North Pole Kitchen

I post this every year, and this year is no different. This is a web site I came across a few years ago, and I LOVE it! You can find almost all the great classic holiday recipes! Check it out!

North Pole Kitchen

How to Ruffle Fabric With Your Sewing Machine

I have been doing this the hard way for a while now. I have researched online with no avail. Then Made by Lex, a blog I follow, showed this great tutorial. So I thought I would share...

Enjoy...

Candy Cane Green Tea

Oh the Joys of the Christmas season when Trader Joe's introduces yet another amazing creation of theirs. This is just one, but I thought I would highlight it because I haven't had anything like it. It Candy Cane Green Tea. It is soooooo good. I am not a big fan of mint, but thought I would give it a try. Also, I can drink it guilt free, and before bed because it's decaffeinated!!!

Try it, you won't be disappointed!

Bed, and Bath time.

We have had a tiring week, this past week. And the funny thing is we haven't really done anything. It is all because of Adah. We have always the type of people that we don't let her dictate our schedule. Not to say she doesn't have a schedule, but if I want to go hang with Jon on Friday night at Jr. High, we will do it. We strive to be flexible, yet consistent.

This last Friday night, I decided Adah and I would stay home. That way she could to bed on time, and I could get some things done around the house. By 7 o'clock, she was looking like she could go to sleep anytime. My parents came over and she almost fell asleep in her arms. This was promising, so when they left we did our bed time retinue. We got her bed ready, say and read a story, grabbed her (flavor of the month) favorite bear, and baby, and rocked for a few minutes. Then I laid her in her bed. Again, completely routine. But that night was completely different. She WOULD NOT GO TO SLEEP! I was so frustrated.

Jon got home shortly after 10, and was surprised to see her still up. Normally when he comes home late like that, he'll grab something to eat, and then we will slowly head to bed. We were up until after 11 trying to get her to sleep. It was maddening. You would expect this with a baby, but we have had smooth sailing with her and sleep for nearly 6 months, and it has been so nice.

We just thought she was having an off night, because nothing was leading us to believe she had anything wrong with her, she wasn't even really crying that hard, it was more of a whimper. Unfortunately the was the first of three nights like that where she would not go to bed. And naps were almost as hard. She would eventually nap from sheer exhaustion. She has finally settled back into her normal routine, but boy that was tiring!

Another thing that has been weird, is she all the sudden LOVES baths. Baths have been such a struggle since the day she was born. The last few months I have just showered her with me because that she can tolerate.

I don't even known when this started, but she loves them! We were at my parents house over the weekend, and she was in the bathroom with me and saw the bath. She said bath, bath, and started taking her clothes off. We were there in the morning, so she hadn't had her bath yet so I just gave it to her there.

She is growing up so fast. It's weird how I would do things for her all the time and now she is doing them herself, like feeding herself cereal in the mornings. Crazy!

Italian Hot Chocolate Recipe

I like hot chocolate, but I don't love it. I think the reason is, I'm not a fan of pouring a packet of powder in a cup and mixing it with hot water, or warm milk. So, I was so pleased when one of the blogs (Made By Lex) I follow had this recipe posted today. I hope your as eager to try it as I am! I am going to leave a few things out of it for health reasons, but the base of the recipe is pretty good, so I can only imagine the wonderful things you come it with in tweaking it. I am defiantly going to use marshmallows!

Enjoy!

Sweet Water...

I am really trying to correct a lot of things from my last pregnancy with this pregnancy. Like what I eat, going on walks to get the blood pumping (I HATE working out), resting whenever possible, the normal stuff.

But one of my least favorite things to do is drink water. I'm not a big liquid drinker in general, but I just really don't like water. I sip everything so the idea that I need to drink at the minimum 64 ounces of water a day is so overwhelming to me. Every time I guzzle down water I literally feel like I'm drowning. I would much rather have a big glass of iced tea with 2 sweet & lows. But being that I am also keeping caffeine to a minimum, that's not the best thing for me.

I have throughout my life noticed the effect the lack of liquids has on my body. My hands swell at night (pregnant or not) I get tired easily when doing strenuous thing, I don't really ever sweat dry skin, and lips. The list goes on. But all that has changed.

Around thanksgiving I heard a way not to over eat is to drink lots of water, and especially during your meal in between bites. Yes, you are probably saying, "Duh!" but I found that information quite helpful. So I put it into action.

I think I have mentioned before that we have quite a few nalgene water bottles that we use, and the thing that I like about them, is they all hold 32 ounces of water. So if you fill it and drink 2 of those, you have your daily requirement done. Being that I found the easiest way to guzzle water for me has been at room temp, I fill it (we also invested in a nice water dispenser a few years ago) up before bed, for the next morning. I drink it throughout the morning (which has also lowed the amount of coffee I drink) and when it is done I fill it to sit out for the afternoon, and drink it the second half of the day. I really try to drink it all my 6pm or I'd be going to the bathroom all night long.

Since I started this a week ago, I have noticed a few things... For starters, the first few days was horrible on my bladder, I would literally go every 5 minutes, but it's not like that anymore. I have a bit more energy which is nice. I don't feel like I have to sleep when Adah takes a nap. I am not eating out of boredom. It helps fill me up when I'm eating. I was at Starbucks today to see my mom and grandma, and I had no desire to get anything! It was amazing! I feel healthy. But, this is the biggest, and I really don't know if it has anything to do with the water drinking, but my BP at the doctors was in the normal range, and today I took it and it was 115 over 73! I haven't seen that low of a reading in a year and a half.

All the web sites I found all say the same thing about water and it's benefits. I am really hoping to keep up with this.