Gaining and losing, an unpopular problem

I have a weird problem that I am reluctant to blog about but in the interest of being authentic, I am going to talk about my weight.

Everyone remarks how quickly I have lost the baby weight after both of my kids and this is true. I wrote a little about it in my post about my favorite postpartum products. In that post I also mentioned that I don't really exercise or eat differently, which is all true. In fact, this is TOO true. I am not reducing my caloric intake or doing a work-out program (I can't say I'm not exercising at all, because carrying a 30 lb toddler and a 16 lb baby around all day long is definitely some kind of exercise).

But, I am still losing weight. And sometimes it worries me.

I am now below my pre-pregnancy weight from either of my pregnancies and still dropping. All my pants are loose. At the risk of TMI, my underpants are loose, too.

I'm not losing my hair. I have always had milk supply issues while breastfeeding so it doesn't surprise me that I have supply issues now, but so far we're having to supplement less this time with my daughter than we did with my son. I take the hair and the milk supply as positive signs, meaning that my body isn't in some kind of emergency-starvation mode, right?

But still, sometimes it worries me.

I am hungry ALL THE TIME.
I do try to eat as much as I can, but I am on my feet and moving kids here and there constantly, so there's not always a lot of time to eat. I carry snacks like peanut butter and cheese and crackers with me in my purse. I eat them all the time, and I eat regular meals.

I am not a huge fan of sugary or fatty foods. I do crave sugar and fat sometimes, and when I do crave them I eat them - I don't abstain. I usually eat a moderate amount and the craving leaves and I don't have a desire to eat more. I can't eat a lot of sugar before I get "sugared out". I have a slightly higher tolerance for fat, but not much. I do love good fats like nuts and olive oil. I don't avoid anything except high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, and meat (which I do not like).

I guess I am writing this to be honest about my own concern and to ask for understanding.
I am afraid to bring this up to people in real life because this is a very unpopular concern to have.
"What - you have trouble GAINING weight?! SHUT UP!"
I realize that most people have the opposite problem and probably see this as a stupid concern.

But think of it this way: whether you weigh too much or too little, you are concerned about your body, not sure why it is acting differently than it did before, uncertain how to fix it, and wondering if it is affecting your health. That is how I feel, too. It is my problem and I am admitting it.

Maybe I just feel that if I put it out there, on the internets, that I can prove to someone that I'm not doing this on purpose. That I realize this is not some kind of sick contest where we all try to lose our baby weight as fast as possible. That I want to honor my body and I'm not sure how to do it. That I think everyone with a few extra pounds from their babies looks gorgeous and I want to look that way too. That I kind of liked some of my pregnancy curves and I wouldn't mind if my hips had hung around after the babies were gone. That I wish I didn't unintentionally stab my kids with my jutting hipbones. That I'd like to have a little bit of comforting mommy-softness for them to remember.

But I am thankful for all the things my body is capable of doing. I am very grateful that it keeps going even when I get very little sleep. I am glad I am strong enough to lift my kids and their enormous double stroller, and the groceries, in and out of our car. I am blessed to have a husband who loves me the way I am, with my ever-shifting shape. It's like he married several different bodies, poor guy!

The moral of this story? Maybe it's acceptance. Less judging each other for our sizes. More loving our bodies, with or without curves. Me learning to eat more or something. I don't know - what do you think it is?

UPDATE: If it makes anyone feel any better, I still have the post-pregnancy belly pooch, regardless of my weight. I don't care how small you are, I don't think anyone can escape the pooch if you've had two babies in two years.

How to Compost with or without Worms

Today's post is a guest post that I have really been looking forward to! Years ago B.K. (Before Kids), I tried vermicomposting and failed. Because we have always rented, I have never tried "real" composting because I never knew when we'd move, and most landlords look poorly upon storing decaying matter on their property. As we continue pondering whether to buy a house, I dream about one day composting for real (unless someone gives me a NatureMill Composter - anyone?). Meanwhile, Merritt is here to tell you all about how to compost!
~~

Merritt Onsa is a fellow blogger and friend who recently moved from Dallas, Texas to Colorado where
she and her new husband are soaking up the cooler temps, mountain views and big blue skies. She
recently launched a blog about the realities of life as a newlywed – at www.livesimplylove.com. Stop on by for a visit and tell her Jenny sent you!


Why I Love to Compost

I love to compost! Maybe it’s because I grew up with a dad who recycled anything he could and was
composting in our backyard long before it was cool or “green.” I’m definitely my father’s daughter, so
when I moved into a real house with a real backyard, the first thing I wanted to do was compost. Dad
bought me an upright container, and I went to town putting in fall leaves, summer grass clippings and
every fruit and veggie scrap from the kitchen. It wasn’t long before I had abundant lovely, lush compost to share with all of my outdoor plants! And boy did they love it!

