Just a quick link

I happened across this old blog from 2011 that touches on something that I have thought about time and time again. Being friends with your child. One person in the comments states my thoughts perfectly, that there is a difference between being friends and being approval seeking. There was also the comment about the bizarre expectation of society that we should only be friends with peers in our age group. I never meshed with that, but I was told I was odd bc I preferred older friends, which never made sense to me. Just do yourself a favor and take two minutes to read it through.

For the love of mommy

Wow, I completely missed posting last month! Would you believe me if I said I was picked up in the middle of the light by some aliens? No? Well then, bully for you for not believing a cock and bull story like that. Just don’t ask MEwhat happened to me last month…I’m just old and forgetful like that I suppose.

Now, onto today’s post. My apologies that after so long and I’m posting about something personal that probably won’t be of much help. It has been on my mind for a while now, but I feel I’m finally at a good place in my life that making a change is now acceptable.

A little back story: I have always struggled with my weight. My first memory of being made fun of for my weight is fourth grade by an evil little red headed beauty named Sara Seitz, by the way Sara, if your reading this, I still think you suck for that. So, like I said….all my life. So I know that a lot of this is genetics, but that doesn’t make it impossible, only more difficult.
Back in 2008 I signed up with Quick Weight Loss Centers and on a 4 year journey I lost my goal weight (and then some!) and was into a size 4 (even smaller actually, as the 4’s were getting big, but it didn’t last long enough for me to buy a smaller size) which truly proved to me that it WAS possible and I could beat the odds regardless of my genetic coding. However it was not to last. In May 2011 I discovered I was expecting my first child, something that meant the world to me, as it was something we didn’t think would ever happen for us. As you can imagine, I wanted to do everything right and risk nothing to protect my newly forming babe. When I went to my next QWLC visit, I explained that I was expecting and the girl looked at me with such horror and told me I had to get off plan as it wasn’t healthy for my growing child. As you can imagine this was about the scariest thing I could hear, so I stopped everything that I was doing, had been doing for four years and foolishly did….well, the opposite of all that. I discovered during this time that is next to zero books available strictly on pregnancy nutrition.
While I did have a slightly higher than normal weight gain throughout my pregnancy I stayed within a healthy range…… until the last month and a half. (because my littles was just way to comfy eating like the Queen of Sheba that she decided to wait an extra couple of weeks). That last month and a half were horrible. I couldn’t even tell you how much weight I gained, but I just suddenly blew up. Nothing fit, I was a hormonal wreck, I just wanted to get that baby out!to keep my baby safe and happy so I carried on as unstressed as possible, which was very difficult at times. I told myself I would start dieting immediately after baby arrived and gave myself 9 months to lose the weight, it took 9 months to put it in, so that was a realistic expectation, right? Wrong. I failed to factor in that I would have the most precious thing in the world to take care of and that she wouldn’t allow me sufficient time to meal plan, cook meals that required more that 5 minutes prep time, oh yeah, and sleep. So there I was, your typical frazzled new mom trying to do everything right for her child and never giving up hope of eventually feeling secure that I was doing it “right”.

“Oh yeah!” I realized 6 months later, I was going to try and do something about this weight! Ha! It’s now been 18 months and I’ve lost total 30lbs since dd (dear daughters) arrival. i failed to mention that I gained around 100lbs during my pregnancy. So yeah. Time to fix that. Now that dd is older and more independent and I no longer feel the need to check that she’s breathing in the middle of the night (just kidding…I still do, and probably will when she’s 16 too) I feel that now is a good time for me to gradually start taking back a little of my time. She will ofcourse continue to be my sole focus, but I think I can manage things a bit more without feeling like she is having to deal with less mommy love. I may never be a size 4 again, but I would take getting out of sizes that begin with an X at this point. I’ll be starting a new blog focusing on my weight loss journey with all the sordid details that I will link back to here shortly for those that are interested. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!

UPDATE: My other Blog is now up, and can be found at www.fortheloveofmommy.wordpress.com  It is blank at the moment as ittle bits woke up before I could put up my firsts post 🙂

A DIY changing pad!

