We SO need a visual schedule.

I have had one of those days where I look down at the end of the day and realize my shirt has been inside out the entire day. And it's not like a t-shirt where it's easy to notice- it is a full blown button down ruffly shirt. How? I have no idea.

It was a non-stop day getting ready for a photo shoot for Proof and finishing up my How Does She post. 

To make matters worse little man was extra needy for a me and took a very short nap in which I was supposed to get everything I needed done. He must have sensed the slight frazzleness I had going on and wanted to give me support...

To add to the craziness- we are still not sleeping over here. Little man wakes up two or three times a night lately with nightmares from this incident. Stupid sick bug...why did you ever come here.

So, I decided we needed to have a constant nightly ritual that we do every night and he can see. So, I came up with this:

That way he can see everything we are going to do for the day. 

You can read more about it on How Does She where I talk about how I made it. 

The one thing I found difficult was finding cute images that I wanted to use. But at last- I found some and thought I'd share. 

 These are activities that little man can choose to do- you can always make them rewards for doing the other stuff.

 These are chores or things he can do to help me with around the house.

 This one is fun summer activities that we can plan.

I have several more of these...so, if you are a Weeds to Wishes Blog follower and you leave me a comment somewhere on my blog- I am happy to share!! You can now download the zipfile right here. Right now I have 60 individual images with more coming soon.

Enjoy! Besitos!

4 days in.

Day 4 into my raw food cleanse.

I always wondered what it would be like to be a vegetarian... now I know what it's like to be a vegan...
bitter sweet.

I only say that because although I am feeling amazing and starting to have a new found appreciation for veggies- I can smell the smell of a neighbor barbecuing something on the grill... mmmmm...what I would give to sink my teeth into a home made hamburger right now...with extra pickles and cheese- oh wait I am getting side tracked.

Focus Cristi Focus.

Anyhow, it has been 4 days of a 28 day cleanse- eating nothing but raw fruits, veggies, and nuts. Most people who hear we are doing this think we are crazy and say "I could never do that."- My answer to them is yes you could. Especially if you know how awesome you feel while doing it.

Things I have learned in the last four days.

-It's amazing how much our kids follow us. Little man is being weaned of his chocolate milk and enjoying natural fruit juice. He even is asking for fruit for lunch!

-I have a habit of mindlessly reaching into a bag and popping snacks in my mouth.

-Pinterest will make you hungry.

 -Cooking food for someone else is rough while detoxing...I may have licked my fingers a few times...may have.

-I love bread and sharp cheese. 

-Organic fruits and veggies are where it is at- and are actually delicious. Veggies are now my friend.

-Having the support of the Mister makes all the difference in the world! He even turned down a warm Arby sandwich that someone brought into work on the first day of the cleanse...I think I would have caved right there!

-Juicing is fun. We like to play this game of guessing what fruits and veggies are in the concoction we make each other. It surprising what you can sneak in there.

-Being hungry makes me moody- no wait I already knew that. But seriously day three was the hardest day by far...

Here is to 24 more days of this.

besitos
xoxo

Tagged.

Like a month ago I was tagged by Dar- but life got a little crazy and I never finished. But today I am in the mood for something fun (mostly to keep my mind off food) so I decided to post my answers finally.

Game Rules
1. Post these rules. 
2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things. 
3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post. 
4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them. 
5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them. 

My 11 Randoms:
1. My dog knocked out half my tooth.
2. I am deathly allergic to cats...in fact I am not a fan of cats.
3. As a child I lived in El Salvador during their civil war.
4. I have a fear of snakes
5. I pick my lip. A lot.
6.  I have an obsession with mint oreos. but you probably already new that.
7. I have a weird connection with owls...there is one that I hear outside my window at night.
8. I have never had a cavity...never mind I take that back- I did have a small one- a few years ago. Okay I almost have never had a cavity.
9. I ran a marathon without training at all and actually had great time. However, my knees are  still paying for it to this day.
10. I don't like skittles or otter pops.
11. I am proud of my Latina roots and my ability to latin dance...y claro que puedo hablar espanol!


