Preggo's for the last time

So, not so suprisingly i found that I am prego once again. I always wanted 4 kids ,but what am i thinking. Anyhoo, I haven't been

great and with 3 toddlers and make me feel even worse. I plan to hopefully give birth at a birth center in Brooklyn, New York.

Not many people know. It took me a couple of weeks to tell my own mom. I just feel sick all the time , so i guess I'm not as eager... just yet

end of summer days

Breastfeeding

I absolutely love this cartoon. People have nerve to be disgusted by something so pure and natural

why breastfeed?
There are many benefits for both mother and child when a woman chooses to breastfeed. Human milk is custom-made for babies, with all the right nutrients and in the right amounts. There is no guesswork involved.

benefits for baby
Here are just a few of the benefits babies stand to gain from the breastfeeding relationship:

less gas, diarrhea, and constipation
stronger immune systems
higher IQ
fewer allergies and less risk of asthma
fewer incidences of diabetes and cancer
less risk of childhood obesity
less risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
better dental and facial development, and decreased likelihood of dental caries
benefits for mom
The rewards of breastfeeding are often overlooked when it comes to mom:

promotes bonding
promotes uterine contractions after childbirth and reduces bleeding
promotes weight loss
less risk of ovarian and breast cancers
economical—breastfeeders save over $1000 USD in the first year
convenient—always available, and always the right temperature
saves time—no formula to prepare, and no bottles to wash
clean and safe—and available when normal supplies of food and water are interrupted
benefits for employers
Employers are increasingly supporting breastfeeding, for good reason—breastfed babies are healthier, and their parents miss fewer days of work.

benefits for the planet
In this era of increased awareness about our impact on the planet, breastfeeding is a good green solution—there is no excess packaging, no factory processing, and no transportation necessary.

Hypnobirthing

This was the birth of our son Mateo and i really enjoyed it. I was aware of everything and everyone.



I just finished breathing here ( for those of you who don't know, that means ...i just had a contraction)




Our hypnotherapist Sharon Kennedy.
She is amazing!! Please ,if you're in the savannah , bluffton, beaufort area
and thinking of doing Hypnobirthing. she's the woman to call.

http://savannahhypnobirthing.com/hypnobirthing_testimonials.html
You can find her on :http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sharon-kennedy/11/104/45

Kind of a garden

Ok , so i had absolutely nothing to do with this. I wish i could take the credit, but these delicious wild berries grow and grow
without any of my help!

They can grow as much as they want, but they won't last long. They go great
with oatmeal. YUM ! YUM!



This was the day i got my tomato plant from the farmers market.
I really thought one needed a green thumb for this stuff. All you really need is a lot of water and manure . haha!



This is the girls watering and give it some plant food. They love this stuff.
I have to put some pics up of our compost.




I see it , i see it!
omg! i can't believe it's growing.
Well,it's been giving me delicious tomatoes since May.

SAUCE , SAUCE , SAUCE

I really love the mason jars. You can use them for ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING.


I use them as drinking glasses, which is my favorite way. Food , freezer, arts and crafts.


Like i said i can use them anywhere.



Although it takes me a couple of hours to make the sauce , it's definitely worth it in the end.


Not only does it save me a lot of time ,but it saves me a lot of money. Which for me ,is what gives me the energy to do this.


Plus i know what's in it and i know it's good for my kiddies.





It doesn't get any better then this. Making homemade pizza is a breeze!!!


I'll have to post up the dough recipe i use.

Ballet

The girls Ballet class for the summer.They absolutely love it!! As do i


I've been slacking on the blog, but give me a brake. It's summer time and if i don't have to be indoors i'm not.

Everyone is asleep and i'm here in the livingroom with nothing but time ...FOR MYSELF. Can you imagine?

I have no clue what to do with myself. I Pray for time like this and now that i have it .....what do i do.

aaahha ,let's blog a little bit.

Cinco de Mayo

YUMMMM!!! love this!!

I mixed up some smart balance or you can use earth balance buttery spread. Mixed in some salt, rosemary and garlic.

I smeared it on the corn and covered it back up with the husks. Ready to Bbq.





Cinco De Mayo would not be complete without some good cuban MOJITO"S
No, it's not a mexican drink,but we're not mexican or cuban ....so who cares. It's in the spanish family.lol

We were going to make some Horchata but maybe we can do that some other day and maybe i'll even post a recipe. We'll see.
stay tuned.

