It's Monday again, and it feels like I'm in for quite a week.  I'm already tired, and feel worn out.  I've got a test on Wednesday for my French 151 that's stressing me out.  It's hard trying to learn a new language again after being out of school for so long.  I'm trying but man, some days I feel like such a failure.  I'm stuggling to pick up the speaking, can sort of make it through the reading and writing but it's not easy.  Plus with the lack of time I can acutally study/do homework.  C'est très difficile.

Picture taken from the IKEA website.

I'm starting a closet re-do which has me very excited.  We haven't done anything to our master closet since the house was built 11 years ago and it's about time.  I really want to get rid of the dressers that we have and just turn it all into a walk in beautifully organized closet.  IKEA has their wardrobe sale happening right now (until the 22nd) so I have to get that ordered.  I'm really excited about it.  We'll be using the PAX system, and really utilizing the storage, drawers, pull outs, organization things.  Pictures of before and eventually after to come!

That's it for tonight.  I'm avoiding studying now because I'm struggling with the relative pronoun concept that seems so simple yet every question I answer online comes back wrong.  How difficult can it be to use qui, que, ou, and dont?
Wish me luck!

It's the New Year, with that brings new plans, new goals, and new resolutions.  Seems like a fresh start to just about everything.  I didn't really set any resolutions for myself.  To be honest, I just want to feel like I'm surviving.  With dance, for all three kids but mostly H's competitive schedule, E's hockey schedule & Oxford learning twice a week, me being back in school and then just trying to maintain a somewhat clean house, and keep up with chores and maybe a bit of personal time, I found right before Christmas that I was sinking.  I couldn't keep up, we weren't having quality time together as a family and I felt, exhausted from it all.  This year I just want to survive. Haha.
We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Lots of family time during the break which was so lovely.  We enjoyed it even though the weather was miserable.  We reach all-time low temps which didn't allow us much outside time at all.  We needed it.
Well, I'm making dinner and the kids are watching the jungle book but it seemed like a perfect opportunity to pop in for a minute and write something.  Sometimes it feels good just to write it down.

It's Monday and it's rainy and grey.  The little miss and I are snuggled back up in my bed because she isn't feeling well, and I'm not going to argue getting back in bed!

It was a great weekend, the sun was shining and we got lots done around the house.  Things are starting to get packed up for the cooler weather and I got some spring cleaning done inside.  Of course it was a full weekend of dance and hockey.  I'm so proud of my kids and how much they love their sports and being a part of a team.

Not much to post today.  I'm here, I'm trying and I'll be back!

About once or twice a year I get an itch.  I never quite figure out how to scratch it and each time I feel defeated and bored.  This itch that I get wants me to be doing something....something creative.  I'm a creator, I always have been but I've never really found that thing that I love doing.

I will admit, I'm good at a lot of things but I get bored.  I use to scrapbook, loved it, did it for a while but got bored, knit, did it for a long time (the longest I've done anything, I think), was really good at it but got bored and just recently packed away all my knitting supplies.  I love sewing, and making my children clothes.  But again the same thing, I do it for a bit, but then just find I get bored or tired or something and end up putting it away.

The same things goes for this blog.  I get motivated, want to write, want to get my site up and going again but then start and get bored.  So, here I am.  I don't know how long I'll stick around this place but I do have plans.  I have it schedule in my planner and hope to add things like, monthly favourites, clothing/shopping and makeup posts.  Family things still of course, and anything else that may come about.  We'll see!  I'm not promising anything of course, we'll see how quickly I get bored again. Although I really hope not this time.

Hey You!  Whoever "you" might be...

I just wanted to talk about something that's really exciting for me and for these guys too...

The day I brought her home from the Humane society.  She was SO happy!

Another great thing about BarkBox is that each month part of the proceeds (10%) go to help out other doggy friends.  You can read more about it here.

I love reading and summer time is a great time to read especially.  A cold bevy, a porch, the sun, a comfy chair and you're transported to a new world that you can only find in books.

Lately I've been really enjoying reading ebooks.  I don't have a eReader but use the Kobo app on my iPad to read.  It's convenient and transports easily, I can read in bed at night without the light on to keep up hubby, I can read in the car (at night).  But, I'll never stop loving the smell of a new (or used) book though.

