Why am I still nursing my toddler?

Little T will be 14 months at the end of this month. He's walking, "talking", climbing couches, and digging in the dirt. He's also still nursing. Oh, and not just once or twice a day. Six or seven times a day, and a couple of times at night too(we mostly co-sleep). Want to know why?

Making Coconut Milk

I just made coconut milk! No, really-I made coconut milk! In my very own kitchen, I turned a whole coconut into delicious creamy milk! (Can you tell I'm a little bit proud of myself?)


It started just before dinnertime. I had some leftover rice in the fridge, so I was going to make my favorite red curry shrimp to go on top. It's a quick, easy, delicious meal. And then I remembered. The last time I went to the store, instead of picking up a half gallon of coconut milk, I had gotten a coconut.

Crap. I don't think that's going to work well in my shrimp dish. 

Getting to Know You!

For the next two weeks, I'm going to be joining a natural parenting blog party, hosted by The Peaceful Housewife! I've never participated in a blog party before, but it sounds like a lot of fun! You can see the button in the margin to the right if you want to join in as well!



We're starting with this list of questions as a "get to know you" kindof thing. And since this is a pretty new blog, I thought it might be helpful for my readers to get to know me a little as well! So here we go.


1. How many children do you have, and how old are they? I have 2 children- a daughter who's almost three, and a son who's 13 months. I'm choosing not to share their names at this point for privacy's sake. Sometime soon I'll come up with some of those cute little nicknames that some bloggers use for their kids.

Azure Standard- Affordable Healthy Food!

I was so excited to pick up my Azure Standard order yesterday. A little giddy even. As you know, one of my goals this year is to make some lasting, healthy changes to our diet. I started by going gluten-free in January, and I can tell such a difference already. The downside is that eating gluten free is costing us significantly more. And that's where Azure Standard comes in.

Azure Standard is a company/farm out of Dufur, Oregon. They sell just about anything healthy/all natural/organic that you can think of. It's literally like an entire natural foods grocery store in a catalog. (They do sell a variety of non-food items as well). They ship UPS, but the best way to get the food from them is through their truck routes. They currently deliver to 22 states. If there's a drop point near you, then ordering is pretty simple. You can order online, by phone, or by mail. And then once a month, Azure's driver will drive your route and drop off your groups food at your drop point.

Is Mandatory School Lunch the Right Way to Teach Kids About Healthy Eating?

Think the idea of outlawing sack lunches in school sounds crazy? Well think again- that's exactly what one school in Chicago has done. Students are no longer allowed to bring lunches from home, and they must eat the lunch provided by the school. The only exceptions are for children with medical needs or allergies.


I'll just come right out and say it- I think this is outrageous! My family is far from perfect, but I work really hard to try to ensure that what we're eating is healthy. I read labels, buy organics when I can afford it, join natural food co-ops, and cook most of our food from scratch. And that's just a start- I'm working on lots more changes to make our diet just as healthy as I can! And to go through all that effort to be told by a school that my children must eat what they're supplying? That's unacceptable.

Thank God For All I've Missed

I think I'm finally getting to the place where I can say that. And I'm realizing how blind I've been.

You see, I want more out of life. I want to go places and do things. I want to learn, teach, and help people. I want to get an education. I want to prove, to the world and myself, that I can be more and do more. That I am something extraordinary. That I can DO something extraordinary. That I can change the world in a way that no one else can.

But it hasn't always been this way. I haven't always felt this way. Growing up, I wasn't exactly encouraged to want great things. I was taught that a woman's place is at home, and for her to desire anything else was wrong. I wasn't taught to think for myself. I wasn't taught to dream for myself. I didn't go to college(well, to be honest I've had 2 semesters at a community college, but those hardly count); I didn't have aspirations beyond being a wife and mom. I was placed into a box, and I was comfortable there. I thought I liked it there. But I wasn't happy. I wasn't fulfilled. And sometime in the past couple of years, the box has been opened, and I'm seeing just how much world there is out there. And I want it.

Back in the Saddle Again (with cloth diapers!)

After almost 2 years straight of cloth diapering, I was ready for a break. Plus we were dealing with some stink issues that I just couldn't seem to resolve. We used disposables for about 2 months. And not even the eco-friendly, chlorine free disposables. Nope, just the plain old, cheap-o Target diapers. (Which are great, btw.) But now we've resolved all our issues, I've had my break, and we're back in the saddle again! It feels great!!! So in honor of that I'm going to share our cloth setup and some of the basics of cloth diapering for those of you who might be interested.


Why cloth?
It's better for your baby, better for the environment(did you know a disposable diaper takes 200-500 years to decompose?), better for your pocketbook, and better on the eyes!


Who could resist that cuteness???

Zooper Twist Review

The time had come for a new stroller, and like the baby gear nerd that I am, the choice was not something I took lightly. I spent hours reading stroller reviews and watching review videos on you tube. I asked other moms for their opinions. And after narrowing it down to my top three choices, I even made a list of all the stroller's features and scored each stroller first, second, or third. The stroller with the top overall score would be the one I would purchase, of course.

I'm pretty sure that if I could afford it, I would be a total stroller snob. 

But since I can't afford to be a stroller snob, and since I knew this would most likely be the last stroller I would ever purchase, I wanted to get the most out of the experience. I decided on the Zooper Twist.


The Twist is a upgraded umbrella-type stroller. It folds compactly, umbrella-style; but still has a lot of the features that you probably love about your travel system/full size stroller. I think it's pretty snazzy looking! It looks great in person- the colors are vibrant.

Organize: Master Bathroom

As a recovering pack-rat, my goal this year is to simplify. I'm going through my entire house- every room, closet, cabinet, corner, and shelf. I'm throwing out what I don't truly need, abolishing clutter, and organizing whatever's left. I've made a lot of progress sofar, and it feels great! But more on that in another post.

Today I decided to tackle the Master Bathroom. I can't believe I'm going to share these pics! Who willingly posts pictures of the inside of their bathroom cabinets on the internet for anyone to see? But in the spirit of education and inspiration, I'll take the hit.


Under Sink 1-Before:

The Breastfeeding Doll: Promoting Promiscuity?

Unless you've been hiding out in a cave somewhere, by now you've probably heard about the breastfeeding dolls that are making their way here to the states. The Breast Milk Baby has been sold overseas since 2009, but is just now being marketed to Americans.

I'll admit- although I had heard about the doll, and scanned a couple of blog posts and articles about it, I wasn't too concerned about all the hype. That is until I turned on my radio this morning. I was driving home from the DPS(such a lovely way to spend a Thursday morning), and the radio host just happened to be talking about the breastfeeding doll. Of course I turned the radio up right away, and what I heard infuriated me. 

First of all, he said that the doll was encouraging young girls to be promiscuous, and that in a sex-crazy world we don't need one more thing promoting sex. Then he went on to say something like, "What next- a pair of dolls that can have sex with each other?!?!"