A peek at my day

This was  my day last Friday, Feb 23, 2013.

5:05am Woke up to the light being turned on by husband. Had to pee.

5:15am Trying to go back to sleep, remembered I had to email someone about a photo shoot.

5:20am Done emailing, decided to stay up. Made myself and husband bullet proof coffee. 

5:30am Check on all 3 boys. Shane and Cody still sleeping in their bed {they share a bed} and Reece still sleeping in Mommy & Daddy's bed {starts out in his, ends up in ours}.

5:32am Sit in my chair with my red soft blanket and my coffee, and work on my blog.

6:24am Hubby needs the computer to type his message for Sunday, I start my devotions {prayer & bible}.

6:59am Go give chickens fresh water and food, get 3 eggs they laid.

7:09am Start breakfast: Eggs, bacon, fruit. Make husband lunch.

7:32am Fold laundry, turn on Pandora to a piano station.

7:40am Video the husband training the dogs per his request.

7:50am Wave buy to husband from the kitchen window as he drives away {I've done this almost every day since we were married :) }

8:00am Boys wake up, get them sippy cups, nurse Reece, read my bible.

8:15am Make breakfast for boys and myself. Eggs, bacon and fruit.

8:33am Put on Mickey Mouse Club House DVD for boys, check Facebook and get back to laundry.

8:48am Make Shane MORE eggs...

9:07am Nurse Reece AGAIN, check email, drink some tea.

9:20am Weigh In! Good number! PTL.

9:41am I finally eat the breakfast I made. It's cold now.

10:06am Nurse Reece to sleep for his morning nap {which I'm gradually getting him to one nap now.}

10:50am Still folding this huge load of laundry! Start cleaning kitchen next.

11:57am Reece wakes up, give boys a snack. Pack quesadillas to go for our lunch {corn tortilla's & raw cheese w grass fed butter}. Make a green smoothie for us, busy day, need my veggies.

12:05pm Continue cleaning the house!

1:05pm Done cleaning, getting ready to leave for photo shoot.

1:38pm Leave to pick up babysitter {I never hire a babysitter, just happened to really need to this session}, bring her with me to the park so I can walk/run then do a family photo shoot.

2:06pm Get to park, start walking with Reece in the stroller eating his lunch. Babysitter takes older boys to playground.

2:38pm Walk to car, change out of running shoes into leopard flats. Get camera & gear. Go give babysitter Reece, wait for clients to arrive.

3:00pm Still waiting, playing w boys while I wait.

3:08pm Family arrives, do photo shoot. 

4:04pm Shoot done, I gather babysitter and boys and we leave park. 

4:14pm Get gas. Pay sitter w some of cash I made from shoot.

4:30pm Drop sitter off at dorm where she lives, which is also at the church campus where husband works, so we see him for a bit.

4:50pm Get home, get ready to go back to church for ladies night out/mens BBQ.

5:04pm Whip up some snacks for Cody to eat at church, get boys cups ready.

5:14pm Sit down & nurse Reece. Ah, finally a rest.

5:15pm Husband home, gets ready for mens BBQ.

5:41pm We all hustle out the door to church.

5:52pm Drop husband off at mens BBQ because he is expecting a visitor.

5:54pm I lug all three boys to each of their classes/nursery then find my friend to sit together for the dinner.

6:03pm We get our plates, pulled chicken sandwiches, I don't get the bread, just chicken, and some baked lays and a water.

6:13pm We eat and chat with the ladies in our Sunday School class.

6:50pm We head to worship center to get seats for the devotion from Marsha Schear from the TV show "Shoot Straight".

7:00pm Play games, sing songs, listen to Marsha, watch a video of her shooting a turkey, listen to her stories of her husband dragging her hunting in the snow while she is 7 months pregnant and having to "belly crawl" several hundred feet in the snow, and she isn't happy with him...{hilarious}. 

9:00pm Round up boys, phone is dead, go look for husband, find him, head home.

9:22pm I'm beat. Beg husband to put boys to bed. He does. He brushes their teeth, reads them story and prays with them. I get on PJ's and get Reece's PJ's on, then nurse him to sleep.

9:44pm Husband and I watch a movie...I fall asleep a little, then wake up again by the interesting movie.

