Pizza! Pizza!

I do my best to keep it healthy, I exercise, (somewhat) I eat right (most of the time, ok ok half of the time!) And I try to get plenty of rest (emphasis on TRY) I've given up red meat, pork and various other food items that are deemed unhealthy. Recently I was told that one of my sons needed to give up processed sugar, artificial flavoring and colorants, foods that are dairy based and foods that contain gluten. What's left huh? Bread and water? Oh no, can't have bread. Now I'm not one to lay down on a challenge so I go to my friendly neighborhood library and take out about 50 cookbooks on everything free food. I knew this was about to change all of our lives, so I had to get it right. Well I found a recipe for the one thing that my kids would never say no to: PIZZA! I ran to the store and brought everything I needed to make the best gluten,dairy free pizza ever! I raced home and put it all together it looked beautiful, the boys were so excited when I told them I had Made a special pizza for them! We all sat down and I cut the pizza giving everyone a healthy slice, we said our prayers and started eating.......it was disgusting! I tried not to let it show on my face, Will was like" Uh Mom, this doesn't taste like the pizza we usually have," Wes then said "This is nasty!" Its a good thing I have 49 other cookbooks, there has got to be a good pizza recipe in one of them! If anyone knows of a good Gluten free please let me know!

My Spring Cleaning!

Well Pooka family,  Spring is here!!!! In my quest to get ready for spring I decided to do some spring cleaning!

I put on my flowered head scarf (like they do on TV) and grabbed my broom to get started. Now for those of you who know me I do not love cleaning up... let me clarify that before my momma gets to bloggin'... I was taught how to clean and keep things clean but... I can be a little, shall we say, "unorganized" at times.

As I stood in the middle of my apartment with my bucket and mop, I couldn't remember what to do next! I decided to do some dusting... what's the most obvious thing to start with? The TV, of course! I dusted the screen but since I really wanted to see if it was clean, I turned it on. I was so proud of myself! I made sure that I could see at least 3 shows on my new clean TV screen! This cleaning isn't so bad.

After I turned the TV off I figured I needed some motivation so I turned on the radio and blasted some music. While trying out some new dance steps, I got so tired I had to take a little break.

On to the kitchen. I decided to tackle the stove, but just to make sure it was working right I threw in a frozen pizza (soy, of course.) I was relieved to find out that the stove was working quite nicely but realized, "Hey, it's lunch time!" As I looked in the sink I decided to quickly wash the dishes, well, the dish and the glass I needed to drink some juice with my pizza. Okay, now lunch was over, time to get back to this cleanin'!

I went to the bathroom (always a good place to get started.) I knew I needed to tackle that tub and I did... spotless! But, as I did the gleam from my newly polished faucet glared in my eyes, so I decided to turn it on to get the light out of my eyes. Would you believe the water filled the whole tub? Now since I try to be environmentally correct I couldn't waste the water so... in I jumped for a nice mid-morning relaxing bath (with my Pooka of course!)

After an hour or so I was out of the tub and decided to change my linen (always a wonderful way to start spring cleaning.) My fresh new bed looked great but I noticed some bumps in the covers so I pulled them back to remake the bed but had to crawl around to smooth out all the bumps and you won't believe what happened!!! I fell right in the middle of my bed!! Now my window was open and there was a breeze comin' through and you know what happened... so let's just say 2 hours later I was rested, relaxed, cleaned and fed. I love spring cleaning!

Join us this Saturday for a Pooka Body Workshop!

4 years old!

Morning Pooka Family!!!  Hope this post finds you in good health and spirit!  In exactly 17 days my baby will be 4 yrs old!!!!  Can you believe it?!  That little girl who was in my belly for nine months, in diapers for 2 ½ yrs, and in my bed for 3 yrs (well she’s still in my bed) LOL!  I can’t believe how time has gone by so quickly.  Next year she’ll be in kindergarten!!!  I can’t take it!!!  In honor of her birthday I just want to share some Taiye-isms we’ve enjoyed over her first 3 years and some pix:

