yoga + new workout gear

One of the goals on my 101 Things in 1001 Days is to be able to master more challenging yoga poses.  To better define this, I have come up with a list of 10 poses that I have always wanted to do.  I feel like 2 and a half years should be enough time to master the 10 poses (although we'll see, because these are going to take a lot of work!)  The 10 poses I have decided on are:

1. Balancing Butterfly Pose
2. Scorpion Pose
3. Lord of the Dance
4. Supported Headstand
5. Visvamitrasana
6. Crane Pose
7. Side Crow Pose
8. Drop back into a back bend
9. One Footed King Pigeon Pose
10. One-Legged Upward Facing Bow Pose

Holly just posted a 12 week challenge on her fitness blog and I'm going to attempt to follow along. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to tackle two of the above poses. My hope is that as I see others achieving their fitness goals, I will stay motivated to work towards mastering the challenging poses.  I've decided to start with Lord of the Dance Pose and Crane Pose.  If I'm able to get through those two then I will attempt another, but I'm not going to push myself too far.  I've only just recently gotten back into doing yoga daily and I definitely don't want to hurt myself.  I plan to post about each one I accomplish on here :)

Now on to fashion...
What would my yoga practice be without cute clothes?!  I had the opportunity again to be apart of the Old Navy Style Council via CrowdTap and I got to check out some of their active wear again.  In winter I obviously went for pants but this time I wanted a pair of compression capris! I also have been trying to be more bold in my color choices so I really wanted to get bold capri instead of the black I chose last time (I chose a neon yellow tank last time, though, so I'm not entirely boring!)  Unfortunately they didn't have any of the bright capris in store that I saw online :( Here is how the fitting room went:

 If I were a runner, I'd love these shorts! They just aren't appropriate for my yoga routine.

The yellow was not my thing. I think these capris would look great at a gym or running, I just didn't quite like the pop of color on the side.

What I picked:

Tree pose isn't as graceful when you're trying to take a selfie :)

 

I really loved the padded camis, I had a hard time picking a favorite color (and if they had my size in store, I would have bought the Neon Coral Charm and Retro Violet!) I wanted to love the yellow, but I just don't think yellow is my color.  The color I went with is called "icy aqua." I decided on a pair of compression capris in black (for some reason the black isn't available online). I wanted a gray pair, but they didn't have my size in store.

Love shopping trips with my little girl :)

 

Thank you to Old Navy and CrowdTap for the coupon! I had a lot of fun shopping and I can't wait to start crossing off some yoga poses from my list! 



101 Things in 1001 Days v. 3

This is my third 101 Things list and I'm really excited to begin a new list (visit List #1 and List #2).  I wanted to do a 30 before 30 list which I started last year, but the stuff on it just became too daunting and so I ignored it. I originally started this blog to chronicle my previous lists and so that's what I will be reverting it back to.  I plan to continue the monthly updates of E until she is a year because I like being able to look back on them.

Start date: May 1, 2013
End date: January 27, 2016

Exercise/Health/Beauty

1. Attend a yoga class regularly (6 month commitment in order to count this)
2. Go rock climbing
3. Follow the paleo diet for 3 consecutive days
4. Complete all the yoga poses from my "inspiration" yoga board (more on this later)
5. Try aerial/anti-gravity yoga
6. Go to the dermatologist yearly (0/3)
7. Go to the dentist at least once
8. Have a spa day
9. Drink only water for a month
10. Dye my hair
11. Start going to counseling
12. Get new glasses
13. Get a hair cut at least every 6 months
14. Get a full physical

A and I

15. Go on 4 dates a year without children (0/12)
16. Welcome another baby into our family (whether biological, adoption, or foster)
17. Make up wills
18. Go on a trip for an anniversary
19. Get new wedding bands
20. Do the Love Dare
21. Do the "25 days of prayer for my husband" every day for a week

Finances

22. Pay off 2 student loans
23. Save $2000 in our savings account
24. Pay off our credit cards and cancel at least one of them
25. Put $10 a month in each kid's savings account
26. Finally set up A's 401k

Kids

27. Write a letter each year to my kids, on their birthday
28. Go on a mother/daughter date
29. Go on a mother/son date 
30. Take swimming lessons
31. Attend story time at the library regularly (6 month commitment in order to count)
32. Count up their piggy banks and deposit the money into their savings accounts
33. Visit the automobile museum
34. Visit a planetarium
35. Get both kids' birth certificates
36. Complete both kids' baby books
37. Prep for homeschool
38. Go to a drive-in movie
39. Teach W how to read
40. Successfully potty train W
41. Successfully potty train E
42. Go to Build A Bear

Local

43. Visit each of the parks in the city
44. Go to the local gardens
45. See the manatees at the springs
46. Visit 5 new restaurants in the city (0/5)
47. Attend a lobster or crab Fest
48. Go ziplining at the zoo
49. Visit the science museum
50. Visit a farmers market
51. Get a zoo pass
52. Go to the local pool
53. Attend Food Truck Thursdays

