Sending love for Lucy Marlett

I had a chance of knowing this amazing family and their daughter Lucy Marlett a few weeks ago when I stumbled over their website.

http://allthemarletts.blogspot.com/

**Photo courtesy of the allthemarletts.blogspot.com site.

Ever since I started reading about their life the past few years and knowing Lucy (their youngest  daughter) and the whole family's journey, I think about them and pray for them every single day.

Lucy is their youngest and she has been diagnosed with Mitochondrial disease since birth.  Ever since Lucy was born, this amazing family started a new journey to give Lucy the best of life, and the sacrifices that each of them has to make shows how love can move mountains.

"Mitochondrial disease is a group of disorders caused by dysfunctional mitochondria, the organelles that generate energy for the cell.  Mitochondria are found in every cell of the human body except red blood cells and convert the energy of food molecules into the ATP that powers most cell functions."  -- Wikipedia

I've been so emotionally affected the past several weeks and not a single day that I do not have this family and Lucy in my prayers.  This year, Nicole and Drew (Mom and Dad) has to make the hardest decision every parent will probably think as the worst kind of pain - letting go of their child.    I admire their bravery, courage, faith and enormous love they have in their hearts to make this decision which at the end of the day, is what's best for little Lucy.  (I am bawling again writing this blog).

Nicole said in one of her post "the hardest part of loving someone is letting go" and it hit home real hard.  I cannot imagine the heartache.

Life is too short.  Alot of times unfair.  We really need to embrace every little moment and all the people around us, especially our family and friends.  The Marlett family gave me a renewed outlook in life.  I look at my own son and my family and my heart overflow with so much joy and love.  My family is my home.  And I am pretty sure Lucy feels and knows that she will always be loved and be at home wherever it is that she goes. 

The Marletts are requesting for anyone who wants to send their love for Lucy to send hearts, cards, notes that will show Lucy and the family how much we all suppor them.  I am sending my care package this week and you can all send yours in this address:

Nemours A. I. DuPont Hospital for Children

℅ Lucy Marlett Room 3708

1600 Rockland Road
Wilmington, DE 19803

 

Showing my love and support for Lucy by putting this button up in my blogsite.

 

 <center> <a href="http://allthemarletts.blogspot.com/"> <img src="http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z104/danielle982/09%20BLOGS/NicoleMarlettButton.png" /> </a></center>

 

Apollo on duty with yard work & floor care

So, moving to a bigger house with a big yard means alot of work.  This is probably the biggest house I've lived in and knowing my obsession with organizing (and cleaning and clearing), I'm up for the challenge!

Today, we started clearing out the yard as, obviously, the last owners of this house looks like they never even touched the rake or the mower, not once. 

 

So I put the two boys - Ryan and Apollo - to work.  Our little helper Apollo is proving to be quite a good worker and I think starting them young in helping with the cleaning and organizing will help prepare them to be clean and organized.

He was also helping with polishing up the new hardwood floors!  What a trooper! :)

Best Cheat Day Brunch ever

Roger is the brother of my mom here in the US, Jan.  Jan is my father-in-law's wife, Ryan's step mom.  Jan and Roger are a few of the greatest people I've met. 

Roger bakes these amazing nut and raisin bread and they are so fluffy and moist and it's so good if eaten plain, with butter, jam or cream cheese (which is my fave!).

Today is my cheat day so I indulged in this delicious bread with cream cheese and my favorite coffee of all time - DD!

Need to get the recipe, it's delicious!  After eating a slice, now I am in a baking mood...  hmmm what to bake?

2014 - New Year - New Me - New Blog

I've been known to NOT stick to new year's resolution and as much as i would to start the year or my so called resolutions on the 1st of Jan every year, I don't.  So let me document this date Jan 13th 2014 as the day that I will start my goals for this year!

Goal # 1 - Move to a new house.  Wait, I already did! :)  I am happy to announce that we did move a bigger, btter space for our family that is now starting to feel at home.  And the great thing about this is we moved on the 1st of January this year! Been here for almost 2 weeks now and it's starting to feel like home.  Watch out for another blog and I am trying to finish all the unpacking and figuring out what stuff we need.  We need alot! 

Here are a couple of photos of the front and back of this split-level foyer house that we got this year.  I am so excited because 1) Apollo now has his own room, 2) Joey got a bigger space for his animals  and 3)  the house and yard is huge!   I don't care about the cleaning coz it's just like going to therapy for me and I love the hardwood floors.  Wait did I tell you we got hardwood floors? :)

Goal # 2 - Decorate the new house.  I do not know even know how to start talking about my ideas for the house.  If you have read a few my inconsistent updates about our life and my attempts at blogging about my DIY, arts, crafts, cooking, family, etc.. then you probably have an idea that I am an artsy craftsy person.  Which brings me to my next goal...

Goal # 3 - Redesign the herronsweethome blogsite!  I have so many ideas and I just need to organize them.  However, before I start organizing, I give my full committment to my blogsite.  Hopefully apologies are accepted for my inconsistency the past few years to update my blog page.

