I don’t even know how to start this post! AAGHGHG so excited! Our little family is getting bigger! That is right we are going from a family of 3 to 4 come January 2016! As of yesterday we are at 12 weeks. I am starting to feel a little bit better, except for feeling like I have been running a marathon everyday!(TIRED!!!)
We are so excited and feel so privileged to be parents to this little blessing.
Hello everyone, (if there is anyone reading my evening ponderings…?),
It is finally mama time, or the time known as when Andrey finally goes to bed for the night. I think a lot of mamas can relate. 🙂 As I sit here munching on some apples I am still left pondering about something that has been on my mind for the past few days.
A few days ago I watched the documentary Plastic Paradise. (It is on one of the best inventions ever Netflix). It talked about the history of plastic and what effect it has on our environment and ultimately us.  As some of you may know I am kind of that eco-friendly, earth saving, garden growing, crunchy mama. Now I do not write this post as a way to shame anyone or yell at you via the internet to stop using plastic, throw away anything with corn syrup and move into the wilderness or anything like that. Living a more conscious and “green” lifestyle has been a journey for me as well, and still is, and honestly probably always will be. I really have been focusing on eating healthy, simplifying and being aware of my environmental impact since about my freshman year of college. I have always been interested in nature and the environment but have been really actively thinking about it since college. Our motto in our family has been to simplify and try to go back to basics. I wont get too much into everything our family does, maybe a post for another day? But onto the documentary.
The documentary talked about the HUGE amounts of plastic that are used around the world, but especially in the US every year, and even each day. All this plastic is produced using oil and gas, some is recycled and is then sent all around the world. It is an industry worth billions of dollars. Plastic is pretty much everywhere in our lives. Look around you. It is pretty inevitable that you see/ are probably sitting or wearing something that is made of/contains plastic. We use it for everything from technology and toys to storage. A lot of these plastic things we use and then eventually throw away. But where exactly is this “away” that we are throwing too?
That is the question that has been on my mind lately. Obviously I know that places like the garbage dump exist, I mean I know our weekly garbage pickup is not just magically disappearing. But is the stuff I am throwing away really going away? The documentary visited a place between Hawaii and Japan known as Garbage Island. It is a huge rotating and moving mass in the ocean made up of plastic! The cool thing about plastic is that it is so durable, but at the same time the durability is what makes it never deteriorates. Plastic is not a natural element, it cannot break down in the earth. So where is it all going when we throw it “away”? The answer is back into the environment and sometimes even into us. Plastic garbage is thrown “away” from all over the world and gets into the ocean currents. The plastic in the ocean traps and kills animals and coral which is not just sad but also devastating to the eco-system. But if you are not as concerned about wildlife think of the affect plastic has on you, because you may be eating it. And this honestly bothered me the most. How you may ask is this possible? Well after the plastic goes in the ocean it is often eaten by fish and other marine life that we are purchasing and consuming. As the food chain process naturally occurs in nature plastic and the chemicals in it are broken down into the water, into the animals and into the plants.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am glad we have plastic. There are so many uses for it in the medical field, education and obviously my everyday life that I am glad to have. Plastic has made a lot of things possible and also convenient. But how convenient is too convenient? Plastic is being used for things that provide us just a few minutes of convenience, like lids on our coffee cups  and plastic bags that sometimes only hold 1 or 2 items, and then thrown “away” to be in the environment forever. This really made me question some of the stuff that I use and throw “away.” Are those few minutes of convenience worth it? I don’t think so.  Does this mean I am going to throw away anything plastic and live in a world of cloth and burlap?! lol No, I don’t think this would even be possible. But I am choosing to make better choices and really think about what affect my few minutes of convenience will have on the environment for generations to come. I think I am only more determined to be more conscious of what I am using and what is being thrown “away.” Because ultimately it is coming back and affecting me and the generations to come even more than I may realize or know now.
As usual I seem to have gone into a long rant-ish. What are your thoughts? Do you somewhat agree, totally disagree or maybe don’t even care? I would love to hear what people think or maybe ideas that you have for reducing the use of plastic.
Till next time!