• Mommy, I’m being a genius right now (when I asked her what she was doing in my office)
• Mommy, Can I talk to you (in the car after school when one of her friends was mean to her)
• Mommy, I’m having a conversation (when I interrupted her while talking to Auntie Dawn)
• Mommy, This is a little challenging (while she and a playdate were putting together a Dora puzzle)
• Me:  Taiye do you know where babies come from?  Do you know where you came from? Taiye:  Newark, New Jersey
• Me:  (while she is playing with my boobie in the bed watching DocMcStuffins) Taiye, you’re going to be 4 yrs old soon.  You have to stop playing with Mommy’s boobie.  Taiye: Mommy, I’m not 4 today; when I turn 4; I’ll stop.
• Me:  (after her first child only swim lesson) Taiye, you were really great in the swimming pool!  You weren’t scared?  Taiye:  No, Mommy, I’m brave!

 

Dawn on Ebru Today Show!

Watch your left, when your dealing with the right!

I'm left handed and all of my life my parents and teachers have tried to show me how to write properly( which they considered right handed) It never worked out my right hand writing was terrible so they let me go back to left hand writing which was slightly less terrible. I vowed that I would never put my kids through the pain and anguish I had to go through being left handed so when Will was starting to pick things up it was with his right hand, so I was like great! This should be a piece of cake, he's right handed! Well I obviously passed down the terrible handwriting to him, because he can't write worth a lick. I thought his handwriting was ok but his teachers tell me otherwise, " he really needs to practice more " his teacher tells me. So I have turned into my parents and all of old teachers. We practice, and practice and practice. We practice slow, fast,in between, I even made him change hands to see if the left one was better......nope. Then I decided that it must be the pencil sharpener, maybe if we had a new one his writing would be clearer because the point would be sharper which would inturn translate into clearer writing. I went out and brought a professional pencil sharpener, new number 2 pencils and clean sheets of paper. I had soft jazz playing in the background and incense burning. We did some deep breathing exercises and then we were ready to begin. It was going really well,(at least I thought so) when I noticed Wes was missing from the scene. "Wes where are you?" I called. Well good old Wes was upstairs sharpening all the pencils down to a nub, he was "helping." Thanks Wes, I guess I should be glad he didn't try the sharpener with pens!

50 First Dates!

Well Pooka family!  This month I decided to do something different.  I work really hard and I work a lot and there isn’t a lot of time for dating.  So, of course my girls suggested online dating.......Not really a fan, but for the busy individual it’s an easier option.  So I went and created my little profile(don’t ask me where cause I’m not telling, LOL)  I thought I’d find a nice gentleman to take me to a movie or a nice dinner! WELL NICE MEN ARE NOT ON DATING SITES, lol!!!  Its been a little rough, first off you have to be quick at online dating!  If someone winks, you must wink back in at least 2 minutes or they’ve moved on!  I started having a conversation with a nice guy, so I quickly emailed his picture to the girls to see what they thought.  Well by the time they emailed me back that he was cute, me and the guy had had a fight and broken up already, LOL!!  I am not kidding this was in the span of a half hour!  I think I need to start working my reflexes so as soon as an email comes through I’m on it!  One guy asked me what I was looking for on the site, I emailed back, “To meet a nice friend and if it turns into something more then great!”  He promptly emailed me back and said, “Oh, well good luck!”  So now I’m pissed off and email him back and ask what he’s looking for.  He asks me If I read his profile and that he was looking for more than that he was looking for love.  So I guess my second email to him should have said, Hi I’m Dawn and I love you!!  I’m amazed at all of the hard work I’m putting in and still haven’t gotten my nice dinner yet!  So then I decide to go to the mixers that the site has (yeah I know you’re probably all figuring it out now)  Well I went with a friend and when I got there there were about 20-25 OLD guys there.  Not just OLD but big belly and comb over old!  WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!!  So I asked the representative from the company and asked here where all of the guys my age were!! She asked me how I old I was and she was surprised!  But then she surprised me by saying, “Well you’re in the bottom of this age bracket but....THIS IS YOUR BRACKET!”  NO!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me!  I couldn’t believe I had wasted good make up and painted on my best jeans, LOL!!  Needless to say I quit that site and I’m happily back on my couch and you know what??? I can take myself out to dinner!!