Isn't Water Just Water??

Hello Everybody! After an unplanned hiatus, I am finally able to come back and share my world with you!

During my hiatus, I have since gone back to work, my beautiful baby boy is now 5 months old and I have learned so many lessons God has thrown my way.  My Lessons came in an array of ways… some were BIG and some were small.  One lesson that I just couldn’t wait to share was that I needed to be more aware of what I am putting into my family’s body.  

With the Sacramento Valley heat, don’t you just love having a refreshing cold bottle of water? Did you think I was going to say beer?  Well, that is good too but for today’s post… we’ll talk about water.                                   

                              

My husband and I have been buying bottle water for a long time… especially for our son’s formula.  We made big assumptions that it was clean water and the BEST water for us AND our son.  I mean, it’s just water right?  

While reading “Healthy Child, Healthy World" by Christopher Gavigan, I found that bottle water ISN’T just purified water.  There are actual ingredients on the ingredient list.  I WAS SHOCKED!  Am I the only one that just assumed the ingredients were just water????  

Well if I was…. I am definitely late to the party on this.  

Here are the ingredients listed: Purified Water, Potassium Bicarbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Calcium Citrate, Sodium Chloride and Magnesium Oxide.

I was immediately concerned about all the sodium that I was giving my very young son.  It may be the new mommy in me but I immediately wrote to Eli’s pediatrician and even she said that just plain filtered Tap Water is better than the bottled water.  WHO KNEW?! 

Eli is fine and I am not saying that bottled water is UNhealthy… I still drink it. With him being so young and his system so fragile, I am doing my best to watch what he is given to ensure he is given the most natural foods in their natural state. 

I mean, he has the rest of his life to eat or drink the bad stuff… right?  Hehe

Cold break

Hey All! Sorry, I hadn't posted anything, our family has been fighting the COLD... We are finally gaining momentum over it. 

Now that I am feeling better, my brain will be able to focus back on this blog. So please stay tuned. 

Thanks for checking in! 

Infertility - Taboo??

This is going to be a series of posts and personal ones for me, but I believe this needs to be talked about and shared.  After all, this blog is about Faith, Family, and Home.  I also believe that this is something that is not discussed enough, for whatever the reason may be.  Since this isn’t just about me, I appreciate Husband giving me the green light to talk about this… Thank you my love.

Sorry, No Post Today

So sorry but there won't be a post today... Check back tomorrow for a new post!

Time Management Challenge - Update

Ever have one of those days where things just don't seem to go right in a particular situation?  I feel it is God trying to show me my lesson.  For instance, in my previous post, I talked about challenging myself to better my time management.  Immediately after that, I was extremely late somewhere and forgot to do some things I needed to do.  I was so frustrated and saw that I MUST improve my ability to manage my time.  I am losing time during the day and productivity.

Fast forward and my phone's calendar system (Husband and I use this to see what each other's schedule is) was not accepting new appointments nor showing old ones I had. This was frustrating... I mean, aren't smart phones supposed to be smart and foolproof???

Follow by Email!

These days, We all lead very busy lives and it can be hard to find the time to sit and peruse your favorite sites. Before having Eli, my favorite past-time was sitting on my porch with a glass of wine or coffee (depends of time of day) and perusing my favorite blogs.  Husband and I had our favorite TV shows we used to love to watch...  Now?  We are lucky to even get an hour of TV in our day.      

So as I continue to streamline this blog with content and features, I keep all of this in mind.  With that, you can now subscribe to my blog via email!  We all check our emails daily, (or hourly as I do sometimes), so now you can see my posts and/or updates (who knows, you might even see free printables!). 

To get you an idea of what is to come, here are a just a few posts I am working on:

• Backyard update is finally happening!

• Time Management Challenge - Update

• Personal posts of Faith

Thanks for checking in!

Bjs*

  

*this is short for Beijinhos which means kisses in Portuguese

Sorry, No Post Today

So sorry, there will be no post today.  I am taking the day to focus on my family.  I will have a new one tomorrow. Please come back and check in! 

Love Letter to my Mom

I can't believe it is already Mother's Day! This blog is about sharing all parts of me and that includes sentimental stuff too... So here it goes.

As I sing "You Are My Sunshine" to my lil man, Eliseu 'Eli', I am overcome with emotion remembering just 3 months ago he was born and first placed in my arms. He truly is a blessing and we are SO thankful.

