{baby} weight loss wednesday - recipe edition

Welp, weighed myself yesterday and I'm down another 1 lb!  So far I'm down 11 lbs since I started January 1st. =)  I'll take that!

I'm fitting into all my old jeans and it feels great.. I still would like another 10 lbs or so.. I think that entire 10 lbs is in my gut. Thank you to my mother's genes for gracing me with this body type!!

Today I want to share a little treat Darin and I have a few times a week. He's been watching what he's eating too and is down to 14% body fat and lost a good 10 lbs too.

Crazy, I KNOW!

Anywho, didn't know he could get any more hot than he already was but he has. =)  His 6-pack and sexy man-hips are back like when we got married!

Ok, enough about my hottie hubby and onto our new ice cream replacement recipe. 

Smoothies: 

1-2 frozen bananas (helps in the blender if you cut them up 1st)

6-8 frozen vanilla yogurt ice cubes

splash of milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbls natural peanut butter

Blend it all up and WOWZA, pretty much the best smoothie ever. We've also omitted the peanut butter and added some frozen strawberries, blueberries and blackberries and man is it good!

That's all for the baby weight loss blog today!  Keeping it simple and short cuz it's like 70 degrees out and the girls and I wanna go play!

The next Christian Fiction Super-star

Hey, all!  

Wanted to ask you all a favor in helping my sister in law, Natalie out. She's written her first Christian Fiction book and an agent has contacted her!  She is an AMAZING writer so PLEASE help her with her dream of being a published writer by heading over to her writing blog. Become a follower of her blog and see the cool things that are happening in her life.  

http://www.nataliereplogle.blogspot.com/

I'm so lucky that my brother married such an amazing woman that's become one of my best friends. =) I just love her and I know you'll LOVE her book! I only have 20 more pages left to read and let me tell ya, the book is amazing. She has such a talent. 

{baby} weight loss wednesday - I hate my metabolism edition

Who all has made a comment (or five) about their metabolisms?  

I am totally raising my hand right now, just so you know. =) 

What if we stepped back and took a different look at our metabolisms and the body God has given us. I know in the past I've been SO jealous of friends that can eat whatever they want and stay skinny, skinny. 

And do they exercise? 

Oh no.  They don't, of course. 

I am actually thankful now (to some extent, I won't lie) that I have a body and a metabolism that requires me to exercise. It sure would be easy to not have to eat right and exercise daily.  BUT I have a very compulsive personality and know that I would over-indulge every time.  If I could eat ice cream every night and not gain an ounce?  Heck yeah I would eat ice cream every night!  Pass the spoon and some carmel too! I would NOT exercise the fruit of the spirit of self control, oh no. 

I will be MUCH healthier in the long run with the body and metabolism God has given me.  Reading another book by Lysa Terkeurst  and she has a great quote about coveting what others have. 

 "I am not equipped to handle what they have.. both good and bad"

What an eye-opener of a phrase for me! I never thought of it that way.. when I want something good someone else has, I have to realize that I'm also asking for the bad that comes along with it.  Just like my marriage.. Darin and I have something REALLY good.  I mean super good. I'm guessing that along the way in our 7 years someone has coveted the relationship Darin and I have. BUT that relationship came after A TON of hurt from my first marriage and some pasts hurts that Darin overcame too. Our GOOD relationship is what it is today because of some BAD that happened in the past. 

I would LOVE to be able to eat whatever I wanted. BUT with my family history of health I would be more likely to take advantage of my body. I wouldn't take care of my vessel if I could eat whatever I             wanted. I would take it for granted.  AND I would be living in excess!  I know my personality!  I'd have chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, thank you very much!!  Having a pity party for yourself is a clue that you are relying on your own strength, a strength that has failed me before and will fail me again.

            Also, think of boundaries as a gift from God who cares about our health, not restrictive fences meant to keep us from enjoying life. I know my doggie Wrigley HATES his fence but it keeps him safe by not chasing cars as they drive 40 MPH on our road. And from humping the next door neighbors dog too, but that's a whole nother blog post. 

