If you resent it, change it.

Mrs. Sears may be the best friend I have.

Yes, this is Dr. Sears' wife and I love her.

No, I don't know her but she makes sense. Perfect, non-judgemental, "mom sense".

The most simply profound thing I've ever read is "If you resent it, change it." I read this somewhere in The Fusy Baby Book by Dr Sears and his lovely wife Martha.

Guys, I resent it.  A lot of it.

Work, momlife, wifelife, being exhausted all the time. Yep, I'm a bucket of whiny resentment and that does no one any good.

So. I'm changing it.

And here's how.

A 21 Day Challenge (because I'm SO good at sticking with something).

21 Days of:

Meditation
Yoga
Veganism
Going to bed before 10pm
No negative speak (aka no bitching)
Being Thankful
Living through Love
No alcohol (not even my beloved wine)


Yep, this is how I'm going to change the things I resent. Will I stick to it? I can only hope. But, my son and husband deserve a happy mommy/wife, a rested mommy/wife, a healthy mommy/wife, and a loving positive mommy/wife.

Here's to change!

Xo
J

ps because these two are worth EVERYTHING to me.

Sick boys.

I'd like to pat myself on the back...I know, that's obnoxious. BUT not only have I been working non stop to revamp the swim team program for the said nonprofit I work for, doing admin work in the wee hours for my mom's team, and, you know, doing the whole mama/wifey/daughter in law thing...I've managed to finish all admin work for these jobs while my Reef and Husband have been sick. PHEW. Done and Done.

Anywho, are you like me and you feel like I'm clearly a momfail since my son has a cold...A COOOLD. The last time I took him to the Doctor for a cold she was really gracious and made me feel way better then she needed to (love her!). So, for now, we are doing aromatherapy galore, taking homeopathic cold tabs, and advil. Voila.

Poor hubs, seriously...I think this is the first time he's been sick when I really just had barely any time or energy to make him feel better. I did try to stay quiet and play outside with Reef so he could sleep off whatever nasty bug is in him. Sigh, can't win them all right? RIGHT?! (wrong, I'm obviously supposed to be able to do everything just like superwifemom).

Anyone have any tried and true cold busters??? I would LOVE to know your secret! Anything to get these guys back to 110%

Xo
J

Making finger paint & a mess

Holy cow. I had no idea making finger paint was so easy! Seriously, I just love Pinterest and all the awesomeness it holds.

I found this recipe from pinterest via Easie Peasie
and it rocks!

I hope you have fun like we did!
Happy Sunday.
Xo
J

 

No Bake Energy Bites for Toddlers. YUMMMM







 

 

These are seriously the easiest healthy snack I've ever made for Reef. Seriously. All you need is one bowl, a handful of ingredients, and BOOM energizing peanut buttery goodness!

 

I adapted this recipe from HERE

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1/2 Cup Organic Peanut Butter (sometimes I use 1/4 cup peanut butter and 1/4 cup almond butter BUT they are definitely more dry and a little harder to shape when you do it this way)

 

1/3 Cup Organic Honey (of course I ran out of this stuff and used this bear honey my in laws had and it worked great)

 

1/2 Cup Organic Rolled Oats

 

1/2 Cup Organic Brown Rice Cereal (My MIL got this for Reef but I never feed it to him so I tend to use it as a filler in random things)

 

1/4 Cup ground Flax & Chia Seeds

 

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

 

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

 

Directions:

 

Add peanute butter, honey, vanilla, and cinnamon to a large bowl and stir until combined.

 

Dump in the brown rice cereal, rolled outs, and ground flax & chia seeds. Stir and stir until it creates one big ball.

 

Seperate and roll into bite size toddler balls.

 

Place them in a ziploc bag or reusable container and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before letting your toddler chomp on them. (this 30 minutes is really important as it will be a little too gooey for a toddler to handle)



 

 

 As you can see Reef kind of loves these things like crazy. I won't lie to you, so do I.

Xo

J

oh and yes, i'm pretending like it hasn't been months since I've blogged.

My sister is a Special FX Makeup goddess

Seriously.

The girls a makeup rock star and is completely humble about it. While I, on the other hand, tell everyone I know about just how amazing she is.

And, guys, I'm so so so so proud of her. Films she has worked on have made it into all kinds of festivals and have probably been on at 2am on the SCIFI channel. She's also worked with famous musicians who I'm not allowed to name and yadda yadda yadda.

By the way, this bitch can make one hell of a zombie.

Anyways. She gave up this crazy artistic awesome lifestyle in LA to come live with Zach and I the last few months of my pregnancy. Seriously. She dropped everything and came home for her big sister. She didn't want to miss Reef's birth and I had a less than ideal pregnancy so she came to help. I still get all choked up thinking about how much she gave up for us.

She's been living on Oahu since we moved and has been freelancing with MAC Makeup and...for all of you LA residing beauties, she will be returning to LA in the fall.

She recently got to work on a fun music video shoot with Nicki Minaj. I'm proud of her for getting to work on such a big thing. So cool.

Check out the video. And have an awesome Saturday.

XO

J

ps this was all filmed out on the North Shore of Oahu...and will make you feel like your on drugs.



Check her out HERE and on FACEBOOK or follow her on instagram @vadavirus

Elimination Communication

I hate diapers.

