Breaking Bad Habits - Breakfast pt 1

Confession:

I hardly EVER cook breakfast.  My kids are lucky to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast and they prepare that themselves. A hot meal would be a batch of cinnamon rolls fresh out of the can.

I know.  Horrible.

Clayton has always been an "in the kitchen kinda guy".  He has spoiled me.  I should have looked at it the way it really was.  He was in the kitchen because he had to be in order to eat.  He has said he had to do that with his previous marriage and was just used to it.  I just thought he liked it. Maybe he does, but I'm pretty certain he'd like it even better to have someone else cook it.

Before I'm judged, let me explain my side of the story a bit...

After the birth of my first daughter, I began having symptoms of hypoglycemia.  Throughout the years,  it became harder and harder for me to function in the mornings.  I didn't know there was anything wrong with me and just figured I wasn't a morning person.  It wasn't until a decade later when said daughter had an episode of her own sugar bottoming out, that I realized what my problem was when I all but passed out on the kitchen floor before sending the kids off to school.   Clayton wound up being the breakfast cooker every morning while I wound up taking out the trash and mowing the lawn.  Roles reversed.

I haven't had any morning hypoglycemic fits in a long while.  Though, because not cooking it has become a habit, I still rarely cook it.

So, my first bad habit to mention and work on is not cooking breakfast.  I don't believe I'll start out with anything lavish, but even a bowl of oatmeal with toast far exceeds what my family is used to me doing in the mornings.

I'm thinking of making a breakfast menu for the week and gathering all my breakfast ideas into little kits in the fridge.  Other than that, I'm clueless.  What advice would you give me to help me on my monthly journey of breaking the habit of not cooking breakfast?

What's a bad habit you'd like to exchange for a good one?

When nature calls

Fall.  Autumn.  The holiday season.  Whatever you choose to call it, it's here.  Smack dab in the middle of it and it's ready to be absorbed.

My favorite season was once spring.  All the colors and life that are brought forth would literally captivate me.  The warm breeze seemed to call out to even the most subjacent of life.

I'm beginning to enjoy Autumn lately.  It's the time of year when backyard campfires are to be enjoyed, along with the changing color of leaves, and family holidays are upon us.  Instead of feeling rushed to get all the year's goals accomplished, I'm finding it more enjoyable to just relax and just BE.

For the few years we've been in our home, (as some of you from my previous blog know) I've wanted to get the perimeter of our yard cleaned up and cleared away.  Other things were taking priority over it and what was finished only grew back shortly after.  I've learned not to do things like that in the spring.  

So, the family and I got busy the other day and it just happened.  Spur of the moment, no planning involved.  We were just outside and we began.  The girls were a huge help to me gathering all the brush Clayton cut and used the loppers on the smaller items the chainsaw had no time for.

I have to say I've missed this.  Good old fashioned family time that didn't involve being indoors behind some technoligical screen.  Nothing with buttons or beeps.  Nothing but rakes, tools, nature, and gloves touching our hands.  It was truly enjoyable.  So much has been finished because we all helped each other.   That is family.

Here is what it began as all the way around the property:

And this is only part of what we finished:



I wish the picture could show how beautiful it really is.  Just where the edge of the yard drops, are various levels of land and the creek.   It's so gorgeous during this time of year and I'm looking forward to the other 3 seasons I'll get to bask in this little piece of heaven I call my yard. 

I'm embracing the fact we still have 75% of the yard still to do. I'm looking at it as more time outside before it gets too cold, more time to do a little bit here and there and feel the joy as we walk away from it for the day and turn around to take one last glance at what we accomplished that day. 

Such a glorious feeling!