Then, a few years ago I learned about worm composting from my friend Heather at the Texas Worm
Ranch. I met Heather at Dallas’ White Rock Local Market. She was demonstrating her worm bins and
showing every child that walked by what Red Wiggler Worms looked like (and letting parents smell
the bin to prove there was no odor). I was hooked. But I was also newly married and needed to make sure the new husband was game for keeping a worm bin in our laundry room. He came one weekend to the WRLM and Needless to say, the answer was yes, but they would be my deal. Hey, that was fine with me. 

A few things I love about composting:

1. Compost becomes nutrient-rich soil for my plants. In fact, it’s better to use compost than it is to put chemical fertilizers on your garden, lawn or other plants. Plus it’s free!!
2. Worm castings (yes, that’s a nice way to say worm poop) have tons of beneficial microbes. If I have a plant that’s suffering or just needs a little extra love, a handful of worm castings on top of the soil really does the trick. It’s nature’s fertilizer.
3. Less waste in the landfill. Because they breakdown without oxygen, food scraps in our landfills contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (yes, they become methane). It’s good for the environment.
4. Teaches me about nature’s processes. I enjoy figuring out the ratios, stirring the bin and watching the critters that are naturally drawn to my garbage. My yard was free of chemicals for more than five years and boy, did the geckos came out to play! They ate their fill of bugs in the compost, and I witnessed their cuteness on my visits to the bin.
5. Composting inspired me to start gardening. And having my hands in the soil was good for my soul. Plus having a few home-grown veggies isn’t anything to laugh at either!

Now, I can’t say I’m an expert, but I have learned a few things along the way. Here are some tips if you want to get started on either version of composting:

Outdoor Compost:

1. Microorganisms do most of the work in your compost pile; your job is to fill the pile with the things they need for proper decomposition.
2. The carbon to nitrogen ratio in your pile determines how quickly it breaks down. It should be somewhere around 25 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen.
3. High carbon items are known as “Browns,” like leaves, newspaper, peanut shells, etc. High nitrogen items are known as “Greens,” like coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, grass clippings, garden waste, manures, etc. Add these items as they become available and stir or turn to combine. 
4. Composting doesn’t require a bin; you can easily make a pile in your yard wherever you feel comfortable keeping it. Determine your preferred method based on how you wish to manage the process.
5. Your compost needs to be turned at least weekly. If you’re really serious you can buy a compost thermometer to find out how “hot” your pile gets. The hotter the pile the faster the breakdown.
6. Do NOT put animal products (no dairy, meat, bones, grease) in your compost. It will smell bad AND attract rodents.
7. And, no, you cannot put cat, dog or human feces in your compost. Or used kitty litter. Sorry!

Worm Composting, otherwise known as Vermicomposting:

1. Red Wigglers are the best choice for vermicomposting.
2. This is a great alternative if you don’t have a place for an outdoor compost pile. Store your worm bin in the garage, laundry room, basement or even under the sink. Just be careful of extreme temps in any of those locations (between 40-80 degrees F is best).
3. Worms need the right amount of air, moisture, oxygen, food and bedding. Otherwise, vermicomposting is very low maintenance. Your bin can be left alone even for a few weeks at a time.
4. Keep your worms on a vegetarian diet along with moist bedding of paper, cardboard, paper towels, newspaper, paper from your shredder (it’s the safest way to dispose of documents containing personal information – let your worms eat them!)
5. Harvest the castings from the bin every 6-8 weeks, and you’ll end up with nutrient-rich compost your plants will LOVE!
6. Contact Texas Worm Ranch for more information and helpful resources. 

If you’re in Dallas and looking to learn more, there’s a free composting event on 8/31 and you might even go home with a composting bin.

Wed., Aug. 31st 6:30- 7:30 in the sanctuary

Come learn about composting and get a FREE composting bin ($90 value)! Master Composter A.L. Nickerson will educate you on how to use a composting bin to reduce your trash and to generate your own free, rich compost.

The first 150 pre-registered Dallas residents will receive a free composting bin from the City of Dallas Waste Diversion Team by registering below by Sunday, Aug. 28th.

Click here to register and for more details.

Another Typical Day

Instead of 7 Quick Links Friday, I just had to jump on this neat linky writing prompt from RambleRamble, which I learned about from Jennie at She Likes Purple.

It's just like it sounds... the story of my typical day. I know it's SO exciting, so try to stay awake!

