Archives for April 2019

Dirt and Sprinkles

April 12, 2019 Leave a Comment

My toddler teaches me so much about Jesus every single day. It is one of the very many reasons that I am so thankful for her. Last night we had a moment. See, she is exploring this new independent phase and loves to run around outside without holding my hand. She is safe, so I let her do her thing with me just a few steps away.

We spent some time in the fresh air, and when we came in she was being really good while I made dinner, so I was going to reward her with “one sprink” (we use sprinkles for positive reinforcement and getting just one or two tickles her!). As I went to scoop her up, I realized that she had an old crusty dirt wad in her tiny hand. I pried her little fingers open and it sent her into a meltdown because mommy wanted her treasure. She gripped even tighter and cried and cried until I finally had to just take it away and let her work it out for a minute.

What she did not know is that I, as her loving mother, had something far more wonderful in store for her. I had plans to give her the joy of her heart, her beloved “sprinks”. If she would just trust me and loosen her grip on her “good” thing, I could clean her up and give her her best thing.

As soon as I thought this in my head it hit me that this is exactly the season that I have been in with God. I have been gripping so tightly to the things that I think are treasures…the things that I think I need. My businesses that I have spent years building, my finances, my career, my sense of control, and even certain relationships. I have fought Him tooth and nail every time he has tried to remove something from my life. I have been angry at Him for not blessing my plans. Things that I have ingrained so much into my identity. For a time, my Father allowed me to throw my proverbial fit, holding my hands tightly around these wads of dirt that I treasured so much.

But one day a few months ago, in the midst of a very low place, I finally opened my hands and dropped my dirt. And you know…God showed me His “sprinkle” plans. Big, beautiful plans. To grow me, change me, and bless me. To bring new relationships that are soul-filling and life giving. To open doors I didn’t even know existed. To rearrange my priorities and make the main things the main thing!

Letting go has been the most beautiful journey, and watching Him show up and answer prayers left and right in ways that I cannot explain has been such a faith-building experience. I cannot wait to elaborate more over the next few weeks and more things fall into place. I simply want to end with a challenge. If you have things in your life that you are feeling God tug at your heart, saying maybe these aren’t your best things…just open your hands and let go. Your Daddy knows you, and He has good things in store for you if you just trust Him.

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers

April 9, 2019 Leave a Comment

One of the hardest things about “eating healthy” can be feeling like nothing that you get to eat tastes good. These peppers are DELICIOUS (I could seriously eat them every day) and are completely 2B Mindset friendly. Michael prefers them deconstructed, so if that’s more your speed just cut the peppers up and cook them at the same time as the mushrooms and onions! When I do this, I usually add an extra pepper and cook everything in my fav Cast Iron Skillet! I love the extra flavor it gives!

Philly cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers

Servings: 4
Time: 35 mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

1 lb Lean ground beef
4 Green bell peppers
1 Yellow onion
Sliced baby bella mushrooms to taste
Shredded Colby Jack cheese (as much or as little as you want)
French Fried onions
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 350.
Slice your bell peppers in half and remove the seeds.
Place pepper halves in a baking dish with a little water and place in the oven to start baking while you are doing the next steps.
Brown ground beef (or turkey) and add the yellow onion, chopped. Cook until the onion is translucent and the beef is fully browned.
Add in chopped fresh mushrooms (as many as you like) and cook until soft.
Add Worcestershire sauce (you can tweak this amount) and cook until it is reduced.
Remove peppers from the oven and fill them with the mixture. Return to oven and bake approximately 25 mins or until peppers are soft.
Remove from the oven and top with shredded Colby jack. Pop them back in the oven until cheese is melty and little brown.
Top with French fried onions and devour!

How I Sleep Trained Our Co-Sleeping 10 Month Old in Just 8 Days!

April 8, 2019 Leave a Comment

I know, who wouldn’t want to wake up to that sweet face every morning? It’s a trick question, because we weren’t truly waking up to it. See, I was seeing her awake about every hour, all. night. long. I was always against co-sleeping before I had a kid. In fact for the first 5-6 months of her life I was adamant about it. But when you are exhausted and not getting any sleep, you do things you always said you would never do.

