April 2015 - Pt. 1

Dear friends, 

It has come to my attention that it's not April anymore. So, HAPPY MAY!!! It took me a while to write this post. Sorry, it's a doozy.   Lucky you! I have FINALLY  come to my senses and decided to break one of these painfully long catch-up posts into three parts! I know, this change in format is LONG overdue. Long overdue.....

Life in the How Bourgeois house has been pretty quiet this past month, thankfully. Thankfully because I always think about how "same-old, same-old" can feel safer than "big news."  Which, I completely know is an illogical and unhealthy way of thinking, but I fall into this pattern all the time. Worry and anxiety can be a tricky thing to live with, but I've come to learn recently that little by little, there are ways to set thought patterns and to be COURAGEOUS!!!! 

I love the graphic below. It's been floating around the Internet recently and really spoke to me. Maybe it will speak to you too.

Perspective is a HUGE help with anxiety. You know and I know that we are bigger than our worries. It's not easy to keep this point in mind, but when you're able to.... watch out world, you'll be on a roll! 

April has come and gone now. It was a month with lots of lounging with the puppy. We had our last snow (which I'm glad to leave behind for now). 

Jon took his first longer business trip in a while. He's coming up on a few busy months of travel, including possibly, another 10-day trip to China. I've become used to him traveling over the years and parenting on my own while he is away. It's never exactly easy, but it became a little less difficulty as Noah gets older. EVERYTHING is different with having the dog now though. It's so much harder. I know I must sound crazy because she's a dog, but since Josie is still not constantly sleeping through the night and she needs to go out to potty and on walks and be watched a lot of the time still.... I'm more tired than before.

(Picture me in the middle of the night trying to get Josie to come back inside and the cat escaping out the back door. That happened).

I'm kind of sacred about all of the up coming trips. I worry about Jon when he travels and I worry that I'll be running on empty, but I'm going to do my best! \(^-^)/ Banzai!

Anyway, here is a cute picture that I took when Jon came home from his last trip. He was exhausted and Josie was THRILLED to see her "Dad." She loves him and he loves her.  :)

This is Josie and I one Friday night. (Man! I have wild and crazy weekends, don't I)?
I was really relived when she was potty trained with no more accidents in the house, because that meant she could lay on my bed while I read in the evening or blogged. It's sweet. She usually falls asleep around 8:00pm, and then we take her out to potty before we go to bed around 11:00. She was funny this night, choosing to sleep like this while I read.

I took her picture but it woke her up. 

Oh wait, one more! This is when Jon came home from another trip. Sometimes this includes red-eye and late night flights. She just wants to be near him when he's home. It's too cute.

I feel badly that I have less cat pictures than dog pictures these days, so here is a photo that I took of Willow. Doesn't she look perfect in my bathroom??? Ha! I don't know, like the perfect accessory. She's so pretty. 

I made some good food this month. I had just finished my 30-Day Vegan Challenge. I keep meaning to talk about my experience. It was VERY interesting and I'm glad that I did it! One change that has stuck....no more dairy in the form of milk or yogurt. I've stopped putting milk in my coffee and I've traded in my traditional yogurt for coconut yogurt. 

I am still eating cheese as you can probably see from this not-really-that-healthy dish. It was super good though. Eggplant Parmesan. Who else here loves eggplant!?

This month Jon found a new Japanese restaurant. He's on a never ending quest to find a great bowl of ramen or udon. When we lived in San Francisco, Jon and I were spoiled with some great ramen places, but I do feel like Detroit is getting better. Noah loves ramen, which is fun and he really likes sushi and sashimi. Our number one favorite these days though - Pho' from Da Nang, a great Vietnamese restaurant not too far from home.

One last food note.....so, I'm always trying to come up with versatile dinners that can be meat based AND vegetarian. It's not always easy. I wanted to surprise the boys with meatloaf, but I didn't want to only be able to eat the side dishes. Soooo.....I thought, well, I could make them meatloaf and make myself LENTIL LOAF! 

I didn't have a recipe, but honestly, the following worked great. I used Trader Joe's pre-steamed lentils and just mixed them with the regular meatloaf's ingredients, minus the meat for me. I bake it in a dish next to the meatloaf, made some veggies and mashed potatoes and voila! If you are interested, here is the meatloaf recipe that I used this night. It was the first time making this particular one and it was definitely a crowd pleaser! I think it's the best recipe that I've tried so far. 

Yo! Lentil loaf!

We are loving this simple arugula salad......it's just arugula with some toasted pine nuts and shaved Parmesan. A homemade dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

And that is the the scoop for now! (At least the first part).

Until next time, eat some lentils! ;)

xoxoxo, 

Lauren