Penny for your thoughts (Vol 4)

Penny pronounces "mistletoe" as "weasel town." #frozenforever

I AM NOT A PERSON! I am a big girl!

My eyes are sprinkling! (when she had tears after coughing)

Penny is currently reprimanding her sauropod family:
"You say 'YES PENNY.' Thank you."
"Those are very good choices. You have to stay close to your mama saur, the door is too far away."

"Can you please say "Drive Safely" to me?"

We're talking about healthy foods vs treats. As she's snacking on an animal cracker.
B: Fruits and veggies are healthy, meat is too. But remember, cookies are a treat. They aren't always very healthy but we can have them every once in a while.

P: No mom, cookies are a treat AND a snack.

B: Yes, but they aren't very healthy. Did you know that veggies and fruits will help you grow big and strong?
P: Yes! And cookies will make my ... arms ... LONG!

"Look mama, this part of my face is chubby." (poking at her cheek)

"This marker smells like someone coughed on it and spilled coffee on it"

"Mama when you cough, are you sending germs to jail?"

B - Penny, you need to nap today. Your body needs rest to fight the germs.
P- but mom, you said that eating good food helps fight the germs.
B - yes, that too, but your body needs to rest so that it has the strength to fight the germs.

P- but mom, you said that God is the strength I need in my heart to fight germs.

Ruby: 10 months

It's been a loooooooooooong time since I've A) sat down to write a blog post dedicated to Ruby and B) wrote in her baby book. Upon a quick blog search, it looks like the last time I checked in on her was at 6 months.

Well, a lot has happened since then.

Namely, crawling. Standing. Pulling up. Eating solids (which started at the 6 month mark, much to my trepidation).

This past week I was reminded that I need to update something somewhere about her, to put it down someplace besides my memory because that just doesn't work. The term "preggy brain" suggests that after your pregnancy is complete that you get your normally functioning brain back, but no - it gets worse, especially after 2 kids. So call my mind a jigsaw puzzle and don't laugh that I need to take a picture of the grocery list that I write on my fridge because I know I'd lose the list somewhere along the way to the store, but the chances of me losing my phone is slim to none. Knock on wood.

Back to Ruby. See what I mean about this brain?

This boisterous little being, who I thought was going to be a fairly chill girl who goes along for the ride, is now making her presence and desires quite known. Until lately I had to spend a lot of my time making sure that she is "protected" from her sister's over exuberant love and found out one day that sometimes, when Penny decides it's appropriate to sit on her sister like a horse, rather that finding Ruby distraught with her face pushed into the carpet, she is actually kind of bouncing for Penny and laughing along with her. Huh.

And then there's the times, like tonight, where they are in the bath together and Penny snatches the washrag from Ruby that she had been happily flailing around, Ruby screams bloody murder to alert me. And then she gives warning shrieks to Penny if her hands get too close again.

This mama heart of mine is so full of love for this girl.

She claps, does this cute tongue wiggle thing (which Penny exclaims, each and every time, "such a tiny little tongue!") and has started to wave. At her 9 month well child she was 19 lbs 3 oz (66%'ile) and 28.25" tall (71 %'ile). In comparison, her sister was 18 lbs and considerably shorter at this age. She crawls with her belly off the ground and I anticipate that the walker will become more than a stationary toy for her shortly. She normally wakes up around 6am, is ready for a 20 minute snooze around 8:30 or 9 and goes down for a long nap at noon (the same time as Penny). The evenings get a little dicey because she wants to nap around 4, but instead I try to have dinner around 5 and baths at 6 with her bedtime as close to 7.

A few big changes have happened this week and it makes me realize that while I am reveling in this rolly polly, squishy, round baby, she is all too quickly growing up. Firstly she's moving up to Penny's previous convertible car seat, a Britax Pavilion. She (and her 34 month sister) are still rear-facing.

The second and definitely bigger change is that she is now taking naps and starting the evening in the pack n play. We are a bed sharing family; Penny slept with us until she was 18 months old and I never saw use in buying an actual crib. When Penny was around the same age I started transitioning her to daytime naps in the pack n play because I typically don't nap with the kids and there comes a time where they silently wake up and start crawling away from their spot in the middle of the bed and run the risk of falling. As a long term bed sharing family we've taken all of the necessary precautions by putting the mattress on the floor and exercise as much caution as possible, but at this age it makes the most sense to me to put her in a pack n play when I don't sleep with her.

