5 Baby Friendly Fung Shui tips

Every parent faces the dreaded fact that someday your child WILL be able to reach nearly everything in sight. This can be an unsettling thought but it doesn’t have to mean giving up on a nice, clean house. Here are 5 ways to have your cake and eat it too.

# 1 Ottomans or wicker toy boxes
All children have toys, this you could nearly state as a fact. A decorative ottoman or cute toy box can be a great place to not only store toys but hide them when company comes over. Your child will enjoy discovering the toys over and over again in their new hiding place. They might even attempt to put them back in there from time to time.

# 2 Light weight wooden picture frames
I love putting up pictures of my wonderful family all over the house but most come with sharp edges and a sheet of breakable glass. Buying light weight wooden or plastic frames at the dollar store can help you keep your pictures in sight with out worry. My daughter loves being able to point out the family members she knows.

# 3 Flameless candles
Another favorite decoration for most is great smelling candles but they can pose a threat to curious little hands. Flameless candles can be found at a reasonable price they come in wax, sometimes even scented ( prepare for teeth marks) or plastic. Placing them on a nice light plastic or metal plate can provide that warmth your room is missing all while providing a fun new toy for your kids.

# 4 Decorative pillows
If your feeling like your house is lacking fung shui because of the crazy baby whom you want to protect. Buying a couple of new colorful pillows for the couch can add that perfect touch. Over sized pillows for the floor will make for great baby distractions.

# 5 Baskets filled with wooden balls
This fung shui tip can make an irritable baby much happier. Place a nice basket in a lacking corner then fill it with anything from plastic Mardi gras beads, yarn or decorative wooden balls. This fills empty space where your nice things once used to be with something visually pleasing and extremely entertaining for little ones.

When in doubt write it out

Lately the words and feelings haven’t been flowing out of me like they used to. I started a blog to try and cope with the frustrating time I was having with my 16 month old. She was driving me crazy and I felt very alone in that struggle. I am thrilled to say It worked, writing a blog helped me in ways you wouldn’t believe.

Although I never thought of myself as a person who would need something like a blog to improve their life I’m finding that I really like it. I’m not a gifted writer I didn’t do great in English and my grammer is far from perfect, just ask my husband but that is the beauty of a blog you don’t have to get a degree or have an excellent vocabulary to get your thoughts heard. You just put them here and if they are even half way honest someone is bound to find them interesting.

I don’t have a hundred followers or a hundred likes but I still feel like my voice is heard and my frustrations are now just floating around the Internet instead of my head. One would be hard pressed to find a cheaper therapist than the paper and pencil. I no longer have this overwhelming feeling of dread every morning and I feel about a thousand times more confident in myself from just a few short months of blogging.

I know it sounds corny and cliche but I really do think starting this blog has changed my life. I would recommend it to any one struggling with who they are or where they are going, because just simply writing down something, anything can clear your head of life’s most trying obstacles.

It could always be worse

The unthinkable has happened, It was around 0 degrees last night so we just figured that was the reason for the house being so cold, I bundled up the baby and put her to bed. 1:30 rolls around and she’s is awake I assume its her teeth so I feed her back to sleep after what seemed like forever I notice she feels kinda cold so I wrap her in a blanket and put her to sleep. It seemed like it was getting colder and colder throughout the night so I decided to put a space heater in her room and then put my self to sleep.

The baby slept through the rest of the night then woke up around a normal time, as I awoke I realized it was FREEZING in the house, again I figured it was the horrific weather. After moving around the house for a bit I think to my self it really is cold and thank god I decided to put that space heater in averys room, I can nearly see my breath! That’s when I figured out the heat was BROKEN !

I luckily live with in 3 miles of my parents and was able to go over there till we got someone to come out and look at the broken furnace. Avery and I are still at my parents where I am writing this post trying to entertain my self due to the lack of house work I have to do. The furnace is supposed to be fixed tomorrow so I’m crossing my fingers.

