Pokémon!

Gotta Catch Em All!

If you are anything like myself, you just sang that line in your head.
(This is the nerd/geek in me coming out in full force)

Pokémon became a very large part of my childhood in 1998, when it first reached Canada. The franchise began in Japan in 1995.

That year, and many after, I spent the better part of my time collecting cards, having battles with my friends, and watching episode after episode of this beloved series.

It probably helped that I lived in a very small town with not much to do, but we spent our time keeping ourselves busy and out of our parents hair playing this. After a time the Gameboy Colour came out and we would spend our hours between playing cards and taking turns playing the game on the lovely Nintendo handheld. Don’t get me started on how much we loved the Pokémon Master Trainer Board game.

Now, the sad part in this story is that I grew up and got rid of my old Pokémon cards, which like many other people, regret to this day. I don’t know what it is about these cards though that keep me coming back. Maybe the nostalgia of a less complicated time.

To this day there is something very therapeutic about opening a booster pack of cards and sorting through them order of types, and putting them in protective sleeves.

For me, the only other things in my childhood that I immensely enjoyed would have been Disney and Harry Potter.

My Monday Motivation in this little story is that things were good then, and they will be good again. Find something that you enjoy, no matter how old you are, have a hobby. This may seem like something for kids, but this franchise has been around for 24 years, so I believe that this is for all ages. The ones who began with Pokémon have all grown up now and new generations have come to love the cute imaginative creatures just as much as we have.

For me, I am lucky my children love Pokémon has much as I did growing up, and now I have a little excuse to have Pokémon around the house. Even if I didn’t have children, I would still have the cards because they bring a sense of calm to me when I just need to unwind. Again, I know how nerdy this is sounding. In the back of my head I ca  hear it.

“She organizes cards for fun. Someone has issues.”

Well there are people out there who collect dead bugs for fun. To each their own.

Keep your inner child alive!

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken and Rice.

Tonight’s Supper was so easy. I put chicken thighs into the slow cooker at 11 am this morning and let them slow cook on low all afternoon. I also salt and peppered them.

At around 1:30 pm, I pouring in a full bottle of VH Honey Garlic sauce to add the best flavour to the chicken.

The I just let the chicken cook on low until 4:45 pm.

I took the chicken out of the slow cooker to drain and placed it on a plate.

I also made a pot of minute rice which took roughly 10 minutes to cook, from boiling the water to adding the chicken bullion cube and taking off the heat and keeping covered for 5 minutes.

To add to that, I made a noodle sidekick for the children, who aren’t to fond of rice on times.

It turned out to be a beautiful meal, and I used the sauce that was left over to pour over my rice which adds some lovely flavour to the rice.

This meal turned out amazing!

The chicken cost $6

The box of rice was $4( and that box will last a long time in this house)

The sidekick cost $1.

Mommy, I love you.

I hear these 4 words a million time or more in the run of a day.

And this makes everything better.

It makes the hard times worth it, and the good time that much sweeter.

Sometimes it’s because they want something.

Sometimes it’s because they are after doing something wrong.

Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s because they are just enjoying a moment of cuddles.

I live for these moments because they put everything into perspective. The moment I heard those 4 words, it helps me slow down and enjoy that in a few years time, all I will be hearing is “Mom, leave me alone”, or “Mom, You’re embarrassing me”.

Through all the mess and clutter of the house and our lives, right now my children still want me around, and that’s great. Even when the day comes that they don’t want me around, I will still be there.

Standing behind them to cheer them on, or help them up when they need it.

They will always be my children, and I will always love them.

The Mom Voice

This Monday morning has been a bless and a curse.

The kids went off to school fine, but my nerves are worse than if it was the first day of kindergarten.

For future reference I refer to my children on social media as 1,2 and 3.

A little back story, 2 and 3 have had to get a hug,kiss, and high five from me as part of their routine everyday in school last year. It is what calmed their anxiety and got them ready to face the day in school. Now they needed to do this about 3 times before I left them at the school. Comforting for them, nerve wrecking for me. I would love to be the parent that just drops them off outside and rushed off to my day, but unfortunately that is not the case. For whatever reasons their separation anxiety piqued last year in the new school, and it as that way all year.