This was almost a heart wrenching decision for me. For some reason I had a lot of guilt in this on the first day that I made the switch. I wasn't sure why, because I transitioned Penny to napping in the pack n play at this age too. However, as another example of how Ruby is different from her sister, Ruby loves sleeping in it. I nurse her down for her nap, stand up and rock her for a minute and lay her down. She usually rolls over onto her side or tummy, gives a little sigh and is off to lala land. Her sister required patting, shushing, singing and sneaking out. I have to admit, I feel so much better knowing that she doesn't feel abandoned!

She's already got a "dada" and "mama" down, we're working on finding something that she can call Penny.

The Pierogie Chickens vol 1

I think it's high time I introduced The Pierogie Chickens to you! We've had them for about 9 months and the learning curve was surprisingly easy - seriously, the internet will tell you everything. We got these ladies as a complete flock as year olds and about a month before Ruby was born. I've let Penny name each one of the girls and over the course of 9 months we've got 4 out of 5 named.

Baby
The easiest to spot and the first to be named. I guess Penny thought she was a baby because she's the only yellow one, and thus the name has stuck. She's the Queen of the Roost, but unfortunately goes broody every few weeks. A broody chicken doesn't do me any good around here; I don't keep a rooster so she fruitlessly tries to hatch eggs that just aren't going to hatch. It's heartbreaking and silly all at the same time. She's a Buff Orpington.

Bazinga
Yep, my daughter made a BBT reference. And I totally didn't encourage it. We taught her the word about a few months ago, but she rarely says it. One afternoon while playing with the chickens she decided that one of our black hens is now to be called Bazinga. It took almost 5 months to find the difference from her sister, but I found that this girl has a larger, floppy comb. She is a Black Sex-link, which means the female chicks are born black and the male chicks have a white dot on their heads.

Puffy
The other Black Sex-link. Her comb is straight up and she seems to be a little smaller than Bazinga.

Brown Fluffy
She's the smaller of our two Rhode Island Reds and has 4 points on her comb. Unfortunately both of these characteristics are really hard to see at a glance, they usually move too quickly for me to count the individual points on the combs..

??
Well, last week I thought I had finally figured out a difference between our two RIR besides the "count the comb points" / "which one is smaller" game. This one had a black feather in her tail, which made it really easy to figure her out. So I called her "Black Tip," like a black tip reef shark. And then it rained and I realized that perhaps it was just a dirty feather or she lost it. So I'm back to square one. So perhaps a new name will come to me soon.

Related: 3 reasons why keeping backyard chickens is good for my toddler

Dreaming, Scheming, Thrifting and Pinning for a Sister Room

Welcome to the September 2014 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Home Tour

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have opened up their doors and given us a photo-rich glimpse into how they arrange their living spaces.

***

Ahhh renovations. We love it, we bought our second house on the cheap and have been chipping away at our to-do list. Using our talents and staying out of debt is how we are able to do whole-home renovations, but gosh it takes a long time.

Today I'm going to share our most complete room..which is no where near complete! We bed-shared with Penny until she was 18 months old, and on the first night that we moved into this house we set her up in her big girl bed in her own room and waited with baited breath. Was she going to wake in the middle of the night and be scared? As I am reminded many times, I under estimate her too often, and she loved her new room.

When we bought the house, we gave ourselves 2 weeks to get the carpet replaced, the walls painted and start on the kitchen renovation.

This was the state of Penny's room through out my pregnancy with her little sister, and upon Ruby's birth I started dreaming, scheming, thrifting and pinning for a Sister Room.

Thrifted Bed Canopy // Stuffed friends // Train table // our fabulous Blinds

Woah, want to see how this beauty started out?

With my girls 2 years and a week apart, I hope that they'll be the best of friends and enjoy sharing a room together. With that in mind, while I still have the time of Ruby bed-sharing with us (and not having to worry about creating a "nursery" style room), I've begun collecting the pieces that will become Penny's Room Phase 4 - also known as The Sister Room.

And now for my dreams and ideas for what we can do with the space. Chime in on what you think works!

Storage, Beds or Fun?

A couple accent pieces; I love chalk designs. And a coat & hat hanger is a must.

The current window coverings in her room are standard blackout curtains and Bali 2" Fauxwood blinds, but we are looking to swap them out for a cordless option as they are more child safe. I love these floral prints from Blinds.com and am excited for my samples to come in! In October I'll be sharing about window coverings for child safety month so keep an eye out for that post.

Laura Ashley Cellular Blinds

And then I've got this interesting little alcove in the room. Can't quite decide what I want to do here (except stop storing random stuff in it).

