My Little Word of the Year

After much thought, I have finally decided on my little word of the year and finished our special intention list with my husband.  Just like last year....I had to take some time to reflect and meditate on my amazing year and what I wanted out of this new year.  I am excited for this new year!  I am more motivated, feel more at peace, and ready to face some amazing changes.  I know this year will bring more learning, more growing and more reasons to celebrate life and this earth. 

So my little word of the year....the word that I believe will sum up my 2011 year....the word that will be my guide.....the word that my little family will all practice together.....the word that I believe is strong and powerful.....

Compassion.

Compassion. Noun.  Sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. 

This definition is part of the reason why I chose this word because I want to bring more compassion into our household this year.  Since I was little I have always felt a desire to help others in need and I have carried that desire into my adulthood.  I want to do more for others and I want to teach my children about compassion and helping others in need.  With that being said, personally, I feel like I need to twist the definition of compassion a little.  I don't feel that compassion should be limited to just people with distress.  I feel that we should bring compassion to all living things....trees, animals, all human beings alike.  It is important that I do my best to bring peace to this world and teach my children the same. I feel that compassion to all living things is the best start towards peace.  So this is my little word of the year.  I am excited to start doing things with that word in my mind.

My husband and I wrote our intentions list and hopes of this promising new year.  We are using my intentions list/blog from January 2010 as a guide because we want to carry our ideals into the new year (with some slight adjustments and new additions).

Our wishes and hopes for 2011:

• That we live in the moment and be present with everything that surrounds us especially our children.  We don't want to miss a beat with our kids for they will be all grown up before we know it.  Everything else can wait, while we enjoy our kids now! 
• To continue to stay peaceful and respectful to all living things
• That we see the joy in all things
• To continue to be a guide, to nurture, to protect, and to unconditionally love our son and our new little one!
•  To love and be kind with all of our hearts.
•  To show our children all the beauties of the world.
•  To continue to love each other unconditionally with respect and understanding.
•  To always remember to cherish the relationships we have with those who do love and support us   unconditionally.
•  That our passion and love for photography continues to grow in our business.
•  To have a healthy pregnancy and birth.

Our list of intentions for 2011:

• Staying fit through this pregnancy and after.  Continue my love for yoga and meditation.
• Continue our journey of sustainable, organic, healthy, local foods. 
• Start our 2nd year on our farm with some amazing friends, growing organic produce together. 
• Continue our goal towards buying a house. We want a house on some land so that we can have a little farm, grow some wine grapes, and build a photo studio.  We have extended our goal to 2015, knowing that realistically it will probably take that long since we are putting some traveling ahead. 
• Continue my long time process of organizing and rearranging our home and life. 
• Begin the studying and research of homeschooling vs. public schools for our son. 
• Tour a couple of Co-op Preschools.  (This will help with the research above.)
• Becoming a doula. I am starting my doula traning program this Sunday.  :)  I have a strong passion for wanting to help women with emotional support, encouragement, and wisdom throughout labor, birth, and the postpartum.
• Continue to build our marriage and family with communication, understanding, respect, appreciation, and love. Raising our children in this environment is important to us.  
• Continue saving! 
• More travels this year!
• To learn how to knit and crochet. I am hoping my Aunt will help me with this. 
• To use my sewing machine more.
• To show our appreciation to our loved ones more!
• To continue to work towards finishing my schooling.
• Continue the need to help others especially the smallest ones.  And teach my children this importance.
• LIVE sustainable and green!  We are taking steps towards a greener earth and living as sustainable as possible.  Upcycle and recycle!  
• To keep our house peaceful and full of love! 

Of course, I will be using my little word of the year, compassion, to achieve every one of these. 

For years to follow, I will use my 2010 intention/hope list as a base with adjustments on what is new in our lives.  I like that it's a good refresher for the beginning of each year!  It is time to wrap up the amazing past year, and welcome the promising new year.

Happy New Year to you and yours!  May 2011 fill your hearts will all sorts of love and peace.

Be well friends,

Alyson

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion."-Dalai Lama

Pay It Forward....

I had a whole different plan for what I wanted to write about on my blog today but when I read this story and learned about the fundraiser, I knew right away I needed to change my plan for today.

I stumbled upon Kelle Hampton's blog late last night.  She is a photographer and a mama of two little girls.  Her youngest little girl, Nella,  was born with Down Syndrome.  Her blog is her journal of the challenges and blessings she faces as a mother with a child with down syndrome.  Grab some tissues before you read her blog for it is amazing, touching, and inspirational.  I will be a long time reader of this blog! 

