Summer is ending an school is near...

Wow! These months just fly by!

Life is just full of surprises and blogging gets pushed aside. 

We recently moved into a lovely neighborhood, yet still in a apartment. We are now close to lots of friends though!!

I am still staying home with the kids. I am loving every moment of it. 

Josh has recently started signing more and he understands so much. It has been great seeing him learn and grow. 

Jazmine was away most of the summer with her father. So I don't have much to say on her part. Other then she now has her own lovely room! Worked many many days and evenings on it while she was with away with her dad. 

Justin and I are doing great. Enjoying our new apartment and one on one time with Josh has been great for both of us. 

Lots of gaming, parks, fish tanks and painting and working. 

My best friend recently had her baby! That was such a great experience to be apart of! I miss her dearly and hope to visit her more often. 

I am still crocheting and I learned how to knit! So much fun being a crafty mommy. But my son still loves to attack my yarn. Hahaha!

I am also working on writing a book!!! It is great so far! 

I do hope to be back on top of blogging and sharing my crafts and ideas again and little hints and tips for just keeping up with the day to day of life. 

Keep your head up and enjoy what left of your summer!

Until next time!

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Bonus pics of Jazmines room

So the previous tenants were to no great at measuring or painting. So I redid her closet space an painted her room. I also recycled old dresser drawers into little box shelves that are on the wall next her bed. I repainted them and hung them on her wall. It was a lot of work. But she squealed with excitement, when she finally came home from her dads, to see her new room.  

Update on our Eating Habits

***better late then never-really old draft post finally being posted***

So it's a New Year! Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and Christmas and that you are enjoying 2014 so far.

Our year started out quite and fun as we dove into a fun new show called New Girl. 

Jazzy recently turned another year older. She is now 7!

She had a very simple birthday at a local shop called Bead Works/ The Gem Den. Fun and simple. 

Well anyways...back to what this post is about. 

No meat November went rather well for us. We are pretty sure that red meat is what flares up Jazmine's eczema and also processed foods. 

(Read here for when and why it started http://threejs-y.blogspot.com/2013/11/no-meat-novemberhopefully.html?m=1)

We try to keep all her foods as closely linked to its natural source as possible. And just a lot of fresh berries and just fruit in general are her to go to food  for a sweet snack now, verses candy. 

Her eczema is clearing up an her skin is so soft now. Can't wait until the pigment of her skin starts coming back. 

I found a wonderful site and the lady of the site has been amazingly informative and helpful. 

http://www.eczema-natural-healing.com

I emailed her and she sent me a big list of questions and she helped me figure out the best way to care for Jazmine's eczema from the inside out through healthy food options.

She also suggested supplements that would help Jazmine heal quickly. I haven't purchased any yet. I am hoping to in the near future.

Our bodies can't break down certain food quickly enough. Those foods start to, in a sense, rot inside us. Our bodies attack them, in some cases, push it out through our biggest organ, the skin. Be it acne, eczema, psoriasis, or rashes, etc.

So our eating habits have changed a lot in the past three years.

Jazmine has had eczema since she was 3 or 4. It flared up like crazy when she turned 5. Before she was 5, I had tried creams, lotions, oatmeal bathes, which were quick fixes. Prescribed creams had steroids in it, bad toxin and chemical, that cleared it up, but once you stopped using it the eczema would come back 10 times worse. Or her body would get used to it and addicted to it and she would need a higher dose. Very scary and not good at all for her body.

Her skin got so bad once it got infected and she also got ring worm, its hard to keep kids from scratching and making stuff like this worse.

Yes! That is what got me into or change of what we consume. I was already on that path topically. Shampoo and cleaners I do a lot of DIY natural home recipes. And got more into researching foods.

So Fruits and Veggies are high in Alkaline and are easy for our bodies to break down. fresh and organic are best, but we don't do organic as much as we liked, we do keep with local produce since we live right around the corner from our central market. Acidic foods are meats and dairy from what I recall. Very hard for the body to breakdown.

So I have been looking into a vegetarian, vegan and juicing diets to help my daughter heal and help our family to become more healthy.

