Why I'm Taking a Break From Church

Today the straw broke the camel's back. Without going into details I feel fed up with church. I tried to lead an event that actually would have benefited many people and would have been a mission opportunity for me, I had no support. Nate and I do not have a place in church. I'm actually feeling a lot stronger in my faith than I have in a long time, but I don't feel stronger in my commitment to attending church. We are taking a break and I don't know when we will participate at this point. I am comfortable in the fact that I can offer more in "bible learning" to Nate at home then he will learn in the church nusery. I am also comfortable in the knowledge that my faith is not measured by how many services I attend each month. Lots of praying is in order.

My Green Living Transition

So every time I mention to my mom the things we should be doing she rolls her eyes. Last night after I mentioned wanting to use reusable baby wipes she responded with, "didn't Amy move to Colorado?". Yes, my sister is the one that spurred on our semi-transition to green cleaners and some other things. However, I'm taking it further. Nate is going to be using cloth trainers. I'm just waiting for them to get here. I've got my trash can, wetbag, green laundry detergent, cloth diaper friendly diaper cream...now all I need is the actual trainers. I'm also going to buy some baby wipe solution and go the route of using baby wash clothes as reusable wipes, atleast when I am home. I figure we've got a long road ahead of us when it comes to potty training and he will atleast be using trainers even longer at night and nap time, so it's a sound investment.

Another step I'm trying to take is to work on having organic snacks available for Nate and even myself. He is a snack monster. So right now in the closet we have organic toddler mum mums, organic animal crackers, organic fruit strips, and then a lot of regular junk that I hope to soon replace. Of course it's all more expensive, but it truly is worth it.

The final focus for me right now is to make our Christmas more green and sustainable. I've fallen in love with etsy.com and love searching for present ideas on there. I'd much rather support an individual then a corporation. The cloth trainers I ordered are made by a mom of 5 and the wet bag I bought is from an individual on etsy. I also recently bought a baby doll sling for a friend's child that is from etsy. Yesterday I bought a hand carved 3 piece train toy for Nate for Christmas. I guess I just want him to get toys that aren't all plastic and made in China. Plus now an individual made $8 instead of Wal-mart making $8.

More to come...

Craft: Glittered Pumpkins

I love Martha Stewart Crafts. I wish I could afford to buy all of her crafting tools. Well, and I wish I had the time to actually craft on a regular basis. I found some Halloween crafts and completed my first one tonight! I bought some MS glitter at the Christmas Tree Store in NH, and it was majorly discounted. There's just something about the glitter, that it looks expensive or something. The colors are really rich. I picked up a few small pumpkins at the farm market when we were apple picking last week. Combined with a few things I already had: glue, paint brush, and brown acrylic paint, this was a really inexpensive project.

Here's the process:

I think they will look really pretty through October and November. More crafts to come!

Here is the link to the craft on the Martha Stewart website: http://www.marthastewart.com:80/article/glittered-pumpkins

Apple Picking in the Country

I'm not an outdoorsy person, but I can appreciate a nice afternoon in the country. This past Sunday the parents accompanied Nate and I to an orchard in Winchester. We've never been there and I found it on the internet, so we really didn't know what to expect. It was wonderful. There is a huge market boasting freshly baked goods, produce, plants, ice cream, and fudge. A large playground with lots of different climbing structures. A small cow train for children to ride in. A wagon ride that weaves its way through acres of farmland. Then theres the whole reason we went there, the apple picking.

Nate was so excited to go apple picking. I had talked it up for a couple of days. He picked most of the apples and would have kept going if we hadn't filled our bag. Then to cool off we grabbed some ice cream in the market and some sodas from the food stand and sat on the porch in rocking chairs. Nate ran all around the playground, with me chasing him of course. We got a wagon ride all to ourselves and saw lots of interesting things including a pig pen out in the woods. Nate picked out his own special little pumpkin in the end to take home.

We had such a good time. Spending time in places that feel like small towns is making it easier for me to picture living in CB. I have a feeling that we will be going to visit there again next year.

Nate Night #2

So I've been a bad mama and haven't kept up with my date nights with Nate. My goal was to do it once a week, but hasn't happened. About a week and a half ago Nate and I had our 2nd date night. On our way back from Richmond we stopped to do some shopping which included new shoes for his quickly growing feet. Then we went out to dinner at Bob Evans. Nate and I rarely eat at sit down restuarants as a pair. We generally only do that with other family members around. So this was a special treat. I also had Nate's free kids meal coupon that he got for his birthday (score!). We had an awesome time together. They stuck us on a side by ourselves and we had a fun time being silly, eating yummy food, and even ordering dessert. I wouldn't give up my alone time with him for anything.

Homemade Lemonade

So I'm definitely a liquids junkie. I love things that are flavored, and I'm really not a fan of water. However, I'm increasingly becoming bothered by how much sugar and aspartame I consume. So tonight I decided to make homemade lemonade. I substituted honey as the sweetener. Here's the ratio I used:

• 3/4 cup lemon juice (half fresh squeezed lemons, half store bought lemon juice)


• 3/4 cup organic honey


• 2 cups hot water


• cold water to fill the pitcher

It was really simple to make. I squeezed about 4 lemons which gave me half the lemon juice. I combined the honey and hot water in the pitcher first to make it dissolve then added the lemon juice and cold water. It's a very unique lemonade taste. It's not as sweet as the sugar sweetened variety. Which is actually a good thing. It kind of has an earthier taste too, which I think is because of the type of honey. I gave Nate a taste, but he wasn't impressed, lol. My poor sugar addicted child is going to be in for a rude awakening. I'm going to be making a lot of changes around here, starting with natural sugar alternatives.

Busy Weekend

This past weekend was my first 3 day weekend since I started working. My nephew's birthday is September 5, so we decided to fly up to NH to celebrate with him. We booked our tickets way before I even had an interview at my job. It just perfectly worked out that I planned for a hypothetical job.

We left our house to drive to Baltimore at 5am on Saturday morning. We dropped Nate, Mom, Nana, and Bubba at the airport then Dad and I had to go to longterm parking and ride a bus back. I got attacked by a couple of mosquitos and got bit on my face. Not a fun start to the day! We made it through check-in and security. We made it to our gate just in time to walk on the airplane before everyone else. Bubba has to use a wheelchair in the airport, so our entire group got to go on first. We had the first two rows on the airplane!

Nate was so excited to be riding on an airplane for the first time. We had a special harness for him, that made it so we didn't have to use a carseat on the plane. I highly recommend that to everyone. He had so much space and I didn't have to have my elbow on a carseat.

Nate was so well behaved. It's not a super long flight to Manchester so between the entertainment of the flight crew, snacks, free peanuts, free juice, and the toys we bought, he was totally happy. We were the last ones off the plane and Nate was invited to sit in the cockpit.

Once we made it to Manchester Uncle Mike picked us up and Nate was very excited to see him. We grabbed some breakfast then went back to Mike's house. Nate feel asleep in the car (since he was up since 4:30 am) and I managed to get a 3 hour nap out of him. Everyone came over that afternoon for Jacob's first birthday party and it was a lot of fun. Nate got plenty of attention from all of the grownups in attendance and really enjoyed the monkey cupcakes that Aunt Brigid made.

Sunday and Monday were filled with visiting, shopping, and family meals. I had to fly back Monday night in order to be home for work this morning. It was only my 2nd night away from Nate and boy did I miss him. Here are the two boys together.