Oh and there's one last thing I need to be sure to add... Cheer and love! All this work wouldn't amount to much of anything if we missed out on that! As I continue to embark on this journey of being a mother of two daughters, I continually reassess what values and morals I want to instill in these two hearts that have been entrusted to me. I don't have a sister to call my own (instead a gaggle of wonderful sister in laws!), and I want to be intentional in the relationship that I help cultivate between them. As the days pass I see so many precious and tender moments between them; I can only hope that my girls will remain close for their entire lives.

Don't want to miss out on any of our renovation shenanagins? 

Click here for a full list of my posts on it!

Find my sources of pinsperation and watch me add more to my Pinterest Board for The Sister Room

***
Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be updated by afternoon September 9 with all the carnival links.)

• Being Barlow Home Tour — Follow along as Jessica at Being Barlow gives you the tour of her family's home.
• A Tour Of My Hybrid Rasta Kitchen — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama takes you on a tour of her kitchen complete with a Kombucha Corner, a large turtle, her tea stash, and of course, all her must-have kitchen gadgets. Check out Hybrid Rasta Mama's most favorite space!
• Dreaming of a Sisters Room — Bianca, The Pierogie Mama, dreams, schemes and pins ideas for when her younger daughter is ready to move out of the family bed and share a room with her older sister.
• Building a life — Constructing a dream — Survivor at Surviving Mexico-Adventures and Disasters shows you a glimpse inside the home her family built and talks about adaptions they made in constructing their lives in Mexico.
• Why I'm Sleeping in the Dining Room — Becca at The Earthling's Handbook welcomed a new baby but didn't have a spare bedroom. She explains how her family rearranged the house to create Lydia's nursing nest and changing room in spaces they already had.
• The Gratitude Tour — Inspired by Momastry's recent "home tour," That Mama Gretchen is highlighting imperfect snapshots of things she's thankful for around her home. Don't plan to pin anything!
• Our Home in the Forest — Tara from Up the Dempster gives you a peek into life lived off-grid in Canada's Yukon Territory.
• natural bedding for kids — Emma at Your Fonder Heart shows you how her family of 3 (soon to be 4) manages to keep their two cotton & wool beds clean and dry (plus a little on the end of cosleeping — for now).
• I love our home — ANonyMous at Radical Ramblings explains how lucky she feels to have the home she does, and why she strives so hard to keep it tidy.
• Not-So-Extreme Makeover: Sunshine and Rainbows Edition — Dionna at Code Name: Mama was tired of her dark, outdated house, so she brightened it up and added some color.
• Our little outdoor space — Tat at Mum in search invites you to visit her balcony, where her children make friends with wildlife.
• Our Funky, Bright, Eclectic, Montessori Home — Rachel at Bread and Roses shows you her family's newly renovated home and how it's set up with Montessori principles in mind for her 15-month-old to have independence.
• Beach cottage in progress — Ever tried to turn a 1980s condo into a 1920s beach bungalow? Lauren at Hobo Mama is giving it a try!
• Conjuring home: intention in renovation — Jessica at Crunchy-Chewy Mama explains why she and her husband took on a huge renovation with two little kids and shares the downsides and the ups, too.
• Learning At Home — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling helps us to re-imagine the ordinary spaces of our homes to ignite natural learning.
• My Dining Room Table — Kellie at Our Mindful Life loves her dining room table — and everything surrounding it!
• Sight words and life lessons — The room that seemed to fit the least in Laura from Pug in the Kitchen's life is now host to her family's homeschool adventures and a room they couldn't imagine life without!
• A Tour of Our Church — Garry at Postilius invites you virtually visit him in the 19th-century, one-room church where he lives with his spouse and two kids.
• Preparing a Montessori Baby-Toddler Space at Home — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares the Montessori baby-toddler space she's created in the main living area of her home along with a variety of resources for creating a Montessori-friendly home.
• The Old Bailey House — Come peek through the window of The Old Bailey House where Erica at ChildOrganics resides with her little ones.
• My New House Not-Monday: The Stairs — Claire at The Adventures of Lactating Girl shows you her new laminate stairs in her not-so-new-anymore house.
• To Minimalist and Back Again — Jorje of Momma Jorje shares how she went to the extreme as a minimalist and bounced right back. Read how she finds it difficult to maintain the minimalist lifestyle when upsizing living space.
• Our Life As Modern-Day Nomads — This family of five lives in 194 square feet of space — with the whole of North America as a back yard. Paige of Our Road Less Traveled guest posts at Natural Parents Network.

Currently (vol 1)

Thinking about// My parents will be moving to Europe in less than a week and will be gone for 2 years. On one hand I am really happy for them and am totally hoping for a family trip there in the future, but on the other hand I am thinking about how their absence will affect my daughters. Penny is very close with my mom and I know she will miss her terribly. What is almost worse is that Ruby really won't know what she's missing out on, and I wonder how this two year assignment will affect her relationship with them when they return.

