Here goes...again

Our computer finally gave up. It had been on it's death bed for quite some time but we were trying to make it hold on since buying something new was not in the budget. We decided to give up on the pc and went for an iPad since we mainly Internet surf at home. Let me tell you, it's a whole new world! There is an app for everything and no flash player (who knew that flash player is used for such much?).
So this is my second attempt to blog from the iPad...I downloaded an app and hopefully this one works well since I had to pay for it. I'm going to attempt some pictures...

Grocery Store Struggles.

Today was grocery store day. I went prepared with my list and my reusable bags and this morning the hubby got to come along to help! The Little One loves the grocery store but it is sometimes difficult to shop with her so I was thankful for the extra hands.

When we reached the eggs I grabbed the organic eggs. My husband quickly noted the significant price difference. My response was yes but it is important for us to put more healthful food into our bodies rather than eggs that have come from chickens who are fed a diet with hormones and have no access to the outside. My husband is frugal with a degree in finance so paying more for food can sometimes be a battle. He really has to be convinced that it is really important and even then I think it pains him to know what we pay for certain items in comparison to mainstream. This is why he usually does not participate in the grocery shopping.
I won't lie I still cringe when I compare prices or when conventional items are on sale and organic seems to NEVER be on sale. For example those really good deals where conventional chicken is $1.99/lb I am tempted to just give in and stock up on cheap chicken.

Since the Little One has entered the picture I have gotten much more passionate about food and nutrition. I really enjoy cooking now and reading about our food system. I worry about what goes into her little body and I want to do my best to give her the healthiest start that I can. I read this post awhile back about how as the one who does the grocery shopping and the majority of the cooking I am responsible for the health of my family. That is a huge responsibility and one that I take very seriously. This is why I take the extra time to make whole wheat rolls from scratch, bread from scratch, make my own chicken broth, granola bars and to buy as much organic produce as I can afford! So we do pay more for some items but it is worth it to me to do my part to keep those I love healthy.

This is not to say that delivery pizza does not show up in our house or that we completely abstain from fast food because we don't! I love a good pizza and as long as it is in moderation I'm OK with it.

Homemade garlic and rosemary rolls, mmmmm

If you are on the fence about processed food or organic vs. conventional produce I STRONGLY recommend watching Food inc.. Knowing what is going into your body and where it comes from is empowering!

She enjoyed her sample of the roll!

Grumpy mornings and Seperation Anxiety.

You know how I said I missed sleeping in and being on time? Well I really missed those things today. Getting us all out of the house for church on Sunday morning is always a challenge, but lately it seems to have gotten worse. Both the mister and I woke up grumpy this morning, it probably had something to do with the Little One waking up at 6:00am for the past two mornings instead of her usual 7:00am. We get through the morning and I put the Little One down for a nap-she got a good hour in before I had to wake her up, but because I HATE to wake a sleeping baby I didn't go in until late, which of course makes us late to church. This usually isn't a big deal but when we're both grumpy everything is a big deal.

The Little One's separation anxiety is getting worse. The hubby and I had a date night last night (the second one since the Little One's arrival) and my sister and her hubby came out to babysit. All was well until after dinner when she decided she was done for the day- maybe because she woke up an hour earlier than usual. My sister called to tell me she wouldn't go to sleep and was quite upset, thankfully we were already on our way home. Once we got home she calmed down and I put her to bed no problem. Then this morning in church the nursery worker came to get me and let me know that she was screaming and inconsolable, so we got her, calmed her down and headed home. It was the end of the service so we didn't miss anything but we barely got to talk to anyone but the people in the nursery since we got there late and left early.

I think we are slowly rebounding and everyone is feeling much better this afternoon but gosh I'm wondering if we are ever going to be able to go out to dinner AND a movie.

Happy Earth Day!

On this Earth Day I thought I would share with you a few ways our family attempts to be ‘green’. In this last year we have made a lot of changes in this area and I am so glad we have. It seems that the ‘green’ thing is quite trendy but we have not made these changes to keep up with the Jones but to have a healthier family and to do our part to take care of the earth that God has blessed us with. I believe that we should be good stewards of what we are given, our planet included. We still have a long way to go but here is what we do:

Recycle

Compost

Make our own laundry detergent 

Make our own all purpose cleaner

Cloth diaper our Little One

Use re-usable baby wipes

Use a clothesline instead of our dryer

Grow some of our own vegetables in our organic garden

Buy organic produce for the most part.

