The blog has been on the quiet side. Life happens and takes a hold of you, the next thing you know days have gone by since you last wrote. I keep thinking of what I want to share, what fell to the side over the holidays and why am I so distracted as of late.

Truth be told, I have been in a crappy head space and when I am in that place, I tend to retreat. I don’t like being that person who dumps and gripes all over the internet. Since November I have had on/off health issues, compiled with lack of personal time and weather I loathe, you can imagine I have been in the doldrums. Sinus infection, ear and another sinus infection, jacking up my back as I was getting up off the toilet. I swear. People just don’t understand. When you have been a West Coast person ALL OF YOUR LIFE, your body assimilates to climate and lifestyle. Getting thrown into this tundra doesn’t agree with me and my body is giving me the finger. It reminds me of the time I got *really* sick a couple years ago and it all came back to my body not liking my habits. So I changed them and felt like gold… and now, I find myself going back to those changes cause I feel the swell, the ache, the desire to be something else coming on.

The past week has been all about cleaning up the house. Both of them actually. All of the dishevelment around the house is only a mirror of my head space. With the cleanliness comes a better frame of mind. Spring cleaning my ass. By the time Spring comes, there will be nothing left to do. I also am working my way back onto the damp heat diet (aka anti-inflammatory). I can almost guarantee the reason why I keep feeling like ass is cause I went back to my wheat and sugar infested slacky ways. Both are such hard habits to break but I want to try and wean myself off it… something has to give. The Holiday fluff has crept up and I hate the way it makes me feel. So back to gluten free I go. Also, if anyone has GF tips, I am all ears. I want a GF bread that isn’t cardboard! Does it exist? Edumacate me!

I haven’t touched the sketchbook nearly as much as I would like… I had the worst, uninspired session the other night and all it did was piss me off. So I am giving it a small break.

After two stinky batches of chocolate chip cookies I finally found a recipe that worked (see pic below). Remind me not to make them any time soon cause I would easily have salted chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You would think we know better when we SEE how much butter goes into them. But still! So damn tasty.

Here are a couple of my favorite phone shots as of late…. the one of Gomez photo bombing my ass was the best…

Josh and I have been doing a great deal of talking. After making it to round two of the interview process, he was given the “thanks but no thanks” for the job in Berlin. He’s bummed about it and I am bummed to see him bummed. The job market is like that, she is a fickle little bitch and hey, it was a long shot anyway. I told him he should be proud he even got called back considering how many people probably applied. It wasn’t in the cards. Oh well… doesn’t mean the search is over, that’s for sure.

The nugget… I have been so bad about documenting her antics as of late. She really is such a great kid, fun and really coming into her own.

When we got back from San Diego in October we enrolled her in a new kids karate studio that opened up the street. She needs the exercise and socialization… hell, I won’t complain about the discipline and self esteem that comes from martial arts either. She was in a class with 4-6 year olds and not only was she really distracted but she was treating it like play time. Her instructor moved her to the class with 7-11 year olds. She was pretty intimidated at first but fell into it pretty well, holding her own with kids that are much older than her. Right before Christmas she had her first belt ceremony and was moved to yellow belt. She was so damn proud of herself… this was my favorite shot despite that it’s a tap out of focus.

Not sure when or how it happened but a few weeks ago she just started reading. Like READING. It was a trip to us cause we honestly didn’t spend enough time working her on it. She certainly isn’t getting it from school either. Now she brings in books and reads them to us, or she reads in bed before she falls asleep. She is pretty amazed cause a whole new world is opening up to her and she did it on her own. Maybe it was best we didn’t push as much cause she figured it out when she was ready. Either way, it’s so rad to have a little reader.

Not sure how she came across this but her newest addiction is a youtube channel called Nerdy Nummies. The girl who does it, Rosana, bakes all these cool looking pop-culture and super nerd cakes, cupcakes, etc. And Reza, LOVES IT. She seriously watches these baking tutorials more than regular movies or shows. I actually emailed the girl on facebook and told her she had a massive 6 year old fan and she wrote back saying I totally made her day. I love that Reza is into things like baking and art, you have no idea. “MOM! Ro made a gingerbread house but instead of it being a house it was a police box!!!”

Then there’s Reza’s relationship with the cat. Dude. Gomez is pretty much in love with her. Every night around her bed time he starts following her around, meowing, like he is telling her “it’s time!”. As soon as she gets in bed he promptly follows suit. This is what I will eventually find moments later…

I can hear your heart melting from here. It’s ok, mine does it all the time.

Now that she can read, she has become interested in video games more. Lucky for us we still had our gamecube games cause this girl is all about the Mario Party series. Lucky for her I like playing it as well so we make a night of it, us two, laughing our asses off. Just recently we picked up Mario Party 9 so now all of us can play on the Wii. It gives us fun family time for sure.

She has been really testy when it comes to cleaning her room and wanting to wear what she wants to wear. Already. It drives me nuts but then there are days when she comes running out of school in her mismatched outfit, yelling, “Moooooommmmmy!!!”. The grin on her face makes it all worth it and yes, I will hold your hand all the way home. One day that will stop and I will miss it more than life itself.

The other day she was sitting at the table having breakfast and she said, “Mom? I had the best dream last night. I dreamt when I was 17, I was an awesome artist like you”. At that moment I was Amelie Poulain turning into water (in case you have no idea what I am talking about here you go). I may have days when I feel like I am not delivering enough, that I could be a better Mom and then she says things like that, things that make me feel like I am someone she looks up to. Damn. They don’t happen all the time but when they do? Shit. Best feeling in the world right there.