Reading// Dark Hope: Book One of the Archangel Prophecies. This is the first book that I've read since finishing the Hunger Games series last summer and I have been really hungry (wow, no pun intended) for a good book. The first 100 pages were slow, but in the span of 2 pages I knew that I'd be hooked for the rest of the series!

Thankful for// my backyard. On super hot days, I'll cook dinner and we take it outside. We don't have a picnic table yet, so most evenings dinner is served on a blanket in the grass. A cool breeze, the scent of my peach tree wafting over, the curious clucks of the chickens and laying while eating dinner (a la Ancient Roman style).

Photographing// who else? These cuties!

Loving// experimenting with my lavender and lemon oil essential oils. I recently started using essential oils for wellness, and have really started to love the intense flavors that these two oils bring to my cooking and baking. I've used lemon oil in several recipes that normally call for lemon juice (try Blueberry Yogurt Popsicles) and I also tried lavender lemonade!

The Pierogie Babies v.8

In the last month her vocabulary has totally exploded. She's talking about things that we've never talked about before, talks to herself constantly and now sings songs. One thing I've noticed about her in comparison to some of the other kids in her age group is that she spends a lot of time describing the world around her versus making statements or requests. She has very much become a girly girl; the other day I saw her standing by the front door wearing a hat, her Hello Kitty Purse, a bracelet and had her princess shoes (little play shoes with a bit of a heel) on. She announced "Time to go to the store, mama!"

Since visiting our local Touch A Truck event and meeting a few real live princesses, she has gone into full princess mode and loves our Friday night family movie nights and always insists on a princess movie. When given the choice, she chooses Belle as her favorite princess, but her favorite movie is The Princess and the Frog. Elmo has slowly fallen out of favor and she prefers to watch an episode of Super Why in the morning while I take a shower and get ready for the day. Because of that, she's learned phoenetics much faster than I expected and is starting to connect letters on the screen with what sound they make. We are working on asking politely ("can I please" versus "Penny wants") and she has a few chores that she helps with (putting away tupperware out of the dishwasher, throwing dirty clothes in the hamper).

Her imagination is also going at full force. She has a couple baby dolls that she dances around with (waltz style) and feeds them. She has started to pretend making food and eating it. She also started swim lessons with her daddy!

Hilarious things Penny says (which I think I might start writing as a new series):

• She poked at my post partum muffin top and said "mama, this is HUGE!"
• "Mama crab pants" (what Penny meant to say) "Mama crap pants" (what Penny really said)
• Penny: it's mama's birthday!B: not today. Do you know who's birthday is next? Mia's! We're going to Mia's cowgirl party soon.P: (wide eyes) No!B: yep!P: PENNY'S BIRTHDAY NEXT!B: no, Mia's birthday is next. Then Jack and Pammy's.P: Noooo!! Penny birthday!B: you're being a little irrational. well, your birthday is in 9 months but it'll be soon.P: I-rash-nal...cake.B: yes, we can have some irrational cake too. 
• Your eggs are deeee-wish-us, mama! I must be huuuuuuungry!

Rolls go on for days. And days. She's now very happy and comfortable laying on the floor and hanging out in the play gym, or on a towel in the backyard looking up at our maple tree's leaves. For her 4 month weigh in she was 15 lbs 2 oz.

She recently got her own amber necklace, straight from Poland, and probably in the knick of time because I took a look at her gums and I can see those little two bottom teeth making their journey northward. I haven't seen a lot of signs of teething just yet, but I'm happy that we got her started around the same time that we did for Penny.

She's now a roller and goes from back to tummy with ease. Crinkly toys blow her mind and she loooves this bird that I hang from her car seat. She's also working on blowing raspberries, which is absolutely adorable.

Penny singing the "Ruby Roo" song:

The Pierogie Babies: 40 weeks - where's my kid? & someone turns 2

Ruby

Well, here we are at full term and I am shocked - no baby. I had Penny at exactly 39 weeks and for this entire pregnancy I was positive that I'd have Ruby on the same week. Well, 39 came and went without anything to write home about. It feels so weird to wait on a baby, because as Penny's birth story went, we were caught by surprise when she was born. I was expecting to go over 40 weeks with Penny and so I never had that anticipation feeling. This time I set myself up and was expecting an early baby so I've been on watch since 38 weeks - I would have never imagined still being pregnant 2 weeks later! 

