Friday, May 27, 2011

The Great Debate

Yesterday was it. The last day. A day to myself that won't be seen again in approximately 20 weeks. As of today, I'm officially a full time working mom again.


I get two days of a week to spend with my babies. I miss 5 bedtimes and 3 whole days. My schedule does allow me to spend more awake time with my babies than a 9-5er would, but I miss dinner, bedtime and bathtime. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, I'll only see my husband on the two nights I have off and Sunday mornings


You see, I manage a seasonal restaurant. I'm there, a lot! It's my "other" family. And I do LOVE my job. I love seeing people I know come into the restaurant. I love when people enjoy their dinner and their experience. It makes me proud, of my staff, of where we live, of the hard work the owners have put into their business. It's a requirement of mine to be believe in the business I work for.


I can't really complain. I do get six months off a year. But that time goes by so fast and then it's summer. And now there are two babies. There's a possibility I miss the first time Little Lady crawls or pulls herself up or even says her first baby word.  


Then I think of all the parents who have to be away from their babies for different reason, the military moms who don't get to see their babies for months, sometimes years. Moms who travel for work or who have to share custody of their babies. It makes me realize that as much as I might miss on those few months of hard work, it is still the right choice for our family right now. It allows me more opportunity with my babies while they are little than anything else. (aside from having a more than a few weeks of vacation time another job might offer).


I get to be a stay at home mom AND a working mom. Neither is easy. But if I could choose, I would stay home, just for now, until preschool.  So I guess I've got the next best thing. Thanks for helping me put it in perspective.


Would you be a stay at home mom if you could? If you do stay at home, what do you miss about working, if anything?

~ Cerina

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Shaklee Giveaway

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've last posted! I was doing so well! My creative blog juices just haven't been flowing so well...with finishing up the semester of school(2-B+...thankyouverymuch) and getting the restaurant ready to open (which it did on Mothers Day weekend) my mind has been preoccupied I suppose.


But here I am and although I don't have anything super fantastical to post about, I've decided to do a giveaway! You see, I'm a pusher. I've been trying to convince some friends and family to switch their cleaning products to Shaklee.


Why? I totally LOVE the products myself...for a number of reasons. They WORK, they have pretty little containers (yes, that is a real reason for me) and most of all, THEY ARE SAFE for your FAMILY and the PLANET!


First off, I want to address a few reasons why you might not choose to order Shaklee.
{1} They seem pricey - This is valid point, especially in today's economy. However, because Shaklee's products are so concentrated you use oodles less and therefore they last oodles longer! Click Here to see a Cost Comparison to other popular cleaning products. 


{2} You have to order online...i.e you can't just swing by the store and pick more up on your way home from work. - Again, I totally get this, being Miss Instant Gratification myself.... But you can set yourself up on AutoShip! You can have them shipped once a month, every other month, whenever you need them. Yes, there is a cost to shipping, $7.95 to be exact. But with the price of gas at $4 a gallon....you'd spend that running to the store. Also, who doesn't love to receive packages via UPS! I get my son's favorite snacks on auto delivery from Amazon because it saves me money (and coincidentally, I never run out). I've decided that I love that method and now this is no longer an issue for me.


{3} And here's a big one....Shaklee is a distributor based company. (I'm a distributor) You're worried that someone is going to bug you about signing up to sell it yourself and you're just not interested in that crap. Well, I'm not interested in hard selling my friends. I just want to share something I love with you that also happens to be good for you and the environment (which does instill a bit of passion about it for me...which is why I'm a "pusher") The only selling I might do is recommend you sign up as a Member if you decide you like the products because after the $19.95 member fee, you get 15% off all the products forever, no matter how little or infrequent you buy and you can set up your autoships yourself instead of having to go through a distributor.


{if you have any other reasons for not giving Shaklee a try, please let me know...I'm actually quite new to this Distributor thing...though I've been using the products for over 2 years}


So the point of this post is to GIVE AWAY something! I only ask 2 things, well 3 things really, of you to qualify for the give away, but first....


Let's get to the part of WHAT it is I'm GIVING AWAY!



~ One 32 oz Bottle of Fresh Laundry Concentrate (HE Compatible) (Fresh Scent or Fragance Free)

AND your CHOICE of

OR


So here's what you need to do for your chance to win!


1. ***EDITED*** I'm no longer asking that you sign up for my Shaklee Email list. I can understand if people feel uncomfortable with that...in fact...I would probably not do it myself  if someone else was asking for it. So sign up if you want (www.healthyhappygreen.myshaklee.com - Contact Me button) but you don't have to do it to be eligible to win this giveaway! ***


2. Follow my blog if you aren't already.


3. Leave a comment on this post about your favorite green product or method! Bloggers love comments!


I'll announce a winner next Wednesday! Honestly, my only goal of this is to introduce you to the products and hopefully the person who wins, will love them as much as I do! Oh, yeah, I think I'll do this once a month! Next month I'll be giving away the Dish Wash Concentrate and the Germ Off Wipes.


Thanks for taking the time to read and participate! Hopefully I'll have some juicier posts in the near future!

~ Cerina

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Nighttime Routines

I've been tired....really tired lately. I couldn't really quite figure out why. I guess really there could be a number of reasons...less exercise....not eating as well...just busy during the day...was it because I was nursing...

Of course I knew it had a little to do with a lack of sleep at night, but this is my second child. I'm not new to nighttime wakings of babies and am usually pretty well adjusted.


Well last night it finally dawned on my why I'm so tired and ready for bed at 8pm (sometimes 7:30). 


I'm losing a key 2-3 hours per night of sleep!


My kids (Little Lady especially) go to bed very well, LL will be asleep no later than 7:30 (hence that bedtime for me) and Little Man, though we've had a harder time making his bedtime regular since the big boy bed came into the picture, my husband handles bedtime and its still pretty easy.


It's what happens after we're all in bed that is the culprit.



10:00 - Husband comes to bed, watches some TV and falls asleep


11:00-11:30 - I fall back asleep after husband had come in and watching some Chelsea Lately


11:30-1:00 - Little Man comes running down the hall, clearly scared of the dark and climbs into bed with us. This usually corresponds with happening right after I nurse LL and she's fallen back a sleep and I've put her back in her crib and am just falling back asleep myself OR it takes place before LL wakes and it takes anywhere between 5-60 mins for Paul to fall back asleep once he's climbed in bed with us...and once he finally has, LL wakes to nurse. Regardless, I'm usually at least half awake for a good hour or two here.



2:00-4:00 - Usually LL has a second waking and nurse between these hours or LM starts talking in his sleep. In the case of last night and the fact that my kiddos both seem to be battling some bug, he woke up having to use the potty (so proud of him) and then I found he was burning up so I gave him some ibuprofen to hopefully make him more comfortable. It was probably another 30 mins at least before he fell back asleep. If I recall, this was all around 3:00 am.


4:30 - LL wakes to nurse. 


4:30-6:30 - Snoozing in bed with both kiddos..one or both of them are wide awake by this time (and of course I haven't really slept at all because I didn't put Lola back in her bed, which I try to do because otherwise, I can't really sleep, but was too tired...doesn't make sense does it). Or if I did put her back in bed...something else will happen the prevents me from fully falling back asleep.


So by the basis of last nights schedule...I barely got more that 2 hours of sleep at one interval, and I didn't even fall asleep until after 10.


"Watson, I think you've got it!"


Now what!


~cerina