We do our best to fix or re-purpose what we have instead of buying new

This year I hope we make more changes that will help us lessen our carbon footprint and make us a healthier family!

I'm back!

Yes I know it's been awhile. There are lots of excuses, the main one being that the computer got a virus and I thought I had lost ALL of my pictures. Yes there was some yelling and lots of calls to the husband to see if he could help me fix it. He couldn't. Luckily someone at church who is much more computer savvy offered to fix it right up, and she did! Yay for no lost files and a usable computer!

Update on what's going on in our little world. The roof is still not done, it is the never ending project. I cannot wait until it is over with and all cleaned up. Our yard looks like a mini tornado went through it with all of the debris.

The Little One is doing great, she is learning so fast and getting the mobility thing down WAY too fast. She is getting into everything, I had to move one of the lamps out of her room since she pulled it down twice. I think I took her lack of mobility for granted those first couple of months- she is wearing me out, and it is only going to get worse!  Right now she is attempting to crawl into her car seat and is yelling about it. She has also cut two teeth! Eating has become a little bit easier now.

This was the very first time she pulled up on anything!

We had a lovely Easter! We went to church all dressed up in our Springy clothes, including the Little One. However she did not leave in her pretty clothes since she of course, peed all over them. We dried them out and salvaged them for pictures later. We ate of yummy lunch and had an egg hunt with the husband's parents and the aunts, uncles and nephews.


This week is the hubby's birthday! I'm excited to celebrate with him and there will be no shortage of celebrating! On his birthday there will be our little family celebration, then on Friday a dinner with his side of the family and then on Sunday we will celebrate again with my side of the family! Lucky man he is!

Feeling Blessed.

This past week we started the project of re-roofing out home. Let me tell you, this is a BIG project. I was quite skeptical about us taking this on even though we have had experience with roofing before. Both of us attended a church summer camp during middle/high school that did home repair, including roofing, for individuals in need. We both ended up working at that camp as staff for several summers after high school and got a decent amount of experience. Even with this knowledge (or because of it) it made me nervous to do our own home. So we called a couple of companies and had them come out and give us a quote for what it would cost to roof our home and had my dad help us get a quote for the materials if we were to do it ourselves. The cost difference was quite SIGNIFICANT and what the materials cost was going to be was around what our tax refund was this year. So we are re-roofing our house. 

My dad has much more experience with roofs than we do and has been spearheading the project. I have been little to no help on the actual roofing since there is a Little One to watch and our roof is something steep! I used to be able to get up on a roof no problem, but not any more. 

 I knew that my husband and my dad wouldn't be able to complete the project on their own but I wasn't sure we would be able to get enough help (one of the reasons I was nervous about doing this) but I was wrong to worry. We have had people from my husband's work and people from our church out almost everyday that we have been working on this roof. 

We are so blessed. It is always amazing to me how God continues to provide for us even when we doubt that He will. The roof is not done but I am confident that it will be soon.

Time Flies.

 We have been going through a BUSY time here, hence the lack of blogging. My sister-in-law got married this past weekend and this week we have been replacing our own roof and my immune system has evidently gone on strike.

The Little One is growing like a weed and acquiring new skills way too fast for my liking. This week marks seven months since she made her entrance into the world. Here are a few things that she is doing:

She babbles Mama. I know she doesn't know what it means yet but it still melts my heart

Scooting around doing 'the worm' was her main form or mobility but she now does the text book baby crawl.

She has also gotten down how to go from crawling to sitting and vice versa.

Last week she pulled up! She is now attempting to pull up on everything.

She has taken to solids and feeds herself, her favorites are carrots, oranges, spinach and potatoes. She does not enjoy bread or pancakes- I will take this healthy eating while I can! 

The Little One with one of her best friends!

Time is flying, I cannot believe it is already spring! I am behind on so much and I'm trying to catch up. In the next week or so I hope to get our spring garden going and add some items to the etsy shop. We will see how it goes. I hope things slow down a bit soon!

Desire.

A few days ago I was having a conversation with a younger person and some how we got onto the topic of what they wanted in life. It went something like this, a house with a big yard to play with their kids in, a nice car, a boat and maybe a beach house. 

I can remember when these were things that I very much wanted for my life as well. Not to say that I would not enjoy these things if we had them but there are things that I want more for our life. 

I want a family that is full of love, for each other and for the Lord. I want to fill our little home with children who are in need of a family. I want to serve the Lord passionately and radically. I'm not sure what that looks like for our family just yet but these are the things I desire right now.