So this girl continues to bake away and although I'm just ready to hold her in my arms, I count my blessings. I'm not in any extraordinary amounts of discomfort. My hips ache but a good chiropractic adjustment this week did the trick. My stomach skin feels stretched and itchy; but no stretch marks and my regimen of organic coconut oil during the day and having hubby rub down the belly with Motherlove Pregnant Belly Salve in the evenings has kept my skin nice and soft. Penny got to keep her birthday as her own. Ruby's due date was 3/4 and Penny's birthday is 3/3 so there was a chance for them to share a birthday. It didn't happen and we got to celebrate in a small, special way. I feel pretty prepared for this baby to come. The cloth diaper laundry is kept up on, I have lots of extra food stored in the freezer, our birth bag is in the car and I have labor food at the ready in the fridge. The blessings keep pouring in but one little blessing in particular is taking her sweet time and I just have to be patient and let her come when she is ready! :)

Penny

My big girl turned 2 on Monday but we kept it pretty quiet. Her paternal grandparents came over for dinner and cake on Sunday. We are postponing her big, fun birthday party until mid April and piggybacking a "meet the baby" event along with it.

When I remind myself about where we were 2 weeks ago in my last Pierogie Babies update, I'm again impressed at just how quickly children grow and change. Penny seems to have a good grasp on the concept of "turns" (even though she doesn't always agree with them) and is transitioning to consistently saying "please" and "thank you" rather than signing them. She working on 3 and sometimes 4 word sentences and surprises me daily with things that she picks up on. We were visiting a cousin yesterday and she pulled out a Finding Nemo book and asks me to read the Nemo book...but I haven't introduced her to Nemo yet. How did she know this? She's also become much more social at library time and at the bouncy house that we visit; which was a struggle until lately because of her shyness. We haven't been going to our MOPS group regularly due to battles with the crud or avoiding the crud so I'm not sure how she would do when she's put into a situation where I leave her but overall if she knows I'm around she appears to be totally fine leaving me and playing independently. That wasn't anywhere close to being an option 2 months ago, so I'm proud of her burgeoning courage and curiosity to play with other children.  

Under Construction: Every Renovation Has Its Horror Story

Don't want to miss out on any of our renovation shenanagins? 

Click here for a full list of my posts on it!

It's been a little over a month since there has been any movement forward in the renovation; we've been working on other projects, rest assured! But I wanted to share a little story with you all about how we just barely avoided a renovation horror story.

Don't get me wrong, this renovation has been going extremely well. It's our second one and we learned A LOT from our first. I can write a whole blog series about renovation horror stories based on our first one! Luckily the list sanfus on this renovation is extremely short, but what happened this past week could have really made mama upset.

For our first renovation we bought all of our appliances through Lowe's on a Black Friday sale plus we had a 10% off coupon for moving recently - it was a pretty stellar deal. This time around there haven't been the same deals so I went a different route by taking a look at Sears Outlet refurbished appliances. I've been able to save over 30% in some cases, and a few months ago I snagged my favorite oven (a stainless steel Bosch 30" 500 series wall mounted beaut) for 40% off list price.

It was in a Sears Outlet in Phoenix, so it had to be shipped to me. Within a few days of ordering it I got a tracking number and then about a week later I got a voicemail from Sears Outlet letting me know that my oven would be delivered the following day. Yippee!!

I waited in anticipation as our delivery window approached the next morning. Then I got a call from Sears Outlet saying that the oven couldn't be delivered because the glass door was damaged during shipment. Tears! I asked if they would deliver the oven without the door and I could just order a replacement from Bosch directly (it was less than $200), but no, liability something or other prevents them from delivering an incomplete appliance. Even the shipping insurance that was automatically factored into the order didn't make a difference (which makes me wonder what it was there for in the first place). More tears.

Their course of action was to refund me the money and I would have to source a new oven. They had more of the same ovens on their website, but the prices were much higher than what I had paid. At this point it was getting frustrating because it put a hold on our very steady headway on our renovation.

A few of you know me personally and you know that when things like this happen, I don't give up. I contact whomever it is that I need to and work my way to the top until I find someone who can either legitimately explain to me why they can't help me any further or I actually get some help. It takes hours, sometimes several days of phone calls, repeating the same story over and over. I did just that, worked through a couple representatives and finally got in touch with the right guy in the right department. He did me a solid and worked out a deal where we got a brand new (not refurbished) oven from Sears directly and they matched the price that I originally paid for the refurbished oven. Seriously, high fives all around for stellar customer service.

So the new oven arrives and we decide to keep it in the original shipping container until we are ready to install it so as to minimize any scratches / Penny trying to open the oven and climb inside of it. About a month and a half passes by and one evening Penny is reciting the letters that are on the outside of the box. "B.. O.. W...H..I..T..E..." Panic races through my veins as I realize what this may mean and I have Adam open the box.

