Daily Stay-At-Home-Mom Schedule

Lately I've been really frazzled. Ever since Emma turned 1, she decided to completely change the daily routine we comfortably had for months. It's taken me a while to get back into a good groove, though there are some days where I feel nothing gets accomplished on time - or at all. That being said, here is how our new daily schedule looks like (that I will try my best to maintain):

8:30 a.m. - Emma wakes up. We have breakfast.

9 a.m. - We get ready for the day. This includes bath time, brushing our hair and teeth, getting dressed, etc.

10 a.m. - I clean up the apartment as best as I can while Emma follows me around and "helps" (aka, throws a bunch of things back onto the floor).

10:30 a.m. - Story time and sing-a-long time. Emma loves when I read and sing to her! It's also snack time.

11:30 a.m. - I prep lunch while Emma plays (whether it's structured or self-led).

12 p.m. - Phil comes home for lunch.

1 p.m. - Nap time (hopefully). Emma tries to fight taking naps as much as possible, so this period of time is really iffy. But, when she does fall asleep, I have some me time where I can go through my emails, pay bills, set up necessary appointments, read, etc.

3 p.m. - Phil comes home from work for the day. This is when I go to the gym in my apartment complex and work out while Emma gets some quality time with her daddy.

4 p.m. - Snack time. We just chill as a family (Netflix may or may not be involved) and catch up on how our day went.

6:30 p.m. - Dinner time. Phil is usually in charge of it - yay!

7 p.m. - Phil relaxes and Emma plays while I tidy up (by doing the dishes or finishing up the laundry for the day). On Mondays, this is when we have Family Home Evening. Otherwise, we use this time to play games, watch a show, relax, etc.

9:30 p.m. - Emma has never been one to go to bed early like everyone else her age. She hangs out with us as we read scriptures, have family prayer, and get ready for bed.

10 p.m. - Lights out!

Hopefully, I'm doing things right at this point. I'm trying my best! What does your daily schedule with your child(ren) look like?

Improving Sabbath Day Observance

About a month ago, the bishop in my ward talked about how church leaders were counseled in recent leadership training meetings to encourage members to improve keeping the Sabbath day holy. One way our ward has striven to do this is to have a child in Primary stand before the congregation with their arms folded before Sacrament begins. They act as an example of what reverence should look like for those walking in and a reminder that we want to invite the Spirit into our day.

For those who want to hear more about this announcement, you can find it here.  

Personally, this was a bit of a wake-up call. Though I know better than to shop on Sunday or go out and spend money for other entertainment purposes, typically when we get home from church, we act like it’s any other day. Phil plays his video games, I browse the Internet, and Emma plays with her toys. We’re together, but we’re not together. We’re all doing our own thing and not really thinking about anyone else. That’s not exactly Christ-like.

Sunday should be all about the family and service, and I realized that I wasn’t focusing on that. So, I looked up ways on how to keep the Sabbath day holy. I found this awesome list of suggestions here. 

Some suggestions from the list include:

• Going home/visiting teaching
• Reading church magazines (Ensign, New Era, Friend, etc.)
• Planning the next FHE lesson
• Skyping with family who live far away
• Visiting the temple grounds with your family
• Having the ward missionaries over or writing to a missionary
• Watching a church video together (Meet The Mormons is on Netflix now!)
• Updating the family blog
• Making a meal for the sick or elderly

To make more time to be with loved ones, make a crockpot or freezer meal so you’re not spending so much time in the kitchen, and get all the cleaning done on Saturday - or wait until Monday - so you’re not distracted with a messy home. It’s going to be an adjustment, but we’re slowly working on it. I know this will improve our relationship with our Heavenly Father, as well as with family and friends.

How do you observe the Sabbath Day?

    

New Year Resolutions 2015

It's a new year, which means kicking things off with a clean slate! I, for one, am terrible when it comes to keeping new year resolutions, but I do enjoy writing them down anyway! I had such a good year last year - with moving to the Sacramento area, celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary, and having my first child - and I hope that this year will be even better.

While I don't have any huge goals I want to accomplish this year, there are so many little tweaks I would like to adjust in my life to become a better person in general. And I think sharing these little tweaks of mine can help keep me accountable for them. So without further ado:

Becky's 2015 New Year Resolutions

• Marriage - Our marriage is pretty wonderful, actually. But, with Emma in our lives now, the focus has constantly been on her and barely on each other. I would like to make it more balanced this year, and I am going to do that by following the love calendars by the Dating Divas! It's so easy - once a day you just do or say one kind thing for your spouse. And on Fridays, you go on dates - whether it's out and about or free at home. I love how they have these daily suggestions for a full year! I think it will do wonders for our relationship!