            All boils down to God giving me the metabolism I have for my own good.  And the fact that he doesn't make mistakes. I'm exactly what he made me to be. My body is sllllllowly getting back to normal after having Emery. I even made the comment to Darin the other day that I was kinda glad I had to work super hard to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I mean, I would love for it to melt off on it's own but I am putting in MAJOR blood, sweat and tears along with major sacrifices to achieve my goals. And that feels pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. =) 

This picture...

Just wanted to journal out what this picture makes me feel when I look at it: 

* Holy cow!  How did the Lord think I could handle 3 girls???

* I wonder why Joya is smiling with her tongue out?  She never does that.

* I never want to punish them ever again. The next naughty moment I'm sure I'll change my mind. 

* Mannnnnn Emery's really looking like my baby pictures!

* I can't wait to stain my new backdrop.  =)

* I hope they are the best of friends.  Some days they are.. matters who want to share their Polly Pockets. 

* Not sure I shoulda done a pink bow for Joya.. it's bigger than her head.

* This picture totally shows their personalities.. Adie is usually super put together. Oldest child syndrome.. I swear some days I'm raising my sister's mini-me. Joya is smiling from ear to ear like normal.. You can see the onery-ness oozing from her.  And I wonder what Emery's personality will be?  So far she loves to jibber jabber and watch our reaction to her funny jokes!

* I hope Emery's blue eyes stay so someone will have Daddy's gorgeous blue's!

* Emery's hair patch is looking more and more like a balding man that should really start shaving his head. =/ 

* You can totally tell Adie's still sucking on her lower lip while she sleeps because it's pouty. Or swollen, one of the two. 

* Man I love them. =)

*I am going to do my darndest to instill self-confidence in them.

* I sure am glad we named Joya, Joya. Her name totally fits her personality!

* There is a lot of estrogen in this picture.  Can't wait til 2020 through 2030.. those blasted teenage years.. 

* Man I love them.

* I really need to scrapbook all these thoughts.

* Wish I could wear a double chin as well as Emmie does! 

* Can I freeze this moment in time? 

Ahhhhh.. I love them.   Thank you Jesus for my family!!!

{baby} weight loss wednesday - guest speaker

Today I don't have much time to blog.. got my workout in, need a shower and the rest of the day will be filled with preparations for speaking tomorrow at my mom's group, MOTTT'S. (Mother's of Tots to Teens)  Giving my testimony and talking about what we crave more than Jesus. 

So today my pastor is going to guest speak for me.. altho he doesn't know it.. HA!  I'm going ot link his message from Sunday that was STELLAR about self-discipline. So good for me to hear in this part of my baby weight loss journey. 

So here is the link to the message: 

PATOR JIM'S MESSAGE 2/19/2012 on DISCIPLINE

I encourage you to let it play super loud as you make dinner.. facebook for the day or just sit and watch. He's got some props. =) 

I'll let you all know how I did at MOTTT'S next week. I'm looking forward to it.. nervous, but looking forward to it. 

{baby} weight loss wednesday - Debbie Downer edition

Yeah.. not going to post much today. 

I hadn't weighed myself in 2 weeks so today was the day. I stepped on the scale and I was up a pound from 2 weeks ago. I had a goal of getting under a certain number and the scale tipped the opposite way. Blast it. I even reminded myself before I stepped on the scale that no matter what that number said, I was feeling better, an old pair of skinny jeans now fits and my hubby goes on and on about how my body is tightening back up. 

But the scale told me all my hard work this past 2 weeks resulted in an extra pound. 

Even tho I KNOW the drill about how my personality is not defined by the number on that scale.. 

that the number is just ONE indicator out of many that measures my health.. 

that it really doesn't matter what the number is because I feel better..

I know all that but it still sucks.  Hard core sucks.

I've been meaner to my girls, had a bad attitude all morning, mustered up a work-out but wanted to punch Lindsay Brin in the face with all her promises she spouts off during the DVD THAT I HAVE BEEN DOING AND MORE.   Quite frankly want to curl up in the fetal position and take a nap while my girls nap.  

So I'm going to.

After a good cry and some alone time with Jesus. 

