Finally doing stuff around the house and seeing you around

 Last weekend Cody and I got our butts in gear and finished a few things around the house. The list looked something like: Make Mackynzie's room into more of a room (worry about really decorating etc later.), get some more storage in the bathroom, mount herbs on the wall, put some sort of headboard on our bed, clean up the disaster we made doing said things.

There (of course) are still small cosmetic things to be done around here, but alas, we are close.

We needed more storage in our small-ish bathroom, so we added some shelves. They make a world of a difference.

Before:

After:

To see before's of the house (taken last month) check out my video tour.

We were playing with quite a few ideas for our bed. Originally, the plan was to make a sort of canopy bed so we would have shear curtains all the way around. I loved the idea, but then after scoping out pinterest a bit, we got some inspiration for something a little more practical for our current sleeping arrangements and went for it. It's different, but we are really happy with it. I still need to add some more art to the room which will also happen when it happens. I think it will make things look a little more balanced.

Cody also mounted my herbs to the wall for me. I was super excited (over herbs, I know.) and I love  how it looks.

Like always, please excuse my iPhone photography.

 Something I am super happy to be done with (for now.) Is Mackynzie's [play] room. (you should seriously check out what it looked like before. I say this is a big improvement.

 There are a couple things to do in her room still, like hang those purple letters on top of her kitchen, and we are brainstorming something to put around the wall of her little coloring corner. As you can see she has drawn a couple of pictures on the wall. She loves it and its so much more practical. I also have to add how big of a relief is is for me. It's so much easier to clean now.

Oh ya, we also switched sectionals from the basement and main floor two weeks ago. Huge improvement.

before: (yes, this was mid move and mid Mackynzie mess.)

 After:

Probably one of my favorite adjustments.

 We had a busy weekend! But i'm so happy to cross all those things off of our list.

 I am going to apologize now to friends and family who use this to keep updated on us. I'm going to step away from the blog a little bit to put my efforts into other things. I am still going to update as often as I can (which who knows, may not even be different to how often I update now.), but if things get a little slow around here, now you know.  I just can't predict how much time I will have to devote to everything.

See you when I see you!

June-stagram!

 I had no idea about instagram until a couple of months ago. I finally got filled in and well, i'm hooked. If you follow me there, you know I share lots of pictures. I think it's a lot of fun and it gives me a place to put all the pictures I take (that are not nice enough/too random to do anything with). Family and friends who don't have instagram don't get to see these pictures though. So I thought it would be fun to do a monthly round-up (Once again I am late to the party since it's July.. ) of photos since I shared over 80! Here are my top 30:

  These two are technically one photo each since that's how it is on instagram.

 I decided I wanted to pick my top three favorites. It was tough, but these guys won out in the long run.

This one of Cody and Mackynzie reading nailed first place hands down. I love this picture and I think it captures the relationship they have wonderfully.

Second goes to our date night. We have a lot of fun together and smarties and jenga is our idea of a good time!

Third place goes to this random picture of a Saturday morning. I love how it shows a little glimpse of our life before everyone rolls out of bed.

 If you would like to keep up with me on instagram, you can find me under Rainbow Miller :) 

When A Little Artist Spruces Things Up

 OR what to do when crayons leave the paper and find themselves decorating your furniture and walls.

It's going to happen. Probably a lot, but I have learned that it really doesn't matter, because almost anything can be stain lifted/fixed and even re-bought. If it can't, well maybe I should have rethought the purchase or placement!

 With Mackynzie's room actually looking more like a room now (pictures to come), she is enjoying things like her coloring station. When I was puttering around, she decided to decorate a little. Totally understandable. Blue is a great color and she is keeping with the developing color scheme of the house, so even better!

Despite good choice of color, I wasn't really going for  the crayon look.

Crayon is the horror story of parental stains. Everyone tells you its impossible to get off and you need to repaint, should any little one decide to add a bit of taste to the walls or furniture. We have learned from those times though, and we now know that crayon is super easy to remove- If you didn't you do now! :)
 All you need is a white/light colored cloth (preferably microfiber) Or even a white sponge, and a little bit of coconut/olive or even baby oil (I use coconut). Dab some on and rub.

So simple. You don't even have to break a sweat!

Now your little artist can help you decorate your abode all the time... Okay, maybe not. Yes, please let's not.

Camping Prep and how we made life a little easier for our trip

 I almost forgot to share a few things from June. Ya, It's already a week  into July, I know! eek.  One thing was from camping. I took some measures to help make our trip as smooth as possible with a toddler and two dogs. We were able to pack and unpack the trailer in about 10 minutes due to a few simple things!