11:14pm Lay Reece in his bed, then BEDTIME for us....zzzzzzzzzz

I am sure that post bored you half to death. Sorry ;)

Gluten Free Grocery List

I HAVE to go to the grocery store today, and I have a lower budget than normal. I am trying to plan it out and get organized. When I first started shopping gluten free I was overwhelmed. It's much easier now. Here's my list:

Baby soap {want to make my own soon!}
Organic Ketchup
Trail Mix for hubby's lunch STAPLE 
Grass fed butter STAPLE
Corn tortilla chips
Salsa {made and canned my own! Yay!}
Corn tortillas
Grass fed beef STAPLE
AAA batteries
Eggs {our chickens aren't producing enough yet}
Free Range organic chicken STAPLE
Bacon
Turkey lunch meat
Kettle Corn
Fruit {lots} STAPLE
Organic frozen berries
Veggies {lots!} STAPLE
Raw cheese
Kombucha
Kefir
Udi's gluten free bread STAPLE
Spaghetti squash
yams
potatoes   {have lots still}
Spaghetti sauce {canning this next time!}
Olive oil
Cinnamon Apple Chex cereal 
Wild Salmon
Organic Mayo

I usually go to 4 different stores: Our health food store for the raw cheese & kombucha, Winco for the cereal {which is what Cody takes with him to church for "snack"}, Costco, and Trader Joe's.  I have to do that to make our budget work. I am getting a lot of produce at the farmers market tomorrow as well.

What are your grocery staples? I always want to know what's in other peoples carts!

HELP..How do you get baby to sleep?

Monday's are always so crazy, trying to get back on schedule from the weekend. I've been so tired, and lazy feeling! My husband has been so busy working, coaching baseball, then working a side job as well, that I feel like a single Mom sometimes! This too shall pass though...can't wait. 

How do you motivate yourself to clean, do laundry and cook when all you want to do is get a blanket, tea, and read? LOL I really need to get moving! I wish I could read! It's "quite time" right now, and Reece is suppose to be napping but instead Shane just came and told me he was ripping up a book {sigh} and now he's nursing.

He's in this tough stage, where he still wants to take a morning nap, and around 11 falls asleep. Then he isn't tired till late afternoon...and falls asleep...and wakes up around 6 or 7pm and isn't tired for bed!

I nurse him to sleep at 9:30pm and put him in his bed.  Then with out fail, he wakes up at 1:00am every night and comes in bed with us and nurses back to sleep. He is almost 15 months old.

I am all for co-sleeping with babies, but I think it's time he sleeps all night in his bed, and I am not willing to do cry it out, {horrible experience w baby #1}. I know I use to believe in Babywise, but after a lot of research on it and it's relation to breastfeeding and what happened with boy 1, I am not willing to do that again.  Some of my friends swear by it....my boys just must be stubborn because they never fall asleep while crying in their crib! They freak out!

There has to be a gentle way to get babies old enough to sleep through the night to do just that.

How do you do it? Any advice? I know this is a controversial topic...I am not trying to start a debate. Honestly just looking for advice :)

Good weigh in!

Thankful for a great weigh in! Finally passed 178.

Last week: 178.6
This week: 175.5
- 3.1! Yahooza!

Only 1.5 pound to go until I reach -70lbs!!!

A mother's influence

Today, the role of a mother, especially the role of a stay at home Mom is quite discredited. Employers give women a 6 week break to be with their newborns, then it's back to work.  Six weeks is NOT enough time.  Pregnant ladies have a hard time finding jobs while pregnant and companies look at it as an issue instead of a blessing.

It's one of Satan's main objectives to get the hearts of our children. Period. If Satan can get us Moms to believe that our work is less important the the lady that is a CEO of a huge company, then He won.

Satan also wants mothers to believe the lie, "Women can't do that....YOU could never be a....." fill in the blank of some high powerful career.  He has been deceiving women with this lie for decades. The TRUTH IS: a mother has more power than anyone in the world.

I want to tell all mothers, SATAN is a LIAR.

A mother is THE MOST important job in the world.  It is in our power to shape and raise a human! A future leader, a soldier, a president, a pastor, a pastor's wife, a soul winner, an artist, a missionary, a teacher, a writer, a football player that isn't ashamed of the gospel, a mother, a wife, a homemaker, a person of high influence, and more.  The future of the next generation is laid in the hands of mothers. Will we teach our children to be hard workers? To be honorable? To obey authority? Non of those things come naturally to a child.

The next generation is influenced primarily by us. M O M S. Absolutely, a child can be used of God in a great way when they are from a broken home. Actually, we see that a lot. That's because God is the Father, and He adopts us as His children.  Ronald Regan was the best President this nation has seen in my opinion and he was adopted.  You may remember him stating he was glad his birth mother choose life.  And his adopted mother raised him with integrity.

When a baby is born, the baby is totally dependent on the mother.  A baby can not thrive with out his mother. In fact a baby can not LIVE with out someone taking care of him/her.  God has designed our bodies to provide the absolute perfect food for our babies.  He has given us special hormones the moment we deliver a baby to bond and have a motherly instinct.  It is God's will that we mother our children.