Then, I got to thinking about my Mãe (Mom) and what an amazing, strong woman she is.

As a child with lots of health problems, my mom was my rock.  She was always positive, no matter how sick I was, always made me laugh and taught me to laugh at myself.  With constant doctor and emergency room visits, she never once made me feel like a burden.  I felt nothing but pure love and completely safe with her. 



Best part of Mother's Day is hearing all the stories of when I was a baby.  You see, my family is Portuguese and we were all born in Azores, Portugal on the island of Pico (My parents immigrated here in 1981 to get better jobs with better healthcare for me).  So our stories of how things were back home and "back in the day" are always fun to here!

Here's a poem that helps to express my thoughts. 

Mom, on this Mother's Day of 2015,

I now know what you've meant,

About what the love of a mother and child means,

Thank you for all that you've done and still do.

Mom, as one of the strongest woman I know,

You always think of everyone first,

Even while you fought through your battle with cancer,

You remained positive and inspired others,

Living life with a purpose by doing your best.

Thank you for being the matriarch of our family.  

Mom, the love you give is felt by all,

even the strangers you meet,

feel the sincerity and compassion of your heart.

It is with pride and the most adoration,

that I call you mom,

But even more so now, as you are an amazing grandmother,

to Eli, your grandson.

Thank you God for this amazing woman.

 I love you Mom.

To all the new mommies, HAPPY FIRST MOTHER's DAY! 

To all the mommies and ladies who have stepped into a mommy role, HAPPY MOTHER's DAY!

My prayer for all mothers: I pray for you and your family as you celebrate yourself today. For you are the rock of your family and your children rise up for you.  May you continue to be blessed with love, faith, and family.  Amen.

Allow yourself to relax and enjoy being spoiled! 

Time Management Challenge

Where does the time go?!

With an infant son, I find that my time management skills have gone out the window. No longer are the days where I can easily schedule my days to clean, do laundry, cook, spend time with friends/family and still have time for a nice glass of wine to end my day. 

Now, my days are filled with diaper changes, feedings, playing with Eli, and TRYING to keep up with the household chores.  Doesn't sound like a lot, however, it eats up my day to the very end. 

Today, I have decided things have to change.  Question is: how do I best manage my time when caring for an infant? Paper calendar or electronic?  Do I schedule EVERYTHING in my day or just the big stuff? 

Gender Neutral Nursery

Last year, Husband and I went through Natural Cycle IVF treatments and after our first try, we found out we were expecting!  We immediately knew we did not want to know the gender of our baby.  It was truly a miracle to even be pregnant and since that wasn't a surprise... we thought, why not have the gender be a surprise?

Only problem was... HOW DO I DECORATE THE NURSERY? Do we go pastels or green or yellow???

We contemplated repainting the room but it was already painted a Charcoal Grey.  I really liked the grey and wanted a room that went with the rest of the house.  So we kept it and since we also have dark flooring, I knew we would have to introduce color in other ways and on a budget. 

First Post - Motherly Instincts

Hi All,  Welcome to my first post!!!   Since I'm a new mommy, I thought I'd write about my first experience in trusting my motherly instincts and learning to trust them and keeping faith while doing so. 

Here it goes!

_______________________________________

My dear Eli was our miracle.  After years of trying to conceive, we were finally blessed with this handsome little man.

The reality is that once you have a baby, it’s easy peasy after that... I mean, all anyone ever says is that babies just Eat, Poop, and Sleep, right? Although they do EPS, we quickly learned there is so much more to them!  As a first time mom, I looked to my seasoned mommies and asked questions, "Are they supposed to breathe that way?", "Why do they jerk so much when they sleep?"  My husband (from here on out, i'll simply refer to him as Husband) and I asked so many "silly" questions. 

After just a week of no sleep and watching every breath, you get to learn your baby's personality almost immediately.  What's normal or not normal for them.  I strictly breastfed during Eli's first week.  It was something I always wanted to do and envisioned this beautiful bonding time with my baby.  However, reality was not so nice.  I found that he wouldn't latch on correctly, therefore, injuring me.  I talked to Lactation Consultants MULTIPLE times and just couldn't get it right.  Then the scariest night, thus far, happened.  His blood sugar dropped so low that he was extremely unresponsive. Husband and I took him to the ER twice in one night... and that's when we found that he was not getting enough food.