Taking the Tea Challenge

We are having tea parties here! (not the political kind:) I have bought the biggest bag of SCOTTISH Breakfast Tea I have ever seen. This came about because I was mulling over how much waste came with each box of tea I bought. Finally I decided to go online and order a big bag of tea. Big it is! This is what a pound of loose leaf tea looks like. Will I finish it? Well, the size of this bag motivated me to stop buying coffee for the house. I realized that is saving us about five dollars a week. What's more important is that I have been sleeping great at night and staying more hydrated. From what I hear, tea has some great nutritional benifits. Don't think I am doing without though... I am once again Dunkin Donut's best customer!

See Mommy Run

Those are not my children, but they are in the double jogging stoller I have, the Bob Revolution Duallie, and it is a cute picture.

I had been running about ten years when I got pregnant with Elijah. I went ahead and kept running throughout both my pregnancies. I am thankful that I did not have any complications or health problems that would prevent me from going about my normal exercise routines. With both babies I was able to run 5k races at five months, and won my age group both times (OK, I admit both times it was a really small race, but still...). My doctors knew I was running and were perfectly fine with it. In my second pregnancy I was still nursing Elijah, so between nursing, growing a baby, and running, my body was doing alot. I did more spin classes than running in the second and third trimeters that time. Now I am nursing two little ones and training for a half marathon. Since Beatrice started sleeping through the night, I am able to do more. I was dissapointed at first when I couldnt jump right into training again after she was born. I had to be patient with my body and cut back my running days to only three per week. I think the lack of sleep was keeping my muscles from recovering as effeciently.

The most helpful thing about running when pregnant and with babies has been learning to listen to my body. I dont push it too hard. I have found that when my body is too stressed it is impossible to increase my fittness level. I have found that there are times when I get better results from taking time off. At the same time, exercise helped me alot when I was sleep deprived. It actually energized me and made it easier to get through those days. In some ways having two little ones has been easier than having one because they keep me moving around more, and it is often when you sit still that fatigue is really hard to bear. It keeps me in touch with my body, trying to tell how much exercise helps me without going overboard and doing it until it wears me down.

Moderation takes more focus than going to an extreme.

It also sounds ironic, but having less time to exercise makes me more motiviated. I do most of my running at the YMCA, while the little ones are in the nursery. Whenever I have an opportunity when someone can watch the children while I go for a run, it is really a treat and I just take off.

Someone said to me today, "wow you have a six month old baby and you are doing a half marathon, thats great!" I said, "Oh, that does sound good, doesn't it? I forget to look at it that way!" Basically, with babies, just getting out there makes you a winner! Thats nice, isnt it?

Homemade Baby Food

This is Beatrice is trying her first dessert, a mix which I call "plums and greens pudding."

Beatrice is eating solids now, and I have been thrilled to find that it is very easy to make my own baby foods. She is eating better than her brother did, and when I taste her food, I think I know why. The home made food is delicious! I always finish hers if she doesn't eat it all. I am also fortunate to have lots of garden fresh produce stored in our freezer. She has had apples, butternut squash, and green beans that were locally grown last summer.

So here is what makes it so easy. I take out a bag of frozen fruit or vegetables, defrost, steam, and then blend to a creamy consistency, mixing rice milk or rice cereal if it needs it. Then I pour or spoon the puree into an ice cube tray, cover, and freeze. When it is frozen I pop it out of the tray into a freezer bag. The whole process takes about half an hour at most, and when I am done I have one to two ounce size potions that I can take from the freezer bag and microwave, so that its ready at any time. I can also get out different flavors and mix them. It tastes much better than store bought, and is way fresher and less processed, so she is getting lots more nutritional value. Yum!

Natural Ant Control

The little bitty black ants.... If you have ever had those in your home, you know they are a cursed breed! We have been having our home sprayed regularly just to keep them under control. Now that I have two babies, I am tired of having poison sprayed around. I looked up natural forms of ant control and am testing something new. I have been mopping the floor around the area where the ants come in with vinigar, every night. I am also wiping the countertops down with vinigar and sprinking cinnamon around the edges of those areas (it smells nice, too). So far, no ants. I will update in a month or so with the longer term results.
Anyone else have ant control ideas?

UPDATE: Two days with no ants. I mean NO ants, not a single little scout anywhere!

UPDATE AFTER TWO WEEKS: Ok, so I slacked off and didnt mop or wipe the cabinet with vinegar for about a week. Finally, I saw a few ants. I cleaned up all the cinnamon that I had put down, and the next day it rained (which really brings in ants at our house) and their were quite a few ants in the house after that. I took everything off the cabinet and floor around the door, where they come in, and mopped and wiped with vinegar again. This time I sprinkeld black pepper instead of cinnamon. Within a couple of hours there was not an ant to be seen. I am thinking I will just have to stay on top of "vinegar and spice" applications. Thats fine with me because it motivates me to keep things cleaner, and even with the poison, the best you can hope for is to "manage" your ants. I think I will try some dichotamous earth outside too. That stuff was awesome for Japanese beatles last summer, and Ive heard it works for ants as well.