The journey of our family after undergoing IVF with Donor Eggs - 2 different times! - we were successful and now it's life with 1 Sixth Grader, 1 Fourth Grader, and 3 dogs! Here I blog about life, work, health, nutrition, and post pictures to keep you in the loop!
Whew. It's been a whirlwind since last week; I'm officially done with work for the summer, and we had Papa Jim & Nana Marge here with us all weekend. It was Abby's birthday last week, and we had a family party for her at the Corey & Jill's house. I'll have pictures of that later, but we all had a great time, and Keifer doesn't lack for attention when her family is around. Abby is infatuated with her, and in turn, Keif is infatuated with Mason, who really is all about his own things. It's pretty cute.
Yesterday, we hung out all day with Nana & Papa and did lunch at Applebees, as well as some shopping. Keifer played social hostess to anyone and everyone who walked by on their way to the bathroom, as well as with all the wait staff. Everyone got a kick out of our friendly little gal. Last night, we all went out for dinner (can you just imagine my waistline, on top of the fact that Nana brought her infamous brownies with homemade frosting? Oye.). Keifer got her 'flirt on'' with the Latino waiter who served us last weekend; he remembered her and remembered she loved pink balloons. He is her favorite.
Last night, after bathing wild woman Keifer, Nana and I settled in and watched 27 Dresses. I was a bit disappointed in it, but we both fell in love with James Marsden (although I loved him in Enchanted, and Hairspray). Then, the night from hell began. Keif was up no fewer than 5-6 times, screaming in pain from her teeth coming in. Of course, whenever she saw us come into her room, the screaming intensified to decibels that no doubt will contribute to my future hearing loss. I'm really surprised that Papa & Nana, way down in the basement, didn't hear her as much as I thought they would.
This AM, I felt like I had when she was a newborn: hung-over with lack of sleep, headache(y), and not very chipper. Papa & Nana said their goodbyes as they left for home, CJ returned to work, and Keif and I began our summer together.
We hit our first ever library "Baby Story Time", where my girl demonstrated to me her lack of interest in structured group story times and songs, since she is clearly a social being. She proceeded to zoom in on the only baby in the group, where she waved in his face and said "hi" repeatedly, as his Grandmother beamed. Then, she attempted to interact with a variety of other kids, all ages and sizes, but sadly, nobody reciprocated Keif's initiation at an interaction. But my girl was not sad; she just started climbing all over any stroller she saw, as well as pushing around a wagon, and got pissy with me whenever I attempted to redirect her towards the toys.
We left for lunch at home, and she let me down when she didn't nap for more than a mere hour. She needed a nap, and has been a cranky bear of a girl all day, as well as super clingy. She is saying "no no no" to almost everything I say to her, and all I can do is ignore it and repeat, "no, thank you", each and everytime she says it. Oye, welcome to toddler hood, eh? *sigh*. Oh well. She did enjoy crawling in and out of the sliding door to the deck, and screamed in joy when she was able to pull herself up on the railings of the deck. Again, nobody seemed too interested in this toddler on the deck, calling out "hi" to them.
Mama is exhausted, and now CJ is putting our wild woman to bed, because he agreed I looked like something the cat drug in.
Oh my gosh, toddlers make the newborn stage look easy sometimes, don't they? Bailey has been nuts today emptying every cabinet and drawer she can find. Then when I tried to do something that didn't involve her, she bit my toe!
Wow, hope you get a good night sleep tonight. have I told you the teething remedies that worked for us??? I hate to repeat myself 50 times, so if you want to chat about it, e-mail me at hattrickmissy at msn dot com
Slightly kooky, funny, emotional (!), supportive, kid and dog-loving Mama. I TTCed for almost 3 years, and was finally successful, thanks to my egg angel Mooshie. We used an Anonymous Egg Donor for baby #2, and were lucky! Now I have 2 gorgeous, spirited, and unique girls!
He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion. ~ Anonymous
CJ and I love this book -- it explains how mommy had a part that didn't work, so another special lady comes to help because she has that special part that is needed. Beautiful pictures and simple, sweet text.
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Ever wondered why there are so many gyms, aerobics hubs and yoga centres popping up in every nook and corner of your area? This is a result of chain reaction. Reaction, which started with unhealthy lifestyle, with irregular heating habits as its components leading to health disorders at an early age. And then, when our physician, tells as to work out, we need the help of gyms, aerobics and even yoga at the very least. From where this all started? Well, we can not just blame everything to technology. Technology – boon or beast? When it reduced our work, it’s a boon. And when it reduced ability of body to fight disorders, it’s a beast. Thus, don’t blame technology for your belly; the only one to be blamed is you only.
We do not generally pay heed to lessons thought to us in our high school related to importance of maintaining healthy lifestyle and thus as we enter in work life, we work like a dog, focus on our career and forget our body needs. It is only when, a pain or an dysfunction occurs, we remind ourselves that we are mere mortals and thus need to take care of our body to support us in leading a healthy life. Now, the most common health disorder that we see is obesity i.e. inappropriate weight as per the age and body height. Especially women, suffer from this as they tend to take shortcuts with the eating and work out habits while trying to juggle between home and work. When you are young, you can easily maintain your weight but as the age increases the capacity of the body to digest and utilize everything that you gulp down decreases leading to gain in weight.
