AH-Mazing Gluten Free Chick-Fil-A Nuggets

This year my biggest goal is to get my family healthy. It is something I have avoided most of my married life because it seemed like such a daunting task and I had no idea where to start. Plus I love food and was not interested in "dieting" or giving up the things I love to eat. It was just easier to be ignorant and eat whatever I wanted.
But in the last few months I have become more and more aware of all the crap going on in this country when it comes to food and I realized that I could no longer be ignorant. It was crucial to health of my family that I get educated and make some changes. So I bought a book (pretty much where I start with everything!) called the Perfect Health Diet on Amazon that was highly recommended. I had never heard of Paleo eating before, but the book said it was based on how humans are "suppose" to eat based on a ton of research. I made a commitment to read the book and follow whatever it said to do to get us on the path to a healthier lifestyle.
The book was eye-opening and life-changing to say the least! Pretty much everything I thought I knew about eating healthy and being healthy was thrown out the window. But I trust the authors because they spent years doing research and testing it all out on themselves first.
We made the change about 6 weeks ago and haven't looked back. I was scared at first and it was a daunting task to go from eating so much packaged convenience food to preparing everything pretty much from scratch and eating a TON more fruits and veggies. I went from cooking 4 or 5 times a week to cooking at least one meal every single day, usually more (versus having cereal for breakfast, mac n cheese for lunch, and pizza for dinner).
A lot of people have asked me about recipes and resources and have expressed interest in what we are doing. One of my sisters has even started to make the change with her own family as well. Obviously I'm no expert, and if you are thinking of making the switch to a healthy whole food/paleo lifestyle I highly recommend you read the Perfect Health Diet (and any other good books you find on the subject). But I want to share some of the recipes we have tried and loved and some awesome resources I have found.
The other night I made these gluten free Chick-Fil-A style chicken nuggets and thought I had died and gone to heaven, they seriously hit the spot!

(image from The Domestic Man blog)

One thing I was worried about when I started this was that I wouldn't get to eat "good" food anymore, I thought I miss all my junk food. But seriously, I don't at all! And I am SO DANG GRATEFUL for Pinterest and the internet in general, it has seriously carried me these last 6 weeks. One blog in particular is my absolute favorite and I make his recipes all the time: The Domestic Man.
Even if you aren't doing a "special" diet, you need to make some of his food, so good and you cannot tell that it's Paleo or Gluten free or "healthy" at all because it tastes delicious, all of it. The nuggets recipe was actually his originally, I just happened to find it through the other blog.
I'm pretty proud of us, we made a commitment and we are sticking to it really well. We definitely are not perfect, but we are making huge progress toward getting our family healthy and setting our kids up for success later in life. I think that's what I am most excited about, they aren't going to have to make a big lifestyle eating change when they are older like we are, because I am teaching them now and getting them used to it. And they are doing AWESOME.
Today Regan asked if she could have a carrot without ranch. We have some homemade ranch, she didn't want it, just the carrot. Seriously I asked Matt if hell had frozen over because that is SO unlike our picky girl!
It's fun, and I feel so empowered now that I have the knowledge to make healthy choices for my family rather than staying in the dark and playing the ignorance card. I am taking control and boycotting the garbage the food industry has been feeding us! And it's pretty great :)

Goodbye Internet

Confession time: I am not very happy and haven't been for quite a while. I bet you never would have guessed right? Because it is so easy to fake happy on the internet, which I have finally realized is part of the reason for my unhappiness. Let me explain...no, let me sum up (name that movie!). I spend A LOT of time on the internet as I am sure many other SAHM moms do. Really, at least for me, it's unhealthy. I am a very insecure person already, as I mentioned in a previous post, and with everyone (almost) putting on their happy face and making life seem like a breeze and showing off all their marvelous talents and abilities it makes me even more insecure. Thanks to the internet I now have thousands or more women to compare myself to than I already had. Example: I just got my wisdom teeth pulled and I have been in horrible pain, especially when I eat. So I haven't been eating much the last week or so and I have a drastically reduced milk supply to show for it. I struggled with low supply with both of the girls as well but not this early. I also struggle with the pressure of being the only person in the world who can provide for this hungry baby, and this time with 2 other kids to take care of I have been so stressed out (which is probably another reason my milk is slowly drying up). The internet is great because I can get on here and look up advice and tips on how to increase my supply, but I also get to see all the wonderful moms who are able to nurse their babies for 6, 8, 12, 18 months or more. I am pretty much done nursing this baby at only 2 1/2 months, I only made it 3 and 5 months with the girls. I feel like a complete failure because I can't nurse my babies even the recommended 6 months, but I cannot handle my babies hungry cries while I try every stupid trick on the internet to get my milk supply back up.

