but not Mackenzie she wanted to create art. Over the years she has continued and amazes us daily with her creations.  She’s always very modest and self critical, I think this may be the sign of a true artist?

She’s now branching out to different forms of drawing she has a computerized drawing Tablet and uses photo shop to colourize black and white sketches.  It truly amazes me on a daily basis.  Here’s a few recent things that I grabbed to scan when she wasn’t looking. She hates praise and I’m not sure if she realizes just how talented she is.

I must say that I had been relatively fortunate thus far into the school year to have not caught any of the bugs brought home by the kids. Well my luck just ran out!  It was a pretty stressful week and I ignored the signs that I may be coming down with something by throwing myself into work and staying up WAY too late at night.  These choices caught up with me as I lay here in my bed on this non-productive Saturday.

I then started to think more about my own diet and the fact that I’m probably not getting as many of the essential vitamins that I need.  I have a confession to make, I am not a really big fan of fruit.  I can stomach it in smoothies,but grabbing an apple and snacking on it just would not happen. I’m certain that I’m a Supertaster.

Supertasters experience tastes with a far greater intensity than the average person. For me it’s the intense sweetness in fruit that I have trouble with.  To me taking a bite of an apple is like eating a sour candy for the average taster.  Smoothies have helped as I’ll take some of the bite out of the fruit by adding frozen yogurt.  It’s still something I struggle with though as smoothies are not as practical or appealing this time of year for me.

So I started thinking that perhaps I should start taking vitamins.  Earlier in the week I made it my mission to seek out some vitamins and was met by this:

After glaring at the eternal wall of bottles I quickly glazed over and became overwhelmed! Is one brand better than another? Is a multi-vitamin the way to go or should I be taking higher doses of individual vitamins?  Needless to say I left the store more confused and empty handed.

I do eat a lot of vegetables (still working on the greens though), and the rest of my diet is fairly balanced, I just think I may be compromising my nutrient intake by my lack of fruit. So do you take vitamins, and will they help to pick up the slack of what my own diet is lacking?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

This is how I spent a luxurious 45 minutes today! Working from home is an absolute dream for me, but I often feel guilty taking some time away from the computer during crunch time and deadlines. Today I just needed to recharge my batteries, (not to mention shave my legs for my Yoga class this evening)and I thought a bubble bath would be the perfect way to do that as the little guys are at daycare and the older two are still in school.

Well I have come back from the depths of my bubble filled tub to tell you it worked and I feel totally relaxed and refreshed! Another plus is that my bathroom is now sparkling clean as I could not get into the tub to relax with a huge mess staring me in the face.

Mission accomplished, now back to work!