Fast forward to this year, where I spent the last two weeks of summer vacation explaining to them that I can only give the hug,kiss,and high five once and then they would have to go on. Their merry ways and I would be outside the school waiting for them at the end of the day.

So this morning, I dropped 2 and 3 off at school and their father dropped 1 off at the middle school. 3 went on to her classroom fine. Now, this is the first time 2 has had to go upstairs in the school and find his way to his classroom on his own. He also had to wade through a whole hallway of new kindergarteners and their parents. 2 was a little tears eyed as he walked away from me, but he held his head high and disappeared into the crowd.

This is where my mom nerves kick in. I don’t know if he got upstairs, I don’t know if he found his locker, and I certainly don’t know if he is ok in his classroom right now. I did the exact thing I said I wouldn’t o this morning and I stood and waited there for 5 mins, while no kid came back to me.

Now I know a lot of you may think I am crazy, and I am sure everything will be fine and he will come out of the school fine this afternoon.

BUT…. The little mom voice is sitting in the corner in the back of my head, wondering all day if he is ok. Another side note, 2 is also in the process of being diagnosed with ADHD or something else. Last year he threw tantrum after tantrum about being afraid of going to school, not wanting to go on the bus, and has gone so far as to hide under the bed crying because I was being a horrible mom trying to make him go to school.

The school as been so helpful this past year, helping me get him into the routine of being left in school, even if it did take a whole month of me dropping him off crying in the office and sneaking away. Those days were long and agonizing, because I would leave him there crying, after a morning off struggling, and then he would have a great day in school, and come home happy go lucky.

So, this is why I have the fears I have this year. This is only his second day in school, and last Friday I was able to take him up to his classroom, and help him find his locker.

Now I will putter around the house and make myself busy to keep my mind off it until it is time to pick him up the afternoon, where he will be fine, and he will tell me all about his day, and I will be so proud of him.

That is my mom rant for today. Expect another post tomorrow 🙂

UPDATE: Everything went fine, and my mom nerves were unfounded. They all had a great day.

It’s ok to cry…

Some days can be overwhelming.

It’s ok to cry.

Some days you may feel like you’ve hit a brick wall.

It’s ok to cry.

Some days everyone just knows the right buttons to push.

It’s ok to cry.

Some days can be the best days of your life.

It’s ok to cry.

Some days you can make a mountain out of a mole hill.

It’s ok to cry.

Some days the littlest thing can throw everything out of whack.

It’s ok to cry.

If you ever feel the emotions of everyday life getting to be too much, its ok to just let the tears flow. The important thing is that you don’t let whatever negativity that is affecting you get you down. Wipe the tears from your eyes and know that this moment isn’t forever, and things will get better. Don’t keep your emotions bottled up to fester and rot. That is only going to hurt you. If you need to talk to someone to talk thing through, by all means, find that someone, but if you cant find anyone contact me. I’ll listen. We all need someone we can turn to.

Monday Motivational

Just Be Yourself.

If they don’t like you for that, then they aren’t worth it.

Just worry about being you, and don’t waste your time trying to be something you aren’t.

People are going to like you, and there will be people who will not like you. Surround yourself with the ones who do, and don’t give energy to the ones who don’t.

Protect your energy from negative people… you are worth so much more than you give yourself credit for.

Have an Amazing week everyone. 🙂

Disney Top 5 Fave Animated Movies

Disney has always been apart of my life, some of my earliest memories are of getting Disney VHS tapes ( yes way before blu ray or digital downloads). I believe my first VHS was “The Little Mermaid”, and I must have watched that a million times or more. I have several Disney Funko pops, mostly Beauty and the Beast, and I am growing my now updated blu ray collection with the Disney Movie Club.

If you check out my Pinterest boards, I have one specifically designated for my Disney dream home, which one day will happen, because I use my Pinterest has a form of a vision board.

If you were to take a trip inside my brain, 90% of the time, there is a Disney quote or song going off in there. I try to bring the magic of Disney into every aspect of my life because it bring me back to cozier times. Majesty And Magic of Disney lights up my heart even on the darkest of days. Anyone who truly knows me, knows that I spend countless hours with “The Lion King”, and can practically speak the whole script from memory.

