Car-less Momma!

   Last week (whoops it's been a while since my last post...guess its two (three?) weeks ago now!) Wednesday I was coming home from a friend's house (playdate!) when my windshield wipers went CAPUT! Of course this would happen during a chilly January downpour. I was a little nervous driving (because I couldn't see) so I inched along on the side of the road with my head sticking out of my window getting drenched by the rain (pretty picture, isn't it?). I finally got home (what is normally a 18 minute drive turned into a 45 minute drive), parked the car, and haven't been out since! Sure I have left with Mark - him driving his truck, Peyton in the extended cab portion and me wishing there was a ladder attached to the truck to climb up (its quite the jump!). So I did go out last Friday night and again today when Mark took us to the Doctor's office for Peyton's 16 week check-up and immunizations. Other than that...I have been housebound! I typically HATE winters. I don't like being cooped up and I am not a huge fan of the cold, wet, snowy weather, so I thought I would have a hard time being stuck at home. On the contrary! I have enjoyed being home with my little girl. We have had lots of snuggles and my house is very clean:)! I do miss my car...its always nice to get out...especially as Peyton is on a nap strike and the car is sometimes the only time i can convince her to nap...but I am making do! Now to prepare for B.C. - at least this gives me something to do while being housebound :)!

A Little Catching Up....

   Wow! Its been a busy week! I have been trying to get on the computer all week to complete a blog post but it just didn't happen! So, here I sit at 11:30pm writing a blog post...its a good thing I am enjoying blogging so far! :) 
   The reason I was so busy this past week was because I had an essay due today for my history course. It has been so long since my last essay! I sat down and calculated and I think its been 2 years since I last wrote an essay. Crazy! Needless to say, I was very nervous for the whole experience (and re-learning). It took me quite a while but I think I produced an "okay" essay. Fingers crossed for a passing grade. Sad thing is that tomorrow morning I have to start working on my next essay that is due in four weeks...but only one week after we get back from B.C.. I am hoping to have the essay completed before we head out!
   Speaking of B.C. - that is another reason I have been busy. I am so nervous for flying and vacationing with PJ. I am dreading the plane ride...I guess it will be what it is and no amount of worrying is going to fix that. I also am getting minorly stressed about how I am going to pack everything that I need to take! I am hoping to start this week. The one upside to this is that many lists will be involved...and I love me my lists! LOL. We already are leaving in one and a half weeks! So soon!
   Add in some laundry, cleaning the house, visiting with friends for dinner twice, and a visit (sleep-over) from my younger sister and my week was pretty full. Even with the essay doom cloud looming over my head it was a very good week. God has blessed me so greatly!
   Speaking of blessings...I have still been keeping up my Gratitude Journal. I am finding it such a good exercise every night to sit down and reflect on my day and choose something that I am thankful for. The thing that has struck me the most is that I have never had a hard time finding something to write...the hard part has been choosing just one thing to write! Once again, God is so good!
   Today our water pipes were frozen (its just that cold here in the North!) so we were unable to head to church in the morning. Instead of just lazing around all morning Mark and I listened to a sermon by Pastor Mark Driscoll. We choose to start his series called "The Seven". This series focuses on the seven churches that John writes to in Revelation. His first sermon in the series was very good. He spoke for 57 minutes...and it didn't feel like it at all! I really enjoy his sermons and am excited to listen to more of them with the hubby. We already decided to listen to the next sermon on our "stay-in date night" this coming Wednesday! Yay! 
   Finally...the big news in this house this week was that PJ turned 4 months old! I am not going to lie...the morning of...I cried. I can't believe how quickly time has flown by! I am loving every moment of being PJ's mom! She is such a joy to have around. She is laughing and interacting more and more each day. I love playing little games with her and getting a smile or a laugh in response. Even though I am sad that these four months have flown by...I am excited for the next four month lifetime that I have with her! She is just going to get more and more fun I think! Here are a couple of shots of her "four month" photo shoot!

A cute little smile!

Eating her sign :)

She is getting so curious lately...I love that!

And a 'signless' picture for good measure. I know I am biased...but I think she is the cutest baby ever!

   Well, I think that's it for now...sorry for the rambly post but I think everything is updated for what's going on in my life! Have a wonderful God-filled week!
   

