This was the week of hummus! I told Andrew this is the most attractive picture of him I’ve ever taken…making me hummus.

We’ve been shelf cooking quite a bit (aka using up the ingredients on our pantry shelves). We had a bunch of chickpeas, so hummus it was. We took it for our church meal night, which was a potluck style meal with all sorts of things to munch on. The chicken was the Bibigo brand from Costco, and we’re for sure going to get some in our next monthly Costco haul. Super delicious.

And here comes more hummus…

I found this meal very satisfying and ate it on repeat…hummus + sun-dried tomato pesto + olive oil + flaky salt // pita chips // roasted cauliflower // Swiss cheese.

And, another one!

There are two foods I crave on what feels like a cellular level and they are burgers and Mexican food.

We had below freezing temps this week, so the whole city shut down (as Houston does), and I asked Andrew to make burgers for lunch. I made the sweet potato fries with truffle salt – yum.

Several times we ate enchiladas.

Here is Andrew’s first sourdough. It may as well be a sunset…how pretty!

Made it into a sandwich.

Been liking yogurt + walnuts + dried cherries.

A lot of mid-day lattes lately. I read something that made me lol: “there is nothing that a 4pm latte can’t make…worse.” I have to drink it in the 2 o’clock hour or it screws with my sleep.

This week had some hard moments. Maggie has now bit two of the girls and we’re having to make some decisions. I’ve been in a state of hypervigilance for months with the girls and Maggie since the first bite happened…it’s hard, everyone wants to be with mom, including Maggie, so we’re all always together and it’s hard to keep everyone in separate spaces. I was reflecting about it last night using the Clarity App (I really like that app) and I feel like I fail Maggie if I give her away, but I fail the girls if I keep her. The truth is, it’s not about me being a failure, but instead it’s just a hard situation that I will have to make the best decision possible in.

Also, Andrew and I have been feeling overwhelmed with the emotions of our spunky Ella, but we’re getting through it and I really think that’s all you can do. Andrew was reading toddlers can end up in a flight or fight response as brain development occurs…so that gives us perspective, but also FOR THE LOVEEEE WE’VE GOT PLACES TO BE PLEASE PUT ON YOUR PANTS! I like Dr. Becky’s resource on DFK kids and have found that useful for one of the kids. My mom already does a lot of what she suggests, so I had a good starting place (like, I tell a story about a time a friend was mean to me, rather than talk directly about Ella’s friend being mean to them, since the latter results in a full blown meltdown with…”noooo stop talking”!!!). Also, this is me. She is me :)

The below latte was made in an effort to steel myself before getting the big girls. It helped. This day went surprisingly well because Jo had found a dead BEAUTIFUL butterfly at recess and her teacher created a little pouch for her to bring it home in, so was beside herself with interest in it and I had the space to focus on Ella. I’m not sure what Leah was doing at this time, but probably getting hurt lol. I’ve felt a bit defeated lately because I basically feel like she bleeds every day! She’s always falling off something or scraping something while trying to keep up with her self-imposed baby agenda hah. She fell off a stool holding a toothbrush a couple days ago and I immediately started crying as I was picking her up because I just want to keep her safe and she keeps getting hurt. Ay yi yi! I know everything will change in a couple weeks and she’ll have more skills and abilities. In a cute-ness update: She’s been trying to learn how to jump. It is so cute. Only her head and her torso move…feet don’t leave the ground yet haha.

For breakfasts I’ve still been really happy and satisfied with my toast + fried cheese + eggs + vanilla latte.

Hope you have a good one!