It's totally up to me whether I feed my kids junk, or give them nourishing food. Whether I let them go outside and let them play, or let them watch TV all day.  Whether I read to them, or shove them away. Whether we teach them manners, or let them act as they want.  I can teach them the bible and pray with them, or not.  Their salvation could be up to us teaching them the gospel.

I am passionate about A LOT of things. Health, writing, photography, gardening, homemaking, decorating, reading, running and more. I am NOT saying it's wrong to do, love or desire to do these things or any other job or activity.

God gives us children, to raise them for HIM. For His glory.  It's my desire to fulfill that to my best ability, even though I fail miserably sometimes. I thank God everyday for my boys.  He has in trusted us with children. What an honor.

Our Pastor preached a couple weeks ago on "You never know who God will use".  I went home and looked up Susanna Wesley after pastor mentioned her in his sermon. I posted this on Facebook that day.

"Susanna Wesley was a poor woman with no formal education, and a mother to 19 children. She taught them the bible, and how to work. She awoke at 5am every morning and taught her children different chores and activities. She spent 1 hour a week with each child alone, giving them her undivided attention. We probably never heard of her. But.....Two of her boys, John & Charles Wesley were the evangelistic preachers that started the Methodist movement, seeing much of England turn to Christ. Charles Wesley wrote many of the hymns we sing in church. ♥ A MOTHER, is the most important job in the world!!!! ♥"

 Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

We got CHICKENS!!!

It's been a dream of ours to own chickens for a few years. I never really thought it would be possible...but actually it isn't that hard!! Well, to get the chickens... never mind it was hard to find teenage to adult chickens.  baby chicks were everywhere.

The thought of chicks is so fun and adorable...but they are a lot of work!! They have to be under a warm lamp for weeks, and fed special food, and have constant attention.  My husband worked really hard on the chicken coop...I just love him.  He spent two very early mornings and one very late evening in the freezing cold building it.  He's my hero.

The lady I bought them from was kinda crazy...lol.  I couldn't understand her English very well. I told her several times seven chickens.  SEVEN laying hens....just SEVEN. She kept bringing them out and bringing them out...I ended up with EIGHT. lol, could've been worse.

I really did rescue them.  There was at least 20 roosters there, that were very very mean to these poor girls.  One of the hens has a bunch of feathers missing on her back because of the roosters picking on her.  I saw this with my own eyes! Roosters are mean!

We love our girls though. A few of the younger ones are so sweet and let us pick them up and pet them.  Two of the older ones aren't as accepting yet.  It may have taken me a while {ok an hour} to get Big Bertha back in the coop.

So far we have the names, Dori, Chicken Little, Dee, Mary, Martha, Big Bertha, Glory, and I need one more name! Thinking of Susie Q or Ruby Red..??

Thankful for this new adventure! Another answer to prayer. :)

Mark 11:24 - Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Money saving garden

I am still learning about gardening, but I know what has worked for us in the past and what hasn't. Maybe it's our high desert southern California climate, but some things just DID NOT GROW and the seeds were a waste of money.  Other things grew for MONTHS and we had to give some away.

To have a profitable garden, I suggest you research what grows well in your area at what time of year. Lesson learned. ;)

What didn't grow:

1. Carrots- I'm not giving up on carrots, but I think I'm gonna skip out on them this year.  We literally got nothing editable from the seeds.

2. Green beans- we got maybe 25 total green beans the whole spring/summer...total fail! Did not make our money back.

3. Strawberries- I love strawberries so much...I want to try again. We got two tiny green berries on our plants that we bought and re-planted in our raised garden bed. The  sun was too much for them I think.

What did grow:

1. Squash!!! Oh my we got squash galore for several months. We gave pounds away.  I love growing squash too because it's a tummy filler, and it can be used with lots of things! We easily yielded over a $100 in squash with $2 seeds.

2. Tomatoes- We had a good tomato production. Except for the slugs ;( lots of tomatoes though...and I will be ready to fight those slugs this year!!

3. Basil- Loved having this herb. Used it for cooking all the time, and when you prune it to use the leaves, it grows back strong and healthy.  Doesn't need much sun. The plant cost $3 and we yielded at least $75-100.

4. Mint- Same as the basil, this one was awesome! Love having fresh herbs, and plan to have a whole herb garden this year.

We also have a peach tree and plum tree but they are too young to bear fruit. Maybe next year! :)

As I get my garden ready this year, I am planning for: a whole herb garden, cantaloupe, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, broccoli, tomatoes, bell peppers, berries of all sorts and more.

Do you have any gardening tips for me? I am still learning ;)