Our average night was me doing the whole routine and rocking Addie to sleep. I would finally get her down around 10pm if I was lucky. She would sleep for about an hour and a half to two hours in her room and then wake up and refuse to go back into her crib. For a few weeks, I fought it and would spend hours rocking her back to sleep, laying her down, and her waking up as soon as she hit the mattress. Out of frustration, we started just taking her back to our room when she woke around midnight and letting her stay with us.

It worked for a while, and we were at least all getting some sleep (Thanks Zen Sleep Sack for what sleep we did get!). Eventually though, we realized that this was not going to work for us long-term. This is not to say that we didn’t love the cuddles and having that little sweet pea close to us, but we hardly had any time for just us. I felt like a slave to my child’s sleep routine and it was a very lonely, frustrating place to be.

Around 8 months, she started having trouble sleeping with us, too. She would wake up constantly and we were sleeping even worse than before. We knew something had to give, but all previous attempts at “cry it out” had been epic fails. She did not respond well to that at all, and would make herself sick screaming. I couldn’t even get her to nap without me holding her the entire time. I am sure at this point, if you are reading this you can probably relate to my frustration and exhaustion.

So I did what all tired, exhausted moms do! I went to Pinterest and researched. I found several different programs that appealed to me, and we came up with a plan that we could live with. At this point I was willing to give about anything a try! I am happy to say that within just 8 days, our girl was going to bed by herself by 9pm, and sleeping through the night (most nights)! I am going to break it down for you below!*

*I will say, we chose to wait until we were done with disruptions like holiday travel and vacation, and we tried to time this in between teething. I did not want to make her cry if she was just not feeling well.

The first, and most important thing, was establishing the groundwork. I tweaked our routine just a bit and made sure it was solid so that she would learn to wind down. I added a little extra milk to make sure she was full and wouldn’t wake up hungry, and then we started the plan. I made sure that her crib was comfortable, and we put literally 8-10 pacifiers in there so that she could find one if needed. (These Glow in the dark ones are awesome, and helped her to find them when she needed one!)

Days 1-4: We finished our routine, kissed Daddy goodnight, and I put her in her crib. I could stay with her as long as she needed me to, to get herself to sleep. I sat in the rocker with it pulled right up to her crib so that she could touch me and hear me sing, but I could not pick her up.

Day 1- I had braced myself to be in her room for hours, based on other blogs I had read that took this approach to sleep training. I was mentally prepared and this was a “cry it out” that I could live with, because I wasn’t leaving her all alone. I poured myself a glass of wine and settled in for the long haul.

As expected because it was totally new, she lost her ever loving mind when I sat her sleepy-but-awake little self down in her crib. She clawed at the sides, at my arms, at my neck when I leaned over to kiss her. She cried. I cried. We bawled together and I sang and sang until my voice was hoarse. But you know, at about the 45 minute mark, something magical started happening. She started to lay down in between fits. I played a few of her lullabies that I sing to her on my phone because my voice needed a break, and she started to settle in. At the one hour mark, she was asleep and she stayed that way until about 6am. This was a huge win for us.

Day 2- I planned for this to go about the same way that Day 1 went. It was still painful, and she broke my heart, but she only took about 35 minutes to wear herself down, and she knew that Mommy was right there if she needed me. We played “throw the Paci” quite a few times, but I held my ground and we stayed consistent. She was fully asleep after about 45-50 minutes and slept until about 4am. At 4am, I went in her room and handed her a warm bottle, since we decided that picking her up to nurse was too disruptive. She drank it, I took it from her and snuck out. She fussed for a couple of minutes and fell back to sleep until about 8am. Another win! I knew this was going to be worth it if we just stayed the course.

Day 3- She fussed, but it was nowhere near the hysteria of day 1 or 2. She fell asleep after about 25 minutes, with me holding her little hand as she laid down. I snuck my hand away and left the room and she slept until 7:30am.

Day 4- Now, the plan that I was going off of said to change things up for day 4. Since Addilyn was coming from co-sleeping and did not handle CIO very well, I wanted to give her an extra day to adjust before I changed things. Babies really need 3 full days of change to shift their thinking. I followed the same routine and she was laying down after about 15 minutes and was out cold after 20. We had a middle of the night bottle call, but I left it with her and when she finished it, she went back to sleep and slept until 8am.

Days 5-8: I could stay with her for 5 minutes only, as we had gotten used to, and then I would leave the room, checking in with her in increasing intervals.