*NOTE: I did not include checking email, blogs, and Twitter in this day. Please go ahead and assume I am doing those things nonstop whenever it is safe to do so, from my iPhone*

~~~

Technically, a day begins at 12:01am so I have to start with my wake-ups with the kids...

1 or 2am: Baby wakes up crying, usually isn't hungry so I go in, move her out of the room she shares with her brother, and put her into the Pack N Play in the office to keep her from waking him up. If I am lucky, she goes back to sleep without eating. If I'm not, I bring her into our bed to nurse.

3 or 4am: Baby wakes again, this time hungry for real. If she's not already in our bed, I bring her in and nurse her. We fall asleep but she starts kicking me in the guts and the head which I try to ignore for a while but eventually she takes over the entire bed, so...

5am: I move the baby back into the Pack N Play in the office. Sometimes I have to change her diaper if that is the cause of the squirming. I try to go back to sleep.

What I SHOULD do is go ahead and take a shower, and sometimes I do if I've managed to sleep through the baby kicking me and it's closer to 6am when I move her. Because if I can get a shower before the toddler wakes up, I am much more likely to be able to fix my hair and do my makeup, and remember deodorant. Seriously, the likelihood that I will forget my deodorant is significantly higher if I am attempting to dress while the toddler is awake and/or watching me.

6:30 or so: Toddler wakes up, starts banging on the door and yelling.

6:45: We realize we have to stop ignoring him and one of us goes to get him. The other one gets to shower (that person WINS).

7ish: We put the toddler in the booster and the baby in the high chair (if the baby is awake) and proceed to alternate between cooking eggs and throwing things at the toddler hoping he will eat them. Also someone feeds the baby some kind of solid food. If I'm the one that didn't get a shower, I frantically eat and clean up the kitchen at the same time because I want to shower before Christian leaves.

7:45 or 8: Toddler goes to drink his milk in front of the TV, the baby crawls around on the floor. Whoever did not get to take a shower earlier takes one now. If it's me, Christian stays with the kids in the living room. If it's him, I go back and forth between the kids and cleaning up the kitchen. Somebody changes the toddler's diaper while he is temporarily immobile in front of the TV.

8:30: Christian leaves for work and I combo feed the baby while the toddler runs around. I throw things in the laundry and pack lunches if we're going somewhere.

9:30 or 10ish: We go somewhere. Anywhere. The goal is to make the toddler as tired as possible. We go to the store, to a playdate, to the play area at the mall, to the mat room at church. When it's not 1 million degrees outside we would go to the park. While we are out, the baby falls asleep and has her morning nap. Or two. I have no idea what her sleep schedule is.

11ish: Wherever we are, I combo feed the baby again. Sometimes while chasing the toddler around somewhere, sometimes in the car.

12ish: We either eat a lunch that I have packed or we come home for lunch. If we are home, I am doing laundry again while we are eating.

12:30-1:00pm: Toddler gets milk again while I clean up lunch and maybe fold some laundry or steal some time on the computer. I secure the baby into the exersaucer or Pack N Play or bring her with us into the crib their room while I read the toddler 2-3 books in the glider with his blankie.

1:00-1:30: I take the baby with me and leave the toddler in his room for a nap. Hopefully the nap will happen. I watch him on the video monitor and when he gets out of his bed, I go back in and put him back.

2:00: If the toddler is going to nap, he should be asleep by now. If he has decided to skip his nap, he is still awake and will not be going to sleep. I combo feed the baby again and try to get her to sleep.

2:30: If the baby is going to nap, she should be asleep by now. She will nap for 30 minutes and then be up. I have 30 minutes to either try and get something done or nap myself.

Unless the toddler has decided not to nap, in which case I will still be going in there every 5 minutes putting him BACK into his bed.

3:00: The baby is up again and if the toddler has decided not to nap today, I let him up also because there is no point in keeping him in there if he isn't going to nap. If he isn't napping today then we play together until 5pm or something. I try to get him to play on his own so I can work on the computer while they play. This works about 50% of the time.

If the toddler IS napping today, the baby plays on the floor and I GET TO WORK! Or get something done like folding laundry or sewing. Whatever I do, I can't leave her direct line of sight or she freaks out and screams so loudly that it wakes the toddler.

3:30: Sometimes I get to talk to Millie on the phone or make phone calls like doctor appointments or medical insurance calls. If no one is napping, the screaming children cut conversation short. If everyone is napping, sometimes I sleep through Millie's call.

4:00: Hopefully, if this is a napping day for the toddler, I can try and get some prep work for dinner started. Because the toddler HATES it when I work in the kitchen. He yells and throws his body between me and the counter the entire time I try to cook, so there is no point in trying to cook while he is awake.

If this was not a napping day, I will not be preparing a meal, I will be falling back on my various pre-prepared options.

5:00-5:30: The toddler wakes up from his nap if he had one, and the kids have dinner.

6:00: The toddler gets milk and more TV, I combo feed the baby. I let her play on the floor or the bouncy while I finish preparing dinner for Christian and I. I can do this because the toddler is distracted by the TV and doesn't realize I am in the kitchen.

6:30 - 7: DADDY IS HOME! I try to have food ready for us to eat while the kids play around us. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. If it does, we eat. If it doesn't, we'll eat after they go to bed.

7:00 - 8:00: Daddy does baths and all the toddler stuff. He brings the toddler into the bath and I bring the baby. They bathe together now, it's really cute. The baby doesn't stay in there long, so I take her out and combo feed her while the boys play in the bathroom for at least 30 more minutes.

8ish: Everybody comes into our bedroom when baths are over and plays for a while. Then the boys go into the kids' room to read stories and I walk around in the dark hallway wearing the baby in the Ergo until she is sleepy or asleep.

8:30-9:30: The kids take turns crying and waking each other up. Christian and I take turns eating (if we hadn't earlier) and going in to put the toddler back to bed every time he gets up.

9:30-11: One would expect the kids to both be asleep, but who the heck knows?! This is our last chance to eat if we didn't get to eat earlier. I usually have to do more work. Christian is usually on the iPad or computer or watching those pundit guys yell at each other on TV. Sometimes we get to hang out together, and that is nice.

11:00pm: The baby wakes up one last time to eat. Why does she do this?! I know she doesn't need it. But whatever. I have to feed her so she won't wake the toddler.

11:30pm: I go to sleep ASAP because I am going to be up again in 2 hours...

