My Moon, My Man

In light of yesterday [Father's Day] and today [our two year anniversary!] I want to dedicate this post to the most amazing man I've ever met...
and coincidently have the pleasure of sleeping with ;]

Do you see this stud? This was Eamon on our wedding day, waiting patiently to see his bride come down the aisle, praying for the life we had ahead of us.
This was the beginning of year one. We were so, so young. Absolutely nothing convince us that marriage would be as hard as they say, we were way more in love with each other than any other couple ever on the face of the Earth, the rules simply did not apply to us.

Do you see this dedication? This was Eamon the night Lily arrived [weeks after our first anniversary], waiting patiently to see his daughter come into the world, praying for the new life we had ahead of us...all three of us.
This was the beginning of year two. We were thrilled, scared, anxious, overwhelmed, and exhausted. We were so, so young. Absolutely nothing convince us that parenthood would be as hard as they say, we were way more in prepared than any other couple ever on the face of the Earth, the rules simply did not apply to us.


Now, do you see this smile? It's right there under the scrunchedupness. This is Eamon and Lily on our vacation [a few weeks before our anniversary], waiting patiently to see Lily's face light up at the site of some awesome fish.
This was the beginning of year three. We were finally rested. Absolutely everything convinced us that vacation would be as refreshing as they say, we were way more in love with each other than any other couple ever on the face of the Earth, of course it was gonna be awesome.


I cannot express how lucky I am to have found the one who completes me. He grounds me, fulfills me, excites me, and provides for me only like the man of God that He has sent for me can.
I also can't express the JOY I feel watching him strengthen as a husband and lead as a father in our house.
So here's to you babe, two years of marriage and one year of parenthood later, we made it. I love you.

Now! Off to make a lasagna for supper and begin our Toy Story Marathon! WOO!
Mae

Three Things You Didn't Know About Me

In light of all of the business I created for myself today, I'd like to wound down my night on a lighter note :]

So here are 3 silly things you may not know about me!

1. Until the day after my wedding, I never met a raw tomato I liked.
Just the thought of them made me want to barf my brains out. For our wedding, one of our friends gave us a basket of homegrown tomatoes. OH.MY.GOSH. They were plump, they were marbled, they were tart and sweet all at once, and they barely had any seeds. I was in HEAVEN. Now, grocery store tomatoes still give me the heeby-jeebies, but OUR tomatoes, they're going FAST!
Every day when I water the plants, Lily comes with me and pinches all of the tomatoes, as if she's checking them. When she gets to the red ones she looks at me and squeals [melting my heart as I think about it!] and waits for the go. When I tell her it's okay she pulls with ALL her might. Sometimes I have to loosen them just a little, but man oh man, she doesn't even wait for me to take them inside, she just gets after em! What's funnier is she is really attracted to the ones that fit just inside her fist, see:

Today's loot.


Lily finally gets her pick.

The pay off was so good ;]




2. I have a crush on Barack Obama.
...what? I didn't say I liked his politics. I didn't say I wanna have his babies. But I AM saying that I watch as many of the State of the Union and Presidential addresses and I am only telling a half truth when I say it's to "stay up to date". I wish he narrated audio books.

and don't you DARE tell Eamon...I still haven't heard the end of "You think SAWYER is hot." I was labeled a betraying hypocrite for weeks... Now if he finds out that his constitutionalist wife finds the Democratic Mr. President sexy...well, I fear for our marriage.

3. I've known from the time I was a little girl that I wanted to be a mommy.
When storms or hurricanes would come through South Texas, I would always make sure my sisters took a bath. Then I brushed and put up all of their hair, made sure they had warm pajamas on [even though it was probably like 95 degrees outside...whoops] and then have them get their baby dolls ready. What do I mean, get their baby dolls "ready" They all got cleaned, brushed, and tucked in to their respective spots in our beds. Yup. I was eight when I had three younger sisters. And I did this until they all grew out of baby dolls. Go ahead, call me crazy.

