How we found out Ava was truly Sweet

It was April 2010 the day of her 2nd Birthday Party that I started to notice something wasn't right with Ava. She doubled over at the window in her sweet Minnie Mouse birthday outfit complaining of tummy pain. I hugged her tight and asked if she was OK, she sat for a moment pondered the question and said "Ava OK". We seemed to get by with bizarre occasional tummy pains and headaches for 2 more weeks(chopping a lot of it up to potty training and to her new sleep schedule). About mid May we noticed some excessive bed wetting, and more sleeping. It started to really bother me that she wasn't being her spunky, sassy self. At this point I started to wonder if it was a food allergy or growth spurt. 10 more days go by, my mom (my mom is our day care provider,luckily!) and I are really bothered by her behavior, excessive thirst, lack of appetite, lethargy, soaking through her diaper,sheets and PJ's at night that I decide to take her in thinking it was a food allergy or perhaps something to do with potty training? May 27th 2010 I decide to stay home with her for the day as she wasn't appearing to feel well at all and her appointment was that afternoon. By noon of that day she had drank a GALLON of fluid(no joke!) and begging for more. I was anxious to get her in and started to Google all of these bizarre happenings and came across the symptoms of toddler diabetes and wouldn't you know she had EVERY one of them. I was taken a back and tried to forget about it and see what her pediatrician had to say. We get there explain what's been happening to the nurse and with out a breath she decides to test her blood sugar and sure enough it was 440 (and that was with out food for about 4 hours) We were sent straight to the hospital and that is where our journey began.

Calm Balm/Hiney Salve :D Safe, Organic, Natural and Momma Made!

My desire to make body products was out of pure necessity. My daughters hiney is endlessly chapped and dry, diaper rash cream wasn't cutting it, maybe even drying it more. I wanted something natural so I knew I could use it often with out harming her skin more(scary that baby products are so chemically ridden that it makes us think about how often we can USE it). I found a lot of what seemed to great natural products on the net but still spendy. So after a little research I decided I could make my own too! There really isn't a thing I won't try anyways. So I went to my LOCAL natural food store and got everything I needed for $13 bucks(which included a $10 bottle of essential lavender oil.)

Ingredients needed for your very own head to toe Calm Balm:

1/2 cup Sweet Almond oil(100% Pure Sweet Almond oil is a wonderful conditioning oil,a great emollient for softening and conditioning the skin. It is well suited for eczema, psoriasis and itchy, dry and inflamed skin.)

1/8 cup Beeswax (comes in bars of some shape, mine happened to be organic smelled more like honey than the natural beeswax??)

15 drops of Lavender Essential Oil(known for it's calming, natural healing abilities and antibacterial properties)

Heat Sweet Almond Oil in double boiler(my double boiler is a glass bowl in a pan with water)

Grate about 1/8 cup of beeswax and add it to the oil, stir gently till melted, remove bowl from heat.**Here is a good point to test the consistency. Drop a small amount on to a small plate and place in freezer, remove and check thickness. It's personal preference here if you want it thinner add a little oil and re-heat or beeswax for a more solid product.**

Once cooled (starting to turn opaque) stir in 15 drops of oil.

Pour into desired container I used a little glad container let cool at room temperature BEFORE putting your lid on:) I absolutely LOVE this stuff great for hands, feet, chapped cheeks face or behind (like my poor little daughters case) it does seem to resist moisture(while moisturizing), feels great on my skin and hers. Smells CALMING too!

Crock Pot Lasagna

SERIOUSLY people this is by far the BEST, EASIEST, dinner I have made in my 28 years of life! Better yet the babes(2 and 5) LOVED it! The little one even had seconds and little do they know it contains VEGETABLES. So why lasagna in the crock pot? Well I have a full time job and my husband was working late so that left me in charge of picking up the kids which ends up being an hour long commute(normally I come home and start cooking while he commutes), so that means we don't even get home till almost 7! I literally started and finished this dinner on my lunch break. ENJOY!

Here it goes (and really anything goes:) remember 20 minutes of prep time! Don't let my convoluted recipe deter you!

Ingredients: Sauce (see below for mine), cottage cheese and one egg,NO BOIL lasagna noodles, 1 bag of Italian blend cheese. THAT'S IT!

Step 1: Make your sauce weather it be with meat or with out that's up to you. I did one can of traditional spaghetti sauce, 1 pound of Trader Joes ground beef(my new fave beef)1 chopped up zucchini, mushrooms, garlic and onion(add more veggies if you got em'). Season as you wish.

Step 2:(this is my faux ricotta recipe) Mix one container of cottage cheese and one egg( I mix it in the cottage cheese container, less dishes;) . I seasoned mine with Italian seasoning and pepper.

Step 3 break out your awkward in my case hideous crock-pot and turn on low

***Here is the best part your almost done***

Layer the crap out of you lasagna in your CROCK POT
I used NO BOIL lasagna noodles(it's all I have ever used)

Layer 1
1/3 of your sauce
NO BOIL lasagna noodles (I had to break mine up to layer it with out a bunch of gaps)
1/2 of your Cottage cheese mix
Italian cheese mix (you know the cheating kind in the bag)
Layer 2
NO BOIL lasagna noodles
1/3 of your sauce
rest of cottage cheese
Italian cheese mix
Layer 3
NO BOIL lasagna noodles
The rest of your sauce
Italian cheese blend

Leave on low for 4 to 5 hours(or bake 45 minutes to an hour and cheese is bubbly)
and enjoy and amazingly easy good and good for you dinner!

It's 7:34 we have eaten and I typed up this whole recipe for you! That's how easy it is!Now to clean it up ;o ugh!

Bend Beanies

My Mom and I have some great little hats for sale on Etsy www.bendbeanies.etsy.com

Most of them are made from eco-friendly yarn and can be customized :)

The skully (pictured) is super cute!!

Painting!

My Brother and Dad came down from Vancouver this weekend to help me break the seal and finally put some paint up in our new house. I always wanted to paint Ava's room pink with pink stipes but I seriously lacked the knowledge and skills to pull it off so I was thankful they "volunteered". So the recipe for her gorgeous room is:

1 gallon satin Alysum paint color from Sherwinn williams (wall color)
1 quart satin Loveable paint also sherwinn williams (stripes)

painters tape and skill!!

one good tip I learned is once we had our tape up for the stipes you go over the inside edges with the wall color, that creates crisp clean lines for the other color. Happy painting!

Questions? Feel free to ask I am glad to help!

New Home!!

Yay!! We purchased our first home in “BEAUTIFUL Bend, OR” (hence the reason I have made NO entries ) It was an amazing process. We had the best realtor Sunny Bliss from Hasson Company and she referred us to a great Mortgage Lender Steve Mora from Select lending. They happen to share an office so it made the process a lot easier on us. We have been here through the summer and have already tackled many projects and now that we are settled I am looking forward to getting started on my holiday crafts, so check back soon! There is a lot more to follow!