~~~

There you go, isn't that the most exciting day ever?

~~~
Other entries in the bloghop:

Cloth diaper Thurs: GoGreen Diapers

Due to all the great diapers I received at the #HauteGreen party at BlogHer this year, I have about 6 new brands I've been able to try! I am going to review them every Thursday for around 6 weeks.
~~~~
The first diaper, and one of my favorites, is the GoGreen Pocket Diaper.
I was given the Champ model:

 

I had never heard of this brand before, but I am so glad I got the opportunity to try it!

Things I love about this diaper:

{pic of leg gussets and openings on both ends}

• So soft inside! I love to feel it and I'm sure it feels great on the baby's bottoms.
• Special inner leg gussets really hold in the contents of the diaper.
• I am still adjusting to snaps but this diaper makes snaps much easier because they are color-coded! No more guessing if I've aligned the snaps correctly while the child attempts to escape from the changing table!
• The largest size on these is the largest I've seen - Little Sir is 22 months old and 24 lbs and he still wears the rise snapped on the last snap. In our other cloth diapers, he is wearing the rise at the maximum.
• I love that they come in many different colors and patterns, unlike most of my favorite pocket diapers!

Other features

• Openings on both ends of the pocket so that the insert comes out in the wash. This is nice, but my other diaper inserts come out in the wash without this feature so it doesn't really matter to me
• A snap on the end of the insert and inside the pocket that allows you to use it as an AI2 - meaning you can keep the insert attached to the pocket in the wash if you'd like. I don't really care to do that, but it's a nice feature to have.

I find myself wishing I had more of these diapers!

So yep, I highly recommend this one.

Rating: 5 out of 5

NOTE: I was given the GoGreen diaper for free at BlogHer 2011 the Haute Green party. All opinions are my own, I'm the one who has to clean up the poop, people!

Mama cloth pads

I am sure the title of this post alone is a little uncomfortable, especially for my male readers (all 2 of you, one being my husband). It was probably inevitable, since I don't like disposable diapers, that the products I use for my lady needs bother me just as much from an environmental standpoint.

At BlogHer 2010, I received a good supply of Lunapads from the Lunapads ladies, but I failed to adopt using them regularly because I only had enough for 1-2 days. While I wash my diaper laundry every-other-day, I do not wash my own laundry that often. Maybe once a week? I bought more, but after investing almost $50 I still didn't have enough to go between washes. I slipped back into using disposable liners, but I did have the decency to feel bad about it.

This year at BlogHer 2011, I received more "mama cloth", as cloth menstrual pads are often called (although you don't have to be a mother to use it, so I feel like that is discriminatory and I don't use that phrase much), and I decided to give it another try. The Charlie Banana and The Willow Store liners that I got this year are significantly easier to use because they don't have multiple pieces like the Lunapads.

I ended up with about 8 extra Lunapads inserts and decided to buy some flannel myself and make backings and some very light liners. I don't have a serger so I just had to do a good zigzag and allow the edges to fray on their own somewhat.

The hardest part was attaching the snaps with a hammer and this little blue tool thingy I got from the fabric store...

But I did finally get it figured out.

So, I'm going to give it a try on a day-to-day basis and see how it goes...

