Can You Love a Measuring Spoon?

**Don’t forget to enter to win the awesome baking mix from JoshEWEa’s!**

A couple months ago I bought two new measuring spoons at Katie’s (from Kitchen Stewardship) Pampered Chef party.

I never knew I could love a measuring spoon!

See that slider? This one spoon measures from 1 teaspoon to 1 full tablespoon.

The other one I have measures from 1/8 teaspoon to 1 full teaspoon. Having these in my kitchen has made cleanup so much easier! And the fact that one little thing could simplify my life just a bit, ahhhh. It’s truly priceless.

Anyone else find so much joy in something so simple?

This post is links to: Things I Love Thursday

** Please do not construe my posts as medical advice, because *ahem*, I am not a doctor or medical professional. I am but a student of Nourishing Nutrition and Natural Health. I only hope to ignite a passion within you to do your own research and begin your own journey to better health. And to make sure you don't miss a single post, you can add my blog's RSS Feed to your reader or you can sign up for free updates by Email.

Zukay Giveaway Winner

Random.org selected Susan B.’s number!

Congrats Susan, and e-mail should be on it’s way to you!

A question for my readers :-)

Since I broke off from my other blog and started this one over a year ago, I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing some sort of e-course, book or ….?

The Survey

So I prepared a very short survey and would love for you all to give me some input. Because this blog is nothing without you all and I want to make sure whatever I offer is based on what you like! The survey is anonymous as well.

Thanks guys – you’re the best!!

Figure it out Friday winners

I sure had a lot of fun checking out your guesses to last weeks Figure it out Friday! A few of you got it exactly right too!

The answer is……..(drumroll please)

Ritz Crackers!!

Congrats to our 2 winners! E-mails will be on the way soon!!

Here are your random numbers:

2	 Tessa

Timestamp: 2009-10-07 12:01:52 UTC

Here are your random numbers:

3	Abby

Timestamp: 2009-10-07 12:03:00 UTC

And if you just can’t figure out why those ingredients are bad for you, here you go

• enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine, mononitrate,{vitamin B1} riboflavin {vitamin B2} folic acid) – refined flours are a large contributor to insulin spikes as well as causing our bodies to lose nutrients we need in order to digest them.
• soybean oil – soy has been linked to hormone disruption due to the levels of phytoestrogens in it.
• sugar – robs our body of nutrients while we try to digest it as well as causes insulin spikes.
• partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil -can suppress the activity in cell receptors that are involved in inflammation, glucose metabolism, and insulin sensitivity.
• salt
• leavening (baking soda and/or calcium phosphate)
• high fructose corn syrup – the fructose travels to the liver almost completely intact, not broken down at all. The liver must then work even harder to digest and get rid of it. And our livers, which also expel old hormones that helps our entire hormonal system to function better, are then overworked and not able to function as well as they could.
• soy lecithin (emulsifier) – again with the soy!
• natural flavor – Hmmm, wonder what’s in this?
• cornstarch

Thanks for playing along and you’ll get another chance to guess this Friday!!

Finally got the winner from last weeks link up giveaway!

So I finally got into my Mr. Linky account. (poor ‘ol Mr. Linky. got so popular it doesn’t want to work)But I got the 3 names that Linked up plus I counted the one who left a comment. So out of the 4 that were eligible for the giveaway, random.org selected #2.

#2 was Dana from Control Freak in Chaos. Congrats and thanks for participating!

Wood Toys on the cheap

This year during garage sale season, I’ve been on the lookout for wood toys of all kinds. And this past week, I’ve hit the jackpot!
I found a shoebox full of colored wooden blocks of all sizes, a set of 4 puzzles (great for learning too since one is for numbers, one for letters, one for shapes and colors, and one for numbers and left and right hands), I also found a wood Tonka train and 3 small wood cars. I paid only $5.75 for all of this!! And the only thing I gave Cody to play with right now are the small cars. The rest will be saved until his birthday in August.

And speaking of his birthday, a couple of weeks ago I found some Melissa and Doug puzzles on Craislist for a few dollars a piece and Todd found a bunch of Cars movie cars at another garage sale. These will be put aside for his birthday as well. No need to go out and buy brand new toys when we have so many almost new toys that we’ve found!

Still loving it

When our toddler was a newborn, we loved our bouncy seat. Especially since he had to be on a billi blanket for his jaundice for a week or so. Because of this, he spent a bit of time in the seat when we weren’t holding him during the day and while sleeping at night, so that we didn’t have to move all the equipment around.

