Hump Day Dump~ Away... and Home Again

This past week was wrapped up in a love affair with San Francisco... leading me back to the place where my hearts belongs, and longs to be. Home.
Hump Day Dump 11/30/11

hump day dump

Welcome to our tradition here on Fresh Mommy Blog... on Wednesdays, when I try to be wordless, I'm just going to dump the previous week's photos from my phone. A little piece of where we've been and what we've been up to. And the resulting collage? Well, I think it speaks so much more than I could. Welcome to Hump Day Dump. Link up with us... whether wordless or word-full, one photo or many, taken with your phone or not, you're all welcome here!


All of my photos were taken on an iPhone with the instagr.am app and were put together using Big Huge Labs mosaic maker... super simple and free. I'm on instagram as TabithaBlue. For more fabulous Wordless Wednesday memes, check out Supermom Alysha, 5 Minutes for Mom, Better in Bulk and Wordless Wednesday



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KitchenWise:: Tea Infused Foot Soak

tea soak 1

This week has been a hard one on my feet... so I decided to try something I knew would benefit those tired soles. A tea infused foot soak.  What I didn't anticipate, however, was that it would work better than I thought. Just 15 minutes of soaking and my sore muscles felt relaxed, but the kicker was the two blisters I'd incurred at the beginning of my trip didn't even hurt for the rest of my time here once they had soaked in a green tea bath!

So, my friends, without further ado, the completely hassle-free and do-anywhere foot pampering soak:



KitchenWise:: Tea Infused Foot Soak

Try it, and let me know what you think!
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Sunday Citar ~ Golden Opportunity

It's Sunday again that means it's time for one of my favorite things... Sunday Citar!!
Here's where we all share a quote or two... a favorite, a new find, a laugh inducing or tear inducing quote you love this week. (Citar = to quote in Spanish)

bridge

"Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail."
~Og Mandino

When opportunity knocks, like waking early and jaunting to the other side of a beautifully lit Golden Gate Bridge peaking through cloud and fog, I'm usually one of the first to rally. I might feel it later with a sore back and achy muscles, because duty... and sometimes long hours of standing in heels... calls. But I never regret it. Because days lie ready for us, open, unspoiled... and there's just something good about the joy that comes with being tired at the end of them.

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I would love to have you join the Sunday Citar inspiration and have all of us come to your blog to read what quotes inspire you! Simply write your own post on your blog, link within your post to my blog, and sign up with the linky below, leaving your name and the link directly to your Sunday Citar post. Just click here if any of that sounds confusing. There you'll be able to get the complete rundown, as well as learn how to link back to my blog if you don't already know how. Take a moment a visit at least three of the participants around you... you'll be glad you did!




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Winner of the Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway is Hannah who said...
Great shots and what an awesome giveaway! I love the dress on the right! Happy Thanksgiving!

Congratulations, Hanna! Please email me at freshmommy@me.com with your information, dress choice and size so we can get your prize package to you!

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Twenty Months

bray 20 months

I blink away the tired from my eyes, as if willing myself to wake. I've got steam rising from a hot drink next to my keyboard with the promise of a little kickstart, while the giant, and yet eerily quiet hall finishes it's prep for the crowd that's gathering outside. It's one of those mornings, the kind where the alarm startles you from dream land and leaves you wanting more. Sleep that is. Tired or not, in just a few moments a smile will paint my face and I'll bear the look of one who's awake and energetic.

And this post? Well, so far I've just been establishing my feelings, but the fact that Brayden graduated to Twenty-One months just nine days ago, and I'm just as late, does nothing but make the mama guilt sting just a bit stronger as it courses through my veins. And I let it do it's work for a few moments before I take a deep breath, close my eyes and push it out to the place it should be. Nowhere near me.

My mind has been swelling with thoughts of this little one, who's arrow struck in just the right place, who is in a full on sprint towards the goal line of number 2 and hasn't even slowed to look back. Though, dare I say, the one thing that brings up any flash of my cherub baby is the fact that he still loves his bottle. Yes, he drinks from a bottle, cold Almond milk usually, with a splash of fruity DHA oil. And if you mention bedtime at all? He'll ask for a bottle and assume the popularized by yoga, Happy Baby pose.

This week I've watched him transform before my eyes, and not that he hadn't already, but the separation of 3000 miles and seeing him only through the small screen of my phone and or few more inches of my laptop has opened me up to see him in a whole new light. A little boy with a penchant for entertaining others, a vocabulary far beyond what I ever thought he'd have already and the sweet, tender side of one who cares. Deeply.

