Fresh Air

I woke up this morning with new found life and energy! It was nice to feel a little more like myself after a few days of feeling unwell!

While we were still in our pajamas, Sydney and I decided to make a couple of things to use up some produce that was a bit past it's prime!

We made a batch of Avocado Chocolate Pudding, it was so delicious!  This awesome raw food recipe uses ripe avocado as it's base and has five simple healthy ingredients, yet is tastes like such a treat!  We enjoyed dipping strawberries and bananas into it for breakfast this morning!

Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try, which I highly recommend!  You will make it again and again!

Avocado Chocolate Pudding

2 ripe avocados
1/2 cup raw cocoa (or regular if you don't have raw, you can also use raw carob for a caffeine free version)
1 TBSP vanilla
4 TBSP agave nectar (or honey)
1/2 cup water

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and enjoy!

We also made a loaf of banana bread using a recipe that included tea in it's ingredients!  I know, sounds strange, but for my birthday this year, my friend Lori gave me a box of teas along with recipes for how to cook with them, from David's Tea.  This particular recipe for banana bread uses their Forever Nuts tea and is so delicious!

It is a lovely, dense banana bread with a great nutty flavour from the tea.  We so enjoyed it and Syd had such fun helping me make it.

I wrote last year about the Christmas Cactus that my sister gave me when Sydney was born.   I just noticed this morning that it has started to bloom again this year!  It is going to be gorgeous once all the blooms are out in full!

We decided to head out to Costco and to run a few errands today to try and catch up on a few lost days.  Sydney's behaviour has been quite challenging the past couple of days, she has really been testing the limits with us!  I realized half way through the day, after wanting to pull my hair out dealing with her, that she hadn't been outside to play in a few days, and was likely in desperate need of some fresh air.

So we waited for a lull in the rain, and as soon as it was dry for a moment, we hopped on her tricycle and rode around the neighborhood until she was tired!  It was exactly what we both needed, a little fresh air to clear the cobwebs.  Amazing how magical a little time outside can be, when we came home it was like Syd was a different kid, well behaved and co-operative.  Must remember to write that down for future reference....

We popped by Bubbie's house for a visit today and her caretaker, Emma, gave Sydney a belated birthday present, a  gift bag of colouring books.  Emma is such a lovely and thoughtful person, it was so kind of her to think of Sydney on her birthday and a perfect gift as Syd loves to colour and paint. She was excited to get a gift after the excitement of her birthday had worn off!  We will definitely get some great use out of these books!

Sydney is so interested in how to spell words these days.  She loves nothing more than to sit on the computer with a blank Word document in front of her and spell words that she knows.  She often asks me how to spell people's names and will type them into the computer on her document.  It's very cute.

Tonight in the bathtub she spelled out her name and those of her preschool teachers too, Jen and Carmen.  It was so sweet and she was very proud of herself that she found all the letters herself and spelled their names!

So as we sit on the cusp of the start of another week I am grateful that we are all feeling healthy and well again and hope and pray that the week ahead is a fun and productive time together!  Hope you had a great weekend!