Spending my oil on my kids

The balance among healing, strengthening, digesting, tasking, and creative fulfillment is delicate, to be sure.  Listening to one's body is of high importance, and is both hard and not hard.  It's hard when you're doing a whole bunch of other things, but right now it's pretty much my only job.  So, I just have to shut up and listen.  

Yesterday I think I did just a tiny bit too much.  Just a tiny bit.  I don't know what I did that was too much (probably thinking--yesterday I dealt with some Girl Scout and family tasks on the computer, no big deal, just normal stuff for a normal adult), but I have felt wiped out today.  So this morning I shirked all tasks and instead meditated for 1.5 hrs, which was a brilliant choice for digestion and brain healing.  Then I exercised and got on my feet for a bit.  

I'm trying to come up with easy, non-exhausting ways to keep my oil on my spoon specifically for my glorious children, and I wanted to share a little bit of that with you because it's precious.  

Oil for my kids.1:  My friend C had given us a jar of cookie dough mix for Christmas (thank you SO much!!), so the other night the girls and I baked cookies.  We adore baking together, always have, but having a homemade mix all ready to go made it a much more do-able evening activity for me at this time.  (We're a made-from-scratch family)  Plus, it made a smaller batch of cookies than a full cookbook recipe, so I didn't have to stand at the oven forever!  I think it was only three trays of cookies--perfect.  Just LOOK at these faces!

"We love baking with you, mom!!"  Plus, major hugs were administered throughout the baking process.

Oil for my kids.2:  This is so silly, but I'm compelled to share anyway because my brother said he might use it with his wife to get her to like leftover night so maybe it can help someone else out there, too, lol.  Last night for dinner the plan was for me to warm up leftovers while the spouse and kid picked up her girl scout cookies.  I decided to have some fun with it!  Before I laid down for my nap, I set the table, arranged it with candles (as-yet-unlit), and I wrote out a whole bunch of food choices on the whiteboard under the heading, "Are you ready for mom's candlelight leftover night?".  When everyone got home, they made checkmarks for their desired food choices, I lit the candles (because the candles were the best part so they had to be lit before the food prep), I executed the microwave and the slicing, and dinner was served!  (I did not eat from this list; I had my last piece of MIL mushroom quiche, gingered carrots, and strawberries.)  E was dancing in the kitchen, she was so excited about the checkmarks and seeing the choices.  "Mom, can we do this EVERY night?!?!?"  

"DC pasta" is simply a creamy pesto pasta (homemade bechamel sauce with cheese and a dollop of pesto--no recipe to impart, sorry) that the spouse made a few days ago.  We call it DC pasta because E discovered that she loved creamy pesto when we traveled to Washington, DC, to attend my award ceremony a few years ago.  Prior to that, she wouldn't touch pesto because of the green things in it.  But in DC my parents took us out for a fancy, celebratory Italian dinner, and the kids had to try new things.  That was such a wonderful meal, such a magical trip!  

Oil for my kids.3:  Today while I made my lunch, I made muffins for breakfast tomorrow.  I haven't made muffins in AGES; they love muffins and will be so excited by this development.  I found a simple new recipe for blueberry oatmeal muffins, and I highly recommend it.  (You know I had to eat one warm muffin, so I can confirm that they're delicious!)  They're not too sweet, not too dense, and they have lots of oats in them!  Should be a great way to start their day tomorrow, especially since it's Iowa Assessments (standardize testing) week at their school (I keep calling it the Iowa Test for Basic Skills because that's what it used to be called when I was a kid, and the kids keep correcting me, but I can't seem to remember what the corrected version is).  My kids LOVE testing week for some reason!  It's E's first year being old enough for it, and she's loving it.  They come home super amped and chatty about it.  Good for them!  I adore my children.