As I sit out on our back patio, sleeves rolled up, hot pink toenail polish drying, and my daughter is sitting next to me playing with cookie dough scented kinetic sand, I am completely drawing a blank on what to write. I never draw a blank. I typically have an idea. The only thing I can seem to focus on is this sun finally giving my body some color, how cute my daughter is, and how much I am craving a chocolate chip cookie right now with smelling this sand! But I can’t write about that, or can I?

Ten minutes ago, she asked if I would put fake nails on her after we painted our toes. I told her it depended on time because I still had to get tacos ready for dinner and finish writing. She curled her bottom lip and said, “But Momma!!” The bottom lip always works!

“Listen here, little lady, it might work on your dad, but it doesn’t work on me 100%,” I said.

She’s cute and all, but this whole curl my lower lip and bat those baby browns can’t always work. For example. Asking my kids what they would like for breakfast. My daughter’s response. “Can I please have a Poptart, cereal, and pancakes?”

“Um, let me think about that. NO.”

“No fair! Why!?” she said.

This child loves sweets. And when I say love, times that by five hundred and thirty-six. That gets us closer to just how much she loves sweets.

“Kenzy, you can’t have all that for breakfast because it’s all sugar! I’ll give you just one of those things with an egg or multigrain toast, but not all three. Pick your poison, sister; what will it be?”

“Um, let me think about this. I guess I’ll just have pancakes with extra syrup.”

Little does she know that Momma started buying lite pancake syrup with HALF the sugar content, and it still tastes amazing!

“OK, I’ll get your pancakes ready, and some scrambled egg.”

When I was pregnant with my son, I craved salty stuff. My son is not a big sweets person but loves anything salty. With my daughter, I craved sweets, which is crazy because I was never a big sweets person. I craved ice cream all the time — preferably Eder’s cookie dough or McDonald’s vanilla ice cream cones. Every time we were out, I’d ask my husband if we could stop on the way home at McDonald’s. “Again!?” he would ask. “It’s not for me! It’s for the baby.”

He would always take me, but it was so strange for me to be craving anything sweet!

My Momma is a big sweet person too. She always says Kenzy is just like her. Kenz would eat a sleeve of Oreos just for lunch if I let her. My mom would love a TastyKake with an orange for lunch. (See where I get the adding fruit to anything helps weigh out the bad in the other food?? Haha!!) My Momma doesn’t eat very much, though, and neither does Kenz. When you like sweets, you like sweets! I still love Eder’s ice cream and enjoy a Pyrex bowl once a week. Once in a while, as it gets warmer, it could be two, but who’s to judge? Y’all know how much I used to eat it before I started losing weight. I honestly try to find healthier options for things I love. Like the pancake syrup! Now, I even made new healthy pancakes that the whole family really enjoyed. It’s OK to love sweets! It’s even OK to have it for breakfast. I just wouldn’t eat a sleeve of Oreos for lunch — need to try to contain yourself there. But hey, Oreo Thins are actually pretty darn good. If you want one or two with lunch, go for it. I definitely recommend these pancakes, though. Delicious!!

Healthy 7 Ingredient Pancakes

Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup milk (your choice)
• 1 banana
• 1 ½ cups of rolled oats (I used Quaker Quick Oats)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Some honey or other sweetener

Mix in a blender or really well by hand. Cook on medium heat. Flip after 2 minutes. Cook 1 more minute on the other side.