Moving

This week we are moving to our new house so I really have not been doing anything else except prepare for that. I will be back online with more post's as soon as I can. In the mean time, Happy Easter and please don't forget what we are celebrating. Just a hint, it is not a bunny who lays eggs. (Where did that even come from anyway?) Till next time :)

Post Baby #2

I thought I would do a small update on my progress and feelings about my post baby body. So as of yesterday I have 8 more lbs to loose to get to my post baby weight, I don't like to focus on the number because my body is so different now but I am so close! A few days ago I tried on a pair of pants that I haven't been able to wear since my first trimester (before belly) and to my surprise they FIT! Now I still don't look as good in them as I want but they are on and up over my hips and ....... gasp....... buttoned with no muffin!!! This was a big self esteem boost, so as I am continuing to drop the lbs (thanks breast feeding!) I need to work on my self image. It feels great to get back in my pants, well just one pair at least. I still need to grow to love my new self, the stretch marks are not pretty and instead of obsessing to get rid of them I am slowing growing to accept and maybe even love them.
I am proud to be a Mother. I know not everyone has that chance and so as I look at the reminders on my body after a long hard day with my strong willed (but very sweet) tot, I am reminded of what a miracle God has blessed me with. Suddenly I am not so upset and with each day and week that passes, these marks turn more and more beautiful in my eyes. You will not however see me in a bikini this summer, these marks are special to me and do not need to be made public. Also, as a Mother of 2 boys I have a different kind of awareness and do not want to encourage them to oogle over girls in bikini's because Mom wears one so its OK. (Its ok if that doesn't make sense to you) I still probably have more days of feeling less than I should be but I realize it is a growing process and takes time. I am not on a mission to erase the reminders on my body but to feel healthy and strong to keep up with my growing family (and it would be nice to not have to buy a whole new wardrobe). :)

I have a lot of growing and self realization to do and I will keep you posted on my journey in this. Today is a good day and I am happy to say that with a smile. :) We are all in this together!

Budget Discipline

This is a tough topic for me as I like the occasional splurge or spontaneous purchase but as we are buying a house I need to be very disciplined in what I purchase. I think this is the only week I have stayed on budget for groceries as I have finally found a tip that works for me! I want to share it with you. This is a very simple, non complicated thing to do and that is what I like.
So first off, when making your shopping list and meal planning take a look at your pantry. Try and use what you have first and plan meals around that.
Then make your list and look for coupons (I just look at ones I get in the paper and see if I can combine it with ingredients I already have as I plan meals) I am not into the extreme couponing so this works for me.
Now this is where I usually mess up and I have figured out how to stay on track. I would go to the store and normally get everything I need plus some and get to the register and ooooops I am over budget. Well no more! I have discovered this neat little invention called a calculator! It is right on my phone and as I walk through and pull my items I add it into the calculator and it lets me know how I am on budget and if I need to scrap an item or two. By the time I get to the register there are no surprises  This worked so well for me that last week I actually came in $4 under budget!!! (YAY Me) I know there are more tips and ideas out there for a healthy budget so do some research, this is what I found works best for me.

So give it a try if you have struggled like I did and don't want to do anything complicated. Take that calculator and stay on budget!! Make your hubby proud, I know I did. :)