So having said all of that here is my list of top 5 Disney Animated Movies of all time:

5: Frozen

This movie was released in 2013, and has won an academy award, a Golden Globe,a BAFTA award, A Blimp award,critics choice award, Japan Academy award, and a PGA Producer of the year award in Animated theatrical motion pictures. These were amassed between 2014 and 2015.

This movie was a story of true love, but not the usual kind. This true love came from Sisterhood, and was a refreshing taste after so many Disney movies priding themselves on the Prince finding the Princess or vice versa.

4:Beauty and the Beast

This Disney Classic was brought to the big screen in 1991. This movie has one one academy award and 2 golden globes. It has gone on to have a sequel, broadway musical, and a live action rendition in 2017.

This movie bring the magic of adventure and fairytale creatures to life. This is one of many fairytale stories Disney rewrote and made kid friendly. I cannot put my finger on what I like most about this movie, but the artistry, characters, and music come together so magnificently. This is truly a classic that can be rewatched over and over again.

3:The Little Mermaid

This movie made is debut in 1989, and has also won many awards for its great musical number and wonderful talent. It has gone on to have a sequel and a prequel. It has gone on to have a broadway musical, and has sang the way into millions of peoples hearts through out the years. When it first arrived, I was very young, and I believe like many other little girls at the time, the princess theme appealed to me most, or maybe it was the colourful fact of people swimming underwater. I know has a grew older, it became more about connecting with a teenager who’s father didn’t understand her. Now I sit back like so many other parents and laugh at a 16 yr old princess who thought she knew it all, and can sympathize with King Triton on a very emotional level, lol.

2:Aladdin

Aladdin came to theatres in 1992, and like the rest has won awards and has done the broadway thing very successfully. It had a tv series run for 3 season, and now has its own live action rendition coming to life in 2019.

This is an absolute amazing story with a great moral in the end. The Genie tells Aladdin to just “Be Yourself”, and that’s all Jasmine needed. She loved him for who he was on the inside, not the title of Prince Ali. Now I also know that if he hadn’t of lied and made the wish to be a Prince, He would have never seen her again, because that opportunity would not have presented itself. I grew up wanting a pet like Rajah the Tiger, and Abu the Monkey. I will never forget what Robin Williams brought to the big screen with bringing the Genie to life with his endless humour.

1. The Lion King

Now for the one and only, The Lion King. This is my all time fave animated movie. This movie has brought me so much joy over the years since its release in 1994. It has its own Broadway musical, countless awards, and like Aladdin, a live action on the way.

This movie has had a prequel and sequel, With The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride, and The Lion King 1/2, which was the first movie told from the point of view of Timon and Pumbaa. The two lively comic relief characters also went on to have their own spin off show.

This movie shows the timeline and life of Simba(Voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick), and how he goes from a naive little cub and grows into taking his place has King of the Pride Lands. He has to over throw his villainous uncle Scar( voiced by Jermey Irons), who chases him out of the Pride Lands after convincing cub Simba that he is the reason for his fathers death.

I love everything about this movie and have probably watched it over a million times through the years. This is my all time fave because from the colour scheme to the characters majestic qualities, this movie never gets old. The songs are catchy and I always find myself humming a tune or using a quote from this movie on the daily.

“The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it”

Rafiki the Baboon.

Rafiki is the baboon you see at the beginning of the movie holding up baby Simba. He is seen through the movie has being a close companion of Mufasa, Simba, and the lions of the Pride Lands. He is considered the Advisor to Mufasa and all future KIngs. This quote sums up all of his wisdom. Bad things happen, learn what you can and keep moving forward.

I must add at the end of this, the Honourable Mention here would have to be Pixar’s Brave. It is one of the first, if not the first movie I can recall have nothing to do with a princess finding her prince in the end. I love how this movie brings together the tale of a a mother and daughter’s bond growing stronger through adversity. Yes I did shed a few tears at the end of this one.

In Conclusion, Disney has so many many memorable movies and this list is just 5 of my favourite animated ones. What movies did you grow up with? What one do you remember seeing and have take hold of you?.

Have an Amazing week everyone, and much love for taking the time to read my post, Thank you.