{living simply, living intentionally}

"Look for the bare necessities,

The simple bare necessities.

Forget about your worries and your strife.

I mean the bare necessities,

Old Mother Nature's recipes

With just the bare necessities of life"

"The Bare Neccessities"

by Phil Harris and Bruce Reitherman from Disney's, "The Jungle Book"

I have a passion in my life for living simply. That's not to say I am always successful. But, I try and always be mindful of it.

In my 20's, I have come to learn many life lessons. One being that life just continues to get busier, and it's important to stop every once in a while and reflect. Am I going in the right direction? How can I serve and glorify God in what I do?

I am pretty sure I have cited this blog several times, but here it is again. Simple Mom, founded by a lady named Tsh Oxenreider, is a wonderful resource. Not just for Moms, but anyone who sometimes feels overwhelmed by the daily grind.

She talks about keeping the house clean and organized, saving money, managing money, raising children, work-life balance, among many other things. Her blog has been so successful that she expanded into a network of Simple Living blogs with many different contributors on many different topics.

She has written a book called Organized Simplicity, which ironically, has been sitting unread on my table for about month now. Nice, Kate. This is what I am talking about. Ugh. (Hanging my head in shame)

She also has written an e-book called, One Bite at a Time. It's $5 and outlines how to make life simpler one step at a time. (Did she write this for me?)

I just downloaded it, and just scanning through makes me so excited to read through it. 169 pages of tips for people like me, who need a plan to wade through the everyday mess of life.

I recommend.

Happy reading! Happy Simplifying!

(*Side note: Caroline is eating breakfast next to me, I have Pandora's Disney radio station on, and I am typing this post. The Bare Neccessities comes on. How appropriate. :)

{change}

(forgive the iphone picture)

It's pretty amazing how fast things can change, especially with kiddos.

We went from liquid diet at 15 months, to pureed food at 16 months, to 18 months (almost) completely off pureed baby food. I am sure a lot of that has to do with her having a mouth-load of teeth.

Remember how I said the doc still wanted me going for 24-30 ounces of formula a day through 2 years old? Yipes. Ain't happenin' any more! She will drink about 10 ounces in the morning right when she wakes up, 4-6 ounces before naptime (if I am lucky), and then about 8 ounces before bedtime. So, not horrible, but we are short a good 6-10 ounces. With all of the food she is eating, I think we are okay on calories, so I am not really worried.

Caroline looooves potatoes, avocado, and bananas!

People have been asking me how she is doing with food lately, and I wanted to post about it. She is doing great! I basically have her on a whole foods sort of diet. No wheat/oat/barley, but it hasn't been too hard to work with at this point. I am hopeful :)

{impact}

I am sure it is fairly obvious by now that I am highly motivated by positive words. I don't think there is a lot of room in life for dwelling on the negative. I think if things aren't going right, the only thing you can do is get on your knees and pray. Everyone is fighting their own battles on a day to day basis, so the best thing to do is have faith that God's plan will reveal itself and it will all work out. All that being said, I love all of the Steve Jobs quotes that have been popping up all over social media. This is one that I put up on Facebook and Twitter, and I liked how this person graphically laid it out. I would love to print it out in a small frame on my desk or (someday) office.

{honestly: mama anxiety}

(image from Pinterest here)

Hello friends.

A friend I knew in college has "truth telling Tuesdays" on her blog, and I felt the need to do something similar. I am going to call each post "honestly" as a way to look back on myself and see how God has helped me to work through things. I don't know that I will have something on a weekly basis, but I would like for this blog to be as real as possible.

People always comment to me about how I look like I have everything together, or that my life looks like it's perfect or easy. I'm sure that I can speak for anyone, especially new moms, when I say, it's not. I make a lot of mistakes. But, I am learning so much.

Everyone is fighting their own battle(s). Here is one of mine:

Caroline is doing so well with food. I am working very hard at trying to get her off of the pureed food and onto regular food. I still have to strictly regulate everything she eats. If something has more than one ingredient, it's because I have mixed them. For example, green beans and rice... or sweet potatoes and squash.