So the past couple of weeks, I've finished a couple of books.  First I finished the 3rd book in K.A Tuckers series call Four Seconds to Lose and then I finished The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) and now I'm half way through The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.  I have to say I've been in love with these books.  I have really enjoyed each one of them equally.

I'm going to do a little review of K.A Tuckers Four Seconds to Lose, because I think it's worth the read!

**Beware, I try my best to not include spoilers, but don't hate on me if there is something you might not like hearing.**

Four Seconds to Lose, Written by K.A Tucker

What's it about?

The main character, Charlie Rourke, is running.  She's changed her name, and she's looking for a job.  She meets someone, who knows where she could get a job that will pay her well.  It's a strip club owned by Cain.  She's not sure she can handle taking her clothes off for strangers but knows she won't have to do it long, she just needs enough to escape.

Little does she know, she's about to find the love of her life (her new boss), and her plans are thrown out the window.  She can't tell him about her past, and he knows she's keeping secrets.  When she leaves town, he needs to find out why.  With help from a PI he finds out her real past and is able to track her down.

Did I like the book?

I did,  I really liked how K.A Tucker brings people from her previous books to this one, it gives you a better understanding of the character and their point of view (each book has been a different POV).  The ending wasn't quite as good as I expected.  There is so much build up throughout the book that I found the ending was a bit to short.  It happened to quickly, and I kind of wished there was just a bit more too it.
The characters are memorable and I really enjoyed getting to know them.  It was a great adventure.  I would definitely recommend reading it.

My score

****
4 stars out of 5

Oh yeah and just an FYI - Five Ways to Fall, the 4th in the Ten Tiny Breaths, written by K.A Tucker is coming very very soon!

I know this post is a little late but I wanted to put it out there still, to give a few gift giving ideas.

Hi'ya

Last night was the first night I've been able to attend the Cookbook Club put on by some friends of mine and boy oh boy, what a treat!

I think this was the third month for it and I'm sorry I missed the first two.  The food is incredible.  Not the best thing to attend on the first day of deciding to start my healthy journey again but I knew that I was attending and had all intentions on eating small portions of everything.  And that's exactly what I did.

I'll explain how it works a little.  Each month we decide on a cooking blog or cook book and then each of us choose a recipe from it and bring it all together to make it a fantastic meal with wine and a lot of laughter.  It's fantastic!  Then we "vote" which recipe was the best and which ones we'd likely make again.

As I mentioned this was my first time attending but let me tell you, there was nothing there that I wouldn't make again.  It was all amazing!  Everything, including the chocolate brownie (I don't even really like chocolate) was incredible.

This month was the Smitten Kitchen blog.  The recipes were easy to follow, had great instructions and awesome pictures.  I was impressed with how EVERYONES receipe looked pretty much spot on with the photos taken for the blog.  Don't you hate it when you make something and it looks NOTHING like the original.  I do!  So I was pleasantly surprised when my spring vegetable potstitckers looks very similar.  I new I had something right! (Darn it, I just realized I forgot the green onions on the top!)

I've included all the images that were taken of the food below.  Be sure to check out the Smitten Kitchen for a new recipe.  Let me know if you make something from there, I'd love to try out some new!

Caramelized Onion goat cheese triangles

Cellophane noodle salad with roast pork

Black bean pumpkin soup

Asparagus, goat cheese and lemon pasta

Chana Masala

Cauliflower and caramelized onion tart

Salted Caramel brownies

Caramel walnut upside down banana cake

Thanks again to everyone that came out for such a fun night, it was great!  Can't wait for #cbcApril but in the mean time, lets figure out our next cookbook.  Can't wait!


And now I'm off to figure out how to calculate my calorie intake from last night...hummm...this will prove interesting I'm sure!

This is it, I'm going to try again and this time I'm not going to fail.  I'm going to beat this weight and I'm going to be happy with me and who I am as a person.

Lately I've had a VERY sore back, so sore that I actually had to crawl into the house on all fours after being out in the garage working on a project out there.  I just couldn't stand and I certainly couldn't walk and I thought about it for a long time.  How much of this pain is because I'm "overweight".  If I lost even just a little weight would I have less back pain?  Probably not a lot because even when I was younger and thinner I had a horrible back.  Genes (thanks Mom!) and being hit by a vehicle when I was younger have just given me bad luck when it comes to aches and pains in my back.