(I know this is from last year, but it still applies! Find more at www.datingdivas.com.)

• Finances - Last year, we successfully met our goal to stop using credit cards. But, we still have a long way to go. We are still in a lot of debt, we have no savings, and some of our bills are going up, so we need to review our budget and see what we can change or cut. Thankfully, we have a couple of resources that will be so helpful in achieving these goals. Have you heard of Dave Ramsey, the financial guru? Apparently, he is amazing and his advice really works! So we are going to be following the plan below:

 Another resource we have found are the finances calculators on www.providentliving.org. (There are 15 different ones!) According to this calculator even if we stuck to paying the minimum each month, then snowballed the payments (after paying off one debt, put the payment you would have used on said debt on top of the payment of the next debt), we would be completely debt free in less than 5 years - and that is including Phil's student loans. After we have paid off all our debt, if we put the money we were using towards the debt into a savings account every month, we would have enough money for a down payment on a house after another 5 years. And, boy, am I ready to settle down in a house! Obviously, this resolution isn't going to be completed in one year, but the plan is to at least set up the emergency fund and pay off one (if not two) credit cards.

• Church - We currently live in an amazing ward and, for the most part, are very involved. But, there is so much that we can improve on. A big one for me is going visiting teaching. I had only done it once last year. Being a full tithe payer is another (need to work it in our budget a lot better). I would also like to be more active in volunteering in the ward - whether it's to read a scripture aloud in Sunday School, pray in Relief Society, or make dinner for the missionaries. There is always something more I can contribute in the ward. And, of course, I can always improve at home too. Such as having Family Home Evening every week (even if it isn't on a Monday night!), and having daily scripture reading and prayer with Phil.

Suggestions on how to the accomplish the above goals are appreciated - and I hope that the listed resources will help you out too! But, enough about me, though - What are YOUR New Year resolutions??? 

My Birth Story

I was originally due August 2, though my doctor said he thought August 5 was more accurate. Either way, I knew that since I was a first-time mama that I would probably go past said due date. At my last doctor's appointment on July 31 I was informed that my doctor would be on vacation during all of the next week, but if I didn't deliver then that I was scheduled for an induction for August 11.

At first I dreaded the fact that my doctor was going on vacation because that was an indicator in my mind that my baby would make her appearance since it was inconvenient. But, nope! The next week passed by horribly slow, and little Emma wasn't budging. I was so, so nervous about going in for an induction, but I am glad how it worked out.

The day before my induction there was a super moon, meaning the moon was really close to Earth and was really bright. There is an old wives' tale that says the super moon helps women go into labor. I was really hoping this was true as I wanted to go into labor naturally. Alas, still nothing. But, an hour before Phil and I were to head to the hospital we got a phone call saying that because of said super moon, the hospital's labor and delivery was packed and my induction needed to be pushed back. I was so upset – why couldn't that of happened to me! And we had to wait even longer! The phone call took place at 6:30 a.m., and we were asked to call back at 11 a.m. to see if there was a spot open. Thankfully, there was, and we set out to the hospital and got checked in at 11:45 a.m.

(Right before we headed to the hospital)

After settling into our room we found out we still hadn't had any progress whatsoever, so I was to take half a dose of cytotec (a cervix-softening pill) every four hours and go from there. They hooked me up to monitor the baby's heartbeat and my contractions – which surprisingly I was having, but I couldn't feel them. The rest of the day passed by and we were still on square one. The next day I woke up and could actually feel contractions, though they were very light, and they slowly got stronger as the day went. However, they were still inconsistent, so the doctor said to just keep taking the cytotec. At this point I was feeling really antsy about being cooped up in the hospital, so my mom suggested walking around the hospital grounds, which we did. It was nice to get a breath of fresh air. On Wednesday, August 13, at 2:30 a.m. the contractions got to the point where they were bothering me enough that I couldn't sleep, so I was given some painkiller through the IV. It made me feel loopy, but I felt a lot better afterward. My nurse decided to check my cervix at that point and I was 1 cm dilated. I was disappointed, but at least progress was being made. She made the call to stop giving me cytotec and said that hopefully the doctor will start me on pitocin later that morning. In the end, I was on cytotec for 36 hours. 

