Post Baby Body Reality Check

Hey so this is not a hating my husband rant but I do admit that I am not too happy with him right now.

So yesterday, I am nursing Zoe while sitting on the sofa. I was wearing a nursing tank and when I looked in the mirror that sits across the sofa, I was taken aback as how heavy I've become. I am not saying that I havent felt overweight, sluggish and overall bad but I was kinda stunned at how big I am now. It kind of crept up on me.

So I made a comment, "Wow, I can't believe how big I've gotten!!" to Dan. He nods and his eyes almost popped out of his head with that "I know right?!!" face. He caught himself and says, "You've put on a little weight!" I quickly added that I put on a lot of weight because I am not in denial and held back the tears.

I am upset with him. Does he know that it's so hard to find time to do anything while raising our toddler? I really do try to eat well and control my portions! I have to lay down with Zoe at bedtime to help her fall asleep and it's often after a big dinner meal!! I found myself yelling comebacks to him in my head over and over the whole evening. I felt like perhaps he turned on me. 

But who am I really angry at? At an honest answer that only agreed with my own conclusion? I have to be honest with myself and make more of an effort to get back into a good and healthy weight.  I hav eto stop letting my husband talk me into eating junk because we don't feel like doing a million dishes before we can whip up a meal!! I am holding myself accountable for the mess I'm in and have recommitted myself to get back to the health  horse and practice what I preach!!!

I don't eat fast food, fried food, processed meats or candy BUT I do love my cheese, croissants, bread and beer.  I love eating healthy food. I enjoy the taste and I do really feel great afterwards.  I have a pation garden going, will be receiving organic produce next month from our CSA farm and plan on hitting the farmers markets often. I know that once I start seeing results, I'll be encouraged to continue. So here's to making positive changes in life!!!!

Day 1, started the day off with an organic steel cut oatmeal with dried cherries, blueberries, and cranberries. 

I am going to take a power walk later and do some toning tonight while making a healthy dinner for Zoe and I and maybe I'll talk to my husband again :)

FELT BUTTERFLY WREATH

For Zoe's 1st birthday party, I cut butterflies out of felt to use as decorations. I had most of these left over and saved them knowing that eventually I'd like to make something from them.

The felt I used was called Eco Fi Classic Rainbow and is made from post consumer recycled plastic!!! It comes in great colors and is made in the USA!! I purchased these in beautiful colors from this great store http://www.etsy.com/shop/dudleyandtyler

I found stencils of butterflies online and blew them up to the sizes that I needed. I taped the stencil to heavy stock paper and than reinforced them with masking tape.

Here's a tip, if you are going to need many pieces of the same stencil, staple the stencil to a few pieces of felt at a time and than cut around the stencil. The staples can be removed after and the marks just disappear. I used good quality razor scissors and the butterflies came out great!!!

I was walking through the Dollar Store isle and voila, I found a wooden wreath waiting to be decorated!!!

Zoe helped me sort out the butterflies but I waited until she was sleeping before I hot glued them onto the wreath. We hung it on our front door and I love seeing it when we come home!!

Zoe inspecting the final product :)

You can use any shape or color you like and make it into a fun project. We will definatley be doing some fall leaves in the autumn and maybe one for every holiday. We live in a small apartment so hanging a wreath on the door is basically the only way we can decorate the outside :)

Starting my patio garden this week!!!!

Hey so it's May already and I am enjoying it very much so far.

My CSA Farm, Angelic Organics..http://www.angelicorganics.com/ sent me an email a couple days ago saying that they were offering seedlings to their shareholders!! They had a surplus of seedlings and were offering these for free!!!I was so excited because I was planning of starting my own patio garden this week. I packed up Zoe in the car and we made the 1:45 minute drive to Caledonia, IL.

It was a rainy day but I was happy knowing that our farm needed that water to nurture my food :) Zoe had a blast splashing through the puddles, climbing farming equipment and smelling all the flower and herbs. She even tried to eat the seeds potatoes, which would have been ok if they were not dusted with some sort of organic anti-fungal powder...not so yummy!

They had them all setup on tables outside of the greenhouse for me to put into containers and haul away. Zoe was playing while I went down my list and packed up my goodies. Here is what I got, for free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! P.S. They allotted specific quantities to each shareholder so that everyone would get their fair share but it was first come, first serve so I got everything on the list and the max quantity, of course.

Sweet Corn: take up to 20
Squash/ Zucchini: up to 5
Tomatoes (Hybrid): up to 12
Kale (Green and Red): up to 9 
Brussels Sprouts: up to 12
Eggplant: up to 8
Celery: up to 9
Celeriac: up to 6
Sweet Bell Peppers: up to 11
Hot Peppers: up to 6
 Herbs
Greek Oregano: take up to 4
German Winter Thyme: up to 3
Moss Curled Parsley: up to 7
Sage: up to 3
Anise Hyssop: up to 4
Genovese Basil: up to 9
 Yukon Gold: take up to 12
Dark Red Norland: up to 7
Carola: up to 8
Red Pontiac: up to 10
All Blue: up to 6
Kennebec: up to 8
French Fingerling: up to 8
Adirondack Red: up to 5

These are the herbs, kales and eggplants

Here is what my car looked like after my "harvest"  

Corn, Celery, Celeriac, Peppers

Tomatoes, Etc.

My mom is a great gardener and she was thrilled with my haul!! She will plant the tomatoes, eggplants, corn and potatoes in her beautiful backyard garden. I planted half the herbs in containers for my place and she kept the other half for her garden. I am eagerly awaiting the warm weather so that they can be planted outside!!

Zoe shoes and socks were soaked after we left the farm but she really had a great time!!!

Doing some reading on the 2 hour long drive home :)