She isn't the one struggling with all of this. I am. I have watched her time and time again, when she gets sick after eating food.

If you aren't in the loop as far as her food problems go, here is a rundown:

1) She had a milk protein allergy when she was born that made her sick/hurt if I had dairy. So, I had to take it (among all other possible allergens) out of my diet. Once I stopped the dairy, her reflux got better.

2.) Reflux has been controlled since she was about 8 weeks old.

3.) She started solid food around 5 months and did great.

4.) At 9 months, she got a bad stomach virus. We couldn't ever get her back on solid foods without her throwing up.

5.) For months, I kept trying single ingredient foods or bland foods, and she would still get sick. Things she ate every day before.

6.) The doctor put her on a liquid diet to give her body a rest. From 11 months until 15 months, her sole nutrition was formula.

7.) We did an endoscopy of her throat, which showed no food allergies (so weird), but that she has a hiatal hernia... an anatomical abnomality that basically just gives her a predisposition for reflux. So, basically, I think she had a double dose for reflux at the beginning.

8.) At this point, I have a strong feeling she has grown out of the milk allergy, but only time will tell. We went to a new doctor... the best of the best... Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Texas Childrens.

9.) He gave us a strict plan to follow. We figured out that the wheat/oats are what were making her sick. Things she ate everyday before she got sick at 9 months. He told us allergies show up that way, and it's best to take them out of their diet instead of continuing to give them. Hence, I can't give her a ton of regular food because a) we haven't gotten to the point of trying dairy in his plan yet, and b) practically everything has wheat or dairy in it.

I wasn't going back over that to be wordy. All of this has given me so much anxiety as a mother.

I literally get pits in my stomach as she is trying a new food. Is she going to get sick this time? She has been fine on fruits, veggies, and rice so it's just wheat/oats at this point.

Now that she is 17 months old, the church nursery or any mothers day out will have kids that are eating normal things. Things Caroline can't have yet. Like Goldfish. Or Graham Crackers.

I have so much anxiety when we drop her off at the church nursery, or at the thought of taking her to Mother's Day Out, because I am terrified she will pick something up off of the floor she can't have and eat it.

I am terrified she will choke. I am terrified something bad will happen if she eats something she can't have.

So, there it is. I constantly have to tell myself that God will take care of her. We have such a strong bond, and I can't bear for something to happen to her. I am tearing up just writing this.

I keep seeing all of these precious babies get sick on Facebook, or lose their Mamas, and it fuels my anxiety.

So, I keep repeating verses to myself, and I keep praying.

this printable from here

{life lesson}

If I could pick one life lesson I've learned in my 20's, it would be this:

I got the image from Pinterest (duh :) but it originally came from here.

{typical day}

I wish I had done this from the beginning... kept track of a typical day in the life of miss Caroline as she grows. Once you get a sort-of-schedule in place, they tend to go and change it again. That's what makes every day interesting, though! Oh, well! Maybe with the next one (which is not any time soon).

At 17 months,

this is what we did today:

6:45am: wake up, medicine, drinks her milk, and we play! (I have to play and play and play with her or she won't go down for her nap! I try to avoid TV in the morning because she needs to be more active)

Things we do:

(dancing to the wiggles, doing puzzles, chasing each other, throwing the ball for sadie, playing with magnetic letters on the fridge, playing dress up with Mama's purses/shoes/pearls/etc, reading books, among other things)

9:00am "Breakfast" This keeps changing because we keep adding food (amen!). Today, she had apples (I crushed up), and mashed sweet potato mixed with a little bit of apple to help the consistency. This is probably so weird for those who have kiddos around Caroline's age. She "should" be eating regular people food (Still cut up into smaller bites), but we aren't there yet. She is doing so great at learning how to feed herself with the spoon. I haven't really been pushing it much, because I wanted her to get used to picking up food with her fingers again, but she likes to hold the spoon, dip it in the bowl and feed herself. She can't have any dairy yet (we haven't gotten to that point of trying it), and she can't have any type of grain aside from rice. That is what makes eating so tricky for us. No processed food whatsoever. I have to have full control over every ingredient in whatever she eats.

