Thrown together

1. No-Poo Deal - So I have been attempting the no shampoo way of washing your hair, subbing shampoo and conditioner for baking soda and a apple cider vinegar solution.  So far I have little complaints, only thing is that I am bad at remembering to put the baking soda in my hair before getting in the shower.  Other than that my hair feels way less itchy.  I really like the vinegar as conditioner, it just seems to work really well with my curly thick hair.  Though I noticed that a morning shower on a like 99% humidity day still makes my hair look like a frizz ball.  Anyway, because its going well, I am definitely going to continue this.


2. Down-syndrome babies - I read a blog on Catholic Mom today that said that 5,000 babies are born with down-syndrome a year in the USA, and that since 90% of down-syndrome babies are aborted, this means we are missing 45,000 babies.  It's just sad. So many people that I have heard from who have raised a down-syndrome child have said that it has been such a blessing.  I don't have any first hand experience, but I could see why as I remember the one girl that had down-syndrome that played field hockey with me in middle school.  That girl was so sweet and so determined in everything she did.  So the author goes more into it, but I just wanted to mention it and say it was worth the read.


3. My kids are borrowed from God - My good friend sent me a forwarded saying or quote by Roy Lessin what struck me was this:


"Your children are precious to Me. Even more precious than they are to you. I have entrusted them to your care to raise for me. What you invest in them is an offering to me."

I love how its a reminder that my kids are really God's kids and its so much bigger than me, but at the same time what I do actually counts. It affirms my decision to be at home because I can and that is what God wants me to do, because I get to invest in my kiddos more this way and to me this is important. 

4. Chaos and embracing it - Speaking of kiddos, come October, things will be a little chaotic with a newborn and a 19mo old, but I am going to try my best to embrace the chaos.  It's taken a little while to own up to it all, but I think its gonna work out alright.  Embrace the chaos, right?

10 Updates

1. I am now 22 weeks pregnant, which seems kinda crazy as to how in the world did I get to this point already but I am thankful its been a pretty smooth pregnancy.  Definitely much harder finding food I like and want to eat but other than that I think its been okay.

2. On a side note I finally feel like I need to slow down a tad in what I attempt to do each day.  My hip expansion has kicked in this week.

3. Ben I think is going thru a growth spurt this week, or he's just catching up on the missed sleep over the weekend. He sleeps thru the night when he goes down, its just getting him down that is sometimes the hard part.

4. Randomly,  today we got a free fire truck push walker at a garage sale.  I'm amazed at the things a cute kid gets you.  Yesterday it was a free glass of kool-aid.  Craziness.

5. I actually have started sewing some of my projects again.  I still have two major ones, fixing a dress to fit and a shirt to fit.  Both that are way too big in the shoulders.  Even though I'm tall I've got a bony little upper body minus the baby sticking out out front.  Legs on the other hand, well you don't play soccer and run cross country for upteen years without acquiring some good muscle on those.

6. I am attempting a small veggie garden this year.  All in pots because I didn't know where to start a garden in my yard, so I figured I had a bunch of pots so I might as well use them. I am attempting to grow tomatoes, red and green peppers and zucchini.  I still have herbs as well and am hoping they continue to thrive like they did last year.

7. We signed up for the summer reading challenge for Ben.  While we read everyday, I am bad at logging the time.  So I have to estimate it all.  And also they want like one title of the books you read for every half hour which is impossible for a toddler and board books.

8. So we got back the results of Ben's lead test and they were double of what they want them to be so both Keith and I have been going into a cleaning frenzy and I have made Ben now actually consume his iron vitamin and so far if you put anything in his milk he will drink it.  Maybe I should make him smoothies and have him eat his fruits and veggies this way too.  I don't give him juice because most of the time he spits it back out and really juice is not that good for you, to me its like drinking soda with a little bit of vitamin C.  So anyway we hope that our house will be lead paint free or controlled at least and we will get that kid's lead levels back to normal by 18 months.

9. I have I told you how much I love having a produce store on the corner of my neighborhood.   It helps that the people that run it are super sweet too.  They have good prices and try to get local stuff as much as possible too.  A good deal all around.

10. I started selling books on amazon.  So far I've sold 2 out of the 18 I put online.  I still have a good 20 more to add to it, so I should probably get on that so I can sell more and declutter my bookshelf.

Take care all!  Hopefully I will post again at a better rate than I have been.