Conquer Losing Your Temper

We all have moments where we lose our temper and usually you feel horrible for losing your temper once you have calmed down. I read a great article that had some great tips on lowering your stress level so you don't lose your temper. First think about your normal daily routine. What part of the normal day causes you the most stress? What part of the day are you happiest? For me the most stressful part of my day was when I got home from work and picking up my daughter. I am trying to get all my chores done but my daughter never lets me get anything done. I usually end up getting very frustrated at this part of the day. The happiest part of my day is playing with my daughter and then getting her ready for bed. In order to make the best of these times you need to evaluate why you are happy/stressed and figure out what you can do to improve them. I realized that I was trying to do to many chores when I first got home. I really only needed to clean my pumping equipment, all my other chores could wait until after my husband got home. So I changed my routine. I now only clean my pump equipment and then I spend the rest of the time playing with my daughter. Not only has this removed my stress it's given me more free time that I can spend with my daughter. Now the happiest time of my day has gotten better because I have more time to play her.

Some of my favorite craft sites

Since my daughter has been sleeping a lot more now, thank god, I finally have some spare time. I have been really getting into crafts lately and am always looking for some great free crafts I can attempt. Most of my crafts relate to stuffed animals or clothes for my daughter. I found some really great websites that I wanted to share.

1. The Creative Place -Random crafts
2. How About Orange - Great recycled paper coasters under Most Popular Projects
3. Pin Sew Press - Random sewing tutorials
4. Ready Set Craft - Random paper crafts great inspiration for homemade cards
5. The Red Thread - Good paper mache craft for kids under My tutorials
6. Prudent Baby - Lots of free tutorials under Babies&Kids, Nursery
7. MMM Crafts - Great Stuffed Monkey Tutorial under Free Patterns and Tutorials

Earth Day Crafts

Happy Earth Day everyone! So I thought the best way to celebrate Earth Day and to teach your children the importance of Earth Day would be to  do a craft together. I found some great crafts online that I wanted to share. Enjoy!

1. Memory Tree Do It Yourself Project from Repurposed Fabrics - great mother's day gift
2. Repurposed Clothes Collage Pillow - great sewing project for adults
3. Earth Day Garland - great craft activity for kids

Yummy Dirt Cups Recipe

I found this great recipe for Yummy Dirt Cups on Kaboose.com. I made some small changes to the recipe to save time. I thought their serving suggestion of using new foil-lined clay pots cute for parties but very impractical for everyday use.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of chocolate pudding (you can buy the ready made cups or you can make the pudding yourself)
• 1 - 8 ounce container of whipped topping, thawed
• 1 -16 ounces package of chocolate sandwich cookies
• Gummy worms or insects

Equipment:

• Medium mixing bowl
• Rubber scraper or large spoon
• 8-10 paper or plastic cups (8 ounce size)

Cooking Instructions

1. Crush the cookies into tiny pieces in a plastic bag
2. Stir whippped topping and 1/2 of the crushed cookies into the pudding (very gently) with rubber scraper until mixture is all the same color. Place about 1 tablespoon of the remaining crushed cookies into the bottom of each cup.
3. Fill cups about 3/4 full with pudding mixture. Top each cup with the rest of the crushed cookies. Add gummy worms and insects to decorate. Put cups into the refrigerator for about one hour to chill. Enjoy!

Product Review - BreathableBaby Breathable Bumper

My 8 month old daughter has turned out to be a very crazy sleeper. She is constantly moving around and ends up in so many different positions. Throughout the night I have to get up to move her little arms and legs out of the slots in her crib. She has banged her head on many occasions on the side of the crib. We had to remove her cloth bumper because she kept shoving her face into it and I was afraid she would suffocate when she was sleeping. I was so exhausted from getting up all night every night but I didn't know what else to do. My friend suggested that I get a Breathable Bumper.

BreathableBaby Bumper

I was so happy that someone had invented this that I went out to Buy Buy Baby and bought it right away. The bumper comes in two pieces, a long piece and a short piece. It was very easy to attach, which was good because it didn't come with instructions. The bumper has velcro along the seams so it's very eay to adjust. Since their are no ties you don't have to worry about your child hurting themselves with them. It is made of nylon so you can breathe even if your face is shoved up next to the bumper. It also can't handle any weight so it will fall down if your child tries to stand on it. My daughter hasn't had any problem with her arms/legs getting stuck in the crib anymore and I don't have to get up all night. It does have some padding but not very much so she still hits her head sometimes and hurts herself but it's not very often. The product costs $30 and it is totally worth the price. The only bad part of this bummper is that when my daughter is awake she puts her leg on top of the bumper and it falls down causing her leg to get stuck. Since I only use her crib for naps/bedtime it's not a big problem for me. I highly recommend this product. It is well worth the money!

Do you make your own cloth diapers?

When I started to make my own cloth diapers I found it very hard to find PUL and some other materials I needed at my local fabric store. I came across Very Baby on the internet and it's a great resource for cloth diapers. You can find a variety of diaper patterns, all the fabric you would need for the diapers, and notions like snaps and size tags. It's everything a cloth diaper mommy needs in one place!

Tip of the Day

Do you have a picky eater? Does your child like all of his food seperated? If you're anything like me then you like to pack each food item in it's own container. Eventually you run out of space in your lunchbox or you barely get it to close. I came across Laptop Lunches on Facebook.

Laptop Lunches are American-style bento boxes designed to help families pack nutritious, eco-friendly lunches for school, work, and travel. The lunchboxes are reusable, recyclable, and dishwasher safe and they contain NO phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), or lead. A complete system is $40 but it comes with the lunchbox, all the containers, carrying case, silverware, and water bottle. For a limited time get 10% off your entire order by using coupon code: weelicious.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you had a wonderful day with your loved ones!

Tip of the Day

Do you have a lemon tree? Does your tree produce more lemons than you know what to do with? If you juice all of the lemons you can save the lemon juice for later use. After you have juiced the lemons place the juice in an ice cube tray and place them in the freezer. When the cubes are frozen place them in a freezer ziploc bag and back into the freezer. Each cube is about a fluid ounce and depending on your freezer should last a year. On hot summer days I use the cubes to make lemonade. I place 2 to 3 cubes in a tall glass of water with some sugar and viola instant lemonade. Since the cube doesn't contain much liquid it only takes a short time for it to become liquid. You can use the cubes in cooking, home remedies, and so on. You can use this trick for all citrus juice.