Isn't it funny how God changes our dreams? He created us for love and to serve him and it isn't until we are doing those things that we are truly fulfilled. I would love to say that those are my only desires and God has made me content with exactly where we are.

I very much struggle with being content with what we have right now, that little part of me always seems to want more. I hate those thoughts that go something like this:

"Wouldn't it be nice if we had better cars that didn't have to have the bumper duct taped on?"

"Wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about finances and we had 'enough' money" 

"Wouldn't it be nice if..." there are all kinds of thoughts like this, but I have to keep reminding myself that I am learning to trust that God will provide for us, He has never let us go without before. He is slowly changing my heart, it is very slow, as I am a bit stubborn. 

Has God changed your dreams?

I hope she comes to know and love this story

Home is Where the Heart is

Last weekend I was able to be help host a bridal shower for my sweet sister-in-law. I was co-hosting with two other lovely ladies, her sister and good friend. We split up the planning between the three of us which made things very manageable for this momma. My duties included the decorating and one small appetizer. The theme was Home is Where the Heart is, which was so fitting since Valentine's Day had just passed. 

Let me tell you the blog world and Pinterest made finding ideas so easy! I found so many things I wanted to make to decorate but I had to tone it down to just a few. My favorite thing was the heart garland I crocheted for the mantle, it was so easy and so turned out really cute I think. I also found some great printables from DimplePrints and Tatertots and Jello that worked really well. I brought some things from home as well to add a homey feel and I think everything turned out really cute. The food was so yummy and the cake was to die for! We played some games and all around had some fun girl time. 

I love showers- I love how family and friends get together to help start off families and help them prepare for the new life they are about to embark on. I love the quality time that is spent playing games, eating and oooohing and ahhhing over the gifts. This was just the start to the wedding fun that is coming up, I can't wait for more!

My secret Valentine

For the past two weeks I made it my goal to do something nice for my husband everyday until Valentine's Day. Now he would not approve of this since he thinks Valentine's is a silly commercialized holiday. So I had to be a bit sneaky, I did things that were nice, but not too nice, things that didn't seem too out of the ordinary (some he didn't even notice). Since I'm not perfect I think I missed a day here and there but I doubled up to make up for it. Here's what I did:

Feb. 1: Made him a nice big breakfast of eggs, bacon and grits.

Feb.2: Made chocolate chip cookies which are one of his favorites

Feb. 3: Wrote a sweet note and sent it in his lunch

Feb. 4: Let him choose the movie we rented

Feb. 5: Sent a sweet text message

Feb. 6: Nothing (it was a Monday and I was off my game)

Feb. 7: Brought him a treat to work from my Grandma's birthday party

Feb. 8: Missed this one too 

Feb. 9: I doubled up, we had lunch together AND I picked up all the trash in his car 

Feb. 10: I missed ANOTHER day (not my week I guess)

Feb. 11: Spent extra time on him during my prayer time

Feb.12: Let him play his video game (that I strongly dislike) with no mocking or eye rolling

Feb. 13: I had to make up all the days I missed so I, made a valentine for him with the Little One, did the dishes even though I cooked and we spent some quality time together playing UNO.

Feb. 14 Made a special breakfast of heart shaped pancakes.

Our marriage is not all roses and candy hearts but it is special and deserves to be treated that way and not just for one day or for a month but always. It is hard to remember that when we are exhausted from late nights with the baby, when we are stressed about bills or when we are just plain annoyed with each other. I plan on enjoying my new little Valentine today and I hope you all enjoy the day as well!

Valentines with the Little One

 My husband and I have never celebrated Valentine's day but now that there's a little one in the house Valentine's day seems much more fun. So I decided this year to do a little Valentine crafting on the Little One's behalf. I got my idea from here. It looked easy enough, but the part that she doesn't mention is that getting your almost 6 month old to press her hand to the paper is likely to cause a paint mess disaster. My Little One wanted to grab and eat the paper, eat her hand with the paint on it, paint her high chair tray, anything but press her little hand to the paper. 

Right before the paint fun!

I feel like I should have known this was going to happen, I have worked with kids. I was even prepared (or so I thought) with baby wipes, a paper towel and extra paper. Well let's just say she got a nice bath after and so did  the high chair.

After the paint disaster

It really could have been a lot worse, but it made my Type A self a little crazy. The valentines did turn out pretty cute though if I do say so myself. 