 First, I handled clothes. We tend to over pack when it comes to bringing extra clothes, because when you are outside all day and far from home, you do not want to be without an extra pair of whatever it is you need an extra pair of. To save tons of room, we packed all of our clothes military style. We rolled them up.

 We were able to fit our clothes in one basket rather than have huge individual bags. Oh, that's another thing. I pack a lot of things like clothes, blankets, toys, and dry foods into laundry baskets. That way I can just pop them in the trailer and put everything away easily and quickly once we arrive. They also stack up perfectly, and then I can use the basket stack as a place for dirty clothes.

I took some extra measures to pack our food too. I cut and prepped everything I could the night before. All our days were meal planned, so we knew exactly what we had to bring. we did this loosely and gave ourselves some options since we tend to snack a lot when we are camping. With our diet, that meant the majority of prep went to our fruits and vegetables. I then placed everything in zip lock bags to save room (containers take up double or triple the space!)

 It all went into our cooler easily. To save more room, I froze Cody's meats so they could act as ice packs as well. They would thaw by the time he needed them, but we didn't have to bring as much ice. We also kept the ice in bags to avoid the nasty cooler swimming pool.

 I took everything I could out of boxes and cans and placed them in bags or a simpler packaging if it came in both a box and a bag. Even soup went into a bag! Saved us having to bring a can opener and find room for more cans.

The prep work was so worth it! Cody thanked me multiple times over the weekend, because meal prep was basically non existent. We packed almost  nothing that couldn't either be eaten raw, or cooked over a fire/on the BBQ. So we just grabbed what we wanted and ate. It was fantastic. 

When we got there, everything went into cupboards and nooks and within a few minutes we were ready to camp!

  Now you can see why we call it the 'Hillbilly Hilton'! haha

To see our camping trip click here.

My version of vegan 'yogurt'

 I was looking for a quick, light snack or breakfast for those mornings when Mackynzie or myself just don't feel like eating much. I wanted it to still be nutritious and I soon found myself dreaming of being able to eat yogurt. It was the perfect solution in my mind, but the whole dairy thing was an issue. Then I remembered my love for coconut milk, and the versatility of coconut 'whip cream'. And with that, I give you:

 Rainbow's vegan 'yogurt'

I make them in single containers, so they are one serving. You can tweak the recipe to suit your desired serving size.

• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 1-2 tsp (actual teaspoons you eat with) Organic jam OR purred/mashed fruit
• 1-2 tsp organic apple sauce (if you want some texture. skip if you're looking for completely smooth.)
• 1 single-serving container with lid

shake your coconut milk really well. you want to incorporate the water and cream. skip this step if you want a thick, Greek-like yogurt. If you want it thick, do not mix can. open and scoop the 'cream' out and save the water for another purpose.

 Make sure your coconut milk is well whipped (by either shaking or whipping with fork. especially if you are seperating it from the water.)

Pour into container. Add 1 teaspoon of jam and 1 teaspoon of apple sauce and mix well. taste, and add more if desired.

pop lid on and leave in fridge for preferably one day.

Enjoy!

I love that this has the consistency and creaminess of real yogurt. Its also super versatile as you can literally put any sort of fruit you want into it.  Also, how easy is that?!

Coconut milk is packed with awesome nutrition, so sit back and enjoy eating/feeding your little knowing you aren't filling up on 'nothing'!

Our Journey Into Night Weaning: One Month Update - Sleep Is Fantastic

If you haven't already, you can read about our decision to night wean 19 month old Mackynzie, with Dr. Jay Gordon's method of changing sleep patterns in the family bed,  and how night 1, night 2, night 3, night 4,  night 5, night 6 and night 7 went.

It has been a month since we started this night weaning journey. So what's the verdict? Are we resembling people auditioning for the walking dead, or are we wide eyed and bushy tailed? We actually feel really fantastic. It turns out that night weaning was a really good idea for our family. It really feels so normal, i almost forgot about this update post to be honest!

Things have been really good. I was a little unsure if it would last, but we just went with the flow and didn't think too much about it. To sum it all up, Mackynzie is now sleeping anywhere from 9 1/2 to 12 hours.