Howdy Everyone!! As has become an unfortunate trend with my blog posts, they are always so ridiculously spread out. It seems to take me months before I even write another one. But with a new year comes new goals, right? Well this has been one of mine. I am hoping to blog more, not so much for others but to just do some writing for myself it helps me relax through out the day. We will see how this goes… 🙂
Since last time life seems to be very different in our household. Our little Andrey is 8 months old already! He is sitting and almost crawling. In the meantime he has decided to do the downward baby as I call it and also roll from one side of the room to the other instead of crawling. Innovative baby perhaps? I think he gets it from his mom 😉 This kid also loves sweet potatoes like nobody’s business. To tell you the truth I had never even eaten sweet potatoes prior to having a baby. But we just happened to try some baby food by chance and there has been no looking back. We have gotten to the point that we buy sweet potato pouches in BULK for this kid and now I have been making his baby food so of course sweet potatoes are on our grocery shopping list. His other fascination has been his bathtub toy, the blue starfish. I dont know what it is but he just LOVES that thing. My husband and I have made bath time into a science experiment of sorts the last few days. We put the starfish toy in with his other toys and ask him to choose which toy he wants. Without fail Andrey will pick the starfish every time! We even tried hiding the starfish under the other toys and he will just wait until he sees the starfish! Not sure what this research tells us but stay tuned for news of a grand science discovery, I’m sure. 😉
Here Andrey is eating his puffs and potatoes.
And here is our culprit dog Sol coming to hopefully steal/find some extras.
Also this past month I have had some troubles with my health but I think I will save that for another post hopefully later this week. Overall things here as usual are not boring. There is always something new going on but my little man Andrey seems to steal the show. 🙂 I hope things are going well for you, wherever you may be and that if you have made it to the end of this as usual long post, well you deserve a pat on the back and a good cup of tea. 🙂 I hope this new year has been going well for you.
Until next time
-Tanya
P.S. Couldn’t help my thrifty self but below is a rebate for cat litter which makes it FREE!! We just purchased our bag last week. It is for Tidy Cats Pure Nature Litter. https://inmarrebates.com/TIDYCATSPURENATURE/Step2.aspx?manufacturer=20
So check it out and get some FREE litter for your furry felines. Your cat and your nose will thank you.
It is so crazy to think that my son is already almost 2 months old! It seems that just yesterday we were anxiously awaiting for him to get here. Lets just say at the end Mama was getting pretty uncomfortable and grumpy… Ever since his exciting delivery (he was almost born in the car!)our little Andrey has made every day a learning experience for me.
First came the understanding that yes, this actually is my baby. Not just somebody else s little human. I remember the first few days I would just sit and stare at him not believing that he is actually ours. But I am oh so glad he is. 🙂 Then I also learned a few other things so far.
-Be ready because he is not afraid to pee on Mama, or poop on Papa.
-When he wants food, he wants it NOW. There is no negotiating.
-Pooping while taking a bath is now apparently one of his favorite hobbies. Plus on top of it he laughs and giggles as soon as he does it. Sneaky baby.. 😉
-Cloth diapering is not as easy as it seems at first. Thank you for Youtube for helping me figure it out…3 weeks and 2845895656 wet onesies later.
-The dog and cat are officially his guardians.
-He may seem like he is asleep but if you try to put him down…he will definitely tell you how he feels about that!
-You cannot trick him. He knows when Mama is home and will stop at nothing to get his afternoon cuddles and nap time. (Not that I mind… 🙂 It is secretly one of my favorite parts of the day.)
Being a mom is in no way easy. There are times I am so tired my eyeballs burn and feel like they will fall out of my head before it is even 10am but seeing my son giggle, watching him grow and look more like his Papa every day, and giving him endless kisses makes you forget about how tired you are. (Almost… There are times I feel I would seriously consider paying $1,000,000 to someone so that I could sleep for 12 hours straight, uninterrupted.) Being a mom is the hardest and best thing that I have experienced. And I am thankful that I get the privilege and opportunity to be a mommy. My husband and I are truly blessed.
Hello everyone!
Well it has been yet again several weeks since I have last blogged. But today I wanted to share a tasty recipe that I made. It was pretty easy and tasted oh so yummy in my tummy!:) There are kind of 2 parts to the recipe because for the avocado sauce/spread I used a recipe that I found online. Here it is. The only thing I did different is not add any jalapeno. Me and jalapenos just do NOT get along. Or pretty much anything spicy for that matter. Anyway, first I made the avocado sauce.