How about you? Have you made the switch or are you thinking about it? Any advice or questions?

Work-Life balance might not exist and that's OK

{photo by Hanna Irßlinger Fotografie}

If you are or have been a working parent (even part-time or WAHM), you've probably heard the term "work-life balance" thrown around. It's the concept that someone - most often a parent, more often a woman - can balance their home life and their professional life in a way that everything is taken care of and everyone is happy and fulfilled. Even typing out the definition sounds ludicrous to me, but there are a lot of products and industries built around this concept, and a lot of people who feel like failures when they can't reach this unquantifiable goal.

Yesterday I read an article on Yahoo News Canada titled "Why Supermoms Should Chill" that discussed the following findings:

Trying to have it all could be bad for your mental health, according to a new study that finds that "supermoms" have higher rates of depression compared with working moms who let things slide.

Obviously, it's difficult to know exactly what some of the terms used in this study, such as "supermom" and "letting things slide" truly meant to each participant, and what those terms mean to you or me. I'm pretty sure we'd all define them differently.

Still, the principle rings true with me. Parents are driving themselves to the point of being mentally ill because they feel like they should be doing it all perfectly. Who says I have to do everything perfectly? What is perfect? My friend Jamie wrote a great post about letting your house be messy to have a great playdate last week. I like how she pointed out that, in order to have healthier relationships you sometimes have to allow other things to be seemingly less than perfect.

I think any of us who have more than one child can attest to the fact that our idea of "clean" slips just a little with each baby. And it should, in my opinion!

Because really, we are only human. I mean, I love Pinterest and the Nate Berkus Show as much as the next gal, but I am fully aware that my home is not going to look like this until the kids are gone, or maybe never.

I am OK with that.

Both of my sister-in-laws recently turned 30, and it was a reminder to me of how thankful I am that I didn't start my own family until my 30's. Because in my 20's, I still really believed in this work-life balance thing. I worked for companies who touted their work-life balance flexibility even while my job required more than 40 hours a week and no option to work from home. I read magazines that told me how to do it. I believed whoever is out there telling people that it is attainable.

I'm not sure when I realized the idea of work-life balance is a bunch of crap, but I feel much better now that I've accepted that. Just like the article said! Sure, there are times when I feel "on top of things", and those times are great! But they aren't the norm. There are always going to be maybe one too many urgent to-do's that make me feel badly for letting the kids watch too much TV, or there are going to be those times where I know I didn't do my best for my employer because I chose to spend that time with my family instead.

Knowing that things aren't always going to be perfect and accepting that... now there's something worth striving for. And apparently, accepting "less than perfect" can keep me more mentally balances, so BONUS!

Kids Konserve Lunch Sack winners!

Below are the 3 winners of the Kids Konserve lunch sacks - congratulations!


I'll be contacting the winners individually via email, so be on the lookout!

Thanks for entering, everyone, and I'll do my best to keep you amused with my blog posts now that you're my Facebook fan!

7 Quick Takes Friday #21

--- 1 ---

If you follow this blog's Facebook page, you saw the articles and pictures from my fellow bloggers about the H&M Opening Event here in Dallas on Wednesday night. It was amazing! I've been waiting for an H&M to come to Dallas for years! Until now, we just went to one every time we traveled: NYC, DC, and California. But now we have one here! This is great news for me since I seem to have lost my Glamour and need to stay stylish. Here are a few other pictures I took.
A video {video here}, check out the bar! I had a glass of wine, woo hoo!:

Even the DJ was stylish:

Red carpet:

--- 2 ---

I love Apple products. They are normally so easy to use. But why is it that nothing I do can take a movie out of iPhoto and put it onto YouTube? I can't even currently figure out how to get movies from my camera onto YouTube at all.

--- 3---

Speaking of pictures, so many of the bloggers I admire take beautiful pictures with their DSLR's. We have an old Pentax DSLR, but I am afraid to use it. And it's so big. But I'd love to take gorgeous photos of the kids and the things around us. Is it a huge time and money suck to learn?

--- 4 ---

I am ready for the fall to be here. Fall in Dallas means it gets below 100 degrees. I am getting a little tired of having to be indoors any time after noon. I think the kids would really like to be able to take walks, and so would I!

--- 5 ---

I think I wrote a post about exercising recently and I would like to update everyone by say that no, I am still not formally exercising. Because I cannot figure out when/how to do it and I am too exhausted most of the time. But I still miss yoga very much.

--- 6 ---

I am considering doing bento boxes for Little Sir's lunches for Mother's Day Out in fall. Not anything elaborate, but since I am not allowed to give him anything that isn't a finger food, it might be a good way to pack his food. Do you have any good web sites with ideas you can recommend?

