Vegan Cucumber Dip

Today is Treat Yoself Day in our home :)  I love my grandmothers cucumber dip with a passion!  I often want it for a treat.  However, for me, her version is no longer a possibility because it is made with real cream cheese.  We are a no-dairy home.  Up until recently, I have not found a great cheese- anything sub that I just really, really love!  Especially in the cream cheese department!

Enter: Kite Hill Cheese.  This stuff is made only for Whole Foods, I believe.  I found it a couple weeks ago and now it is a staple.  It is the. best. cream. cheese.  I'm serious.  And it's vegan, made from almond milk and cultures.  Go get some.  (no, they are not paying me :) it's just that good!)

This is my Grandmother's Cucumber Dip recipe made with Kite Hill vegan cream cheese.  It will make a great vegan-friendly party dip or for your chips and dip on your own "Treat Yoself Day".  You're welcome ;)

Vegan Cucumber Dip

Gluten-free , Makes 8 oz.

Ingredients:

• 1 tub Kite Hill Chive Cream Cheese Style Spread (can also use plain and add salt to taste)
• 3" of an organic cucumber, peeled
• 1 small piece of raw onion, about a quarter sized amount

Method:

• Empty the tub of cream cheese into a bowl.
• Using a Microplane or a zester,, shave the peeled cucumber into the bowl of cream cheese.  Do the same with the onion.  You can also scrape it into tiny pieces (smaller than minced) with a knife, but only if you are awesome like my Grandma :)
• Stir all ingredients together and enjoy.
• Save the tub and store the leftover dip in it.
• Serve with chips or raw veggies.  It's also great with the rest of the cucumber from the recipe!

Imperfect People Going Forward

Oh, world of Parenting Strategies!  How you love to intimidate and imply that there are ways to be perfect....or better yet, that there are ways to get our children to be perfect!

Oh, wait!  You don't love to do that?  That isn't a thing?

Then WHY do we all feel so much shame and guilt after reading a book, hearing another parent's success story on Facebook, or after a parenting strategy goes wrong (read: it didn't fix it!).  From tips to getting your baby to sleep to our Facebook news feed to the parenting paradigm that I train parents in, Trust-Based Relational Interventions, there are ways to hear strategies, others' stories, and information through the lens of our own insecurities.  There are ways that shame will creep in...

And there isn't really any blame to be given to the person who wrote that book, gave that parenting lesson, or who encouraged you to try ____.

The culprit is Shame itself. 
Can we all join together and fight it as one united front?  Embracing our Not-Rightness and choosing to be with one another in Love?

Very often, I am wrestling with the fact that I train other parents but also very much mess up with my own children a TON.  I sometimes cry out, "How has someone allowed me to be in this role???"  David, my ever-wise husband, usually responds to me with this mantra he made up:  "We are not here to model how to be perfect or how to do this perfectly; we are here to model how to be on the Journey as an Imperfect Person!"

Imperfection Going Forward!

It's a thing.  I promise.
 
Notice I didn't say Imperfection staying Stuck!  Imperfection does NOT equal "Stuck".  I think Shame has succeeded in keeping so many of us parents stuck as well.

Do you feel yourself going round and round in your head ending up back where you started with a certain problem?  Do you feel like there is so much that you "lack" that you don't even know where to begin?  Do you feel like you are fine one minute and then the next time something hard comes along, whether it be your children screaming or another outside circumstance, you feel like a fog has descended and you cannot remember how you were fine before?  These are all examples of feeling Stuck.  Stuck-ness is not moving forward.  Sometimes there are paths that we need to face and step forward in so that we may continue on our journey, not a journey toward perfection, but simply a Journey Forward towards healing and Hope.

I have decided that Imperfection Going Forward will be my new motto!  This is the way I will lead my children through the Journey by going first myself! 

So often I find myself wanting my children to take a journey that I haven't even begun yet.  For example, I want my 8 year old to be "OK" when she is stressed out by my 5 year old who yell-sings about 60% of the day, BUT I'm not OK when he does that!  I'm not even a little OK!  I have auditory sensitivities to that; I get triggered by it; he cannot hear me and it feels like my voice isn't important; I am tempted to lash out and control his little voice at all costs so It. Will. Stop!  I have to journey forward in this area before I have expectations of her.  I cannot expect her to go further along than I have in an area we both struggle in.  When I learn how to give him grace when he struggles, then she will be able to do that too.  When I learn how to hold tight to who I am when I am triggered, she will see how to do that too.  When I hold tight to Hope in the midst of struggle so that I can move forward, she will learn how to do that too!

And Hope going Forward, even with all my mistakes and mishaps I have made and will make, is indeed Possible.
I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, even when it is painful!  Sometimes that looks like remembering the Truth about myself when my outside circumstances seem to descend on my brain with a fog of lies.  Sometimes it looks like talking to someone when I feel stuck.  Sometimes it looks like giving myself Grace.

No matter what it looks like, each day, I will try to model being an Imperfect person, but one who continues on the Journey and is moving Forward!

Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

Here is a quick recipe for an afternoon frozen treat because: school!  Mom is jazzing up afternoons because it's been one of those weeks!  Three kids adjusting to school, trying to make new friends, and being just plain exhausted is, well, exhausting!  So quick and easy Frozen Raspberry Yogurt it is, with only 3 ingredients (Dairy, egg, and soy-free of course over here;).  This stuff can save homework time!

Vegan Raspberry Fro-Yo

Ingredients

1 bag organic frozen raspberries (about 2 1/2 cups)

1/2 tsp lemon juice or 2 drops lemon essential oil (brings out flavor of raspberries)

1 container of Co-yo coconut milk yogurt or other plain yogurt of choice
Optional: sweetener of choice

Method

Blend all together in a high powered blender and eat!  Top with fresh raspberries or Enjoy Life

Real Life Parenting

"How do you do it?"
"How does she manage to do it so well?"
"I don't know how (insert name of mom who looks like she does it well on social media) does it so much better than everyone else."

"If I could only just______ then I know my child will get better."
"Is it really OK to not get it right, to mess up a lot?  Is it more important to say you are sorry than to get it right?"
"What if I damage them permanently?"
"What if they grow up and hate me?"
"What if they grow up and never forgive me for ____"
"What if it's always gonna be like this?"
"I had no idea things would be this hard..."

This is in no way an exhaustive list, but it is a list of things I have heard so many time from either myself, or other loving, dear parents who only want to be good at parenting and love on their kids well.

I have had something brewing in my brain over the past couple years.  We did not become parents in the conventional way; however, we have learned that there are common themes of struggle that all parents share and common misconceptions that keep parents isolated, where fear seems to win out and shame can reign unchecked.

This is what I want to fight against.

So in my small attempt to combat shame, fear, and isolation, I have started Periscope-ing!  What is Periscope?  It's like Instagram with videos...at least that is how I think of it as an old-fogie!  You can find me @pumpkinspantry with the search feature if you have the app.  You don't have to have a log-in, you can watch them from anywhere if you know the link.  However, if you do create a log-in, it will notify you when people you follow are broadcasting live. 

I will be interviewing people.  Our first one is here, but will expire at the end of today.  I'm working on creating a Vimeo channel in order to keep them online for longer than the 24 hour periscope period.  Also, they will be done with a pod-cast like feel so you can listen to them while folding laundry, washing dishes, headphones in the car so you can't hear your kids type settings :)

Looking forward to highlighting the real, the hope, and the grace with these interviews!