Mommy Musings

Here are a few things I have found recently, and am loving , and I thought I'd pass them on to you! You can just click on any of the links to purchase them yourself! {this is not a sponsored post, just some things I love, but I am using affiliate links} The Lumene skin care line I stumbled upon this at CVS one day and have absolutely fallen in love.  It really helps brighten my skin and makes it super smooth! I have been using the Lumene Radiant Touch Refreshing Foam Cleanser , Lumene Radiant Touch Refreshing Toner, 6.8 Fluid Ounce , Lumene Vitamin C+ Pure Radiance Day Cream ~ 1.7 Fl. Oz. Lumene Vitamin C Pure Radiance Night Cream for just a few weeks now and am sold on the results! Marcus Luttrell  I've talked about my love of the movie The Lone Survivor in previous posts. The book Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 was even more captivating, as was Marcus Luttrell's follow up book Service: A Navy SEAL at War I...

First off I just want to wish a very happy birthday to my mom!! I'm sure there are people out there that find these posts slightly annoying.  If so, I hope you just gloss over them, as this link-up has really  helped me step up my game in terms of my workouts! Thursday February 20 - 7 mile bike Friday - At-home crossfit / Shred level 1 Saturday - none Sunday - 9 mile bike ride Monday - 2 mile elliptical / 3 mile bike Tuesday - 13.4 mile bike Wednesday - 2 mile elliptical / 8 mile bike Weekly Total - 44.4 miles February Total - 71 miles February workouts - 15 I'd like to brag a little here.  I am super proud of myself that even in the shortest month of the year, one in which I had to take off some time because I was sick, I still managed to get my highest mileage to date!  I do wish that was all running, but I'm definitely not at that level yet.  I am also loving my new found obsession with the bike at the gym {the spin looking one, not the reclining one} ...

Skip and I two days before our two year wedding anniversary...young, tan, and carefree!

In the first few months of Emmy's life, I was borderline obsessed with reading as much about babies I could.  I would spend hours combing the library for the latest book on development, feeding, sleeping, etc.  I was shocked when I heard other, more experience, mothers tell me that they didn't read any of the books.  But how would they know when they're child was supposed to roll over?  How did they know how much to feed them and when?  How would they get their baby to fall asleep without all the knowledge out there? As Emmy grew, I found myself reading fewer and fewer parenting books.  Though to be honest, it was more that I was just exhausted after chasing a toddler around all day, than I felt like I didn't need them. Then I got pregnant with Charlie.  There was very little reading of any kind going on during those nine months, mainly because reading made me never-ending nausea even worse.  But I also didn't feel the need to find out what each...

....and about a million snow days. Needless to say we've had a rough winter here in Jersey {and sadly with no end in sight as we are getting more snow and polar vortex weather this week}.  And when you're literally trapped in your house for days on end with a preschooler and very active toddler.  I have loved having so much time with the girls while they are home, but they are definitely sick of never leaving the house.  These past few months have really forced me to stretch my parenting skills to keep us all entertained, sane, and not just watching Trotro on repeat on Netflix all day {also, if you have kids and haven't watched this or Pingu yet, go check them out!}  I thought it might help some of you to construct a list of the ways I've found to pass the time with the girls! - School time.  As Emmy has been missing so much school, I want to make sure she's not going to fall behind.  I try and work on her handwriting, sight words, and math facts a little ...

Thursday February 13 - none Friday - none Saturday - At-home crossfit{see below}/ Kickboxing Sunday - At-home crossfit / Kickboxing Monday - At-home crossfit / Ripped in 30 Tuesday - At-home crossfit / 30 Day Shred Wednesday - 3.1 mile elliptical / 7 mile bike Weekly Total - 10 February Total - 26.5 February Workouts - 9 As you can see, I've been adding in an at-home Crossfit workout most days, in addition to my regular workouts.  I found it on Pinterest: I've never actually done Crossfit, but this seemed like a great little add-on.  I do it 5 times in a row without stopping and it takes me about 10-15 minutes.  I definitely think it'll help with all the toning I'm working on! I also added a February total workouts count at the bottom of my miles.  Since I'm working on toning, as well as cardio, I wanted to make sure to add in all that as well! I am absolutely missing running outside these days...how much longer till spring?

Big things have been happening around here this weekend!  If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, then you probably saw this picture that I posted: That would be Charlie's room with a toddler bed  in it!  I can't believe it, my sweet little baby in a big girl bed! I'll be honest, I've been putting this off for a while.  Emmy was much younger when we moved her to a toddler bed, but as is with most second child things, I was in no need to rush this.  I would have happily let Charlie sleep in a crib until she was 5. But with our upcoming trip to Disney in June, Skip and I decided it would be best to change over before that, since she'll have to sleep in a bed on that trip.  I'll ideally potty-train her before we go as well, and didn't want too many big changes at once. I realized this weekend was the perfect time to do it, because Emmy is off school this week.  If Charlie struggled to go to bed at night, I didn't want to have to get up super early the n...

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I completely forgot to write up this post yesterday like I intended, so my apologies for being a little late!  Now to take a look at my mediocre February. Thursday February 6 - 3 mile elliptical Friday - none Saturday - 2 mile elliptical / 1 mile treadmill Sunday - none Monday - none Tuesday - none Wednesday - none Weekly Total - 6 February Total - 16.5 I was just getting back into the groove of working out, when I got sick again last Saturday.  I had tried to push through it at the gym, and really just made it worse.  So I really had to take a little time off this week and rest.  I'm hoping to get a little something in today, but we'll see.  The good thing is that at the half-way point, I am totally on track to do 30 miles.  Not bad considering how sick I've been!  Let's hope I can get in some really good workouts this week!