 As mentioned in previous posts, our bedtime routine is super important to the success of our nights. We got a chance to test that theory very recently. Our evenings have gotten quite busy with outings, play dates, music class,   etc and since we have a limited time to see Cody each night. He went through a really busy period at work, so that when he came home he would shower and go to bed. When things settled down with his work days, we had a lot of usual evening activities to catch up on. Bottom line: we were busy and tired and started slacking a bit. A couple of nights, we would skip a small part or two of our bed time routine, and I would just put Mackynzie to bed. We had a few days in a row, where she was waking up at 4am hungry and mad. Even though our wake up goal time had been 6am when we originally started this, my instincts told me to feed my baby, so I did. I quickly became tired again, since I couldn't go back to bed after, so paired with not going to bed until about 11pm, 4am wake ups were making one tired mama. After a quick chat together a few nights ago, about what could be causing the sudden change, we realized our whole evening schedule was off. We went back to our normal routine the next night, and have not had any more 4 am wake up calls. We also noticed that Mackynzie's lack of interest at dinner time, and skipping her almond or coconut milk during story time were major contributing factors.

 Something we did decide to change after continuing with the process, was our morning nursing time. We had decided that 6am would work for us, for her first morning nursing session. That would allow us our 7 hour no nursing time from 11pm to 6am. Into our second week, Mackynzie started waking at 5:30 am every morning. At first, I tried to lull her back to sleep by rubbing her back/feet and singing her lullabies, but she just wasn't having it. I even tried going back in the steps and laying her on my chest/Cody's chest. Wasn't going to happen. After a couple days of this, and her and I sitting wide awake in bed staring at each other and waiting for the clock to hit 6, we decided that it was silly to wait, when her body was obviously telling her that she was hungry at 5:30 am. Once we let the specific time go, things went back to normal. She now goes to bed at 8pm (though sometimes she asks for closer to 7:30.), wakes to nurse at 5:30am, goes back to sleep, and wakes anywhere between 7am and 9am.

Our solid (now) well worked routine goes roughly like this (times are approximate. not that we are doing X from this time- this time.):

4:30-5:30pm- Make dinner and all that goes along with that.

5-6pm- eat dinner. We find that what we feed Mackynzie makes a huge difference with how her night will go.

6-7:15pm- Have family time/clean up dinner/take dogs for their walks/anything else we may have to do. (some nights, like music class, we don't get home until 7:15, but our flexible schedule makes things run smoothly still.)

7:15-7:45- bath time

7:30-8pm- Story time with a cup of almond milk.

7:30-8pm- Bed time 

 Our schedule works really well for us and the flexibility of the times is very important for us, because (like many of you can relate, i'm sure) our life is busy and sometimes we have to be somewhere at unusual times. 

 I feel so much better now that I get to sleep at night.When Mackynzie does have a bit of a rough night, due to a nightmare or she just needs us for whatever reason, we are able to be much more present and awake for her. I have been able to handle any wakings in a much better mind set, with much more patience. 

There have been some changes I have noticed since we decided to night wean:

• I get hugs and kisses from Mackynzie randomly throughout the day. She is expressing her love for us in little bursts and it's really amazing to experience. She will come up to me and rub my back, or kiss my cheek, smile and then continue on after a pat from her little hand
• She is taking better naps during the day. Before night weaning, she was taking a 30-45 minute nap. Now, her nap can be up to 2 1/2 hours.
• When she wakes up, she is happy and ready to go. She has a lot more energy and is just generally in a better mood. She is also more willing to eat breakfast.
• She is eating better in general. Something I find surprising to be affected by sleep, but it makes sense. 
• I am no longer a jumbled, foggy mess. I am thinking more clearly, my mood is extremely improved, and I am much more productive with more energy.
• We do more fun stuff together, both mackynzie and I and as a family.
• My legs are smooth much more often. seriously. I get to shower more and even shave more. It's fantastic. I am also putting more into my self and outfits, rather than just throwing on a pair of yoga pants or comfy jeans and a shirt. (Okay, so I am still wearing the comfy jeans, but at least I dress them up a bit more.)
• I am being an overall better person and parent. Probably because I have more patience to deal with daily situations.
• Cody and I started having a weekly date night. We keep our dates at home, but we are able to put creativity and fun into them and it's a really great thing for both of us.

 Mackynzie's nursing sessions are longer and more serious now, making each session much more enjoyable for both of us.  I was starting to feel a yucky feeling when we nursed, but now it's completely gone. We are connected again during each session, and my back aches are gone! I feel comfortable and happy about nursing for a while longer now.

 We are all just feeling much, much better. Night weaning went really well for us, and I am super happy Mackynzie agrees that sleeping through the night is a pretty great thing. I am happy that we get to do more things now. We go out a lot more, we meet with friends more often, I am not dreading things like camping this summer anymore, and we are just generally more full of energy and able to be 'fun' parents. Cody and I have also been able to spend a lot more quality time together, as apposed to us laying in a tired heap or cranking at each other. I never realized how much the lack of sleep was affecting our lives. Turns out the whole sleep thing is really freaking fantastic.