--- 7 ---

Today's post has been written fast and badly while my children destroy the house. Now, back to parenting!

~~~

Well that's all for this week, be sure to visit Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Fridays.

I guess the Glamour is over

My favorite fashion/lifestyle magazine was Glamour when I was young and single. Shut up, it has good articles. It is really not as trashy as the cover wants you to think.

Now Cosmo, that is trashy for real. I know because I used to get Cosmo in my early 20's when my lifestyle was significantly different than it is now. As I got older and "changed my ways", as they say, I moved to Glamour.

I still appreciate the fashion and some of the makeup... but I can't afford $800 shoes or $50 lipstick. And I hardly even wear lipstick anymore! My husband can't stand the stuff. I don't need help determining if a man wants to date or marry me.

I do still work hard to be reasonably fashionable. I only wear a tennis skirt once a week. I wear dresses and slacks. I do wear makeup and I do style my hair most days.

It is time for Glamour to go. There are 3 issues sitting in our magazine bin right now, unread and making me feel guilty. The current issues of Real Simple, Parents, and Kiwi magazines are in the bin and I actually want to read those magazines.

I have only been reading Glamour out of guilt. Maybe feeling that if I read it,  I can hang onto my "cool". That I can pretend I still need to convert my "day outfit" into a "night look". When in fact, I spend the early evening breastfeeding an infant until she goes to sleep and then writing for a few hours before going to bed myself.

I am 33 and married with 2 babies, my friends, and there are magazines within my demographic that would serve me better. I will bid this magazine a fond farewell. There's always Pinterest!

Kids Konserve Lunch Sack giveaway

**This giveaway has ended, thanks for entering!**

It's going to be back-to-school time before we know it! Little Sir and Little Lady are starting Mother's Day Out again in just a few weeks. You might remember my previous post on how to get a free Kids Konserve Lunch Sack by sending in the UPC codes from products you might already have around your house from Annie’s Homegrown, Stonyfield YoKids, Honest Kids and Seventh Generation? Well, I received my lunch sack and thought I'd share pictures and give away 5 of these lunch sacks! I typically get very low entries on my giveaways, so if you enter you're just about guaranteed to win.

The outside:




It does have the logos from the participating companies, but I don't really mind that. There is a place to write your child's name, I used my Loveable Labels fabric sticker to put Little Sir's name on his.

The inside:

Note that this sack is holding a full-size sippy cup, a sandwich container, and a large screw-top container on it's side and still has PLENTY of room left over. You can get a lot into this bag!

The top closes with velcro and the sack is made of sturdy burlap. I am pretty sure the whole thing is washable - I plan to wash mine!

Now for the fun part - you can win one of 3 of these sacks from my blog without having to submit the UPC's! As I mentioned before, I typically have very low entries on my blog giveaways so if you enter you're almost guaranteed to win.


Giveaway ends Saturday, August 20. I will draw the winners some time on Sunday, August 21. If it's August 21 when you enter, too late! Open to U.S. residents 18 years of age or older.


To enter, all you have to do is "Like" the Conscientious Confusion Facebook page and leave a comment below letting me know you did (or if you already do).

For additional entries you can do any of the following, just make sure you leave a separate comment for each action you took:

• Subscribe to Conscientious Confusion via RSS reader
• Follow Conscientious Confusion on Twitter
• "Like" Annie's Homegrown on Facebook
• "Like" Stonyfield YoBaby on Facebook
• Follow Seventh Generation on Twitter
• "Like" Honest Tea on Facebook

 Happy Back to School!

NOTE: I was given an a free lunch sack in addition to the one I got with my UPC codes as part of this giveaway (so now I have two! Hooray!). My opinions about the sack and the products are my own.

7 Quick Takes Friday #20 - BlogHer 2011 Edition

BlogHer 2011 Edition

--- 1 ---

I still haven't blogged comprehensively about BlogHer because it is too overwhelming, so I am just going to go over some of the details in this 7 Quick Takes and then do one more post about the logistics of bringing a baby to BlogHer for anyone who might be Googling it next year. I looked for posts about it before I left but they only addressed whether or not to bring the baby to parties, not the actual logistics of being in the sessions with a baby.

--- 2 ---

Despite the fact that our plane was on the tarmac for 2 hours on the way to San Diego, Little Lady did very well on the plane. It was tiring for me to keep her busy in my lap for 6 hours straight, but she never really cried much. She also didn't nap at all, on either flight. Which is completely normal for my children, who do not sleep or nap when traveling. In case you don't follow my family blog, here is a picture of the Southwest flight attendant who was using Little Lady to help greet passengers coming on for the second leg of our flight home!

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Here's a pic of me and Galit Breen from These Little Waves! I was so excited to finally meet her in person, I have stalked read her blogs starting back when she blogged as Minnesota Mammaleh and watched her writing develop as she is moving into writing some beautiful fiction lately!