But I really thought about it and thought, does it make sense for me to just sit back and deal with the pain or try and do something about it.

So here I go again, yet another attempt to get healthy!

This time I'm serious.  My BIG goal is to loose 90lbs, but I know that having such a big goal for me isn't going to work.  I need to start smaller and have smaller goals that I know are attainable.  I am also going to reward myself with fun things after each goal is reached.  If I don't reach the goal, I don't get the reward, simple as that.

So my goals and my rewards.

First 10lbs - A new pair of running shoes (I hope to loose 10lbs (ish) a month, that's about 2 lbs a week, but the timing isn't really my goal, it's just about losing it.)

Probably something like these:
10lbs -  A new bike helmet and bike bag

10lbs - A new yoga outfit

10lbs - something form Henri Bendel for me!

10lbs -


Want to help me think of some new goals?  I'm going to update as I think of some new things but right now this is a start.  I know I'm working toward some new running shoes (and I really need them)!  It's starting today!

I'm looking forward to this journey and I really hope that anyone that might actually read this place can help encourage, and give me the motivation I'll need to keep going!  It'll be a long journey but I'm excited for the end destination (and I don't just mean the cruise at the end, although that definitely helps!)

In case you want to join me I've joined MyFitnessPal with the username kshiell.  If you'd like to join me in my journey other than just here on my blog feel free to pop over there and friend me or whatever you do over there.  I'd be happy to help you too if you're on a journey to a healthy you!

I can't believe when I work up this morning at 7, I had a 4 year old daughter.

On this day 4 years ago you were born!  So SWEET, so TINY, so PERFECT!  You had a squished little nose that everyone made sure to remind me would "fix" itself.  You were bright pink, and had the darkest head of hair I had ever seen!  You were perfect and you were all mine!

Now you're 4 years old and I was lying in bed with you this morning watching your eyes move around and a smile perk up on your face every couple of minutes.  I smiled because of how much love I have for you and for your BEAUTIFUL, LOVING, CARING and ADVENTUROUS personality.  I couldn't image a day going by without you in it.

You have made my life perfect!  You have taught me to LOVE, to CARE, to EXPLORE, to LAUGH, to be a KID, to SMILE, to CHALLENGE myself and to LOVE who I am!

You make me SMILE, you make me CRY, you make me QUESTION.

You are INCREDIBLE! SMART, CRAZY, OUTGOING, PLAYFUL  and I'm so lucky to have such an amazing person to watch grow.  I am the luckiest mom around to be your mom and I wish you the best HAPPIEST birthday you could ever have.

You are my ROCKSTAR!

Sorry I haven't been around much!  I'm just busy!  Life has gotten the best of me.

I've been knitting all my Christmas projects, doing TONS of photo shoots again (LOVE), trying to get things straightened out with going back to work (2 weeks....), installing new flooring in the main area of my house, staying with my mom while that got done, helping my sister adjust to her full time job, and start my new blogging adventure: TangledKnits (currently empty)!

TangledKnits is going to be my strictly knitting site.  This will be where I talk about all the projects I'm working on (did I mention that's 5 projects at the same time currently?), projects I've completed, I'm hoping to start a podcast, review knitting related things, etc.  I'm excited about this and of course things to come on GetHealthyMomma - so bare with me.  I'm working on some fun things for both! :)

In the mean time keep checking back here and on Facebook because I'm hoping that my 100 followers on Facebook giveaway will be happening soon! :) So if you haven't already head over there and "Like" GetHealthyMomma.  Be sure to get your friends to check it out too!

So my little guy is at that age!  He's ready to eat, and he loves to eat!
Actually he's a bit early (please don't send me hate mail), I feel it was totally 100% okay and preferable for him to start eating a little earlier then the "recommended" age but he's my kiddo and I have that know how - call it mothers intuition! :)

I've started to make him his pureed baby food and I don't know if I talked about this before on here but let me tell you!  I LOVE MAKING BABY FOOD!!!