With that said, I must be on my way... but the smile I'm now wearing, well, it's genuine. And I think I might just be awake now as well.

bray 20 months2


You can read through the entire series, including the first year's month-by-month here.


year 2 month by month collage

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Still...

IMG_0954 bw_2

We carried platters of trimmings to a table wear my daughter was placing napkins at each plate and helped her handcrafted creation of pinecone-and-construction-paper-turned-turkey nestle in around the bases of the towering candles I had just lit. A smile welled from deep within as Chris stepped from the living room, where he'd just touched a few buttons before music filled the house. Finally as the last was brought in from the kitchen, leaking scents of rosemary, garlic and butter, it all wove together in one harmonious voice that said one word... Thankful.

It's what we all felt, what we all said, and even more so, it's what we all were. Last Thursday.

But the awareness of the gratitude we have isn't limited to time spent around a table of turkey, wrapped in the laughs and love of family and friends. It's something I feel everyday, it's something I write of often. And though this week I've traded in cuddled embraces on the couch for three inch heels, an extra coat of mascara and lights reflecting off of shiny new paint jobs of cars on the San Francisco Auto Show floor, I'm still... most thankful.

Thankful for a family that celebrates with me early and loves me through my sometimes crazy schedule or hard-to-deal-with moments, and makes me realize just how blessed I am to belong to them. Thankful for a beautiful group of people, you, that I may or may not have met in person, yet find that so many times you've warmed my heart as I come to this outlet here to do what I love.

So this day, and always, I'm thankful.

Wherever you are today, have a wonderfully blessed and Happy Thanksgiving.

"Gratitude is heaven itself." ~William Blake

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Hump Day Dump + a Great Giveaway!


Winner of the Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway is Hannah who said...
Great shots and what an awesome giveaway! I love the dress on the right! Happy Thanksgiving!


Congratulations, Hanna! Please email me at freshmommy@me.com with your information, dress choice and size so we can get your prize package to you!


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Hump Day Dump 11/22/11

hump day dump

Welcome to our tradition here on Fresh Mommy Blog... on Wednesdays, when I try to be wordless, I'm just going to dump the previous week's photos from my phone. A little piece of where we've been and what we've been up to. And the resulting collage? Well, I think it speaks so much more than I could. Welcome to Hump Day Dump. Link up with us... whether wordless or word-full, one photo or many, taken with your phone or not, you're all welcome here!


All of my photos were taken on an iPhone with the instagr.am app and were put together using Big Huge Labs mosaic maker... super simple and free. I'm on instagram as TabithaBlue. For more fabulous Wordless Wednesday memes, check out Supermom Alysha, 5 Minutes for Mom, Better in Bulk and Wordless Wednesday
shabby apple
Some of you may remember my affinity towards sweet women's dresses from this post here.  And I have great news... Shabby Apple is back with a giveaway for Fresh Mommy readers with one of their gorgeous pieces, just in time for the Holidays. In honor of that, we've selected a couple of options that would look perfect at any upcoming Christmas party, the red Bacciami dress or the green Humbolt Current skirt.

Any commenter on this post can enter the giveaway to win one of the above pieces, just make sure to "like" Shabby Apple on Facebook to qualify.  Happy commenting... and Happy Hump Day!

Giveaway ends 11/26/11.
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KitchenWise:: Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

Don't you just love it when you come across something that really piques your interest? Something that makes you drool or have an insatiable craving until you try it? Many times, that happens when classic Fall dishes are involved... pumpkin, sugar, spice and all things nice.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Well, my fingers ran the keyboard and took me browsing, and I found this post about Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes and I knew I had to try it. It's perfect, and not just because of the pumpkin, sugar and spice... but because this week is Thanksgiving, and I know we'll all have a lot of Pumpkin Pie lying around. So if you're like us and run into a 90 degree day here and there in November and want a cool, new, refreshing way to enjoy your pumpkin pie, or you'd just like to try something different... take this recipe for a spin.


Oh, and sorry about all of the background noise made by Brayden, he was just a little excited that day... I think he knew what I had on the counter.

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

My ready ingredients. I made the pie the night before and allowed it to cool overnight, you can, of course, easily use store-bought pie as well. I also used the 1 1/2 cups of milk in the video, but I'd recommend only one cup, and I would even add it gradually, starting with 1/2 cup of milk and adding more only as needed.
pumpkin pie milkshake
I'm just going to say it again... yum. It is that good.