It was a white oven. Not stainless steel, like we had originally ordered. Tears!!!
S... C.. H...

So Bianca jumps on the computer and emails her fantastic rep who helped out before, who then has to route her through another department because this was a brand new order. The following few days are spent on the phone talking to more representatives, explaining the situation as well as the inconvenience it's caused. Again, my bulldog mentality got me to the right gal in the right department and she was able to put in a request for a replacement oven, but she wasn't sure if they were going to be able to exchange it at no cost to us. This didn't make sense because I didn't place the order online myself; I gave the specs to the rep as well as our charge info. And then there was the argument that the white ovens are less expensive than the stainless steel ones so they wanted to charge us more for a stainless steel. I countered that price match that we had been given on Oven #2 was based on the price we paid for Oven #1 (it also was a stainless steel finish).

Where do we stand now? The ovens are getting swapped and delivered/picked up at no cost to us. It's due to arrive in a couple weeks, which doesn't fit perfectly into our renovation timeline but I'm very thankful that we were able to get this figured out and best of all, at no additional cost to us. My fear was that I'd be stuck with a white oven when all of my other appliances are stainless steel.

Morals to the story?

• Don't let this story discourage you from researching refurbished options when buying new appliances. Prior to buying this oven, I've bought a microwave through Sears Outlet online for a fraction of the price that was a "floor model" and was anticipating it to come looking used. Not the case - it just didn't have the original packaging and protective stickers on it like you would get when you bought a brand new one.
• When something does go wrong, keep badgering. Perhaps this is more of a personality thing, because I know that not everyone has the time or wants to deal with the hassle of calling and telling the same story to multiple people. I'm not going to lie, I lost my patience on several occasions. But persistence pays off. And in this case it saved me well over a thousand dollars.

Monthly Its: January

Welcome to 2014, y'all! This last year flew by, didn't it? I can't believe that I'm 33 weeks and that my little girl is almost 2 years old. Pretty soon I'll be calling her 'my eldest.' Where has the time gone?

This weekend was packed full of fun family stuff - my mother in law's 50th birthday party, visiting with my parents and our 3rd trimester babymoon at Salish Lodge and Spa (I can't wait to share about it with you!). But in all honesty I'm hoping it's the last exciting weekend before Ruby arrives. I've reached the stage in my pregnancy where I'm in full nesting mode - I've got my dresser project, I've pulled out all the totes of Penny's newborn clothes and gear (just need to wash everything), we have the second half of our kitchen renovation to finish, and I just plain want to relax and have quiet family time until my little girl makes her arrival.

Bloggers and website owners: if the new year means a new look for you, I highly recommend Fantastique Designs! She is offering free blogger to word press conversions when you purchase her Wordpress design package. As you know, she's done a great job in my blog revamp and I can count on her for support when it is necessary. Lauren from The Median Mommy was the winner to my giveaway of a blog redesign package and it's just another example of Monique's great design work. Check out her personal blog about homeschooling at Living Life and Learning for a ton of resources.


Have you heard about Doodle Pants? These are leggings for both boys and girls, with cloth diapered bums in mind. Penny pulls out one of her two pairs (Pink Fox or Blue Rainbow) at least once a week when we go to pick out her daily outfit. Adorable! These have also been spotted on celeb babies such as Maxwell Johnson (aka: Jessica Simpson's daughter!). Get your littles into Doodle Pants with the 15% off coupon code PIEROGIE15.

Do you treat yourself on Valentine's Day? Does it always have to be chocolate? Why not gorgeous handmade soap? StarGazer Soaps' 2014 Valentine soap line includes Merope, Capella & Electra. They will be ready to ship on January 26th. If you want to be sure to get them by Valentines Day place your order by February 11 (with priority shipping). Don't forget to use discount code PIER10 for 10% off! I'm excited to share a $25 gift certificate to StarGazer Soaps with one lucky reader starting January 23rd as well!

Sankofa Diapers is the newest diaper that Penny has been wearing and is by far her favorite print. Why? Her nickname from her Polish babcia (my mom) is Zabka, which means froggy. Consider that your hint - I've got our review & giveaway for a 3 pack cloth diapers from Sankofa Diapers going live this week so keep your eyes peeled!

Check out my current giveaways - we've got cloth diapers and organic baby food pouches!

Follow along via

facebook // twitter // bloglovin' // pinterest // email

Do you have a family friendly business or event that you'd like to have featured on
The Pierogie Mama? Please email me for details.