Then after getting all my ingredients out…
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-I had some cucumber (you don’t need the whole cucumber for one wrap), salt, pepper, turkey breast meat, 1 large flour tortilla and the avocado sauce.
Then the next step is to just put everything on the tortilla.Â
1)Start by spreading as much of the avocado sauce on there as you want. (There is still a lot left over)
2)Next I put the turkey meat.
3)Then I cut up some cucumber and put that on top.
4)Finally season with some salt and pepper or any other spice you may want and as much as you want, roll it up and enjoy!:)
Here is what it looked like before wrapping. Sorry my lighting is a little weird. I really liked the end result! It is freshness in a tortilla wrap, a perfect way to get ready for spring I think. 🙂 Plus there is a lot of flexibility because you can add in different meats and even veggies. Any ideas on what else I can put in my future wraps from any of you? I would love to hear them! Until next time!
P.S Baby Squishy update, we are almost at 32 weeks! Time is flying by. Here is the picture from 30 weeks.
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I came across a deal for a free nursing cover on Krazy Coupon Lady! You have to go to Udder Covers and then use the promo code FREEUCOVER1 to get the cover for free instead of the normal $39.95! You do still pay shipping which is $11.99 but that is still a pretty good price for a nursing cover. There are lots of different designs and colors. But the great thing is after I purchased one I was given a whole bunch of other coupon codes to their sister sites to do the same thing with their products. I ordered a few other things for my little guy. Below is a list of the sites. For each one if you put in the code UCOVERS it will take off 100% and you just pay shipping maybe each order about $11.99-$12.99.
Seven Slings for baby slings ranging for a child from 8lbs to 35lbs I believe.
Breast Pads you can order up to 5 packs with the discount. And each pack has 4 breast pads. The bad thing is that they are on back order till about April or May. But these are awesome because not only do they come in fun designs but are also eco-friendly because you can reuse them. I ordered some!
Nursing Pillow for obviously nursing pillows. I ordered one of these too in a gray color.
Carseat Canopy there are lots of different designs and colors and the total for the order with shipping in $12.99.
Baby Leggings you can get 5 free pairs of leggings!
Belly Band with the code you can get 2 free maternity belly bands that attach to your pants and help with your expanding belly. Lots of different colors.
Just thought I would share these great deals with you and let me know how it goes. Hopefully the work and you can get some great savings!
I have not blogged for sooooo long!! The thing is I have all these things I want to share but I never motivate myself enough to actually type them up. I am trying to be better especially since things in our live are really changing.
For those of you who may not know my husband and I are expecting our first baby!!! Our little(slowly growing and taking over my belly) guy is due May 12th. It has been a crazy adventure and I’m sure there is only more to come. We are actually at 6 months along today.
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As part of our adventure I am hoping to write at least a few blogs about how things are going, also because our friend Tania has been telling me to create some more blog posts with baby updates. Well, Tania if you are reading this… here you go!:)
Overall pregnancy has been going well, although we have had a few rough patches, today was one of those tough days. For some reason I have days where there are these crazy aches and pains on my right side. Having never been pregnant before I don’t exactly know what is normal and not, so of course the logical person that I am… I freak out right away. But the doctors have said that our little Squishy is healthy and doing really well, so there is nothing to worry about. Maybe it is just my body adjusting to this little guy growing inside of me? Maybe someone else has some advice for me? I would love to hear it!
Also being an elementary school teacher I have had some of my kids ask and say the funniest things about my pregnancy. Here are just some of the things the students asked/said last week alone:
Kindergartner Boy: “Did you eat a lot of are you just fat Mrs. D?” After I told him it was a baby and not food he asked if I had eaten a baby!
1st Grade Boy: “Mrs. D are you having a baby or have you just gotten fat”?
And I think my favorite actually came from one of my 2nd grade classes. A girl had asked if it hurt to have babies. I didn’t want to get into the whole topic with her, and tried to brush it off by saying I was not sure because I hadn’t had a baby yet. A boy proceeds to answer for me… “Well actually Mrs. D I will have you know that it will hurt! I hope you know what you got yourself into. What were you thinking having a baby? My mom said it hurts really bad when you have a baby so you better be ready.”
