Read It All
Oh how I love nice baby clothes! And organic cotton? Whew. Over the top. Giving away two items this week || scroll to the bottom to skip me talking and talking. I’ve been in purge-declutter-natural-fabrics-only mode on the kids’ wardrobes. My girlfriend Jenna has it all about the capsule wardrobe and my girlfriend Carolyn has a great post on minimal maternity wardrobing it so they inspired me. The kids’ clothes. Dread and terror fill my heart when it’s time to switch sizes. I do have them sorted by size in huge bins in the attic. But I have to a) crawl under beams to get to them and b) haul them all out and stuff the old too-small clothing in. See how unpleasant this sounds? Enter my sister Molly and her organic skin care products & my sudden pang of awareness about natural fibers she’s brought into my life. Now I’m not gonna go crazy on you and say you can never ever shouldn’t bad parenting ever have a little polyester here and there. My minky blankets in my etsy shop are backed with them. But in general, I would really prefer my kids’ skin to be able to breathe. Both older kids are prone to eczema and the winter is only going to make things worse around here. So I purged out of our hand-me-downs and consignment sale clothings almost all the fake stuff. If it was cotton or wool or predominately one or the other, it stayed. Otherwise,…
Read More
It’s been overwhelming. Life. The speed of my children’s growth. My intense desire for sugar (#nosugar30 attempting here). The sewing machine’s clicking and my knitting needles clacking. All the amazing products I’m able to giveaway to you, lovely and gentle readers. Indian takeout for dinner and BabyLoves sleeping in the sling. Crazy. So here’s my brain binge so you know everything that I know: 1) Mary. Courtney. Mother loving her dying daughter. Do you know about this beautiful family whose daughter has suffered from a severe epilepsy disorder for her whole life? And now she is slowly going back to God. I can’t type that without crying. I cannot imagine my daughter in hospice care. It’s too much to bear emotionally. But Mary is a staunch mother, believer, and lover of her child. Their blog is called Passionate Perseverance and it can be found here. Facebook. Instagram. Okay; you’re in the loop now. Their family has been humbly opening up about how they could use our help not only in prayer, but in medical costs & funerary expenses. Can you give? And if you want to give in a special way, buy one of my 5 skirts I have in the shoppe right now. ALL of your payment (shipping aside) will go to them. Buy a little girl skirt for Courtney? Link here. 2) Ginny over at Small Things is kindly running a giveaway of a gift set from my shoppe too! And a coupon code. You can enter the…
Read More
Shhhh . . . POLARN O. PYRET. Did your heart just skip a beat? This store is the Swedish clothing store for kids. Especially outdoor wear. I mean, you know how the Swedish have long recess times outside even in the winter? This store is why. It’s outdoor wear heaven. And when you live in the land of the frozen tundra, you need gear. GEAR. gear. This store in the Galleria Shopping Center in Edina is their only location in the Midwest. I think they thought we’d get it. And we do. I contacted them after a long-time crush on their wool numbers and organic cottons, and that signature stripe you just can’t deny love for, and was happily surprised to hear back. They kindly offered for my brood to come and courtesy shop and then share the goods with my readers. Low. Down. I want everything in their store!!!!! It went like this: And eventually he got lost in the train set–what a clever thing to have in your store! Keeps the kids happy while parents peruse the lovely offerings. And Diane & I got to chat. She gave me a very thorough and very helpful tour of the store, with an emphasis on kids’ outwear. Because, #seeabove, it’s autumn and you know what that means. The stripes! the stripes! (Don’t worry–scroll to the bottom & you can win one of your own!) Organic cotton. Oh, yes, please! SweetPea wanted the socks. She wanted all the socks. It was…
Read More
I have written so many posts on sleep. Why? Because it’s what we all dream about as moms, right? Dream // dread // fear // desiresodeeply. Sleep sampler // infant -12 months Toddler sleep & big boy wakes Ousting the co-sleeper (sorta) Why co-sleep? Toddler sleep night trouble 12 steps to recovering your humanity when you’re a wreck When to stop night nursing When your infant screams and screams and you do too to name a few. Generally, we’re in the attachment parenting group. We follow Dr. Sears on most things. We don’t do cry it out with babies. Once our kiddos hit 12 months, we night wean and gently work on letting them cry for a few minutes alone before comforting them, then letting them cry a little again. You’re thinking: SHE’S CRAZY. Combined with: WHO HAS TIME FOR THIS??? And I can only laugh and agree I’m crazy. And yet, somehow, it has worked so far for our family. My big kids screamfightplay if I’m nursing the baby down for his nap. They don’t get screen time because I’m (crazy) and (not nice) not a huge fan. They learn to deal with each other and are old enough to be left unsupervised a room away from me for a little while. They learn to negotiate, freak out, and come and bother me 53 times and be told again and again to work it out. I follow the same basic pattern with my babies for sleep that doesn’t involve sleep training.…
Read More
Well let’s backup. So you all know about Joules by now. I hope. They were the headlining sponsor of our event in Austin, The Hundred Event. They were also very kind to send me a number of items, including the one that was given away!!! The ladies representing the company were lovely, kind, and fashionable (of course). They kindly bestowed upon ALL of us a pair of their famous wellies. I present to you, courtesy of Joules, WELLIES! If you live where it rains, you need a pair of rubber boots that don’t hurt the soles of your feet. If you live where it doesn’t rain, you need to look fashion forward. Win. Win. Me and my bebe. In the sling. As always. I wore boots almost every day when I was a barn rat. I wore them mucking stalls. I wore them fetching horses from the paddock. I wore them before getting into my shoe boots at the horse show. So horsey friends, these are comfy and perfect for all of the above. But really, do you like pink mid-calf boots? What about horsey boots for your little lady love? Or ferociously cute dinos for the big little man in your life? Or an insulated one for your man who’s out shoveling horse poop? The insoles are cushy. When walking around our property in Wisconsin, my sister and I always complain about the bottom of our feet aching. There’s a trout stream ru nning through it and all the…
Read More
Maybe your children are perfect. Maybe they never complain on walks that they are in a constant state of 1) hunger. 2) thirst. 3) needing to go pootttttttyyyyy. or possibly even 4) needing to sit in the stroller seat their sibling is sitting in. Well my little angels like to do all of the above it. All of it. Even wanting to have the baby put in the stroller so I can carry SweetPea. She adores her brother, but also adores getting away from her older brother so she can do something special. And yes, it was 46 degrees out when I took these pictures. Don’t say the kids are overdressed. One of our constant parenting differences. The beverages have gotten out of control. They both need their own special water bottles. And then they both want them down in the belly of the stroller because their hands are too full with leaves? gripes? hardened hearts & fists? Whatever it is, they want to relocate their drinks all the flipping time. And BabyLoves is big. And heavy. And my knee joints aren’t what they were. Enter Christie and her kiddo collection line. She made this really smart stroller attachment and was kind enough to send me one. It has TWO beverage holders, insulated, naturally, and a magnet sealed compartment in between. iPhone? check. keys? check. SweetPea’s random paraphernalia that she’s tired of clutching and chucking. check. And slotted pockets on the outside. Because Christie is a mom and knows you gotta…
Read More