We are preparing to fly out with the little goose again, and one thing that I was dreading was the airport and general public diaper changing stations.Now that my little goose is 16 months old, I knew that there was no way the diaper changing pads that I currently own would provide enough coverage. I’m not a major “germaphobe” by any means, but I just think there are some germs that you should stay away from. In my despair, I remembered a DIY tutorial that I had found on Pinterest several months ago (Don’t you just LOVE Pinterest!?!?) So I linked back to a great blog here showing how to make a roll up diaper changing pad from a vinyl table cloth. I was inspired! Instead of making mine a circle, I used a changing pad that I already had and altered it. It was rectangular, so I had to make my own pattern….what a pain in the neck that was. First time I’ve EVER patterned, so I guess I should say that the journey was difficult, but the end result was wonderful. Way to be positive, right? 🙂

so lets begin:

here you can see my makeshift pattern. I used cardstock paper that I taped together and traced out 4″ all around from my original changing pad. I cut this out 2x from the table cloth for the base of the changing pad. (I know, I know, I’m SOOOO fancy, but don’t worry, you can be successful with just about any material you have at home 😉 )

Next is my diaper pocket/top piece that I simply came in 6″ from the edge of my first pattern piece (sorry, I CLEARLY don’t know what the proper names of these pieces are, or if there are any, so my apologies if my lack of propriety offends you) and cut out the center. I ran out of cardstock, so some lovely used tissue paper came into play.

I then sewed the 2 full pieces together, then I sewed on the original diaper changing pad to the “base” piece, put the bias tape on the inside trim of the frame/pocket, sewed the top frame/pocket piece to the base, then sewed the two pockets, per the original pattern (see link in first paragraph) which is basically just sewing 4″ in so that your diaper pad has a look of three panels to it. Then I added the bias tape to the trim of the outside of the completed changing pad. I also added a hair tie/ponytail holder to it and a button so secure the closure. There are different ways of accomplishing this, but since I completely forgot that I needed to include this when planning it all out (duh!) I had to improvise the best way possible. I know it sounds tricky, but please, follow the original link for a much more clearly outlined instruction detail. As previously mentioned…..I am a mere novice. Anyway, here are the completed project pictures for your enjoyment. My apologies for my lack of instructional pictures…..I really didn’t think it was going to come out. 🙂

here is the completed “back” of the changing pad.

and here is the completed “front” you can see the original diaper pad in the center…the plain brown bit…

Here you can see the diaper pocket. and yes, it rolls up very nicely with the diapers in there. I would recommend a malleable pack of wipes for this as well. Those small travel size ones in the plastic bag packaging? yeah, those are great for this!

Here it is with both sides folded in towards the center before being rolled up.

and lastly, here it is with the botton and hair tie closure secured.

And thats it! I hope you enjoyed this, and if you make it too or post on your blog about it, please share a link in the comments so I can see what you did with it! 🙂

You made Avocado….WHAT?!?!

So last weekend i bought a giant bunch of beautiful beets at the farmers market. i came home, admired them, then i realized i had NEVER made anything EVER using beets. I was beside myself. I know that my parents used to make pickled beets, and picked eggs, and just plain boiled beets, but none of these options appealed to me. Finally last night I remembered that a friend of mine raved about her beet curry, and how even her kiddos loved it. I figured it was worth a shot. Let me just say this is not a recipe for those who like an easy in and out sort of recipe (like me!) between the peeling, grating, peeling (onions this time) and chopping (tomatoes) and the dirty dishes and beet juice that just seemed to get all over everything, I was in the kitchen all night. Anyway, the point of sharing this is that I got the genius idea to reserve some of that lovely beet purply-red color and I will be using it to naturally dye some Easter eggs! Once I find out more info, I may even save it for food coloring throughout the year. I’m curious if freezing would be a good method of preserving it, as I don’t do much food coloring normally. I know that I will use some for Easter eggs, some I will use as a natural dye for babies homemade finger paint, but I’m sure I will have some left over even after that. Hopefully I can update you soon on this endeavor.

Anyway, the purpose of today’s blog is to share with you a new yummy recipe that I found on Pinterest and have been hesitant to try. Avocado Brownies. This is not a new concept, I have seen avocado sweet potato brownie recipes several times and various versions of avocado brownies, but I really liked the “layout” of this one, as it was closely related to a regular brownie recipe and I wouldn’t have to veer that far out of my comfort zone. This is the recipe I found on Pinterest originally, but my modifications were as follows: I wasn’t totally comfortable with a whole cup of sugar, so I used 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup stevia for baking. I also didn’t have avocado oil so I used 2 tbsp. almond oil and 1 tbsp coconut oil. It turned out VERY nicely. I also didn’t use the icing. I just wanted a nice plain brownie that I really felt I could fool people (including myself) with. If I could have done anything different, it would have been to more thoroughly mash the avocado in step 1. I get the occasional speck of green every now and then, which I don’t mind, but it takes away from the illusion, so if you are giving them to particularly persnickety kids or husbands, they may only buy until the first green sighting. Anyway, pictures! You’ll have to forgive me, as we had already dipped in before I thought to take any, and it was dark out, so I didn’t even have good lighting. But alas, I share with you the ooey gooey chocolatey yumminess.:)

Don’t you just love our zig-zaggy cuts? Lol. Clearly convention was just tossed out the window with this one.
Oh! I almost forgot, these would be GREAT fun for St. Patrick’s day! And the green chunks would probably even be acceptable by the family. 🙂
Have a good weekend!