Mojito's are made with

Lime

sugar

Mint leaves

ice

light bacardi

and seltzer water, club soda , carbonated water. whatever you want to call it.
I don't really measure . I just use half a lime , teaspoon of sugar some mint leaves (depending on how much you like the taste of mint. I usually use ...ummm i don't know about 6-8 depeding how big they are . I beat it to death add ice and add the liquor.
I usually do my own thing though. I use brown sugar and i like using coconut rum. UHH soo good!!!!

Sky's the limit!!


These are called "duritos" or "churritos" they are made of flour and they come in different shapes, you eat them with

(tapatio sauce) or chile and lime. "WARNING" these are very addicting. You can't eat just one.

The kids love them as well. You can get these in any spanish market. My mother in-law usually brings them when she comes to

visit. I'm not sure if you can order them online. This is definetly a delicious way to start a party. Only bad thing is ,you have to fry

them. I fry them with either safflower oil or canola oil.

Suprisingly Organic

Aren't these shoes cute? Well, Guess what? What you say....These are from

Payless shoes!! YES! you heard correctly. PAYLESS SHOES! I like to brouse payless for their BOGO deal and came

across these and some other cute zac and zoe echo friendly footwear.

Payless also carries vegan leather. But be careful cause i think they've been coming out with some real leather shoes too.

This was my first time seeing organic shoes at payless.

GO PAYLESS!!

Soy

Love this soy protein. I bought it at GNC and it only cost $6. We love it in our smoothies in the morning.

I always let the kids put it in the blender and they know exactly what it's for.

buying in bulk

I wish i could buy in bulk more often, being that it's a lot cheaper. The nearest whole food is about 2hrs from where i live.:(

OH well, I'll have to settle for the herbs they sell in walmart in the Ethnic aisle.

These are great! If i were to buy a bottle of seasame seeds, it would prob cost me almost $2

Each bag cost me 74 cents, isn't that great! it's like getting 2 for the price of 1 or less.

Untill i get my herb garden going. These bags will have to do.

Vegan mistake

I would never be able to live without my PEANUT BUTTER CAPT CRUNCH!!!


When i first started into my vegan adventure ,there were A LOT of things i didn't want to give up. Peanut Butter Cap't Crunch was


one of them. Mistakenly ,i was on the peta website and checked out their " i can't believe it's not vegan" list. Thank You Lord!!!

Latin Coupon Queen

AAHH living by the coupon.

Now days ,you can get coupons everywhere ,not just the sunday paper.

Although we don't eat half the stuff they give out in the sunday paper. I just get online and search for coupons on the

food we do eat. Please if you're out there and your thinking of getting started on coupons. Please, Please don't join any

sites to where you have to pay. I think thats ridiculous. It takes a lil bit of time to learn the ropes but it's gets easier and more fun.

Cash-strapped consumers are increasingly turning to coupons to help them afford everyday items -- and retailers are meeting that demand by issuing more of them and making them easier to access through the web or on a cell phone.

But the coupons that some retailers are issuing these days aren't your average Sunday morning newspaper variety. Using a special barcode technology, these coupons can gather a shocking amount of intelligence on you -- from where you shop to how you browse the web.

The New York Times reports that these digital coupons can tell retailers:
The search terms you used to find the coupon
Your Facebook page information
The website you printed the coupon from
And other information that can be used to identify you
When it comes to finding information on Facebook, retailers can connect your FaceBook ID to a printable coupon's barcode that will allow the retailer to learn quite a bit about you. For example, if you join a FaceBook group in order to get a coupon your unique Facebook ID can be embedded into that coupon and later used by the retailer to, "easily see your sex, your location and what you're interested in," Jonathan Treiber, co founder of coupon analytics firm RevTrax, told the New York Times.

Luke Knowles, the founder of CouponSherpa, a website that provides Web, printable and mobile coupons, says the practices are "fairly common" and "nothing very new." Knowles explains that similar tracking has long occurred online with cookies, a small file placed on a computer when you visit a website, that is used to deliver relevant ads to web surfers. This type of tracking is a compromise that consumers make with retailers in exchange for savings, he explains.

The only difference is that consumers can turn off cookies; they can't stop the coupon from tracking them.

While to some consumers, this may seem like a violation of privacy the technology can also be used in their favor. This type of tracking provides companies with the ability to see which marketing messages are working and which coupon codes consumers prefer. They then use that information to deliver more relevant coupons to the consumer, thus helping them to save more.

Kelly Whalen, who blogs about personal finance at TheCentsibleLife, says she welcomes this type of coupon tracking. "I'm always irritated at Target b/c I never get relevant coupons," she tweeted. Callan Green of San Diego also tweeted her support, "If you are serving me a coupon to something I'm interested in, what's the problem? I like saving money!" Interestingly enough WalletPop didn't receive any negative responses to our request for reactions.

