Friday Link Love 7.30.10

Article about a couple that managed to only produce enough trash to fill a shoebox, for an ENTIRE year. They recycled or composted the rest!

This article is hard to stomach but important to read. I do not know much about female circumcision, and to read how prevalent it is, makes my stomach turn.

This is so up my ally. Want to know how to turn a place mat into a pillow? Check it out here.

Super cute baby blog.

Your vagina is not a crystal ball. Enough said.

MBL Guest Post on Babies and Bellies Blog!

Check it out! My first guest post. I feel so cool.

This is a great pregnancy blog that I follow. Nicole, the author, was so kind enough to let me do a guest post in an effort to introduce new peeps to my blog.

Baby/Tot Yoga: Moon Toe!

Penelope is growing up!

We have recently started to only do Tot yoga poses! She no longer wants to be on her back, whether we are doing yoga or a diaper change. A lot of babies naturally do Moon Toe as a part of their body development. If you see them doing this on their own, say "Yay! Moon Toe!!" and you are a head of the game, as far as word association goes, in teaching them how to do this pose on their own.












































To start, you put them in your lap, facing out. Then gently hold their toe out, like so. Eventually, you want them to grab their foot and then you move their legs, but when they are just learning the pose, they usually don't grab their foot. Once you have moved them into position, you sing/say "Moon Toe!" You go back and forth, doing the pose on each leg.












































Then you can do "Double Moon Toe!" By bringing both feet out.

You also want to show them how YOU can do the pose.

Especially for older tots, who will not let you "move" them into the pose and only want to do it themselves. It's a great stretch for Mama, but if you haven't stretched in a while, don't bust your leg up fast. Be gentle with yourself, until you are more flexible, and bend your knee if you need too. Once you have your leg up, say things like, "Watch Mama do Moon Toe!" or "Mama's Turn!" and then you would say to them, "Now, its your turn!" Don't be discouraged if it takes awhile for your baby to pick it up on their own. Repetition is key. Eventually they will get it, and then you wont be able to get them to stop!

Just FYI, most of the baby yoga poses I post, I learned at my Itsy Bitsy Yoga training. The founder and creator, Helen Garabedian, has a great book and dvds that you can purchase to help your home practice. Or you can go to her website and try and find a class near you!

Dinner for Lazy Mama's

I was so wiped out the other day, I couldn't even get it together to heat up a frozen meal from our freezer stash.  But I had lots of fruit and cheese on hand!  So I pretended like it was the good ole days (read: pre-baby) and we were out for a night on the town at Cafe.  I set up a cheese plate and declared it our dinner!  

I have also been known to make scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner as well.  There is hardly a moment, where eggs and bacon are not on hand, in my house.  Mmmm, bacon!

What do you when you need to whip up dinner?

July Once A Month Cooking

This month I made four different meals, similar to last month. I made Mousska, Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken and Walnuts, and Minestrone Soup. All recipes can be found in the cookbook, Nourishing Traditions.

The Mousska came out great, but preparing the eggplants was a little time consuming, so if you are making it by itself it would be fine, but to do it on a big cooking day like me, its not the best choice. Its the first time I have ever cooked with lamb, so I was proud of myself for branching out a bit.

The Chicken Enchiladas, came out very tasty, even though I forgot to mix in the spices. Using chicken from a roasted chicken, instead of baked or grilled chicken breasts, makes the dish so much more flavorful. I roasted 4 whole chickens at the same time, and later made a huge batch of chicken stock (tutorial coming soon!) And again, taking the meat off of four whole chickens to use for my recipes, was also super time consuming. Not that time consuming is bad, it usually indicates a nutritious meal, but its something to consider when planning your big cooking day.

The Minestone soup came out so-so. I used orzo instead of rice, because I had it on hand and I had never cooked with orzo before and I wanted to experiment. I ended up using too much orzo and the dish was very thick, not a soup consistency at all, but the flavor was good.