(Impatiently waiting for something to happen)

At 7 a.m. my doctor approved the pitocin, and I was given a small dose of it through my IV. I was feeling the contractions again, so I was given the same painkiller and fell back asleep. I woke up a bit later and the contractions had gotten even more intense to the point where I could not easily talk or walk through them and soaking in a hot shower didn't help. I asked for an epidural at 11 a.m. It worked perfectly the first time around, and I felt completely happy again. My day nurse checked my cervix at this point, and I had dilated to a 4! She said since it looked like I was progressing so quickly now, there really wasn't a point to keep me on pitocin, which pleased me. It was interesting to watch my contractions on the monitor intensify though I couldn't feel a thing. At 2 p.m. she checked me again and I was at a 10 and ready to push, though they had to break my water first. I pushed with just the nurse, Phil, and my mom there for three hours, but the baby wouldn't come out. My doctor came in at that point and gave me two options: he could deliver this baby either with forceps or by c-section. Since the baby was still as healthy as can be, I opted for the forceps. It only took three more pushes and, with the help of said forceps, Emma came out and was completely covered in meconium (her own bowel movement). Her cord was quickly cut by the doctor, and she was whisked away to get all of that gunk off of her and out of her system. 

I received a second-degree tear, but overall, I think that everything went very smoothly, though a bit too long for my liking. Phil exceeded my expectations and was an amazing coach the whole time. I think I fell in love with him even more because of it. Emma is perfect, she latched on immediately, and I am recovering pretty well. Phil and I am so excited to have her in my life! My pregnancy ended up going for about 41.5 weeks, and I gained 38 lbs. 

(Four weeks postpartum)

Eating Healthy During Pregnancy

Last week I went to my monthly doctor's appointment to see how my baby girl was doing. As usual (thankfully) she is doing wonderfully, but I did find out that I gained 6 lbs in a month. I'm 27 weeks along and have gained a total of 15 lbs. Now I know that gaining weight is a natural part of pregnancy, and I accepted that from the beginning, but my goal is to gain a total of 20 lbs, so this freaked me out a bit. Honestly, there was no reason why I should have allowed myself to gain so much in one month. I have been eating pretty healthy and exercising throughout most of my pregnancy, but this last month I really let myself go. I ate everything I saw and completely stopped working out. As a result, I packed on the pounds.

Now this really bothered me because I want to be healthy, and I especially want my baby to be healthy, so I did a bit of research over the weekend on how I could really stick to eating well and exercise for the rest of my pregnancy. I came across babyfit.com, a website made by the same group who created sparkpeople.com. It creates meal plans and workout programs for the expecting mama based off of how far along she is. The meal plan consists of a lot of fruits and vegetables, as well as protein and calcium. And, it recommends meals the whole family can enjoy, so after talking with the hubby, we decided to give this meal plan I was given a test drive.

We are going to try it out for a week and see how it goes, but I thought it would be good to blog about the experience because I see many benefits of following it. Who doesn't want to stay fit and healthy during pregnancy? I wish I found this website sooner!

Anyway, for today's lunch we had a multi-grain pita filled with turkey, romaine lettuce, cucumber and tomato. For sides, we had a handful of pretzels and a cup of pears. The website recommends drinking a cup of milk for almost every meal, along with the daily water consumption, but since I am lactose intolerant, we had orange juice supplemented with calcium instead. This meal turned out so delicious and was actually really filling - even for Phil, who is a big guy and eats a lot. I definitely recommend this even if you're not pregnant.

For dinner we had Southwestern grilled pork chops, a cup of brown rice, a cup of broccoli and a cup of strawberries. The pork chops were... interesting (it was the website's own recipe and consisted of a dry rub of chili powder, oregano, ground cumin and garlic powder), but overall the meal was good and, again, filling.

Looking forward to what Day 2 brings us! Any healthy recipes you would recommend a prego to try?
  

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

This week my husband, Phil, and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. I don't know about you, but hitting five years is kind of a huge milestone. So we wanted to do something seriously special to celebrate. And I think it turned out pretty darn magical.

Phil still had to work yesterday, but I was surprised by the delivery of this beautiful flower bouquet while he was gone. He sure knew how to start the day off right!

When he got home, we decided to try out a new recipe and had cheesy chicken enchiladas (I highly recommend it; you can find the recipe here), along with Martinelli's sparkling apple juice and strawberry cheesecake. The whole meal was so delicious and filling!