And now with our new little babe, we’re using it just as much! She sleeps in it during the day and also at night when she’s not curled up next to me on the couch. Ours has this great feature that reclines it back so it makes this great little pocket that she curls up into. Almost like being held! So far I think it’s helped her sleep longer and helps me so that I can get things done. (you know, like shower!) While not a necessity by any means, I sure love it and am so glad we have it!

*I’ll also take a moment here to jot down a quick disclaimer and say that yes, I know “they” say to put baby flat on their backs to sleep. I feel that we can do this safely. This is what we do, not what everyone should do. Always do only what you think is best for your own family.

Two weeks already!

As much as I wish it everyday, time just won’t slow down, and my little baby is two weeks old already! She’s completely captured our hearts with her sweetness and super cute baby fat.

And let me tell you, she’s been an easy baby! Her laid back attitude has been wonderful and it makes it so much easier that we’ve done this before. While I was constantly told I wasn’t the normal first time mom since I was so laid back about things, there is just so much to learn with the first baby. I’m sure she’ll be teaching us as well, or giving us a refresher course, but it sure beats the crash course we had with our son!

She also went in for her 2 week newborn check yesterday and all is well. Although I did have to go through an annoying visit with the nurse. I seriously don’t think she could have asked me dumber questions. Of course she was just going through a questionnaire, but still. She asked if we had a car seat.

While baby girl was still in the seat.

She asked if I was making sure my son wasn’t hitting her or throwing toys at her.

Then she got all concerned when I said she hadn’t had her Hep B shot.

Then we weighed her.

And she only came up to 7lbs 13 oz. Boy did she get concerned! (that’s a 7oz drop since she was born) We had a big discussion about my nutrition and how often she nursed. To be honest, I think their scale was wrong. I mean, she’s already growing out of her newborn outfit. To get her more riled up I almost told her that “Yup, I drink plenty of fresh Raw milk!”.

But I didn’t want another discussion.

The doctor though is great! He actually likes the idea of spacing out vaccines and is totally ok with it. He’s super laid back and a big supporter of breastfeeding too. So I’ll put up with the crabby nurses as long as we get to see him.

My son is doing great as well, actually better than I thought. We’ve had our share of meltdowns and behavior issues, but all in all he’s adjusting quite well. He even asked for daddy to put him to bed last night for the first time ever! (normally, it’s been a “world is coming to an end if mommy doesn’t put me to bed!” sort of thing)

Universal Wishing

I have been blessed with a wonderful family, church family, and friends who have recently been asking me what our current needs are for the little one we’re expecting here in a few short weeks. Since this is our second baby, there aren’t a lot of things we need, but yet there are still a few items that would be nice to have.

My problem was that I couldn’t find just one online store that offered everything I needed/wanted in order to make just one wish list. And it was to hard to find a way to let people know all the different things, on different sites, that we needed. Especially since so much of what I like is on sites like Etsy or small mom run businesses. And most of the things I’d like for the new baby (cloth diapers, etc.) aren’t even sold at major retailers! Plus, I would much rather support another mom than a large box store anyways!

Enter Amazon.

I know, I know. Amazon is a huge corporate conglomerate. But, they have this thing called a universal wish list. With it, I can add things from Amazon itself, or put a button on my toolbar for adding things from other shops.

It works like this: I add the button for the universal wishlist to my internet toolbar. I then “shop” around at all my favorite online shops (Etsy included!) and when I pull something up on the screen that I like, I just click the button! It even adds in a picture of the actual product for you. You can also add in different infomation like price and colors so people know exactly what you want.

With this list, I’m able to not only simplify, but support small businesses as well!

* and it can totally work for birthdays, weddings, and even those lists of things you just eventually would like to have – even if you buy them yourself!

Just some toddler fun

Having a toddler around can be the funniest thing in the world! Here’s a couple recent “conversations” we’ve been having.

So there we were, sitting on the couch discussing trucks and such boyish things, when he turns to me and says “Mommy? No more talk to Cody”. And he gets up and walks away.
Me – “Is mommy talking to much?”
Cody – (emphatically) “Yes”.
So I guess the men tiring of womens talking starts young!

As we’re sitting on the couch going over a few of his reading cards.
Me – “What does this word say?”
Cody – “Poop!!”
And he proceeds to fall over laughing. Seriously? We’re getting into the poop is funny phase already?!

As he’s thinking about doing something he’s knows he’s not supposed too.
Me – “Cody, you know you get in big trouble when you touch that.”
Cody – “No, mommy. Not big trouble, baby trouble.”

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