good eating...

requires good cooking. now i have to admit, eating a healthier diet not only is better for you, but it actually tastes better too. however, i'm still having issues with wanting to cook.

i've never been suzy homemaker in the kitchen, and that hasn't changed, even though i probably have more of a desire now than ever before to eat better. but unfortunately, i'm as allergic to cooking now as i've ever been. just the thought of being in the kitchen gives me the heebie jeebies. measuring ingredients, adding spices, watching cooking times and temperatures, blahhhhhh! if only i could find somebody to cook for my family, id be in healthy heaven.

or maybe i could just get up and try to cook.

i have to admit, i haven't actually tried to cook anything new and/or especially healthy. i just toy and play around with the idea. but thats as far as i get because i get freaked out.

i wonder, are there other people with a phobia of cooking? or am i the only one?

well, at least i did learn how to bake fish and make mashed potatoes, and we eat salad at least 3 times per week (as shown in my picture yay). and i am learning how to saute veggies since i got some great quality saute pans from freecycle.

i'm getting there. just pray for me lol.

my locs as of late.

well here are my locs thus far! they're finally getting it together to the point where i no longer have to pin them after twisting them...a blessing because i lost all of my hair pins anyway and money is too tight to replace them now. i want to add more jewelry to them as well. i was contemplating adding more color to them for the summer but i'm not so sure about that anymore as the only color i can add to my hair without any damage to it is black, and that looks better on me in the winter.  we shall see as time mosies on along exactly what's next for us!

of things related and unrelated ~3.20.11

today i have to do my baby's hair, and that sucks because i'm just not that great at it (note: i have four daughters).

today was a beautiful day and it sucked because we had no car to go anywhere, and at only 40 degrees, it was too cold to really walk.

this weeks total coupon savings is $140. i paid $30 for $170 worth of stuff. hubby was happy. i was ecstatic.

ecobaby is getting awfully spoiled. now she will only allow 3 people to hold her: mommy, daddy and her sister.

although oldest has been diagnosed with adhd, her school is doing very little in the way of actually helping us. that sucks. and tomorrow starts another week.

hubby has a gig all this week--thank God!

i didn't know just how much Christians in jamaica party with music! i love their cd's.

purex's new crystals fabric softener: addiction. i'm definitely gonna need more coupons for them lol.

i'm researching the life of anne rice. will blog on it later.

breastmilk is the best milk...

...and playtex dropins are the best bottles.

I'm on month three of my "eco frugal baby" experiment, and am pleased to announce that its going quite nicely. at 15 lbs., ecobaby is doing beautifully and eats about 95% mommies milk and 5% similac (emergencies only). her total formula intake since birth has been less than 20oz, and shes eating about 4oz every 2 hours, so i believe even 95% is a conservative number, its probably more like 98% lol.

although ecobaby is a mommies milk baby, shes not a breast baby. she does cuddle against my chest at night for bedtime, but she does not breastfeed. this is mainly due to mastitis in my right breast, which was exacerbated by breastfeeding and relieved by pumping, and poor latch (which undoubtedly caused the mastitis). i'm an "ep" mommy, aka exclusively pumping mommy, and let me tell ya, i can't thank medela enough! either way it goes, so long as ecobaby eats mommies milk, I'm happy.

now, onto the thrills of breastmilk (i can't applaud this stuff enough) and playtex bottles.

i found out through lots of research *insert nerd smiley here*, that breastmilk has many great features, including but not limited to:

it *oils* ecobaby's digestive track, so constipation is not possible

it is safe for 10 hours at room temperature once expressed

it grows as ecobaby grows, so at birth, its perfect for newborns. at 1 year, its perfect for 1 year olds. at 3, its perfect for 3 year olds, etc.

it tastes like mommies diet

it is full of immunitive chemicals

it burns about 500 calories a day while being produced

it releases feel good hormones for mom and ecobaby during expression/feeding

the list goes on. now playtex bottles are the perfect companion to my milk and thus the best bottles (in my opinion of course) because:

they are easy to clean

they are stackable to spacesave in the fridge

the bags are sterile

the bags are also affordable

the bags can be frozen so double as milk storage bags

the bags collapse as ecobaby eats, thus preventing gas (and possibly colic)

the bottles are pretty, and affordable as a whole.

now, i assure you neither lalecheleague or playtex are endorsing me for this blog entry (although it would be nice). they don't need to, the proof is in the pudding. and in ecobaby's beautiful smile.