It’s ironic that all I have been wanting to be able to do is get outta the house and do something I guess This is better than nothing. I think my husband said it best when he said no matter how bad the weather is it could always be worse.

Don’t ever forget about YOU

As parents we tend to put our needs and wants aside for our children’s needs and wants. This is obviously necessary at times but I try to give my self as much attention as I do my child, parents deserve it don’t we! Why should my child be happy 24/7 if It means sacrificing my own happiness.

All parents have days that frustrate them to no end, I personally have a short temper so sometimes I reach the end of my rope. I start to think that my whole life is horrible and I just hate every second of the day, waiting till the kid finally goes to bed. It’s on days like this I hope to apply what I learned the other day. This last week was a hard week, I had record highs and lows quite like the weather (I hate snow), there wasn’t much I could do about it. One night after an endless day I did something I hadn’t done in a long time, I got my self a glass of wine put on some Sade and took a long shower. I just washed all of my frustrations away I cleared my head thinking about nothing but the water hitting my face. I hadn’t done this in ages it seemed like and it felt so right. I didn’t worry about cleaning, cooking, the baby, the weather nothing and I deserved every minute if it.

Finding this time in a day can be difficult, clearing your mind can be even more difficult when you have a busy house hold full of people and kids running around. Every mom should do this at least twice a month just lock yourself in the bathroom, once you do it it can provide you with at least a couple days of mental sanity and that’s worth the world to me.

Especially lately, I have been struggling to get my 16 month old to take a nap so while doing some research to find out what her deal is, what do I find instead of constructive ideas? I find criticizing and controversy, women who think we owe our children every second of our time or that its wrong to want a little ME time in the middle of the day. We the parents are people too we have needs, if we don’t take care of ourselves who will take care if our kids. I know I deserve this time and am willing to deal with a couple of tears to find it.

I’m really hoping to get to the bottom of these naps, if you have any advice for me feel free. Im running out of tricky ideas and I’ve tried everything, if not I guess it’s a couple of extra nights locked in the bathroom for me. Cheers!

Harvest oatmeal baby cookies

I’m finally feeling like there is light at the end of this dark tunnel, maybe ill finally feel like myself again soon. This Michigan weather is definitely not helping my mood any, I’m thinking of maybe getting a sun lamp I’ve heard they can do great things for your mood. Until then my only comfort is baking I love baking now that I’m a mom. After dropping out of culinary school to start a family I discovered this new hobby and its one if the best things to do when your stuck in the house.

I love baking cookies and cakes, things that are especially hard to resist when your feeling down so I try to bake some (and the key word is some) healthier things when the mood strikes. I have been trying to perfect a recipe for baby cookies that I found on food.com using left over baby cereal. I think I finally found the perfect balance of sweet and savory for babies.

To make you will need :
1/4 cup butter softened
1/8 cup molasses
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup wheat flour
2 cups baby oatmeal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 zuchinni grated
1/2 carrot grated
1/2 jar of apple baby food
5 tbsp whole milk

Preheat oven to : 375 degrees
Grease cookie sheet

The recipe starts with :
butter
molasses
brown sugar
Mix together just until combined
You can use 1/4 cup molasses instead of sugar if your more of a health nut.

Mix in :
egg
vanilla

In seperate bowl mix:
whole wheat flour
baby oatmeal
cinnamon
baking soda
Set aside

In another bowl mix:
grated zuchinni
grated carrot
baby apple sauce

Combine all ingredients into egg mixture adding the whole milk than stir. Adding more milk if necessary to combine all ingredients.

Scoop by the tbsp and make flat discs placing an inch or so apart , these cookies do not change shape barely at all when cooked. Bake for 10 – 15 mins until bottoms are browned.

The cookies will come out smelling great cause of the cinnamon, its my favorite spice in the world I put it in everything. All though these cookies do not have a normal cookie like crunch they still taste great and are a serious god send during teething time when getting baby to eat anything but you can be a struggle. These cookies provide them with all the nutrients they need through out the day. I hope you all enjoy them!