I felt like I was being scolded for getting pregnant!!
Also as some of you know I am very interested in eco-friendly, thrifty and DIY things, so I have also been trying to research and make some of my own eco-friendly products. Today in my moment of inspiration, that came as a result of endless night time you-tubing, I made dish soap and shampoo. I think I will blog about that more hopefully in 10 years later this week. 🙂
Well I haven’t written for a while now because life has been busy and awesome. And also because I have been focusing more on my youtube channel. It has been kind of crazy. I originally just started making the videos for my mom so she could learn how to coupon, but now other people have been watching, subscribing and commenting. It is exciting to see other people learning and being excited about couponing!!
 As part of my youtube channel and couponing adventures I will hopefully try to do a weekly post with deals, particularly for groceries. So without further ado, let the saving begin J
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http://weeklyads.aldi.us/aldi/default.aspx?action=entryflash&
http://www.rainbowfoods.com/Shop/WeeklyAd.aspx
Walgreens
http://walgreens.shoplocal.com/walgreens/default.aspx?action=entryflash&
Office Max
http://officemax.shoplocal.com/officemax/Default.aspx?action=entryflash&omaxserver=www.officemax.com
The deals I posted are geared towards the policies of Target and Wal-Mart. Produce prices can be matched at Wal-Mart but NOT Target. Also when I write (Coupon) next to the price, it just means that I found this price from a coupon in the ad. And only Wal-Mart accepts coupon prices. You do not need to bring the coupon or even show the ads but just as a reference for you.
Hopefully this is helpful and if you have any questions feel free to comment and ask! 🙂
I made a new video about some great Target deals I found as well as a new thrift store that I have found in my area.
I’m trying my luck at making some video. Nothing crazy since I do not have any editing skills whatsoever! But I figured videos are nice to have especially for people who are more visual and don’t really like to read everything. (Can you tell I’m a teacher 😉
Hope you enjoy and learn something new. If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask and let me know.
It has been a little while since I have last blogged. Things have been so crazy! But I am thankful to say that Juan and I are both now college graduates!!!!! It’s amazing! We are the first from our families to go to a university and graduate here in the United States. Also I am excited to officially start teaching in 2 weeks with summer school. Which will be a great lead in to my teaching job for the fall 🙂 I’ll be working as an ESL teacher in 2 elementary schools. So blessed and excited!! (I know there are a lot of explanation points, but can you tell I’m excited about the new things in our lives??!!!)
Well prior to getting distracted by my excitement rant, I was going to write about a new tea that I have been trying. About a month ago my friend Cassie and I went on one of our little weekend adventures (which unfortunately ended before it really started because the little mall we went to closed at 5pm and we got there at about 4:50pm!)Lucky for us TeaSource was open and I got a new tea to try.
With sooooo many different teas that they offer at TeaSource I decided to try a Puerh tea. I had heard of Puerh tea but I have never really tried it. The specific type I got was Puerh Tuo Cha.Â
Puerh is a deliberately aged tea from China. Something interesting about this tea is that is has an active probiotic, kind of like yogurt, so it can be used to help relieve stomach pains. This is something I was interested, especially since my tummy sometimes  seems to have a mind of its own and randomly decides to hate everything and anything I eat hurts.
The tea comes in little nest/bowl forms that are wrapped. But like most teas the longer you steep it the stronger the flavor. But unlike green teas, Puerh can be brewed for longer periods of time without becoming bitter, it just gets stronger and thicker.
When I first made the tea I definately smelt the smokiness and earthiness of the tea. I tried it both at a shorter brew time and a longer as well. Both were pretty good, but I liked the longer brew time better. The flavor was more richer, thicker but yet not overwhelmingly smoky. Because as you may remember from a previous tea review of mine, I’m not a big fan  of overly smoky teas. As for the tummy effects I can’t really say, other then it tasted yummy in my tummy, but maybe I will see improvement of stomach healthiness over time. Overall this has been a great into to the Puerh tea experience. I’d give this tea 3.5/5 stars.
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Teatime with Tanya 