I know this post would have been all "Go God" if the scale would have told me I weighed less and that's where I'm having the problem with myself.  I thought I'd blog now so you can see the rawness of today.. this health thing isn't always easy and it especially isn't today. 

So, sorry to be Debbie Downer but I'm off to spend some time with Jesus and battle this bad attitude in my heart. 

Cloth Diapering

Alrighty.. a long awaited post about cloth diapering!  A LOT of people have asked! I even had a client book a session and then her next email to me was asking about cloth diapers!

I will be brutally honest because a month ago I HATED them.  And I'm not kidding about the word "hate". =/

So funny to read my post on them HERE when Em wasn't here yet and Joya was just using them at naptime and bedtime. It's a little different to use them part-time than using them 100% of the time. I'll tell ya what I use, why we decided to use cloth, why I hated them, why I like them now and some tips we've learned on the way. =)


Why we decided to use cloth:
Many people have different reasons on why they went with cloth diapers.  They are super green and don't want dirty diapers to sit in landfill's.. they don't want the chemicals in disposable diapers to sit on their baby's butt.. they struggle with diaper rash... etc, etc. All those are very good reasons to turn to cloth diapers but none of them were the reason why we chose cloth!  We 100% chose cloth diapers because of the money savings. I wish we would have started with Adie because you roughly save over $1,000 A CHILD with cloth diapering!  
Yes.. we are cheap and we know it!
But basically you are throwing away money every time you throw away a diaper.  
Crapped on money at that.
I sure would have liked to save over $2,000 in disposable diapers with my first two ladies!  But I was unaware of cloth diapering with my first two. I attended a Diaper HQ party when Joya was potty training last summer. Darin encouraged me to go (which totally surprised me.. we have a family rule that we usually don't attend any "at home" party) so I went. I was a bit skeptical but when Darin crunched the numbers he realized how much we'd be saving.  
So we purchased 12 of em' and started the cloth diapering process. 
What was really nice is that Diaper HQ let us try them before we bought them. We had a 10 day trial with all kinds of different brands and you sure figured out what you liked and didn't like real fast!  Next I'll tell ya what brands we went with...


What I use:
*I originally purchased 6 Flip diapers and 6 Bum Genius Diapers 
*My order is in for 3 Thirsties all-in-one
*And for washing, Fuzzibunz detergent
*My toilet sprayer is a Bum Genius Diaper Sprayer
* We housing the dirty diapers in a 5 gallon bucket from Menards (with a lid.. lid is a must!)
*We own a FuzziBunz wet bag but don't use it (i'll elaborate later in the post)

I use my Flips for Emery during the day and night at this point.  They are a cover diaper and came with 3 inserts each.  Through the day she'll soil the insert and I'll wipe out the cover and put a clean insert in.  This work great for her with her breast fed, no solids eating poo.


I use my all-in-one Bum Genius at night time and nap time with Joya.  She is potty trained but still doesn't hold her potty when she sleeps. These hold a TON and you can put 2 inserts in them for extra absorbency.  When Em sleeps thru the night consistently I'll put her in the Bums overnight because they hold more potty.  And they are like the Cadillac of cloth diapers. =)


I recently ordered 3 Thirsties all-in-one's. SO excited about these because there's no stuffing required and they were an amazing price.  We could have lived off the 12 we had but purchasing 3 more will allow us to go another day without laundering them. 


Detergent.. it is VERY important you use a specified cloth diaper detergent with your diapers!  They will not hold their absorbency if you use any old detergent and you could ruin them.  They also have  super finicky requirements on washing them. You do: 


WARM rinse
Full cycle with HOT water
another WARM rinse
tumble on low or best, hang them outside to dry


Why I hated them at first:
When using them with Joya at nap time and it was going just splendidly.  All the mama's reading this that buy pull-ups weekly will shout out an amen to their computer screen when they read this..
I haven't bought ONE pull-up with Joya!
She still uses them at nap-time and bed-time and it has never once leaked. Now, STORING the pottied diapers was what I was struggling with. We were using our FuzziBunz wet bag hanging from the back of our bathroom door but I could still smell urine. And I DO NOT want to be known as the stinky, urine house! So Darin came up with the plan to get a 5 gallon bucket from Menards, fill it 1/2 way with water and stick a lid on it to house our soiled diapers.  This works much better than the bag (for us).  