Kelle's story also grabs at our heart just a little bit more because my husband's youngest brother has down syndrome.  Brigham faced some health challenges when he was a baby and Dr's said he could expect only 15 years of life.  He is now healthy and very high functioning at the age of 21.  He has accomplished more than any 21 year old I know.  He has sang the National Anthem at the National Rodeo in Vegas, at the Salt Lake City Bees game, his high school football games, a motivational conference, and many other public events.  He has met the President of the United States of America, the Governor of Utah, and the whole BYU football team. He and the Attorney General of Utah are on a first name basis!  He has been the homecoming king and a motivation to almost everyone he has met.  Brigham brings so much spirit and inspiration to any situation he is involved in and  I feel lucky that he is my brother in law and that we are a part of his journey!  He absolutely makes our life richer!

So in the name of Nella, Brigham, and all the other sweet down syndrome children and adults in this world, I ask you to be apart of this fundraiser.  Kelle Hampton has started a fundraiser through the NDSS (National Down Syndrome Society) in honor of her baby girl turning one this month.  The NDSS mission is to raise awareness to Down Syndrome and to create a culture that fully accepts and includes the individuals with Down Syndrome.  The NDSS also puts on a walk fundraiser in cities throughout the US in awareness for DS called The Buddy Walk...I have been involved in the one in Bend in 2008.  You can find her NDSS fundraiser page here.......Nella's ONEder fund.  Even $5.00 will make a difference.

Here is Kelle's blog and post about her fund........Pay it forward
Here is her story of Nella's birth...........A birth story   (grab a tissue)

 Enjoy a video of Brigham (my brother in law) meeting the entire BYU football team. 

Love, peace, and understanding....

Alyson



"Children remind us to treasure the smallest of gifts, even in the most difficult times." - Allen Klein

3 + 1 = 4

This new year is bringing us a new beginning and a new adventure.  In the beginning of the summer we will be welcoming our new lil bundle of joy to our family.  I am due June 29th and we couldn't be more excited to be expanding our little family.  I am now 15 weeks pregnant and growing my baby bump every day.  In fact, when I first found out I was pregnant at 4.5 weeks, I swear my baby bump showed up right away.  My body new exactly what was happening....like it was saying "Oh yah...I have done this before!"

Being a mother and having a growing, loving, amazing family has always been my dream.  I am happy!!!!  Happier than I have ever been with myself and my life!  I absolutely love everything about being pregnant.....the excitement yet nervousness when finding out, being tired, my lovely lady bump, having this amazing little person growing inside of me, helping to create life, bringing a little one into this beautiful yet scary world, striving to be the healthiest I ever have been in my life, meditating with my mind and my little baby inside, having my husband and son rub my belly and give kisses to the baby, and all the extra love I already feel.  It is an amazing feeling!  I could be pregnant 20 times over again.  NOT joking!  :)  Though I am beyond ecstatic about being pregnant  again, it also brings me nostalgia and sentimental feelings. This will probably be my last pregnancy.  Though Drew and I want to continue to grow our little family, we have decided that there are a lot of babies and children out in this world that don't have families.  Someday, way far into the future, we want to adopt another child.  This will be in years to come.....like 5 or 6 years maybe more but it is something we have always talked about. 

So I am cherishing and soaking in EVERY single feeling and moment in this pregnancy.  I am going to embrace it all, even the days when I am feeling like poop.  So I may write and talk about this pregnancy a lot.....bare with me here.  We are hoping to have the baby in a birth home or at our own home.....that is if our insurance comes through for us (which is a whole other topic).  I am yearning to have an out of hospital birth and hope that it can happen.  We have started a relationship with a wonderful midwife at Alma Midwifery and hope that we can continue that relationship.  We will be doing lots of hoping and wishing that the insurance company does the right thing.  Happy thoughts only!

We want to continue with the "A" names just like the rest of our little family!  So we are in search of more "A" names.  Do you have any suggestions?  Feel free to leave a comment with any "A" names you may think of!

The last time I will probably see my feet for few months!

Be well friends,

Alyson

"I loved you before I knew you." ~ Unknown

Menus and Holiday Treats

You are all probably sick of seeing holiday treats or holiday related pictures but I wanted to share some treats I made this holiday season.  I didn't take pictures of all of them and didn't get to all of the things I wanted to make but there is always next holiday season.  This holiday season I only made homemade food related gifts.  I have a desire to make more homemade household items......clothes, tableclothes, hats, scarves, blankets, bags, napkins, etc. I was hoping to be able to make some of those items this holiday season but oh man.....did time fly.  I lost track of time and didn't get to some of the things I wanted to do.  This year I feel more dedicated.  I have a sewing machine that I have used very little and I want to start getting more use out if it.  So I will be working on making some fun things this year and writing all about my adventures making them.