Monthly Its: November

Happy November everyone! This month's installment of Monthly Its includes 3 discounts and as always, my favorite reads from this month.

In case you haven't noticed, things have started looking a lot prettier around here. And I owe it all to Monique from Fantastique Designs. Monique took my blog from the haphazard mess that it's been for the last few months and turned it into a place where I really like to hang out. I hope you do too! Monique offers a variety of design assistance - blogs, websites and website maintenance. In addition to full on renovation packages she also offers a la carte, so let's say that you just want a social media facelift. BOOM. Done. Check out my review of her work as well as enter her fabulous giveaway - where 2 winners will be chosen!

WIN HERE

What's even better is that between now and December 2, 2013 Monique is offering $20 off all custom blog design orders! Fill out her getting started questionnaire by that date in order to obtain the discount. 

Nicole from StarGazer Soaps has been busy these last couple weeks! She's always coming out with fresh scents kind of make me wish I could wash my hands all day. Her facebook page gives you a sneak preview of what is curing in her shoppe so check her out. Also - Pierogie Mama readers get a special 10% off discount using the code "PIER10" on StarGazer Soap's website. Read about my personal experience with StarGazer Soaps.

I'm proud to welcome Chalk Treatment as a new sponsor to The Pierogie Mama. Maggie is a very talented graphic artist who knows how to put words together and make them look pretty. Enough said. I'm very excited to share the awesome ornaments that she's crafted for our tree (and the grandparents' tree too!) in the next couple weeks. In the meantime, check out Chalk Treatment on Etsy and take advantage of another special Pierogie Mama discount for 10% off: "CHALK4YOU." Ornament orders must be placed by December 15th in order to make it to your tree by Christmas!!

So besides all that wonderfulness, I've got a lot in store for you in December. I've got 2 huge giveaways in the works - each featuring a prize pack of $80 - 90. Don't miss out on my announcement post for the Merry Fluffy Christmas and Santa's Little Helper giveaways 

with the prize information. 

On to some reading material for you -

This has been floating around on my facebook feed for the last week and it has struck a chord in me. How many of you just get plain old frustrated when your child gets up too often during the night, seemingly only for the sole purpose of waking you up? Well, in reality...maybe your two year old just needs you. I'm pretty lucky that our night time routine really only takes 20 minutes of snuggles and rocking (though yes, some nights it takes a lot more than that), but who am I to complain? My child wants me to love on her and protect her from the monsters in the corners.

On the topic of giveaways, if you follow The Pierogie Mama on Twitter you probably see that I share about a ton of them. That's because I read a lot of blogs and I also love winning. Winning. Winning. Who doesn't? I've been pretty lucky lately and have won 2 fabulous cloth diapers that I haven't gotten to try out before and it's opened my eyes to a couple new brands that otherwise I probably wouldn't have tried. And so, Cloth Diaper Guru shares a few secrets to winning cloth diaper giveaways - easily adaptable to other kinds too :)

Have you seen my easy crockpot recipe for bone broth? Here's 5 ways that bone broth actually benefits you.

The holidays = travel for a lot of us. Some of us will road trip, some of us will fly. Here are two resources on how to keep a toddler busy on a plane and sanity saving car ride ideas for kids. My newest tip - peel an apple (don't slice it) and give it to your toddler for 20 minutes of quiet time. And I love hearing her little teeth scrape away at the apple - it's so cute! (Of course, use your best judgement if your child is ready to eat an apple more or less unattended)

Two awesome posts from That Mama Gretchen, pretty much my favorite blog of all time. She talks about baby-led weaning (and how she introduced solids to her still exclusively breastfeeding son), which we did with Penny as well, and a really awesome gift guide for brothers and sisters.

Finally, I'm not too worried about the zombie apocalypse or anything, but natural disasters are not something to shake a stick at. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we have fairly common earth quakes and several active volcanoes. So you should think about how you are going to feed your family in case of an emergency. How many of you watch the National Geographic show "DoomsDay Preppers?" There are some pretty crazy wackies out there, but sometimes you can learn a thing or two from them. This tip came from a Russian Zombie Prepper- how to open a can without a can opener. All you need is a can and concrete. Fast forward at least a minute into the video and then you'll see how they do it - very easy. I'll be keeping this in mind for our next camping trip.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Monthly Its: October

So over the last 3 months I've been sharing some of my experiences with handmade soaps by StarGazer Soaps. Today Nicole will be sharing with you a boiled down explanation of how she makes her soaps! Read through to the end, because there's a surprise in store for you :)

Pre-Order here!