I got the grand idea last week to start a blog that would reach a bigger audience, a blog about more than just updates for friends and family that would eventually generate enough traffic so I could make a little money selling add space and contribute financially to our family from home. Over the last week as I have read articles and blog posts and even an e-book about how to be successful as a blogger I have become more and more discouraged. What are you good at? What do you know a lot about? What makes you special, what sets you apart? What do YOU have to offer this world, Jennifer???? Certainly nothing "Pin worthy." And why would I? I don't have the time to develop any talents or get creative because I am too busy getting all up in everybody else's bussiness on the internet! I am so busy keeping up with what everyone else is doing that I am not living my own life. I don't have the time to develop patience with my kids or learn how to be a better teacher and a better mother because I am too busy surfing Pinterest and looking at how everyone else does it (perfectly, of course).

I don't know who I am, I don't know who I want to be, I don't know my worth, so I am "unplugging" from the internet so I can hopefully figure it out and find joy and happiness in this life, in the Gospel, in my kids, in my husband, and in myself.

*Just to be clear I am not trying to solicit pity or sympathy. I am writing this to explain why you won't be seeing me on Facebook, Instagram, my blog, Pinterest, etc. for the next little while and in hopes that anyone struggling with the same thing will be inspired to try this too.

Raylan is 2 months old!

Baby boy is already 2 months old, time is really flying now! It's true what they say, time flies once you have 3 kids in 3 years ;) I was really bad about recording Alexis' first year, for Regan I had a baby book that I filled out. For Raylan I am going to use my blog as the place where I keep track of his developments and milestones his first fleeting year. I was watching videos this morning and I cannot believe my baby Alexis is already gone, she is such a toddler now. It made me want to try that much harder to savor each baby moment with Raylan because before I know it he will not be a baby anymore either!

Raylan at 2 months:
Weight: 11 pounds, 6 ounces - 30th percentile (he was only in the 7th percentile at his 2 week check-up!)
Height: 22 inches - also 30th percentile

EAT
It's obvious from his stats that this kid loves to eat! He is still exclusively breastfed and doing great at it. We had some latch issues in the beginning that made nursing very frustrating but they have all worked themselves out. Now that he is bigger he is great at latching on and getting very efficient at getting what he needs quickly. He rarely goes more than 2 1/2 or 3 hours between feedings during the day.

SLEEP
A couple nights ago I got 5 1/2 hours of uninterrupted sleep! But that is by far the longest Raylan has slept. Most nights he will fall asleep around the time the girls go to bed, between 7 and 8. He will sleep/hang out with Matt and I until about 9:30 or 10:00, eat, then sleep until 1 or 2 in the morning. Then he will wake up again at 5 or 6. Usually he will go back to sleep until 7 or 8 and I sleep with him most days thanks to my wonderful husband getting up with the girls.

PLAY
Of course at only 2 months old Raylan still doesn't do much. But he has started smiling a lot more, usually at nothing though, or at least nothing I can see. I'm convinced angels are playing with him all day long :) He loves to be talked to and when he's awake he loves it when his sisters talk to him and play with him. I can tell the 3 of them are going to have a lot of fun together once Raylan gets older!

I tried for a little while to get Ray on the baby wise schedule, wake-feed-play-sleep every 3 hours. But I have since given up and gone back to what I did with both girls which is follow his cues and let him slowly ease himself into a schedule by the time he is 3 or 4 months. The problem with following someone else's schedule for me is that A) I am not strict enough and can't ever remember where I am suppose to be in the schedule and B) it doesn't necessarily work for all babies, I can't hardly get Raylan to stay awake 10 minutes, let alone an hour and a half after he eats if he doesn't want to. And a lot of the time I can't get him to go 3 hours between a feeding either, this boy is hungry! So I gave up on that and even though he isn't sleeping 8 hours through the night like the baby wise people claim he would be if he was on the schedule  we are all happier and less stressed when sweet baby Ray gets what he needs when he needs it instead of when the schedule says he should get it!

Some pictures of my little chunky monkey on his 2-month-old birthday:

Almost caught the smile on camera! 

Budah Belly

A Pinterest Post

So the last couple weeks I have actually been trying out more of the things I've "pinned" besides just recipes. The girls have loved it and so have I! We painted with colored pudding, made roads on the floor with tape, played with paint inside ziplocks, watched colored vinegar sizzle in baking soda, and I tried making a sensory box although it was pretty lame since I didn't have much to put in it. I've also been watching/reading hair how-to's and discovered that it IS possible for my hair to hold a curl, hooray!! I really love Pinterest, even more when I use the ideas and they work out. Honestly I don't know how these people come up with some of the things they do but I am so glad that Pinterest makes it so easy to steal their ideas (when they want me to of course). I admit I am not the most creative when it comes to thinking of activities for my kids and I am definitely not that great at doing my hair, but I am trying and learning!

The tape on the floor wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, Alexis just wanted to pull it off and Regan was bored after 5 minutes...maybe because they are girls and don't care about cars that much?

Paint inside ziplocks bags - not as big a hit as I had hoped. 