Having kids makes us go at a steady pace and introducing new methods and diets. Cost of organic and juicing machines and also preparing meals is a lot to take on for low income family. But something is better then nothing and as we get more used to it we can see what we can afford and how to work with what we have.

We were so used to boxed meals and fast prep. but it was not good for anyone. Shopping at our local market helped tremendously, since it was cheaper buy the pound there then in our grocery store.

We are hoping to start packing her school lunches and breakfast for her. A lot of her food is prepackage at school. It is free in our area but not as healthy as one would think.

It has been life changing and has been  a lot to learn and a big challenge, but it has been worth it.

Another wonderful site/blog I found was alkalinesister.com they have a wonderful food chart for alkaline foods and also some recipes on juicing alkaline foods.

Here are some photo of her arms and how bad it would get. I don't have any pictures of it when it was red and and overly scabby and sometimes open sores.

Here are a few picture of her skin now. She skin was ruff white and flaky and now its smooth and the color is coming back. 

Sorta healing. She was dressed up for spring school photos. So this is back in March 2014

This I today June 4th 2014

It is amazing see te photos side by side like this. How much she has healed since November 2013! Wow! 

This is proof that eating healthy can do loads of a difference. 

I could cry tears of joy knowing that her skin is finally healthy!

Do you have eczema or psoriasis?

What lengths have you gone to heal it?

Any healthy natural things you know of to help others get healthy?

Do you have a before and after story?

Loving Mommy, Daughter time

I do not get much time with Jazmine. 

I am usually busy with Josh, dinner, cleaning, tired or she is at school. 

Recently I have has so much more time to color and create and go to the park with her. 

I feel like I run outta things to do...that or I just feel smothered by her love...hahaha!

Either way it's been nice. I hope as time progresses and as I get more rest (better sleeping habits by Josh) that I will beable to fully truely enjoy more time with her again. 

She is at an age were she needs my input and approval more then ever, I want her to know and see that I am always there for her. Without her asking. To just have that inner confidence that she can always come to me. 

Being a mommy, a parent in general, is full time job. She is around me 24/7 and I  am her example for EVERYTHING. 

Teaching her and guiding her to care for herself, respect herself and much more...

I hope I shine down a positive example. 

As I learn more through my renewed faith, I pray that God would shine through me to her. 

Proverbs 31:30, "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised." 

True beauty comes from within!

Galatians 5:22-23, 26 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. 

New School Year for Jazmine (Photo Update)

My daughter is back in school and starting 1st grade this year!

She has learned so much so quickly in just a few short years! It's heart wrenching...hahaha! She has grown up so fast. 

I feel like at her age we didn't learn as much in schools as kids do now. They seem so much more advanced. My daughter can read so well. I remember struggling with reading and I think I was so much older then her. 

It is amazing and fun to watch her learn and grow. Joshua will have a great role model to learn from as he grows up. 

Although I love having Jazmine around it is nice that she is back in school. I feel since Josh is young and needs alot of attention that it was hard for her to enjoy time with me, so now she can make new friends and have other things to focus on. 

It is boring at times being a stay at home mom. I don't know alot of other adults my age with kids my age. And the ones I do know live very far away. 

I am hoping to make new friends. I am try to be more open to adults at parks and the library, but it's hard to break out of my shell. Hahaha!

I am working on trying to crochet during Josh's naps and get my business going again. Trying to bring in some money. It's hard to stay focused and motivated. 

All in all it has been an amazing 6 years watching my daughter grow. She is smart, fun and so creative and her imagination is just soaring no stop. 

Are your kids far apart in age? 

What was the most fun thing about watching your kids grow up?

What age was your favorite for them growing up?

K4 she was 4 1/2yo and first grade she is 6 1/2yo. Time Flys!

Sleep Training

WOW!

Yup! Me...I am sleep training my 8 month old baby boy.

I never thought I would have to or even want to.

I personally thought it seemed so crazy to let you child Cry-it-Out (CIO)

I never had to do this with Jazmine. She was a good sleeper from the gate. I think naps were a struggle but only when she was teething or sick.

I had to set alarms to wake up and nurse her or feed her (I didn't nurse her very long)

Anyways

This is sorta Day 2 of sleep training.