Hope you all have a good night!
Mae

Meal Plan Monday

Well, I got a WHOLE lot done for Mae B Photography, and Lily did not like it. Not one bit. Head on over and see what I got done, stiiiiill not quite caught up, but I'll get there. Also check me out on Facebook to see more updates.
I get to shoot another awesome family that I've gotten to know over the past few years and am so excited to shoot their chunky monkey :] I do need to get feeling better though for that to happen! While doing this week's meal plan I wanted to die of nausea. Today's lunch was amazing, but I think I ate too much. Hopefully Lily doesn't wake up with the pukes, that'd me aweful.

[SIDENOTE: I totally made her laugh so hard that she threw up earlier, but she just kept on laughing, it was tooooo funny]

Well, here's what we've got going on this week :]
Breakfasts:
Lily:

• Steamed egg yolks [go here to see more on how to prepare]
  
• Fruit or veggies steamed
• *We've added soaked oatmeal for miss Lily because she is SO hungry all the time!

E&M:

• Steamed eggs with fruit
• Omlet with homemade soaked wheat rolls
• Soaked Oatmeal
• Soaked Muesli
• Soaked Panckakes [SO good, we served them last week with Amish butter and raw, local honey and steamed fruits. It was very filling! We used the recipe right out of NT because I didn't really like most of the ones I found online]
• Soaked Dutch Baby Pancakes [So far, this is Eamon's favorite "soaked" recipe]

***any recomendations to make this not so runny/griddy/DONE in the middle?

• Fried Eggs with Homemade yogurt

Lunches:

• Salad w/pan fried fish [talapia, flounder, or salmon]
• Fish [the same mentioned above] with brown rice and steamed veggies
• Hummus plate [chic peas soaked for 24 hours and cooked in the crockpot over night. VERY tedious, but noticeably tastier.
  

Snacks

• Laver [nori]
• Fruit/veggies
• dehydrated fruits and veggies
  
• sweet potato fries
• Yogurt
• brown rice crackers [Lily is LOVING these]
  

Dinners:
Monday: Tonight we're having pasta with shrimp, broc and feta...I hope, lol.

Tuesday: Breakfast for supper. **We're taking the night for our family to try and figure out where Eamon is supposed to be working and whether or not he should be going to school. PLEASE be praying about that with us!

Wednesday: Kidney Bean and Cauliflower curry

Thursday: Cashew noodles with Broc and tofu. [Found this AMAZING brand at sprouts called SprouTofu. It's made with GMO free, sprouted soybeans!]

Friday: Creamy tomato soup with potato and spinach skillet cake

Saturday: Pizza [capers sound like a great addition this week :] aka, there's a bottle of capers that is a million years old that needs to be used.]

Sunday: Hummus platter :]


Well, time to make supper, g'night all!
Mae

Another week...

Another week has gone by of me doing TONS of "behind the scenes work" and it seems like I've got nothing to show for it. I've got tons to blog about, but here's our week in pictures :]

Found this awesome recipe for Lentil Burgers...SO YUM. I made a tahini sauce to put over them with some greens we had left from our garden... LOVED them.


No bread for me :[ haha



Uh, so ya...ANOTHER waterline exploded overnight so we went ANOTHER day without water. And there was LITERALLY a jackhammer, circular saw, lawn mower, weed eater, and a vacuum cleaner all running at once when I tried to put Lily down for a nap.



Aaaand...sometimes I get snap happy when I'm around Lily...SHE'S JUST TOO DANG CUTE!




I went inside [two seconds] to get my camera to take pics of our garden, and this is what I find:



The tomato plant in the back is as tall as me!



And these suckers are gonna get eaten tomorrow! I got lunch and dinner covered....mmmmm
Well, it doesn't seem possible, but even though it seems I'm cleaning non-stop, my house is a wreck...SO I will be back later this weekend :]
Mae

Meal Plan Monday

Sorry it's so late! We had a full day today [including a visit to the FW Science and History Museum!] and I'm just plain pooped!











Breakfasts:
Lily:

• Steamed egg yolks [go here to see more on how to prepare]
  
• Fruit or veggies steamed
• *We've added soaked oatmeal for miss Lily because she is SO hungry all the time!