Stubborn Tot

Ok Mommies of the world, raise your hand if you have a very independent, stubborn toddler!
For this reason I have not made a post in a few days and this morning I felt it would be a good subject for discussion. Those of you who are not yet at this stage I would say to prepare yourself and those who are already past this stage and are laughing I say, laugh it up and enjoy. :)
My 3 year old is stubborn on almost everything you can imagine but for time sake I am going to tell you about the 2 most difficult ones in our house right now. These have been the first thing we struggle with when we wake up and the last thing we are at odds with when we go to bed. So, here is the first:
FOOD! My kid does NOT like to eat when we are eating! Not only that, he will not eat the foods we are eating either. These foods he will eat when he wants to but NEVER when we are eating them for a meal. He is so stubborn (and I LOVE him to pieces) that he will go to bed hungry if I don't fix him what he wants (most times this is a non nutritional meal). That has been fine and dandy with me because I am thinking he will get hungry enough and eat what was offered to him. We were sooooo wrong! He not only has refused to eat but has lost a little weight and complaining that he doesn't feel good. We have only been trying this for the last 2 weeks. So now I have tremendous amount of Mommy guilt (which I feel on a regular basis) and I am completely changing my approach. He likes smoothies so I am going to make him drink his nutrition and calories so we can gain back that weight and get those good foods in him. Then he can have the foods he likes to eat and get the good stuff. (Thanks Mom for the blender) Wish us luck! I love this kid more than anything and I worry all the time if I am doing what I need to as a Mom to give him a happy, healthy life and by trial and error we will get there! He is my first born anyway and I don't remember receiving a  handbook when I had him on how to deal with the power struggles.
Ok, on to number two of our stubbornness: He has been potty trained for number one for a long time now but he has NEVER went number 2 in the toilet! He will do it in his underwear and in a pull-up at nigh but won't even attempt it in the toilet! (Please tell me we are not the only ones dealing with this) He will hold it until he literally cannot go so then I need to give him medicine. We have tried rewards, stickers, books, songs, special Daddy date, teaching him how the body works, talking about where it goes after it leaves our body, making him sit on the toilet, making him sit in the mess, making him clean it up, washing him off in the shower (turns out he enjoys that)....Everything we can think of and this kid just doesn't want to. I have resolved to the approach of just dropping the whole thing, maybe if I do not mention or bring it up in any way he will forget about it and maybe one day when he sits to go number one he will be relaxed enough that number two will just fall out then an epiphany will happen and problem solved! I can only hope right? (sigh) Feel free to leave any suggestions or ideas you may have, I am up to hearing some other approaches. I am so in love with these boys of mine but sometimes I need a Mommy vent. Thanks for lending the ear (or eyes in this case).

Pinterest Fail

This was one I hoping would be a success but to my surprise it was a big fail!
Here is the Pinterest post:

RepinEdit

Throw 2 sliced apples, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon in the bottom of the crock pot. Pour 2 cups of oatmeal and 4 cups of water on top. Do NOT stir. Cook overnight for 8 - 9 hours on low

Ok, First, I prepared all the ingredients mentioned above, don't mind the dirty crock pot. 

Then I put it all in the crock pot in the order it said and this is what it looked liked 

After the 8 hour cooking time this is what I ended up with

Looks are deceiving, It was bland and really mushy. The 8 hours pretty much turned the apples into applesauce and was absorbed by the oatmeal. I had to add a lot more sugar to just make it a little sweet and even the home made whipped cream and Ice cream did not save this. ( I figured it would turn out like a cobbler of some sort... nope). I felt wrong eating it as dessert because I had just made an 8 hour oatmeal! I think that is why they say to cook it over night so you can wake up and have a nice gooey, bland oatmeal for breakfast but not as a dessert. 

This is a FAIL!

(too bad, it looked really yummy) 

Apartment Frustration

Today is going to be a bit of venting. Ok, a lot of venting! We are temporarily living in an apartment until our house is completed and let me tell you I am SICK of it!
As a Mother I am extra sick of it and here is why. We have a very active 3 year old who needs a lot of space and we have only a small patio for him to play. We are on the ground level and our neighbors above us also have kids but no bed time (at least that is what the noise is telling us), running and jumping all day into the late evening and I have even heard them jumping and running into the early, early morning when I wake to feed our baby! They also like to throw their junk  stuff off their patio and it lands right in front of ours where it looks like it came from us and we could get a fine for it.
The windows leak and are growing MOLD! (eewww) and it is so hard for me to keep or oldest away from the window sill because he likes to drive his cars on it. He does not understand what mold is so I just tell him it is yucky and dirty, don't touch it! (yeah right Mommy) Also with little ones I am concerned about the air quality and don't just want a worker coming in and splashing paint on it (it looks like that is how they dealt with it in the past). (ugh)
Oh, and on bright sunny days with little or no wind our power goes out! This happens almost on a daily basis . Is this crazy or what?? I am sure there are worse stories of apartment living and feel free to share yours, I would love to hear some experiences you have had and some advice on how I can make it through these next four weeks without loosing my mind. haha

Thank you for listening to my rant, I do feel much better! Don't forget to place your vote on the right side bar! I am working on some Pinterest recipes and will have those post's coming soon. Also more on a product I LOVE for Chemical Free living called NORWEX. Thanks to those who have voted, keep it up!