Day 5- I did our routine, and put her in her crib around 8pm. She protested a bit, but was settling herself in to her songs. After 5 minutes, I left the room and she lost it. This was so hard for me because I was actually leaving her upset for the first time. I set a 15 minute timer on my phone and tried my hardest not to cry with her. (Michael had to give me a bit of a pep talk).

After 15 minutes I went in and patted and sang to her. She settled down, but became very upset when I left at the end of the 5 minutes. I set a timer for 20 minutes this time, and tried to do some housework to take my mind off of how upset she was. When the timer was up, I went back in for 5 minutes and we repeated the cycle. This time, I set a timer for 25 minutes when I left the room.

Toward the one hour mark of doing this, she went from standing in her crib screaming toward the door to sitting in her crib, crying. We were about halfway through the 25 minute timer and she transitioned to more of a whimper. And then wouldn’t you know it, that sweet little baby nodded off sitting straight up (which we were cracking up about).

I turned off the timer and we watched her. She would start to lean forward in her sleep like you did when you fell asleep in school, startle herself awake and cry for a minute and then nod back off. Eventually after about 20 more minutes of doing this, she laid all the way over and fell asleep for the rest of the night. All in all, it was about an hour and a half, but I only had to go back in the two times.

Day 6- I settled her down, sang her songs and she laid down and was quiet. When I left the room, she cried like the night before, for the full 15 minutes. I went in to calm her and left after 5 minutes. She cried about another 15 and then went to sleep, with more of the asleep-sitting-up that was so adorably pitiful. Praise the LORD it only took about a half hour! We had a middle of the night milk wake up, but otherwise got lots of rest, yet again! By this point we were pretty dang excited!

Days 7-8: I did our routine, sang her one song and then put her in her crib and left the room. No 5 minutes of staying. I could check on her in the 15/20/25 intervals, but only verbally with a quick reassurance.

Day 7- She protested initially when I left without sticking around a bit. She cried for 15 minutes, I came in the room and handed her her Paci. I told her that I loved her and she was okay, and I would see her in the morning. After about another 10 minutes of crying, she laid down and went to sleep for the rest of the night.

Day 8- Same as day 7. I left the room, she cried. But at about the 13.5 minute mark, she stopped crying. She didn’t go right to sleep, but since she wasn’t crying I stopped the timer. She did some wiggling around, whimpered a little here and there, and then after about another 15 minutes was sound asleep until 7:45am! Look at that cute little ruffle booty in the air!

From that point on, I have been able to lay her in her crib and leave the room. She doesn’t cry, and goes right to sleep! There are a few nights here or there that she will wake up, but can usually self-soothe. Only very rarely have I had to go in there and help her out, and thus far she has kept this up!

Now all of this to say, I know that kids do their own thing and the minute you think that you have them figured out, they change it on you. (Please, Lord, don’t let this post be a jinx!). I am fully prepared for sleep regressions, but I truly believe if we stick with this system, she will come through them just fine. It’s been 2.5 months and most of the time, she is sleeping from 8:30-9pm until about 8am! Some days a little earlier, some days a little later. Mommy and Daddy are much more rested, and everyone is happier! I hope that maybe this can help another tired mama or two. Please, let me know if you try it out!

Now her naps, I did not want to mess with those until we had this down pat, since naps are much harder. We have since straightened that out, most days! I will have to write a separate post on that another time.

A Strawberry Milk Bath Photoshoot

April 5, 2019 Leave a Comment

I bet you didn’t know that much sweetness existed, did you? I sure didn’t!

From the time Addilyn was born, I wanted to do a milk bath photoshoot. Really though, I wasn’t comfortable doing one until she was sitting up unassisted, so I put it off until her 6 month birthday. I love the look of fresh fruit for these, so I chose strawberries and found her a simple red bow to coordinate. I hunted high and low until I found a round galvanized beverage bucket, but there are so many cute options! Bottom line is that you don’t want something super big (which could also be a danger to your baby!). You will also want to recruit a helper to be on hand to grab your baby should they slip while you are taking photos. It’s a two person job, guys!

Now here is the thing. I know a lot of moms use actual breastmilk for these. I, however, battled low supply and could not stomach the thought of pouring that much precious milk into a tub. Instead, I bought a gallon of whole milk, because its thicker and gives a more opaque look.

All I did for the shoot was fill the tub about a half way with warm water, dumped in enough milk to make it look dreamy and then plopped my fruit in! I also made sure to choose a room that gets a lot of natural sunlight. Light is your friend, people!

