1. No carbs. I gained a lot of weight while I was pregnant and once we moved to my parents' house, I finally felt organized enough to work on feeling healthy again. My mom read a book called Why We Get Fat, which is a fascinating look at the science behind nutrition and weight gain, and has since changed her eating lifestyle and doesn't eat many carbs. Low-carb diets have been good to me in the past so I jumped on her bandwagon and have seen some awesome results! I'm down 21 pounds with 4 more to go to reach my pre-pregnancy weight, and while I am no longer super strict about no carbs at all, there have been some definite lifestyle changes to come from this that I'm really happy about. (Note: I'm not necessarily recommending this as a diet to anyone - though I do recommend reading the book if you're interested.)
2. eMeals. Since moving to my parents' house and giving up carbs, Tim and I have had a hard time coming up with meals that are both tasty and, well, not the same thing every single night. eMeals to the rescue! When you subscribe to eMeals, you get to pick your meals (we just do dinner) and family size, and then they email you a weekly menu complete with a shopping list. It does cost money, but it's really not expensive and almost all of the meals we've tried have been really good. We've discovered that we need to schedule some leftover nights into each week so we don't buy food for all seven meals, but with a few modifications to fit our needs, it's been a lot of fun.
3. Learning to cook. Along with all this food business comes this astounding fact: I am learning to cook! Since Tim is at work and home fairly late each night, I have taken over making dinner and I have yet to completely ruin anything. Booyah. I have been lazy about it lately but I think next week will see a resurgence of these developing skills. Stay tuned...
4. Free printables. Again I'm borrowing from Lisa on this one. I don't know what it is but I am 100% obsessed with the printable posters designed by Gina at gdesigned.blogspot.com. I actually went to high school with Gina and I think her designs are fabulous! They are totally free and look great printed out on a regular printer. I especially love the alphabet name prints! Gina is super nice and will customize the name and colors for you. Georgie's is pretty much the cutest thing ever. I have downloaded about a dozen of my must-have favorites from Gina's site and given them as wedding, bridal shower, thank you, and birthday gifts just in the last six weeks.
5. Father's Day tie. For Mother's Day, Tim made Georgie and me matching skirts, so for Father's Day, I made Tim a tie and Georgie a matching skirt. I found this tie pattern and tutorial online and it turned out really well! Plus, it was not overly complicated which was perfect for my basic to intermediate sewing skills. I am actually excited to make him another tie that's even better, based on what I learned from the first go-round.
Side note: For Georgie's skirt, I modified a basic drawstring skirt by cutting the fabric into four panels (front, back, and sides) instead of two (front and back) before sewing them together and adding the ric rac drawstring.
6. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. Lots of people recommended this book to me when I was desperate to get Georgie to sleep and I wish I had had the mental energy to read it sooner! This was our best book for seeing pretty immediate results in G's sleeping habits (like actually taking naps at all - miracle!) and it helped us make sense of why she wasn't sleeping. As an added bonus, it mostly did not make me feel like a horrible parent as so many other sleep books have. Georgie still isn't sleeping through the night but we have come such a long way and I thank this book for it nightly.
7. The Mother in Me: Real-World Reflections on Growing into Motherhood, edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper. One more book to recommend. I've found that reading positive, encouraging, and honest essays about motherhood has helped me to be more positive myself and to see the precious parts of motherhood more clearly, and this book has been the absolute best so far. The beautiful essays and poems span all of motherhood from pregnancy to the toddler days and made me cry, laugh, and reflect a little more deeply on my own experiences. I'd love to discuss the book with anyone who reads it, or just have an open and honest discussion about motherhood in general because I think we've all got something to say.
