How Having a Baby Has Saved Me Money

1. I don’t get out the house as much any more, so my shopping habit has exponentially decreased.

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2.  No more trips to the drive-thru (see #1).  Plus, with breastfeeding I’m eating even more healthy to give little all those good nutrients.  This also means I’m cooking more often and buying fresh is cheaper than eating out.

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3.  Since I rarely leave the house (again, see #1), I wear the same few pairs of jeans and rotation of tops everyday.  Laundry only happens about every two weeks now instead of weekly.

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4.  People love to buy the baby things, so I rarely have to.  I buy things like the essentials; diapers, wipes, etc., but clothes and toys are usually gifted.

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5.  I spend less time on myself, and more time on everyone else.

Okay…so of course I’m being a little facetious here, but most of what I said is actually true.  It’s the things that no one tells you about when you become a parent.  My husband and I have a running joke about experiencing the many qualms of parenthood that no one tells you about, and that we know they’re secretly laughing at us now that we’ve become parents.  Actually, most of the time they aren’t secretly laughing, they’re laughing right in our faces.

I used to always here horror stories about moms who were lucky if they got a shower or brushed their teeth on a given day.  I will tell you that I do shower daily and brush my teeth.  I refuse to be that mom and wife that doesn’t take time out for herself, to at least make herself look presentable.  However, I don’t get these things and many others done as quickly or efficiently as I used to.  Motherhood takes some getting used to, but I manage to find humor in this journey everyday…and sleepless night!

Just another chapter in my chronicle as a new mama!

xxoo,

Kitler Family Togetherness & Learning Giveaway

 

Hey everyone!  Lisa over at The Squishable Baby is hosting an awesome giveaway.  Check it out and be sure to enter for a chance to win!


The Squishable Baby Disclosure:  I received Kilter by SimplyFun in exchange for an honest review. However, all the opinions stated herein are completely my own.

 

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Kilter for family togetherness and learning - Giveaway

 

Sponsored by:  Simply Fun

Hosted by:  The Squishable Baby

 

Kilter, made by SimplyFun, is a high quality family learning game for children 8 and up (although my 5-year-old loves to play).  Each game can be played within 20 minutes, making it a positive experience for children and parents alike. My kids love to play and I am sure yours will too.  You can see my review of Kilter here.

We play Kilter frequently on family game nights, Family Home Evenings, during holidays, and during the day (when we should be doing school).  Not only does it bring us together, but it is a great learning game.  The best part, he kids don’t even realize they are learning complex physics concepts!  It’s all about fun.

I would like to give you a chance to win and love Kilter. Please enter below for your chance to win Kilter for your family.

 


   
The Squishable Baby, nor any other blog hosting this giveaway, is not responsible for prize distribution.

 


BONUS!  Lisa also has another fun giveaway going on right now!  Check it out below and enter for a chance to win!

The Squishable Baby Disclosure:  I received a sweetriot bar and a Nestle Crunch bar for the purpose of this taste test, but all the opinions stated herein are 100% our own.

 

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sweetriot versus Nestle Crunch

 

Welcome to sweetriot – the socially responsible company that makes fair trade and organic dark chocolate.  The chocolate is kosher, vegan, dairy free and has 9 essential amino acids and tons of fiber – making it the healthy and great tasting chocolate alternative – with just 20 calories per square.  You can read my review for sweetriot here.

As 2013 ends and we ring in 2014, I want to give all you a chance to taste the healthy dark chocolate bar alternative. It is super delicious!

My family had the opportunity to taste sweetriot versus the more popular and established Nestle Crunch Bar.  Both options have a nice crispy crunch, but sweetriot offers quinoa, so you no longer have to endure artificial flavors and sweeteners!

Check out our taste test.

 


 

But don’t take our word for it.  Enter the giveaway below to taste the sweetriot difference for yourself!

 

Don’t forget, you can purchase sweetriot here and receive 20% off with the code squishablebabyriot at checkout!

Discounts cannot be used on subscriptions

This offer is valid through 12/31/2013

I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year!  Keep rioting!

The Squishable Baby, or any blog co-hosting this giveaway, is not responsible for prize distribution.


