What are you doing for St. Patrick’s Day? We’re going to a friend’s house, but before that we’re planning on stopping at Native Foods because they’re having a Weekend long Vegan St. Patty’s Day Special where the beer and wine are 1/2 off all day and they’re serving a Vegan version of a Classic Deli Rueben. Last year we all wore green and went to One World Vegetarian. If you wear green on St. Patty’s day, they give you a free vegan cupcake (w00t)!

But, to balance all of this St. Patty’s food out, why not start the day with something healthy? I got an e-mail from Omega Juicers the other day. I don’t usually post these things, but I love green drinks and I thought this was a great idea. Kids (and adults) might be a little more excited to try a green drink on St. Patty’s Day, you never know! :p

Here’s Little T and my own favorite green drink recipe:

• lots of kale
• Two stems celery
• 6 large romaine lettuce leaves
• 1 apple
• 1 lemon
• a little ginger
• 1 pear
• 1 cucumber

And here were the recipes from Omega Juicers (www.OmegaJuicers.com):
The Leaping Leprechaun

• 1/2 cup strawberries
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup of spinach leaves
• 1 cup water

Lucky Lucy

• 1 handful parsley
• 2 apples
• 1 handful spinach
• 1 cucumber
• 1 lemon
• 1-inch piece ginger

Sparkling Shamrock

•  fresh pineapple cubes
• 1/2 cup strawberries
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup of spinach leaves
• 1 cup water
• One to two drops of vanilla essence
• One cup of plain soy yogurt and add a teaspoon or two of agave for sweetness (optional)

Irish Twist

• 3 cups fresh baby Spinach
• 1 Lime, 1 large Tomato
• 2-3 Carrots and 1/2 Carrot top bunch
• 1/2 bunch Parsley
• 1 stalk Celery

Green Morning

• 4-6 Carrots
• 4 stalks of Celery
• 1 Lemon
• 1 Macintosh or Yellow Apple
• Combine all ingredients into a blender. Blend until really smooth, not still grainy or chunky or with bits of leaves floating about. It can be thick, as you can always thin with water, but it needs to be smooth.  This should take only a couple of minutes. Blend until the greens are so pulverized that they are no longer visible other than infusing your smoothie with a beautiful green color.

For more information about juice and smoothie recipes or Omega products please visit www.OmegaJuicers.com

Speaking of green drinks, last night I was talking with a friend about vegetables. We’ve decided to have a healthy party, where we get together and share healthy foods. We thought this would be a good way to get ideas from each other! Who knows? Maybe it will turn into a monthly thing!

I hope you’re all having a good week! I’m heading off to photograph another wedding at Disneyland today. I can’t think of a better way to spend the day than at a wedding. 🙂

Well, the good news is that my photography business is taking off. The bad news? Little T and I are having the hardest time adjusting to daycare. I feel like my heart is ripped in two when I leave without him. He sobs and cries my name, and every instinct tells me to comfort him, but I have to find a way to walk out of the daycare door without him instead. It’s the worst feeling. Since we’ve started daycare, he’s gotten very clingy. He cries when Big T leaves for work, he cries and won’t sleep alone in his crib at night, and he doesn’t want me out of his sight. Poor baby, I never expected it to be so hard. I knew it was going to be a little hard, but I didn’t expect it to be this hard. If anything, I thought I’d be the one crying and Little T would be fine.

Erg, so that’s what we’re going through now. I’ve been packing Little T’s dinners for daycare, so I’m going to start photographing them and posting in case anyone needs lunch ideas. Also coming up, my second Portland, Oregon post. I currently have a lack of storage and need to move some things around before I can post some fun photos and videos(!).

I also started a new blog that is specifically for my photography, in case anyone wants to check it out.

And that’s all that is going on around here! I hope you all are having a great week. 🙂

Today we were at the Children’s Museum in the train room. The train room turned out to be pretty intense, with lots of little 3-5 year old train enthusiasts hanging around. One little boy (I’ll call him Freddie) was playing with the trains and Little T got a little too close and Freddie turned and shouted, “PLEASE DONT PUSH ME!” The mom said he did a great job using his words, and Freddie did! He may have shouted, but those sorts of things are hard for a toddler to articulate and I’m glad he’s learning to voice how he feels instead of pushing or hitting. Another little boy moved over to Freddie and grabbed one of his trains, and Freddie started crying in frustration and his mom encouraged him to ask for his train back. With all of his strength, Freddie shouted through his tears with his fists clenched, “PLEASE GIVE ME MY TRAIN BACK!” The little boy didn’t give Freddie his train back, which made Freddie cry. The mother then picked Freddie up and took him to another room to give him a break.

What made me sad, was another mom in the room who looked at me and rolled her eyes when they left. I smiled and said, “sharing can be so tough for kids this age.” The mom agreed and changed her tone. Parenting is tough, and I truly believe that us mom’s have got to stick together. The truth is, sometimes I feel like a completely inadequate mom. Today I was juggling a tired Little T, while I struggled to find change for the metro in my purse, and dropped nearly everything on the ground. It’s so easy for me to think about how I should be more organized, how I should teach my 18 month son to stay nearby or hold my hand so I don’t have to hold him when I’m looking for something, and how I’m probably getting the stink eye from people who are wondering why I don’t have my mommy act together. But I can’t be perfect and make perfect decisions all the time, because then I’d scare people away with my perfect decision making super powers. 😉

We’re all doing the best we can, and every child is unique. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I hate it when people judge others, especially when they’re trying so hard. So please, if you see a mom having a hard time, give her a smile of encouragement. I live for these smiles when I’m having a tough mommy moment. That mom in the train room probably really needed a smile instead of an eye roll.

But anyway, excuse my rant…we really had a great time at the Children’s Museum today. If it weren’t for his nap, we would have stayed there for hours!