Confession: I am not happy all the time. Good thing too, I believe if you are happy all the time you are actually considered crazy!  I think I’m happy more often than not but other emotions are important too. I took my kids to see Disney/Pixar’s movie Inside Out. Have you seen it? 

  
It’s a pretty good movie. Not my favourite Pixar movie by far but I really liked their message about the importance of having not only joy in your life. The movie shows how important those other emotions of fear, disgust, anger and in particular sadness compliment the emotion of joy. 

Right now I do feel sad. My mother died last week and I am very sad. I miss her so much and I’m really not prepared to not have her in my life anymore. I talked to her everyday. I can’t believe I can’t call her. I can’t call her to tell her about my day, or my kids, or just to ask her how long and what temperature to cook a roast. I am sad. This past week, I’ve had moments of anger and fear. I know that this will continue for quite sometime, but it still really sucks. Our time together was just too short. 

  
I can still find joy in my memories of her. She was a great mother who gave me a great childhood filled with over the top birthday parties and homemade cookies. She was someone who loved to bake and share food. She sent handwritten cards to everyone for every occasion. She was filled with warmth and love- she will be greatly missed. There is a big hole in the lives of all that knew her now that she is gone. 

In this time of sadness, I need to force myself to take care of myself. I tend to get lazy about eating. I’ll eat cheese and crackers or a handful to corn chips and call it lunch. This is a major weakness of mine. I, sometimes just can’t make the effort to eat something healthy. This is not new for me. When I was super busy during the school year, I always made sure I had something healthy for lunch since I knew I would be rushed. I have found that since summer vacation has started (even before my mother’s death), I was being super lazy about my lunches. I made this salad a few weeks ago and I think I’m going to make it again because it’s super packed with nutrition and it keeps well in the fridge, so I can grab a bowl for lunch without much effort. It’s called Quinoa Salad with Feta Cheese. Here are the ingredients:

For The Salad:

1 cup of quinoa

2 cups water

1 can (14oz) garbanzo beans, drained

½ cup red roasted peppers, sliced into strips

¼ cup yellow roasted peppers, sliced into strips (I couldn’t find these so I just used more roasted red peppers)

3 tablespoons thinly sliced onion

¼ cup chopped cilantro, plus more for garnishing

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

For The Dressing:

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

½ teaspoon minced garlic

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground white pepper

¼ cup cilantro leaves

⅓ cup olive oil

  
You can find the directions here. 

Choose happy (but it’s okay to be sad) 😊😢