Another thing is that her Doctor says he still wants the majority of her nutrition coming from her formula, which means I still have to fit in a good 25-30 ounces on top of the food we are trying one by one. The solid foods at this point are moreso for trying/experimenting and less for calorie count.

Next, we clean up, play a little bit more...

11:00am Napped like a champ for 2.5 hours. That's my girl. She does great when we are at home. Traveling... not so consistent on that! {insert Mama's time to eat, shower, go to the bathroom, do anything around the house, and work. yipes.}

1:30 Up, drank some milk, and ran some errands.

Ate some bananas/prunes frozen into ice cubes inside one of these (best invention ever) and watched a little bit of Elmo's World on DVD. She loooooves "Oh-no" (Elmo)

Played some more {stacking blocks/making towers/knocking said towers down/etc)

Rubbed on some sunscreen and headed to the splash park. I keep thinking we should enjoy it while we have the warm weather! This is where today was not normal. She {hearts} the splash park. Today, not interested. At all. Long story short, she kept following this little boy around. Oh geez. Zach, you are innnn trouble.

6:00 medicine, bathtime, cup of milk, brush teeth, read book, say prayers, go to sleep (aka Mama leaves the room)

And, I'm spent. At this point, I usually get on Pinterest or Facebook just to have a few minutes of pointless activity. Then, I get dinner ready/clean up/do laundry/eat dinner/watch a TV show, and then it's time for me to sit down and work. I usually work until 11:30 or 12am.

Then, I go to sleep, get up, and do it all over again. Just a reminder for myself when our next one is around this age. Especially if we have another girl!

{12-16 months}

I am pretty sure an absence of blogging in the time of 12-16 months is a bit par for the course... Caroline is SO busy! She keeps me so busy. The baby that turned one in April is not the same baby I have here at 16 (almost 17) months. Wow... the changes have been unbelievable to watch! Some things I want to remember...

* Caroline is going to be a little dancer... she is already doing movements to some of the wiggles songs and songs I sing to her

* She is very verbal (although I don't really have anyone to compare... that is just my own observation). It is so funny which words she comes up with and which ones she totally botches (but I know exactly what she is saying).

* She became super attached to her paci after we weaned her off the bottle in July. I am a little indifferent... Sometimes I think- oh geez... we need to start working on getting rid of this... and sometimes, I think... eh- we've got time. I don't mind it... Until I make up my mind, it stays. :) Another funny thing is that she is VERY particular about her pacis. Not just NUK brand, but the NUK Genius ones... Sorry to say I know exactly where she got that from!

* She is obsessed with animals and can do every animal sound I can think of. Some of them are really funny. The latest ones are snake and owl and her "whooo whooo" is hysterical. I think the elephant is my favorite.

* She has started to throw tantrums, but I am getting way better at handling them. They really aren't too bad (yet?) and almost 100% of the time happen when she is tired.

* August was a crazy month for her. She got Salmonella poisoning (from licking a restaurant table we think. nice) and cut 4 teeth (3 fang-ones and her last one year molar)

* She is getting closer and closer to allowing bows to stay. She wants them, but she always pulls them out within 30 seconds or so.

* She is SO girlie. Purses, shoes, jewelry... anything. It is the cutest thing ever.

* She is a water baby. She loves the pool, kiddie pool, and especially the splash parks. It got way too hot this summer, so we didn't do as much of that as I thought. I took her yesterday with her Aunt Tara, and she literally screamed with delight as she ran around. She absolutely digs it. I plan on taking her to the beach when it cools down below 119.

Are we really in September? Hol-ee cow.

I have a goal (aside from finishing my darn photography challenge. Ugh- sorry.) to go out and take some more pictures of her and have them printed. SO shameful... I am a photographer and I haven't printed any pictures of my sweet girl. Zach is beyond swamped, so hopefully it will happen someday soon.

That's all I have time for now, but I will try to be better about taking just 15 minutes to write a quick post! I know I have forgotten some stuff since I haven't been great at updating since she turned one. Her birthday party pics will be coming soon! Gah.