A Weekend with my Mama (November 14-16)

My Mama has always held a very tender spot in my heart, so I was thrilled to be able to spend a whole weekend with just her. Yep - that's right, I took Friday off, dropped my babies off at daycare as usual, and then drove by myself down to Humboldt for the weekend.

As I've mentioned a couple times recently, my older brother Dan and his wife just welcomed a preemie baby boy, Andrew, who is still in the hospital as their family (now of 7) adjusts to the craziness that is life with a newborn in the NICU 45 minutes away. To say their life has been a whirlwind is a major understatement. My sister and I have been trying to figure out how we can best help them out right now, and since we couldn't make our schedules work to go together to help out, she and her family took off last Wednesday to head out to help them while I made my way down to Humboldt to stay with my Mom for a few days to help her with cooking her meals and just to generally keep her company. She has had an unhealthy amount of stress and anxiety lately, so she needed a little extra help, and I was glad I could be there with her.

Mom and I definitely had our fair share of cozy time cuddled up watching Hallmark Christmas movies pretty much the entire weekend (I think I watched "The Nine Lives of Christmas" three times).

I also was helping her to try some new recipes that fit into a 28 day cleanse program (which she is now OFF, thank goodness - it was a doozy!) she was on to get off some supplements. My favorite was this honey walnut glazed salmon with quinoa and sweet potatoes. And might I just say, I SOOOO wish my hubby was a fan of salmon. This was so delicious!

We made a few short excursions while I was there: Friday afternoon we went to Fort Dodge to Marshall's, Hobby Lobby and HyVee for groceries. Saturday morning we ventured into Humboldt as well as Saturday evening...more groceries. But Mom wasn't feeling too strong while I was there, so we mostly just stayed home and focused on resting. I spent some time playing with my sister's cat Sophie (or rather, trying to protect myself from her blood-sucking fangs lol)

It was kinda fun to have a cat around, since that'd be a big no-no in my house full of allergic boys.

I re-discovered my passion for chai lattes thanks to only shopping in the organic/health food section for my Mom. And we watched Hallmark Christmas like it was our job.

Meanwhile, back home the boys were enjoying the snow! Cashel had way more fun pulling the sled than being pulled, apparently.

I sure enjoyed the time with my Mama, but simultaneously missed my boys like crazy, so it was good to go home to them, but really hard to leave my Mom. I don't get nearly enough one-on-one time with her these days, what with being so busy working full time and coming home to my boys and living two hours away from her.