La Loteria

LA LOTERIA!! (The Lottery)

Had great family time after dinner. We played LA LOTERIA ( a mexican form of bingo)


Something like bingo,except you have to fill your whole page, yell LOTERIA at the end. We use beans to mark our

cards instead of markers or whatever they use in bingo.(you get what i mean)

The cards come with pictures( written in spanish) instead of numbers. My husband flips a card from the deck and you just

mark your play card with a bean if you have it. It's a lot of fun. Although some of the pictures are lil grown-up for the girls.

For us ,Earth day is Everyday

What a beautiful monday morning. Sitting here with my girls and lil man, enjoying some cereal and strawberry's.


Wednesday we have the earth day walk. Can't wait!



These sheets are from Green Gorilla organic cotton sheets. The pillow is made from 100% recycled plastic.

I'm lucky to have gotten these sheets on sale at the time.

They wash well and have other types of prints for boys and girls.










EVERYDAY GREEN

Most people know the basics about living green. Like not leaving the water running when brushing your teeth. It's definetly a

start. I really try to teach the girls what to do beyond that. Some of the things i've done are :


We use one cup for the whole day. We just rinse it quickly after every use (which is breakfast, lunch and dinner)

-[-
When i do laundry 95% of my clothes get hung up to dry (even in the winter) so we don't use the dryer

we save water by doing full loads and not flushing after every use.

Thats right,we don't flush after every use. IF IT'S YELLOW ,LET IT MELLOW,IF IT'S BROWN FLUSH IT DOWN.

We put a gallon of water inside the tank of the toilet to save water. This is very affective on saving water


When washing dishes in the dishwasher, we make sure that it's absolutely full before we start it / when washing by hand , i

either let the sink fill up with water or just wash the dishes first then turn the water on to rinse.



If i don't wind up making my own dishwashing liquid, I dillute the store bought and it last me a while.

We use our canvas bags to go grocery shopping and if i forget them,i always get paper.

Vegan

St Ives is another good skin product. They don't test on animals or use animal products.


Unfortunetly, they don't make shampoo or conditioners. Unlike other vegan products St Ives is affordable.


Many times you can find $1 coupons.

coconut oil

I use this coconut oil for everything,from cooking to using it as

body lotion for me and my family. My daughter has beautiful hair, but it's

hard to manage being that it's very ,very curly. Using the coconut helps

manage and best of all moisturize. Love it on my skin, hair and it's great to cook with (no, not with the same bottle).

Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Bridge!

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AHHHHH! L&B Spumoni Gardens

Please, if your ever in Brooklyn, put this restaurant on the top of your list.

I've been going to this restaurant for as long as i can remember and it's still

as i remember it. Family style setting and best of all, family size portions.

No matter what you order, your sure to love it.

last but not least , the spumoni ices are to die for.

Breast is always Best!!!

I couldn't help but post this picture of my sister and liviosa.

It just made me melt .Breastfeeding is an amazing and unforgettable opportunity for mothers to not only bond , but to know their

giving their baby the best nutrients you can ever give to your baby.

EC Diaper Free

when i would tell friends and family that i didn't use diapers on my infant, they would either give me a look like, Yeah right or

they would say "ok prove it". Most of the time ,i would have to prove it. They would also touch the baby to see if they had a

diaper on. I learned about Eliminate Communicate (EC) when i was about 15yrs old , watching GMA before going to school.

They had a segment on and i knew from that moment on that i would not use diapers with my baby's.

When i had my first daughter , i thought to myself "how in the world am i going to do this. As days went by...yes just a couple

of days. I learned that baby's can talk to us without using words. Communicating their body and facial expressions.

There always trying to tell us something ,we just have to pay attention. EC is the best thing i ever did for my kids. Who wants

to sit in urine and bowel movement,whether it be a baby or adult.

So, when people say i'm crazy. I tell them their crazy for spending so much money on disposable diapers.

Well , my son is 11mths now,but started making the sound PSSS for pee pee when he was 10mths. Music to my ears . Who

said boys are harder to potty train. I guess those are the people that are trying to train their kids not communicate with them.

If I do have to use a diaper, i use cloth diapers . which i use when we go to church and i need to leave him in the nursery.

My first daughter is 4 and she's been diaper free from 3mths, My second daughter since birth and now my son ,since birth.

Not only will your baby be happier,but you will save millions ! ok maybe not millions but thousands!