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I ran into the Jimmy Dean sun while waiting for the elevator on Saturday. Yes, this is the guy who does the commercials.

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Sunday morning before we caught our flight back, and after all my green blogger friends had left, Little Lady and I hung out by the firepit near the beautiful tropical pool at the Marriott and I ate a huge breakfast burrito. It was so cool in the morning that we had to stay by the firepit for warmth and Little Lady was wearing a sweater!

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San Diego is a lovely city, which I hardly got to see because I was in the conference the whole time. I'd love to go back some time for a visit.

I just love California so much.
I have never been to LA or to Sonoma/Napa, but I am sure I would love it too. The weather is so beautiful, no wonder so many people live there and raise the cost of living, even though it is totally going to fall into the sea one day.

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I feel like the 7 Quick Takes has gone so fast this week! Usually it's a beating to come up with 7 things, but with BlogHer, it's easy. I want to cram in so much more! But I know you are all tired of hearing about it.

One final thing I'm thinking of doing as a result of all the free cloth diapers I received as swag this year is starting a "Cloth Diaper Thursday" where I review a different brand of diaper each week. This will only last about 6-7 weeks, but still might be worth it. If you don't have kids or don't cloth diaper, just skip Thursdays. See you next week!

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Well that's all for this week, be sure to visit Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Fridays.

Treating reflux with hazelwood

 You might be familiar with the company Inspired By Finn from their popularity as a leading source of baltic amber teething necklaces, but did you know that they also sell hazelwood necklaces to help deal with reflux?

The idea behind healing necklaces is that the stone (amber) or wood (hazelwood) in a necklace lies against the skin and is warmed by the body, so the essence of the stone or wood is absorbed into the blood stream. Amber contains analgesics that help deal with pain, while hazelwood helps the body become less acidic, helping with reflux and other symptoms of pH imbalance. I have used baltic amber with Little Sir since he was around 6 months old (I think?) and I really do think it helps "take the edge" off teething pain.

I believe I learned about hazelwood in a Facebook series that Inspired by Finn was running on their Facebook page about the healing properties of various gems. Then, through the Natural Parents Network, I heard that some moms use hazelwood necklaces on their kids to help with reflux just like we use baltic amber necklaces for teething. You can read more about hazelwood for reflux on the Inspired By Finn web site.

Safety
Here is the part where I must list a disclaimer: in compliance with the CPSIA regulations, Inspired By Finn is not allowed to recommend that hazelwood necklaces be worn by babies under the age of 3 years old. They did not recommend that I use this necklace on my child, I decided this myself because I have been using amber in this way for almost 2 years. I ordered a teenager's necklace for my daughter. I feel comfortable with her wearing it because she is literally with me 24/7 and I watch her very closely while she wears it.

If you have ever bought amber necklaces from Inspired By Finn, you know that they are made exceptionally well with strong string and knotted between each bead. That way, if the necklace breaks, the beads do not fall off and roll around where a small child could put one in his/her mouth.

It is important to be aware that the hazelwood necklaces are not knotted between beads like the amber necklaces. In addition, the hazelwood necklaces do not have the screw-latch, they use a lobster-claw closure. With a lobster-claw closure, it's very important to have a ring between the beads and the claw, like this:

If the necklace catches on anything, the ring will break and release the necklace, instead of cutting off the child's air supply or breaking the necklace and scattering beads.

When we first got the hazelwood necklace, the ring it came with was so flexible that the necklace fell off regularly. I went to our local craft store and bought a slightly stronger ring that holds securely but will still bend off if it gets caught in anything.

Does it work?
I definitely believe that the amber works! When Little Sir was teething, if we left the necklace off overnight, he would wake up throughout the night with pain. If he had it on, he slept through the night.
With hazelwood... the jury is still out. Little Lady is doing so much better ever since we started giving her rice cereal in her bottle at night! When I came back from BlogHer, I left the hazelwood necklace off for about 24 hours and she had a really rough night. Was it related to not having the hazelwood present? I am not sure. I would recommend trying hazelwood if your little one has reflux and is reacting poorly to medications, like she did. Just make sure to supervise them closely while they are wearing the necklace, and know that Inspired By Finn does not recommend usage for kids under 3.

Here is a cute little model of the necklace (although not 100% accurate since the necklace should be worn INSIDE clothing to touch the skin directly, not on top of clothing, as this picture shows):

