Dairy free avocado smoothie!!!! #Paleo

So I love avocado smoothies! I used to have them all the time... Sadly my breastfed chubs:



While extremely adorable and avocado loving himself, has a horrible dairy sensitivity :( ... And as these:

are the normal ingredients ... It's just not happening!!

So #BAM altered recipe!!!



1 large avocado (ripe)
1/2 cup almond milk (be a better person then me and make your own ;) )
1/2 cup ice (I used crushed because my blender has moments)
4 teaspoons of honey (local and raw of course!)

Put in blender! And well blend until smooth ;) add almond milk if too thick for your taste but it should be the consistency of a milk shake....

Mmmm... Magic!



And Gingerbaby approved!

Paleo Carrot salad! Make it. Eat it. Be happy!

Sometimes I'm tired and don't really want to cook! I know it's shocking cause every mother of three boys is over flowing with the time to cook three homemade meals a day!

And sometimes... Yes sometimes! I love chick-fil-a happy chicken and Jesus who could ask for more! If you're unfamiliar with Chick-fil-a I'm going to assume you aren't from the south and poor you you've never had their amazing carrot salad!



Yeah I read the ingredients and I was sad! So here's a pretty good alternative! This is easy and quick to put together and actually tastes better the next day ;)



Ingredients:

1 bag of grated carrots (be a better person then me and grate your own)
1 small can crushed pineapples - drained (check the label or be a better person then me and cut a pineapple
Juice of 1 lime
3 of those little boxes of golden raisins (or really how ever many you want! I love raisins so add some more!)

Directions:

Mix all that shit up in a bowl.
Done.
No really thats it!
Like I said though it tastes better the next day as the carrots suck up lime and pineapple juice... So throw it in a ziploc bag and put it in the fridge (or be a better person then me and use a nice glass container of which all ours are currently in storage :( )

Obimama Custom Wrap Conversion Half Buckle Review and pictures

Obimama Wrap Conversion Half Buckle Review

One day the clouds parted and there was a magical ray of light!! YOU'VE WON A CUSTOM OBIMAMA!! I won my slot from a photo scavenger hunt but there are other (many ways) of scoring either a slot or pre-made Obimama (see her blog post here: http://www.obimama.com/1757/in-the-news/how-do-i-get-an-obimama/).

I'd been on the hunt for a custom WCHB slot for a while (for the idea that would become my Obi) and I'll admit I was skeptical of the whole Obimama hype... All the pictures I'd seen were gorgeous! But could this carrier really live up to the hype? I have a lower back injury and I've NEVER been able to get buckle carriers or Mei Tai's to work for me for too long without pain.

So I tracked down the wrap I'd been dreaming of my WCHB being made of! and off it was shipped to Jen! Who then ... Ok prepare yourself because I love this! ... set up a time to CALL ME! To discus my custom. What options I wanted, the appliqué I wanted on the hood, and made sure she understood how I wanted my appliqué. Her attention to detail just during this conversion got me excited! I knew it was going to be just how I wanted it and beautiful!

I honestly can't recall the exact turn around time but I believe it was about a week and a half from the phone call to getting my carrier in the mail. I'm pretty sure I've never been so excited for a package! This was it! The custom I'd been dreaming of having made for so long! In.my.hands!



And yes it was perfect! And beautiful! And BETTER then I had even imagined (the mustache appliqué had hair! So creative!)

So the real test? How did it work? Was it comfortable? Would my back ache like carries I'd tried in the past?

It was wonderful! My Obi is a short stage 2 with XL straps (for my very tall husband we'll get to him in a minute) and no extra 3rd layer. What the lack of a third layer or extra linen support means for me? It molds like I wrap. It is soft and snuggly and I can get a perfect tight carry with re-enforcement passes and wear it for HOURS!



I also got the Zen straps. These have all the comfort of padded straps but still all the wrapping and finishing options of wrap straps! Because they spread like wrap straps if am doing a front carry I'm able to spread the straps across my back to distribute the weight of my babies.



Now my husband. The man that no matter what I tried would not use any carrier really but his BabyHawk OhSnap... Is now a convert! He will always choose the Obi over the OhSnap! And because he is not a wrapper he just wears it like a Mei Tai (no re-enforcement passes just over and then under the legs) he uses it for hours walking around with both my 10 month old (21 lbs) and my 27 month old (27 lbs).



So in short. Obimamas totally live up to the hype! Not only are they lovingly sewn and beautiful wearable works of art... They are functional and comfortable carriers!!

Life, Food and Laundry

So life has been a bit out of hand recently. My husband's father passed away a couple weeks ago and then normal everyday business. Its so easy to get busy and just try to rushrushrush to get everything done! Its easy to lose track of trying to be more aware of everything you are doing to impact the world and get caught up in the "need to get this done"ness of life!

We have recently changed our eating habits ... we are not dieting but I am making a major effort to be aware of what we (as a family) are putting into our bodies! My goal to eat good homemade no preservatives natural blahityblahityblah food had fallen to the bottom of the list of make sure that everyone is clothed and alive and the dishes aren't too bad, etc. And to be honest we were eating like SHIT! boxed foods and frying crap... and there has been some health side effects so we are now eating locally grown fruits and veggies (from the Dallas Farmer's Market which is killer awesome if you've never been) and LOTS of fish!!! LIKE LOTS OF FISH!!! its a lot of effort to try to get everyone fed before work on my lunch and then after work but in the long run our health is a priority!