Just For Me

54. Learn how to shoot a gun
55. Quit using "like" when I speak
56. Get a henna tattoo
57. Get a real tattoo
58. Take a free online class
59. Try Christian meditation
60. Read 5 new books (0/5)
61. Join a mom's group and attend regularly
62. Make a list of 1001 things I'm thankful for
63. Finish the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia series
64. Do something to further my education
65. Ride a motorcycle
66. Be off the internet for a whole week

Faith and Giving Back

67. Adopt a family for a Christmas exchange
68. Make up a box for Operation Christmas Child
69. Find a church to attend
70. Send 5 unexpected gifts to family or friends (0/5)

Food and Drink

71. Completely eliminate food dye from our lives
72. Try 5 new wines (0/5)
73. Start and maintain a liquor collection
74. Make my grandmother's cheesecake recipe
75. Try sushi
76. Try bubble tea
77. Try 3 different homemade popsicles (1/3) (Pineapple Banana Coconut)
78. Try 10 new cheeses (0/10)
79. Have fondue at home
80. Take a cooking class

Travel

81. Go to a water park
82. Get another stamp in my passport
83. Meet up with Danielle and her family again

Creativity

84. Plan a surprise party
85. Make 10 things for the house that I've pinned on Pinterest (0/10)
86. Sew a skirt or dress for myself
87. Get professional pictures each year (0/3)
88. Make a photo book for each year (starting with 2010)
89. E's 1st birthday party
90. Throw a cute 3rd, 4th, or 5th birthday for W
91. Repaint the living room
92. Create a 72-hour emergencery preparedness kit
93. Research my family history back 4 generations
94. Get family pictures framed and hung on the wall
 
Misc

95. Adopt a shelter dog
96. Create a home inventory for insurance purposes
97. Win 101 giveaways (will post every 10 wins)
98. Switch over 5 household items to homemade and natural items (0/5)
99. Go horseback riding
100. Plant a citrus tree
101. Organize our pantry

happy 9 months E :)

Sleep: My sweet E hates sleep, plain and simple! We've had a slight improvement in the past month as she now sleeps one stretch of 2 hours (sometimes 3) in the pack n play and then we're co-sleeping. She dropped her 3rd nap about a week ago so she is down to 2 naps. Her morning nap is typically around 2 hours with her afternoon nap around 40 mins, and that seems to work for her. I've started weaning her off of needing to be nursed to sleep, so I'd love for that to be done by 10 months.

Food: She is nursing 4 times a day and 2-3 times a night.  She has 4 ounces of a fruit and Green yogurt for breakfast and 4-6 ounces of a baby food for lunch and dinner.  She loves eating finger foods like cheese and veggies, so I've been adding more into her diet.  This month we'll be adding formula and/or whole milk (per drs request as she has fallen off of her growth curve). I'm still planning to nurse as much as I can and hoping just a slight addition of formula or milk will be enough.

Diaper size: 3

Clothes: 3-6 month onesies, 6-9 PJs and pants

Weight: 14 lbs 7 ounces (1st percentile) - her 9 month appt isn't for another 2 weeks so I won't know her length til then.

Development: She is crawling everywhere! She loves yelling and has starting mimicking sounds she hears with some accuracy.  She pulls herself up on everything and has started to try to let go of things to take a step (with zero success, obviously). She learned how to clap and wave this month and loves to show it off.

Personality: She is definitely a baby that loves being near mommy or daddy. She will cry when one of us leaves her sight and she loves being held. This month she became terrified of the vacuum, even though she's never had a problem with it before.  She is a very loving baby :)

Pics from this month:

 Eating corn

Visiting Easter Bunny Lane 

Dressed up for her 1st Easter

5 generations. We visited my Nana (E's great great grandmother) who just celebrated her 98th birthday. She still lives on her own and is doing awesome :)

The scrunchy face is her favorite one to make :)

E is 8 months :)

Sleep: I wish I could say this month we had a huge improvement, but we're still having a terrible time with sleeping.  Halfway through the month, we went back to swaddling her and had a slight improvement (her naps went from a half hour to over an hour - with one being 2+ hours) but after about 2 weeks of that, she has gone back to taking 3 40 minute naps.   She has had more nights of sleeping longer stretches (2+ hours) sleeping in the pack n play, but after she wakes up from the long stretch she wants nothing to do with going back to sleep in it so I'm co-sleeping half the night.  I am still nursing her to sleep, most nights, but I think she is getting to the point where she won't be needing it soon.  Our routine is something like this: awake around 7 or 8, nap around 9/9:30, nap around 1, nap around 4 (she is slowly dropping off her 3rd nap though, W had already dropped his 3rd nap by this point), in bed 7:30/8.

Food: At her weight check a few weeks ago, the doctor wanted us to add yogurt for breakfast to help her gain some weight. She loved eating it, but it seemed to really bother her belly. We stopped for now and I'm going to only offer it every once and awhile.  Right after she turned 7 months, she started eating purees without a problem.  She loves fruits, but she gets super dramatic about veggies.  She spits them at me and makes gagging faces when she gets a spoonful of veggie (especially carrots, green beans, and peas).  She eats about 4 ounces of puree for lunch and for dinner right now. She loves snacking on puffs and melts, and she enjoys self-feeding (egg, veggie chunks, bread, etc).