Here are some of the items I baked/made this year:

Applesauce

Apple Muffins

Cranberry-Almond Granola

Spiced Almonds

Thumbprint Cookies

Christmas Sugar Cookies with my aunt, mama, and son!

Chex Mix (no picture)

Butterhorn Rolls (no picture)

Here is our menu for the week:

MON:  Homemade veggie pizza with homemade dough

TUES:  Tofu and Vegetable Stir Fry over brown rice. (Bumped from last week since we had a last minute change.)

WED:  Vegetarian Hot Pot and leftover stirfry

THURS:  Spaghetti with homemade tomato and veggie sauce.  Fresh garden salad

FRI:  Dinner at our good friend's house.  We are making something for it but not sure what yet.

SAT:  Out to dinner with good friends from out of town.

SUN:  Black Bean Burritos

Happy Cooking,

Alyson

"Happiness is homemade" -Unknown

December's One Small Change- Stopping Junk Mail

I am bringing One Small Change back into my blog world.  We have taken steps throughout the year to lessen our carbon footprint but I haven't written about it.  Now every month, I will be writing about the changes we will make each month to make a positive green impact for ourselves and this beautiful earth we live on.  Please check out my blog from last Feb about why I am doing One Small Change or the actual One Small Change Challenge Blog. 

Oh the grand annoyance of junk mail.  How many times do you open your mailbox and it is full of unsolicited junk mail?  Sometimes you get a bill or an actual letter from someone.  I am sure that everyone would agree that receiving this huge amount of junk mail in our mailbox daily is a nuisance.  On average, an American adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year, most of it unwanted.  According to the EPA, over 50% of this unsolicited junk mail ends up in landfill annually.

Here are some pretty shocking statistics:

• More than 100 million trees are destroyed a year to produce junk mail.
• The junk mail industry uses 10-24 BILLION gallons of water each year.
• Creating and shipping junk mail produces more greenhouse gas emissions than 9 million cars.
• You waste about 7-8 months of your life dealing with junk mail.  What a waste of time!  

So with the New Year approaching, our family took steps to get rid of this nuisance, not only to help in saving our planet but also to save time and to stay organized.  Here are the steps we took in the month of December to get rid of this grand annoyance!  Please use these steps to get rid of your junk mail as well! 

1.  I started with the DMA and this is the first step before anything else! Visiting DMAChoice will help you remove your name to more than 3,600 companies.  They want to help you choose what mailings you receive by customizing your mail preferences.  

2.  Pre-Approved credit card offers by far bombard my mailbox more than any other kind of junk mail.  Yuk!  I went to OptOutPrescreen.com to remove my name from the 3 major credit report companies.

3.  We don't receive magazines at our house but we do receive lots of catalogs. Everything you see in a catalog, you can see online at the companies website and save tons of paper and trees that way.  I contacted the catalog companies personally to stop from receiving their catalog and also went to Catalog Choice.  (This site is similar to DMAChoice.org but each cover some different areas.)  Catalog Choice helps you find and choose the catalogs you don't want to receive and a BIG bonus....it helps you with getting rid of phone books!  Phone books being left on my door steps in big plastic bags is seriously one of my biggest pet peeves!

4.  With any other unwanted mail, I have started personally contacting those companies that send me junk mail.  We get lots of unsolicited mail from local insurance companies and they come for both my husband and I.  It creates a lot of junk!  So I personally have started calling each company and eventually I will get to each company!

Well until all these steps start working for me, what can I do with all this junk mail??  Here are a few things I have done in the past and plan to do until the junk mail all goes away:

• Recycle it!
• Compost it!  Most paper you can compost.  Avoid the glossy paper and any paper that has any kind of plastic on it.  Put it in the shredder and it is easier to break down in the compost bin.
• Package it!  If you mail a package or need to store breakables in a box.  Crumble it or shred it for sustainable package material.
• Craft it!  My son and I can do lot of crafts with unwanted mail and paper!

I am excited that we have done this as a family and welcome everyone else to try this as well.  It will be such a relief to get rid of a huge annoyance and take a step towards a greener planet.

What is your small change? 