Homemade body spritz!

Finally, a nice, simple body spray recipe! http://sincerelywhitney.com/2013/03/12/organic-living-body-mist-diy/

Boo-boo’s happen

My darling baby Z decided to randomly conk daddy in the forehead with her upper lip. This did not end well for either party involved. Baby is crying, daddy feels guilty , then baby starts bleeding, and I never saw a grown man turn white so fast in my life. However, being the clever momma that I am (sometimes) I applied pressure and ice as best as I could on my wriggling, head turning tot, then decided it was time to head to the nurses station, aka….the kitchen. My initial thought was applying turmeric, but that was luckily only for a hairsplit of a second on my walk to the kitchen, and by the time I reached the kitchen, I had muddled through my brain and decided on honey. Local, raw, organic honey to be precise. Several things drew me to this conclusion. First, was a recollection of the time my dear baby Z decided to face plant a chair leg around 7 months old. I absolutely panicked. We weren’t home, we were at a friends house for a dinner party, and I had left my precious baby with a friends older teenage daughter while I went to grab a cup of tea. The cup wasn’t even full when I heard the cry, and recognized it right away. I was there in a dash (later I was told that my response time was rather remarkable actually) and quickly picked up my screaming in pain baby and was, as previously mentioned, panicked, and began calling out for my dear friend whose opinion I trusted completely, at that time more than ever, as all sense of first aid training had completely left me. Yes, this was a terrible time for that to happen, but that is reality. Anyway, my friend dipped her finger in sugar and stuck it in my daughters mouth. This was to stop the bleeding and distract all in one fell swoop, she was kind enough to explain. Upon research later on, I discovered that the sugar really doesn’t do anything other than the distraction part. The medical side of it was a bit of an old wives tale. But at the time it happened, she was my hero,and I will eternally be grateful for her help in my absolute moment of need.
Now, my second reasoning was that I had already used honey as a salve on cuts, burns and infections with amazing results, so I figured it was worth a shot. I had my husband place my once again crying and bleeding tot on the counter and dipped my finger in honey and applied. She almost immediately stopped crying, and the bleeding stopped immediately too (which I didn’t expect, but it was a nice surprise). I applied it like this maybe 4-5 times, and she was calm and ready to just snuggle and forget the whole incident. This was not to be. She tried falling asleep, but she uses a dummy (a habit I’m working at breaking. Ironically enough, this was the night I was going to try putting her to sleep WITHOUT using the dummy, but I figured such a harrowing experience earned a last night with her source of comfort) as it turns out, the dummy(aka a Pacifier) only caused to rub her new injury leading to another round of crying (luckily no bleeding) so I left hubby to sooth her while I went back to the honey, dipped out a tablespoon into a small jar, and proceeded to add about 3 drops of tea tree oil to it, gave it a good mix with the spoon,and apply to the lip again. This time we had definite success, as she soon fell asleep (again with the dummy)and stayed asleep. I’m happy to report that there have been no incidents since, and the lip, despite its misfortune, is not even the slightest bit swollen. However, I did keep her foods rather soft today just to be safe. Also, a bit later after the incident occurred and she was sound asleep, I remembered the newly frozen strawberries that were sitting in my freezer that would have made a great “ice pack” that she might have actually kept in long enough to have any effect. I’ll have to remember that for next time. God forbid.

So, to recap:
If your child is over one year of age, and you are comfortable giving honey, then by all means, when the next split lip occurs, and your determined that everything saying that there’s nothing you can do for your child in these circumstances, must be wrong, don’t be afraid to apply a little bit of honey. You should always use local honey, because of the benefits listed here , and here , and here …….you get the picture. Do a google search. The Internet is a great tool, and knowledge is power.

Anyway, that’s all for today! Cheers!

P.s. there has to be a comical honey boo boo reference in here somewhere, but I can’t put it together. And for the record, no, I don’t watch that show.

The all time worry of motherhood