It took a long time to develop my soap recipes.  I have several tried and true that are a part of my main lines, but I am always looking for ways to improve them.  In fact, recently I added cream and cocoa butter to my silk soap, and LOVE the change!  My soap is even silkier than before!  So why cream?  Why do I use the ingredients I do?  I can't make claims about what my soap or any of my ingredients in my soap will do for a person.  But I use pure oils like olive, coconut, avocado, and butters like shea, cocoa, mango.  I also use silk & cream.  Each ingredient has a benefit, and adds to the luxury feel of the soap.  I choose each ingredient with great care, and test everything extensively before offering it to you.

When I make soap, I sit with my children and we smell my fragrance supply.  We chose which one inspires us, and then choose the color scheme.  Sometimes we decide on a design, but usually I have no idea what I am going to do until I am ready to pour my batter in the mold!  All soap starts the same way – Lye solution and oils.  When the Lye solution and oils meet, the magic begins.  I have some time to play with scent, color, and design.  Then the next 24 hours saponification takes place. This is the process where the Lye solution and the oils work together to make soap!  Within 24 hours, the Lye disappears, and glycerin is formed.  While safe to handle and use at this point, it really takes 6 weeks for the soap to fully cure.  Soap is like wine – it gets better with time!

If you haven’t tried handmade soap yet, now is the time!  
Visit StarGazerSoaps.com and use coupon code NATURAL
for 10% off your order until November 30th.  
Feel the difference.  
Handmade soap has honestly changed the lives of my family in more ways than one.  
I for one will never have commercial soap in my home again. 

Thank you Nicole for sharing that awesome discount with Pierogie Mama readers! Don't forget to check out my review of StarGazer soaps (my favorite has been pure and natural grapefruit, but I've definitely got my eye on a few to check out this holiday season!)

And now on to some more awesome reads :)

This Pierogie family loves their pooches, Romeo and Squirt. Though when we first had Penelope, we were a little anxious to see how the dogs would react to the new baby. Green Mommas outlines a few important points on your child's safety as well as your pet's comfort in mind when introducing each other.

I didn't give Penny a bath for a week after she was born. Yup. The vernix that covers a newborn is extremely moisturizing and goes along with my belief that a healthy body wouldn't produce something 'gross' or harmful for the baby. The result? Never any skin issues, cradle cap and oh my gosh the most intoxicating smell in the world resting upon my newborn daughter's head. Here's some more scientific reasons on why not to wash the vernix off your newborn, by Raising Natural Kids.

How to be a Supermom pretty much took away any guilt I had with my toddler and her level of screen time.

I read this the day of our ultrasound. I had a case of the mommy-worries, which are so destructive. This post came on a day I needed it. Trusting our children to God is not an easy feat.

Doesn't Pioneer Woman have a way with making you eat a bunch of stuff that is so freaking delicious but you know is just so bad for you? Well, in this case, she puts together a 'carb buster' breakfast that for all intents and purposes covers some pretty important food groups. It's on my to-do list for one of these weekend mornings.

Want an easy, fun and educational way to keep your toddler entertained for hours? That Mama Gretchen shares a water pouring activity.

And finally.. this one resonated deeply with me. I'd like to call myself a 'natural' and 'attachment' parent but Lord knows there has never been such thing as 'the perfect parent,' well except for the Lord himself ;) LOL! So this made me feel better one day when I was at my very own wits end and just wanted Penny to nap, and was on the verge of losing my own shit.

Under Construction: Cabinet Assembly Part I

Don't want to miss out on any of our renovation shenanagins? 

Click here for a full list of my posts on it!

On Friday we picked up our cabinets. Yep, a week after placing our order we got our cabinets! Last time we placed our order sometime before Thanksgiving and picked them up in mid-January. ugh. Adam picked them up during his lunch, took out a door and sent me a quick text. Wow. We decided that we felt awfully silly in having spent three times the amount on our cabinets in the last house. Yes, we have to put them together ourselves.. But when it's such a huge difference it's totally worth it!!

The color can be described as a coppery-honey, with a black glaze. 

Adam started putting them together on Saturday morning. The only tools we needed were wood glue, the supplied hardware, really long clamps and he opted to use our nail gun for extra measure.

We brought them upstairs to check out what they'd look like in the light and Penny discovered a new hiding place :)

These cabinets come with dovetail and full extension drawers. 

So far there has only been one glitch, but we're going to see what we can do to work around it. I wanted a dedicated cabinet for my KitchenAid mixer that has a articulating shelf that will bring the mixer out of the cabinet to counter height. Unfortunately the cabinet rep didn't catch that.  Hopefully it's not going to be too much of a pain for Adam to work around, but his engineering mind craves these kinds of problems. ;) We'll see how it turns out.