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

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Sunday Citar ~ Thankful

It's Sunday again that means it's time for one of my favorite things... Sunday Citar!!
Here's where we all share a quote or two... a favorite, a new find, a laugh inducing or tear inducing quote you love this week. (Citar = to quote in Spanish)

Sunrise

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
~Morrie Schwartz

I recently had an early morning six hour flight separate me from my family. A solitary 360 minutes with my thoughts, though I was surrounded by a sea of people that rippled out from seat 14A. And what does a mother do with that much time away from rousing choruses of "Mama? Mama! Mama?"

She thinks.

About being a mama and what that really means. About what my kids are learning and what traditions they'll remember and recall to their friends and family years from now. About the fact that since the inception of my own family, I might have been home for Thanksgiving one time, although in all honesty, I can't even remember. And though we celebrate in other ways, usually with a week-early traditional dinner with all the trimmings, some kid's wine to cheers to (which my kids loved this year, by the way... with Brayden catching on and wanting to cling his cup without pausing for a sip, or a break to eat), and a beautiful hand-drawing of each of our faces by Aliyah as our place cards... It makes me wonder if they understand what this truly is all about. We may take turns voicing what we're thankful for, have a countertop full of library books about the first Thanksgiving and read about the importance of family over stuff as we sort through some of the things we'd love to give to someone else that needs it more than we do, but do they get it?

I think those are thoughts that always linger in the minds and hearts of those who've loved someone from birth, and even well before that – who are charged with the responsibility of raising another human, another life. But I think more important than all the teaching and the training, is loving. Real loving. And learning how to receive it back. Because when those soft little hands pretzel their way into the shape of a heart, and a tiny voice calls out, "mama" until I turn around and see round eyes waiting for my response over upturned lips, I know they're learning how to love, and they're teaching me to let it come in. And when that happens, we can all love others better, we give freely, we forgive quicker, we ask forgiveness sooner, we're thankful more.

They're starting to getting it, and I think I am too.

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I would love to have you join the Sunday Citar inspiration and have all of us come to your blog to read what quotes inspire you! Simply write your own post on your blog, link within your post to my blog, and sign up with the linky below, leaving your name and the link directly to your Sunday Citar post. Just click here if any of that sounds confusing. There you'll be able to get the complete rundown, as well as learn how to link back to my blog if you don't already know how. Take a moment a visit at least three of the participants around you... you'll be glad you did!



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Also linking up with:

Sunday Snapshot

Weekend Prequel

I just carried a sleep heavy five year old from the warmth of our bed to the cool clean sheets of her own after letting her stay up until the sky grew black with night... far past little girl's bedtime. She wanted to stay close as I haphazardly threw sweaters and boots into a suitcase a few hours before I'm to wake and catch an early flight to a different time zone. A suitcase I procrastinated in packing all day and instead washed just shy of a trillion loads of laundry. The upside? The entire family is sleeping on clean sheets tonight and though I might have lost a little sleep, I'm still going to bed with a fully stocked roller bag.

Oh and another upside today... besides getting into an early screening of Breaking Dawn a few hours before last night's midnight release, I'm also a part of Word of Mom over at What to Expect! My first post, about moving with kids and surviving their crabby spells, is live over there now and I'd love to have you check it out HERE!

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Hump Day Dump

My creation

I love it when slivers of delicious time carved out of a busy week are left as sweet memories of the good. The beautiful moments that I never want to take for granted. What did you enjoy this past week?

hump day dump

Welcome to our tradition here on Fresh Mommy Blog... on Wednesdays, when I try to be wordless, I'm just going to dump the previous week's photos from my phone. A little piece of where we've been and what we've been up to. And the resulting collage? Well, I think it speaks so much more than I could. Welcome to Hump Day Dump. Link up with us... whether wordless or word-full, one photo or many, taken with your phone or not, you're all welcome here!

All of my photos were taken on an iPhone with the instagr.am app and were put together using Big Huge Labs mosaic maker... super simple and free.



For more fabulous Wordless Wednesday memes, check out Supermom Alysha, 5 Minutes for Mom, Better in Bulk and Wordless Wednesday
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KitchenWise:: Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

This weeks episode of KitchenWise features something that about made me topple over with it's deliciousness. It's like an explosion of rich chocolate and nutella, with visions of lollipops and rainbows. Okay, maybe that last part isn't true, and it's a little strange. But seriously, these are some of the absolute best I've tasted.

Oh and my cute little button helped me this time too.