We also started using cloth when Em was 2 months old and I still wasn't getting much sleep.


And was dealing with a head-strong 2 year old.


And a 4 year old that added tattling as a new hobby of hers. 


I felt like cloth diapers could in fact push me over the edge.  It was just ONE MORE THING to do in a day and I wasn't keeping up with the laundering of them which would lead to me running out of them and using disposables and craving the next time I got to use disposables!  When I had a heart-to-heart talk (Darcy interpretation is me crying my eyes out confession that I might possibly have a nervous breakdown) with Darin he decided that we needed to give them more of a chance, buy ourselves a 5 gallon bucket to control the smell and he would take over laundering them. Amen.




Why I like them now: 
I'm used to them.
They've become a habit.
They have held in some blow outs that I KNOW a disposable would not have. 
We've figured out the smell issue.
They are cute. =)
And my hubby said I couldn't give up.
And did I mention we'll save over a grand in throwing away poopy diapers? 


Tips we've learned on the way:
***I would completely recommend not using them until your baby is 2 months to 12lbs in size. The minimum weight on the diapers I have was 10-12lbs. Emery was right at 12lbs when we started full out with the cloth. Newborns crap all the time, require smaller cloth diapers and yeah, just worry about getting enough sleep, in my opinion!  Cloth take a bit of getting used to and you may totally overwhelm yourself with washing diapers every time you blink because they crap 10 times a day!  If you are on your first baby and want to invest in small, newborn diapers than have at it.  I just warn you that you may be totally overwhelmed by the whole process on little sleep, high emotions, possible stresses with nursing, etc, etc.. I could go on and on!


**Use cloth wipes. We cut up old t-shirts into 5x5 inch squares and use those as wipes instead of disposable ones.  Using my cloth wipes REALLY makes me feel granola but if we are washing wet and poopy diapers then why not wet and poopy wipes too? Tshirts cut up works best because they are thin, don't ravel and get in all the cracks and crevices. =)


**I also made my own "spray" to spray on her bottom when I'm wiping her to get off the dried on poo.  I got one of those little travel spray bottles, put a squirt of baby wash in it, a teaspoon of olive oil and filled the rest with water.  I just shake and spray on her bottom and then wipe away with the cloth wipe. I just re-read that paragraph and I seriously feel the need to go hug a tree right now!


**I am still a bit of a hybrid diaperer.  When we go out where someone else might possibly change her (church or MOTTT'S), I put a disposable on her.  I also need a couple of wet bags for my purse too. Don't buy this one off Amazon.. it's super cute but my friend warned me it's not a true wet bag and it might wet thru inside my purse.. um, no me gusta a poopy wallet. 


**Yes.. they will have serious ghetto booty with the diapers and that bothered me at first. I'm getting used to it but seriously.. MAJOR junk in the trunk!  That wasn't really a tip.. just had to share!


**Take a break if you get discouraged!  I had to about a month ago when I wanted to drop kick my diapers across the room. We got behind in laundry and I used disposables for a day for a break. It helped me re-group and enjoy throwing away her poop and I was ready to start back up with cloth the next day. 


**And last tip.. for all you locals.. use one of my besties, Erin, to try them out before you buy them!  She works for diaper hq and will hook you up with at test drive kit for 10 days so you can see if cloth diapering is for you. Also lets you figure out what brand you like because they all fit a little differently!  Seriously.. she'll not pressure you at all because cloth isn't for everyone.  Email her at erinrtoth@gmail.com if you are interested. =) She figures out all the answers to your questions too about cloth diapering.  She's like a cloth diaper ninja. No joke. =) 


And I'll leave you with a picture that shows the diaper just a little bit.. my assistant Joya was helping me take 3 month pictures of Emery.  Little does she know she's so much more in the way than a help!  At least she loves her sister!

Let me know if you have any questions.. I'll try to answer them to the best of my diapering ability!