Mother's Day (plus pick out the best photo)

What a wonderful day! We celebrated Mother's Day at home with some family. My parents and brother Donny came down for church at home and brunch. We made a frittata with shredded sweet potato, onions, mushrooms, and chorizo (and eggs, of course):

I also made some chocolate, chocolate chip muffins with coconut flour. We ate all of the first batch before I had a chance to take a picture. We enjoyed them so much, that I made another batch to eat with out breakfasts throughout the week. Here's a picture of those:

They were so yummy! Click here for the recipe. Their photo is also much better than mine. The recipe originally calls for honey, but left it out, and it isn't needed at all! I also put in more chocolate chips than what the recipe calls for.

We also fried up some plantanes and ate them with guacamole, but those were definitely eaten before I took a picture. 

Here are my favorite photos from today! My mom and my daughter! It truly is a blessing to be able to celebrate motherhood with my mom. I cherish our time together, and am looking forward to many more times as summer break is almost here!

I couldn't decide which one was my favorite, so y'all get to see all our attempts. Which one is the best one? I'll put numbers under them, and I'll put the best one up on facebook. Thanks :)

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Reflections

I first wanted to share this video. It's beautiful, and incredibly encouraging. Sometimes I wonder the significance of what I'm doing. I wonder if I'm doing enough, or doing something wrong. I've been thinking a lot about what has worked well so far raising Adara. I'm realizing that reading books, articles, and talking to others only helps so much, and we ultimately need to do what works best for our family. For instance:

I'm not good at letting my baby cry. If she's fussy, I try to figure out why and how to fix it. I wear her in my sling a lot, and she's almost always happy when she's right next to me. Unless she hungry....

Most of the time, I love feeding my baby. She loves to eat, and loves to cuddle. We had a couple of days after she got her tooth where I had to teach her not to bite. Biting is terrible, and when she bit me I thought about quitting right then. She's a lot better now, and loves to nurse for nourishment and comfort...

Adara nurses even as she's asleep. She sleeps next to me so that we can both get sleep throughout the night. She falls asleep by 8 pm, and "sleep eats" throughout the night until sometime around 6 am (except today it is after 8am, and all is quiet). We both wake up feeling rested. It's so nice not having to get up in the middle of the night. She'll eventually sleep in her own bed, but I'm in no hurry.

We've established a "sort of" schedule. She usually takes at least two naps: one in the morning, and one in the middle of the day. If her middle of the day nap is short, then she needs another later in the afternoon. If she takes a long afternoon nap, she can usually be fine until we start her bedtime routine around 7 pm...

Her bedtime routine is almost always the same. I give her a bath, then pajamas, read a book, Alex and I pray with her, then I sing while walking/bouncing around until she is mostly asleep. I then lay down with her and she nurses the rest of the way to sleep. Sometimes I fall asleep with her, and sometimes I get up again and go to bed a little later in the evening. I still feed her whenever I think she's hungry...

I'm pretty sure she's going through her 6 month growth spurt right now. She's often kind of fussy, and seems to want to eat/sleep even more than usual. It's kind of neat to think about her hitting another milestone...

In two weeks, she'll be half a year old! Motherhood has definitely been a crazy learning experience. I didn't realize how much I didn't know until I had a child of my own. I didn't realize how selfish I was with my time and body until I had to share with my daughter. As she continues to grow, I ask God daily for His grace to be the kind of mother He's created me to be, with each challenge and exciting milestone.

Free Friday

Today Adara and I got out of the house for a while, and everything we did was free!
This is us excited to go to Spring Hill (well I'm excited):

First, we went to Kohl's. They sent us a $10 card towards anything. I bought a pair of pants and a shirt on clearance. Total was less than $10, so I got them for free!

Adara checking out my stylish pants, haha
(don't worry, I put the pants away after taking the picture)

Then we went to Sweet Cece's. I have their rewards card, and had a free one! Now, don't yell at me because of the Paleo diet. I got the sorbet, which is basically fruit and water (and some sugar) and I only got a tiny bit in the bottom of my cup. The rest is fruit and nuts and a small amount of chocolate chips. Yum. And free.

Adara checking out the food. She tried a little and liked it!

Next we went to the Starbucks inside Target. We walked from the Sweet Cece's to Target, since they basically share a parking lot. Adara enjoyed the walk. Alex gave me his Starbucks gift card; he wasn't using it. I got iced green tea with no sweetener. Refreshing, and I (personally) paid $0 for it.

Adara tried to bite the straw, but couldn't get any.

We had a lovely morning out and about. It was fun getting some treats, but not having to spend any money.

If anyone has any more ideas for free/cheap outings, keep me posted! We would love to get out of the house, and would blog about our adventure ;)

Burgers and Chocolate Ice Cream.....what???

