Wirlwind

Well the last couple of weeks have been hectic ones for this mama.  I’ve continued to work while raising our daughter and these past 8 days my clients had four events between them that we had to get through.  If you know me you know that the job got done to the best of my abilities regardless of life going on in the background.

We continued the party celebrations for an amazing little girl that we’ve gotten the pleasure to know these last 8 months.  Her mom has become a good friend and it is amazing to watch our little ladies become friends.  She was ever the princess that every little girl should be on their first birthday and of course surrounded by family, friends and  most importantly love.

imageAfter finishing a fun Saturday it was a few more hours of work to prepare for what would be the last of four events in 8 days that I was a part of.  Working on events, regardless of how big or small, you always sweat the small stuff.  How will everything turn out, how will the weather effect your event, will the AV work, will there be enough food and drink, will your volunteers show up.  This is just the nature of the beast to have these worries flying through your head.  As I was driving into the city, I went through all of the pieces and knew we were in the best place we could be.  The event which was for an organization whose board I sit on BART: North American Centre for Byzantine Arts.  We were hosting a Byzantine artist who would literally create a work of art before our eyes.  This artist, Dr. George Kordis, was able to literally take a blank canvas and in two hours time create a masterpiece.  Thank you to Christina Kakaletris for taking these and many more amazing pictures of the evening.  You can see more of her photos from the event here.

 

IMG_33050000 IMG_34990000With the excitement of the party and the event behind me I was excited to get home to my DD that I had left for the first time for so many hours with someone who wasn’t a family member.  Although at times I feel as though this friend is more like a sister.  We began our journey home and along the way hubby and I had a flat tire.  Of course this would happen on one of the coldest nights and we would also discover that I don’t have a jack in my car, so much for doing this on our own.  CAA bless their hearts had a two hour wait.  Not what this mother who was itching to get back home to her DD wanted to hear.  We found an independent tow driver that was able to help us out in far less than two hours.

As we were waiting I got a call that no one is prepared for.  My cousin back in Boston had passed away.  Another individual taken from us far too soon.  This man was one of the good ones.  Not because we’re related but because he was a giving soul.  He was there for his family, his church, his community at large.  I wouldn’t be able to count the number of ‘kids’ my age and younger he helped all the years of coaching basketball.  I remember his smile and his gentle ways.  My heart aches for his wife and children and of course his parents.  I always heard the saying a parent should never have to bury their child.  I honestly can say that I fully didn’t understand what that meant until I had a child of my own.  May your memory be eternal my dear cousin.  Αἰωνία σου ἡ μνήμη Ξάδελφε.

 

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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First funs

Sorry I didn’t schedule my post for Tuesday as I usually do but I wanted to have some news to share.  Of course we celebrated a first last week with Valentine’s Day.  It was great to see Miss K all in her red and surrounded by love.  She had three FaceTime dates, with both sets of grandparents and her aunt, uncle and cousin and we had a special dinner.  On Monday the year of big birthday’s began when one of my closest friends turned 40.  Then a couple of days later one of Miss K’s friends turned one.  Unfortunately I couldn’t’ be in Boston to celebrate with my friend but we can’t wait to celebrate this weekend with the little lady and her family and friends.

So as Ash Wednesday came and went and Clean Monday (the first day of Lent in the Greek Orthodox faith) is almost here it makes me think about all of the things that people give up during lent.  I’m not a giver-upper.  I much rather do.  So this lent I will continue to do more for others. I will give when I can and continue my random acts of kindness.  If you celebrate Easter, are you giving up something for lent?  Will you pay it forward?  Regardless how you celebrate I hope your table is full of delicious lenten treats!

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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Stress and motherhood

There have been lots of articles written on stress and motherhood but this one crossed my phone this morning and I think it is totally worth a read.  Check out this great Huffington Post article!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samantha-rodman-phd/7-reasons-your-wife-is-st_b_6621940.html

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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Baby Led Weaning Success!

So as many of you know we have been baby led weaning for months now.  For those of you who are newly subscribed to the blog, baby led weaning is a form of feeding.  It basically means letting your child feed themselves.  So instead of going from formula only to the puree stage it cuts out that stage completely.  We didn’t cut out that stage completely because let’s be honest.  When you’re out and about it is a lot easier to open a jar or a pouch of food than it is to have cooked everything and brought it with you.  Now the older that she gets the less pouches we use but at times like this week, when she’s teething badly, it sometimes is her go to.  Okay so back to baby led weaning, you’re probably asking yourself let a baby feed themselves, are you nuts?! Well at first I thought everyone was who talked about it.  How would they know how much to eat?  What if they choked?  I started out by watching videos and cringed at the babies gagging on the foot but realized it was par for the course.  The baby’s gag reflex is truly a wondrous thing.

We started the process with sweet potato fries.  Think sweet potato cut up the size of a steak fry and baked.  We knew she liked them in the mush form now would she know what to do with them in this form.  We showed her how to pick the fry up and low and behold she began to gum it.  At this time she didn’t have teeth yet.  My next food was broccoli.  I basically steamed it and cut up some larger pieces with the stem and put it on her tray.  Remember in baby led weaning the pieces need to be a bit bigger so they have something to hold on to.  She went to town on the broccoli.  Then we gave her a rib.  Now you might think I’m crazy, as my mother did who I had on FaceTime while we did this, but she licked around the rib and did her best.  Since then I have been in search of recipes for food to make.  I like recipes that include veggies wherever possible and are something the whole family can eat.  I have a go to broccoli muffin recipe, a cheese scone recipe and today we have a go to cauliflower recipe.  Cauliflower bites.  Totally easy to make and loved by all.

If you know me I usually never have all of the ingredients that a recipe calls for but I also still make it anyways.  This recipe is adapted from recipe posted on the Little Grazers website.   I did everything as the recipe said except the following:  I didn’t have Parmesan so I used Romano, I didn’t have plain cheddar so I used marble cheddar, I couldn’t find the nutmeg so I didn’t use it.  The kid loved them, even though it hurt her to eat them (teething stinks), when I fed one to her for lunch she almost had a whole one and then had another half for dinner.  I actually just finished making a second batch so that I could freeze.  The comments say that they freeze well but we shall see.  I’ve included some pictures below of the process. Kαλή όρεξη!

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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