My answers to Dar's questions:
1. Where is a place you go for inspiration?
The shower. I have the most amazing ideas and thoughts when I take a shower.
2. What is one thing that makes you terribly happy?
Being with my little boy and my husband.
3. Would you rather go sky diving or deep sea diving?
I think sky diving- I am afraid of sharks.
4. What is your favorite holiday and why?
New Years. Only if we are dancing the night away.
5. What would you do if you won the million dollar lottery?
Travel the world and start a non-profit for at risk kids.
6. What is your favorite television show?
I honestly don't have one...is that lame huh? 
7. Would you rather be stranded in the desert or in a frozen waste land?
Desert. I hate being cold. 
8. Do you crave sweets or salts?
Definitely Sweets!!
9. What is one thing that keeps you motivated?
My son. My spiritual beliefs.
10. Would you rather live in the east or west coast and why?
Half and half. Fall and Spring in the East. Summer and Winters in the West. I love them both for very different reasons!
11. What is something you want to change in your life right now?
Slow down and 
1.Travel
2. Garden
3. Learn to Sew

Okay My turn...answer these questions: 
Wendy
Maren
Bianca 

And pretty much ANYONE- just let me know where I can find your answers!
1. What is the first memory you can think of?
2. Who is your hero?
3. Finish this sentence: Love is____
4. Where is your favorite place to travel and why?
5. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
6. What is the next thing to cross off your bucket list?
7. What is your personal symbol?
8. If you could grow up in any era what would it be?
9. What character out of a book, movie, or tv show do you relate to the most?
10. What is one thing you could absolutely not live without?
11. What are you most proud of?

Besitos, xo

Cleanse countdown...

There is a problem when you still look pregnant...um, but you are not. 

For the past few weeks I have indulged in all types of goodies and comfort foods including entire boxes of oreos, cartons of ice cream (also oreo), and loaves of home made bread.

No bueno.

It's got to stop.

Maybe I am trying to feed a food baby in hopes it transforms into a real baby? 

Or maybe I am rebelling against my body? ...Take that body. 

Or maybe I know I am about to start a crazy cleanse that my friend Shelley  tried and told me about and I somehow convinced The Mister to do it with me.  It's a month long cleanse of herbs, teas, and eating an all raw natural diet- all things that I believe can make a difference in a person's body... I need a good cleanse after the past few weeks.

Good bye delicious weekends eating out, "Sweet Sundays" where I love to bake, midnight oreo cravings...

But I am willing to try anything.
Even this.

Although Shelley and I have not ever physically met (we know each other through How Does She)- she has been so sweet tell me about her experience where she reminded me of this quote:

"Everywhere in nature we are taught the lessons of patience and waiting. We want things a long time before we get them, and the fact that we want them a long time makes them all the more precious when they come".~Joseph F. Smith

I love that.

She also introduced me to the blog The R House.

I love that too.

Well, here it goes... Next week we begin....

besitos, xo

Renewal week take 2

Today I feel blessed.

 It was not only the warmest most beautiful day of the year yesterday but it was Easter. Such a special day with such deeper meaning. For such occasion, I decided to wear a special dress my grandma gave me that she used to wear when she was my age. ( More on the dress here)

Funny thing about last week was that it was supposed to be my "renewal week"- (aka: working out, cleaning house, catching up with work, taking Little Man to the zoo, eating less oreos and more veggies kind of a week) but life had different plans. The week instead  started off with a late night ER visit followed by sleepless nights and a cranky toddler and therefore a very sleep deprived and cranky mommy... again reminder that I am NOT in control. 

 Perhaps I am not ready to go back to "normal" quite yet. Maybe I needed an extra week of madness? 

This past week has once again brought me to my knees and given me an even more focused view of life and a another glimpse into the way I believe our Heavenly Father sees us.

This week as I held Little Man in my arms as he was burning with fever and crying out in pain- I felt the a small amount of pain and sorrow that our Heavenly Father must have felt when he watched his son suffer that day in Gethsemane. I know for me watching my little boy endure such pain was difficult to bare. I would have done anything to trade him places if I only could or to rid him of  that experience... and I can only imagine what that day may have been like for our Father in Heaven.

I am so grateful to have this perspective. I love being a mother even more.

(Above: Little Man sharing kisses and his coughing germs with me.)

