{"id":16693,"date":"2019-02-17T11:34:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T16:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/?p=16693"},"modified":"2019-02-17T11:34:29","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T16:34:29","slug":"what-i-love-this-week-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/what-i-love-this-week-6\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Love This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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my go-to, all natural cold remedy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always been fairly sentimental, but since the arrival of my baby boy I\u2019ve found myself really doubling down on the happy tears. Once a day I\u2019ll look at James or at Daniel and my heart will swell and my eyes will pool and I’ll clear my throat in preparation to give a speech about how much they mean to me, at which point they’ll both kind of look at me like, here she goes again<\/em>. So you can imagine that Valentine\u2019s Day really did a number on me. James and I made a card for Daniel (look at me already forcing him to craft with his mother!), we baked and frosted sugar cookies, and I read him the poem that Daniel gave me 15 Valentine\u2019s Days ago. I\u2019ve become a caricature of a mom, moved to tears by every little thing, and I can’t help it. It\u2019s one thing to know that the love surrounding you is everything you could ever want or need and it\u2019s another to feel<\/em> it, you know? I remember in 2015 when Daniel and I got back together, thinking, ohhh right this<\/strong> is what life is for<\/em>. THIS<\/em> is the point of all of it. And I remember this peace washing over me\u2014the only word I can use to describe it, like I could die the next day knowing that I\u2019d gotten to experience the best love of any version of my life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel it more and more these days. I feel it when Daniel and I are sitting at the kitchen table, talking after we put James to bed, or when Daniel sits James in the little seat across from him and shakes his hand like he\u2019s walking into a job interview, saying, \u201cOh hey Jim thanks for coming in today. We looked over your resume and just had a few questions about your job history. It says here\u2026\u201d For some reason it really cracks James up. I feel it when I’m holding James during his naps and he’s just staring at me and I’m staring at him and I say “I love you. I love you. I love you so much.” over and over as if the more I say it the more he’ll feel it. I feel it every time I take out my frustration on Daniel and he responds calmly, lovingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t have a point to make here, believe it or not, and that’s probably what’s making you wonder how insufferable I can truly get. I’m on a powerful mix of NyQuil and DayQuil and starting to think that my brain is what’s running out my nose and into the 10 million tissues I’ve used. But if I did<\/em> have a point, I guess it would be that for the first time in…my whole life maybe?,<\/em> I have an awareness that all of these small, unremarkable, completely cost-free moments with my husband and son are actually the only truly remarkable moments I’ll ever even consider when I’m on my deathbed. I won’t be regaling my grandkids with tales of my New York Times bestseller or how I lost a bunch of weight and looked pretty good for a period of time, I’ll be telling them how their dad used to poop all over me and laugh. It’s a gift to know this. And I know you know this already, because you, too, have this extraordinary life of completely un-extraordinary moments. These are the good old days. That’s all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And wow oh my god is anyone still reading? Have your eyes rolled so far back in your head that you can’t even see the screen? I’m sorry! And I understand! I’ll be back next week with something less insufferable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’ve made it abundantly clear that I\u2019m easy-breezy, haven’t I? Great. So here\u2019s one more thing I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about: how to best help my children navigate their emotions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Help Teens Weather Their Emotional Storms<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time I stop myself from trying to figure out what made a teenager upset, and focus instead on her right to just be upset, I find that doing so either solves the problem or helps clear the path to dealing with it.

It\u2019s critical to recognize that when we react to psychological distress as though it\u2019s a fire that needs to be put out, we frighten our teenagers and usually make matters worse. Reacting instead with the understanding that emotions usually have their own life cycle \u2014 coming as waves that surge and fall \u2014 sends adolescents the reassuring message that they aren\u2019t broken; in fact, they\u2019re self-correcting.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Noni: A Grandmother\u2019s Journey<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My best friend Sabrina is pregnant, due in a couple of months!, and her mom, Toni, started a blog about grandmotherhood. Is that just the sweetest thing you\u2019ve ever heard? Her posts are so full of love and humor. I can\u2019t wait to see her become a grandma. Check it out: Noni: A Grandmother’s Journey  <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LISTEN <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the perks of never going to bed early in middle and high school was staying up late enough to watch Late Night with Conan O\u2019Brien<\/em>. I love Conan and his style of absurd, awkward, self-deprecating humor. After hearing him on Armchair Expert a couple of months ago, I was happy to discover he now has a podcast: Conan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend. It\u2019s silly and generally light with lots of great guests, and as usual, Conan never fails to make me laugh out loud.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gladiator<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boston Globe\u2019s Spotlight Team, best known for its investigation of the sexual abuse scandal inside the Catholic Church, takes a hard look at the crisis facing football through the lens of Aaron Hernandez\u2019s life and terrible crimes. Did a brain badly damaged by football contribute to Hernandez\u2019s violent behavior? Did he keep secrets about his sexuality that collided with a hyper-masculine football culture? Did elite coaches and teams look the other way as Hernandez was spiraling out of control? Spotlight uncovered new documents, audio, and interviews to go deep into the story of what happened to Aaron Hernandez, and what it means for those of us who cheer on a violent game.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WATCH<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Far From the Tree<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a profound and moving documentary this is. It\u2019s a fascinating, heart-opening lesson in compassion. (You can watch it on Hulu or rent it on Amazon.)
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on The New York Times bestseller by Andrew Solomon<\/a>, Far From the Tree is an intimate, profoundly human look at families raising children society deems \u201cabnormal\u201d: a mother and son determined to show the world that his Down syndrome does not define him; a couple learning to communicate with their bright but nonverbal autistic son; a young woman dealing with what it means to be the only little person in her family; and parents whose deep love for their son persists even after he has committed an unspeakable crime. Tracing their joys, challenges, tragedies, and triumphs, Far From the Tree invites viewers to rethink what it means to be a \u201cnormal family.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRY<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cleaning your makeup brushes with a trivet! <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAKE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie Soup<\/a>
Turkey, Spinach and Hummus Roll Ups with Spiralized Cucumber Noodles<\/a>
Sheet Pan Shrimp Fajitas<\/a>
Cashew Basil Chicken Lettuce Wraps<\/a>
Low-Carb Chicken Parmesan Gnocchi Bake<\/a>
Herbed Salmon Pita Pockets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve always been fairly sentimental, but since the arrival of my baby boy I\u2019ve found myself really doubling down on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[999],"tags":[1182],"class_list":["post-16693","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-what-i-love-this-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}