Goal # 4 - Healthier and Wealthier Family.  To bullet point a few of our plans -

• Continue with our weight loss and healthy lifestyle journey
• Work on new exercise routines.  Ryan and I have not really talked about what kind of activities we want to do this year.  He was planning on going back to the gym but with both our work schedules, I dont think we will be able to do it together. 
• Update meal plan and budget for Q1 2014.  One quarter at a time.  The past 3 weeks, we've been eating alot of junk because of the most-blamed-weight-gain-season-of-the-year The Holidays and the fact that we ahve been packing and moving.  We've been eating junk pretty much.  Well, now that we are starting to settle down in the house, I started cooking "real" healthy food again and would like to redo my meal calendar. 
• Couponing!  I stopped couponing for a year.  Well I still use coupons but I do not clip them like crazy like I used to.
• Repurpose / Recycle / Reuse - With a bigger house, we found ourselves, needing alot of stuff.  Game plan - buy second hand items and repurpose, recycle and reuse them!  Soo excited because this time we also have a huge garage which I will convert into a workshop so we can build things.  Oh happy day!

Goal # 5 - Organize, organize, organize.  With the new house, I cannot wait to redo my organization of all the stuff in the house.  Now that I have different locations (and more space yay!) here in the new house, I will have to work on new organization ideas.

These are my goals for 2014.  Can you share me yours? :)

DAY 3- 5 - AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge.

Soo I had a great long weekend with my husband and the kids, which is why I didn't get the chance to post my progress and daily log of my cleansing. 

take note that on Day 5 I was in the kitchen grilling burgers on my griddle, baked a cheesecake and made 2 lbs of cheesey hash brown casserole.  It was so tough because I have to refrain from tasting my food several times while making it. 



DAY 3 (August 31, 2013)

6:30 AM - Woke up and peed.  I did not take measurements this time, I will wait for the 11th and 24th day.

6:30 AM - Spark + 3 Catalyst (total of 2 cups of water)

7:00 AM - Breakfast - Replacement Shake

9:30 AM - 10:00 AM - Fat Burning Cardio with Shaun T (HipHop Abs)

10:00 AM - downed 2 cups of water

10:30 AM - snacked  on  1/4 cup of almonds + 1 cup of water

12:30 AM - 2 Omegaplex + Lunch - salad (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, flax seed, 1/2 a cup of scrambbled eggs in lemon vinaigrette) + 2 cups of water

2:30 PM - Spark + 3 Catalyst

4:00 PM - 2 cups of water + 2 slices of cantaloupe

6:30 PM - 2 Omegaplex + salad (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, flax seed, 1/2 hard boiled egg + 1/3 cup of turkey breast in lemon vinaigrette ) + 2 cups of water

9:00 PM - snacked on about 6 pieces  of cashews  = 1 cup of water

10:30 PM - Herbal Cleanse tablet + 1 cup of water


DAY 4 (Sept 1, 2013)

 8:00 AM - Woke up and peed.  I did not take measurements this time, I will wait for the 11th and 24th day.

8:30 AM - Spark + 3 Catalyst (total of 2 cups of water)

9:00 AM - Breakfast - 1 slice of cantaloupe + 1/2 hard boiled egg +2 cups of water

10:30 AM - 2 cups of water



12:30 PM - 2 Omegaplex + Lunch -salad (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, flax seed, 1/2 hard boiled egg + 1/3 cup of turkey breast in lemon vinaigrette ) + 2 cups of water


3:30 PM - Spark + 3 Catalyst

5:00 PM - 2 cups of water

7:00 PM - 2 Omegaplex + Dinner:  Tofu fried in olive oil and stir fried veggies (eggplant, snap peas, brusell sprouts, onions)

9:30 PM - Herbal Cleanse tablet + 1 cup of water

10:30 PM - snacked on a few cashews + cantaloupe



DAY 5 (Sept 2, 2013)

7:00 AM - Woke up and peed.  I did not take measurements this time, I will wait for the 11th and 24th day.

7:30 AM - Spark + 3 Catalyst (total of 2 cups of water)

8:00 AM - Breakfast - 1 slice of cantaloupe + left over tofu

10:30 AM - 2 cups of water

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM - fat  burning cardi with Shaun T (HipHop Abs) + 50 s+ 10 kneeling push ups

12:30 PM - 2 Omegaplex + Lunch -salad (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, flax seed, 1 hard boiled egg   in lemon vinaigrette ) + 2 cups of water

3:30 PM - Spark + 3 Catalyst

5:00 PM - 2 cups of water

7:00 PM - 2 Omegaplex + Dinner:  2 oz of beef  hamburger (73% lean cheat day!) + 1/4 cup of baby bella mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and leftover stir fried veggies + 1 small teaspoon of cheesecake.  RED ALERT:  It's Joey's 17th birthday pre-celebration so I have to taste the food that I made lol  

9:30 PM - ate a bowl of watermelon ( so good!) and 7 pieces of cashew + 1 cup1 of water

10:30 PM - Herbal Cleanse tablet + 1 cup of water