celebrating – The Nugget Life

Letting him lead

Published on January 30, 2017January 30, 2017 by littlenuggetbignugget3 Comments

I’ve had this blog post sitting in my drafts. I considered not sharing it being that it’s not relevant to the now, and thought of waiting until this year’s holidays to update and publish it, but I found it important to have it as a reference for myself.

It feels like the holidays were months ago, when really, it hasn’t been two months since all the craziness. I’d love your feedback on our approach to the holidays and to hear how you celebrate with your family. (When I write “holidays” I mean any of them, not only Christmas.)

Josh and I aren’t “big” on celebrating holidays, those that know us might even add birthdays as well. Since moving in together — almost eight years ago — we’ve never decorated for a holiday including Christmas. It’s not that we’re against holidays, nor do we frown upon those who choose to go all out, it’s simply what works best for us. For example, storing decorations isn’t very practical for our attempt at a more minimalistic lifestyle, especially living in a small apartment. Some may see this as a boring or even sad approach to the holiday season, but there’s a method to our madness. Isn’t there always? At least for us there is.

Decorating for the holidays was easy to avoid for the first three years of Little Nugget’s life. He didn’t know the difference. However, 2016 was a little different. Little Nugget did ask for a Christmas tree last year. I think homeschooling him helped with the simplicity of his request. There were no requests for specific toys, Santa visits, or elaborate decorations because there weren’t outside influences. All he wanted was a Christmas tree, and for this we were grateful. Makes us sound like scrooges doesn’t it? Let me explain.

We don’t want our Nuggets’ definition of Christmas, or any holiday, to be defined by what is advertised on television, in Target toy magazines, or at a traditional school. We want our Nuggets’ understanding of any holiday to come from our family’s morals, values, and gratitude for each other above anything else. When Little Nugget asked for a Christmas tree, we packed ourselves in the car, drove to Home Depot, and gave Little Nugget the freedom to choose the tree he wanted. Like many, we went as a family … and this was the most important part.

I appreciate the way Josh put our approach to the holidays — we are allowing Little Nugget to lead how our family will celebrate. Well, in the meantime, until Z Nugget learns to voice her opinion. We will adjust and evolve our approach as the Nuggets grow and learn more about the world around them. We are grateful to have the ability to be the main influence in our Nuggets’ lives and look forward to the challenges and successes that we will encounter as we journey this path with them.

Cheers to having control of how we parent!

I appreciate that Little Nugget chose a rosemary bush as our Christmas tree because we now have something to invest our time in as a family. Our hope for this tree is to nurture it throughout the year and bring it indoors to admire when the appropriate time comes. We will not only celebrate the unity of our family with the reminder of the holiday later this year, but we will also see proof of it as our tree thrives.

To listen to the audio version of this post, click below.

My piece of pumpkin pie

Published on November 21, 2016 by littlenuggetbignuggetLeave a comment

It’s 10:32 PM. Everyone in my household is asleep including our dog Alvin. I’m eating a piece of pumpkin pie in celebration of myself. It sounds pompous, I know, but that is not my intention. Just earlier I baked some mushrooms with baby tomatoes for dinner, baked a cake for Z Nugg (to celebrate her with my family tomorrow), marinated some chicken for tomorrow’s dinner, and freed our kitchen sink from our dirty dishes. I’m pretty darn proud of myself—hence the pumpkin pie—but not because of any of the aforementioned. I’m really proud, not of all the things I’ve crossed off of my to-do list, but of the fact that I am raising two amazing human beings. Of course, I can’t take all the credit. Josh, my family, and the rest of my village are a tremendous help on a daily basis.

Allow me further explain why I am indulging in this celebratory piece of pie.

