Evie's Growing Up

I feel bad that I don't have too much to blog about aside from my little project that I have going on, but I noticed something that Evie did today that really hit me hard. She's started to actually play with her toys.

Let me explain. Babies start out "playing" with toys by learning to hold them, bite them, and bang them on other things. Toddlers begin stacking and organizing toys. Today, I observed my daughter creating a story with her toys. She had a little action figure, and a toy horse, and she had the action figure riding the horse, and she was narrating what was happening. And while I watched this I realized, "My little girl...is just that: a little girl. She isn't a baby or a toddler anymore. She's turning into a miniature walking, (intelligibly) talking person." It made me stop and reminisce a little, about how it doesn't seem as though I've been a parent that long, but at the same time, it's as though I've been her mother for forever. I definitely feel as though we're entering a distinctly new phase of our existence together; I'm looking forward to this.

Weight Loss Update

K people, here are the stats. I've been on my thing (weight loss plan, workout schedule, whatever) for 4 weeks and 1 day, and today I have officially lost 10 lbs and 10 inches around my slowly shrinking body... :-) Feelin' good and looking forward to the next month, and hopefully the next 10 lbs. Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement. I love you all!

Good News.

Brooke (me) just (as in 5 minutes ago) applied to graduate with her Bachelors of Science. Woot! That is all.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've had a couple of people ask me for this recipe, and while I was making a new batch, I remembered that I should probably give it to them. I've been making this homemade laundry detergent for about 8 months now, and using my mom's before that. I decided to continue this tradition after we found out Evie has eczema. This recipe is super easy, eczema-friendly, and your wallet will love it.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap. (I have never found this, so I use a full bar of Lever 2000, or whatever is on sale.)
• 1/2 cup washing soda. (Haven't found this at Wal-Mart either. Substitute 1/2 cup baking soda.)
• 1/2 cup borax powder. (This you CAN find at Wal-Mart with their other laundry supplies.)
• 2-gallon bucket. I use a 3 gallon BYU Creamery ice cream bucket.

Instructions:

• Grate the soap and put it in a stock pot or large sauce pan. Add 6 cups of water and heat it until the soap melts. (The original instructions tell you to add the washing/baking soda and the borax powder here. From experience, I'm telling you not to. The mixture will boil and rise over the top of your pot, leaving more mess for you to clean up.)
• Pour 4 cups hot water into your bucket.
• Remove soap/water mixture from heat, and add to your bucket.
• Add washing/baking soda and borax powder, and mix until dissolved.
• Once dissolved, fill your bucket to the 2-gallon mark (or your best estimation) with hot water and stir.
• After your solution is mixed, let it sit for about 24 hours (it takes mine 36-48) and it will gel. Use 1/2 cup detergent per load.

(This recipe was originally taken from http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com)

Just for fun, I'm going to add up your expenses, and you can compare this to buying 60-load or whatever Tide or Gain however often you need to from the store :-)

8-pack Irish Spring bar soap:~$4.50
borax powder:~$4.50
baking soda (16 oz):~$2.00

I didn't have to purchase my bucket, my mom gave it to me for free, but any food storage bucket will do that you can get from Macey's or somewhere cheap. Some places, like the creamery, may give them to you free. Now, I do on average a load of laundry a day, with my child who spills and makes messes on everything. I bought each of these things when we moved into our apartment at the beginning of last June, and I haven't had to go buy more of anything. Today I made my 3rd batch, and I'll need to get more baking soda for the next time. So, $13.00 a year on laundry detergent? I'm ok with that.

Renewing New Year's Resolutions

Yes, I know, I'm a lame blogger :-( However, this post brings good news, at least for me. As you may have read from my previous post, I started doing the Insanity workouts. The regimen I started then (4 months ago) didn't work out as well as I imagined. I continued to do the workouts, maybe not as consistently as I should have, but I continued to work out, and I still am. But I wasn't achieving the results I was looking for--probably because I was justifying the ~3000 calories I was consuming each day. (Actually, I don't know how many calories I was inputting, but it was definitely more than the recommended amount. Maybe you are aware of how much I...appreciate, food?) Anywho, I did some researching, and came up with my own weight loss plan. I've cut back my calorie intake, upped my workouts to a daily occurrence, and I am proud to say....since January 5th (that's when I started this dealio)...I have lost 8 pounds :-) and am well on my way to my target weight! Thank you, thank you. I delayed sharing this with everyone until I was sure I could keep this up, and now I'm in a routine that I am sure I can stick to. Especially since I've seen the results :-) Thanks for enduring my little bragging session, but I'm a little proud of myself. Little bit.

Sticking with New Year's Resolutions

Since the summer term ended, last week I decided I needed something to keep me busy-ish. So, I started the Insanity workouts. My sister-in-law has been doing them for a while, and she looks so great, I thought I'd give them a whirl. So, I'm doing a little workout journal, partly so I can actually keep track of my progress, and partly so I'll keep doing it after school starts again. Now, as of today, I have done one week of the program, I gained 2.5 lbs (which I'm saying is muscle gain) and then lost 1.5 lbs. I've also been measuring my waist to check for improvements there as well. I have lost an inch and a half around my waist, yay me! So, I'm going to keep at this, hopefully :-)

Say Cheese!

Last night I was up by myself (Brandon had gone to bed early b/c he had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 3:00 am) and I decided it was a good time to catch up on everyone's blogs. I especially enjoyed my cousin's blog, where in each of her posts she has some great story to tell about how cute her little girls are. This was brought back to my attention today when Evie came up to me with her empty cup of juice and said "Mas." Brandon and I immediately understood that she was asking for more--in Spanish. Since when does my little girl speak Spanish? I realize she's been watching Dora the Explorer, but c'mon?! She's not even speaking ENGLISH very well, much less SPANISH. Anywho, this incident has prompted me to make a list of things that my cutie pa-tutie little girl does that makes me love being her mother.

1. She knows exactly what she wants. Even though she can't say it in words always, she still communicates quite effectively. She has no problem walking up to whomever, grabbing their hand, and pulling them to whatever it is she wants. Very direct.
2. She says "please" and "thank you." It was no problem getting her to say "day du" once she gets what she wants, but bending her will to say "peash" was like pulling teeth. But now that she does say "peash" it's so cute that she walks up to me, says "Peash. Day du," and pulls me to what she wants. It's so endearing that I've trained her so well :-)
3. Evie has developed an extremely hyper-hygienic streak. I have to be careful about letting her near the bathroom sink, because she'll HAVE to wash her hands. She is also constantly taking her shoes and socks off so that she can clean between her toes. It's the cutest thing EVER to watch.
4. Evie is the most maternal child I've ever seen. Her favorite thing is to take care of her baby dolls, or even better, her little cousins, when they're available :-) I recently started finding perfectly clean diapers in the trash cans--they'd been unfolded and stuff, but clean. Came to find out, Evie takes out her fresh diapers and puts them on her babies, and changes their diapers on a regular basis. And she throws them away like a good mother. It's a good thing I found out what she was doing, otherwise we'd be buying diapers a bit more frequently.
5. She's also quite the flirt. She totally knows how to work the system. It's a good thing I'm training to be a disciplinarian, otherwise I'd be melted butter ALL the time. She can look at something, assess the situation, and turn on the charm all in a matter of seconds. It's fantastic to watch her mind at work. She's so smart.

These are the immediate things that come to mind, but there are so, so, so many more reasons that I'm endeared to her. She's our little princess, and we love every minute we have with her. How can you not love this face?