Last night is when I started. After getting reassuring words from a friend and then coming home and researching it a bit more as well as reading how wonderful it was not to rock,sing,swing, swaddle and then start all over after he falls sleep in your arms and you set him down only for him to pop his head up again. I was finally willing to give it a shot.

So last night between 7-8pm I started with a big feeding. 2oz of peaches and then potty time then a dry diaper. I nursed him then read him a story.

I kissed him and said, "Ok buddy, it is bedtime. This is our new routine. No more carrier and bouncer with music for 10-20mins or more. I love you buddy. I will be back to check on you in 5mins."

I laid in down and rubbed his back and head and then walked outta the room closing the door behind me.

I have video baby monitor (Nextstep IP-best baby monitor ever!) that I watched while I waited in the other room for 5mins while reading success stories to keep me from going in there and cradling him in my arms.

So 5mins passed (felt so much longer) I walked in and said, "It's bedtime buddy, go to sleep." laid him down gave him binky and rubbed  his head and back and walked out closing the door behind me again.

I then waited 10mins and did the above mentioned again. Keeping it brief but assuring him that I was still just right in the next room.

After 10mins I did 15mins, to 20mins. Kinda caved and swaddled him and rocked him for a bit then laid him back down. Then checked on him about 10mins later. It was around 7:45pm when he started doing the "Mantra" cry. I went in the room one last time. Did the above mentioned again. By 8:07pm josh was just lighty whimpering every now and then and right before Justin got home Josh was finally asleep.

I was so nice. It was ruff but nice. I felt so excited.

Around 9:15pm I went in and dreamfeed him.

He sleep stirred as usual for his night feedings half  asleep no biggie.

Around 3am-4am he was wide awake. So I kind had an early CIO nap session it only lasted 25mins. I only checked on him 2 times.

Then after he officially woke up at 6am I feed him yams and nursed him and pottied him. Watched Sesame Street. He started rubbing his eyes around 7am. So I put a dry diaper on him and put him in his crib with the same process as the above mentioned around 7:30am.

This first nap did not go well at all. Mostly because Justin was still in the room sleeping and moving around and I think maybe it was still a little earlier to try a nap. He CIO until 8:30am Then we scooped him up went to market and tried again after we came home.

The second try we both put him in his crib and told him it was nap time and to get some sleep.

I let him CIO for 10mins checked on him and did the aboved mentioned and he stayed laying down and fell asleep.

He has been sleep since 9:30am it is almost 11am.

I am very happy and hoping the rest of his naps go well today.

Wish me luck!

Here are some links I used to help me get a grasp on CIO methods and Sleep training methods.

I just combined what I knew would work best for me and went from there. It does take a lot will power not to rush in and pick you crying baby up. But it is worth for both of you and family or babysitters.

Like my friend said, "We train/teach kids many things, walking and potty etc, why not sleep?"

When you have your first one it is easy to say, "Oh I don't mind rocking him to sleep." But when you have your second one you won't have that kind of time. You will be juggling both your kids and working and cleaning and dinner.

Your lil one needs to learn to self soothe.

I now think it is good to learn. Not right from newborn age but in my opionion around 3 months old. After the "Forth trimester"

Read Here First

How to Successfully teach a baby to sleep <---Read this!!! definitely a must read!

How to Sleep Train without CIO

Dream feeding prevents nightwaking

Kiddos!

Wow! Summer vacation! School went by so fast my Jazmine.

All year it was difficult getting her outta bed to get ready school and just then other day she said, "Summer is going to take forever, I wanna keep on learning." 

She just graduated from Kindergarten less then a week ago!

She received awards for being Advanced in reading and in math!!! Wow! When I was her age I don't think I even knew all of what she learned in the past two years until 2nd grade. 

She is so smart and loves learning!

She reads out loud so fast and so well and loves reading to her baby brother. 

It's amazing. 

Children grow up so quickly. It's so amazing how fast time flies. 

Josh is already 7months old. Teething and trying to crawl and already trying to stand. He does a lil army crawl so far. He just about sitting up on his own. And about two days ago started saying...Mama!!!! Woohoo!!!! Hahaha!

Both the kids are so content and so great and friendly. (So far josh is ha!)

Jazmine is creative and a fast learner. And quiet the dancer. 