Disposables are terrible for mama earth and I'm guilt stricken every time I use them. I use our gDiapers as much as possible but they still need washing and tender lovin care. Plus, I really don't like cleaning the poo out of them. It's not terrible, it's just one more step in my already chaotic day (yep, first world problems here people).

Anyways, I saw two posts from Mommyland411 about EC and totally went google crazy trying to figure out how to do it.

Guys, Elimination Communication makes complete and total sense. Well, at least it does to me. I first had negative thoughts about early potty training but was really misinformed. At the very basics EC trains YOU to learn what your baby's signals are for when they need to pee or doo then you hold them over a toilet, sink, baby potty, grass (I know, I know), etc so they can relieve themselves.

Babies are born not wanting to sit in their own mess and mamas have the intuition of when they need to go.

So, I'm getting back to the intuitive and doing EC with Reef. So far?? It's been GREAT. We've gone the last two days without having to wash 1 gDiaper...not one! Right now Reef pees in the bathroom sink and doos (yes, doos) in the toilet.

When I'm at work my Mother-in-law uses disposables with him BUT she's epic and is going to learn the basics of EC so she can try to do it with him too. I'm very lucky to have family so willing to help raise Reef and so accepting and open to our parenting style.

If you're thinking about trying EC or are curious to learn more I used the info from ECSimplified. Andrea really makes EC easy and doable. Whether you want to do it full time or part time, this site will help you through all the way!

Plus, Reef gets more naked time so he's stoked!

Xo

J

Aromatherapy for colds & everything else

Growing up my mom used aromatherapy for all kinds of things. When we had colds, to purify and clean the air, for relaxtion, for migraines...looking back I'm really thankful for all she taught me without actually "teaching" me.

 Now, as I attempt to raise my own child I've really been getting back into aromatherapy. I mean REALLY INTO IT. My mother in law is also hooked. So, together we have found recipes for helping with soriosis, colds, aching joints, bug repellant, burns, sleep, and basically any other need that arises.

My latest obsession started last night when Reef could barely breath through his nose. This poor kid caught my cold...it was inevitable. He was really getting sick of sitting in the bathroom and breathing the peppermint/eucalyptus steam I had going on in there and honestly, I was sick of sweating to death. Anyways, I needed something for our bedroom that would help him breath since he really really REALLY hates aspirators; by the time I'm done sucking those booger out he cries so much they just come right back. Le sigh.

I had seen people rave about humidifiers so we ran to walgreens and got a cold mist one so I could add essential oils to it for his breathing. The result was absolutely astounding. I added 8 drops of peppermint essential oil, 8 drops of eucalyptus essential oil, and 6 drops of lavendar into the water tank. I turned it on and left the room to give Reef a quick lavendar bath. When we came back in the room was smelling amazing and the difference in air quality was epic.

After aspirating Reefs nosing and rocking him for ten minutes I noticed that he wasnt having trouble breathing. He nursed like a champ and passed out breathing nice and CLEAR! I was really stoked because I didn't need to use the aspirator in the middle of the night, which makes Reef very happy. I was also breathing better and my nose wasn't stuffy.

For both of us being sick we really got a good nights sleep.

Ive had the humidifier on all morning and as long as Reef is in there with it his nose is clear and his breathing is much better!

Happy Sunday
Xo
J

A few aromatherapy things I loooove.

- put a dab of lavendar on the bottom of babies feet and on the back of their neck right before bed, it helps baby with restlessness.

- When taking a shower in the morning put the drain stopper in and add 3 drops of peppermint oil and let the shower run very hot before you get in. Change the temperature to suit your fancy and get on in. The peppermint steam will wake you up in a clean fresh way. (do this with lavendar before bed time for added restful sleep).

- To clean up the air in the kitchen and sanitize put a small pot of water on to boil. Once boiling add 5 drops of eucalyptus oil to it and let the steam clean the air.

- Bug repellant (this recipe freaking rocks, I got it here)

• 4 oz. clean spray bottle with a fine mist setting (do not use a bottle that previously contained cleaning products or hair products such as hair spray).
• 1.5 ounces of distilled water and 1.5 ounces of high-proof alcohol (vodka is suitable, isopropyl or rubbing alcohol is not). Alternatively, you may omit the alcohol and increase the amount of distilled water to 3 ounces (I used witch hazel and vinegar). 
• 15 drops Citronella Essential Oil
• 10 drops Lavender Essential Oil
• 10 drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil
• 5 drops Lemongrass Essential Oil

Directions: Fill the spray bottle with the choice of either 1.5 ounces of distilled water and 1.5 ounces of alcohol or 3 ounces of distilled water. (Even though a 4 oz. bottle is suggested, leave about 1 oz. unfilled so you can shake the bottle well between uses.) Then, add the essential oils.

To Use: Shake the bottle before each use. Essential oils do not fully dissolve in water and alcohol and will settle. If you do not shake the bottle, you risk having concentrated droplets of essential oil irritate your skin.

Mist onto your skin and clothing and reapply as necessary. Discontinue use if you feel sensitivity from the repellent. Be careful not to mist delicate fabrics or surrounding furniture that may be harmed by the ingredients in the repellent. Be especially careful not to allow the mist fall into open beverages.