Happy Mother's Day

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What does your mom mean to you? What does being a mom mean to you?

A little late I know, but I hear late is better than never. So, happy Mother's Day! The lovely Nicole from Her and Nicole had the wonderful idea to ask a bunch of women what their mom, and being a mom, meant to them. This is what I answered.

My mom

...is the source of my inspiration. She made me who I am today and sets an extraordinary example for me. She always believes in me and gives me all the support I could ever wish for. Merci maman, je t'aime beaucoup!

Being a mom

...has put my entire existence back into perspective. It makes me understand what life is really all about; and I rediscover it through the innocent eyes of my child. As a mom, I learned what true happiness is and to love unconditionally. I also discovered my inner strength, and my ability to put another being's needs before my own. I am so fortunate to have an angel in my life.

Spinach, Lemon and Avocado Salad

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I've never been the type of person that enjoys cooking for hours (unless sugar is involved). This is probably why most of my recipes only contain 3 essential ingredients (like strawberries & cream, rice pudding, banana peanut butter milkshake, surprise cheese snacks and blueberry chocolate explosion). Now that I'm a mom, I have even less time to cook and often end up forgetting to eat because I'm so concerned about giving my son all he needs. Lately, I often resort to this quick salad for lunch. It's packed with nutrients, and boosts the immune system to boot; what more could a new mom want?

Ingredients

1 Avocado
1 Lemon
1 Handful of baby spinach

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Steps

1. Cut the lemon & avocado. I added a touch of salt. Yum.

2. Squeeze the juice of half the lemon on the spinach.

3. Decorate with the leftover lemon slices and add diced avocado.

4. Enjoy your quick healthy meal packed with nutrients and immune boosting goodness.

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Nature Untouched

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Can you believe that there still exists places with no internet? Better yet, with no electricity? Well, believe it, my family's cabin is one of these places. Every opportunity we get, we go there. Speaking of which, this is where we spent Easter and in the summer, it's where we go berry picking.

You don't realize how much background noise there is in your home until it's not there anymore. Seriously. It's actually kind of scary when you hear complete silence. Did you know that your body creates anti wavelengths to cancel out the sound of background electricity and surrounding household/city noise? When it disappears your body feels so much lighter and less tense.

Going there in the winter is quite an adventure. Since there is no electricity, the water pipes are frozen... Which means, no warm water for showers (actually, that means no water, period) and don't get me started on going to the bathroom! What we do is we dig a big hole in the lake and fill up huge buckets (melting snow works too, ah!). We boil the water on our heavy-duty slow-combustion iron stove and wash ourselves with a hand towel. For drinking, we bring bottled water.

Winter days up here are very short; the sun sets at around 4pm. After dark we don't go outside much, because with no street lights, it's dark. Very dark. Like, really really really dark. We will usually have supper shortly after, around 5 or 6. Bed time is usually not long to follow. It's amazing how quickly you get tired when you don't have good lighting (propane lights as opposed to electric fixtures).

This is me pulling my son around on the frozen lake. He loves his sled. The weather was absolutely amazing and the sun was shining, we just had to spend some quality time outside. Breathing. Pure. Air. Is. So. Yum.

The cabin is actually quite old. It reached 100 years a while back (the chapel is a few years younger). There's a few other cabins around the lake, owned by old family friends or extended family members. In the summer, every Sunday, we go to the chapel and read texts out of the bible together as a community. Afterwards we gather around outside for a while and chat, just like old times. What is your favorite place to go to relax?

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