It puts me in awe to see how much Jazmine has grown and changed, especially when I look back on photos of her. 

6 years have past! SIX! 

I have journals for both my kids that I write in. Trying to jot down memories and milestones. I feel like I never get a chance to sit down and write it all. It all comes and goes so quickly and there is so much. 

What do you do to keep memories?

When do you find time?

What is your favorite memory so far?

Home Maker

So I think I want to be a homemaker. 

I really do want to!

I miss soon my daughters hair before school. I miss sitting down and doing home work with her. 

Planning and doing dinner is so much easier when you aren't tired after work. 

By the time I get home I am exhausted and still need to clean dishes, do laundry, wait for the kids to get dropped off, nurse  Josh or pump, make my daughter an after school snack. Then prepare dinner while my daughter begs for my attention...which by the time dinner is done and ready I am to tired to play. 

It's frustrating. I love both my children so much and want to give them equal love and attention. As a newborn Josh def. need more attention but as he has grown he does well in his own for moments at a time that I could play a few rounds of Othello or Candyland or read with Jazmine. Something...anything is better then not feeling like I want to move a muscle for her when I am done with everything in the house. 

I feel my paycheck really doesn't do much to contribute to income. 

We buy food for meals which gets wasted when we don't cook because we are to exhausted and then order out. 

I have to purchase storage bags for my breast milk, Pay for a babysitter, Justin splurges on meals since we don't pack lunches (to tired and yes lazy), I lose money on days the kids are way to sick to sen to babysitter. We are just starting to break even. 

So we are going to start working on living off one paycheck. 

We have read the book -Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey- 

We are trying to budget and we have been living below our means and we are going to def. start living far below our means for the most part. 

So our plan,up until Josh turns one in October, is to use my check as babysitting money and what ever is left over goes to a separate account. We will direct deposit it some place else. 

We will save money and learn to live off o one income. 

I wish I could start staying home now. It's summer time and it would be nice to spend more time with the kids especially Jazzy. She wants to go to the library everyday and park everyday. And we just can't fit that into everyday. 

We will also save more money during the summer because my daughter will be spending alot of this summer with her father. 

So hopefully this summer we will learn and work on how to live off of one income. 

Have you tried?

Did you do it before or after you had kids?

Was the transition easy?

Any hints or tips on how to save and keep going with out going under?

6 Months Old Today!

Six more months and my lil dragon man will be 1 year old!

It has been a month since I have posted anything. We have been busy trying to get our new apartment all organized and purdy. Haha!

Our new place is wonderful and spacious and has just been grande thus far!

Jazmine loves her new room. We love our new room and definitely love our kitchen and all the space we have now. Though the space got a lil small when we went and purchased a portable washer and dryer.

The portable washer and dryer has been amazing! We bought the sonya large size dryer and the washer <----LIFESAVER! It has been so nice not having to lug my kids and laundry to the laundromat and back and up and down stairs! So nice!

Update and baby J. He has started rolling and giggling and he can hold onto objects and reach for them. He is teething and it looks like his bottom left front tooth will be the first to pop through.

Jazzy is still growing smarter and also an amazing big sister. She calms him down with toys and his binky and will sit with him and read him books. She loves trying to hold him and wants to play with him and show him everything. She has truly been great with her lil brother.

Justin and his fish tank have been awesome! Haha! Everyone loves the great job he does with it. It is beautiful!

Not only that two of our ghost shrimp are pregnant. We transferred the lil ladies to another tank to have there babies safely. So we are awaiting the birth of shrimp.

Our new place has been less stressful and less cluttered for the most part! Haha! Working on space saving ideas and slowly working on decluttering all my things. I have alot of little things. Haha! Justin's says I have a problem with collecting papers. I do I do! *softy shakes head in hands*

Well anyways other then my growing kids I have been trying to work on braiding my hair every week day for the rest of the month. Everyone at work loves all my different braids and styles. It has been alot of fun. And alot of work. I am running outta ideas. I have been braiding it on some weekends but its my usually my days of rest.

I haven't taken pictures mostly because I can never get a good angle of it or good lighting. I have had a few customers take pictures though.

I am going to also try starting up my vintage looks again. I am very excited to start that. The ladies at work are excited as well.