Once it’s all set up, just add a cute little naked baby and snap away!

It really is that easy! You don’t have to have a photography background or a fancy camera. To prove the point, I took half of these with my Nikon, and the other half with my iPhone. The pics look the same!

Some other fun milk bath photoshoot ideas I love:

Milk and cookies
Lemons
Flowers
Lavender
Pine needles, cones and cinnamon sticks
Cranberries and Oranges (SO sweet for a Christmas shoot!)

What Milk Bath ideas are you guys loving? Have you tried one? Tell me!

Easy (and healthy) Banana Pancakes!

April 3, 2019 Leave a Comment

Banana pancakes are a staple in our household. In fact, we love them even more than regular pancakes now! Addilyn loves eating these more than literally anything else, which is a win for me since they are super healthy, with no added sugar! They are completely 2B Mindset friendly, take about 5 minutes to make and you don’t even feel like you are being healthy. I eat them at least 3 times a week! And I am pretty sure I sing the Jack Johnson song every time…

Okay enough raving. Here’s the recipe! Let me know how you like them!

Easy Banana Pancakes

Servings: 1
Time: 5 mins
Difficulty: very easy
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Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
A pinch of cinnamon
Optional: honey or fresh fruit

Mash up your banana. *
Stir in the eggs.
Add the cinnamon and vanilla and mix well.
Cook in a lightly oiled frying pan until done.
Top with a drizzle of honey and fresh fruit of your choice! We like honey better than syrup and it’s much healthier. Blueberries and strawberries are both fantastic with them!

*A potato masher is actually great for smashing up the banana, especially if you are making more than one batch at once! I’m usually doing 3 since my family is obsessed with them.

“We’ll Love You ’til the Cows Come Home” Baby Shower

April 2, 2019 Leave a Comment

One of my beautiful best friends is having a precious baby girl and her nursery theme is cows. But not like…cartoony cows. Pretty cows with flowers! What’s sweeter than that?! Not much. We decided a “We’ll love you ’til the cows come home” shower was the perfect way to celebrate this little one’s arrival.

I loved the look of these gold hoop baby name signs, but couldn’t find one that was exactly what I was looking for. So in typical “me” fashion, I sat down and created one myself! They can hang it on the door when she arrives and then use it in her room (if they so desire!) once she is at home.

The diaper cake was created by another friend that threw the shower with me! For favors, we did these cute little glass jars filled with spices. Simple, practical and very farmhouse-y!

The backdrop is a vinyl tablecloth from Hobby Lobby! The paper flowers are from my Etsy shop, and you may recognize that basket from my Guest Room Tour. The adorable cow picture was a loaner from the nursery!

We love the simplicity of a good balloon garland, and the wow factor that they bring. My friend Britt and her husband helped Michael and I blow these all up! Head on over here for a tutorial on how to make one of these!

I have always loved the idea of a cute photo prop wall for pictures at baby showers, and I knew that I wanted to create one here!

Of course, I couldn’t not make this little sweet pea some custom onesies! (you can totally grab these on my Etsy shop, too!). How fun are they, just hanging on the clothesline with their little coordinating bows?

Now these cookies…these were a labor of love! I have been drooling over the idea of hand-painting cookies for months and could not wait to give it a try! There is definitely a learning curve (and were quite a few eaten cookies to prove it), but now that I have the hang of it, I think I am obsessed. I am so happy with the way they turned out, especially the cows!

Funny thing, this cake. It is one of the more simple designs that I have ever done, but it was a comedy of errors! I burnt the first one, trying out some new cake pans. Won’t use those again…

So I turned cake #1 into some cake pops! The re-do, I wound up scraping the icing off and starting over three different times. Life is tough when you are a perfectionist! I kid, I kid. In the end, I completely changed my design and it came out literally 100% different than my vision going in, but I am incredibly happy with the way it turned out! Isn’t that how life works?

I can’t take credit for any of that delicious looking non-sweet food! That was all her family, who so kindly asked if they could contribute. It was all so good!

The cute little teepee was also from their nursery. Addilyn was so enamored with it, though, that I will be getting her one for the playroom we are making for her. I have my eyes on this one on Amazon!

This little sweetheart was so great all day long, and did a fantastic job helping us host the shower! I could not ask for a better little sidekick!