The simplest rule that you need to understand for weight management is: when you intake more calorie than you burn, they will add up to your weight. Burn more calories, consume less. And you will loose weight. Some healthy weight loss tips are referred here that you can easily follow in your hectic lifestyle to maintain your weight:
Change in diet as per the lifestyle: firstly remember, one size does not fill all. It means, you may want a body like your favorite star but your body structure may not support it. Simply becoming lean is not the goal; the goal is to be healthy. It’s perfectly fine to be a little plump and healthy rather than being stick lean and unhealthy. Putting hard effort is mandatory to get desired results. You must have heard all about detox diets and other quick diets that claim to help you loose up the fat in just few days. Remember, being healthy is not for days, it’s for lifetime. Even if it takes you month to become fit, follow the healthy techniques to get the permanent change in your lifestyle.
Eat at regular time intervals: studies have shown that eating at regular time intervals help you to prevent hunger pangs. Also, try to never miss a breakfast. Breakfast is one meal that should not be missed also should be rich in calories. Consuming high calorie food at breakfast helps in burning the calories during later part of the day. Do not consume huge calories in dinner as your body does not have sufficient time to burn them and thus, it keeps on piling.
Go slow and steady: take out time to analyse your lifestyle and diet. Focus on time management and pre decide the time that you can dedicate to working out. Never force yourself beyond the limits to get the results. It’s okay, if you do not get drastic weight loss in your first week. Do not push yourself. Habituate yourself to the healthy lifestyle.
Motivation: setting achievable goals is very important. If you set goals that you already know are impossible to achieve, you will get de motivated very easily. So, set goals that can motivate you to become healthy.
Tools help: with so many health related gadgets around you, take the help of the techniques to track your report. Weigh yourself regularly to see the results of your hard work.
There is one logical saying these days– healthy diet leads to weight loss. So, if you find yourself enticed by the so called “fad-diet” , restricts yourself as they have been proved to be having very deteriorating effect on your body on long term basis. These diets often result in failure because:
The fad diets or the quick weight loss diets cuts out your entire intake of food – carbohydrates, fats, proteins. It is virtually impossible to follow, and even if you manage to follow it, it is downright unhealthy and you feel deprived.
You may loose weight as there s severe restriction of calories intake in such diets, but as soon as you get back to your normal eating habits, you gain lots of pounds as your body was craving for food.
These diets are not easy to buy – Special juices and shakes. Exotic vegetables and other supplements are not easy to afford and thus you tend to loose out your hard earned money.
Emotional eating: here is one quick weight loss tip for women – not too gulp down your favourite food when you are emotionally high or low. When ever you feel stressed out, bored or lonely or even euphoric, do not take the help of refrigerator. Emotional eating does not satisfy your hunger and you always tend to over eat and thus leading to gain in weight. When you are in trouble emotionally, try dialling your friend or family, rather than dialling for a pizza. You can also take the help of yoga, exercises or meditation and spa to calm yourself.
Pay attention to what and when you are eating: this is one healthy weight loss tip that should be made into a rule to be followed by everyone. We are so busy in our life that we feel that eating is a secondary activity and thus we can do it while completing our other important works. Thus, we tend to eat while we are driving, working, preparing files, or even while catching up our favourite shows. Have we not discussed that healthy body is source of healthy living? Thus, eating should be our primary activity and should not be converged with any other activity. When we are engrossed in watching our favourite show, we do not focus on our hunger. We feel that whatever that is in our plate should be finished and thus we do not listen to the signals that our stomach sends to our brain to stop eating beyond the requirement. Avoiding the temptation is the rule here.
Chew your food properly: chewing helps a lot. When you chew your food nicely, half of the work is done and rest stomach will take care. Gulping down large bites slows down the digestion and thus, weight gain is unavoidable.
Including fibre, fruits and vegetables: this is probably the best idea for weight loss. Just include your lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and see the wonders hat they do to your body. High fibre foods, take long time to digest and thus help you in feeling satisfied for longer time. Whole grains like pasta, wheat, popcorns are great source of fibres. To make your diet more colourful, opt for rainbow colours: include berries, plums, leafy vegetables, strawberries in your salads.
Keeping a count of calories can be tedious and also it becomes virtually impossible to know the exact count of the calories for the very bite that you gulp in. fruits and vegetables can bring relief here. You do not have to worry to worry about calories intake while eating your veggies as they generally contain very high water snd fibre content and thus tend to give you full feeling, even when you can have a little more. Thus, you end up consuming fewer calories as compared to what you would have though.
Now, that we have suggested you to opt for fruits and vegetables, we would like to give you tips to make them interesting so that you can enjoy your meal. Do not fry your vegetables. If you like nuts, add it up to your salad, use salad dressings cautiously. If you want, you can also add low fat cheese and olive oil to satisfy your taste buds.