The Chicken and Walnuts was my favorite! You marinate and heat up the chicken in a pomegranate sauce. Super yummy. Next time, I am going to incorporate more pomegranate and sprinkle some pomegranate seeds on top.

Here is the recipe for the Chicken and Walnuts. I hope this ok, and I am not going to get in trouble for publishing this without permission..does anyone know the rules on that?

Chicken and Walnuts:
meat from 2 cooked chickens, cut up.
2 cups crispy walnuts
2-3 cups chicken stock
2-4 tablespoons Rapadura (I just used organic sugar)
12 ounces pomegranate juice
sea salt and pepper

Put walnuts in food processor and grind. Mix with stock, pomegranate juice and Rapaduara. Heat up slowly and simmer for about a half of an hour. Season to taste. Add chicken meat to sauce and simmer about 5 more minutes until chicken is warmed through. Serve with brown rice (we ate it with cous-cous instead).

Burnt Out

{Mama's Musings; a Monday tradition. Or at least, trying to be a tradition}

I am feeling very burnt out these days. And I am not sure why exactly. It's easy to blame the baby and say I am just exhausted (which I am), but I think it's more than that. I feel like I am running on empty and not just in the sleep sense. I have not done anything for myself in almost 9 months. Well, I take that back. I have gone to the bookstore by myself, for an hour. Once. I have gone to the movies, for two hours. Once. I have had a couple of pedicures, but have taken Penelope with me. I work out twice a week, but it's with Penelope. I have gotten several massages, and they have gotten the job done of taking the physical pain away in my neck and back, but they are not the same anymore- in a relaxing way. During the massage, I am still in the house with Penelope and can hear her if she is fussing while Peter is taking care of her, so the entire time, I am itching to get off the table and tend to her. And it's not that I want to be away from her either, because when I have gone to the bookstore or movies, thinking that is what I needed, was to just get away for a bit. I ache to be back with her. I miss her ridiculously.

Everything I do is for someone else. Whether I am cooking or cleaning or caring for Penelope. My life right now is all about service to others. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I feel like its been way too long since I have had anyone take care of me. Peter, my husband, helps out at the house a lot, but still something feels not quite right. I am not sure what I am even craving. I thought I really just wanted to go see a movie but when I did that, it didn't help. In fact, it stressed me out more than not seeing one. For one reason, like I mentioned already, I miss Penelope too much to be gone for several hours and two the amount of effort it took to coordinate me going to see a movie, in between nursing to sleep and pumping times, at time that Peter was available to watch Penelope, that my friends were both available to go, and find a time a stinkin' movie was playing that fit in that schedule, was insane. I would rather just not see a dang movie for all that effort.

Maybe its a yoga class I need? I haven't' been to a class since I was pregnant. I practice at home, in spurts, again mostly with Penelope, but its. not. the. same. Maybe its going to church? I have only been to Mass a couple of times this year. Ok, two times. And one was Penelope's Baptism, and there wasn't even Mass at that! The other, you guessed it, was Easter. My Priest recently sent us a letter, asking if there was a health problem he should know about to add to his prayers (a.k.a. why the heck are you not in church?) Does having a baby count as a health problem?

I remember a conversation I had with a mentor of mine, a few years ago, when I was so burnt out from running the yoga studio. She gave me a breathing meditation, in which on each exhalation I was to send my breath back to myself and give myself some energy and love. Maybe I will give that a try.

I don't want to alarm anyone, I am not on the brink of a meltdown or anything, its just this little itch that something is missing and I can't quite put my finger on it!

What do you think? What is something you do to restore your soul?

Friday Link Love: 7.23.10

This is a must read parenting article about creating good self-esteem in children by using Positive Discipline. 

Think you are doing good by buying organic milk from Organic Valley? Think again. They just enacted a ban on the farmers which make up its 1600 small farm cooperative from selling raw milk to consumers on the side. They are going in my boycott boat with Kim Kardashian and Cynthia Rowley.

Wondering what to drink instead of Organic Valley? Raw Milk!! Here is another interesting article about the raw milk debate.