I find it totally relaxing, a stress reliever, and totally amazing when you're babe just gobbles it all up!  I guess it's sort of like the feeling you get when you breastfeed, you feel like you're the sole provider - you're able to produce the milk for them, you know what's in it, you know it's healthy for them.  Same thing with making your own baby food.  You know everything you are putting in it and it's from your own hands!

Yesterday I was making Ev some sweet potato, pears, bananas, and carrots while he sat in his high chair watching me (H was napping), we were singing songs about the food, talking about the colours, about the veggies growing in our garden, etc.  We had a great time chopping, cutting, cooking, and blending.  He enjoyed it just as much as I did!

Our process is pretty simple

1) Get the veggies/fruit from the grocery store (soon it'll be are garden! YIPPEE)
2) Clean all fruits and veggies (This is very important!!!)
3) Cut the fruit or veggie in small pieces
4) Either bake or steam the veggie depends on the veggie and what we are doing with it
5) Blend with a hand blender

Easy as pie and SO delicious!

Before: Pears & Sweet potato

After: Blended up sweet potato and pears! YUMY

Right now our "recipes" are pretty simple.  We are using just 1 veggie or fruit and getting use to that before we start mixing the flavours up.  So far E had been a huge fan of the fruits.  We give him something once a day usually around dinner time and we stick with the same thing for a least 2 days to ensure there is no allergy or reaction to it.  So far so good!

This has worked great for us with both H, when she was a wee one and now E.  I'm happy I'm able to give my kiddos the best they can get and this is how I do it.

Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15
I also wanted to talk a little about pesticides on the fruits and veggies that we eat.  Luckily for us, living in Canada we do have pretty good regulations when it comes to pesticides.  Testing is done by Health Canada under the Pest Control Products Act (PCPA) to ensure that all pesticides are registered before being used in our Country.  Before the pesticide can be registered, Healthy Canada reviews the scientific information to make sure that it has value and there are no environmental concerns related to it's use.  To ensure there are no health concerns toxicology studies and epidemiology studies are reviewed.  Every 15 years the pesticides are reviewed to ensure accuracy!

All imported food is tested to ensure the residue levels are below the Maximum Residue Limit or the MRL.  This MRL is set to ensure the level of pesticide use would not be harmful for anyone including, infants, children, pregnant and nursing women but this does not mean it is safe.

You can always find out more information on this here at the Health Canada website.

What are a few ways to reduce the amount of pesticides you and your family consume

1. Buy organic when possible - make sure you are buying CERTIFIED ORGANIC
2. Use veggie and fruit washes - you can find one here
3. Peel "high level" fruits and veggies
4. Grow your own - check out my garden here

I will say that we do not always buy organic, it just isn't feasible, first of all it's more expensive and secondly, it isn't alway available at our local grocery store.  I do buy organic most of the time when it comes to the dirty dozen though.

Never heard of the dirty dozen?  I'll give you what you need to know briefly then you're welcome to look at the links and do some more research on your own.  The Environmental Working Group has created this list of the Dirty Dozen.  It contains 5 veggies and 7 fruits that are considered the most contaminated when it comes to pesticide use starting with celery as the worst, followed by peaches, strawberries, and apples respectively to name a few.  I typically buy all of these listed on the worst list, organic.  On the other hand they do have a Clean 15 list which contain the lowest pesticides use again there are 7 veggies and 8 fruits listed starting with onions, avocado, sweet corn and pineapple to name a few.  Check it out!  It's worth a look.  You can print of a guide or even download an iPhone app to have with each trip to the grocery store.

This is it everyone, it's Christmas eve!  We're just about to get everything ready for the big thing tomorrow.  Hannah's all tucked into bed, Everett is napping on Daddy's lap, Santa's milk and cookies are awaiting his big arrival and all the presents are wrapped!  I am SO excited this year to see Hannah's face on Christmas morning as she walks down the stairs.  She's going to be so blown away!

Anyway, the reason for this was to say a HUGE thank you to everyone that has taken the time to stop by my little space on the interwebs and read my ramblings daily, weekly, monthly.... I'm hoping this new year brings lots of new, fun and exciting things to my blog and I hope you stick around to see it all happen!

So Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Oh yeah and my Rockin' Green giveaway is done tonight, you have until 12pm to enter it for your chance to win a 45/90 load of scent and formula of your choice!  Good luck!