Hopefully grandparents won't see this until they receive their valentine, if so I'm sorry for ruining the surprise!

Crazy Week.

This week was a little crazy and today we are recovering. We did get some cleaning done since the house was a wreck but the rest of the afternoon has been spent being lazy. Here are some pictures from our week:

I made these delicious waffles early this week, my husband who is NOT a fan of breakfast for dinner even enjoyed them. 

My Grandma turned turned 90 this week and we celebrated with a little party. The Little One was enamored with her aunts sparkly sweater, hence the crazy baby look.

All of that partyin' wore her out!

We let her try a sippy cup this week!

We are doing Baby Led Weaning and we started this week. Watching her learn how to eat is very entertaining!

A Messy Saturday.

My Saturday started out lovely: My husband let me sleep in a bit since he knew I wasn't feeling too well, then he made a large breakfast of eggs, grits and bacon, yum. After that it took a turn for the worse. 

I went to put the Little One down for her morning nap and she basically screamed at me the whole time. I came back out into the living room and there my husband is wearing the look that says,

"I have something I really want to do but I doubt you are going to be excited about it"

 I knew exactly what he wanted all by that look. 

In a not so nice tone I said something to the effect of "what? you are going to the basketball game?" In which he responded "nope, guess I'm not". 

I was angry, disappointed and jealous all at once. There was a "discussion" and he ended up going with my blessing.  He is a good man and he made up for the fact that he would be absent for a couple of hours by vacuuming, doing the dishes and making lunch. Let me tell you I did a lot of praying in that time he was gone so God could work on my selfish and jealous heart.

I know I was mainly upset because I cannot just get up and leave any time I want, it either takes a lot of planning and coordinating to leave the Little One with someone or I must take her along, which is not always ideal. I was also disappointed, I had envisioned our Saturday being lazy and we would both share the baby responsibilities. I never shared these expectations or made plans so he didn't know that was my vision of the day. 

This is what I wanted to do on Saturday

This marriage thing is difficult even more so now with a Little One involved. I am learning to ask for help because as much as I want to, I cannot do it all. We are both learning that we are incredibly selfish beings and that is just not going to work for anybody.

So we are keeping on, learning what works, what doesn't and doing our best to forgive and change things when we make a mess of things.

Monday Monday

On Monday I try to be productive. Right now it is my only full day at home and I try to make the most of it. I love the feeling of getting things done. I am one of those people who has a very hard time being lazy and I feel like I must do something productive during the day or that day has been a flop. So today I have grocery shopped, washed and folded clothes, baked and worked on a crafty project. I'm feeling pretty good so far! Usually after Monday my productivity goes WAY down so I'm trying to get as much done today as I can.

These are the granola bars I made today, I found the recipe here. They are delicious!

The Little One is napping right now so I had time to indulge in some tea and a muffin that I made earlier. I found the recipe here. I was a little skeptical about cooking with oat flour, but as I explore this healthier eating bit I'm finding that it's quite common (I used it in the granola bars too).

It hasn't been all work though, the Little One and I took a trip outside this morning and picked these beauties.

Things are blooming like crazy around here! It is nice to have these pops of color around during winter, if you can call this Florida weather winter, that is.

My Man.

This week I was thinking out loud, wondering what I should blog about this week. My husband jokingly said, "write a blog about me!" I rolled my eyes and continued to think about possible topics.

Then I thought about it and he deserves some space on this little blog of mine. He is one of the ones who encouraged me to start blogging and always has something nice to say about what I post. My husband is my high school sweet heart and we have been together for almost 10 years. He is the only person I have ever dated. I am not the same person I was 10 years ago (thankfully) and either is he. We have both grown and learned so much together. One of the things I love most about my husband is that he brings out the adventurer in me and always encourages me to step out and do whatever it is that I am passionate about. He is a man of faith that strives to be the man that God created him to be.

Fresh out of high school!

Ever since our Little One arrived it has been hard to find our groove as a couple while being parents. I assume that this is something every couple deals with when a they become responsible for another human life. We are figuring it out though and to see him act as a dad is one of the hottest things!

He can always make me smile.

I love him

Our Christmas in Pictures

Yes I know I am behind. We have already made it through the first week of the new year and I am just now looking at our Christmas pictures. Let me tell you it has been a little crazy, I am hoping this next week is a little calmer.