Tonight my family-in-law graciously agreed to watch Adara while Alex and I had a date. We decided to have our date at home. We rented a movie, and made our own dinner. Since we're eating Paleo-ish, it's easier for me to make food at home. We don't eat grains, legumes, dairy, or sugar, but we eat conventionally grown veggies and meats. It's what we can afford right now, and it works.

Here's what we had for dinner:

 Alex had pickles with his dinner. I got the flax seed flat bread recipe here, and it works really well for holding the burger. It stuck to the pan a little, so next time I'll make sure to coat the bottom even better with butter. We also had tomatoes, avocado, and bacon on the burger. Alex ate his with salsa. The broccoli, of course, was covered in butter and garlic salt.

For dessert I made chocolate ice cream. Unfortunately we gobbled it up before I thought to take a picture. The ice cream was made up of frozen bananas, coconut milk, cocoa, and some coarsely ground almonds. Someone gave us an ice cream maker as a wedding present, and I just used it for the first time last week! It tasted incredible, and it looked just like ice cream! Maybe next time I'll remember to take a picture....maybe. I get really excited about eating it. We also enjoyed some coffee with dessert. Wonderful, relaxing evening.

First 30 days of P90X

We finished the first 30 days! Well, technically tomorrow is our rest/stretch day. Also, we stopped short with yoga, because I was so ridiculously hungry I did not want to continue. I think Adara is hitting a growth spurt again, because she nursed almost all night long, and her naps are predictable again.

So what is my evaluation so far? Well, it definitely works.We took photos of ourselves 30 days ago, and then took ones today, and the difference is remarkable! Granted, we are also doing a Paleo diet of sorts, so that makes a difference too. However, the workouts take forever! They range from an hour to an hour and a half, and that it a lot to do at one time. It is really early to get up before Adara wakes up, and sometimes she wakes up anyways. It also made us super hungry every day (even as we got used to the diet, I was still ravenous), and I was already hungry all the time from breastfeeding!

Conclusion: We are going to keep using the program, but we are going to slow down intensity. We are going to aim for 15 to 20 minutes of exercise daily, instead of the hour. Because we are eating a low-carb diet, we will just eat when we are hungry, but not need to eat as much. Since we paid for the DVD's, we're going to use them as a guide, but we won't follow this program exactly.

So who is this crazy workout for? A single person, married/dating couple, or group who have a couple of hours to devote solely to working out and nothing else.

I would not recommend this program for parents of small children who do not like to be left alone for long periods of time, and people who generally have a busy schedule. There are plenty of shorter workouts available that will also yield results.

Next post will probably be about diet.

Getting into the "sling" of things

I've tried the sling before, and Adara just fussed while in it. Yesterday I really wanted to finish some laundry, and Adara wanted attention. Since she wasn't fussy when I held her, so I decided to give the sling another shot. It worked out great! I got some laundry folded and put away, and put some dishes in the dishwasher. Some things were not folded as well as if I was not holding a baby, but it is put away.


I used it again today for a little while. Adara's been kinda fussy all day, and no matter what I did she was only fussy-free for a few minutes. After laying down with her for the umpteenth time to try to get her to sleep, I finally just left her and went to work in the kitchen. I heard a tiny bit of fussing, but kept working on my paleo waffles that I was dying to try. After a few minutes, all I heard was silence. I checked in on her, and she'd fallen asleep! She hardly ever falls asleep unless I'm right next to her! Guess this time she wanted her space. I learn something new about this child every day.

Finding time in the day

It's been a while since I've blogged. Being a mom takes up a lot of time! Especially when my precious bundle loves to be cuddled and doesn't like being left alone. So I'm taking the few minutes that she's happy playing with her toys to write out some thoughts.

We've started eating Paleo/Primal again. Grains seemed to be upsetting me and Adara, so I was already headed that direction. Then Alex decided he wanted to do it too, and get back in shape. We've gone a full two weeks now, and I'm just starting to feel better. Doing a low-carb diet is no fun right away, but is worth it in the long run. Adara spits up even less now, hardly every has a blowout, and has very few bumps on her skin.

Gotta go pick up my crying baby.....

We've also started an exercise program-P90X. It is intense, and good for us, but every workout is very time-consuming. I've started getting up extra-early so that I can get it done while Adara sleeps. Today I decided to sleep in and try to fit my hour and a half yoga workout sometime today. I'm already regretting this decision.

Today I figured out that I can vacuum with one hand, and hold Adara with my other arm. She really likes the vacuum cleaner, so this works out pretty well. I can also load the dishwasher with one hand, but sometimes the dishes don't get rinsed off as well. I've thought about putting her in her carrier while I do housework, but I bend over a lot, and so I still need one hand to support her. Carrier works great for when I'm out though.

And now it's time for her to eat again. Definitely treasuring these moments, because I know that soon enough she will be older and able to run around the house.


So what do you all do when you try to get stuff done? Have you noticed how you eat affecting your child?