My Charlie girl likes to move, grow, and develop at her own pace.  Some things she likes to do a little faster than most kids her age and some she's a little slower.  She won't be hurried or rushed but just meanders along at her own pace with milestones.  One of these areas is her teeth coming in.  She started teething right around four months, and I assumed she'd follow a similar schedule to Emmy.  So as she drooled and gnashed on her fingers, we waited for those pearly whites to pop through.  We waited, and waited, and waited some more.  She was around a year before we saw anything peeking. Even now, at 32 months, she doesn't have all her teeth in yet.  Two of them just made their appearance, and we are still waiting on two more after that.  Obviously, with this mix of established teeth, new teeth, and bare gums, it is tough to find the right toothbrush to take care of all her needs.  That's why I was excited to try out the Nuby Oral ...

I had made a list on my phone of all these blog topics I've thought about randomly during the day, but when I looked for it this morning I realized it's gone.  I must have deleted it by accident.  There was some good stuff on there too!  Oh well, so instead I'm just going to ramble a bit on here today, which is really all I seem to be doing recently. I'm pretty sure this winter is going to destroy us all.  Even Skip is fed up with it, and he's never really annoyed by anything.  We're either stuck in our houses after 8"+ of snow is dropped on top of us, slipping and sliding on ice because our area ran out of salt, taking our chances on the roads after 3" of snow to get Emmy to school because she's already missed so much and I don't want her falling behind, or bundling up in 1500 layers just to get the mail because it's below 0* again.  Seriously, it has been freezing and snowing since December and I'm over it!  I haven't seen my lawn...

I totally forgot to write up my post last week, so today is going to be a combo of closing out January and beginning February! Thursday January 23 - 2 mile elliptical / 2 mile bike Friday - Kickboxing Saturday - none {flu} Sunday - none Monday - none Tuesday - none Wednesday - none Thursday - none Friday - none Weekly Total - 4 miles January total - 32.9 miles Not the greatest month mile-wise, but at least I hit 30!  Plus the fact that the flu basically knocked me out for an entire week, I'm calling it a win!  Now on to February! Saturday February 1 - 2.5 mile run Sunday - none Monday - none Tuesday - 3 mile elliptical/ 5 mile bike Wednesday - none Weekly Total - 10.5 February Total - 10.5 I'm pretty happy with this since I'm still trying to get back into working out after being so sick.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep at it and increase my workouts for February!

I wasn't going to blog about this topic, I really wasn't.  But the more I thought and read about it, I figure this is a great way to start some important discussions and bring some awareness to things. First off, I haven't watched The Biggest Loser in years.  I used to, religiously, but just kind of stopped.  Most of the reason was because I was a little tired of just watching the contestants cry all the time.  I never once, however, saw this show as a realistic portrayal of weight loss.  First off, it's a reality show, which in and of itself is a little fake.  Also, living on a ranch, away from all other distractions and having nothing but time to exercise will obviously produce much more dramatic results than any average person can achieve.  I did think it was getting more and more ridiculous as the seasons went on to see people losing 20+ pounds each week.  But the bigger the weigh losses, the bigger the ratings I'm sure, and all TV shows are r...

The week before last, just before I woke up with the flu, Charlie woke up one night around 10:30 pm crying.  I ran up the stairs, since this isn't a common occurrence around here anymore { thankfully} .  Poor girl wasn't feeling well.  She was all stuffed up and congested, so sleeping was really difficult, even though she was exhausted. So I picked her up out of the crib, and curled her into my lap as I sat in the rocking chair.  I kept her head elevated and she promptly fell asleep in my arms.  I then proceeded to sit there for the next hour and gently rocked her back and forth.  {and yes I took pictures...I know how few and far between these moments are!} As I rocked, I'd be lying if I said tears weren't slipping down my cheeks.  It has been so long since I got to hold one of my babies while they slept, rocking them in the chair.  I thought about the probably hundreds of hours I have spent sitting in this spot over the past 5 1/2 years. I first ...

Another Monday, and another snow day.  What was supposed to be a light 1-3" has turned into almost 6" and another four hours left of snowing.  Oh, and we're supposed to get another possible 5-10" Tuesday night into Wednesday.  Seriously?!?! This is not a normal winter for Jersey.  And to know we have another month or two of this is just exhausting .  I'm trying to stay positive, but it's getting really really hard . Thankfully though, we are finally over the flu!  I will seriously never forget to get my flu shot again. I was sick for a straight week last week with the terrible virus.  Fever, aches, pains, cough, congestion, the works .  Skip and Charlie also got hit with bad colds.  Thankfully Emmy got away with just a few sniffles.  It's amazing to be able to do normal things around the house again! So Jersey hosted our very first Super Bowl yesterday!!  I am so happy with the way our state handled the game with such professiona...

I'm going to let you in on a little secret here....I'm not a huge fan of bath time with my girls.  Sure, I love their sweet smelling freshly bathed heads and shiny brushed out hair.  But the whole process is exhausting.  Especially when you're husb works the evening shift every other week, and even if he's home a certain two year old won't let anyone but Mommy bathe her.  I just can't always motivate myself to deal with all the splashing and the wriggling of wet little bodies.  So I'm definitely not always giving them a bath every day. Just because we might go a day or so in between, does not mean I want my kids to smell or be dirty.  So whatever bath products I use, I really want to last until they're next dunk in the tub. Thankfully I have found this in the Baby Magic .  Before I even opened up the bottles, I knew I would like them.  After all, their products are paraben free! The company also does not sure quaternium-15 or 1,4-dioxane in t...