Detox Momma

   So, Mark and I decided to do a Detox. We have been talking about doing a detox for a while. We thought it would be an interesting experiment of will power and that it would be cool to do together. We also kind of liked the idea of 'detoxifying' our bodies. We had some friends who tried the Dr. Oz's 3 Day Detox. We talked to them before they actually tried it and they were really excited. We went home and decided that maybe we would try it as well. It seemed better than some other detoxes out there - think cabbage soup detox (ew!). This one included three smoothies that on paper didn't seem too bad. So we took Dr. Oz's handy grocery list and went shopping for all the ingredients to start our 3 day detoxification. 

All of the groceries required!!! Kind of pretty :).

   The groceries were quite expensive as we were buying things that we normally didn't buy - almond milk, coconut oil and water, and almond butter. All these things we found in Zehrs in their Organic section. We decided to start the detox on Monday as Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday weren't very busy days for us and we thought it would help us stay on track to not cheat. 
   The morning starts with some green tea with slices of lemon and the breakfast smoothie. I found the tea kind of lemony strong (think neo-citron strong) but it was still more enjoyable than cabbage soup (that was my motivation!). The breakfast smoothie was actually quite good. I sipped on it for about an hour in the morning as I went through my normal routine - getting PJ ready for the day, doing the dishes, and starting my Monday chore of laundry. I felt fine after drinking this - I was satisfied and able to continue with my day.

The morning tea and smoothie, plus my handsome hubby in the background preparing the lunch smoothie:). Notice the flowers he got me! So spoiled!

   We made the lunch smoothie in the morning so that Mark could take it with him to work for his lunch and his snack smoothie. It smelt sooo bad! Even my upstairs sister (when she came downstairs for a quick visit) mentioned that it stank quite bad! The kale was the over powering smell (ew)! I put off drinking this smoothie for a bit but my 1PM I was hungry so I got it out of the fridge and sat down with PJ to drink it. It was gross disgusting! I had such a hard time drinking it. I knew I would be hungry if I didn't drink it all though so I persevered. I didn't even realize that I was pulling faces as I was drinking it until PJ started giggling uncontrollably.  Her laughter caught me off guard and I checked to see what she was laughing at...it was me! I guess I was doing a funny "yuck" face! Her laughing at me was the motivation I needed to finish the entire lunch drink! This drink made me feel sick. I had a hard time not gagging the entire time and bringing it back up. I went to brush my teeth right after finishing it but the after taste stayed with me. I felt gross all afternoon after drinking it.

Although this smoothie is kind of a pretty colour - it tasted DISGUSTING!

   In the afternoon I made the supper smoothie for Mark and I and I made an extra batch for my snack smoothie. It was a little better than the lunch smoothie but still contained kale and therefore had an overpowering smell and taste. Mark liked it as it had some cayenne pepper which gave the smoothie a kick. I did not enjoy the cayenne pepper kick and was a little worried about how it might affect PJ (I am still nursing her!). Sadly, I have to admit that this was the first time in this whole detox experience that I thought about the fact that I was still nursing PJ. I know that nursing means I have to get lots of nutrients...but also that I need a few extra calories in order to provide good healthy milk for her. I did some quick research and I read about how a lot of people were feeling very tired and weak on day two and three of the detox. I didn't think that would be healthy for me since I was nursing her and didn't want to hurt PJ in all of this. When Mark got home that night we sat down and drank our supper smoothie and talked about what we thought about the whole experience so far. I told him about my concerns about nursing and I think it was just the "good enough" excuse Mark needed to decide that one day of detoxing was enough for us:). 

The supper smoothie - looks disgusting! 

   So, thats the truth! We QUIT after 1 day of detoxing. The lunch smoothie was disgusting and the dinner smoothie (although better) was gross too. We both sat there dreading doing it all over again on Tuesday...and then we decided maybe it just wasn't worth it. We read a bunch of reviews and the general consensus was that people didn't feel any better after completing the detox. They just felt tired and disgusted by the lunch/supper smoothies. Those reviews, along with my concerns about nursing PJ, were enough to make us decide Dr. Oz's detox was NOT for us! LOL so much for our experiment of will power! One thing I did learn through my one day of detoxing is how often I walk into the kitchen during the day to "grab something to munch on". That is something I am definately going to try to cut down on...so maybe the detox wasn't a total waste after all! 
   Tuesday morning Mark enjoyed a big bowl of cereal and I enjoyed a bowl of yogurt and granola! Honestly...best breakfasts we've ever had! :D