Well below are pictures of the washer and dryer we had purchased. Which reminds me I need to add reviews to the sites I bought from. Might wait see what our electric bill looks like haha! Most reviews said there wasn't a big change.

Some pictures of my kiddos as well and a picture of Justin's fish tank.

Hope to be back within the week rathe then monthly. Haha!! Until then ((hugs)) and love.

Tooth Fairy

Today my daughter lost her very first tooth!!!

Wow she is growing up so fast!

Next is puberty...OH...NOOOO!!!

So WOW it was kinda hard trying to explain to her why she lost her tooth and that she is going to be fine.

She kept saying she was sad. That it hurt. That she missed it. Asked if it was going to hurt when it grows back. Asking questions about the tooth fairy. Ugh it just went on and on...

So this is sorta what I said.

(With a big excited smile and voice!)

Wow Jazmine you lost your first tooth! We need to take a picture (jazmine sad and crying in front of me)!

I was wiping tears off her face and taking pictures trying to cheer her up.

Then I said "Guess what?! You get to put your tooth under your pillow and the tooth fairy is going to take it and give you money."

She said "will my tooth come back after that?"

I said something along the lines of yes but it will take time to grow back. Then she said "Will it hurt..." Me answering as best as possible...just a lil but I don't remember because it was a long time ago.

She was questioning me left and right and I couldn't answer her enough to get her to stop.

So then I said,"Well you get jello now!" It's nice and soft and fun!" Yup from questions to jello just like that. Had to distract her!!! Hahaha!

Anyways now I gotta look up fun stuff about tooth fairies and see what I can tell her.

Anyways she is beckoning for her jello. I need to see if its ready yet. Yup we made it from a box. Didn't buy it pre-set.

Cloth Diapering Adventures - Chapter 1 - How I got interested in it

So one of my best friends sent me a link to an article that was in the news paper. It was about Cloth Diapering (CD). Which is something we do as well as Elimination Communication (EC).

So I figured I would take a few blogging days and talk about it and how I got into it and what works for me.


How I got into CD

So before I had my daughter I was kinda interested in it but never really had time to research it. Plus her father was not into it so it was a no from the get go.

Then as she started getting older I looked into more since she would be potty training I wanted to try and start early but early to me was 1 year old and they didn't have undies for kids that her age so I tried finding a CD that would work for her...but again research took time and I just ended up with going with what society thought was a good time for potty training.

Around her 2nd birthday I started looking into it again and fell upon a website about ECing but never really got into that even though it made since. It's kinda hard to do with carpet everywhere and her father was not very supportive. When we were potty training her and out shopping he would let her go in her pull ups instead of taking her to a bathroom. Very frustrating...plus that is money being pooped on since we have to continue buying more when she could have just flushed it and put on her unsoiled pull up. ARGG! (BTW Jazmine has a different father then Josh. Justin is her awesome loving kind responsible stepfather!)

Anyways

So she never got outta disposable diapers (pooping on money and throwing it away-which never goes away because it just goes into a giant trash pile that takes forever to decompose) until sometime after 3 years old.

So while Jazmine grew older I missed having a baby and would just randomly research baby stuff and then got into the CDing  mode again mostly because they are just the cutest things ever!!!

A friend of mine also had a baby shower and she was planning on using gdiapers to CD and I could not get over how cute CD bottoms looked!

I even looked into thirsties duo wraps that were just as cute a diaper that grew with your baby.

I was still with Jazmines father at the time. But he was no interested in having anymore kids.

And then life moved on from there and I would randomly research it and educate myself in CD.

ECing came way later after I separated with Jazmines father and found and amazing man - Justin!

We started trying for a baby but before that we talked alot about our plans of what we would choose to do and things of that nature and I got back into baby mode and then the true CD and ECing learning and practice came into play.


So anyways

Here is the article my friend sent me.

Diapering Decisions - Lancaster's Mulberry Street Diaper Co.

Well stay tuned for Chapter 2 of my Cloth Diapering Adventures.

My gdiapers and my lil man wearing his gdiaper.

Have you ever thought of cloth diapering? Have you ever wanted to try ECing or even heard of it?

Let me know and if you have any questions ask me and I will try to help answer!