The Sensible Mom

Food, DIY, Chicago Mom Blogger

Things in General

New Weekly Feature: Around the Blogosphere

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aroundtheblogosphere

I’ve been wanting to start this weekly feature for awhile now. I’ll be highlighting great posts that I’ve read each week and that I think you’d enjoy reading, too. There’s going to be anything from posts that’ll encourage you to posts on topics that will help you to be a better blogger.

Here are this week’s posts:

Picky Eaters: Avoiding the Dinnertime Dilemma by Raising Children with a Heart of GratitudeΒ on Keeper of the Home

A Prayer for MothersΒ on The Better Mom

Useful WordPress Tools, Themes, and Plugins by Smashing Magazine

Mommy’s Melts vs. Gerber Melts by Ravings By Rae (Sarah Rae is my sister. Please welcome her to the blogosphere. :-))

Free Printable Blog Planner on Money Saving Mom

Enjoy these posts, guys!

Our Sunday started off on a less-than-perfect note. I woke up to find vomit in nearly every room of our home. No fun. Thankfully, Isaac, our 5 year-old and the guy who had the upset stomach, has finally made it off of the couch. πŸ˜‰


Clear Out the Clutter: Kid’s Desk

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For the next Clear Out the Clutter project, I tackled the kid’s desk. It’s a clutter magnet. Three of the kids use the desk regularly, and it seems like no matter how many times I straighten the desk up and remove items, more comes to take the place of the items that were removed.

Here’s the before picture:


And after about 10 minutes of cleaning and clearing things off of the desk, here’s the after picture:

I threw some things away, put some things away in the kid’s closet, and put some items on their bookshelf. The end result is a much cleaner desk. The piles of school papers and workbooks is smaller and things are much easier to find now.

I did lose my wedding ring in the process.

But I found it after retracing my steps. I had no idea it came off until I went to upload the pics for this post and realized it was missing. It turns out that it slipped off when I was putting some of the kid’s magazines and papers on their bookshelf.

Whew! Glad I found it.

Have you done any de-cluttering this week?Β 


Redesigning

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Just a heads-up that I will be redesigning The Sensible Mom over the next 2-3 days. I thought about doing the redesign on a test site, and I did start there, but then decided it may be less time consuming if I just did it here on the blog, itself. So if elements look a bit out of place at any time you are viewing the blog, just know that it’s for a good cause. πŸ™‚

The idea to redesign has been swirling around my head, and I’m ready to get started. I can’t wait for the finished result!


Postpartum Update

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It’s almost been 3 weeks since I gave birth to our baby girl, and I’d thought I’d write a postpartum update to go along with the pregnancy updates I had been sharing before the baby’s birth. Here goes:

:: The baby is doing very well. She’s nursing well, and only lost a small amount of weight after birth – not enough to have to supplement with formula like I did with my other babies. She is sleeping well, too – definitely not sleeping through the night, but she normally wakes up and eats then goes back to sleep. What more could I ask for from a newborn? πŸ™‚ At least she isn’t sleeping all day and then up all night.

:: I’m feeling better every day since my c-section. It’s good to get my body back to myself. It’s also good to be able to bend, walk, and sleep without pain.

:: When I left the hospital, I actually weighed 4 lbs. MORE than when I went in the day of my c-section. This is AFTER I had given birth to a 7 lb. baby and lost a lot of fluid. My guess is that my weight went up after having the baby instead of going down because of all the swelling in my legs and abdomen after the c-section. By the time I left the hospital, I had MAJOR swelling in my feet and legs. I expected the swelling in the tummy area, but never the swelling like I had in my feet and legs. I’d never had that kind of swelling with any of the other kids. Anyway, the swelling is gone now and since coming home I’ve lost 26.5 lbs. I’m now 8.5 lbs. away from my pre-pregnancy weight and happy!

:: The kids adore their new sister. They’re all in love with her, but still need daily reminders of how gentle they need to be with her. All in all, everyone has adjusted very well to our new addition.

:: Breastfeeding is going exceptionally well this time around. I have had some discomfort after starting back up with Elisabeth (baby girl’s name), but not the excruciating pain that I’ve experienced in the past.

:: I’ve started walking on the treadmill again.

:: I love our new changing table, and I have no idea how I have made it through the last 4 kids without one.

:: Elisabeth is sleeping in her crib! First baby to start off sleeping in her crib from birth. You may remember that I mentioned we’ve co-slept with the other kids, but because two of the kids were regularly ending up in our bed by morning, we thought it was a good idea to put Elisabeth in a crib and purchased one just before she was born. The crib is pushed up right next to our bed so that Elisabeth is always within arms reach, and it makes it easy to nurse her this way, too.

:: I’m in love. Elisabeth completes our family. We are very blessed to be her family.

She’s just perfect.

Thank you, Lord.