Do not overindulge yourself: if you are on diet, indulge yourself occasionally but never over indulge. You must be confused? Okay, here is the answer. We as human beings have some tastes and interest that we can not swap for anything else, that too with tasteless things. So, instead of torturing your body by depriving yourself, indulge in your favourite dish occasionally and cautiously. You can always make your favourite dish healthier like adding bunch of fresh juices with your ice-cream, cutting out on sugar in your bakery products and making up the loss with essence.
Jonathan Spear, a graduate student in Science and Natural History Filmmaking at Montana State University, dives into the subject of aquatic songbirds as he learns more about the unique little creatures that are Americ...
Now in its 11th season, LifeOnTERRA is the award-winning sci­ence and nat­ural his­tory pod­cast series that explores the natural connections that propel life on Earth. Overseen by graduate students in the MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking Program at Montana State University, TERRA distributes independently produced science, nature, and environmental films. We are proud to bring you these unique stories from around the globe that celebrate the wonders of the natural world.
We invite you to enjoy these vignettes of the people, places and animals that make up the heart and soul of life on Terra. Since TERRA’s inception, our thought provoking films have reached over ten million viewers. With each new episode we feature powerful storytelling that showcases the diversity of our planet.
When you become a parent, it’s no secret that your life completely changes. Your responsibilities increase, your interests shift and over time your home becomes a place that is more important than you may have imagined.
Home is where your child will go for love, help, rest or anything they need. Home is where they will build the foundation of their experiences, their perspective, and their identity.
Home is where they should find encouragement, not discouragement, throughout their lives. And this doesn’t just apply to those who live at your house — this applies to the Church, which is home to all followers of Jesus.
At Alive Church, I recently offered some Parenting Life Hacks that can help you build a home of Christ-centered encouragement for children:
Give them a home to run to not run from—In Mark 3:24-25, Jesus explains that a family who fights “will fall apart.” Promoting peace, kindness and the love of Christ will make your home and the church a welcoming place.
Unite and be disciplined with discipline— It’s important for anyone involved in a child’s life to be on the same page when it comes to discipline. Just as God disciplines us, His children, to help shape us into our best selves, so we should do the same with children before it’s too late (see Proverbs 19:18).
Prepare to give them the keys to their lives — Whether we like it or not, our kids won’t always listen to us or do what we want them to! Giving them the keys to their lives is letting them drive the car and go on their own. With your guidance, these independent decisions can lead them to rebellion, to spiritual maturity and in many other directions, you may not expect. Don’t hold them back! Let them come to Jesus when they are ready (see Mark 10:14b) and if they’ve gone wayward, help them know they can always come home (Luke 15:11-32).
What’s a way that you can make your home and the church a place of encouragement for children? As you think about the answer, I encourage you to ask God to show you how you can positively influence a child in your life.
Dr. Jeffrey Allen Love, pastor and founder of Alive Church in Tucson, Arizona, since 1993, is the author of "Life Palette", "Lord of the Fries", and the daily readings in "The Life Transformation Bible". He received his Doctorate of Ministry from Phoenix University Of Theology. He is a Certified Coach, Trainer and Speaker with the John Maxwell Team. He is a Certified Life Plan and StratOp For Churches Facilitator with the Paterson Company. He and his wife Kathy have three daughters and one son. As a communicator, author and artist his life's mission is to "add value by creatively communicating the gospel in a way that releases potential in others."
Wayanad is a district in Kerala. There are greenery, waterfalls, tea and coffee estate. and many more. This place is for nature lovers. No pollution, there is fresh air to breathe. Here you can enjoy your time with the charms of nature, trekking through the hills, exploring the caves and wildlife.
Calm and peaceful location. You can hear the sound of air, water, and bird. A very good place to relax. There’s a park with lots of swings.
This Dam is the second largest earthen dam in Asia and largest in India. It is made up of mud. It is located 21 km from Kalpetta. The dam impounds the water of a Karamanthodu tributary of the Kabini River. There are also some small islands in the middle of the water where you can by boat. Boating facility is also available to enjoy the full view of the dam. There are both speedboat and paddle boat. You can choose any of them, but the ride of speed was much more adventurous and breathtaking. Don’t miss out this activity.
To enjoy the beauty of Meenmutty Falls, you need to trek about 3 km from the road. No entrance fee is required for visiting the waterfall. As we reached to Falls, it started raining, this was a thrilling experience for us. Enjoying rains on waterfalls.
A popular tourist attraction and is best known for ancient wall painting and art engraved in the caves. It offers a great view from the hilltop. There are a small market and parking facilities from where you can start the trek to Edakkal Caves. You can also find various shops where you can buy snacks and drinks and other Kerela stuff on the way to Edakkal Caves. After trekking to some distance, you can find the ticket where you will get the entry ticket which costs around Rs 20 per person.
It is known for having elephants, tiger, bears, many species of deer, reptiles, birds and so on. We opted for Jeep Safari and when we entered, the surrounded scenery was so amazing. A picture perfect road like a painting.