 

Feel free to share this giveaway with others, so they have a chance to win as well!

xxoo,

Why I Don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions

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So its the second day of the new year and by now, most people have already broken their New Years resolutions.  I’ve totally been guilty of it before.  Heck, I’ve been guilty of breaking them within hours of making them.  This is the exact reason I don’t make them anymore or rather never really made them or took them serious.

My brother and I were sitting watching the Kathy and Anderson on CNN’s New Year’s Eve Countdown and they started talking about New Year’s resolutions.  We both looked at each and said the same thing: “why bother?”

Elena couldn’t have said it any better:

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It’s a new year, a fresh start, the perfect time to make new goals, right?!  Well, for some maybe but for me, not so much.  I’m more of a practical kind of girl.  Instead of making a list of maybe 5 or 10 things to accomplish throughout the year, I’d rather just make who and how I want to be a way of life.  I want those things to be a part of me, so that I don’t have to think about doing them everyday.  These are things like praying, building a relationship with God, taking time out for myself.  The new year isn’t the perfect time to make resolutions, it’s the perfect time to start a new life.  To be me that’s one full of love, forgiveness, confidence, and faith.  However, I don’t need January 1 to come around to empower me with these things.  They are simply the things I do or strive to do every day, they are a state of being…not something I mark off a list.

xxoo,

The Post I Wasn’t Going to Write

I wasn’t going to do one of these reflection posts.  I saw and read every one else’s and just didn’t want to do one.  I didn’t feel like going back through the 261 published posts and recapping what an awesome blogging year 2013 was for me.  Although it was a great year for me in general, for many different reasons…I just didn’t feel like recapping it.  Its almost like that term paper that you know you have to write, but don’t know where to start to so you wait till the last minute and burn the midnight oil getting it done.  Recapping 2013 was gonna take work, so much has happened, my brain is just too full. 

The snippets of time I get when my son is sleeping allows we to post most of my posts, but not one like this one.  I can’t focus, family just left, and Hubs is off today.  As I sit here and write this post, while my son sleeps and Hubs is getting ready to go work out, I’m still overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.  I’m a private girl, ironic huh, since I blog.  I love to share, more verbally though than physically.  I’m learning to be more open.  If I have one blogging goal for 2014, its to share more about myself on my blog.  Post more pictures, talk more about myself and everyday life, show and tell you what I’m really going through in my life right now.  I think a lot of the reason I’m like that is because of my military career.  There is certain information I can’t share, don’t want to share, and shouldn’t share.  One day though, I will share it.  At least what I can.

For now, I’ll tell you that I’m transitioning into a new role:  A Mom.  No not a working mom, or a military mom, but just a mom.  With that I’ll be a SAHM, yep that means no more military, no more work outside the home, and no more of my own income (except the pennies I receive from my blogging endeavors). I’ve shared here and there that after I had my son, that’d I be at home with him full time.  However, I never touched completely on the fact that I’d no longer have my career in doing so.  It’s a beyond than worthy sacrifice.  One to be honest I don’t have a lot of control over.  My time serving our nation is coming to an end soon, and its hard.  I’m tearing up as I write this, so I’ll change the subject.  I promise, I’ll share my story one day, all the good and bads (more bads than goods). 

Yes, 2013 was a wonderful year, in part because I moved back home (even though we’re still in the process of moving), which is something hubs and I really wanted to do.  We want to raise our son close to family and in our beloved South.  Hubs got a new job, so I go from being a military spouse, or rather a dual military household, to being a cops wife.  It’s a role I never saw myself in, and is scary.  More on that later though!  The most wonderful thing that happened for me in 2013 was the birth of my son.  My heart is so full of love and brain already so full of memories (and so is my phone and computer with pictures) that its hard for me to organize my thoughts on motherhood and having a child a lot of the times.  That’s another goal of mines in 2014, get a grasp of this thing called motherhood.

So even though this is the post that I didn’t want to write, I’m glad I did.  It was somewhat cathartic, which with it being the first day of a year, is exactly what I needed to do.  Sometimes its not about what we want to do, but what we need to do.

Again, Happy 2014!  Here’s to a great year a head of all of us!

xxoo,