You know how I wrote about how I was “avoiding the bitter”? Well, after a day of celebrating Z Nugg’s first birthday and Little Nugget’s fourth birthday at my in-laws’ house today, I felt butterflies in my stomach and my emotions cloud up. It started on the drive home—it’s an hour drive for us, so I had time to think and get emotional. We had peacefully and intimately celebrated the birth of my babies; however, the one that got to me the most, the one that caused me to cry, was Z Nugg’s birthday.

When we got home, I had to rotate Z Nugg’s clothes because I had procrastinated long enough and she had no warm clothing to wear the next day. At one point, I was sitting on the floor folding the clothes, Josh walked by the room and saw me distraught. He entered the room and asked me what was wrong. I let him know I was trying to keep it together, described the butterflies in my stomach, and further explained where I was coming from…my baby—who at the moment was speedily trekking around the apartment mumbling and handing out smiles as if it was her job—was one year old. Although she will forever be my baby, she is technically no long a baby. I got up from the floor and hugged Josh. I stuffed my face in his shoulder, wrapped my arms around him, and cried. There they were, the bitter emotions I was trying to avoid had surfaced and I had no option but to tackle them. Josh let me cry as hard as I needed and then offered me words of love and gratitude. He mentioned how proud he was of me for our children. I hugged him tight as if that would pause time. Oh, how I wish it was possible to pause time!

The bitter emotions hurt so good, especially now that I was letting them be. Josh and I let go of each other and he did one of my favorite things he does for me when I am in need of support, he called our Nuggets over and requested that they give me a hug. The sweet quickly followed bitter.

I’m so grateful for my life. All of it.

Cheers to the bitter and the sweet and everything in between!

Each Nugget had their own candles to blow out.

If I could sum my life up in one picture, it would be a picture of us four.

Thank you Tia Jocelyn for her adorable pops!

3 years from 2012

Published on November 9, 2015 by littlenuggetbignuggetLeave a comment

I can hardly believe that I became a mother to a beautiful baby boy three. years. ago! Being pregnant, I had forgotten that Little Nugget was growing older as Zion baked in the oven. This brought about the question, how will I keep track of both of my children’s growth? Special moments? I guess I just have to continue doing what I do and document what I love about them when I can.

It was the day before Little Nugget’s birthday, and he had started crying about everything. It was his queue to put him down for a nap. He had woken up 15 minutes shy of 7 am that morning, and it was almost noon, so yeah, it was time for him to get some shut-eye. He complied, however, not without demanding that I lay down with him. I didn’t mind, really, as my eyes felt tired and I promised myself I’d take advantage of Little Nugget’s naps to rest with him before Zion came.

I laid down with Little Nugget, but instead of closing my eyes to fall asleep, I just stared at him watching him drift off to wherever a sleeping toddler’s mind goes. I couldn’t bring myself to fall asleep. I absorbed the way his lips cracked open, the way his eyes twitched, the way his chest rose and fell with every breath. It was such a bittersweet moment. I had watched him sleep like this often as a newborn and infant, and now the times I got to do this with him as a toddler were rare. The moments were distant, and they would only get farther and farther apart. There will be a day (sooner than I’d like) when he will be taller than me and he will need a space bigger than his toddler bed to sleep in. Bed-sharing will not be much of an option then. I felt a familiar ache in my heart. The ache was in addition to the pride I felt for the little boy God had made me a mother to.

If you’ve followed my blog long enough, you know that we aren’t big party people, so again, we didn’t do anything big for Little Nugget. Josh’s family had a small birthday party for him a couple of weeks ago, and on his actual birthday, we celebrated by riding the Yuba Mundo to brunch and then to my parent’s house to cut the cake I made for him.

His birthday cake from his party at his grandparents’ house a couple of weeks ago. They couldn’t have chosen a better picture.

I love this picture because his little side profile has always brought my heart so much love.

I love these next two pictures because Little Nugget doesn’t have enough pictures with his dad.

When uploading this image to the post, Little Nugget said, “I love daddy SO much!” I pray he never looses the passion in his voice when he tells us he loves us.