Welcome to the first ever Mom Spotlight. Every Friday, I will be highlighting a Supermom reader. A community grows when people start to open up and share with one another. My hope for this weekly feature is that we find yet another avenue of relatability, similar to “The Confessional” , where we begin to see how despite our differences, we really are all in this together. Maybe you’ll laugh…maybe you’ll get an idea or two….maybe you’ll find a new friend. I’ll be the first to step up and share some of the details of my life with you all. Here we go!

The Basics:

Name: Bekki Lindner….okay, technically my name is “Rebekah”, but you can’t call me that…

Age: hanging onto my twenties for a few more months…

Kids: Hannah (nearly 5), Henry (2 1/2), Harrison (2 months)

Hometown: Vancouver, Washington (currently in Washougal, Washington)

Kid Stuff:

Children’s TV show I actually LIKE: Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood – I LOVE that show and am so delighted that it is still on for my children to enjoy. (as a sidenote, I HIGHLY recommend “The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers by Amy Hollingsworth.)

My children are NOT allowed to watch: SpongeBob and any of the tween shows on Disney

One kids’ movie I really love is: any of the older live-action Disney movies like Pollyanna, Mary Poppins, etc.

My favorite book(s) to read to my kids are: the books I used to read as a kid. I love reading my old Little Golden books, classics like Corduroy, Caps for Sale, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs…I also love to read my daughter chapter books like Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Charlotte’s Web, Little House on the Prairie, Five Children and It, Matilda….SOOOO much good children’s literature out there!

My kids go to bed: between 7:30 and 8:00 (Yep, our little man just started going down with the big kids!! We’ve re-claimed our evenings!)

My favorite rainy day activity is: a toss-up between baking with the kids or creating a “reading fort.”  (Yep, that sounds dorky, but whenever I made a fort as a kid, it was a “reading” fort. ) So, we hang blankets, get a big stack of books, pillows, a snack, and cuddle up and read books in our little cave. It’s awesome.

When it’s warm out: I love to get outside with the kids. We set up the pool or the sprinkler, ride bikes, play on the swingset, or relax in the hammock. I also love to have little picnics out in the yard at lunch time. Last summer,we set up the tent and played in it during the day.

My favorite kid friendly restaurants are: Sonic and Red Robin. We like to do Sonic in the summer, and sit outside. Plus, it’s so cheap that we can get the kids little ice cream sundaes when they finish their food. Red Robin has food the kids like, and it’s usually so loud in there, that no one really notices (or cares) if your kids are being noisy.

Let’s Eat:

The pantry item I absolutely cannot live without is: rice. Hard  to believe since I wouldn’t eat it until mid high-school, but I use it in my cooking all the time, and it is one component of a meal I can count on my kids eating. So, be it Minute or Basmati, we just love rice.

My go-to weeknight dinner is: Dippers (This is basically home-made Spanish rice with chicken that you scoop up with tortilla chips instead of a spoon. It’s delicious, and we all LOVE it. My husband and I called it “Dippers” one night when we were first married, and the name sort of stuck.)

My go-to company meal is: Creamy Chicken Enchiladas or Cranberry Chicken (recipes to come when I hit 500 followers…I can’t give away the farm just yet…)

The food I pretend to buy for the kids that is really for me is: Goldfish crackers and Fruit by the Foot….I also like Gushers…

My food weakness is: nachos! I have a serious obsession for all things nacho….Seriously, put anything on a chip, and I’m your girl.

I am not myself in the morning until I’ve had my cup of: Diet Coke….Seriously, God bless Diet Coke.

ME:

Before I was a mom: I was a teacher. I’ve taught second grade, LAP, and kindergarten. I loved the classroom, and plan on going back in 2016, when Harrison starts kindergarten.

Aside from my kids, I am PASSIONATE about: writing! I LOVE to write, and feel like I communicate best through my writing. I make it a point to write every day and love being able to share some of my writing with you!  I also love photography (so much so my husband and I started our own photog business.)

If I had a whole day all to myself, I would: love to say that I would just nap and read, etc…BUT, in all honesty I’d probably use the time to clean, organize, do my grad school homework, etc….That or waste the day watching ridiculous shows on Bravo..

My absolute most favorite movie of all time is: The Pursuit of Happyness – If you want a true story of hope…and want to believe again that anything is possible, and good things CAN come to people who work hard, you MUST watch this…Every time we start to feel like all hope is lost or that our situation won’t turn around, we pop in this movie…LOVE it!

My favorite TV show is: 30 Rock, The Office, Chuck, Big Bang, or Grey’s Anatomy…

My celebrity crush is: Zachary Levi, Fabio from Top Chef, or 1970’s Chevy Chase (yes, you heard me…don’t hate.)

If you were to put my ipod on shuffle, you’d likely hear: Dashboard Confessional, Dave Matthews, Brett Dennen, Coldplay, Gavin DeGraw, and a smattering of the punk/emo music I listened to in college.

The best book I ever read was: well, The Bible. Aside from that, “Catcher in the Rye,” “The Help,” “The Book Thief,” anything by Hermann Hesse…I LOVE to read, so I could pretty much talk about books all day….If you want a complete list of books I love, friend me on goodreads.com

My spouse and I keep romance alive by: putting our kids to bed early every night. We look forward to 7:30, because we know the night is OURS. We also try to have a date whenever we can convince someone to watch our kids…We also turn non-date scenarios into mini-dates..Since we work together with our photography business, we will grab a bite, or take a walk before heading home after a shoot

My favorite place to shop is:…I haven’t shopped in a long time! I do like Kohls, Target, and Old Navy…

I am sent to my breaking point when: the house gets messy…even little messes raise my stress level…also don’t do so hot when someone is mean to my husband or my children…(AND, I really dislike someone else disciplining my kids.)

When I’m stressed out I: clean…sort of like a crazy person..I’ll just whip out my Mr. Clean spray and start going to town on any counter I can find…I vacuum neurotically and start picking up any and every toy I can see..I figure if life is spinning out of control, at least it can spin out of control in a crazy-clean house. EVERYTHING is a little bit better in a clean house.

My favorite (most tolerated) way to exercise is: ..well…I’m trying to like running…even started the Couch to 5K program…still not my big favorite, but I’m trying..

The best piece of advice I ever received was: never wait until your kids are asleep to do something you can do while they are awake. (So I don’t…ever…this simple little advice has been a huge life-saver.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit about myself with all of you! Can’t wait to put the spotlight on some of you!!