On a less serious note... LAUNDRY! Holy crap if it seems like I am always talking about laundry its because it is a HUGE part of my life... it NEVER ENDS!!!
So we've switched from ALL Free and Clear to homemade laundry detergent (the Duggar's recipe found here: http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes/30456/Powdered%20Laundry%20Detergent%20-%20Top%20load%20machine) and its been great it works awesome and we've not noticed a different except in the wallet ;) .

Also I've been meaning to blog about "sunning" ... if you are at all "green" and read crap on the internet you probably have heard this term. I LOVE SUNNING!!! I do NOT use spot/stain removers! They are expensive and unnecessary chemicals. This is pretty easy for me as I already line dry but basically you stick the stain out in the sun and let the sun bleach it out:


^ a lovely carrot stain... GONE!


^ husband's nasty socks... FIXED!

you have to leave it out for longer then you would if you were just drying it but its worth it! especially here in Texas were the sun never ends!
I did recently run into a stain that did NOT sun out (besides grease but dawn will get that ;) ) and it was baby curry poop on my diaper inserts! G.R.O.S.S! I asked on a green parenting board and lemon juice was suggested! I juiced a couple lemons and poured it on after the wash and set out in the sun (I have no idea if this is the "proper" way) but after a few hours it was GONE! (I figured you didn't want to see shit stain pictures ;) ).

Anyway all in all life continues as normal ... I will try to update more often as everything settles down!

So what the fuck is wrong with you anyway?

Well besides my inability to come up with witty blog entry titles and my complete lack of this weird thing my father always refers to as "tact" (wtf is that anyway?) I'll have a confession to make! I have a very "serious" genetic disorder!!! 



I have a BLACK thumb!!! (I also cut my thumb grating cheese earlier... Did I list clumsy in my earlier list?) yes this is a GENETIC issue!!! My mother could look at a fucking plant and the next day it would be dead! My grandmother never had too much either (although not as severe)... Strangely my father has the ability to keep plants alive that most normal people would kill (African Violets and poinsettias are the ones I remember the most)... I did NOT receive these skillz! 

I so desperately want to be one of those people with a vegetable garden in their backyard! I dream of home grown tomatoes and sweet peppers! I ENJOY gardening! I've tried and the shit ALWAYS dies... Every. Fucking.time. So at this point I've given up, I've excepted my problem, I've grieved, and I've "let it go" (although I'll probably try again someday :-/). I buy my fruits and vegetables for the most part at the Farmer's Market. Where I used to live there was a place that every Sunday people would sell their vegetables/fruits from their non-dead backyard garden... I liked going there and buying from them (those who can, do. Those who fucking kill shit pay the ones who can). 

So what the fuck I'm I rambling on about this for? Well... If there is one part of gardening that I excell/ed at it's composing!!!! Yes I <3 composting! I have a little pile in my backyard, we had a compost bucket at the condo we lived in before. And to this day I save all my kitchen scrapes, newspapers, yard clippings, weeds, etc and I water it and flip it and all that jazz... Well what do I do with all the loveliness? Mother fucking nothing!!! I'm holding on to just a little bit of a dream of being a gardener... I'm a composter! Also I'm breaking down items that don't need to take up space in a land fill ;) so in the long run the world thanks me for my pile of crap!!! 

Been sick... So "green" tip of the day!!

So I'm sick (A-FUCKING-GAIN!!!!) I actually got another post in the works but in the mean time I'll leave you with my "Green Tip of the Day!!!":

Dear Husband,
TURN OFF YOUR MOTHER FUCKING POWER HUNGRY COMPUTER WHEN YOU'RE NOT USING IT OR IT'S GOING TO GET THROWN OUT THE GOD-DAMNED WINDOW!!!! kthxloveyou!


I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend ;)

Obsession?

So our second son was born at 33 weeks we were unprepared! Had NOTHING! and my baby shower wasn't for another month and a half :-/
He was 3 lbs 5 oz and spent the following 6 weeks in the hospital... This gave me more free time then I really wanted and I read online A LOT!! I read about milk supply (pumping for a premie is a lovely experience I hope I never have to deal with again!) ... I met some wonderful friends online that I've grown to LOVE and I learned about MODERN cloth diapering! 

My son is now 7 months old! And the cutest baby ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET! 

^ almost unbearable right?!?!?
Anywho... What the fuck was I talking about? Oh right diapers! I am OBSESSED!!! 

In fact I'm pretty sure my Dad used that word today ;) I never knew it would be so easy and I def never knew I would love them so much!!! But seriously how can you not?!?!? Look:

Now being the obsessive person that I am I like to keep a "database" of sorts of my diaper stash! I've done that up until today with Google Docs:

Including brand, size, color/pattern. This isn't weird right?!?!? Maybe a little... So today ... Or yesterday (they all blur together some days :-/ ) I read on someone's blog (Im not trying to be an ass here I don't remember where... But I'll update when I do!) about A FUCKING IPHONE APP FOR IT!!! Yeah I just got a little cap happy there!!! This is fucking exciting for two reasons! #1) because it's FUCKING AWESOME: 

(you can also share on Facebook/Twitter) 

And #2) This means that there are enough people out there that think inventorying their stash is "worth while" that they MADE AN APP!!!

Want it? (you know you do!!!):
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fluff-stash/id434378643?mt=8