*NOTE: I was given a discount on a hazelwood necklace from Inspired By Finn in exchange for this review. I would have bought the necklace without the discount because I trust them and have bought previous amber necklaces from them. The opinions are my own.

This Year at BlogHer 2011

I've been trying to figure out how to sum up the experience that was BlogHer 2011. Even though I had a baby with me the whole time and couldn't participate in a lot of the parties at night, this year was even more amazing than last year! I didn't take very many pictures, and I am sorry about that. I'll post a few today and more later.

This year I felt like I knew a lot more bloggers, mostly thanks to relationships through Twitter! I got to meet several awesome ladies in real life who I been talking to on Twitter for months. It was so fun!

Galit Breen of These Little Waves and me!

This year I did a lot of nursing in public! Because Little Lady would get fussy in sessions that I was supposed to be live-tweeting, I had to pretty much expose myself to keep her quiet while I tweeted with my free hand. Did I feel self-conscious about NIP? Not at all. I was much more self-conscious about someone finding out that I had a bottle in my room to mix 2 ounces of formula with her rice cereal every night (for the reflux).

This year I was paid to live-tweet and later write blog posts for Blue Volcano Media, so I was able to focus on the content of the sessions and extrapolate the most meaningful parts more easily.

This year I missed Voices of the Year because my daughter needed her rice cereal and was being extremely fussy, which really made me sad. Voices of the Year is what reminds us all of why we blog, so I'm looking forward to finding it on the podcast later and listening.

This year Ricki Lake spoke at the closing keynote about the power of social media in her fundraising for More Business of Being Born. Needless to say, she's a hero to the birthing community for birth junkies like myself. I GOT TO MEET HER! She is so relational that she offered to meet and talk to anyone who came to the tequila bar to meet up with her, so I did. I am sure I looked like a slobbering idiot, "I have had 2 births in a birth center, I've never had an OB/GYN, and you are my hero". Doh. But she was nice enough to take this picture with me where she looks totally amazing and I look kinda... stunned:

This year there was a flash mob at the end of lunch on Friday, which I thought was amazing but then someone on Twitter said it was "so passe" and I felt like a n00b. But, here it is anyway:

{video here}

Overall, another amazing, overwhelming, encouraging, and inspiring event. So many blog posts were swirling in my head throughout the whole time! I hope I can remember them all. I will be blogging more about other aspects of BlogHer later, stay tuned!

BlogHer bound!

I'm on my way to BlogHer 2011! I thought I'd write this quick post for all the new friends and companies I'll meet on my trip this year.

Hello!

I'm Jenny, and this is Conscientious Confusion, a blog about living consciously. You can find more about me in the About section.

If you met me at BlogHer, I looked like this (I'm updating my Twitter avatar to match - follow me):

And don't forget to follow the blog of my employer/sponsor Blue Volcano Media, we'll also be tweeting from San Diego!

I am looking forward to a fun time and to reading new blogs when I get back!

Cloth diapering at a hotel

 We took a short trip to South Texas this weekend to see family, and stayed in a hotel. When I started to pack our backup disposable diapers, I realized we'd have to have 2 bags of 'sposies - one size for each kid. When I go places with the kids during the week, it's so easy because I just bring a few BumGenius One-Size diapers and adjust the size to whichever child needs them.

I decided it would be easier to pack 15 BumGenius diapers than to pack all those disposables, and I wouldn't have to worry about throwing away all those diapers. The hotel web site said it had laundry facilities, so I just packed my Rockin' Green Remix soap and we should be good to go.

When the only clean diapers left were the ones on the kids' bottoms and it was naptime, I took my stash to the hotel's laundry room. It turns out that the machines were coin-operated old-school top loaders, and there was no rinse cycle. Also no hot water wash - only "warm".
I decided to go ahead and try it.

By the time we pulled them out of the dryer (we don't normally machine-dry, but this was just for time's sake) - the whole stash smelled like poo!

We ended up having to re-wash the diapers at my sister-in-law's house after naps and put the kids in the only disposables we brought. Fortunately, she uses cloth diapers too, so she knew exactly what cycles to use with her machine and even had some Charlie's Soap for us to use.

Moral of the story: probably not a great idea to rely on hotel laundry facilities when traveling with cloth diapers.

I was considering using cloth when I take Little Lady to BlogHer in San Diego on Thursday, but the reality is that even if the laundry facilities at the Marriott are awesome and free, there are 3,000+ other bloggers staying there and I think it would be a little unrealistic to assume there would be a free machine at exactly the time I would need it. I don't have any prefolds-with-covers that fit her anymore, and it's just not in the budget to purchase a bunch right now.

My compromise for BlogHer this week is going to be gDiapers. We've used them in the past and they are particularly usable for younger babies who don't poop a lot. The flushable inserts take up less room than the equivalent package of disposable diapers, and I can still re-use the cloth covers.