We found these cupcakes from the amazing Ming, ours is Cupcake #22... there are just so many, and we will be making more. I did add a couple tablespoons of heavy cream to the frosting recipe, because it was a little too thick for me, but only one extra tablespoon would probably do the trick. And please, please don't let the sour cream part scare you, it just makes the whole thing moist and rich.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting
And it never hurts having a happy little helper in the kitchen.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting
Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

Go, make these... taste these. They are all yum.
Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting
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Sunday Citar ~ Tired and Smiling

It's Sunday again that means it's time for one of my favorite things... Sunday Citar!!
Here's where we all share a quote or two... a favorite, a new find, a laugh inducing or tear inducing quote you love this week. (Citar = to quote in Spanish)

beach

"Love is what makes you smile even when you're tired."
~Anonymous

I let out a deep, slow exhale and returned the favor with a satisfied inhale as the moon gave a glowing bow, sitting large and low above the city. It was beautiful, the lights that hovered in the black of night along the city scape paled in comparison to the brilliant show of an apricot hued full moon.

And I smiled, not because of the vibrant glow from outside the warmth of our cozy vehicle's cabin, but from the man on the other side of the hand I was holding. We were tired, our talk was quiet and our eyes blinked slowly... and none of it mattered. There was love, and that made us smile.

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I would love to have you join the Sunday Citar inspiration and have all of us come to your blog to read what quotes inspire you! Simply write your own post on your blog, link within your post to my blog, and sign up with the linky below, leaving your name and the link directly to your Sunday Citar post. Just click here if any of that sounds confusing. There you'll be able to get the complete rundown, as well as learn how to link back to my blog if you don't already know how. Take a moment a visit at least three of the participants around you... you'll be glad you did!





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Beach vs. Holiday... or both.

I was tired and my eyes wouldn't let me forget that I needed sleep. No, I craved sleep. And yet, my fingers still pricked the dimly lit letters of my keyboard for just a little bit longer as I navigated through an array of holiday craft ideas and planned out ways to celebrate all month long with my littles. 'Cause everyone knows I love me some holiday. With Thanksgiving peeking it's head around the corner and Christmas eagerly waiting for it's grand appearance just a little over six weeks away, it's time to bust out the bumpy paints and hot glue gun for some holiday home making... and I can't wait.

beach
This un-diapered baby moment only lasted for a minute, and I think it was the happiest he was all night.

It was an in-between moment, sometimes those are my favorite. Between the hustle of entertaining a group of friends and family down from Michigan –– a group large enough to be split between our home and a vacation rental we're using for the week... deemed the "guest house," and between the few moments of downtime at home, downtime filled with laundry washing so we've got undies and shirts to wear and cleaning up dishes after a houseful, we spent a sunset at the beach.

We're still getting used to letting Autumn take us for beach trips and costume wearing without layers and layers underneath. I'm still acclimating to the fact that we're busier than we've ever been, and Fall doesn't show her face in the blatant way I'm used to... and as we're headed home from a day near the ocean, we're getting text messages from home that the first bits of winter have begun to dance their way down from the sky... in the form of snow.

beach
beach

So while we're experiencing the rising and falling tides of the gulf instead of fallen maple leaves crunching underfoot, I'm determined not to let the holidays slide by un-noticed in my home.  And while our Thanksgivings are usually untraditional anyway, as I'm usually states away from my home and chatting via internet during that time, Christmas is a month long affair in the Blue home, and I'm already planning to dust off the boxes marked "Christmas" in our garage and sprinkle my home with red and green as soon as the last of our current house guests are homeward bound.

beach
beach

Trips to the beach now that we're almost mid-stride in November tend to bring a welcome gift from the North –– cooler temps, chilled waves and sweet breezes that leave me slipping a sweater on as the sun sinks into the water and changing my littlest from his short sleeves into a snuggly and striped knit... hence the moment of in-between where a naked baby runs freely to the shore line.  There's also a moment of glorious this is Fall, right here, in Florida. Sand between our toes along with warm, cozy holiday tradition? I guess we can have both.

beach

Our weekend welcomes us with more beach visits, a trip to the Flea Market up the street, and more laughs and adventures with our guests than we can count... Happy Weekend friends!

What do you have planned?

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Hump Day Dump

Hump Day Dump 11/9

hump day dump

Welcome to our tradition here on Fresh Mommy Blog... on Wednesdays, when I try to be wordless, I'm just going to dump the previous week's photos from my phone. A little piece of where we've been and what we've been up to. And the resulting collage? Well, I think it speaks so much more than I could. Welcome to Hump Day Dump. Link up with us... whether wordless or word-full, one photo or many, taken with your phone or not, you're all welcome here!

All of my photos were taken on an iPhone with the instagr.am app and were put together using Big Huge Labs mosaic maker... super simple and free.



For more fabulous Wordless Wednesday memes, check out Supermom Alysha, 5 Minutes for Mom, Better in Bulk and Wordless Wednesday
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