I've had the pleasure of spending my 29th birthday with these sweet girls. Oh, the smiles they brought to my face! I find it fitting... 29 years... and I'm finally settling into contentment with who I am. I smile thinking of what my thirties will bring. Here's to finishing up my twenties on a high... How about days filled with more sweet baby kisses, lasting relationships, and "the little things." That's what matters. That's what makes this life worth living.
Small changes
This is a shot of my grocery cart earlier this week.
This view has come a long way. My cart once was full of bread, ice cream, frozen pizza (still an occasional purchase for Tommy), frozen all-in-one meals, cereal boxes (and boxes!), milk, lots of cheese, and more.
Improving our diet (and lifestyle) has been a slow but steady progress. Here are some of the small changes we've made over the past few years:
- Replacing all white flour foods with wheat options
- Replacing bread with tortilla wraps
- Choosing fruit as dessert versus baked goods (of course baked goods are always a fun treat on occasion!)
- Shopping in the outside aisles of the grocery store, with the exception of wandering up and down the Natural Foods aisles
- Swapping spices for sauces (or marinades) on meats (I made this change as soon as I realized how many marinades out there are made with sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup)
- Avoiding pasta
- If we do have pasta during a meal, it is a side dish instead of a main dish and made with whole grain pasta
- Avoiding casseroles and creamy soups/sauces
- Regularly reading and educating ourselves about nutrition
- Choosing to go on a hike instead of to the movie theater
- Along the same idea, going on a long walk instead of renting a DVD
- Replacing unhealthy instant lunches with protein-packed green smoothies
- Learning to LOVE sweet potatoes!
- Replacing all processed sugar/syrups with one of the following: 100% pure maple syrup, liquid stevia and/or honey
- Replacing vegetable/canola/corn oil with coconut oil or applesauce in baked good recipes
- I'm currently working on teaching myself to drink coffee black... but it's a long process. ;)
- Using exclusively coconut oil or olive oil
I am a fan of doing things slow and steady. Instead of an overnight change that may fail quickly, we're tackling this issue in our lives one small step at a time. Every now and then I look up and realize... we've come a long way. And earlier this week I stopped to capture one of those moments with my camera phone. :)
Here's to the journey! We still have so much to learn.
Community
Community and parenthood... they should go hand in hand.
Soon after I found out I was pregnant, I dove right into community. Both online and in person, I became active in groups that offered a safe place to express concerns, ask questions, and just chat about pregnancy, birth and what being a mom is all about. With a variety topics and passions, each group offered an assortment of points of views and experience.
Through the brilliance of Facebook, finding community seems a million times easier than it used to be. With 24/7 access, the facebook groups I am a part of have come to the rescue for me in the middle of the night on more than one occasion. (Like when my baby who once slept through the night is on night five of waking every hour... that can make a mama lose her mind!)
Some of my favorite online communities:
- A number of local Facebook groups, including: Lynchburg Moms Supporting Moms, Lynchburg Babywearers, and others. (Most of these are closed or private groups so if you are local and want to join, you can search for them on FB.)
- Gentle Christian Mothers (Even though I do not agree with everything these moms do, a lot of the pregnancy/birth/postpartum topics were extremely helpful for me!)
- Mothering.com forums
- Diaperswappers.com (where I found a cool group of women that all had babies due in November of last year and got a lot of my cloth diapers)
Of course, nothing is better than meeting together in the presence of like-minded souls. On the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month I experience a beautiful community that is The Motherhood Collective Cafe. The women involved are welcoming, encouraging, loving, and most of all, truly caring. Their passion is to help encourage and support one another in our journey of motherhood. The environment is warm and cozy, with candles and coffee, conversation and support. It's such a sweet little escape from my normal routine of life.
For the past few months I have had the honor of being on the leadership team of the cafe and we've been brewing up some awesome things. On July 1st we launched a new brand, website, and we became an official non-profit organization. My favorite thing about the launch is that we have a new blog so we can start to share our passion with women outside of the Lynchburg area. So wether you are local or not, please head over to the site and check it out!
I am honored to be a writer for the blog as well and I recently shared about my new obsession with Coconut Oil here.
Independence Day
We coordinate! Happy Fourth of July, friends! Today is one of my favorite holidays. I hope you are out participating in traditional summertime activities and feasting on delicious bbq. Let's remember those who came before us and worked hard and sacrificed so that we could bask in our freedom today. Let's also pray we don't lose that freedom anytime soon... :) (Also, this is my first post from my phone. Yay!)
Beautiful Moments
Unedited (except the b&w processing) pictures of quiet, beautiful moments... these take my breath away. I love these two so much.