Via.

Regan loved this! She would have been occupied for much longer if I hadn't run out of baking soda! 

Showing me what she found

This is how the painting with pudding/food coloring started...

And then daddy got involved and told them to use their hands and forget about the paper...

And then it was everywhere!

The entire table was covered!

I'm not sure who had more fun, Matt or the kids! But this activity was definitely a hit, Regan has been begging to do it again ever since. I liked not having to worry about Alexis eating it, because that was the first thing she did. I got the idea here, but it's pretty straight-forward, just make the pudding and add the colors. I will say though that you don't need hardly any food coloring, I don't know what I was thinking but I went by the back of the box which is for whole batches of cake or frosting...I know, I'm not very bright sometimes :) 

Now that the gift has been given I can also show off the adorable onesies I made recently (Pinterest helped with these too). I've only gotten one done for the little mister but I made 3 for my friend Ali who is expecting a little girl very soon! I haven't been to many baby showers or given very many baby gifts, but in the future this will be my go-to gift because they are so easy, unique and personal. They are not even close to perfect as far as the sewing around the edges goes, but I think a little bit of error is part of the home-made charm. :)

Elephant, complete with a tail on the back! 

Owl

Patterns via.

Cowgirl hat - my fave :)

Inspiration.

Raylan modeling his cute little tie onesie. 

Pattern/tutorial: via.

I have really been trying to learn how to do something with my hair other than straight or pony. I used to scrunch it when it was long so I decided to try that again thinking it would never work with this length, but to my surprise and delight it worked and looked really cute! Then I decided I wanted to try some other things and learn some more new styles, so of course I went to Pinterest! The first thing I tried was curling my hair with my straight iron and let me tell you, I am ticked that I never discovered this before now! My hair is stick straight and has never held a curl with a curling iron, but when I used my straightener not only did the curls look awesome, but they stayed amazingly until I washed it, which means even the next morning I had curls left. They didn't look that great anymore, but my hair was still pretty curly which has NEVER happened. Here's the tutorial if you want to try it yourself! I also spent half an hour watching all of these hair-to videos and have tried number 3 (loved it, way better than just a plain bun or pony like I normally do). I thought of taking pictures of myself with all these new styles, but I felt vain and silly so I didn't. You will just have to take my word for it, I looked HOT! Haha, kidding! But I did look better than just a boring pony tail or my usual stick straight do' so I felt pretty great about myself. Sorry this post is turning into a novel! Pinterest really is so amazing when I actually use the ideas I pin, it's awesome! Yay for being a "pinner" :) 

Conversations with Regan: Talents

I absolutely love that Regan is so advanced in her language skills. From the time she was born I always wanted to know what was going on in her mind, the same way I do now with Lexi and Ray, and now I have a pretty good idea most of the time. Today while we were eating lunch she brought up talents and wanted to know what my talents were. I wasn’t in the best mood and really didn’t feel like having this conversation, but when Regan starts really talking to me like she normally does at lunch time, she has an amazing talent for making me smile and sometimes for making me really think. I answered her sarcastically (which of course she doesn’t get) and said my talent was making my kids cry because that’s all they were doing today (Raylan was crying at that very moment). Well, she didn’t like that answer and I know she could sense my negativity. She asked what her talents were and like always I told her that dancing was one of them. Then she took me completely by surprise by listing the following as my talents:

Making her happy

Bouncing Raylan’s seat

Playing with her

Bouncing her on my knees

Had I not been in such a negative mood I probably would have cried. I did smile and was able to have a fun conversation with her after that about her friends and fairies.

What really got me thinking was the fact that those things that she listed would certainly not count as talents in my book. I have always struggled in my life to find my worth. I don’t have a spunky cool personality, I don’t easily make friends, I’m not witty enough to make anyone laugh, I’m not a dancer (always wanted to be), I’m not super creative, etc. etc. I could easily sit here and list all the things I am not, all the talents I don’t have and the things I am not good at. But ask me to tell you what I DO have to offer? Well, that list would be quite a bit shorter. So short that while dating Matt I was in constant worry that eventually he would figure out that I’m really not all that special, that I don’t have all that much to offer. Eventually he would see the truth and leave in search of someone better. After almost 5 years of marriage I still wonder sometimes what he sees in me or why he thinks I am so great. I will say that he isn’t the greatest at words, but that isn’t why I struggle to see what he sees in me, it’s because I don’t see it in myself, even if he does tell me.

Today Regan really helped me to see what she sees in me, and it was eye-opening and felt so good coming from her. Because children are nothing if not honest. What she sees is a good mom. It’s almost hard for me to write that. She helped me to see that I am not failing at being her mother like I think I am most days. She let me know that she is happy and that I am a big part of her happiness. She taught me that talents don’t always have to be big things like being able to dance or entertain or create beautiful works of art. I am learning a lot from her, especially when I take the time to listen and pay attention.