Diaper size: 3

Clothes: 3-6 months with a few 6-9 month PJs

Weight: They didn't tell me exactly how much she weighed at her weight check appointment, but she is around 13.5 lbs

Development: She loves to yell and she will say mama and dada, especially when one of us leaves the room.  The biggest thing this month is that she started to crawl!!  She also loves pulling herself up on things and stomping her feet.

Favorites: Teething toys, especially Sophie and her raspberry teether. Toys that make lots of sounds like her xylophone.

Pics from the month:

 One day she was playing in W's room and when I went to check on her she was sucking on his binkie destroying the bookshelf.  Only binkie she's ever kept in her mouth!

Playing on the deck :)

The day she started crawling!

I have a feeling she'll be giving him looks like this for the rest of her life!

Watching the rain on St Patty's Day :)

homemade all-purpose cleaner

We recently ran out of the Seventh Generation All-Purpose Cleaner and our local Walmart doesn't carry it.  Rather than buy a different product or have to travel to the city, I decided to see if I had everything at home to make my own.  I got lucky with the first recipe I looked up!  I've been using it for about two months now and I really like it.  My only complaint is that it isn't antibacterial, but I plan to make an antibacterial spray using lavender oil.  I use this mostly on our kitchen counters and kitchen table.  It is great at getting unidentifiable sticky substances off of surfaces and I especially like it for the high chair.  I don't have to worry about nasty chemicals being on the surface E eats off of.  It does have a vinegary smell, but it doesn't linger so I don't notice it after I'm done cleaning.  The castile soap I used is Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild Liquid Soap.  I bought a big container off Amazon when I was attempting homemade dishwasher soap and I've also used it to make my own hand soap (check out a future post on that).

(Recipe from Macheesmo)
All-Purpose Cleaner (it will bubble so make sure you have some extra room in your spray bottle) 
3 Tablespoons vinegar
1/2 Teaspoon washing soap
1/2 Teaspoon castile soap
2 cups hot water

Other posts in my green series:
Homemade deodorant 

Homemade Glass Cleaner

Green Summer Products

Green Diapering Products

Homemade Laundry Soap

1st birthday planning

Since December, I have been planning E's first birthday.  Now that we've been living in Florida, I really want her first birthday to be special.  I have mommy guilt over the fact that she hasn't been able to be around family as much as W was when he was her age.  I planned a big first birthday for W but it was the day before we moved to Florida and so it also felt like a going away party.  I definitely want this to be a big deal for him too, he will have survived one whole year of being a big brother :-P

I'm planning to have her party in Ohio, surrounded by family and friends.  I have a theme of sorts and it is something along the lines of "Bejeweled ONEderland".  Emerald is the gem of our lives, so the colors are emerald, sapphire, light pink, silver, and diamond. I have already purchased a custom necklace from The Sassy Bowtique. She did such a perfect job putting the colors together despite my lack of direction (I just gave her a whole bunch of color choices and trusted her to bring it all together).  I also bought emerald tulle to make a tutu.  My mom is making an embroidered birthday shirt and I'm debating between a huge bow or a birthday hat with a bow on top!

Here is my inspiration board (I have so many big ideas, I'm hoping it will all come together!):

Obviously all the gold will be silver (although the gold is adorable).  I've had a hard time finding much inspiration with emerald green, but I have lots of ideas! I'm planning a fruit pizza bar, making my own cake, and cherry limeade!  On top of all this, it will be a completely dye-free party :) I've already looked into dye-free sprinkles and such, so I hope I can make it colorful without the use of artificial dyes.

february blessings

*2 Valentine's Day bows from Beezzz Bowtique. I also bought 3 little bows from her to put in E's Easter basket. The headband that the corker bow is on, is actually an interchangeable one. It has a little loop on it so that any bow can be clipped to it. I've never seen this before and I'm pretty excited about it.  E's head needs to get a little bigger though :)

*2 pairs of Carter's Fleece PJs for E.  These will be perfect for her birthday (especially because she's a few months behind in sizes, so I think they'll be perfect for fall).  The pair on the right has the most adorable glitter fairies on it  The only PJs W has ever worn is Carter's fleece PJs.  He has a few cotton pairs for summer, but we have the air on so it's cool enough to wear fleece to bed.

*Earth's Best Yogurt Puffs.  We buy a variety of Earth's Best products and we've always been happy with them.  Their jarred food was always W's favorite.  Both W & E really love these puffs.  They have more flavor to them then traditional puffs and I think the yogurt adds a little bit more nutritional benefit.

*Synergy essential oil blends from Plant Therapy.  I haven't had a chance to try any yet, but I am sooo excited about them! I've just ventured into the realm of essential oils and I'm trying to learn some of the basics.  I'm really curious about the "immune aid" blend which is supposed to be like Thieves Oil!  I'm thinking of adding a few drops of Energy to my laundry soap, it has a nice scent.