For the evening's activity, I bought us tickets to the season opening game of the Sacramento River Cats (Sacramento's minor league baseball team) vs. the Salt Lake Bees. Traffic was horribly insane. What should have been a 20-minute drive to the ballpark took us almost an hour. But, we caught sight of this, which made us laugh:

I should know by now that everything is bigger here than in little old Idaho, but the baseball stadium blew us away. It was huge, not something we were expecting for a minor league team.

The game started out slow, but got really exciting as it went on. First of all, I surprised Phil with this during the fourth inning:

The Salt Lake Bees are a really good team, but they were kind of violent! At one point, their catcher couldn't find a dropped ball, so instead of asking, he just tackled the River Cats batter to the ground, assuming that he was hiding it from him. In another inning, when the Bees were up to bat, their batter hit the ball so hard that the swing literally shattered the bat in half (which then flew all the way to the third base). I have never seen such things before in my life!

The River Cats were behind throughout the whole game up until the eighth inning. And, what happened was just purely awesome. All of the bases were loaded, and the River Cats batter hit the first (and only) home run of the night, sending the team ahead of the Bees 7-6. The crowd went wild! People were jumping up and down, screaming and clapping, and giving strangers hugs and high fives - Phil even got a couple of those! I don't think I have ever seen such an enthusiastic crowd. We ended up winning the game! To add to the celebration, there was a firework show afterward.

Phil and I had a blast - and it was definitely a memorable anniversary. And to make things even better, we are going to San Francisco next weekend, which we are excited for. I love you, Phil! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by! I'm looking forward to the many adventures that still await us.

I'm Not a Desperate Housewife

My honey and I have gone (or currently going) through a lot of firsts this year. He finally graduated from Idaho State University with a Bachelor's degree in computer science. This was an eight-year endeavor (he kept changing his major), so when he finally was handed his diploma in December, we were pretty freaked out because that meant we were finally growing up. Thankfully, he had a job waiting for him after graduation, so we didn't need to stress about that too much. Only that his first professional gig was in California, which meant we had to make our first big move away from family and friends. To top it off, we found out I was pregnant with our first child, which made the move that much more difficult. Hey, when it rains, it pours, right?

Honey and I have been married for almost five years now, and throughout our marriage thus far, I was the one who primarily supported the two of us financially while he was in school. We had agreed early on in our marriage that when he was done with school, we would reverse the roles - he would be the breadwinner and I would take care of the home. Finally that day had come. At first I tried to fight it, but Honey convinced me it would be best to get used to it now because I wanted to be a stay-at-home mama anyway.

We packed up as much as we could fit in our Hyundai Sonata and left for California. It was definitely a transition (bigger population, more diverse culture, etc.), but we settled in pretty quickly. At first being a housewife felt like a much-needed vacation. Going from working full time to nada will do that to you. But, it also made me start acting very lazy, so nothing around the house was getting done. I would just lay in bed all day and play on the Internet. And, when you do that all day, you start feeling bored and unfulfilled, which can really make a negative impact.

After a month of this sloth, I had had enough. I'm an adult with a baby on the way, I have to set up positive habits now! I thrive with structure - I love research, lists and schedules. So, I decided to make a daily schedule to encourage myself to get up and make the most of my day while Honey was at work. It has helped me immensely, and I encourage others to try it out themselves if they feel they are in the same rut. Take a look:

When I wake up:

• Have Breakfast
• Exercise
• Shower
• Get dressed for the day (even if you're staying at home, dress like you're ready to go out the door any minute - it helps you stay motivated)
• Relax for an hour online (get emails, Facebook, Pinterest out of the way, etc. That's really all you need in a day)
• Open the blinds and let the sunshine in (I read in an article how this also keeps you motivated - and it really does help!)
• Prepare lunch for Honey and myself (he comes home for his lunch break)
• Set aside distractions (especially the laptop and phone) and focus on spending time with Honey during lunch
• Do the dishes after he leaves
• Tidy up the rest of the apartment 
• Do something for yourself. This could be anything from reading a book to watching a movie to working on a hobby - just something that makes you happy.

When Honey gets home for the day, we do the following together:

• Take out the trash/recycling
• Check the mail
• Work on laundry (I still struggle doing this by myself, it's my least favorite chore)
• Make dinner
• Spend the rest of the evening together doing whatever
• Bedtime

I know this will change once we have our baby, but for now it works for us. I'm always open for suggestions though! How do you keep yourself sane if you're a housewife? Please comment below!