Motivate

Hi There,
Today I have added a Poll on the right side bar of my blog. Please view the question and click your interest's. Now, the topics I have included in the options are not there because I am an expert on them in fact the opposite. These are areas in my life that I would like to learn more about and improve so by you clicking and me researching and talking about them and sharing my experiences I know will be motivation for me. I hope that it turns into motivation for you as well. These post's will come sprinkled in between my daily post's as I learn more about them. I like to think of myself as a self starter but I have an overload of ideas and projects I want to do that I cannot narrow it down and thus I end up doing none of them. Keep checking back because those options will change often as I discover new and exciting passions in my life. Feel free to join me and do your own research and share your experiences, I would love to hear what you think. 

So True....Made me Laugh

Enjoy your day! 

Post Baby

My Post Baby Mission Struggle
So, many of you know that I have two beautiful boys, my oldest Andrew is 3 (who has been dealing with croup for the past 2 days, boo to croup! Mommy needs a nap)  and our youngest is 2 months.
I now have a closet full of clothes that don't fit (no surprise there) and I don't have the money to go buy a new wardrobe at this moment. We are in the process of buying a home so money is real tight (more to come on that later) I am so close to fitting in my jeans again and by close I mean about 2 inches unbuttoned and a MASSIVE overflow of muffin top when buttoned without being able to sit or really even walk. IF only my muffin looked this yummy.....
I have decided it would be a whole lot cheaper to just work off those last couple of inches since I am tired of wearing stretchy waste pants, but I don't really like working out and I do love my muffins, pun intended.  Dilemma, What am I going to do? I will tell you!
I am creating my own exercise routines since I don't like anyone telling me what to do. Here is today's work out, very short + high energy = energy boost! Now I will warn you that if you read further you will then be obligated to stand up and do this short work out before continuing onto FB or pinterest.  (I am no professional so we will see if this works) READY SET GO!

-20 jumping jacks
-10 burpees
-15 lunges
-15 jumping jacks

Now go grab a glass of water and continue on. Keep it honest people! Lets get those blue jeans back on, its small but its a start!

Here We Go

Hello blogging world! I have to be honest from the start, if you choose to read and follow my blog than you will be in the front row seat viewing my daily thoughts, struggles, projects and journey. You see, I read and research from time to time and have come to the conclusion that there are way to many blogs out there that portray a very perfect, simple life as a Mom. I find myself comparing what they do and what I don't do and end up feeling less than. Who else has felt this way? Not just through blogging but through other social media. We all know that Mom down the street that seems to always have time to throw on a cute (and stylish) outfit with full make up and hair while carting her children around town with various activities and shopping, house is spotless and meals are healthy and beautiful. That is all fine and dandy but is it reality? Take it from me, I have tried this and yes, i was successful in about 80% of it (Don't own any really stylish clothes) but at the end of the day I found myself exhausted and not fulfilled as I had expected. Is that how joy and happiness looks like in their life? (which is great if it is) Maybe so but not mine, spending time with my boys in yoga pants and a T-shirt, park outings, letting the house get messy from play, cooking grilled cheese sandwiches and dinosaur chicken nuggets with love (of course). This is just the tip of the iceberg of what joy and happiness looks like in my life. I have come to realize and acknowledge the blessings and things I have instead of wishing for things I think I need or want. This brings me to the reason I am starting this blog. I plan to share my raw, real thoughts and emotion, encouragement as well as some fun projects (successes and fails). My hope is to offer you with someone to relate with, laughter, tears and support as we take this journey together as Mothers in this glamorized, fast paced world.  We tend to loose sight of who we really are as we try and keep up but remember ladies you have a divine calling and are a daughter of God. Anyway, Don't miss understand me, I am not saying let yourself go. I am just saying don't do it for anyone else's standard but take care of yourself the way that makes you empowered as a woman. This is me.

Thank's for your support in advance, I promise not all posts will be so serious so keep checking back. You might be surprised on what you find.