E&M:

• Steamed eggs with fruit
• Omlet with homemade soaked wheat rolls
• Soaked Oatmeal
• Soaked Muesli
• Soaked Panckakes [SO good, we served them last week with Amish butter and raw, local honey and steamed fruits. It was very filling! We used the recipe right out of NT because I didn't really like most of the ones I found online]
• Soaked Dutch Baby Pancakes [So far, this is Eamon's favorite "soaked" recipe]

***any recomendations to make this not so runny/griddy/DONE in the middle?

• Fried Eggs with Homemade yogurt

Lunches:

• Salad w/pan fried fish [talapia, flounder, or salmon]
• Fish [the same mentioned above] with brown rice and steamed veggies
• Hummus plate [chic peas soaked for 24 hours and cooked in the crockpot over night. VERY tedious, but noticeably tastier.
  

Snacks

• Laver [nori]
• Fruit/veggies
• dehydrated fruits and veggies
  
• sweet potato fries
• Yogurt
• brown rice crackers [Lily is LOVING these]
  

Dinners:
Monday: Lily and I had a spaghetti date tonight, It was super lovely :]


Tuesday: Fish Tacos. The Brownings are coming this way for supper and swimming, should be fun :]

Wednesday: Shitake and Udan soup

Thursday: Lentils with Sea bass

Friday: Vidalia onions are in season now so French Onion soup is DEFINITELY on the menu

Saturday: Pizza

Sunday: Hummus platter :]

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Losing It

My belly that is, and slowly my mind...but I think that's unrelated.

I don't know if I shared the news here, but before I went on vacation [emphasis on the BEFORE, I probably ate more sugar on vacation than I have all year...] I weighed myself at our family doctor and I lost ten pounds for the month of May :] FINALLY some progress!
And let me tell you, it was hard.

But, I wanted to share some of the actions I've been taking to make these changes possible and hopefully they keep on coming!

1. I got help from someone who I knew wouldn't put me on some diet pill, tell me to stop breastfeeding, and tell me to eat 500 calories a day. Dr. Jim Bob is not only my former employer, but my go to health guy and family friend. Him and his wife Cindy know so many things about what God has made our bodies to do, naturally, and I always feel safe with their advice. So, during one of my bi-monthly adjustments at LFWC we talked about my struggles losing weight. We found out that I am estrogen dominant, which was making it that much harder for my body to let go of the fat that was in my body. So with his help, I started makin more changes.

2. I cut out the simple carbs that were turning into sugar in my body. No more white rice, all brown. And even though we were eating whole wheat bread/bagels/pita I made it a rule to only eat it once a day-either at lunch or supper. So instead of having toast or a bagel in the morning with my eggs [it was really just to fill me up and give me an excuse to eat butter and honey] I have a small amount of oatmeal or goat's milk yogurt. It fills me up and satisfies my sweet tooth. And if I don't have either of those, I steam up some apples and a dab of butter :] The carbs I do eat are prepared by me about 95% of the time and soaked overnight. I also stopped baking as much, but did allow a cookie every now and then so I wouldn't go on a crazy purge.

3. I have awesome support from my husband and friends. I think this is the biggest thing you could have!

So, as I get back into the swing of things, post vaca mind and all, I'm going to add regular work outs again. Not as fast, not as often, but definitely thorough and regular.

WISH ME LUCK!
Mae

Snapped back to reality

It's been really hard to get back into the swing of things. Soaking grains, sweeping floors, and staying active are not as easy to slip back into as I thought it would be.
Last night we made some more concrete-ish plans for our family and boy HOWDY it kinda rocked my world. Lots of work ahead and some dreams will be put on hold.
But anyway, here's some eye[and ear] candy for you to tide you over :]

I LOVE with this photographer

She makes me want an underwater camera SO bad

I love this song, and this video

Duet from Robin Cantrell on Vimeo.

Ah, so pretty.

And yesterday I worked on my fan page for my new little adventure, Mae B Photography



Guess what's been on my mind lately, lol.
Have a good night!
mae