Peace, Love, & Happiness,

Alyson

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money." - Cree Indian Proverb

Menu....just a lonely menu

I am keeping my menu post short today.  Usually I like to write a few paragraphs of a certain topic that I want to write about but not today.  I am planning on blogging everyday this week because starting the first week of the New Year, I will begin my path towards a professional blog.  So I want to cover a few things this week before that happens.  I have big dreams and goals and I have EVERY intention on achieving them!  So stay tuned for lots of musings from your Peaceful Mamma!

Here is our menu for the week:

MON:  Out to dinner with a girlfriend.

TUES:  My wonderful sister's birthday dinner.  My hubby and son will join my family while I work.  I will join them all for dessert after my work shift!

WED:  Cheese Ravioli with homemade tomato sauce, steamed broccoli,  and homemade bread

THURS:  Tofu vegetable stirfry over brown rice

FRI:  Staying at cabin on the mountain for New Years with some great friends.  Our night to make dinner:  Artichoke-Spinach Dip (recipe to follow), Spaghetti feast, garden salad, and garlic bread.

SAT:  2nd night at cabin.  Big Taco Feast

SUN:  Brinner (Breakfast for Dinner)  French Toast and Egg Scramble

For more meal planning inspirations, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie every Monday.
Happy meal planning & cooking,

Alyson

"Live simply so that others may simply live."  -Ghandi  (My favorite quote of all time)

Menus and One Small Change

At the beginning of this year I joined a campaign that is designed to motivate people to reduce their carbon footprint on this planet.  If you know me, you know how passionate I have always been on this topic.  Honestly, I was born that way.  My mother has always been "green", even before it was popular.  In fact, in elementary school I was made fun of for recycling and not having Oreo's in my lunch.  I am sure the same people who made fun of me, have now joined the "green" bandwagon.  Which is good...the more people who do more green things, the less impact we will have on the planet.  I would like to thank my mom for teaching me such a big lesson at such a young age.  I am glad that I can continue my love for this planet and saving the planet into my adulthood and into my children lives.

The One Small Challenge is designed for everyone who joins to make one environmentally friendly change each month.  The change can be big or small.  The point is to take these small steps, which in turn will make big steps.  When I started this challenge at the beginning of this year, we had already been doing some pretty major things to reduce our carbon footprint but there is always more we can do and room for improvement.  Even though I only blogged about my One Small Change once, we continued to make changes throughout this year.  Now that I am moving my blog in a faster direction, I will be blogging about our changes every month.  My December One Small Change will be posted this evening.

Here are just a few of the changes we have made before this year and during this year:

• Composting ( I grew up doing this and continue with my growing family)
• Doing our best to eat locally, organically, and seasonally
• Growing our own food
• Preserve and freeze the food we grow for the winter months
• Use our own reusable grocery bags...no more plastic grocery bags.  (This we have been doing for a long time now)
• No longer buy or use zip-lock plastic bags.
• No longer use paper towels/napkins.  We only use reusable fabric napkins. 
• We try to carpool or limit our driving.  (This is a HUGE challenge, but we are working on it.)
• We reduce buying & bringing in plastic into our home.  (This is also a HUGE challenge.  It is so hard to avoid plastic.)
• When purchasing something, we choose the purchase with less packaging.  
• We recycle EVERYTHING we can.  I am pretty sure our recycling bin is always fuller than our garbage can.  
• Hang dry our clothes.    
• Many many more changes in our home.

I am excited to continue this challenge and hopefully motivate others to do the same.  Check back later this evening for our December change.

Now...on to our menu for this week:

MON: Roasted Cod w/ Warm Tomato-Olive-Caper Tapernade served over angel hair pasta and steamed broccoli

TUES:  Homemade Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

WED:  Homemade Veggie Pizza and a fresh salad

THURS:  My husband's company holiday party

FRI:  Garlic-Dill Salmon, Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, and Crunchy Pear and Celery Salad

SAT:  Potluck Party with some friends.  I am bringing my famous Artichoke Spinach Dip.  (I promise I will post it this week.)

SUN:  Vegetable Dumpling Soup.   (My grandma made me this before.  It was delicious.  This is not her recipe but I am going to try it.  I can bet you my grandma's is better!) 

Extra Cooking & Baking: (Most of these are for gifts)

Puppy Chow
Spiced Almonds (My wonderful friend, Jess, gave me this recipe.  It will be posted this week.)
Cranberry-Almond Granola
Homemade fudge
Christmas Sugar Cookies (My aunt's delicious recipe.  We are having a big cookie making day with my aunt and Ayden)

It is a busy week!  :)

Happy Cooking and Baking,

Alyson

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.  ~Native American Proverb