The Little One is in the midst of her first illness, she caught RSV and has been to the doctor three times in the past week. We had to get our very own nebulizer (just what every family wants) and we are doing breathing treatments at home. There has been coughing, snot, diarrhea, horrible diaper rash and a lot of just being plain pitiful. We are on the upside though! She is seeming much more herself and we are trying to regain some sense of normalcy.

So this is why Christmas pictures are just now appearing. Enjoy!

Our Sugar Cookies:

Opening presents:

Otis even got in on the action.

Game time!

 We had a really great Christmas, busy, but great. It was wonderful to be with family and have a good time!

Emergency room and McDonalds

You may have noticed (or maybe not) that I did not post anything this last week. That is because things have really gotten crazy busy around this house! I have been finishing up all of our handmade gifts, attending Christmas parties, going away dinners, pre-school Christmas plays and trying to enjoy the season! I would post pictures of all the lovely things I've been making but I don't want any family to get a sneak peak of their Christmas present.

Photo credit

This time last year we just figured out that I was pregnant with the Little One and I was in the Emergency Room on Christmas Eve for spotting and almost a year later we were in the ER again! I got the worst migraine I have ever had and nothing would make it better. I was nauseous and a complete mess. I stayed in the bed for the majority of the day and Steven had to take care of Emma Rose except for feeding her. I just breastfed her while laying down because that was all I could manage. Finally around 7:00 I called my dad who gets bad migraines and asked for suggestions. He told me to stick my head in a bucket of ice water, as I was contemplating how to go about that, hubby ended up talking to my mom and we decided to head to urgent care.

Making a trip to urgent care is a big deal when you have a four month old and you live 40 minutes away from where urgent care is located. We had to pack up all her gear, plus a bottle of breast milk that I pumped earlier in the day since we were not sure I should breastfeed her with the medicine I had taken that afternoon (that did not help at all).  At urgent care they ended up sending me to the ER since I had never had a CT scan of my head before. The total trip took about 7 hours. Some of the highlights:

On the way I had to have hubby pull over so I would not get my vomit all over the car.

Emma Rose took her bottle at 8:00 like a champ even though it was not heated at all

We managed to change her diaper while she was sitting in her car seat in the middle of the ER waiting room, where she promptly peed all over herself as soon as we got that diaper off. 

Since we did not eat dinner hubby got beef jerky from the vending machine- it smelled AWFUL and did not taste at all like he remembered it, I wonder how long it had been in that vending machine...

I did not think we were going to end up at the ER I did not worry about pumping- I figured I would just do it once we got home. Since I was not sure about breast feeding her I had not nursed her since around 5:00pm, well around midnight I was leaking like crazy! Even with breast pads in my shirt began getting a little spotty. I ended up replacing my breast pads with panty liners, and if you were wondering, they don't work too well as breast pads.  By the time we got home I was soaked. 

We didn't leave the ER until around 1:30am and still had not eaten anything. What is the only place open that late? Oh yes- McDonalds. I had not eaten McDonald's in years (minus an ice cream sundae I had while I was pregnant) and the last time I ate there I got sick. I got a hamburger and nothing else and I was sure that I would throw that up as well. Though it did not sit to well with me I managed to keep it down.

The doctor said it was fine for me to breast feed but I still was more comfortable pumping and dumping since I had so much medication throughout the day. Thankfully I have good freezer stash of breast milk. 

We made it home around 2:00am, fed the Little One, I pumped (what a relief!) and then put her down and finally made it to bed! 

What a day! I will be happy if I do not have to see the Emergency Room in the next year! 

I am hoping to get another post in this week before Christmas, but we will see, it is a busy time of year!

Christmas Traditions I want for my Family

As Christmas approaches I have begun to think about the traditions that I would like to establish for our little family. This year our Little One won't get to participate in all of these things but I can't wait until she can!

Have an Advent calendar and devotion- I love this one.
Pack an Operation Christmas Child box.

Take a walk through the local park that puts up beautiful Christmas light displays.

Bake and decorate Christmas cookies and hand them out to those who serve us all year long.

Take the hayride through the Living Christmas Story that takes place in a nearby city.

Picking out our Christmas tree and decorating it as a family.

She was fascinated with the Christmas lights

I do not want to overfill our calendar but be able to take time to relax and enjoy the season. I hate that so often I get stressed out and exhausted during this season when what I really want is to enjoy family and cherish what this season is all about- the coming of our Lord and Savior. I want that for the Little One as well- I want her to know that Christmas is not about receiving gifts but celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.