 If so head on over to my sister's site Krystal's Stellar Book Blog for her very first giveaway! She's giving away a copy of Becca Fitzpatrick's book Hush Hush (it's open to Canada an the US)!  All you need to do is follow her and leave a comment!

Looks like a good one!  Check it out, you might be a winner! :)

Ouch, today at lunch I was stung by a bee!  It's been many years since I've been stung but I have been stung so I'm pretty sure I'm not allergic to them.  It hurt like heck though and it's been about 2.5 hours and it's still hurting!  The swelling is gone down a bit now but as you can see from the pictures it is swollen a little.

My left hand (not the hand that stung)	My right hand (red and swollen from the bee)

And just because I was in the bathroom with my cell phone in my pocket (I know it's really kind of weird) but I figured I'd take a picture of my big ole' belly.  Here I am 30 weeks 2 days pregnant with baby #2.  Any suggestions for names?  We're still stuck on "Baby Brother" LOL



Oh well, that's it!  Just a random post from me today! :)  Stay tuned for Part II of Hannah's birth story!  It'll be up tomorrow! :)

My mom loves to knit and crochet, she's pretty good at it as well! She makes sweaters, socks, dish clothes, blankets, etc. You name it she's tried it!


I always get excited when she says she wants to make something for us! We talked today and she'd really like to make something for "baby brother" but is having a hard time finding something that she doesn't think is to girly. I haven't found much that is too girly looking and think there are so many amazing things on the net that she could make that I start to get a little giddy! LOL

I did a quick good search today to see what I could come up with and give her a little inspiration. Here are a few of the things I showed her that I thought would be perfect for "baby boy".

What do you think? To girly?

My mom and my sister (just a quick side note - check out both their blogs my mom has some great pictures up of a weekend at the trailer and my sister is just starting a book review blog), her daughter, Hannah and I headed across the border this weekend to do some shopping. I'd call it back to school shopping but we weren't really doing back to school just the shopping!

We headed to Saginaw Michigan to Birch Run Prime outlets. It was a LONG and tiring drive, we left about 10:30 on Friday morning and finally arrived at our hotel at about 5 o'clock that evening. Waiting at the border was horrible - almost 2 hours to get across. We played eye spy with my little eye while waiting and we are fortunate enough to have a DVD system in our van that kept the two occupied while we waiting as well. We heard lots of Wiggles, Cat in the hat & Toopy and Binoo

Both kiddos were very well behaved though considering being strapped into the car for such a long period of time.

Another great thing I have to mention is we didn't even have any potty accidents. Hannah stayed in her "big girl panties" the whole way there and back asking each time she had to go pee. Amazing! We packed her potty with us so all we had to do was pull over and she could go. That way we didn't need to worry about finding the closest nasty rest stop and risking an accident on the way. I'm very proud of my little girl! :)

We got to the hotel, checked in and needed to find some dinner. We found a restaurant right across the street - ate dinner and headed back to the hotel to get settled in. We brought all our luggage up stairs and quickly changed into our swim suits. Hannah and Keira really wanted to swim. We had a blast swimming and splashing in the water. Both kids just do so well in it and it was nice to relax and enjoy the evening.

Back to the room we went where the girls had a quick bath/rinse and got in their PJ's. We had a few snacks and it was time to sleep for our day of shopping in the morning. Hannah was very excited to be going "Shop Shop Shop" and was being SUPER silly in her pack and play. It took her a while to go to sleep but when she did she was out for the count. LOL!

We work up early and started our morning with a good breakfast and headed out for a fun filled day! Wow! It was exhausting! But we scored a lot of great swag! I got some great outfits for "baby brother" and Hannah plus I got a fantastic Coach baby bag! I'm so excited to get it all packed now for when "baby brother" comes!

Check out Hannah's haul! She's got lots of great things for fall/winter now that it seems to be coming very quickly!



And "Baby Brothers" stuff! :)  I wish there was more variety in colours but it seems to be this years fall colours are brown and blue!  Oh well, I can't wait to see how adorable our little sweet boy is in all his new clothes!

And of course, the gift I bought for myself when "Baby Brother" is born - our new diaper bag! :)