my mom, retirement and a food change

here we all are.  three generations of the mullies.   my sister katie just visited from colorado with her super sweet family for a wonderful, long weekend.  we all (my dad really went all out) threw my mom a sweet retirement party at my house to celebrate 33 years of teaching kindergarten.  can you believe that?  that's over 1000 children whose lives she touched at 6 years old.  she is one popular person when we go out shopping together around town.

she is so excited for this new chapter, this new pace of retirement.  though, i don't think she plans on slowing down anytime soon.  

change is a funny thing.  sometimes you're ready for it, sometimes you're not.  

when i jumped into our food change 10 months ago i had a little bit of resistance from her in the beginning.  i think the family and social fall-out was the hardest to contend with in the beginning, middle and always...  

to top it all off, my parents live next door so my new food rules were a constant tazer gun in.the.face.  

here is how it went in a nutshell from sept 8th - nov/dec 2012:

me:  

mom, we are extremely limiting refined sugar and we also can't have any artificial colors, preservatives, gluten or dairy right now cuz i'm going to see if this makes a difference with abbie's ADHD and sensory processing symptoms in the classroom.  kay?

mom:  

come again?

are you nuts!?  

what are the kids going to eat!?  

they look gaunt already! (that was said on day 2... HA!)

what can i feed them!?  what can they eat!?

where are they going to get their calcium?  

what is gluten anyways?  

what's wrong with artificial color and preservatives?

i've never seen or heard of this working in all my years as a teacher, but ok, give it a try and i hope it works:)

she was a skeptic to say the least... as was most everyone else.  

my dad jumped right on board my crazy train.  cuz he pretty much does whatever i tell him to do... and he had been trying to find the magic cure for his GERD & stomach ailments for years.  see, he and i get a tad overly excited sometimes: "this is the BEST THING EVER!!!!  you have to try it!!!!" my mom just waits it out to see if we crash and burn.  she shares her opinion, but let's us go.  if we fly back to the nest with some feathers missing, she fixes us up and we charge onwards together with a little "i told you so".  if our bright new idea succeeds, she becomes our strongest ally and will devour anyone who gets in our way.  it works out pretty well, this arrangement of ours.  

my mom is my biggest advocate/supporter/partner now.  as a veteran teacher of 33 years, she's seen a lot of kiddos similar to our abbie.  however, she hasn't been a grandparent to any of them, so this was a tricky situation.  i would ask her to evaluate abbie's reading countless times throughout kindergarten and first grade to double check what was going on in the classroom.  we both knew something was wrong with her ability to pay attention and to stay focused.  she couldn't even get abbie to focus or read for her.  and she gets e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e to read.  when i chose the food change path she feared i chose the wrong one.  i can't blame her, for she was only familiar with the path i was so very afraid to travel down.  

she watched the tantrums at my table escalate, she came over to scrutinize the new dishes i began preparing.  she tried everything i made, the good the bad and the ugly.  she watched my abbie transform before her very, watchful, judgmental eyes.  on the flip side, i got to watch both abbie and mom transform...  boy o boy it was scary at first to be alone in the first car of my newly designed roller coaster.  chris had one leg out of the second car, clutching his peanut m&m's.  my dad had his hands in the air yelping for joy in the third.  my screaming kids had their hands over their eyes in the middle cars and my hot mamas cheered me on from the rear.  my mom patiently waited with a tool belt on the platform as the maiden voyage ran it's course, speeding through some super dark tunnels.  would we come out of space mountain alive!?  

so here we are today.  we're all on a lazy river together, coasting along (with an occasional rapid or two) getting wet and feeling the sun on our faces.  the roller coaster waits for now.  it's summer time and it's time to celebrate.  

thank you mom.  thank you for being next to me, watching me with your tool belt ready to go if it didn't work.  thank you for jumping into the coaster with me so quickly when you realized it was working.  thank you for sharing my success story with your co-workers and families who were interested in hearing about it all.  i'm so happy you're here with me.  i don't want one moment to slip by of your retirement.  cheers to our next mom and cheers to your shrinking waistline... 

you and dad are looking HOT.HOT.HOT.  way to turn back the clock.

100 years

let's not wait.  it's a blink of an eye.

oh miss briana, you are the one and only couture caterer and i am so honored that you are my fellow jamie oliver food ambassador and the fashionista of food.  you truly outdid yourself.  this was my family's first catered party and it was a homerun.  thank you so much!  we will never forget what you created for us!

is your mouth on the floor or what?  this was one.exquisite.cake.  not only on the outside but the inside was literally the best cake i've ever tasted.  really, it was.  it was such a work of art nobody wanted to cut it open!

it made her cry she loved it so much.

just in case you want one for yourself too.  tina can pretty much can do anything in the universe with a cake.  thank you from the bottom of my heart.  it was the magical icing of the party:)

yup, we're sisters...

and we have a calendar in place to keep mom busy through 2020:)  hee hee!

now, go have a lovely 4th of july and celebrate with everyone you love.

oh my lovely america, happy birthday and i'm looking forward to helping your stars and stripes get even brighter in the coming year.

the mullies are lighting it up and not waiting for the next 100 to pass us by without some action jackson.

light.it.up.

xoxo




ps

just in case you're wondering... did this real food party follow all of the food guidelines i cook by?

nope... but it was pretty darn close as it was all cooked from scratch!!!  yea baby yea.

remember, it's not about perfection.