It is amazing how the past few weeks things have seemed so foggy yet so clear at the same time. Things that were usually every day priorities really didn't matter all of a sudden and everything that did was so clearly presented in front of me that it was easy to set those other things aside.

 Listening to conference two weekends ago I loved what President Thomas S. Monson said in his talk "The Race of Life" where he states: 

"In this fast-paced life, do we ever pause for moments of meditation—even thoughts of timeless truths?

When compared to eternal verities, most of the questions and concerns of daily living are really rather trivial. What should we have for dinner? What color should we paint the living room? Should we sign Johnny up for soccer? These questions and countless others like them lose their significance when times of crisis arise, when loved ones are hurt or injured, when sickness enters the house of good health, when life’s candle dims and darkness threatens. Our thoughts become focused, and we are easily able to determine what is really important and what is merely trivial."

-President Thomas S. Monson

What is really important? what is merely trivial?

That is my renewal. Remembering these past few weeks and the clarity I had of what was really important.

Maybe this week can be my "Renewal Week" take 2?

besitos, xo

Easter Eggs into Shaker Eggs.

In case you missed it... this week over at How Does She I talk about how to transform old easter eggs into musical shaker eggs...

Check out the DIY here.

and we have Bee sing us a lovely song! 

Happy Easter!!

besitos xoxo.

From fever to monster spray.

It was 12:30am and I was sound asleep when I heard a scream of agonizing pain and fear coming from Little Man's room. Like a canon I shot up and leaped out of bed to his room to find him completely petrified of whatever "monster" was in the corner of his bed. Isn't it amazing as mothers how quickly we can wake up with a sound like that? We must have momdar always on- even in our sleep. 

  His temperature read 103.6- which I know for some of you may have not been a big deal but it was the highest temp he ever has had and whats a newer mom to do?

 Bringing him into bed with me after attempting to give him a bath and some Tylenol, I watched him relax into my arms and drift off to sleep... but soon after that again SCREAMS of pain as his calf muscles would freeze into hard rocks and his body would shake out of fear as he clung on to me afraid to even open his eyes. He acted as if there was something wanting to eat his legs or as if there were bugs crawling all over him. He tried to touch whatever he saw and kept looking around at things that weren't there in such fear. For a moment he didn't even recognize me and began calling out for me trying to escape my arms as I tried to reassure him that I was indeed his mom. This was too weird.

What do you do at that point? The Mister acted as if it would pass and we should just wait it out... but my  instinct told me that something could be seriously wrong. Hallucinating can't be normal right? It has to be related to something going on in the brain and that scared me. I found myself wide awake- adrenalin pumping but feeling unsure and helpless at the same time. Turning to google as my teacher (mistake)- and to hopefully finding peace of mind- I could only find worse case scenarios- One article I read spoke of possibility of meningitis... yikes.

After several more hallucination episodes and screams of pain and fear- I had had enough...we had to go to the Emergency Room. 

It was now 2:30am...  2 hours, a set of xrays, cool rags, and a lot of  temperature taking (which little man was not a fan) we left the hospital  at 4:30am. Little man had the beginning of what looked like pneumonia. So, it is good we went to the doc right?? Right? Not sure if Mister thinks so...?

Needless to say it was a long night. I spent the rest of the night holding him as I stayed awake with the anticipation that he will start screaming.  He did a few times that night (or should I say morning)but finally fell asleep and stayed asleep.

Not me... I couldn't... I felt like I wanted to be awake and ready for whatever came my way. Again my Momdar- how do you turn that off?

Anyhow,

Today, he seems to be on the mend... at least not hallucinating- just petrified of monsters and being alone in the dark and has to look around before we go into any room. Poor guy. We were just barely were getting over a little phase he was going through of waking up in the night and looking for me. He was just sleeping through the night again. Now he seems to always be on the lookout for monsters lurking in corners.

Here is a trick ...it's called "Monster Spray." Find a spray bottle- especially one with more of a mist like stream- and add water with lavender oil and there you go- Monster Spray. You can also take the label off of Fabreeze and use that. It not only helps fight the fear of monsters but smells good and is relaxing well.

It seems to be working.

Cross my fingers.

I had some real ah ha moments last night as I layed awake watching him sleep...but I am too sleepy to share. Soon...maybe even tomorrow.

besitos,